US09179773B2
The specification discloses a method for containing spills on shelving and the like, and the resulting support members made in accordance with the method, by providing the generally flat top surface of a support with a hydrophobic surface which is arranged in a spill containment pattern and which is generally in the plane of the top surface of the support. The majority of the top surface of the support consists of one or more spill containment areas which are of a non-hydrophobic nature and which are bounded by the hydrophobic surfaces, such that spills on the shelving collect in the non-hydrophobic spill containment area or areas and are prevented from spreading by the hydrophobic surfaces.
US09179768B2
An item of table furniture has a table top and a table frame supporting the table top. The table top, in plan view, is formed with first pair of opposite edges and a second pair of opposite edges. One edge of the first pair of edges is convex and the other edge of the first pair of edges is concave. The convex curvature and the concave curvature of the first pair of edges has a predetermined first radius of curvature of substantially equal size. One edge of the second pair of edges is longer than the other edge of the second pair of edges. Such a table can be arranged together with items of table furniture of the same kind and also with other items of furniture to an array in many ways.
US09179767B2
A leg connector for securing legs that support a load includes a core and at least three coupling portions extending away from the core and arranged equidistantly around the core. Each coupling portion includes fins that bend inwardly when the coupling portion is inserted into an exposed end of a corresponding one of the legs. Each of the coupling portions includes a hole that receives a fastener to secure the respective coupling portion with a corresponding one of the legs.
US09179763B2
A hand grip designed to be used in or near water that may be connected to either an image capturing device or the case that holds the image capturing device. The hand grip has a main body with a first end and a second end and a mounting piece located on at least one of the first end or the second end of the main body that allows for attachment of image capturing devices. The hand grip is adapted to float in water to provide angles and views of photographs from an image capturing device connected to the mounting piece while in the water.
US09179753B2
An apparatus, kit and method for applying a French manicure to a user's own nails or those of a customer using a simple finger guide which permits the positioning of a finger relative to a reservoir of acrylic nail polish powder. In one form, the apparatus is comprised of a finger guide which can be removably associated with an acrylic nail polish powder-containing vessel. Alternative embodiments include those with a finger guide being integrally formed with the vessel/jar. A method for applying a French manicure using the apparatus of the invention is also contemplated. The kit includes a supply of one or more acrylic nail polish powders, a finger guide, and the necessary materials to cause the acrylic nail polish powder to be converted to a solid nail polish coating.
US09179750B2
Combination beverage and food containers. Various embodiments are configured to store a consumable beverage or otherwise consumable liquid as well as at least one second item which may comprise an edible foodstuff, such as for example, sandwich wedges, bagels, donuts, etc.
US09179743B2
Provided is a resin snap fastener, which has excellent heat resistance, rigidity and toughness, and reduced decrease in rigidity when absorbing water, and which does not emit endocrine disrupters. The snap fastener is obtained by molding a resin composition comprising 45-100 parts by weight of wollastonite with respect to 100 parts by weight of a polyamide resin.
US09179736B2
An orthotic is disclosed. The orthotic has a convex element that has a periphery. The convex element is positioned in a plane. The periphery is structured and arranged to deform into a gap in at least of a horizontal, a vertical, or a lateral direction relative to the plane. The convex element is structured and arranged for placement between a plantar surface of a foot and a second surface. The gap is defined by a top surface of the convex element and a bottom surface of the foot or a bottom surface of a body of an insert. The periphery of the convex element is structured and arranged to deform into the gap as a force is applied to the body and to rebound as the force dissipates.
US09179733B2
An article of footwear is provided having an elevated plate structure incorporated in the sole structure and optionally including a fluid-filled chamber. The elevated plate structure can include an upper plate and a plurality of legs extending downward toward the outsole. End portions of the legs can engage an upper region of the outsole. The elevated plate structure can form a cage region that can optionally include a fluid-filled chamber substantially disposed therein. The elevated plate structure can further include a lower plate disposed at an upper region of the outsole, which can form a lower portion of the cage region. Portions of the legs can be integrated with impact-attenuating members in the heel region in various configurations and can provide features for the impact-attenuating members, such as support, impact-attenuation and adjustable impact-attenuation features.
US09179731B2
A system and method of manufacturing a customized sole with adjustable sizing is disclosed. The sole includes a fixed region and an adjustable region. The adjustable region is deformable when the sole is heated to a melting point associated with the adjustable region. The shape and size of the sole may be adjusted by deforming the adjustable region.
US09179729B2
A tightening system can be used with a helmet or other wearable article. The tightening system can have a forehead strap that is space apart from a yoke, which can be configured to engage a back side of a wearer's head. A lace can extend between the forehead strap and the yoke and a tightening mechanism can be configured to adjust tension on the lace. One or more intermediate tenders can engage the lace in the gap between the forehead strap and the yoke so that the lace path between the forehead strap and the yoke is non-linear. The yoke can have a height adjustment mechanism. The tightening mechanism can be configured to provide a clicking sound during rotation in both the tightening direction and the loosening direction. The tightening mechanism can include a rotation limiter to prevent over-tightening and/or over-loosening of the tightening mechanism.
US09179726B2
A wearable utility instrument assembly including a headgear and at least one utility instrument. The utility instrument is shaped and sized to be securely retained and concealed within the brim portion of the headgear. The utility instrument is removable from the brim portion and deployed via a hand-grip of the utility instrument that is accessible to the wearer of the headgear while the utility instrument is retained in the brim portion.
US09179720B1
Brim templates, covers and methods of modifying and changing brims on caps and visors. Novel digitally printed on indicia designs, words and/or colors can be placed on fabric brim covers. The brim covers can have an upper cover with overhanging edges that wrap about perimeter edges of existing hat brim, and a lower cover for covering a lower surface of the existing hat brim. The covers can be attached with by peeling off backing layers that reveal sticky surfaces that allow the covers to be easily attached to existing brims and easily removable from the existing brims without damaging the brims.
US09179715B1
Some embodiments of the present invention include an adjustable bathing suit top including a frontside configured to cover a wearer's chest and an adjustable backside. The backside may include a horizontal strap attached to the frontside of the bathing suit top and the horizontal strap is configured to fit around the circumference of the wearer's back. A first vertical strap and a second vertical strap are connected to the frontside of the bathing suit top, each of the first vertical strap and the second vertical strap are attached to the horizontal strap by a loop. The loops are capable of sliding along a length of the horizontal strap. A plurality of rings are wrapped around both of the vertical straps to hold the vertical straps together and the rings are capable of sliding along a length of the vertical straps.
US09179697B2
The present invention relates to a popcorn vending machine, comprising a kernel holding chamber configured to store and dispense kernels, a heating chamber comprising an inlet configured to receive kernels from the kernel holding chamber, a microwave emitter configured to produce microwave energy within the heating chamber and heat the kernels, a single-mode resonant microwave applicator configured to generate a stable focused high intensity microwave region within the heating chamber, at least one air blower disposed in communication with the heating chamber, wherein the air blower is configured to blow air into the heating chamber, thereby moving kernels within the heating chamber and selectively removing popped flakes from the high intensity microwave region when popped, and a heating chamber outlet connected to the heating chamber for receiving popped flakes from the heating chamber and dispensing the popped flakes into a container.
US09179679B2
An herbicidal composition containing (a) penoxsulam and (b) flazasulfuron provides synergistic control of selected weeds.
US09179674B2
The invention relates to compounds of macrocyclic picolinamides of Formula I suitable to control or prevent growth of fungi.
US09179653B1
An automated fish tank cleaning assembly automatically cleans a fish tank. The assembly includes an upper housing and a processor coupled to and positioned in the upper housing. Support arms are extend from the upper housing supporting the upper housing on a fish tank. Each of a plurality of rollers is coupled an associated one of the support arms. Each of the rollers is operationally coupled to the processor wherein the rollers move the upper housing relative to the fish tank. A lower housing is coupled to the upper housing by a connection conduit extending between the upper housing and the lower housing. A plurality of cleaning arms is coupled to and extends from the lower housing. Each of a plurality of brushes is coupled to a distal end of an associated one of the cleaning arms relative to the lower housing.
US09179650B2
A top-fill hummingbird feeder has a liquid container with a lower bottom opening which can be screw-threaded into a central collar of a feeding basin. An insert is received within the central collar and is configured to be vertically movable between a first position in which fluid is allowed to flow from the liquid container to the basin, and a second position in which fluid flow from the container to the basin is prevented.
US09179649B2
Implementations described and claimed herein provide systems and methods for preventing non-birds, such as squirrels, from accessing feed in a bird feeder. In one implementation, a mechanical link couples a first perch and a second perch to the roof assembly. The mechanical link may be configured to move both the first perch relative to the first feed port and the second perch relative to the second feed port upon movement of the first perch relative to the housing and/or upon movement of at least a portion of the roof assembly relative to the housing. As such, the bird feeder provides access to the feed in the bird feeder to wild birds, while preventing non-birds, such as squirrels, from accessing the feed.
US09179642B2
Apparatus and methods for mucking livestock enclosures and separating bedding material from animal waste are disclosed. Various embodiments are directed toward a mucking device having a scoop portion with a basket connected to a handle and a sliding lid that can be opened and closed by sliding a rotating sleeve along an inner shaft of the handle. The scoop of the mucking device can be inverted by rotating the inner shaft relative to the rotating sleeve, thus causing the basket to be disposed above the lid. Bedding material can be sifted out of the basket while retaining the animal waste. Once a desired amount of bedding material has been separated, the scoop can be opened by sliding the rotating sleeve along the inner shaft to open the lid and thus release the retained animal waste and residual bedding material. Other embodiments are directed toward methods for using the mucking device.
US09179639B2
A milking system for milking a herd of dairy animals includes a first milking device and a second milking device, an identification device for identifying dairy animals to be milked of a herd of dairy animals, and a control device for determining an estimated treatment time of each dairy animal to be milked. The control device also classifies each dairy animal to be milked with the aid of a criterion on the basis of the estimated treatment time in at least a first or second group of dairy animals. The milking system admits the first group of dairy animals to preferably only the first milking device and admits the second group to preferably only the second milking device.
US09179633B2
A novel canola variety designated VR 9561 GS and seed, plants and plant parts thereof, produced by crossing Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. proprietary inbred canola varieties. Methods for producing a canola plant that comprises crossing canola variety VR 9561 GS with another canola plant. Methods for producing a canola plant containing in its genetic material one or more traits introgressed into VR 9561 GS through backcross conversion and/or transformation, and to the canola seed, plant and plant part produced thereby. This discovery relates to the canola variety VR 9561 GS, the seed, the plant produced from the seed, and variants, mutants, and minor modifications of canola variety VR 9561 GS. This discovery further relates to methods for producing canola varieties derived from canola variety VR 9561 GS.
US09179625B2
The invention relates to the soybean variety designated A1036312. Provided by the invention are the seeds, plants and derivatives of the soybean variety A1036312. Also provided by the invention are tissue cultures of the soybean variety A1036312 and the plants regenerated therefrom. Still further provided by the invention are methods for producing soybean plants by crossing the soybean variety A1036312 with itself or another soybean variety and plants produced by such methods.
US09179624B2
The invention relates to the soybean variety designated A1036232. Provided by the invention are the seeds, plants and derivatives of the soybean variety A1036232. Also provided by the invention are tissue cultures of the soybean variety A1036232 and the plants regenerated therefrom. Still further provided by the invention are methods for producing soybean plants by crossing the soybean variety A1036232 with itself or another soybean variety and plants produced by such methods.
US09179613B2
The invention relates to methods and compositions for identifying and selecting maize plants with enhanced resistance to Fusarium ear mold. Maize plants generated by the methods of the invention are also a feature of the invention.
US09179590B2
Stabilizer for a lower draft link of a three-point hitch of a tractor, the stabilizer comprising a first stabilizer member and a second stabilizer member which is movably connected to the first stabilizer member by a spring-loaded centering mechanism, wherein the second stabilizer member can be rotated with regard to the first stabilizer member to modify the overall length of the stabilizer. A locking bracket is pivotally connected to the first stabilizer member for blocking a rotation between the stabilizer members by engaging the locking bracket with a blocking groove formed in a circumference of the second stabilizer member. Furthermore, a locking cover is provided for disabling a movement between the stabilizer members in a closed position. A section of the locking cover is faced to the locking bracket, wherein the section is formed such in that the locking bracket can be removed from the blocking groove for releasing a rotation of the second stabilizer member even in the closed position of the locking cover.
US09179589B2
A soil plug processing mechanism for processing soil plugs which occur during ground maintenance. The soil plug processing mechanism having a separating device for picking up and processing the soil plugs by separating the soil plug material into fine particles and coarse particles. The separating device has at least one rotatable rotary sieve which has a rotatably driveable sieve drum with an outside surface which is configured at least partially as a sieve area.
US09179588B2
A method and vehicle for brushing top dressing material into a golf green, fairway or other supporting surface. The method and vehicle employs at least four brushes to contact each blade of grass located beneath the brush pattern of the vehicle. The brushes are arranged to contact and push the grass blades back and forth with the brushes arranged at various angles to achieve the back and forth motion to work the top dressing material down between grass blades.
US09185827B2
The energy conversion device (10) includes a power module (14), elements (16) for cooling the power module (14), and a sealed enclosure (12) for housing the power module (14) and at least one portion of the cooling elements (16). The cooling elements (16) include a cooling circuit 18, in which a heat transfer fluid circulates, a first heat exchange (20) with the power module (14), through which passes the heat transfer fluid of the cooling circuit (18) and at least one pump (24) for driving the heat transfer fluid circulating in the circuit (18). The enclosure (12) includes an area (26) for receiving heat transfer fluid, filled with heat transfer fluid, and the cooling circuit (18) includes an inlet orifice (28) in the circuit (18) made upstream from the driving pump (24) and opening into the heat transfer fluid of the receiving area (26).
US09185825B2
A connection apparatus includes a back plate, a circuit board having two first connectors and two second connectors, and two connection lines. Each of the two connection lines includes a first signal transmission line and a second signal transmission line. A third connector is formed on the first signal transmission line. Two first bent portions extend from the first signal transmission line. A fourth connector is formed on each of the two first bent portions. A fifth connector is formed on the second signal transmission line. Two second bent portions extend from the second signal transmission line. A sixth connector is formed on each of the two second bent portions. The fourth connector is inserted into each of the two first connectors. The sixth connector is inserted into each of the two second connectors. Each of the third connector and the fifth connector is electrically connected to the back plate.
US09185824B2
A cable management system for a network cabinet has first and second server equipment rails, first and second air dams, and a front cable support. The server equipment rails are mounted to a base frame of the network cabinet such that the server equipment rails extend from the base frame towards a front of the network cabinet. The air dams are mounted to the base frame of the network cabinet such that the air dams extend from the base frame towards opposing sides of the network cabinet. The front cable support has a generally U-shaped tray that is connected to the first and second server equipment rails such that the tray extends across a front of the network cabinet, transverse to the server equipment rails.
US09185816B2
Improved housings for electronic devices are disclosed. In one embodiment, an electronic device housing can have one or more outer members (e.g., exposed major surfaces), such as front or back surfaces, that are formed of glass. The one or more glass surfaces can be part of outer member assemblies that can be secured to other portions of the electronic device housing. In other embodiments, apparatus, systems and methods for robustly attaching a cover portion of an electronic device to a bottom portion, e.g., a housing portion, of the electronic device are described. The electronic device can be portable and in some cases handheld.
US09185798B2
Active or functional additives are embedded into surfaces of host materials for use as components in a variety of electronic or optoelectronic devices, including solar devices, smart windows, displays, and so forth. Resulting surface-embedded device components provide improved performance, as well as cost benefits arising from their compositions and manufacturing processes.
US09185795B2
Unwanted radiation is reduced in a high-frequency signal transmission line that includes a ground conductor provided with an opening that overlaps a signal line. A dielectric element assembly has a relative dielectric constant ∈1 and has a first principal surface and a second principal surface. A signal line is provided in the dielectric element assembly. A ground conductor is provided in the dielectric element assembly and on the first principal surface side with respect to the signal line, faces the signal line, and is provided with an opening that overlaps the signal line. A high dielectric constant layer has a relative dielectric constant ∈2 higher than the relative dielectric constant ∈1 and is provided on the first principal surface so as to overlap the opening.
US09185785B2
An electrostatic protection component includes: a body in which a plurality of ceramic substrates is laminated; and a pair of discharge electrodes which are formed within the body and which are spaced to face each other. The discharge electrodes include main body portions extending along a longitudinal direction, and the main body portions include tips in the longitudinal direction and side edges extending along the longitudinal direction. The pair of discharge electrodes are arranged such that both the main body portions are adjacent to each other in a short direction. The discharge electrodes face each other in the short direction between the side edges, and discharge occurs only between the side edges, between the discharge electrodes.
US09185782B2
The present invention relates to a light controller for controlling a lightning system, where the lightning system comprises a number of light emitting devices such as controllable light fixtures, controllable light emitting visual devices and/or controllable display devices adapted to emit video content. The light controller comprises a first slide controller, a second slide controller, and a locking mechanism adapted to fix the first slide controller and the second slide controller in relation to each other, such that movement of at least one of the slide controllers forces the other slide controller to perform a corresponding movement.
US09185781B2
Disclosed is a lighting apparatus having a complex sensor. The apparatus includes a short distance motion sensor to sense an object at a short distance, a long distance motion sensor to sense an object at a long distance, a signal amplifier to amplify signals from the sensors, a lamp to be adjustable in brightness in multiple stages, a timer to count a dark adaptation time, and a controller. The controller controls the lamp to a first brightness upon receiving a signal from the long distance motion sensor and to a second brightness higher than the first brightness upon receiving a signal from the short distance motion sensor and controls the timer to count the dark adaptation time at the second brightness, thereby reducing the brightness of the lamp by an illuminance within a dark adaptation threshold value set in the controller whenever the timer generates a counting signal.
US09185772B2
A light-emitting element and a display device having a resonator structure which has a small luminance fluctuation, even if a film thickness is deviated from a designed value, thereby resulting in a variation in resonator optical path length. There are included: a first reflective member; a second reflective member; and a light-emitting layer provided therebetween, and there is provided a resonator structure that transmits part of light by the first reflective member or the second reflective member, the light being resonated between the first reflective member and the second reflective member. The resonator structure has at least two or more resonance spectral peaks at respective wavelengths in a visible light range with a wavelength of a maximum value relative luminosity being a border line and an emission output spectrum has at least two or more peaks at respective wavelengths based on the resonance spectral peaks.
US09185768B2
A measured voltage drop across a power-line transistor is used as a sensing element to measure the current and detect an over-current condition for an LED backlight system. An over-current or short condition is detected when the measured voltage drop exceeds a threshold. Accurate detection of the over-current condition is achieved by calibrating the RDS-ON (i.e., internal resistance between drain and source, when transistor is on) of the power-line transistor. In one embodiment, the calibration of RDS-ON is performed by ramping down the threshold from an initial value and using the tripped threshold to determine the actual value for RDS-ON. In another embodiment, the calibration of RDS-ON is performed by using two thresholds, a first threshold to calibrate RDS-ON and a second threshold to detect the over-current condition.
US09185767B2
A self-oscillating resonator (SOR) may be used to control current through light emitting diodes (LEDs). The SOR may be started and stopped by a controller coupled to a transistor switch in the SOR. The controller may output a control signal that starts and stops the SOR by coupling a supply voltage or a ground to a base of the transistor switch in the SOR. Additional control over the current output to the LEDs may be gained through a resistive DAC coupled to the SOR and duty cycling the SOR.
US09185765B2
The invention relates to an arrangement having at least one metameric illuminating device (4) which comprises at least a first, second, third and fourth LED (6) and an internal controller (5) for changing the color rendering index of a light produced by additive color mixing of the first, second, third and fourth LED (6) with the aid of a prescribed color, having an external controller (8) for setting a parameter (K) influencing the color rendering index, and having a data transmitting device (7) for transmitting the parameter (K) to the internal controller (5) of the at least one metameric illuminating device (4).
US09185757B2
LED driver arrangements are disclosed comprising: an input; a plurality of switched mode boost converters, each connected to the input; and a plurality of outputs, each output having a different voltage and being for driving at least one LED string; wherein each of the plurality of switched mode boost converters is configurable to output of any one of the plurality of outputs. Controllers for such arrangements are also disclosed.
US09185748B2
The invention relates to an electrical panel heating device and to a method and a material for the production thereof; the panel heating device is produced by curing a liquid or pasty material, comprising at least one inorganic binding agent, for example cement and/or gypsum, at least one electrically non-conductive additive, for example sand and/or rock flour, and at least one further additive composed of electrically conductive particles, for example carbon fibers and/or trips; after mixing this material in the liquid or pasty state, it is processed to form a product in the form of a panel which is provided with low-impedance contacts for feeding in a current distributed over an panel.
US09185746B2
Provided in the disclosure is a dual-mode mobile terminal. The dual-mode mobile terminal includes: a CMMB antenna embedded in the dual-mode mobile terminal; a CMMB protection network connected to the CMMB antenna, comprising multiple stages of circuits connected successively, wherein each stage of circuit in the multiple stages of circuits is an LC series circuit or an LC parallel circuit, two ends of the LC parallel circuit are connected between the stages of circuits before and after the LC parallel circuit, and one end of the LC series circuit is connected between the stages of circuits before and after the LC series circuit, and the other end of the LC series circuit is grounded. According to the technical solution provided by the disclosure, the interference problem among multiple antennas in the CMMB antenna embedding solution in the related art is solved, thus being able to reduce the interference to CMMB signals by multi-mode radio frequency signals.
US09185733B2
A device-to-device (D2D) communication method in a wireless mobile communication system is provided. A channel state measurement method for adaptive transmission of cellular network-based D2D communication, a data transmission/reception method of D2D communication, and a power control method for transmission power control of a D2D link in the D2D communication are provided. Specifically, cellular network-based D2D communication methods optimized for a Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) system are provided. The above-described methods are also applicable to various cellular mobile communication systems as well as the 3GPP LTE system.
US09185723B2
A method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving downlink control information in a mobile communication system supporting an uplink packet data service are provided. To transmit packet data in an HARQ mobile communication system, a second transceiver receives an RG as rate control information from a first transceiver. The second transceiver sets the allowed maximum data rate of an HARQ process to which the RG is applied to the allowed maximum data rate of an HARQ process previous to the HARQ process, if the RG indicates hold. The second transceiver transmits packet data within the set allowed maximum data rate to the first transceiver.
US09185714B2
According to one embodiment, a method includes monitoring, at one or more wireless network access elements, signal strength of signals transmitted by respective neighboring wireless network access elements. Information is collected from said wireless network access elements and converted into reportable data about signal strength observed during the monitoring. The method further includes identifying, based at least in part on interference associated with concurrent signal transmissions of the wireless network access elements, a combination of channel assignments for the one or more wireless network access elements from a plurality of possible combinations of channel assignments and assigning channels for concurrent, respective use by said wireless network access elements based on the identified combination of channel assignments.
US09185707B2
A method of transmitting a White Space Map information in a wireless local area network system (WLAN) is disclosed. A method of transmitting a white space map information from a first station to a second station in a regulatory domain where a licensed device and an unlicensed device are permitted to operate together in a wireless local area network (WLAN) comprises acquiring a first list of available channels at each location of a plurality of locations from a regulatory database; determining a second list of available channels at a white space zone (WSZ) using the first list of available channels at each location of a plurality of locations; and transmitting, to the second station, one of a beacon frame, a probe response frame and a white space map announcement frame comprising a white space map (WSM) element, the WSM element including information of the WSZ and the second list of available channels, wherein the WSZ is a geographical area in which commonavailable channels are set.
US09185698B2
An autonomously dispersed type wireless network is suitably formed with communication stations avoiding collision of beacons transmitted one to another. In the event that the range of reach of airwaves change and a receivable state is created and beacons collide, a communication station changes the beacon transmission position of itself in response to receiving a beacon from another station at a timing immediately prior to transmission to its own beacon. Also, in the event that beacon collision is exposed due to emergence of a new communication which can perform reception from two systems out of airwave range of each other, the newly-participating station requests one of the communication stations of which the beacons are colliding to change the beacon transmission timing.
US09185696B2
The present invention is related to methods, apparatuses, systems and computer software for determining an amount of physical resources for downlink transmission, and allocating uplink physical resources for transmission of data-non-associated control signaling based at least on the amount of physical resources for downlink transmission. The amount of physical resources for downlink transmission comprises an amount of downlink control signaling. The present invention further relates to a framework for mapping the dedicated uplink control channels directly to single physical resource blocks. The framework is able to efficiently shift physical resources to and from the uplink control channel for ACK/NACK reports, in a data-non-associated control signaling scheme and on a per subframe basis. The present invention is also concerned with scheduler, for example an eNodeB scheduler, which uses its scheduling history and knowledge of user equipment capabilities to increase utilization of uplink resources.
US09185688B1
In accordance with the exemplary embodiments of the invention there is a method, executable computer program, and apparatus for determining that an acknowledgment is to be sent, and for the case where there is also a scheduling request to be sent, combining the acknowledgment with the scheduling request on a scheduling resource, else placing the acknowledgment in another resource. In accordance with another exemplary embodiment of the invention there is a method, executable computer program, and apparatus for receiving information on a scheduling resource, and determining that the information received on the scheduling resource includes an acknowledgment. Further, in accordance with the exemplary embodiments of the invention there is a method, executable computer program, and apparatus for determining that a scheduling request resource and at least one other resource are reserved for a user equipment in a same sub-frame, and based on whether a scheduling request is desired to be transmitted by the user equipment, placing at least one of an acknowledgment/negative acknowledgement and a channel quality indicator that is desired to be transmitted by the user equipment in one of the resources and leaving at least one other resource unused.
US09185681B2
A method and apparatus for transmitting a paging message in a cloud radio access network (RAN) system is provided. A baseband unit (BBU) or a mobility management entity (MME) determines a location update range of a user equipment (UE) based on moving speed and a moving direction of the UE, and transmits information this to the UE. The UE transmits information on moving information of the UE, which is determined based on the received information and a measurement result with respect to at least one accessible remote radio frequency (RF) unit (RRU) of the UE, and the measurement result to the BBU or the MME; and The BBU or MME updates the location update range of the UE based on the received measurement result and the moving information of the UE, and transmits a paging message to the UE through at least one RRU included in the updated location update range of the UE.
US09185674B2
Distributed antenna systems provide location information for client devices communicating with remote antenna units. The location information can be used to determine the location of the client devices relative to the remote antenna unit(s) with which the client devices are communicating. A location processing unit (LPU) includes a control system configured to receive uplink radio frequency (RF) signals communicated by client devices and determines the signal strengths of the uplink RF signals. The control system also determines which antenna unit is receiving uplink RF signals from the device having the greatest signal strength.
US09185672B2
Power consumption when reception is carried out in response to a reception instruction by a user is reduced in a satellite radio-controlled wristwatch. A satellite radio-controlled wristwatch according to the present invention includes: a satellite radio wave reception unit including an antenna, a high frequency circuit, and a decoder circuit; a clock circuit; an operating member; and a controller for controlling timings of at least: an activation operation; an acquisition and tracking operation; and a time information acquisition operation, the controller being configured to: detect a reception instruction by a user; immediately start the activation operation when a delay time period from when the reception instruction is issued to an earliest time information receivable time point is longer than a first threshold value and shorter than a second threshold value; wait for arrival of an activation time point inversely calculated from the earliest time information receivable time point to start the activation operation when the delay time period is longer than the second threshold value; and wait for arrival of an activation time point inversely calculated from a next earliest time information receivable time point to start the activation operation when the delay time period is shorter than the first threshold value.
US09185670B2
Method and apparatus for configuring enhanced timing measurements involving multifarious radio links
In its various aspects, the present invention addresses the many challenges associated with making timing measurements involving multifarious radio links. Such measurements are referred to herein as “enhanced” to connote that such timing determinations are being made across multifarious radio links. Here, a radio link will be understood as connecting two radio nodes, and two radio links are considered to be multifarious with respect to each other if they are opposite in terms of uplink and downlink transmit directions, and further if they are associated with different cell identifiers and/or if the two links are between different pairs of radio nodes. In this context, the teachings herein disclose the sharing of “enhanced timing measurement” capability information, e.g., between radio nodes and positioning nodes. Such information indicates the enhanced timing measurement capability of a radio node. Sharing such information enables another node, e.g., a positioning node, to determine an enhanced timing measurement configuration to be used by a radio node. Further, additional teachings herein disclose advantageous configurations for making enhanced timing measurements, and techniques for compensating timing measurements determined from multifarious radio links, e.g., compensating for frequency-dependent propagation time differences.
US09185648B2
Methods and systems according to embodiments of the present disclosure provide intelligent transmission of beacons by a SoftAP-enabled user device for minimizing power consumption. In an embodiment, a method comprises transmitting a first beacon from the SoftAP to a station connected to the SoftAP. The method also comprises determining a beacon interval between the first beacon and a second beacon. The method further comprises dynamically changing the beacon interval. And the method also comprises transmitting the second beacon upon the changed beacon interval passing since the transmitting of the first beacon.
US09185647B2
Provided is an HNB gateway device capable of, while in an operation in a sleep mode, deactivating function units other than functions units associated with a mode check message and a sleep mode release request message from another HNB-GW, and thereby enabling a power saving operation. An HNB gateway device (2) includes a function to obtain a usage rate of the HNB gateway device, relays signals between a switching center and an HNB, and transits to a sleep mode when the usage rate reaches or falls below a predetermined value. The HNB gateway device includes means (HNB-GW list management unit 23) for changing, upon transition to the sleep mode, an HNB gateway list in the HNB performing HNB registration on the HNB gateway device using RPC:SetParameterValues from an HMS.
US09185645B2
A mobile communication system according to the present invention that can provide a mobile communication system capable of reducing power consumption by a radio base station apparatus includes a radio base station apparatus (1) that communicates with a mobile terminal (4), a location information management apparatus (3) that acquires location information of the mobile terminal (4), and a processing apparatus (2) that changes an operation state so that the radio base station apparatus (1) does not emit radio waves based on changes in the location information of the mobile terminal (4) acquired by the location information management apparatus (3). When the mobile terminal (4) moves from a position within a service area of the radio base station apparatus (1) to a position outside the service area, for example, the processing apparatus (2) changes the operation state so that the radio base station apparatus (1) does not emit radio waves.
US09185627B2
A wireless device that utilizes a single network interface to simultaneously connect to an infrastructure network and a mesh network. The device has a driver layer with a media access control module for each network type. A multiplexing module and transceiver module within the driver can direct received information associated with one of the networks to an appropriate media access control and then to an appropriate network adapter. For transmitted data, the multiplexing module can receive data from the application layer through an appropriate network adapter and route it to an appropriate media access control module for processing. The processed data can be interleaved by the transceiver for transmission.
US09185625B2
There is described a method of processing control messages received by a wireless communication network from a wireless communication device. The method comprises: monitoring received control messages sent by the wireless communication device to identify control messages conveying information indicating whether or not the wireless communication device has a handover capability associated with performing a handover between the packet-switched and circuit-switched domains; for any such identified control message which indicates that the corresponding wireless communication device does not have said handover capability, modifying the control message to indicate that said corresponding wireless communication device does have said handover capability and forwarding the modified control message to the core network; and storing data indicative of whether or not the wireless communication device has said handover capability.
