US09155019B2

A method and apparatus are described including selecting a first route between a source node and a destination node using a bandwidth-aware routing protocol, determining if the selected first route satisfies a bandwidth requirement of an application of the source node, initiating a switch to a new channel selected from a back-up channel list if the bandwidth requirement of the application is not satisfied by the selected route, selecting a second route over the new channel using the bandwidth-aware routing protocol, determining if the selected second route over the new channel satisfies the bandwidth requirement of the application of the source node and streaming data from the source node to the destination node if the selected first route satisfies the bandwidth requirement of the application or if the selected second route over the new channel satisfies the bandwidth requirement of the application.
US09155018B2

A device detects poor coverage associated with a source radio access technology (RAT) with which the device is connected, and connects to a target RAT. The device also measures the source RAT for a time period after connecting to the target RAT, and sends, based on the measurements, one or more measurement reports to the target RAT, where the target RAT forwards the one or more measurement reports to the source RAT. Alternatively, or additionally, the target RAT may detect that the handover was triggered too early and may inform the source RAT or command the UE to return to the source RAT. The device further stops the measuring and the sending when the time period expires. In this way, IRAT handover parameters may be automatically or manually tuned to minimize the number of handovers triggered too early, which may result in a more efficient cell configuration.
US09155013B2

In some aspects, a method for carrying out load balancing between cells in a heterogeneous network includes measuring loads within macro clusters in the network. The method additionally includes identifying one or more macro clusters experiencing unbalanced load conditions, and sending balancing indicators to one or more cells in the identified macro cluster(s). In other aspects, a method for carrying out load balancing in a heterogeneous network includes reporting cell loads within a macro cluster, and monitoring for balancing indicators. The method further includes responding to a balancing indicator by iteratively adjusting a value of an individual cell offset for a cell until one or more conditions is satisfied. Example conditions include accomplishment of handover, to or from the cell, of one or more low mobility User Equipment (UE), and making a determination that the value of the individual cell offset has reached a threshold prohibiting further adjustment.
US09155007B2

A method of reestablishing a RRC connection by the mobile terminal in a RRC_CONNECTED state is disclosed, where the method includes selecting a target cell based on cell quality values measured by using signals from a candidate cell set, determining a cell type of the target cell, and transmitting a RRC connection reestablishment request message to the target cell, when the target cell is a first type cell providing with both a emergency service and a normal service.
US09154985B2

In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for facilitating dynamic and segment-based monitoring of cellular network performance. In one embodiment and by way of example, a method includes dividing a cellular network path of a cellular network into a plurality of network segments, and monitoring performance of the cellular network at a first network segment of the plurality of network segments. The first network segment is associated with a first segment point includes a first computing device. The method may further includes generating first metrics based on first monitoring data relating to the first network segment, and forwarding the first metrics to a second segment point coupled with the first segment point over the first network segment. The second segment point includes a second computing device.
US09154983B2

Systems, methods, and devices detect and managing the presence of bursty interference on a wireless communication system. A method of detecting the presence of bursty interference on a wireless network includes receiving, at a wireless device, a message from a transmitting device. The method further includes determining whether the message includes errors caused by bursty interference. The method further includes suspending a channel tracking when bursty interference is detected. The method may further include reporting bursty interference to the transmitting device when bursty interference is detected.
US09154978B2

Embodiments of systems and techniques for coverage adjustment in evolved universal terrain radio access networks (E-UTRANs) are described. In some embodiments, a network management (NM) apparatus may receive data representative of first and second radio link failure (RLF) reports including information related to respective disconnections of first and second user equipment (UEs) from an E-UTRAN. The NM apparatus may identify a hole in a coverage area of the E-UTRAN based at least in part on the first and second RLF reports, and may perform an automated coverage and capacity optimization (CCO) action to reconfigure cell resources of the E-UTRAN based on the identified hole. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.
US09154970B1

A data processing system estimates hidden (off-net) wireless network users based on wireless communication network usage. The system processes wireless network usage data to estimate a first amount of frequent off-net users at a location in a time period based on past frequent on-net users who were at the location in past time periods at a rate above a frequent user threshold. The system processes the first amount and the wireless network usage data to estimate a second amount of infrequent off-net users at the location in the time period. The system process the first amount of the frequent off-net users and the second amount of the infrequent off-net users to estimate a total amount of off-net users at the location in the time period.
US09154959B2

Systems and methods to secure near field communications (NFC) are disclosed. An NFC polling device may detect a change in voltage when attempting to communicate with another NFC device and based at least in part on the magnitude of the change in voltage if there is an attempted hacking and/or snooping event. The NFC polling device may further identify the number of modulation voltage levels detected and determine if there is an attempted hacking event based on the number of modulation voltage levels detected.
US09154957B2

A wireless device and a process of authorizing a wireless device are disclosed. The process includes storing a list of authorized terminals within a memory accessible by a wireless device. The process further includes comparing the list of authorized terminals in the memory to at least one of terminal profile data and an IMEI of the wireless device and allowing network access if at least one of the terminal profile data and the IMEI are found on the list of authorized terminals and limiting network access if at least one of the terminal profile data and the IMEI are not found on the list of authorized terminals.
US09154951B2

A communication system includes a first wireless communication device for providing communication access for a mobile computer device in a first communication area. The first wireless communication device comprises an access control system for granting access based on authentication information known by the mobile computer device. A second communication device provides the authentication information for the mobile computer device. Furthermore, the invention relates to a method for granting access, executable by the communication system mentioned above, as well as to a maintenance system and/or an aircraft having such communication system.
US09154948B2

Method and system for user authentication using one or more unique ID's associated with one or more electronic devices connected in a communication network, more specifically in short range radio communication network. the method comprising the steps of polling and detection of a short range wireless electronic device within a short range radio communication network, establishing a connection between such short range wireless electronic device with a centralized server, authenticating the short range wireless device ID, requesting further the user to feed a pre-determined authentication code, verifying the fed authentication code with corresponding entries in the database of the central server, establishing an encrypted channel if authentication code found in such database, receiving a user authentication certificate from the wireless electronic device.
US09154940B2

Disclosed are an apparatus and method of performing automated administrative operations on a mobile device. One example method may include determining via a hosted server that an action needs to be performed by a mobile device under management. The method may further include generating a message via the hosted server, the message includes the action, and transmitting the message to the mobile device under management, and receiving a result message from the mobile device under management responsive to the transmitted message, the result message indicating that the action has been satisfied.
US09154938B2

A processor executes instructions to provide over the air prepaid calling services at a local wireless system. The processor receives an access request from a wireless device; determines the local wireless system is not a home wireless system of the wireless device; determines at the local wireless system alone that the wireless device does not have a valid profile in the wireless system; allocates an identity for local service in the local wireless system to create a temporary profile associated with the wireless device; sets an expiration timer for expiration of the temporary profile; sends an update to a visitor location register (VLR) of the local wireless system to add the wireless device to the VLR, based on the temporary profile; and sends information on the temporary profile in a message to a user of the wireless device announcing the allocated identity.
US09154937B2

A system and method which permit the RNC to control purging of data buffered in the Node B. The RNC monitors for a triggering event, which initiates the purging process. The RNC then informs the Node B of the need to purge data by transmitting a purge command, which prompts the Node B to delete at least a portion of buffered data. The purge command can include instructions for the Node B to purge all data for a particular UE, data in one or several user priority transmission queues or in one or more logical channels in the Node B, depending upon the particular data purge triggering event realized in the RNC.
US09154932B2

The present invention relates to a method in a communication device for establishment of an emergency call, the communication device configured to communicate within communication networks by communication modems; the method comprising the steps of: sending an Emergency Call Establishment Request (ECER) to modems (M1, M2, . . . , MN) of the communication device upon receiving an emergency call initiation signal; receiving at least one ECER feedback signal from each modem, the ECER feedback signal indicating at least one of a latency and a signal quality for a communication link associated with each modem; and selecting one modem Mn among the modems (M1, M2, . . . , MN) for an emergency call based on the ECER feedback signals from the modems (M1, M2, . . . , MN). Furthermore, the invention also relates to a corresponding communication device, a computer program, and a computer program product thereof.
US09154924B2

In order to facilitate group communication using characteristics of a pre-arranged group but not involving all members of the pre-arranged group, a parameter indicating that the group communication is not intended to all members of the pre-arranged group is added by an inviting group member sending a request to a group server, and the group server, in response to the parameter, is configured to not to invite all members to the group communication.
US09154918B2

A method for processing a first and second message groups submitted by a user includes executing a learning operation and an estimating operation. The learning operation includes extracting a first location message having a specifiable location from the first message group, extracting a first expression message including a specific expression from the first message group; and associating the location and the expression on the basis of the date and time submitted with each message, and for generating learning data. The estimating operation includes extracting a second expression message including a predetermined expression from the second message group, accepting input of a specified date and time for estimating a location; associating the expressions with each other on the basis of the specified date and time; and estimating a location at the specified date and time using coordination filtering on the basis of the learning data and the input data.
US09154917B2

Methods and apparatuses for performing geotagging referencing in both indoor and outdoor environments are presented. In some embodiments, a mobile device may record a digital media object comprising at least one digitally recorded event of a surrounding environment of the mobile device. The mobile device may obtain at least one geotagging datum, the at least one geotagging datum comprising at least one timing measurement from at least one reference source. The mobile device may determine a location of the digital media object using the at least one geotagging datum. The mobile device may then label the digital media object with the location of the digital media object.
US09154903B2

A communications system may include a provisioning terminal comprising a first near field communications (NFC) device, where the provisioning terminal is capable of communicating with a provisioning server. The system may further include a mobile communications device comprising a second NFC device, a processor capable of providing a mobile wallet interface, a memory, and a memory controller coupled with the second NFC device, the memory, and the processor. The memory controller may be capable of receiving an applet and associated mobile wallet interface data from the provisioning server via the provisioning terminal based upon NFC communication between the first NFC device and the second NFC device, storing the applet and the associated mobile wallet interface data in the memory, and sending the mobile wallet interface data from the memory to the processor for the mobile wallet interface.
US09154901B2

A computer-implemented method for controlling activity of a mobile device corresponding to a first user is provided. The method includes enabling an application to receive an indication of permitted usage from a second user. An indication of permitted usage of the mobile device is received via the application from the second user. Instructions are transmitted to the mobile communication device to disable or enable at least one functional component of the mobile device responsive to the indication of permitted usage. Further provided is a computing system including at least one memory configured to perform a procedure for controlling activity of a mobile device.
US09154890B2

The present disclosure provides a method wherein preceding and succeeding data elements of a data element to be sent next are analyzed in order to set a signal pattern which can be correctly recovered on the receiving side in spite of intersymbol interference. More particularly, depending on the transmission characteristics of the transmission path, the content of a window within the data stream to be sent wirelessly is examined in order to determine an energy content with which a data symbol has to be sent so that the data can be recovered securely.
US09154885B2

Provided are a sound generator including a frame body, a vibration body provided to the frame body in a state where a tensile force is applied to the vibration body, and a piezoelectric vibration element provided to the vibration body. In the sound generator, when a first direction and a second direction are directions along a main surface of the vibration body and intersect with each other, the tensile force in the first direction and the tensile force in the second direction are different from each other. A sound generation device and an electronic apparatus including the sound generator are also provided.
US09154865B2

One embodiment of the invention discloses an acoustic device having a housing and a speaker unit accommodated in the housing. The speaker unit forms a front volume and a back volume together with the housing. The housing includes an extra volume communicating with the back volume and a sound channel communicated with the front volume. The extra volume is isolated from the sound channel. The invention provides an acoustic device with enlarged back volume for improving low frequency sound quality.
US09154860B2

An optical interconnection assembly for a spine-and-leaf network is disclosed. The optical interconnection assembly has spine MF components and leaf MF components. The spine MF components are optically connected to spine MF components of spine switches via spine patch cords. The leaf MF components are optically connected to leaf MF components of leaf switches via leaf patch cords. An array of duplex fiber optic cables serves to optically connect every spine MF component to every leaf MF component so that every spine switch is optically connected to every leaf switch. The optical interconnection assembly facilitates network scale out without the multifiber connections having to be broken up into multiple duplex connections using duplex fiber optic cables.
US09154846B2

A request is received for playback of a package of media files, the package of media files including at least a first set of media files of a first type and a second set of media files of a second type. The first set of media files and the second set of media files are retrieved via a network. The package of media files is provided to a media playback device such that at least some of the first set of media files are played generally simultaneously as at least some of the second set of media files.
US09154841B2

A device that handles operations for automatic content recognition detects utilizing the automatic content recognition (ACR) operations, a conflict when a first overlay and a second overlay are concurrently presented on a channel on the device. The device may modify the presentation of the first overlay and/or the second overlay for the channel based on the detection. The device utilizes the ACR operations to determine an identity of the channel based on a unique identifier such as a channel logo. The device utilizes the ACR operations to determine a location where the first overlay and/or the second overlay is presented based on the channel identity and may relocate the first overlay and/or the second overlay from the determined location to a new location. If the conflict is detected, the device may be resize, defer or cancel presentation of one of the first overlay and/or the second overlay for the channel.
US09154840B2

Enable appropriate caching of application programs executed in coordination with AV content. The cache memory temporarily stores a coordinated application that is executed in coordination with received AV content. When a plurality of coordinated applications are stored in the cache memory, a control block controls the cache memory according to the priority of the coordinated applications which corresponds to a predetermined frequency specified for each of them in advance. The present technology is applicable to, for example, television receivers that receive digital television broadcast signals.
US09154839B2

Information about a base position at which a cursor operation has been started is stored in a storage section (212). When an operation of moving the cursor is accepted from a remote controller (217), the information about the base position of the cursor is acquired from the storage section (212), and is compared with information about the position to which the cursor has been moved, whereby it is determined that the cursor has returned to the base position. In this case, an operation sound generation section (216) acquires an operation sound different from the normal one from an operation sound ROM (215), and a sound signal superimposing section (207) superimposes the different operation sound onto a sound signal which is to be outputted from a speaker (211). Thus, a user can easily recognize that the cursor has returned to the base position.
US09154836B2

The present invention controls delivery of television content to conserve network resources based on whether the television content is being viewed on a television monitor. A television gateway may monitor a viewer's interactions with the television gateway to determine whether the television content is being viewed at the associated television monitor, or detect whether the television monitor is on or off. Upon determining that the viewer is not viewing the television content, various actions can be taken to conserve network resources.
US09154835B2

Methods and apparatus for expanding the storage capacity of one or more DVRs in a household by attaching them to a shared network storage device are described. Recorded content is encrypted in at least some embodiments on a per customer basis rather than on a per DVR basis allowing content to be moved between devices at a customer premise and played back by any of the devices at the customer premise where the content was recorded. Network congestion delays are avoided by allowing a user to specify when content is to be locally available at a DVR and moving the content prior to the specified time, if necessary, to the local storage device in the DVR. DVRs can access, decrypt and display content stored on the network storage device that was recorded by another DVR in the same household.
US09154830B2

A gateway (e.g., a broadband gateway), which enables communication with a plurality of devices and handles at least one physical layer connection to at least one corresponding network access service provider, may be operable to receive one or more programs in preview formats from one or more program sources. Each of the one or more programs may be specified in a list. The programs specified in the list may be from different program sources. The broadband gateway may process the received one or more programs in the preview formats for presentation to one or more of the plurality of devices. The processed one or more programs in the preview formats may be communicated by the broadband gateway to the one or more of the plurality of devices, via a programming guide, for program preview by one or more users during program selections from the list.
US09154815B2

There is provided a method of securing multimedia data for streaming over a network comprising receiving the multimedia data from a server, transforming the multimedia data into secure multimedia data using a security key associated with the multimedia data, storing the security key associated with the multimedia data, streaming the secure multimedia data to the destination server. The method further comprises receiving decoding solution requests associated with the multimedia data from one or more multimedia players for playing the multimedia data and transmitting the security key associated with the multimedia data to each of the multimedia players.
US09154814B2

A method and apparatus is provided that converts video content from a first format type into a second format type so that the video content can be viewed with other video content that has the second video format type. The method includes determining a first format of a first stream of video content (702) and determining a second format of a second stream of video content (704, 706). The method also includes converting (806, 808) the format of the second stream of video content into the format of the first stream and combining (812) the first stream of video content with the converted second stream of video content to form. In order to display the first and second video content streams the method decodes the combined first and converted second stream of video content using the first format.
US09154810B2

A multimedia residential gateway device for providing video services to multiple televisions within a home. The device receives incoming video content from a DSL, DOCSIS, or Ethernet data stream and outputs selected content to individual televisions, with the content for each television being transmitted over an ATSC or NTSC channel associated with each television. This eliminates the need for multiple set top boxes in a high-definition offering. Radio frequency handheld remotes for each television are provided which communicate directly with the gateway device. The device may also be provided as a multi-television set top box, wherein the device receives Ethernet data streams from a customer's existing residential gateway.
US09154809B2

Disclosed is a high-resolution video encoding/decoding method and apparatus. The video encoding method includes: predicting a current block to generate a predicted block, subtracting the predicted block from the current block to generate a residual block, determining a transform and quantization type according to the block type of the current block; transforming and quantizing the residual block according to the determined transform and quantization type; and encoding the transformed and quantized residual block. According to the video encoding/decoding method and apparatus, not only the encoding efficiency can be improved because it enables an encoding using a high correlation between temporally/spatially adjacent pixels appearing in a video, but the compression efficiency can also be improved by reducing block distortion.
US09154808B2

There are provided encoders, decoders and corresponding encoding and decoding methods. A reduced resolution update based video encoder for encoding video data divisible into macroblocks includes a memory device, a downsampler, INTRA coding means, an encoder, a decoder, and an upsampler. The memory device is for storing reduced resolution neighboring pixels. The downsampler is for downsampling a full resolution macroblock to obtain a reduced resolution macroblock. The INTRA coding means is for performing INTRA prediction for the reduced resolution macroblock using the stored reduced resolution neighboring pixels. The encoder is for encoding residual data for the reduced resolution macroblock. The decoder is for decoding the residual data for the reduced resolution macroblock to form a reconstructed low resolution INTRA coded macroblock. The upsampler is for upsampling the reconstructed low resolution INTRA coded macroblock to form a full resolution INTRA coded macroblock. The memory device is further for storing a right column and a bottom row of the reconstructed low resolution INTRA coded macroblock.
US09154803B2

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for intra prediction. The intra prediction method for a decoder, according to the present invention, comprises the steps of entropy-decoding a received bitstream, generating reference pixels to be used in the intra prediction of a prediction unit; generating a prediction block from the reference pixels on the basis of a prediction mode for the prediction unit and reconstructing an image from the prediction block and a residual block, which is obtained as a result of entropy encoding, wherein the reference pixels and/or the prediction block pixels are predicted on the basis of a base pixel, and the predicted pixel value can be the sum of the pixel value of the base pixel and the difference between the pixel values of the base pixel and the generated pixel.
US09154802B2

In an emergable watermark superimposing method for superimposing a superimposition image on either a cover still image or a still image formed from a cover moving image, when an image after the superimposition image is superimposed thereon is converted, or a screen which displays thereon the image after the superimposition image is superimposed is photographed, the superimposition image is superimposed so as to be more emphasized.
US09154800B2

A computer implemented method and apparatus for a memory efficient approach for decoding progressive JPEG images. The method comprises (a) accessing a progressive JPEG image, wherein the progressive JPEG image comprises a plurality of compressed scans and wherein each scan in the plurality of scans comprises a plurality of compressed rows of image data; (b) decompressing not more than half of the compressed rows of each scan in the plurality of scans into a memory buffer; (c) copying a remaining plurality of compressed rows of each scan in the plurality of scans into a plurality of small memory buffers; (d) decoding, in place, the decompressed rows in the memory buffer; and (e) repeating steps (b)-(d) until a predefined number of rows are remaining in the plurality of small memory buffers, at which time the remaining rows are decompressed and decoded.
US09154798B2

Methods and apparatus are provided for efficient video encoding and decoding of intra prediction mode. An apparatus includes a video encoder for encoding picture data for at least a block in a picture by determining a spatial pattern for a decoded intra prediction mode residue used to reconstruct the picture at the video encoder. The decoded intra prediction mode residue is obtained by inverse quantizing and inverse transforming a transformed and quantized difference between an original version of the block and at least one reference block. The spatial pattern is used to determine an intra prediction mode for encoding the block.
US09154797B2

Systems and methods for encoding and decoding are disclosed. The systems and methods include multimedia decoder instantiation systems and multimedia processing engines which are capable of being upgraded or reconfigured to support a new or previously-unsupported compression format, without the need for platform-specific software or hardware upgrades.
US09154791B2

A low complexity method for directly decoding low-resolution video frames from compressed high-resolution video content that were encoded using predictive coding toques, such as the H264 video coding standard, is disclosed. The decoding resolution is inversely proportional to the decoding complexity. Thus, a smaller decoding resolution yields higher computation and power savings. Low-frequency coefficients of 2 Dimensional transformed predictions are added to low-frequency coefficients of a transformed residual error. Low-frequency coefficients of the reconstructed data are then inversely transformed, having a smaller size transform. Further computational and power savings are obtained by reconstructing only those referenced pixels necessary for accurate decoding of proceeding Intra blocks.
US09154790B2

The present invention provides video encoding and decoding methods using block merging, which can be applied to a high resolution video of more than HD (High Definition) resolution. A video encoding method includes partitioning a current block into a first and a second prediction unit by using asymmetric partitioning, constructing a list of common merging candidate blocks including a predetermined number of common merging candidate blocks selected from adjacent blocks of the current block, selecting at least one candidate block from among the list of common merging candidate blocks and sending information of the selected candidate block to a decoder for each of the first and the second prediction unit.
US09154788B2

An image coding method includes obtaining image format information, determining a subsampling method for a luminance signal, storing the subsampling method in a memory, obtaining the subsampling method from the memory, performing subsampling on a luminance signal of a surrounding pixel, calculating a parameter of the linear model using (i) the luminance signal that is subsampled and (ii) chrominance of the surrounding pixel, performing subsampling on the luminance signal of the current block to be coded, and calculating prediction chrominance of the current block to be coded using (i) the parameter of the linear model and (ii) the luminance signal that is subsampled.
US09154785B2

A device determines, based at least in part on a syntax element in a scalable nesting supplemental enhancement information (SEI) message encapsulated by an SEI Network Abstraction Layer (NAL) unit, whether a nested SEI message encapsulated by the scalable nesting SEI message is applicable to a default sub-bitstream. The default sub-bitstream is an operation point representation of an operation point defined by a layer identifier specified in a NAL unit header of the SEI NAL unit and a temporal identifier specified in the NAL unit header. When the nested SEI message is applicable to the default sub-bitstream, the device uses the nested SEI message in an operation on the default sub-bitstream.
US09154784B2

The present invention discloses an encoding apparatus using a Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) scanning, which includes a mode selection means for selecting an optimal mode for intra prediction; an intra prediction means for performing intra prediction onto video inputted based on the mode selected in the mode selection means; a DCT and quantization means for performing DCT and quantization onto residual coefficients of a block outputted from the intra prediction means; and an entropy encoding means for performing entropy encoding onto DCT coefficients acquired from the DCT and quantization by using a scanning mode decided based on pixel similarity of the residual coefficients.
US09154771B2

An apparatus for capturing a stereoscopic image maintains the image quality of partial image data by appropriately cutting out the partial image data from image data generated by an imaging unit. The apparatus includes imaging units which generate right-eye image data and left-eye image data having binocular parallax for making a viewer sense a stereoscopic image; an information storage unit which stores, when image center points of the right-eye and left-eye image data image data are origins, position information indicating positions of right and left correction points obtained by moving marks projected on the right-eye and left-eye image data by a differential vector, respectively; and a cutout control unit which, based on the position information, cuts out pieces of partial image data having the same size from the right-eye and left-eye image data.
US09154770B2

A 3D image capture device includes: a light transmitting section 2 with m transmitting areas (where m is an integer and m≧2) that have different spectral transmittance characteristics; and an image sensor 1 which is arranged to receive light rays that have been transmitted through the m transmitting areas and in which unit elements are arranged. Each unit element includes n photosensitive cells (where n is an integer and n≧m) and n transmitting filters with mutually different spectral transmittance characteristics which are arranged so as to face the n photosensitive cells. The image capture device further includes an image processing section which modifies an n×m matrix that is defined by the respective spectral transmittance characteristics of the m transmitting areas and the n transmitting filters by changing the angle between at least two out of m column vectors of the n×m matrix and which generates multi-viewpoint images using the modified n×m matrix.
US09154767B2

A data broadcast display device guarantees stereoscopic perception by the user of a displayed 3D data broadcast image, while alleviating the discomfort a user experiences due to a delay in display. The data broadcast display device includes a reception unit that receives object data for generating the left-view and right-view objects, a display data generation unit that generates the left-view and right-view objects using the received object data while providing notification upon completion of the generation of each object, and a display control unit that determines, at predetermined time intervals, whether the notification has been received for both the left-view and right-view objects, includes both the left-view and right-view objects in a data broadcast image for display when determining affirmatively, and includes neither the left-view nor the right-view object in the data broadcast image for display when determining negatively.
US09154759B2

An image processing apparatus and an image processing method are provided. The image processing apparatus includes a sample unit, an amplifier, an analog to digital converter, and a white balance unit. The sample unit is for sampling a pixel to obtain a pixel voltage. The amplifier is for amplifying the pixel voltage according to an analog gain. The analog to digital converter is for converting the amplified pixel voltage into digital pixel data, the digital pixel data including a number of first sub-pixel data which are corresponding to different colors. The white balance unit is for obtaining a number of second of sub-pixel data from white balance compensating the first sub-pixel data. The first sub-pixel data are white balance compensated respectively according to the analog gain and a number of white balance gains which are corresponding to different sub-pixels.
US09154757B2

An imaging device is provided with a lens distortion correction function that requires less circuit scale and does not degrade image resolution.The imaging device having the lens distortion correction function is provided which includes a same-color interpolation unit that generates a lens distortion-corrected interpolation signal by using a same-color pixel in an image signal from an imaging element, a luminance signal generation unit that generates a luminance signal from the image signal from the imaging element, a first luminance signal generation unit and a second luminance signal generation unit that use the luminance signal generated by the luminance signal generation unit to generate a lens distortion-corrected interpolation signal, a lens distortion characteristics table data unit that holds information of coordinates after lens distortion characteristics correction in a memory, a coordinate/interpolation coefficient setting unit that individually generates interpolation coefficients for correcting lens distortion for each of the same-color interpolation unit, the first luminance interpolation unit, and the second luminance interpolation unit on the basis of information from the lens distortion characteristics table data unit, and a correction unit that outputs a lens distortion-corrected interpolation signal by correcting the signal from the same-color interpolation unit on the basis of a ratio between the interpolation signal generated by the first luminance interpolation unit and the interpolation signal generated by the second luminance interpolation unit.
US09154749B2

Methods for removing redundancies in a video stream based on efficient pre-transmission detection of static portions of the video stream. In one embodiment supporting wireless transmission of a video stream having a series of video frames, a mathematical operation (such as a hash function, summing operation or CRC) is performed on (1) a (reconstructed) data block(s) of a video frame in order to generate a first check value and (2) a co-located data block(s) of a second, sequential video frame in order to generate a second check value. The first and second check values are compared to detect static video content in the video stream. When static video content in a video stream is detected, the static nature of the content is indicated in the compressed bit stream and the amount of wirelessly transmitted data corresponding to the static portions of the video stream may be reduced.
US09154745B2

An endoscope apparatus includes an image acquisition section that acquires images in time series, a coefficient calculation section that calculates a correction coefficient for correcting blurring in a depth direction that is a direction along an optical axis of an imaging section, and a depth-direction blurring correction section that performs a depth-direction blurring correction process that corrects blurring in the depth direction on the images acquired in time series based on the correction coefficient.
US09154743B2

Internal components of gas and steam turbines are inspected with an optical camera inspection system that is capable of automatically and/or manually positioning the camera field of view (FOV) to an area of interest within the turbine along a pre-designated navigation path and capturing images with or without human intervention. Camera positioning and image capture can be initiated automatically or after receipt of operator permission. The inspection system includes an articulated multi-axis inspection scope with an optical camera that is inserted through a combustor nozzle access port, combustor and transition, so that the camera FOV captures the leading edge of Row 1 rotating turbine blades while the rotor is spinning at up to 1000 RPM. An illumination system strobe light and the camera image capture are synchronized with the blade rotation speed so that images of multiple or all blades may be obtained from a single inspection scope insertion point.
US09154740B2

A system and method for real time video streaming from a device through a website to a designated group for security, personal, entertainment or commercial applications and to enable responses from those recipients comprises a server operable to bi-directionally communicate with the device and other devices, which are operable to bi-directionally communicate with the server and a module on the server operable to receive notice of an upstream from the device and authenticate a log-in of the device, e.g., a user, transmit content of the upstream to the website, transmit the notice of the upstream to either Designated Recipient Groups or pre-determined recipients, display the content of the upstream on the website, in response to requests, enable placement of information such as advertising and publicity in the content, and enable responses to the content, such as communicating with the user, posting comments, conducting electronic commerce, making appointments and making reservations.
US09154736B1

Video conferencing for mobile platforms is provided by logging a first mobile platform into a conference server, which finds a first peer-to-peer station on a network to connect with the first mobile platform. The first peer-to-peer station is a nearest available peer-to-peer station on the network to the first mobile platform. The first peer-to-peer station on the network is connected to the first mobile platform. First communication data is received at the first peer-to-peer station directly from the first mobile platform. The first communication data is sent directly from the first peer-to-peer station to a second peer-to-peer station through a peer-to-peer connection in the network. The first communication data is sent directly from the second peer-to-peer station to a second mobile platform connected to the second peer-to-peer station. The second peer-to-peer station is a nearest available peer-to-peer station on the network to the second mobile platform.
US09154733B2

An external capability for measuring roundtrip latency in a conferencing system is provided. The external capability for measuring roundtrip latency in a communication system may include functions of generating a content event, detecting the content event in a received content stream including the content event, determine a first time associated with generation of the content event and a second time associated with detection of the content event, and computing a roundtrip latency based on a difference between the second time and the first time. The content event may be a visual event or an aural event. These functions may be implemented using one or more modules or elements. A computing device may be used to generate and detect the content event and to compute the roundtrip latency. Various other arrangements of modules or elements may be used to provide the functions.
US09154722B1

A method for video playback includes displaying a video on a screen, detecting a split-screen request, pausing the video and displaying a split-screen including a static upper section, a static lower section and a middle section including at least one active icon. In an example embodiment, the middle section includes an action bar including a number of active icons providing actions such as playing a new video in a new window, hyperlinking to a website, interacting with social media, etc. In a further example embodiment, the display of the split-screen involves capturing a static image of a screen of the video that was paused and animating a split of the static image to display the action bar in the middle section of the split-screen.
US09154714B2

An image sensor controls the gain of a pixel signal on a pixel-by-pixel basis and extends a dynamic range while maintaining a S/N ratio at a favorable level. A column unit in an image sensor is independently detects a level of each pixel signal and independently sets a gain for level of the signal. A photoelectric converting region unit has pixels arranged two-dimensionally with a vertical signal line for each pixel column to output each pixel signal. The column unit is on an output side of the vertical signal line. The column unit for each pixel column has a pixel signal level detecting circuit, a programmable gain control, a sample and hold (S/H) circuit. Gain correction is performed according to a result of a detected level of the pixel signal.
US09154713B2

