US09196960B2
A system for illuminating an object with a wave or for imaging an object with a wave comprises a lens, a plurality of transducers and a control unit connected to the plurality of transducers. The lens comprises a plurality of resonator elements incorporated inside a medium and is able to convert a near field wave of the lens to a far field wave, or reciprocally. The resonator elements are at a sub wavelength distance from each others. The control unit provides signals to the transducers so that a plurality of points on the object are illuminated as desired, or obtains signals from the transducers to build an image of a plurality of points of the object. The points are at sub wavelength distance from each others.
US09196951B2
A package structure includes a planar core structure, an antenna structure disposed on one side of the planar core structure, and an interface structure disposed on an opposite side of the planar core structure. The antenna structure and interface structure are each formed of a plurality of laminated layers, each laminated layer having a patterned conductive layer formed on an insulating layer. The antenna structure includes a planar antenna formed on one or more patterned conductive layers of the laminated layers. The interface structure includes a power plane, a ground plane, signal lines, and contact pads formed on one or more patterned conductive layers of the laminated layers of the interface structure. The package structure further includes an antenna feed line structure formed in, and routed through, the interface structure and the planar core structure, and connected to the planar antenna.
US09196930B2
The present disclosure relates to a vehicle battery pack having battery cells with an integral control circuit configured to communicate with a battery energy control module.
US09196925B2
Glass particles including Li, P and S, wherein when a Raman spectrum of the glass particles is measured five times or more and a peak at 330 to 450 cm−1 in the Raman spectrum is separated into peaks of components by waveform separation, the standard deviation of the area ratio of each of the peaks of the components is 3.0 or less, the area of the peak of PS43− component obtained by the waveform separation is 10 to 95% of the total area, and the area of P2S74− component obtained by the waveform separation is 5 to 45% of the total area, and the area of the peak of PS43− component is larger than the area of the peak of P2S74− component.
US09196923B2
The present invention provides an electrolyte solution including an ionic liquid having the structure of formula (I): wherein R1 is C1-C6alkyl, R2 is C2-C7alkyl, A− is defined in the specification. The electrolyte solution of the present invention has high conductivity and high thermal stability.
US09196920B2
An electrochemical cell is provided including, but not limited to, a can having a side wall that is coupled to a first end and having a cover at a second end of the can to close the second end of the can, a cell element within the can, electrolyte within the can, and a safety device. The can forms a vent at the first end configured to allow gases and/or effluent to exit the can once the pressure inside the can reaches a predetermined amount. The safety device is provided adjacent a first end of the cell element and between the cell element and the first end of the housing. The safety device is configured to exert an additional force on the vent to aid in the deployment of the vent.
US09196917B2
A fuel cell membrane electrode assembly includes two electrodes and a proton exchange membrane sandwiched between the two electrodes. Each electrode includes a catalyst layer. The catalyst layer includes a number of tube carriers having electron conductibility, a number of catalyst particles uniformly adsorbed on inner wall of each of the plurality of tube carriers, and proton conductor filled in each of the plurality of tube carriers. The tube carriers jointly define a plurality of reaction gas passages for transferring reaction gas to surfaces of the plurality of catalyst particles. One end of each of the tube carriers is connected with the proton exchange membrane.
US09196910B2
A close attachment region is provided on the outer side relative to an outer edge portion of a gas diffusion layer and on the inner side relative to the inner edge portion of a gasket as seen from the thickness direction of a polymer electrolyte membrane, such that separators and a frame member are closely attached to each other. Thus, it becomes possible to suppress an increase in the manufacturing cost and a reduction in the power generation performance, which is attributed to the impurity eluted from the gasket and flowing toward the gas diffusion layer.
US09196906B2
A power storage device is reduced in weight. A metal sheet serving as a negative electrode current collector is separated and another negative electrode current collector is formed. For example, through the step of forming silicon serving as a negative electrode active material layer over a titanium sheet and then performing heating, the titanium sheet can be separated. Then, another negative electrode current collector with a thickness of more than or equal to 10 nm and less than or equal to 1 μm is formed. Thus, light weight of the power storage device can be achieved.
US09196899B2
An anode active material for use in a lithium secondary battery including a mixture of graphite I that has, according to X-ray powder diffraction, d002 of not smaller than 0.3354 nm and not greater than 0.337 nm, Lc(004) of smaller than 100 nm, La(110) of not smaller than 100 nm, and a half width of the peak of a plane (101) at a diffraction angle (2θ) of 44 degrees to 45 degrees of not smaller than 0.65 degree and another graphite so as to have, according to X-ray powder diffraction, d002 of not smaller than 0.3354 nm and not greater than 0.337 nm, Lc(004) of not smaller than 80 nm, La(110) of not smaller than 100 nm, and a half width of the peak of a plane (101) at a diffraction angle (2θ) of 44 degrees to 45 degrees of not smaller than 0.5 degree.
US09196898B2
Disclosed herein is an electrode assembly including two or more electrode plates, each of which has electrode tabs, and a separator plate disposed between the electrode plates and/or a one-unit separation sheet disposed between the electrode plates to cover side surfaces of the electrode plates, which constitute an electrode tab non-formation region, wherein the electrode plates are stacked in a height direction on the basis of a plane such that the electrode plates having opposite polarities face each other in a state in which the separator plate and/or the separation sheet is disposed between the electrode plates, a stack constituted by the electrode plates includes electrode plates having different sizes, and an absolute value of the difference in thickness between the electrode plates having different sizes facing each other is 0 to 79 μm.
US09196895B2
Provided is a sealed secondary battery having a current interrupt mechanism with a high heat resistance that prevents fusion of the current collecting plate by the Joule heat generated during high-rate charge and discharged. A current interrupt mechanism 80 of a sealed secondary battery 10 provided in accordance with the present invention is configured such that when the internal pressure inside a battery case 12 rises above the predetermined level, a current interrupt valve 30 is deformed by the internal pressure in a direction of separating from a rectangular plate-shaped current collecting plate 72 and the current collecting plate breaks in the portion of an annular groove 79 of a central thin section 74 of the current collecting plate.
US09196891B2
An electrode is provided with a metal terminal extending from a battery module main body, a bolt which has an expanded section configuring a retaining section at a rear end portion and penetrates the metal terminal upward, and an insulating body which insulates the metal terminal and the battery module case one from the other. The insulating body is provided with a drop preventing section which abuts at least a lower surface of the expanded section of the bolt and prevents the bolt from dropping from the metal terminal.
US09196889B2
An electrode is provided with a metal terminal extending from a battery module main body, a bolt which has an expanded section configuring a retaining section at a rear end portion and penetrates the metal terminal upward, and an insulating body which insulates the metal terminal and the battery module case one from the other. The insulating body is provided with a drop preventing section which abuts at least a lower surface of the expanded section of the bolt and prevents the bolt from dropping from the metal terminal.
US09196884B2
Disclosed is a separator for a lithium secondary battery and a lithium secondary battery comprising the same. The separator may include a thermoplastic polyolefin-based polymer porous sheet and an aramid-based non-woven fabric sheet stacked on at least one surface of the polyolefin-based polymer porous sheet, wherein the polyolefin-based polymer sheet and the aramid-based non-woven fabric sheet are adhered with an adhesive, and the adhesive loses an adhesive performance at 80° C. or more to separate the two sheets. The separator has a shut-down function and excellent high-temperature shape stability.
US09196883B2
A battery module including a battery array including: a plurality of battery cells, each including a first surface at a first end of the battery cell; an electrode terminal at the first end; a second surface at a second end of the battery cell opposite the first end; and a side surface extending between the first and second ends, the second surfaces of first and second battery cells of the plurality of battery cells facing each other.