US09185612B2
A method and apparatus for performing a membership verification or an access control in a wireless communication system is provided. A mobility management entity (MME) performs the membership verification or the access control of a user equipment (UE), and transmits verified UE membership information to a target HeNB.
US09185607B2
Systems and methods for identifying an address of a femto node during handoff of an access terminal from a femto node to a macro node. In one embodiment, the femto node assigns a unique identifier to the access terminal. The access terminal passes the unique identifier to the macro node. The macro node partitions the unique identifier to determine the address of the femto node. In another embodiment, the femto node registers its address with a domain name system. The macro node queries the domain name system to obtain the address of the femto node. In another embodiment, the macro node sends the unique identifier to a proxy. The proxy partitions the unique identifier to determine the address of the femto node.
US09185606B1
A RAN may be configured to receive a first call setup request relating to a first WCD, and a second call setup request relating to a second WCD. The first WCD may communicate using a first air-interface or a second air-interface, and the second WCD my communicate using the second air-interface and not the first air-interface. The RAN may determine that the first WCD and the second WCD are contending for a resource of a wireless coverage area defined using the second air-interface. Based on the first WCD and the second WCD contending for the resource, the first WCD communicating using the first air-interface or the second air-interface, and the second WCD communicating using the second air-interface and not the first air-interface, the RAN may assign the resource to the second WCD.
US09185597B2
A device receives, from mobile devices, scheduling requests for voice packets, and assigns grants to the scheduling requests. The device further determines whether there is network congestion in a network associated with the device. The device also selects a grant, from the grants, when there is network congestion, and drops a voice packets associated with the selected grant. The device assigns physical resource blocks (PRBs) to one or more of the grants that are associated with one or more of the voice packets that are not dropped.
US09185595B2
The invention discloses a method for moving a wireless terminal in a mobility management serving node pool comprising at least a source mobility management serving node and a target mobility management serving node, comprising: initiating, from the source mobility management serving node, a first subscriber context procedure to inform the target mobility management serving node of a move action for the wireless terminal; launching, from the target mobility management serving node, a second subscriber context procedure to obtain a subscriber context for the wireless terminal from the source mobility management serving node, in response to the informing; and establishing a connection between a radio access node for the wireless terminal and a session management gateway node via the target mobility management serving node. An apparatus and a system are also disclosed for the same. With the solution, control plane and user plane traffic for the wireless terminal may be moved with a minimum of payload loss.
US09185592B2
A method for configuring a Minimization of Drive Test (MDT) information reporting format and a time-stamp is provided that supports MDT in a 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) system. The method defines a reporting format needed in a process where UE transmits MDT measurements to a serving base station, and sets the number of bits required to log time stamp and the unit of logging time.
US09185591B2
Systems, methods, and apparatus are provided for automated identification of baseline data and changes in state in a wireless communications spectrum, by identifying sources of signal emission in the spectrum by automatically detecting signals, analyzing signals, comparing signal data to historical and reference data, creating corresponding signal profiles, and determining information about the baseline data and changes in state based upon the measured and analyzed data in near real time, which is stored on each apparatus or device units and/or on a remote server computer that aggregates data from each of the units, wherein the data is accessible via remote computer devices.
US09185590B2
A method of providing information for cell measurements. A first cell configures a subframe for performing a first measurement with respect to a first cell. A first position performing the first measurement is different from a second position performing a second measurement with respect to a second cell. The method includes transmitting, from the first cell to a user equipment (UE), first pattern information indicating the first position and second pattern information indicating the second position. A first subframe corresponding to the first pattern information is included in non-Almost Blank Subframe (ABS) subframes of the first cell, and a second subframe corresponding to the second pattern information is included in ABS subframes of the first cell. The ABS subframes of the first cell are configured as a first subframe at each of 8 subframes of the first cell.
US09185588B2
The present invention relates to a method and device for automatically optimizing the send parameters in a mobile communication system wherein, in order to optimize the BCCH reception performance, a terminal stores information relating to BCCH reception failure reasons or the number of instances of packet combination for BCCH reception, and this information is reported to a base station.
US09185587B2
Loading estimation of 3GPP networks. One or more metrics relating to a cell of a 3GPP network may be measured. Loading of the cell may be estimated based on the one or more metrics. The metrics may include metrics measured, estimated, or derived at multiple layers, possibly including one or more of physical layer, radio link control layer, radio resource control layer, or application layer metrics.
US09185584B1
In normal operation, a primary signaling controller in a first RAN manages bearer connectivity and tracking area updates for a UE and further interfaces with a second RAN over a primary signaling interface to facilitate inter-RAN signaling related to transition of the UE from being served by the first RAN to being served by the second RAN, such as circuit-switched fallback signaling. Upon detecting failure of the primary signaling interface, the first RAN is dynamically reconfigured to have such inter-RAN signaling for the UE pass over a secondary signaling interface between the second RAN and a secondary signaling controller of the first RAN, while the primary signaling controller continues to manage bearer connectivity and tracking area updates for the UE.
US09185572B2
An arrangement for providing, on an ad hoc basis, a closed user group (CUG) among a collection of pre-defined IP network users. A set of intelligent access devices, dispersed through the IP network, constantly transmit a set of pings associated with the defines CUGs to discover those devices within its communication range. The discovered IP addresses for each device is thus constantly updated, allowing group members to remain in constant contact (emulating an “always on” connection). The users feels they are always connected with group members and thus have instant access to voice/data/video sessions—much like hot lines or “always on” connections.
US09185568B2
There is provided a communication device comprising: a detection unit that detects presence or absence of communication connection with a server storing data related to a communication environment of a communication area where a first communication service is provided; a data acquisition unit that acquires data related to a surrounding communication environment; and a determination unit that determines availability of usage of a second communication service using a part or whole of a spectrum assigned to the first communication service based on the data acquired by the data acquisition unit, wherein when communication connection with the server is not detected by the detection unit, the data acquisition unit senses a communication environment surrounding the communication device or receives data related to a communication environment from another communication device located near the communication device.
US09185566B2
A cell cancellation method for improved spectrum sharing is provided. The cell cancellation method includes detecting interference from a cell. The method also includes cancelling a signal from the cell when a physical cell identifier corresponding to the cell is indicated in a cancellation list. An adaptive radio link failure (RLF) trigger method for improved spectrum sharing is disclosed. The RLF trigger method includes detecting interference from a cell. The RLF trigger method also includes adjusting a radio link failure trigger according to a cell identity of an interferer associated with the cell.
US09185551B2
An identification module (such as a SIM card) for securely providing a mobile identity to a mobile data network for use in identifying mobile equipment in which that identification module is installed comprises a mobile identity memory which securely stores data defining two or more different mobile identities; a selector for selecting a mobile identity from the two or more mobile identities; a network interface for generating data derived from the selected mobile identity for transmission to a mobile network during a network authorization procedure, and for receiving acknowledgement data back from the mobile network indicating whether authorization was successful based on that selected mobile identity; and a detector for detecting whether the acknowledgement data indicates an unsuccessful authorization with the mobile network and, if so, for initiating a further network authorization procedure in which the selector selects a different one of the two or more mobile identities.
US09185548B2
Mutual remote support between users is easily facilitated without troublesome complicated user registration. For user terminals between which remote support is performed, a user can use an appropriate supporter user terminal to enable the supporter user terminal to access a supportee user terminal to thereby facilitate setting manipulation and check device (or terminal) status with regard to not only the supportee user terminal but also a supportee device that is communicably connected to the supportee user terminal, by merely selecting the supportee device (or terminal) from an address book stored in the corresponding user terminal. Further, when a necessary application is not installed in a counterpart user terminal, it is possible to transmit information for installing the application through an SMS or the like.
US09185544B2
This disclosure describes apparatuses, methods and computer program products for reducing location update signaling in a mobile communications network. In some embodiments, a method is provided in which a mobility management and control (MMC) rule is provided to a location aware network node (LANN) (e.g., an MME). The MMC rule includes location information that specifies a location and an action associated with the location. In response to receiving mobility information pertaining to a mobile communication device (MCD), the LANN uses the mobility information and the location information to determine whether or not to perform the action associated with the location information.
US09185541B1
Systems and methods of determining wireless data usage are provided. Wireless data usage of a wireless device on a first network of a first network operator is determined. A message indicating a performance of a handover of the wireless device from the first network to a second network of a second network operator is received and the wireless data usage of the wireless device on the second network is determined based on the message received.
US09185531B2
A method of transferring ownership of a service group (SG) for a communication system comprising a converged personal network service (CPNS) server is disclosed. The service group comprises a first plurality of personal network elements (PNEs), and the method comprises the CPNS server receiving an owner transfer request from a first PNE of the service group; and the CPNS server selecting a second PNE from the first plurality of PNEs of the service group, to transfer the ownership of the service group from the first PNE to the second PNE.
US09185530B2
Systems, methods, and instrumentalities to optimize procedures relating to machine type communication devices. Individual UEs may be grouped together in order to optimize procedures relating to members of the group. For example, a group of UE devices may be predefined or a group may be configured by a network associated with the UEs. One or more of the members of the group may be designated as a special UE or a master UE. The special UE or master UE may perform an action on behalf of one or more members of the group.
US09185521B2
An approach is provided for providing a collaborative reply to a flooding message over an ad-hoc mesh network. A reply message to a flooding message is received by a wireless node within the ad-hoc network. The wireless node monitors for an acknowledgement of receipt of the reply message according to a routing table and initiates a scheduled transmission of the reply message based on the monitoring.
US09185519B2
Methods and systems for tracking mobile communication terminals based on their identifiers. The disclosed techniques identify cellular terminals and Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) terminals that are likely to be carried by the same individual, or cellular and WLAN identifiers that belong to the same multi-mode terminal. A correlation system is connected to a cellular network and to a WLAN. The system receives location coordinates of cellular identifiers used by mobile terminals in the cellular network, and location coordinates of WLAN identifiers used by mobile terminals in the WLAN. Based on the location coordinates, the system is able to construct routes that are traversed by the terminals having the various cellular and WLAN identifiers. The system attempts to find correlations in time and space between the routes.
US09185513B1
A computer-implemented method for compilation of applications includes storing, at a server, a plurality of variants, wherein each of the plurality of variants describes a distinct client architecture. A plurality of optimized binaries for an application are maintained at the server, wherein the plurality of optimized binaries correspond to different variants in the plurality of variants. The server receives a request from a client to download the application, wherein the request includes a reference to a first variant that describes the client's architecture. A determination is made that the first variant corresponds to a first optimized binary of the plurality of optimized binaries, and the server provides the first optimized binary to the client.
US09185512B2
There is provided an information processing apparatus including a transmission section which transmits, to an external device that has collected an index pertaining to a feature of an output of a sensor for each classification, classification information for specifying the classification, and a reception section which receives information about the index corresponding to the classification information.
US09185504B2
A seal assembly for canal hearing devices including a dynamic pressure vent formed and defined by diaphragmatic flaps configured to open in response to a pressure gradient across the diaphragm. The seal assembly comprises a compliant seal element configured to be positioned generally concentrically around the canal hearing device for providing comfortable contact with the ear canal and for acoustically sealing the residual volume of the ear canal. The seal assembly is preferably made of an elastomeric material. The dynamic pressure vent is substantially closed in the normal position to minimize feedback, while momentarily opening inside the ear canal during insertion or removal of the canal hearing device into or from the ear canal.
US09185501B2
Techniques are described herein that transfer information using a container-located module. The module is coupled to sensor(s) that are configured to detect characteristic(s) pertaining to a medical substance that is included in a medical container. The module wirelessly transfers information that is based on the characteristic(s) to a requesting device in response to a request from the requesting device.
US09185496B1
A stethoscope chest piece has a chest piece housing containing a piezoelectric (piezo) element mounted within a housing. The piezo element converts body signals to an electrical representation that is processed by circuitry on a circuit board. A back stop is affixed to the circuit board to prevent excess excursion by the piezo element and may be one of the circuit elements on the circuit board. The circuitry includes a USB interface for passing the electrical representation to a receiving device such as a personal computer. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract.
US09185495B2
An oscillation device includes: a piezoelectric vibrator (110) in which electrode layers (112, 113) are formed over top and bottom surfaces of a piezoelectric layer (111); a vibrating member (120) having at least atop surface to which the piezoelectric vibrator (110) is bonded; and a resin member (130) formed continuously in a circumferential direction over at least the outer side surface of the piezoelectric vibrator (110). Therefore, since it is possible to increase the working area of the piezoelectric vibrator, it is possible to realize both an increase in the sound pressure level of the output and miniaturization of the apparatus.
US09185484B2
A hydraulic modulator provides a rectangular outlet from which water can be discharged across an outlet mouth. Spaced from the rectangular outlet across the outlet mouth is a rigid blade. Because water is effectively incompressible at the frequencies of interest a compliance chamber is provided along an interior side of the rigid blade. Mechanical compliance elements are provided within or adjacent to the compliance chamber which may be displaced to absorb and discharge mechanical energy from the flow of water. Water flow shifts back and forth relative to the interior and exterior sides of the rigid blade.
US09185479B2
Microphone systems having wireless microphones are often used in events such as discussions, concerts, plays, etc. and normally have a plurality of wireless microphones which are worn by users, such as actors, musicians, singers, etc, and one or more receiving stations which receive the audio signals of the wireless microphones and forward said signals to mixing consoles, amplification systems, recording devices, etc. In addition to the basic functionality of transmitting audio signals, microphone systems have become known which implement additional functions. The invention relates to a microphone module 2 having a transmitting unit 6 wherein the transmitting unit 6 is designed for the wireless transmission of audio information to a base station 3, having a receiving unit 8, wherein the receiving unit 8 is designed to receive wirelessly transmitted status information and/or messages from a transmitter 4, 12 and having an output device 13, 14 for the output of the status information and/or messages to a user of the microphone module 2.
US09185478B2
A sound system configured to play audio files in a variety of indoor and outdoor environments is disclosed. The system includes a housing, a speaker, a power supply, and a mounting attachment that provides protection for sensitive system components and allow the system to be securely attached to a variety of surfaces and objects.
US09185473B2
A network node for an optical transport network is disclosed, which has a signal input for receiving a multiplexed transport signal carrying a number of n timeslots of a fixed size data capacity, a demultiplexer for demultiplexing the received signal into a number of m>1 sub-signals, each sub-signal carrying a fraction of n/m of said timeslots, one or more space switch modules for configurably switching said sub-signals, and a multiplexer receiving sub-signals from said one or more space switch modules; for multiplexing timeslots from said sub-signals into an outgoing multiplexed transport signal carrying n of said timeslots. The multiplexer is connected to the one or more switch modules over a number of l>m interconnections and receives from said one or more switch modules up to l sub-signals. Moreover, the multiplexer can be configured to select the n timeslots for the outgoing multiplexed transport signal from the up to l sub-signals.
US09185468B2
A file that is compatible with a media player application that reads media files compliant with MP4, is created by including in the file a parent container containing child containers. The child containers include a metadata container containing metadata relating to the media presentation and a media data container containing media samples for multiple tracks of the media presentation. The metadata container contains multiple child containers containing metadata for the multiple tracks respectively. The metadata container contains at least one additional child container that reserves free space in the metadata container but does not contain metadata, whereby in the event of adding a track to the presentation the free space in the additional child container may be overwritten with metadata for the added track without affecting the size of the metadata container.
US09185462B2
The present invention provides a method and system for implementation of an interactive television application. Particularly, the invention provides method and system for designing and implementation of synchronized interactive television applications using quick response (QR) code, wherein the quick response (QR) code is used to tag the broadcasted television content. More particularly, the invention provides method and system for decoding the quick response (QR) code at the receiver side to provide a universal resource locator (URL) which hosts augmented services for the content on the interactive television as well as on the secondary communication device.
US09185457B2
Methods and apparatus for multi-purpose metering are disclosed. An example method includes determining whether a portable device is within a vicinity of a household monitoring system based on detecting an identifier via a first radio frequency (RF) signal, when the identifier from the first RF signal is associated with the portable device, determining whether a second acoustic signal includes the identifier associated with the portable device, deactivating a media detection circuit of the portable device when the identifier is detected via both the first RF signal and the second acoustic signal, and activating the media detection circuit of the portable device when the identifier is detected from the first RF signal and the second acoustic signal is absent.
US09185456B2
Hybrid active and passive people metering for audience measurement is disclosed. An example method disclosed herein to perform people metering for audience measurement comprises obtaining an image sequence depicting a scene in which an audience is expected to be present, comparing an image sequence signature representative of the image sequence with a set of reference signatures to determine a comparison result, and controlling audience prompting performed by a people meter based on the comparison result.
US09185455B2
A method and apparatus for using 802.11 Wireless LANs in TV white space are provided that additionally allows coexistence with non-802.11 devices in the same spectrum space. The method and apparatus extend concepts used in traditional 802.11 applications in the MAC and PHY layers so that WLANs can function over TV white space channels. The method and apparatus also facilitates coexistence of non 802.11 devices and existence with other 802.11 applications by extending the Enhanced Distributed Channel Access mechanism used to provide quality of service. An OFDM system with fixed subcarrier spacing is suggested to accommodate spectrum characteristics (variable center frequency and channel bandwidth) of the TVWS.
US09185450B2
A method and apparatus for managing content on a distributed storage system are described including receiving a request to schedule recording of the managed content from at least one of a plurality of networked recording device, the request including a reference for the managed content, determining a replication factor, selecting a number and selecting which of the plurality of networked recording devices are to record the managed content, determining actual program start time and one of starting content ingest and instructing the selected plurality of networked recording devices to start content ingest, fragmenting the requested content and distributing the fragmented content to the selected plurality of networked recording devices and transmitting at least unique content playback reference required to access the content on the distributed storage system.
US09185443B1
A method and system for identifying a service includes a service locator module and a customer service device communicating a channel signal to a service locator module from a customer service module. The service locator module generates a service signal associated with the channel signal and communicates the service signal to the customer service device.
US09185437B2
Computer program products and a mobile terminal for transmitting and receiving video data. Image data of first and second frames of a video signal captured by a camera is used to determine encoded first spatial units of the first frame and encoded second spatial units of the second frame at lower spatial resolution, which are transmitted to the receiver terminal. The second spatial units are unaligned with the first spatial units due to rotation of the camera between the first and second frames, such that each of the second spatial units partially overlaps with at least one first spatial unit. An indication of the angle of rotation of the camera between the first and second frames is detected using a rotational motion sensor and transmitted to the receiver terminal. The receiver terminal combines the first and second spatial units using the indication to reconstruct an image of higher spatial resolution.
US09185422B2
This disclosure describes techniques for mitigating rounding errors in a fixed-point transform associated with video coding by applying a variable localized bit-depth increase at the transform. More specifically, the techniques include selecting a constant value based on a size of a fixed-point transform in a video coding device and applying a variable localized bit-depth increase at the transform with a value equal to the constant value. Applying the variable localized bit-depth increase includes left-shifting a transform input signal by a number of bits equal to the constant value before the fixed-point transform, and right-shifting a transform output signal by a number of bits equal to the constant value after the fixed-point transform. The constant value is selected from a plurality of constant values stored on the video coding device. Each of the constant values is pre-calculated for one of a plurality of different transform sizes supported by the video coding.
US09185418B2
Techniques and tools for encoding enhancement layer video with quantization that varies spatially and/or between color channels are presented, along with corresponding decoding techniques and tools. For example, an encoding tool determines whether quantization varies spatially over a picture, and the tool also determines whether quantization varies between color channels in the picture. The tool signals quantization parameters for macroblocks in the picture in an encoded bit stream. In some implementations, to signal the quantization parameters, the tool predicts the quantization parameters, and the quantization parameters are signaled with reference to the predicted quantization parameters. A decoding tool receives the encoded bit stream, predicts the quantization parameters, and uses the signaled information to determine the quantization parameters for the macroblocks of the enhancement layer video. The decoding tool performs inverse quantization that can vary spatially and/or between color channels.
US09185402B2
Methods and systems are disclosed for updating camera geometric calibration utilizing scene analysis. Geometric calibration parameters can be derived with respect to one or more cameras and selected reference points of interest identified from a scene acquired by one or more of such cameras. The camera geometric calibration parameters can be applied to image coordinates of the selected reference points of interest to provide real-world coordinates at a time of initial calibration of the camera(s). A subset of a video stream from the camera(s) can then be analyzed to identify features of a current scene captured by the camera(s) that match the selected reference points of interest and provide a current update of the camera geometric calibration parameters with respect to the current scene.
US09185399B2
To provide a stereoscopic video receiver that generates a stereoscopic video with a sense of stereoscopy and a powerful impression even when a left-eye screen and a right-eye screen are displayed on a small-sized display, a left-eye screen and a right-eye screen shot by a stereo camera to be displayed on a display having a width narrower than that of a virtual display are displayed so as to be displaced in a direction of separating these screens away from each other, and left and right fields of vision are matched with each other at a position away from the display and a distance between left and right corresponding points of an infinite distance subject image is set to be shorter than an interpupillary distance of a viewer.
US09185390B2
A camera system and method are suitable for use in applications in which three dimensional images are generated without using complicated procedures. A camera system includes: a first camera and a second camera; a camera adaptor box; and a camera control unit. The camera adaptor box controls the operations of the first and second cameras and transmits the images from the first and second cameras to the camera control unit. The camera control unit outputs a control signal, received from a control panel to control the cameras, to the camera adaptor box. The camera control unit outputs a video signal received from the camera adaptor box to a display apparatus and a recording apparatus.
US09185387B2
Blurring is simulated in post-processing for captured images. A 3D image is received from a 3D camera, and depth information in the 3D image is used to determine the relative distances of objects in the image. One object is chosen as the subject of the image, and an additional object in the image is identified. Image blur is applied to the identified additional object based on the distance between the 3D camera and the subject object, the distance between the subject object and the additional object, and a virtual focal length and virtual f-number.
US09185383B2
Video display capabilities for use in the home continue to evolve. A method is described including receiving a video signal in a first format, determining at least one parameter associated with the signal and a display device, converting the signal to a signal in a second format based on the signal and display device parameters, and converting the second signal to a display signal based on the display device parameter. An apparatus is described including an input stream processor that decodes and separates a received signal, a controller that determines at least one characteristic of the signal and a display device, a video signal processor circuit that converts the signal to a second signal based on the characteristics and further converts the second signal to an output signal based on a characteristic of the display device, and an interface circuit that provides the output signal to the display device.
US09185381B2
A backward-compatible stereo image processing system and a method of generating a backward-compatible stereo image. One embodiment of the backward-compatible stereo image processing system includes: (1) first and second viewpoints for an image, (2) an intermediate viewpoint for the image, and (3) first and second output channels configured to provide respective images composed of high spatial frequency content of the intermediate viewpoint and respective low spatial frequency content of the first and second viewpoints.
US09185379B2
A method is described for playing stored continuous play content having a temporal flow. At least one segment of the continuous play content is associated with a plurality of links to other segments. The method includes playing at least one segment with temporal flow, determining whether a content expansion is desired, linking to and playing the expansion, if desired, or linking to and playing a continuing segment if the expansion is not desired. The method includes an additional link from the expansion to the continuing segment of the first segment such that the continuing segment is played after the expansion segment has been played. Other teachings include methods for playing stored content, for capturing and playing content, for capturing segment and linkage descriptions, storage mechanisms referencing the continuous play content and linkages and apparatuses for capturing and playing such content.
US09185374B2
A method and system for producing full motion media for display on a spherical surface is described. The method may include selecting a subject of full motion media for display on a spherical surface. The method may the include capturing the selected subject as full motion media (e.g., full motion video) in a rectilinear domain. The method may then include processing the full motion media in the rectilinear domain for display on a spherical surface, such as by orienting the full motion media, adding rotation to the full motion media, processing edges of the full motion media, and/or distorting the full motion media in the rectilinear domain for instance. After processing the full motion media, the method may additionally include providing the processed full motion media to a spherical projection system, such as a Science on a Sphere system.
US09185361B2
Position information of equipment at an event, such as a ball, one or more players, or other items in a game or sporting event, is used in selecting camera, camera shot type, camera angle, audio signals, and/or other output data for providing a multimedia presentation of the event to a viewer. The position information is used to determine the desired viewer perspective. A network of feedback robotically controlled Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ), manually controlled cameras and stationary cameras work together with interpolation techniques to create a 2D video signal. The position information may also be used to access gaming rules and assist officiating of the event. The position information may be obtained through a transceiver(s), accelerometer(s), transponder(s), and/or RADAR detectable element(s) fitted into the ball, apparel or equipment of players, the players themselves, or other playing equipment associated with the game or sporting event. Other positioning methods that can be used include infrared video-based tracking systems, SONAR positioning system(s), LIDAR positioning systems, and digital signal processing (DSP) image processing techniques such as triangulation.
US09185358B2
An imaging apparatus includes: an imaging optical system that obtains an optical image of a photographic subject; a plurality of image sensor elements that output image data based on the optical image of the photographic subject obtained by the imaging optical system; an electric power supply controller that controls electric power supply to the plurality of image sensor elements; and a distance metering device that includes the plurality of image sensor elements and the electric power supply controller, and measures a distance to the photographic subject based on an output of the image sensor elements, wherein the plurality of image sensor elements are aligned in line and formed on one semiconductor wafer, and the electric power supply controller performs electric power supply to the plurality of image sensor elements in accordance with operating conditions set to the imaging apparatus.
US09185353B2
What is disclosed is a system and method for automatically removing undesirable periodic or random background noise from heart rate measurement signals obtained from a video camera, ambient illuminator and other unknown electromagnetic sources to improve the overall reliability of biomedical measurements. In one embodiment, a time varying video image acquired over at least one imaging channel of a subject of interest is received. The video images are then segmented into a first region comprising a localized area where plethysmographic signals of the subject can be registered and a second region comprising a localized area of the environment where the plethysmographic signals cannot be registered. Both of the regions are exposed to the same environmental factors. The segmented video signals are pre-processed and the processed signals are subtracted from each other to generate an environmentally compensated signal. The environmentally compensated signal is then communicated to a computer system.
US09185341B2
Methods and apparatus for distributing content using a spectrum generation device. In one embodiment, digital content is received via a time-multiplexed network transport (such as Gigabit Ethernet), and converted to frequency channels suitable for transmission over a content distribution (e.g., Hybrid Fiber Coaxial (HFC)) network. In one variant, the conversion is performed using digital domain processing performed by a full spectrum generation device. Additionally, methods and apparatus for selectively adding, removing, and/or changing digital content from the full spectrum device are also disclosed. Various aspects of the present invention enable physical (infrastructure) consolidation, and software-implemented remote management of content distribution.
US09185338B2
Disclosed are various embodiments of generating video fingerprints. Scene changes can be detected in a video and a video fingerprint generated based upon a time at which the scene change occurs as well as time intervals between the scene changes relative to adjacent scene changes. A video can be captured and analyzed by comparing scene changes detected in the video to those described by the video fingerprint.
US09185329B2
A display apparatus, a power supply apparatus and a power supply method are provided. The display apparatus display apparatus includes: a signal receiving unit which receives an image signal; a signal processing unit which processes the image signal; a display unit which displays an image based on the image signal processed by the signal processing unit; and a power supply unit which receives AC power and supplies operation power to the display unit. The power supply unit includes a discharging circuit part which includes a discharging element which discharges the power supply unit to remove a residual voltage from the power supply unit when the AC power is suspended, the discharging circuit part preventing the discharging element from consuming power when the AC power is input. It is possible to minimize wasteful power consumption caused by a discharging element provided to guarantee user's safety against a residual voltage.
US09185322B2
A digital video broadcast receiver including a frequency synthesizer, a plurality of frequency dividing-phase shifting circuits, an antenna and a plurality of signal processing modules is provided. The frequency synthesizer synthesizes a first frequency signal. The frequency dividing-phase shifting circuits individually perform a frequency dividing-phase shifting operation on the first frequency signal to generate a plurality of first signals having different frequencies and a plurality of second signals corresponding to the first signals, where each of the first signals is orthogonal to the corresponding second signal. The antenna receives a radio frequency signal. The signal processing modules respectively obtain a plurality of signal components belonging to different sub-bands from the radio frequency signal according to the first signals and the second signals.
US09185318B2
A solid-state imaging device includes a pixel array section and a signal processing section. The pixel array section is configured to include a plurality of arranged rectangular pixels, each of which has different sizes in the vertical and horizontal directions, and a plurality of adjacent ones of which are combined to form a square pixel having the same size in the vertical and horizontal directions. The signal processing section is configured to perform a process of outputting, as a single signal, a plurality of signals read out from the combined plurality of rectangular pixels.
US09185317B2
An image capturing apparatus includes an image sensor having a first pixel group that photoelectrically converts an object image from a first exit pupil region, a second pixel group that photoelectrically converts an object image from a second exit pupil region, and a third pixel group for capturing that photoelectrically converts an object image from overall exit pupil region; a focus detection unit that detects focus information by performing a defocus calculation with use of a first image signal obtained from the first pixel group and a second image signal obtained from the second pixel group; an image processing unit that converts captured image data into an image file for recording and saving; and a data recording unit that records, in association with the image file, signals obtained from the first pixel group and the second pixel group such that the defocus calculation can be performed.
US09185305B2
A photography system includes: a camera containing a first communication unit; and a photography illumination device containing a second communication unit, wherein: the camera wirelessly transmits from the first communication unit to the second communication unit a first signal that commands, from the camera side to the photography illumination device side, a preparatory flash emission that precedes a main flash emission during photography; the photography illumination device wirelessly transmits from the second communication unit to the first communication unit a second signal that includes flash emission timing information of the preparatory flash emission, and that carries information, from the photography illumination device side to the camera side, as to the effect that the first signal has been received; and the camera starts photometric processing during the preparatory flash emission based upon the flash emission timing information.
US09185283B2
An apparatus and a method for automatically adjusting a focus in an image capturing device are provided. The method includes generating an image by capturing a subject through a lens when a flash unit is enabled, dividing the image into a plurality of windows, determining a brightest window from among the plurality of windows, and setting an Auto Focus (AF) detection area for performing an AF function centering on the determined window.
US09185281B2
A camera platform system 1 has a camera 11 that takes an image of an object to generate a shot image, camera platforms 12 and 13 that rotate the camera around a pan axis and a tilt axis, and image processors 4, 5, and 6 that generate a display image based on the shot image. When the camera passes a predetermined angle position to rotate around the tilt axis, the image processor generates a first display image corresponding to an image formed by rotating the shot image by an angle larger than 0 degree and smaller than 180 degrees around the pan axis at the predetermined angle position before generating a second display image corresponding to an image formed by rotating the shot image by 180 degrees around the pan axis.
US09185277B2
A panel camera, and an optical touch screen and a display apparatus employing the panel camera. The panel camera includes a lens panel comprising a plurality of narrow-angle lenses arranged in a two-dimensional (2D) array and a light-detection panel comprising a plurality of light detectors which are arranged in a 2D array to respectively correspond to the plurality of narrow-angle lenses to receive lights passing through the plurality of narrow-angle lenses from outside and obtain a remote image.