An imaging system includes an array of pixel cells and a plurality of digital memory elements disposed physically separate from and coupled to the array of pixel cells. Each of the pixel cells includes a photodetector, an electrical storage device coupled to the photodetector, and quantization circuitry coupled to the electrical storage device. The photodetector is configured to generate a photo-current in response to light impinging thereon. The electrical storage device is configured to accumulate an electrical charge from the photo-current. The quantization circuitry is configured to convert the electrical charge into an analog quantization event signal. Each of the digital memory elements is in electrical communication with at least one of the pixel cells and is configured to store a digital value in response to receiving the analog quantization event signal from the at least one of the pixel cells.
US09154711B2

Systems and methods for configuring an infrared thermal imaging system using a video interface of an electronic device, such as a microcontroller, for example, for sending commands and control information. In one example a an infrared thermal imaging system includes a focal plane array (FPA) of infrared detectors, the FPA being configured to generate an output signal in response to infrared radiation impinging thereupon, read out integrated circuitry (ROIC) operatively coupled to the FPA, and a microcontroller having at least one video display interface operatively coupled to the ROIC, the microcontroller being configured to send data to the ROIC via the at least one video display interface, the data including command data.
US09154704B2

A radial based approach to electro-optic imagers, rather than the conventional rectilinear approach, would have basic overall system design advantages. Those system design advantages would apply to the components and the entire system implementation and include approaches to objective optical design, focal plane array FPA with fill factor, FPA layout and associated read-out integrated circuit ROIC, support electronics architecture and associated memory requirements, image processing IP algorithms, display layout and format, and eyepiece optics. A radial based approach to EO imagers would yield a device/system with attributes requiring less complicated optical components, with potentially fewer elements, for both the objective and eyepiece lenses. In addition, alternative objective optics could be more easily employed, such as holographic or wave front coded, due to reduced complexity of implementing correction algorithms as a result of referencing the system around its optical axis. The radial readout EO system would have pixel ‘one’ at the center and be ‘read out and displayed’ like the rings of a tree rather than words on a page.
US09154688B2

A solid-state image capture element includes a pixel, which receives light of one of a pair of light beams which pass through iris regions of different locations on a photographic lens, and a pixel which receives light of the other, in a pair of said pixels. The pair of pixels are positioned shifted from one another in a direction which intersects the x-axis which is the phase difference direction. The pair includes a plurality of first pairs and second pairs which respectively have mutually inverse location relations with respect to the pixels and the pixels therein. The first pair and the second pair are alternately positioned in either the phase difference detection direction or the direction which is orthogonal thereto.
US09154686B2

Disclosed are systems and methods for focusing a digital camera to capture a scene. It is first detected that a change in a scene requires the digital camera to be focused or refocused. The camera focus is automatically scanned from a closest settable distance to farther distances until a first closest object in the scene is detected. Once the first closest object in the scene is detected, the camera focus is set at the distance of the first closest object and a finer scan is executed. In an embodiment, a dynamic movement threshold is calculated and used to determine that the change in scene requires the digital camera to be focused or refocused.
US09154671B2

An image processor includes a first acquirer that acquires a matching tap having a target pixel at the center, a second acquirer that acquires plural matching taps each having, at the center, one of pixels in a search area including the pixels surrounding the target pixel, a similarity identifier that identifies, among the matching taps acquired by the second acquirer, a similarity maximizing pixel representing a central pixel of the matching tap having the highest similarity to the matching tap acquired by the first acquirer, and a mixing controller that computes a pixel value of the target pixel by mixing a pixel value obtained by performing a predetermined arithmetic process on pixel values of a prediction tap having the target pixel at the center with a pixel value obtained by performing a predetermined arithmetic process on pixel values of a prediction tap having the similarity maximizing pixel at the center.
US09154665B2

An image processing apparatus reads an image out of a frame buffer by vertically flipping the image, writes the image into an output line buffer by horizontally flipping the image, divides each line, and simultaneously outputs the resulting line segments. Methods for vertical flipping, horizontal flipping, and simultaneous output are changed according to the output settings.
US09154664B2

A receiver image processing apparatus capable of easily performing post-processing in line with a print setting. The receiver image processing apparatus includes a printing unit able to print image data on a plurality of types of sheets of different sizes. When an incoming call arrives from a sender image processing apparatus, a determination unit of the apparatus determines whether a setting to perform post-processing on sheets by a post-processing unit has been made by a setting unit. If it is determined that the setting to perform post-processing has been made, a notification unit of the receiver image processing apparatus notifies size information representing a sheet size belonging to a predetermined series, as ability information of the apparatus, to the sender image processing apparatus.
US09154660B2

An image processing apparatus includes a storage control portion, a setting control portion, and a deletion control portion. The storage control portion stores logs of jobs executed by the image processing apparatus into a storage portion. The setting control portion sets an importance level of each of the logs based on a plurality of target items and weight conditions, wherein the plurality of target items are set in advance with regard to the image processing apparatus, the jobs, or the logs, and the weight conditions are set in advance respectively in correspondence with the target items. The deletion control portion determines an order of automatic deletion of the logs stored in the storage portion, based on the importance level set by the setting control portion.
US09154659B2

In an image forming apparatus, in order to make an engine CPU perform first processing after output of a return request, a main CPU sets a level of a signal line, through which the return request is output, at a first level. In order to make the engine CPU perform second processing, the main CPU sets the level of the signal line at a second level. The engine CPU determines on the basis of the level of the signal line after the output of the return request which processing is to perform, the first processing or the second processing.
US09154657B2

A duplex scanning apparatus includes a scan case including a platen glass, a first scanning module disposed inside the scan case, a scanning module moving unit that is disposed inside the scan case perpendicular to the first scanning module and guides a movement of the first scanning module, and an automatic document feeding apparatus disposed on a top side of the scan case to cover the platen glass including a feeding frame in which a document moving route is formed, a scanning module opening formed on an upper side of the document moving route in the feeding frame, a second scanning module disposed in the scanning module opening, and a scanning module adjusting unit formed to rotate the second scanning module by a predetermined angle based on a point of the feeding frame with respect to the scanning module opening.
US09154649B2

A data reader includes a memory board provided to a removable member and a reading member including a reading terminal. The memory board includes a positioning opening, a ground terminal provided to the positioning opening, and a contact terminal. The reading member includes an engagement projection that fits in the positioning opening and is disposed adjacent and parallel to the reading terminal. The engagement projection includes a uniform diameter portion, a tapered portion extending from the uniform diameter portion, and an apparatus-side ground terminal to contact the ground terminal of the memory board when the engagement projection fits in the positioning opening. The apparatus-side ground terminal includes a portion projecting laterally from the uniform diameter portion from an end of the uniform diameter portion toward a reading member base and an extended portion at the end of the uniform diameter portion, covered with the tapered portion.
US09154648B2

A portable hand-held device is provided having an image sensor for capturing images, and a processor chip for image processing the images captured by the image sensor. The processor chip has an on-chip interface for receiving the captured images and four interconnected processing units configured to process the received images.
US09154643B2

According to one embodiment, an image forming apparatus which communicates with a first terminal device includes a first display unit which displays display data, a storage unit which stores first ability information relating to a display ability of the first display unit, an operation panel management unit which is provided at the first terminal device, obtains second ability information relating to a display ability of a second display unit which displays display data, and compares the obtained second ability information to the first ability information which is stored in the storage unit; and a control unit which determines whether to display display data as a display target on the first display unit, or on the second display unit.
US09154640B2

A substantially real-time graph-based rule engine that analyzes connectivities, both direct and indirect relationships, between entities stored in a database as the database is updated (e.g., with CDR or financial transaction data). The rule engine uses pre-defined rules to detect events (i.e., the database updates) that influence the relationship between entities in the database. When the database is updated with events (e.g., CDRs), the real-time rule engine compares the update to any relevant rules. If the real-time based rule engine finds a match between a rule and an update to the database, then the rule engine generates a notification, such as an alert. The alerts may be used to provide notification of, e.g, fraudulent activities.
US09154633B2

A telephony user device capable of establishing a communications session for communication of data with respect to at least one other device in a data communications network, the telephony user device being adapted to provide a reconfigurable graphical user interface, establish a telephone call with a service provider, establish a separate communications session, separate from the telephone call, for the transfer of data to/from the at least one other device, on the basis of one or more call party details associated with the telephone call, and reconfigure at least a first part of the graphical user interface according to configuration data determined by the service provider and received in the separate communication session.
US09154629B2

Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for generating personalized tag recommendations using speech analytics. The system first analyzes an audio stream to identify topics in the audio stream. Next, the system identifies tags related to the topics to yield identified tags. Based on the identified tags, the system then generates a tag recommendation for tagging the audio stream. The system can also send the tag recommendation to a device associated with a user for presentation to the user.
US09154627B2

A system and method for setting agent cross skill enablement levels in a contact center. In one embodiment, a series of simulations is performed to determine optimum cross skill enablement levels for various circumstances, e.g., the number of agents, the proficiency of each agent at each of a number of skills, and the rates of incoming interaction requests requiring each of various skills. A lookup table is created which is subsequently used, during configuration of the contact center prior to operation, or in real time during operation, to adjust agent cross skill enablement levels.
US09154623B1

An architecture and process flow for a system that processes event notifications from a speech analytics system for the purpose of controlling the recording of calls in a contact center for various contexts. Based on the regulatory context of the call, call recording may require requesting and receiving consent from the remote party to record the call. A speech analytics system operating in conjunction with an event handler module and a call recording application specific module can facilitate automatically recording the call and minimize agent intervention. The application specific module may provide icons and text on the agent's display to remind or inform the agent of the context and various conditions. The application specific module may also control various recording equipment.
US09154622B2

An interactive voice response system receives an initial communication initiated by a remote requesting party and addressed to a numbered communications address. Based upon receipt at the interactive voice response system of the initial communication, visual data to provide to the remote requesting party as part of an integrated interactive script is determined. The visual data is provided to the remote requesting party as part of the integrated interactive script. Depending upon a preference of the remote requesting party, individual elements of the interactive script are sent to the remote requesting party iteratively based upon interaction between the remote requesting party and the interactive voice response system, or multiple individual elements of the interactive script are sent together to the remote requesting party, and individually presented to the remote requesting party based upon interaction between the remote requesting party and the interactive voice response system.
US09154614B1

A call center maintains various pools of telephone numbers, where each telephone number pool comprises a plurality of telephone numbers in a geographic area. A call originating to a called number uses a calling telephone number that is selected from one of a plurality of telephone number pools based on the area designated by the called number. An index value is used to select the telephone number from the selected telephone number pool. The selected telephone number is used to as a calling telephone number when originating a call to the called party.
US09154611B1

A method for cloud-based functional testing of a mobile application includes running a functional test program on a server. The functional test program provides a graphical user interface (GUI) that allows a user to select a mobile application and a mobile computing device having a touch-sensitive display screen for receiving user input. The mobile computing device is located remote to the server. The functional test program launches the mobile application on the mobile computing device via a wireless network connection. The server receives precision elements of each gesture-based input on the touch-sensitive display screen, the precision elements being captured and transmitted from the mobile computing device to the server during execution of the mobile application. The precision elements of each gesture-based input are then recorded in a test clip.
US09154602B2

An improved system for data card emulation involves a phone that can emulate any one of multiple data cards corresponding to multiple entities. The phone includes a memory for storing bar code information corresponding to data cards of the multiple entities. It provides an interface for identifying an entity and a display for displaying a bar code corresponding to a data card of the entity. The interface may include at least one of a bar code reader or a bar code emulator. The interface may include at least one of a magnetic stripe reader or a magnetic stripe emulator. The interface may be a transceiver such as a pulsed light transceiver.
US09154601B2

Various user interfaces and other technologies for interacting with devices that support multiple SIM cards can be implemented. For example, SIM-separated and SIM-aggregated user interface paradigms can be supported. Intelligent selection of an appropriate paradigm can support user preferences, conversation user interfaces, and the like. Other features such as SIM card defaults can help users deal with multiple SIM card scenarios. A consistent, compact user interface for switching SIM cards can be supported. Users can interact with their devices more efficiently and with less frustration. A wide variety of use scenarios are supported.
US09154597B2

Novel tools and techniques for deterring unsolicited calls are described for deterring unsolicited telephone calls that include a service provider searching and determining that the originating telephone number is in a no-call list, and based on this determination, prohibiting the call from terminating (i.e., connecting with the destination telephone number). Penalties may also be imposed against callers (e.g., solicitors) for no-call violations.
US09154594B2

An imaging system consisting of a cell-phone with camera as the detection part of an optical train which includes other components. Optionally, an illumination system to create controlled contrast in the sample. Uses include but are not limited to disease diagnosis, symptom analysis, and post-procedure monitoring, and other applications to humans, animals, and plants.
US09154578B2

In a communication terminal device, in a case where the arrangement of the windows is changed in a list screen, an overhead screen is initially displayed, in which the list screen is overviewed, and the arrangement of the windows is subsequently changed in the overhead screen, and a magnified screen (original screen) of the overhead screen, in which the arrangement of the windows has been changed, is displayed last, as described in the foregoing. By displaying a magnified image, it is possible to make windows better visible in a small display area of a mobile phone. Also, in a case where a window exists that cannot be displayed in a magnified screen, by displaying an overhead screen, it becomes possible for a user to recognize a fact that a window that cannot be displayed exists in a magnified screen, and also recognize a position of the window.
US09154577B2

Synchronization of configuration files of a virtual application distribution chassis, includes: processing a configuration command received by a master blade; updating a first configuration file with the configuration command and an updated tag by the master blade; sending a configuration message by the master blade to the slave blades informing of the updated configuration file, the configuration message comprising the updated tag; in response to receiving the configuration message by a given slave blade of the one or more slave blades, comparing the updated tag in the configuration message with a tag in a second configuration file stored at the given slave blade; and in response to determining that the updated tag in the configuration message is more recent than the tag in the second configuration file stored at the given slave blade, sending a request for the updated configuration file to the master blade by the given slave blade.
US09154567B2

Disclosed is a method for processing content published on-line so as to identify each item in a unique manner. In some implementations, an RSS feed is received from a publisher and a unique identifier is identified for each item in the feed. Each item then has third party content or advertisements associated with the item based on the unique identifier. The feed is then stored and, when appropriate, updated. The augmented feed, which contains the third party content and the items in the feed, is provided to user devices.
US09154565B2

An example method to monitor online activity involves comparing first uniform resource locators collected from a first client device of a known panelist with second uniform resource locators collected from second client devices associated with different users; and determining which of the second uniform resource locators correspond to online activity of the known panelist based on ones of the first uniform resource locators matching at least portions of ones of the second uniform resource locators.
US09154560B2

The subject matter disclosed herein relates to a system and method for determining annotations for a map. Location information for mobile devices and contextual information associated with users of mobile devices may be utilized to determine such annotations.
US09154559B1

A method and apparatus for sharing data regarding conditions sensed at one or more user-selected locations with others over the Internet generally or over Internet-accessed social networking systems using sensors located at user-selected locations and servers which are connected respectively to the Internet for communication with client devices or with social networking systems.
US09154557B2

One embodiment comprises an apparatus for automatic proxy registration and discovery in a multi-proxy communication system. The apparatus executes a proxy server that is configured to provide optimized connections to remote proxy servers that are communicatively connected to the proxy server over a Wide Area Network (WAN). A file server, which is communicatively connected to the proxy server over a Local Area Network (LAN), is automatically discovered. An association record corresponding to the file server is created, where the association record identifies the file server and the proxy server and indicates that the proxy server is configured to provide the remote proxy servers with optimized connections to the file server. The association record is registered with a centralized database server, where the remote proxy servers are communicatively connected to the centralized database server over the WAN.
US09154551B1

Systems and methods for processing a DNS query to identify and implement pre-processing information by a DNS server component in anticipation of a corresponding content request from a client computing device are provided. The pre-processing information can correspond to identification of content to be preloaded or other actions to be implemented by one or more computing devices in association with an anticipated client content request. Based on identification of the content or future actions, a DNS server component can provide the pre-processing information to one or more computing devices, such as computing devices of a CDN service provider and/or an original content provider, in advance of a corresponding request for content from the client computing device in order to improve performance associated with responding to the client request.
US09154540B2

Handling requests for resources of a web based service. A method includes receiving a request from an external client for a resource. The method further includes determining that the resource is not available in a first version of a web based service. The method further includes providing routing information to a second version of the web based service. The routing information is readable by the second version of the web based service to allow the second version of the web based service to handle the request as a request from the first version and not simply a brand new request from the external client.
US09154535B1

An Internet content delivery system provides information to a number of different users. The system attempts to provide the same information to many different users while also providing the illusion to each of the users that they were receiving the content individually. The system attempts to minimize individualized bandwidth allocation by sending the same information to multiple different users while taking into account individualization requests of the multiple different users. An Internet or a playlist creator is also defined which allows a number of different items to be presented at different times depending on the playlist setting of the playlist.
US09154534B1

Described herein are systems and methods for automatically discovering services available between two or more media devices. These services may be configured to provide content for presentation, present content, and so forth. Once discovered, connections may be established between the media devices. These connections may be used to control or deliver content using the services. The discovery, establishment of the connections, or both may occur automatically without user intervention.
US09154533B2

In various embodiments, methods and systems for prefetching recommended-media content based on a prefetch setting of a media platform are provided. A recommended-media record of recommended-media content is received. The recommended-media record is generated based on recommendation metrics of a recommendation profile. The recommended-media record is associated with a media platform. The media platform determines based on a prefetch setting for the media platform how to automatically download the recommended-media content associated with the recommended-media record to the media platform, where a default prefetch setting results in automatically downloading the recommended-media content to the media platform and a customized prefetch setting results in automatically downloading the recommended-media content based on the customized prefetch setting. Upon determining how to download the recommended-media content, the recommended-media content is downloaded based on the prefetch setting of the media platform.
US09154531B2

Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for enhancing presenter and participant interaction in a presentation. A system configured to practice the method can receive, from a viewer of an electronic presentation, a submission of a question and a selection of a communication mode for the question. The system can identify a portion of the presentation to which the question is directed, and update the portion of the electronic presentation to incorporate the question based on the communication mode. The electronic presentation can be a slide show, such as a PowerPoint™ presentation. The system can optionally notify a presenter in the electronic presentation that the portion has been updated.
US09154529B2

A redundant Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) call center system has two data centers each having a first and a second SIP server cooperating as a first SIP-server high availability (HA) pair, a set of SW applications executable at each data center, and a plurality of agent stations each comprising a SIP telephone and a computerized appliance executing a desktop application at each agent station. The HA pairs operate as SIP server peers, the agent SIP phones are configured to maintain simultaneous registration with both SIP server peers, and Agent Desktop applications log in to only one SIP server peer, wherein the SIP Server peers collaborate to deliver calls to individual agent SIP phones via the SIP server peer where the agent is logged in, and wherein, upon failure of either data center agent's desktop applications log in to the other data center, allowing the associated agent to continue working.
US09154527B2

A device may obtain calling security parameters, may communicate the calling security parameters to a network device, and may receive, from the network device, a calling parameters identifier associated with the calling security parameters. The device may communicate the calling parameters identifier to a called device, may receive a called parameters identifier from the called device, and may communicate the called parameters identifier to the network device. The device may receive called security parameters from the network device, may create a security key based on the calling security parameters and the called security parameters, and may communicate with the called device using the security key.
US09154524B2

In some data communication configurations, data received from a sender may need to be viewed or otherwise processed by more than one entity with a corresponding client. For example, a message sent to a corporate email address may be viewed by either or both a mobile device and a desktop device. For the sender to utilize the strongest algorithm or protocol used by the recipient, it would therefore need to know which algorithms or protocols are supported by both the mobile and desktop mail clients. A system and method are provided to enable the mobile device to know about the capabilities of related mail clients associated with the communication address (e.g. email address) and vice versa such that the intersection of the capabilities (i.e. the strongest algorithm or protocol supported by all parties involved) can be chosen and the messages or data cryptographically processed accordingly.
US09154521B2

The disclosure addresses the detection of anomalous activity. Some embodiments are directed towards a system for receiving an indication relating to a plurality of controls, identification information associated with a responsible account, and instructions from a responsible account associated with the monitoring of thresholds of controls being monitored. The plurality of user account may be organized into groups based upon information relating to the user accounts, and instructions may be applied to the groups to create a dynamic security policy.
US09154516B1

A technique detects riskiness of a communication in a network based on behavior profiling. The technique involves generating a network history baseline (e.g., normal and abnormal behavior profiles) from prior network communications occurring in the network. The technique further involves, for a new network communication, assigning the new network communication a risk score based on a comparison of the new network communication to the network history baseline. The risk score is a numerical measure of behavioral normalcy relative to the prior network communications occurring in the network. The technique further involves providing an output signal having a first value when the risk score is above a predefined risk threshold to indicate that the communication is risky, and a second value which is different than the first value when the risk score is below the predefined risk threshold to indicate that the communication is not risky.
US09154507B2

A role and entitlements mining system uses network intelligence to facilitate role definition. The system records traffic on a network. The traffic is analyzed to identify the user and application involved. The matched data is then provided to an analytics engine, which analyzes that data to attempt to derive an initial set of one or more roles and the application entitlements for each role. Each role derived by the analytics engine identifies one or more users who are identified as belonging to the role, as well as one or more application entitlements. Preferably, one or more directory services are then interrogated for known group and user relationships to detect whether the roles identified by the analytics engine can be modified or enriched. Evaluation of the known group and user relationships provides a way to identify a more granular set of role definitions. A role-based access control policy is then generated.
US09154497B1

A network server verifies a requesting user's permission to use a password to access a shared account hosted on a network server. The requesting user may be the person to whom the password was assigned, or in some cases, permission to use the password may have been granted to the requesting user by the person to whom the password is assigned. Provided the requesting user has permission to use the password, the system authenticates the requesting user for access to the shared account, and maintains accountability of the password.
US09154496B2

A password-hardening system comprises at least first and second servers. The first server is configured to store a plurality of sets of passwords for respective users with each such set comprising at least one valid password for the corresponding user and a plurality of chaff passwords for that user. The second server is configured to store at least a portion of valid password indication information indicating for each of the sets which of the passwords in that set is a valid password. The first and second servers are further configured to proactively update the sets of passwords and the valid password indication information in each of a plurality of epochs. The valid password indication information may comprise, for example, valid password index values for respective ones of the users, with the index values being stored as a shared secret across the first and second servers.
US09154486B1

A lockable piece of luggage that may be unlocked with user credentials from a client device is disclosed.
US09154485B1

A WebSocket connection is established. The WebSocket connection was established with a requester of the connection. The authentication of the requester is configured to expire. A request to revalidate the authentication is provided. An update of the authentication is received. The update of the authentication is received without disconnecting the WebSocket connection.
US09154483B1

Described herein are systems and methods for secure configuration provisioning of network credentials to configure a device to join one or more networks. One implementation provides for distribution of network credentials to associated devices without user intervention while maintaining security and avoiding distribution of the network credentials to external devices, such as a third-party server. Devices may be associated by purchase from a common merchant, registration to a common account, and so forth.
US09154476B2

Methods and arrangements in a WSAN Gateway (15), a WSAN Manager (16) and a WSAN sensor for attaching an additional sensor (39) to a WSAN (12) comprising at least one existing WSAN sensor (33). The additional sensor emits an indication of its private identity after insertion in the WSAN, and the indication is received by the existing sensors in the WSAN and forwarded to the WSAN Gateway, after an eligibility check. Thereafter, the WSAN Gateway sends an authentication request to the WSAN Manager, which computes an authentication vector and transmits to the WSAN Gateway for the authentication of the new sensor.
US09154473B1

A system and methods that prioritize email based on the use of cryptographic signatures are described. The system can allow email to be received without blocking a subset of the email. When email is received, the system can determine whether the email is received from an approved user who has exchanged public keys with the email recipient and determines whether the email includes one or more cryptographic signatures. Emails with signatures that are successfully verified can be identified as having a higher priority level than emails without the cryptographic signatures. The emails with the higher priority level can be presented to the recipient in a priority inbox. Emails without the signatures can be placed in a different folder, which is not presented to the user by default, but can be presented to the user in response to a request from the user.
US09154471B2

A unified encrypted messaging system transmits messages from a first computer to a second computer by dividing the encrypted message into a plurality of encrypted message fragments. A first portion of the plurality of encrypted message fragments is transmitted via a first protocol and a second portion of the plurality of encrypted message fragments is sent via a second protocol. The first portion may be sent via a first device and the second portion may be sent via a second device where the first device is different from the second device. The dividing the encrypted message may include adding a message identifier and fragment identifier to each of the plurality of encrypted message fragments to facilitate reassembly of the encrypted message upon receipt.
US09154470B2

Embodiments of the invention include methods, systems, and computer-readable media for processing transactions involving sensitive information, such as a credit card number. Embodiments include a first server authenticating a second server based on a security token and determining whether the security token is expired. Based on the results, the first server may request a transaction token associated with sensitive information. The first server may encrypt the transaction token using a public key of the second server. The first server may send the encrypted transaction token as a parameter to a URL, wherein the URL is configured to cause a browser on a client to send, to the second server, a request for the page and the encrypted transaction token.
US09154469B2

A system and method of protecting data on a communication device are provided. Data received when the communication device is in a first operational state is encrypted using a first cryptographic key and algorithm. When the communication device is in a second operational state, received data is encrypted using a second cryptographic key and algorithm. Received data is stored on the communication device in encrypted form.
US09154466B2

A computer-implemented method for introducing variation in sub-system output signals to prevent device fingerprinting may include (1) intercepting, on a computing device, an output signal sent from a sub-system device on a computing device to a software component on the computing device, (2) identifying a margin of error for the output signal, (3), creating a modified output signal by introducing variation into the output signal in such a way that (a) the variation does not exceed the margin of error for the output signal and (b) the modified output signal cannot be used to identify the computing device, and (4) sending the modified output signal to the software component. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US09154463B2

The present invention facilitates automatic discovery of VPN-related information, which relates to the existence or association of VPNs as supported by provider edge devices in a core network. In particular, the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is used to facilitate the automatic discovery, and the provider edge devices are capable of subsequently and automatically triggering Label Distribution Protocol (LDP) processes to facilitate signaling over LDP sessions within the core network.
US09154458B2

Systems (1900) and methods (2300, 2400) for use in a network node (1901-1903). The methods involve: receiving a Data Communication (“DC”) from Data Link Layer Software (“DLLS”); identifying an IDentity Parameter (“IDP”) contained in DC which comprises a False Value (“FV”) specifying false information about the node or DC; obtaining a True Value (“TV”) specifying true information about the node or DC; replacing the FV with the TV to generate a modified DC; and forwarding the modified DC to Network Layer Software (“NLS”). The methods also involve: receiving a Data Unit (“DU”) from NLS comprising a Transport Layer Header (“TLH”) and a Network Layer Header (“NLH”) including TVs specifying true information about the node or FDU; obtaining a FV which specifies false information about the node or FDU; replacing a TV of DU with the FV so as to form a Modified Data Unit (“MDU”); and forwarding MDU to DLLS.
US09154452B2

In a method for dynamic buffer adjustment at a line card of router, a current buffer occupancy at the line card is compared with at least a first buffer occupancy threshold, the first buffer occupancy threshold being calculated based on a buffer occupancy threshold parameter and a capacity of at least a first buffer memory at the line card; and an active buffer capacity is adjusted by at least one of activating and deactivating buffer memory blocks at the line card based on the comparing step, the activating including switching on the buffer memory blocks, and the deactivating including causing the buffer memory blocks to enter a sleep state.
US09154448B2

An apparatus includes first and second processors, a common memory, and a switch. The first processor executes an operating system, connects to a communication network and communicates with the communication network. The second processor operates independently of the operating system, connects to the communication network, and communicates with the communication network. The second processor writes, in the common memory, communication setting information being used by the second processor when the switch switches the connection destination from the second processor to the first processor. The first processor acquires the communication setting information, and sets the acquired communication setting information to the first processor. The switch switches the connection destination of the communication network from the second processor to the first processor after the communication setting information has been set to the first processor.
US09154440B2

Aspects of the invention pertain to transmitting packet data across a computer network. The packets may be sent via one or more distinct routes from a source to a destination. Each route may employ multiple routers disposed along the network. Non-colliding routes are determined by transmitting pairs of probe packets along the routes. A first probe packet has a maximal length, and a second probe packet has a minimal length. Depending on the order of arrival of the probe packets, the system determines whether two transport layer ports at the destination device collide. If there is a collision, then the system searches for a set of non-colliding ports. Once the non-colliding ports are determined, application data may be sent as packets along the different routes to those ports.
US09154437B2

There is provided a network device comprising a physical queue management processor configured to manage attributes of physical queues of data packets. The network device further comprises a scheduling processor which is configured to manage scheduling nodes that establish a scheduling hierarchy among the physical queues in a network, utilizing a bi-directional mapping of the physical queues to logical queues. The network device further comprises a traffic management processor which is configured to modify the bi-directional mapping mentioned above.
US09154435B2

A bandwidth management system includes a plurality of queues respectively corresponding to a plurality of zones. An enqueuing module receives network traffic from one or more incoming network interfaces, determines a belonging zone to which the network traffic belongs, and enqueues the network traffic on a queue corresponding to the belonging zone. A dequeuing module selectively dequeues data from the queues and passes the data to one or more outgoing network interfaces. When dequeuing data from the queues the dequeuing module dequeues an amount of data from a selected queue, and the amount of data dequeued from the selected queue is determined according to user load of a zone to which the selected queue corresponds.
US09154431B2

A method and system for managing bitrate of network traffic are provided. The method for managing bitrate of network traffic includes: receiving a packet; retrieving metadata from the packet and associating the packet with at least one traffic aggregate; determining a drop rate for the at least one traffic aggregate based on network flow data; and determining, based on the drop rate and the metadata, to forward or drop the packet. The system includes a packet processing module configured to receive a packet; a deep packet inspection module configured to retrieve metadata from the packet and associate at least on traffic aggregate with the packet; a control module configured to determine a drop rate for the at least one traffic aggregate based on network flow data; and a policy decision module configure to determine whether to forward or drop the packet based on the drop rate and the metadata of the packet.
US09154430B2

A relay wireless communication device is implemented to perform buffer management and coordination with a source wireless communication device. A relay wireless communication device (generally, a relay) informs a source wireless communication device (source) of the status of memory therein to store messages intended for a destination wireless communication device (destination). For example, the source transmits information to the relay, which buffers information before forwarding it on to the destination. This buffering may be a function of the source having additional information intended for the relay and/or destination. The relay performs appropriate signaling, such as suspend transmission requests and resume transmission requests, to inform other devices in the system of its memory storage status (e.g., such as when having an actual or anticipated overflow). In one implementation, a suspend transmission request may be implemented by setting a particular bit within a communication from the relay to the source.
US09154425B2

A method and apparatus for more efficient routing of packets in a network is provided. The apparatus may include dynamic routing of packets or portions of packets which avoids congestion and blocking by making local decisions within the network. The apparatus may further include creating and updating routing tables which map switch outputs to available network output ports. Additionally the header of packets entering the network are processed prior to entry or as part of the entry to the network to produce a processed packet. The processed packets or portions of packets preferably include complete route information or a final destination address that enables rapid routing through the network without further processing of the packet header. One or more aspects of the inventions may be implemented in combination with other aspects of the invention to further improve network efficiency.
US09154421B2