US09196881B2
A system includes a power tool having a motor, a drive mechanism mechanically coupled to the motor, and an output element mechanically coupled to the drive mechanism. The motor is operable to drive the drive mechanism and the output element. The system also includes a non-motorized sensing tool having a printed circuit board and a sensing element electrically coupled to the printed circuit board. The sensing element is operable to detect an external characteristic and output a signal to the circuit board. The circuit board is operable to condition the signal into a human-comprehensible form. The system further includes a rechargeable battery pack removably and independently coupled to the power tool and the non-motorized sensing tool to power the motor to drive the drive mechanism and the output element when connected to the power tool and the circuit board and the sensing element when connected to the non-motorized sensing tool.
US09196879B2
A battery pack may include a drainage device provided at a bottom portion of the housing case. The drainage device may include a drain hole communicating between the inside and the outside of the housing case, so that water introduced into the housing case is discharged to the outside of the housing case. The drainage device may be disposed between two of the terminal members that are connected to electrodes of the battery cells.
US09196877B2
A method and apparatus comprising a number of battery cells, a housing having a plurality of channels, an assembly, and a number of grooves. The housing is configured to hold the number of battery cells. The assembly is configured to separate the number of battery cells from the housing in which the housing has the plurality of channels. The number of grooves is formed by the assembly and surfaces of the number of battery cells.
US09196875B2
Anodes of a plurality of organic EL elements are connected together. A forward bias voltage relative to the potential of anodes and a reverse bias voltage are alternately applied to cathodes of the plurality of organic EL elements at a predetermined period. The ratio of the time for which the reverse bias voltage is applied and the time for which the forward bias voltage is applied is increased.
US09196864B2
An encapsulated structure of a light-emitting device, an encapsulating process thereof, and a display device comprising said encapsulated structure. The encapsulated structure of the light-emitting device comprises: a light-emitting device; and a protective layer of a sulfonate salt formed on a top electrode of the light-emitting device, the sulfonate salt having the following structure: wherein the cation X+ is Li+, Na+ or K+; and R is a substituent selected from the group consisting of unsubstituted alkyl groups having more than 5 carbon atoms, substituted alkyl groups having more than 5 carbon atoms, and alkoxyl groups having more than 5 carbon atoms.
US09196856B2
The present invention relates to monochromatic organic light emitting devices. The organic light emitting device includes a substrate, an anode, a cathode and an organic electroluminescent medium disposed between the anode and the cathode, wherein the organic electroluminescent medium includes compound monochromatic luminescent layer; and the compound monochromatic luminescent layer includes host A doped with monochromatic dopant and host B doped with monochromatic dopant, wherein the host A is consisted of two kinds of materials with different transporting characteristics, one is hole-transporting material, and the other is electron-transporting material. In addition, the present invention further relates to white organic light emitting devices, wherein the organic electroluminescent medium is consisted of at least one compound monochromatic luminescent layer, which includes host A doped with monochromatic dopant and host B doped with monochromatic dopant. The present invention provides a design to improve the lifetime of the organic light emitting device markedly.
US09196854B2
An organic EL light emitting device and an organic EL light source device having the organic EL light emitting device are described. A method of manufacturing the organic EL light emitting device includes forming a scaling layer over a sealing layer base material by using at least one of chemical vapor deposition and physical vapor deposition, joining the sealing layer to an organic EL substrate having an organic EL device so as to cover the organic EL device, and removing the sealing layer base material to leave the sealing layer that covers the organic EL device.
US09196851B2
An organic photoelectric device includes a first electrode, a metal nanolayer contacting one side of the first electrode, an active layer on one side of the metal nanolayer, and a second electrode on one side of the active layer. An image sensor includes the organic photoelectric device.
US09196849B2
This invention relates to a polymer/inorganic multi-layer encapsulation film, and more particularly, to a multi-layer encapsulation film, which includes a plasma polymer thin film layer formed using a cross-shaped precursor having Si—O bonding and an inorganic thin film layer, and ensures flexibility and has improved encapsulation.
US09196842B2
An organic electroluminescence device having a long lifetime and a higher emission efficiency and a specific aromatic amine derivative which provides such an organic electroluminescence device are provided. In the specific aromatic amine derivative, a dibenzofuranyl group or a dibenzothiophenyl group is bonded via a p-phenylene and a heteroaryl group is bonded via a m-phenylene. The organic electroluminescence device includes a cathode, an anode and an organic thin film layer including one or more layers which is disposed between the cathode and the anode. The organic thin film layer includes at least one light emitting layer and at least one layer of the organic thin film layer includes the aromatic amine derivative singly or in combination.
US09196831B2
Providing for two-terminal memory having an inherent rectifying characteristic(s) is described herein. By way of example, the two-terminal memory can be a resistive switching device having one or more “on” states and an “off” state, to facilitate storage of digital information. A conductive filament can be electrically isolated from an electrode of the two-terminal memory by a thin tunneling layer, which permits a tunneling current for voltages greater in magnitude than a positive rectifying voltage or a negative rectifying voltage. The two-terminal memory cell can therefore have high resistance to small voltages, mitigating leakage currents in an array of the two-terminal memory cells. In addition, the memory cell can be conductive above a rectifying voltage, enabling reading of the memory cell in response to a suitable read bias, and erasing of the memory cell in response to a suitable negative erase bias.
US09196830B2
A device is disclosed. The device includes a top electrode, a bottom electrode and a storage element between the top and bottom electrodes. The storage element includes a heat generating element disposed on the bottom electrode, a phase change element wrapping around an upper portion of the heat generating element, and a dielectric liner sandwiched between the phase change element and the heat generating element.
US09196813B2
A highly reliable light-emitting device and a manufacturing method thereof are provided. A light-emitting element and a terminal electrode are formed over an element formation substrate; a first substrate having an opening is formed over the light-emitting element and the terminal electrode with a bonding layer provided therebetween; an embedded layer is formed in the opening; a transfer substrate is formed over the first substrate and the embedded layer; the element formation substrate is separated; a second substrate is formed under the light-emitting element and the terminal electrode; and the transfer substrate and the embedded layer are removed. In addition, an anisotropic conductive connection layer is formed in the opening, and an electrode is formed over the anisotropic conductive connection layer. The terminal electrode and the electrode are electrically connected to each other through the anisotropic conductive connection layer.
US09196810B2
Vertical solid-state transducers (“SSTs”) having backside contacts are disclosed herein. An SST in accordance with a particular embodiment can include a transducer structure having a first semiconductor material at a first side of the SST, a second semiconductor material at a second side of the SST opposite the first side, and an active region between the first and second semiconductor materials. The SST can further include first and second contacts electrically coupled to the first and second semiconductor materials, respectively. A portion of the first contact can be covered by a dielectric material, and a portion can remain exposed through the dielectric material. A conductive carrier substrate can be disposed on the dielectric material. An isolating via can extend through the conductive carrier substrate to the dielectric material and surround the exposed portion of the first contact to define first and second terminals electrically accessible from the first side.
US09196807B2
To provide a semiconductor light emitting element with high luminous efficiency, the light emitting element includes: a substrate; a semiconductor laminate placed above the substrate, the semiconductor laminate comprising a second semiconductor layer, an active layer and a first semiconductor layer laminated in this order from the substrate; and a first electrode and a second electrode placed between the substrate and the semiconductor laminate, wherein the semiconductor laminate is divided in a plurality of semiconductor blocks by a groove, wherein the first electrode includes protrusions that are provided in each of the plurality of semiconductor blocks and that penetrate the second semiconductor layer and the active layer to be connected to the first semiconductor layer, and wherein the second electrode is connected to the second semiconductor layer in each of the plurality of semiconductor blocks and has an external connector that is exposed on the bottom of the groove.