US09185274B2
The present invention relates to a portable waterproof pack, and more particularly, to a portable waterproof pack with an air bladder pack, which includes an air bladder pack, into which an air is injected, formed in a rear surface of a pack main body, and thus, can float on the water to reduce a risk of losing a portable terminal, such as a smart phone, without a buoyancy means when the portable terminal falls into water.
US09185273B2
An imager may include hybrid pixels that can be operated in first and second configurations. A hybrid pixel may include a floating diffusion region and first and second photodiodes that are coupled to the floating diffusion region. The second photodiode may be coupled to the floating diffusion region by a transfer gate. The first photodiode may accumulate charge during a first integration period, whereas the second photodiode may accumulate charge during a second integration period. The imager may operate the hybrid pixel for improved dynamic range by controlling the configuration of the hybrid pixel.
US09185265B2
According to the present invention, there is provided an image processing method that performs a tone correction to obtain a combined image with suitable brightness and contrast when a plurality of image data pieces is combined, and an image processing apparatus that can execute the method. The image processing method includes detecting brightness distribution for each of the plurality of image data pieces, calculating a characteristic amount of each brightness distribution from the brightness distribution, and acquiring a correction amount for a tone correction executed to the combined image data based on the obtained characteristic amount of the brightness distribution.
US09185261B2
Provided are an input device and an image processing method thereof. The image processing method of the input device having a scan function includes acquiring a first image frame and a second image frame to detect coordinates of the acquired first image frame and coordinates of the acquired second image frame; dividing an overlap region between the first image frame and the second image frame into a plurality of sub overlap regions by using the detected coordinates of the first and second image frames; dividing each of the sub overlap regions into unit regions; setting a reference feature point of a plurality of feature points within the divided unit regions; and extracting corresponding points by using the set reference feature point.
US09185253B2
A reading unit of an image reading apparatus has a configuration in which a plurality of line sensors, including a first line sensor and a second line sensor that are arranged apart, are regularly arranged. The relation 0.95≦L/(n×D)≦1.05 (n=integer from 1 to 5) is satisfied where L is a distance between the first line sensor and the second line sensor in a sub scan direction. Before reading a document, the image reading apparatus detects an edge of the document, from which an image is to be actually read, using the first line sensor and the second line sensor to acquire correction information about document reading.
US09185244B2
An image forming apparatus includes an accepting unit, and a controller. The accepting unit accepts an instruction to execute an image forming process. The controller controls the accepting unit so as to prohibit the accepting unit from accepting an instruction to collectively execute multiple image forming processes when a billing device is usable which bills a user for execution of an image forming process and which is incapable of acquiring user identification information for identifying a user.
US09185243B2
A facsimile apparatus having a first interface that connects to an IP network and a second interface that connects to an analog network control, in the case where facsimile transmission using the first interface has failed, to execute re-transmission using the second interface when a communication mode used in that facsimile transmission is an automatically-selected communication mode, and not to execute re-transmission using the second interface when the communication mode used in the facsimile transmission is a manually-selected communication mode.
US09185240B2
An image test apparatus includes an image generating unit acquiring an output target image with which an image is formed and output by an image forming apparatus, and generating a test image for testing the read image, an image test unit determining a defect of the read image based on a difference between the test image and the read image, a defect number determining unit determining number of defects contained in the read image based on a determination result of the defect of the read image, a frequency distribution generating unit accumulating defect numbers of multiple read images, each of the defect numbers being the number of defects detected in one read image, and generating a frequency distribution of the defect numbers, and an abnormality determination unit determining an abnormality of the image forming apparatus based on a change in the frequency distribution generated for each predetermined period.
US09185234B2
Systems and methods for automated account mapping in a wireless subscriber billing system are disclosed. An external ID associated with a wireless client device is captured from a billable event communicated between a wireless client device and a wireless subscriber billing system. Then, the external ID is associated with a Subscriber ID (SID) used to communicate a billing request to an operator billing system.
US09185230B1
Aspects of the present disclosure disclose system, apparatus and methods for providing an integrated web conferencing. In various aspects, the disclosure is directed to integrating a VoIP client for audio conferencing with a web client. In particular, the system provides for integrating a web portion of a web conference with an audio portion of the web conference. More specifically, the system, apparatus and methods provide for connecting a VoIP client to an audio conferencing portion of the system to facilitate communications between client and server.
US09185227B2
A method and a system for completing an incomplete call made by a calling party to a called party, provide a call completion application on a calling party device. The call completion application detects an incomplete call, which is a call that is not connected to a called party device or a short duration call that does not enable an intended communication to occur between the calling party and the called party. The call completion application determines one or more call completion actions, for example, setting a reminder, transmitting media data, etc., to be performed to complete the incomplete call, for example, based on user selections, a duration of the incomplete call, user configuration of the call completion application on the calling party device, etc. The call completion application triggers execution of the determined call completion actions based on one or more action execution criteria for completing the incomplete call.
US09185201B2
According to an aspect, communication system includes a server and a first mobile communication device. The server is configured to transmit, when acquiring a search request of a mobile communication device, search information related to the search request to the first mobile communication device. The first mobile communication device includes: a first communication unit for communicating with the server, a second communication unit for communicating with a mobile communication device by short-range wireless communication to acquire device information related to the mobile communication device including at least identification information thereof, and a storage unit for storing the device information, and configured to transmit, when receiving the search information, the device information related to a target of the search request to the server.
US09185197B2
The disclosure of the present application includes accessories for securing mobile devices. In an exemplary embodiment of an accessory for securing a mobile device of the present disclosure, the accessory includes a socket having a receiver portion opposite an attachment surface, where the attachment surface is capable of attaching to a mobile device, and a connector including a connecting member disposed on a base, where the receiver portion is configured to engage and retain the connecting member. In at least one embodiment, the accessory further includes a sleeve having a tubular wall defining an opening through the sleeve, where the sleeve is adapted to accept and retain a digit of a user and is mechanically connected to the connecting member.
US09185193B2
A gasket structure including a gasket that is disposed at a connecting portion between a first case and a second case, has a large-width portion at a certain portion of the first case where a key or a terminal is disposed, and is made of a flexible material; and a core member that is attached to at least the large-width portion of the gasket.
US09185174B2
Systems, methods, and computer program products are provided for synchronizing device settings at a mobile device with settings held at a database in a synchronization server. This settings exchange mechanism is further extended to provide versioning information used in an auto upgrade process, in which the synchronization server is configured to push updates to the mobile device. Additional systems, methods, and computer program products are provided for configuring logging preferences on the mobile device from a server, and further for silently retrieving logs generated on the mobile device to the server.
US09185167B2
A device can include at least one processor, and a telemetry module operable by the at least one processor to receive remote sensor data transmitted by a broadcasting device, wherein the remote sensor data is captured by a sensor of the broadcasting device. The system additionally can include a local sensor operable to capture local sensor data, and a sensor analysis module automatically operable by the at least one processor to associate, based at least in part on analysis of the remote sensor data and the local sensor data, the remote sensor data with a user account associated with the computing device.
US09185162B2
Embodiments of the present invention disclose an information transmission method, apparatus, and system, and a terminal, and a server. The information transmission method may include: sending, by a first mobile terminal, an information transmission instruction to a plug-in associated with the first mobile terminal; acquiring, by the plug-in, according to the information transmission instruction, link information of a current webpage in a browser where the plug-in is located, and sending the link information to a server; and acquiring, by the server, webpage information of the current webpage according to the link information, and sending the webpage information of the current webpage to the first mobile terminal. The present invention can implement information transmission, and improve the convenience of information transmission.
US09185158B2
An embodiment of a method includes receiving a request for the content from a requester, retrieving the content from a media access server, and while retrieving the content from the media access server, simultaneously streaming the content to the requester. An embodiment of a system includes an edge server having a media streaming server configured to receive the request and stream the specified content to a requester from a local memory, and a stream caching server configured to retrieve the requested content from a media access server while the media streaming server is streaming at least a specified portion of the content, and wherein the stream caching server is further configured to store the retrieved content in a local cache and notify the media streaming server that content is stored in local cache.
US09185155B2
In one embodiment, a first interface of a switch interconnects with a broadband modem within a wide area network (WAN), while a second interface of the switch interconnects with a WAN interface of a router, where the router provides a gateway between the WAN and a local area network (LAN). Additionally, a web server is provided at the switch, where the web server is reachable to the WAN on the first interface and to the LAN on the second interface. The switch may then inspect traffic received at the first and second interfaces, and determines, based on inspecting, whether to transparently forward the traffic between the first and second interfaces or to redirect the traffic to the web server.
US09185151B2
There is provided a method device and system for streaming media content to a media presentation appliance. There may be provided an appliance specific media stream generator adapted to derive an appliance specific stream from a multicast media stream. The generator may convert a multicast media stream addressed to a set of media presentation appliances into either (1) one or more unicast media streams, wherein each unicast media stream is addressed to a separate media presentation appliance; or (2) a multicast media stream addressed to a subset of the set of media presentation appliances. In both cases, the media content within the derived media stream may be substantially identical to the media content of the original multicast media stream. The generator may also introduce content (e.g. advertising) into the derived media stream(s).
US09185150B2
Systems and methods for sharing an image in a communication session are disclosed. In some aspects, a software application is run on a first computing device, while a communication application is run on the first computing device. The first computing device is associated with a presenter in a communication session implemented via the communication application. That one or more images were added to an image library of the first computing device since a time when the communication application started running on the first computing device is determined, using the communication application. The communication application facilitates transmission of at least one of the one or more images to one or more second computing devices. The one or more second computing devices are associated with one or more audience members in the communication session.
US09185141B2
A technique for managing an automatically established roaming agreement between two IMS networks (102, 104) is described, wherein one IMS network (102) supports multiple proxy nodes (302, 106) at the network edge towards the other IMS network (104). A method embodiment of the technique is performed in an I-CSCF (302) of the first IMS network (102) and comprises the steps of receiving (316) a registration request of an UE (306) via a second IMS network (104); sending (324) a roaming information request indicating the second IMS network (104) to a HSS (110) associated with the first IMS network (102); receiving (326) from the HSS (110) a roaming information answer indicating information related to the roaming agreement, and forwarding (328), based on the roaming information answer, the registration request to a second I-CSCF (106) of the first IMS network (102) managing the roaming agreement.
US09185130B2
Provided is a transmission apparatus capable of avoiding unnecessary decryption and preventing a denial-of-service attack. The transmission apparatus that establishes a secure communications channel (SA) between the transmission apparatus and a reception apparatus includes a creation section that creates a packet, an encryption section that, based on a ratio of a redundant packet to the packets created by the packet creation section and on an instruction from the reception apparatus, determines an encryption coverage in the created packet and encrypts data in the encryption coverage, and a transmission section that transmits the encrypted packet through SA.
US09185129B2
A method of protecting a data network from denial of service (DOS) attacks is described. The method may use various network tools to selectively block or disable portions of a data trunk experiencing a DOS attack, thereby preventing the DOS attack from reaching at least some resources on the network. In one embodiment, a network switch identifies a virtual LAN (VLAN) carrying suspect data on a data trunk. The network switch then adjusts a spanning tree for the network so that one or more ports on the compromised VLAN are blocked or disabled, while non-compromised VLANs are allowed to continue carrying data. Other approaches are also presented for avoiding the loss of valid data when a network blocks one or more VLANs or other portions of a network in response to a DOS attack or other intrusion.
US09185124B2
Cyber defense systems and methods protect an enterprise system formed of a plurality of networked components. Connectivity and relationship information indicative of connectivity and behavior of the components are collected. A relationship graph is created based upon the connectivity data and the relationship data, wherein nodes of the relationship graph represent the components and edges of the graph represent connectivity and relationships. At least part of the relationship graph is stored to form a chronology. The relationship graph and the chronology are analyzed to predict connectivity and relationship changes within the enterprise system, and a first anomaly is identified when the current connectivity and relationships do not match the prediction.
US09185116B2
Some embodiments provide methods of providing access to services comprise: receiving, from over a distributed network, a request from a secondary device to access an account; confirming authorization to access the account; identifying one or more primary devices registered with and corresponding to the account in response to confirming authorization to access to the account, where the one or more primary devices are multimedia playback devices; receiving, from the secondary device, a selection of a first primary device of the one or more primary devices, where the first primary device is separate and distinct from the secondary device; identifying services available to the first primary device and configured to be utilized through the first primary device; and providing access, through the secondary device, to the identified services.
US09185105B2
A method and system for single sign-on session management. Functions of session management and client log-in, normally handled by separate system servers, are incorporated as plug-in modules on individual web content servers. In this manner, network traffic to grant and validate client user credentials is reduced or minimized.
US09185102B2
There is provided a method of a server system including identifying a first token and a second token based on an identifier received from a first external information processing apparatus, acquiring data from the first external information processing apparatus with use of the first token, generating a document from the acquired data, transmitting the second token to an authentication processing apparatus, acquiring a verification result of the second token from the authentication processing apparatus, and transmitting the generated document to a second external information processing apparatus with use of the second token.
US09185098B2
A method for verifying an identity of a user includes (a) receiving a request for an identification phrase from a user associated with a user account; (b) selecting the phrase from a pool of phrases and associating the phrase with the user account; (c) sending the phrase to the user; (d) receiving a video recording showing a person reading one or more phrases aloud, and (e) verifying that a phrase read by the person in the video recording corresponds to the selected phrase. A third party may desire verification of the user's identity. The method confirms to the third party the user's identity based on whether or not the phrase read aloud in the video recording matches the randomly selected phrase associated with the user account.
US09185091B2
Software for managing access control functions in a network. The software includes a host that receives access control commands or information and calls one or more methods. The methods perform access control functions and communicate access control results or messages to be transmitted. The host may be installed in a network peer seeking access to the network or in a server controlling access to the network. When installed in a peer, the host receives commands and exchanges information with a supplicant. When installed in an access control server, the host receives commands and exchanges information with an authenticator. The host has a flexible architecture that enables multiple features, such as allowing the same methods to be used for authentication by multiple supplicants, providing ready integration of third party access control software, simplifying network maintenance by facilitating upgrades of authenticator software and enabling access control functions other than peer authentication.
US09185089B2
System and method for key management for issuer security domain using global platform specifications
Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for key management for Issuer Security Domain (ISD) using GlobalPlatform Specifications. A client receives from a server an authorization to update a first ISD keyset. The client encrypts, via a client-side secure element, a second ISD keyset with a server public key. The client sends the encrypted second ISD keyset to the server for updating the first ISD keyset with the encrypted second ISD keyset. Prior to updating, the client generates the first ISD keyset at a vendor and sends the first ISD keyset to the client-side secure element and sends the first ISD keyset encrypted with the server public key to the server. The disclosed method allows for updating of an ISD keyset of which only the client-side secure element and a server have knowledge.
US09185088B1
Techniques are disclosed for secure and efficient communication from a source to a destination through an intermediary. The disclosed techniques employ a source-to-intermediary encryption algorithm to encrypt the communication from the source to the intermediary. The disclosed techniques also employ an intermediary-to-destination encryption algorithm to encrypt the communication from the intermediary to the destination. Thus, a more optimal encryption algorithm may be employed for communication between the intermediary and the destination, even if the more optimal encryption algorithm is not supported by the source. Also, a more optimal encryption algorithm may be employed for communication between the source and the intermediary, even if the more optimal encryption algorithm is not supported by the destination.
US09185085B2
A system that incorporates the subject disclosure may include, for example, a system for receiving a request to modify a universal integrated circuit card, generating a package comprising configuration data for modifying the universal integrated circuit card, encrypting the package with a transport key to generate an encrypted package, transmitting the encrypted package to a communication device communicatively coupled to the universal integrated circuit card to provision the universal integrated circuit card, and providing a mobile network operator trusted service manager system information relating to the configuration data to enable the mobile network operator trusted service manager system to manage content and memory allocation of the universal integrated circuit card. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09185083B1
A method and apparatus for concealing data to be transmitted within an environment. A sound frequency map is identified based on sounds detected within the environment. A number of audio symbols for use in representing a number of data blocks in the data to be transmitted within the environment are selected using the sound frequency map. An encrypted audio signal is formed using the number of audio symbols.
US09185077B2
An isolation proxy server system separates a typical proxy server or reverse proxy server into two physical computing platforms. A first physical platform, a front end proxy server, receives requests from clients on an external network, but is unable to relay requests by originating corresponding requests on an internal network. A second physical platform, a back end proxy client, originates distinct work requests to the front end proxy server. The front end proxy server forwards client requests to the back end proxy client in responses to the distinct work requests it receives from the back proxy client. The back end proxy client relays the client requests to a target server. Thus, the front end proxy server may not originate new requests to the server(s) in the protected zone, and the back end proxy client may not receive new requests from clients or from the front end proxy server.
US09185072B2
An apparatus comprising a memory, and a processor coupled to the memory and configured to receive a mapping rule that associates a downstream internal Internet Protocol version four (IPv4) address prefix to an upstream external IPv4 address prefix, receive a first IPv4 packet from an upstream network node with a destination address field comprising an external IPv4 address comprising the external prefix, and perform a first network address translation IPv4 to IPv4 (NAT44) process by replacing the external IPv4 address in the first IPv4 packet's destination address field with an internal IPv4 address based on the mapping rule, wherein the internal IPv4 address comprises the internal prefix and a port set identifier (ID) associated with set of destination ports at a downstream node assigned to receive the first IPv4 packet.
US09185071B2
Systems are provided including at least one identifier locator network protocol (ILNP) enabled mobile node running Internet protocol version 6 (IPv6). The mobile node is attached to an IPv6 network in an IPv6 domain. The system includes a virtual root server configured to receive a binding identifiers create (BIC) message from a domain name system 64 (DNS64) server associated with the IPv6 network. The BIC message includes an ILNP address of the mobile node running IPv6, a fake ILNP address of a destination device running IPv4 assigned by the DNS64 server and an ILNP address of the DNS64 server. The fake ILNP address includes a full real address of the destination device. The virtual root server is further configures to create a binding between the ILNP address of the mobile node and the fake ILNP address of the destination device; store the binding; and send a binding identifier acknowledgement (BIA) message to the DNS64 server.
US09185070B2
A network includes a first MANET subnet including a first collector node and first client nodes sending first resource status messages to the first collector node. The first collector node maintains a first DNS database based upon the first resource status messages. The network includes a second MANET subnet including a second collector node and second client nodes sending second resource status messages to the second collector node. The second collector node maintains a second DNS database based upon the second resource status messages. The network includes a transit router node sending updates from the first DNS database to the second collector node, and sending updates from the second DNS database to the first collector node. The first and second collector nodes each maintain and synchronize a combined DNS database from the first and second DNS databases, providing resource availability and status throughout the combined network to their respective clients.
US09185060B1
Systems and methods for integrating instant messaging (IM) services and email services are described. In one embodiment, email messages and IM chat session transcripts are threaded to each other so that an email thread history may be traced back to an IM chat session transcript and, conversely, an IM thread history may be traced back to an email message.
US09185057B2
Systems and methods to process packets of information using an on-chip processing system include a memory bank, an interconnect module, a controller, and one or more processing engines. The packets of information include a packet header and a packet payload. The packet header includes one or more operator codes. The transfer of individual packets is guided to a processing engine through the interconnect module and through the controller by operator codes included in the packets.
US09185055B2
An example network system includes a layer two (L2) device and a layer three (L3) device. The L2 device includes a control unit is configured to determine a preferred network path from a first L2 network in which the L2 device resides to an intermediate L3 network in which the L3 device resides that couples the first L2 network to a second L2 network having a second L2 device. The control unit includes a management endpoint (MEP) module. The MEP module executes an operations, administration, and management (OAM) protocol to monitor the first L2 network and output an L2 frame in accordance with the OAM protocol to the L3 device to notify the L3 device that it is within the preferred network path. A MEP module of the L3 device executes an OAM protocol that outputs L2 frames to the L2 device indicating the status of the L3 network.
US09185054B2
A system and method for providing a middleware machine or similar platform. In accordance with an embodiment the system (referred to herein in some implementations as “Exalogic”) comprises a combination of high performance hardware, together with an application server or middleware environment, to provide a complete Java EE application server complex which includes a massively parallel in-memory grid, can be provisioned quickly, and can scale on demand. In accordance with an embodiment, the system can be deployed as a full, half, or quarter rack, or other configuration, that provides an application server grid, storage area network, and InfiniBand network, which support the execution of an application server, middleware or other functionality such as, for example, WebLogic Server, JRockit or Hotspot JVM, Oracle Linux or Solaris, and Oracle VM. Additional features of the system can include, e.g. Zero Buffer Copies, Scatter/Gather I/O, T3 Connections, and Lazy Deserialization.
US09185036B2
A method of controlling data flow in a network includes detecting a congestion condition in the network, sending a congestion message to one or more nodes upstream of the congestion condition, learning address information of one or more nodes pertaining to the congestion condition, sending another congestion message containing these learned MAC addresses and, via the nodes receiving the congestion message with the MAC addresses, controlling a flow of data associated with the learned address information from the congestion message. The learned address information may be the MAC address of a destination node to which the data is flowing towards or a MAC address pair of the nodes between which the data is flowing.
US09185035B2
An apparatus and method for processing a packet in a multi-protocol label switching-transport profile (MPLS-TP) network are provided. In the method of processing a packet, a packet transport layer (PTL) index and a layer stack (LS) or multiple label pop (MPOP) loopback header are used, and it is possible to remove a size limitation on lookup results of a lookup table when multiple labels are stacked, and solve the problem of having to extract all labels as label keys regardless of label operations upon an incoming label map (ILM) table lookup.
US09185025B2
A primary border node (BN) and a standby BN are provided for internetworking two network domains, such that connectivity between the two network domains is maintained when a failure occurs in one of the network domains. The two network domains include an access network that implements MPLS-TP and a core network that implements IP, MPLS, or a combination of both. The primary BN establishes a tunnel from itself to the standby BN, and re-directs network data traffic from itself to the standby BN via the tunnel when it detects that an access node has switched connection from the primary VN to the standby BN. The primary BN also monitors its connections to the core network, and signals access nodes to switch to the standby BN if a failure is detected in these connections.
US09185024B2
A method and a tool based on achievable bandwidth as a metric are provided for selecting paths for overlay construction in an application layer multicast system. An in-band bandwidth probing tool according to the invention can estimate achievable bandwidth, i.e., the data throughput that can be realized between two peers over the transport protocol employed. The tool can determine the amount of extra bandwidth available in the target network path so that excess data traffic can be diverted from congested path without causing new congestion in the target path.
US09185023B2
Systems and methods described herein are directed to solutions for Network on Chip (NoC) interconnects that automatically and dynamically determines the position of hosts of various size and shape in a NoC topology based on the connectivity, bandwidth and latency requirements of the system traffic flows and certain performance optimization metrics such as system interconnect latency and interconnect cost. The example embodiments selects hosts for relocation consideration and determines a new possible position for them in the NoC based on the system traffic specification, shape and size of the hosts and by using probabilistic function to decide if the relocation is carried out or not. The procedure is repeated over new sets of hosts until certain optimization targets are satisfied or repetition count is exceeded.
US09185021B1
The present general inventive concept relates to systems and method for routing electronic messages depending on message content.
US09185016B2
Systems, methods and apparatus for analyzing Internet traffic. In an aspect, a method receives at a server from a client device a report request for a report related to web site traffic; in response to the report request, sends from the server web site traffic data and application code to the client device. The application code has instructions that cause the client device to: generate a report to display the web site traffic data, time the display of the web site traffic data, periodically request updated web site traffic data according to the time of the display, and update the report with the updated web site traffic data; and the method sends from the server to the client device the updated web site traffic data in response to the request for updated web site traffic data.
US09185006B2
Server health and client information are exchanged through headers for request management. Headers in standardized or proprietary protocol communication between servers and a request management module and/or clients and the request management module may be used to exchange server health and client information. The exchanged server health and/or client information may be employed in throttling, routing, and/or load balancing the incoming requests. Rules specified by the client through the header exchange may also be used for throttling, routing, and/or load balancing decisions.
US09184998B2
A network condition prompts a hybrid device to select a new path for a packet stream. A path update may occur in response to a change in network topology or a traffic loading condition (e.g., congestion or saturation of a link in the current path). Path selections may be made at each hybrid device in the path from a source hybrid device to a destination hybrid device. A path update procedure may be dependent upon path selection procedures that are optimized for a hybrid network in which multiple hybrid devices may be utilized for a particular path. Path update for load balancing may be dependent upon whether a packet stream is elastic or non-elastic.
US09184997B2
Subsets of isolated communications networks are selectively merged without merging the entire isolated communications networks, and devices are imported across isolated communications networks without merging the isolated communications networks. The presently disclosed technology provides for improved scalability, performance, and security in logical networks spanning two or more physical communications networks.
US09184995B2
A method of monitoring network traffic includes accessing a network that includes a controller and a switch device having a flow table, wherein the controller is communicatively coupled to the switch device, and is configured to program a behavior of the switch device through an openflow protocol, and obtaining information regarding the programmed behavior of the switch device, wherein the act of obtaining the information is performed by a network appliance that is communicatively coupled to the network. An apparatus communicatively coupled to a network, includes a processor configured for accessing the network that includes a controller and a switch device having a flow table, wherein the controller is communicatively coupled to the switch device, and is configured to program a behavior of the switch device through an openflow protocol, and obtaining information regarding the programmed behavior of the switch device.
US09184992B2
Systems and methods for providing registration at a remote site that may include, for example, a monitoring module that may communicate with a remote site. A registration protocol may be used by the monitoring module and the remote site in generating the messages communicated during the registration process. The monitoring module may gather and generate various identification information to be included in the registration protocol messages. The registration information provided by the monitoring module maybe stored at the remote site in a database server having a database. A confirmation message may be communicated from the remote site to the monitoring module that may either acknowledge successful registration or report that an error occurred during the registration process.
US09184987B2
A people counting system and method for the automatic reconfiguration of a failed people counting sensor device in a people counting system. The system includes a plurality of addressable people counting sensor devices defining a cluster having a master device in communication with at least one slave device, each of the master device and the slave devices having a corresponding Media Access Control (“MAC”) address. The master device is adapted to sequentially transmit power-on commands to each of the slave devices, assign a different node address to each of the slave devices, receive an association of the MAC address of the master device to the node address and MAC address of each of the slave devices to form a cluster configuration, store the cluster configuration as a cluster configuration table, and replicate the cluster configuration table to the slave devices. A dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) server assigns an IP public address to the master device.
US09184986B2
Methods and apparatuses for merging continuity check messages (CCMs) are described. Some embodiments determine multiplexer and de-multiplexer nodes in a network for multiplexing and de-multiplexing CCM traffic. One embodiment creates an optimization problem which when solved identifies nodes in the network that should be configured as multiplexer nodes to multiplex multiple CCMs into a group CCM and/or as de-multiplexer nodes to de-multiplex a group CCM into multiple CCMs. This embodiment uses the solution of the optimization problem to configure nodes in the network as multiplexer nodes and/or as de-multiplexer nodes. Another embodiment determines weights for different paths in the network that can be used for merging CCM traffic, and then merges the CCM traffic based on these weights.
US09184985B2
The invention relates to a method, device (24) in a network node of a communication network (N), a computer program and a computer program product for investigating the correctness of a communication aspect of a data flow (DF1) passing through the network, where the data flow is provided in relation to a user terminal (10) connected to the network. The device (24) obtains at least one network generated event data record (EDR1; EDR3) of a first type and a network generated event data record (EDR2; EDR4) of a second type, compares the event data records of the first type with the event data record of the second type, determines the correctness of the communication aspect based on the comparison and sends alarm messages (AMI, AM2) in relation to the communication aspect if the two types of event data records indicate differences in the communication aspect.
US09184984B2
A home network, in one embodiment including a home wiring system; a demarcation point unit in electrical communication with the home wiring system; and a home network module in electrical communication with the home wiring system. The home network module is adapted for connection to a home electronic device. The demarcation point unit passes data to and receives data from the home electronic device through the home network module.
US09184981B2
A network element (NE) comprising a hypervisor configured to receive a first virtual machine (VM) from a source hypervisor, and send a first VM mobility registration request to a management node, wherein the first VM mobility registration request comprises a VM identifier associated with the first VM and an internet protocol (IP) address associated with the hypervisor. Also disclosed is a management node comprising a binding cache, and a processor, wherein the processor is configured to receive a first VM mobility registration request from a first hypervisor, wherein the first VM mobility registration is associated with a VM, and record VM information from the first VM mobility registration request in an entry of the binding cache.
US09184976B2
Method and system for I/Q mismatch calibration and compensation for wideband communication receivers
Methods and systems for I/Q mismatch calibration and compensation for wideband communication receivers may include receiving a radio frequency (RF) signal in a receiver of a communication device, down-sampling the received RF signal to generate a channel k and its image channel −k at baseband frequencies, and determining average in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) gain and phase mismatch of the channel k and the image channel −k. A curvature of gain mismatch for the channel k and the image channel −k may be estimate utilizing a blind source separation (BSS) estimation algorithm. The average I and Q gain and phase mismatch of the channel k and the image channel −k may be removed. A residual phase tilt and a residual amplitude tilt of the channel k and the image channel −k (with removed average I and Q gain and phase mismatch) may be determined.
US09184971B2
A novel and useful apparatus for and method of packet detection and carrier frequency offset estimation. The packet detection mechanism is robust to channels and sustains reasonable miss-detect (and false alarm) rates at low SNR values. The mechanism uses a modified combined cross correlation and delay and correlate scheme. A delay and correlate scheme is used in order to handle the effects of multipath while swapping integration and multiplication to increase cross-correlation factors resulting in improved sensitivity in low SNR conditions. Correlation is divided into multiple chains to generate a plurality of partial correlations to observe short patterns in the spread sequence resulting in improved performance in long multipath channels.
US09184948B2
A Decision Feedback Equalizer (‘DFE’) that includes: a plurality of input signal lines comprising at least one data signal line and a plurality of power control signal lines; at least one output signal line; and a plurality of independently-controlled isolated power domains, where each independently-controlled isolated power domain is coupled to a corresponding one of the power control signal lines, each of the power control signal lines configured to transmit a power control signal to the independently-controlled isolated power domain dynamically, and each independently-controlled isolated power domain selectively consumes power in response to the power control signal, each independently-controlled isolated power domain configured to be dynamically powered up or powered down without impacting signal processing operations.
US09184945B2
A method for compensating the frequency dependent phase imbalance in a transmitter is provided. The transmitter processes a baseband signal. The method includes the following steps: (a) compensating the baseband signal with a predetermined delay amounts; (b) inputting the compensated baseband signal to an upconversion circuit to generate a radio frequency (RF) signal; (c) inputting the RF signal to a delay information extractor to obtain a correlation value related to the information of the predetermined delay amount; (d) changing the predetermined delay amount and compensating the baseband signal again with the changed predetermined delay amount, and performing steps (b) and (c) again to update the correlation value; and (e) selecting a candidate delay amount from the predetermined delay amount according to the correlation value, and compensating the transmitter by using the candidate delay amount.