A network-based apparatus for imposing a minimum transmit latency on data packets of a prescribed data type on a network includes at least one processor. The processor is operative: (i) to receive a data packet of the prescribed data type; (ii) to determine an elapsed time since an arrival of the received data packet at the apparatus; (iii) when the elapsed time is equal to or greater than the minimum transmit latency, to transmit the data packet; and (iv) when the elapsed time is less than the minimum transmit latency, to wait an amount of time at least equal to a difference between the elapsed time and the minimum transmit latency and then to transmit the data packet. The apparatus further includes memory coupled to the processor, the memory being configurable for storing data utilized by the processor.
US09154416B2

One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch. The switch includes a tunnel management module, a packet processor, and a forwarding module. The tunnel management module operates the switch as a tunnel gateway capable of terminating an overlay tunnel. During operation, the packet processor, which is coupled to the tunnel management module, identifies in a data packet a virtual Internet Protocol (IP) address associated with a virtual tunnel gateway. This virtual tunnel gateway is associated with the switch and the data packet is associated with the overlay tunnel. The forwarding module determines an output port for an inner packet in the data packet based on a destination address of the inner packet.
US09154411B2

In one embodiment, a method includes generating an aggregated pseudowire status message at a first network device in a Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) network, transmitting the aggregated pseudowire status message to a second network device on a Label Switched Path (LSP) extending between the first and second network devices in the MPLS network, and establishing at the first network device, an aggregated pseudowire status session with the second network device upon receiving a response to the aggregated pseudowire status message on the LSP. The aggregated pseudowire status message configured to verify a current status of pseudowires on the LSP. An apparatus is also disclosed.
US09154409B2

A method, apparatus and computer program product for debugging private Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs) is provided. In a Connectivity Fault Management (CFM) domain wherein a primary Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) includes promiscuous ports and wherein a secondary VLAN includes isolated ports, a determination is made at a first network device whether a CFM packet is received on a primary VLAN or a secondary VLAN. When the CFM packet is received on a secondary VLAN, then the CFM packet is responses to on the primary VLAN.
US09154400B2

A system for allowing dynamic changing of routing information of a network interconnect while avoiding deadlocks and preserving packet ordering. A network resiliency system detects when an error in the network interconnect occurs and dynamically generates new routing information for the routers that factors in the detected error. The network resiliency system then generates new routing information that factors in the failure. The network resiliency system then directs the network interconnect to enter a quiescent state in which no packets are transiting through the network interconnect. After the network interconnect enters the quiescent state, the network resiliency system directs the loading of the new routing information into the routing tables of the network interconnect and then directs the network interconnect to start injecting request packets into the network interconnect.
US09154394B2

A switch creates and dynamically updates a latency map of a network to adjust routing of flows. Further, the network is monitored to detect latency issues and trigger a dynamic adjustment of routing based on the latency map. In this manner, a flow can be routed along a route (i.e., a faster route) that provides less latency than other available routes. The latency map can be generated based on latency probe packets that are issued from and returned to the source switch. By evaluating many such latent probe packets that have traveled along many available routes (e.g., corresponding to various ports of the switch), the switch or associated administrative logic can dynamically adjust the latency map to updated latency information of available routes. Therefore, responsive to a trigger, the source switch can dynamically adjust the routing of a flow based on latency issues discerned from the network.
US09154393B2

Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media are provided for improving order feed message stream integrity. Certain embodiments provide a method including sending, by a computing device, a first data message; sending a first stop message; clearing a message stream state; and sending a second data message. The first data message includes data related to an order for a tradeable object, a first sequence number with a value of a predefined initial sequence number, and a first phase number. The second data message includes data related to an order, a second sequence number with a value of the predefined initial sequence number, and a second phase number, wherein the second phase number is different than the first phase number. The message stream state is associated with the order.
US09154390B2

A packet relay apparatus includes a first packet processing circuit and a second packet processing circuit. The first packet processing circuit executes, discarding data packets from among data packets, and transferring the rest of the data packets to the second packet processing circuit, counting discard number of the data packets, determining whether or not the discard number is equal to or greater than a threshold and transferring, if the discard number is equal to or greater than the threshold, a discard number information packet including discard number information indicating the discard number to the second packet processing circuit. The second packet processing circuit executes discarding data packets from among the data packets, counting discard number of the data packets and collecting the discard number counted by the second packet processing circuit and the discard number indicated by the discard number information included in the discard number information packet.
US09154388B2

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for support dependent post delivery. In one aspect, a method included generating transmission data for a web page served by a first server and rendered on the client device, the first server belonging to a first domain; determining if the client device supports cross origin resource sharing; in response to a determination that the client device does not support cross origin resource sharing: defining an iFrame for the web page, the iFrame belonging to a second domain of a receiving server, and having a name value derived from the transmission data, receiving iFrame instructions from the receiving server and executing the iFrame instructions in the iFrame, the iFrame instruction causing the client device to: generate an HTTP POST request to the receiving server from the iFrame name value, the first HTTP POST request including the transmission data.
US09154384B2

In one embodiment, a method includes receiving data for a customer, the data associated with a customer network, calculating at a network device, a sentiment for the customer based on the data, and modifying network management services for the customer based on the sentiment. An apparatus for sentiment based dynamic network management services is also disclosed.
US09154383B2

Disclosed is a system and method for extending the web application root cause determination functionality to a web browser. In one aspect, the present invention plots the network topology diagram for the web application by executing network trace commands. In another aspect, the present invention allows user to upload their web application network topology diagram. In another aspect, the present invention allows user to build their web application network topology diagram using UI Devices Toolkit. The present invention collects the information relating to the web application issue from various entities such as network infrastructure devices, servers through ICMP, SNMP, TRAP, SYS/APPLOG, HTTP and Network traffic analysis. In one aspect, the present invention highlights the entity in the web application network topology diagram based on the collected information and provides the experts recommended suggestion for the issue through Internet web search query.
US09154378B2

A method implemented by a network element of an Internet service provider to provide network access through a visited network associated with a visited network owner to a device of a visiting user connecting to the visited network. The visited network owner is a customer of the Internet service provider. The network element configures the visited network to provide access to resources of a remote home network to the device of the visiting user. The remote home network is in communication with the visited network over a wide area network. Connecting to a virtual gateway controller of the remote home network to obtain configuration information to establish a connection between the device and the remote home network. Establishing a connection between the device of the visiting user and a second access point. Providing access to the resource of the remote home network through the second access point.
US09154364B1

Detecting a suspicious element in a web page is disclosed. The page is analyzed, such as through static analysis and/or dynamic analysis techniques. A suspicious element in the page is detected. A report that includes a copy of at least a portion of the suspicious element is provided as output.
US09154362B1

A governance apparatus and a communication method for communicating within the governance apparatus. The governance apparatus includes a Government and micro grid apparatuses. The Government includes Councils such that a macro grid including an artificial intelligence and the Government is configured to respond to an alert pertaining to an event through use of the artificial intelligence and the Government. Each governmental component of the Government is either an Executive or a Parliament. Each micro grid apparatus is either a simple micro grid apparatus or a complex micro grid apparatus. Each Executive is a unique processor disposed in a unique simple micro grid apparatus. Each Parliament is a unique processor disposed in a unique complex micro grid apparatus. Each unique processor is a Council. The communication method includes communication between Councils in accordance with an enhanced Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) communication stack and an enhanced TCP/IP packet header structure.
US09154361B2

A video optimizer receives a request to optimize a source file and stream the optimized file. The request may be accompanied by a key uniquely identifying the original source file to be optimized and an optimized version of the source file to stream to the client. The key uniquely identifies the source video file as it exists on an origin server to prevent transmission of modified source video and the optimized version of the source file by optimization parameters to ensure compatibility with the user device. The video optimizer queries a cache database in response to the received request, which contains references keys and locations of optimized source files among local caches in a cluster of video optimizers. The cache database responds indicates whether a matching optimized version of the source file exists in a local cache of a given video optimizer in the cluster.
US09154360B2

The present invention relates to telecommunication systems providing multiple services which could require possible adaptations based on the capabilities of the terminal used to access those services.Master databases in the telecommunication system take the responsibility to map between terminal and user identifiers. Applications and services are thus able to query terminal related capability information based on a user identity.In accordance with the invention, a Terminal Capabilities database (TC-DB) is introduced in order to establish a temporary relationship between a user and a terminal operated by such user. When a user attaches to the network, a terminal identifier is sent to the network that forwards that identity to the TC-DB. For retrieval of terminal capabilities the application servers send a request message to the TC-DB by using the user identity as a correlating key.
US09154356B2

Low noise amplifiers (LNAs) supporting carrier aggregation are disclosed. In an exemplary design, an apparatus includes first and second amplifier stages, e.g., for a carrier aggregation (CA) LNA or a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) LNA. The first amplifier stage receives and amplifies an input radio frequency (RF) signal and provides a first output RF signal to a first load circuit when the first amplifier stage is enabled. The input RF signal includes transmissions sent on multiple carriers at different frequencies to a wireless device. The second amplifier stage receives and amplifies the input RF signal and provides a second output RF signal to a second load circuit when the second amplifier stage is enabled. Each amplifier stage may include a gain transistor coupled to a cascode transistor.
US09154352B2

Providing for wireless communication involving supplemental wireless nodes is described herein. By way of example, prior signaling is employed between a macro base station and a set of associated supplemental nodes to support pending wireless communication with a user terminal. In some aspects, the prior signaling can include control or data traffic transmitted to or received from the user terminal. In addition, the supplemental nodes can synchronize transmission or reception of the control or data traffic transmissions with similar transmission or reception of the macro base station. In some aspects, the supplemental nodes can also replicate pilot signal transmissions on OFDM symbols employed by the macro base station for pilot signals, to give consistent downlink channel for both traffic and pilot signals. Accordingly, the user terminal observes consistent pilot transmissions over various time slots, as well as concurrent traffic transmissions that can generally be decoded with a common reference signal.
US09154350B2

In at least some embodiments, a communication device includes a transceiver with a physical (PHY) layer. The PHY layer is configured for body area network (BAN) operations in a limited multipath environment using M-ary PSK, differential M-ary PSK or rotated differential M-ary PSK. Also, the PHY layer uses a constant symbol rate for BAN packet transmissions.
US09154349B2

A wireless transmitter which performs reconfiguration for high mobility and high throughput includes: an operation mode decision unit configured to decide an operation mode depending on mobility, a required data rate, and wireless link performance; a clock generation unit configured to generate a plurality of clock signals; a selection unit configured to select necessary clock signals among the plurality of clock signals generated by the clock generation unit according to the operation mode decided by the operation mode decision unit; and at least one or more digital modulation units configured to modulate transmitted data by adjusting a signal bandwidth of a frequency domain and a transmission time of a time domain using the clock signals selected by the selection unit.
US09154347B2

An adaptive equalizer capable of suppressing an increase in circuit scale and an increase in operation clock frequency. An adaptive equalizer (100) performs an adaptive equalization process on a time-region signal in a frequency region. A signal converter (200) has: a first wide-bit memory (201) capable of reading/writing a plurality of sample signals; a first register group (202) comprising a plurality of registers capable of accessing the first wide-bit memory (201); a butterfly computation unit group (204) comprising a plurality of butterfly computation units; and a first connection switching unit (203) for switching the state of connection between the plurality of registers and the plurality of butterfly computation units.
US09154343B2

A method for transmitting and receiving uplink signals using an optimized rank 3 codebook is disclosed. The optimized rank 3 codebook includes 6 precoding matrix groups, each of which has 1 variable having an amplitude of 1. Preferably, the optimized 4Tx rank 3 codebook has 12 precoding matrix, two precoding matrixes are selected from each the above 6 precoding matrix groups considering chordal distance and the number of precoding matrix.
US09154342B2

The present document discloses an apparatus and method for cancelling in-band interference in a cellular telecommunication system which using multiple-input multiple-output technique. The method includes: receiving a transmitted signal and obtaining an interfering data stream; calculating a value of a credit; deciding whether the credit is above a predefined threshold; regenerating an interference signal by using the interfering data stream if the credit is above the predefined threshold; subtracting the regenerated interference signal from the received transmitted signal to obtain a target signal; and demodulating and decoding the target signal. By using the apparatus and method, the concerned signal can be regenerated even when there is only small number of error bits while all the other bits are correctly decoded. Also, the target stream would be able to know whether the interfering stream can be regenerated or not, before the decoding.
US09154327B1

A virtual network is overlaid upon physical networks. The virtual network is a layer-2 network that appears to expand an organization's LAN using virtual MAC addresses. A VN device driver shim intercepts LAN packets and their virtual MAC and IP addresses and encapsulates them with physical packets that can be routed over the Internet. As new nodes are created, a VN switch table is expanded so that all nodes on the virtual network can reach the new node. A copy of the VN switch table is stored on each node by a virtual network management daemon on the node. A VN configuration controller in a central server updates the VN switch tables. Organizations can expand their virtual network as nodes are created at remote cloud computing providers without action by the staff at the cloud computing provider. Hybrid cloud virtual networks include on-premises physical and virtual-machine nodes, and off-premises guest nodes and instances.
US09154322B2

A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a method at a residential gateway device that registers at least one mobile phone number with the residential gateway device via a femtocell integrated with the residential gateway device when a mobile device associated with the at least one mobile phone number is within range of the femtocell, registers at least one voice over internet protocol phone number with the residential gateway device, and selectively receives and makes calls using one of a set top box registered with the residential gateway device, the mobile device registered with the femtocell, a voice over internet protocol phone corresponding to the at least one voice over internet protocol phone number. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09154321B2

A wireless network architecture for providing Multicast-Broadcast over a Single Frequency Network (MBSFN) messages is disclosed. A network element may use an interface to communicate with a cluster of network elements. The network element may multicast an MBSFN message to a cluster and may determine when to retransmit the MBSFN message if an acknowledgement message is not received.
US09154320B2

The present invention relates to a point code emulation apparatus and method for dividing a Common Channel Signaling System No. 7 (or SS7) signaling network into two or more networks. The point code emulator is adapted to receive TCAP messages from two or more subnets and converts, for the messages crossing over the subnets, the information of the TCAP messages, including originating point code, destination point code, and transaction identifier, (and optionally, calling party number and called party number), and forwards to the other one of the two or more subnets. Correspondence among the two or more subnets may be provisioned by an authorized user of the system, may be learned automatically by the system based on ISUP message correspondences or previous TCAP transactions, or may be automatically discovered by the system broadcasting messages to nodes in the destined one of the two or more subnets.
US09154318B2

A system and a process for a session layer protocol allows a large number of client machines to receive a reliable data stream over inherently unreliable multicast connections in a highly efficient and scalable manner. More specifically, streaming of high-quality video, audio, stock and news tickers, or any other application specific data that requires a reliable data stream is described. The streaming allows for the source to instruct individuals to drop their connection to the stream to prevent noisy individuals from disrupting the operating efficiency of the stream.
US09154317B2

A system and method for making a VoIP-based and other types of group calls includes a user interface adapted for use by a group call administrator via the Internet, a database manager connected to the user interface, and a database connected to the database manager. In one embodiment, the group call administrator identifier and one or more group call invitee identifiers is a telephone number. The server responds to a group call request by initiating a first group call connection and initiating at least one or more second group call connections to join a group call administrator and at least one group call invitee. A method includes using call information from a database to initiate conference call connections and an administrator call connection to facilitate a conference call in which the administrators call connections and the participants connections are joined to allow communications between the participants and the administrator.
US09154312B2

Power save proxy functionality can be implemented to enable power save devices to switch to a power save mode and still receive communications from legacy communication devices. A first communication device determines that a second communication device is in a power save mode. The first communication device designates itself as a power save proxy for the second communication device that is in the power save mode. In response to detecting packets that are transmitted from a legacy communication device to the second communication device, the first communication device transmits a control message to the second communication device to request the second communication device to exit the power save mode, transmits a hold control message to the legacy communication device to request the legacy communication device to temporarily stop transmitting packets to the second communication device, or stores the packets intended for the second communication device.
US09154303B1

In one implementation, a client device receives a request from a user to output a representation for a credential of the user. In response to receiving the request from the user to output the representation for the credential of the user, the client device obtains data identifying a third-party having authority to grant the user access to the credential of the user. The client device then obtains a representation of a credential associated with the third-party and validates the representation of the credential associated with the third-party. In response to validating the representation of the credential associated with the third-party, the client device outputs the representation for the credential of the user.
US09154296B1

A method performed by a client includes (i) receiving a lease from a tenant including a core including lease terms and an identification of the tenant and a first signature that cryptographically combines the core and a secret code associated with the tenant, the secret code being unknown to the client, (ii) sending a storage request to a central entity for access to remote storage including (a) a body including the core and an object identifier, which identifies an object stored in the remote storage and (b) a second signature that cryptographically combines the body and the first signature, and (iii) receiving a storage response including the object from the remote storage when (I) a computation performed by the central entity of the second signature based on the secret code, the core, and the body matches the second signature and (II) the storage request complies with the lease terms.
US09154275B2

An uplink cross-carrier scheduling method in a carrier aggregation system is provided. The method includes: receiving information for an uplink component carrier (UL CC) monitoring set from a base station; receiving control information through a downlink component carrier (DL CC) determined on the basis of the information for the UL CC monitoring set; and transmitting an uplink signal to the base station on the basis of the control information.
US09154271B1

A system including a monitoring module and a controller. The monitoring module is configured to monitor a link. The controller is configured to, in response to the monitoring module determining that the link is up, (i) start a first timer; (ii) indicate that the link is down in response to the monitoring module determining, prior to the first timer expiring, that the link is down; and (iii) indicate that the link is up in response to the monitoring module determining, subsequent to the first time expiring, that the link is up.
US09154270B2

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for performing hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) in a wireless communication system. A terminal transmits a plurality of code words on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) and receives a plurality of acknowledgement/non-acknowledgement (ACK/NACK) signals, which indicates if each of the plurality of code words has been received, on each physical hybrid-ARQ indicator channel (PHICH) corresponding to the respective code words. A downlink resource for which each of the PHICHs is mapped is determined based on the smallest physical resource block (PRB) index (IPRB—RAlowest—index) among PRBs mapped by the PUSCH and on an uplink demodulation reference signal (DMRS) circular shift parameter (nDMRS), and those downlink resources for which PHICHs are mapped respectively do not overlap each other.
US09154263B1

A method of mitigating narrow band interference (NBI) in ultra wide band (UWB) systems operating around 10 GHz mitigates multiuser interference from IEEE 802.22 and WiMAX, wherein the multiuser interference interferes with both trained and blind UWB systems, with the trained UWB system using pilot symbol assisted modulation. The method passes a received UWB signal through a band pass filter (BPF), wherein the BPF is located at a UWB receiver and the UWB signal is a Hanning modulated pulse centered at 4 GHz frequency. The method further measures a plurality of test functions, determines a number of active users, notch filters NBI signals, based on the determined number of active users, passes the notch filtered signal through a quadratic programming algorithm, to perform joint decoding, estimates an arrival of a UWB payload, and demodulates the UWB payload, based on the estimated arrival of the UWB payload.
US09154252B2

In bus communications methods and apparatus, a first set of physical signals representing the information to be conveyed over the bus is provided, and mapped to a codeword of a sparse signaling code, wherein a codeword is representable as a vector of a plurality of components, some of which are quiescent components and some of which are non-quiescent components, wherein the number of quiescent components and non-quiescent components meet a sparseness requirement.
US09154246B2

A computer system receives information snippets from a mobile device. The information snippets are extracted from a simulcast of a data stream of a radio broadcast received on the mobile device. The system identifies content metadata from the information snippets. The content metadata describes one or more features of the radio broadcast. The system selects a radio station from a radio station repository based on attributes of the radio station. One of the selection criteria is that the attributes of the radio station match at least a portion of the content metadata. The system presents a reference to the radio station to the mobile device as a recommendation.
US09154233B2

A frequency modulation signal demodulator includes: an optical signal that has a wavelength, a frequency modulation signal being superimposed onto the optical signal; an optical filter that inputs the optical signal and has a central wavelength of a pass band at a wavelength that is shifted from a central wavelength of a spectrum of the optical signal and that is set to allow the pass band to be located at one portion of the spectrum; and an asymmetry optical interferometer that demodulates the frequency modulation signal by splitting light which has passed through the optical filter, delaying different time between split lights, and interfering the split lights.
US09154230B2

The present invention provides an optical signal control method, an optical signal control system and an optical backplane system, which belongs to the field of optical communications technologies. The method includes: detecting whether a circuit board is pulled out from an optical backplane; if the circuit board is pulled out, querying a transmitting port of another circuit board connected to a slot where the pulled out circuit board is located, transmitting a first control instruction to the transmitting port, and notifying of closing the transmitting port or adjusting output power of the transmitting port to make it below a preset threshold. The optical signal control system includes: a detection module and a control module. The optical backplane system includes the optical signal control system.
US09154229B2

Provided is an information processing system that includes a server and a client device. The server stores identification information and associated content in memory, and transmits the identification information, using light that varies over time as a communication medium. The client device continuously senses and decodes the light varying in time into the identification information, transmits the decoded identification information to the server, receives content transmitted from the server in response to the transmission of identification information, and displays received content. A controller included in the client device detects an operation on the displayed content from an input device, and applies control to transmit process details according to the detection to the server. The server additionally executes the process details transmitted from the client device, and updates the content to content that includes the execution results.
US09154222B2

Power distribution modules in distributed antenna systems include fan monitoring circuits for indicating an alarm condition to head-end equipment. The alarm condition can be used by system operator/owners that a fan is drawing excessive power, thereby detracting from system performance, or indicating that the fan may fail. The alarm condition signal can be returned to the head-end equipment via an uplink communication path between a remote unit powered by the module and the head-end equipment.
US09154221B2

Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method and a system for realizing PON reach extension, and a relay apparatus for realizing this method. The method includes: extracting an overhead in an upstream data stream that is sent by an ONU to an OLT, obtaining a payload in the upstream data stream through de-mapping, and storing it into a buffer; extracting bandwidth authorization information in an downstream data stream that is sent by the OLT to the ONU; and reorganizing a stored payload according to the bandwidth authorization information and inserting a corresponding overhead to generate a new upstream data stream and send it to the OLT.
US09154217B1

Methods, apparatuses, computer program products, and computer readable media are disclosed herein. In one aspect, an apparatus can include a transmission line configured to accept a radio frequency signal from an antenna, wherein the antenna is configured to receive the radio frequency signal from a satellite. The apparatus can further include a system on a chip comprising a direct conversion receiver, a digital signal processor configured to process a digital representation of a baseband receive waveform to determine received information, and a wireless networking interface configured to send the received information to a satellite communications indoor unit.
US09154208B2

A new method is disclosed for providing wireless fixed access from an array of service antennas to a population of local terminals. In implementations, a service transceiver station (STS) performs beamform precoding using channel state information (CSI) obtained from transmissions by the local terminals, and the STS performs power allocation using slow fading coefficients which are static over the service antenna positions and over a frequency range spanning at least some carriers used for downlink transmission.
US09154201B2

A method of the multiple input multiple output feedback is disclosed. In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, the multiple input multiple output feedback method includes a receiver receiving a reference signal from a base station and calculating a signal to interference and noise ratio from the received reference signal. The method further includes determining a modulation and coding scheme based on the signal to interference and noise ratio and a receiver type.
US09154192B2

A method for controlling a modulation index of a near field communication (NFC) device includes: in a calibration mode of the NFC device, coupling a receiver of the NFC device to a transmitter of the NFC device to form a probing path between the receiver and the transmitter; and in the calibration mode of the NFC device, adjusting at least one portion of a plurality of modulation parameters corresponding to the modulation index according to probed results of outputs of the transmitter, in order to calibrate the modulation index, for use of transmitting through the transmitter in a normal mode of the NFC device. An associated apparatus is also provided.
US09154190B2

A communications system includes a plurality of slave mobile wireless communications devices each having a first near field communications (NFC) device. The communications system also includes a master mobile wireless communications device having second NFC device, and a processor coupled to the second NFC device. The processor is configured to associate different content items with different respective slave mobile wireless communications devices, based upon NFC communication with the plurality of slave mobile wireless communications devices, and to send the different content items to the different respective slave mobile wireless communications devices.
US09154188B2

An embodiment of a RF identification device is formed by a tag and by a reader. The tag is formed by a processing circuit and a first antenna, which has the function both of transmitting and of receiving data. The reader is formed by a control circuit and by a second antenna, which has the function both of transmitting and of receiving data. The processing circuit is formed by a resonance capacitor, a modulator, a rectifier circuit, a charge-pump circuit and a detection circuit. The antenna of the tag and the processing circuit are integrated in a single structure in completely monolithic form. The first antenna has terminals connected to the input of the rectifier circuit, the output of which is connected to the charge-pump circuit. The charge-pump circuit has an output connected to the detection circuit.
US09154187B2

Systems and methods for operating a filter for echo cancellation are described. In one embodiment, a method for operating a filter for echo cancellation involves monitoring at least one of a filter coefficient of the filter and an echo cancellation error to generate a monitoring result and, in response to the monitoring result, adjusting at least one of delay elements and filter taps of the filter to vary an impulse response of the filter. Other embodiments are also described.
US09154186B2

Systems and methods for toolstring communication in cable telemetry. The methods involve positioning a cable telemetry system in a wellbore. The cable telemetry system can include a surface modem, a downhole toolstring of downhole tools, a downhole modem operatively coupled to the downhole toolstring, a cable operatively coupling between the surface modem and the downhole modem, and a surface data routing module that polls and trains the cable telemetry system. The methods also involve performing a pre-transmission poll of a rate requirement for the downhole toolstring and a telemetry type for the downhole modem, applying a training phase to establish a transmission link between the surface modem and the downhole modem, configuring data obtained by the downhole toolstring for an uplink via the transmission link, and transmitting the uplink via the transmission link.
US09154181B2

A satellite signal reception device can reliably execute a satellite signal reception process. The satellite signal reception device has a reception time setting unit 71 that sets a reception time; a timekeeping unit that keeps internal time; and a scheduled reception control unit 72 that executes a time-based reception process that operates the reception unit when the time kept by the timekeeping unit reaches the reception time. By having a scheduled reception control unit 72, the reception process can be executed when the internal time goes to the reception time set by the reception time setting unit 71. The reception process is therefore executed once a day. The satellite signal reception process can therefore be executed reliably without being affected by how the device is used, the season, weather, or other factors.
US09154179B2

A receiver with bypass mode for improved sensitivity is disclosed. An apparatus is provided that includes a non-bypass signal path coupled to a receiver, the non-bypass signal path comprising a filter, a bypass signal path coupled to the receiver, the bypass signal path configure to bypass the filter, and a switch configured to couple an antenna to the non-bypass signal path during time intervals when signals transmitted by a related local transmitter are transmitted with a signal power that exceeds a threshold, and to couple the antenna to the bypass signal path during other time intervals. In another aspect, the switch is configured to couple the antenna to the non-bypass signal path during time intervals when a jamming signal in a selected frequency range is received with a signal power that exceeds a threshold, and to couple the antenna to the bypass signal path during other time intervals.
US09154169B2

Fractional symbol based phase noise mitigation, including methods and systems to determine phase noise trajectory, or indication of phase noise, for each of multiple fractional portions of a frequency domain symbol, and modify the symbol based on the phase noise trajectories of the subsets. Multiple correction hypotheses may be generated for each fractional portion of the symbol based on pre-defined phase noise hypotheses. The correction hypotheses may include frequency domain correction hypotheses. The correction hypotheses for a subset may be evaluated to select one of the phase noise hypotheses as the trajectory for the subset. The evaluation may include applying each correction hypothesis to a corresponding equalized frequency domain symbol to generate corresponding symbol hypotheses, computing a signal quality for each symbol hypothesis, and comparing the signal qualities. Signal qualities may be determined as error vector magnitudes, and may be based on all or a subset of corresponding symbol tones.
US09154163B2

Data is divided into parts and each part provided to a different processor. Each processor processes the provided data part to produce a partial CRC result. The partial CRC results from each of the different processors are XORed to produce a CRC of the data.
US09154156B2

A method of line coding is disclosed that limits error propagation in a decision feedback equalizer (DFE) of a receiving device. A communications device receives a set of bits to be transmitted over a channel and divides the set of bits into a plurality of blocks based, at least in part, on a line coding scheme. The device then encodes each of the blocks of bits into a corresponding block of symbols based on the line coding scheme. Specifically, the line coding scheme has a non-uniform coding efficiency, wherein a first bit or a last bit of each block of bits is mapped to a single data symbol. For some embodiments, the line coding scheme may be a ternary line coding scheme that maps a block of 3k+1 bits to a corresponding block of 2k+1 symbols, where k is an integer greater than 1.
US09154150B1

An analog-to-digital converter (ADC) utilizing a capacitor array during multiple conversion stages and amplifier sharing across multiple lanes. In various embodiments, the ADC includes N lanes, each of the lanes including a capacitor array. A plurality of switches coupled to each capacitor array selectively redistributes a sampled charge during N clock phases corresponding to N conversion stages, the conversion stages including a sampling stage performed on an analog input signal, at least one quantization stage, and N−2 multiplying digital-to-analog conversion (MDAC) stages for generating residue voltages. The MDAC stages utilize a plurality of N−2 amplifiers shared by the N lanes. In operation, each amplifier may be used in an interleaved manner to support, during a given clock phase, an MDAC stage of one of the lanes of the ADC. Likewise, one or more comparators of a lane may be leveraged to perform multiple quantization stages during the N clock phases.
US09154148B2

In an example, there is disclosed herein a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) including a correction circuit for a clock, including a differential clock. Error correction may take place within the DAC core, by means of replica cells that are substantially similar to conversion cells. Rather than contributing their output to the converted signal, the replica cells may be configured to provide a feedback signal to a clock receiver with information for correcting the clock signal. The feedback signal may be operable to correct errors, for example, in duty cycle and crosspoint, as measured at the DAC core.
US09154137B2

A method of monitoring operations of a set of ICs. The method loads a first set of configuration data into a first IC for configuring a group of configurable circuits of the first IC to perform operations of a user design. The method receives a definition of an event based on values of a set of signals in the user design and a set of corresponding actions to take when the event occurs. The set of signals includes at least one signal received from a second IC. The method generates an incremental second set of configuration data based on the definition of the event and the set of corresponding actions. While the first IC is performing the operations of the user design, the method loads the incremental second set of configuration data into the first IC and monitors the signals received from the second IC at the first IC.
US09154125B2

A method is disclosed for controlling an IGBT component and a gate driver. An exemplary method includes producing, with two separate driver circuits, a gate voltage for controlling the IGBT component, the outputs of the driver circuits being connected to free ends of a series connection of resistive components. A location, such as a midpoint between the series connection, forms the gate voltage.
US09154124B2

Electromagnetic radiation (“EMR”) dissipating devices. One example embodiment includes an electrical circuit including an EMR source configured to generate an output signal at an operating bit rate. The output signal may include an EMR component. The electrical circuit may also include an EMR dissipating device electrically coupled to the EMR source and configured to have a resonance frequency corresponding to the operating bit rate.
US09154121B2

An embodiment of pulse width modulated (PWM) signal generator includes a module or modules to calculate an amount of change in a period length and duty ratio of an output signal during a transition period between a first signal waveform and a second signal waveform using a first period parameter, a second period parameter, and a parameter indicating a predetermined number of steps in the transition period. The period parameter and duty parameter of the output signal during the steps of the transition period are based on the calculated amounts of change.
US09154118B1

