US09119531B2
The exemplary embodiments illustrated provide the discovery of methods and apparatuses for periscope devices that couple to a viewing end of a visualization catheter or endoscope to extend the viewing range and accessory range of the endoscope or visualization catheter so as to provide for greater viewing and reach into multiple areas of the anatomy.
US09119523B2
A dishwasher appliance with a tub that defines a wash chamber is provided. A rack assembly is received within the wash chamber and includes a projection that extends from a front of the rack assembly. The projection is configured to engage a door of the dishwasher appliance and position the rack assembly in a retracted position when the door is in a closed position.
US09119517B2
A dishwasher includes a tub at least partially forming a treating chamber, a dish rack provided within the wash chamber, and a spray manifold. The spray manifold can have multiple sprayers for emitting wash liquid to define a spray zone. A supply conduit supplies liquid to the manifold from a liquid source. A flow diverter proportionally divides that liquid supplied from the supply conduit to the sprayers in proportion to the volumetric flow rate requirement of the sprayers.
US09119510B2
The present invention provides a glass-wiping device comprising a glass-wiping device body (1) and a signal-receiving device (30) arranged thereon. The signal-receiving device (30) receives a control signal transmitted by a remote control and the control signal controls the glass-wiping device body (1) into action. The control signal received by the signal-receiving device (30) comes from either the obverse side or reverse side of the glass-wiping device body (1), where the side of the glass-wiping device body (1) that is away from the surface of a glass (100) is the obverse side, and where the side in proximity to the surface of the glass (100) is the reverse side. Because of simplified structure, reduced costs and great controllability, the problem of the machine itself acting as an obstacle that blocks the signal is solved.
US09119504B2
A delivery assembly for a machine for the preparation of liquid products using cartridges includes: an injector device, capable of introducing into the cartridge water and/or steam under pressure, an infusion chamber facing the injector device and capable to receive the cartridge, an actuation system, designed to cause displacements of the infusion chamber between a spaced position and a close position with respect to the injector device, a loading arrangement that includes an inlet passage and retention means, switchable between a retention condition and a release condition of the cartridge by means of displacements of the infusion chamber with respect to the injector device. The delivery assembly further includes ejector means, functionally distinct from the retention means and capable of pushing the cartridge towards the outside of the infusion chamber in function of the displacement of the infusion chamber towards its spaced position from the injector device.
US09119503B2
The invention relates to a beverage machine that includes a brewing unit which can be opened for introducing or removing an ingredient capsule and closed for brewing a beverage from the ingredient capsule; a passage having an opening and which is arranged for guiding the ingredient capsule from the passage opening into the brewing unit; and a closing part for closing the passage opening when the brewing unit is closed. The closing part is relatively movable over the passage opening with a generally parallel relative movement thereto from an open relative position in which the ingredient capsule can be passed into the brewing unit via the passage to a closed relative position, in which the passage opening is closed by the closure member. The closing part optionally extends over edges of the passage opening.
US09119500B2
This invention is related to a griddle plate for a gas grill and especially to a griddle plate which controls the heat from the gas grill flames with a grate on the bottom side thereof which grate forms a cooking container support for baking goods on the gas grill when the griddle plate is turned bottom side up. The grate on the bottom side of the griddle plate also allows for heating only a portion of the griddle plate cooking surface by controlling the burners in the gas grill.
US09119491B2
A cup holder sidewall includes a recess adapted to receive at least part of a handle having upper and lower socket engaging portions received in sockets in upper and lower flanges defining the recesses. The socket engaging portions permit the handle to be displaced from the sidewall recesses to a position projecting outward from the sidewall to permit the handle to be grasped in one hand. The sidewall includes at least one flexible segment extending through the sidewall from the inner surface to the outer surface, which may also extend from the upper margin to the lower margin. Each flexible segment renders the sidewall sufficiently flexible to allow the sidewall to adjust to receive cups of varying sizes and shapes.
US09119489B2
The seasonal feature displayer of the present disclosure and related inventions is configured to highlight and provide semi-permanent placement for a small selection of seasonal or special collection greeting cards among various other greeting cards displayed on a standard tiered greeting card fixture. The displayer utilizes two pivoting attachment support arms for attachment of the displayer to a tiered greeting card fixture. Integrated channels on the inside edges of the display are capable of holding product signage or marketing messages.
US09119486B2
Display pedestals comprise at least one generally planar horizontal support member which is hollow, and at least one vertical column. The top surface and/or the bottom surface of the support member has least one depression or at least one projection, and at least one vertical column fits to the depression or projection. The interior volume of the hollow support member is filled with air or with a foamed polymeric or metallic material.
US09119469B2
A platform assembly for supporting one or more cabinets includes a first rail having a generally z-shape in cross-section, a second rail having a generally c-shape in cross-section and extending generally parallel to the first rail, and a plurality of connector rails coupled to and extending generally transverse to the first and second rails. End rails are also coupled to respective terminal ends of the first and second rails. The first and second rails are made of metal so that at least the first rail provides a metal toe-kick below the one or more cabinets.
US09119458B2
The present invention relates to a portable informational display device capable of being worn by a user. The device comprises a body-mounted band, wherein said band has a first outwardly facing surface and a second inwardly facing surface and a substrate having a first end and a second end whereby said first end depends from said second inwardly facing surface, wherein said substrate contains an informational display.
US09119448B1
The present invention is a carrying bag such as a gym bag or backpack which includes at least a pocket formed on the outside of the bag or backpack which contains a nylon mesh or other expansion type retainer sewn into the interior of the pocket which is closed by closing means such as a zipper. When the pocket is opened, the expansion retainer means can be unfolded and a large object such as a basketball, football, or objects such as wet clothes can be placed in the expansion retainer. The object within the expansion retainer is securely retained by a drawstring with a locking retainer to be sure the expansion retainer is closed and thereafter a clip or D-ring connects the top of the expansion retainer to a portion of the gym bag or backpack so that it is securely retained to assure that the objects will not fall out and will hang off the side of the gym bag or backpack so as not to put a strain on the carrier's back.
US09119439B2
A fluid-filled chamber may include a pair of polymer layers that define a plurality of subchambers and a web area. The subchambers are protruding portions of the polymer layers that enclose a fluid, and the web area is portions of the polymer layers that are located between the subchambers and lay adjacent to each other. The subchambers may have greater thickness than the web area. A perimeter bond joining the polymer layers and extends around a periphery of the chamber. In addition, a plurality of interior bonds join the polymer layers and extending around the subchambers, which may seal the fluid within the subchambers.
US09119435B2
A method of making a skate boot upper, including integrally molding a boot portion from a first material, the boot portion including at least an instep portion and at least part of a tendon guard, manufacturing two quarters of a second material more rigid than the first material, and assembling the upper by attaching edges of the quarters to the boot portion with the quarter overlapping the boot portion only along said edges. Also, a method of making a skate boot upper, including manufacturing a boot portion from a first material, the boot portion including at least an instep portion and at least part of a tendon guard, manufacturing two quarters of a second material more rigid than the first material, and assembling the upper by attaching edges of the quarters to the boot portion through stitching, adhesive or lamination.
US09119423B2
A swaddling blanket for maintaining a baby in an ergonomic position. One embodiment can include features for positioning the baby's arms in pockets in first and second arm wings and wrapping the arm wings. An embodiment may also include features for positioning the baby's hips in a hip positioning portion and bringing a hip positioning flap into a position to encourage the baby's legs to an ergonomic position.
US09119417B1
The safflower seed beverage contains a safflower seed extract, a black sesame extract, at least one flavoring ingredient, and water. The safflower seed beverage is made by placing a mixture of safflower seeds, black sesame seeds, the at least one flavoring ingredient, and the water into a juicer and running the juicer to extract from the mixture the safflower seed beverage in a form of a drinkable stable emulsion. The black sesame seeds are in an amount of about 75 to 180% by weight of the safflower seeds and the carrots are in an amount of about 2,100 to 2,500% by weight of the safflower seeds. In addition, the water is in an amount of about 50 to 250% by weight of the safflower seeds.
US09119410B2
A shelf-stable, filled, baked crispy snack which possesses a crispy textured casing and a moist, soft textured filling over a prolonged period of time is obtained by formulating a casing which when baked has a high glass temperature (Tg) at a high moisture content. Increasing the degree of starch gelatinization to increase the Tg may be achieved during baking and by the addition of a pregelatinized starch. The high Tg baked casing permits the use of a high moisture content filler in high amounts to provide a shelf-stable substantial textural dichotomy in the filled, baked, crispy snack. The filled, baked snack exhibits an unexpectedly high resistance to deformation or peak force at high baked casing moisture contents. The baked snack is ready-to-eat out of the packaging and does not have to be toasted, microwaved or further baked, cooked, or heated for consumption, or to achieve a crisp textured casing.
US09119409B2
A water soluble nutritional supplement for ruminants is provided that comprises a highly soluble calcium component, a phosphorous component, a potassium component, a copper component, a vitamin C component, and a complete vitamin B complex. The nutritional supplement can be produced in a solid form and be readily dissolved in water. The ingestion of the nutritional supplement in liquid form ensures maximal intestinal absorbability of the vitamins and minerals by the ruminant. The contents of the nutritional supplement are optimized in order to enhance overall ruminant health, antler growth, and milk production.
US09119406B2
Provided is a texture-improving agent for a starch processed food, which exhibits an effect of improving texture by being added to a starch processed food. By using a physical property-improving agent containing, as an active ingredient, a separated soybean protein composition obtained by drying in the form of an acid precipitate, a starch processed food having improved physical properties can be obtained. More specifically, the agent has an effect of improving physical properties and texture, for example, enhancing physical strength such as chewiness and elasticity, improving crispness and stickiness, and so on, and also has an effect of maintaining the improved properties and texture.
US09119403B2
The present invention relates to an mass distribution device for supplying a mass of foodstuff starting material to one or more cavities of a mold drum for molding products from the mass, comprising a base member which extends partially around the outer cylindrical circumference of the drum and which has an introduction area through which the mass is the fed to the cavities. The invention further relates to a molding device and to a process for operating the inventive mass distribution device.
US09119398B2
The present invention relates to novel strigolactam derivatives, to processes and intermediates for preparing them, to plant growth regulator compositions comprising them and to methods of using them for controlling the growth of plants and/or promoting the germination of seeds.
US09119396B2
Disclosed is a method for promoting the growth of a plant, comprising treating the plant with an effective amount of a compound represented by the following formula (1): wherein any one of R1, R2, R3 and R4 represents a trifluoromethyl group, the others represent a hydrogen atom, and R5 represents a methyl group or an ethyl group.
US09119395B2
The invention relates to novel biocidal active substance mixtures containing o-phenylphenol and amines, methods for the production thereof, the use thereof for protecting technical materials and products from being infested and destroyed by microorganisms, and microbicidal agents based on said novel mixtures.
US09119394B2
Polymers derived directly from acrolein monomer that are substantially soluble in water and/or aqueous media, together with methods for preparing same and compositions containing such for use as an anti-microbial, anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory and/or anti-coagulant.
US09119385B2
A handle system for use with a fishing rod. In one embodiment the system is attachable to a rod having a reel seat and operable in conjunction with a reel having a rotatable spool about which fishing line is wound. An attachment section attaches the reel to the handle system and attaches the handle system to the fishing rod. A handle section includes a handle about which a first hand can be placed to hold the rod while catching a fish. The handle extends in a direction away from the attachment section. A leveling system provides back and forth movement of fishing line along the reel spool when the reel is attached to the handle system and the fishing line is being wound on to the spool.
US09119383B2
The invention consists of a method which comprises a plurality of steps for determining difference in distance from a reference point to at least two sensor modules 10, 20 that are located under water. The sensor modules 10, 20 comprise means for sending and receiving acoustic signals to each other and to a hydrophone 30 at the reference point. Connected to the hydrophone 30 is a calculating unit 40 that utilizes arrival time of the received signals from the sensor modules to determine difference in distance from the sensor modules (10, 20) to the reference point.
US09119380B1
A child's safety tether with an attachment pouch provides for quick release of the stored child safety tether in situations where the child care provider must temporarily relinquish contact with the child's hand while using both adult hands to negotiate a commercial transaction. The pouch has a top openable compartment for storing a cell phone or other personal electronic device, with other necessary documents such as credit cards and drivers license cards providing an adult's photographic identification and/or signature replica. The pouch also has a lower openable compartment for storing the child safety tether, which is released downward upon opening a quick release fastener for the downward oriented lower compartment for the tether.
US09119379B1
Methods, devices, and systems are provided for identifying estrus or onset of estrus in a female animal.
US09119377B2
A hollow pet toy containing an interior compartment is described. The toy's interior compartment is accessed through an opening in the exterior fabric of the toy. The purpose of the interior compartment is to hide a treat, examples of which may be a smaller toy or a food-treat. The interior compartment may also contain stuffing in the form of fabric strips, flags, or sleeves, which, in some examples of the invention, are fixed at one end to the interior compartment but which may otherwise be removed from the interior compartment by the pet seeking to discover the treat. Some examples of the invention feature an additional “treat compartment” within the fabric strips, flags, sleeves, or other stuffing of the interior compartment. A treat is placed in one or more of these “treat compartments” for the pet to discover and enjoy.
US09119376B2
A system for locating a lost pet includes: a tag configured to be worn on the pet; a handheld device configured to be connected with the tag wirelessly; a remote server configured to store information that corresponds to the pet wearing the tag; and an application installed on the handheld device and configured to provide a user interface and establish a connection with the remote server. The tag includes wireless communication means and a unique identification code for distinguishing the tag among a plurality of tags, and is configured to broadcast the unique identification code wirelessly. The handheld device is configured to establish a connection with the tag within a predetermined range, receive the broadcasted unique identification code from the tag, and trigger a predetermined routine if the connection with the tag is terminated. A method for locating a lost pet is also provided.
US09119372B2
The present invention is a detection device, system and/or method for locating the position of at least an object present in space, such as the position of a teat of an animal. The device may include an array of sensors. Each sensor in the array may incorporate a transmitter-receiver pair. The transmitter and receiver within each pair may be disposed at an angle, to detect an object in space, through the use of signals. Embodiments of the present invention may include one or more detection devices and may be utilized to detect one or more objects present invention space. The device of the present invention may be used in a system for milking dairy animals.
US09119361B1
A novel maize variety designated X75D860 and seed, plants and plant parts thereof, produced by crossing Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. proprietary inbred maize varieties. Methods for producing a maize plant that comprises crossing hybrid maize variety X75D860 with another maize plant. Methods for producing a maize plant containing in its genetic material one or more traits introgressed into X75D860 through backcross conversion and/or transformation, and to the maize seed, plant and plant part produced thereby. This invention relates to the maize variety X75D860, the seed, the plant produced from the seed, and variants, mutants, and minor modifications of maize variety X75D860. This invention further relates to methods for producing maize varieties derived from maize variety X75D860.
US09119359B2
The present invention is in the field of soybean variety WN1013689-2 breeding and development. The present invention particularly relates to the soybean variety WN1013689-2 and its progeny, and methods of making WN1013689-2.
US09119355B2
An applicant dispersal assembly is described that couples to an irrigation system. It is contemplated that the irrigation system may be a center pivot irrigation system, a linear move irrigation system, or the like. The applicant dispersal assembly is configured to receive an applicant and selectively adjust a flow rate of the applicant. In an implementation, the applicant dispersal assembly includes a pump assembly configured to couple to an irrigation conduit. The irrigation conduit is configured to provide an applicant to the pump assembly for dispersing over a cultivation area. The pump assembly is configured to pump the applicant and to selectively adjust a flow rate of the applicant. The applicant dispersal assembly also includes an applicant dispersal device that is coupled to the pump assembly. The applicant dispersal device is configured to disperse the applicant.
US09119351B1
A multi-layered gravel hydroponic system comprising at least one trench dug into earth, a sheet of fibrous capillary material laid over the trench, sand that fills the trench, a layer of sedimentary-type pea gravel over the sand and capillary material, and a conduit extending into the sand trench to provide fresh water during watering cycles. When combined, the sand and fibrous capillary layers irrigate seeds and roots imbedded in the pea gravel, which provides the growing nutrients. Because the pea gravel is derived from organic material, its natural composition of various minerals provides a nutrient environment to sustain root growth. The resulting structure replaces the need for soil and fertilizers. By watering beneath the pea gravel, nutrients inherent in the pea gravel travel with the water to evenly feed roots throughout the growing region.
US09119345B2
A power cutting tool includes a housing, a motor accommodated in the housing, a cutting assembly optionally operated in a trimming mode or in an edging mode and being driven by the motor to rotate around a first axis, a handle assembly, an elongated shaft connecting the cutting assembly and the handle assembly, a guard mounted to the cutting assembly, and a wheel assembly including a wheel. The wheel assembly is optionally mounted at least a first mounting position and a second mounting position. The central axis of the wheel is substantially perpendicular to the first axis when the wheel assembly is mounted at the first mounting position and is substantially parallel to the first axis when the wheel assembly is mounted at the second mounting position.
US09119341B2
The present invention relates to a method (300) and a system (100) for guiding a robotic garden tool to a predetermined position. The robotic garden tool includes a control unit (104) and a sensor unit (102) to detect signals. The sensor unit (102) detects a first signal (110) from a first signal source (106) and the robotic garden tool follows the first signal (110) at a varying distance from the first signal source (106) that is less than or equal to a maximum distance to the first signal source, towards the predetermined position. Wherein, the varying distance is a function of the strength of the detected first signal (110). While detecting the first signal (110), the sensor unit may also detect a second signal (112) from a second signal source (108). The robotic garden tool follows the first signal (110) at a varying distance that is less than or equal to the maximum distance to the first signal source, wherein the maximum distance, at least in part, is now set based on the strength of the detected second signal (112), to reach a predetermined position.
US09119338B2
Agricultural machinery and procedure for an agricultural machinery (11) that comprises metering devices (B1, B2, Bn) placed laterally in the agricultural machinery so as to provide a number of parallel metering rows (n), each one of the metering devices (Bn) being connected to at least one control unit (22) for the individual control of each metering device, the control unit (22) receiving a first signal, which acts on the control unit (22) to either start or stop the metering from the laterally outermost positioned and activated metering devices (B1), the control unit (22) receiving a second signal, which acts on the control unit (22) to either start or stop the metering from at least one of the laterally activated second outermost positioned metering devices or groups, the calculation unit, with the aid of the instant of time of the first signal and the instant of time of the second signal as well as the speed of the agricultural machinery, calculating the individual instants of time of start or stop of the metering from each one of the remaining metering devices.
US09125331B2
Methods and systems for bonding a flex circuit to a printed circuit board (PCB) using an anisotropic conductive film (ACF) bonding process are disclosed. According to one aspect of the present invention, supports may be attached to an electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding can in such a way that the EMI shielding can is arranged to support and/or spread forces involved in ACF bonding. The supports may be located proximate to the walls of the EMI shielding can, and positioned such that the supports effectively do not come into contact with components mounted on a PCB along with the EMI shielding can.
US09125327B1
A data center cooling system is disclosed. The system includes a plurality of computer racks arranged in a plurality of substantially parallel rows, cooling units associated with the computer racks and arranged in substantially parallel rows to cool air warmed by the cooling racks, and cooling fluid supply and return conduits that are divided by isolation valves into a plurality of cooling sub-loops, wherein adjacent cooling units in a common row are supplied from different sub-loops, and individual sub-loops serve cooling units in multiple rows, so as to provide water-side diversity across the cooling system.
US09125324B2
A motherboard includes a circuit board, a plurality of electronic components, a metal cover and a flexible heat-conducting component. The electronic components are disposed at the circuit board. The metal cover covers the circuit board. The flexible heat-conducting component is disposed between the circuit board and the metal cover and contacts the electronic components and the metal cover.
US09125320B2
A method of manufacturing a passive component module includes the steps of: bonding passive components to a carrier, wherein each of the passive components has interconnection pads; forming a dielectric molding material over the carrier, so that the passive components are embedded in the molding material; separating the molding material, which has the passive components embedded therein, from the carrier; exposing all interconnection pads of the passive components; and building electrical interconnections between the passive components to obtain the passive component module. The steps of bonding, forming, separating, exposing and building are performed in the recited order.
US09125306B2
A flexible printed circuit board for connecting external modules, includes a high-frequency signal wiring board and a low-frequency signal wiring board. Side edges of the high-frequency signal wiring board and the low-frequency signal wiring board are connected to each other. The low-frequency signal wiring board is folded toward the high-frequency signal wiring board to form a stacked double-layer board structure. Each of two ends of the high-frequency signal wiring board extends to form a connecting board for connecting the external module. A flexible printed circuit board combination includes two flexible printed circuit boards.
US09125304B2
The disclosure provides a manufacturing method for a circuit board having a via and including a substrate, a ground conductor, a floated conductor and a signal conductor. The substrate includes a second sheet layer, a second ground layer, a core layer, a first ground layer and a first sheet layer that are stacked in sequence from bottom to top. The ground conductor penetrates through the core layer and is electrically coupled to the first ground layer and the second ground layer. The floated conductor penetrates through the core layer and is electrically insulated from the first ground layer, the second ground layer and the ground conductor. The signal conductor penetrates through the substrate, being located between the ground conductor and the floated conductor, and insulated from the first ground layer, the second ground layer, the ground conductor and the floated conductor.
US09125293B2
A housing assembly for a lightweight electronic device for vehicular application is virtually “fastenerless” and includes a one-piece case formed of a layered composite structure including polymer based, electrically insulating sheet material and electrically conductive sheet material that is compression molded or hydroformed to provide three-dimensional case details to accept one or more electronic devices such as circuit boards required for electrical control and display of vehicle based systems. The conductive sheet material is preferably a wire mesh which provides shielding from electrical anomalies and grounding of the circuit boards via exposed wire mesh pads and adjacent ground clips. Major components and subassemblies are self-fixturing during the final assembly process, eliminating the need for dedicated tools, fixtures and assembly equipment.
US09125289B2
A system for docking a computer tablet with a docking station. The computer tablet has an asymmetrical edge that is adapted to rest in a cradle portion of the docking station. While resting in the docking station the computer tablet may be rotated to various angles and still maintain electrical connectivity to the docking station.
US09125277B2
A retrofit lamp includes at least one series circuit having a multiplicity of LEDs having a circuit arrangement. The at least one series circuit including is coupled between a first rectifier output connection and a second rectifier output connection. A breakdown apparatus is coupled between a third connection terminal and a fourth connection terminal. The breakdown apparatus may have the following properties: up to a first threshold value of the voltage drop across said breakdown apparatus during operation, the breakdown apparatus is nonconducting. If the first threshold value is exceeded, the breakdown apparatus becomes conducting. The breakdown apparatus remains conducting as long as current is supplied to it which is above a second threshold value. As soon as the current falls below the second threshold value, the breakdown apparatus becomes nonconducting again. In the conducting state, the breakdown apparatus has a forward voltage which is below a third threshold value.
US09125270B2
A LED dimming device, and a LED dimming and a driving circuit using such LED dimming device are discussed. In present embodiment, the LED dimming device multiplexes an inputting switch and/or a sampling module of the LED driving circuit for dimming. such LED dimming device will not affect the sine waves of input current, in such a way, power factor and work efficiency will be increased while the harmonic coefficient and interference signal will be reduced.
US09125267B2
The present invention provides LED array systems with improved methods of powering LED in the array by monitoring the relationship between temperature and driving power to predict how much power can be safely applied to the LEDs. The present invention also provides for a control system for LED arrays that allows for display of images or light patterns across and array of luminairs over a low bandwidth control protocol. The present invention also provides for a LED array luminair with reduced color fringing, light spill reduction and beam angle control.
US09125264B2
A lighting device includes a rectifier circuit for rectifying an AC voltage, a power-factor correction circuit for inputting the rectified voltage from the rectifier circuit to generate a first DC voltage, a capacitor for smoothing the rectified voltage to generate a second DC voltage, a first lighting power supply, and a second lighting power supply. The first lighting power supply, of which input power supply is the first DC voltage, supplies lighting power to a first light source including one or more light emitting devices. The second lighting power supply, of which input power supply is the second DC voltage, supplies lighting power to a second light source including one or more light emitting devices. An output voltage of the second lighting power supply is lower than an output voltage of the first lighting power supply.
US09125254B2
In embodiments of the present invention, a method and system is provided for commissioning improved intelligent, LED-based lighting systems. The LED based lighting systems may include fixtures with one or more LED light bars, integrated sensors, onboard intelligence to send and receive signals and control the LED light bars, and network connectivity to other fixtures.
US09125233B2
Novel tools and techniques that can provide wireless service for multiple service providers from a single, multi-service provider wireless access point. In an aspect, a multi-service provider wireless access point might communicate with a plurality of wireless devices, each associated with a different wireless carrier, and route communications from each device to the appropriate carrier (and/or, similarly, transmit communications from each carrier to the appropriate wireless device). In this way, for example, a single wireless access point could provide service to cellphones of subscribers of a number of different carriers. Such a wireless access point can provide enhanced efficiency and reduced cost, along with the ability to provide higher service for a number of wireless carriers.
US09125229B2
The present invention relates to a method for operating a communication system, said communication system comprising a primary and at least one secondary station, wherein the primary station selects a transmission mode from a set of at least two transmission modes for communicating with the secondary station, and wherein the secondary station infers the selected transmission mode based on at least one control channel characteristic.
US09125225B2
A method of controlling electronic data transmission between a mobile communication device located in a movable or moving vehicle and a mobile communication network includes obtaining at least one of location data and movement data relating to the current position of the vehicle. At least one of location data and movement data relating to a predicted position of the vehicle is calculated based on the at least one of location data and movement data relating to the current position of the vehicle. A current capacity situation of the mobile communication network is determined and a future capacity situation of the mobile communication network is predicted. Network and service parameters associated with a mobile communication system are dynamically adapted based on the current position and the predicted position of the vehicle and on the current capacity situation and the predicted future capacity situation of the mobile communication network.
US09125223B2
A method may be provided to operate a node of a radio access network communicating with a wireless terminal. The wireless terminal may be configured to provide a transmit buffer for data to be transmitted to the node during transmission time intervals, to transmit packets of the data from the transmit buffer to the node during respective transmission time intervals, and to provide buffer indicator bits with respective packets of the data during the respective transmission time intervals. The method may include: receiving a packet including data and a buffer indicator bit from the wireless terminal during a respective transmission time interval; and providing an estimate of a quantity of data in the transmit buffer at the wireless terminal responsive to a status of the buffer indicator bit. Related wireless terminals and network nodes are also discussed.
US09125217B2
Blank subframe link design uses reduced bandwidth either explicit or derived for Closed Subscriber Group (CSG) cell interference mitigation, enabling a non-allowed User Equipment (UE) to co-exist with CSG cells on the same carrier. One could specify UL blank subframes to orthogonalize non-allowed UE and allowed UE transmissions on UL either via explicit UL blank subframe definition or derived from DL blank subframe definition. Scheduling can orthogonalize data transmissions. A femto cell temporarily reducing uplink bandwidth can mitigate uplink control channel residual interference from a non-allowed UE. A relay configures RACH occasion to coincide with non-blank UL subframes as much as possible. UE knowledge of RACH occasion is sufficient to start RACH and hand over procedure. RACH occasions with 10 ms periodicity are supported by assigning all odd/even uplink HARQ interlaces to relay. RACH occasions with 20 ms periodicity are supported by assigning any of the ¼ UL HARQ interlaces to relay.
US09125213B2
A method and apparatus for verifying a release of a local IP access (LIPA) packet data network (PDN) connection in a wireless communication system is provided. A mobility management entity (MME) receives a handover preparation message from a source home eNodeB (HeNB), verifying whether the LIPA PDN connection has been released or not on receiving the handover preparation message. If the LIPA PDN connection has been released already, the MME performs a normal handover procedure. If the LIPA PDN connection has not been released, the MME transmits a handover preparation failure message to the source HeNB.
US09125211B2
Disclosed are systems, methods and computer program products for traffic volume reporting during radio access network (RAN) connection setup. In one aspect, the RAN broadcasts an indicator that it accepts traffic volume measurements (TVM) from access terminals (ATs) and an associated TVM threshold. An AT measures its traffic volume before requesting a connection with the RAN. If the traffic volume is above the threshold, AT transmits to the RAN a connection request containing a TVM indicator that the measured traffic volume from the AT is above the threshold. If the traffic volume is below the threshold, AT transmits to the RAN a connection request containing a TVM indicator that the traffic volume is below the threshold.
US09125204B2
A wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) includes circuitry configured to receive information from a base station indicating an assignment of periodic time slots to transmit sounding signals and circuitry configured to transmit sounding signals to the base station in the assigned periodic time slots in response to the received information, wherein a timing of transmission of the sounding signals in response to the received information differs between a time division duplex mode and a frequency division duplex mode, and wherein the transmitted sounding signals are distinguishable from sounding signals from other WTRUs.
US09125202B2
A cellular communication system comprising a plurality of geographically spaced base stations (2) each of which comprises an antenna arrangement (4, 6, 8) per base station sector, each of which antenna arrangements has an antenna element for generating an array of narrow beams (10, 12, 14) covering the sector. Timeslots are simultaneously transmitted over each of the beams so as to generate successive sets of simultaneously transmitted timeslots per sector. The timeslots are each split into multiple orthogonal codes, for example Walsh codes. The communication system additionally comprising a scheduling device (31) for allocating for successive sets of timeslots common overhead channels, including a common pilot channel, which are allocated to the same sub-set of codes of each timeslot in the set. For successive sets of timeslots different data traffic is allocated to the same sub-set of codes of each timeslot in the set. This effectively generates a sector wide antenna beam carrying the common overhead channels and a plurality of narrow beams each of which carry different data traffic. Inter-beam interference is addressed by the application of Adaptive Modulation and Coding and by an inter-beam handoff scheme. The handoff scheme ensures that when an end user equipment is located in a cusp region between adjacent beams the antenna arrangement simultaneously transmits data traffic to that mobile station on at least both of the adjacent beams.
US09125199B2
To facilitate sending a reference signal in a wireless communication environment, a transmitter sends a reference signal in a first time-frequency resource to a user equipment (UE); the transmitter sends data information in a first portion of a second time-frequency resource different from the first time-frequency resource to the UE; and the transmitter excludes data information from being sent in a second portion of the second time-frequency resource. The second portion of the second time-frequency resource is designated for use by another transmitter for sending another reference signal to the UE.
US09125198B2
A wireless communication base station device, terminal device, and method have reduced signaling while maintaining high scheduling gain. A judgment unit pre-stores a correspondence between the number of code words and the number of clusters to reduce the maximum value for the number of clusters allocated to each terminal as the number of code words increases, and thus determines the maximum value for the number of clusters based on the number of code words acquired. Based on the number of code words for a transmission signal from a terminal, an estimated value for the reception quality, and the maximum value for the number of clusters that is output by the judgment unit, a scheduling unit schedules the allocation of the transmission signal transmitted by each terminal to a transmission band frequency (frequency resource) so as not to exceed the maximum value for the number of clusters.
US09125197B2
Methods for physical layer multi-point carrier aggregation and feedback configuration are disclosed. In one embodiment of the invention, a UE receives an upper layer configuration includes a first UE-ID associated with a first group of component carriers (CCs) and a second UE-ID associated with a second group of CCs. The UE receives downlink control information via one or more downlink control channels on one or downlink CCs. The UE decodes the downlink control information using the first UE-ID and the second UE-ID. In another embodiment of the invention, the UE receives an upper layer configuration of a first uplink feedback CC associated with a first group of downlink CCs and a second uplink feedback CC associated with a second group of downlink CCs. The UE generates feedback information for the downlink CCs to be carried on their corresponding uplink feedback CC.