US09184938B2
A method of providing services in a communication system. The method comprises: establishing a call instance from a caller terminal to a service provider terminal in the communication system; transmitting from the service provider terminal a service proposal in the form of an electronic document via the established call instance to the caller terminal; selectively accepting or rejecting the service proposal at the caller terminal; and in the case of acceptance of the service proposal, transmitting a request for money to a backend server in the communication system from the caller terminal; transmitting electronic cash tokens from the backend server to the caller terminal in response to the request to receive money; forwarding the electronic cash tokens from the caller terminal to the service provider terminal, whereafter the service provider provides services in accordance with the service proposal.
US09184936B2
Systems and associated methods for estimating wireless workloads are described herein. Systems and methods provide for generating an estimate of a wireless workload's processing requirements from the combined knowledge of system specific values, such as system parameters, platform details, and implementation details. Systems and methods for estimating wireless workloads may be utilized in various wireless protocols, including, 3G, WiMax, LTE, WiFi, femtocells, and point-to-point wireless links. The estimated workloads may be used for scheduling wireless workloads in a shared computing environment.
US09184932B2
A system and method for providing Connectivity Fault Management, CFM, in a Provider Backbone Bridge Traffic Engineering, PBB-TE, telecommunication network utilizing Ethernet-based packet transport. PBB-TE point-to-point and point-to-multipoint services are identified, and PBB-TE maintenance points (31, 41) associated with the identified PBB-TE services are addressed. The addressed PBB-TE maintenance points are modified by adding a PBB-TE Service Demultiplexer (32, 42) to each PBB-TE maintenance point for identifying independent PBB-TE service instances. Basic CFM protocols are enhanced to duplicate the behavior of CFM protocols on virtual local area network, VLAN, based maintenance associations. The PBB-TE maintenance points may be Maintenance association End Points, MEPs, and Maintenance association Intermediate Points, MIPs.
US09184921B2
Input challenge based authentication techniques are described in which data regarding a user's input signature is employed for authentication of the user to access resources. Different users have distinct input signatures that are indicative of the manner in which each individual user provides input including at least typing characteristics and timing data. Data regarding input signatures may be captured from user interaction with computing devices and associated with user accounts. Once sufficient data regarding a user's input signature is captured, access to a user account may be controlled at least in part based on the input signature. To do so, an input challenge that indicates a non-secret pattern of input is presented to the user in connection with an authentication sequence. The user reproduces the non-secret pattern of input and selective access to the user account is granted depending upon whether or not the reproduction matches the input signature.
US09184918B2
Apparatuses, computer readable media, methods, and systems are described for storing a first measurement of a virtualization platform, storing a second measurement of a measured virtual machine, generating a quote using a key, wherein the quote is based on the first measurement and the second measurement, and providing the quote for attesting to authenticity of the virtualization platform and of the measured virtual machine. In a further example, the quote may be generated based on a third measurement of a secure tunnel.
US09184905B2
A phase excursion compensation circuit of a phase modulation signal demodulator detects occurrence of a slip of a received signal from a change in a phase compensation amount that is formed into the received signal by a phase excursion compensation unit, and corrects the phase compensation amount of the received signal after the slip is generated.
US09184900B2
The present invention relates to a wireless access system which supports multiple carriers, and disclosed is a method for coordinating the performance of the multiple carriers and an apparatus for supporting same. The method for coordinating the performance of the multiple carriers according to the present invention broadly consists of two steps. For example, the method comprises the steps of coordinating the basic performance of the multiple carriers in mobile user equipment and coordinating the extended performance of the multiple carriers in the mobile user equipment.
US09184897B2
A method of transmitting data is described comprising selecting a transmission mode from at least a first and a second transmission mode, wherein according to the first transmission mode data is transmitted in at least two first time periods using first communication resources wherein the at least two first time periods are separated by a first time interval, wherein according to the second transmission mode data is transmitted in at least two second time periods using second communication resources wherein the at least two second time periods are separated by a second time interval, and wherein the first time interval is longer than the second and the first communication resources allow the transmission of a higher amount of data than the second communication resources; and transmitting data according to the selected transmission mode.
US09184896B2
The purpose of the present invention is to inhibit an increase in the amount of A/N resources, without changing the timing at which the error detection result of an SCell is notified when UL-DL configurations to be configured for each of the unit bands are different, from the timing at which the error detection result is notified when just a single unit band is configured. A control unit (208) transmits, using a first unit band, a response signal including error detection results about data received with both the first unit band and a second unit band. In a first composition pattern set for the first unit band, an uplink communication subframe is set to be the same timing as at least an uplink communication subframe of a second composition pattern set for the second unit band.
US09184895B2
Disclosed are a method and an apparatus of interference alignment in a cellular network. The method of interference alignment in the cellular network includes: receiving, by a base station, an improper signal from a terminal; and decoding, by the base station, the improper signal based on an improper decoding vector, wherein the improper signal is a signal generated by only a modulation symbol corresponding to a real number value, the improper decoding vector is determined based on an improper precoding vector, and the improper precoding vector has only the real value and separates a real number space and an imaginary number space of a received signal.
US09184891B2
A wireless base station apparatus and wireless terminal apparatus with a configuration which can prevent reductions in the accuracy of channel estimation when non-contiguous band transmission and SRS transmission are employed in an uplink line. In the base station apparatus (100), an allocation setting unit (106), which sets the reception band of an SRS at an SRS extraction unit (103) and sets the units of frequency allocation (RBG) at a CQI estimation unit (104) and allocation unit (105), matches the frequency position at the end of the SRS reception band to the frequency position at the end of any of the units of frequency allocation and sets the reception bandwidth of the reference signal to a natural number multiple of the bandwidth of the unit of frequency allocation. In the terminal apparatus (200), a band information setting unit (204), which sets the transmission band and units of frequency allocation (RBG), matches the frequency position at the end of the transmission band to the frequency position at the end of any of the units of frequency allocation and sets the transmission bandwidth of the SRS to a natural number multiple of the bandwidth of the unit of frequency allocation.
US09184887B2
The present invention relates to a base station, and to a terminal connection method for the base station. The terminal connection method for the base station according to one embodiment of the present invention comprises: a step of connecting to a terminal; an information extracting step of extracting information for determining a timeout value of the connection of the terminal when the connection to the terminal is completed; and a time-out setting step of setting a time-out value of the terminal according to the extracted information. According to the one embodiment of the present invention, the base station may efficiently utilize resources and overhead expenses for connection setup may be reduced.
US09184885B2
Disclosed are a method and device for data exchanging, and relates to communication technology. The embodiments of the present application includes: pre-allocating virtual resource to user terminals, and activating the virtual resource in case of need, so user terminals can use the pre-allocated resource to exchange data with network side. When inactive, the virtual resource can allocated to other users. For small data, irregular service, pre-allocation of virtual resource and activating it in case of need, can improve efficiency of use of resource. Meanwhile, dividing users into groups and scheduling by groups can reduce control overhead.
US09184860B2
The present disclosure discloses a time synchronization method. In the method, a first node sends a first time packet at a first time over a first working wavelength; a second node receives the first time packet at a second time. The first node sends a second time packet at a third time over a second working wavelength. The second node receives the second time packet at a fourth time; calculates an absolute time deviation between the second node and the first node according to the first time, the second time, the third time, the fourth time, a first signal transmission rate corresponding to the first working wavelength, and a second signal transmission rate corresponding to the second working wavelength, and synchronizes the local time between the second node and the first node. Further, a time synchronization system and a node device are disclosed.
US09184844B2
An optical network system for controlling a passive optical network (PON) in which at least one symmetric optical subscriber terminal and at least one asymmetric optical subscriber terminal coexist is provided.
US09184841B2
An optical communication system, a transmitter, a receiver, and methods of operating the same are provided. In particular, a transmitter is disclosed as being configured to encode optical signals in accordance with a multi-level coding scheme. The receiver is configured to provide skew correction to the optical signals received from the transmitter by dividing a received signal into separate level-specific components and sampling each of the components with distinct sampling blocks.
US09184835B2
A hub device detects, using a plurality of different wireless communication interfaces, the presence of a plurality of different wireless devices, wherein, initially, each of the plurality of different wireless devices implements an unknown type of wireless connectivity. The hub device detects a type of wireless connectivity, of a plurality of different types of wireless connectivity, for each of the plurality of different wireless devices whose presence is detected, and causes a connection to be established to the plurality of different wireless devices, via selected ones of the plurality of different wireless communication interfaces, based on the type of wireless connectivity detected for each of the plurality of different wireless devices. The hub device forwards data received from one of the plurality of different wireless devices to another of the plurality of different wireless devices using two different ones of the plurality of different types of wireless connectivity.
US09184831B2
A mobile communication method according to the present invention comprising a step A in which, when a predetermined trigger is detected, the radio base station DeNB notifies the relay node RN of a transmission timing of an MBSFN subframe by a signal for changing the configuration of an RRC connection that is set between the radio base station DeNB and the relay node RN, a step B in which the radio base station DeNB performs scheduling such that a downlink signal is transmitted to the relay node RN at the transmission timing of the MBSFN subframe, and a step C in which the relay node RN performs scheduling such that a downlink signal is transmitted at a timing other than the transmission timing of the MBSFN subframe.
US09184828B2
When multiple communication terminals access a base station in CDMA in which transmission signals are spread with orthogonal codes, the orthogonal codes in CDMA signals transmitted from the communication terminals are synchronized on the communication path. The communication terminals each include an information acquirer acquiring reference time information common to the multiple communication terminals, a transmission time generator generating a chip clock on the basis of the time information, an orthogonal code generator generating orthogonal codes in time with the timing of the chip clock, a CDMA spreader spreading transmission signals with the orthogonal codes to generate code division multiple access signals, a carrier wave generator generating a carrier wave, and a BPSK modulator modulating the carrier wave generated by the carrier wave generator with the code division multiple access signals and transmitting the carrier wave.
US09184820B2
A space-time signal processing system with advantageously reduced complexity. The system may take advantage of multiple transmitter antenna elements and/or multiple receiver antenna elements, or multiple polarizations of a single transmitter antenna element and/or single receiver antenna element. The system is not restricted to wireless contexts and may exploit any channel having multiple inputs or multiple outputs and certain other characteristics. Multi-path effects in a transmission medium cause a multiplicative increase in capacity.
US09184816B2
Transmission quality is improved in an environment in which direct waves dominate in a transmission method for transmitting a plurality of modulated signals from a plurality of antennas at the same time. All data symbols used in data transmission of a modulated signal are precoded by hopping between precoding matrices so that the precoding matrix used to precode each data symbol and the precoding matrices used to precode data symbols that are adjacent to the data symbol in the frequency domain and the time domain all differ. A modulated signal with such data symbols arranged therein is transmitted.
US09184807B2
A method and corresponding receiver product, the method including: receiving a plurality of data streams over a wireless multiple-input-multiple-output data channel, whereby each data stream is received at all of a plurality of receive antennas from all of a plurality of transmit antennas with a respective weighting having been applied to each stream as transmitted from each different transmit antenna; receiving a common pilot signal over a common pilot channel; receiving an indication of the weightings; extracting the individual data streams from the plurality received at the receive antennas; and using the weightings and the common pilot signal together with information regarding the extracted data streams to calculate, for each of the streams, an estimate of signal power relative to interference from the one or more others of the data streams.
US09184798B2
A near field communications (NFC) device is disclosed that is capable of optimizing a gain for received signals. Measurements are made of signals received from an NFC environment and are compared to one or more threshold hold values. Based on the comparison, it is determined whether the measurements indicate underamplification or overamplification. Depending on the results of the analysis, one or more components within the NFC device is adjusted to increase or decrease the gain, respectively. The measurements may be taken during an unloaded baseline state or during loading, and may be compared to previous measurements to estimate their accuracy.
US09184797B1
An apparatus that enables a train or trailer vehicle to communicate with other vehicles in the same train without using vehicle identifiers other than the relative positions of the two vehicles within the train. It uses short-range communication methodologies to communicate signals between a vehicle and the adjacent vehicle. Vehicles in the same train that are not adjacent intercommunicate via relay.
US09184796B2
An apparatus and a method for operating antennas. A terminal includes a plurality of short range wireless communication antennas, each antenna disposed on different surface or in a vicinity of the different surface of the terminal, and a short range wireless communication control module configured to control to select at least one of the plurality of short range wireless communication antennas.
US09184793B2
The present invention relates to a power-line-communication adapter including a main functional unit (PLTC) supplied with direct voltage by an internal voltage converter (AC/DC), characterized in that said adapter includes at least one switch (I1, I2) for interrupting the direct current supply to the main unit (PLTC) while the adapter is operating in standby mode.
US09184787B2
In one embodiment, a programmable vector processor performs preamble detection in a wireless communication network. Implementation of preamble detection in the vector processor is made possible by a set of vector instructions that include (i) a circular load instruction for loading vectors of received data, (ii) a correlation instruction for correlating the vectors of received data with vectors of the scrambling code to concurrently generate a plurality of complex correlations, (iii) a partial-transpose instruction for arranging vectors of the complex correlations for use by a Fast Hadamard Transform (FHT) processor, and (iv) an FHT instruction for performing FHT processing on a vector of complex correlations. Implementing preamble detection in the vector processor allows more of the received data to be processed concurrently. As a result, preamble detectors of the disclosure may detect preambles using fewer clock cycles than that of comparable preamble detectors implemented using hardware accelerators.
US09184782B2
A high-frequency module includes first and second demultiplexers and a band elimination filter. The first and second demultiplexers include common terminals, transmission filters, and reception filters, respectively. In the band elimination filter, a demultiplexer-side terminal is connected to the common terminal of the first demultiplexer. The band elimination filter includes a first pass band, and a second pass band and a stop band that are located adjacent to each other within the first pass band. The band elimination filter is configured so that the second pass band includes the pass band of each of the transmission filter and the reception filter in the first demultiplexer and the stop band includes the pass band of the transmission filter in the second demultiplexer.
US09184777B2
A vehicle computing system enables one or more processers to communicate with a service center and present service instructions to an output device at the vehicle. The output device presenting information may include, but is not limited to, a vehicle occupant's cell phone device. The vehicle computing system may include a wireless transceiver for communicating wireless signals to and from the vehicle computing system. The vehicle computing system may establish wireless communication with a service center communication system through the transceiver and transmit vehicle identification to the service center communication system. The vehicle computing system may receive data from the service center communication system including service instructions in response to the vehicle identification transmission, and present the service instructions on the output device.
US09184757B2
Systems, devices, and methods for continuous-time digital signal processing and signal representation are disclosed. This includes a continuous-time analog-to-digital converter that is configured to receive an analog signal and convert it to a continuous-time digital signal without using a clock or any type of sampling. This A/D conversion can include a per-level representation and a per-edge representation of the analog signal to produce a digital signal. The digital signal can then be processed in a continuous-time signal processor. The continuous time signal representation and processing can have benefits such a providing filters in high frequency applications where sampling is not practical.
US09184750B1
Digital circuits are disclosed that may include multiple transistors having controllable current paths coupled between first and second logic nodes. One or more of the transistors may have a deeply depleted channel formed below its gate that includes a substantially undoped channel region formed over a relatively highly doped screen layer formed over a doped body region. Resulting reductions in threshold voltage variation may improve digital circuit performance. Logic circuit, static random access memory (SRAM) cell, and passgate embodiments are disclosed.
US09184747B2
A member for an electrostatic capacitance-type sensor which suppresses a decrease in the variation amount of the electrostatic capacitance caused between an input body and the electrode through a proximate operation or a touch operation by the input body and has a metallic luster appearance which does not degrade with time, and is economical, and an electrostatic capacitance-type sensor using the same. The disclosed member includes a sheet member having an operation surface S on which a proximate operation or a touch operation by an input body is carried out and an electrode which is disposed on the opposite side of the operation surface of the sheet member, in which the sheet member includes a decorative layer having a metallic luster, and the decorative layer is a continuous film made of silicon or an alloy of silicon and a metal.
US09184746B2
A contactless switch provided by the present disclosure is coupled to a signal input device and receives a magnetic signal generated by a magnetic trigger mechanism. The contactless switch includes: a magnetic sensor, for sensing the magnetic signal and generating a corresponding trigger control signal; a controller, for generating a switch signal according to the trigger control signal; and a mode switch module, for processing the input signal to generate an output signal according to the switch signal.
US09184742B2
The present document discloses a driver circuit for the high side switch of a half bridge at ultra-high voltage. The half bridge comprises the high side switch coupled to an input voltage Vin and to a midpoint of a low side switch. The driver circuit comprises a control signal generation unit generating a stream of control pulses and a control logic generating a gate voltage for the high side switch using a supply voltage Vcc based on the control pulses, a supply voltage capacitor generating the supply voltage Vcc, and a decoupling capacitor coupled on a first side to the control signal generation unit and on a second side to the control logic, to the midpoint of the half bridge via a first charging switch, and to the supply voltage capacitor via a second charging switch.
US09184740B2
A power circuit including a current-limiting semi-conductor switch and a control system connected to the current-limiting semi-conductor switch and configured to bias the semi-conductor switch into conduction and into cut-off. The control system further comprises a short-circuit protection circuit configured to detect and evaluate the voltage drop via the current-limiting semi-conductor switch.
US09184733B2
Systems and methods for operating transistors near or in the sub-threshold region to reduce power consumption are described herein. In one embodiment, a method for low power operation comprises sending a clock signal to a flop via a clock path comprising a plurality of transistors, wherein the clock signal has a high state corresponding to a high voltage that is above threshold voltages of the transistors in the clock path. The method also comprises sending a data signal to the flop via a data path comprising a plurality of transistors, wherein the data signal has a high state corresponding to a low voltage that is below threshold voltages of the transistors in the data path. The method further comprises latching the data signal at the flop using the clock signal.
US09184730B2
A dynamic feed-forward OPAMP-based circuit is provided. A first amplifying stage amplifies a pair of input differential signals to provide a pair of intermediate differential signals. A second amplifying stage amplifies the pair of intermediate differential signals to provide a pair of output differential signals. A first capacitor is coupled to a non-inverting input terminal of the first amplifying stage. A second capacitor is coupled to an inverting input terminal of the first amplifying stage. A feed-forward transconductance stage is coupled between the first and second capacitors and the second amplifying stage. The first and second capacitors and the feed-forward stage form a high-frequency path with a first gain curve, and the first amplifying stage and the second amplifying stage form a high-gain path with a second gain curve. The operational amplifier provides an open-loop gain according to the first and second gain curves.
US09184724B2
Provided is a bulk acoustic wave resonator (BAWR). The BAWR may include a bulk acoustic wave resonance unit and an anti-resonant frequency modifying unit to modify an anti-resonant frequency generated from the bulk acoustic wave resonance unit.
US09184723B2
An electromagnetic resonance coupler includes: a transmitting resonator provided on a transmission substrate and having an open loop shape having an opening, first wiring provided on the transmission substrate and connected to a first connection point on the transmitting resonator, a receiving resonator provided on a reception substrate, second wiring provided on the reception substrate and connected to a second connection point on the receiving resonator, and third wiring provided on the reception substrate and connected to a third connection point on the receiving resonator. When viewed in a direction perpendicular to a main surface of the transmission substrate, the transmission substrate and the reception substrate face each other so that the transmitting resonator and the receiving resonator are symmetric about a point and have matching contours.
US09184720B2
A laminate defining a high-frequency laminated component includes a ground electrode on a bottom surface of a lowermost insulating layer. A second insulating layer includes an inner-layer ground electrode arranged over substantially the entire surface thereof. A portion from a third insulating layer to a fifth insulating layer is provided with a capacitor electrode defining a series capacitor of a ground impedance adjustment circuit and capacitor electrodes defining a first parallel capacitor and a second parallel capacitor. A sixth insulating layer has an inner-layer ground electrode provided over substantially the entire surface thereof. The inner-layer ground electrodes are arranged in electrical continuity with the ground electrode by via holes.
US09184714B2
A circuit and method for decoupling the perceived tone and volume of an amplified musical signal, such as a guitar amplifier, and allowing for the operator to achieve the desired sonic tone, texture and dynamic feel while separately controlling the overall perceived volume level of the amplifier device.
US09184710B2
Digital predistortion (“DPD”) of an RF power amplifier for signals comprising two widely spaced carrier clusters is proposed. The basis waveforms within the DPD are selected to allow for the use of a lower sampling rate. As one example, multi-carrier signals spanning 60 MHz of bandwidth may be linearized using a sample rate of 100 MHz for the DPD module and the observation path, as opposed to a sample rate exceeding 300 MHz (5 times Nyquist) used conventionally. A transmit (Tx) filter is located after the power amplifier to attenuate distortion modes exceeding the sampling rate used.
US09184709B2
An arrangement and a method for improving the efficiency of a multistage switching amplifier using a resonant circuit element is presented. The multistage amplifier comprises a pre-driver amplifier, a final stage amplifier and a series L-C arrangement coupled between the pre-driver amplifier and the final stage amplifier. The series L-C arrangement forms a parallel L-C resonant circuit with a gate to source capacitor of an input transistor of the final stage amplifier. An oscillation of energy takes place between the gate to source capacitor of the input transistor of the final stage amplifier and the series L-C arrangement. This oscillation of energy provides the final stage amplifier with driving current and improves efficiency of the overall multistage amplifier arrangement.
US09184707B2
An amplifier having a switchable common gate gain buffer is disclosed. In an exemplary embodiment, an apparatus includes a plurality of selectable gain channels that provide constant input impedance at a common input to receive an input signal and generate an output signal having at least one of selected gain and current characteristics. At least two gain channels utilize transistors having different transconductance values. The apparatus also includes at least one impedance network coupled to at least one gain channel to provide the constant input impedance.
US09184705B2
A method and an amplifier for amplifying audio signals include a signal processor for processing incoming audio samples in preparation for amplification by an electronic amplifier circuit. A voltage is received from a power supply. Before the signal processor completes processing the incoming audio samples, an input level is estimated based on the incoming audio samples. In response to a comparison between the estimated input level and a threshold value, it is determined whether to boost the voltage received from the power supply. After the signal processor completes processing the incoming audio samples, an output level is estimated based on the processed audio samples. A determination is made, in response to the estimated output level, whether to adjust the threshold value used to determine whether to boost the voltage received from the power supply.
US09184703B2
A power amplifier using N-way Doherty structure with adaptive bias supply power tracking for extending the efficiency region over the high peak-to-average power:ratio of the multiplexing modulated signals such as wideband code division multiple access and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing is disclosed. In an embodiment, present invention uses a dual-feed distributed structure to an N-way Doherty amplifier to improve the isolation between at least one main amplifier and at least one peaking amplifier and, and also to improve both gain and efficiency performance at high output back-off power. Hybrid couplers can be used at either or both of the input and output. In at least some implementations, circuit space is also conserved due to the integration of amplification, power splitting and combining.
US09184702B2
An amplifier circuit with a peak-to-average ratio detector is described. Detection of the peak-to-average ratio value can be used to tune one or more parameters that affect linearity of one or more amplifiers in the amplifier circuit to improve amplifier performance.
US09184694B2
Systems and methods for disposing and supporting a solar panel array are disclosed. The embodiments comprise various combinations of cables, support columns, and pod constructions in which to support solar panels. The solar panels can incorporate single or dual tracking capabilities to enhance sunlight capture. The embodiments encourage dual land use in which installation of the systems minimizes disruption of the underlying ground. Supplemental power may be provided by vertical axis windmills integrated with the columns. Special installations of the system can include systems mounted over structures such as parking lots, roads and aqueducts. Simplified support systems with a minimum number of structural elements can be used to create effective support for solar panel arrays of varying size and shapes. These simplified systems minimize material requirements and labor for installation of the systems.
US09184689B2
A motor control device which controls rotation of a motor to which an object to be controlled is connected through a link mechanism, the motor control device comprising: a parameter input means configured to input information about operation start and end positions of the object to be controlled and parameters necessary for controlling the motor including at least rotation speed information of the motor; a position detection means configured to detect a position of the object to be controlled; and a driving control means configured to calculate a deceleration start position from the information about the operation start and end positions to drive the motor, and to perform a subtraction operation on the target rotation speed when it is detected that the object to be controlled has reached the deceleration start position to drive the motor.
US09184686B2
An ECU in an electric power generation control system obtains a vehicle state containing a battery state and a driving state of a motor vehicle. The ECU calculates charging parameters necessary for maintaining a residual charge of a battery and vibration suppression parameters necessary for suppressing vibration of a vehicle. An exciting current setting section as a function of the ECU determines an exciting current flowing in an excitation winding of an alternator on the basis of the charging parameters and the vibration suppression parameters.
US09184684B2
A motor driving circuit for driving a motor includes: a driving-stage circuit, for converting an input voltage into a first output voltage and a second output voltage, and comprising a first transistor, a second transistor, a third transistor and a fourth transistor; an output stage circuit, for converting the first output voltage or the second output voltage into a motor speed signal; and a control unit, coupled to the first, the second, the third and the fourth transistors and the output stage circuit, for generating first, second, third and fourth transistor control signals to control the first, the second, the third and the fourth transistors respectively.
US09184680B2
Motor Drive Control Device configured to properly start up various types of motors under operating conditions where motor operations are performed in a wide range of temperature and power supply voltage, includes output drive controllers that supply PWM drive output signals to an output pre-driver in such a manner as to minimize the error between a current instruction signal and a current detection digital signal. In response to a detected induced voltage generated from a voltage detector upon startup of a motor, an initial acceleration controller supplies initial acceleration output signals specifying a conducting phase for initial acceleration of the motor to the output drive controllers. The initial acceleration controller, the output drive controllers, and an output driver make a conducting phase change and perform a PWM drive to provide the initial acceleration of the motor.
US09184677B2
Provided is a lens barrel includes a vibration actuator that drives a focusing lens which brings a subject image into focus; an amplifying section that applies a pair of driving signals amplified to the vibration actuator; a phase shifting section that changes a phase difference between the pair of the driving signals; and a control section that, when a signal for giving an instruction to drive the vibration actuator is input, executes a first processing of causing the phase shifting section to perform an operation which periodically changes the phase difference of the pair of the driving signals.
US09184673B2
A method for controlling a switching device of a multilevel converter includes dynamically selecting a carrier and generating a switching signal to effect a switching event of the switching device based on a comparison of the dynamically selected carrier with a reference signal. The carrier is dynamically selected from a multiple carriers, each corresponding to one of multiple contiguous bands into which range of a waveform of the reference signal is divided. The carriers corresponding to different bands have differing waveform shapes. The dynamically selected carrier corresponds to the band instantaneously occupied by the reference signal. The dynamic selection is executed whereby whenever there is a transition of the reference signal from a first band to a second band, the carriers for the first and second bands are selected dependent on a slope of the reference signal waveform at the transition.
US09184666B2
A system and method include a controller that reduces power dissipated by a switch, such as a source-controlled field effect transistor, when an estimated amount of power dissipated by the switch exceeds a predetermined threshold. Reducing the power dissipated by the switch prevents damage to the switch due to overheating. The controller determines the estimated amount of power dissipated by the switch using actual drain-to-source current and drain voltage data. In at least one embodiment, the controller includes a fail-safe, estimated power dissipation determination path that activates when the drain voltage data fails a reliability test. Additionally, in at least one embodiment, the controller includes a model of thermal characteristics of the switch. In at least one embodiment, the controller utilizes real-time estimated power dissipation by the switch and the model to determine when the estimated power dissipated by the switch exceeds a power dissipation protection threshold.
US09184664B2
A control circuit varies an intermittent oscillation frequency using a period signal. A period signal period signal frequency is set to a frequency lower than the intermittent oscillation frequency, or is set to be higher than the intermittent oscillation frequency and to a frequency other than integer multiples of the intermittent oscillation frequency. The phase difference of the period signal with respect to an intermittent oscillation control signal is set so that the distribution of the intermittent oscillation frequency is dispersed.
US09184660B2
In an aspect, the present invention provides a high frequency switching power converter. The high frequency switching power converter may include a plurality of soft-switchable power cells flexibly connected to receive an input signal in series and provide an output. The high frequency switching power converter may further include a controller for configuring the flexible connection and for controlling the power cells to receive the input signal. In an embodiment, each of the plurality of power cells may be separately controllable by the controller. Further, a portion of the plurality of power cells may be arranged with parallel outputs. Additionally, at least one of the plurality of cells may include one or more switched capacitors. In another embodiment, the at least one of the plurality of cells may include at least one switched capacitor and a DC/DC regulating converter.
US09184656B2
Aspects of the invention provide a switching power supply in which frequency reduction control in a light load condition both in a power factor correction converter and a DC-DC converter restrains energy loss and achieves optimum efficiency. A switching power supply can include a power factor correction converter and a DC-DC converter. The DC-DC converter can include a load condition detecting means for detecting a condition of the load, and a frequency reducing means for reducing a switching frequency in the DC-DC converter when a light load condition is detected by the load condition detecting means. The power factor correction converter can include a frequency reducing means for reducing a switching frequency in the power factor correction converter corresponding to the load condition detected by the load condition detecting means of the DC-DC converter.
US09184655B2
A method and semiconductor device for a resonant power converter includes logic circuitry that performs a dedicated startup sequence when power is first provided to the resonant converter. The logic circuitry can discharge the resonant capacitor, then iteratively pulse only an upper switch during a portion of the startup sequence, and measures the dead time between the half bridge signal starting to fall and the next time it finishes rising. If the dead time is greater that a startup exit value, which is based on the most recent upper switch on-time, then the upper switch on-time is incremented and the process is repeated until the dead time is less than the startup exit value, whereupon the startup logic transitions to conventional symmetric switching.
US09184652B2
Method and apparatus for reducing harmonic distortion. In one embodiment, the method comprises determining an inverter output current waveform; determining a plurality of harmonic components of the inverter output current waveform; determining, based on the plurality of harmonic components, a plurality of harmonic compensation components; and generating a compensating current comprising the plurality of harmonic compensation components.
US09184651B2
A current detection circuit for detecting a current in a SMPS which has a first switch and a second switch; a current sensing circuit sensing a second switch current flowing through the second switch and providing a current sensing signal; and a current emulation circuit which generates a first current according to the current sensing signal and generate a second current according to the first current source, and the current emulation circuit further providing a current emulation signal based on the first current source and the second current source; wherein a current detection signal during a first period is proportional to the current emulation signal, and the current detection signal during a second period is proportional to the current sensing signal.
US09184637B2
A rotor of a rotary electric machine according to the present invention includes: a rotor core arranged on the outer circumferential side of a rotor shaft; and a plurality of magnetic poles fixed to the rotor core and circumferentially arranged on the rotor core, the rotor including a non-magnetic ring attached by insertion to the outer circumference of the plurality of the magnetic poles and having a substantially polygonal shape in outer circumferential shape. The non-magnetic ring is configured such that the inner circumferential length L of the non-magnetic ring before assembly with respect to the length of an envelope L0 of tangent lines each between the outer circumferential surface of the magnetic pole and the outer circumferential surface of the adjacent magnetic pole is set to L≦L0. An object is to obtain the rotor of the rotary electric machine capable of achieving reduction in size and cost.