A pulse delay circuit includes a pull down element, a first pull up element, a first delay unit, a second delay unit, a second pull up element, and an inverted buffer. The pull down element is connected to an input pulse signal, a node b and a first voltage. The first pull up element is connected to a node c, a second voltage and the node b. The first delay unit has a reset terminal. The first delay unit is connected to the node b and the node c. The second delay unit is connected to the node c and the node d. The second pull up element is connected to the node d, the second voltage and the node c. The inverted buffer is connected to the node c and the reset terminal. Moreover, a delayed pulse signal is outputted from the inverted buffer.
US09154112B2

In accordance with a representative embodiment, a bulk acoustic wave (BAW) resonator structure, comprises: a first BAW resonator comprising a first lower electrode, a first upper electrode and a first piezoelectric layer disposed between the first lower electrode and the first upper electrode; a second BAW resonator comprising a second lower electrode, a second upper electrode and a second piezoelectric layer disposed between the second lower electrode and the second upper electrode; an acoustic coupling layer disposed between the first BAW resonator and the second BAW resonator; and a bridge disposed between the first lower electrode of the first BAW resonator and the second upper electrode of the second BAW resonator.
US09154107B2

A bulk acoustic resonator assembly and methods for fabricated the resonator assembly is provided. The resonator includes a cavity on a first surface of a substrate, with a sheet of low acoustic loss material suspended over the cavity. The sheet of low acoustic loss material is configured such that an associated fundamental frequency of the sheet of low acoustic loss material is a function of a length of the sheet of low acoustic loss material in a direction parallel to the first surface of the substrate. A transducer includes an electromechanical layer on the sheet of low acoustic loss material and a patterned conductive material formed on the electromechanical material. The transducer is configured to induce vibrations in the low acoustic loss material upon application of an electrical signal to the conductive pattern.
US09154105B2

This invention relates to a microstrip to slotline transition circuit operating on two frequency bands, in which a first filtering circuit is connected between a first portion of microstrip line and a first input/output port, said first circuit and the portion of microstrip line being adapted to accept the frequencies from a first frequency band and reject the frequencies of a second frequency band, a second filtering circuit is connected between a second portion of microstrip line and a second input/output port, said second circuit and the portion of microstrip line being adapted to accept the frequencies from the second frequency band and reject the frequencies from the first frequency band, and the slotline is sized to provide an impedance that is substantially equal to the impedance of an open circuit at the coupling zone between the microstrip line and the slotline.
US09154102B2

The present document relates to processing of multimedia data, notably the encoding, the transmission, the decoding and the rendering of multimedia data, e.g. audio files or bitstreams. In particular, the present document relates to the implementation of loudness control in multimedia players. A method for providing loudness related data to a media player is described. The method comprises the steps of providing a first loudness related value associated with an audio signal; wherein the first loudness related value has been determined according to a first procedure; of converting the first loudness related value into a second loudness related value using a reversible relation; wherein the second loudness related value is associated with a second procedure for determining loudness related values; of storing the second loudness related value in metadata associated with the audio signal; and of providing the metadata to the media player.
US09154101B2

This document discusses, among other things, apparatus and methods for providing audio transducer protection. In an example, an audio protection circuit can include a first comparator configured to compare peak power information of a drive signal of an amplifier of an audio system with a first threshold, a limiter circuit configured to limit an input of the amplifier if the peak power information of the drive signal exceeds the first threshold, and a second comparator configured to compare average power information of the drive signal with a second threshold and to provide an output signal configured to modulate a gain of a pre-amplifier of the audio system using the comparison.
US09154095B2

A method and an amplifier for amplifying audio signals receive and process an incoming audio sample in preparation for amplification by an electronic amplifier circuit. A boost supply circuit receives a voltage from a power supply. A processor system determines whether amplification of the incoming audio sample warrants more voltage than the voltage received from the power supply. Before completing the processing of the incoming audio sample, the processor system sends a signal to the boost supply circuit to boost the voltage received from the power supply and to supply the boosted voltage to the electronic amplifier circuit if the incoming audio sample warrants more voltage than the voltage received from the power supply. Otherwise, the boost supply circuit passes the voltage received from the power supply to the electronic amplifier circuit.
US09154085B2

An exemplary system comprises a linearizer, a power amplifier, and a feedback block. The linearizer may be configured to use a predistortion control signal to add predistortion to a receive signal to generate a predistorted signal. The power amplifier may be configured to amplify power of the predistorted signal to generate a first amplified signal. The power amplifier may also add high side and low side amplifier distortion to the predistorted signal. The high side and low side amplifier distortion may cancel at least a portion of the predistortion. The feedback block may be configured to capture a feedback signal based on a previous amplified signal from the power amplifier, to determine high side and low side distortion of the captured feedback signal, and to generate the predistortion control signal based on the determined high side and low side distortion.
US09154081B2

A sub-harmonic mixer comprising a mixer circuit with input ports for RF and LO signals, and an output port for the product of the signals at the input ports, and an LO switching stage with input ports for an LO signal and the LO signal phase shifted 180 degrees. The LO switching stage comprises a third input port to which the output port of the mixer circuit is connected and a first output port for the product of the signal at its third and first input ports, and a second output port for the product of the signal at the third and second input ports with the same amplitude as the first output signal 180 degrees phase shifted. In the sub-harmonic mixer the mixer circuit comprises a transconductance mixer.
US09154079B2

Bias voltage generators that can generate variable bias voltages for transistors in mixers and other circuits are disclosed. In an exemplary design, an apparatus (e.g., a wireless device or an integrated circuit (IC)) includes at least one transistor and a bias voltage generator. The transistor(s) have a threshold voltage and receive a bias voltage. The bias voltage generator generates the bias voltage based on changes to the threshold voltage of the transistor(s), e.g., due to IC process and/or temperature. In an exemplary design, the bias voltage generator includes a replica transistor that tracks the transistor(s) and an op-amp that provides a gate voltage for the replica transistor. The bias voltage is generated based on the gate voltage. The bias voltage generator may generate the bias voltage (i) to track the threshold voltage of the transistor(s) in a first mode or (ii) based on a fixed voltage in a second mode.
US09154077B2

A frequency divider circuit having two stages of transistors has improved performance at low supply voltages. The circuit may include cross-coupled PMOS and NMOS transistors, in which the input signal to be frequency divided is supplied to the body of the PMOS and/or NMOS transistors. The input signal may be coupled to the PMOS and/or NMOS transistors through capacitive or inductive coupling. The input signal to the PMOS and/or NMOS transistors may be generated by a voltage controlled oscillator circuit. With the frequency divider circuit having inputs signals coupled to the body of the PMOS and/or NMOS transistors supply voltages as low as 0.5 Volts may be possible.
US09154075B2

A solar cell module efficacy monitoring system includes a reference module which includes a solar power generation module and is to be maintained in a clean condition, an evaluation module which includes a solar power generation module and is to be covered by dust in an environment, maximum power point tracking devices which track powers of the reference module and the evaluation module and maintain power outputs at maximum points by connected to the reference module and the evaluation module, respectively, and, a PV communication recording device which records power generation results of the reference module and the evaluation module by connected to the reference module and the evaluation module, and a calculation display device which calculates power loss due to accumulation of dust on the evaluation module by connected to the PV communication recording device.
US09154072B2

A motor torque control apparatus and method are provided for reducing jolting and noise caused by an acceleration or tip-in operation in an electric or fuel cell vehicle and for improving response to acceleration by the acceleration or tip-in operation. The motor torque control apparatus includes a limiter operative to limit a slew rate of a final torque signal applied to a motor of the vehicle based on a maximum slew rate selected from one of two previously-input slew rate variable maps. Specifically, L-mode and D-mode control units select the slew rate according to slew rate variable maps of an L mode and of D mode, respectively. A switch unit connects one of the L-mode and D-mode control units to the limiter based on a current operation state of the vehicle. The control units select the slew rate based on the torque signal output by the limiter.
US09154065B2

A motor control apparatus according to an embodiment includes a power conversion unit and a control unit. The power conversion unit supplies power to a motor having salient pole characteristic. The control unit performs proportional-integral control on the deviation between a current reference and a current flowing into the motor to generate a voltage reference, and controls the power conversion unit on the basis of the voltage reference. The control unit estimates the magnetic-pole position of a rotor of the motor on the basis of a high-frequency current flowing into the motor by controlling the power conversion unit, and corrects the estimated magnetic-pole position on the basis of an integrated value of the proportional-integral control.
US09154056B2

A rotary type vibration wave driving apparatus which is capable of reducing local wear of a contacting member and of reducing performance deterioration due to long term operation is provided. The apparatus includes a electro-mechanical energy conversion element, an vibration member fixed to the electro-mechanical energy conversion element and vibrated by a voltage being supplied to the electro-mechanical energy conversion element, and a moving member being brought into contact with the vibration member and frictionally driven by the vibration, and is configured such that the moving member includes a supporting portion extended from the main body portion of the moving member, and a contacting portion extended from the supporting portion and being brought into contact with the vibration member, and such that each of the supporting portion and the contacting portion is configured to be elastically deformable in the rotation axis direction of the moving member.
US09154054B2

Provided is a method of producing a vibrating body for a vibration wave drive device using a vibrator in which an electromechanical energy conversion element is joined to a vibrating body having a plurality of protruding portions, the method including a first step and a second step. In the first step, an elastic material having a plurality of protruding portions is produced. In the second step, a pressure in a direction opposite to a protruding direction of the protruding portions of the elastic material is applied to press at least parts of the protruding portions to reduce slits between the protruding portions adjacent to each other.
US09154050B2

A static synchronous compensator that generates a second axis voltage command from the difference between the DC voltage converted by a single-phase voltage AC-DC conversion circuit and a set DC voltage command. When the voltage (the voltage of an AC terminal) of the single-phase AC power system increases, since the difference between the voltage of the AC terminal and an internal electromotive force increases, the static synchronous compensator carries out a PWM control to decreases the voltage of the AC terminal side of the single-phase voltage AC-DC conversion circuit. Since the voltage of the single-phase voltage AC-DC conversion circuit becomes lower than the voltage of the single-phase AC power system, an ineffective current flows from single-phase AC power system in the static synchronous compensator so that the voltage of the single-phase AC power system can be decreased.
US09154040B2

A down converter for converting an input DC voltage (Vin) into a lower output DC voltage (Vout). The down converter has on the primary side (2) an LC series resonance circuit (4) that can be connected via a first switch (S1) to the input voltage (Vin) and via a second switch (S2) to ground. On the secondary side (3), an output switch (S3) and an output capacitor (C) are each connected in parallel to the DC voltage output (Vout) and connected to each other through an inductor (L). The output switch (S3) is connected via a diode (Dr) to the input voltage (Vin) so as to divert voltage overshoots.
US09154038B2

Systems and methods are provided for regulating a power conversion system. An example system controller includes a driving component and a detection component. The driving component is configured to output a driving signal to a switch associated with a first current flowing through a primary winding of a power conversion system, the switch including a first switch terminal related to a first voltage and a second switch terminal related to a second voltage, the driving signal being associated with a plurality of switching periods. The detection component is configured to receive an input signal associated with a difference between the first voltage and the second voltage, detect at least one valley of the input signal in magnitude during a detection period for the first switching period, and output a detection signal based on at least information associated with the input signal to affect the driving signal.
US09154030B2

A control device controls a switching converter. The converter has an input alternating supply voltage, a regulated direct voltage on the output terminal, and a switch connected to an inductor. The control device controls the closing and opening time period of said switch for each cycle and receives a first input signal representative of the current flowing through one element of the converter. The control device comprises a counter configured to count a time period, a comparator configured to compare said first input signal with a second signal, digital control block configured to control the closing and opening of said switch and to activate said counter to start the counting of said time period when the said first input signal crosses said second signal, with said switch being closed. The digital control block is configured to open the switch when the counter finishes the counting of said time period.
US09154018B2

An electric machine including a closed chamber with a wall and enclosing a stator, a rotor and a first fluid and a heat exchanging unit stretching from the chamber through the wall to a fluid transporting passage. The heat exchanging unit includes conduits provided in a loop, containing a working fluid and equipped with evaporator channels and condenser channels, first heat transfer elements inside the chamber for transferring heat from the first fluid to the working fluid via the evaporator channels and second heat transfer elements in the passage for transferring heat out of the working fluid via the condenser channels to a second fluid, a first fluid propagating unit inside the chamber forcing the first fluid to circulate and a second fluid propagating unit in the passage forcing the second fluid to flow past the second heat transfer element.
US09153995B2

According to one disclosed embodiment, a smart power delivery system includes a power conversion unit having a communication module and a power management module that can convert mains power into an optimized voltage and limited current used to power an electronic device. In one embodiment, a power conversion unit can optimize an output voltage by communicating with a connected electronic device and exchanging parameters representing desired characteristics of the output voltage. In one embodiment, an electronic device receives power from a power conversion unit through a wired power conduit. In another embodiment, an electronic device receives power from a power conversion unit through a wireless power conduit. In one embodiment, an optimal voltage is selected after negotiation between multiple electronic devices and a power conversion unit.
US09153983B2

A charging device including a first connector connected to a power source; a second connector connected an electronic device; a magnetic element connected to a magnet of the electronic device; a magnetic sensor that detects a magnetic force generated by the magnet of the electronic device; and a switch circuit disposed between the first connector and the second connector and that switches between an open state and a closed state based on an output of the magnetic sensor.
US09153980B2

An electrical vehicle recharging device includes an electric vehicle connector. The electric vehicle connector complies with the SAE J1772 standard and includes a first end configured to be coupled to a receptacle on an electric vehicle to recharge the batteries of that vehicle and a second end that includes a handle. The device also include a charger housing that is positioned immediately next to and coupled to the electric vehicle connector and includes an electric vehicle charging circuit positioned within the charger housing. The device further includes a power cable having a first end and a distal second end. The first end of the power cable is coupled to the electric vehicle charging circuit and the second end is coupled to an electrical plug configured to be removably coupled to a surface-mounted electrical receptacle to provide a source of power to the device for recharging the electric vehicle.
US09153974B2

A method and device for regulating charging and discharging current through a battery pack. Two or more battery packs are connected in parallel to an inverter, such that the inverter can use grid power to charge the battery packs or the battery packs can provide AC power through the inverter. A current balancing circuit device is placed in series with each battery pack and is used to regulate the current through the battery pack so that none of the battery packs is excessively charged or discharged. The current balancing circuit includes two field effect transistors (FETs) arranged in series and in opposite directions, where one FET controls charging current and the other controls discharging current. The balancing circuit also includes a current sensor, and uses proportional-integral control to provide a signal to the FETs such that the actual current flowing through the circuit is regulated to a target current value.
US09153963B2

An electric power control apparatus enables a surplus electric power from a distributed power source to be stored in a storage battery in a consumer unit provided with a distributed power source and a storage battery. The electric power control apparatus is characterized in being provided with a compensation calculating unit which calculates the compensation of electric power by using a unit price of electricity for sale when charging the storage battery and a unit price of electricity for purchase when discharging from the storage battery.
US09153958B2

Embodiments of an electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection device and a method of operating an ESD protection device are described. In one embodiment, an ESD protection device for an integrated circuit (IC) device includes a bigFET configured to conduct an ESD current during an ESD event and a trigger device configured to trigger the bigFET during the ESD event. The trigger device includes a slew rate detector configured to detect the ESD event, a driver stage configured to drive the bigFET, and a keep-on latch configured to keep the driver stage turned on to drive a gate terminal of the bigFET with a driving voltage that is insensitive to a pre-bias on a drain terminal or a source terminal of the bigFET. Other embodiments are also described.
US09153956B2

A test device (1) for testing power engineering equipment comprises at least one connection socket (4) which is electrically connected to an overvoltage protection arrangement (2). The overvoltage protection arrangement (2) comprises at least one overvoltage protection element (5) and is configured such that the at least one overvoltage protection element (5) is exchangeable.
US09153949B2

An external part mounted electric wire 1 includes an external part 3 which is mounted on an electric wire 2 so as to be brought into engagement with a hole in a panel on which a wiring harness 25 is laid. The external part 3 is made of a resin and is formed integrally with the electric wire 2. In addition, a relative position of the external part 3 to the electric wire 2 is provided in such a position that the external part 3 can be brought into engagement with the hole in the panel.
US09153941B2

The present invention relates to a laser device comprising at least one large area VCSEL (101) and at least one optical feedback element (201, 301) providing an angular-selective feedback for laser radiation emitted from the laser. The angular-selective feedback is higher for at least one portion of laser radiation emitted at angles θ>0 to the optical axis (601) of the laser than for laser radiation emitted on said optical axis (601). The invention also refers to a method of stabilizing a laser emission of a large area VCSEL in a desired angular distribution (501, 502). With the proposed device and method, the intensity distribution of a large area VCSEL can be stabilized in a desired shape, for example a ring shape.
US09153938B2

A laser diode assembly includes a mode-locked laser diode device, where a light output spectrum shows long-wavelength shift by self-phase modulation, an external resonator, and a wavelength selective element. A long wavelength component of a pulsed laser beam emitted through the external resonator from the mode-locked laser diode device is extracted by the wavelength selective element, and output to the outside.
US09153932B2

Techniques and structure are disclosed for implementing a spatial walk-off compensation mechanism having an integral tilt function. In some embodiments, the mechanism may comprise a tilt-ball mount having an integrated walk-off compensation medium. In some embodiments, the mechanism may be configured to receive an output beam from a non-linear converter (e.g., optical parametric oscillator or OPO) implementing a non-linear medium comprising a bi-refringent material (e.g., zinc germanium phosphide, or ZnGeP2; cadmium silicon phosphide, or CdSiP2). In some embodiments, the walk-off compensation medium may comprise the same material and/or have the same cut as the non-linear medium. In some embodiments, the mechanism may he manually and/or mechanically adjusted/repositioned to reduce beam walk-off and/or to more precisely direct the beam. In some embodiments, the mechanism may be implemented in mid-infrared (MIR) applications. Numerous configurations and variations will he apparent in light of this disclosure.
US09153926B2

A USB plug connector (100) includes an insulative housing (1), a number of contacts (2) retained in the insulative housing, a metal shield (3) covering the insulative housing, a PCB (4) soldered with the contacts, an insulative cover (5) partly molded over a part of the metal shield, and a cable (6) connecting to the PCB and electrically connected with the contacts. The metal shield includes a top wall (31), a bottom wall (32), a front wall (33) connecting with the top wall and the bottom wall, and a pair of sidewalls (34) extending from two lateral edges of the front wall and retained between the top wall and the bottom wall. Each sidewall has a pair of protrusions (35) respectively on an upper edge and a lower edge thereof. Each of the top wall and the bottom wall has a number of cutouts (312) correspondingly receiving the protrusions.
US09153923B2

A USB power adapter includes a printed circuit board, a male USB connector coupled to the printed circuit board and configured to mate with a female USB connector of a first device; and a female USB connector coupled to the printed circuit board and configured to mate with a male USB connector of a cable which has a non-USB device connector on its other end for connection to a second device. Circuitry integrated on the printed circuit board electrically couples the male USB connector and the female USB connector. More specifically, the circuitry connects one or more pins of the male USB connector to one or more pins of the female USB connector whereupon the first device either supplies power to or synchronizes for data transfer with the second device when the first and second devices are connected via the power adapter and the USB cable.
US09153915B2

Provided is a connector including a first connector having a first terminal and a first mating guide portion, and a second connector having a second terminal engaging the first terminal and a second mating guide portion fitted with the first mating guide portion, in which the first mating guide portion includes a fixed terminal for detecting the mating of the first connector and the second connector, the second mating guide portion includes a resilient terminal for detecting the mating of the first connector and the second connector, and the fixed terminal or the resilient terminal has a piezoelectric electric element.
US09153912B2

A connector backshell assembly comprises a first cover, a second cover, a first sidewall block between the first cover and the second cover, and a second sidewall block between the first cover and the second cover, with the second sidewall block spaced apart from and facing the first sidewall block. At least one shield termination structure is located between the first and second covers, with the shield termination structure including a plurality of slots that are substantially parallel to each other. The first and second covers, and the first and second sidewall blocks, define a front opening in communication with the slots. Each of the slots are configured to hold a conductor that extends from a rear portion of the backshell assembly into the front opening for termination connection with an electrical connector. The backshell assembly is electrically conductive and provides a shield to prevent electromagnetic interference with each conductor.
US09153905B2

The invention relates to a locking apparatus for reversibly locking a plug-type connector housing (1) with a mating plug housing (2) provided for this purpose, wherein the locking apparatus (9, 9′, 9″) has at least one locking arm (15, 15′, 15″, 20, 20′, 20″), wherein the at least one locking arm (15, 15′, 15″, 20, 20′, 20″) in turn comprises at least one receptacle (16, 16′, 16″, 17, 17′, 17″), which interacts with bearing pins (18) integrally formed on the plug-type connector housing (1) and the mating plug housing (2) in such a way that the plug-type connector housing (1) and the mating plug housing are pressed against one another, wherein the at least one locking arm (15, 15′, 15″, 20, 20′, 20″) consists of an elastomeric material.
US09153898B2

The invention relates to an enclosure assembly for at least of a variety of in particular standardized connectors on a cable, such as RJ45, HDMI and others. The enclosure assembly has a connector volume located within an inner body of the enclosure assembly. The connector volume is adapted to moveably accommodate the connector. The inner body is open to an outer environment and a forward and a rearward end. The enclosure assembly further includes an outer body adapted to slide over the inner body in a forward direction. The outer body is provided with at least one locking element for securing the enclosure assembly to a mating enclosure. As a further improvement to the known connector assemblies, the connector volume is located within an electromagnetic shielding structure and the electromagnetic shielding structure is located within the inner body. According to a further embodiment, the electromagnetic shielding structure comprises a fixed shielding substructure and a moveable shielding substructure, which may be automatically connected to each other upon movement of the inner body in the forward direction.
US09153887B2

An electrical connector and combination thereof are provided in the present invention. The electrical connector combination includes a first electrical connector being parallelly mounted on a first circuit board and a second electrical connector being perpendicular mounted on a second circuit board. The first circuit board is perpendicular to the second circuit board. The first electrical connector disposes at least one row vertical power port and one row vertical signal port. The signal port is parallel to the power port. The second electrical connector forms at least one row long power slot and at least one row long signal slot. The signal slot is parallel to the power slot. When docking, there forms an electrical contact between the plug power terminal and the corresponding receptacle power terminal, and forms an electrical connection between the plug signal terminal and the receptacle signal terminal.
US09153886B2

Improved pin header assemblies, printed circuit board assemblies and methods of forming the same are disclosed. In an aspect, a method of forming a pin header assembly for use with a printed circuit board is provided. The method includes the step of providing a base formed of an electric insulator. The method further includes the step of forming a plurality of openings through the base. The method further includes the step of inserting a plurality of conductive pins through the openings, wherein a press fit is formed between the conductive pins and the base, and the conductive pins extend from opposite sides of the base.
US09153874B2

Electronic devices may include radio-frequency transceiver circuitry and antenna structures. The antenna structures may include an inverted-F antenna resonating element and an antenna ground that form an inverted-F antenna having first and second antenna ports. The antenna structures may include a slot antenna resonating element. The slot antenna resonating element may serve as a parasitic antenna resonating element for the inverted-F antenna at frequencies in a first communications band and may serve as a slot antenna at frequencies in a second communications band. The slot antenna may be directly fed using a third antenna port. An adjustable capacitor may be coupled to the first port to tune the inverted-F antenna. The inverted-F antenna may also be tuned using an adjustable capacitor bridging the slot antenna resonating element.
US09153869B1

A wideband antenna apparatus including a harmonically suppressed low band antenna is provided. The low band antenna is configured as a folded monopole antenna with patch coupling for resonance in a first frequency band. A patch portion of the low band antenna is widely separated from a folded feed portion of the low band antenna to avoid slot resonances above the first frequency band. The patch portion is relatively large to avoid folding of the patch portion that could introduce resonances above the first frequency band. The wideband antenna apparatus may also include a high band antenna proximate with the low band antenna. The high band antenna may be a folded monopole patch coupled antenna configured for resonating in a second frequency band. The high band antenna may optionally be configured like the low band antenna to suppress resonances of the high band antenna above the second frequency band.
US09153866B2

A communication medium includes: a first sheet conductor portion; a second sheet conductor portion that is arranged facing the first sheet conductor portion; and a conductor portion that surrounds an end part of the first sheet conductor portion and an end part of the second sheet conductor portion. The second sheet conductor portion includes: a shield part that has no opening part; a communication power feed part that has opening parts; and a matched line part that is provided between the shield part and the communication power feed part, and impedance of which matches with the shield part and the communication power feed part. The conductor portion surrounds the end part of the shield part.
US09153860B2

A mechanical support ring structure for supporting a deployable space reflector antenna. The mechanical support ring structure is convertible from a folded state into a deployed state and includes a ring-shaped pantograph having a plurality of circumferentially arranged pantograph sections which are deployable for converting the mechanical support ring structure from the folded state into the deployed state, and a plurality of circumferentially arranged support rods, each pantograph section being arranged between a respective pair of support rods, wherein each pantograph section includes one or more pairs of pantograph rods which intersect crosswise with each other at a respective crossing position.
US09153856B2

An electronic device may be provided with antenna structures that are embedded in a dielectric such as plastic. The plastic may be molded over the antenna structures using molding equipment. Antenna structures may be embedded in molded plastic structures such as plastic electronic device housing structures. The plastic electronic device housing structures may form housing structures such as housing wall structures. The antenna structures may be embedded within the housing wall structures in the vicinity of an exterior surface of the housing wall structures. Embedded antenna structures may also be mounted under other dielectric structures such portions of a display cover layer.
US09153853B2

Antenna tower reinforcement configurations use bolted gusset plate and splice plate configurations that allow for increased clearance access using short threaded bolts and threaded gusset plate apertures for increased clearance access and/or ease of installation. The gusset plates are welded to the reinforcement plates rather than bolted. Splice plates are bolted to the gusset plates using splice bolts.
US09153847B2

A battery electric vehicle charging station is disclosed, having grid and vehicle connections with a DC charger and controller that selectively charges the vehicle battery directly with DC power in a first mode and converts DC power from the vehicle battery to drive an inverter in a second mode to provide AC power to a power grid.
US09153845B2

A lithium ion battery control system includes a degradation rate calculating unit, a degradation rate storage unit, a degradation rate comparing unit, a charging and discharging control circuit, and a rechargeable battery. The degradation rate calculating unit calculates a degradation rate when receiving a trigger for starting the check of the degradation rate of the battery. The degradation rate comparing unit receives a present degradation rate from the degradation rate calculating unit and a previous degradation rate from the degradation rate storage unit and compares both degradation rates. As a result, when the present degradation rate is greater than the previous degradation rate by a predetermined value, a charging and discharging condition is limited.
US09153837B2

A method of manufacturing an energy storage device electrode in which breakage of electrode particles and warping of a collector are reduced, and internal resistance is lowered by lowering the contact resistance between the collector and an electrode layer. The method manufactures an electric double-layer capacitor electrode, and includes: forming a plurality of grooves that run in one direction in each of a front surface and rear surface of a collector foil; subsequently providing an electrode layer that includes plural electrode particles on each of the front surface and rear surface of the collector foil; and subsequently pressing the electrode layer toward the collector foil to move the plurality of electrode particles along the plurality of grooves until the plural electrode particles dig into the plurality of grooves.
US09153831B2

In certain embodiments of the present disclosure, a solid oxide fuel cell is described. The solid oxide fuel cell includes a hierarchically porous cathode support having an impregnated cobaltite cathode deposited thereon, an electrolyte, and an anode support. The anode support includes hydrocarbon oxidation catalyst deposited thereon, wherein the cathode support, electrolyte, and anode support are joined together and wherein the solid oxide fuel cell operates a temperature of 600° C. or less.
US09153829B2

A passive fuel cell assembly including a membrane electrode assembly, an anode current collector, a cathode current collector, a hydrophilic and gas-impermeable layer, and a gas-liquid separation layer is provided. The anode current collector and the cathode current collector are disposed at two opposite sides of the membrane electrode assembly. The hydrophilic and gas-impermeable layer is disposed on the anode current collector. The gas-liquid separation layer is disposed on the hydrophilic and gas-impermeable layer, such that the hydrophilic and gas-impermeable layer is disposed between the gas-liquid separation layer and the anode current collector.
US09153819B2

A negative electrode for a lithium ion battery includes an active electrode material, a conductive additive, and a binder for holding the active electrode material and the conductive additive together. The binder is chosen from polyethyleneimine, copolymers of polyethyleneimine, amine functionalized polyamides, proteins, and combinations thereof.
US09153814B2

A composition is provided that includes mesoporous starburst carbon domains. Each of the mesoporous starburst carbon domains is incorporated with particles of metal or metal oxide in an amount of from 40 to 85 total weight percent of the composition. The metal or metal oxide particles can include tin, cobalt, copper, molybdenum, nickel, iron, or ruthenium, or an oxide thereof. The resulting composition when combined with a binder forms a battery electrode. Such a battery electrode operating as an anode in a lithium ion battery has gravimetric capacity of more than 1000 milliampere hours per gram after 15 galvanostatic cycles.
US09153808B2

The present invention provides a device and a method for securely clamping and unclamping a battery in a battery receiving tray, the device comprising an escalatable hold down clamp for clamping the battery, an escalator means for lifting or lowering the clamp in screwed engagement with the escalatable hold down clamp, a hold down rod for fixedly engaging the hold down device onto the battery tray.
US09153804B2

A secondary battery includes a case with an internal space, at least one electrode assembly in the case, the electrode assembly including a separator between a positive electrode plate and a negative electrode plate, a current collector plate coupled to the electrode assembly, the current collector plate including an electrode terminal, a dielectric body with a through-hole on the current collector plate, the electrode terminal of the current collector plate protruding through the through-hole of the dielectric body, a gasket in the through-hole of the dielectric body, and a cap plate coupled to an upper portion of the dielectric body.
US09153803B2

A cell for high temperature electrochemical reactions is provided. The cell includes a container, at least a portion of the container acting as a first electrode. An extension tube has a first end and a second end, the extension tube coupled to the container at the second end forming a conduit from the container to said first end. A second electrode is positioned in the container and extends out of the container via the conduit. A seal is positioned proximate the first end of the extension tube, for sealing the cell.
US09153802B2

A battery cover adapted for correct assembly on a battery is disclosed. The battery cover has an outer surface including a longitudinal centerline and a transverse centerline perpendicular to the longitudinal centerline. A first bushing is provided having an aperture with a first dimension that mates with a corresponding first dimension of a positive cast-on-strap post. A second bushing is also provided having a second dimension that mates with a corresponding second dimension of a negative cast-on-strap post. The first bushing and second bushing are carried by the battery cover and positioned on opposite sides of the longitudinal and transverse centerlines. A secondary battery is also provided.
US09153800B2

A battery cover with a fire-extinguishing function is provided, which includes a fire-extinguishing tank disposed on an inner surface of the battery cover to store compressed air and fire-extinguishing fluid, so that the fire-extinguishing tank bursts and the fire-extinguishing fluid contained in the tank is sprayed to the battery to thereby suppress a fire in the case where the fire breaks out inside the battery due to overheat or electric leak of the battery. The battery cover with a fire-extinguishing function is coupled to an opening portion of a case that accommodates the battery therein to protect terminals of the battery in a battery pack, and includes the fire-extinguishing tank disposed on an inner surface of the battery cover to store the fire-extinguishing fluid therein.
US09153799B2