US09125196B2
A method for link adaptation at a mobile station (120) can include the steps of computing (220) mutual information per coded bit (MIB) metrics on at least one sub-channel for one or more candidate modulation types. The method may average the MIB metrics over at least two sub-channels, generate feedback information including MIB metrics for the plurality of candidate modulation types, and transmit (245) the feedback information to a base station.
US09125189B2
A feedback method and apparatus is provided for facilitating feedback in a Cooperative Multi-Point (CoMP) system in which multiple base stations cooperate with each other for downlink transmission to a terminal. The feedback method of a terminal includes determining whether the terminal is operating in cooperative multi-point mode for receiving data from a plurality of cells; estimating, when the terminal is operating in cooperative multi-point mode, channels of the cells belonging to a measurement set based on channel status information reference signals for the cells; selecting at least one best cell based on a signal-to-interference plus noise ratio based on the estimated channels; and feeding back a cell index and channel information of the best cell.
US09125187B2
In a mobile station, correction information is obtained from a base station for correcting a transmission timing shift in an uplink line of the mobile station, and the transmission timing shift is corrected in accordance with the correction information. Within a period in which the correction information is valid, the mobile station requests communication resource allocation information from the base station, using a random access channel having guard time. In an alternate embodiment, if a communication resource for transmitting a control channel in the uplink line is assigned to the mobile station within a period during which the correction information is valid, the mobile station instead requests the communication resource allocation information from the base station using the control channel in an uplink line from the mobile station to the base station.
US09125174B2
A mobile communications device with a wireless module and a controller module is provided. The wireless module performs wireless reception from a service network on a plurality of component carriers configured by the service network. The controller module selects a first component carrier from the plurality of component carriers providing the same multimedia broadcast and multicast services (MBMS) content and controls the wireless module to receive the MBMS content on the first component carrier.
US09125171B2
A mobile communication terminal is described comprising a first identity module; a second identity module; a detector configured to detect whether the mobile communication terminal is in a coverage area of a reference mobile communication network of the first identity module; and a controller, configured to, if it has been detected that the mobile communication terminal is not within the coverage area of the reference mobile communication network of the first identity module, determine a reference mobile communication network of the second identity module, and to start a registering process for registering the first identity module with the reference mobile communication network of the second identity module.
US09125166B2
Methods for performing an efficient network search and communications apparatuses utilizing the same
A communications apparatus includes at least a first processor logic unit obtaining a support band list, a second processor logic unit generating a frequency search list for a first operating band and a frequency search list for a second operating band listed in the support band list, and a third processor logic unit performing power scan and cell search according to the frequency search lists. The frequency search list includes information regarding operating frequencies located in the corresponding operating band to be searched. The second operating band includes one or more operating frequencies overlapped with that of the first operating band, and the one or more operating frequencies of the second operating band overlapped with that of the first operating band is/are listed only in one of the frequency search list for the first operating band and the frequency search list for the second operating band.
US09125156B2
An embodiment of the present invention discloses a Wi-Fi device, including a radio frequency circuit, a signal processor, an application processor, and a Wi-Fi chip. The application processor is configured to preset the work mode of the Wi-Fi chip to a single input single output SISO mode, and is further configured to acquire a value of a parameter of an uplink wireless network, and when the value of the parameter of the uplink wireless network is determined to be greater than or equal to a preset value, set the work mode of the Wi-Fi chip to a multiple-input multiple-output MIMO mode. An embodiment of the present invention further discloses a method for setting a communications mode.
US09125155B2
A wireless communication device including: a plurality of antennas configured to perform a plurality of wireless communication protocols simultaneously, and a processor configured to obtain each of a plurality of power consumptions for each of the plurality of the wireless communication protocols, to obtain each of a plurality of communication throughput for each of the plurality of the wireless communication protocols, to calculate an aggregated communication efficiency of the wireless communication using the plurality of wireless communication protocols simultaneously based on the plurality of the power consumptions and the plurality of the communication throughput, and to control the plurality of the antennas, when the aggregated communication efficiency exceeds a given value, as to perform the plurality of wireless communication protocols simultaneously, and, when the aggregated communication efficiency is equal to or less than the given value, as to stop one of the plurality of wireless communication protocols.
US09125152B2
A wireless device comprises a transceiver and a scheduling system. The transceiver transmits and receives messages to and from an access point, and has a sleep mode from which it occasionally wakes at wakeup times to listen for beacons from the access point. The scheduling system schedules wakeup times according to historical beacon synchronization data.
US09125151B2
A more simple and robust time synchronization of network subscribers compared to solutions known in the state of the art is provided by a device for time synchronization of network subscribers of a network based on satellites, having at least one satellite antenna connected to a receiving unit receiving a satellite signal containing time information. An electronic system that obtains the time from the satellite signal is connected to a time server with a network connection for the synchronization of the network subscribers using a network protocol. The complexity of the device is reduced and the common coaxial infrastructure between the receiving unit and the time server is removed for the satellite signal and replaced by a robust infrastructure.
US09125144B1
Disclosed herein is a system and method for selectively enabling or disabling rings or other alerts associated with a mobile communication device. A mobile communication device in accordance with embodiments of the present invention includes one or more programmable profiles that establish the behavior of the mobile communication device for a number of different proximity levels between the user and the device. Accordingly, by applying a determined proximity level and an applicable programmable profile, an alert type maybe selected.
US09125143B2
Embodiments reduce the time and energy expended to establish an initial link to a network. Some embodiments use either active or passive scans to discover available access points and then use a broadcast or multicast Generic Advertisement Service (GAS) Request message to identify access points providing requested services. Other embodiments use a broadcast or multicast GAS Request message to identify access points or mobile devices providing requested services without first scanning for access points. Only access points or mobile devices providing requested services need to respond to the GAS request message. Duplicate messages received by multiple access points coupled to the same network can be filtered so only one message is received and responded to.
US09125133B2
Systems and methodologies are described herein that facilitate techniques for design of relay backhaul to support mobility of relay nodes in a wireless communication system. According to various aspects herein, techniques are provided to enable and support the use of mobile relays and to facilitate handover of mobile relays between respective donor cells. More particularly, techniques are provided herein for relay backhaul control channel assignment associated with hand in or hand out of mobile relays, access/backhaul resource partitioning for mobile relays, and management of quality of service (QoS) requirements associated with a relay handover.
US09125131B2
An infrastructure and method for controlling wireless access to a telecommunications infrastructure for a device includes a first access grant time interval applicable for granting access for the device to the telecommunications infrastructure stored in a device register system. The first access grant time interval is applied when the device requests access to the telecommunications infrastructure via a first network node of the telecommunications infrastructure. However, a second access grant time interval is applied in a second network node of the telecommunications infrastructure when the device requests access via the second network node. The second access grant time interval is applicable for granting access for the device to the telecommunications infrastructure and is different from the first access grant time interval.
US09125124B2
In a particular embodiment, a method of determining a handoff selection includes determining, at a first station, a direct link quality factor value associated with a direct link between the first station and a second station. The method also includes receiving one or more measurements from the second station. The one or more measurements correspond to one or more access points that are wirelessly detectable by the second station. The method also includes determining a particular access point of the one or more access points as a handoff target based on the one or more measurements.
US09125117B2
Inter-carrier scanning is triggered in a mobile device based at least in part on location thereof. Femto access point (AP) that can serve the mobile device can determine location through cell or sector identifier that is extracted via scan(s) of macro wireless environment of the femto AP. Femto AP can rank extracted sector identifier(s) and establish home macro sector (HMS) identifier(s), and also can generate scanning requirements for idle-mode scan(s) by a mobile device that operates in a HMS and is authorized to access wireless coverage through the femto AP. Scanning requirement(s) can force periodic inter-carrier measurements of a HMS wireless environment, and establish HMS-specific radio link quality threshold(s). Wireless network can receive at least one of HMS identifier(s) and scanning requirement(s) and deliver same to mobile device(s) authorized to exploit wireless coverage through femto AP associated with the HMS ID(s) and the scanning requirement(s).
US09125116B2
A method, an apparatus and a system for key derivation are disclosed. The method includes the following steps: a target base station) receives multiple keys derived by a source base station, where the keys correspond to cells under control of the target base station; the target base station selects a key corresponding to the target cell after knowing a target cell that a user equipment (UE) wants to access. An apparatus for key derivation and a communications system are also provided.
US09125113B2
A user equipment UE selects between a first scanning mode and a second scanning mode using at least inputs of signal quality of a link with an access node and at least one of UE speed and network type of the access node. It then determines a scanning rate using the selected scanning mode and the UE speed, and detects and measures inter-frequency neighbor cells according to the determined scanning rate. In one example both modes the increase scanning rate for increased UE speeds, except that for the first mode speeds above Vt1 yield a zero scanning rate regardless of UE speed and for the second mode speeds above Vt2 yield a constant maximum scanning rate regardless of UE speed. In an embodiment the second mode is selected when the UE speed is >Vt1, and the signal quality is less than a predetermined minimum. Various other examples are detailed.
US09125108B2
A method is provided of deactivating PDP Context upon transfer of a connection with a user terminal between a femtocell base station and a macrocell base station, the method comprising: the femto base station receiving a message including a first identifier of a PDP Context, altering the identifier of a PDP Context to a second identifier, and forwarding the altered message to the core network, the core network receiving a message including an identifier determines that the received identifier does not match the identifier that it expects and so deactivates the PDP Context.
US09125097B2
The invention concerns a method for measuring channel state information of multiple transmission/reception modes in a wireless network comprising a plurality of nodes, said modes being defined by frequency channels and/or antenna patterns, said wireless network comprising a MAC (Media Access Control) layer and every node comprising at least one MAC queue, comprising the steps of:periodically sending broadcast probe packets by at least one node called transmitter node, using a pre-determined and globally known period and predetermined sequence of transmission modes, each of said probe packets containing the transmission mode used for its transmission a sequence number of the transmission mode in the pre-determined sequence of transmission modes and a timestamp value containing the time said broadcast probe packet was buffered at the MAC queue of the transmitter node; measuring, by at least one second node called receiving node receiving a broadcast probe packet , channel state information of a transmission/reception mode for the link between the transmitter node and the receiving node; storing, by said receiving node, said measured transmission/reception mode for said link; using information contained in said received broadcast probe packet, by said receiving node to determine its reception mode and the beginning and end time instants it will use this reception mode, in order to receive a further broadcast probe packet and measure the next transmission mode of transmitter node, during a next measurement period of transmitter node.
US09125092B2
A wireless communications system supports wireless connections between base station sector attachment points and wireless terminals. Individual wireless connections correspond to one of a downlink-macrodiversity mode of operation and a downlink non-macrodiversity mode of operation. A wireless terminal has, for each of its current connections, a base station assigned dedicated control channel for communicating uplink control information reports. The uplink control information reports include downlink signal-to-noise ratio reports based on measured received pilot channel signals. If a connection corresponds to a macrodiversity mode of operation, a reporting format for the SNR report is used which reports (i) an SNR value and (ii) an indication as to whether or not the connection is considered a preferred connection by the wireless terminal. If a connection corresponds to a non-macrodiversity mode of operation, a reporting format for the SNR report is used which reports an SNR value.
US09125088B2
A unit (25, 46) performs a compression operation or a decompression operation with respect to information for transmission in packets over a wireless link (36). The transmission over the wireless link is such that the packets may become reordered from a transmission sequence. The compression operation and the decompression operation involve a tradeoff of robustness and reordering depth. The robustness is an indicator of a degree of information loss over the link tolerated by the compression operation and the decompression operation; the reordering depth is a degree of packet reordering tolerated by the compression operation and the decompression operation. The unit dynamically adjusts the tradeoff of the robustness and the reordering depth in accordance with characteristics of the link. In an example embodiment, the information upon which the compression operation and the decompression operation is performed is sequence number information of a packet header.
US09125087B2
Systems, methods, and devices for communicating packets having a plurality of types are described herein. In some aspects, the packets include a compressed header. In one embodiment, a compression protocol is selected from a plurality of compression protocols to compress a first packet header. The packet may contain a second packet header, which may include information indicative of the compression protocol used to compress the first packet header. The packet may be transmitted, including the first packet header which is compressed using the selected compression protocol.
US09125086B2
A wireless LAN communication device configured to carry out the priority control of an EDCA scheme includes a first determining section for determining access categories, a second determining section for determining a bandwidth occupancy rate for each access category, and a change section for dynamically changing parameters regarding the priority control for each category in accordance with determination results of the first and second determining sections. Accordingly, even when a mass of traffic exists in categories having the priority of the same class, the collision of packets in the traffic, the increase of the amount of delay, the reduction of throughput, and the like can be avoided.
US09125080B2
A radio base station according to this invention includes: a radio resource allocation determination unit for determining whether or not to allocate a radio resource to a mobile communication device; a radio resource control unit for allocating the radio resource to the mobile communication device to which the radio resource allocation determination unit has determined to carry out the allocation of the radio resource; and a backhaul line control unit for providing control of outputting data received from the mobile communication device to a backhaul line for relaying the data to a higher-level network. When congestion occurs, the radio resource control unit reduces an amount of the radio resource to be allocated, and the radio resource allocation determination unit determines whether or not to allocate the radio resource to another mobile communication device, depending on whether or not the received data satisfies predetermined service quality.
US09125077B2
A method for managing node communications in a mobile ad-hoc network is provided where at least a node in the said network performs the following steps: identifying if it is a Potentially Disruptive Node (PDN) or a non-PDN node, a PDN node being a node that has a number of connected 1-hop neighbor nodes greater than a predetermined value K; when the node is identified as a PDN node, selecting a subset of its 1-hop neighbor nodes, the selected nodes being the only 1-hop neighbor nodes that are allowed to communicate directly with the PDN node, the selected nodes being called Bridge Nodes (BN), non-BN nodes being called Regular Nodes (RN), the said RN nodes being able to communicate with PDN nodes via the selected BN nodes.
US09125072B2
Methods and apparatus for performing radio resource management (RRM) measurements in a heterogeneous network (HetNet) are provided in an effort to prevent failure of RRM measurement procedures in a dominant interference scenario. Several alternatives are provided for determining particular resources (e.g., subframes) to use for performing the RRM measurements, wherein the particular resources are based on cooperative resource partitioning between cells of the HetNet, wherein the cells may be of different types (e.g., macro, pico, or femto cells). These alternatives include, for example: (1) intra-frequency or intra-RAT (radio access technology) alternatives, which may involve transmitting resource partitioning information (RPI) in or deriving non-serving cell RPI based on the serving cell's RPI, as well as (2) inter-frequency or inter-RAT alternatives, where the RRM measurements may be performed during a measurement gap.
US09125071B2
The invention relates to the technical field of wireless communications, and in particular to a method, system, and device for measuring interference, so as to solve the problem in the prior art that the precision of interference measured by a terminal is low if a cell adopts a Resource Element Muting(RE MUTING) solution. The method includes: a network side device determining configuration information of a first Resource Element(RE) group performing interference measurement (501); and the network side device generating first interference notification information according to the determined configuration information of the first RE group and sending the first interference notification information to a terminal, so as to instruct the terminal to determine the first RE group according to the first interference notification information and perform the interference measurement on the determined first RE group (502). The terminal is notified to perform the interference measurement on the first RE group, so that when the RE MUTING solution is adopted, the precision of the measured interference is increased.
US09125064B2
In embodiments of the present disclosure improved capabilities are described for reducing inter-cell interference in a large area broadband LTE wireless network utilizing RF agile beam forming antennas, where the reduced inter-cell interference is realized by arranging the sets of rotating RF beams in each cell such that adjacent RF beam sub-areas in the same or in different cells are not illuminated at the same time. The reduction in inter-cell interference results in reduced interference noise for users located near the edges of cells, thereby allowing them to be assigned higher data rates. Also, the same set of sub-carriers can be assigned by adjacent cells to users located in the RF beam sub-areas at the cell boundaries, thereby allowing the complete set of LTE sub-carriers to be assigned to any user at any time, without requiring additional cell-to-cell communications.
US09125056B2
The disclosure provides a system and method of authenticating a user to a network. For the method, if a request for a resource initiated by the device is related to a restricted resource, then the method: redirects the request to the authentication server; initiates an authentication process at the server to request a user account and a password from the device to authenticate the device if it has not been authenticated; automatically provides the device with access to the restricted resource if the device previously had been authenticated to access the restricted resource; and provides a signal to the device indicating whether it has been authenticated to allow the device to update its graphical user interface to indicate an access status for the restricted resource. If the request relates to a non-restricted resource, then the method automatically provides the device with access to the non-restricted resource.
US09125053B2
A communication system, in which a mobile terminal uses a data path that was generated with an ISP network by a base station in a home network to access a NW via the ISP network, includes an authentication means and connection control means in the ISP network. The base station accepts an access request from the mobile terminal and transmits information relating to the base station and the mobile terminal to the connection control means. The authentication means determines based on the information whether a linking service that connects to the home NW without traversing the ISP network can be provided to the mobile terminal, and if the linking service can be provided, notifies this information to the connection control means. Based on this notification, the connection control means requests the base station to generate a data path for providing the linking service, and the base station generates the data path.
US09125050B2
Secure NFC interactions with a server information handling system management controller, such as a baseboard management controller, are supported with an NFC application running on a mobile information handling system. A private key is applied by the mobile application to create an application hash that a baseboard management controller verifies to authorize access by the NFC application. The private key encrypts a user name and password so that the baseboard management controller decrypts the user credentials to look up access privileges in a security database. If user privileges include access to components, the baseboard management controller automatically actuates locks to provide access.
US09125044B2
A method for generating and registering an identification in a wireless sensor network. The method includes generating an identification of a first layer node; transmitting the identification of the first layer node to a second layer node; detecting whether the identification of the first layer node is duplicated, using the second layer node; if the identification of the first layer node is not duplicated, transmitting a determination message from the second layer node to the first layer node; and determining the identification of the first layer node as a determined identification. The method further includes: if the second layer node does not have a determined identification, re-transmitting the identification of the first layer node after a predetermined period of time has lapsed. Therefore, an automatically identification allocating method using a hierarchical structure can be adopted to enable a distributed management.
US09125039B2
A switched emergency call (e.g., a 911 call, an alarm company call) forwarded by a telematics call center is converted into a session initiation protocol (SIP) packetized phone call at the call center, and routed over an IP network, for presentation to an emergency services gateway, which connects to a selective router via dedicated circuits, gaining full access to the Enhanced 911 network. This provides a PSAP receiving a call from a telematics call center or other call center with all features available in an Enhanced 911 network, e.g., callback number of the 911 caller, and location of the 911 caller. Location of the caller is provided using a VoIP positioning center (VPC), queried from the call center. In this way, the switched emergency call is converted into a SIP packetized phone call and routed without further passage through the public switched telephone network (PSTN).
US09125038B2
A method and apparatus for obtaining end-user location information for emergency services within a multimedia network is presented. The multimedia network may include a network implementing the Session Initiation Protocol, H.323, etc. In one embodiment, a Location Application Server (LAS) in the multimedia network and an interface between the LAS and a gateway mobile location center (GMLC) is defined.
US09125036B2
An accessory and method for displaying a data feed are described. A device interface of the accessory is configured to connect a processor with an external device and transfer a data feed from the external device to a display of the accessory. A memory stores computer executable instructions to instruct the processor to receive the transferred data feed via the device interface and to instruct the processor to provide the transferred data feed to the display. A user interface provides a user input in response to the transferred data feed to the processor and back to the external device.
US09125031B2
A method, an apparatus, and a computer program product for wireless communication are provided. Embodiments can enhance and improve USSD based messaging options. In an example, a USSD GW is equipped to determine that an USSD based message is able to be communicated using a common channel, and send the USSD based message as part of a USSD session to a MSC with a service indicator prompting the MSC to communicate an informational element of the message to a MS using the common channel. In another example, a MSC is equipped to receive an USSD based message that includes a service indicator prompting the MSC to communicate an informational element to a MS using a common channel. Other aspects, embodiments, and features are also claimed and described.
US09125030B2
Apparatus, and an associated method, for communicating short message service content to a short message service center. The address of an IP-SM-GW (Internet Protocol-Short Message-Gateway) defined in the 3GPP TS 23.204 is provided to user equipment and used to address an SIP request that contains encapsulated SMS content. The address is stored at the mobile station at a storage element, such as at a SIM card, UICC, or management object. A SIP request generator accesses the storage element and uses the address as the address of the SIP request. The SIP request also includes SMS content, in encapsulation, therein.
US09125020B2
A method of coordinating a plurality of road vehicles includes obtaining information related to a first vehicle that is relevant to a road trip with which the first vehicle and at least a second vehicle are involved, uploading the information to a server wirelessly, and downloading the information from the server wirelessly to at least one of the first vehicle and the second vehicle.
US09125019B1
Electronic arrangement for positioning a mobile device, including a mapping entity configured to obtain positioning data, from a plurality of measuring mobile devices present in an area of interest, establish and maintain, based on the obtained data, a multi-level probability map model structure for the area, wherein each higher level covers the area with lower spatial resolution by a plurality of determine sub-areas, each having a unitary character, and each lower level correspondingly covers, for each the sub-area of the adjacent upper level, a plurality of determined sub-areas thereof with higher spatial resolution, the lowest level determining the highest spatial resolution location elements of the model, optionally coordinates, a locating entity configured to obtain data provided by the mobile device, determine an estimate of the position of the mobile device by traversing through at least a portion of a number of vertical candidate paths of the multi-level probability model structure.
US09125017B2
A method of controlling a mobile terminal. The method includes entering a schedule creation mode; displaying, via a display of the mobile terminal, an add option for adding a location based alarm based on the entered schedule creation mode and a list of contacts included in a contact list associated with the mobile terminal; receiving a selection signal indicting a selection of one of the displayed list of contacts; inputting the selected contact as a participant, a reminder name and a physical location that the location based alarm is to be output when at least one of the participant and the mobile terminal is within a near predetermined distance from the physical location; and when the selected contact is not registered to a Location Based Service (LBS), transmitting an invitation message recommending a subscription to the LBS to the participant.
US09125011B1
In a wireless communication network, wireless communication devices receive user instructions indicating geographic control of associated user data sets. The wireless communication devices translate the user instructions into geo-control tags for the associated user data sets and include the geo-control tags in the associated user data sets. The wireless communication devices exchange wireless signals transporting the user data sets and their geo-control tags with wireless access points. The wireless access points individually control wireless egress of the user data sets based on their geo-control tags.
US09125008B2
A method and system for providing information about mobile communication devices with respect to an area of interest is disclosed. A first person associated with the mobile communication device located in the area of interest is identified, wherein the identifying occurs at a location and messaging center. A contact person associated with the first person is identified. Information is provided to the contact person that the mobile communication device associated with the first person is located in the area of interest.
US09125005B2
The application provides a method, apparatus and computer program product to enable the provision of mobile services outside the typical coverage area of a cell. Moreover, some embodiments of the application may enable the provision of burst radio link communications over long distances between transmission and reception devices (e.g., access points) having devices within their respective coverage areas in order to enable the devices to provide data or content from one device to another. Furthermore, in some embodiments, the access points may be enabled to communicate with the devices within their respective coverage areas via short range communication techniques and aspects of cognitive radio may be employed.
US09125004B2
The sharing of content from one mobile station with a group of mobile stations using near-field communication (NFC) may be initiated, for example, by the one mobile station establishing a NFC link with another mobile station. The one mobile station verifies that the linked mobile station is part of the group, and transmits information regarding the content to be shared to the linked mobile station using NFC. The one mobile station uploads the content to a server using the mobile communication network, such that the content can be retrieved from the server via the mobile communication network by all other mobile stations in the group. The one mobile station or the server can send a notification to the other mobile stations in the group including information for retrieving the uploaded content.
US09125001B2
The present invention relates to an individualized short-range radio communication method applicable to communications which can include applications or programs and multimedia information, between: a central device (1, 101) suitable for detecting radio-frequency signals of different technologies and protocols, and for setting up bidirectional short-range radio communications using said technologies and protocols, surrounding devices (2, 102), suitable for bidirectionally communicating by means of a short-range technology and a protocol comprising: a.1) polling by means of the central device (1, 101) a surrounding area thereof, using a detection module dedicated for each technology and protocol, a.2) detecting and acquiring through the pick-up of at least one radio-frequency signal emitted by said surrounding devices (2, 102) a unique identifier of said surrounding devices (2, 102) and a.3) setting up by means of the central device (1, 101) an individualized communication with said detected surrounding devices (2, 102) using a compatible technology and protocol.
US09125000B2
Described herein are techniques related to managing mobile applications (“apps”) of a mobile device based, at least in part, upon the determined location of the device. The techniques described herein are especially suited for situations where the present location differs from the locations associated with particular apps that are already installed on the mobile device. This Abstract is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.
US09124996B2
Method and, apparatus for implementing the method, the method comprising determining control signal data for an array of loudspeakers, the control signal data being such as to control the loudspeakers to produce a desired sound field associated with an audio signal, the method comprises determining control signal data for different frequency components of the desired sound field in respect of respective different positions in a listening volume of the loudspeaker array, wherein determination of the control signal data comprises sampling the desired sound field at the surface of a control volume (V).
US09124991B2
The present application discloses a hearing prosthesis configured to alert a user of the presence of sound while operating in a sound awareness mode of operation. When a user of the hearing aid removes the external sound processor and microphone, traditionally, a hearing prosthesis does not produce any audio stimulus. Here, the systems and methods will alert a user to sounds in his or her environment when the external sound processor and microphone are decoupled from the internal components of the hearing prosthesis. In some embodiments, the hearing prosthesis may have an acoustic receiver that is implanted in the recipient. The implanted acoustic detector may be used to detect an aspect of a sound above a threshold level. The threshold may be chosen so the detected sound is a loud sound such as a fire alarm.
US09124986B2
A listening device includes a) an input transducer; and b) an output transducer for converting a processed electric signal to an output sound; a forward signal path being defined there between and comprising c) a signal processing unit for processing an electric input signal or a signal derived therefrom and providing a processed output signal; d) a manually operable user interface located on the listening device allowing a user to control a function of the listening device; e) a feedback estimation system for estimating a feedback path from the output transducer to the input transducer, the feedback estimation system comprising e1) an adaptive filter having e11) a variable filter part and e12) an algorithm part comprising an adaptive algorithm.
US09124985B2
A hearing aid for automatically controlling directivity is provided. The automatic directivity controlling hearing aid controls an amplification factor and delay time for each of a plurality of acoustic signals that are generated from a plurality of microphones, to thus automatically enhance directivity so that a speech sound can be strongly heard among ambient sounds that are generated in the vicinity. Therefore, even any directional voices may be heard as accurate voices by enlarging intensity of a speech sound in contrast to ambient noise.
US09124984B2
A hearing aid, signal processing method and program enables TV sound to be made easier for a hearing aid user to hear when wishing to watch TV, and a person's voice to be made easier to hear when wishing to converse with that person. The hearing aid includes another-person's speech detection section that detects speech of a speaker other than the wearer using detected sound source direction information, an own-speech detection result, and a TV sound detection result, and a per-sound-source frequency calculation section that calculates the frequency of each sound source using an own-speech detection result, TV sound detection result, other-speaker's speech detection result, and sound source direction information. A scene determination section determines a scene using sound source direction information and a per-sound-source frequency; and an output sound control section controls hearing of the hearing aid according to a determined scene.
US09124983B2
A hearing assistance system streams audio signals from one or more streaming sources to a hearing aid set and enhances the audio signals such that the output sounds transmitted to the hearing aid wearer include a spatialization effect allowing for localization of each of the one more streaming sources. The system determines the position of the hearing aid set relative to each streaming source in real time and introduces the spatialization effect for that streaming source dynamically based on the determined position, such that the hearing aid wearer can experience a natural feeing of the acoustic environment.
US09124978B2
A speaker array apparatus for outputting sound beams of a plurality of channels based on audio signals of the plurality of channels, includes a directivity control section that controls a directivity of at least one of the sound beams of the channels so as to generate one or more pairs of the sound beams of the channels having roughly the same directivity, and a frequency characteristic applying section that applies a frequency characteristic to the audio signal corresponding to one of the sound beams of the channels in the one or more pairs to change a sound image localization position of the one of the sound beams of the channels in the one or more pairs.
US09124977B2
An apparatus configured to acoustically process an acoustic signal for a transducer, and to provide a physical interface for a further apparatus within which the apparatus is located.
US09124975B2
A headset device (1) comprising an attachment device (2) for attaching the headset device (1) to the head (3) of a user. The headset device (1) also comprises an audio device (4, 6) for transducing audio to an electrical signal or vice versa and adjustment means (7, 8) for adjusting the mutual positions and/or orientations of the attachment device (2) and the audio device to (4, 6) to a user-specific position, in which the headset device (1) is adjusted to the geometry of the users head (3). The adjustment means (7, 8) comprises selecting means (9; 10; 20; 41) for storing a first user-specific position, whereby a user quickly can readjust the headset device (1) from a non-user-specific position or other user-specific position to the first user-specific position.
US09124972B2
The present invention guides a talker into a narrow sensitivity region by providing a light that is only visible when the talker's eyes are just above the sensitivity region of a microphone. When the talker keeps the light within his sight while speaking, there is no wavering problem. If the talker cannot see the light, then he is outside the sensitivity region and is alerted to a potential wavering problem by not seeing the light. In this way, the present invention takes advantage of the fact that the talker's eyes are located in close proximity to his mouth. In addition, high frequencies emanating from the mouth are highly directional and applications with speech input, such as speech recognition, function better when these high frequencies are available for analysis.
US09124971B2
An audio signal processing circuit includes an encoding circuit, a first audio conversion circuit, and a second audio conversion circuit. The encoding circuit receives pulse coded modulation signals and generates a first audio signal and a second audio signal accordingly. The first audio conversion circuit generates a first pulse width modulation (PWM) signal according to consecutive values of the first audio signal for configuring a first power stage circuit. The second audio conversion circuit generates a second PWM signal according to consecutive values of the second audio signal for configuring a second power stage circuit. The pulse width of the first PWM signal is configured to be substantially equal to the pulse width of the second PWM signal, and the pulse edges of the first PWM signal and the second PWM signal are configured to be separated by a predetermined time interval to mute the audio signal processing circuit.
US09124964B2
An air motion transformer loudspeaker driver including a plurality of diaphragm layers having electric conductors. Each of the diaphragm layers defines a surface having at least one curved portion. The curved portions have an axis of curvature being perpendicular to the surface of the diaphragm layer at the location of the curved diaphragm portions.
US09124958B2
Various architectures for implementing multi-band reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexing with converged signal addition and removal are provided. Under the described architectures, channel isolation is improved, performance requirements for switching elements are lower, and it may be possible to reduce the number of line side switching elements by a factor of two. The use of additional spectrum per fiber with the described architectures results in fewer required ports per switching element. The degree of contention at signal addition and removal is also reduced. Moreover, the architectures support optical networks with higher capacities per fiber and therefore conserve fiber assets. The architectures are modular in nature, allowing a network to be deployed in a single-band setting and later upgraded to support multiple bands.
US09124943B2
A system for monitoring order fulfillment of telecommunication services is disclosed. An apparatus that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a monitoring system having a controller element that submits a correlation ID to a service orchestration system (SOS) that manages one or more order fulfillment systems (OFSs) that collectively fulfill a select one of a plurality of telecommunication service orders according to a plurality of intermediate fulfillment steps, receives from the SOS information associated with the plurality of intermediate fulfillment steps tagged with the correlation ID, records said information according to the correlation ID, and collects correlated fulfillment activity for the plurality of telecommunication service orders from a plurality of iterations of the foregoing steps. Additional embodiments are disclosed.