US09184633B2
A non-contact power supply control device controls power supply to transmit power in a non-contact manner from a ground-side power supply section provided outside a vehicle traveling using stored power to a vehicle-side power receiving section provided to the vehicle. A detection unit detects a living body at the periphery of the ground-side power supply section. A control unit restricts the power supply in a case where the detection unit detects the living body at the periphery of the ground-side power supply section during the power supply operation to the vehicle-side power receiving section.
US09184630B2
In an example embodiment, an automated banking machine causes financial transfers related to financial accounts that correspond to data read from user cards. The automated banking machine also includes devices that control the supply of power to included devices to facilitate the completing a transaction when a decline or loss of power is encountered.
US09184625B1
A method for determining a power sustainability status of a device having one or more solar panels and a battery includes receiving a request to indicate the power sustainability status, measuring a voltage of the battery, and determining a usage level of the device and a low power sustainability threshold. The method further includes computing a remaining capacity of the battery using the voltage of the battery and usage level of the device and computing a light exposure level associated with the one or more solar panels. Additionally, the method includes determining a power sustainability index using at least one of the remaining capacity of the battery or the light exposure level and comparing the power sustainability index to the low power sustainability threshold.
US09184619B2
In accordance with the exemplary embodiments of the invention there are at least a method, apparatus, and executable computer program to perform operations including detecting by an accessory speaker that a mobile device is in proximity to the accessory speaker. In response to the detecting, visually displaying a charging surface on a surface of the accessory speaker, and directing with indicator lights of the charging surface a placement of the mobile device to a specific location of the charging surface to charge the device.
US09184618B2
According to one embodiment, a storage system includes storage devices configured to execute communication by using an identifier, a converter configured to convert the identifier of the storage devices, a controller configured to execute communication with the storage devices via the converter by using the identifier converted by the converter, convert a DC power output from the storage devices into a DC power of a predetermined magnitude and output the DC power, and charge the storage devices with the DC power of the predetermined magnitude, an AC/DC converter configured to convert the DC power output from the controller into an AC power, convert an AC power supplied from a distribution system into a DC power and supply the DC power to the controller, and a controller configured to control the controller and the AC/DC converter.
US09184608B2
An electronic device includes a rechargeable battery, an electrical circuit, a battery safety circuit, and a power down mode circuit. The electrical circuit is configured to generate a power mode control signal. The power down mode circuit receives the power mode control signal. If the power mode control signal has a first value, the power down mode circuit is configured to force a voltage at a first port of the battery safety circuit to a voltage value that is less than an under voltage lock out (UVLO) threshold value of the battery safety circuit to transition the electronic device from a normal operating mode to a low current power down mode. The electronic device may further include a wake up mode circuit.
US09184606B2
A battery charger which includes an input supply terminal configured to receive a supply signal, a battery terminal configured to be connected to a battery, at least one output terminal and an electrical path between the battery terminal and the output terminal, at least one device for the detection of one alarm condition of the battery or the battery charger. The battery charger includes circuitry configured to enable the at least one detection device at timing intervals when the battery supplies the at least one output terminal.
US09184593B2
Embodiments of the present invention feature storing excess energy from solar, wind, wave, tidal and geothermal energy sources and combinations thereof in the form of upgraded fossil fuels.
US09184589B2
Power flow in an electric power network is optimized during multiple time periods of operation of the electric power network by solving an optimization problem represented by an objective function by first initializing variables and constraints of a branch and bound (BB) tree, wherein nodes in the BB tree represent feasible regions of the optimization problem. Upper and lower bounds on the objective function are solved using the BB tree. A lowest upper bound and a lowest upper bound are updated. If difference between the lowest lower bound and the lowest upper bound is less than a threshold, the power flow is outputted based on the lowest lower bound and the lowest upper bound.
US09184585B2
The invention relates to a static converter connected between an electrical voltage source and an electrical load, said converter including a main static conversion arm comprising an output electronic switching cell and a backup conversion arm having identical structures. The static converter includes a pair of fuses connected on either side of the main arm, and a switching circuit comprising a connection element connecting the backup arm to the connection points between the fuses and the input terminals of the main arm, such that, when a fault occurs on one of the switching cells forming the main arm, a stable conductive link is established between the two fuses, the main arm is isolated by the two fuses, and the backup arm is spontaneously connected to the output of the main arm via the conductive line and replaces the main arm.
US09184584B2
A device includes a first thyristor element configured to be coupled to a first voltage line and a second voltage line, wherein the first voltage line is configured to transmit power in a first phase and the second voltage line is configured to transmit power in a second phase. The device includes a second thyristor element configured to be coupled to the second voltage line and a third voltage line, wherein the third voltage line is configured to transmit power in a third phase. The device includes a third thyristor element configured to be coupled to the first voltage line and the third voltage line.
US09184582B2
Method for operating a fail operational power system for a vehicle includes monitoring a first voltage on a first power distribution path and a second voltage on a second power distribution path. An isolator switch controllably operative between open and closed states is monitored. The closed state connects the first and second power distribution paths and the open state opens the connection between the first and second power distribution paths. Each of the monitored first and second voltages is compared to a reference voltage. When a predetermined operating mode requiring fail operational power is enabled, the isolator switch is controlled to the open state when at least one of the monitored first and second voltages violates the reference voltage and the isolator switch is controlled to the closed state when neither one of the monitored first and second voltages violates the reference voltage.
US09184575B2
Devices and methods are disclosed for gaining access to optical fibers contained within a fiber optic cable. Specifically, a cable entry tool can include a first jaw that can have a substantially V-shaped first channel formed therein, a first cutting element extending into the first channel and movable to any of a variety of depths, a second jaw positioned opposing the first jaw and that can have a substantially V-shaped second channel formed therein, and a second cutting element extending into the second channel and movable to any of a variety of depths. The first channel and the second channel can be movable with respect to each other for receiving therebetween a buffer tube having any of a variety of tube diameters.
US09184571B2
An electrical enclosure that includes a dead front and a lockout switch is described herein. The lockout switch detects the position of the dead front. Based on the detected position of the dead front, the lockout switch actuates a power disconnection mechanism. In one embodiment, the disconnection mechanism is a shunt trip breaker that trips at least one circuit breaker when actuated by the lockout switch detecting removal of the dead front. The shunt trip breaker receives power from a main conductor to a coil that moves a solenoid.
US09184564B2
An external resonator type light emitting system includes a light source oscillating a semiconductor laser light and a grating device providing an external resonator with the light source. The light source includes an active layer oscillating the semiconductor laser light. The grating device includes an optical waveguide having an incident face to which the semiconductor laser is incident and an emitting face of emitting an emitting light of a desired wavelength, a Bragg grating formed in the optical waveguide, and a propagating portion provided between the incident face and the Bragg grating. Formulas (1) to (4) are satisfied.
US09184554B2
Devices and methods for lessening a thermal dependence of gain profile of an optical amplifier are disclosed. An optical beam is split in two sub-beams with a thermally variable power splitting ratio. One sub-beam travels a longer optical path length than the other. When the two sub-beams are recombined, they interfere with each other, causing the throughput to be wavelength dependent. An amplitude of this wavelength dependence is thermally variable due to the thermally variable power splitting ratio. The thermally variable power splitting ratio and the optical path length difference are selected so as to offset a thermal variation of a spectral gain profile of an optical amplifier.
US09184551B2
A laser apparatus may include a master oscillator, an optical unit provided in a beam path of a laser beam from the master oscillator, a beam adjusting unit provided upstream from the optical unit in a beam path of the laser beam and configured for adjusting at least one of a beam path and a wavefront of the laser beam, a first detection unit provided between the beam adjusting unit and the optical unit in a beam path of the laser beam and configured for detecting the laser beam, a second detection unit provided downstream from the optical unit in a beam path of the laser beam and configured for detecting the laser beam, and a controller configured for controlling the beam adjusting unit based on outputs from the first and second detection units.
US09184538B1
An improved electrical conduit is disclosed for conveying an electrical current between a male plug and a female receptacle. The electrical conduit comprises a substitute male plug for engaging with the female receptacle. A substitute locking clip is pivotably mounted to the substitute male plug engaging with the locking clip receiver for preventing inadvertent removal of the substitute male plug from the female receptacle. A substitute female clip engages with the male plug. A flexible electrical conduit couples the substitute male plug and the substitute female clip for transmitting the electrical current between the male plug and the female receptacle.
US09184535B2
An electrical connector includes an outer conductive member including a cylindrical member and an outer lid portion for covering the cylindrical member; an insulation member disposed in the outer conductive member; and a terminal disposed in the insulation member. The insulation member includes a main body portion retained in the cylindrical member, a middle lid portion for pressing a center conductive member of a coaxial cable and a cut portion formed between the main body portion and the middle lid portion. The terminal includes a contact portion for contacting with the center conductive member and an engaging portion for engaging with a mating connector, so that the middle lid portion is bent at the cut portion to press the center conductive member against the contact portion when the outer lid portion is bent to cover the cylindrical member and push the middle lid portion.
US09184531B2
A receptacle connector is provided and includes an insulating case, a securing device and a cover. The insulating casing includes a plurality of terminal receiving passageways, a plug receiving space, a pair of protrusions on two sides of the plug receiving space. A securing device receiving space is disposed on one of the two sides. The securing device includes a horizontal portion, a first vertical portion and a second vertical portion extending downward from the horizontal portion, a first soldering portion extending horizontally from the first vertical portion, a second soldering portion extending horizontally from the second vertical portion. An engagement portion is positioned between the first vertical portion and the second vertical portion. The cover is pivotally connected to the insulating casing and includes a first protrusion receiving passageway and a second protrusion receiving passageway which communicate with each other and correspond in position with the pair of protrusions.
US09184527B2
A socket housing and method of making the socket housing. A plurality of dielectric layers are printed with a plurality of recesses on a substrate. The dielectric layers include at least two different dielectric materials. A sacrificial material is printed in the recesses. The assembly is removed from the substrate and the sacrificial material is removed from the recesses. At least one contact member is located in a plurality of the recesses. Distal ends of the contact members are adapted to electrically couple with circuit members.
US09184518B2
An LED-based light configured for replacing a conventional fluorescent light in a fluorescent light fixture comprises: an LED circuit board including at least one LED; a power supply circuit board configured to supply power to the at least one LED; an end cap carrying at least one pin configured for connection to the fixture; a pin connector header including a first body retentively supporting at least one pin connecting lead and configured to engage the power supply circuit board such that the pin connecting lead is positioned to electrically connect the power supply circuit board and the pin; and a circuit connector header including a second body retentively supporting at least one circuit connecting lead and configured to engage the power supply circuit board such that the circuit connecting lead is positioned to electrically connect the power supply circuit board and the LED circuit board.
US09184517B1
An electrical connector electrically connects two or more conductors in end to end orientation such that a bared end of each conductor is positioned within a hollow crimp barrel and crimped therein. The crimp barrel is held within a heat shrinkable sleeve that is crystal clear. Openings on either side of a stop within the crimp barrel allow for visual access into the central channel within the crimp barrel to assure proper placement and subsequent crimping of the conductors.
US09184510B2
An antenna structure for a vehicle may include an electrically conductive structure arranged on two insulating substrate plates that are arranged perpendicularly to each other and intersect each other. A dipole is provided on each electrically conductive structure. The dipoles form a first U-shaped dipole structure on each of the two substrate plates. On an upper edge region of each of the substrate plates, the dipole structure has a line element, and on the lateral regions of the substrate plate, the dipole structure has electrically conductive limbs. The electrically conductive structure has a monopole arranged asymmetrically to the dipole structure for respectively feeding the dipole.
US09184503B2
Patch antennas for signals of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) are described. A compact antenna system reduces directional diagram level in the rear hemisphere primarily for cross-polarized (left hand circularly-polarized) component. It can be used for reducing multipath reception. The antenna receives GNSS signals and includes a patch circularly-polarized radiator consisting of a radiating patch, a ground plane under it and a loop radiator coaxially located around the patch radiator. The loop radiator is excited by a separate power circuit or by a passive method where LHCP waves of MP and loop radiators in the rear hemisphere would be anti-phase added. A dual-band antenna system includes an active HF radiator, under which there is an active LF radiator under which there is a passive LF radiator, a loop HF radiator being coaxially located around the active HF radiator.
US09184501B2
The reconfigurable multiband antenna includes the main antenna element connected to a feeding point to receive and transmit a radio signal, the at least one parasitic antenna element being placed on the side of the main antenna element. The at least one parasitic antenna is connected to the main antenna element or they are connected to each other by at least one RF switch. By changing the ON-OFF combination of the RF switches, the connection between the main antenna element and the parasitic antenna element is changed, thereby changing the resonance frequencies of the entire antenna. By this technique, the entire antenna functions as a reconfigurable multiband antenna.
US09184500B2
A communication device including a ground element and an antenna element is provided. The antenna element is adjacent to an edge of the ground element. The antenna element has a projection on the edge of the ground element. The antenna element includes a radiation element, a feeding element, and a shorting element. The radiation element has a first end and a second end, and the second end is open. The radiation element has plural bends such that the second end is adjacent to the first end. One end of the feeding element is coupled through a capacitive element to a connection point on the radiation element, and the connection point is adjacent to or at the first end. Another end of the feeding element is coupled to a signal source. The feeding element includes a first segment which is substantially parallel to the edge of the ground element.
US09184499B2
The present disclosure relates a method for performing hybrid beamforming in a wireless communication device or any device that uses signal phase shifting for transmission and/or reception. The method comprises performing phase shifting in at least two different domains (or paths), each characterized by an operational frequency, in the communication device. More in particular, the disclosure relates in a first aspect to a method for performing at a receiver beamforming on a beam of incoming signals received via plurality of antenna paths. In another aspect, the present disclosure relates a method for performing hybrid beamforming at a transmitter device, wherein also phase shifting in at least two different domains is performed. More in particular, the disclosure also relates to a method for performing at a transmitter device beamforming on a beam of outgoing signals via a plurality of antenna paths.
US09184489B2
An antenna fixing structure includes an antenna box and a fixing frame. The antenna box includes a casing with a first circumference defined by a first center and a first radius, and the casing has equidistant first connecting portions disposed along the first circumference. The fixing frame includes a carrying board with a second circumference defined by a second center and a second radius, and the carrying board has equidistant second connecting portions disposed along the second circumference, so that the first connecting portions and the second connecting portions can be rotably installed with respect to the first and second centers and coupled to each other. Therefore, the antenna box can be rotated to a predetermined position and then fixed to the fixing frame, and the antenna fixing structure has the effect of adjusting the direction, position or angle of an antenna.
US09184486B2
The millimeter waveband filter includes: a transmission line that is formed by a waveguide which propagates electromagnetic waves with a predetermined frequency range of a millimeter waveband from one end to the other end in a TE10 mode; and a pair of radio-wave half mirrors that are disposed opposite each other with a space interposed therebetween so as to block the inside of the transmission line and have planar shapes and a characteristic of transmitting a part of the electromagnetic waves with the predetermined frequency range and reflecting a part thereof. In the electromagnetic waves incident from the one end side of the transmission line, a frequency component centered on a resonant frequency of a resonator, which is formed between the pair of radio-wave half mirrors, is selectively output from the other end of the transmission line.
US09184483B2
A directional coupler, comprising a first high-frequency line for feeding a first high-frequency signal, a second high-frequency line for feeding a second high-frequency signal, and a coupling line for outputting signals from the first and the second high-frequency lines, wherein the coupling line comprises resistive segments, each comprising a predetermined impedance. Coupling properties and resistive damping and adapting properties can be integrated in the coupling line. A compact and low-cost construction of the directional coupler is thus made possible.
US09184478B2
Systems and methods drawn to an electrochemical cell comprising a low temperature ionic liquid comprising positive ions and negative ions and a performance enhancing additive added to the low temperature ionic liquid. The additive dissolves in the ionic liquid to form cations, which are coordinated with one or more negative ions forming ion complexes. The electrochemical cell also includes an air electrode configured to absorb and reduce oxygen. The ion complexes improve oxygen reduction thermodynamics and/or kinetics relative to the ionic liquid without the additive.
US09184463B2
The present invention disclosed herein is directed to nitric acid regeneration fuel cell systems that comprise: an anode; a cathode confronting and spaced apart from the anode; an anolyte flowstream configured to flowingly contact the anode, wherein the anolyte flowstream includes a fuel, preferably methanol, for reacting at the anode; a catholyte flowstream configured to flowingly contact the cathode, wherein the catholyte flowstream includes nitric acid for reacting at the cathode to thereby yield cathode reaction products that include nitric oxide and water in a catholyte effluent flowstream; and a hydrogen peroxide flowstream configured to contact and react hydrogen peroxide with the nitric oxide of the catholyte effluent flowstream at a hydrogen peroxide oxidation zone to thereby yield a regenerated nitric acid flowstream. The regenerated nitric acid flowstream is preferably reused in the catholyte flowstream.
US09184461B2
The invention relates to a method of preparing a fluorinated copolymer, comprising a step of copolymerization of a fluorinated monomer (of the vinylidene fluoride type) with an α-trifluoromethacrylic acid monomer or derivative of α-trifluoromethacrylic acid, in the presence of a xanthate or trithiocarbonate compound. The invention also relates to copolymers obtained by this method as well as block copolymers comprising a copolymer block prepared according to this method.
US09184456B2
In a fuel cell system comprising a fuel cell with plural cells and performing processing for limiting a supply current to a load by performing a compensation computation with respect to a system-request current corresponding to a system-request power requested by the system based on the lowest cell voltage in the cells, the compensation computation being performed for limiting the supply current through a PI compensation using, as a reference value, a current value of the system-request current as of the time when the lowest cell voltage falls below a predetermined lowest-cell-voltage acceptable value, values for gains in the PI compensation for limiting the supply current are different from values for gains in the PI compensation for restoring the supply current. The system-request current can be securely limited in any operation statuses, and in addition, the supply current can be made rapidly responsive during the limitation of the current, while the supply current can be stably converged during the current restoration.
US09184454B1
An energy storage system according to the present disclosure includes a cell and an electrolyte supply arrangement for supplying an electrolyte to the cell. The cell has a flow chamber, an electrode and a mixing arrangement positioned in the flow chamber proximate the electrode. The mixing arrangement includes a plurality of ramps that each extend at an angle with respect to the electrode, and each respective ramp defines a void space between the respective ramp and the electrode. Furthermore, the ramps and the void spaces are configured to facilitate mixing of the electrolyte in the flow chamber.
US09184442B2
A secondary battery 100 includes a positive electrode current collector 221 and a positive electrode mixture layer 223 coated on the positive electrode current collector 221. The positive electrode mixture layer 223 includes a positive electrode active material 610 and an electrically conductive material 620. A ratio (Vb/Va) of a volume Vb of holes formed inside the positive electrode mixture layer 223 to an apparent volume Va of the positive electrode mixture layer 223 satisfies 0.30≦(Vb/Va). In addition, in a micropore distribution of differential micropore volume with respect to a micropore diameter as measured by the mercury intrusion method, the positive electrode mixture layer 223 has a first peak at which a micropore diameter D1 satisfies D1≦0.25 μm and a second peak at which a micropore diameter D2 is greater than the first peak micropore diameter D1.
US09184430B2
A battery integration module or pack includes a first positioning plate for positioning the multiple single batteries in formation for integration at one end of the battery formation, a second positioning plate for positioning the multiple single batteries in formation for integration at the opposite end of the battery formation, the first and second plates aligned together over the formation of batteries to form a battery holder frame, a first printed circuit board (PCB) mounted to the outside surface of the first positioning plate, and a second printed circuit board (PCB) mounted to the outside surface of the second positioning plate. The first and or second printed circuit boards include conductive contact surfaces accessible to the battery terminals of the multiple single batteries in formation wherein contact between the contact surfaces of the printed circuit boards and the battery terminals is mitigated by intermediate conductive components.
US09184422B2
A rechargeable battery including: an electrode assembly that includes a positive electrode, a negative electrode, and a separator interposed therebetween; a case to house the electrode assembly; a cap assembly that is coupled to an opening of the case and electrically connected with the electrode assembly; and an insulating member that is installed between the case and the electrode assembly. The insulating member includes a body disposed on the electrode assembly and a rib that extends from the body and contacts the case.
US09184414B2
An organic EL device comprises: a light-transmissive substrate; a transparent electrode; an organic emitting layer; and an opposing electrode. A light-extraction layer provided by layering a high refractive index layer adjoining the transparent electrode and a low refractive index layer adjoining the light-transmissive substrate includes recess-protrusion units each provided by a protrusion and a recess at an interface between the high refractive index layer and the low refractive index layer. In at least one of the recess-protrusion units, a distance from the interface between the high refractive index layer and the low refractive index layer to an interface between the transparent electrode and the high refractive index layer is equal to or more than an optical coherence length and a height of the protrusion, a width of the protrusion and a gap between the protrusion and another protrusion adjoining the protrusion across the recess is 1 μm or more.
US09184413B2
A flat panel display device provides a sealing structure for comprising and sealing a display unit disposed in a first region on a substrate. The display unit includes the first region and a second region, and a barrier is disposed in the first region on the substrate, on an outer side of the display unit, and adjacent to the second region. The sealing structure contacts the barrier, and includes at least one first layer of an inorganic material and at least one second layer of an organic material. A method of manufacturing the flat panel display device is also disclosed.
US09184409B2
Disclosed are an organic light emitting display that enables realization of a thin film shape and flexibility, and exhibits superior contact properties in touch pads based on an improved structure, and a method for manufacturing the same, wherein a distance between the outermost surface of the touch pad portion and the outermost surface of the dummy pad portion in the touch pad portion is smaller than the distance in a neighboring portion adjacent to the touch pad portion.
US09184399B2
Novel asymmetric host compounds containing an electron-transport moiety, a hole-transport moiety, an aromatic spacer, and a triaryl silane group are provided. These compounds are useful materials that can be incorporated into OLED devices.
US09184396B2
A 6H-indeno[2,1-b]quinoline derivative has a structure of formula (I). Each of Ar1 and Ar2 is a member selected from the group consisting of a substituted or non-substituted aryl group and a substituted or non-substituted heteroaryl group and R1 to R9 are substituents. The 6H-indeno[2,1-b]quinoline derivative of the present invention is provided with thermal stability. Chemical compounds of the present invention are adequate for the materials of the light-emitting layer of an OLED device with high device performance.
US09184386B2
A variable resistance memory device and a method of manufacturing the same are provided. The variable resistance memory device includes a first insulating layer formed on a semiconductor substrate, the first insulating layer having a first hole formed therein. A switching device is formed in the first hole. A second insulating layer is formed over the first insulating layer and the second insulating layer includes a second hole. A lower electrode is formed along a surface of the second insulating layer that defines the second hole. A spacer is formed on the lower electrode and exposes a portion of the surface of the lower electrode. A variable resistance material layer is formed in the second hole, and an upper electrode is formed on the variable resistance material layer.
US09184383B2
Embodiments of the invention generally relate to a resistive switching nonvolatile memory device having an interface layer structure disposed between at least one of the electrodes and a variable resistance layer formed in the nonvolatile memory device, and a method of forming the same. Typically, resistive switching memory elements may be formed as part of a high-capacity nonvolatile memory integrated circuit, which can be used in various electronic devices, such as digital cameras, mobile telephones, handheld computers, and music players. In one configuration of the resistive switching nonvolatile memory device, the interface layer structure comprises a passivation region, an interface coupling region, and/or a variable resistance layer interface region that are configured to adjust the nonvolatile memory device's performance, such as lowering the formed device's switching currents and reducing the device's forming voltage, and reducing the performance variation from one formed device to another.
US09184375B1
A magnetic junction usable in a magnetic device is described. The magnetic junction includes a pinned layer, a nonmagnetic spacer layer, an asymmetric free layer and a perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) inducing layer. The nonmagnetic spacer layer is between the pinned layer and the free layer. The free layer is between the nonmagnetic spacer layer and the PMA inducing layer. The asymmetric free layer includes a first ferromagnetic layer having a first boron content and a second ferromagnetic layer having a second boron content. The second boron content is less than the first boron content. The first boron content and the second boron content are each greater than zero atomic percent. The magnetic junction is configured such that the asymmetric free layer is switchable between stable magnetic states when a write current is passed through the magnetic junction.
US09184370B2
An ultrasonic transducer device includes an ultrasonic element array and a common electrode wiring. The ultrasonic element array has three ultrasonic element rows with each of the three ultrasonic element rows including a plurality of ultrasonic elements arranged along a first direction and electrically connected to each other. The three ultrasonic element rows are arranged along a second direction intersecting with the first direction. The common electrode wiring is configured and arranged to supply a common voltage to at least one of the three ultrasonic element rows. The common electrode wiring extends in the first direction and is arranged between two of the three ultrasonic element rows positioned on outer sides among the three ultrasonic element rows with respect to the second direction.
US09184369B2
The disclosed technology features methods for the manufacture of electrical components such as ultrasound transducers. In particular, the disclosed technology provides methods of creating an ultrasonic transducer by connecting one or more multi-layer printed circuits to an array of ultrasound transducer elements. In one embodiment, the printed circuits have traces in a single layer that are spaced by a distance that is greater than a pitch of the transducer elements to which the multi-layer printed circuit is to be connected. However the traces from all the layers in the multi-layer printed circuit are interleaved to have a pitch that is equal to the pitch of the transducer elements. The disclosed technology also features ultrasound transducers produced by the methods described herein.
US09184368B2
A film-type piezoelectric/electrostrictive element which is a fired object includes a body part, a pair of side-surface electrodes and an electrode exposed surface. The body part has n+1 layered piezoelectric/electrostrictive films and n layered internal electrode layer(s). The piezoelectric/electrostrictive films are composed of ceramic. The piezoelectric/electrostrictive films and the internal electrode layer(s) are stacked in an alternating manner. The n is an integer equal to 1 or more. The pair of side-surface electrodes is positioned on two opposing side surfaces of the body part. The two opposing side surfaces extend in a stacking direction of the body part. The internal electrode layer(s) is/are exposed on an electrode exposed surface of the body part. The electrode exposed surface extends in the stacking direction. An electrode exposure ratio of the internal electrode layer(s) on the electrode exposed surface as defined by Formula (1) being more than 0% and less than or equal to 10%. The electrode exposure ratio (%)=A1/(L1×L2)×100) (1) A1 denotes an exposed area of the internal electrode layer(s) exposed on an active portion of the electrode exposed surface. L1 denotes an average thickness of the internal electrode layer(s). L2 denotes a sum length of each of the internal electrode layer(s) in a lengthwise direction on the active portion of the electrode exposed surface. The lengthwise direction is perpendicular to the stacking direction.
US09184348B2
An LED structure includes a substrate, an emitting multilayer structure, a plurality of microstructures and a transparent conductive layer. The emitting multilayer structure is formed on the substrate. The microstructures are spaced apart from each other on the light emitting multilayer structure, and an upper surface of each microstructure has a concave-convex surface. The transparent conductive layer is conformably covered over the light emitting multilayer structure and the microstructures. The transparent conductive layer has similar concave-convex surfaces due to the concave-convex surface of each microstructure. The light emitted from the emitting multilayer structure is changed due to the concave-convex surface of the transparent conductive layer, so that the phenomenon of total internal reflection can be reduced so as to increase the light transmittance.
US09184344B2
A light emitting device has a nanostructured layer with nanovoids. The nanostructured layer can be provided below and adjacent to active region or on a substrate or a template below an n-type layer for the active region, so as to reduce strain between epitaxial layers in the light emitting device. A method of manufacturing the same is provided.
US09184335B2
There are provided a semiconductor light emitting device and a method of manufacturing the same. A method of manufacturing a plurality of light emitting nanostructures of a semiconductor light emitting device includes: forming a plurality of first conductivity type semiconductor cores on a first type semiconductor seed layer, each first conductivity type semiconductor core formed through an opening in an insulating film; forming an active layer on each first conductivity type semiconductor core; forming, using a mask pattern, a second conductivity type semiconductor layer on each active layer to cover the active layer, to form a plurality of light emitting nanostructures; and forming an electrode on the plurality of light emitting nanostructures.
US09184333B2
A fabrication line includes a texturizing module configured to texture a substrate, an emitter module configured to form an emitter region, a passivation layer module configured to form a passivation layer, a barrier contact module configured to form a barrier contact region, a firing module configured to anneal the barrier contact region, a top metal contact module configured to form a top metal contact region, and a soldering module configured to solder the barrier contact region to the top metal contact region. The modules are integrated by one or more automated substrate handlers into a single fabrication line. A method for fabricating a solar cell includes sequentially, in an automated fabrication line: doping a dopant in a substrate; disposing a passivation layer; disposing and annealing a barrier metal paste to form a barrier contact; and disposing and annealing a metal contact paste to form a top metal contact region.
US09184332B2
An IMM solar cell and an associated method of fabricating an IMM solar cell are provided. In the context of a method, a first subcell may be formed upon a temporary substrate and a second subcell may be formed upon the first subcell. The second subcell may have a smaller band gap than the first subcell. The method may also bond the first and second subcells to a silicon subcell and then remove the temporary substrate. In the context of an IMM solar cell, the IMM solar cell includes first and second subcells with the first subcell disposed upon the second subcell and the second subcell having a smaller band gap than the first subcell. The IMM solar cell may also include a silicon subcell supporting the first and second subcells thereupon with a metal-to-metal bond between the silicon subcell and the second subcell.
US09184319B2
Methods and apparatuses are provided in connection with a transparent electrode on organic photovoltaic cells. A layer of dissolvable material is formed on a substrate. A solution having conductive nanowires suspended therein is deposited on the layer of dissolvable material. The solution is evaporated to form a nanowire mesh. The nanowire mesh is heated to sinter junctions between nanowires in the nanowire mesh. The nanowire mesh is affixed on a layer of one or more organic photovoltaic cells. The layer of dissolvable material is dissolved to deposit the nanowire mesh on the layer of one or more organic photovoltaic cells.
US09184317B2
Photovoltaic cells, as well as related systems, methods, modules, and components, are disclosed.
US09184315B2
Receptor type oligothiopene compounds, methods of preparing the compounds, and use of the compounds in photoelectric materials.
US09184300B2
A transistor may include a hole blocking layer between a channel layer including oxynitride and an electrode electrically connected to the channel layer. The hole blocking layer may be disposed in a region between the channel layer and at least one of a source electrode and a drain electrode. The channel layer may include, for example, zinc oxynitride (ZnON). A valence band maximum energy level of the hole blocking layer may be lower than a valence band maximum energy level of the channel layer.
US09184293B2
Methods of fabricating semiconductor devices are provided including providing a substrate having a first region and a second region, the substrate defining trenches in the first and second regions; forming active fins on the first and second regions, the active fins protruding from the trenches in the first and second regions; forming spacers on sidewalls of the active fins in the first and second regions; recessing floors of the trenches under the spacers to provide extensions of the active fins; implanting impurities of a first type in the extensions of the active fins in the first region; and implanting impurities of a second, type, different from the first type, in the extensions of the active fins in the second region.