Disclosed is a battery module, which includes a plurality of cylindrical secondary battery cells (hereinafter, also referred to as ‘cells’), an upper frame having a plurality of grooves formed corresponding to an appearance of the cells, the grooves being opened to expose electrodes of the cells outwards, and a lower frame having a plurality of grooves formed corresponding to the appearance of the cells, the grooves being opened to expose electrodes of the cells outwards, wherein cell stoppers are formed at tops of the grooves formed in the upper frame and bottoms of the grooves formed in the lower frame to partially cover the tops and the bottoms of the cells so that the cells are not separated from the grooves. Therefore, it is possible to provide a battery module which may ensure mechanically stable connection when configuring an assembly including a plurality of battery modules.
US09153796B2

The fabrication method for an organic EL device according to the invention includes: forming a third insulating layer on a first insulating layer; removing the third insulating layer in a first pixel region by etching the third insulating layer; forming a second insulating layer that has different thicknesses in a first pixel and a second pixel and has a flat first surface by forming a precursor insulating layer to continuously cover a first reflection film and a second reflection film and then planarizing an upper surface of the precursor insulating layer; and forming a first pixel electrode and a second pixel electrode on the first surface of the second insulating layer. The first insulating layer is slower in the rate at which the layer is removed by etching than the third insulating layer.
US09153795B2

A thin film encapsulation manufacturing apparatus includes a first cluster configured to form a first inorganic layer on a first substrate, on which an emission unit is formed, by a sputtering process; a second cluster configured to form a first organic layer on the first inorganic layer on the first substrate conveyed from the first cluster by an organic deposition process; a first connection module configured to connect the first cluster and the second cluster, configured to convey the first substrate on which the first inorganic layer is formed from the first cluster to the second cluster, and configured to cool the first substrate in a non-contact manner; and a third cluster configured to form a second inorganic layer on the first organic layer on the first substrate conveyed from the second cluster by a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process or a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) process.
US09153792B2

According to one embodiment, in an organic electroluminescence device, a first substrate has a first refractive index n1. A second substrate is joined to an upper surface of the first substrate and has a second refractive index n2 higher than the first refractive index n1. Multiple wedge-shaped metal lines are buried in the second substrate in such a manner that one side of the wedge-shaped metal line is flush with an upper surface of the second substrate. A transparent electrode is formed on the upper surface of the second substrate and the multiple metal lines. An insulating layer is formed on a portion of the transparent electrode opposed to the multiple metal lines. An organic light emitting layer is formed on the transparent electrode on which the insulating layer is formed. A metal electrode is formed on the organic light emitting layer.
US09153786B2

Triphenylene containing benzo-fused thiophene compounds are provided. Additionally, triphenylene containing benzo-fused furan compounds are provided. The compounds may be useful in organic light emitting devices, particularly as hosts in the emissive layer of such devices, or as materials for enhancement layers in such devices, or both.
US09153785B2

Novel semiconducting photovoltaic polymers with conjugated units that provide improved solar conversion efficiency that can be used in electro-optical and electric devices. The polymers exhibit increased solar conversion efficiency in solar devices.
US09153777B2

A thermally optimized phase change memory cell includes a phase change material element disposed between first and second electrodes. The second electrode includes a thermally insulating region having a first thermal resistivity over the first electrode and a metallic contact region interposed between the phase change material element and the thermally insulating region, where the metallic contact layer has a second thermal resistivity lower than the first thermal resistivity.
US09153774B2

When a thin channel semiconductor layer formed on a side wall of a stacked film in which insulating films and gate electrodes are alternately stacked together is removed on the stacked film, a contact resistance between a vertical transistor including the channel semiconductor layer and the gate electrode, and a bit line formed on the stacked film is prevented from rising. As its means, a conductive layer electrically connected to the channel semiconductor layer is disposed immediately above the stacked film.
US09153772B2

A device for increasing the magnetic flux density includes a semiconductor body and a first magnetic sensor integrated into the semiconductor body, whereby a housing section, which forms a cavity, is arranged above the sensor on the semiconductor surface and the cavity is filled with a ferromagnetic material and the material comprises a liquid.
US09153771B2

A magnetoresistive effect element includes a pair of first soft magnetic layers that are arranged opposite to each other so as to sandwich a magnetoresistive effect film; a second soft magnetic layer; and a coil that is windingly formed about the second soft magnetic layer. When a rear end region cross-sectional area of the first soft magnetic layers is defined as S1r and a tip end region cross-sectional area of the second soft magnetic layer is defined as S2f, S2f>S1r is established, and when a tip end width of the first soft magnetic layers is defined as W1f and a rear end width of the first soft magnetic layers is defined as W1r, W1r>W1f is established.
US09153770B2

A magnetoresistive element includes a first magnetic layer having an axis of magnetization perpendicular to the film surface and a fixed magnetization orientation; a second magnetic layer having an axis of magnetization perpendicular to the film surface and a changeable magnetization orientation; a first nonmagnetic layer arranged between the first and second magnetic layers; and a third magnetic layer having an axis of magnetization perpendicular to the film surface and a fixed magnetization orientation opposite that of the first magnetic layer. The first magnetic layer has a first magnetic material film in contact with the first nonmagnetic layer, a nonmagnetic material film in contact with the first magnetic material film, and a second magnetic material film containing Co100-xWx (0
US09153762B2

A thermistor includes a metal substrate, a semiconductor ceramic layer on the metal substrate, and a pair of split electrodes on the semiconductor layer. The semiconductor ceramic layer is formed by a solid-phase method. The metal substrate includes ceramic particles and is not interrupted in the direction of thickness by the ceramic particles or a pillar defined by a chain of the ceramic particles. Preferably, the metal substrate and the ceramic layer of the thermistor have a thickness of about 10 μm to about 80 μm and about 1 μm to about 10 μm, respectively.
US09153754B2

Provided are a Light Emitting Diode (LED) red fluorescent material and a lighting device having the same. The florescent material consists of elements M, A, D, X, L and Z, wherein element M at least contains one or more than one element of Be, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba and Zn; element A at least contains one or more than one element of B, Al, Ga, In, La, Gd, Lu, Sc and Y; element D at least contains one or more than one element of Si, Ge, C, Sn, Ti, Zr and Hf; element X at least contains one or more than one element of N, O and F; element L at least contains one or more than one element of S, Se and Te; and element Z at least contains one or more than one element of a rare earth element or a transition-metal element.
US09153749B2

The present invention relates to a light emitting device package and a lighting device with the same. The light emitting device package comprises a package body having a first surface and a second surface, wherein the first surface has a mounting portion positioned thereon, and a through hole provided therein to pass through the first surface and the second surface, at least one pair of first electrodes on the first surface, at least one pair of second electrodes on the second surface connected to the first electrodes through the through hole respectively, a light emitting device on the mounting portion connected to the first electrodes electrically, a light wavelength conversion layer positioned on the light emitting device, and a protective layer on the light wavelength conversion layer for sealing the mounting portion.
US09153738B2

A light-emitting element comprises a light-emitting semiconductor stack comprising a first semiconductor layer, a second semiconductor layer on the first semiconductor layer, and a light-emitting layer between the first semiconductor layer and the second semiconductor layer; a plurality of extensions formed on the first semiconductor layer; and a first conductive part and a second conductive part formed on the light-emitting semiconductor stack and respectively electrically connected to the first semiconductor layer and the second semiconductor layer, wherein one of the plurality of extensions is formed beyond a projected area of the second conductive part and not covered by the first conductive part.
US09153737B2

Provided are a high-quality non-polar/semi-polar semiconductor device having reduced defect density of a nitride semiconductor layer and improved internal quantum efficiency and light extraction efficiency, and a manufacturing method thereof. The method for manufacturing a semiconductor device is to form a template layer and a semiconductor device structure on a sapphire, SiC or Si substrate having a crystal plane for a growth of a non-polar or semi-polar nitride semiconductor layer. The manufacturing method includes: forming a nitride semiconductor layer on the substrate; performing a porous surface modification such that the nitride semiconductor layer has pores; forming the template layer by re-growing a nitride semiconductor layer on the surface-modified nitride semiconductor layer; and forming the semiconductor device structure on the template layer.
US09153733B2

A method of manufacturing a light emitting diode (LED) substrate includes following steps: providing a nano-patterned substrate, which has a plurality of convex portions and a plurality of first concave portions that are spaced apart from each other, wherein each first concave portion has a depth (d1); forming a plurality of protection structures to cover each convex portion, and exposing a bottom surface of each first concave portion; performing an anisotropic etching processing to etch the bottom surface of each first concave portion which is not covered by the protection structure so as to form a plurality of second concave portions having a depth (d2), and d2 is greater than d1.
US09153732B2

LED modules are disclosed having a control MOSFET, or other transistor, in series with an LED. In one embodiment, a MOSFET wafer is bonded to an LED wafer and singulated to form thousands of active 3-terminal LED modules with the same footprint as a single LED. Despite the different forward voltages of red, green, and blue LEDs, RGB modules may be connected in parallel and their control voltages staggered at 60 Hz or greater to generate a single perceived color, such as white. The RGB modules may be connected in a panel for general illumination or for a color display. A single dielectric layer in a panel may encapsulate all the RGB modules to form a compact and inexpensive panel. Various addressing techniques are described for both a color display and a lighting panel. Various circuits are described for reducing the sensitivity of the LED to variations in input voltage.
US09153725B2

A solar cell includes a crystalline silicon semiconductor substrate, an intrinsic amorphous silicon semiconductor layer, an amorphous silicon semiconductor layer and a transparent conductive layer. The crystalline silicon semiconductor substrate possesses a first doped type and a trench is formed thereon to form an enclosed area to define a first electrode region in the enclosed area and a second electrode region out of the enclosed area. The intrinsic amorphous silicon semiconductor layer, the amorphous silicon semiconductor layer and the transparent conductive layer are formed sequentially on the crystalline silicon semiconductor substrate and in the trench. Having discontinuity in the trench, the amorphous silicon semiconductor layer, the amorphous silicon semiconductor layer and the transparent conductive layer provide an isolation function between the previously defined first and second electrode regions.
US09153722B2

A chip module cooling device includes two fluid circuits corresponding to inlet and outlet fluid circuits, respectively, wherein each comprises orifices and channel portions forming a tree structure, wherein branches represent the orifices, and nodes represent the channel portions, a branch linking a node to one child node only, wherein several nodes having a same parent node are sibling nodes and extends through L levels of the tree structure, with L≧3, and in fluidic connection with the other of the two fluid circuits, via channel portions corresponding to leaf nodes. For each fluid circuit, channel portions corresponding to sibling nodes are parallel to each other, and are not parallel to a channel portion corresponding to a parent node of the sibling nodes; and wherein channel portions of one of the fluid circuits are parallel to and interdigitated with channel portions of the other one of the fluid circuits.
US09153720B1

An interconnect includes a first set of connector pads, a second set of connector pads, and a continuous central portion. A first plurality of legs extends at a first angle from the continuous central portion. Each leg of the first plurality of legs is connected to a connector pad of a first set of connector pads. A second plurality of legs extends at a second angle from the continuous central portion. Each leg of the second plurality of legs is connected to a connector pad of the second set of connector pads. Gaps are defined between legs. The gaps enable movement of the first set of connector pads relative to the second set of connector pads.
US09153711B2

A photodetector circuit is provided that includes: a first wiring connected to an input terminal; a second wiring connected to an output terminal; and first and second photosensors each including a first terminal connected to the first wiring and a second terminal connected to the second wiring, wherein the first wiring and the second wiring are arranged in parallel, and the sum of resistance values of a first path from the input terminal to the output terminal via the first wiring, the first photosensor, and the second wiring is identical to the sum of resistance values of a second path from the input terminal to the output terminal via the first wiring, the second photosensor, and the second wiring.
US09153708B2

A light receiving circuit includes a light receiving element, a transimpedance amplifier, a delay circuit and a comparator. The transimpedance amplifier is configured to convert the current signal into a first voltage. The comparator includes first to third current control elements each including first to third electrodes and configured to control current of the third electrode by voltage of the second electrode. The first voltage is inputted to the second electrode of the first current control element. Output voltage of the delay circuit is inputted to the second electrode of the second current control element. A second voltage is inputted to the second electrode of the third current control element. The comparator is configured to compare output current of the first current control element with sum of output current of the second current control element and output current of the third current control element.
US09153698B2

A thin film transistor includes a post on a substrate. The post has a height dimension extending away from the substrate to a top portion of the post which extends a distance beyond a bottom portion of the post in a direction parallel to the substrate to define a reentrant profile. A conformal conductive gate layer is located on an edge of the post in the reentrant profile and not over the top portion of the post, and includes a portion that extends along the substrate. A conformal insulating layer is on the gate layer in the reentrant profile. A conformal semiconductor layer is on the insulating layer in the reentrant profile. First and second electrodes are located in contact with first and second portions of the semiconductor layer over the top portion of the post and not over the top portion of the post, respectively.
US09153696B2

A semiconductor device includes a substrate including an NMOS region, a fin active region protruding from the substrate in the NMOS region, the fin active region including an upper surface and a sidewall, a gate dielectric layer on the upper surface and the sidewall of the fin active region, a first metal gate electrode on the gate dielectric layer, the first metal gate electrode having a first thickness at the upper surface of the fin active region and a second thickness at the sidewall of the fin active region, and a second metal gate electrode on the first metal gate electrode, the second metal gate electrode having a third thickness at the upper surface of the fin active region and a fourth thickness at the sidewall of the fin active region, wherein the third thickness is less than the fourth thickness.
US09153694B2

A method includes forming a raised isolation structure with a recess above a substrate, forming a gate structure above the fin, forming a plurality of spaced-apart buried fin contact structures within the recess that have an outer perimeter surface that contacts at least a portion of an interior perimeter surface of the recess and forming at least one source/drain contact structure for each of the buried fin contact structures. One device includes a plurality of spaced-apart buried fin contact structures positioned within a recess in a raised isolation structure on opposite sides of a gate structure. The upper surface of each of the buried fin contact structures is positioned below an upper surface of the raised isolation structure and an outer perimeter surface of each of the buried fin contact structures contacts at least a portion of an interior perimeter surface of the recess.
US09153692B2

Provided is a semiconductor device. The semiconductor device includes a fin on a substrate; a gate electrode cross the fin on the substrate; a source/drain formed on at least one of both sides of the gate electrode, and including a first film and a second film; and a stress film arranged between an isolation film on the substrate and the source/drain, and formed on a side surface of the fin.
US09153690B2

A device includes a semiconductor substrate, a first Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (MOS) device, and a second MOS device of a same conductivity as the first MOS device. The first MOS device includes a first gate stack over the semiconductor substrate, and a first stressor adjacent to the first gate stack and extending into the semiconductor substrate. The first stressor and the first gate stack have a first distance. The second MOS device includes a second gate stack over the semiconductor substrate, and a second stressor adjacent to the second gate stack and extending into the semiconductor substrate. The second stressor and the second gate stack have a second distance greater than the first distance.
US09153687B2

A semiconductor device includes a plurality of epitaxial layers stacked over a supportive substrate, a first buried impurity region formed to share the supportive substrate with a lowermost epitaxial layer among the multiple epitaxial layers, one or more second buried impurity regions formed to be coupled with the first buried impurity region and share an Nth epitaxial layer and an (N+1)th epitaxial layer among the multiple epitaxial layers, where N is a natural number, a body region formed in an uppermost epitaxial layer among the multiple epitaxial layers and a deep well formed in the uppermost epitaxial layer to surround the body region and to be coupled with the second buried impurity regions that share the uppermost epitaxial layer.
US09153684B2

In a replacement gate approach, the semiconductor material of the gate electrode structures may be efficiently removed during a wet chemical etch process, while this material may be substantially preserved in electronic fuses. Consequently, well-established semiconductor-based electronic fuses may be used instead of requiring sophisticated metal-based fuse structures. The etch selectivity of the semiconductor material may be modified on the basis of ion implantation or electron bombardment.
US09153670B2

The present disclosure provides a semiconductor device. The semiconductor device includes a substrate having a gate region, source and drain (S/D) regions separated by the gate region and a first fin structure in a gate region in the N-FET region. The first fin structure is formed by a first semiconductor material layer as a lower portion, a semiconductor oxide layer as a middle portion and a second semiconductor material layer as an upper portion. The semiconductor device also includes a second fin structure in S/D regions in the N-FET region. The second fin structure is formed by the first semiconductor material layer as a lower portion and the semiconductor oxide layer as a first middle portion, the first semiconductor material layer as a second middle portion beside the first middle and the second semiconductor material layer as an upper portion.
US09153666B1

Semiconductor devices, such as LDMOS devices, are described that include a plurality of trench regions formed in an extended drain region of the devices. In one or more implementations, the semiconductor devices include a substrate having an extended drain region, a source region, and a drain region, all of the first conductivity type, formed proximate to a surface of the substrate. A gate is positioned over the surface and between the source region and the drain region. The gate is configured to receive a voltage so that a conduction region may be formed at least partially below the gate to allow charge carriers (e.g., majority carriers) to travel between the source region and the drain region. A plurality of trench regions are formed within the extended drain region that are configured to increase resistivity within the extended drain region when charge carriers travel between the source region and the drain region.
US09153660B2

A semiconductor device includes a pillar-shaped semiconductor layer and a sidewall having a laminated structure. The laminated structure includes an insulating film and polysilicon, and the laminated structure is on an upper sidewall of the first pillar-shaped semiconductor layer. A top of the polysilicon is electrically connected to a top of the pillar-shaped semiconductor layer.
US09153659B2

Gate-rounding fabrication techniques can be implemented to increase an effective channel length of a transistor and to consequently reduce the leakage current and static power consumption associated with the transistor. The transistor comprises a substrate region that includes a source region and a drain region. The transistor can also comprise a gate region that includes a main gate portion, one or more gate tips, and one or more corresponding gate-rounded portions. Each of the one or more gate tips is formed at a suitable position along the side of the main gate portion. During fabrication, the junction between the main gate region and each of the gate tips takes on a rounded shape to form a corresponding gate-rounded region. The gate-rounded regions increase the average length of the gate region and the effective channel length of the transistor.
US09153653B2

This invention discloses a semiconductor power device formed in a semiconductor substrate of a first conductivity type comprises an active cell area and a termination area surrounding the active cell area and disposed near edges of the semiconductor substrate. The termination area includes a plurality of trenches filled with a conductivity material forming a shield electrode and insulated by a dielectric layer along trench sidewalls and trench bottom surface wherein the trenches extending vertically through a body region of a second conductivity type near a top surface of the semiconductor substrate and further extending through a surface shield region of the first conductivity type. A dopant region of the second conductivity type disposed below the surface shield region extending across and surrounding a trench bottom portion of the trenches. At least a metal connector disposed above the top surface of the semiconductor substrates electrically connecting to the shield electrode of at least two trenches and shorted to the body region.
US09153648B2

A method for manufacturing a semiconductor stacked body, and a semiconductor element including the semiconductor stacked body includes a semiconductor stacked body, including a Ga2O3 substrate having, as a principal plane, a plane on which oxygen atoms are arranged in a hexagonal lattice, an AlN buffer layer formed on the Ga2O3 substrate, and a nitride semiconductor layer formed on the AlN buffer layer.
US09153639B2

A memory device includes a substrate and a plurality of vertical storage nodes linearly spaced apart on the substrate along a first direction. The device further includes at least one support pattern abutting sidewalls of the storage nodes, the at least one support pattern having portions that bridge first pairs of adjacent ones of the storage nodes and openings therein that separate second pairs of adjacent ones of the storage nodes. First distances between the storage nodes of the respective first pairs may be greater than second distances between the storage nodes of the respective second pairs. Methods of fabricating such devices are also described.
US09153633B2

An organic light-emitting display apparatus includes a thin film transistor (TFT) including an active layer, a gate electrode, source and drain electrodes, a first insulating layer between the active layer and the gate electrode, and a second insulating layer between the gate electrode and the source and drain electrodes, a capacitor including a first electrode on a same layer as the active layer and a second electrode on a same layer as the gate electrode, a first contact layer of a same material as the second electrode, a second contact layer on the first contact layer, the second contact layer being of a same material as the gate electrode, a pixel electrode that contacts an edge of the first contact layer and is on an opening in the second insulating layer, an organic emission layer on the pixel electrode, and a counter electrode on the organic emission layer.
US09153625B2

A non-volatile semiconductor memory device includes a plurality of series-coupled fixed resistance elements, a plurality of reference cell transistors, and reference word lines coupled to gates of the reference cell transistors, a first reference data line coupled to one end of a resistance path in which a plurality of fixed resistance elements are arranged, and a second reference data line coupled in common to one ends of the reference cell transistors. The other end of each of the reference cell transistors is coupled to one of coupling points of the fixed resistance elements or the other end of the resistance path.
US09153624B2

A solid state memory comprises a top electrode, a bottom electrode and an insulating switching medium that is disposed at a thickness based on a predetermined function. The insulating switching medium generates a conduction path in response to an electric signal applied to the device. The thickness of the insulating switching medium is a function of a filament width of the conduction path and operates to prevent rupture of a semi-stable region. The semi-stable region maintains filament structure over time and does not degrade into retention failure. The solid state memory can comprise one or more conducting layers that can operate to control the conductance at an on-state of the memory and offer oxygen vacancies or metal ions to the switching medium. The function of the thickness of the insulating switching medium can vary depending upon the number of conduction layers disposed at the insulating switching medium.
US09153611B2

An optical sensor is described herein. By way of example, the optical sensor comprises a first light filter on a first light-receiving surface of an image sensor, and a second light filter on a second light-receiving surface of the image sensor. The second light-receiving surface is on an opposite side of the image sensor from the first light-receiving surface. The characteristics of the first light filter are different than characteristics of the second light filter.
US09153606B2

The present invention provides an array substrate comprising: a substrate, having a thin film transistor (TFT) formed thereupon, the TFT having a gate electrode, a source electrode and a drain electrode; a first metal layer, formed on the substrate, and comprising a gate line and the gate electrode of the TFT; a first insulating layer, covering the first metal layer and the substrate; a semiconductor layer, an ohmic contact layer, and a second metal layer, which are sequentially formed on the first insulating layer; a second insulating layer, covering the semiconductor layer, the ohmic contact layer, and the second metal layer; a pixel electrode, provided on the second insulating layer and is connected to the drain electrode. The second metal layer further comprises an etch-blocking pattern in the peripheral area of the pixel electrode within the overlapping region between the pixel electrode and the first metal layer.
US09153604B2

An object of the present invention is to provide a semiconductor device having high operation characteristic and reliability. The measures taken are: A pixel capacitor is formed between an electrode comprising anodic capable material over an organic resin film, an anodic oxide film of the electrode and a pixel electrode above. Since the anodic oxide film is anodically oxidized by applied voltage per unit time at 15V/min, there is no wrap around on the electrode, and film peeling can be prevented.
US09153599B2

A thin film transistor array panel includes a gate line and the driver connection line formed with the same layer material, a data line and a driving pad formed with the same layer material, a first field generating electrode and a connecting member formed with the same layer material, and a second field generating electrode and a dummy electrode layer formed with the same layer material.
US09153594B2

The present invention discloses use of quantum dot gate FETs as a nonvolatile memory element that can be used in flash memory architecture as well as in a nonvolatile random access memory (NVRAM) configuration that does not require refreshing of data as in dynamic random access memories. Another innovation is the design of quantum dot gate nonvolatile memory and 3-state devices using modulation doped field-effect transistors (MODFETs), particularly MOS-gate field effect transistors. The cladded quantum dot gate MODFETs can be designed in Si—SiGe, InGaAs—InP and other material systems. The incorporation of 3-state FET devices in static random access memory (SRAM) cell is described to result in advanced multi-state memory operation. Unlike conventional SRAMs, the 3-state QD-FET based of SRAMs provides 3 and 4-state memory operation due to the utilization of the intermediate states particularly in CMOS configuration. QD-gate FETs, potentially suitable for 8 nm channel lengths, in vertical configuration (VFET) are also described.
US09153591B2

DRAM trench capacitors formed by, inter alia, deposition of conductive material into a trench or doping the semiconductor region in which the trench is defined.
US09153585B2

A transistor device may include a first source portion including a first InSb material set and a first first-type dopant set. The transistor device may include a first drain portion including a second InSb material set and a first second-type dopant set. The transistor device may include a first gate and a corresponding first channel portion disposed between the first source portion and the first drain portion and including a third InSb material set. The transistor device may include a second drain portion including a first GaSb material set and a second first-type dopant set. The transistor device may include a second source portion including a second GaSb material set and a second second-type dopant set. The transistor device may include a second gate and a corresponding second channel portion disposed between the second source portion and the second drain portion and including a third GaSb material set.
US09153583B2

Techniques are disclosed for forming transistor devices having reduced parasitic contact resistance relative to conventional devices. In some example embodiments, the techniques can be used to implement the contacts of MOS transistors of a CMOS device, where an intermediate III-V semiconductor material layer is provided between the p-type and n-type source/drain regions and their respective contact metals to significantly reduce contact resistance. The intermediate III-V semiconductor material layer may have a small bandgap (e.g., lower than 0.5 eV) and/or otherwise be doped to provide the desired conductivity. The techniques can be used on numerous transistor architectures (e.g., planar, finned, and nanowire transistors), including strained and unstrained channel structures.
US09153580B2

According to one embodiment, a semiconductor is provided with a MOS transistor and 1st to 5th signal lines. The MOS transistor has a gate finger structure with gate terminals. The 1st line is formed parallel to a gate width direction at each of ends of gate terminals and connected to one end of one gate terminal. The 2nd line connected to the 1st line is formed perpendicular to the direction outside an active region. The 3rd line with a smaller line width than a gate width is formed perpendicular to the direction and connected to each drain on the active region. The 4th line connected to a source is formed parallel to the direction. The 5th line connected to the 4th line is formed such that the 5th line does not overlap the 2nd line.
US09153573B2

A semiconductor apparatus that includes two types of transistors is disclosed. A first semiconductor chip includes the first semiconductor device of a transistor type of GaAs-HEMT, while, a second semiconductor chip includes a second semiconductor device of a transistor type GaN-HEMT. The second semiconductor device is formed on a SiC substrate, and the first semiconductor chip is mounted in an inactive region of the SiC substrate.
US09153567B2

A semiconductor device comprises: a memory cell region having a first transistor and a peripheral circuit region having a second transistor. The first transistor has a first source electrode and a first drain electrode, a first buried gate insulating film which is formed along an inner wall of a trench and whose relative dielectric constant is higher than a relative dielectric constant of silicon oxide, and a buried gate electrode. The second transistor has a second source electrode and a second drain electrode, a first on-substrate gate insulating film whose relative dielectric constant is higher than a relative dielectric constant of silicon oxide, and an on-substrate gate electrode. A first Hf content percentage, which is a content percentage of hafnium in the first buried gate insulating film, is different from a second Hf content percentage, which is a content percentage of hafnium in the first on-substrate gate insulating film.
US09153566B1

A semiconductor device manufacturing method includes forming grooves in a surface of a semiconductor substrate, stacking a plurality of semiconductor chips in each area of the semiconductor substrate surrounded by the grooves to form stacked bodies, forming a first sealing resin layer that covers spaces between the plurality of semiconductor chips and lateral sides of the stacked bodies, separating the semiconductor substrate to singulate the stacked bodies, mounting the stacked bodies on a wiring substrate, forming a second sealing resin layer that seals the stacked bodies on the wiring substrate, separating the wiring substrate to singulate a portion of the wiring substrate with a single stacked body thereon, and grinding a portion of the semiconductor substrate in a thickness direction from a side of the semiconductor substrate opposite to the stacked bodies, after forming the first sealing resin layer and before singulating the wiring substrate.
US09153564B2

Disclosed herein are a power module package and a method of manufacturing the same. According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the power module package includes: a lead frame on which a power device and a control IC electrically connected to the power device and controlling the power device are mounted; and a thermal sheet bonded to one surface of the lead frame, wherein the thermal sheet includes first and second resin layers which include a thermal conductive inorganic filler and are added with a mixture of phenyl glycidyl ether (PGE) and alkyl glycidyl ether (Alkyl (C12 to C14) glycidyl ether), and a thermal spreader of a metal material disposed at a bonded interface which is formed between the first and second resin layers. Therefore, it is possible to easily improve a thermal property of the power module package by a thermal spreading effect due to the thermal spreader.
US09153551B2

A flip chip packaged component includes a die having a first surface and a dielectric barrier disposed on the first surface of the die. The dielectric barrier at least partially surrounds a designated location on the first surface of the die. A plurality of bumps is disposed on the first surface of the die on an opposite side of the dielectric barrier from the designated location. The flip chip packaged component further includes a substrate having a plurality of bonding pads on a second surface thereof. A cavity is defined by the first surface of the die, the dielectric barrier, and the substrate. A molding compound encapsulates the die and at least a portion of the substrate.
US09153547B2

An inductor structure comprised of a magnetic section and a single turn solenoid. The single turn solenoid to contain within a portion of the magnetic section and circumscribed by the magnetic section.
US09153542B2

A semiconductor package and a manufacturing method thereof are provided. The semiconductor package includes a first substrate, a second substrate, an interposer substrate, a semiconductor chip, a package body and a first antenna layer. The first substrate comprises a grounding segment. The interposer substrate is disposed between the second substrate and the first substrate. The semiconductor chip is disposed on the second substrate. The package body encapsulates the second substrate, the semiconductor chip and the interposer substrate, and has a lateral surface and an upper surface. The first antenna layer is formed on the lateral surface and the upper surface of the package body, and electrically connected to the grounding segment.
US09153539B2

A system of interconnected chips comprising a multi-chip module (MCM) includes a first processor chip, a graphics processing cluster (GPC) chip, and an MCM package configured to include the first processor chip, the GPC chip, and an interconnect circuit. The first processor chip is configured to include a first ground-referenced single-ended signaling interface circuit. A first set of electrical traces fabricated within the MCM package and configured to couple the first single-ended signaling interface circuit to the interconnect circuit. The GPC chip is configured to include a second single-ended signaling interface circuit and to execute shader programs. A second set of electrical traces fabricated within the MCM package and configured to couple the second single-ended signaling interface circuit to the interconnect circuit. In one embodiment, each single-ended signaling interface advantageously implements ground-referenced single-ended signaling.
US09153527B2

The method includes the steps of: providing a lead frame, including providing a concaved part in an upper face of a joint part of a die-pad-support lead of a lead frame for setting down a die pad and a tie-bar; bonding a semiconductor chip to a first principal face of the die pad via an adhesive-member layer; then, setting the lead frame between first and second molding dies having first and second cavities respectively so that the first and second cavities are opposed to each other, and the second principal face of the die pad faces toward the second cavity; and forming first and second resin sealed bodies on the sides of the first and second principal faces of the die pad respectively by resin sealing with the first and second molding dies clamping the tie-bar and a part of the lead frame surrounding the tie-bar.
US09153526B2

Microelectronic devices and methods for manufacturing microelectronic devices are disclosed herein. One such method includes forming a plurality of apertures in a substrate with the apertures arranged in an array, and, after forming the apertures, attaching the substrate to a lead frame having a plurality of pads with the apertures in the substrate aligned with corresponding pads in the lead frame. Another method includes providing a partially cured substrate, coupling the partially cured substrate to a plurality of leads, attaching a microelectronic die to the leads, and electrically connecting the microelectronic die to the leads.
US09153518B2