US09124930B2
The invention disclosed herein is an in-circuit security system for electronic devices. The in-circuit security system incorporates identity credential verification, secure data and instruction storage, and secure data transmission capabilities. It comprises a single semiconductor chip, and is secured using industry-established mechanisms for preventing information tampering or eavesdropping, such as the addition of oxygen reactive layers. This invention also incorporates means for establishing security settings, profiles, and responses for the in-circuit security system and enrolled individuals. The in-circuit security system can be used in a variety of electronic devices, including handheld computers, secure facility keys, vehicle operation/ignition systems, and digital rights management.
US09124917B2
A remote controller apparatus for controlling a broadcast receiving apparatus is provided, in which the remote controller apparatus includes a storage unit, a user interface unit which sequentially receives at least one control instruction relating to controlling the broadcast receiving apparatus, an interface unit which transmits the at least one control instruction received via the user interface unit to the broadcast receiving apparatus, and which receives status information relating to the broadcast receiving apparatus based on the at least one control instruction, and a control unit causes the status information to be stored by the storage unit, and if the instruction relating to setting macro functionality is received via the user interface unit, generates a macro instruction relating to controlling the broadcast receiving apparatus based on the status information and causes the generated macro instruction to be stored by the storage unit.
US09124909B1
Systems and methods are provided for adding or extracting metadata for video streams. The system receives a video stream compressed according to a video encoding standard, and generates a packet for transmission across a packet-switched network. The system inserts at least one compressed segment of the video stream into a payload of the packet. The system also receives metadata that describes content within the video stream and is not compressed according to the standard, inserts the metadata into the packet without compressing the metadata according to the standard, and transmits the packet across the packet-switched network to a target device.
US09124908B2
A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may perform operations including, for example, receiving a plurality of user-generated comments associated with media content where the plurality of user-generated comments are temporally associated with a portion of the media content during a presentation of the media content at a group of communication devices, and identifying from the plurality of user-generated comments a cluster of comments associated with a segment of the media content based on a frequency of the user-generated comments. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09124907B2
A method for buffering media data in a buffer where the media data is included in data transmission units which have been ordered in a transmission order which is at least partly different from a decoding order of the media data in the data transmission units. The decoding order is indicated with a quantitative indicator for at least part of the transmission units. In the method a parameter is defined for a relation of the quantitative indicators of transmission units. The relation of transmission units in the buffer is checked against the parameter. The result of the checking is indicative of at least one transmission unit in the buffer preceding, in decoding order, any transmission unit in a sequence of transmission units not having been buffered in the buffer before the checking.
US09124906B2
There is presented a system and method for simplifying discovery of content availability for a consumer. The system comprises a content availability database storing content records accessible through a server, and an aggregator configured to update the content records. The system also comprises a content discovery application configured to display an information pane corresponding to one of the content records according to a data related to the consumer, the information pane including one or more selectable display features indicating the distribution status of a content unit corresponding to the content record. The content discovery application is further configured to receive an input from the consumer selecting one of the selectable display features indicating distribution status and to identify at least one provider of the content unit according to the selected distribution status.
US09124896B2
A motion vector coding unit executes processing including a neighboring block specification step of specifying a neighboring block which is located in the neighborhood of a current block; a judgment step of judging whether or not the neighboring block has been coded using a motion vector of another block; a prediction step of deriving a predictive motion vector of the current block using a motion vector calculated from the motion vector of the other block as a motion vector of the neighboring block; and a coding step of coding the motion vector of the current block using the predictive motion vector.
US09124895B2
A video encoder generates a Network Abstraction Layer (NAL) unit that contains a plurality of encoded picture partitions of the video data. The video encoder generates a bitstream that includes a variable-length value that represents an entropy-encoded first syntax element, a variable-length value that represents an entropy-encoded second syntax element, and fixed-length values that represent offset syntax elements. Lengths of each of the offset syntax elements are determinable based on the first syntax element. A video decoder uses the first syntax element, the second syntax element, and the offset syntax elements when decoding the encoded picture partitions.
US09124889B2
A decoder adapted to generate an intermediate decoded version of a video frame from an encoded version of the video frame, determine either an amount of high frequency basis functions or coefficients below a quantization threshold for at least one block of the video frame, and generate a final decoded version of the video frame based at least in part on the intermediate decoded version of the video frame and the determined amount(s) for the one or more blocks of the video frame, is disclosed. In various embodiments, the decoder may be incorporated as a part of a video system.
US09124888B2
Adjacent regions are identified in an image. Coding parameters for the adjacent regions are identified. Selective filtering is performed at the region between the identified adjacent regions.
US09124887B2
Region-based encoding apparatus and decoding apparatus. The encoding apparatus selects an optimum region division mode from region division modes with respect to regions divided from an image frame, and transmits, to the decoding apparatus, an optimum image filtering method and an optimum filter coefficient of regions divided, according to the optimum region division mode.
US09124881B2
The present invention relates to an image-capturing apparatus and methods, a recording medium, a program and a display device that allows for the displaying of enhanced integral images. In particular, the present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and methods, a recording medium, a program and a display device and a display method which provide images of an object having enhanced three-dimensional resolution while allowing various viewpoints of the images.
US09124869B2
A method for video denoising, the method includes extracting a current pixel from a current video frame and n−1 pixels from respective n−1 previous video frames to form an n-point pixel data set, wherein the current pixel has an initial value; temporally filtering the current pixel using the n-point pixel data set to generate a temporal estimated true value for the pixel; estimating a quantity of outliers in the n-point pixel data set; if the quantity of outliers is greater than or equal to a threshold, spatially filtering the current pixel using neighboring pixels in the current video frame to generate an spatial estimated true value for the pixel, and using the spatial estimated true value for the pixel as a final estimated value for the pixel; if the quantity of outliers is less than the threshold, using the temporal estimated true value for the pixel as the final estimated value for the pixel.
US09124864B2
Systems and methods for calibrating an array camera are disclosed. Systems and methods for calibrating an array camera in accordance with embodiments of this invention include the capturing of an image of a test pattern with the array camera such that each imaging component in the array camera captures an image of the test pattern. The image of the test pattern captured by a reference imaging component is then used to derive calibration information for the reference component. A corrected image of the test pattern for the reference component is then generated from the calibration information and the image of the test pattern captured by the reference imaging component. The corrected image is then used with the images captured by each of the associate imaging components associated with the reference component to generate calibration information for the associate imaging components.
US09124862B2
A moving picture coding method for coding a picture with switching between frame coding and field coding adaptively on a block-by-block basis includes: determining the maximum number of reference indices for field coding for specifying fields which are to be referred to at the time of field coding, using the maximum number of reference indices for frame coding for specifying frames which are to be referred to at the time of frame coding; and assigning to fields the reference indices for field coding for specifying fields which are to be referred to at the time of field coding, within a range of the determined maximum number thereof, using the reference indices for frame coding for specifying frames which are to be referred to at the time of frame coding.
US09124848B2
A digital cable broadcast receiver and a method for automatically processing caption data of various standards and types, is disclosed. The digital broadcast receiver includes: a demultiplexer for dividing a received broadcast stream into video data, audio data, supplementary information; a controller for determining whether caption data included in the video data is digital caption data or analog caption data on the basis of caption information included in the supplementary information, and outputting a control signal according to a result of the determining; a digital caption decoder for extracting and decoding digital caption data from the video data according to the control signal; and an analog caption decoder for extracting and decoding analog caption data from the video data according to the control signal.
US09124841B2
Methods and systems receive an input image into a computerized device, create different binary images by applying different threshold measures to the input image using the computerized device, and identify components of a first binary image of the binary images using the computerized device. Such methods and systems also compare pixels of each of the components of the first binary image with corresponding pixels of a second binary image of the binary images to identify pixel differences using the computerized device. This allows these methods and systems to identify halftone areas within the input image based on the pixel differences exceeding a limit using the computerized device.
US09124837B2
A solid-state image pickup device including a plurality of pixels and a scanning unit. Each pixel includes a photoelectric conversion element and a charge accumulation region. The scanning unit is configured to read a first signal from a charge accumulation region. The scanning unit is configured to read a second signal from the charge accumulation region. The first signal corresponds to an accumulation of signal charges during a first period, while the second signal corresponds to another accumulation of signal charges during a second period.
US09124834B2
A solid-state image sensing device according to the invention which can reduce an instantaneous current occurring in transferring image digital signals from analog-digital converters to registers to reduce noise sneaking into the analog-digital converters and a pixel array includes a pixel array, a vertical scanning circuit, a plurality of column ADCs, a plurality of registers, and control signal generation units. The control signal generation units are provided for respective groups into which the column ADCs and the registers disposed on one side of the pixel array are divided, and generate control signals of different timings, for respective units including at least one group, of transfer of converted image digital signals to the registers from the column ADCs operating in parallel.
US09124830B2
The present invention provides a photoelectric conversion apparatus capable of preventing dark current noise due to a leakage current of a transistor and improving the signal-to-noise ratio. A photoelectric conversion apparatus includes a pixel which in turn includes a photoelectric conversion element adapted to convert light into an electric charge, buffers whose input terminals are connected to an output terminal of the photoelectric conversion element and which buffer a voltage corresponding to the electric charge of the photoelectric conversion element, a capacitor whose first electrode is connected to an output terminal of the photoelectric conversion element, a first switch connected between a second electrode of the capacitor and output terminals of the buffers, and a second switch connected between the second electrode of the capacitor and a fixed voltage node.
US09124817B2
A projector includes a shift unit configured to move a projection position of an image, a black adjustment unit configured to make luminance of black in a non-overlapping region, in which an image projected by the projector and an image projected by another projector do not overlap on the projection surface, higher than that in an overlapping region, in which the image projected by the projector and the image projected by the other projector overlap on the projection surface, in such a way as to uniform the luminance of black between the non-overlapping region and the overlapping region, and a control unit configured to move a boundary position in the image between a region where the luminance is adjusted by the black adjustment unit and a region where the luminance is not adjusted, by an amount where the projection position is moved by the shift unit.
US09124814B2
A support for image processing is provided, comprising: (a) detecting respective face regions from images consecutively photographed for a first person at predetermined time intervals by an image pickup unit to display images of the face regions detected in relation to the first person in a first region of a screen, and providing a user interface for indicating that a specific face image is selected from the face images of the first person displayed in the first region; (b) additionally displaying the specific face image through a second region adjacent to the first region; and (c) displaying a synthesized image using the specific face image as a representative face of the first person, when the specific face image displayed through the second region is selected.
US09124812B2
Disclosed herein is an object image capture apparatus. The object image capture apparatus includes a first camera unit, a second camera unit, and a control unit. The first camera unit obtains a wide-area view image by capturing a wide-area view region. The second camera unit obtains a close-up view image by capturing the close-up view region of the wide-area view region. The control unit controls the second camera unit by dividing the wide-area view image into a plurality of blocks, analyzing the resulting blocks, and defining a target block, in which a moving object is detected, as a close-up view region from among the plurality of blocks.
US09124811B2
An apparatus and method for processing an image by a wide dynamic range (WDR) process, and for obtaining an image having a wide dynamic area by using a WDR process. The method includes: receiving a long exposure image and a short exposure image having different exposure times; detecting a motion artifact area that may be occur when the long exposure image and the short exposure image are fused; generating a non-linear gain control short exposure image by non-linearly adjusting a gain of the short exposure image such that a luminance component of the short exposure image corresponds to a luminance component of the long exposure image; compensating for motion in the non-linear gain control exposure image based on the detected motion artifact area; and fusing the non-linear gain control short exposure image and the long exposure image to output an image to which a WDR process is performed.
US09124809B2
There is provided an image processing apparatus including an HDR (High Dynamic Range) processing unit inputting images picked up while exposure control that changes an exposure time is being carried out with a predetermined spatial period and a predetermined temporal period on pixels that compose an image sensor, and carrying out image processing. The HDR processing unit generates a first combined image by combining pixel values of a plurality of images with different sensitivities generated by an interpolation process using a plurality of consecutively picked-up images, generates a second combined image by combining pixel values of a plurality of images with different sensitivities generated by an interpolation process that uses a single picked-up image, and generates an HDR image by executing a pixel value blending process on the first combined image and the second combined image in accordance with a blending ratio calculated in accordance with movement detection information.
US09124804B2
A computing device, such as a mobile device, can capture pictures or video images using a digital camera and obtain associated orientation information using an accelerometer. The orientation information can be used to adjust one or more of the captured pictures or video images to compensate for rotation in one or more planes of rotation. The orientation information can be saved along with the captured pictures or video images. The orientation information can also be transmitted or streamed along with the captured pictures or video images. Image matching operations can be performed using pictures or video images that have been adjusted using orientation information.
US09124801B2
A system and method for generating an image includes a plurality of imaging units coupled together and a system controller coupled to the plurality of imaging units for providing at least one signal to each of the plurality of imaging units. Each of the imaging units comprises: an image sensing unit for generating an in-situ image, each in-situ image being a portion of the image; an input for receiving the in-situ image; a composition unit for receiving a first composite image and producing a second composite image, the second composite image being a combination of the first composite image and the in-situ image; and an output at which the second composite image is provided.
US09124800B2
The present invention discloses a mobile device, where the mobile device includes an image sensing unit, a touch screen, and a processor. The image sensing unit is configured to receive at least an image of a scene comprising at least an object. The touch screen is configured to display at least an image of a scene and received at least one user input. The processor is configured to identify the object in response to a first user input corresponding to the object is received, determine characteristics of the object, track the object in the scene according to the characteristics of the object, and capture a number of images of the scene according to a motion state of the object. The motion state is determined according to variance of the characteristics of the object in consecutive images received by the image sensing unit.
US09124798B2
The present disclosure is directed towards methods and systems for acquiring biometric information of an individual. The apparatus may include a light source directing visible light towards an eye. The light source may direct the visible light at an angle of at least 30 degrees from a line of sight of the eye. The visible light may penetrate a surface of the iris, illuminating substantially the whole iris for biometric acquisition. The visible light may have an intensity level above that which causes discomfort to the eye if the visible light reaches a light-sensitive part of the eye's retina. A sensor may acquire iris biometric data from the illuminated iris.
US09124797B2
The described implementations relate to enhancing images. One system includes a lens configured to focus an image on an image sensor. The image sensor is configured to capture the image. The model of the lens can be known to the system. The system can also include an image enhancement component configured to receive the captured image and to utilize a simulated blur kernel of the known model to produce an enhanced image.
US09124794B2
The present disclosure relates to a method and an apparatus for capturing an image in a portable terminal. Upon receiving an image for preview and an image for capture simultaneously by a camera module, the controller simultaneously outputs the image for the preview and the image for the capture to a main controller during a simultaneous output mode. The received image for the preview is displayed and stored for a predetermined time period for a subsequent retrieval, so that when a capture key is pressed to capture a target object, the stored image corresponding to a time point at which the capture key is activated is retrieved and stored.
US09124792B2
An apparatus for use with an electronic device having a microphone and a camera. The apparatus comprises a structure configured to detachably couple to the device, and a shutter supported by the structure and comprising a lens shutter configured to obscure a lens of the camera when in an engaged position. A generator is supported by the structure and configured to generate a force that acts on the microphone and renders the microphone unresponsive to voice sounds.
US09124791B2
An image sensor module has a filler of a low refractive index and thus prevents deterioration of image quality due to a flare and a ghost image. The image sensor module includes an image sensor, a housing covering the image sensor, a filter coupled to the housing and disposed on the image sensor, and a filler filled in between the image sensor and the filter inside the housing and having a refractive index that is less than a refractive index of the filter.
US09124787B2
An electronic apparatus includes a first exterior member having a first protruding portion, a second exterior member having a second protruding portion, a first fixed member fixed to the first exterior member and having a first abutment portion abutable to the first protruding portion, and a second fixed member fixed to the second exterior member and having a second abutment portion abutable to the second protruding portion. The first fixed member is fixed to the first exterior member, with the first abutment portion abutting against the first protruding portion. The second fixed member is fixed to the second exterior member, with the second abutment portion abutting on the second protruding portion. The first exterior member and the second exterior member are fastened with each other by engaging a first engagement portion on the first fixed member and a second engagement portion on the second fixed member.
US09124784B2
A system for decreasing output power required to produce an output signal based on persistence of perception characteristics. The system includes a circuit configured to receive a perception signal at an input. The circuit is also configured to output a portion of the input perception signal when the circuit is receiving power output a zero amplitude signal when the circuit is not receiving power. The system also includes a switch configured to provide power to the circuit for a first interval of time and cut power to the circuit for a second interval of time contiguous to the first interval of time.
US09124783B2
A method and system are provided for automated labeling at scale of motion-detected events in video surveillance imagery that may be private to and viewable only by the owner of that imagery. Further provided are processing, organization, and archival aspects related to such automated labeling at scale.
US09124780B2
Marking material is dispensed onto a target surface using a marking device, and one or more images are captured by one or more camera systems attached to the marking device. The image(s) is/are analyzed to determine tracking information indicative of the a motion or an orientation of the marking device. The tracking information is analyzed to determine marking information relating to the dispensed marking material. In one example, the image(s) is/are analyzed to obtain an optical flow plot indicative of a path on the target surface traversed by the marking device. One or more reference plots respectively representing a plurality of reference marking patterns are compared to one or more portions of the optical flow plot to identify at least one reference marking pattern that substantially matches the portion(s) of the optical flow plot.
US09124774B2
A method used in a service providing device for delivering interactive multimedia content to a plurality of client devices, comprising: receiving a request for the interactive multimedia content, from at least one of the plurality of client devices; disabling the plurality of client devices from sending the request to the service providing device, according to a predetermined condition; and delivering the interactive multimedia content to the plurality of client devices.
US09124771B2
A security method for H.264 video streams and the like is provided that comprises: coding video data with incorrect or missing bytes, whereby the coded video is corrupted or distorted; generating replacement data that corrects the coded video during decoding; and distributing the replacement data to users.
US09124769B2
Example methods and apparatus to verify presentation of media content are disclosed. A disclosed example apparatus for use with a set-top box (STB) and a media presentation device includes an audio input interface to receive a first audio signal associated with a program selected by a user via the STB, a microphone to receive a free-field radiating second audio signal output by at least one of the media presentation device or an audio system associated with the media presentation device, a comparator to compare the second audio signal to the first audio signal to form an output, and an output interface to provide a value indicative of whether the program selected by the user via the STB is presented at the media presentation device.
US09124761B2
When a material sharing mode using a projector at a first point and the projector at a second point is active, the projector at the first point causes a projection unit to project a video image from a first personal computer onto a projection screen, causes an image taking unit to take an image of the projected video image on the projection screen, causes a control unit of the projector or the first personal computer to compare the taken video image with a supply video image supplied from the first personal computer to the projector, and supplies a difference video image generated based on the comparison to the projector at the second point so as to be superimposed on the supply video image.
US09124759B2
A reproduction apparatus includes a reproduction unit configured to reproduce a moving image signal from a recording medium, a reception unit configured to receive an instruction for switching between a normal reproduction mode and a highlight reproduction mode for reproducing a plurality of highlight reproduction periods in the moving image signal recorded in the recording medium, and a control unit configured to determine a reproduction start position of the moving image signal in response to the reception of the instruction for switching to the normal reproduction mode during reproduction of the moving image signal in the highlight reproduction mode, and control the reproduction unit to reproduce the moving image signal in the normal reproduction mode from the determined reproduction start position. The control unit determines a head position for the highlight reproduction period which includes a reproduction position of the moving image signal when the switching to the normal reproduction mode is instructed, as the reproduction start position.
US09124758B2
A videophone system includes a processor which selectively sets a television (TV) broadcast program viewing function mode and videophone function mode in response to manual operation of a remote control, a decoder which performs, in the TV program view mode, a TV program-use decode function for decoding a broadcast program signal received from a TV tuner to thereby display it on a display screen while producing audio sounds by loudspeakers and which performs, in the videophone function mode a videophone-use decode function for decoding a videophone signal received from a distant party to thereby display on the screen an image of the distant party using the screen and speakers, and an encoder which performs a videophone-use encode function for encoding a video signal from a camera and a voice signal from a microphone to generate a videophone signal, which is sent to the distant party via a network.
US09124757B2
A new approach is proposed that contemplates systems and methods to support error resilient coding of H.264 compatible video streams for low latency/delay multimedia communication applications by utilizing and integrating a plurality of error resilient H.264 encoding/decoding schemes in an efficient manner. These error resilient H.264 encoding/decoding schemes can be used to offer a better quality video even when there is network loss of picture frames in the video stream. It has the ability to recover from such loss and recover faster than other techniques without requiring additional data/frames to be sent over the network to achieve the same level of recovery.
US09124749B2
In accordance with one embodiment, an image forming apparatus comprises an interface, a storage section configured to store identification information, and a control section. The interface is configured to carry out data transmission/reception with an external device. The control section is configured to control the interface, generate the identification information, store the identification information in the storage section, and send the identification information to the external device. In addition, when the identification information which is stored in the storage section exists in information received from the interface, the control section carries out an image forming operation, and does not carry out the image forming operation when the identification information does not exist.
US09124747B2
An image reading device includes: a sensor unit; a first reading part at which the sensor unit reads a document through a first transparent member; a second reading part at which the sensor unit reads a document through a second transparent member different from the first transparent member; and a color reference, wherein measurement of the color reference is able to be performed through the first transparent member by the sensor unit for calibration for reading at the first reading part, and measurement of the color reference is able to be performed through the second transparent member by the sensor unit for calibration for reading at the second reading part.
US09124744B1
An image reading apparatus comprises an automatic document feeding section automatically feeding a document to a specific automatic document reading position; an automatically fed document detection section detecting whether or not there is a document in the automatic document feeding section; a fixed document detection section detecting whether or not there is a fixed document placed on an original table glass; a drive section driving the carriage in the vertical scanning section; and a carriage movement control section moving the carriage in advance from the initial standby position of the carriage to a movement starting end position across the initial standby position facing an automatically fed document reading position where an automatically fed document is read or a fixed document reading starting position where the reading of a fixed document is started if the automatically fed document detection section or the fixed document detection section detects a document.
US09124742B2
Provided is a structure capable of preventing shaking of an image reading unit (1) during movement at low cost. A first contact portion (T1) between the image reading unit (1) and a guide shaft (2A) supports force (F1) acting in a gravity direction and force (F2) acting in a horizontal direction in the case where the image reading unit (1) moves in a predetermined direction. In this case, the first contact portion is arranged so as to satisfy F1>F2×tan θ1, where θ1 represents an angle formed by a perpendicular line (γ) with respect to a tangential plane (β) of the guide shaft (2A) and the horizontal direction. Thus, the image reading unit (1) can be prevented from being lifted due to rotation moment during movement.
US09124740B2
An information processing apparatus includes a display unit displaying a screen which accepts a touch operation on the information processing apparatus, a touch operation unit accepting the touch operation, a touch event issuance unit issuing one or more touch events respectively corresponding to one or more touch operations on the touch operation unit, and a gesture control unit capable of performing each of a mode for performing corresponding processing based on the one or more touch events issued by the touch event issuance unit, and a reproduction mode for reproducing the touch event stored beforehand. The gesture control unit is configured to add an operation image indicating the touch operation corresponding to the stored touch event, to a region associated with the touch event in the reproduction mode, and to cause the display unit to display the operation image.
US09124736B2
A portable hand-held device is provided having a network interface for sharing images between the device and a network, an image display for displaying the shared images, an orientation sensor for sensing an orientation of the device, and a processor for processing the displayed images based on the sensed device orientation and outputting the processed images to the image display.
US09124735B2
A camera system including: a substrate having a coding pattern printed thereon anda handheld digital camera device. The camera device includes: a digital camera unit having a first image sensor for capturing images and a color display for displaying captured images to a user; and an integral processor configured for: controlling operation of the first image sensor and color display; decoding an imaged coding pattern printed on a substrate; and performing an action in the handheld digital camera device based on the decoded coding pattern. The decoding includes the steps of: identifying a data block in the imaged coding pattern; decoding a control block to determine the size of data to be extracted from a data area; and decoding the coding pattern contained in ae data area of the data block.
US09124731B2
A PC registers in advance PC-assistant copying functions which can be provided by the printer driver for a MFP. The MFP presents, to the user, copying functions including the registered functions. Upon reception of a copy instruction, the MFP determines whether selected functions include a PC-assisted copying function. If the selected functions include a PC-assisted copying function, the MFP transmits, to the PC, scanned image data and a job ticket containing information representing the selected functions. Upon reception of the job ticket, the PC generates a print job for printing the image data on the basis of the job ticket, and transmits the print job to the MFP.
US09124728B2
A device is provided that includes a recording medium with embedded communication functionality, a communication controller, a communication status verifier, a communication period calculator, and a verification interval setter. The recording medium stores data. The communication controller transmits the data to an external system via the recording medium. The communication status verifier obtains the communication status of the recording medium at a predetermined interval. The communication period calculator estimates a communication period required by the communication controller when transmitting the data to the external system. The verification interval setter relatively increases the frequency of the communication status verification, which is performed by the communication status verifier, from a predetermined time before or a predetermined time after the end of the estimated communication period until the obtained communication status indicates completion of the data transmission.
US09124720B2
A non-intrusive cellular phone app eliminates a need for the driver to respond to a received text message while driving. The app does not interfere with the normal functioning of the cellular phone. The app sends an immediate response text message to a sender of a received text message that the owner of the cellular phone is driving and can't text. The app notifies the driver of the identity of the sender only by any of a variety of means, most of which do not require the attention or the action of the driver. Action by the driver may be taken later under safe conditions using the normal functioning of the cellular phone.
US09124716B1
An IP text relay is described herein, to facilitate communication through the use of VOIP or internet telephone system between people of hearing impaired and non hearing impaired. This service and device will enable users to communicate with users of hearing via assistance of an operator who will transcribe.
US09124712B2
A data processing system that, in one embodiment, uses smart reminders to allow a user to decline an incoming phone or messaging call and to cause the system to set a smart reminder about the call. In one embodiment, the system can use the system's current state or context (e.g. the system is in a car or is playing a movie) to determine the type of reminder options to present to the user and to determine when to trigger the reminder based on the reminder option that is selected by the user.
US09124709B2
A circuit apparatus for recognizing an earphone in a mobile terminal is provided. The apparatus includes a plurality of devices, a wiring for recognizing the number of poles of the earphone, and a comparator. The plurality of devices are connected between a microphone bias power and a wiring that receives a signal from a microphone of an earphone. The wiring that recognizes the number of poles of the earphone branches from a wiring between at least two of the devices. The comparator compares a voltage of the wiring that recognizes the number of poles with a reference voltage to output a result signal.
US09124705B2
Methods, products, apparatuses, and systems may facilitate a conference operation. The conference operation may include conference chaining, conference switching, conference modification, conference announcement, and so on. A collection of authentication data for a plurality of distinct conferences may be performed to chain the conferences. Switching among the distinct conference may be performed in response to a switch key code. The switch key code may include a general key code applicable to each of the conferences and/or a specific key code application to a specific conference.
US09124694B2
An intelligent IVR system identifies a customer based on previous customer interactions. Customer intent is predicted for an ongoing interaction and personalized services are proactively offered to the customer. A self-optimizing algorithm improves intent prediction, customer identity, and customer willingness to engage and use IVR.
US09124691B2
Tools and techniques for performing life cycle management of user-selected applications on wireless communications devices are described herein. In part, the tools provide machine-readable media for presenting to the subscriber a list of available applications for installation on the device, and for receiving selections from the subscriber of one or more of the applications. Additionally, the tools provide methods for selling advertising space on the devices.
US09124690B2
A data relay device comprises a modem, an adaptor, and a base station. The base station is configured to determine whether an incoming call has a corresponding record among one or more records of the data relay device, obtain media by using the corresponding record, and transmit the media to a customer premise equipment device.
US09124686B2
An embodiment includes using a camera in a mobile phone for detecting position and movement of the eyes of a user relative to a display screen of the phone. This allows, for example, scrolling a page on the display screen based on the movement of the user's eyes.
US09124685B2
In one embodiment, a phone detects the eyes of a user to determine if the user is looking at the phone prior to the phone initiating one or more predetermined actions. This is useful, for example, to prevent unwanted activation of a control on the phone as when a user inadvertently touches a control on the phone while taking the phone out of a pocket. Another embodiment prevents the phone from taking actions that may change the display, such as dimming, hibernating, sleeping, turning off, etc., if it is determined that the user is looking at the display screen.
US09124683B2
A diagnostic engine for remotely analyzing a fault of a telecommunication line includes a first measurement module adapted to be coupled to a termination of the line and adapted to measure first line characteristics according to a Metallic Line Testing measurement technique; a fault detection module to detect, based upon the first line characteristics, a fault on the line and to trigger thereupon a determining module; and a showtime module to be coupled to the termination to determine whether the line is in showtime mode and to inform thereupon the determining module accordingly. The determining module is adapted to trigger, in the event when the line being in showtime mode, activation of a second measurement module. The second measurement module is adapted to be coupled to the termination and to measure second line characteristics according to a Dual Ended Line Testing measurement technique. A combining module is coupled to the first and the second measurement module and adapted to combine the measured first and second line characteristics of the line and to analyze therewith further features of the fault.
US09124675B2
Methods and systems are provided for providing an incoming event notification to a telephony control point in a UPnP home network environment. Information associated with a remote party is fetched by a telephony server, when an incoming event associated with the remote party arrives at the telephony server. An incoming event notification associated with the incoming event is generated. The incoming event notification includes the information associated with the remote party. The incoming event with the incoming event notification is forwarded to at least one telephony control point in the UPnP home network environment. The information associated with the remote party is displayed with the incoming event notification on a display of the at least one telephony control point, when the incoming event arrives at the telephony control point.
US09124672B2
A streaming video server includes a virtual file system that stores playlist data corresponding to a plurality of video programs available from at least one video source and that stores variant playlist data corresponding to each of the plurality of video programs that indicates a single variant for streaming each of the plurality of video programs. The streaming video server receives a request for a selected one of the plurality of video programs from a client device. The selected one of the plurality of video programs is retrieved from the at least one video source in response to the request. A rate generator generates rate data based on the transmission feedback data. A plurality of encoded segments are generated from the selected one of the plurality of video programs, based on rate data.
US09124663B2
A system and method for bandwidth sharing in a distributed wireless client application using inverse multiplexing termination. The system includes: a group of collocated client playback devices having wide area network (WAN) and local area network (LAN) connectivity, and a centralized inverse multiplexing (IMUX) server which optimizes shared bandwidth of both the WAN via inverse multiplexing and the LAN using either broadcast or multicast of all virtual multiplexing paths to all other client playback devices of the group of collocated client playback devices. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09124659B2
A predetermined group of users using one or more computing devices are allowed to join a shared collaboration and communication space associated with the predetermined group of users. The shared collaboration and communication space is associated with the predetermined group of users for a specified time period and for a predetermined operation that the predetermined group of users are authorized to work on. The predetermined group of users are authenticated based on user identities and information identifying the predetermined operation. The shared collaboration and communication space allows for interactive communication among the predetermined group of users.
US09124655B2
Configuration information to configure an information handling system is obtained by sending an identifier for the information handling system to a portable information handling system, such as a mobile telephone, with a first NFC communication. The mobile telephone retrieves the configuration information, such as through a network interface, and sends the configuration information to the information handling system with a second NFC communication. Configuration information includes a variety of information, such as IP and MAC address, BIOS settings, software applications, firmware versions and end user specific settings.
US09124651B2
Embodiments related to controlling media privacy settings are disclosed. One disclosed embodiment provides a media server system including a configured to receive media consumption data for each media content item of a plurality of media content items consumed by a user. Media consumption data for each media content item includes an item-specific privacy status and a media content item identifier. The server is also configured to receive, from one or more of another user and a media content item recommendations program, a request for access to the media consumption data for a media content item, and to provide one or more of the other user and the media content item recommendations program with access to the media consumption data based on the item-specific privacy status of the media consumption data.