US09184292B2
A semiconductor structure for forming FinFETs is described. The semiconductor structure includes a semiconductor substrate, a plurality of odd fins of the FinFETs on the substrate, and a plurality of even fins of the FinFETs on the substrate between the odd fins of the FinFETs. The odd fins of the FinFETs are defined from the substrate. The even fins of the FinFETs are different from the odd fins of the FinFETs in at least one of the width and the material, and may be further different from the odd fins of the FinFETs in the height.
US09184289B2
A semiconductor devices and method of formation are provided herein. A semiconductor device includes a gate structure over a channel and an active region adjacent the channel. The active region includes a repaired doped region and a growth region over the repaired doped region. The repaired doped region includes a first dopant and a second dopant, where the second dopant is from the growth region. A method of forming a semiconductor device includes increasing a temperature during exposure to at least one of dopant(s) or agent(s) to form an active region adjacent a channel, where the active region includes a repaired doped region and a growth region over the repaired doped region.
US09184281B2
Producing a vertical semiconductor device includes: providing a semiconductor wafer including a first semiconductor layer of a first conductivity type, a second semiconductor layer of a second conductivity type forming a first pn-junction with the first layer, and a third semiconductor layer of the first conductivity type forming a second pn-junction with the second layer and extending to a main surface of the wafer; forming a hard mask on the main surface that includes hard mask portions spaced apart from each other by first openings; using the hard mask to etch deep trenches from the main surface into the first layer so that mesa regions covered at the main surface by respective hard mask portions are formed between adjacent trenches; filling the trenches and first openings of the hard mask; and etching the hard mask to form second openings in the hard mask at the main surface of the mesas.
US09184270B2
A semiconductor device comprising a graphene layer, a graphene oxide layer overlaying the graphene layer, and a high-k dielectric layer overlaying the graphene oxide layer is provided, as well as a method for producing the same. The method results in a graphene chemical functionalization that efficiently and uniformly seeds ALD growth, preserves the underlying graphene structure, and achieves desirable dielectric properties such as low leakage current and high capacitance.
US09184266B2
A transistor device having a graphene base for the transport of electrons into a collector is provided. The transistor consists of a heterostructure comprising an electron emitter, an electron collector, and a graphene material base layer consisting of one or more sheets of graphene situated between the emitter and the collector. The transistor also can further include an emitter transition layer at the emitter interface with the base and/or a collector transition layer at the base interface with the collector. The electrons injected into the graphene material base layer can be “hot electrons” having an energy E substantially greater than EF, the Fermi energy in the graphene material base layer or can be “non-hot electrons” having an energy E approximately equal to than EF. The electrons can have the properties of ballistic transit through the base layer.
US09184263B2
One method disclosed herein includes, among other things, forming sidewall spacers adjacent opposite sides of a sacrificial gate electrode of a sacrificial gate structure, forming a tensile-stressed layer of insulating material adjacent the sidewall spacers, removing the sacrificial gate structure to define a replacement gate cavity positioned between the sidewall spacers, forming a replacement gate structure in the replacement gate cavity, forming a tensile-stressed gate cap layer above the replacement gate structure and within the replacement gate cavity and, after forming the tensile-stressed gate cap layer, removing the tensile-stressed layer of insulating material.
US09184259B2
A method of forming a semiconductor structure includes forming a second III-V compound layer over a first III-V compound layer, wherein a carrier channel is located between the first III-V compound layer and the second III-V compound layer. The method further includes forming a source feature and a drain feature over the second III-V compound layer. The method further includes forming a gate dielectric layer over the second III-V compound layer, wherein the gate dielectric layer is over a top surface of the source feature and over a top surface of the drain feature. The method further includes treating a portion of the gate dielectric layer with fluorine, wherein treating the portion of the gate dielectric layer comprises performing an implantation process using at least one fluorine-containing compound. The method further includes forming a gate electrode over the portion of the gate dielectric layer.
US09184256B2
Apparatus and methods for a MOS varactor structure are disclosed. An apparatus is provided, comprising an active area defined in a portion of a semiconductor substrate; a doped well region in the active area extending into the semiconductor substrate; at least two gate structures disposed in parallel over the doped well region; source and drain regions disposed in the well region formed on opposing sides of the gate structures; a gate connector formed in a first metal layer overlying the at least two gate structures and electrically coupling the at least two gate structures; source and drain connectors formed in a second metal layer and electrically coupled to the source and drain regions; and interlevel dielectric material separating the source and drain connectors in the second metal layer from the gate connector formed in the first metal layer. Methods for forming the structure are disclosed.
US09184253B2
A thin film transistor substrate includes a semiconductor pattern on a base substrate, a first insulation member disposed on the semiconductor pattern, a second insulation pattern disposed on the first insulation member, and a gate electrode disposed on the first insulation member and the second insulation pattern. The second insulation pattern overlaps a first end portion of the semiconductor pattern, and exposes a second end portion of the semiconductor pattern opposite to the first end portion. The gate electrode overlaps both the first insulation member and the second insulation pattern.
US09184252B2
An integrated circuit structure includes a flash memory cell and a logic MOS device. The flash memory cell includes a floating gate dielectric, a floating gate overlying the floating gate dielectric, a control gate overlying the floating gate, a word-line on a first side of the floating gate and the control gate, and an erase gate on a second side of the floating gate and the control gate. The logic MOS device includes a high-k gate dielectric, and a gate electrode over the high-k gate dielectric. The gate electrode, the control gate, the word-line, and the erase gate are formed of a same metal-containing material, and have top surfaces coplanar with each other.
US09184248B2
A power MOSFET cell includes an N+ silicon substrate having a drain electrode. A low dopant concentration N-type drift layer is grown over the substrate. An N-type layer, having a higher dopant concentration than the drift region, is then formed and etched to have sidewalls. A P-well is formed in the N-type layer, and an N+ source region is formed in the P-well. A gate is formed over the P-well's lateral channel and has a vertical extension next to the top portion of the sidewalls. A positive gate voltage inverts the lateral channel and increases the conduction along the sidewalls to reduce on-resistance. A vertical shield field plate is also located next to the sidewalls and extends virtually the entire length of the sidewalls. The field plate laterally depletes the N-type layer when the device is off to increase the breakdown voltage.
US09184246B2
A silicon carbide substrate has a first main surface, and a second main surface opposite to the first main surface. A region including at least one main surface of the first and second main surfaces is made of single-crystal silicon carbide. In the one main surface, sulfur atoms are present at not less than 60×1010 atoms/cm2 and not more than 2000×1010 atoms/cm2, and carbon atoms as an impurity are present at not less than 3 at % and not more than 25 at %. Thereby, a silicon carbide substrate having a stable surface, a semiconductor device using the substrate, and methods for manufacturing them can be provided.
US09184243B2
There are disclosed herein various implementations of a monolithically integrated component. In one exemplary implementation, such a monolithically integrated component includes an enhancement mode group IV transistor and two or more depletion mode III-Nitride transistors. The enhancement mode group IV transistor may be implemented as a group IV insulated gate bipolar transistor (group IV IGBT). One or more of the III-Nitride transistor(s) may be situated over a body layer of the group IV IGBT, or the III-Nitride transistor(s) may be situated over a collector layer of the IGBT.
US09184238B2
In order to secure the performance of a SiC-based JFET having an impurity diffusion rate lower than silicon-based one, a gate depth is secured while precisely controlling a distance between gate regions, instead of forming gate regions by ion implantation into the side wall of a trench. This means that a channel region defined by a gate distance and a gate depth should have a high aspect ratio. Further, due to limitations of process, a gate region is formed within a source region. Formation of a highly doped PN junction between source and gate regions causes various problems such as inevitable increase in junction current. In addition, a markedly high energy ion implantation becomes necessary for the formation of a termination structure. In the invention, provided is a vertical channel type SiC power JFET having a floating gate region below and separated from a source region and between gate regions.
US09184234B2
Some embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a transistor device formed in a semiconductor substrate containing dopant impurities of a first impurity type. The transistor device includes channel composed of a delta-doped layer comprising dopant impurities of the first impurity type, and configured to produce a peak dopant concentration within the channel. The channel further includes a layer of carbon-containing material overlying the delta-doped layer, and configured to prevent back diffusion of dopants from the delta-doped layer and semiconductor substrate. The channel also includes of a layer of substrate material overlying the layer of carbon-containing material, and configured to achieve steep retrograde dopant concentration profile a near a surface of the channel. In some embodiments, a counter-doped layer underlies the delta-doped layer configured to reduce leakage within the semiconductor substrate, and includes dopant impurities of a second impurity type, which is opposite the first impurity type.
US09184225B1
A display unit is provided including a first insulating film, a plurality of anode electrodes disposed on the first insulating film, a second insulating film disposed on the anode electrodes, a plurality of organic layers disposed on the anode electrodes, a cathode electrode disposed on the organic layer, and a first wiring disposed on the first insulating film. The cathode electrode is connected to an extraction electrode via a first wiring provided in a peripheral area of the anode electrodes. Moreover, one of the organic layers extending in a column direction is provided over two of more rows of the anode electrodes.
US09184219B2
A method of forming an organic light-emitting display in which a pixel electrode is formed by extending from source and drain electrodes, a capacitor including a thin upper capacitor electrode formed below the pixel electrode and constituting a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) CAP structure, thereby simplifying manufacturing processes, increasing an aperture ratio, and improving a voltage design margin.
US09184214B2
A semiconductor device includes a substrate and a gate stack disposed on the substrate. An upper layer of the gate stack is a metal gate conductor and a lower layer of the gate stack is a gate dielectric. A gate contact is in direct contact with the metal gate conductor.
US09184197B2
A backside illumination image sensor that includes a semiconductor substrate with a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements and a read circuit formed on a front surface side of the semiconductor substrate, and captures an image by outputting, via the read circuit, electrical signals generated as incident light having reached a back surface side of the semiconductor substrate is received at the photoelectric conversion elements includes: a light shielding film formed on a side where incident light enters the photoelectric conversion elements, with an opening formed therein in correspondence to each photoelectric conversion element; and an on-chip lens formed at a position set apart from the light shielding film by a predetermined distance in correspondence to each photoelectric conversion element. The light shielding film and an exit pupil plane of the image forming optical system achieve a conjugate relation to each other with regard to the on-chip lens.
US09184181B2
A display substrate includes a gate electrode on a base substrate, an active pattern which overlaps the gate electrode and includes a metal oxide semiconductor, an insulation pattern on the active pattern, a source electrode which contacts the active pattern, a drain electrode which contacts the active pattern and is spaced apart from the source electrode, and a first passivation layer which covers the active pattern and the insulation pattern, and includes fluorine, where the active pattern includes a first portion which directly contacts the insulation pattern and overlaps the gate electrode and the insulation pattern, a second portion which contacts the first passivation layer and has an electrical conductivity substantially larger than that of the first portion, a third portion which contacts the first passivation layer, has an electrical conductivity substantially larger than that of the first portion and is spaced apart from the second portion.
US09184179B2
A method of forming a field effect transistor (FET) device includes forming a recess in a PFET region of a starting semiconductor substrate comprising a bulk semiconductor layer an epitaxial n+ layer formed on the bulk semiconductor layer, a buried insulator (BOX) layer formed on the epitaxial n+ layer, and an active semiconductor or silicon-on-insulator (SOI) layer formed on the BOX layer, the recess being formed completely through the SOI layer, the BOX layer, and partially into the epitaxial n+ layer; epitaxially growing a silicon germanium (SiGe) transition layer on the epitaxial n+ layer, the SiGe transition layer having a lower dopant concentration than the epitaxial n+ layer; and epitaxially growing embedded source/drain (S/D) regions on the SiGe transition layer and adjacent the SOI layer in the PFET region, the embedded S/D regions comprising p-type doped SiGe.
US09184156B2
A plurality of semiconductor chips may be stacked on the substrate, and each of them may include at least one electrode pad. At least one of the plurality of semiconductor chips may include at least one redistribution pad configured to electrically connect with the at least one electrode pad.
US09184151B2
A method and apparatus for mixed wire bonding and staggered bonding pad placement. A first plurality of bonding pads is arranged on a semiconductor device. A second plurality of bonding pads is also arranged on the semiconductor device. The bonding pads of the second plurality of bonding pads are arranged in a staggered pattern, such that the first and second pluralities of bonding pads form one of a plurality of double rows of bonding pads on the semiconductor device.
US09184147B2
A stacked semiconductor chip includes a main substrate supporting a semiconductor chip module, wherein the semiconductor module comprises at least two sub semiconductor chip modules each having a sub substrate in which a first semiconductor chip is embedded and at least two second semiconductor chips are stacked on the sub substrate.
US09184136B2
A method of fabricating a semiconductor device includes providing a semiconductor substrate having a first surface and a second surface opposite the first surface, forming an alignment key and a connection contact that penetrate a portion of the semiconductor substrate and extend from the first surface toward the second surface, forming a first circuit on the first surface of the semiconductor substrate such that the first circuit is electrically connected to the connection contact, recessing the second surface of the semiconductor substrate to form a third surface exposing the alignment key and the connection contact, and forming a second circuit on the third surface of the semiconductor substrate such that the second circuit is electrically connected to the connection contact.
US09184128B2
A package includes a first molding material, a first device die molded in the molding material, a Through Via (TV) penetrating through the first molding material, and a redistribution line over the first molding material. The redistribution line is electrically connected to the TV. A second device die is over and bonded to the first device die through flip-chip bonding. A second molding material molds the second device die therein.
US09184125B2
A method of integrating a first substrate having a first surface with a first insulating material and a first contact structure with a second substrate having a second surface with a second insulating material and a second contact structure. The first insulating material is directly bonded to the second insulating material. A portion of the first substrate is removed to leave a remaining portion. A third substrate having a coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) substantially the same as a CTE of the first substrate is bonded to the remaining portion. The bonded substrates are heated to facilitate electrical contact between the first and second contact structures. The third substrate is removed after heating to provided a bonded structure with reliable electrical contacts.
US09184121B2
A power supply system (200) has a QFN leadframe with leads and a pad (201, switch node terminal); a pad surface having a portion recessed with a depth (270) and an outline suitable for attaching a semiconductor chip. A first FET chip (220) is vertically stacked to the opposite pad surface. A clip (240) is vertically stacked on the first FET chip and tied to a lead (202, grounded output terminal). A second FET chip (210) has its source terminal attached to the recessed portion and its drain (210a, input terminal) and gate (210b) terminals co-planar with the un-recessed portion. A driver-and-controller chip (230) is attached to the clip. Packaging compound (290) encapsulates the parts but leaves a pad surface and the drain and gate terminals of the second FET chip un-encapsulated.
US09184109B2
A thermal management system (201) is provided which includes a housing (203) equipped with a first set of apertures S1={a1, ai} (213), a second set of apertures S2={b1, . . . bj} (215) and a set of entrainment features S3={c1, Ck} (217), wherein i, j, k≧1, and wherein, for any pair of adjacent apertures Pa={am, bn}, wherein am ε S1 and m ε I={1, . . . , i}, and wherein bn ε S2 and n ε J={1, . . . , j}, there is at least one entrainment feature cp ε S3 which is disposed between aperture am and aperture bn, wherein p ε K={1, . . . , k} . The thermal management system also includes a synthetic jet actuator disposed in said housing which is in fluidic communication with the sets of apertures S1 and S2 and which operates to create a synthetic jet at each aperture dr ε { S1, S2}, wherein r ε I∪J.
US09184108B2
An apparatus for cooling an integrated circuit (IC) die is described. The apparatus includes an adhesion layer coated on a surface of the IC die, wherein the adhesion layer has high thermal conductivity. The apparatus also includes a heat dissipation structure affixed onto the adhesion layer. This heat dissipation structure further includes a set of discrete heat dissipation elements which are substantially mechanically isolated from each other. This set of discrete heat dissipation elements provides an extended heat dissipation surface for the IC die. Moreover, each of the set of discrete heat dissipation elements has high compliance, which allows the adhesion layer to be sufficiently thin, thereby reducing a thermal conductivity of the adhesion layer.
US09184093B2
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to methods for forming a metal structure and passivation layers. In one embodiment, metal columns are formed on a substrate. The metal columns are doped with manganese, aluminum, zirconium, or hafnium. A dielectric material is deposited over and between the metal columns and then cured to form a passivation layer on vertical surfaces of the metal columns.
US09184079B2
A system for handling wafers comprising: at least one unload station; at least one intermediate station designed to hold the wafers at an angle; a processing station; and a transfer device configured to move the wafers between the stations. The intermediate station may be configured to receive the wafers in a back-to-back arrangement. An apparatus for handling wafers comprising: on one side, a vacuum gripper configured to grip individual wafers; and, on the other side, a gravity gripper configured to support one or more wafers when positioned beneath the wafers and lifted. A method for handling wafers, comprising: unloading wafers; transferring the wafers to an intermediate station; transferring the wafers from the intermediate station to a processing station; treating the wafers; unloading the wafers from the processing station; and reloading the wafers in a carrier, wherein the wafers are unloaded, transferred and reloaded by a transfer device.
US09184078B2
A system and method of transporting substrates includes a loadport system including a frame, an articulating arm, a mini environment and a tower substantially centered in the frame. The tower includes multiple motors, a first motor mechanically coupled to the mini environment for moving the mini environment vertically. A second motors mechanically coupled to the articulating arm for moving the articulating arm vertically. A tower enclosure is also included. The tower enclosure enclosing the motors separate from the mini environment.
US09184070B2
A dense composite material according to the present invention contains, in descending order of content, silicon carbide, titanium silicon carbide, and titanium carbide as three major constituents. The dense composite material contains 51% to 68% by mass of silicon carbide and no titanium silicide and has an open porosity of 1% or less. This dense composite material has properties such as an average linear thermal expansion coefficient of 5.4 to 6.0 ppm/K at 40° C. to 570° C., a thermal conductivity of 100 W/m·K or more, and a four-point bending strength of 300 MPa or more.
US09184064B1
A method for backside metallization and reinforcement of glass substrates to provide support and protection during handling and processing of the glass substrates. Through-holes are created in a glass substrate and filled with a conductive type material. Backside metallized pads are applied to the glass substrate and enclosed with an under-bump metallization (UBM) pad. A sacrificial substrate is removeably attached to the glass substrate. The sacrificial substrate comprises a sacrificial layer, an opaque film, and an adhesive. The sacrificial substrate protects the backside metallized pads and under-bump metallization (UBM) pads, and reinforces the glass substrate.
US09184060B1
The embodiments herein relate to methods, apparatus, and systems for forming recessed features at high aspect ratios. Often, such features are formed in the context of fabricating a vertical NAND (VNAND) memory device. Various disclosed embodiments relate to process flows that involve depositing and shaping sacrificial posts on a metal seed layer that covers an underlying stack of materials, electroplating or electroless plating metal hard mask material around the sacrificial posts, removing the sacrificial posts, and etching the underlying stack of materials to form a high aspect ratio recessed feature.
US09184055B2
Systems, chambers, and processes are provided for controlling process defects caused by moisture contamination. The systems may provide configurations for chambers to perform multiple operations in a vacuum or controlled environment. The chambers may include configurations to provide additional processing capabilities in combination chamber designs. The methods may provide for the limiting, prevention, and correction of aging defects that may be caused as a result of etching processes performed by system tools.
US09184052B2
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device using a metal oxide includes forming a metal oxide layer on a substrate, forming an amorphous semiconductor layer on the metal oxide layer, and forming a polycrystalline semiconductor layer by crystallizing the amorphous semiconductor layer using the metal oxide layer.
US09184047B2
A multi-step system and method for curing a dielectric film in which the system includes a drying system configured to reduce the amount of contaminants, such as moisture, in the dielectric film. The system further includes a curing system coupled to the drying system, and configured to treat the dielectric film with ultraviolet (UV) radiation and infrared (IR) radiation in order to cure the dielectric film.
US09184040B2
An abridged multipole structure for the transport and selection of ions along a central axis in a vacuum system is constructed from a plurality of rectilinear electrode structures, each having a substantially planar face with a first dimension and a second dimension perpendicular to the first dimension. When a voltage is applied across the second dimension, an electrical potential is produced at the planar face whose amplitude is a linear function of position along the second dimension. Two electrode structures can be arranged parallel to each other with the first dimension extending along the central axis or more electrodes structures can be arranged to form multipole structures with various polygonal cross sections.
US09184037B2
A mass spectrometer including a sample attaching member of attaching a sample, an ionizing chamber including an introductory port of the sample attaching member and an ionization source of generating a sample ion, a vacuumed chamber having a mass analyzer of analyzing the sample ion, and an opening/closing mechanism provided between the ionizing chamber and the vacuumed chamber, in which the opening/closing mechanism is controlled from a closed state to an open state after introducing the sample attaching member into the ionizing chamber to thereby enable to perform ionization with inconsiderable fragmentation at a high sensitivity with a high throughput.
US09184036B2
The invention generally relates to methods and devices for synchronization of ion generation with cycling of a discontinuous atmospheric interface. In certain embodiments, the invention provides a system for analyzing a sample that includes a mass spectrometry probe that generates sample ions, a discontinuous atmospheric interface, and a mass analyzer, in which the system is configured such that ion formation is synchronized with cycling of the discontinuous atmospheric interface.
US09184034B2
The disclosure is directed to a photomultiplier tube with extended dynamic range. According to various embodiments, a repulsive electric field is introduced between a photocathode and a plurality of dynodes in order to repel or block low-energy electrons from reaching and being multiplied by the dynodes. As a result, time intervals between current peaks and drops may be decreased because the photomultiplier current will be primarily affected by high-energy electrons emitted by the photocathode in response to incident illumination versus low-energy electrons, some of which may result from dangling bonds or slow surface states after illumination no longer impinges the photocathode. Dynamic range and optical responsiveness of the photomultiplier tube are increased accordingly.
US09184033B2
An electron multiplying structure for use in a vacuum tube using electron multiplying, the electron multiplying structure having an input face intended to be oriented in a facing relationship with an entrance window of the vacuum tube, an output face intended to be oriented in a facing relationship with a detection surface of the vacuum tube, wherein the electron multiplying structure at least is composed of a semi-conductor material layer adjacent the detection windows. Also disclosed is a vacuum tube using electron multiplying with an electron multiplying structure.
US09184028B2
A semiconductor wafer processing apparatus includes a first electrode exposed to a first plasma generation volume, a second electrode exposed to a second plasma generation volume, and a gas distribution unit disposed between the first and second plasma generation volumes. The first electrode is defined to transmit radiofrequency (RF) power to the first plasma generation volume, and distribute a first plasma process gas to the first plasma generation volume. The second electrode is defined to transmit RF power to the second plasma generation volume, and hold a substrate in exposure to the second plasma generation volume. The gas distribution unit includes an arrangement of through-holes defined to fluidly connect the first plasma generation volume to the second plasma generation volume. The gas distribution unit also includes an arrangement of gas supply ports defined to distribute a second plasma process gas to the second plasma generation volume.
US09184027B1
The present application discloses methods, systems and devices for using charged particle beam tools to pattern and inspect a substrate. The inventors have discovered that it is highly advantageous to use write and inspection tools that share the same or substantially the same stage and the same or substantially the same designs for respective arrays of multiple charged particle beam columns, and that access the same design layout database to target and pattern or inspect features. By using design-matched charged particle beam tools, correlation of defectivity is preserved between inspection imaging and the design layout database. As a result, image-based defect identification and maskless design correction, of random and systematic errors, can be performed directly in the design layout database, enabling a fast yield ramp.
US09184026B2
The invention relates to a method for performing charged particle beam proximity effect correction, comprising the steps of: receiving a digital layout pattern to be patterned onto a target using one or more charged particle beams; selecting a base proximity function comprising a sum of an alpha and a beta proximity function, wherein said alpha proximity function models a short range proximity effect and said beta proximity function models a long range proximity effect, wherein a constant η is defined as a ratio between the beta proximity function and the alpha proximity function in said sum, with 0<η<1; determining a modified proximity function which corresponds to said base proximity effect function wherein the alpha proximity function has been replaced by a Dirac delta function, and using an electronic processor, performing a deconvolution of the digital layout pattern with the modified proximity function to produce a corrected layout pattern.
US09184009B2
Provided are an electronic switching device and a method for manufacturing the same. The electronic switching device includes a fixed unit including a fixed unit body defining an outer appearance thereof and a fixed contact part disposed within the fixed unit body, a movable unit including a movable contact part selectively contacting the fixed contact part to supply current, a moving part provided in the movable unit to guide a movement of the movable contact part toward the fixed contact part, a coil to which power is applied to move the moving part, and an elastic member that is elastically deformable while the moving part moves. At least one of the fixed unit and the moving part has a through hole so that an inner component of the fixed unit or the moving part communicates with the outside to allow a preset signal to pass therethrough.
US09183999B2
In a vehicle push button switch, a case fixed to a vehicle body or a lid is provided with a guide portion for guiding a push button and supports a switch used to change a switching state in response to a push operation of the push button. The switch is protected by using a sealing structure. The case includes: a first case member; a second case member fixed to the first case member; and an elastic member interposed between the first and second case members. The push button is connected to the center portion of the elastic member, and the switch housed in a housing chamber formed between the first case member and the elastic member is supported by the first case member such that the switching state is changed in response to bending of the elastic member which occurs with the push operation of the push button.
US09183976B2
A standard solenoid body and coils are combined with a non-magnetic armature tube containing a permanent magnet, preferably neodymium. The magnet is located in one of three positions within the armature. When biased toward the stop end of the solenoid, it may be configured to act as a push solenoid. When biased toward the collar end of the solenoid, it may be configured to act as a pull solenoid. In either case, no spring is required to return the armature to its de-energized position. Positioning the magnet in the middle of the armature defines a dual-latching solenoid requiring no power to hold it in a given state. A positive coil pulse moves the armature toward the stop end, whereas a negative coil pulse moves the armature toward the collar end. The armature will remain at the end to which it was directed until another pulse of opposite polarity comes along.
US09183972B2
This invention relates to the field of resin, particularly to a magnetic, acrylic strongly basic anion exchange microsphere resin and its manufacturing method. Its basic structure is as follow: wherein its matrix contains magnetic grains and A is a group containing quaternary ammonium salts; the manufacturing method is: taking acrylic compounds as the monomer and mixing it with the crosslinking agent and porogenic agent to form an oil phase; evenly mixing the oil phase with magnetic grains and then conducting suspension polymerization; aminating and alkylating the polymerized magnetic grains so as to form the quaternary ammonium salts, namely the magnetic, acrylic strongly basic anion exchange microsphere resin. The exchange capacity of this resin is higher than that of any magnetic strongly basic anion exchange microsphere resin available either on both Chinese and overseas markets or in literature; it is able to take the place of the traditional strongly basic anion exchange resin in separating and removing soluble organics, particularly precursors of disinfection by-products, and various anions such as nitrates and phosphates.
US09183964B2
Crystalline metallic nano-particles (nano-crystallites) are formed by a non-explosive application of electrical energy to a conductive wire. The nano-particles take the form of platelets having a diameter of 2-8 nm and a thickness in the range of 3-5 atomic layers.
US09183958B2
Provided is a vitrification process method of aluminum and filter radioactive wastes to produce high quality of glass solidification fit for legislations and rules as vitrification final product, comprising developing frit composition needed in vitrifying the aluminum and filter radioactive wastes, suitably mixing the aluminum and filter radioactive wastes with the frit and producing glass solidification having composition range of oxides of aluminum and filter radioactive wastes to maintain lower than 100 poise viscosity which is operating parameter of a melting furnace. The vitrification process method of aluminum and filter radioactive wastes comprise mixing the aluminum and filter radioactive wastes with the frit in an induction heating low temperature melting furnace and meting it at the temperature of 1,100˜1,200° C. to produce glass solidification.
US09183955B2
A suspension type high-density storage rack for nuclear fuel assemblies may include a plurality of body parts each having a basket cell storing the corresponding nuclear fuel assembly and having a generally square tube-like shape elongated in a height direction thereof, a plurality of connection plates integrally connecting the basket cells adjacent to each other, while maintaining them at a predetermined distance, and a base plate fixedly coupling the undersides of the basket cells thereto; and a plurality of cap parts each closing the opened upper portion of the corresponding body part and suspending the corresponding nuclear fuel assembly therefrom.
US09183938B2
A memory system includes a nonvolatile memory device and a memory controller. The nonvolatile memory device includes first memory blocks configured to store m-bit data per cell and second memory blocks configured to store n-bit data per cell. The memory controller is configured to control the nonvolatile memory device to close an open word line generated in a second memory block of the second memory blocks when a program operation is performed on the second memory block.
US09183937B2
Various aspects of a nonvolatile memory have an improved erase suspend procedure. A bias arrangement is applied to word lines of an erase sector undergoing an erase procedure interrupted by an erase suspend procedure. As a result, another operation performed during erase suspend, such as a read operation or program operation, has more accurate results due to decreased leakage current from any over-erased nonvolatile memory cells of the erase sector.
US09183934B2
A flash memory capable of writing or deleting a split block is provided. A flash memory includes a memory array comprising a plurality of blocks, and a word line selection circuit, wherein each of the plurality of blocks is formed by a plurality of cell units in a well. The cell unit comprises N memory cells, a selection transistor coupled to one terminal of the memory cells, a selection transistor coupled to the other terminal of the memory cells, and a dummy selection transistor coupled between the memory cells. The word line selection circuit splits the block into a first block and a second block to use according to the operation of data writing or data deleting.
US09183925B2
A nonvolatile memory device including a control unit configured to read resistance value information for each of memory cells as initial resistance value information and store it temporarily before a voltage pulse for forming is applied, to set resistance value information as a threshold value serving as a target for completion of the forming, the resistance value information being obtained by multiplying the initial resistance value information by a predetermined coefficient, and to repeat application of the voltage pulse for forming and reading of the resistance value information until a resistance value indicated by the resistance value information on the memory cell becomes lower than a resistance value indicated by the threshold value.
US09183924B2
Methods of operating nonvolatile memory devices may include identifying one or more multi-bit nonvolatile memory cells in a nonvolatile memory device that have undergone unintentional programming from an erased state to an at least partially programmed state. Errors generated during an operation to program a first plurality of multi-bit nonvolatile memory cells may be detected by performing a plurality of reading operations to generate error detection data and then decoding the error detection data to identify specific cells having errors. A programmed first plurality of multi-bit nonvolatile memory cells and a force-bit data vector, which was modified during the program operation, may be read to support error detection. This data, along with data read from a page buffer associated with the first plurality of multi-bit nonvolatile memory cells, may then be decoded to identify which of the first plurality of multi-bit nonvolatile memory cells are unintentionally programmed cells.
US09183921B2
A method includes coupling, by using a switching circuit, a first node to a bulk node of an input/output (IO) circuit of a memory circuit when the IO circuit operates in an active mode. The first node is configured to carry a first voltage level sufficient to cause a set of transistors of the IO circuit to have a first threshold voltage. A second node is coupled to the bulk node by using the switching circuit when the IO circuit operates in an inactive mode. The second node is configured to carry a second voltage level sufficient to cause the set of transistors of the IO circuit to have a second threshold voltage, and an absolute value of the second threshold voltage is greater than an absolute value of the first threshold voltage.