A semiconductor package includes a semiconductor die having a plurality of terminals, a molding compound encapsulating the semiconductor die, and a pluggable lead dimensioned for insertion into an external receptacle. The pluggable lead protrudes from the molding compound and provides a separate electrical pathway for more than one terminal of the semiconductor die. The separate electrical pathways of the pluggable lead can be provided by electrical conductors isolated from one another by electrical insulator such as molding compound or other insulation material/medium.
US09153516B2

A system can include a semiconductor die having a first side and a second side opposite the first side. The system can also include a first slug coupled to a portion of the first side of the die. The system can further include a second slug coupled to a portion of the second side of the die. The system can additionally include an insulating material voidlessly encapsulating the die. The first slug can include a first portion having a first width in proximity to the die and a second portion having a second width. The first portion can be closer than the second portion to the die and the first width can be smaller than the second width.
US09153510B2

A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate provided with a predetermined element and having wirings formed on its main surface connected to back wirings by a plurality of through silicon vias (TSVs), and a conductive cover which covers the main surface of the semiconductor substrate. The semiconductor substrate and the conductive cover are bonded to each other with a conductive bonding member. The TSV bonded to the conductive cover with the conductive bonding member is connected to an external electrode pad to which a ground potential is supplied.
US09153507B2

An exemplary implementation of the present disclosure includes a testable semiconductor package that includes an active die having interface contacts and dedicated testing contacts. An interposer is situated adjacent a bottom surface of the active die, the interposer providing electrical connections between the interface contacts and a bottom surface of the testable semiconductor package. At least one conductive medium provides electrical connection between at least one of the dedicated testing contacts and a top surface of the testable semiconductor package. The at least one conductive medium can be coupled to a package-top testing connection, which may include a solder ball.
US09153484B2

A method of forming an integrated circuit comprises forming a gate of a transistor over a substrate. The method further comprises forming a connecting line over the substrate, the connecting line being coupled with an active area of the transistor. The method also comprises forming a dielectric layer surrounding the gate and the connecting line. The method additionally comprises forming an etch stop layer over the dielectric layer and covering a portion of a top surface of the connecting line. The method further comprises forming a via structure comprising a via in physical contact with a top surface of the gate and another portion of the top surface of the connecting line. The method also comprises forming a metallic line structure being coupled with the via structure.
US09153482B2

Methods and apparatus for selective deposition of cobalt on copper lines in the presence of exposed dielectric in semiconductor processing are provided. Cobalt in its metallic form is selectively deposited onto copper in the presence of dielectric by contacting a prepared surface of the substrate with an organometallic cobalt compound in a presence of a reducing agent. Surface preparation involves H2 treatment with concurrent UV light irradiation. After the substrate surface is prepared, the substrate is contacted with an organometallic cobalt compound comprising a substituted or unsubstituted allyl ligand in a presence of a reducing agent to selectively deposit cobalt on copper. No plasma treatment during or after cobalt deposition is necessary, and the method can be used in a presence of a ULK dielectric without causing damage to dielectric. Deposited cobalt caps are used to reduce copper electromigration and to improve adhesion of copper to subsequently deposited layers.
US09153465B2

A substrate stage for mounting a substrate thereon includes a peripheral stage member on which a peripheral substrate portion of the substrate may be mounted, the peripheral substrate portion controlling a temperature of the peripheral substrate portion, a central stage member on which a central substrate portion of the substrate may be mounted, the central substrate portion controlling a temperature of the central substrate portion, and a support base that supports the peripheral stage member and the central stage member. A gap is formed between the peripheral stage member and the central stage member to keep the peripheral stage member and the central stage member from coming in contact with each other.
US09153464B2

Provided is a substrate processing apparatus. The substrate processing apparatus includes an index part including a port on which a container containing a substrate is placed and an index robot, a processing part for processing the substrate, and a buffer unit disposed between the processing part and the index part to allow the substrate transferred between the processing part and the index part to be temporarily stayed therein. The processing part includes a glue removal processing module, a substrate cooling processing module, a heat processing module, and a functional water processing module which are disposed along a transfer passage for transferring the substrate.
US09153456B2

According to one embodiment, first, on a process object, a hydrophilic guide pattern including a first hole forming pattern having a first hole diameter and a second hole forming pattern having a second hole diameter is formed. Then, above the guide pattern, a frame pattern having a first opening region in a forming region of a plurality of the first hole forming patterns and a second opening region in a forming region of a plurality of the second hole forming patterns is formed. Then, a first solution including a first block copolymer having a hydrophilic polymer chain and a hydrophobic polymer chain is supplied to the first opening region to condense the first block copolymer. The hydrophilic polymer chain is then removed to reduce the diameter of the first hole forming pattern to a third hole diameter that is smaller than the first hole diameter.
US09153455B2

Methods of forming semiconductor devices, memory cells, and arrays of memory cells include forming a liner on a conductive material and exposing the liner to a radical oxidation process to densify the liner. The densified liner may protect the conductive material from substantial degradation or damage during a subsequent patterning process. A semiconductor device structure, according to embodiments of the disclosure, includes features extending from a substrate and spaced by a trench exposing a portion of a substrate. A liner is disposed on sidewalls of a region of at least one conductive material in each feature. A semiconductor device, according to embodiments of the disclosure, includes memory cells, each comprising a control gate region and a capping region with substantially aligning sidewalls and a charge structure under the control gate region.
US09153449B2

A method for providing copper filled features is provided. Features are provided in a layer on a substrate. A simultaneous electroless copper plating and anneal is provided. The electroless copper plating is chemical-mechanical polished, where there is no annealing before the chemical-mechanical polishing and after the simultaneous electroless copper plating and anneal.
US09153443B2

Fabrication of a termination structure in a semiconductor device increases in some cases the numbers of ion implantation processes or of photolithography processes, thus leading to an increase in fabrication costs. To overcome this problem, a semiconductor device is provided which includes an n-type drift layer formed on a semiconductor substrate; an element region formed in a surface portion of the drift layer; a recess formed in a loop in a laterally outer portion of the drift layer, spaced away a predetermined distance from the element region; and a p-type dopant region formed ranging from a bottom of the recess to a position away from the recess and toward the element region, a thickness of the dopant region where no recess is provided being greater than that where the recess is provided.
US09153436B2

In a semiconductor device in which a channel formation region is included in an oxide semiconductor layer, an oxide insulating film below and in contact with the oxide semiconductor layer and a gate insulating film over and in contact with the oxide semiconductor layer are used to supply oxygen of the gate insulating film, which is introduced by an ion implantation method, to the oxide semiconductor layer.
US09153428B2

A double-capped short arc flash lamp includes an arc tube, a pair of main electrodes disposed in the arc tube, and a pair of auxiliary electrodes disposed in the arc tube. The flash lamp also includes inner leads and outer leads associated with the two auxiliary electrodes, respectively. The flash lamp also includes a first sealing tube and a second sealing tube provided at opposite ends of the arc tube. A sealing glass tube is partly received in the second sealing tube. Grooves are formed in the outer surface of the sealing glass tube in a region where the sealing glass tube overlaps the second sealing tube. The grooves extend in the axial direction of the sealing glass tube, and are configured to receive the inner leads and the outer leads. Metallic foils electrically connect the inner leads with the outer leads, respectively.
US09153420B2

A charged particle beam writing apparatus includes first and second transmission units to perform first and second transmission processing, where, in the first transmission processing, while one of the units performs data transmission processing, the other unit inputs processing data for N processing regions more than pre-set, data-converted, n processing regions, and while one of the units performs data input processing, the other transmits processing data for (N-n) processing regions in order, and in the second transmission processing, processing data for remaining n processing regions are transmitted in order after the first transmission processing, where one of the units starts inputting the processing data while the other performs the first transmission processing, and does not input processing data for a new processing region after starting the second transmission processing.
US09153416B2

A method of investigating a sample using a charged-particle microscope is disclosed. By directing an imaging beam of charged particles at a sample, a resulting flux of output radiation is detected from the sample. At least a portion of the output radiation is examined using a detector, the detector comprising a Solid State Photo-Multiplier. The Solid State Photo-Multiplier is biased so that its gain is matched to the magnitude of output radiation flux.
US09153409B2

Issues related to maintaining the size of a focal spot on the target material of an X-ray source are addressed by linking the currents used in a magnetic focusing system employed in the X-ray source. The size of the focal spot on the target is less sensitive to current changes applied to the magnetic focusing system due to this linkage.
US09153405B2

An ion source device has a configuration in which a cathode is provided in an arc chamber having a space for plasma formation, and a repeller is disposed to face a thermal electron discharge face of the cathode by interposing the space for plasma formation therebetween. An external magnetic field that is induced by a source magnetic field unit is applied to the space for plasma formation in a direction parallel to an axis that connects the cathode and the repeller. An opening is provided in a place corresponding to a portion in the repeller with the highest density of plasma that is formed in the space for plasma formation, and an ion beam is extracted from the opening.
US09153403B2

The present invention provides an electromagnet device including a horizontal portion of a yoke arranged near one end portion of an iron core, a movable iron piece which pivotably supported on a leading end edge portion of a vertical portion of the yoke which serves as a fulcrum, an end portion of the movable iron piece adapted to be attracted to a magnetic pole portion by a main magnetic circuit, the magnetic pole portion is arranged in the other end portion of the iron core. The main magnetic circuit is formed by applying a voltage to a coil wound around a periphery of the iron core and an auxiliary magnetic circuit formed in parallel with the main magnetic circuit, the auxiliary circuit including a permanent magnet is arranged near the one end portion of the iron core and a magnetic resistance portion, in which a magnetic flux of the permanent magnet is magnetically saturated.
US09153402B2

A cutter includes a stopper with which a blade after cutting a harness with a cutting portion collides and stops. The blade includes a flexible guide portion which protrudes further in a forward direction of the blade than the cutting portion.
US09153400B2

An integrated switch to indicate pressure changes in an environment includes a housing with a cavity between a first retainer portion and a second retainer portion, a first diaphragm held in the cavity of the housing to indicate fault conditions, and a second diaphragm held in the cavity of the housing to indicate alarm conditions.
US09153392B2

An electrical switch is disclosed including a rotatably mounted contact bridge which includes a movable contact, wherein the movable contact interacts with a stationary contact of the electrical switch for the purpose of closing or opening the electrical circuit as a result of rotation of the contact bridge. In at least one embodiment, the surfaces at the point at which contact is made between the movable contact and the stationary contact are at least partially covered by a protective material for protecting against soiling and/or damage due to contact-erosion materials, wherein the protective material is a paper-like fleece.
US09153391B2

A control mechanism comprises a housing defining an interior and an exterior, an aperture formed in the housing and extending from the interior to the exterior thereof, an actuator on the interior of the housing, proximate the control aperture, and a control member positionable within the aperture to operate the actuator. The control member comprises a first surface exposed to the exterior of the housing, a second surface proximate the actuator within the housing, and a body portion extending therebetween, the body portion being formed of a substantially single crystal aluminum oxide material. A bias member is configured to bias the body portion of the control member toward an inner surface of the housing, such that the control member is retained within the aperture in operation of the actuator.
US09153385B2

An electrode structure is provided. The electrode structure comprises a plurality of first conductive cells and second conductive cells separated from each other and disposed on a substrate; a plurality of first conductive lines connecting adjacent said first conductive cells and a plurality of second conductive lines connecting adjacent said second conductive cells; wherein each said second conductive line comprises a conducting element and a pair of second conductive branches disposed at two sides of said conducting elements and connecting said conducting element to adjacent said second conductive cells; said first conductive lines and said second conductive lines are insulated and intersected. The method of forming an electrode structure is also provided.
US09153383B2

A winding-type solid electrolytic capacitor package structure without using any lead frame includes a winding capacitor and a package body. The winding capacitor has a winding body enclosed by the package body, a positive conductive lead pin extended from a first lateral side of the winding body, and a negative conductive lead pin extended from a second lateral side of the winding body. The positive conductive lead pin has a first embedded portion enclosed by the package body and a first exposed portion exposed outside the package body and extended along the first lateral surface and the bottom surface of the package body. The negative conductive lead pin has a second embedded portion enclosed by the package body and a second exposed portion exposed outside the package body and extended along the second lateral surface and the bottom surface of the package body.
US09153378B2

A method of producing a reactor equipped with a core in which a coil is disposed, comprises: preparing one of a vessel and a casing; preparing a positioning member with fins; putting a magnetic powder/resin mixture in the one of the vessel and the casing; stirring the magnetic powder/resin mixture within the one of the vessel and the casing using the fins of the positioning member; arranging a coil and the positioning member within the magnetic powder/resin mixture; and solidifying the magnetic powder/resin mixture to make the core including the positioning member and the fins.
US09153375B2

A power electronic device is disclosed. The power electronic device may include a housing, a conductive element positioned within the housing and rated for at least a medium voltage, a cooling system in fluid communication with the conductive element, a plurality of temperature sensing tags and a data collection unit having a receiver that is configured to receive signals from the antennae of the temperature sensing tags. The cooling system may have a plurality of outlet conduit elements that are positioned within the housing. Each of the tags may be attached to one of the outlet conduits and may include a power supply, a temperature sensor, and an antenna.
US09153373B2

The present invention provides a transformer having assembled bobbins and a voltage transformation module having the transformer. The transformer includes a base, bobbins, secondary windings and two magnetic cores. The base is provided with a penetration hole. The bobbins are disposed in the base and each has an annular groove, a hollow portion corresponding to the penetration hole, and protrusions formed on a surface of the bobbin. The protrusions form a gap between the two adjacent bobbins when the two adjacent bobbins are assembled with each other. The secondary windings are disposed between the bobbins and each has a through-hole corresponding to the hollow portion. The two magnetic cores penetrate the penetration hole of the base, the hollow portions of the bobbins, and the through-holes of the secondary windings to assemble them together.
US09153369B2

A device is disclosed. In one embodiment the device comprises a bias field generator configured to provide a magnetic bias field for a magnetic sensor, the bias field generator including a body comprising magnetic or magnetizable material, a packaged magnetic sensor accommodating the magnetic sensor and a recess disposed in the body, wherein the packaged magnetic sensor is arranged in the recess, and wherein the body includes two separate body parts, each body part include a part of the recess, and each body part is configured to hold in place the packaged magnetic sensor.
US09153362B2

The present invention refers to a method for applying a smoothening layer on a band substrate for subsequent manufacturing a high temperature superconductor tape, wherein the method comprises the steps: (a) applying a liquid containing polysilazane on at least one side of the band substrate; and (b) heating the liquid containing polysilazane to a temperature≧450° C. for depositing a layer on the band substrate which comprises silicon oxynitride (SiNxOy, wherein 0≦x<0.6 and 1.0
US09153361B2

A differential signal transmission cable includes a pair of differential signal lines arranged in parallel to each other, an insulation for bundle-covering the pair of differential signal lines, and a shield conductor wound around an outer periphery of the insulation. The insulation is configured such that an outer circumference thereof in a cross section perpendicular to a longitudinal direction thereof has an oval shape formed with a continuous convex arc-curve. The outer circumference of the insulation includes a first curved portion with a pair of symmetrical elliptical arcs located at both ends in a first direction along the arrangement direction of the pair of differential signal lines and a second curved portion with a pair of symmetrical elliptical arcs located at both ends in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction.
US09153357B1

Compositions useful for improving the adhesion of coating compositions, such as dielectric film-forming compositions, include a hydrolyzed amino-alkoxysilane having a protected amino moiety. These compositions are useful in methods of improving the adhesion of coating compositions to a substrate, such as an electronic device substrate.
US09153356B2

Metal nanoparticles are assembled in interrupted metal strands or other structures of characteristic dimensions and orientation to generate a giant dielectric response through a modified GE effect. Careful selection and modification of the host material and synthesis also leads to low dielectric breakdown voltages. In addition, the high dielectric composite material is employed in material configurations that are more scalable for industrial and consumer applications.
US09153355B2

A paste composition for a solar cell electrode, a solar cell electrode fabricated using the same, and a solar cell including the electrode, the paste composition including a mixture of conductive powders, the mixture of conductive powders including about 30 wt % to about 55 wt % of a first spherical powder having an average particle diameter D50 of 1.5 μm or less; about 3 wt % to about 8 wt % of a flake powder having an average particle diameter D50 of about 2 μm to about 3.5 μm; and a balance of a second spherical powder having an average particle diameter D50 of greater than 1.5 μm; glass fit; and an organic vehicle.
US09153336B1

An apparatus including a memory array and control circuitry. The control circuitry is configured to, based at least on a plurality of read comparison results, determine a number of memory cells of the memory array that have threshold voltages that fall into each of a plurality of voltage ranges. The control circuitry is further configured to, based at least on the number of memory cells that have threshold voltages in each of the plurality of voltage ranges, estimate an offset amount that a center voltage between two threshold voltage distributions differs from a center reference voltage. The control circuitry is further configured to read one or more of the plurality of memory cells based at least in part on the estimated offset amount.
US09153331B2

A data storage device includes a memory and a controller and may perform a method that includes updating, in a controller of the data storage device, a value of a particular write/erase (W/E) counter of a set of counters in response to an erase operation to a particular region of the non-volatile memory that is tracked by the particular W/E counter and that includes a storage element that is tracked by a particular cell erase counter of the set of counters. The method includes, in response to the value of the particular W/E counter indicating that a count of erase operations to the particular region satisfies a first threshold, initiating a remedial action to the particular region of the non-volatile memory at least partially based on the value of the particular cell erase counter.
US09153330B2

A semiconductor system includes a data storage unit including memory blocks, a circuit group and a control circuit, wherein the memory blocks store data therein and are arranged in a longitudinal direction and a vertical direction. The circuit group is suitable for performing a program, read or erase operation on the memory blocks, and the control circuit controls the circuit group. A memory control unit is suitable for controlling the data storage unit, wherein each of the memory blocks includes a plurality of sub-memory blocks. The sub-memory blocks arranged in the longitudinal direction share bit lines and do not share word lines and source lines. Further, the sub-memory arranged in the vertical direction share the bit lines or the source lines.
US09153326B2

The disclosure describes a semiconductor memory device including a memory cell array and a control circuit. The memory cell array comprises a plurality of memory cells that each include a control gate and a charge accumulation layer and that each are configured to have a threshold set to be included in any of a plurality of threshold distributions, the memory cell being connected between a bit line and a source line. The control circuit, in at least one of a write verify operation and a read operation on a selected memory cell, applies to the control gate a control gate voltage to determine the threshold of the selected memory cell, the control gate voltage having a plurality of values respectively corresponded to the plurality of threshold distributions, and sets a voltage between the bit line and the source line based on the control gate voltage.
US09153325B2

A semiconductor storage device includes memory cells, select transistors, memory strings, first and second blocks, word lines, and select gate lines. In the memory string, the current paths of plural memory cells are connected in series. When data are written in a first block, after a select gate line connected to the gate of a select transistor of one of the memory strings in the first block is selected, the data are sequentially written in the memory cells in the memory string connected to the selected select gate line. When data are written in the second block, after a word line connected to the control gates of memory cells of different memory strings in the second block is selected, the data are sequentially written in the memory cells of the different memory strings in the second block which have their control gates connected to the selected word line.
US09153324B2

A die assignment scheme assigns data, in the order it is received, to multiple memory dies with some randomness. Randomization events, such as skipping dies or reversing direction, occur at intervals, with a deterministic assignment scheme used between randomization events. Intervals between randomization events may be of random length, or of fixed length.
US09153323B2

Systems and methods are provided to generate soft information related to the threshold voltage of a memory cell. A range of threshold voltages for the memory cell is divided into subregions of threshold voltage values herein referred to as bins. An output of the memory cell in response to an applied reference signal is measured. The applied reference signal includes a voltage value and position information. A single bin is identified based on the position information of the reference signal. The identified bin is split into more than one bin based on the output of the memory cell and the voltage value of the reference signal. The newly split bins and all the other bins that were not split are assigned new bin indices.
US09153319B2

A method for driving a nonvolatile memory element includes: a writing step of changing a variable resistance layer to a low resistance state, by applying a writing voltage pulse having a first polarity; and an erasing step of changing the variable resistance layer to a high resistance state, by applying an erasing voltage pulse having a second polarity different from the first polarity, wherein in the writing step, a first input and output terminal of a field effect transistor is a source terminal of the transistor, and when a pulse width of the writing voltage pulse is PWLR and a pulse width of the erasing voltage pulse is PWHR, PWLR and PWHR satisfy a relationship of PWLR
US09153315B2

Recording and erasing of data in PRAM have hitherto been performed based on a change in physical characteristics caused by primary phase-transformation of a crystalline state and an amorphous state of a chalcogen compound including Te which serves as a recording material. Since, however, a recording thin film is formed of a polycrystal but not a single crystal, a variation in resistance values occurs and a change in volume caused upon phase-transition has placed a limit on the number of times of readout of record. In one embodiment, the above problem is solved by preparing a solid memory having a superlattice structure of thin films including Ge and thin films including Sb. The solid memory can realize the number of times of repeated recording and erasing of 1015.
US09153314B2

A system is provided for transmitting signals. The system includes a ground-referenced single-ended signaling (GRS) driver circuit that is configured to pre-charge a first capacitor to store a first charge between a first output node and a first reference node based on a first input data signal during a first pre-charge phase and drive an output signal relative to a ground network based on the first charge during a first drive phase. A control circuit is configured to generate a first set of control signals based on the first input data signal and a first clock signal, where the first set of control signals causes the first GRS driver circuit to operate in either the first pre-charge phase or in the first drive phase.
US09153313B2

The first circuit has a function of retaining data in a first period during which a power supply voltage is supplied. The second circuit has functions of saving the data retained in the first circuit in the first period and retaining the data saved from the first circuit in a second period during which application of the power supply voltage is stopped. The third circuit has functions of saving the data retained in the second circuit in the second period and retaining the data saved from the second circuit in a third period during which application of the power supply voltage is stopped. The second circuit is capable of being written with the data for a shorter time than the third circuit. The third circuit is capable of maintaining the data for a longer time than the second circuit.
US09153309B2

A semiconductor memory cell includes a floating body region configured to be charged to a level indicative of a state of the memory cell; a first region in electrical contact with said floating body region; a second region in electrical contact with said floating body region and spaced apart from said first region; and a gate positioned between said first and second regions. The cell may be a multi-level cell. Arrays of memory cells are disclosed for making a memory device. Methods of operating memory cells are also provided.
US09153308B2

According to one embodiment, a semiconductor memory device includes a memory cell array, a buffer configured to hold data input to an input/output circuit and to hold data read from the memory cell array, and a controller configured to receive a first command and an address from the outside and to read data, in response to the first command, from a memory cell group coupled to a selected word line designated by the address to the buffer. The controller receives a second command which is input after the first command and indicates a last command of a group of commands including write commands and/or read commands, and starts a write operation from the buffer to the memory cell array in response to the second command.
US09153304B2

Described is an apparatus for self-induced reduction in write minimum supply voltage for a memory element. The apparatus comprises: a memory element having cross-coupled inverters coupled to a first supply node; a power device coupled to the first supply node and a second supply node, the second supply node coupled to power supply; and an access device having a gate terminal coupled to a word-line, a first terminal coupled to the memory element, and a second terminal coupled to a bit-line which is operable to be pre-discharged to a logical low level prior to write operation.
US09153294B2

A semiconductor memory device includes a cell array including a plurality of cell regions, a row decoder configured to drive rows corresponding to cell regions in which a refresh operation is to be performed, based on a counting address, and a refresh address generator configured to generate the counting address and a modified address in response to a control signal, wherein the modified address is generated by inverting at least one bit of the counting address, and wherein the semiconductor memory device performs concurrent refresh operations on a first cell region corresponding to the counting address and a second cell region corresponding to the modified address where the second cell region is determined to have weak cells.
US09153263B1

A disk drive is disclosed comprising a head actuated over a disk comprising a plurality of tracks defined by servo sectors forming a plurality of full wedges and a plurality of mini wedges. The wedge ID field of a servo sector forming one of the full wedges is offset from a beginning of a sync mark by a first offset, and the wedge ID field of a servo sector forming one of the mini wedges is offset from the beginning of the sync mark by a second offset equal to the first offset. A first servo sector is read from the disk to generate a read signal, the read signal is demodulated to detect the wedge ID of the first servo sector, and the detected wedge ID is evaluated to determine whether the first servo sector forms one of the mini wedges.
US09153256B2

A slider, having a leading edge, a trailing edge, a working surface, and read/write heads proximate the trailing edge. The slider includes a protective overcoat over the working surface of the slider, and a self-assembled monolayer coating on the working surface of the slider and over the protective overcoat, the coating comprising at least one self-assembled monolayer material.
US09153252B2

Implementations described and claimed herein provide a stacked dual reader with a bottom sensor stack and a top sensor stack wherein the bottom sensor stack and the top sensor stack are mirrored along a down-track direction.
US09153251B2

An apparatus comprising a base shield, a sensor stack, and a base seed layer separating the base shield from the sensor stack. The base seed layer has a base coupled seed section that is coupled with the base shield, and a base uncoupled seed section that is uncoupled with the base shield, wherein the base uncoupled seed section covers a base window surrounding the sensor stack.
US09153242B2

A coding apparatus is provided that improves the quality of a decoded signal in a hierarchical coding (scalable coding) scheme in which a coding target band is selected in each hierarchy (layer). The coding apparatus includes a first layer coding section that selects a first quantization target band of inputted spectrum and generates first layer coded information including first band information of the selected band. An adder generates a first layer difference spectrum using a first decoded signal generated using the first layer coded information and the inputted spectrum. A second layer coding section generates second layer coded information including second band information of the selected band, wherein first layer coding section determines a method of quantizing the gain of the inputted spectrum from a plurality of candidates based on the first band information and second band information.
US09153239B1

Identifying near identical versions of a probe sample from reference files comprises identifying discriminative regions of reference matches by generating a similarity matrix. The discriminative time frames are communicated to a client device and additional data associated with the probe sample can be retrieved having features of the discriminative regions. Based on the additional data, a single match can be generated to identify the probe sample.
US09153238B2

The present invention relates to a method for processing an audio signal, comprising the following steps: performing a linear predictive analysis on the current frame of an audio signal so as to generate a first target vector, which is a target vector of a first stage, on the basis of a plurality of linear prediction transform coefficients; performing vector quantization on the first target vector so as to acquire a predetermined number of first temporary candidate code vectors of the first stage; calculating first temporary candidate errors, which are errors between the first temporary candidate code vectors and the first target vector; and determining a first number, which is the number of the first candidate code vectors, on the basis of the first temporary candidate errors, and acquiring first final candidate code vectors in the same amount as the first number.
US09153237B2

Disclosed is an audio signal processing method comprising the steps of: receiving an audio signal containing current frame data; generating a first temporary output signal for the current frame when an error occurs in the current frame data, by carrying out frame error concealment with respect to the current frame data a random codebook; generating a parameter by carrying out one or more of short-term prediction, long-term prediction and a fixed codebook search based on the first temporary output signal; and memory updating the parameter for the next frame; wherein the parameter comprises one or more of pitch gain, pitch delay, fixed codebook gain and a fixed codebook.
US09153235B2

One or more test features are extracted from a time domain signal. The test features are represented by discrete data. The discrete data is represented for each of the one or more test features by a corresponding one or more fitting functions, which are defined in terms of finite number of continuous basis functions and a corresponding finite number of expansion coefficients. Each fitting function is compressed through Functional Principal Component Analysis (FPCA) to generate corresponding sets of principal components. Each principal component for a given test feature is uncorrelated to each other principal component for the given test feature. A distance between a set of principal components for the given test feature and a set of principal components for one or more training features with the processing system is calculated. The test feature is classified according to the distance calculated with the processing system.
US09153232B2

A voice control device and a corresponding voice control method are provided. The voice control device includes a sound receiver, a sound converter, a voice identifier, and a central processing unit (CPU). The sound receiver receives a first sound signal. The sound converter converts the first sound signal from analog signal to digital signal. The voice identifier identifies a first voice signal from the first sound signal, performs a first comparison on the first voice signal and a second voice signal, and generates a wake-up signal according to the first comparison. When receiving the wake-up signal, the CPU enters a working state from a sleeping state, performs a second comparison on the first voice signal and the second voice signal, and takes over the voice input from the sound receiver and the sound converter according to the second comparison.
US09153230B2

A method for executing a mobile speech recognition software application based on a multi-layer neural network model includes providing to a hardware accelerator in the mobile device to classify one or more frames of an audio signal. The hardware accelerator includes a multiplier-accumulator (MAC) unit to perform matrix multiplication operations involved in computing the neural network output.
US09153229B2

A speech recognition method includes providing a processor communicatively coupled to each of a local speech recognition engine and a server-based speech recognition engine. A first speech input is inputted into the server-based speech recognition engine. A first recognition result from the server-based speech recognition engine is received at the processor. The first recognition result is based on the first speech input. The first recognition result is stored in a memory device in association with the first speech input. A second speech input is inputted into the local speech recognition engine. The first recognition result is retrieved from the memory device. A second recognition result is produced by the local speech recognition engine. The second recognition result is based on the second speech input and is dependent upon the retrieved first recognition result.
US09153226B2

Adaptive noise control for reducing power of an acoustic noise signal radiated from a noise source to a listening position comprises providing an electrical reference signal correlated with the acoustic noise signal; filtering the electrical reference signal with an adaptive filter to provide an electrical output signal; multiplying the electrical output signal of the adaptive filter by a gain factor to provide a first electrical compensation signal; filtering and multiplying the electrical output signal of the adaptive filter by the inverse of the gain factor to provide a second electrical compensation signal, the second gain factor being equal to 1 subtracted by the first gain factor; radiating the first electrical compensation signal to the listening position with an acoustic transducer; sensing a residual electrical error signal at the listening position; adding the second electrical compensation signal to the electrical error signal to provide a compensated error signal; and adapting filter coefficients of the adaptive filter as a function of the compensated error signal and the reference signal.
US09153225B2

A sound enclosure for enclosing a compressor assembly in an assembled state can include at least one cover piece, a shoe member, and a base. The shoe member can include a partial circumferential wall that projects upright from a generally planar portion. One of the partial circumferential wall or the cover piece has a projected portion. The other of the partial circumferential wall or the cover piece has a recessed portion. In the assembled state, the projected portion nests into the recessed portion. The base includes an outer contact area. The shoe member includes an outer perimeter. In the assembled state, the outer contact area is in contact with the outer perimeter of the shoe member.
US09153220B2

An electronic percussion instrument includes a head, a frame, and an impact sensor, and an air ventilation mechanism which includes a pair of cutouts which are distanced from each other and formed in the periphery of the head. The head is attached to the frame such that the periphery of the frame is externally enclosed with the periphery of the head precluding a pair of cutouts. Additionally, a pair of connecting parts with reduced thickness is linearly elongated across the back of the head in parallel. When the head is struck with a beater, a vibration is caused to occur in the head and detected by the impact sensor to produce an electric signal which is used to generate an electronic musical sound, wherein the air ventilation mechanism releases air from the back of the head so as to reliably secure noiselessness while reducing noise.
US09153217B2

A method, apparatus and system that enables a user to find and act-upon a sound-containing composition, in a group of compositions. One or more sound-segments, which are intended to prompt a user's memory, may be associated with each composition in a group of compositions. A recognition sound-segment may include a portion of its associated composition, which is more recognizable to users than the beginning part of its associated composition. A recognition-segment may contain one or more highly recognizable portion(s) of a composition. When the user is trying to locate or select a particular composition, the recognition-segments are navigated and played-back to the user, based upon a user-device context/mode. When a user recognizes the desired composition from its recognition-segment, the user may initiate a control action to playback; arrange; and/or act-upon, the composition that is associated with the currently playing recognition-segment.
US09153216B2