US09124645B2
The invention relates to an instantaneous messaging system for mobile terminals comprising one or several instantaneous messaging servers (S1, S2) able to deliver instantaneous messaging services to mobile terminals (TA, TB1, TC1, TD1, TB2, TE2, TF2) connected to said servers and of which the users (A, B1, C1, D1, B2, E2, F2) have opened an instantaneous messaging session, and a virtual presence server (100) independent of the existing instantaneous messaging servers (S1, S2), said virtual presence server being connected to at least one mobile client terminal (TA) and to at least one of the existing messaging servers (S1, S2), wherein said virtual presence server (100) comprises means to automatically manage an instantaneous messaging session in place of said user (A), said means of management being activated when the connection between said mobile client terminal (TA) and said virtual presence server is cut off.The invention also relates to a method to automatically manage a session in a messaging system for mobile terminals.
US09124641B2
A system for securing data and information transmitted via entails is disclosed. The system includes a sender-side device from which an email including a first code is transmitted. The first code comprises instructions for manipulating server-side processing of the email. The system includes a filter module which determines whether the first code is present within the email, and subsequently transmits the email to a processing server in case if the first code is present within the email. The system includes a processing server which processes the email in accordance with the instructions specified in the first code and generates a first link, thereby enabling the email sender to access and modify the access policy for the email. The processing server further authenticates the intended recipient of the email via an OTP before enabling the intended recipient to access the parts of the email.
US09124633B1
Provisioning an Internet Protocol address is disclosed. A request to provision an Internet Protocol address to a virtual resource is received. An Internet Protocol address is automatically determined to allocate to the virtual resource. An Internet Protocol Address Management appliance is used to automatically allocate the determined Internet Protocol address to the virtual resource.
US09124630B1
In one implementation, user identities who are members of a particular user identity's social network are identified. In addition, data is accessed that reveals locations that at least some of the identified other user identities have registered with the platform as locations that they have visited. A view of an aggregation of at least some of the locations where other user identities who are members of the particular user identity's social network have registered that they have visited is made available for display. In another implementation, data is accessed that reveals residence information for user identities who are members of a particular user identity's social network. Thereafter, a view of an aggregation of at least some of the residence information for the other user identities who are members of the particular user identity's social network is made available for display.
US09124629B1
A session identifier is used during negotiation of a secure connection between a client and an endpoint that includes both session information and client identification information. For example, a client connects to a load balancer using transport layer security (TLS). The load balancer may pass client information, such as session information, on to an application server that determines client information to put in a TLS session identifier. The application may send the client information to include in the TLS session identifier back to the load balancer. The load balancer may combine TLS session information for resuming TLS communications and client information for identifying the client into the session identifier. The session identifier may be passed to the client for use in later communication. TLS negotiation between the client and the load balancer may be completed and a secure connection begun. The application may monitor actions performed by the client.
US09124625B1
Interdicting an undesired service is disclosed. For example, a malware service is interdicted. The undesired service is identified. A vulnerability of the undesired service is identified from among a hierarchy of vulnerabilities. The undesired service is interdicted according to the vulnerability. For example, a corresponding action of a vulnerability to interdict the undesired service is performed in the order of the hierarchy until the undesired service is interdicted.
US09124617B2
A method of inhibiting the spread of malware across a network of interconnected computer terminals. The method includes detecting malware or suspicious behavior at a first computer terminal and inspecting the first computer terminal, before and/or after said step of detecting malware or suspicious behavior, to identify contacts forming part of a social network. Identities of the identified contacts are sent to a backend security system, and at the backend security system, said identities are received and instructions sent to one or more second computer terminals associated with respective identities to cause those second computer terminals to implement an increased level of security.
US09124608B2
In a multimedia communication session with multiple media components, one or more media components can be transferred from one access network to another access network and yet maintain the continuity of the overall communication session. Each session is first identified and thereafter the media component intended to be transferred is also identified. The identities of the identified session and component are sent to one or more entities within the communication network for executing the media component transfer.
US09124597B2
During a registration procedure by a User Equipment (UE) via a Proxy Call Session Control Function (P-CSCF) node and a Serving Call Session Control Function (S-CSCF) node, the S-CSCF node provides a policy indicator in a response message to a register request message. The policy indicator enables subsequent operation of the node to be controlled according to whether or not a registered UE has an associated policy. As such, delays (such as delays associated with retrieving an associated policy) are only experienced by UEs that have previously been determined as having such an associated policy, rather than all UEs being affected in the same way.
US09124593B2
The present invention relates to a method for managing an execution of a composite service, the composite service comprising constituent services. The method comprises providing (101) first service complexity measures indicating a complexity related to executing a number of constituent services of the composite service by a first service execution node, providing (103) second service complexity measures indicating a complexity related to executing the number of constituent services of the composite service by a second service execution node, determining (105) a first total complexity measure upon the basis of the first service complexity measures, determining (107) a second total complexity measure upon the basis of second service complexity measures, and selecting (109) either the first service execution node or the second service execution node in dependency of at least one of: the first total complexity measure or the second total complexity measure for executing the number of constituent services of the composite service.
US09124573B2
A system that incorporates the subject disclosure may perform, for example, operations including receiving an encrypted secure token from a secure token application function that is remote from the communication device, storing the encrypted secure token in a secure element memory of the secure element, accessing user input requesting the encrypted secure token where the secure device processor is separate from the secure element and is in communication with the secure element, generating a modified secure token by adding identification information to the encrypted secure token and by performing a second encryption of the encrypted secure token with the identification information, receiving the modified secure token from the secure element, and providing the modified secure token to a receiving device. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09124565B2
An RFID device such as an RFID tag (2) and method comprising: storing a current read key and a current ownership key; receiving, from the RFID reader system (4), a change read key command and an indication that the RFID reader system (4) holds the current ownership key; and in response, replacing the current read key with a new current read key enabling the RFID device (2) to be read by an RFID reader system (4) holding the new current read key. Also, an RFID reader system (4) and method for an RFID reader system (4) to process an RFID device (2), comprising: issuing a take ownership command to an RFID device (2); receiving a new ownership key from the RFID device (2); applying for authorization of the new ownership key; and receiving from the authorization apparatus (6) the new ownership key and an acknowledgement that may be communicated to the tag as evidence of authorization.
US09124563B2
A method to securely and asynchronously provisioning keys from one source secure device to a target secure device through a key provisioning server, in which the keys to be provisioned via the method remain unknown. The method includes the steps of, for the source secure device, encrypting a key to be transferred using a transport key so that only the target secure device can decrypt, and sending the encrypted key to the provisioning server and, for the target secure device, when available, getting the encrypted transferred key, and decrypting the transferred key using the transport key.
US09124561B2
A method is provided for transferring control of a security module from a first entity to a second entity. The security module has a first security domain controlled by the first entity by at least one first secret control key specific to the first entity, and a second security domain, the second domain containing a private key and a certificate of a public key of a controlling authority. The method includes: receiving a request to obtain the certificate; sending the certificate; receiving data encrypted by the public key of the certificate, the data including at least one second secret control key specific to the second entity; decrypting the data; verifying the data; and if the verification is positive, replacing the at least one first secret control key by the at least one second secret control key.
US09124556B2
An approach is provided for providing identity based encryption in distributed computations. An identity based encryption platform causes, at least in part, a segmentation of a computation closure into at least a first part and one or more second parts. The identity based encryption platform also causes, at least in part, an encryption of the one or more second parts using the first part as a public key of an identity-based encryption.
US09124554B2
A service delivery hub controlled by a network operator includes an access controller; a network services gateway in communication with the access controller and in communication with external network elements, a partner management center in communication with the access controller and the network services gateway, the partner management center configured to establish a service level agreement with application service providers or enabler providers; an interface defined by the service level agreement, the interface configured to provide a single point access to the application service developers, to provide a set of programming interfaces to the developers whereas the programming interfaces provide access to the external network elements; and a charging system interface to a charging gateway, wherein the charging system is subject to the service level agreement and wherein the service delivery hub allocates revenue in accordance with the service level agreement.
US09124552B2
Aspects of this disclosure relate to filtering network data transfers. In some variations, multiple packets may be received. A determination may be made that a portion of the packets have packet header field values corresponding to a packet filtering rule. Responsive to such a determination, an operator specified by the packet filtering rule may be applied to the portion of packets having the packet header field values corresponding to the packet filtering rule. A further determination may be made that one or more of the portion of the packets have one or more application header field values corresponding to one or more application header field criteria specified by the operator. Responsive to such a determination, at least one packet transformation function specified by the operator may be applied to the one or more of the portion of the packets.
US09124549B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for requesting handling web applications provided from a server. A bootstrap object is received from the server. The bootstrap object is independent of the requested web application and includes default settings for a plurality of different web applications. An application configuration object is also received from the server. The application configuration object is specific to the requested web application and includes a plurality of plugin handles. The bootstrap object loads the application configuration object, and identifies, based on the plugin handles, a first plugin for the requested web application. The first plugin is requested, and upon receipt the from the server the first plugin is loaded in a user interface. The first plugin exposes an application programming interface (API) of the first plugin to the bootstrap object.
US09124544B2
Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to distribution list management for a collaborative object and provide a method, system and computer program product for detecting exceptions for collaborative object addressing in a collaborative computing environment. In an embodiment of the invention, a method for detecting exceptions for collaborative object addressing in a collaborative computing environment can be provided. The method can include retrieving a distribution list for a collaborative object in a collaborative computing environment, comparing addressees in the distribution list to addressees in a list of previously applied addressees, and providing a notification where an addressee in the distribution list does not appear as an addressee in the list of previously applied addresses.
US09124540B2
According to one embodiment, a system includes a plurality of ports adapted for connecting to external devices and a switching processor. The switching processor includes a packet processor which includes a look-up interface, fetch and refresh logic (LIFRL) module and a packet processor logic (PPL) module adapted to operate in parallel, an internal look-up table cache including a plurality of look-up entries, each relating to a traffic flow which has been or is anticipated to be received by the switching processor, and a traffic manager module including a buffer memory which is connected to the plurality of ports. The LIFRL module is adapted for accessing the internal look-up table cache, the PPL module is adapted for communicating with the traffic manager module and the buffer memory, and the LIFRL module is adapted for communicating with one or more external look-up tables.
US09124539B2
Roughly described, a header processing engine for a network interface device has a header recognizer to parse the headers of a data packet stored at a buffer to identify the type and position of each header in the packet; a constructor unit; and a processor including an execution pipeline. The header recognizer is configured to, for each header: select in dependence on the header type commands stored at a command memory; and form one or more messages for the constructor unit identifying the selected commands and the position of the header in the data packet. The commands selected for the packet headers are collectively such as to, if executed by the constructor unit, cause the constructor unit to generate a data structure which operates to cause the processor to process of the packet headers without accessing the data packet at the buffer.
US09124534B1
A computer-implemented method for managing sub-clusters within dependent clustered computing systems subsequent to partition events may include (1) identifying a first computing cluster and a second computing cluster, (2) determining that the first computing cluster depends on the second computing cluster, (3) detecting a partition event that partitions the first computing cluster into multiple sub-clusters, (4) determining, in response to detecting the partition event, whether the second computing cluster is partitioned into multiple sub-clusters, and (5) making, based at least in part on determining whether the second computing cluster is partitioned into multiple sub-clusters, a fencing decision for the multiple sub-clusters of the first computing cluster. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US09124528B2
This disclosure relates a method within a network node and a corresponding network node for determining input information for creation of a data traffic clustering model. The method comprises obtaining data descriptors of data flows, wherein the data descriptors describe data of the data flows, and obtaining flow information of the data flows. In addition, the method comprises determining clustering model input information based on the obtained data descriptors and the obtained flow information. One exemplary advantage of the present disclosure is that it allows traffic clustering based solely on packet header information, making the present disclosure appropriate for handling encrypted traffic.
US09124527B2
Techniques are provided for hash-based routing table management in a distributed network switch. A frame having a source address and a destination address is received. If no routing entry for the source address is found in a routing table of a switch module in the distributed network switch, where the routing table is divided into slices of buckets, then routing information is determined for the source address and a routing entry is generated. The routing table is modified to include the routing entry and based on a set of hash functions and properties of the slices.
US09124522B2
Nodes and methods are disclosed for protection and restoration to protect against multiple failures for multiple paths involved for the same service in mesh networks, including, determining, by circuitry of a first node in a mesh network, a failure of a working path between the first node and a second node, wherein the second node, when triggered by the failure of the working path, switches to a protection path. Methods further include establishing through transmission of at least one signal by circuitry of the first node at least one recovery path, for example, a restored-working path, after determining the failure of the at least one working path, wherein the at least one restored-working path carries a duplicate of the data traffic transmitted on the protection path in case of failure of the protection path.
US09124521B2
Systems and methods are provided for efficient communication through a fabric network of devices in a home environment or similar environment. For example, an electronic device may efficiently control communication to balance power and reliability concerns, may efficiently communicate messages to certain preferred networks by analyzing Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) packet headers that use an Extended Unique Local Address (EULA), may efficiently communicate software updates and status reports throughout a fabric network, and/or may easily and efficiently join a fabric network.
US09124520B2
In one embodiment, a device receives data from a network at a TCP buffer at a selected data rate, and copies the data from the TCP buffer to a decoder buffer at a reading rate. Once decreasing the reading rate to decrease a level of the decoder buffer, the device may increase the reading rate to an upshift probe rate, and monitors a TCP buffer level during reading at the upshift probe rate to determine whether the network can support the upshift probe rate. If the TCP buffer level decreases to a lower threshold during the upshift probe rate, the device returns to read data from the TCP buffer by the decoder buffer at the reading rate. If the TCP buffer level stays above the lower threshold during the upshift probe rate, the device may trigger a corresponding upshift in a send rate from a sender of the data.
US09124514B2
The present application is directed towards sharing data link layer information of network traffic distributed across a cluster of intermediary devices. A method for sharing data link layer information across a cluster includes receiving a request packet at a first intermediary device. The first intermediary device identifies a first set of data link layer information from a data link layer of the request packet. The first intermediary device modifies the request packet for transmission on a common data backplane of the cluster to include the first set of data link layer information in the request packet. The modified request packet includes a second set of data link layer information that differs from the first set of data link layer information at the data link layer. The first intermediary device transmits the modified request packet on the common data backplane of the cluster to other devices of the cluster.
US09124507B1
In an embodiment, a method exchanges routing data within a network including control and forwarding on separate devices. In the method, a first reachability information session is established between a forwarding device and a first control device and a second reachability information session is established between the forwarding device and a second control device. Also, a third reachability information session is established between the forwarding device and an external routing device. Finally, advertisements are exchanged between the first and second reachability information sessions and the third reachability information session such that the first and second control device appear to the external routing device to be a single device. System and computer program product embodiments are also disclosed.
US09124506B2
Techniques for end-to-end network bandwidth optimization using software defined networking are provided. In one embodiment, a computer system can receive information regarding a flow to be admitted to a network, where the flow is associated with a source and a destination. The computer system can further calculate, for each path in a plurality of paths between the source and the destination, a projected utilization of the path in view of the flow. If the projected utilization of the shortest path in the plurality of paths is less than or equal to a target utilization threshold, the computer system can assign the flow to the shortest path. Otherwise, the computer system can select a path in the plurality of paths that comes closest to the target utilization threshold without exceeding the threshold and can assign the flow to that selected path.
US09124505B2
A system detection method and apparatus. The throughput and response time of the system are acquired, where the throughput reflects the number of requests from outside the system that has been processed by the system. The response time reflects time required by the system to process requests from outside the system. The system performance characteristic parameter based on the throughput and response time is obtained and is used to describe congestion condition of the system to determine whether there is a bottleneck in the system. Also provided are a method and device for flow control. The system detection method and apparatus allow detecting a bottleneck and flow control in a simple and effective way to ensure that requests are processed in time.
US09124500B2
A method of optimizing management of presence information over a mobile network includes determining, by a host server, the presence information of a user of a mobile application on a mobile device based on heartbeat messages, while a first connection between the mobile device and the host server is closed, wherein the user is determined to be online when heartbeat messages are received from the mobile device in regular intervals of time. The user is determined to be offline when heartbeat messages are not received from the mobile device. The method may further include maintaining or closing a second connection between the host server and a content server based on the presence information of the user. Maintaining the second connection allows the content server to determine that the user is online, and closing the second connection allows the content server to determine that the user is offline.
US09124495B2
A system and method for automatic provisioning of stacked switches includes entering a client state, setting one or more ports of the switch to normal mode, sending a first provisioning discover request on the one or more ports, receiving a first provisioning offer on a first port selected from the one or more ports, detecting whether the first provisioning offer is a full offer or a partial offer, entering a server state when the first provisioning offer is a full offer, entering a relay state when the first provisioning offer is a partial, and provisioning the switch based on information associated with the first provisioning offer.
US09124488B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a dashboard that displays an overview of a datacenter's health which helps prioritize, monitor, and troubleshoot problems. In particular, one embodiment is a method for visualizing the health of datacenter objects which includes displaying datacenter objects on a scatterplot of a dashboard wherein one axis of the scatterplot corresponds to problem severity and another axis of the scatterplot corresponds to time.
US09124481B2
Various exemplary embodiments relate to a method and related network node including one or more of the following: receiving a Diameter message at the DRA from an origin device, wherein the Diameter message includes an attribute-value pair (AVP) having a first value represented according to a first data type; establishing a context object in response to receiving the Diameter message; establishing, within the context object, a custom attribute object that corresponds to the AVP and provides access to at least a portion of the first value represented according to a second data type, wherein the second data type is different from the first data type; evaluating a rule that includes a context object reference, wherein the evaluation includes accessing the custom attribute object based on the context object reference; and transmitting a message based on the evaluation of the rule.
US09124479B2
In order to improve the efficiency of user signal demodulation processing including interference suppression processing, a wireless receiving unit (10) forming a wireless base station receiving device (1) receives a wireless signal (101) including plural user signal components respectively transmitted from plural mobile terminals. An interference suppression unit (20) determines whether to perform a predetermined interference suppression processing upon demodulation of each user signal component from the wireless signal (101) (base band signal (102) output from the wireless receiving unit (10)) according to a reception quality (reception quality information (107)) of each user signal component that needs to be guaranteed for each mobile terminal and a transmission rate (transmission rate information (108)) of each user signal component determined for each mobile terminal. At this time, the interference suppression unit (20) causes a number of interference suppression demodulation blocks (30) corresponding to the number of user signal components determined to be subjected to the interference suppression processing to operate, and causes a number of normal demodulation blocks (40) corresponding to the number of user signal components determined not to be subjected to the interference suppression processing to operate.
US09124471B2
Systems and methods for transceiver communication are discussed herein. An exemplary system comprises a first transceiver and a second transceiver. The first transceiver may comprise an I/Q module and a PHY device. The I/Q module may receive a first complex signal and transform the first complex signal into bit words of a predetermined size and framewords. The PHY device may receive the bit words, transmit the bit words and framewords over a cable, and perform adaptive cancellation. The second transceiver may comprise a PHY device, an I/Q module, an I/Q modulator, and an antenna. The PHY device may receive the bit words and the framewords from over the cable. The I/Q module may transform the bit words to a second complex signal based on the framewords. The I/Q modulator may modulate the complex signal to generate a transmit signal. The antenna may transmit the signal.
US09124469B2
An architecture and method is provided for call routing using both IMS and non-IMS frameworks. The method includes receiving presence information of a third party from a non-IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) network device. The method further includes routing the third party to at least one callee designated device based on configurable preferences provided by the callee and correlated to presence information using an IMS compliant component. The method additionally includes providing a charging record for the routing on an IMS complaint charging platform.
US09124462B2
An apparatus is provided. The apparatus comprises a polynomial register having a plurality of bits, a first bus, a second bus, and a transceiver that is coupled to the first bus, the second bus, and the polynomial register. The polynomial register is configured to store a user-defined polynomial, and the transceiver includes a pseudorandom bit sequence (PRBS) generator is configured to generate a scrambled signal from the user-defined polynomial and a PRBS checker that is configured to generate a descrambled signal from a second signal using the user-defined polynomial.
US09124459B2
Sphere decoding of signals for MIMO detection involves a first distance processor arranged to determine a distance between symbols of a received symbol vector and possible transmit symbols, in a search sequence according to a search tree. A line from root to leaf of the search tree represents a possible transmit symbol vector and the sequence of processing root level symbols can be ordered with respect to increasing distance without explicit sorting of the root level symbols based on distance calculations. A next symbol in the sequence is determined, based on a symbol currently being processed by the first distance processor, and a second distance processor determines the distance in respect of the next symbol in the search sequence for the same possible transmit symbol vector, in parallel with the determining of the distance in respect of the current symbol by the first distance processor.
US09124449B2
One embodiment receives at a first node in at least a portion of a network a routing table, the portion of the network comprising the first node and one or more second nodes, the routing table specifying the immediate neighbor that provides each of the best paths in the portion of the network based on a total cost; using the routing table, determines at the first node every second node that is necessary for the first node to reach all edges of the network, the second nodes that are necessary for the first node to reach all edges of the network comprising an active set for the first node; and sends a message from the first node to every second node to facilitate determining whether to shut down the second node.
US09124443B2
Method of communication in a home automation network allowing communication between command transmitters and/or command receivers associated with equipment in a building by means of messages transmitted in the form of frames, a frame comprising at least one data field comprising several functional segments, said method comprising a step of constructing a frame on the basis of an instruction written in a programming language, the instruction comprising words composed in the form of strings of alphanumeric characters and/or of signs and/or of icons, delimited by separators, in which each word gives rise to a functional segment.
US09124442B2
The invention relates to a home automation system and a method for controlling the same. In order to stably control a continuing concerted adjustment action of a continuously variable parameter by means of few and low-sized commands in order to avoid overloading of a low-data rate network while providing means for fast and unobtrusive correction of failures due to missed commands, it is provided a method for controlling a wireless home automation system, the home automation system being arranged as a network comprising at least one controller and a plurality of devices, wherein the method comprises the steps of sending a start command from the controller to a group of devices comprising an action type and a transaction ID and sending a stop command from the controller to the devices comprising the transaction ID and a controller counter.
US09124441B2
Various embodiments for remote presentation of an interface of a computing device, such as a PC, are described herein. In particular, in various illustrated embodiments, a local device such as a Digital Media Adapter (DMA), mobile device, cellular telephone, etc. may be used to receive input from a remote control, where the local device provides human perceptible feedback, such as a sound, visual response, etc., responsive to use of the remote control. In some embodiments, the local device may contain a memory or cache for locally storing particular feedback data for human perceptible feedback. In various embodiments, a communication protocol is provided for storing, triggering, deleting, etc. feedback data in the memory or cache. Other embodiments may be disclosed or claimed.
US09124438B2
A network communication apparatus which can transmit multicast packets includes a communication interface unit that has a plurality of IP addresses allocated thereto and transmits multicast packets using each of the plurality of IP addresses as a transmission source, and a multicast control unit that controls transmission of the multicast packets from the communication interface unit, groups the plurality of IP addresses in a plurality based on predetermined criteria, and sequentially transmits the multicast packets using one IP address belonging to each group as a transmission source with respect to all the IP addresses in each group.
US09124437B2
A method and system for implementation and operation of an interactive communications network for meeting, trade show, convention or conference (“event”) organizers and attendees, which is implemented in one or more hotels proximate to the event facilities, with an access device in guest rooms as well as additional implementations for universal access by event attendees, which access provides for real time messaging and on demand information and communications between the organizers and attendees for access to both static and changing information about the event, such as schedules, locations, speakers and other information typically pertinent to event attendees.
US09124434B2
Various embodiments are disclosed that relate to security of a computer accessory device. For example, one non-limiting embodiment provides a host computing device configured to conduct an initial portion of a mutual authentication session with an accessory device, and send information regarding the host computing device and the accessory device to a remote pairing service via a computer network. The host computing device is further configured to, in response, receive a pairing certificate from the remote pairing service, the pairing certificate being encrypted via a private key of the remote pairing service, and complete the mutual authentication with the accessory device using the pairing certificate from the remote pairing service.
US09124433B2
Authentication devices and methods for generating dynamic credentials are disclosed. The authentication devices include a communication interface for communicating with a security device such as a smart card. A dynamic credential such as a one-time password (OTP) or a message authentication code (MAC) may be generated by receiving from a server an encrypted initialization seed encrypted with an asymmetric encryption algorithm using a public key of a public/private key pair, submitting the encrypted initialization seed to a security device, decrypting at the security device the encrypted initialization seed with a private key of the public/private key pair, returning the decrypted initialization seed to the authentication device, deriving at the authentication device a secret credential generation key from the decrypted initialization seed, and generating the dynamic credential by combining a dynamic variable with the secret credential generation key using a symmetric cryptographic dynamic credential generation algorithm.
US09124431B2
Techniques to provide evidence-based dynamic scoring to limit guesses in knowledge based authentication are disclosed herein. In some aspects, an authenticator may receive an input from a user in response to a presentation of a personal question that enables user access to a restricted resource. The authenticator may determine that the input is not equivalent to a stored value, and thus is an incorrect input. The authenticator may then determine whether the input is similar to a previous input received from the user. A score may be assigned to the input. When the input is determined to be similar to the previous input, the score may be reduced. Another request for an input may be transmitted by the authenticator when a sum of the score and any previous scores of the session is less than a threshold.
US09124430B2
Example embodiments include centralized systems for managing cryptographic keys and trust relationships among systems. Embodiments may include a centralized key store and a centralized policy store. Key sets comprising public/private keys may be stored in or identified by key objects. Key objects within the key store may be organized into key sets and trust sets. Policies may apply at any level within the key store. Policies and associated keys may be grouped and organized to manage groups of keys according to common policies and to present complex relationships to a user. Lower level keys may inherit policy properties from higher levels. Higher levels may be locked to preclude changes at lower levels. Policies may include a variety of properties/fields to facilitate key management. Policies may determine what actions are taken with respect to a key or group of keys.
US09124428B2
To provide a mobile communication system and a communication method for enabling HARQ control information to be transmitted and received using radio resources efficiently in case that a base station apparatus and a mobile station apparatus communicate with each other in a wider frequency band using component carriers in a composite manner, in the communication method in the mobile station apparatus that transmits, to the base station apparatus, the HARQ control information for a plurality of downlink transport blocks transmitted on a plurality of downlink component carriers using a first physical uplink control channel resource, in case that the mobile station apparatus detects a single physical downlink control channel in a common search space in a certain subframe, the mobile station apparatus transmits the HARQ control information to the base station apparatus, using a second physical uplink control channel resource different from the first physical uplink control channel resource.
US09124423B2
Provided are a method, system, and article of manufacture for iterative data secret-sharing transformation and reconversion. In one aspect, data secret-sharing transformation and reconversion is provided in which each bit of an input stream of bits of data is split, on a bit by bit basis, into a pair of secret-sharing bits, and the secret-sharing bits of each pair of secret-sharing bits are separated into separate streams of secret-sharing bits. In this manner, one secret-sharing bit of each pair of secret-sharing bits may be placed in one stream of secret-sharing bits and the other secret-sharing bit of each pair may be placed in another stream of secret-sharing bits different from the one stream of secret-sharing bits. Confidentiality of the original input stream may be protected in the event one but not both streams of secret-sharing bits is obtained by unauthorized personnel. In another aspect, for an input stream of N bits, each received bit of the N bits of the input stream of data, may be interatively split, on a bit by bit basis, into a pair of secret-sharing bits, to generate as few as N+1 secret-sharing bits from the input stream of bits N bits. Other features and aspects may be realized, depending upon the particular application.
US09124419B2
Devices, system, and methods of secure entry and handling of passwords and Personal Identification Numbers (PINs), as well as for secure local storage, secure user authentication, and secure payment via mobile devices and via payment terminals. A server includes: an authentication module to send, to a remote client device, a server authentication certificate; an accreditation certificate stored in a pre-defined location on the server, wherein the pre-defined location is accessible to the remote client device; wherein the accreditation certificate indicates a condition that the server authentication certificate needs to meet in order for the server authentication certificate to be accepted for authentication by the remote client device.
US09124412B2
A method and an arrangement in a radio network node for reconfiguring mappings from Carrier Indicator Field-values to component carriers are provided. Each CIF-value is mapped to a respective component carrier comprising a respective shared data channel. Each respective shared data channel corresponds to at least one downlink control channel carrying said each CIF-value. The radio network node reconfigures mappings from CIF-values to component carriers, while at least one mapping of CIF-value to component carrier is maintained. The component carrier of said at least one mapping from CIF-value to component carrier comprises said at least one downlink control channel and a shared data channel corresponding to said at least one downlink control channel. The radio network node sends at least one of the reconfigured mappings from CIF-values to component carriers to the user equipment.
US09124411B2
The present invention provides a method for sending and receiving control information, an apparatus and a communication system. The method for sending control information includes: setting respective control bits in a downlink control information (DCI) format to generate control information applied by a network side to a terminal, where the control bits include validity indication bits and transmission control bits, indication information indicating whether transmission control exercised by the network side on a transmission block is valid relative to the terminal is written into the validity indication bits, and the validity indication bits are located outside the transmission control bits; and sending the generated control information to the terminal. In the embodiments of the present invention improve efficiency of using an overhead required for transmitting the control information.
US09124408B2
The present invention relates to a wireless communication system, particularly, a method in which a terminal transmits control information in a CA-based wireless communication system and an apparatus for the method, the method comprising: configuring a first cell and a second cell having different subframe configurations, wherein the second cell has any one of UL-DL configuration #0 to #6; receiving a DC) format including a DAI field, for the second cell; and transmitting HARQ-ACK information relating to the downlink DCI format. For HARQ-ACK timing, in cases where a reference UL-DL configuration applied to the second cell is any one of UL-DL configurations #1 to #6, the DAI field is used in a process of transmitting the HARQ-ACK information. For HARQ-ACK timing, in cases where a reference UL-DL configuration applied to the second cell is #0, the DAI field is not used in a process of transmitting the HARQ-ACK information.
US09124399B2
Circuitry for use in a receiver may comprise: a front-end circuit operable to receive an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol on a first number of physical subcarriers. The circuitry may comprise a decoding circuit operable to decode the OFDM symbol using an inter-carrier interference (ICI) model, the decoding resulting in a determination of a sequence of symbols, comprising a second number of symbols, that most-likely correspond to the received OFDM symbol, where the second number is greater than the first number. The sequence of symbols may comprise N-QAM symbols, N being an integer. The ISCI model may be based, at least in part, on non-linearity experienced by the OFDM symbol during transmission by a transmitter, propagation over a channel, and/or reception by the receiver. The ISCI model may be based, at least in part, on phase-noise introduced to the OFDM symbol during transmission by a transmitter, propagation over a channel, and/or reception by the receiver.
US09124393B2
An apparatus for detecting the end of a communication is disclosed. The apparatus includes an interface circuit for receiving an encoded signal and a carrier signal recovery circuit coupled to an output of the interface circuit. The carrier signal recovery circuit is configured to output a carrier signal of the encoded signal and a second signal that is out of phase with the carrier signal. The apparatus also includes a decoding circuit configured to decode the encoded signal as a function of both the encoded signal and the carrier signal output by the carrier signal recovery circuit. The apparatus also includes a detection circuit configured to detect an indication of an end of a communication in the encoded signal as a function of both the encoded signal and the second signal.
US09124392B2
Disclosed embodiments may include an apparatus having one or more processors coupled to one or more computer-readable storage media. The one or more processors may be configured to transmit and/or receive channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) resource configuration information, demodulation reference signals (DM-RS), uplink sounding reference signals (SRS), and power control parameters to support uplink coordinated multi-point (CoMP) operations. Other embodiments may be disclosed.
US09124390B2
A communication channel includes a first component having a transmitter coupled to a normal signal source, and a second component having a receiver coupled to a normal signal destination. A communication link couples the first and second components. Calibration logic provides for setting an operation value for a parameter of the communication channel, such as by executing an exhaustive calibration sequence at initialization of the link. A tracking circuit, including a monitoring function, tracks drift in the parameter by monitoring a feedback signal that has a characteristic that correlates with drift in the communication channel, and updates, or indicates the need for updating of, the operation value of the parameter in response to the monitoring function.