US09183920B2
The embodiments described herein describe technologies for using the memory modules in different modes of operation, such as in a standard multi-drop mode or as in a dynamic point-to-point (DPP) mode (also referred to herein as an enhanced mode). The memory modules can also be inserted in the sockets of the memory system in different configurations.
US09183916B2
A non-volatile electro-mechanical diode memory cell is described for implementation of compact (4F2) cross-point memory arrays. The electro-mechanical diode memory cells operate with relatively low set/reset voltages and excellent retention characteristics, and are multi-time programmable. Due to its simplicity, this electro-mechanical diode memory cell is attractive for implementation of three-dimensional memory arrays for higher storage density.
US09183914B2
A first ReRAM unit having a resistance change layer is provided between a first access transistor configuring the SRAM and a first bit line, and a second ReRAM unit having a resistance change layer is provided between a second access transistor and a second bit line. When a low potential (L=0V) is held at a first storage node and a high potential (H=1.5V) is held at a second storage node at the end of a normal operation period of the SRAM, the first ReRAM unit is set to ON state (ON), and the second ReRAM unit is set to OFF state (OFF); accordingly, the retained data of the SRAM is written in to the ReRAM units. When the SRAM returns to the normal operation again, data corresponding to the storage nodes are written back and the ReRAM units are both set to ON state (reset).
US09183903B2
A circuit includes one or more memory cells, a data line associated with the one or more memory cells, one or more reference cells, a reference data line associated with the one or more reference cells, a first circuit coupled to the reference data line and the data line, and a second circuit. The first circuit is configured to output a first logical value based on a voltage level of the data line upon occurrence of a voltage level of the reference data line reaching a trip point. The second circuit is configured to output a second logical value based on the voltage level on the data line prior to the occurrence of the voltage level of the reference data line reaching the trip point, and to output the first logical value after the occurrence of the voltage level of the reference data line reaching the trip point.
US09183898B2
A method and apparatus for using multiple data rate (MDR) wiring with encoding is described herein. Single data rate wires are replaced with MDR wires and signals are processed through MDR circuitry. The MDR circuitry may include MDR driver circuitry, MDR repeater circuitry and MDR receiver/decoder circuitry. An encoding circuit may be included in the MDR circuitry to mitigate power consumption due to signal toggling rates. The MDR circuitry may be implemented at multiple clock rates, and with source synchronous bus circuitry and clock gates.
US09183889B1
A disk drive has a disk drive base with a central cavity surrounded by a peripheral wall. The disk drive also includes a top cover attached to the disk drive base and disposed over the central cavity to define a disk drive enclosure. A disk is rotatably attached to the disk drive base within the central cavity, and is disposed within the disk drive enclosure. The top cover has a central top face that defines a central top face plane. A foil seal is adhered to the central top face. The central top face of the top cover includes a first channel that has a bottom land that is depressed towards the disk relative to the central top face plane, and the foil seal covers the first channel. The first channel is vented to the central cavity by a hole through the bottom land of the first channel.
US09183888B2
An object three-dimensionally represented by frames contained in a moving image and a time axis indicative of a playback time of the moving image is displayed on a display unit, and, while the three dimensional image being displayed, and an object representative of a moving image of a part between two points detected on the time axis is displayed in response to an instruction by a thing approaching to the display unit and is moved in accordance with a moving operation on the thing.
US09183887B2
An interactive multimedia apparatus (1) usable in combination with a software suite of authoring programs (2) installed in a computing means of a mobile data processing apparatus (3) of the type having a display means (4) and one or more input means (4) is disclosed. The interactive multimedia apparatus (1) provides a bundle of tools which together enable a multimedia composition to be generated in real time on the mobile data processing apparatus (3). The present invention utilizes individual channels (11, 40) to ensure users can interact directly with individual files (10) and set various composition authoring parameters (14) both before and during a mixing cycle to dynamically create a multimedia composition.
US09183860B2
A suspension board with circuit includes a piezoelectric element mounting portion for mounting thereon a piezoelectric element. The conductive pattern is configured to be electrically connected to the piezoelectric element. The piezoelectric element mounting portion includes a facing portion placed on one side of a bonding agent for bonding the piezoelectric element to the piezoelectric element mounting portion in an expanding/contracting direction of the piezoelectric element so as to face the bonding agent. The facing portion is configured to be pressed by the bonding agent when the piezoelectric element bonded to the piezoelectric element mounting portion expands/contracts.
US09183857B2
A device including a magnetoresistive sensor; a top shield; and a bottom shield, wherein the magnetoresistive sensor is positioned between the top shield and the bottom shield, and wherein at least one of the bottom shield and the top shield include NiFeX, wherein X is chosen from Nb, Mo, Ta, or W.
US09183855B2
A magnetic recording head includes a main magnetic pole that generates a recording magnetic field in a direction perpendicular to a recording layer, a write shield with a surface that faces a trailing side of the main magnetic pole, so that a write gap is interposed between the surface and the main magnetic pole, the write shield forming a magnetic core together with the main magnetic pole, a recording coil, a high frequency oscillator within the write gap, a wiring through which a current can flow through the main magnetic pole, the high frequency oscillator, and the write shield in series, and a magnetic element made of soft magnetic material, positioned within the write gap and separated from the high frequency oscillator, and configured to form a magnetic path passing through the main magnetic pole, the magnetic element, and the write shield, and not through the high frequency oscillator.
US09183851B2
A set of lateral positions, of the magnetic medium with respect to the tape reel and a set of longitudinal positions of the magnetic medium with respect to the beginning of the magnetic medium as the magnetic medium comes off the first tape reel, are identified. A record is stored, on a non-volatile storage medium, of the set of lateral positions of the magnetic medium and the set of longitudinal positions of the magnetic medium. The record, of the set of lateral positions of the magnetic medium and the set of longitudinal positions of the magnetic medium as the magnetic medium comes off a second tape reel, is read. A tape head is moved laterally, to the lateral positions in response to the reading of the record of the set of lateral positions of the magnetic medium and the set of longitudinal positions of the magnetic medium.
US09183842B2
A transcoder is arranged to transcode a stream having a dynamically changing audio configuration, such as a changing number of audio channels. The transcoder can receive an input stream whereby changes in the content associated with the input stream causes corresponding changes to the configuration of audio data encoded in the input stream. The transcoder is arranged to detect the change in audio configuration and, in response, to dynamically reconfigure its decoder and encoder modules to continue to transcode the audio data after the audio configuration change.
US09183834B2
Systems and methods for tuning a dictionary of a speech recognition system includes accessing a voice mail record of a user, accessing a recorded audio file of a name of the user in the voice mail record spoken by the user, providing the audio file to a speech recognition system, processing the audio file in the speech recognition system and obtaining a text result, determining whether a confidence score of the text result is below a predetermined threshold, and adding, at least, the name of the user to a list of low confidence names. Alternate spellings for the low confidence names can then be added to the dictionary.
US09183828B2
According to embodiments of the invention, systems, methods and devices are directed to a noise control panel which serves as a sound barrier intended to provide a noise-free environment for infants. Various embodiments of the invention implement several novel features, including, in one embodiment, the noise control having a main body formed from a panel forming either a straight or curved upright sound barrier in front of a baby bed. Multiple panels may cover all sides of the bed and may have sound detectors incorporated therein. A vent serves to provide air circulation and/or conditioning if the panels are in a position enclosing the bed.
US09183827B2
An adaptive control unit is described for receiving an analog input signal containing at least an indication of a parameter to be controlled to generate an analog output signal for control of the parameter. The analog input signal contains a fed back component resulting from the analog output signal. The adaptive control unit comprises an analog filter having an adjustable gain, a gain adjuster for adjusting the gain of the analog filter using a feedforward adjustment method, and a filter for compensating for the fed back component in the analog input signal.
US09183824B2
A timbre selector includes a first signal processing unit, a second signal processing unit and a first switch. The first signal processing unit includes a first input terminal, a first filter and a first output terminal. The first input terminal receives a first tone signal. The first filter processes the first tone signal to generate a first processed signal. The second signal processing unit includes a second input terminal, a second filter and a second output terminal. The second input terminal receives a second tone signal. The second filter processes the second tone signal to generate a second processed signal. The first switch is connected to the first output terminal at the first position. The first switch is connected to the first and second output terminals at the second position. The first switch is connected to the second output terminal at the third position.
US09183815B2
A tremolo device for static retention of a plurality of musical instrument strings in a stringed instrument. The tremolo device has a body with an upper surface, a neck portion, and a plurality of strings anchored at a first end of the neck and extending over at least a portion and secured to the tremolo device at the other end of the neck portion and the body and possesses an inertia block mechanism with substantially solid construction disposed to receive and securely retain a plurality of raw instrument strings without removal of a ball end from each string. The inertia block has an upper portion, a lower portion, and a plurality of internal, longitudinally displaced, cylindrically shaped, string retaining chambers designed to pass through an entirety of the block mechanism. The string retaining chambers have an upper and lower portion corresponding with the upper and lower portions of the block.
US09183813B2
A method includes triggering, through an interface of a data processing device, cropping of a display screen area of a display unit of the data processing device. The method also includes initiating, through a driver component associated a processor of the data processing device, an operating system executing on the data processing device and/or an application executing on the data processing device, the processor to process pixel data to be displayed on the display screen area based on the triggering. Further, the method includes rendering, through the processor, the processed pixel data on a cropped portion of the display screen area of the display unit.
US09183807B2
The technology provides embodiments for displaying virtual data as printed content by a see-through, near-eye, mixed reality display device system. One or more literary content items registered to a reading object in a field of view of the display device system are displayed with print layout characteristics. Print layout characteristics from a publisher of each literary content item are selected if available. The reading object has a type like a magazine, book, journal or newspaper and may be a real object or a virtual object displayed by the display device system. The reading object type of the virtual object is based on a reading object type associated with a literary content item to be displayed. Virtual augmentation data registered to a literary content item is displayed responsive to detecting user physical action in image data. An example of a physical action is a page flipping gesture.
US09183806B2
A device may determine a baseline size of a font, obtain a distance between a user and a mobile device when the baseline size is determined, determine, via a sensor, a current distance between the mobile device and the user, determine a target size of the font based on the current distance, the distance, and the baseline size, set a current size of the font to the target size of the font, and display, on the mobile device, characters in the font having the target size.
US09183801B2
A source driver apparatus configured to drive a display panel is provided. The source driver apparatus includes a data operation circuit and a pixel driving circuit. The data operation circuit is configured to receive pixel data and perform a polarity determination operation on the pixel data to determine a polarity distribution information of pixels on the display panel. The pixel driving circuit is coupled to the data operation circuit. The pixel driving circuit is configured to drive the display panel according to the pixel data and the polarity distribution information. Furthermore, a driving method of the display panel is also provided.
US09183789B2
Provided is a display device capable of properly controlling a luminance of a backlight on the basis of a plurality of factors. The display device is a display device (10) which includes a BL luminance control signal generating block (44) for generating a BL luminance control signal for controlling a luminance of a backlight unit (30). The BL luminance control signal generating block (44) (i) receives a plurality of BL luminance parameters regarding the luminance of the backlight unit (30), (ii) carries out a calculation process with respect to the plurality of BL luminance parameters and (iii) generates the BL luminance control signal on the basis of a result of the calculation process.
US09183777B2
An organic electroluminescent light emitting unit driving method includes a process (a) to execute preprocessing, a process (b) to execute threshold voltage cancellation processing, a process (c) to execute writing processing, a process (d) to set a first node to a floating state, and a process (e) to execute a series of processes at least once wherein after driving an organic electroluminescent light emitting unit, a reverse voltage is applied between the anode and cathode electrodes of the organic electroluminescent light emitting unit, with a series of processes (a) through (e) being repeated, with an auxiliary driving process being provided wherein a forward voltage is applied between the anode and cathode electrodes of the organic electroluminescent light emitting unit over a certain period, and with a period between the termination of the auxiliary driving process and the termination of the next process (b) being suppressed to 1 millisecond or less.
US09183772B2
A data driver for display panels includes: multiple driver output terminals coupled to multiple data lines of a display panel; and multiple output circuits that output output signals from the driver output terminals. Each output circuit includes: an output buffer that outputs an output signal; a first resistor having one end coupled to one of the driver output terminals; a first switch and a second resistor coupled in series between an output node of the output buffer and the other end of the first resistor; and a second switch coupled in parallel to the first switch and the second resistor between the output node of the output buffer and the other end of the first resistor.
US09183762B2
A method and system for determining the adequacy of abdominal thrusts applied to choking victims during performance of the Heimlich maneuver.
US09183761B1
A behavior management platform provided herein comprises software modules for use by persons exhibiting behaviors they wish to modify. An example “diapression” management platform is provided for persons exhibiting a range of undesired behaviors associated with diabetes. Three modules are described for integrated development: a Condition Assessment Module (CAM), an Emotional Triggers Coach Module (ETCM), and a Coping Inventory Module (CIM). A back-end database allows for generating profiles, providing feedback to users derived from population-level behavioral characteristics, and capacity to store information at the individual and aggregate level.
US09183756B2
A method of motor reflex training a subject is provided. The method includes rotating a subject in a multi-axis rotational device comprising a pitch axis of rotation and a yaw axis of rotation. The rotation of each said pitch and yaw axis is independent of the other axis of rotation. The rotation velocity and acceleration around each said pitch and yaw axis controlled by a computer system. Said rotational device is configured to allow continuous rotation through more than 360 degrees around each said axis of rotation independently and simultaneously, while the subject performs a response test.
US09183752B2
Screenshots on a computer display are automatically captured to assist in building a tutorial to demonstrate the functionality of one or more applications. In one possible approach, an event detector, such as an accessibility toolkit, detects when events are generated by the one or more applications. The events may include, e.g., button clicks, windows opening or closing, drag and drop events, check boxes being checked, menus being pulled down or menu items selected, and so forth. Or, a program may monitor pixel changes on the screen to detect when changes occur in the images generated by the one or more applications. A tutorial builder application automatically captures an image when the event or image change is detected, edits the captured image such as by providing a focus on the changed portion, and provides the edited image in a tutorial window. Related text can also be automatically generated.
US09183744B2
A method for providing traffic incident information is disclosed. Selected images of a traffic incident are associated with corresponding traffic incident data. The combined information is provided to an end-user application, such as a navigation system, the Internet, and a television station. A user can obtain the combined traffic incident information from the end-user application and/or device to obtain a better understanding of the traffic incident.
US09183743B2
Systems and methods for estimating traffic signal information are provided. According to one aspect, positioning system data is obtained from a plurality of vehicles. Each data set includes the position and the velocity of a vehicle as functions of time. For an intersection having a traffic signal, an average acceleration of the vehicles when leaving the intersection is estimated, and an average deceleration of the vehicles when approaching the intersection is estimated. For each of a subset of the vehicles, a stop duration at the intersection is estimated based on the average acceleration, the average deceleration, and the positioning system data for the respective vehicle. A duration of a red phase of the traffic signal is estimated based on the stop duration of each of the subset of the vehicles.
US09183742B2
Methods, systems and processor-readable media for modeling and optimizing multiple ITS (Intelligent Transportation System) strategies utilizing a systematic genetic algorithm. A traffic simulation model can be configured in conjunction with a genetic algorithm based optimization engine for optimizing the transportation models. An origin-destination matrix that minimizes discrepancies between a simulated and an observed link traffic count can be estimated by considering a road network and a traffic count with respect to a region. A driver behavior can then be determined utilizing the origin-destination matrix via calibration so that the simulation model can replicate a freeway traffic flow in the region. An optimal parameter with respect to the ITS strategies can be determined to optimize a set goal with respect to a given constraint. Such an approach meets a level of service (LOS) metric as well as a revenue target under the applied ITS strategies.
US09183741B2
Embodiments of the disclosure include a method for providing a consolidated estimated time of arrival in a scheduled transportation system. The method includes receiving at least one of a scheduled time of arrival, a real-time estimated time of arrival and a predictive estimated time of arrival and assigning a weight to each of the scheduled time of arrival, the real-time estimated time of arrival and the predictive estimated time of arrival. The method also includes calculating a confidence level and the consolidated estimated time of arrival based on the weights and the scheduled time of arrival, the real-time estimated time of arrival and the predictive estimated time of arrival.
US09183740B2
A travel interval division part and a low fuel consumption travel pattern generation part are included, the travel interval division part dividing, based on a reference travel pattern indicating a speed and a travel time period in a case where a vehicle travels without consideration of energy consumption and based on travel route information indicating a travel route that the vehicle travels, the travel route into a plurality of travel intervals at a plurality of reference points, the low fuel consumption travel pattern generation part determining a low fuel consumption travel pattern in which a travel time period of each travel interval falls within a predetermined range of a travel time period of each travel interval of the reference travel pattern and a cumulative speed increase amount in each travel interval is smaller than that of the reference travel pattern.
US09183736B2
A particular smart hazard detector may itself function as a guide during a process of installation of the same at an installation location. Additionally, the installation location of the particular smart hazard detector may play a central role in how various settings of the smart hazard detector are defined and adjusted over time.
US09183705B2
A card game is played against a pay table, wherein a player receives a partial hand that is preferably completed by community cards, but may be completed by cards dealt directly to a hand or a combination of cards dealt directly to a hand and at least one community card or wild card. After placement of an ante wager, each player will have an opportunity to place a game wager before receiving another card for the player's hand (whether dealt directly to the player or as a community card revealed to all players). At least some or all game wagers may be an amount within a range of multiples of the player's ante wager, such as one times, two times, three times, four times, or five times the amount of the ante wager. The range of wagers may remain the same or vary with the number of dealt cards or community cards revealed to the players.
US09183697B2
A gaming machine of the present invention stores a bet area on which a bet is placed and a game value placed as the bet in each gaming terminal, rotates and stops the wheel to determine a resulting symbol from the plurality of symbols, awards a payout based on the resulting symbol and the odds set for the bet area on which the bet is placed in the gaming terminal, and adjusts the payout rate by changing the odds set for the bet areas in the gaming terminals.
US09183690B2
A method and an administration system (CCMS) are proposed for monitoring of disposal processes for funds (GM) which are accepted by at least one money acceptance system (CP) and which are removed from the monetary cycle, wherein inventory data (B1, B2) about the disposed funds (GM) are detected. The administration system (CCMS) has a first data interface (IF1) in order to receive first inventory data (B1) from the at least one money acceptance system (CP) and has a second data interface disposal device (WTU) which disposes of the funds (GM) from the monetary cycle. In addition, the administration system (CCMS) has at least one computing unit which compares the first and the second inventory data (B1, B2) with each other, and depending on this comparison, generates results data (R) for at least one device (BK) which administers the ownership of the funds (GM).
US09183688B2
Described is a characteristic verification system that includes security marks, devices, systems and methods that may be used to authenticate a material good and to provide strong brand protection. A device, such as a smartphone, that includes a software application, a camera and a light source, may be used to interrogate the security mark and connect to remote servers to authenticate the material good at varying levels of assurance. In addition to authenticating the good, the system may also authenticate the user and provide different information to different users and/or limit information that is provided unauthenticated users.
US09183680B2
A system for facilitating diagnosis and maintenance of a control networks on a mobile conveyance comprises one or more wireless ground stations configured to communicate over a wireless communication channel with the control network. A local area computer network receives and responds to messages to or from the control network via the wireless ground stations. The local area computer network may have user terminals, a server computer, a database comprising diagnostic information relating to said control network, and a replacement parts database and/or job auction database. The local area network may also include a wide area network interface, allowing diagnostic information for the control network to be retrieved or parts to be ordered from remote vendor sites. The system may also include wireless handheld, portable equipment for allowing service personnel to perform diagnostic analysis, maintenance, and testing of the mobile conveyance control network.
US09183677B2
An example system that allows a camera enabled application, such as an augmented reality application, to run in a protected area may include a first device including a camera, the camera including a secure mode of operation and a display, an image processing module configured to convert image data from the camera to encoded data when the camera is in the secure mode and protect image data stored in the system, an encryption module configured to encrypt encoded data from the image processing module, and a protected audiovisual path mechanism configured to securely send augmented encoded data to the display.
US09183672B1
Methods and systems for providing a three-dimensional (3D) image viewer in a webpage are provided. According to an example method, a webpage may be provided, and the webpage may include embedded language that identifies a 3D image viewer to be provided within the webpage. Based on the embedded language, a computer having a processor and a memory may request information associated with rendering a 3D object data model in the 3D image viewer. The method may also include providing the 3D image viewer within the webpage, and receiving information associated with rendering the 3D object data model. Additionally, the 3D object data model may be rendered in the 3D image viewer based on the received information. Additional example systems and methods are described herein.
US09183653B2
A graphical manipulation tool to create and/or make modifications to a graphical object suitable for visually representing data. The graphical manipulation tool analyzes the graphical object to determine parameters of visual characteristics of the graphical object that can be used to visually represent data. A computing system, through the graphical manipulation tool, may generate metadata that defines a capacity for visual characteristics to represent data. In some cases, a preview is displayed on a user interface indicating to a user how the metadata, if incorporated with the graphical object, may result in the visual characteristics of the graphical object being used to visually represent data. If incorporating the metadata with the graphical object is desirable, the user may provide to include the additional metadata with the graphical object.
US09183646B2
A technician performs a locate operation of an underground utility in a dig area of proposed excavation by applying one or more physical colored markers (e.g., paint, flags, other colored markers) to ground, pavement or other surface to indicate a presence or an absence of the underground utility in the dig area. A digital image of a geographic area comprising the dig area is displayed on a display device, and one or more electronic colored markers corresponding to the physical colored marker(s) are added to the displayed digital image so as to generate a marked-up image. Information relating to the marked-up image is electronically transmitted and/or electronically stored so as to document the locate operation.
US09183631B2
Three-dimensional data are registered by selecting a first set of primitives from the data in a first coordinate system, wherein the first set of primitives includes at least one plane, at least one point, and a third primitive that is either a point or a plane, and selecting a second set of primitives from the data in a second coordinate system, wherein the second set of primitives includes at least one plane, at least one point, and a third primitive corresponding to the third primitive in the first set of primitives. Then, the planes are registered with each other, as are the points, to obtain registered primitives.
US09183624B2
Methods and systems for detecting defects on a wafer are provided. One method includes creating a searchable database for a design for a wafer, which includes assigning values to different portions of the design based on patterns in the different portions of the design and storing the assigned values in the searchable database. Different portions of the design having substantially the same patterns are assigned the same values in the searchable database. The searchable database is configured such that searching of the database can be synchronized with generation of output for the wafer by one or more detectors of a wafer inspection system. Therefore, as the wafer is being scanned, design information for the output can be determined as fast as the output is generated, which enables multiple, desirable design based inspection capabilities.
US09183623B2
A system for processing an image comprises a three-dimensional camera that captures an image of a dairy livestock. A processor is communicatively coupled to the three-dimensional camera. The processor accesses a first pixel having a first depth location, and a second pixel having a second depth location. The processor determines that the second depth location is not within a threshold distance of the first depth location, and discards the second pixel from the image based at least in part upon the determination.
US09183619B2
When restoring a scanned halftone image of a damaged document, parameters of the halftone structure (geometry) are estimated, as is an intended contone gray level for damaged portions of the image. Locations of halftone cell tiles in the scanned image are determined based on the halftone structure, and a halftone profile model is generated using the estimated halftone parameters and contone information. Image segments are aligned using global features for coarse alignment and halftone structure for fine alignment, such as in cases where the scanned halftone image contains unconnected fragments. Missing parts of the damaged document image are filled in using the halftone profile model and estimated contone values.
US09183613B2
Apparatuses, methods and storage medium associated with operating an application are disclosed herein. In embodiments, a method may include locally creating on a client computing device, by a client side of the application, a graphics context of the application. The graphics context may include a plurality of rendering resources associated with generating display frames of the application. The client side of the application may cause creation of a copy of the graphics context, by a remote side of the application, on a collection of remote computing resources. The client side of the application may then adaptively cause generation of a display frame locally or remotely. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.
US09183611B2
Techniques are disclosed relating to implementation of gradient-type graphics instructions. In one embodiment, an apparatus includes first and second execution pipelines and a register file. In this embodiment, the register file is coupled to the first and second execution pipelines and configured to store operands for the first and second execution pipelines. In this embodiment, the apparatus is configured to determine that a graphics instruction imposes a dependency between the first and second pipeline. In response to this determination, the apparatus is configured to read a plurality of operands from the register file including an operand assigned to the second execution pipeline and to select the operand assigned to the second execution pipeline as an input operand for the first execution pipeline. The apparatus may be configured such that operands assigned to the second execution pipeline are accessible by the first execution pipeline only via the register file and not from other locations.
US09183609B2
A technique for efficiently rendering content reduces each complex blend mode to a series of basic blend operations. The series of basic blend operations are executed within a recirculating pipeline until a final blended value is computed. The recirculating pipeline is positioned within a color raster operations unit of a graphics processing unit for efficient access to image buffer data.
US09183605B2
An image projecting apparatus includes an image projecting unit configured to project received original image data on an image projection surface; an area identifying unit configured to identify an obstruction area in which different content is displayed as compared to a normal projection surface to be projected based on the original image data; and a layout modifying unit configured to modify a layout of an object included in the original image data that is projected, on the basis of the object and the obstruction area on the image projection surface.
US09183603B2
An infusion pump system includes an infusion channel, and a display associated with the infusion channel. The display is for rendering a scannable barcode.
US09183599B2
A system, method, and computer program for social mapping is provided. Data about a plurality of social network members is received. A first member of the plurality of social network members is allowed to identify a second member of the plurality of social network members with whom the first member wishes to establish a relationship. The data is then sent to the second member about the first member based on the identification. Input from the second member is received in response to the data. The relationship between the first member and the second member is confirmed based on the input in order to map the first member to the second member.
US09183597B2
A system and method of classifying historic and real-time social contacts of one or more mobile users in such a manner that classification structures are implemented. Those classification structures are maintained in a database and updated with additional information that can either be found or heuristically inferred. The maintained classification structures can be searched to obtain information or used to send alerts that notify others of a change in a social network, such as an alert to a parent when their child's social network changes.
US09183594B1
An automated safety notification system is proposed herein in which one or more safe zone access points may be physically deployed to one or more safe zones associated with a disaster area. If a person with a mobile phone or other mobile device enters the safe zone, the safe zone access point may detect the presence of the mobile device and perform certain functions in response to the detection. For example, the safe zone access point may initiate contact of a predetermined plurality of contacts that the person may have already designated before the disaster. The safe zone access point may also be used to initiate an insurance claim.
US09183589B2
Systems and methods for multi-directional visual browsing on an electronic device are described. In example embodiments, a a primary item is positioned in a predetermined location on a visual display. Navigation direction constraints are determined. The navigation direction constraints provide guidance as to where related items that are related to the primary item, based on at least one attribute of the primary item and attributes of the related items, should be located in the visual display. The related items are positioned in proximity to the predetermined location of the primary item based on the determined navigation direction constraints.
US09183586B2
The present invention is an applications gateway that offers multiple functions and features for specific geographic venue locations, while providing easy access to advertising, purchasing, and redemption opportunities for that specific geographic venue location. Venue locations can be stadiums, shopping malls, amusement parks, open air spaces where people can congregate, and/or buildings, which most often require the presence of a concentration of people. The venue location may correlate to the location of the hand-held mobile unit or it may be a remote geographic venue location not near the location of the hand-held mobile unit. Access to the gateway application is through a hand-held mobile unit, which can include a mobile phone, smartphone device, or portable computer having a wireless radio transmission connection. (e.g. iPhone, Droid, iPad, Slate, etc.)
US09183584B2
A system and method for providing position information using a three-dimensional based grid is provided. The position information may be relayed to an electronic device by providing location information to a database and receiving location-centric information at the electronic device. The system may include a network for continuously updating the database in real-time.
US09183565B2
Architecture for offering enticements to cellular customers that will lead the customers to use the available services at times away from peak usage. For example, the provider can offer incentives (or enticements) that direct users to make phone calls during off-peak times of the hour or day. An incentive can include charging customers reduced minutes (e.g., 0.75 minutes) for each minute used from the customer plan when the customer uses services during off-peak time of the day. This applies to text messaging where users can attach files such as images and short video clips for communication to other cellular users, and to cellular devices via which users can access websites. In general, any services supported by the wireless provider can benefit by providing incentives to move users away from times of high network usage during the day.
US09183555B2
A Globally Unique IDentifier (GUID) is used to match an authorization request with an authorization response for a transaction between a merchant and a consumer upon an account within a payment processing system where the payment amount is unknown until after the merchant receives the authorization response that includes the GUID. After receiving the authorization response and when the payment amount is known, the merchant forms a transmission that has information for delivery to an issuer of the account. This information is sufficient for the issuer to forward the payment amount from the account to pay the merchant for the transaction. While including the GUID and the payment amount, the information does not include an identifier of the account.
US09183554B1
A user may provide a financial card to an automated teller machine (ATM) or point of sale (POS) terminal and may be authenticated by providing a gesture and/or an image selection via a mobile device to the ATM or the POS. The gesture and/or image selection may be provided using a touchscreen of the mobile device. The gesture and/or image provided by the user via the mobile device may be compared to a stored gesture and/or image provided by the user during an earlier registration of the financial card. If there is a match between the gesture and/or image provided by the user via the mobile device and the previously stored gesture and/or image, then the user is authenticated and may access an account associated with the financial card.
US09183548B2
A copyright server receives a copyright request from a requester, such as a portal server. The copyright request corresponds to a user requesting a particular content to be transcoded. The copyright server identifies content copyright permissions associated with the requested content that indicate whether it is permissible to transcode the requested content. If the copyright server does not locate content copyright permissions associated with the requested content, the copyright server identifies the owner of the content and sends a message to the content owner requesting content copyright permission. The copyright server receives a response from the content owner, stores the response on a local storage area, and forwards the response to the requester. The content copyright permissions may include an amount of a transcoding fee that the content owner requires in order to transcode the requested content.
US09183538B2
A set of instructions stored on one or more computer readable medium for running on one or more computer systems is described herein. The set of instructions generally may include instructions for identifying a geographic location of a roof, instructions for determining contact information of one or more contractors within a region of interest of the geographic location of the roof, instructions for determining a footprint of the roof, instructions for determining predominant pitch of the roof, and/or instructions for determining an estimated roofing area based on the predominant pitch and the footprint of the roof.
US09183522B2
A demand response management system which may be implemented with demand response logic. The system may be used by utilities, independent system operators, intermediaries and others to manage operations of demand response programs relative to customers, clients, participants, and users of outputs from the utilities, independent system operators, and the like. Demand response logic of the demand response management system may provide demand signal propagation and generation from demand response events.
US09183519B2
There is described a method for maintenance of an aircraft component, the method comprising: connecting electrically to the aircraft component via a maintenance terminal; retrieving maintenance data relating to the aircraft component using the maintenance terminal; performing maintenance operations on the aircraft component by entering data via a user interface on the maintenance terminal; and communicating in real time with a remote operator by transmitting and receiving at least one of voice signals and data signals wirelessly across a network via the maintenance terminal while performing the maintenance operations.