US09196801B2
In a first aspect of the present invention, a lighting device includes a light-emitting element, a frame including a phosphor that can be excited by light emitted from the light-emitting element, the frame having an inner side surface surrounding the light-emitting element and an outer side surface being positioned outside the inner side surface that demarcates a quadrilateral area, and a light-transmitting resin arranged in the quadrilateral area demarcated by the inner side surface of the frame and sealing the light-emitting element that is positioned inside the quadrilateral area, and the light-transmitting resin being further provided in contact with an outer side surface of the frame. In some embodiments, it is disclosed that the light-transmitting resin provided in contact with the outer side surface of the frame may include a diffuser.
US09196798B2
A semiconductor light-emitting device including an epitaxial structure, a first electrode structure, a second electrode structure, a light reflective metal layer, a resistivity-enhancing structure and a protection ring is provided. The light-emitting epitaxial structure has a first surface and a second surface. The light-emitting epitaxial structure has a first zone and a second zone. The first electrode structure is disposed within the first zone. The second electrode structure is disposed within the second zone. The light reflective metal layer is disposed adjacent to the second surface. The resistivity-enhancing structure is disposed in contact with a surface of the light reflective metal layer and corresponding to a position of the first electrode structure. The protection ring has a first portion and a second portion. The first portion surrounds a sidewall of the light reflective metal layer. The second portion corresponds to the second electrode structure.
US09196794B2
A semiconductor light-emitting device made of a nitride-based semiconductor includes a semiconductor stacked structure having a nonpolar plane or a semipolar plane as a principal plane, and including an active layer for emitting polarized light. The semiconductor light-emitting device includes a striped structure which is provided in a position intersecting an exit path of the polarized light and includes a plurality of recesses. An angle formed between the extension direction of the recesses and the polarization direction of the polarized light is from 0° to 45°. The recesses have a minute uneven structure (texture) at at least part of a surface of each recess, the minute uneven structure being shallower than the depth of each recess.
US09196786B2
According to one embodiment, a semiconductor light emitting element includes an n-type semiconductor layer including a nitride semiconductor, a p-type semiconductor layer and a light emitting layer. The p-type semiconductor layer includes a first p-side layer of Alx1Ga1−x1N (0≦x1<1) including Mg, a second p-side layer of Alx2Ga1−x2N (0
US09196785B2
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a light emitting device including a light emitting diode and a surface-modified luminophore. The surface-modified luminophore includes a quantum dot luminophore and a fluorinated coating arranged on the quantum dot luminophore.
US09196782B2
A dye-sensitized solar cell with hybrid nanostructures comprises a negative-polarity conductive substrate, a metal oxide layer, a positive-polarity conductive substrate and an electrolyte. The metal oxide layer has a plurality of nanoparticles and a plurality of nanotubes. The metal oxide layer and the electrolyte are arranged between the negative-polarity conductive substrate and the positive-polarity conductive substrate. The nanoparticles increase contact area with dye and thus enhance power generation efficiency. The nanotubes increase carrier mobility and thus effectively transfer electricity to electrodes. The solar cell integrates the advantages of nanoparticles and nanotubes and offsets the disadvantages thereof to effectively enhance the photovoltaic conversion efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells.
US09196779B2
A method of fabricating a thin film photovoltaic device is provided. The method subjects a soda lime glass substrate having a front side, backside, and edges to a first cleaning process and forms a first coating of silicon dioxide overlying the backside and the edges. The method further subjects the substrate to a second cleaning process and forms a second coating of silicon dioxide overlying the front side and the edges of the substrate. Furthermore, the method includes causing a barrier layer comprising the first coating and the second coating to encapsulate entirely the front side, backside, and edges. The barrier layer includes at least a thickness of oxygen rich silicon dioxide to contain any sodium bearing material within the substrate. Moreover, the method includes forming a thickness of metal material overlying the second coating on the front side followed by an absorber material and window material plus a top electrode.
US09196775B2
In a solar battery cell, a plurality of silver electrodes are formed in a dot shape with a predetermined gap therebetween linearly along a rear surface tab line. Pitches among the silver electrodes are set so as to be large in a central part of a silicon substrate and small at the ends of the silicon substrate. By arranging many silver electrodes at ends of the silicon substrate having a large stress, the rigidity at the ends is improved, and the warpage is decreased, thereby suppressing cell cracking.
US09196772B2
This layered element, in particular for a photovoltaic device, includes a polymer layer, a moisture-sensitive layer, and a protective coating forming a moisture barrier inserted between the polymer layer and the moisture-sensitive layer. The protective coating includes an antireflection multilayer comprising at least two thin layers differing in refractive index from each other.
US09196765B2
Systems and methods for fabrication of nanostructured solar cells having arrays of nanostructures are described, including nanostructured solar cells having a repeating pattern of pyramid nanostructures, providing for low cost thin-film solar cells with improved PCE.
US09196752B2
An integrated circuit device that comprises a single semiconductor substrate, a device layer formed on a frontside of the single semiconductor substrate, a redistribution layer formed on a backside of the single semiconductor substrate, a through silicon via (TSV) formed within the single semiconductor substrate that is electrically coupled to the device layer and to the redistribution layer, a logic-memory interface (LMI) formed on a backside of the single semiconductor substrate that is electrically coupled to the redistribution layer, and a MEMS device formed on the backside of the single semiconductor substrate that is electrically coupled to the redistribution layer.
US09196745B2
Provided are a transistor which has electrical characteristics requisite for its purpose and uses an oxide semiconductor layer and a semiconductor device including the transistor. In the bottom-gate transistor in which at least a gate electrode layer, a gate insulating film, and the semiconductor layer are stacked in this order, an oxide semiconductor stacked layer including at least two oxide semiconductor layers whose energy gaps are different from each other is used as the semiconductor layer. Oxygen and/or a dopant may be added to the oxide semiconductor stacked layer.
US09196742B2
A TFT substrate (20a) includes a plurality of pixel electrodes (17a) provided in a matrix, a plurality of TFTs (5) each provided for a corresponding one of the pixel electrodes (17a), and a plurality of auxiliary capacitors (6a) each provided for a corresponding one of the pixel electrodes (17a). Each of the auxiliary capacitors (6a) includes a capacitor line (11b) made of a material identical to that of the gate electrode (11aa) of the TFT (5) and provided in a layer identical to that of the gate electrode (11aa) of the TFT (5), the gate insulating film (12) provided so as to cover the capacitor line (11b), and a corresponding one of the pixel electrodes (17a) provided on the gate insulating film (12) so as to overlap with the capacitor line (11b) and being in conduction with a drain electrode (14ca).
US09196734B2
The invention provides a thin-film transistor substrate, including: a substrate; a metal lead structure formed on the substrate, wherein the metal lead structure includes: a main conductor layer formed on the substrate, wherein the main conductor has a sidewall; a top conductor layer having a first portion, second portion and third portion, wherein the first portion is formed on the main conductor layer, the second portion is formed on the sidewall of the main conductor layer, and the third portion is formed on the substrate, and a continuous structure is formed by the first portion, the second portion and the third portion.
US09196731B2
Sometimes to warp a group III nitride semiconductor and a silicon by the stress of the group III nitride semiconductor acting on the silicon. A semiconductor device includes a substrate, a buffer layer, and a semiconductor layer. A trench is formed on a sixth face of the semiconductor layer. The trench passes through the semiconductor layer and the buffer layer. The bottom of the trench reaches at least the inside of the substrate.