US09124384B2
The high data transmission capacity of fiber optic networks has been exploited through wavelength division multiplexing (WDM). By using multiple independent wavelengths, or lambdas, the fiber can carry a multiplicity of content, each in its own lambda. As the number of lambdas increases (it is currently ca. 100 and is projected to climb to 100,000 or more) it becomes increasingly challenging to allocate lambdas to traffic. The present invention automates the allocation process by detecting similar interests amongst groups of users, and creating a shared lambda for use by the users.
US09124383B1
A reconfigurable electrical add/drop multiplexing node, a network, and optoelectronic integrated circuit form a novel high capacity fiber-optic integrated transmission and switching system with a baseline target capacity in excess of 1 Tbps. The node, network, and circuit can leverage optoelectronic integration of transmission and switching components along with using the full “transparency” window of modern optical fibers from about 1270 nm to about 1670 nm for a large number of relatively low-rate wavelengths. The electrical switching fabric can be part of a Reconfigurable Electrical Add/Drop Multiplexer (READM) with similar functionality as a Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer (ROADM) except in a highly integrated fashion with the transmission components. The electrical switching fabric can implement flow switching on a composite signal to provide comparable functionality to optical components in electrical circuitry such as in Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductors.
US09124378B2
Systems and methods for gathering research data using multiple monitoring devices are provided. At least a pair of the monitoring devices each read ancillary codes contained within media data and which represents research data. The decoded data read by at least one of the pair is associated with a further set of data offering a correspondence between each of the sets of decoded data. Such correspondence allows a determination that the data decoded by each of the pair of monitoring devices is the same.
US09124375B1
A receiver operating in a broadcast system is disclosed that allows a broadcaster to provide multiple tiers of subscription services. By a receiver that can operating at different tiers, a subscriber has the option of listening to fewer (or no) commercials, e.g., by paying a higher fee, or listening to more commercials, e.g., by paying a lower or no fee. Commercials can be demographically targeted, cannot be skipped, and can be audited for billing purposes.
US09124364B1
A method of controlling an optical transmitter having a Dual Parallel Mach-Zehnder (DPMZ) modulator. An I-Q power balance between respective branches of the DPMZ modulator is detected, and at least one parameter of the DPMZ modulator is adjusted to drive the I-Q power balance to a predetermined target value. An optical transmitter may have Quad Parallel Mach-Zehnder (QPMZ) modulator having a pair of parallel DPMZ modulators for modulating respective X- and Y-polarization lights. In such cases, an X-Y power imbalance between the two polarization lights is detected, and at least one parameter of the QPMZ modulator is adjusted to drive the X-Y power imbalance to a predetermined value.
US09124363B2
Techniques are provided to estimate a distance of one received optical subchannel to one or both of its neighbor (adjacent) subchannels. An optical field comprised of a plurality of subchannels of optical signals at respective wavelengths is received on an optical fiber. Using coherent optical reception in conjunction with analog-to-digital conversion, the received optical field is converted to digital complex valued data. The digital complex valued data is transformed to the frequency domain to produce spectrum data. Using either a peak method or a gap method, a distance or spacing is computed between a subchannel of interest among the plurality of subchannels and at least one neighbor subchannel based on the spectrum data.
US09124353B2
A switching circuit may include: the switching circuit includes a switching circuit unit including a first transistor and a second transistor connected to each other in series, the second transistor receiving a first control signal through a control terminal thereof, and an inverter connected between a control terminal of the first transistor and a first terminal of the first transistor. The inverter receives a second control signal and maintains a gate-source voltage level of the first transistor to a threshold voltage level of the first transistor or less, and levels of the first and second control signals are logically complementary to each other.
US09124351B2
A communication terminal according to one aspect of the present invention includes a baseband LSI that performs baseband processing for communication, an application LSI that includes a vocoder function and performs processing according to an application, an audio LSI that performs one of D/A conversion and A/D conversion on audio data, and a switch circuit that is installed in the application LSI and connects a data path between the audio processor LSI and the baseband LSI.
US09124344B2
A pilot reference transmission scheme well suited for high data rate wireless communication systems is disclosed. To maximize the amount of interference from transmissions from neighboring transmission sources (e.g., access points or base stations) during the pilot interval, and hence minimize the amount of interference from non-transmitting sources during the data intervals, the pilot references are transmitted in bursts at predetermined time intervals, and the pilot bursts from the access points are synchronized. This results in maximum interference contributions from non-transmitting neighboring access points, facilitating reliable estimation of worst case carrier-to-interference (C/I), and further allows the receiving devices (e.g., access terminals) to easily recognize the bursts as pilot reference. In one embodiment, each access point transmits the pilot bursts at or near its maximum transmit power level and no user-specific data is transmitted during the pilot bursts.
US09124343B2
According to one embodiment, a connection control module is configured to transmit a connection request signal during a period in which a communication module is in an unconnected state, and to establish a connection between the communication module and an external device which are in a close proximity state. A halt module is configured to halt a communication control module from executing a negotiation with the external device, when the connection between the communication module and the external device is released by the connection release request signal from the external device and thereafter the connection between the communication module and the external device is re-established by the connection control module.
US09124342B2
A method for remotely and dynamically controlling adjacent satellite interference comprising monitoring one or more off-axis signals emitted by one or more remote transmitters; determining whether one or more of the off-axis signals is creating adjacent satellite interference (ASI), off axis emissions and inband interference that is higher than a predetermined level of acceptable interference, and transmitting a control signal to at least one of the one or more remote transmitters in response to the determination that the one or more off-axis signals is creating interference that is higher than the predetermined level of acceptable interference, the control signal initiating an adjustment to one or more transmission parameters of the one or more remote transmitters such that interference resulting from the one or more off-axis signals emitted by the one or more remote transmitters is reduced or eliminated.
US09124332B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, an apparatus, and a system for interference alignment. The method includes: receiving signals transmitted by transmit ends, where the signals include interference signals and a wanted signal; aligning original constellation diagrams of the interference signals to acquire a first interference aligned constellation diagram; performing, according to the first interference aligned constellation diagram, interference signal demodulation and decoding on the received signals to acquire an interference source bit sequence; performing, according to the interference source bit sequence and the first interference aligned constellation diagram, interference reconstruction and removal to acquire a second interference aligned constellation diagram; and performing, according to the second interference aligned constellation diagram, wanted signal demodulation and decoding on the signal sequence to acquire the wanted signal transmitted by a wanted signal transmit end. The embodiments of the present invention are applicable to radio communications.
US09124320B2
A mobile terminal apparatus estimates downlink channel states using respective reference signals included in downlink signals from plural cells; selects PMIs (Precoding Matrix Indicators) using a codebook based on the channel states; estimates a phase difference between the cells based on the selected PMIs or the channel states; and transmits information of the phase difference and the selected PMIs to radio base station apparatuses of the respective cells. A radio base station apparatus receives an uplink signal including a PMI and the information of the phase difference between the cells; multiplies a transmission signal by a precoding weight corresponding to the PMI; adjusts the phase difference between the cells with use of the information of the phase difference between the cells; and transmits the transmission signal to a radio base station apparatus of another cell by coordinated multi-point transmission.
US09124319B2
A method implemented in a user equipment used in a multi-user multiple input multiple output (MU-MIMO) wireless communications system is disclosed. The method includes receiving from a base station an indication of a first modulation type for the user equipment, receiving a first data signal for the user equipment, receiving a second data signal for a co-scheduled user equipment, where a second modulation type for the co-scheduled user equipment is unknown to the user equipment, and deciding the second modulation type. Other methods, systems, and apparatuses also are disclosed.
US09124318B2
An access point can include an array of antennas and a smart antenna selector. The smart antenna selector is configured to select a subset of antennas from the antenna array for use in multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU MIMO) data transmissions. Stations that are communicatively coupled to the access point can be selected for inclusion in a multi-user group based, at least in part, on performance measurements of the stations. Performance measurements are determined directly and indirectly from data transmissions sent in response to sounding packets. Antennas for use in MU MIMO data transmissions are selected for the antenna array based, at least in part, on previous antenna selections used for single user data transmissions.
US09124311B2
A multi-band multi-path receiving and transmitting device and method are provided. The multi-band multi-path receiving and transmitting device includes at least two multi-frequency couplers, a multi-band transceiver, and a signal processing module. The multi-band transceiver includes at least two first frequency band receiving branches and at least two second frequency band receiving branches, and the multi-band transceiver is adopted to decrease the number of the transceivers, thereby reducing the material cost and the mounting cost of the base station system.
US09124307B2
A power transmission system includes a power transmission apparatus, a power receiving apparatus, and a foreign-substance detecting unit. The power transmission apparatus has a power transmission coil to wirelessly transmit electric power. The power receiving apparatus has a power receiving coil to wirelessly receive electric power from the power transmission apparatus. The foreign-substance detecting unit detects a foreign substance which is present between the power transmission coil and the power receiving coil. In addition, the power transmission apparatus includes a voltage supply, a power supply controller, the power transmission coil, and a first measurement unit. The power receiving apparatus includes the power receiving coil and a second measurement unit.
US09124303B2
An apparatus including a near field communication (NFC) system and a hearing aid compatibility (HAC) system. The near field communication system includes a near field communication antenna. The hearing aid compatibility system is configured to generate a magnetic field to be received by a hearing aid. The hearing aid compatibility system includes the near field communication antenna. Thus, both the near field communication system and the hearing aid compatibility system include the near field communication antenna as at least a portion of a common communication component for both of the systems.
US09124302B2
A near-field communications (NFC) device includes an NFC antenna, a matching network coupled to the NFC antenna, and a transmitter coupled to the matching network. The transmitter applies a signal to the matching network and varies a frequency of the signal. A parameter is measured while varying the frequency of the signal. A peak value of the parameter is identified and compared to a threshold. A communication protocol is initiated in response to a determination that the peak value satisfies the threshold.
US09124299B1
A set of branch metrics for a trellis associated with a Viterbi detector is generated. A set of path metrics associated with the trellis is generated based at least in part on the set of branch metrics, including by obtaining a pruned trellis by removing at least some portion of the trellis that is associated with an invalid bit sequence not permitted by a constrained code. A surviving path associated with the pruned trellis is selected based at least in part on the set of path metrics. A sequence of decisions associated with the surviving path is output.
US09124298B2
Low complexity error correction using cyclic redundancy check (CRC). Communications between communication devices, sometimes including at least one redundant transmission from a transmitter to a receiver, undergo low complexity error correction. CRC may be employed in conjunction with using any desired type of ECC or using uncoded modulation. Based on CRC determined bit-errors, as few as a singular syndrome associated with a singular bit-error or a linear combination of syndromes associated with two or more singular bit-errors within two or more received signal sequences are employed to perform error correction of the received signal. Real time combinations of multiple syndromes associated with respective single bit-errors (that may themselves be calculated off-line) are employed in accordance with error correction. In addition to CRC, any ECC may be employed including convolutional code, RS code, turbo code, TCM code, TTCM code, LDPC code, or BCH code.
US09124297B2
A machine-implemented method of generating trapping-set information for use in LDPC-decoding processing of read signals generated, e.g., by sensing a storage medium, such as a magnetic platter. In one embodiment, the method can be implemented as an add-on to any other trapping-set search method in which the discovered trapping sets are evaluated to determine their influence on the overall bit-error rate and/or error-floor characteristics of the LDPC decoder. The method can advantageously reuse at least some of the computational results obtained during this evaluation, thereby requiring a relatively small amount of additional computations, while providing a significant benefit of discovering many more trapping sets in addition to the ones that are being evaluated.
US09124292B2
A calibration system for an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) an internal ADC that receives an analog input and converts the analog input to digital multi-bit data. The calibration system also includes a reference shuffling circuit that shuffles reference values of comparators of the internal ADC. Further, the calibration system includes a calibration circuit that calibrates the comparators of the internal ADC. The calibration system includes a digital block that measures an amplitude based on the digital multi-bit data. Additionally, the calibration system includes calibration logic that controls the calibration circuit based on an output of the digital block.
US09124289B2
An automatic producing method for a predicted value generation procedure that predicts a value of an encoding target pixel by using a previously-decoded pixel. A parent population is generated by randomly producing predicted value generation procedures each of which is indicated by a tree structure, and a plurality of predicted value generation procedures are selected as parents from the parent population. One or more predicted value generation procedures are generated as children based on a predetermined tree structure developing method which subjects the selected predicted value generation procedures to a development where an existing predicted value generation function can be an end node of a tree. A predicted value generation procedure having a best estimation cost is selected from among the predicted value generation procedures as the parents and children, where the sum of an information content for representing the tree structure and an amount of code evaluated by a predicted pixel value obtained by the tree structure is used as an estimation cost. A final predicted value generation procedure is produced by iterating the relevant operation.
US09124284B2
An analog-to-digital converter circuit having a simple design and capable of preventing an increase in surface area and other problems. An analog-to-digital converter circuit for converting an analog input signal to a digital quantity includes an analog-to-digital converter unit that converts analog input signals to pre-correction digital values, and a corrector unit that digitally corrects the pre-connection digital values output from the analog-to-digital converter unit. The corrector unit includes a weighting coefficient multiplier unit that outputs a post-correction digital value obtained by multiplying the weighting coefficients provided for each bit by each bit of the pre-correction digital value output from the A/D converter unit and summing them, and a weighting coefficient search unit that searches for weighting coefficients so as to minimize an error signal generated based on the post-correction digital value and an approximate value for the post-correction digital value.
US09124275B2
A touch panel includes a transparent plate, an upper substrate having an upper surface situated on a lower surface of the transparent plate and stacked on the transparent plate in a downward direction, an upper conductive layer provided between the lower surface of the transparent plate and the lower surface of the upper substrate, a lower substrate having an upper surface situated on the lower surface of the upper substrate and stacked on the upper substrate in the downward direction, and a lower conductive layer provided between the lower surface of the upper substrate and the upper surface of the lower substrate and facing the upper conductive layer across the upper substrate. The upper surface of the transparent plate has a dome shape projecting upward on a cross section in a first direction perpendicular to the downward direction and on a cross section in a second direction perpendicular to the downward direction and the first direction. The lower surface of the transparent plate is concave upward on the cross section in the first direction is straight on the cross section in the second direction. The touch panel can be easily manufactured and reliably operated.
US09124270B2
To provide an electric power conversion device that converts direct current power supplied from a direct-current power supply into alternating current power, the electric power conversion device includes six switching elements constituted by a voltage-driven transistor that uses a wide bandgap semiconductor and a diode, and a drive circuit that controls a voltage for driving the transistor at a time of turning off the switching elements based on a predetermined voltage profile specifying that the transistor is operated in a non-linear region.
US09124267B2
A digital transmitter includes: a plurality of adjustable delay lines arranged to delay a plurality of digital input signals by a plurality of delay times to generate a plurality of delayed digital input signals respectively; a plurality of converting devices arranged to convert the plurality of delayed digital input signals into a plurality of converting signals respectively; and a calibration device arranged to adjust a delay time of at least one adjustable delay line in the plurality of adjustable delay lines to make the plurality of converting devices convert the plurality of delayed digital input signals at respective desire time points.
US09124266B1
Some of the embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method comprising outputting data at a logic circuit; and in anticipation of a possible change in the data during a data window, applying at least a partial inversion to an output of the logic circuit from a start of the data window.
US09124263B2
A body bias coordinator is provided for use with a transistor employing a body region. In one example, the body bias coordinator includes a control unit configured to control the transistor and make it operable to provide a virtual supply voltage from a source voltage during activation of the transistor. The body bias coordinator also includes a connection unit coupled to the control unit and configured to connect the body region to the virtual supply voltage during activation of the transistor. In an alternative embodiment, the connection unit is further configured to connect the body region to another voltage during non-activation of the transistor.
US09124257B2
A digital clock placement engine has circuitry that adjusts a duty cycle of a clock signal and adjusts the locations of the rising/falling edges of the clock signal for purposes of data sampling or other operations. In a forwarded-clock interface implementation, a clock signal is received along with a data signal, and the received clock signal may be distorted to due various factors. To enable the received data signal to be sampled correctly, the clock placement engine generates a recovered clock signal having rising and falling edges that are placed/timed between the rising and falling edges of the received clock signal.
US09124255B2
The frequency characteristic of a voltage-feedback class-D amplifier circuit for driving an output load is improved. A triangular-wave correction circuit which compensates a gradient of a triangular wave is provided to a triangular-wave signal generator which supplies a triangular wave signal used as a PWM carrier to a comparison circuit for performing PWM modulation of an input signal. In an area where a duty of a command value for an output circuit drive becomes about 50%, a slew rate (gradient) of the triangular wave is decreased.
US09124250B2
Exemplary embodiments are related to a clock doubler. A device may include a duty cycle correction circuit configured to receive an input clock signal and convey a corrected clock signal. The duty cycle correction circuit may include a first circuit to convey an output voltage during a first cycle of the input clock signal and correct a current mismatch of the first circuit during a second cycle of the input clock signal. The duty cycle correction circuit may also include a second circuit to convey the output voltage during the second cycle and correct a current mismatch of the second circuit during the first cycle. Further, the device may include a clock generator for receiving the corrected clock signal and generating an output clock.
US09124246B2
Techniques for designing baseband processing circuitry for radio IC's. In an aspect, techniques for differential-to-single-ended conversion in a baseband portion of the IC are disclosed to reduce the pin count and package size for RF IC's. In another aspect, the converter includes selectable narrowband and wideband amplifiers, wherein the wideband amplifiers may be implemented using transistor devices having smaller area than corresponding transistor devices of narrowband amplifiers. Further techniques for bypassing one or more elements, and for implementing a low-pass filter of the converter using an R-C filter network, are described.
US09124243B2
A surface acoustic wave filter device uses a Rayleigh wave as a main mode, and includes a ladder type surface acoustic wave filter unit. A thickness of a dielectric layer in a surface acoustic wave resonator configuring a series arm resonator is different from thickness of a dielectric layer in a surface acoustic wave resonator configuring a parallel arm resonator. A propagation orientation of a surface acoustic wave in the surface acoustic wave resonator configuring the series arm resonator is different from a propagation orientation of a surface acoustic wave in the surface acoustic wave resonator configuring the parallel arm resonator.
US09124233B2
An audio equalizer includes an equalization processor that operates in conjunction with a transformed-based audio decoder that generates a decoded audio signal from an encoded audio signal. The equalization processor receives an equalization input signal, generates a plurality of response coefficients in response to the equalization input and applies the response coefficients to partially decoded data of the transformed-based audio decoder.
US09124229B2
An amplifier, including a voltage-to-current converter (V2I) to control an output current based on an input voltage, resistive degeneration circuitry to reduce baseband gain of the voltage-to-current converter, capacitive degeneration circuitry to increase passband gain of the voltage-to-current converter, and impedance control circuitry to compensate for negative input impedance of the capacitive degeneration circuitry. The V2I may include series-connected complimentary V2Is. The impedance control circuitry may include resistive negative feedback to provide a real part of input impedance, which may increase a frequency range for which the amplifier is linear. Capacitive degeneration and associated phase compensation may increase a frequency range for which the resistive feedback is negative. The amplifier may be configured as a single-input/single-output system and/or as a differential system.
US09124228B2
Amplifiers with boosted or deboosted source degeneration inductance are disclosed. In an exemplary design, an apparatus includes an amplifier circuit and a feedback circuit. The amplifier circuit receives an input signal and provides an output signal and includes a source degeneration inductor. The feedback circuit is coupled between a node of the amplifier circuit and the source degeneration inductor. The feedback circuit provides feedback to vary an input impedance of an amplifier including the amplifier circuit and the feedback circuit. The feedback circuit may be programmable and may be enabled to provide feedback or disabled to provide no feedback. Alternatively, the feedback circuit may always be enabled to provide feedback. In either case, the feedback circuit may have a variable gain to provide a variable input impedance for the amplifier.
US09124227B2
Systems and methods are disclosed to provide automatic power control for a driver circuit. Embodiments disclosed herein enable a driver circuit to automatically decrease the gain of amplified input signals when output power exceeds a threshold. Further, embodiments disclosed herein enable a driver circuit to automatically increase the gain of amplified input signals when battery supply voltage drops to avoid unwanted output signal distortion. By using reference signals for battery power and amplified signal input, the amplifiers of the driver circuit can be automatically adjusted until an equilibrium is reached.
US09124224B2
Disclosed herein is a power generating circuit including a first transistor in which a second control signal is applied to a control terminal and a first control signal is applied to one end, and which has the other end connected to an output terminal, a second transistor in which the first control signal is applied to a control terminal and the second control signal is applied to one end, and which has the other end connected to the output terminal a third transistor in which one of the first and the second control signals is applied to a control terminal and which has one end grounded, and a fourth transistor in which the other one thereof is applied to a control terminal and which has one end connected to the other end of the third transistor and the other end connected to the output terminal.
US09124222B2
An internally, resistively, sensed Darlington amplifier includes a Darlington amplifier, at least an input transistor, an output transistor, a resistive divider, a signal input node, and a signal output node. The Darlington amplifier is responsive to an input signal and configured to generate an output signal. An internal bias setting resistor is coupled between the signal output node, a collector of the output transistor, and the resistive divider. The bias setting resistor is configured to set and regulate the bias current of the Darlington amplifier.
US09124211B2
A control unit of a rotary electric machine control apparatus includes a rotation position calculation section, which calculates a sensor angle by correcting a detection signal of a rotation position sensor based on correction value information specific to each sensor, and a correction value abnormality check section, which checks whether the correction value information is normal. When the correction value information is abnormal, the rotation angle calculation section corrects the detection signal of the rotation position sensor by using default value information in place of the correction value information. Each default value is limited to be different from the correction value within a predetermined range. A current command value calculation section sets a d-axis current command value to zero and fixes a current command phase to 90[°]. The current command phase is changed to be most remote from 0[°] and 180[°] thereby ensuring a tolerable range.
US09124208B2
In a vehicle, a control apparatus controls a power converter supplying a rotary machine which can operate as a drive motor of the vehicle, and controls a cooling apparatus for circulating a coolant fluid through the rotary machine and the power converter. When a temporary condition occurs immediately after commencement of the circulation, whereby the temperatures of the coolant fluid and of switching elements in the power converter are judged to concurrently exceed respective specified temperature thresholds, the control apparatus limits the maximum power that can be supplied from the power converter to a lower value than is normally available. When the temperature of the coolant fluid is judged to no longer exceed the corresponding temperature threshold, the limiting is released.
US09124204B2
An inverter device includes a rectifier circuit that rectifies alternating-current power supplied from a main power supply and generates direct-current power, a control power supply circuit that generates direct-current power for control using at least one of the generated direct-current power and direct-current power supplied from an external power supply, and a control unit that receives the generated direct-current power for control and performs a predetermined control operation. The control power supply circuit includes an insulation transformer including a primary side and second side winding wires, a first control power supply capacitor connected to the secondary side winding wire via a first diode, an external power supply capacitor connected to the first control power supply capacitor via a second diode and connected to a terminal, to which the external power supply is connected, via a third diode, and a second control power supply capacitor connected to the external power supply capacitor.
US09124197B2
The present in relates to an electric energy Micro Generator, integrated by a pneumatic motor and an electric Generator coupled magnetically, where the pneumatic motor is propelled by the fluid pressure associated with: air, natural gas, bitter gas, nitrogen, etc. designed to be intrinsically safe, with an index of protection against intrusion of solid objects or dust, accidental contacts, or water IP 67, according to the International Electro technical Commission, for use in hazardous locations “where fire or explosion may exist due to flammable gases or vapors, flammable liquids, combustible dust or flammable fibers or in suspension”. “Classified as Class I, Division 1, Group A, B, C and D, according to U.S. National Electrical Code, and which has its main field of application remote installations that lack electricity, but that dispose of a pressure associated with a fluid.In this regard, it is important to mention that: The pressure associated with the propellant fluid can be as low as 5 Kg/cm2 and as high as up to at least 700 kg/cm2; The implementation of magnetic coupling ensures that there is no possibility that the fluid used as propelling means, the high pressures associated with said fluid, the pneumatic motor and none of the pieces that integrated it, have contact and/or enter the space of the electric generator and The fluid used as propelling means is not consumed, is returned to its original process, providing a sustainable and intrinsically safe process.
US09124196B1
A diamagnetic levitation sphere having concentric superconducting coils encircling a hollow sphere. The inner surface of the sphere is lined with a 3D visual display screen. Users in carbon fiber suits are positioned within the hollow sphere by entering the sphere at its bottom end, standing on an elevator platform, and then being elevated up towards the center of the sphere. The superconducting coils are energized, the users are levitated while on the elevator platform, and then the elevator platform is lowered to the bottom of the sphere, closing the sphere. The users then float freely in space and can participate in a full emersion space ride game. The diamagnetic levitation sphere can also provide users unique experiences in physical training, therapy, entertainment, and education.
US09124190B2
An isolated switched mode power supply comprises a transformer, with primary and secondary windings, and a rectification network connected to the secondary winding. The rectification network and the transformer are arranged such that, during a free-wheeling period of operation of the switched mode power supply, a magnetic flux from a first portion of a secondary winding of the transformer substantially cancels a magnetic flux from a second portion of the secondary winding between the first and second portions of the secondary winding. Additionally, a secondary side circuit connected to the secondary winding comprises a switching device, which is connected to a center-tap, provided between the first and second portions of the secondary winding, and an output of the rectification network so as to conduct at least a part of a free-wheeling current flowing in the secondary side circuit during the free-wheeling period.
US09124182B2
A DC-DC converter includes a power conversion circuit for converting a DC input voltage to a DC output voltage; and an active clamp circuit for soft switching a first active switching element of the power conversion circuit and recovering leakage inductance energy of a main transformer of the power conversion circuit. As such, the present disclosure provides a DC-DC converter that reduces the switching loss of the switching elements and effectively recovers the leakage inductance energy, thus increasing the conversion efficiency of the converter.
US09124181B1
A single-ended primary-inductor converter (SEPIC) may include, but is not limited to: a first switch connected to a first circuit node; a first capacitor and a second switch connected in series between the first circuit node and a second circuit node; an inductor connected to the first circuit node and the second circuit node; at least one of a third switch and a passive diode rectifier connected between the second circuit node and a third circuit node; and at least one second capacitor and at least one load connected in parallel to the third circuit node.
US09124173B2
A voltage conversion circuit such as a buck regulator circuit has a plurality of switches coupled to a voltage source; a slab inductor having a length, a width and a thickness, where the slab inductor is coupled between the plurality of switches and a load and carries a load current during operation of the plurality of switches. The voltage conversion circuit can also include means to reduce or cancel a detrimental effect of other wires on same chip, such as a power grid, that conduct a return current and thereby degrading the functionality of this slab inductor. In one embodiment the wires can be moved further away from the slab inductor and in another embodiment magnetic materials can be used to shield the slab inductor from at least one such interfering conductor.
US09124169B2
There is disclosed an apparatus and method to reduce total harmonic distortion input into a 24-pulse autotransformer system and the autotransformer system itself. The 24-pulse autotransformer system is configured to receive an input of a first voltage and produce an output voltage of a second voltage. The system includes a pair of autotransformers coupled to an AC power source. One winding of each phase of the first autotransformer has a turn ratio to effect a decrease in the voltage across said winding over a symmetric voltage value and a second winding of each phase of the first autotransformer has a turn ratio to effect a decrease in the voltage across said winding over a symmetric voltage value, thereby reducing total harmonic distortion (THD) in the input current to the system without a zero sequence blocking transformer.
US09124167B2
An electrical machine comprises: a first rotor, rotatable about a first axis, and having a first arrangement of magnets on a first surface thereof; a second rotor, held with a first surface thereof adjacent the first surface of the first rotor and such that it cannot rotate about the first axis, but is rotatable about a second axis, and having a second arrangement of magnets on the first surface thereof; wherein the first and second arrangements of magnets are such that rotation of the first rotor about the first axis causes rotation of the second rotor about the second axis. The first rotor is in the form of an at least partial hollow torus, with the first surface thereof being an internal surface. The second rotor is in the form of a cylinder, located within the hollow torus, with the first surface thereof being an external surface, such that the second axis is perpendicular to the first axis.
US09124158B2
An insulating phase separator is used in an electric machine to separate phase windings in a stator assembly. The insulating phase separator includes first and second endturn portions and first and second leg portions. The first and second endturn portions each have a curved outer surface and a tabbed portion located opposite the curved outer surface. The first and second leg portions extend between the first and second endturn portions and are integral with the first and second endturn portions.
US09124155B2
A heat sink of a drive apparatus includes a heat receiving surface located in a rising direction from an end surface wall of a motor case formed in an axial direction of the motor case. A power module includes a mold part and is arranged along the heat receiving surface of the heat sink. Motor leads are taken out from the motor case and electrically connected to the power module and winding wires. The drive apparatus has the motor case, a control circuit substrate, the heat sink, the power module and a power circuit substrate arranged in this order in the axial direction. The motor leads are connected to the power module at an opposite side of the motor case relative to the mold part in the axial direction.
US09124153B2
Disclosed is a direct drive generator for a wind turbine, the generator including a rotor, a stator configured to remain stationary relative to the rotor, and at least one bearing connected to the stator. The rotor includes at least one rotor part extending circumferentially about an axis of rotation and a plurality of active materials arranged on a side of the at least one rotor part. The stator includes at least one stator part extending circumferentially about the axis of rotation and positioned adjacent to the at least one rotor part, and at least one winding arrangement supported by the at least one stator part and facing the plurality of active materials. The bearing is flexibly connected to the at least one stator part, wherein the bearing abuts the rotor part to help maintain a gap between the at least one winding arrangement and the active materials.
US09124148B2
A lightweight, foldable cover adapted for attachment to a portable electric generator permits the generator to be operated while covered and shielded from weather. The cover includes rigid or semi-rigid sides hingeably joined and held in position with flexible straps. The cover allows unimpeded exhaust and airflow underneath the cover, and unimpeded access to controls and outlets. The flexible straps attach to the cover and the frame of the generator. The straps are adjustable to accommodate different generator frame sizes, and include quick release devices to allow rapid attachment to, or detachment from the generator frame for refueling or storage. When removed the cover folds nearly flat for storage.
US09124140B2
Embodiments according to the present invention provide methods and a system for a control approach that effectively maintains the DC link voltage at a constant set value under variable system conditions and keeps the converter operating with an optimal power factor range while limiting power quality effects and phase balance.
US09124131B2
A method, apparatus, and device provide for the control of the power sourcing capability of a power source that supplies power to a device. A detection element of the device is operable to dynamically detect a power sourcing capability of the power source. A control element of the device is operable to monitor the detected power sourcing capability of the power source and to control the power source to effect a change in the power sourcing capability of the power source in response to a determination that the detected power sourcing capability of the power source is in violation of a threshold value.
US09124130B2
A wall-mountable temperature control device having a vertically-arranged temperature adjustment actuator for adjusting a setpoint temperature of a temperature control system to thus control a present temperature in a building, a room temperature visual display for displaying a visual representation of the present temperature of the building, and a setpoint temperature visual display for displaying a visual representation of the setpoint temperature. The room and setpoint temperature visual displays each comprising a linear array of light-emitting diodes arranged parallel to the temperature adjustment actuator and controlled such that one of the light-emitting diodes of the setpoint temperature visual display is illuminated to display the setpoint temperature in response to the actuations of the temperature adjustment actuator and one of the light-emitting diodes of the room temperature visual display is illuminated to display the present temperature.