A streamlined rotary valve includes a main body with a first, a second, and a third tube. A first casing member includes a first opening, a first and a second air inlet opening, which are in communication with a first accommodation space. The first air inlet opening is connected to an end of the first tube. A manual actuator includes a pressing section, which when pressed, an end of the third tube is set in communication with the first air inlet opening; an opposite end of the third tube in communication with the second air outlet opening; an end of the second tube in communication with the second air inlet opening; and an opposite end of the second tube in communication with the first air outlet opening, thus generates different sound effects. With 72 degrees angle of rotation and adjustable stop elements, the present invention improves speed response and accuracy.
US09153202B2

An object display device includes: an image acquisition unit for acquiring an image in real space; a shade computation unit for acquiring shade information indicating an appearance position of a shadow in real space; an image processing unit for correcting the image in real space or an image of a marker stored in advance, so as to eliminate the effects of a shadow, based on the shade information; a marker sensing unit for extracting the marker from the image in real space using the image in real space and the image of the marker at least one of which is corrected; and a display unit for overlaying a virtual object associated with the marker on the image in real space.
US09153195B2

The technology provides contextual personal information by a mixed reality display device system being worn by a user. A user inputs person selection criteria, and the display system sends a request for data identifying at least one person in a location of the user who satisfy the person selection criteria to a cloud based application with access to user profile data for multiple users. Upon receiving data identifying the at least one person, the display system outputs data identifying the person if he or she is within the field of view. An identifier and a position indicator of the person in the location is output if not. Directional sensors on the display device may also be used for determining a position of the person. Cloud based executing software can identify and track the positions of people based on image and non-image data from display devices in the location.
US09153190B2

A gate driver that comprises n shift registers, wherein n is an integer equal to or larger than 1, each of the n shift registers includes; a start stage which outputs a gate signal and starts its operation in response to a start signal, and a plurality of subsequent stages which are connected to each other in sequence, and which sequentially output a plurality of gate signals in response to a signal output from the start stage, wherein at least one stage of the plurality of subsequent stages is reset by the start signal.
US09153186B2

Methods and devices employing circuitry for display turn-off that offsets the effect of kickback voltage are provided. In one example, a method may include determining an amount of kickback voltage that is expected to occur in pixels of the electronic display during shutdown of the display, supplying a common voltage output to a common electrode of a pixel of the electronic display, and supplying an activation signal to the pixel to activate the pixel. The method may also include supplying a data signal to a pixel electrode of the pixel. The data signal may be substantially equal to the sum of the common voltage output and the determined kickback voltage. The method may include removing the activation signal from the pixel to store the data signal in the pixel to reduce the effect of kickback voltage on the pixel electrode of the pixel during shutdown of the electronic display.
US09153180B2

A display device is configured for two-field sequential operation using a multi-colored backlight and an array of selectable filters where the array includes a subpixel repeat group having more than three non-white colors. The display device includes: an array of filters for defining pixels of an image, wherein each subpixel repeat group in the array comprises at least four non-white filters and at least one white filter; a backlight module comprising an array of at least four non-white light emitting diodes; and a control unit configured to operate the array of filters and the backlight module in a two-field sequential operation scheme such that for each subpixel repeat group in the array, most of the filters are usable (for having valved light passed therethrough) in both fields, two of the filters are usable on a mutually exclusive, and at least one filter is usable only in one of the fields.
US09153178B2

A display device including a display unit having a plurality of pixels is disclosed. In one aspect, at least one first pixel among the pixels includes: a first compensation capacitor including one electrode connected to a data line and the other electrode connected to a first node; a first switching transistor including a gate electrode configured to have a scan signal, one electrode connected to the first node, and the other electrode connected to a second node; a first driving transistor including a gate electrode connected to the second node, one electrode connected to a first power source voltage, and the other electrode connected to a first organic light emitting diode (OLED); and a first link transistor including a gate electrode configured to have a link control signal, one electrode connected to the data line, and the other electrode connected to the first power source voltage. Pixels of the type with four transistors may be alternated with pixels of the type having three transistors (no link transistor) according to a desired aspect ratio.
US09153175B2

A display device and an image compensation method are disclosed. One inventive aspect includes a controller and a data driver. The controller processes image data signal based on at least one of pixel information, a reference brightness condition, a present brightness of the display device and a target luminance and generate final compensated data. The pixel information is measured under the reference brightness condition. The data driver transmits the final compensated data to an activated driving pixel.
US09153161B1

A timing controller for a display device, the timing controller including a luminance control area detecting device configured to analyze image data and detect at least one candidate area of an active area of a display panel in the display device satisfying a luminance control area condition as a luminance control area; a luminance control reference setting device configured to set luminance control reference information on the luminance control area, based on an input luminance of the at least one candidate area; and a luminance controlling device configured to control a luminance of the luminance control area, based on the luminance control reference information.
US09153157B2

A display device has a set of picture elements, one active matrix and a display area, the display area including a first area and a non-overlapping second area, the first area comprising monochrome picture elements, and the second area comprising color picture elements.
US09153153B1

An advertising cycling device provides a mobile way for displaying advertisements. The device includes a cycling frame. A plurality of wheels is rotatably coupled to the cycling frame. A crankset is coupled to the cycling frame. The crankset includes a pair of pedals. The pedals are mechanically coupled to at least one of the wheels such that rotation of the pedals causes at least one of the wheels to rotate. An advertising frame is coupled to the cycling frame. A panel is selectively couplable to the advertising frame. The panel has advertisement indicia positioned thereon.
US09153136B2

The present invention provides a system and method of producing a description of the flight intent of an aircraft expressed using a formal language. The description may be used to generate a predicted aircraft trajectory, for example by air traffic management. Rules are used in association with information provided to express the flight intent of the aircraft in a formal language. The flight intent describes a flight in terms of flight segments, and provides information of the path to be flown and how it is to be flown. The flight intent does not necessarily define unambiguously the aerodynamic configuration of the aircraft and the motion of the aircraft during the flight. The flight intent is used alongside other information to generate the aircraft intent that does describe unambiguously the aircraft's trajectory.
US09153132B2

An on-board vehicle control system and method employ a storage device that stores information representing a plurality of boundary points of a boundary circumscribing an area of interest in which the boundary points are defined by two prescribed parameters, and a controller that obtains at least one condition point defined by current values of the prescribed parameters, determines a first boundary point of the boundary points that is closest to the condition point, and generates geometric data representing a geometric relationship between the first boundary point, the condition point and a second boundary point of the boundary points. The controller performs further calculations taking into account the geometric data to generate coordinate condition data, and determines whether a warning condition exists by determining whether the condition point lies within the area of interest based on a comparison between coordinates of the condition point and the coordinate condition data.
US09153131B2

A real-time drive assistance system and method are provided. The system includes a centralized architecture capable of determining and preventing, in real time, potentially dangerous road situations, increasing road safety. The system is based on a communication network obtained through specific portable mobile communication devices exchanging information related to the state of a plurality of vehicles in motion along a road network. The method includes periodical acquisition and sending of the information to a centralized processing unit using the wireless communication system of each portable mobile communication device; processing of the information in order to verify the occurrence of potential dangerous situations for the drivers of each vehicle; and sending of warning or danger signals to one or more of the portable mobile communication devices that can alert the drivers of the vehicles.
US09153123B2

A remote monitoring system includes a sensor interface, a processor, and a wireless communication interface. The sensor interface receives sensor information from a sensor coupled to the sensor interface. The processor processes the sensor information into at least one data packet for transferring to a server. The wireless communication interface transfers the data packet over wireless communications to the server.
US09153117B2

An Emergency Alert System (EAS) alert message may be used to activate a security system. For example, a mobile device of a subscriber may receive an EAS alert message from a network provider of the mobile device. Upon receipt of the EAS alert message, the mobile device may send an indication of the EAS message to the security system. A component of the security system may be activated to provide notification of the EAS alert message to the subscriber.
US09153109B1

A cover for a mobile device includes an engaging portion for engaging an exterior surface of the mobile device to secure the cover to the mobile device, a back protective panel for protecting a back surface of the mobile device and at least one wall extending from an interior side of the back protective panel and contacting the back surface of the mobile device. A theft-detection device capable of generating a signal in response to passing through a field is positioned on the interior side of the back protective panel such that a height of the theft-detection device is less than a height of the at least one wall.
US09153103B2

A gaming machine with more gaming excitement is provided. The gaming machine includes: a symbol display device configured to display a result of a game by rearranging symbols in cells forming a matrix; and a controller used to start a base game requiring betting, a free game not requiring betting, and a plurality of types of bonus games. The controller is programmed to execute the steps of: executing a base game of randomly determining symbols to be rearranged in the symbol display device; determining whether a specific symbol is to be rearranged in a predetermined region of the symbol display device, the predetermined region including at least one cell; executing a free game of randomly determining symbols to be rearranged in the symbol display device; determining whether the specific symbol is to be rearranged in the predetermined region; and executing any one of the types of the bonus games.
US09153100B2

Gaming apparatus and methods of conducting a wagering game of chance. A gaming machine is disclosed which is configured for mutually concurrent play of a plurality of games of chance on a single display screen. A method of conducting a wagering activity includes providing a player with a plurality of differing games of chance, at least some of which are mutually concurrently playable on a single screen display of a gaming device and enabling mutually concurrent play of the plurality of differing games of chance on the single screen display. Various other gaming machine configurations and methods of play related to multiple differing games of chance on a single display screen are also disclosed herein. Networked gaming machines are also disclosed.
US09153096B2

A computerized wagering game system has a gaming module comprising a processor and gaming code which is operable when executed on the processor to present or conduct a wagering game on which monetary value can be wagered. An audio module is operable to process markers embedded within an audio stream, wherein the markers comprise structured audio commands.
US09153094B2

A computer-implemented method includes creating, by at least one processor, an online presence for a wagering game machine. The method also includes publishing wagering game activity that has occurred at the wagering game machine to the online presence for the wagering game machine.
US09153093B2

On or more apparatuses, systems, and methods are disclosed for playing an online card game using real cards. Real playing cards are transferred from a deck of playing cards to a card holding position in a card holder, such as for a sufficient number of players for a game. From an appropriate card viewing position, an actual image of the card (either front or back) is captured, such as by a video camera. The captured image of the card is used to display to an online player, who is playing a virtual card game, such as poker, where the online player may be locally or remotely connected. The image of the card is used in lieu of a virtual image in the virtual representation of an online card game.
US09153089B1

The present application is directed to systems and methods for transmitting vending machine data wirelessly via a reporting device. Each vending machine may connect to a reporting device. The reporting device may communicate with a mobile device wirelessly, where the mobile device may be carried by an operator. The reporting device may transmit vending machine data to the mobile device. The reporting device may transmit maintenance information to the mobile device. The mobile device may upload the vending machine data and maintenance information via a network to a remote device. The reporting device may enable a customer to make purchases with a mobile device. The reporting device may receive a repair-needed notification from a customer's mobile device.
US09153074B2

Provided are an augmented reality eyeglass communication device and a method for facilitating shopping using an augmented reality eyeglass communication device. The augmented reality eyeglass communication device may comprise a frame, and a right earpiece and a left earpiece connected to the frame. Furthermore, the eyeglass communication device may comprise a processor configured to receive one or more commands of a user, perform operations associated with the commands of the user, receive product information, and process the product information. The eyeglass communication device may comprise a display connected to the frame and configured to display data received from the processor. In addition to that, the eyeglass communication device may comprise a transceiver electrically connected to the processor and configured to receive and transmit data over a wireless network. The eyeglass communication device may comprise a Subscriber Identification Module card slot, a camera, an earphone, a microphone, and a charging unit.
US09153068B2

A method for reducing the number of samples tested for rendering a screen space region of an image includes constructing a trajectory of a primitive extending in an image which is to be rendered. A bounding volume is constructed for a screen space region of the image, the bounding volume characterized as having a bound in a non-screen space dimension which is defined as a function of the primitive's trajectory. The bounding volume is further characterized as overlapping a portion of the screen space region which is to be rendered. One or more sample points which are located within the screen space region, and which are not overlapped by the bounding volume are excluded from testing.
US09153062B2

A method, a system, and a computer program product for generating a three-dimensional representation of a scene within a three-dimensional space are disclosed. A plurality of two-dimensional planes to be positioned within the three-dimensional space are generated. The plurality of two dimensional planes include two-dimensional content that is capable of being modified. The generated two-dimensional planes are positioned within the three-dimensional space. The positioning of the planes is capable of being modified.
US09153061B2

Techniques for segmentation of three-dimensional (3D) point clouds are described herein. An example of a method for user-assisted segmentation of a 3D point cloud described herein includes obtaining a 3D point cloud of a scene containing a target object; receiving a seed input indicative of a location of the target object within the scene; and generating a segmented point cloud corresponding to the target object by pruning the 3D point cloud based on the seed input.
US09153058B2

Methods and systems for dynamically splitting content are disclosed. In some embodiments, content may be received that includes one or more elements to be animated. It may be determined that a size of at least one element of the one or more elements to be animated exceeds a threshold. The at least one element having the size that exceeds the threshold may be split into a plurality of sub-elements. A transform of at least one of the sub-elements may be modified.
US09153049B2

An approach is provided for allowing a network computing (e.g., cloud computing) infrastructure to modify its resource allocation plan (e.g., an instance count) by using a Kth derivative vector plot, which may be generated using historical logs. Among other things, this approach enables an infrastructure to project an allocation forecast for a specified duration and adapt to changes in network traffic.
US09153045B2

Systems and methods are provided for computer tomography (CT) imaging. An attenuation transform component configured to map voxels in a received set of cross-sectional CT images to associated brightness values according to a piecewise transform function to produce a set of transformed images. A user interface is configured to provide the set of transformed images to a user at an associated display.
US09153043B1

A non-transitory computer-readable medium includes instructions stored thereon for causing a display device to display a field of view of a media item and a user interface over the media item. The field of view defines a reference point and the user interface defines a perimeter. The medium also includes instructions for processing input data for controlling relative movement of one or more of the field of view, the media item, and the user interface. In addition, the medium includes instructions for causing the display device, responsive to the input data, to move the user interface relative to the field of view and the media item, provided that the reference point is within the perimeter. The medium also includes instructions for causing the display device, responsive to the input data, to move the field of view relative to the media item, provided that the reference point is outside the perimeter.
US09153027B2

A system, method, and computer program product are provided for performing fast, non-rigid registration for at least two images of a high-dynamic range image stack. The method includes the steps of generating a warped image based on a set of corresponding pixels, analyzing the warped image to detect unreliable pixels in the warped image, and generating a corrected pixel value for each unreliable pixel in the warped image. The set of corresponding pixels includes a plurality of pixels in a source image, each pixel in the plurality of pixels associated with a potential feature in the source image and paired with a corresponding pixel in a reference image that substantially matches the pixel in the source image.
US09153017B1

A method includes obtaining, at one or more computing devices, an input image; determining a first value of a quality metric for the input image; generating a first chroma subsampled representation of the input image; and generating a reconstructed image based on the chroma subsampled representation. The method also includes determining a second value of the quality metric for the reconstructed image; determining an error value based on the first value of the quality metric and the second value of the quality metric; and generating a second chroma subsampled representation of the input image based in part on the error value.
US09153013B2

An image processing method comprising, dividing an input image into a plurality of divided images, calculating a difference image between a divided image before noise removal and a divided image after noise removal for each of the plurality of divided images, calculating a relative value between a pixel intensity in the divided image before noise removal and a pixel intensity in the difference image for each of the plurality of divided images, detecting a frequency distribution of relative values in a background area of the input image, contained in frequency distribution of relative values calculated with respect to the plurality of divided images, and estimating an intensity of noise in accordance with the frequency distribution of the relative values in the background area.
US09153005B2

The method of automatically authenticating a document having a label-forming portion comprises the following steps: a) printing an authentic label having optically-variable elements; b) photographing the authentic label to create a first reference image; c) calculating and storing a reference digital fingerprint of the label; d) photographing a label for verification successively in first lighting conditions and in second lighting conditions that are essentially different from the first lighting conditions in order to create first and second verification images, by using a camera having a communications unit, a memory unit, and a calculation unit; e) verifying the optically-variable nature of said elements from the first and second verification images and calculating a verification digital fingerprint for the label that is to be verified; and f) comparing the verification digital fingerprint with the corresponding reference digital fingerprint, calculating the distance between these two digital fingerprints, and comparing the distance with a predetermined threshold.
US09153004B2

A product imaging device (121) is provided which facilitates a user to capture the image sequence of entire surroundings of a product. An image sensor unit (201) senses incident light from the external world where the product is disposed and outputs an image representing a result of the sensing. An instruction receiving unit (202) receives an image-capture instruction from the user. A memory unit (203) stores the image sensed by the image sensor unit (201) upon reception of an image-capture instruction. A finder display unit (204) synthesizes the image stored in the memory unit (203) with an image presently sensed by the image sensor unit (201) and displays a synthesized image on a finder screen.
US09152998B2

Techniques to automate the management of investor relations are disclosed herein. A vertical domain query language is introduced, specifically for investor relations. Graphical query builder tools to create queries in the vertical domain query language are described. Reports specific to investor relations, in particular reports to assess the efficacy of investor relations activities, are also described. Investor relations client applications that make use of user state, such as identity, date time stamp and geolocation are described.
US09152990B1

Disclosed are various embodiments for providing a product comparison application utilizing crowdsourcing. A network page is rendered providing a grid comprising a plurality of products, product attributes, and/or attribute data. Additions and/or modifications of attributes, products, and/or attribute data are assigned a score to determine which addition or modification to display and/or associate with a product catalog. The grid provides a view for comparison of products.
US09152987B1

Disclosed are various embodiments for surfacing local inventory. Data representing a global inventory of items stored in several materials handling facilities is provided in a computing device. A portion of the global inventory that is stored in one or more of the materials handling facilities located within a region is identified. One or more network pages are generated that surface one or more items included in the portion of the global inventory in association with one or more dedicated items stored in the one or more materials handling facilities. The dedicated items are dedicated for delivery within the region.
US09152974B1

The present disclosure includes a system, method, and article of manufacture for performing dispute resolution. The method may include retrieving an identifier that associates a funds request with a rewards currency request, crediting, based on the identifier, a transaction account based upon the funds request, and crediting, based on the identifier, a rewards account based upon the rewards currency request. The method may further comprise crediting the transaction account less a value associated with the rewards currency request and/or generating a first statement that shows a funds balance and a second statement that shows a rewards currency balance. A funds balance may be credited by an amount associated with the funds request, and a rewards currency balance may be credited by an amount associated with the rewards currency request.
US09152971B2

Methods and systems are provided for combining historic data with geospatial data to help mobile sellers enhance their profits. Data can be collected, stored, and analyzed, such as via a server, to help mobile sellers select new locations for selling their products. For example, information regarding the sales of a plurality of other mobile sellers can be collected, stored, and analyzed to help the mobile sellers decide which one of a plurality of different candidate locations should be selected as the next location where the mobile sellers should sell products.
US09152970B1

A remote browsing process is directed to the generation and management of a collaborative application session between client computing devices and content providers in conjunction with a network computing provider. The client computing devices request access to a group browsing context at a network computing provider. The network computing provider provides processing results corresponding to processed representations of requested content to the client computing devices. The client computing devices may each display the representations of the requested content in a browser. The network computing provider may further provide co-interaction data to the client computing devices for display. The co-interaction data may represent interactions of one or more users with the representations of content displayed at the user's respective client computing devices. Additionally, one or more interactions may be associated to be local to client computing devices.
US09152963B2

Embodiments of the invention are directed to systems, methods and computer program products for processing information associated with a transaction that qualifies for a gift card. An exemplary apparatus is configured to: receive information associated with a transaction executed using a payment method associated with an account, the information including an alias associated with the account and an amount of the transaction; determine, based on accessing a database, whether the alias is associated with a gift card; in response to determining the alias is associated with the gift card, determine whether the transaction qualifies for the gift card; and in response to determining the transaction qualifies for the gift card, apply a balance of the gift card to the amount of the transaction.
US09152962B2

Under the present invention, polling code is generated on a server and sent to a client in response to a transaction request received on the server from the client. The polling code includes a set of parameters such as a delay time and a polling count. After expiration of the delay time, the client will poll the server to request the status of the requested transaction. If the transaction is complete, the client will be redirected to a completion page. If the transaction is incomplete, and a polling count limit has not been reached, new polling code will be generated that includes the delay time and a new polling count. The new polling count is generated by incrementing the old polling count by one. The polling cycle is repeated until the transaction is complete, or the polling count limit is reached.
US09152957B2

A method of downloading an electronic product to a pin-pad terminal involves the terminal transmitting to a network gateway a transaction proposal for an electronic product from a network device, and receiving from the gateway a transaction proposal response generated by the gateway in response to the transaction proposal. The transaction proposal response includes a transaction pointer associated with the electronic product. An electronic cash register receives an indication of a proposed payment amount for the electronic product. The pin-pad terminal receives from the electronic cash register confirmation of entry of the electronic product in an electronic shopping basket maintained by the electronic cash register. The terminal validates the confirmation of entry of the electronic product from a comparison with the transaction proposal response, and transmits the transaction pointer to the network device via the gateway. The terminal receives the electronic product from the network device via the gateway.
US09152955B2

A computer implemented method for reducing input performed in a commerce based application is provided. The method includes receiving a sequence of input values from an input device and associating the sequence of input values with an object in the application based on the sequence. A context of the application is determined One or more tasks in the application are automatically performed based on the object, the context and the sequence of input values.
US09152951B2

A method of filtering data entries on a mobile device includes displaying a list of data entries on a display device of the mobile device. An indication of one of the data entries of the list is received at one of an input device and an auxiliary input device. Highlighting the data entry in response to the indication is performed. At an auxiliary input device, a pause of the indication is received. A filter for data entries that match the value of a predetermined field of the highlighted data entry is then executed. Results of the filter are displayed on the display device.
US09152949B2

Methods and apparatus of classifying received email are provided. At least one initial desirability scan is performed on a received email. When the received email passes the at least one initial desirability scan, it is determined if the received email comprises one or more browser-interpretable scripts. When the received email comprises one or more browser-interpretable scripts, a secondary desirability scan is performed on the received email as a function of the one or more browser-interpretable scripts. The received email is identified as undesirable email when the received email fails the at least one initial desirability scan, or the received email fails the secondary desirability scan. The received e-mail is identified as desirable email when the received email does not comprise one or more browser-interpretable scripts or the received email passes the secondary desirability scan.
US09152943B2

An apparatus, including a memory device which stores information regarding a job opening, position, assignment, contract, or project, and information regarding a job search request or inquiry, a processing device which processes the information regarding a job search request or inquiry upon a detection of a job posting by at least one employer or at least one hiring entity or a posting of new or revised data or information from at least one individual or a group of individuals, automatically detects the occurrence of the searching event, and generates a message containing the information regarding a job opening, position, assignment, contract, or project, in response to the job search request or inquiry, and a transmitter which transmits the message to a communication device associated with an individual.
US09152941B2

Systems, methods, and computer-readable media provide mechanisms to determine the availability of one or more order items within a supply chain environment. In one embodiment, the method may comprise defining a profile to be associated with an availability check, wherein the availability check consists of a filter process, a sort process, a prepare process, a check process, and an update process, electronically building one or more processing packages for the one or more order items based on the defined profile, and executing the availability check using the profile and one or more processing packages.
US09152935B2

A system and method for creating, storing and retrieving, and displaying user-created data_ties (a data_tie is a user-created relationship between two items the user had previously saved). The purpose of the invention is to provide the user a way to not only see the data he has saved, but to provide him a way to graphically display the relationships he has made between pieces of Evidence. The present invention is particularly adapted to tablet computers, notepads, etc. with touchscreens. A feature of the present invention is the ability to manually slide one icon on top of a second icon thereby creating a data_tie between the two pieces of data, or evidence. In various embodiments of the invention, this relationship can be annotated with context to later relate why and how the two pieces of data were connected.
US09152925B2

Embodiments of the invention utilize advanced statistical data analytics to predict and provide recommendations for root-cause analysis for service access QoE issues in networks, such as 3G/4G networks. Using FCAPS data as predictor variables, embodiments are configured to set up the problem as a predictive regression or classification problem to estimate service access QoE related indicators. Some embodiments perform training and tuning of various non-linear statistical modelling algorithms, based for example on tree and ensemble methods, using network deregistration information from RAN logs.
US09152924B2

Computing bus devices that enable quantum information to be coherently transferred between conventional qubit pairs are disclosed. A concrete realization of such a quantum bus acting between conventional semiconductor double quantum dot qubits is described. The disclosed device measures the joint (fermion) parity of the two qubits by using the Aharonov-Casher effect in conjunction with an ancillary superconducting flux qubit that facilitates the measurement. Such a parity measurement, together with the ability to apply Hadamard gates to the two qubits, allows for the production of states in which the qubits are maximally entangled, and for teleporting quantum states between the quantum systems.
US09152923B2

Apparatus and methods enable active compensation for unwanted discrepancies in the superconducting elements of a quantum processor. A qubit may include a primary compound Josephson junction (CJJ) structure, which may include at least a first secondary CJJ structure to enable compensation for Josephson junction asymmetry in the primary CJJ structure. A qubit may include a series LC-circuit coupled in parallel with a first CJJ structure to provide a tunable capacitance. A qubit control system may include means for tuning inductance of a qubit loop, for instance a tunable coupler inductively coupled to the qubit loop and controlled by a programming interface, or a CJJ structure coupled in series with the qubit loop and controlled by a programming interface.
US09152922B2

A first iterative Grover Search process is performed by causing at least one quantum computer to perform a first series of Grover Searches according to a characteristic function for varying numbers of iterations to identify a first search target. The characteristic function is modified according to the identified first search target. A second iterative Grover Search process is performed by causing the at least one quantum computer to perform a second series of Grover Searches according to the modified characteristic function beginning with a number of iterations determined based on a number of iterations required for at least one prior iterative Grover Search process to identify a second search target.
US09152899B2

A print release environment includes a client computing device, an imaging device and an active directory. The client stores an imaging job on a local hard disk. The client registers itself with the active directory indicating an existence of the job. Upon a user logging in to the imaging device to retrieve an imaged media corresponding to the imaging job, the imaging device queries the active directory for possible clients. The imaging device contacts client(s) and retrieves a list of jobs available to the user. The user selects their job and the client releases it direct to the imaging device. The client deletes the imaging job upon successful imaging of the media and undoes its registration with the active directory, unless further imaging jobs exist for the user. Encryption techniques are contemplated to secure the data of the imaging job end-to-end from the client to the imaging device.
US09152893B2

An image forming apparatus includes a plurality of sheet trays; an image forming section which forms an image on a sheet supplied by the sheet trays; and a display section which includes a display screen, upon which are displayed a first axis and a second axis, wherein sheet tray information identifying each of the plurality of sheet trays is displayed individually for each tray along the first axis, and information concerning the time period scheduled for use of each of the sheet trays is displayed along the second axis at a position along the first axis where the sheet tray information for the respective sheet tray is located.
US09152890B2

The present invention provides an image recording method and apparatus and a recording medium therefor. In an aspect of the present invention, when recording the image in a condition where an image recording range in a first direction by the image recorder is a specific range, image processing is applied to the image data using a latest image processing parameter among image processing parameters which are according to positions in the first direction and have been generated on the basis of measurement results of test charts output using the specific range or a wider range than the specific range on the image recorder, and the image recorder is caused to record the image on the recording medium according to the image data after the image processing.
US09152878B2

There is provided with an image processing apparatus. A setting unit sets a parameter indicating a likelihood of being foreground or a likelihood of being background for each pixel of the input image. A selection unit selects a first cluster, wherein the first cluster has color information indicating a color similar to a color which is indicated by color information of any cluster out of the second group of clusters. An adjustment unit configured to adjust the parameter of each of pixels which belong to the selected first cluster. An estimation unit estimates a region corresponding to the foreground part using the parameters associated with respective pixels after adjustment of the parameters by the adjustment unit.
US09152872B2

A user experience analysis system to measure a user experience associated with a computer desktop may include an event capture subsystem and a duration analysis subsystem. The event capture subsystem may capture videos of the desktop before and after an infrastructure change. The duration analysis subsystem may analyze the videos to determine and compare durations of events occurring in the desktop that are captured in the videos, and determine changes in user experience based on the analysis.
US09152867B2

Embodiments include methods, devices, software, and systems for identifying a person based on relatively permanent pigmented or vascular skin mark (RPPVSM) patterns in images. Locations of RPPVSMs in different images of people are point matched, and a correspondence probability that the point matched RPPVSMs are from different people is calculated. Other embodiments are also described. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
US09152865B2

A traffic management apparatus and system performs data processing functions on images in a video data stream to analyze differences between portions of the images and account for movement of a camera at a traffic intersection or other such environment. The traffic management apparatus and system is configured to be placed on a span wire or other non-fixed position at or near the traffic intersection.
US09152864B2

Search terms are derived automatically from images captured by a camera equipped cell phone, PDA, or other image capturing device, submitted to a search engine to obtain information of interest, and at least a portion of the resulting information is transmitted back locally to, or nearby, the device that captured the image.
US09152861B2

The present invention is an individual product identification method, comprising: previously storing epidermal pattern images in a predetermined scope with a predetermined location of a registered product taken as a reference; imaging the epidermal pattern in the predetermined scope with the predetermined location of the product, being a target of individual product identification, taken as a reference; correcting the imaged epidermal pattern image of the product, being a target of individual product identification to an image for collation with the registered product with the predetermined location of the product taken as a reference: and collating an image characteristic of the epidermal pattern image of the registered product with the image characteristic of the corrected epidermal pattern image, and identifying whether the product, being a target of individual product identification, is one of the registered products.
US09152840B2

Controlling the scaling of a user perceivable output quantity of an electronic device having a sensor for detecting characteristics of a user can be performed as a function of a rotational movement of characteristics of a user detected by the sensor. Alternatively, controlling can be performed as a function of time spent for the detection of the characteristics of a user.
US09152836B2

The present invention discloses a code scanning device including a code scanner, a supporting member and a data processing and controlling unit. The unit is configured for receiving data information of a scanned code and determining whether or not the data information is correct. If correct, the unit stops scanning of the code scanner and controls the supporting member to move so that a next code is shifted to a scanning position. Wherein when the data information is incorrect or the unit fails to receive data information, the unit controls the code scanner to keep on scanning, and when scanning time exceeds a second predetermined time and the unit fails to receive correct data information, the unit stops scanning and controls the supporting member to move so that a next given code is shifted to the scanning position. The scanning device has an improved scanning speed and a high scanning reliability.
US09152832B2

To promote ease of use, as well as a reduction in bit error rates during extended data exchange between a coupled NFC tag/reader pair, signal strength is measured from a plurality of NFC tag antennas each positioned differently with respect to a common reader field, and differences in signal strength are used to determine an optimum positioning of the tag, or tag emulator, with respect to the reader. Alternative embodiments may include signal time of flight for determining orientation of the NFC antennas within the reader field. Information is generated by the tag, or tag emulator, and output by the tag, or tag emulator, such that a user may direct the positioning of the tag, or tag emulator, for improved communication with the reader.
US09152825B2