US09196701B2
A semiconductor substrate comprises epitaxial region, body region and source region; an array of interdigitated active nitride-capped trench gate stacks (ANCTGS) and self-guided contact enhancement plugs (SGCEP) disposed above the semiconductor substrate and partially embedded into the source region, the body region and the epitaxial region forming the trench-gated MOSFET array. Each ANCTGS comprises a stack of a polysilicon trench gate embedded in a gate oxide shell and a silicon nitride spacer cap covering the top of the polysilicon trench gate; each SGCEP comprises a lower intimate contact enhancement section (ICES) in accurate registration to its neighboring ANCTGS; an upper distal contact enhancement section (DCES) having a lateral mis-registration (LTMSRG) to the neighboring ANCTGS; and an intervening tapered transitional section (TTS) bridging the ICES and the DCES; a patterned metal layer atop the patterned dielectric region atop the MOSFET array forms self-guided source and body contacts through the SGCEP.
US09196693B2
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes forming a first compound semiconductor material on a semiconductor substrate and forming a second compound semiconductor material on the first compound semiconductor material. The second compound semiconductor material includes a different material than the first compound semiconductor material such that the first compound semiconductor material has a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG). The method further includes forming a buried field plate in the first compound semiconductor material so that the 2DEG is interposed between the buried field plate and the second compound semiconductor material, and electrically connecting the buried field plate to a terminal of the semiconductor device.
US09196691B2
A method of fabricating a metal gate electrode of a field effect transistor includes forming a dielectric layer over an active region, and forming an opening in the dielectric layer. The method further includes partially filling the opening with a high-dielectric-constant material, partially filling the opening with a conformal first metal material over the high-dielectric-constant material, and filling the opening with a capping layer over the first metal material. The method further includes partially removing the first metal material and capping layer in the opening using a wet etching process. The method further includes fully removing the remaining capping layer in the opening using a wet etching process. The method further includes depositing a second metal material in the opening over the remaining first metal material, and planarizing the second metal material.
US09196682B2
A nanoparticle complex, including a semiconductor nanocrystal; and a metal complex ligand on the surface of the semiconductor nanocrystal. The nanoparticle complex may further include a polymer shell contacting the metal complex ligand.
US09196681B1
A laterally diffused metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (LDMOSFET) includes a p-type body region formed in an n-type epitaxial layer, the p-type body region directly contacting a source contact region and extending past an end of the source contact region toward a drain contact region. The LDMOSFET also includes a p-type reduced surface field (PRSF) region formed in the n-type epitaxial layer, the PRSF region disposed between the p-type body region and the n-type buried layer. The LDMOSFET also includes an n-type drain drift region formed in the n-type epitaxial layer, the n-type drain drift region directly contacting the drain contact region. The LDMOSFET also includes an n-type drift region formed in the n-type epitaxial layer, the n-type drift region directly contacting the n-type drain drift region. The LDMOSFET also includes an n-type diffusion region in the n-type epitaxial layer, the n-type diffusion region electrically connecting the n-type buried layer with the n-type drift region and the n-type drain drift region.
US09196680B1
A laterally diffused metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (LDMOSFET) includes: a source contact region, a gate contact region, a drain contact region, and an n-type buried layer. The LDMOSFET also includes a p-type body region formed in an n-type epitaxial layer, the p-type body region directly contacting the source contact region and extending past an end of the source contact region toward the drain contact region. The LDMOSFET also includes a p-type reduced surface field (PRSF) region formed in the n-type epitaxial layer, the PRSF region disposed between the p-type body region and the n-type buried layer. The LDMOSFET also includes an n-type drift region formed in the n-type epitaxial layer, the n-type drift region directly contacting the drain contact region. The LDMOSFET also includes an n-type diffusion region in the n-type epitaxial layer, the n-type diffusion region electrically connecting the n-type buried layer with the n-type drift region.
US09196663B2
The present invention is intended to suppress power consumption of an EL display. In accordance with the brightness of an image to be displayed in a pixel portion, the contrast of the image is determined whether to be inverted or not, and the number of bits of the digital video signal to be input into the pixel portion is reduced, and the magnitude of a current to flow through the EL element is allowed to be maintained at a constant level even when a temperature of an EL layer changes by providing the EL display with another EL element to be used for monitoring a temperature.
US09196662B2
Disclosed are an organic light emitting display that has a configuration excluding a polarizing plate and exhibits improved flexibility and visibility, and a method for manufacturing the same, the organic light emitting display includes a touch electrode array facing the organic light emitting diode on the second buffer layer, the touch electrode array including first and second touch electrodes intersecting each other and an exterior light shielding layer including at least a color filter layer, an adhesive layer formed between the organic light emitting diode and the touch electrode array.
US09196661B2
Embodiments of the invention are directed to IR photodetectors with gain resulting from the positioning of a charge multiplication layer (CML) between the cathode and the IR sensitizing layer of the photodetector, where accumulating charge at the CML reduces the energy difference between the cathode and the CML to promote injection of electrons that result in gain for an electron only device. Other embodiments of the invention are directed to inclusion of the IR photodetectors with gain into an IR-to-visible up-conversion device that can be used in night vision and other applications.
US09196658B2
A method for fabricating a semiconductor device includes forming a first conductive pattern and a first pad over a substrate; forming a first and a second resistance variable elements over the first conductive pattern and the first pad, respectively; performing impurity doping into the second resistance variable element to produce a conductive contact; and forming a second conductive pattern over the first resistance variable element.
US09196647B2
An image pickup unit includes: an image pickup section including a plurality of pixels, the plurality of pixels each including a photoelectric converter device and a field-effect transistor; and a driving section reading out a signal charge with use of the transistor, the signal charge being accumulated in each of the plurality of pixels. The driving section turns off the transistor by applying an off-voltage to the transistor, the off-voltage being set in consideration of an off-leakage current between a source and a drain of the transistor.
US09196638B2
An object of the present invention is to provide a light emitting device in which variations in an emission spectrum depending on a viewing angle with respect to a side from which luminescence is extracted are decreased. A light emitting device according to the invention has a transistor, an insulating layer covering the transistor and a light emitting element provided in an opening of the insulating layer. The transistor and the light emitting element are electronically connected through a connecting portion. Additionally, the connecting portion is connected to the transistor through a contact hole penetrating the insulating layer. Note that the insulating layer may be a single layer or a multilayer in which a plurality of layers including different substances is laminated.
US09196637B1
The present disclosure provides an array substrate and a display device. The array substrate includes gate lines, data lines, and thin film transistors (TFTs) connected to the gate lines and the data lines. At least one of the data lines is divided into a first branch and a second branch at a predetermined region where an intersection of the at least one of the data lines and at least one of the gate lines is located. The first branch overlaps the at least one of the gate lines, and has a width less than a width of a non-overlapping portion of the at least one of the data lines which does not overlap the at least one of the gate lines. The second branch overlaps a gate electrode of a corresponding one of the TFTs, and serves as, or is connected to, a source electrode of the corresponding TFT.
US09196632B2
An object of the present invention is to prevent the deterioration of a TFT (thin film transistor). The deterioration of the TFT by a BT test is prevented by forming a silicon oxide nitride film between the semiconductor layer of the TFT and a substrate, wherein the silicon oxide nitride film ranges from 0.3 to 1.6 in a ratio of the concentration of N to the concentration of Si.