US09124128B2
The invention relates to an arrangement for an uninterruptible power supply with a rectifier, an energy store, an inverter, a switching means and a controller. The rectifier is connected to a rectifier input to a supply grid (AC1). The energy store is connected to a rectifier output of the rectifier (1) and to an inverter input of the inverter. A network (AC3) to be protected or a load to be protected is connected to an inverter output of the inverter, wherein the rectifier input or a supply grid (AC2) is connected via the switching means to the inverter output, and wherein the rectifier, the inverter and the switching means is controlled by the controller, wherein the controller has two control parts which are constructed with redundancy, and wherein the rectifier and the switching means or the inverter and the switching means can be controlled simultaneously by the control parts.
US09124122B2
A wireless power transmission and charging system and method are provided. The wireless power may refer to energy that may be transferred from a wireless power transmitter to a wireless power receiver. The wireless power transmission and charging system may include a source device to wirelessly transmit power, and a target device to wirelessly receive power.
US09124118B2
A circuit for a small electric appliance is disclosed. The circuit includes a battery (B); a control circuit (uC) for measuring the charging current of the battery (B); a DC-DC converter (DC/DC) which supplies the control circuit (uC) from the battery; and a current sensing resistor (R1), whose one end lies at a reference potential and whose other end is connected to the battery (B). The control circuit (uC) has a terminal which is at reference potential, and a measurement input which is related to the reference potential.
US09124117B2
The present invention addresses the problem of providing a charging device capable of precisely outputting charging power to a battery or the like within a broad voltage range of tens-to-hundreds of volts. This charging device comprises: a converter unit that outputs a charging voltage to a battery and a control unit that outputs a control signal of a pulse width determined on the basis of the voltage value of the charging voltage to a switching element of the converter unit, thereby setting the switching element to a conducting state for only a time corresponding to the pulse width. The control unit changes the output interval for the control signal in accordance with the output interval for the control signal as the voltage value of the charging voltage decreases.
US09124103B2
According to one embodiment, an electrical storage apparatus includes an electrical storage unit configured to output direct-current power, a switch element configured to block positive-side wiring connecting the electrical storage unit to an outside, a diode connected in parallel with the switch element in a direction of a current flowing from the outside to the electrical storage unit, a voltage detection unit configured to detect voltages at both ends of the switch element, and a switch control unit configured to open the switch element when the voltage detected by the voltage detection unit is a predetermined value or greater.
US09124100B2
A power supply system according to the present invention includes a control device (110) which is configured such that if it is predicted that the sum of start-up power for a power generation system (101) and electric power consumed by an external electrical load (105) at start-up of the power generation system (101) and/or the sum of stopped-period power for the power generation system (101) and electric power consumed by the external electrical load (105) at stopping of power generation of the power generation system (101) exceed upper limit power, up to which an electric rate is kept to a relatively low unit price, and that the electric rate is to be changed to a relatively high unit price, then the control device (110) performs control of supplying electric power stored in an electrical storage unit (107) to at least one of the power generation system (101) and the external electrical load (105) in order to prevent the amount of electric power supplied from a power grid (104) from exceeding the upper limit power.
US09124092B2
Disclosed herein is a Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) controller. The PWM controller includes a plurality of Field Effect Transistors (FETs) and an FET driver. A comparator compares a current flowing through the FETs with an overcurrent reference value, and microcomputer controls a motor and a circuit protection function, and turns off the FET driver when the current flowing through the FETs is greater than the overcurrent reference value as a result of comparison by the comparator.
US09124063B2
A drive circuit includes a bias current supply circuit for supplying a bias current to a light-emitting device for transmitting an optical signal, the light-emitting device included in a light-emitting circuit; and a modulation current supply circuit for supplying a modulation current of a magnitude according to a logical value of data to be transmitted, to the light-emitting device. The modulation current supply circuit includes a differential drive circuit for switching whether to supply a current to the light-emitting device, according to the logical value of the data; and a termination resistor connected between differential outputs of the differential drive circuit. The differential drive circuit and the light-emitting circuit are DC-coupled to each other, and power supply of the current supplied to the light-emitting device by the differential drive circuit is supplied from the light-emitting circuit.
US09124060B1
A system and method for triggering data acquisition in a semiconductor laser system including outputting electromagnetic energy from the semiconductor laser over a range of wavelengths according to a signaling path. The signaling path includes a plurality of discrete data inputs to the semiconductor laser for outputting electromagnetic energy over a range of wavelengths and the signaling path includes one or more perturbances in transitioning from one wavelength to another wavelength along the signaling path. A series of triggering signals are generated for input to a measurement system by the semiconductor laser. The electromagnetic energy output from the semiconductor laser is detected based on the series of triggering signals. The detected electromagnetic energy is compared with a valid data vector, wherein the valid data vector includes one or more criteria and/or values that is used to differentiate valid data from invalid data corresponding to the detected electromagnetic energy.
US09124051B2
A connector has signal contacts and ground contacts, each of which includes a contact portion to be connected with a mating connector. In a predetermined plane, the contact portions of the signal contacts and the contact portions of the ground contacts are grouped and arranged into a first line and a second line. In the predetermined plane, four specific signal contact portions are surrounded by four specific ground contact portions. The four specific signal contact portions are the contact portions of the signal contacts constituting two pairs. The four specific ground contact portions are two of the contact portions of the ground contacts belonging to the first line and two of the contact portions of the ground contacts belonging to the second line. In the predetermined plane, a minimum distance between two of the specific ground contact portions is smaller than another minimum distance between one of the specific signal contact portions and one of the contact portions of the signal contacts other than the specific signal contact portions.
US09124049B2
In an embodiment, a micro ethernet connector includes an outer housing that has a recessed front end and a back end. The micro ethernet connector further includes an inner housing that is disposed within the recessed front end of the outer housing. The inner housing has an exposed end. The exposed end includes a recessed channel. The volume of the recessed channel is substantially equal to the volume of a correspondingly shaped protruding printed circuit board of a male micro ethernet connector. A plurality of spring-biased connectors are disposed within the recessed channel of the inner housing.
US09124039B2
A connector includes: a casing; a pair of signal terminals that have respective tip end portions, the pair of signal terminals projecting from the casing, the tip end portions being perpendicularly bent; a ground terminal arranged such that the ground terminal and the pair of signal terminals are arranged in a row, the ground terminal projecting at a position adjacent to the pair of signal terminals; and a shield disposed between the casing and the tip end portions of the pair of signal terminals.
US09124037B2
A high speed input/output plug assembly is disclosed having a plug body. A plurality of conductive traces are disposed on a surface of the plug body and connectable to an input/output cable. An electrically conductive grounding layer is positioned within the plug body and electrically insulated from the conductive traces, and has an opening extending through the grounding layer and below the conductive traces.
US09124036B2
An electrical connector includes a housing member, a first contact group, a second contact group, a metallic shell and a grounding member. The housing member includes a first tongue plate and a second tongue plate to which the first contact group and the second contact group are respectively associated. The first contact group and the second contact group are compatible to USB 3.0 standard. The grounding member comprises a body portion located between the second mounting portions of the first contact group and the third mounting portions of the second contact group. The grounding member is electrically and mechanically connected to the metallic shell for cross-talk prevention.
US09124035B2
An electrical connector includes a lock claw and a latch claw. The latch claw is provided at a nearer side than the lock claw in a fitting direction where a connector fitting portion is fitted to a power receiving connector and is provided with the lock claw along the fitting direction.
US09124029B2
The invention relates to a plug type connector, a counter-connector and a plug type connector arrangement. In order to protect a contact position (P) of the plug type connector against undesirable displacement relative to the counter-connector of the plug type connector arrangement, without undesirable forces occurring, there is provision according to the invention for the plug type connector and the counter-connector to have clamping faces which extend transversely relative to a connection direction (V) and which are clamped to each other via a fixing means.
US09124013B2
An electrical contact pin includes an outer shaft, an inner shaft at least partially received within the outer shaft and slidable relative to the outer shaft, and a rotatable member disposed at a free end of the inner shaft. The rotatable member is rotatable relative to the inner shaft in at least one direction.
US09124007B2
An antenna apparatus including: a first and second antenna elements which transmit or receive radio signal; a ground pattern; and a wiring pattern which is provided on a line segment connecting the first and second antenna elements, and directly connected to the ground pattern, wherein a circumventing path is formed by the wiring pattern and a part of the ground pattern.
US09124001B2
A communication device including a ground element and an antenna element is provided. The antenna element includes a metal element. The metal element has a plurality of bends and substantially forms a loop structure with a gap. The gap is between a first open end and a second open end of the metal element. The metal element extends along an edge of the ground element and does not overlap with the ground element. The antenna element has a feeding point. A first portion of the metal element is between the feeding point and the first open end, and a second portion of the metal element is between the feeding point and the second open end. The feeding point, the first open end, and the second open end are all facing or adjacent to the edge of the ground element.
US09123997B2
A multi-band monopole antenna includes a first radiation conductor portion formed with a rod member having a length defined in accordance with a wavelength of a first frequency included in a predetermined first frequency band among plural frequency bands, and a second radiation conductor portion integrally connected with the first radiation conductor portion and formed with a planar member in which a direct distance from a feeding portion to a farthest point which is the farthest position from the feeding portion is defined in accordance with a wavelength of a second frequency included in a second frequency band which differs from the first frequency band among the plural frequency bands. The feeding portion is provided at a position based on the length defined in accordance with the wavelength of the first frequency relative to a position of a tip end of the first radiation conductor portion.
US09123994B2
An antenna structure includes: a substrate; a ground layer disposed on a first surface of the substrate; a patch antenna unit which is disposed on a second surface of the substrate opposite to the first surface of the substrate, and is configured to receive a signal to be radiated; and a three-dimensional (3D) antenna unit which comprises a shorting leg that is shorted with the patch antenna unit, and is configured to radiate the signal received by the patch antenna unit.
US09123993B2
According to one exemplary embodiment of the invention, a vehicle antenna apparatus is provided on a vehicle in such a way that this results in the antenna having a horizontal main beam direction. A first reflection apparatus above the conductive roof of the vehicle, with an exciter between these two elements, causes the reflections to be doubled, thus causing the main beam direction to be lowered from a vertical to a horizontal direction.
US09123992B2
The micro-miniature base station antenna with a dipole antenna includes a hexahedral cube with a cavity structure, a dielectric substrate that is disposed on an inner lower surface of the cube, four pairs of supporters that are connected to the dielectric substrate to be formed in a direction perpendicular to the dielectric substrate, a first power feeding unit that includes one side connected to the dielectric substrate and the other side having a curved shape, a second power feeding unit that includes one side connected to the dielectric substrate and the other side having a curved shape, and is formed in a direction crossing the first power feeding unit, and four emitters in which one of the four emitters is coupled to an upper surface of a single pair of supporters among the four pairs of supporters.
US09123989B2
An antenna device and an antenna switch circuit are provided. The antenna device comprises a first antenna, an antenna detection circuit, a switch control circuit, and a controller. The first antenna is configured to transmit an RF signal. The antenna detection circuit comprises an inductor configured to detect a second antenna. The switch control circuit is coupled to the antenna detection circuit and configured to generate a first control signal indicative of the presence of the second antenna upon the detection thereof. The controller is coupled to the first antenna, the antenna detection circuit and the switch control circuit, and configured to receive the first control signal and connect to the second antenna when the first control signal indicates the presence of the second antenna.
US09123988B2
Methods, apparatuses, and systems for two-way satellite communication and an asymmetric-aperture antenna for two-way satellite communication are disclosed. In one embodiment, a beam pattern for an asymmetric-aperture antenna is offset in a narrow beamwidth direction, and the offset beam pattern is directed by a mechanical gimbal, with the beam pattern offset made to reduce interference with an adjacent satellite. In additional embodiments, operational areas near the equator are identified for a given offset beam pattern, or a beam pattern offset may be adjusted over time to compensate for movement of the asymmetric-aperture antenna when attached to an airplane, boat, or other mobile vehicle.
US09123987B2
An apparatus for coupling an object to a surface is disclosed. The apparatus may include a mounting plate, a mounting bracket, and a locking plate. The mounting plate may include a mounting portion configured to be coupled with the surface, a receptacle portion configured to receive a mounting bracket, and at least one protrusion extending from the mounting portion. The mounting bracket may include a backing portion, and a coupling portion. The backing portion may define at least one aperture configured to receive the at least one protrusion when the mounting bracket is disposed in the receptacle portion of the mounting plate. The coupling portion may be configured to be coupled with the object, which may be an antenna. The locking plate may be configured to be disposed between at least a portion of the at least one protrusion and at least a portion of the backing portion.
US09123986B2
An antenna system is capable of optimizing communication link quality with one or multiple transceivers while suppressing one or multiple interference sources. The antenna provides a low cost, physically small multi-element antenna system capable of being integrated into mobile devices and designed to form nulls in the radiation pattern to reduce interference from unwanted interferers. The antenna system operates in both line of sight and high multi-path environments by adjusting the radiation pattern and sampling the received signal strength to reduce signal levels from interferers while monitoring and optimizing receive signal strength from desired sources.
US09123983B1
A tunable bandpass filter integrated circuit includes a filter core including at least two spaced conductor layers, a plurality of peripherally spaced backside vias extending between the conductor layers defining a resonator cavity, at least one internal backside via, and a tunable impedance connected in series with the internal backside via between the conductor layers for adjusting the resonance of the cavity.
US09123982B2
A directional coupler is disclosed integrated on a single chip and an integrated circuit based on a standard CMOS process and relates to a field of radio frequency communication. In exemplary implementations, by using a standard CMOS process technology, the directional coupler integrated by a CMOS process is formed by a coil wound by a upper layer of metal lines, a coil wound by a lower layer of metal lines, two tuning capacitor array, and a matching resistor. Two terminals of the coil are a direct terminal and an input terminal; two terminals of the coil are a coupled terminal and an isolation terminal; the terminals of the coils and are intersected at 90°; the coil is wound by an upper metal layer and the coil is wound by a lower metal layer. Further, the insertion loss is low and the isolation degree is large.
US09123972B2
The invention relates to an ionic liquid electrolyte comprising at least one ionic liquid of formula C+A− wherein C+ represents a cation and A− represents an anion, and at least one conducting salt, characterized in that it further comprises at least one anionic surfactant. The invention also relates to an electrotechnical system, electrochemical accumulator and battery, and in particular, a lithium accumulator such as a button battery cell.
US09123971B2
The object of an exemplary embodiment of the invention is to provide a secondary battery with a high performance in which the generation of the swelling can be suppressed and in which the cycle property is excellent. An exemplary embodiment of the invention is a secondary battery, comprising an electrode assembly in which a positive electrode and a negative electrode are oppositely disposed, an electrolyte liquid, and a package which encloses the electrode assembly and the electrolyte liquid inside; wherein the negative electrode is formed by binding a negative electrode active substance, which comprises metal (a) that can be alloyed with lithium, metal oxide (b) that can absorb and desorb lithium ion, and carbon material (c) that can absorb and desorb lithium ion, to a negative electrode collector with at least one selected from polyimides and a polyamide-imides; and wherein the electrolyte liquid comprises a compound represented by any one of predetermined formulae.
US09123965B2
The present invention provides a method of synthesizing a nano-sized transition metal catalyst on a carbon support, including dissolving a stabilizer in ethanol thus preparing a mixture solution, adding a support to the mixture solution thus preparing a dispersion solution, dissolving a transition metal precursor in ethanol thus preparing a precursor solution, mixing the precursor solution with the dispersion solution with stirring, and then performing reduction, thus preparing the nano-sized transition metal catalyst. This method enables the synthesis of transition metal nanoparticles supported on carbon powder having a narrow particle size distribution and a wide degree of dispersion through a simple process, and is thus usefully applied to the formation of an electrode material or the like of a fuel cell.
US09123961B2
Provided are a three-dimensional net-like aluminum porous body in which the diameter of cells in the porous body is uneven in the thickness direction of the porous body; a current collector and an electrode each using the aluminum porous body; and methods for producing these members. The porous body is a three-dimensional net-like aluminum porous body in a sheet form, for a current collector, in which the diameter of cells in the porous body is uneven in the thickness direction of the porous body. When a cross section in the thickness direction of the three-dimensional net-like aluminum porous body is divided into three regions of a region 1, a region 2 and a region 3 in this order, the average cell diameter of the regions 1 and 3 is preferably different from the cell diameter of the region 2.
US09123958B2
Disclosed is a cathode active material for secondary batteries, comprising at least one compound selected from the following Formula 1: xLi2MO3*yLiM′O2*zLi3PO4 (1) wherein M is at least one element selected from 1 period or 2 period metals having an oxidation number of +4; M′ is at least one element selected from 1 period or 2 period metals having a mean oxidation number of +3; and 0.1≦x≦0.9, 0.1≦y≦0.9, 0
US09123956B2
The cell barrier for a rechargeable battery module of the present invention includes a metal body and an insulating layer disposed on the surface of the metal body. The cell barrier is interposed between unit cells to electrically insulate between the unit cells. The insulating layer is selected from the group consisting of a resin layer, an inorganic oxide layer, an anodized layer, and a composite layer thereof. The cell barrier also has channels to provide for additional cooling by a heat transfer medium. A single unit cell can also be used with a cell barrier disposed along the unit cell for insulation and cooling.
US09123955B2
A negative active material having controlled particle size distribution of silicon nanoparticles in a silicon-based alloy, a lithium battery including the negative active material, and a method of manufacturing the negative active material are disclosed. The negative active material may improve capacity and lifespan characteristics by inhibiting (or reducing) volumetric expansion of the silicon-based alloy. The negative active material may include a silicon-based alloy including: a silicon alloy-based matrix; and silicon nanoparticles distributed in the silicon alloy-based matrix, wherein a particle size distribution of the silicon nanoparticles satisfies D10≧10 nm and D90≦75 nm.
US09123953B2
A method for modifying a positive electrode material for a lithium-ion battery. The method includes: a) stirring a liquid polyacrylonitrile (LPAN) solution at the temperature of between 80 and 300° C. for between 8 and 72 h to yield a cyclized LPAN solution; b) adding positive electrode material for a lithium-ion battery, in a powder form, to the cyclized LPAN solution, and evenly mixing a resulting mixture; c) grinding the mixture, and drying the mixture at room temperature; and d) calcining the mixture at the temperature of between 500 and 1800° C. for between 6 and 24 h in the presence of an inert gas to form a graphene-like structure by the cyclized LPAN. The graphene-like structure is evenly distributed in the positive electrode material of the lithium-ion battery to yield a graphene-like structure modified positive electrode material of the lithium-ion battery.
US09123942B2
A method for making a separator of a lithium ion battery is provided. In the method, a modifier, and a porous membrane are provided. The modifier is a mixture of a phosphorus source having a phosphate radical, a trivalent aluminum source, and a metallic oxide provided in a liquid phase solvent. The modifier is coated on a surface of the porous membrane to form a coating layer. The coated porous membrane is dried to form a modifier layer disposed on the surface of the porous membrane.
US09123939B2
Anodes including mesoporous hollow silicon particles are disclosed herein. A method for synthesizing the mesoporous hollow silicon particles is also disclosed herein. In one example of the method, a silicon dioxide sphere having a silicon dioxide solid core and a silicon dioxide mesoporous shell is formed. The silicon dioxide mesoporous shell is converted to a silicon mesoporous shell using magnesium vapor. The silicon dioxide solid core, any residual silicon dioxide, and any magnesium-containing by-products are removed to form the mesoporous, hollow silicon particle.
US09123937B2
A fuel cell device having an exterior surface defining an interior ceramic support structure. An active zone is along an intermediate portion of the length for undergoing a fuel cell reaction, and opposing non-active end regions are along end portions extending away from the active zone without being heated. Fuel and oxidizer passages extend within the interior support structure from respective first and second inlets in respective ones of the opposing non-active end regions. The active zone has an anode associated with each of the fuel passages and a cathode associated with each of the oxidizer passages in opposing relation to a respective one of the anodes with an electrolyte therebetween. The opposing non-active end regions lack the anode and cathode in opposing relation so as to be incapable of undergoing a fuel cell reaction.
US09123936B2
[Means for Solution] A solid oxide fuel cell apparatus including a fuel cell having a plate-shaped first solid electrolyte, an anode provided on one side of the first solid electrolyte and coming in contact with fuel gas, and a cathode provided on the other side of the first solid electrolyte and coming in contact with oxidizer gas. The solid oxide fuel cell apparatus further includes a cell-follow-up deformation member located on at least one of opposite sides of the fuel cell with respect to a first stacking direction along which the anode, the first solid electrolyte, and the cathode are stacked together. The cell-follow-up deformation member deforms according to a deformation of the fuel cell on the basis of at least one of physical quantities including differential thermal expansion coefficient and differential pressure.
US09123935B2
A wireless communication accessory for a mobile communication device comprising: a casing that conforms, at least partially, to the outer shape of the mobile communication device; a processing circuit housed within the casing and configured to process a first data; and a wireless transmitter coupled to the processing circuit, where the transmitter is configured to transmit the first data. The wireless communication accessory may further comprise a wireless receiver that is configured to receive a second data from an external wireless device. The first data may be associated with any or all of the following: payment card information for processing purchase transactions; public transportation account information for processing travel credits on public transportation systems; and access card information for gaining access into restricted areas.
US09123932B2
A fuel cell membrane and a method of making the same. The membrane includes at least one non-reinforced layer and at least one reinforced layer. Both layers include a proton-conductive ionomer, while the reinforced layer additionally includes nanofiber-supported catalyst that improve mechanical and chemical durability of the membrane. The nanofiber-supported catalyst is made up of structural fibers onto which an electrocatalyst is coated, deposited or otherwise formed. The structural nanofibers give increased strength and stiffness to the layers that include them, while the electrocatalyst helps to resist electrochemical degradation to the membranes that include them. Such a membrane may form the basis of a fuel cell's membrane electrode assembly.
US09123929B2
A secondary battery includes an electrode assembly, a case and a tab film. The electrode assembly has first and second electrode tabs formed to protrude therefrom. The case accommodates the electrode assembly so that a portion of at least one of the first and second electrode tabs is exposed to an outside thereof, and has a sealing portion formed along an edge portion thereof. The tab film is formed to surround at least one of the first and second electrode tabs that come in contact with the sealing portion of the case. In the tab film, at least one region of the tab film is formed of a material having a melting point different from that of the other region. Accordingly, the explosion and fire of the secondary battery is prevented, thereby improving the safety of the secondary battery.
US09123928B2
The object of an exemplary embodiment of the invention is to provide a negative electrode having excellent cycle property. An exemplary embodiment of the invention a method for doping and dedoping lithium for the first time after a negative electrode for a lithium secondary battery comprising silicon oxide as an active material is produced, comprising doping the lithium within the following current value range (A) and within the following doped amount range (B); current value range (A): a range of a current value in which a doped amount in which only one peak appears at 1 V or less on the V-dQ/dV curve becomes maximum, wherein the V-dQ/dV curve represents a relationship between voltage V of the negative electrode with respect to a lithium reference electrode and dQ/dV that is a ratio of variation dQ of lithium dedoped amount Q in the negative electrode to variation dV of the voltage V, and doped amount range (B): a range of a doped amount in which only one peak appears at 1 V or less on the V-dQ/dV curve.
US09123927B2
A secondary battery that can induce an internal short circuit in accordance with a stimulus, for example, excessive internal pressure or temperature, is provided. The secondary battery includes an electrode assembly, a collecting plate electrically connected to the electrode assembly and having a short circuit hole, a short circuit member including a short circuit plate installed in the short circuit hole, a case accommodating the electrode assembly and the collecting plate and having an opening, and a cap assembly including a cap plate sealing the opening of the case. The short circuit plate faces the cap plate.
US09123926B2
A secondary battery including: an electrode assembly including two electrode taps; and a cap assembly including a terminal plate. The terminal plate includes a tap connecting portion that is laser welded to one of the electrode taps. The tap connecting portion includes a curved portion that has an apex that extends along the length of the terminal plate, to which the one electrode tap is welded.
US09123923B2
Disclosed is use of a porous membrane and a composite membrane thereof in a redox flow batteries, and in particular the use thereof in a vanadium redox flow battery. The membrane can effectively realize the separation of ions with different valence states, and an ion transfer without any ion exchange group. The pore size and structure of the porous membrane can be controlled by filling an inorganic substance or grafting an ion exchange group in the pore, in order to improve the barrier properties of the porous membrane for vanadium ions and to increase proton conductivity.
US09123920B2
A fuel cell separator material, comprising an alloy layer 6 containing Au and a first component containing Al, Cr, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Mo, Sn or Bi, or an Au single layer 8 formed on a Ti base 2; an intermediate layer 2a containing Ti, O, the first component, and less than 20 mass % of Au arranged between the alloy layer or the Au single layer and the Ti base; wherein the alloy layer or the Au single layer has a region having a thickness of 1 nm or more from the uppermost to the lower layer and containing 50 mass % or more of Au, or a region having a thickness of 3 nm or more from the uppermost to the lower layer and containing Au in the range from 10-50 mass %, or the thickness of the Au single layer is 1 nm or more.
US09123917B2
The present invention relates to a solid oxide fuel cell, which includes a plurality of unit cells and a connection layer between the plurality of unit cells, wherein each of the unit cells includes an anode, a cathode and a solid electrolyte between the anode and the cathode, and the connection layer includes i) a first layer containing La-ferrite including one or more selected from the group consisting of Sr, Ca and Ba; and ii) a second layer containing La-ferrite including one or more selected from the group consisting of Sr, Ca and Ba, and one or more cerias selected from the group consisting of GDC (Gd doped ceria), LDC (La-doped ceria) and SDC (Sm-doped ceria), wherein the first layer is in contact with the cathode of each of the unit cells and the second layer is in contact with the anode of each of the unit cells.
US09123900B2
A host material is disclosed. The host material, as a compound which is represented by the following formula 1, has a chemical structure in which nitrogen and silicon atoms are chemically and directly bonded to each other. Wherein the “a” is one selected from a material group which includes N, S, O, SO2 and NSiG1G2G3, and the “G1, G2 and G3” each become one of a hydrogen, and aromatic, heterocyclic and aliphatic groups which are or not substituted, respectively.
US09123891B2
A variable-resistance material memory (VRMM) device includes a container conductor disposed over an epitaxial semiconductive prominence that is coupled to a VRMM. A VRMM device may also include a conductive plug in a recess that is coupled to a VRMM. A VRMM array may also include a conductive plug in a surrounding recess that is coupled to a VRMM. Apparatuses include the VRMM with one of the diode constructions.
US09123890B2
A reversible resistance-switching memory cell has multiple narrow, spaced apart bottom electrode structures. The raised structures can be formed by coating a bottom electrode layer with nano-particles and etching the bottom electrode layer. The raised structures can be independent or joined to one another at a bottom of the bottom electrode layer. A resistance-switching material is provided between and above the bottom electrode structure, followed by a top electrode layer. Or, insulation is provided between and above the bottom electrode structures, and the resistance-switching material and top electrode layer are above the insulation. Less than one-third of a cross-sectional area of each resistance-switching memory cell is consumed by the one or more raised structures. When the resistance state of the memory cell is switched, there is a smaller area in the bottom electrode for a current path, so the switching resistance is higher and the switching current is lower.
US09123883B2
A vibration device includes a semiconductor device, a first electrode and a second electrode located in a first surface of the semiconductor device, a vibration element, a third electrode and a fourth electrode located in a first surface of the vibration element, a first connection section that connects the first electrode and the third electrode, and a second connection section that connects the second electrode and the fourth electrode. The semiconductor device and the vibration element have mutually different thermal expansion coefficients. The vibration element has a coupling section located between the third electrode and the fourth electrode, and the coupling section has at least one bend section located between the third electrode and the fourth electrode.
US09123879B2
According to one embodiment, a magnetoresistive element is disclosed. The magnetoresistive element includes a reference layer, a tunnel barrier layer, a storage layer. The storage layer includes a first region and a second region provided outside the first region to surround the first region, the second region including element included in the first region and another element being different from the element. The magnetoresistive element further includes a cap layer including a third region and a fourth region provided outside the third region to surround the third region, the fourth region including an element included in the third region and the another element.
US09123875B2
A thin film magnetoresistive sensor for detecting a magnetic field components perpendicular and parallel to the plane of the sensor substrate is disclosed. The sensing element comprises a free layer, a reference layer, and a spacer layer between the free layer and the reference layer. The easy-axis magnetization inherent to the material of the free layer is arranged to be perpendicular to the plane of the sensor substrate. The magnetization direction of the reference layer is confined to a direction parallel to the substrate plane. The reference layer consists of a ferromagnetic layer exchange coupled to an antiferromagnetic layer, or consists of a ferromagnetic layer having a higher coercive force than that of the free layer. The spacer layer is composed of an insulating material or a conductive material. The magnetoresistive sensor further includes an array of aforementioned sensing elements coupled to an electronic device to provide three-axis sensing.
US09123871B1
A method of manufacturing a light emitting diode (LED) package may include forming a light emitting structure having a first conductivity-type semiconductor layer, an active layer and a second conductivity-type semiconductor layer on a growth substrate, forming first and second electrodes connected to the first and second conductivity-type semiconductor layers, respectively, bonding a first surface of a light transmissive substrate opposite to a second surface thereof to the light emitting structure, identifying positions of the first and second electrodes that are seen through the second surface of the light transmissive substrate, forming one or more through holes in the light transmissive substrate to correspond to the first and second electrodes, and forming first and second via electrodes by filling the through holes with a conductive material.
US09123868B2
A light emitting element includes a transparent substrate and a plurality of light emitting diode (LED) chips. The transparent substrate has a support surface and a second main surface disposed opposite to each other. At least some of the LED chips are disposed on the support surface and form a first main surface where light emitted from with a part of the support surface without the LED chips. Each of the LED chips includes a first electrode and a second electrode. Light emitted from at least one of the LED chips passes through the transparent substrate and emerges from the second main surface. An illumination device includes the light emitting element and a supporting base. The light emitting element is disposed on the supporting base, and an angle is formed between the light emitting element and the supporting base.
US09123860B2
A solar cell module comprises a solar cell soldered to a mounting element, such as a ceramic substrate. The solder bond can comprise a void. A method of reducing a solder void comprises reflowing the solder using a vacuum source and a heat source in a sealed chamber. The chamber is formed, at least in part, by a cowling into which the solar cell module is mounted. A system for reducing voids in a solder bond comprises a heat source and a vacuum source coupled to the sealed chamber into which a solar cell module is placed. The system can optionally include a control system that automates the execution of methods of reducing solder voids. The system can further include a pressure source to aid in reducing the solder void and reflowing the solder after the void is reduced.
US09123849B2
Some photovoltaic cells have a front face accepting incoming incident light and opaque gridlines overlying part of the front face, electrically bonded to the face, with upper reflective facets oblique to the plane of the front face and producing outgoing reflected light. An optical interface parallel to and in front of the front face transmits incoming light to the front face and to the gridlines and reflects back towards the front face by total internal reflection at least some of the outgoing reflected light. Some photovoltaic devices have a triple junction photovoltaic cell, a single junction photovoltaic cell, and a reflective surface arranged to distribute incoming light between the cells. The surface may be a frequency-selective mirror that apportions light so when the cells are in series the power produced, and preferably the photocurrent, is greater than if all the light fell on the triple junction cell alone.
US09123845B2
A solar panel cleaning device includes a solar panel having a plurality of photovoltaic cells arranged in rows and embedded in the solar panel with space between the rows. A transparent dielectric overlay is affixed to the solar panel. A plurality of electrode pairs each of which includes an upper and a lower electrode are arranged on opposite sides of the transparent dielectric and are affixed thereto. The electrodes may be transparent electrodes which may be arranged without concern for blocking sunlight to the solar panel. The solar panel may be a dielectric and its dielectric properties may be continuously and spatially variable. Alternatively the dielectric used may have dielectric segments which produce different electrical field and which affects the wind “generated.”