The disclosed embodiments provide a system that secures data transfer between a storage device and a host. During operation, the system obtains an input/output (I/O) command and an encryption context associated with the I/O command from a device driver executing on the host. Next, the system uses a storage controller bus interface between the host and the storage device to apply the encryption context to data associated with the I/O command, wherein the encryption context enables transmission of an encrypted form of the data between the storage device and the host. Finally, the system uses the storage controller bus interface to issue the I/O command to the storage device, wherein the I/O command is processed by the storage device.
US09152821B2

A data leakage prevention system, method, and computer program product are provided for preventing a predefined type of operation on predetermined data. In use, an attempt to perform an operation on predetermined data that is protected using a data leakage prevention system is identified. Additionally, it is determined whether a type of the operation attempted includes a predefined type of operation. Furthermore, the operation on the predetermined data is conditionally prevented based on the determination to prevent circumvention of the protection of the data leakage prevention system.
US09152818B1

A technique manages consumer authentication. The technique involves communicating with an institutional entity to perform an authentication operation regarding a consumer. The technique further involves conveying a query to the consumer in response to the authentication operation. The query prompts the consumer to indicate whether the consumer participated in the authentication operation. The technique further involves obtaining a response to the query indicating whether the consumer participated in the authentication operation. The authentication operation is legitimate when the response indicates that the consumer participated in the authentication operation. The authentication operation is fraudulent when the response indicates that the consumer did not participate in the authentication operation. In some arrangements, the authentication operation involves knowledge-based authentication (KBA) activity. In some arrangements, the query is conveyed to the consumer through an identity protection entity which is different than the institutional entity.
US09152810B2

An information output system for tampering detection 100, including: a digital image acquiring unit 15 for acquiring a digital image including target information for tampering detection as an image; an encrypting unit 11 for converting the digital image based on an encryption key to generate an encrypted image; and an output unit 18 for outputting the encrypted image generated by the encrypting unit 11 so that the encrypted image is recorded on a paper medium on which the image of the target information is to be recorded or on which the image of the target information is recorded.
US09152807B2

Systems and methods for providing capture functionality according to a security policy are provided. A request to capture content is received from a requesting application at a capture controller. The request is evaluated based on the security policy of the capture controller. Based on the evaluation, a determination is made as to whether the request is to be granted completely, denied, or granted subject to a constraint. Capture of the requested content is initiated via capture hardware or software if the request is granted completely or granted subject to the constraint.
US09152805B2

A security device connected to a host device which includes a processor performing a scramble operation and a storage unit, the security device comprising: a storage unit in which the first authentication code is stored; a random number generation unit; an encryption unit; and a controller which performs a scramble operation, wherein the controller generates a first scramble key by performing the scramble operation on the random number and the first authentication code and transmits the first scramble key to the host device, and the controller receives, from the host device, scramble data generated by performing the scramble operation on encryption target data according to the random number, generates the encryption target data by performing the scramble operation on the scramble data and the random number, generates encryption data, and transmits the encrypted data to the host device.
US09152804B2

A media resource access control method and device, where the method includes: receiving, by a universal plug and play (UPnP) media server, a media resource identifier sent by a control point and acquiring preset verification information corresponding to the media resource identifier; receiving a media resource acquisition request sent by a UPnP media player, where the media resource acquisition request contains to-be-verified information; and verifying the to-be-verified information by using the preset verification information, and if the verification is passed, sending a media resource corresponding to the media resource identifier to the UPnP media player.
US09152800B2

Mechanisms are provided for allowing pluggable encryption in an operating system. Modules such as proprietary cipher modules connect to a kernel cryptographic framework using cryptographic cipher adapters. Supported cryptographic ciphers as well as proprietary cryptographic ciphers can be used in a transparent manner during file system access, key management, and metadata maintenance operations. Proprietary cipher modules interact with the cryptographic cipher adapters as though the cryptographic cipher adapters are the kernel cryptographic framework. The kernel cryptographic framework interacts with the cryptographic cipher adapters as though the cryptographic cipher adapters are proprietary cipher modules.
US09152788B2

Detecting a malware process is disclosed, including: monitoring a launch of a process; in response to a completion of the launch of the process, determining a base address associated with the process; determining a permission of a memory block associated with the base address; and determining whether the process is potentially associated with a malware process based at least in part on the determined permission.
US09152779B2

Machine and method of accessing information securely are disclosed. Two sets of user identifying data are acquired. A transformation is established by mapping of one set of data onto another set of data or onto itself. An invariant is generated from the transformation of the user identifying data. An authentication key is generated using the invariant. In an embodiment, the invariant is a relationship between two objects that remains static under transformations between the two objects. In an embodiment, the invariant is a cryptography key. In an embodiment, the transformation(s) help perform an authentication of the user and are executed by digital computer program instructions. In an embodiment, pattern transformation(s) are represented with colors, geometry, or frequencies.
US09152768B2

A method for governing care of a person includes determining the importance of a candidate activity (84) relative to the importance of patient sleep continuity (104) and, if the candidate activity is more important than sleep continuity, carrying out the activity or indicating the acceptability of carrying out the activity (106) and, if the candidate activity is not more important than sleep continuity, refraining from carrying out the activity or indicating the unacceptability of carrying out the activity (108). A system for patient care governance comprises a decision engine (80) for determining the importance of the candidate activity relative to the importance of sleep continuity, and a controller (92) responsive to the decision engine for issuing a command to carry out the activity or indicate the acceptability of carrying out the activity (106), refrain from carrying out the activity or indicate the unacceptability of carrying out the activity (108).
US09152764B2

System and methods are disclosed, one method can comprise the steps of receiving a request for a diagnostic message, receiving a selection of diagnostic information, retrieving at least a portion of the selected diagnostic information, generating the requested diagnostic message, wherein the diagnostic message comprises the portion of the selected diagnostic information, and transmitting the requested diagnostic message.
US09152760B2

Methods and systems to provide a hanging protocol including three-dimensional manipulation for display of clinical images in an exam are disclosed. An example method includes detecting selection of a new image exam for display by a user. The example method includes automatically identifying at least one of a) a previously learned hanging protocol saved for the user and b) a saved hanging protocol associated with a prior image exam corresponding to the new image exam. The example method includes applying the saved hanging protocol to the new image exam, the saved hanging protocol including three-dimensional manipulation to be automatically applied to the new image exam as part of the hanging protocol configuration for display. The example method includes facilitating display of the new image exam based on the saved hanging protocol.
US09152756B2

Various techniques are provided to route connections within a programmable logic device (PLD). In one example, a method includes determining timing slacks for connections described in a netlist for a programmable logic device (PLD). The method also includes determining a plurality of priority groups. The connections are associated with one or more of the priority groups based on the timing slacks. The method also includes routing the connections associated with each priority group, from a highest priority group to a lowest priority group. Each priority group is iteratively routed to remove routing conflicts before lower priority groups are routed. Additional methods, systems, machine-readable mediums, and other techniques are also provided.
US09152755B2

An optical semiconductor unit of the present invention has an LED device provided with an LED (Light Emitting Diode) and a socket to which the LED device is mounted, the LED device has a main body to which the LED is mounted, the main body has a first surface to which block-shaped electrode portions are connected.
US09152752B2

An improved compression technique can increase PRPG-based compression by modifying test generation so that justification of certain decision nodes, called xheadlines, is delayed and merged with PRPG seed computation. Xheadlines are defined by gate modification restrictions, dynamic value considerations, and fanout allowance. Before mapping, the xheadlines can be preprocessed. This preprocessing can include transforming XOR xheadlines having shared inputs, augmenting AND/OR xheadlines, and reducing AND/OR xheadlines with common inputs. Mapping can include determining which xheadlines are satisfied by a current seed, which xheadlines can be satisfied by a future seed, and which xheadlines can opportunistically be satisfied by the current seed.
US09152742B1

In one embodiment, a method of designing an integrated circuit is disclosed, including receiving a first partition block for a top level of a hierarchical design of an integrated circuit; analyzing each pin of the first partition block for an attribute associated with the pin indicating a timing exception; and if a timing exception other than false path is indicated then generating an internal timing pin in a first timing graph model of the first partition block for each timing exception, and adding a timing arc and a dummy arc coupled to the internal timing pin in the first timing graph model of the first partition block. The internal timing pin adds a timing exception constraint for each timing exception. Timing of the top level may then be analyzed with the first timing graph model to determine if timing constraints, including the added timing exception constraints, are met.
US09152740B1

The model builder may generate a model object, and initiate the solver to determine whether the model object has constraints that effect the model object. The solver can generate solution data these constraints. The solver may pass any solution data it obtains to the solution display generator, so that the user can view the solution data while the user is building the model with the model builder.
US09152735B2

A method and apparatus are provided for composing XSL transformations with XML publishing views. XSL transformations are performed on XML documents defined as views of relational databases. A portion of a relational database can be exported to an XML document. An initial view query defines an XML view on the relational database and an XSLT stylesheet specifies at least one transformation. The initial view query is modified to account for an effect of the transformation and the modified view query is applied to the relational database to obtain the XML document. When the modified view query is evaluated on a relational database instance, the same XML document is obtained as would be obtained by evaluating the XSLT stylesheet on the original XML view.
US09152731B2

Testing a broken point in a web application automatic test case is performed by a system that includes a recording module configured to, when the test case runs, for a step in the test case, record a web page output corresponding to the step, and information of an element manipulated by the step. The web page output has an annotation for identifying the web page output. The system also includes a rendering engine module configured to, after the web application has been updated, for the recorded step, render a web page output of the updated web page with the same annotation. The system also includes a detecting module configured to detect whether the rendered web page output of the updated web page contains the element manipulated by the recorded step, and determine the step as a broken point when the rendered web page output does not contain the element.
US09152730B2

Extracting principal content from Web pages includes identifying and classifying items on the Web page, building a list of candidates, calculating candidate scores, selecting a top score candidate, performing clean up processing for the top score candidate, and performing final page processing for the top score candidate. Candidate scores may vary according to a number of paragraphs and images grouped according to size. A word length of CJK (Chinese-Japanese-Korean) text may be determined according to punctuation therein. Candidate scores may be modified according to a number of containers and pieces and wherein a container is a Web page element that is associated with tags ‘body’, ‘div’, ‘td’, ‘li’, ‘article/section’ and pieces are candidates that do not include other candidates. Candidate scores may be modified according to a number of ratios corresponding to text and link density.
US09152722B2

A method of gathering information relevant to the interests of a user includes receiving activity history associated with the user from a network data source, where the activity history includes a description of a user action initiated by the user, generating a first metadata item based upon the activity history; and storing the first metadata item as user profile information associated with the user in a user profile database. Generating the first metadata item may include extracting text from the activity history and generating the first metadata item based upon the text. The activity history may include a description of a user action. The method may further include providing a server plugin for performing a second method in response to access of web content on a server by the user, the second method comprising retrieving a content object from the server, determining if the first metadata item is relevant to the content object, adding a web link to the web content as a reference to the content object in response to the content object being relevant to the first metadata item; and providing the web content to the user.
US09152715B2

A visual approach to searching a database includes displaying a plurality of logical rules for searching a database, narrowing a search scope in response to a first selection of at least one logical rule, dividing the search scope into divisions in response to a second selection of at least one displayed criterion, and displaying each of the divisions in a search tree structure.
US09152712B2

Disclosed is a method and system for providing to a user rapid access to search resources while interacting with electronic documents by providing for recognition of user initiated search triggers that result in searches being performed with minimal user input or page navigation. A method and system for performing a web search includes detecting, by a client-side module, a user-initiated search interface trigger occurring during display of the web page, the search interface trigger not associated with an input focus of the web page or an input focus of a browser, detecting, by the client-side module, a user-initiated search execution trigger after the detecting of the search interface trigger, and transmitting, by the client-side module to a search entity, in response to the detecting of the search execution trigger, a request for search results related to content associated with the search interface trigger.
US09152705B2

A method for merging two taxonomies is disclosed. Top levels of first and second taxonomies are merged. For the second taxonomy nodes are evaluated and selectively merged with nodes of the first taxonomy according to comparison of scores for these nodes with a threshold. The score for a node of the first taxonomy is a combination of one or more of a lineage quality score, Jaccard distance, string edit distance, and category depth score. After an iteration, mergings between nodes of the first and second taxonomies may be reversed if child nodes of the merged nodes were not likewise merged. Iterations may be repeated until no nodes are merged in an iteration.
US09152690B2

According to some embodiments, information may be received about a non-relational database object, such as an InfoSet, InfoSet query, or Advanced Business Application Programming (“ABAP”) function for an enterprise resource planning system. The non-relational database object may then be mapped into a relational database model, such as a model associated with a business intelligence platform. As a result, Structured Query Language (“SQL”) inputs from a business intelligence platform may be used create reports based on information in an enterprise resource planning system.
US09152676B2

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for generating aspects associated with entities. In some implementations, a method includes receiving data identifying an entity; generating a group of candidate aspects for the entity; modifying the group of candidate aspects to generate a group of modified candidate aspects comprising combining similar candidate aspects and grouping candidate aspects using one or more aspect classes each associated with one or more candidate aspects; ranking one or more modified candidate aspects in the group of modified candidate aspects based on a diversity score and a popularity score; and storing an association between one or more highest ranked modified candidate aspects and the entity. The aspects can be used to organize and present search results in response to queries for the entity.
US09152675B2

When a social networking system receives a request from a requesting user for a content item associated with one or more comments, the social networking system determines an interest score for each comment. The interest score for a comment indicates a measure of the user's likelihood of being interested in the comment. Based on the calculated interest scores, the social networking system selects one or more comments for presentation to the viewing user along with the content item. The social networking system may specify an order in which the selected comments are presented based on the interest scores of the selected comments.
US09152674B2

According to some implementations, a technique for processing an application search query is disclosed. The techniques include receiving a search query from a partner, determining a set of subqueries based on the search query, and extracting query features of the search query from the search query. The techniques further include determining an initial result set of applications based on the set of subqueries and the query features. The initial result set includes a plurality of application representations each defining features of a different application. The techniques also include determining a score for each application in the initial result set of applications based on the set of query features and one or more scoring models, determining a result set based on the scores of the applications in the initial result set, and providing the result set to the partner.
US09152670B2

The number of iterations or self joins required to execute a recursive database query can be estimated. It will be appreciated that this estimation can be used to plan the execution of the recursive query and can be made in various ways and for various applications. By way of example, an estimated number of iterations or self joins required to execute a recursive database query (e.g., 12) can be used as a basis to determine or plan an optimal execution plan. For example, given an estimated twelve (12) iterations, an execution plan can be determined for executing at least the first three (3) iterations or for executing every three (3) iterations, whereas for an estimated twenty (21) iterations required to complete a recursive database query, an execution plan can be determined for the first five (5) or six (6) iterations, and so on.
US09152668B1

A method and a system implementing asynchronous computation batching. A web application written in a side-effect free manner possesses the quality of referential transparency. This property allows independent functions to be executed in any order or in parallel and enables necessary data for such functions to be gathered in a batch query. This property also extends to dependent functions and allows web applications to be written assuming random access to data on a database.
US09152656B2

Embodiments are provided for creating and reusing custom data types in a database. A selection of a field or group of fields may be received from a database table in the database by a database software application executing on a computer system. Each selected field may include a set of field properties. The application may further receive a user input to initiate saving the selected field or group of fields as a custom data type. In response to receiving the input, the application may be configured to generate a dialog for receiving custom data type information for the selected field or group of fields and save the selected field or group of fields as a custom data type. The custom data type may then be reused by the application in the database.
US09152654B2

Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for managing image files over a network. In an embodiment, a notification is received from a remote server. The notification may comprise an identifier of an image file that comprises scanned slide data and is stored at the remote server. In response to the notification, the identifier of the image file may be added in association with an indication that the image file is stored at the remote server to a stored catalog of image files, and a file-transfer operation may be initiated to transfer a copy of the image file from the remote server to a central database. Following completion of the file-transfer operation, the stored catalog may be updated to indicate that the image file is stored in the central database, and a request may be sent to the remote server to delete the image file at the remote server.
US09152646B2

A creation order of content items can generally be determined by a metadata creation time associated with the content items. In some instances, multiple content items can be associated with the same metadata creation time. To determine the order of content items associated with the same metadata creation time, a files system modification time for the content items can be accessed. The file system modification time may indicate time in a smaller time increment than the metadata creation time. If the creation order of the content items cannot be determined from the file system modification time, the names of the content items can be analyzed to determine if they indicate a creation order. Alternatively the order the content items are placed in memory can be used to determine the creation order. Metadata identifying the determined creation order of the content items can be appended to the content items.
US09152644B2

Systems and methods are presented for providing collaborative editing. An embodiment collaboratively edits a computer file using a plurality of computers in a network, where the computers are connected using a token ring, each of the computers has a local copy, and a first computer has edited its local copy and performs the method. A token circulating around the token ring is captured, and a location of the edited portion of the local copy of the file is determined. The location is broadcast to the other computers. Conflicts are received from the other computers, and the conflicts from the other computers are reconciled with the edited portion of the local copy of the file to provide reconciled edits to the file. The local copy of the file is updated with the reconciled edits. A data packet with the reconciled edits is created and transmitted around the token ring.
US09152636B2

The present invention discloses a content protection system in a storage medium and the method of the same. The storage medium includes a flash disk, a memory card, a hard disk, a CDR, or a MO. In one aspect of the present invention, the content protection system in a storage medium includes a database; a partitioning module coupled to the database to partition the storage medium; and a link table managing module coupled to the database to establish and manage a link table of a file to be stored in the storage medium.
US09152629B1

An electronic personalization system comprises a server, electronic content for use on a personal electronic device capable of providing a tangible medium of expression, and a storage device. The system is capable of coupling the server and the storage medium with the personal electronic device such that a personalized message, such as an image, a video recording, an audio recording or the like, and/or a signature entered by an author, such as a writer, creator, artist or the like, on the personal electronic device or another device, is integrally added to the electronic content. The storage medium may store a copy of personalized electronic content and/or personalization, and the system may validate the personalization as authentic and not counterfeit.
US09152617B2

A system, method, and computer program product for processing of objects are disclosed. A processor coupled to a graphical user interface is configured to display an object. The processor receives input from a user concerning the object, wherein input relates to at least a partial location of the object, as a mouse position close to the object, a line approximately covering the vertical or horizontal extent of the object, or a box approximately covering the object. The processor provides input to a keying module, wherein the keying module processes the received input and provides the input to a recognition engine. The recognition engine is in communication with the keying module. Based on the received input, the recognition engine provides an exact information concerning the received input to the keying module, as an exact location, a recognition result, and a confidence score qualifying the reliability of the recognition results. The keying module generates an enhanced information about the object based on the information received from the recognition engine and predetermined information concerning the object.
US09152616B2

Page layout of web content is performed based on templates. Publishers publish web content referred to as “sources.” Each source comprises one or more assets from one or more asset types. The asset types include title, subtitle, byline, dateline, pull quote, image, video, audio, caption, and in-line text. A content processing system processes the sources using a conversion module and a rule database. The conversion module restructures a received source into a standardized format of the source, wherein each asset of the source is tagged with an asset type according to rules present in the rule database. A layout module interprets the standardized source, determines one or more templates from a template database to use for the layout of the assets of the source, and lays out the assets of the source based on the selected templates.
US09152615B2

Disclosed is a system and method that adds additional data (a banner, footer or a header, for example) to a web page while the data is transferred toward a mobile device. An exemplary system can comprise an intermediate node between a surfer and the Internet. Such an intermediate node element can reside at a service provider premises (SPP), for example. The service provider can be a telecom operator, such as but not limited to, a cellular service provider, a satellite communication service provider, a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) operator, an access network service provider, etc. Alternatively, other exemplary embodiments can comprise elements which reside at an Internet Service Provider (ISP) premises.
US09152609B2

This application describes the detection of the state of a vehicle and various actions to be performed based on the detected state. The detection of the state is done by a portable device, carried by the user, which uses onboard sensors to receive operations indicators, and uses rules in a predetermined criteria to determine the operational state of the vehicle. Various methods are described for detecting the states of the vehicle and applications based upon it.
US09152606B2

The invention provides hardware based techniques for switching processing tasks of software programs for execution on a multi-core processor. Invented techniques involve a hardware logic based controller for assigning, adaptive to program processing loads, tasks for processing by cores of a multi-core fabric as well as configuring a set of multiplexers to appropriately interconnect cores of the fabric and program task specific segments at fabric memories, to arrange efficient inter-task communication as well as transferring of activating and de-activating task memory images among the multi-core fabric. The invention thereby provides an efficient, hardware-automated runtime operating system for multi-core processors, minimizing any need to use processing capacity of the cores for traditional operating system software functions. Additionally, such low overhead hardware based operating system for multi-core processors provides significant cost-efficiency and performance advantages, including data processing throughput maximization across all programs dynamically sharing a given multi-core processor, and hardware based security.
US09152604B2

An exemplary logging system and a method are for detecting, conditioning and presenting installation-specific and/or process-specific operator control actions, process reports, alarm reports, system events, installation parameters and digital text messages for a technical installation or a technical process. The logging system having at least one input apparatus that automatically converts audible and/or spoken information and information that is present in written form into digital text messages and provides the information, together with information relating to operator control actions, information relating to navigation steps performed and further text information that is present in digitized form, for a processing unit, that can automatically attribute timestamps.
US09152599B2

A method for managing cache memories includes providing a computerized system including a shared data storage system (CS) configured to interact with several local servers that serve applications using respective cache memories, and access data stored in the shared data storage system; providing cache data information from each of the local servers to the shared data storage system, the cache data information comprising cache hit data representative of cache hits of each of the local servers, and cache miss data representative of cache misses of each of the local servers; aggregating, at the shared data storage system, at least part of the cache hit and miss data received and providing the aggregated cache data information to one or more of the local servers; and at the local servers, updating respective one or more cache memories used to serve respective one or more applications based on the aggregated cache data information.
US09152591B2

Methods and systems are disclosed herein for providing a universal PCIe port. The same port can be configured to accept a PCIe component as a host or an endpoint (device) symmetrically. The PCIe port can be connected to the host interface or the root complex interface if the PCIe connection is to be configured as a host or an endpoint, respectively. A virtual topology can be provided for a host that associates the host with corresponding endpoints. A mapping between virtual addresses of the corresponding endpoints in the virtual topology and local addresses of the corresponding endpoints is provided.
US09152588B2

In an embodiment, a system includes at least one peripheral device, an interrupt controller, a memory controller, at least one CPU, and an interrupt message circuit coupled to the peripheral device. The interrupt message circuit may be coupled to receive the interrupt signal from the peripheral device, and may be configured to generate an interrupt message for transmission on a communication fabric. In some embodiments, there may be multiple peripherals which have independent paths through the fabric for memory operations to the memory controller. Each such peripheral may be coupled to an instance of the interrupt message circuit. In an embodiment, the interrupt is level sensitive. The interrupt message circuit may be configured to transmit interrupt set messages an interrupt clear messages to the interrupt controller, to indicate the levels.
US09152583B2

Enable a read command of a first flash memory. After the read command of the first flash memory is enabled, a ready/busy signal of the first flash memory enters a busy waiting time, and a read command of a second flash memory starts to be enabled. Start to read data of the first flash memory when the busy waiting time is over. Enable the read command of the first flash memory again upon completion of reading the data of the first flash memory. Start to read data of the second flash memory after the read command of the first flash memory is enabled again. And enable the read command of the second flash memory again upon completion of reading the data of the second flash.
US09152582B2

A mobile computing device with a mobile operating system and desktop operating system running concurrently and independently on a shared kernel without virtualization. The mobile operating system provides a user experience for the mobile computing device that suits the mobile environment. The desktop operating system provides a full desktop user experience when the mobile computing device is docked to a secondary terminal environment. The mobile computing device configures the mobile operating system and/or the desktop operating system to take advantage of a docked secondary terminal environment. The mobile computing device may be a smartphone running the Android mobile OS and a full desktop Linux OS distribution on a modified Android kernel.
US09152575B2

An illustrative embodiment of a computer-implemented process for managing a staging area creates the staging area for identified candidate cold objects, moves the identified candidate objects into the staging area, tracks application access to memory comprising the staging area and determines whether frequency of use information for a specific object exceeds a predetermined threshold. Responsive to a determination that the frequency of use information for the specific object exceeds a predetermined threshold, move the specific object into a regular area and determine whether a current time exceeds a predetermined threshold. Responsive to a determination that the current time exceeds a predetermined threshold, the computer-implemented process moves remaining objects from the staging area to a cold area.
US09152571B2

An input/output memory management unit (IOMMU) having an “invalidate all” command available to clear the contents of cache memory is presented. The cache memory provides fast access to address translation data that has been previously obtained by a process. A typical cache memory includes device tables, page tables and interrupt remapping entries. Cache memory data can become stale or be compromised from security breaches or malfunctioning devices. In these circumstances, a rapid approach to clearing cache memory content is provided.
US09152567B2

A mechanism is provided in a cache subsystem for cache prefetching based on non-sequential access. The mechanism determines frequently accessed non-sequential cache records in the cache subsystem. The mechanism collects trailing record statistics for the frequently accessed non-sequential cache records. The mechanism determines a caching strategy. The caching strategy comprises prefetching a set of trailing records responsive to a read of a given frequently accessed non-sequential cache record. The mechanism applies the caching strategy to the cache subsystem.
US09152561B2

In one embodiment of the present invention, a method includes switching between a first address space and a second address space, determining if the second address space exists in a list of address spaces; and maintaining entries of the first address space in a translation buffer after the switching. In such manner, overhead associated with such a context switch may be reduced.
US09152558B2

An apparatus includes, in at least one aspect, a memory interface configured to connect with a plurality of multi-level memory cells and a circuitry coupled with the memory interface. The plurality of multi-level memory cells include a first page and a second page. The first page is associated with bits of a first significance. The second page is associated with bits of a second significance. The circuitry is configured to map a first portion of an encoded data sector to the first page and map a second portion of the encoded data sector to the second page. The first portion excludes the second portion and the second portion excludes the first portion such that each of the first page and the second page contains different data from the encoded data sector.
US09152557B2

A program method for a multi-level cell (MLC) flash memory is provided. The memory array includes a plurality of pages and a plurality of paired pages, which correspond to the respective pages. The program method includes the following steps. Firstly, a program address command is obtained. Next, whether the program address command corresponding to any one of the paired pages is determined. When the program address command corresponds to a first paired page, which corresponds to a first page among the pages, among the paired pages, data stored in the first page to a non-volatile memory are copied. After that, the first paired page is programmed.
US09152540B2

Embodiments of the present disclosure may be configured to permit development and validation of a device driver or a device application program by using improved virtual devices. Such improved virtual devices may facilitate driver development without use of physical devices or hardware prototypes. In various embodiments, advanced validation of a device-driver combination may be permitted that would be difficult to achieve even with a physical device. Certain embodiments also may detect inconsistencies between virtual and physical devices, which may be used to improve drivers and device application programs and increase compatibility of such drivers and device application programs with physical devices.
US09152539B2

An exemplary method includes a graphics export module 1) generating, based on design data representative of a graphics design, computing code configured to be processed by a target computing device to render graphics within a graphical user interface in accordance with the graphics design, 2) inserting a production tracing tag in the computing code, the production tracing tag configured to be used to access production data associated with production of the computing code, and 3) exporting the computing code including the production tracing tag for access by at least one graphics production subsystem. In certain examples, the method may further include graphics export module generating the production data associated with the production of the computing code and exporting the production data for storage in a data storage repository communicatively coupled to the graphics export module. Corresponding methods and systems are also disclosed.
US09152536B1

A method for validating correctness of expression evaluation within a debugger. The method includes determining a statement of interest comprising an expression recognized by a debugger program within one or more source program files of a debuggable program and generating a debug command file for the statement of interest. The method includes inserting a set of debug commands, comprising a first path for a baseline run and a second path for a test run for the statement of interest, into the debug command file, then causing the execution of the baseline run and test run. Results from the baseline run and results from the test run are compared to determine if the results from the baseline run are equivalent to the results from the test run.
US09152525B2

A serial communication device includes: a data transfer unit configured to repeat storing a predetermined unit of data, received by a receiving unit, in a receiving buffer and transfer data to a storage unit when data of a predetermined size is accumulated in the receiving buffer; a counting unit configured to count one of the number of times the predetermined unit of data is stored and an amount of data accumulated; a monitoring unit configured to monitor a count value counted by the counting unit; and a data identifying unit configured to determine that a current interval is a non-communication interval during which a sending source does not send data if the count value remains unchanged for a predetermined time and identify first data, received after the determination of the non-communication interval, as beginning data of a sequence of data including a plurality of pieces of data.
US09152524B2

A bus monitor circuit includes an access info information/write data FIFO and a read data FIFO to produce a bus monitor output signal on a bus transmitting data between a master and a slave. In a write access ascribed to an attribute of the access information stored at a header of the access information/write data FIFO, the bus monitor circuit directly outputs a bus monitor output signal indicating the access information accompanied with the corresponding write data which is transmitted in the same cycle. In a read access ascribed to an attribute of the access information, the bus monitor circuit waits for the read data FIFO storing the corresponding read data, and then outputs a bus monitor output signal indicating the access information paired with the read data in the same cycle. This guarantees the occurrence order of bus access according to a bus interface protocol enabling pipeline transmission.
US09152522B2

A method of configuring a network managed device in a network is described herein. A fallback configuration is determined. The fallback configuration is identified as a configuration that enables the network managed device to be manageable. A working configuration is determined. The working configuration is described by a working set of configuration data that has been updated based on a management command. A commit command is received. The working configuration is saved as a running configuration and verification of the running configuration is initiated. It is determined whether the verification of the running configuration is successful. Where it is not successful, the running configuration is saved as a failed configuration and the running configuration is replaced with the fallback configuration.
US09152515B2

An apparatus for controlling a storage system having a data replication function, comprises: a storage array component being operable to send notification to a replication engine that a write of data to a primary storage location by a host is subject to data replication; the replication engine being operable to receive the notification and in response to instruct the storage array to copy the data to a secondary storage location; wherein the data is copied to the secondary storage location unmediated by the replication engine.
US09152513B2

Technology is disclosed for recovering I/O modules in a storage system using in-band alternate control path (ACP) architecture (“the technology”). The technology enables a storage server to transmit control commands, e.g., for recovering an I/O module, to the I/O module over a data path that is typically used to transmit data commands. The control commands are typically transmitted using ACP that is separate from the data path. By enabling transmission of control commands over the data path, the technology eliminates the need for separate medium for ACP, at least in part, to transmit the control commands. The technology can be implemented in a pure in-band ACP mode, which supports recovering an I/O module of a storage shelf in which at least one I/O module is responsive, and/or in a mixed in-band ACP mode, which supports recovery of I/O modules of a storage shelf in which all I/O modules are non-responsive.
US09152511B2

A system for distributing an available memory resource comprising at least two random access memory (RAM) elements and RAM routing logic. The RAM routing logic comprises configuration logic to dynamically distribute the available memory resource into a first memory area providing redundant memory storage and a second memory area providing non-redundant memory storage. The system may further comprise bus access ports which support at least one of concurrent access by a bus access port to access redundantly stored data or non-redundantly stored data, or concurrent access by at least two bus access ports to respective RAM elements to access redundantly stored data or to a respective one of the RAM elements to access non-redundantly stored data. Comparison logic and error detection or correction logic may be provided to detect or correct errors in information read from the RAM elements.
Patent Agency Ranking