US09196631B1
Embodiments of the invention disclose an array substrate and a method for manufacturing the same, and a display device. The method for manufacturing an array substrate comprising: forming a gate metal layer, wherein the gate metal layer comprises gate lines; film-forming an active layer and film-forming a signal line metal layer, wherein the signal line metal layer comprises data lines; and forming both a pattern of the active layer and a pattern of the signal line metal layer simultaneously using a half-tone mask process, wherein after film-forming the active layer and before film-forming the signal line metal layer, the method further comprising: hollowing out a first region of the active layer through a patterning process, wherein the first region is below the data lines in a display area, and the first region excludes portions of the active layer corresponding to overlapping regions of the data lines and the gate lines.
US09196627B2
According to an aspect of the invention, a first insulating layer is buried in a first trench provided in at least one of an interstice between first and second semiconductor pillars, a side surface portion of the first semiconductor pillar opposed to the second semiconductor pillar, and a side surface portion of the second semiconductor pillar opposed to the first semiconductor pillar. A first trench penetrates each stack from an uppermost portion of the stack to a first conductive layer in a lowermost portion of the stack. The first trench is arranged away from a first connection portion. Each of the first conductive layers in contact with the first insulating layer includes a silicide layer.
US09196625B2
Methods for building a memory device or electronic system may include a memory cell body extending from a substrate, a self-aligned floating gate separated from the memory cell body by a tunneling dielectric film, and a control gate separated from the self-aligned floating gate by a blocking dielectric film. The floating gate is flanked by the memory cell body and the control gate to form a memory cell, and the self-aligned floating gate is at least as thick as the control gate.
US09196618B2
A semiconductor device and a method of fabricating the same are provided, in which a full overlap between a storage node contact and an active region to solve an overlay in an etching process and an etching width of a storage node is increased to improve a processing margin. The semiconductor device includes a main gate and a device isolation structure disposed in a semiconductor device, an isolation pattern disposed over the device isolation structure, and contact plugs disposed at each side of the isolation pattern.
US09196616B2
It is an object to provide a memory device where an area occupied by a memory cell is small, and moreover, a memory device where an area occupied by a memory cell is small and a data holding period is long. A memory device includes a bit line, a capacitor, a first insulating layer provided over the bit line and including a groove portion, a semiconductor layer, a second insulating layer in contact with the semiconductor layer, and a word line in contact with the second insulating layer. Part of the semiconductor layer is electrically connected to the bit line in a bottom portion of the groove portion, and another part of the semiconductor layer is electrically connected to one electrode of the capacitor in a top surface of the first insulating layer.
US09196615B2
Under one aspect, a nanotube diode includes: a cathode formed of a semiconductor material; and an anode formed of nanotubes. The cathode and anode are in fixed and direct physical contact, and are constructed and arranged such that sufficient electrical stimulus applied to the cathode and the anode creates a conductive pathway between the cathode and the anode. In some embodiments, the anode includes a non-woven nanotube fabric having a plurality of unaligned nanotubes. The non-woven nanotube fabric may have a thickness, e.g., of 0.5 to 20 nm. Or, the non-woven nanotube fabric may include a block of nanotubes. The nanotubes may include metallic nanotubes and semiconducting nanotubes, and the cathode may include an n-type semiconductor material. A Schottky barrier can form between the n-type semiconductor material and the metallic nanotubes and/or a PN junction can form between the n-type semiconductor material and the semiconducting nanotubes.
US09196612B2
A semiconductor device includes a plurality of first semiconductor fins formed on a semiconductor substrate to define first fin trenches. At least one second semiconductor fin is formed on the semiconductor substrate to define second fin trenches. A first work function metal layer is formed in the first and second fin trenches. The first work function metal layer formed in the second trenches has a first cavity formed therein such that the at least one second semiconductor fin realizes a different concentration of the first work function metal layer with respect to the plurality of first semiconductor fins.
US09196611B2
The present disclosure provides reduced substrate coupling for inductors in semiconductor devices. A method of fabricating a semiconductor device having reduced substrate coupling includes providing a substrate having a first region and a second region. The method also includes forming a first gate structure over the first region and a second gate structure over the second region, wherein the first and second gate structures each include a dummy gate. The method next includes forming an inter layer dielectric (ILD) over the substrate and forming a photoresist (PR) layer over the second gate structure. Then, the method includes removing the dummy gate from the first gate structure, thereby forming a trench and forming a metal gate in the trench so that a transistor may be formed in the first region, which includes a metal gate, and an inductor component may be formed over the second region, which does not include a metal gate.
US09196607B2
A stack package includes a substrate having connection terminals and a first chip on the substrate. The first chip has first connectors on edges thereof. A second chip is stacked on the first chip to expose outer portions of the first connectors. The second chip has second connectors on edges thereof. Connection members to connect the exposed outer portions of the first connectors to the connection terminals. Sidewall interconnectors to connect the exposed outer portions of the first connectors to the second connectors. The sidewall interconnectors extend from the exposed outer portions of the first connectors along sidewalls of the second chip to cover the second connectors.
US09196601B2
Various aspects of the present disclosure provide a semiconductor device and a method for manufacturing thereof, which can facilitate stacking of semiconductor die while saving manufacturing cost. In an example embodiment, the semiconductor device may comprise a first semiconductor die, a second semiconductor die bonded to a top surface of the first semiconductor die, and a redistribution layer electrically connecting the first semiconductor die to the second semiconductor die, wherein the redistribution layer is formed to extend along surrounding side portions of the second semiconductor die.
US09196599B2
A connection device includes a mounting section on which an electronic component stacked with a thermosetting adhesive agent layer is mounted, a heat press head for heating and pressing the electronic component, a first elastic body that is disposed between the electronic component and a pressing surface of the heat press head so as to press an upper surface of the electronic component, and a support member that is disposed on a periphery of the electronic component and supports the first elastic body.
US09196597B2
A multilayer substrate includes a first outer conductive patterned layer, a first insulating layer exposing a portion of the first outer conductive patterned layer to define a first set of pads, a second outer conductive patterned layer, and a second insulating layer exposing a portion of the second outer conductive patterned layer to define a second set of pads. The multilayer substrate further includes inner layers each with an inner conductive patterned layer, multiple inner conductive posts formed adjacent to the inner conductive patterned layer, and an inner dielectric layer, where the inner conductive patterned layer and the inner conductive posts are embedded in the inner dielectric layer, and a top surface of each of the inner conductive posts is exposed from the inner dielectric layer.
US09196592B2
Various embodiments include managing metal densities in kerf sections of an integrated circuit (IC) wafer. In some embodiments, a method includes: forming an integrated circuit (IC) wafer including a wafer kerf region, the wafer kerf region having a metal density of less than approximately 0.5 percent relative to a total density of the wafer kerf region.
US09196591B2
A method of forming a semiconductor structure includes forming a recess within a silicon substrate of an IC chip near a circuit of the IC chip. A metal layer is formed in the recess and the IC chip is exposed to an oxygen-containing environment to initiate the oxidation of a portion of the silicon substrate below the metal layer and adjacent to the circuit. The oxidation process consumes the portion of the silicon substrate below the metal layer forming a silicon dioxide layer that damages the circuit and causes the IC chip to be inoperable. The time to oxidize the portion of the silicon substrate below the metal layer and damage the circuit represents the shelf life of the IC chip.
US09196587B2
Semiconductor devices are described that have a through-substrate via formed therein. In one or more implementations, the semiconductor devices include a semiconductor wafer and an integrated circuit die bonded together with an adhesive material. The semiconductor wafer and the integrated circuit die include one or more integrated circuits formed therein. The integrated circuits are connected to one or more conductive layers deployed over the surfaces of the semiconductor wafer and an integrated circuit die. A via is formed through the semiconductor wafer and the patterned adhesive material so that an electrical interconnection can be formed between the integrated circuits formed in the semiconductor wafer and the integrated circuits formed in the integrated circuit die. The via includes a conductive material that furnishes the electrical interconnection between the semiconductor wafer and the integrated circuit die.