US09123830B2
Provided is a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device that has a plurality of semiconductor components and a plurality of resin layers, the method including: a step in which resin layers and semiconductor components are laminated alternately on a substrate, and the same is adhered by being subjected to heating and pressurization at a temperature lower than the temperature at which the substrate and/or a solder layer of the semiconductor components melts; and a step in which heat and pressure are applied at a temperature at which the solder layer melts or a temperature higher than said temperature.
US09123827B2
A method for fabricating an integrated circuit includes providing a semiconductor substrate including a gate electrode structure thereon and sidewall spacers along sidewalls of the gate electrode structure to a first height along the sidewalls, forming a planarizing carbon-based polymer layer over the gate electrode structure and over the sidewall spacers, and etching a portion of the optical planarization layer to expose a top portion the gate electrode structure. Further, the method includes etching an upper portion of the sidewall spacers selective to the gate electrode structure so as to expose the sidewalls of the upper portion of the gate electrode structure and depositing a silicide-forming material over the top portion of the gate electrode structure and the sidewalls of the upper portion of the gate electrode structure. Still further, the method includes annealing the silicide-forming material.
US09123826B1
A method of forming a semiconductor structure includes forming a first fin and a second fin on a substrate. A gate structure is formed over a first portion of the first fin and the second fin without covering a second portion of the first fin and the second fin. Single-crystal epitaxial layers are deposited surrounding the second portion of the first fin and the second fin such that the single-crystal epitaxial layer on the first fin does not contact the single-crystal epitaxial layer on the second fin. A polycrystalline layer is then deposited surrounding the single-crystal epitaxial layers, so that the polycrystalline layer contacts the single-crystal epitaxial layer on the first fin and the single-crystal epitaxial layer on the second fin. The single-crystal epitaxial layers and the polycrystalline layer form a merged source-drain region.
US09123823B2
According to embodiment, a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device, includes: a memory cell region; and a peripheral region, the memory cell region including: a semiconductor layer including semiconductor regions; control gate electrodes; a first insulating film; a semiconductor-containing layer having a smaller thickness than the first insulating film; and a second insulating film, the peripheral region including: the semiconductor layer; a third insulating film; the semiconductor-containing layer, and a periphery of the semiconductor-containing layer being surrounded by an element isolation region; the first insulating film provided on the semiconductor-containing layer; and a pair of conductive layers extending from a surface of the first insulating film to reach the third insulating film via the semiconductor-containing layer, and the pair of conductive layers being in contact with part of a lower surface of the semiconductor-containing layer.
US09123818B2
Exemplary embodiments provide compositions for a solution process, electronic devices fabricated using the same, and fabrication methods thereof. An oxide nano-structure is formed using a sol-gel process. An oxide thin film transistor is formed using the oxide nano-structure.
US09123816B2
A thin film transistor (TFT) array substrate including a first element layer on the substrate including a first TFT, a first planarization layer configured to cover the first element layer, and a second element layer on the first planarization layer including a capacitor.
US09123814B2
A field effect device comprises a substrate of semiconductor on insulator type successively provided with a support substrate, an electrically insulating layer and a semiconductor material film. First and second source/drain electrodes are formed in the semiconductor material layer. A conduction channel is formed in the semiconductor material layer and separates the first and second source/drain electrodes. A counter-electrode is formed in the support substrate and faces the first and second source/drain electrodes and the conduction channel. The counter-electrode is formed by a doped area of the support substrate having a first doping impurity concentration which decreases from an interface between the electrically insulating layer and the support substrate.
US09123813B2
A thin film transistor, an array substrate including the thin film transistor and a display device. The thin film transistor includes: a gate electrode (100), a gate insulating layer (200), an active layer (300) and a source/drain layer (400) that are successively stacked. The source/drain layer (400) comprises a source electrode (401) and a drain electrode (402) with a gap therebetween, and the active layer (300) forms a channel (301) in a region corresponding to the gap. The gate electrode (100) has a gate electrode protrusion (101) on at least one side of the channel (301) in its width direction; and the gate insulating layer (200) covers the gate electrode (100) and the gate electrode protrusion (101).
US09123807B2
An apparatus is disclosed to increase a reduced a parasitic capacitance of a semiconductor device. The semiconductor device includes a modified gate region to effectively reduce an overlap capacitance and modified well regions to effectively reduce a junction capacitance. The modified gate region includes a doped region and an undoped to decrease an effective area of the overlap capacitance. The modified well regions are separated by a substantially horizontal distance to increase an effective distance of the junction capacitance. This decrease in the effective area of the overlap capacitance and this increase in the effective distance of the junction capacitance reduces the parasitic capacitance of the semiconductor device.
US09123804B2
A device includes a semiconductor substrate, source and drain regions in the semiconductor substrate and having a first conductivity type, a gate structure supported by the semiconductor substrate between the source and drain regions, a first well region in the semiconductor substrate, having a second conductivity type, and in which a channel region is formed under the gate structure during operation, and a second well region adjacent the first well region, having the second conductivity type, and having a higher dopant concentration than the first well region, to establish a path to carry charge carriers of the second conductivity type away from a parasitic bipolar transistor involving a junction between the channel region and the source region.
US09123801B2
A semiconductor device includes a transistor in a semiconductor substrate having a first main surface. The transistor includes a source region, a drain region, a channel region, a drift zone, and a gate electrode adjacent to at least two sides of the channel region. The channel region and the drift zone are disposed along a first direction parallel to the first main surface, between the source region and the drain region. The semiconductor device further includes a conductive layer beneath the gate electrode and insulated from the gate electrode.
US09123798B2
An insulating gate field effect transistor (IGFET) device includes a semiconductor body and a gate oxide. The semiconductor body includes a first well region doped with a first type of dopant and a second well region that is doped with an oppositely charged second type of dopant and is located within the first well region. The gate oxide includes an outer section and an interior section having different thickness dimensions. The outer section is disposed over the first well region and the second well region of the semiconductor body. The interior section is disposed over a junction gate field effect transistor region of the semiconductor body. The semiconductor body is configured to form a conductive channel through the second well region and the junction gate field effect transistor region when a gate signal is applied to a gate contact disposed on the gate oxide.
US09123796B2
A semiconductor device includes a gate electrode, source regions and drain regions, a body contact region, and a body bias control electrode. The gate electrode includes a plurality of first portions arranged in parallel with a first distance therebetween, and a second portion connecting the plurality of first portions. The source regions and the drain regions are provided between the plurality of first portions. The body contact region is disposed on the other side of the source regions and the drain regions relative to the second portion. The body bias control electrode is provided on the body contact region in parallel with the second portion at a second distance from the second portion that is greater than the first distance, and is electrically connected to the body contact region.
US09123792B2
A semiconductor device includes: a nitride semiconductor layer; a first silicon nitride film that is formed on the nitride semiconductor layer, has a first opening whose inner wall is a forward tapered shape; a second silicon nitride film that is formed on the first silicon nitride film, and has a second opening whose inner wall is an inverse tapered shape; and a gate electrode formed so as to cover the whole surface of the nitride semiconductor layer exposed on the inside of the first opening; wherein a side wall of the gate electrode separates from the first silicon nitride film and the second silicon nitride film via a cavity.
US09123786B2
A means for selectively electrically connecting an electrical interconnect line, such as a bit line of a memory cell, with an associated contact stud and electrically isolating the interconnect line from other partially underlying contact studs for other electrical features, such as capacitor bottom electrodes. The interconnect line can be formed partially-connected to all contact studs, thereby allowing the electrical features to be formed in closer proximity to one another for higher levels of integration, and in subsequent steps of fabrication, the contact studs associated with memory cell features other than the interconnect line can be isolated from the interconnect line by the removal of a silicide cap, or the selective etching of a portion of these contact studs, and the formation of an insulating sidewall between the non-selected contact stud and the interconnect line.
US09123785B1
Copper can be etched with selectivity to Ta/TaN barrier liner and SiC hardmask layers, for example, to reduce the potential copper contamination. The copper film can be recessed more than the liner to further enhance the protection. Wet etch solutions including a mixture of HF and HCl can be used for selective etching copper with respect to the liner material, for example, the copper film can be recessed between 2 and 3 nm, and the barrier liner film can be recessed between 1.5 and 2 nm.
US09123777B2
A method for fabricating a micro electro device includes forming a conductive pattern on a substrate, forming an organic insulating film on a whole surface of the substrate with an organic insulating material to cover the conductive pattern, preparing a printing plate coated with an insulating film removing material, and forming a contact hole by removing a first portion of the organic insulating film through making the insulating film removing material come in contact with the first portion of the organic insulating film that corresponds to the conductive pattern, and forming a contact in the contact hole.
US09123772B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide an improved method for fabrication of fin field effect transistors (finFETs). Sacrificial regions are formed on a semiconductor substrate. Spacers are formed adjacent to two sides of the sacrificial regions. Fins are formed based on the spacers. One set of spacers is treated as dummy spacers, and is removed prior to fin formation, leaving the other set of spacers to be used for forming fins on the final semiconductor structure. All the fins on the final semiconductor structure are formed from spacers on one side of the sacrificial material. This reduces variation in width of the fins.
US09123762B2
Apparatus for processing a substrate is disclosed herein. In some embodiments, a substrate support may include a substrate support having a support surface for supporting a substrate the substrate support having a central axis; a first electrode disposed within the substrate support to provide RF power to a substrate when disposed on the support surface; an inner conductor coupled to the first electrode about a center of a surface of the first electrode opposing the support surface, wherein the inner conductor is tubular and extends from the first electrode parallel to and about the central axis in a direction away from the support surface of the substrate support; an outer conductor disposed about the inner conductor; and an outer dielectric layer disposed between the inner and outer conductors, the outer dielectric layer electrically isolating the outer conductor from the inner conductor. The outer conductor may be coupled to electrical ground.
US09123758B2
Methods and apparatus for mixing and delivery of process gases are provided herein. In some embodiments, a gas injection apparatus includes an elongate top plenum comprising a first gas inlet; an elongate bottom plenum disposed beneath and supporting the top plenum, the bottom plenum comprising a second gas inlet; a plurality of first conduits disposed through the bottom plenum and having first ends fluidly coupled to the top plenum and second ends disposed beneath the bottom plenum; and a plurality of second conduits having first ends fluidly coupled to the bottom plenum and second ends disposed beneath the bottom plenum; wherein a lower end of the bottom plenum is adapted to fluidly couple the gas injection apparatus to a mixing chamber such that the second ends of the plurality of first conduits and the second ends of the plurality of second conduits are in fluid communication with the mixing chamber.
US09123752B2
A method of producing a functional device according to the present invention includes, in this order: the functional solid material precursor layer formation step of applying a functional liquid material onto a base material to form a precursor layer of a functional solid material; the drying step of heating the precursor layer to a first temperature in a range from 80° C. to 250° C. to preliminarily decrease fluidity of the precursor layer; the imprinting step of imprinting the precursor layer that is heated to a second temperature in a range from 80° C. to 300° C. to form an imprinted structure on the precursor layer; and the functional solid material layer formation step of heat treating the precursor layer at a third temperature higher than the second temperature to transform the precursor layer into a functional solid material layer.
US09123744B1
A method for fabricating a semiconductor device is described. A spacer is formed on a sidewall of a fin structure. A portion of the fin structure is removed to form a cavity exposing at least a portion of the inner sidewall of the spacer. An epitaxy process is performed based on the remaining fin structure to form a semiconductor layer that has a shovel-shaped cross section including: a stem portion in the cavity, and a shovel plane portion contiguous with the stem portion. A semiconductor device is also described, which includes the spacer, the remaining fin structure and the semiconductor layer that are mentioned above.
US09123741B2
A III-V semiconductor device on a silicon substrate is constructed with a silicon (Si) substrate onto which gallium arsenide (GaAs) indium phosphide (InP) and aluminum indium arsenide (AlInAs) to form a structure of AlInAs over InP over GaAs over Si. The GaAs is applied in at least one layer over the Si, followed by at least one layer of InP and at least one layer of AlInAs. A portion of the structure is doped and a cap or passivation layer is applied.
US09123738B1
In a transmission line via structure, a plurality of sub-structures are stacked in a via through the substrate along a longitudinal axis thereof. Each of the sub-structures includes a center conductor portion, an outer conductor portion, and at least one dielectric support member. The center conductor portion extends along the longitudinal axis. The outer conductor portion is disposed around the center conductor portion. The dielectric support member(s) separate the outer conductor portion and the center conductor portion and provide a non-solid volume between the outer conductor portion and the center conductor portion. Conductive paste is disposed between the center and outer conductor portions of successive ones of the plurality of sub-structures to form an outer conductor and a center conductor.
US09123734B2
The present invention relates to a semiconductor-encapsulating adhesive, a semiconductor-encapsulating film-form adhesive, a method for producing a semiconductor device, and a semiconductor device. The present invention provides a semiconductor-encapsulating adhesive comprising (a) an epoxy resin, and (b) a compound formed of an organic acid reactive with an epoxy resin and a curing accelerator.
US09123728B2
A semiconductor device includes an insulation film formed above a semiconductor substrate, a conductor containing Cu formed in the insulation film, and a layer film formed between the insulation film and the conductor and formed of a first metal film containing Ti and a second metal film different from the first metal film, a layer containing Ti and Si is formed on the surface of the conductor.
US09123726B2
A method of forming a wiring structure for an integrated circuit device includes forming a first metal line within an interlevel dielectric (ILD) layer, and forming a second metal line in the ILD layer adjacent the first metal line; masking selected regions of the first and second metal lines; selectively plating metal cap regions over exposed regions of the first and second metal lines at periodic intervals such that a spacing between adjacent metal cap regions of an individual metal line corresponds to a critical length, L, at which a back stress gradient balances an electromigration force in the individual metal line, so as to suppress mass transport of electrons; and wherein the metal cap regions of the first metal line are formed at staggered locations with respect to the metal cap regions of the second metal line, along a common longitudinal axis.
US09123718B1
A shielded package includes a shield assembly having a shield fence, a shield lid, and a shield lid adhesive electrically coupling the shield lid to the shield fence. The shield fence includes a porous sidewall through which molding compound passes during molding of the shielded package. Further, the shield fence includes a central aperture through which an electronic component is die attached and wire bonded.
US09123717B2
According to one embodiment, a semiconductor device manufacturing method includes: bonding a first wafer and a second wafer to each other, to form a stack; rubbing a film attached with a fill material in a thin-film shape into a gap located between a bevel of the first wafer and a bevel of the second wafer, to fill the gap with the fill material; and thinning the first wafer.
US09123715B2
A method of hermetically sealing a glass assembly comprising glass plates or substrates with a glass-based frit when there is a large difference between the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTEs) of the frit and the CTEs of the glass plates. The method comprises a rapid increase of an irradiating heat source, used to heat and soften the frit, from a non-sealing power to a sealing power over a very short distance along the frit to form an initial stabilizing seal between the substrates.
US09123711B2
A wiring member includes a first leg portion, a second leg portion, a third leg portion, a first connecting wall and a second connecting wall. The first leg portion is electrically connected to a first conductive portion. The second leg portion is electrically connected to a second conductive portion. The third leg portion is electrically connected to a third conductive portion. The first connecting wall connects the first leg portion and the second leg portion. The second connecting wall connects the second leg portion and the third leg portion. The first leg portion, the second leg portion, and the third leg portion are non-linearly arranged.
US09123709B2
According to one embodiment, a first frame includes a first thin plate section and a first thick plate section. A second frame includes a second thin plate section and a second thick plate section. A semiconductor chip includes a first electrode bonded to a first inner surface of the first thin plate section of the first frame, and a second electrode bonded to a second inner surface of the second thick plate section of the second frame. A resin layer seals the semiconductor chip, but leaves exposed the first outer surface of the first frame and the second outer surface of the second frame.
US09123702B2
Methods and devices for connecting a through via and a terminal of a transistor formed of a strained silicon material are provided. The terminal, which can be a source or a drain of a NMOS or a PMOS transistor, is formed within a substrate. A first contact within a first inter-layer dielectric (ILD) layer over the substrate is formed over and connected to the terminal. A through via extends through the first ILD layer into the substrate. A second contact is formed over and connected to the first contact and the through via within a second ILD layer and a contact etch stop layer (CESL). The second ILD layer is over the CESL, and the CESL is over the first ILD layer, which are all below a first inter-metal dielectric (IMD) layer and the first metal layer of the transistor.
US09123698B2
Methods, systems, and apparatuses are described for cooling electronic devices. The electrical device includes an integrated circuit die (IC) having opposing first and second surfaces, a plurality of interconnects on the second surface of the IC die that enable the IC die to be coupled to a substrate, and a flexural plate wave device. The flexural plate wave device is configured to generate a stream of air to flow across the electrical device to cool the IC die during operation of the IC die.
US09123695B2
Provided are a nanowire field-effect transistor and a method for manufacturing the same. The nanowire field-effect transistor can enable a source region to be positioned, with respect to an asymmetrical nanowire channel, adjacent to a region in which the diameter of the nanowire channel is large, can enable a drain region to be positioned adjacent to a region in which the diameter of the nanowire channel is small, can enable an ON current to be increased in a state in which a threshold voltage level is kept the same, and can enable the current drivability of a gate electrode to be improved.
US09123694B2
The present disclosure provides a device having a doped active region disposed in a substrate. The doped active region having an elongate shape and extends in a first direction. The device also includes a plurality of first metal gates disposed over the active region such that the first metal gates each extend in a second direction different from the first direction. The plurality of first metal gates includes an outer-most first metal gate having a greater dimension measured in the second direction than the rest of the first metal gates. The device further includes a plurality of second metal gates disposed over the substrate but not over the doped active region. The second metal gates contain different materials than the first metal gates. The second metal gates each extend in the second direction and form a plurality of respective N/P boundaries with the first metal gates.
US09123685B2
Microelectronic packages and methods for fabricating microelectronic packages are provided. In one embodiment, the method includes forming one or more redistribution layers over an encapsulated die having a frontside bond pad area and a frontside passivated non-bond pad area. The redistribution layers are formed to have a frontside opening over the non-bond pad area of the encapsulated die. A primary heat sink body is provided in the frontside opening and thermally coupled to the encapsulated die. A contact array is formed over the redistribution layers and is electrically coupled to a plurality bond pads located on the frontside bond pad area of the encapsulated die.
US09123677B2
An organic light-emitting display apparatus includes an emission pixel in a display area and a spare pixel circuit in a repair area outside the display area. The emission pixels includes a plurality of sub emission pixels each including a driving unit for generating a driving current corresponding to input data signals and an emission device for emitting light by using the driving current. The spare pixel circuit is coupled to a repair line that is coupled to the emission device of one of the sub emission pixels. The spare pixel circuit includes a plurality of driving transistors corresponding to the plurality of sub emission pixels.
US09123674B2
A display unit includes: a first substrate including a plurality of light-emission devices in a display region, the plurality of light-emission devices each including an organic layer between a first electrode and a second electrode; a second substrate disposed to face the first substrate with the light-emission devices interposed therebetween; a first peripheral electrode provided on the second substrate and positioned outside the display region; a first wiring provided on the second substrate and configured to be electrically connected to the first peripheral electrode; and a first connection section configured to electrically connect the first wiring and each of the light-emission devices.
US09123669B2
A display unit is provided. The display unit includes a plurality of pixels having first to third sub-pixels each of which corresponds to respective colors of red, green, and blue, and a fourth sub-pixel exhibiting higher luminance than the first to third sub-pixels. In each of the pixels, the first to fourth sub-pixels have light-emitting devices. In the first to third sub-pixels, color filters are provided, and in the fourth sub-pixel, the transmittance of light emitted from the light-emitting device is configured to be reduced at a partial or whole region of the fourth sub-pixel. A difference in the transmittance among the first to third sub-pixels having the color filters and the fourth sub-pixel having no color filter is reduced to ensure an excellent luminance balance, which makes it easy to represent desired chromaticity.
US09123668B2
An electronic device may include a display having an array of organic light-emitting diode display pixels that produce light that forms an image. Color filter elements may be used to allow the display to present color images. Each display pixel may have a red subpixel, a blue subpixel, a green subpixel, and a white subpixel. To adjust the color coordinates of the white pixel and thereby ensure that the light from the white pixel has a desired white point, part of the white subpixel may be overlapped by an area of colored color filter material. The white subpixel may, for example have a rectangular white area within which a patch of blue color filter material may be provided to make the white light from the white subpixel more bluish than it would be without the patch of blue color filter material.
US09123663B2
A shielded semiconductor device is made by mounting semiconductor die to a first substrate. An encapsulant is formed over the semiconductor die and first substrate. A dicing channel is formed through the encapsulant between the semiconductor die. A hole is drilled in the first substrate along the dicing channel on each side of the semiconductor die. A shielding layer is formed over the encapsulant and semiconductor die. The hole is lined with the shielding layer. The first substrate is singulated to separate the semiconductor die. The first substrate is mounted to a second substrate. A metal pillar is formed in the opening to electrically connect the shielding layer to a ground plane in the second substrate. The metal pillar includes a hook for a mechanically secure connection to the shielding layer. An interconnect structure is formed on the first substrate to electrically connect the semiconductor die to the second substrate.
US09123645B2
Embodiments include methods of making semiconductor devices with low leakage Schottky contacts. An embodiment includes providing a partially completed semiconductor device including a substrate, a semiconductor on the substrate, and a passivation layer on the semiconductor, and using a first mask, locally etching the passivation layer to expose a portion of the semiconductor. Without removing the first mask, a Schottky contact is formed of a first material on the exposed portion of the semiconductor, and the mask is removed. Using a further mask, a step-gate conductor of a second material electrically coupled to the Schottky contact is formed overlying parts of the passivation layer adjacent to the Schottky contact. By minimizing the process steps between opening the Schottky contact window in the passivation layer and forming the Schottky contact material in this window, the gate leakage of a resulting field effect device having a Schottky gate may be substantially reduced.
US09123644B2
A semiconductor device includes a gate insulating film formed on a semiconductor substrate; a first conductive metal-containing film formed on the gate insulating film; a second conductive metal-containing film, formed on the first metal-containing film, to which aluminum is added; and a silicon film formed on the second metal-containing film.
US09123642B1
A device including both drain extended metal-on-semiconductor (DE_MOS) and low-voltage metal-on-semiconductor (LV_MOS) transistors and methods of manufacturing the same are provided. In one embodiment, the method includes implanting ions of a first-type at a first energy level in a drain portion of a first DE_MOS transistor in a DE_MOS region of a substrate to form the first DE_MOS transistor, and implanting ions of the first-type at a second energy level in a LV_MOS region of the substrate adjust a voltage threshold of a first LV_MOS transistor, while concurrently implanting ions of the first-type at the second energy level in the drain portion of the first DE_MOS transistor to form a drain extension of the first DE_MOS transistor. Other embodiments are also provided.
US09123637B2
A semiconductor epitaxial structure is provided, which includes: a nitride nucleation layer, formed on a substrate including silicon, sapphire, patterned sapphire substrate (PSS) or silicon carbide, a nitride layer on the nitride nucleation layer and an multi-layer structure in the nitride layer. The multi-layer structure includes a first intermediate layer and a second intermediate layer formed on the first intermediate layer. The first intermediate layer includes AlGaN, the second intermediate layer includes AlGaN or aluminum nitride, and the average composition of Al in the first intermediate layer is less than that in the second intermediate layer. A method for forming a semiconductor epitaxial structure is provided. The semiconductor epitaxial structure according to the present disclosure can not decrease the crystalline quality when a compressive stress is introduced, which may avoid a crack phenomenon or quality degradation caused by the change of temperature.
US09123634B2
Disclosed is a method for yield enhancement of making a semiconductor device. The method for yield enhancement of making a semiconductor device comprises the steps of: providing the semiconductor device comprising an epitaxial layer including a defect; forming a dielectric layer on the epitaxial layer; detecting and identifying a location of the defect; and etching the dielectric layer and leaving a part of the dielectric layer to cover an area substantially corresponding to the detected defect. The semiconductor device made by the method is also disclosed.
US09123630B2
A stacked die package includes a package substrate, a first die mounted on the package substrate and electrically connected to the package substrate, a second die electrically connected to the package substrate, and an interposer mounted on the package substrate and including a plurality of vertical electrical connection means electrically connecting the package substrate to the second die. At least part of the first die is disposed between the second die and the package substrate in a vertical direction.
US09123613B2
An image sensor, for example for incorporation within an active matrix display, comprises an array of sensor elements 10. Each sensor element (10) comprise an amplifying transistor (M1) whose gate is connected to an integrating node (11). The integrating node (11) is connected to one plate of an integrating capacitor (C1) and to one electrode of a photodiode (D1), whose other electrode is connected to a resetting line (RST). The sensor element (10) performs a repeating sensing cycle comprising a resetting phase, an integrating phase and a reading phase. During the resetting phase, the resetting line (RST) receives a voltage which forward-biases the photodiode (D1) so as to charge the integrating node (11) to a predetermined voltage. The resetting line (RST) is then returned to a voltage for reverse-biasing the photodiode (D1) so that the integrating and reading phases may be performed.
US09123610B2
In an image sensing apparatus having a plurality of unit cells, each including a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements and a common circuit shared by the plurality of photoelectric conversion elements, arranged in either one or two dimensions, the plurality of photoelectric conversion elements are arranged at a predetermined interval.
US09123592B1
An array substrate is disclosed. The array substrate comprises a substrate, a plurality of common electrodes formed on the substrate, a plurality of gate signal lines formed above the common electrodes, and a plurality of common electrode signal line units corresponding to the plurality of common electrodes, respectively. The plurality of common electrode signal line units are formed on the corresponding common electrodes, respectively. Each of the common electrode signal line units comprises a first common electrode signal line perpendicular to the gate signal line and a second common electrode signal line parallel to the gate signal line. The first and second common electrode signal lines are made of metal and cross with each other and are electrically connected to each other. Two adjacent common electrode signal line units are electrically connected by a bridge line. The present disclosure also relates to a method for manufacturing the array substrate and a display apparatus.
US09123589B2
A display substrate includes a data line, a main gate line, and a first sub-pixel electrode formed on a base substrate. The display substrate further includes a first switching element connected to the data line. The display substrate further includes a second switching element connected to the data line, the main gate line, and a second sub-pixel electrode spaced apart from the first sub-pixel electrode. The display substrate further includes a third switching element connected to the data line and a secondary gate line adjacent to the main gate line. The display substrate further includes a shielding line spaced apart from the first and second sub-pixel electrodes, the shielding line overlapping the data line and receiving a reference voltage. The display substrate further includes an auxiliary electrode extending from the shielding line and overlapping an end electrode connected to the third switching element.
US09123581B2
An object of the present invention is to provide a semiconductor device which can obtain the high potential necessary for writing data to a memory, using a small circuit area. In the present invention, by using as input voltage of a booster circuit not the conventionally used output VDD of a regulator circuit 104, but rather an output VDD0 of a rectifier circuit portion 103, which is a higher potential than the VDD, the high potential necessary for writing data to a memory can be obtained with a small circuit area.
US09123572B2
An anti-fuse memory cell having a variable thickness gate oxide. The variable thickness gate oxide is formed by depositing a first oxide over a channel region of the anti-fuse memory cell, removing the first oxide in a thin oxide area of the channel region, and then thermally growing a second oxide in the thin oxide area. The remaining first oxide defines a thick oxide area of the channel region. The second oxide growth occurs under the remaining first oxide, but at a rate less than thermal oxide growth in the thin oxide area. This results in a combined thickness of the first oxide and the second oxide in the thick oxide area being greater than second oxide in the thin oxide area.
US09123567B2
CMOS implementation of germanium and III-V nanowires and nanoribbons in gate-all-around architecture
Architectures and techniques for co-integration of heterogeneous materials, such as group III-V semiconductor materials and group IV semiconductors (e.g., Ge) on a same substrate (e.g. silicon). In embodiments, multi-layer heterogeneous semiconductor material stacks having alternating nanowire and sacrificial layers are employed to release nanowires and permit formation of a coaxial gate structure that completely surrounds a channel region of the nanowire transistor. In embodiments, individual PMOS and NMOS channel semiconductor materials are co-integrated with a starting substrate having a blanket layers of alternating Ge/III-V layers. In embodiments, vertical integration of a plurality of stacked nanowires within an individual PMOS and individual NMOS device enable significant drive current for a given layout area.
US09123563B2
A method of forming a contact structure of a gate structure is provided. In the method, an oxidation layer and a first sidewall layer disposed between a first metal gate and a second metal gate are etched to expose an underlying silicon substrate. A silicide portion defined by a contact profile is deposited in the exposed portion of the silicon substrate. A second sidewall layer substantially covers the first sidewall layer and at least partially covering the silicide portion is formed after depositing the silicide portion. A metal glue layer is deposited around the first metal gate and the second metal gate defining a trench above the silicide portion. A metal plug is deposited within the trench.
US09123561B2
A superjunction semiconductor device is disclosed in which the trade-off relationship between breakdown voltage characteristics and voltage drop characteristics is considerably improved, and it is possible to greatly improve the charge resistance of an element peripheral portion and long-term breakdown voltage reliability. It includes parallel pn layers of n-type drift regions and p-type partition regions in superjunction structure. PN layers are depleted when off-state voltage is applied. Repeating pitch of the second parallel pn layer in a ring-like element peripheral portion encircling the element active portion is smaller than repeating pitch of the first parallel pn layer in the element active portion. Element peripheral portion includes low concentration n-type region on the surface of the second parallel pn layer. The depth of p-type partition region of an outer peripheral portion in the element peripheral portion is smaller than the depth of p-type partition region of an inner peripheral portion.
US09123559B2
Methods for producing a semiconductor component that includes a transistor having a cell structure with a number of transistor cells monolithically integrated in a semiconductor body and electrically connected in parallel. In an example method, first trenches extending from the top side into the semiconductor body are produced, as are second trenches that each extend from the top side deeper into the semiconductor body than each of the first trenches. A first dielectric abutting on a first portion of the semiconductor body is produced at a surface of each of the first trenches. Also produced is a second dielectric at a surface of each of the second trenches. In each of the first trenches, a gate electrode is produced, after which a second portion of the semiconductor body is electrically insulated from the first portion of the semiconductor body by removing a bottom layer of the semiconductor body.
US09123557B2
The present disclosure provides a rectifier. The rectifier includes a N-type epitaxial layer, a plurality of P-type diffusion regions and a plurality of N-type diffusion regions. The P-type diffusion regions are disposed in the N-type epitaxial layer, and the N-type diffusion regions are respectively disposed in the P-type diffusion regions. Wherein, the P-type diffusion regions are electronically coupled to the N-type diffusion regions.
US09123553B2
A method and system and for fabricating 3D (three-dimensional) SIC (stacked integrated chip) semiconductor devices. The system includes a vacuum chamber, a vacuum-environment treatment chamber, and a bonding chamber, though in some embodiments the same physical enclosure may serve more than one of these functions. A vacuum-environment treatment source in communication with the vacuum-environment treatment chamber provides a selected one or more of a hydrogen (H2)-based thermal anneal, an H2-based plasma treatment, or an ammonia (NH3)-based plasma treatment. In another embodiment, a method includes placing a semiconductor chip in a vacuum environment, performing a selected vacuum-environment treatment, and bonding the chip to a base wafer. A plurality of chips formed as dice on a semiconductor wafer may, of course, be simultaneously treated and bonded in this way as well, either before or after dicing.
US09123550B2
A semiconductor device includes a substrate, a conductive pattern (e.g., a contact plug) on an active region of the substrate and having respective first and second sidewalls on opposite first and second sides of the conductive pattern, and first and second conductive lines (e.g., bit lines) on the substrate on respective ones of the first and second sides of conductive pattern and separated from the respective first and second sidewalls by asymmetric first and second air spaces.