US09183515B2
In one aspect, a system for presenting a share box with content information in response to an endorsement includes an endorsement sharing module that is responsive to user input and creates a sharing box having content derived from the user context and input request. The endorsement sharing module receives a user request to share information. In response, this endorsement sharing module determines the context of the user, retrieves content based on the context, filters the content based on publisher information, personalizes the share box content, and adds the content to a share box. The endorsement sharing module also adds one or more actions to the share box after which the share box is provided for display to the user.
US09183501B2
An information technology (IT) architecture upper merged ontology which includes an upper merged ontology that is a representation framework for combined knowledge sources that are used in business and information technology; an upper merged ontology knowledge base containing information derived from an analysis of business and technical services pertaining to the IT architecture application; a plurality of semantic web application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow access to the upper merged ontology as a semantic web; a reasoning and constraint language (RaCL) that is a scripting language having the capabilities of model creation, automated reasoning and search and query operations such that scripts developed in the reasoning and constraint language can execute using the semantic web APIs; and a computer processor for representing and performing execution tasks.
US09183486B2
The disclosure provides a cross-linkable polymer composition, a core layer for an information carrying card comprising such cross-linked composition, resulting information carrying card, and methods of making the same. A crosslinkable polymer composition comprises a curable base polymer resin in a liquid or paste form, and a particulate thermoplastic filler. The base polymer resin is selected from the group consisting of urethane acrylate, silicone acrylate, epoxy acrylate, urethane, acrylate, silicone and epoxy. The particulate thermoplastic filler may be polyolefin, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a copolymer of vinyl chloride and at least another monomer, or a polyester such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a compound or blend thereof.
US09183480B1
A method and apparatus are disclosed for using temporary data with a magnetic stripe card to reduce incidents of fraudulent card transactions. A first set of temporary data, valid until an occurrence of an event, is generated and applied to a magnetic stripe area of a magnetic stripe card (“the card”). The card can be used for a first transaction, which is authorized based on a verification that the first set of temporary data is valid, or was valid and is not expired. The transaction is processed based on an account associated with the card. The event occurs, rendering the first data item invalid, and a second set of temporary data is generated and applied to the magnetic stripe area.
US09183479B2
Value tokens, e.g. gaming chips, are formed with a slug having an RFID microchip embedded or encapsulated inside and an EM coil either embedded or encapsulated inside or wrapped around the periphery of the slug. The slug is formed by injection molding two plastic halves with a spacing therebetween for accepting the RFID microchip. The plastic halves are formed from weighted plastic including fillers such as copper, brass and/or tungsten to add extra weight to the plastic halves. The EM coil is placed on the same radius as the RFID antenna within the gaming chip or at a radius outside the RFID antenna to as to minimize interference between the RFID and EM signals by minimizing the metal in the EM field. For example, the EM coil may be wound within a groove around the outer periphery of the slug.
US09183476B2
A print management apparatus includes a print management unit, a storage unit, and a print controller. The print management unit acquires print information of printing processing performed by an image forming apparatus and performs management of the processing. The storage unit temporarily stores print information acquired by the print management unit. The print controller performs control such that print information that is temporarily stored is transmitted sequentially to the image forming apparatus. Even in a case where the print controller has generated, by mistake, a notification indicating completion of transmission, even though the print controller has not completed transmission of print information, the print management unit detects that there is a page that has not been printed by the image forming apparatus, on the basis of information on the progress of printing from the image forming apparatus.
US09183468B2
A device (10) for reading a magnetic stripe card and/or smart card (22) comprising a slot (12) for feeding the magnetic stripe card and/or smart card (22). A rotary unit (18) for rotating a fed magnetic stripe card and/or smart card (22) from the feeding plane (24) into a reading plane (32) extending at a predetermined angle (W1) relative to the feeding plane (24) is arranged behind the slot (12) as viewed in feed direction (P1). Further, the invention relates to a method for preventing skimming attacks.
US09183465B2
Methods and apparatuses are disclosed. Previously stored images of one or more geographic areas may be viewed by online users. A new low-resolution image may be acquired and aspects of the new low-resolution image may be compared with a corresponding one of the previously stored images to determine an amount of change. A determination may be made regarding whether to acquire a new high-resolution image based on the determined amount of change and a freshness score associated with the one of the previously stored images. In another embodiment, a new image may be captured and corresponding location data may be obtained. A corresponding previously stored image may be obtained and compared with the new image to determine an amount of change. The new image may be uploaded to a remote computing device based on the determined amount of change and a freshness score of the previously stored image.
US09183461B2
Systems and methods to determine a disparity map using row causal scanline optimization stereo matching are presented. A method includes, for each corresponding pixel P between a pair of input stereo images, and for each considered disparity, determining a basic match cost and a match cost for each of a set of given orientations including an east orientation and one or more other orientations, determining an overall match cost for each pixel at each considered disparity based on a sum of the determined match costs for all considered orientations for each pixel and disparity pair, and determining a resulting disparity for each pixel based on a minimum of the determined overall match costs, where a subset of the determined resulting disparities becomes available prior to completion of the input images being read in, and where the resulting disparities for all pixels are determined in a single pass through the input images.
US09183460B2
Methods, systems and apparatus for identifying modified images based on visual dissimilarity to a first image. In an aspect, a method includes determining, for each of a first image and a second image, a respective set of local image feature descriptions; determining one or more unmatched regions of the images that include unmatched image features and that correspond to one or more same respective regions in both the first image and the second image; determining, for each of the one or more unmatched regions of the images, a modification measure based on the image data corresponding to the unmatched region in the first image and the image data corresponding to the unmatched region in the second image; and determining that the second image is a modification of the first image when one of the modification measures meets a modification measure threshold.
US09183458B2
An attribute is computed based on pixel intensities in an image of the real world, and thereafter used to identify at least one input for processing the image to identify at least a first maximally stable extremal region (MSER) therein. The at least one input is one of (A) a parameter used in MSER processing or (B) a portion of the image to be subject to MSER processing. The attribute may be a variance of pixel intensities, or computed from a histogram of pixel intensities. The attribute may be used with a look-up table, to identify parameter(s) used in MSER processing. The attribute may be a stroke width of a second MSER of a subsampled version of the image. The attribute may be used in checking whether a portion of the image satisfies a predetermined test, and if so including the portion in a region to be subject to MSER processing.
US09183453B2
A method and apparatus are provided for detecting banding noise in a digital signal representative of an image. The method includes determining, by a banding noise detector, a count of increment steps in pixel values and a count of decrement steps in pixel values along a filter direction in a neighborhood of a current pixel of the image, checking, by the banding noise detector, if the count of increment steps or the count of decrement steps in the neighborhood of a current pixel exceeds a step threshold value, and classifying, by the banding noise detector, the current pixel as being located in the banding noise zone if the count of increment steps or the count of decrement steps does not exceed the step threshold value.
US09183449B2
An apparatus and a method for detecting an obstacle are provided. The apparatus includes a memory configured to store program instructions and a processor that is configured to execute the program instructions. The program instructions when executed are configured to compensate a position of a second image based on a first image based on a moving distance of a vehicle between the first image and the second image captured at different times and respectively generate a difference image based on a difference between the first image and the second image and between the first image and the second image in which the position is compensated. In addition, binarization is performed of the difference image and a synthetic image is generated for the two difference images. Then, the obstacle is detected by selecting a pixel corresponding to an area where the bit value is detected from the synthetic image.
US09183434B2
An inspection apparatus performs position adjustment between a reference image and an target image in a band region of a predetermined band size by using information of a feature point in the band region having the predetermined band size and information of a feature point in a region adjacent to the band region, and performs inspection of the printed document based on the comparison of the reference image and the target image.
US09183431B2
An apparatus includes an image receiving module configured to collect a depth image provided from a camera, a human body detection module configured to detect a human body from the collected depth image, and an activity recognition module configured to recognize an action of the human body on the basis of a 3-dimensional action volume extracted from the human body and a previously learned action model.
US09183426B2
An indicia-reading device including an indicia-capturing subsystem for acquiring information about indicia within the indicia-capturing subsystem's field of view and an indicia-decoding module configured for decoding indicia information within the indicia-capturing subsystem's field of view. The device also includes a hand-supportable housing, a battery compartment, an end cap for holding the battery compartment in place, and a locking mechanism for securing the end cap to the battery compartment during use.
US09183401B2
Systems and methods for securing protected content are provided. In one embodiment, a method comprises determining, at a computing device, that a first digital data includes protected content; determining that an unsecured rendering target is an output destination of the first digital data; masking, in response to determining that the unsecured rendering target is the output destination of the first digital data, the protected content of the first digital data to produce a second digital data, wherein at least a portion of the second digital data is masked protected content; overlaying unprotected content on the masked protected content to produce a third digital data, wherein at least a portion of the third digital data is the unprotected content overlaying the masked protected content; and outputting, for display at the unsecured rendering target, the third digital data.
US09183395B2
Firmware updates at an information handling system flash memory device, such as provisioning information stored on a USB device, are securely performed by using a buffer memory and a secured code. An application running on a CPU generates a firmware update and a security code, such as a ciphered hash code based on the firmware update, stores the firmware update and security code in a buffer, and informs a management processor of the update. The management processor analyzes the firmware update to authorize copying of the update from the buffer to the flash memory device. For instance, the management processor creates the security code from the firmware update and compares the created code with the security code stored in the buffer to validate the firmware update.
US09183394B2
An apparatus including a ROM, a selector, and a detector. The ROM has partitions stored as plaintext, and encrypted digests, each comprising an encrypted version of a first digest associated with a corresponding one of the partitions. The selector selects one or more partitions responsive to an interrupt. The detector generates the interrupt at a combination of intervals and event occurrences, and accesses the one or more partitions and corresponding one or more encrypted digests upon assertion of the interrupt, and directs generation of one or more second digests corresponding to the one or more partitions and one or more decrypted digests corresponding to the one or more encrypted digests using the same algorithms and key used to generate the first digest and encrypted digests, and compares the second digests with the decrypted digests, and precludes the operation if the second digests and the decrypted digests are not pair wise equal.
US09183391B2
Technologies managing cross ring memory accesses by a device driver on a computing device includes configuring a memory page table associated with the device driver to disable cross ring memory accesses by the device driver, trapping attempted cross ring memory accesses by the device driver, and denying the attempted cross ring memory access if the device driver is determined to be malicious. If the device driver is determined not to be malicious, the memory page table is updated to allow the attempted cross ring memory access. The device driver may be analyzed to determine whether the device driver is malicious by comparing the device driver and the attempted cross ring memory access to security data, such as a device driver fingerprint and/or cross ring memory access heuristics, stored on the computing device.
US09183386B2
A method and system is provided by which unauthorized changes to the registry may be detected and that provides the capability to verify whether registry, or other system configuration data, changes that occur on a computer system are undesirable or related to possible malware attack before the changes become effective or are saved on the system. A method for verifying changes to system configuration data in a computer system comprises generating an identifier representing an entry in the system configuration data, packaging the identifier, and sending the packaged identifier to a client for verification. The identifier may be generated by hashing the first portion of the entry and the second portion of the entry to generate the identifier, or by filtering the first portion of the entry and hashing the filtered first portion of the entry and the second portion of the entry to generate the identifier.
US09183383B1
Disclosed are systems and methods for limiting the operation of trusted applications in presence of suspicious programs. An example method includes: identifying one or more trusted applications installed on a computer; collecting data about applications and programs installed on the computer; checking for the presence of one or more suspicious programs using suspicious program detection rules, wherein a program is considered to be suspicious when it can access protected information of a trusted application without authorization; and when at least one suspicious program is found, limiting the operation of the trusted application until the suspicious program is terminated or removed from the computer.
US09183382B2
A server receives a first echo request message which complies with an Internet control message protocol, extracts filtering information from hear information of the received first echo request message, and when a second echo request message which complies with the Internet control message protocol is received, compares header information of the received second echo request message and the extracted filtering information so as to determine whether to block an attacking packet for the received second echo request message. According to the present invention, the server blocks the attacking packet using the Internet control message protocol, thereby blocking a denial-of-service attack.
US09183379B2
Systems and techniques for preventing malicious instruction execution are described herein. A first instance of an instruction for a graphics processing unit (GPU) may be received. The instruction may be placed in a target list. A notification that the instruction caused a problem with the GPU may be received. The instruction may be moved from the target list to a black list in response to the notification. A second instance of the instruction may be received. The second instance of the instruction may be prevented from executing on the GPU in response to the instruction being on the black list.
US09183375B2
A pin associated with an identification number (ID) of a subscription device and a sequence number of a credit is output to a user. The pin is inputted to the subscription device. The subscription device is to allow the user to use a resource up to an extension value stored in the subscription device, if the entered pin correlates to a stored pin of the subscription device.
US09183373B2
A method and apparatus is provided for securely obtaining input from a touchscreen. A secure execution environment may be implemented (e.g., at a processor), where the secure execution environment may include a touchscreen driver. A keypad image may be sent from the secure execution environment to be displayed by a touchscreen. An input location may be received at the secure execution environment from the touchscreen driver. Such input location may be converted at the secure execution environment into a character, symbol, or a request to change the keypad image displayed at the touchscreen. In one implementation, the secure execution environment may further implement a display driver which sends the keypad image to the touchscreen. The secure execution environment may implement driver keypad image mapping function that maps the keypad image to a character set.
US09183371B2
A personal digital ID device provides a digital identifier to a service for a predetermined duration in response to user interaction. The user interaction may include a button press. The personal digital ID device may be in the form of a bracelet, a key fob, or other form factor. The service may be provided by a mobile device, in the cloud, or elsewhere.
US09183370B2
A system includes a mobile unit and a smart card reader. The mobile unit includes a security application that prevents access to functionalities and data stored thereon and further includes an authentication application that securely stores an authentication token. The smart card reader communicatively connects to a smart card. The smart card includes authentication data. The authentication application transmits the authentication token to the smart card reader to verify the smart card. The authentication application shares the authentication token with the security application when the verification is successful. The authentication token indicates to the security application to grant access to the functionalities and the data.
US09183360B1
A method is provided for obfuscating code generated from a block diagram model in a graphical programming environment. The obfuscation may be removed through the use of a password. Incorporating the obfuscated code in a block diagram allows for code to be generated from the block diagram incorporating the obfuscated code.
US09183354B2
Systems and methods for image guided surgery are disclosed herein. An example method can include: receiving a plurality of 2D projection images of an object at a plurality of projection angles during a first period of time; and receiving a position of an instrument relative to a tracking coordinate system during the first period of time. The method can also include registering the plurality of 2D projection images relative to the tracking coordinate system to obtain a transformation function that defines a relationship between a coordinate system of the plurality of 2D projection images and the tracking coordinate system; receiving an adjusted position of the instrument relative to the tracking coordinate system during a second period of time that is subsequent to the first period of time; and estimating an adjusted position of the instrument relative to the plurality of 2D projection images using the transformation function.
US09183353B2
A system for tracking the use of medication by a user in real-time generates data pertaining to the medication use including time of consumption and amount of medication available, and transmit the data to a network so the data is readily accessible to at least one party of interest. The system includes a base unit housing affixed to a cover for use with a medication container, the base unit housing having a micro-electro-mechanical system able to detect motion of the cover and determine when the user removes the cover from the medication container, a computing device to generate the medication use data based on information from the micro-electro-mechanical system, and a communication system to transmit the medication use data to a cloud computer via the network, thereby providing the at least one party of interest access to the cloud computer and the medication use data.
US09183350B2
Apparatus, methods, and other embodiments associated with objectively predicting biochemical recurrence (BCR) with cell orientation entropy (COrE) are described. One example apparatus includes a set of logics that associate directional disorder with a risk of biochemical recurrence in a tissue. A first logic detects a cell in the tissue, segments boundaries of the cell, and calculates a cell direction for the cell. A second logic constructs a localized sparsified subgraph whose nodes represent centroids of the cells, defines pairwise spatial relationships between the cells, and constructs a directional co-occurrence matrix based on the spatial relationships. A third logic derives second order statistical features from the co-occurrence matrix, and produces a BCR risk score as a function of the second order statistical features. The second order statistical features include the entropy of the directional organization of the cells.
US09183347B1
Methods and systems are provided for simulating chemical and biological processes in a distributed technical computing environment. A technical computing client may associate a job, comprising one or more tasks, with a chemical or biological process. The technical computing client can distribute these tasks to technical computing workers for execution of the task. The technical computing workers execute the task and may provide a result of the task for the technical computing client. As such, the present invention allows the use of multiple computing resources on a network to perform simulation to facilitate decreasing the computation time.
US09183345B2
An apparatus and method for generating a power delivery network (PDN) of a circuit system is provided. The apparatus performs a power diagnostics on the PDN of a circuit system. According to result of the power diagnostics, a number of areas are generated and divided into at least three subsets. At least one area is selected from each of the at least three subsets, and one node is selected from each of the selected areas, and the nodes are connected sequentially to form an interconnection with at least three nodes in the PDN.
US09183339B1
A circuit design is created in a computer memory in response to user input to a computer processor. The circuit design has a static portion. A virtual socket is instantiated in the circuit design in response to user input, and one or more reconfigurable modules are instantiated in the virtual socket in response to user input. The static portion of the circuit design is coupled to the one or more reconfigurable modules, and configuration data are generated from the circuit design. The configuration data include a configuration bitstream corresponding to the static portion of the circuit design and one or more partial configuration bitstreams corresponding to the one or more reconfigurable modules.
US09183338B1
In an example, a method of implementing a circuit design for a programmable integrated circuit (IC) begins by identifying combinatorial logic functions of the circuit design. The method maps, according to a first constraint, a first threshold percentage of the combinatorial logic functions onto a first type of lookup tables (LUTs) of the programmable IC in favor of second type of LUTs of the programmable IC, the second type of LUTs being more susceptible to single event upsets than the first type of LUTs. The method generates a first physical implementation of the circuit design for the programmable IC based on the mapping.
US09183336B1
An electronic design automation (EDA) tool alters a user's netlist to provide timing success for distribution of asynchronous signals. Distribution networks are used with the addition of pipeline registers before and/or after the distribution buffer. Or, a tree of pipeline registers is inserted between the asynchronous source and the destination registers. Or, any number of distribution networks are stitched together and pipeline stages may be inserted before and/or after each distribution buffer. Or, beneficial skew is utilized by introducing a delay component that skews a clock signal. The skewed clock signal drives a pipeline register that is inserted before a distribution buffer in order to improve timing margin. Any of various compilation techniques may be used within the EDA tool to solve the problem of distributing high-speed, high-fanout asynchronous signals. The technique has utility for high-performance FPGAs and structured ASIC families, as well as for low-cost FPGAs and other types of logic devices.
US09183334B1
Approaches for verifying connectivity of signals in a circuit design include generating a configured version of the circuit design based on input parameter values. The configured version specifies connections from source pins of ports of circuit blocks of the configured version to destination pins of ports of circuit blocks. Expected source-destination connections between source pins and destination pins of the ports of the circuit blocks of the configured version are determined from the input parameter values. A connectivity checker that includes HDL code is generated based on the expected source-destination connections. For each of the expected source-destination connections, the HDL code forces a first signal value on a source pin of the expected source-destination connection in the configured version of the circuit design and determines whether or not a second signal value at a destination pin of the expected source-destination connection matches the first signal value.
US09183332B2
A system and method for an automated way of running spice on a small portion of a design is presented. The system includes a sub-circuit netlist generation processor and an analog simulation processor. The sub-circuit netlist generation processor generates a sub-circuit netlist based, at least in part, on a HDL netlist, a parasitic capacitance database and trace rules. The sub-circuit netlist contains significantly fewer paths than the HDL netlist of an entire design so that its simulation time is much quicker. The analog simulation processor generates analog simulation results of the sub-circuit netlist based, at least in part, on dynamic inputs.
US09183331B1
A system and method that tests an IP component of a hardware design generates an abstract model of the IP component based on knowledge of the design and one or more protocols implemented with the IP component. A generic driver and associated interfaces are additionally generated or selected to test the IP component within the hardware design.
US09183325B2
Some aspects provide a method of generating a support structure for an object, the support structure and the object to be fabricated via one or more additive fabrication techniques, comprising identifying one or more regions of the object as one or more regions to which mechanical support is to be provided, identifying one or more support points within at least a first region of the one or more regions, and generating the support structure for the object, the support structure comprising one or more support tips coupled to the object at the one or more support points, the support tips being generated based at least in part on a direction normal to the surface of the object at the respective support point.
US09183310B2
Systems, computer-readable media, and methods for generating search engine results pages are provided. A user provides a search engine with one or more query terms. The query terms may be associated with an intent, e.g. product entity, store entity, person entity. The search engine classifies the query and identifies search results that correspond to the query. The search results are grouped based on intents associated with the query. A graphical user interface displays the grouped on search results and allows the user to modify the groupings. The graphical user interface is also updated with entity or entity attributes corresponding to the intents used to group the search results.
US09183308B1
A method and apparatus for searching the Internet is provided. In one embodiment, a computer implemented method of searching the Internet automatically creates a search query derived from a topic model used by a real time information retrieval service, where the real time information retrieval service produces real time information related to the topic model. The method uses a search engine for searching the Internet for non-real time information related to the search query.
US09183307B2
In one embodiment, a social networking system receives a request by a first user for user comments associated with a content object, accesses a data store of user comments to retrieve a set of user comments associated with the content object, orders the set of user comments based on a time value associated with each comment of the set of user comment, adjusts the order of user comments based on social graph information of the first user, and presents the adjusted list of user comments to the first user.
US09183302B1
A device provides a collaborative environment that enables the device to receive: technical computing environment (TCE) model information associated with one or more TCE models, problem information associated with one or more problems, TCE tool information associated with one or more TCE tools, and user information associated with one or more search query users. The device executes the one or more TCE models and the one or more TCE tools to determine behavior information associated with the one or more TCE models and the one or more TCE tools, stores the received information and the behavior information in a repository, and utilizes the information stored in the repository for generating a result in response to a query by a TCE-based search engine.
US09183301B2
A way to promote a web site is via search engine optimization (SEO). Traditionally, SEO practitioners have charged a fixed fee for performing SEO services. An analyzer can determine a first probability that a search query for a campaign term will result in a referral from a search engine, determine second probabilities that are associated with a plurality of particular positions in a search engine results page, combine the search query volume information, the first probability, and the second probability for the position with a monetary value to generate an organic price, combine the organic prices for the plurality of positions to value the SEO services for the campaign term. The analyzer evaluates the effectiveness of SEO activities and can generate a volume-based value for SEO services. In addition, disclosed techniques can also be used to identify candidate terms for future SEO activities.
US09183295B2
A method for retrieving a media file from a media rendering device with an initial set of media files stored in the device. Each media file has attributed feature values stored in the device and is associated to a graphical element displayed on a display. The position of each graphical element on the display depends on a multitude of the feature values of the associated media file.
US09183293B2
Embodiments generally relate to systems and methods for detecting topics in social media data. More particularly, the systems and methods can extract a concept hierarchy from a set of data, wherein the concept hierarchy comprises a plurality of layers. Further, the systems and methods can train topic models based on the content in each of the layers. Still further, the systems and methods can select the most appropriate topic model for social media data by balancing the complexity of the model and the accuracy of the topic detection result. Moreover, the systems and methods can use the most appropriate topic model to detect topics in social media data.
US09183292B2
A system for identifying hidden connections between non-sentiment phrases. The system comprises a network interface enabling an access to one or more data sources; a data warehouse storage for at least storing a plurality of phrases including sentiment phrases and non-sentiment phrases; an analysis unit for identifying hidden connections between non-sentiment phrases based on at least one proximity rule and for generating at least an association between at least two non-sentiment phrases having a hidden connection and a sentiment phrase, wherein an association between the at least two non-sentiment phrases having the hidden connection and the corresponding sentiment phrase is a term taxonomy.
US09183290B2
The present invention provides a Distinct Author Identification System (“DAIS”) for disambiguating data to discern author entities and link or associate authorships with such author entities. The invention provides powerful disambiguation processes applied across one or more databases to yield a disambiguated authority database of authors. An entire database of publications may be processed by the DAIS to group/link authorships and to identify author entities. The author entities may then be matched or associated with actual authors to establish an authority database of authors. After initial evaluation, the DAIS may be used to reevaluate some or all of the database(s) and/or the authority database established by the DAIS may be used to add or update information. DAIS may use “hierarchical clustering” to link authorships and identify authors based on authorship similarity. DAIS evaluates the likelihood that authorships are from the same author.
US09183288B2
The disclosed embodiments provide a system and method for using modified Latent Semantic Analysis techniques to structure data for efficient search and display. The present invention creates a hierarchy of clustered documents, representing the topics of a domain corpus, through a process of optimal agglomerative clustering. The output from a search query is displayed in a fisheye view corresponding to the hierarchy of clustered documents. The fisheye view may link to a two-dimensional self-organizing map that represents semantic relationships between documents.
US09183285B1
Data having some similarities and some dissimilarities may be clustered or grouped according to the similarities and dissimilarities. The data may be clustered using agglomerative clustering techniques. The clusters may be used as suggestions for generating groups where a user may demonstrate certain criteria for grouping. The system may learn from the criteria and extrapolate the groupings to readily sort data into appropriate groups. The system may be easily refined as the user gains an understanding of the data.
US09183283B2
A database loader loads data to an in-memory database across multiple nodes in a parallel computing system. The database loader uses SQL flags, historical information gained from monitoring prior query execution times and patterns, and node and network configuration to determine how to effectively cluster data attributes across multiple nodes. The database loader may also allow a system administrator to force placement of database structures in particular nodes.
US09183264B2
In the configuration information management device, if a CI stored in the entity information storage unit has a feature, duplicates of the CIs that are associated with the subject CI, managed by other FCMDBs, and do not have features, as well as duplicates of Rels, are created and managed in the entity information storage unit. In the configuration information management device, when a search request for a search formula that associates CIs with one another by Rels is received, the information about the search formula is searched for with the use of the duplicates created in the entity information storage unit.
US09183263B2
Provided are providing an ECG unit which is formed of content information and related information related thereto, and is linked to another ECG unit through the related information, calculating an association-degree score between the pieces of content information based on a degree of association of an attribute between the pieces of content information, collecting a history of operation performed for making a transition from a link-source-ECG unit to a link-destination-ECG unit, as a usage log of the ECG unit, calculating a transition score between the ECG units in a manner that a weight of a larger correction coefficient is assigned to a number of usage logs, as there are more attributes of content information having low degree of association with each other between the link-source-ECG unit and the link-destination-ECG unit, and generating an ECG unit linked to another ECG unit, based on the association-degree score and the transition score.
US09183260B2
A database query is received that includes a logical query indicator at a distributed database node within a distributed network of databases. The logical query indicator includes at least one physical database query and at least one database node identifier that allows at least one distributed database node to identify at least one physical database to execute the physical database query against. It is determined that the at least one database node identifier matches a local node identifier. The at least one physical database query is executed against at least one local physical database table. A local query response is formed including data retrieved from the at least one local physical database table. The database query is responded to with at least the local query response. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract.
US09183256B2
A usage model and the underlying technology used to provide sequence analysis as part of a relational database system. Included components include the semantic and syntactic integration of the sequence analysis with an existing query language, the storage methods for the sequence data, and the design of a multipart execution scheme that runs the sequence analysis as part of a potentially larger database join, especially using parallel execution techniques.
US09183249B2
One aspect of the invention provides a method for generating a path. The method includes: storing, in a storing unit, at least one path for each arbitrarily set section; setting, in a path setting unit, a main path from an origination to a destination input from a user and then displaying the main path through a display unit; searching, in a path generating unit, for at least one recommended path for one or more sections corresponding to a theme selected from the user and then displaying a searched recommended path through the display unit; receiving, in an input unit, a selection of one or more recommended paths; and generating, in the path generating unit, a final path based on the selection of one or more recommended paths for the one or more sections.
US09183238B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for providing task-based information are disclosed. In one aspect, a method includes identifying a set of previous interactive sessions for a particular task. For each identified interactive session in the set of previous interactive sessions, a set of implements used during the interactive session are identified based on content of the interactive session. At least one implement in the identified set of implements is classified as a required implement for the particular task. The classification is based, at least in part, on a portion of the previous interactive sessions in which the implement was identified. Classified implements are indexed according to the particular task. Data identifying the indexed implements are provided in response to receipt of a search query referencing the particular task.
US09183237B2
In one embodiment, one or more processor-readable media storing code representing instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause the one or more processors to receive a set of parameter values defining a boundary within a data space associated with a dataset. The dataset can represent signaling related to a test substance. A first metric can be defined based on a first portion of the dataset associated with a first region defined by the boundary. A second metric can be defined based on a second portion of the dataset associated with a second region defined by the boundary after the boundary is modified. The second region can be different than the first region.
US09183225B2
Computerized methodology for organizing and/or retrieving pixel data for rendering digital images In one embodiment, the method may include transforming (12) an image depicting an object from an image-searchable domain to a pixel-searchable domain by way of spatial and temporal registration assigned to pixels forming the image The method may further include storing (14) pixel data including the spatial and temporal registration in an electronic storage Pixel data may be retrieved (16) from the electronic storage based on the assigned spatial and temporal registration An image may be reconstituted (18) with the retrieved pixel data This methodology may be used in a broad array of technical fields, such as for inspections of components of a turbine engine, medical imaging applications, ecological and biodiversity applications, etc.
US09183223B2
There is provided a method that includes (a) receiving data that describes a location, (b) extrapolating, from the data, an address associated with the location, (c) identifying a segment of a thoroughfare that includes the address, (d) defining a polygon that has a perimeter that encompasses a geographic region that is in a vicinity of the segment, (e) obtaining geo-coordinates of a point within the polygon, (f) identifying an address at the geo-coordinates, and (g) identifying an entity that is associated with the address at the geo-coordinates. There is also provided a system that performs the method, and a storage device that contains instructions that control a processor to perform the method.
US09183217B2
The present invention aims at improving the performance of a compression function in a storage system, and solves the prior art problem of having to decompress a whole compression unit even if a read request or a write request targets only a portion smaller than the compression unit, causing increase of overhead of decompression processing and elongation of processing time, and deteriorating performance. The present invention prevents unnecessary decompression processing and reduces the overhead of processing by suppressing the range of decompression processing to a minimum portion according to the relationship between the read/write request range and the compression unit.
US09183216B2
Cluster storage is disclosed. A data stream or a data block is received. The data stream or the data block is broken into segments. For each segment, a cluster node is selected, and a portion of the segment smaller than the segment is identified that is a duplicate of a portion of a segment already managed by the cluster node.
US09183211B1
Improved techniques are provided for parallel writing of data to a shared object in a parallel computing system. A method is provided for storing data generated by a plurality of parallel processes to a shared object in a parallel computing system. The method is performed by at least one of the processes and comprises: dynamically determining a block size for storing the data; exchanging a determined amount of the data with at least one additional process to achieve a block of the data having the dynamically determined block size; and writing the block of the data having the dynamically determined block size to a file system. The determined block size comprises, e.g., a total amount of the data to be stored divided by the number of parallel processes. The file system comprises, for example, a log structured virtual parallel file system, such as a Parallel Log-Structured File System (PLFS).