US09196586B2
Embodiments of the present disclosure include semiconductor packages and methods of forming the same. An embodiment is a semiconductor package including a first package including one or more dies, and a package substrate bonded to a first side of the first package with by a first set of connectors. The semiconductor package further includes a surface mount device mounted to the first side of the first package, the surface mount device consisting essentially of one or more passive devices.
US09196580B2
A semiconductor device, having an electrode pad as a part of wirings on the uppermost layer thereof, includes a passivation film and a bump electrode for external connection. The passivation film is formed on the electrode pad, and the bump electrode is formed on the passivation film and electrically connected to the electrode pad. The electrode pad is formed so as to be smaller in size than the bump electrode, and parts of the wiring on the uppermost layer are formed under the bump electrode. In this manner, it is possible to utilize the area under the bump electrode effectively without sacrificing flatness of the passivation film. As a result, the semiconductor device and the semiconductor package can be made smaller.
US09196573B2
The embodiments described above provide enlarged overlapping surface areas of bonding structures between a package and a bonding substrate. By using elongated bonding structures on either the package and/or the bonding substrate and by orienting such bonding structures, the bonding structures are designed to withstand bonding stress caused by thermal cycling to reduce cold joints.
US09196572B2
A power semiconductor module comprising a substrate. The power semiconductor module has first and second DC voltage load current connection elements and first and second power semiconductor components. The first and second power semiconductor components are arranged along a lateral first direction of the substrate. The power semiconductor module has a foil composite having a first metallic foil layer and a structured second metallic foil layer and an electrically insulating foil layer arranged between the first and second metallic foil layers. The first power semiconductor component and the second power semiconductor component are electrically conductively connected to the foil composite and to the substrate. The first and second power semiconductor components are arranged on a common side in relation to the first and second DC voltage load current connection elements. The invention provides a power semiconductor module having a particularly low-inductance construction.
US09196565B2
A fixing assembly includes a fixing frame, a fixing member, and a fastening member. The fixing frame includes a frame body and a guiding wall portion. The frame body is disposed between a circuit board and a heatsink. The guiding wall portion is connected to the frame body and has an elongated hole. The thicknesses of the guiding wall portion are reduced toward the frame body. The fixing member abuts against the guiding wall portion and is located over the heatsink. The fixing member has a screw hole communicated with the elongated hole. The fastening member is fastened to the screw hole via the elongated hole. The fastening member is retained by the elongated hole to move relative to the guiding wall portion along the elongated hole, so as to move the fixing member toward or away from the heatsink.
US09196559B2
A method includes forming a passivation layer over a metal pad, wherein the metal pad is further overlying a semiconductor substrate of a wafer. A Post-Passivation Interconnect (PPI) is formed to electrically couple to the metal pad, wherein a portion of the PPI is overlying the passivation layer. A metal bump is formed over and electrically coupled to the PPI. The method further includes applying a molding compound over the metal bump and the PPI, applying a release film over the molding compound, pressing the release film against the molding compound, and curing the molding compound when the release film is pressed against the molding compound. The release film is then removed from the molding compound. The wafer is sawed into dies using a blade, with the blade cutting through the molding compound.
US09196548B2
Methodology enabling selectively connecting fin structures using a segmented trench salicide layer, and the resulting device are disclosed. Embodiments include: providing on a substrate at least one gate structure; providing first and second fin structures in a vertical direction intersecting with the at least one gate structure; and providing a first segment of a salicide layer, the first segment being formed along a horizontal direction and being connected with the second fin structure and separated from the first fin structure.
US09196544B2
Integrated circuits with selectively stressed semiconductor-on-insulator (SOI) body contacts and methods for fabricating integrated circuits with selectively stressed SOI body contacts are provided. An exemplary method for fabricating an integrated circuit includes forming a channel region and a body contact overlying and/or in an SOI substrate. Further, the method includes selectively applying a first stress to the source/drain region in a longitudinal direction. Also, the method includes selectively applying a second stress to the body contact in a lateral direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction.
US09196535B2
An embodiment method for separating semiconductor devices from a wafer comprises using a carrier which acts an adjustable adhesive force upon the semiconductor devices and removing the semiconductor devices from the carrier by applying a mechanical or acoustical impulse to the carrier.
US09196533B2
The present invention relates to a film for back surface of flip-chip semiconductor, which is to be formed on a back surface of a semiconductor element flip-chip connected onto an adherend, wherein an amount of shrinkage of the film for back surface of flip-chip semiconductor due to thermal curing is 2% by volume or more and not more than 30% by volume relative to a total volume of the film for back surface of flip-chip semiconductor before the thermal curing. According to the film for back surface of flip-chip semiconductor according to the present invention, since it is formed on the back surface of a semiconductor element having been flip-chip connected onto an adherend, it fulfills a function to protect the semiconductor element. In addition, in the film for back surface of flip-chip semiconductor according to the present invention, since an amount of shrinkage due to thermal curing is 2% by volume or more relative to a total volume of the film for back surface of flip-chip semiconductor before the thermal curing, a warp of a semiconductor element to be generated at the time of flip-chip connecting the semiconductor element onto an adherend can be effectively suppressed or prevented.
US09196528B2
Disclosed herein are various methods and structures using contacts to create differential stresses on devices in an integrated circuit (IC) chip. An IC chip is disclosed having a p-type field effect transistor (PFET) and an n-type field effect transistor (NFET), a PFET contact to a source/drain region of the PFET and an NFET contact to a source/drain region of the NFET. In a first embodiment, a silicon germanium (SiGe) layer is included only under the PFET contact, between the PFET contact and the source/drain region of the PFET. In a second embodiment, either the PFET contact extends into the source/drain region of the PFET or the NFET contact extends into the source/drain region of the NFET.
US09196527B2
The present invention provides a technology capable of improving an operation reliability of a semiconductor device. Particularly, a fuse material which constitutes the copper can be prevented from migrating being locked in the recesses or the grooves after a blowing process. A semiconductor device includes an insulating layer including a concave-convex-shaped upper part; and a fuse formed on the insulating layer.
US09196521B2
An adjustable pick-up head, a collet head, a method to adjust a pick-up head and a method of manufacturing a device are disclosed. In one embodiment a pick-up head includes a shank having a holder and an intermediate body connected to the holder by a first joint. The pick-up head further includes a collet head connected to the intermediate body by a second joint.
US09196519B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method for achieving uniform capacitance between a semiconductor wafer and an electrostatic chuck. In certain embodiments, the method comprises the step of forming a layer on a first side of the semiconductor wafer, wherein the layer has a specified resistivity. The method further comprises placing the semiconductor wafer on the electrostatic chuck, wherein the layer contacts the electrostatic chuck. The method further comprises applying a radio frequency signal to the electrostatic chuck, and processing a second side of the semiconductor wafer.
US09196516B2
A wafer temperature measurement tool for measuring the surface temperature of a semiconductor wafer. The tool can be used to measure temperature on different parts of the wafer to provide a high resolution temperature distribution map. The tool includes an internal calibrated weight that is slidably disposed within a tool body. A temperature sensor is attached to the bottom of the weight. Ceramic stands are attached to the bottom of the tool body. Gravity pulls down on the weight such that the temperature sensor contacts the wafer when the ceramic stands of the tool body are placed on the wafer.