US09123533B2
A method of regrowing material includes providing a III-nitride structure including a masking layer and patterning the masking layer to form an etch mask. The method also includes removing, using an in-situ etch, a portion of the III-nitride structure to expose a regrowth region and regrowing a III-nitride material in the regrowth region.
US09123532B2
A method for repairing and lowering the dielectric constant of low-k dielectric layers used in semiconductor fabrication is provided. In one implementation, a method of repairing a damaged low-k dielectric layer comprising exposing the porous low-k dielectric layer to a vinyl silane containing compound and optionally exposing the porous low-k dielectric layer to an ultraviolet (UV) cure process.
US09123531B2
An oxide film capable of suppressing reflection of a lens is formed under a low temperature. A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes forming a metal-containing oxide film on a substrate by performing a cycle a predetermined number of times, the cycle comprising: (a) supplying a metal-containing source to the substrate; (b) supplying an oxidizing source to the substrate; and (c) supplying a catalyst to the substrate.
US09123527B2
Embodiments of the invention provide methods for processing a substrate within a processing chamber. In one embodiment, the method comprises providing a precursor gas mixture into the processing chamber, the precursor gas mixture comprising a deposition precursor gas and an etch precursor gas, subjecting the precursor gas mixture to a thermal energy from a heat source to deposit a material layer on a surface of the substrate, wherein the thermal energy is below the minimum required for pyrolysis of the etch precursor gas, and after the material layer is formed on the surface of the substrate, subjecting the precursor gas mixture to a photon energy from a radiation source, the photon energy having a wavelength and a power level selected to promote photolytic dissociation of the etch precursor gas over the deposition precursor gas and etch a portion of the material layer from the surface of the substrate.
US09123525B2
Phosphor particles, methods for their use to produce fluorescent lamps, and fluorescent lamps that make use of such particles. Such a phosphor particle has a core surrounded by a shell, and the shell contains GdMgB5O10 doped (activated) with at least terbium ions as a rare earth-containing phosphor composition that absorbs ultraviolet photons to emit green-spectrum light. The core is formed of a mineral material that is chemically compatible with the rare earth-containing phosphor composition of the shell, but does not contain intentional additions of terbium.
US09123515B2
Shutter gate grid is a structure wherein first and second disc-shaped members made of metal with an insulation sheet member sandwiched therebetween are integrally joined by means of insulative screws. Gate grids with conductive wires secured to the central openings thereof are fused onto the disc-shaped members; screw insertion holes formed in the second disc-shaped member are fan-shaped and have play in the direction of rotation, making it possible to adjust the parallelism of the conductive wires of the two members by finely adjusting the rotational position when tightening the screws. Moreover, diffusion gas can be made to flow through ventilation holes provided at common locations on each member, thus making it possible to provide uniformity of diffusion gas flow in the drift region.
US09123497B2
A color filter substrate for a display device includes a first protection layer on a plurality of touch sensing electrodes and touch driving electrode arrays; a bridge on the first protection layer and connecting the plurality of touch sensing electrodes; a second protection layer on the bridge; a black matrix on the second protection layer; a color filter layer on the black matrix, wherein the plurality of touch sensing electrodes include a first mesh pattern formed by crossing of first metal lines, the plurality of touch driving electrode arrays include a plurality of second mesh patterns formed by crossing of second metal lines, wherein the black matrix is formed at regions corresponding to the first and second metal lines, and wherein a line width of the black matrix is equal to or greater than each of the metal lines forming the first and second mesh patterns.
US09123492B2
An electrically conducting, vertically displacing microelectromechanical system (MEMS) is formed on a first integrated circuit chip. The first integrated circuit chip is physically connected to a three-dimensional packaging structure. The three-dimensional packaging structure maintains a fixed distance between the first integrated circuit chip and a second integrated circuit chip. A control circuit is operatively connected to the MEMS. The control circuit directs movement of the MEMS between a first position and a second position. The MEMS makes contact with a contact pad on the second integrated circuit chip when it is in the second position forming a conductive path and providing electrical communication between the first integrated circuit chip and the second integrated circuit chip. The MEMS avoids making contact with the contact pad on the second integrated circuit chip when it is in the first position.
US09123490B2
A vacuum switch tube has a housing which has two insulating housing regions arranged and configured symmetrically in respect of a center plane. Each of the two insulating housings contains a plurality of insulating housing parts. Shielding elements extend into the interior of the vacuum switch tube and are arranged between neighboring insulating housing parts and between insulating housing parts and neighboring additional housing parts. The shielding elements have improved dielectric properties and a simultaneously material-saving structure. Accordingly, the geometrical dimensions of the shielding elements are determined in dependence on a connected voltage and possible critical field strength between neighboring shields.
US09123487B2
A method for initiating a thermal battery including: releasing an engagement between an element and a striker mass upon an acceleration time and magnitude greater than a first threshold; and moving at least one member into a path of the element to prevent the element from releasing the striker mass only where the acceleration time and magnitude is greater than a second threshold, the second threshold being greater than the first threshold.
US09123476B2
A tab lead including a first insulating film made of resin is adhered to one of surfaces of a part of a region of a metal plate in a length direction of the metal plate and a second insulating film made of resin is adhered to the other surface of the part of the region. Both end portions of the first insulating film and both end portions of the second insulating film are integrally welded to each other. First protruding portions protruding outward in a thickness direction of the first insulating film are formed at regions of the first insulating film corresponding to both widthwise side edges of the metal plate and vicinities thereof. Second protruding portions protruding outward in a thickness direction of the second insulating film are formed at regions of the second insulating film corresponding to both widthwise side edges of the metal plate and vicinities thereof.
US09123469B2
In a method of forming a plating layer for an external terminal electrode by applying, for example, copper plating to an end surface of a component main body with respective ends of internal electrodes exposed, and then applying a heat treatment at a temperature of about 1000° C. or more in order to improve the adhesion strength and moisture resistance of the external terminal electrode, the plating layer may be partially melted to decrease the bonding strength of the plating layer. In the step of applying a heat treatment at a temperature of about 1000° C. or more to a component main body with plating layers formed thereon, the average rate of temperature increase from room temperature to the temperature of about 1000° C. or more is set to about 100° C./minute or more. This average rate of temperature increase maintains a moderate eutectic state in the plating layer and ensures a sufficient bonding strength of the plating layer.
US09123468B2
The instant disclosure relates to an improved method for the production of solid electrolytic capacitor, comprising the following steps. First, provide an insulating substrate. Next, form a plurality of conducting gels including aluminum powder on the insulating substrate. Thirdly, execute a high-temperature sintering process to metalize the conducting gels to form a plurality of aluminum plates. Next, form a dielectric layer on every aluminum plate. Then form an isolation layer on every dielectric layer to define an anodic region and a cathodic region. Lastly, form a conductive layer on the dielectric layer of every cathodic region, thus defining a solid electrolytic capacitor unit.
US09123453B2
The invention relates to a cable gland (10) for a cable (20), comprising an outer shield (26), a cable sleeve (21) enclosing the outer shield (26) and an anti-kink grommet (22) which is injection molded externally onto the cable sleeve (21) and has stop means for the cable gland (10). Simple and reliable contact is achieved in that the cable gland (10) a) has a substantially hollow cylindrical electrically conductive cable gland body (11) which is pushed from one side as far as the stop means over the anti-kink grommet (22) and projects over the anti-kink grommet (22) with the end opposite the stop means, b) has a union nut (12) which can be screwed on the cable gland body (11) and is pushed from the other side as far as the stop means over the anti-kink grommet (22), and c) has an electrically conductive substantially hollow cylindrical contact ring (14) which can be pushed over the cable (20) in a contacting manner into the projecting end of the cable gland body (11) and is designed for receiving and fastening the outer shielding (26) of the cable (20) with contact.
US09123451B2
An imaging apparatus includes a diffraction grating configured to produce an interference pattern by diffracting diverging light from a light source, an absorption grating configured to block part of the interference pattern, a detector configured to detect light transmitted through the absorption grating, and a moving unit configured to move the diffraction grating and the absorption grating. The moving unit causes relative movement of the interference pattern and the absorption grating by moving the diffraction grating and the absorption grating such that the diffraction grating and the absorption grating are not moved relative to each other.
US09123449B2
Infusion system configurations and assemblies facilitate routing of infusion circuit tubing lines. Tubing lines are routed into and out from compartments of a shielding assembly for the infusion system, at locations which prevent kinking and/or crushing of the lines, and/or provide for ease in assembling the circuit. A plurality of the lines may be held together by a support frame to form a disposable infusion circuit subassembly, that can further facilitate routing of the lines.
US09123435B2
The invention provides a semiconductor integrated circuit device provided with an SRAM that satisfies the requirements for both the SNM and the write margin with a low supply voltage. The semiconductor integrated circuit device include: multiple static memory cells provided in correspondence with multiple word lines and multiple complimentary bit lines; multiple memory cell power supply lines that each supply an operational voltage to each of the multiple memory cells connected to the multiple complimentary bit lines each; multiple power supply circuits comprised of resistive units that each supply a power supply voltage to the memory cell power supply lines each; and a pre-charge circuit that supplies a pre-charge voltage corresponding to the power supply voltage to the complimentary bit lines, wherein the memory cell power supply lines are made to have coupling capacitances to thereby transmit a write signal on corresponding complimentary bit lines.
US09123434B2
A method for accessing a semiconductor device having a memory array, includes receiving a chip select signal, receiving a command signal and an address signal, receiving a verification signal, calculating an error signal based on the address signal, the command signal, and the verification signal, generating an internal chip select signal based on the received chip select signal if the error signal indicates no error, and generating an external alert signal if the error signal indicates an error.
US09123429B2
A redundancy scheme for Non-Volatile Memories (NVM) is described. This redundancy scheme provides means for using defective cells in non-volatile memories to increase yield. The algorithm is based on inverting the program data for data being programmed to a cell grouping when a defective cell is detected in the cell grouping. Defective cells are biased to either “1” or “0” logic states, which are effectively preset to store its biased logic state. A data bit to be stored in a defective cell having a logic state that is complementary to the biased logic state of the cell results in the program data being inverted and programmed. An inversion status bit is programmed to indicate the inverted status of the programmed data. During read out, the inversion status bit causes the stored data to be re-inverted into its original program data states.
US09123416B2
A method for implementing a system containing at least one memory device including a plurality of non-volatile memory cells each including a phase-change material configured to change state reversibly between at least an amorphous state and a crystalline state having different electrical resistances. The method includes steps of manufacturing the memory cells, including the formation of a layer of a phase-change material having an original amorphous state at the end of the steps of manufacturing the memory cells. The method for implementing the embedded system includes, after the steps of manufacturing the memory cells, at least the following steps: (i) pre-programming the memory device consisting of an electrical recrystallization of a selection of memory cells from their original amorphous state; and (ii) assembling the pre-programmed memory device in the system during which the device is subjected to a temperature of between 240° C. and 300° C.
US09123414B2
Memory systems and memory programming methods are described. According to one aspect, a memory system includes program circuitry configured to provide a program signal to a memory cell to program the memory cell from a first memory state to a second memory state, detection circuitry configured to detect the memory cell changing from the first memory state to the second memory state during the provision of the program signal to the memory cell to program the memory cell, and wherein the program circuitry is configured to alter the program signal as a result of the detection and to provide the altered program signal to the memory cell to continue to program the memory cell from the first memory state to the second memory state.
US09123410B2
The present disclosure relates to a memory controller. The memory controller may include a memory controller module configured to identify a target word line in response to a memory access request, the target word line included in a cross-point memory, the memory controller module further configured to perform a memory access operation on a memory cell of the cross-point memory, the memory cell coupled between the target word line and a bit line; and a word line control module configured to float at least one adjacent word line adjacent the target word line, the floating comprising decoupling the at least one adjacent word line from at least one of a first voltage source or a second voltage source. In some embodiments, the floating reduces an effective capacitance associated with the target word line during the memory access operation.
US09123407B2
A data read start decision device includes: a storing circuit configured to store code key data; a read check circuit configured to output a read start signal in response to code key data read from the storing circuit, and a controller configured to start reading environment setting data from the storing circuit in response to the read start signal. The read check circuit is configured to at least one of: receive the read start signal from the controller and transfer the read start signal to the controller in response to the read code key data; and generate the read start signal based on the read code key data and output the read start signal to the controller.
US09123406B2
A semiconductor memory device includes a clock signal generation unit suitable for dividing an external clock signal to generate a first internal clock signal corresponding to odd number periods of the external clock signal and a second internal clock corresponding to even number periods, a first input unit suitable for receiving an external command signal and an external address signal in response to the first internal clock signal, a second input unit suitable for receiving the external command signal and the external address signal in response to the second internal clock signal, and an operation control unit suitable for enabling one of the first input unit and the second input unit and disabling the other of the first input unit and the second input unit, during a gear-down mode.
US09123405B2
Apparatus, systems, and methods are disclosed that operate to generate a clock signal in a die in a stack and to receive the clock signal in another die in the stack. Additional apparatus, systems, and methods are disclosed.
US09123404B2
A self clocking data extraction method is shown that is tolerant of timing jitter, data skew and the presence of multiple edges per data bit. The data is sampled when the following criterion are met: There is at least one edge across any track (the clock assures this criteria is met), followed by no edges in any track for a defined period of time (T), and all edge activity must occur in a period of time less than T (to keep from detecting false samples). This method enables the handling of trace data signals with poor electrical characteristics that can not be recorded by methods known in the prior art.
US09123397B2
A circuit arrangement comprising a plurality of electronic components; a plurality of first access lines and second access lines, wherein each electronic component is coupled with at least one first access line and second access lines, the second access lines comprising at least two bit-lines; an access controller controlling access to at least one of the electronic components via the at least one first access line and the second access lines; and a first group of switches, wherein each switch comprises at least one control terminal and at least two controlled terminals. Each switch of the first group is connected to one of the at least two bit-lines via its control terminal and in a path between one first access line and a sense amplifier via its controlled terminals, and adjacent switches are connected via their control terminals to different bit-lines of the at least two bit-lines.
US09123394B2
A method and apparatus for organizing memory for a computer system including a plurality of memory devices, connected to a logic device, particularly a memory system having a plurality of stacked memory dice connected to a logic die, with the logic device having capability to analyze and compensate for differing delays to the stacked devices stacking multiple dice divided into partitions serviced by multiple buses connected to a logic die, to increase throughput between the devices and logic device allowing large scale integration of memory with self-healing capability.
US09123391B2
A semiconductor storage device 1 according to an aspect includes a first memory area 11—1 and a second memory area 11—2. Memory cells MC_m_n and bit lines BL1, BL2_, . . . . , BLm_are disposed in a boundary area 18 between the first and second memory areas 11—1 and 11—2. The memory cells MC_m_n disposed in the boundary area 18 includes memory cells into which no data is written, and a line 56 is formed in a place that overlaps memory cells disposed in the boundary area 18 when the boundary area 18 is viewed from the top. As a result, it is possible to increase the integration density of a memory cell array and provide a line in the memory cell array.
US09123386B2
A method for measuring a change in a spacing between a head and a storage medium of a data storage system. The method includes obtaining a first readback signal from the storage medium using the head at a first spacing between the head and the storage medium, determining a first power spectrum density over a frequency range from the obtained first readback signal, obtaining a second readback signal from the storage medium using the head at a second spacing between the head and the storage medium, determining a second power spectrum density over the frequency range from the obtained second readback signal, and providing a measurement indicative of the change in the spacing based on the determined first power spectrum density and the determined second power spectrum density. A data storage system is also provided.
US09123378B2
A library apparatus includes a housing that has a magazine loading opening, the magazine storing a plurality of cartridges; a reader that reads an identifier provided on each cartridge stored in the magazine, the reader reading the identifiers while the magazine is being inserted through the magazine loading opening and pulled to a preset loading completion position; a transportation mechanism that is movable, the transportation mechanism including a removal mechanism that selectively removes one of the cartridges, and a connection member to be connected to the magazine inserted; and a controller that controls the transportation mechanism, wherein the transportation mechanism transports the removed cartridge to a cartridge processing unit, wherein the controller controls the transportation mechanism to stand by on the magazine loading opening side when the magazine is not loaded, and pull the magazine to the loading completion position when the controller detects that the magazine is inserted.
US09123368B2
A data storage device may be configured at least with an actuating assembly that has a head-gimbal suspension assembly (HGSA), first pivot point, and second pivot point. The head-gimbal assembly can be constructed and operated with at least first and second transducers aligned along a longitudinal axis of the head-gimbal suspension assembly. A controller may be adopted to manipulate the head-gimbal suspension assembly about at least one of the pivot points in response to a head-gimbal suspension assembly offset misalignment to compensate for such an offset.
US09123365B1
An apparatus disclosed herein comprises a reader structure having a sensor stack and a bottom shield having a first end and a second end on opposite sides of the bottom shield in a cross-track direction, wherein the first end is formed by intersection of arcs. In one implementation, the apparatus disclosed herein the sensor has a bottom shield having a bullet shape with a first end along a cross-track direction being rectangular and a second end along the cross-track direction being formed by an intersection of arcs.
US09123359B1
A magnetic recording transducer for use in a data storage device is described. The transducer has a main writer pole and magnetic shields adjacent to the main writer pole. The magnetic shields include a first plated soft ferromagnetic layer, a second plated soft ferromagnetic layer, and an antiferromagnetic coupling (AFC) trilayer between the first plated soft ferromagnetic layer and the second plated soft ferromagnetic layer. The AFC trilayer includes a first AFC layer of sputtered ferromagnetic material; a second AFC layer of a nonmagnetic antiferromagnetic exchange material, and a third AFC layer of sputtered ferromagnetic material. Shields with AFC trilayers in leading, side, and/or trailing shields, as well as between shields are provided. A method of fabricating is also provided.
US09123358B1
A perpendicular magnetic recording writer for use in a data storage device, the recording transducer has a magnetic writer pole, a pole tip facing an air bearing surface (ABS). The pole tip has a pole face, leading side wall, a trailing side wall, a first side wall and a second side wall. A trailing side wall nonmagnetic gap layer on the trailing side wall, a first side wall nonmagnetic gap layer deposited on the first side wall, and a second side wall nonmagnetic gap layer deposited on the second side wall. A high magnetic moment seed layer is deposited on the trailing side wall nonmagnetic gap layer, the first side wall nonmagnetic gap layer, and the second side wall nonmagnetic gap layer. In other aspects of the invention shields are provided that have magnetic moments less than the magnetic moment of the seed layers.
US09123345B2
A voice-controlled system is described that can be accessed by a mobile computing device. A user can communicate requests using natural language utterances. A microphone can collect the utterances and provide them to the mobile computing device. The mobile computing device can transmit the human utterance to a voice interface system. The voice interface system can utilize user preferences when executing the request to provide a personalized user experience. Computer-implemented methods are also described herein.
US09123340B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for classifying voice inputs. The methods, systems, and apparatus include actions of providing an answer to a first voice input from a user and receiving visual or audio data corresponding to a second voice input. Further actions include classifying the second voice input as a follow on request to the first voice input or as deliberation on the answer, based on the visual data or the audio data. Additionally, the actions include determining whether to provide a response to the second voice input based on the classification of the second voice input.
US09123338B1
Implementations relate to techniques for providing context-dependent search results. A computer-implemented method includes receiving an audio stream at a computing device during a time interval, the audio stream comprising user speech data and background audio, separating the audio stream into a first substream that includes the user speech data and a second substream that includes the background audio, identifying concepts related to the background audio, generating a set of terms related to the identified concepts, influencing a speech recognizer based on at least one of the terms related to the background audio, and obtaining a recognized version of the user speech data using the speech recognizer.
US09123336B1
Systems, methods and apparatus for learning parsing rules and argument identification from crowdsourcing of proposed command inputs are disclosed. Crowdsourcing techniques are used to generate rules for parsing input sentences. A parse is used to determine whether the input sentence invokes a specific action, and if so, what arguments are to be passed to the invocation of the action.
US09123331B1
Respective word frequencies may be determined from a corpus of utterance-to-text-string mappings that contain associations between audio utterances and a respective text string transcription of each audio utterance. Respective compressed word frequencies may be obtained based on the respective word frequencies such that the distribution of the respective compressed word frequencies has a lower variance than the distribution of the respective word frequencies. Sample utterance-to-text-string mappings may be selected from the corpus of utterance-to-text-string mappings based on the compressed word frequencies. An automatic speech recognition (ASR) system may be trained with the sample utterance-to-text-string mappings.
US09123330B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for receiving audio data encoding ambient sounds, identifying media content that matches the audio data, and a timestamp corresponding to a particular portion of the identified media content, identifying a speaker associated with the particular portion of the identified media content corresponding to the timestamp, and providing information identifying the speaker associated with the particular portion of the identified media content for output.
US09123328B2
A method and apparatus provides for frame loss recovery following a loss of a frame in an audio codec. The lost frame is identified. Estimated linear predictive coefficients of a previous transform frame are generated based on a decoded audio of the previous transform frame. An estimated residual of the previous transform frame is generated based on the estimated linear predicative coefficients and the decoded audio. A pitch delay is determined from frame error recovery parameters received with the previous transform frame. An extended residual is generated based on the pitch delay and the estimated residual. A first synthesized signal is generated based on the extended residual and the linear predicative coefficients. A decoded audio output of at least the lost frame is generated based on the first synthesized signal. The frame error recovery parameters are generated by an encoder.
US09123322B2
A howling suppression device includes a subtractor which subtracts a pseudo feedback signal from an input signal; an adaptive filter which produces a pseudo feedback signal for a next input signal; and a coefficient update control unit which controls an update rate of a filter coefficient of the adaptive filter and includes: a level calculation unit which calculates a signal level of the input signal; a signal-rising-edge detection unit which detects a rising-edge point; a reverberation section detection unit which detects a reverberation section; and an update rate control unit which sets the update rate to a first rate in the reverberation section and to a second rate in other sections. The adaptive filter updates the filter coefficient at the update rate set by the update rate control unit.
US09123318B2
In a musical performance apparatus, a time line management processing part displays one or more of time lines on a display unit according to an operation of an operating unit, each time line being an image representing a period for a sequence of one or more of sounds that repeat in a piece of music. An object management processing part displays one or more of objects on the display unit according to an operation of the operating unit, each object being a symbol corresponding to and representing a sound to be generated. A musical performance processing part determines belongingness of each object to the one or more of the time lines displayed on the display unit, and repeats control of generating sounds corresponding to the objects in parallel and independently for each time line at the period corresponding to each time line, such that each sound is generated at a sound generation timing determined according to a position of the corresponding object in a longitudinal direction of the time line to which the corresponding object belongs.
US09123315B1
A method for transcoding music, according to various aspects of the present invention, includes in any practical order: (a) reading indicia of a plurality of notes, each note having pitch and duration; (b) selecting a reference pitch; (c) determining indicia of tone from the reference pitch and the pitch of each note; and (d) outputting for use by an engraving engine, indicia of an apposite staff and indicia of tones and durations corresponding to the plurality of notes.
US09123305B2
Pairs of a TFT and a pixel electrode, the number of which is (m×n), are provided. The TFT has a gate electrode connected to a scanning line, a source electrode connected to a data line, and a drain electrode connected to the pixel electrode. The pixel electrodes are arrayed in a matrix of m rows and n columns. Each of the pixel electrodes on any column is alternately electrically connected to either of two adjacent data lines via the TFT.
US09123296B2
Disclosed are an organic light emitting display device and a display panel thereof, which are capable of performing a recovery driving for recovering a threshold voltage of a driving transistor to be within a range of compensation for the threshold voltage if the threshold voltage of the driving transistor deviates from the range of the compensation for the threshold voltage as a driving time of the driving transistor of a pixel increases.
US09123295B2
A method and apparatus for controlling current of an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display device, which is able to accurately estimate the amount of current according to an input image and control current to converge upon target current disclosed. The apparatus includes a current controller for estimating a total current value using a peak luminance corresponding to an average picture level of input data and a histogram analysis result of the input data, comparing an estimated total current value and a target value to generate a luminance control gain, feeding the luminance control gain back and repeatedly performing an operation for estimating the total current value and generating the luminance control gain to determine a final luminance control gain, and applying the final luminance control gain to the peak luminance to determine a final peak luminance, a gamma voltage generator, and a data driver.
US09123289B2
An OLED display device that includes multiple reference voltage lines. One reference voltage line provides a reference voltage to red, green and blue sub-pixels. Another reference voltage line provides a different reference voltage to white sub-pixels. The reference voltages can be controlled independently of each other to control brightness of the display device.
US09123283B2
The present disclosure relates to a shift register, a gate driving circuit and a display apparatus, wherein the shift register outputs an output signal of each stage in a forward direction according to a forward scanning signal and outputs the output signal of each stage in a reverse direction according to a reverse scanning signal, each stage of the shift register includes a forward scanning switch module, a reverse scanning switch module, a pull-up driving module; a pull-up module; a pull-down driving module; a first pull-down module; and a second pull-down module. A bi-directional scanning can be achieved by using the forward scanning switch module and the reverse scanning switch module to control to input different signals to different modules.
US09123279B2
A flexible display and a controlling method thereof are provided. The flexible display includes a plurality of pressure sensors, a display unit and a processing unit, wherein the processing unit is connected to the pressure sensors and the display unit. The processing unit obtains pressure values from each of the pressure sensors within a time unit and generates a pressure area and a pressure variance according to the pressure values from each of the pressure sensors. The processing unit further determines a display mode of the display unit according to the pressure area and the pressure variance. Therefore, the flexible display is capable of providing several kinds of display mode only based on the equipped pressure sensors.
US09123276B2
A display panel includes a plurality of pixel areas and at least one inspection area. An incident light is irradiated onto an inspection pattern disposed in the inspection area and a reflection light reflected by the inspection pattern is detected. An optical critical dimension of the inspection pattern is calculated from the reflection light, and a dimension of a pixel pattern disposed in each pixel area is calculated from the optical critical dimension of the inspection pattern. Accordingly, the dimension of the pixel pattern may be indirectly measured from the inspection pattern.
US09123270B1
A decorative device and/or band for removable attachment to a rear-view mirror is presented herein. Particularly, the band includes an at least partially flexible and resilient mounting component which is removably disposable in an engaged relation around an outer periphery of the vehicle mirror housing. Further, in certain embodiments, the mounting component includes an at least partially closed-loop and/or oval configuration with two oppositely disposed first and second longitudinal portions thereof which at least partially engage opposite upper and lower peripheral surfaces of the vehicle mirror housing. A display panel which in includes indicia (e.g., text, graphics, artwork, logos, etc.) displayed thereon extends outwardly from (e.g., upwardly, downwardly or to one or more sides) at least a portion of the mounting component.
US09123267B2
A light panel includes a light panel front (2) made of a translucent, self-supporting structure having a forward panel (10) distanced from a rear panel (12) via cross-linking walls (11) and arranged in the light panel to transmit light from one or more light sources (3) arranged behind the light panel front. A light scattering medium is arranged between the light source (3) and the forward panel (10) of the light panel front.
US09123264B2
A sign holder in the form of individual parts which, upon assembly, provides for the support and display of signage in a plurality of orientations. The sign holder includes a base configured to receive and support a first end to the stem, the stem having a first end and second end, the first end configured to be releasably retained by the base and the second end configured to retain a sign frame. The sign frame, in turn, is configured to be releasably retained by the second end of the stem and have a left side and a right side and a gap between its sides. The gap is provided with tabs for positioning the stem on the sign frame to retain the stem in a predetermined location.
US09123260B2
A presentation component (118) presents information from one or more data source(s) (102) to an assessor for assessment. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyzer 120 uses an ROC analysis technique to evaluate the performance of the assessor. A feedback component (126) provides feedback as to the assessor's performance. A data manipulator (114) facilitates manipulation of the presented data.
US09123249B2
A communication system for a vehicle includes a vehicle speed sensor configured to emit a periodic function with a parameter correlated to the speed of the vehicle, an acceleration monitoring system, a braking system engagement detector to detect a braking status of the vehicle, an alerting device capable of signaling other drivers of a deceleration condition of the vehicle, and a control device. The acceleration monitoring system is configured to compute the acceleration of the vehicle from variations in the parameter of the periodic function of the vehicle speed sensor and to output a deceleration status of the vehicle. The control device is coupled to the acceleration monitoring system, the braking system engagement detector, and the alerting device, wherein the acceleration monitoring system sends signals to the control device and the control device operates the alerting device in a manner dependent on the deceleration status of the vehicle.
US09123242B2
A pavement marker recognition device for recognizing a pavement marker accurately is provided, the device being capable of recognizing an object even when it is difficult to be recognized only from tones or color information. A pavement marker candidate extraction unit extracts an image area having a feature similar to that of a pavement marker from an image captured by a car-mounted camera as a pavement marker candidate area, a road shape analysis unit analyzes the road shape from the image captured by the car-mounted camera, and a pavement marker verification unit determines whether the road shape analyzed by the road shape analysis unit and the pavement marker candidate area extracted by the pavement marker candidate extraction unit are in a correspondence relationship indicated by a road shape and pavement marker correspondence table, and based on the determination result, recognizes the pavement marker candidate area as a true pavement marker.
US09123235B2
The present invention relates to a control apparatus and a method, a recording medium and a program, which enable to control at least one first device more efficiently and quickly through the use of a second device. The control apparatus stores at least one first operation panel information corresponding to the at least one first device received from the second device; detects the at least one first device; determines whether the at least one first operation panel information remains stored in the control apparatus; displays at least one first operation panel based on the at least one first operation panel information if the at least one first operation panel information remains stored in the control apparatus; and controls the at least one first device.
US09123227B2
A system for checking security of video surveillance of an area by a plurality of video units includes: (a) a respective signaling unit coupled with each of a respective signaling-equipped video unit among the plurality of video units; and (b) a control unit coupled with each respective video unit of the plurality of video units; the control unit providing an encoding arrangement for use by each respective signaling unit for emitting a predetermined signal. Each respective signaling-equipped video unit is oriented to permit at least one other video unit of the plurality of video units to receive the predetermined signal. The control unit cooperates with the plurality of video units to evaluate received the predetermined signals to effect the checking.
US09123225B2
An alarm system includes two subsystems: a security subsystem that performs critical alarm condition monitoring and reporting; and an auxiliary subsystem that allows execution of other non-critical software components. The security subsystem may monitor the performance of the auxiliary subsystem, and maintain the performance by resetting and/or otherwise controlling the execution of software and use of hardware at the auxiliary subsystem, providing increased overall reliability of the security system, without compromising its ability to monitor security conditions at an associated premises.
US09123222B2
An infra-red motion detector for monitoring motion in a monitored space is described. The motion detector includes, within a housing, an infra-red radiation sensor sensitive to infra-red radiation incident through a window. A refractive optical system within the housing selects incident infra-red radiation for redirection onto the infra-red sensor. An external light source mounted externally of the housing directs external light through the window providing a recognizable light input. A refractive Fresnel patch mounted externally to the window selects incident light from the external light source and redirects it to a tamper sensor within the housing. A detection controller processes signals output by both sensors in monitoring the space. The detection controller detects incident light from the external light source and trips a tamper alarm in failing detection, and further detects changes in infra-red radiation in the monitored space and trips an intrusion alarm upon detecting changes.
US09123218B2
A fire control panel in which an address map window (30), in which terminal device control switches (31) each indicating an address number (AD) of a terminal device are arranged in a matrix shape, is displayed on a display/operation unit (2). In addition, each of the terminal device control switches (31) corresponding to a status stored in a terminal database (DB) is displayed in a display mode that differs depending on each status. Accordingly, it is possible to grasp status information on a large number of terminal devices at a glance through one screen.
US09123206B2
Systems and methods for managing a gaming machine having one or more games and game configurations are disclosed. One aspect of the systems and methods includes providing a game framework including a game library manager that manages creation, update and deletion of multiple wagering games on a gaming machine.