US09196515B2
The present disclosure relates to a lithographic tool arrangement for semiconductor workpiece processing. The lithographic tool arrangement groups lithographic tools into clusters, and selectively transfers a semiconductor workpiece between a plurality of lithographic tools of a first type in a first cluster to a plurality of lithographic tools of a second type in a second cluster. The selective transfer is achieved though a transfer assembly, which is coupled to a defect scan tool that identifies defects generated in the lithographic tool of the first type. The disclosed lithographic tool arrangement also utilizes shared structural elements such as a housing assembly, and shared functional elements such as gases and chemicals. The lithographic tool arrangement may consist of baking, coating, exposure, and development units configured to provide a modularization of these various components in order to optimize throughput and efficiency for a given lithographic fabrication process.
US09196512B2
There is provided a focus ring capable of preventing a part of a heat transfer sheet from adhering to and remaining on a mounting table. The focus ring is arranged to surround a periphery of a substrate mounted on the mounting table having a temperature control device. Further, the focus ring includes a flexible heat transfer sheet. Furthermore, the focus ring is in contact with the mounting table via the heat transfer sheet, and the heat transfer sheet has a contact surface in contact with the mounting table and an anti-adhesion layer formed on the contact surface.
US09196508B2
A three-dimensional integrateds circuit structure includes a first metal circuit substrate, an interposer substrate disposed on the first metal circuit substrate and electrically connected therewith, and at least one semiconductor component disposed on the interposer substrate. The interposer substrate is used to dissipate the heat generated by the operation of the semiconductor components, so as to achieve the objective of increasing the lifespan of the semiconductor components.
US09196495B2
A semiconductor device in accordance with one embodiment of the invention can include a semiconductor substrate having a groove, a bit line, a pocket implantation region, a bottom insulating membrane, and a charge accumulation region. The bit line is formed on a side of the groove in the semiconductor substrate and acts as a source and a drain. The pocket implantation region is formed to touch (or contact) the bit line, has a similar conductivity type as the semiconductor substrate, and has a dopant concentration higher than that of the semiconductor substrate. The bottom insulating membrane is formed on and touches (or contacts) a side surface of the groove. The charge accumulation layer is formed on and touches (or contacts) a side surface of the bottom insulating membrane.
US09196467B2
A mass spectrometer comprising a controller configured to generate an RF signal to be applied to an electrode during the mass scan, wherein the electrode generates, based on the RF signal, an electric field to be applied to sample ions during a mass scan; an ion detector configured to detect sample ions passing through the electric field and generate a corresponding ion detection signal; and a sampling circuit configured to sample the ion detection signal; wherein the controller is configured to adjust a phase of the at least one RF signal relative to a sample timing of the sampling circuit and average successive mass scans to cancel a portion of the RF signal present in the ion detection signal.
US09196457B2
Provided are flow cell devices—referred to as nanoaquariums—that are microfabricated devices featuring a sample chamber having a controllable height in the range of nanometers to micrometers. The cells are sealed so as to withstand the vacuum environment of an electron microscope without fluid loss. The cells allow for the concurrent flow of multiple sample streams and may be equipped with electrodes, heaters, and thermistors for measurement and other analysis devices.
US09196456B2
An image acquisition method and system for use in transmission electron microscopy and capable of providing information about a wide range of frequency range. The method is initiated with setting at least one of the spherical aberration coefficient and chromatic aberration coefficient of the imaging system of the microscope to suppress attenuation of a contrast transfer function due to an envelope function. Then, an image is obtained by the imaging system placed in defocus conditions.
US09196449B1
A system comprises: an RF cavity; a main emitter; a floating grid configured to capture a portion of the electron current emitted by the main emitter; and a discharging emitter in electrical contact with the floating grid and configured to discharge the floating grid. The floating grid and the discharging emitter are electrically insulated from the main emitter and from the RF cavity, when the RF cavity is not in operation. The DC bias of the floating grid is adjusted so that the ending emission phase of the electron beam from the floating grid occurs earlier than the starting phase of back-bombardment of the electrons in the RF cavity, thereby suppressing the back-bombardment of the electrons. A floating grid can be also placed between the RF drive grid and the cathode in an IOT, thereby suppressing arcing of the cathode in the IOT.
US09196445B2
Electrical fuses include slip fit terminal elements coupled to the ends of a fuse element. The terminal elements may rotate relative to the fuse element ends as the fuses are bolted to circuit conductors and protect the fuse element from being damaged.
US09196441B2
A modular relay sub-assembly is provided. The modular relay sub-assembly can include a first housing portion, a second housing portion, a conductor having a first contact, and a split conductor. The second housing portion may be attached to a surface of the first housing portion. The conductor may be disposed inside a cavity formed by the two housing portions. The first contact may be accessible through a first opening in the first housing portion. The split conductor may include a first portion, a second portion, and a contact. The split conductor being disposed inside the cavity formed by the first and second housing portions. The second portion may be disposed at a position electrically isolated from the first portion. The contact of the split conductor can be accessible through a second opening in the first housing portion. The split conductor can be positioned to selectively contact the conductor.
US09196439B2
A vacuum interrupter arrangement for a circuit breaker includes a first cylindrical shaped vacuum insert within which a pair of corresponding electrical contacts is coaxially arranged. The electrical contacts include a fixed electrical contact which is attached to the first vacuum insert and an axially movable electrical contact which is operated by a pushrod. A second cylindrical shaped vacuum insert is coaxially arranged to the first cylindrical shaped vacuum insert. Both vacuum inserts are coaxially surrounded by an outer vacuum container in order to form a double contact gap version.
US09196438B2
The present invention is directed to a safety system integrated into a liquid-insulated high voltage network grounding switch, including modifications to the switch structure to provide an arrangement that is more efficiently installed with greater precision than found in conventional arrangements. The result is a switch assembly that adheres to updated IEEE/ANSI Standards, while still fitting into existing vault space meant to accommodate earlier switch gear.
US09196435B2
The described embodiments relate to methods and apparatus for fine-tuning a resistance profile for a mechanical switch. In one embodiment, by combining a switch with one or more damping or support materials a tuned switch system can be formed. The damping or support materials can modify the force and displacement characteristics of the switch, thereby allowing a user experience to be customized. The damping or support materials can be arranged in series and/or in parallel with the mechanical switch.
US09196434B2
Method and device for performing diagnostics of an actuator, and actuator comprising one such device
A diagnostic method for an actuator having a coil and a control device for supplying power to the coil, by controlling a power supply to the actuator by a diagnostic device, controlling a supply of power to the coil by a control device, monitoring an electric signal supplying the actuator, and deriving a diagnostic indicator of the actuator from a result of monitoring; and a device and computer code for executing the method.
US09196429B2
The present disclosure discloses a contact structure for electromechanical switch. The contact structure is using the design including a PCB and a moving contact to allow the actuations and have great switch characteristics whose range is from DC to high frequency.
US09196428B2
Provided is a gang socket with which capacitor elements can be manufactured without contaminating chemical conversion treatment liquids or semiconductor layer forming liquids even when the chemical conversion treatment liquids and semiconductor layer forming liquids are corrosive and with which heat treatment can be carried out without obstacles even when heat treatment is carried out during the manufacture of the capacitor elements. This gang socket (1) is provided with a plurality of conductive socket main units (2) provided with insertion openings (37) and an insulator part (5) forming a plurality of receiving parts (6) that can accommodate at least part of the socket main units (2) and provided with a plurality of small openings (7) connecting to the bottom surface of the receiving parts (6) on a bottom surface (5b). The insulator part (5) is constituted of a material having heat resistance and corrosion resistance. At least part of the socket main units (2) are accommodated and secured in the receiving parts (6) of the insulator part (5), and the insertion openings (37) and the small openings (7) are connected.
US09196421B2
There is provided a multilayer ceramic electronic component, including: a ceramic body formed by laminating dielectric layers having an average thickness of 0.7 μm or less; external electrodes formed on external surfaces of the ceramic body; and internal electrodes respectively disposed on the dielectric layer so as to have a gap formed therebetween, wherein, when a narrowest gap between the internal electrode edges adjacent to one another is denoted by Gmin, 10 μm≦Gmin≦60 μm is satisfied.
US09196419B2
A wireless electric power transmission apparatus as an embodiment of the present disclosure includes: two antennas 107, 109 having the ability to transmit electric power by a non-contact method via resonant magnetic coupling, one of the two antennas being a series resonant circuit, of which the resonant frequency is fs, the other antenna being a parallel resonant circuit, of which the resonant frequency is fp; and an oscillator 103 which is connected to one of the two antennas that transmits RF power. If the coupling coefficient between the two antennas 107 and 109 is k, then fs and fp are set so as to satisfy the inequality −1.1516×k2+0.0363×k+0.9983≦fs/fp<1.
US09196399B2
A method for producing a composite superconductor includes: a structure forming process of forming a structure including a metal covering member (20) including at least one to-be-joined portion, a superconductor (30) arranged inside the metal covering member, and a reinforcing member (40) arranged between the superconductor (30) and the at least one to-be-joined portion; and a joining process of joining thereafter the at least one to-be-joined portion.
US09196398B2
The present arrangement provides a communication cable having a plurality of twisted pair communication elements, a jacket surrounding the twisted pairs and a shield element disposed between the pairs and the jacket. The shield element is constructed as a tape substrate with a plurality of foil shielding elements disposed thereon, the foil shielding elements being formed in the shape of triangles and arranged on the substrate with at least a first foil shield element having a base of its triangle shape disposed substantially parallel to a longitudinal edge of the tape substrate. Each subsequent triangle is disposed on the tape substrate at a distance apart from the first triangle foil shielding element with a base of its triangle shape disposed substantially parallel to an opposite longitudinal edge of the tape substrate.
US09196395B2
A conductive member includes a metal part and an elastomer part. The conductive member is configured such that, when the conductive member is interposed between a first member and a second member, the elastomer part is elastically deformed so that a top end portion of at least one upper surface-side convex part in the metal part is pressed toward a side of the second member, and a top end portion of at least one under surface-side convex part in the metal part is pressed toward a side of the first member.
US09196385B2
A flash controller for managing at least one MLC non-volatile memory module and at least one SLC non-volatile memory module. The flash controller is adapted to determine if a range of addresses listed by an entry and mapped to said at least one MLC non-volatile memory module fails a data integrity test. In the event of such a failure, the controller remaps said entry to an equivalent range of addresses of said at least one SLC non-volatile memory module, The flash controller is farther adapted to determine which of the blocks in the MLC and SLC non-volatile memory modules are accessed most frequently and allocating those blocks that receive frequent writes to the SLC non-volatile memory module and those blocks that receive infrequent writes to the MLC non-volatile memory module.
US09196381B2
A method for testing an integrated circuit having memory comprises performing a structural test on the integrated circuit using data obtained from operating the memory in a functional mode. In another embodiment, an integrated circuit comprises a memory mode selection module, a memory module, and an output selection module. The memory mode selection module is configured to receive a functional mode signal and a test mode signal, and selectively transmit either the functional mode signal or the test mode signal based on a state of a control signal. The memory module is configured to receive the signal from the memory mode selection module and store data corresponding to signal to memory cells. The output selection module is configured to receive the data from the memory cells, and transmit the data to downstream circuitry, which may use the data to perform a structural test, such as a logic built-in self-test.
US09196380B2
A method for measuring data retention characteristic of an RRAM device includes: a) controlling a temperature of a sample stage to maintain the RRAM device at a predetermined temperature; b) setting the RRAM device to a high-resistance state or a low-resistance state; c) measuring data retention time by applying a predetermined voltage to the RRAM device so that a resistive state failure of the RRAM device occurs; d) repeating the steps a)-c) to perform a plurality of measurements; e) calculating a resistive state failure probability F(t) of the RRAM device from the data retention time in the plurality of measurements; and f) fitting the resistive state failure probability F(t), and calculating predicted data retention time tE by using parameters obtained from the fitting. The data retention time of the RRAM device may be predicted by combining voltage acceleration and temperature acceleration.
US09196378B2
A semiconductor memory device includes a fuse array block including a plurality of fuses programmed with state information, an operation direction control block suitable for controlling a program operation direction and a boot-up operation direction of the fuse array block, and a fuse information loading block suitable for loading the state information which is programmed in the plurality of fuses of the fuse array block through the boot-up operation.
US09196375B2
A semiconductor storage device according to the present embodiment includes a memory cell array including a plurality of memory cells. A plurality of word lines are electrically connected to control gates of the memory cells. A plurality of bit lines are electrically connected to one end of a current path of the memory cells. A sense amplifier part detects data stored in the selected memory cells. A power supply part converts an external power supply voltage to an internal power supply voltage and supplies the internal power supply voltage to the sense amplifier part. A power supply wire extends above the memory cell array and is provided to range from the power supply part to the sense amplifier part.
US09196370B2
The present disclosure includes methods, devices, modules, and systems for reducing noise in semiconductor devices. One method embodiment includes applying a reset voltage to a control gate of a semiconductor device for a period of time. The method further includes sensing the state of the semiconductor device after applying the reset voltage.
US09196365B2
A semiconductor memory device and an operating method thereof are set forth. The semiconductor memory device includes a memory cell array with a string. The string comprises a first dummy memory cell and a second dummy memory cell. A circuit is configured to provide a program voltage and one or more operation voltages to the string during a program operation. Control logic is configured to control the circuit to increase a first threshold voltage of the first dummy memory cell and to increase a second threshold voltage of the second dummy memory cell. The first threshold voltage and a second threshold voltage increase by a hot carrier injection mechanism.
US09196360B2
A circuit that includes a current source and a current comparator is disclosed. The current source is connected to a resistive memory cell to generate a driving current thereto. The current comparator has a sensing node connected to the current source and the resistive memory cell to sense an injection current injected to the current comparator through the sensing node, wherein when a resistive state of the resistive memory cell switches such that the current comparator determines that an amount of the injection current increases to exceed or decreases to reach threshold value, the current comparator turns off the current source.
US09196337B2
A low sensing current non volatile flip flop includes a first stage to sense a resistance difference between two magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) and a second stage having circuitry to amplify the output of the first stage. The output of the first stage is initially pre-charged and determined by the resistance difference of the two MTJs when the sensing operation starts. The first stage does not have a pull-up path to a source voltage (VDD), and therefore does not have a DC path from VDD to ground during the sensing operation. A slow sense enable (SE) signal slope reduces peak sensing current in the first stage. A secondary current path reduces the sensing current duration of the first stage.
US09196335B2
According to one embodiment, a magnetic memory includes magnetoresistive effect elements each including a first magnetic layer, a tunnel barrier layer, and a second magnetic layer which are successively stacked, and a ferroelectric capacitor provided above the magnetoresistive effect elements via an insulating layer, and including a lower electrode, a ferroelectric film, and an upper electrode which are successively stacked.
US09196328B2
A semiconductor memory apparatus includes a command processing block configured to generate a voltage generation start signal, a first write control signal, a second write control signal, a read signal, and an operation signal in response to a first control signal and a second control signal in a write operation, and a memory control block configured to electrically couple a memory block, which stores data, to a sense amplifier or apply a predetermined voltage to the memory block in response to the voltage generation start signal, the first write control signal, the second write control signal, the read signal, and the operation signal.
US09196327B2
A storage media control method, by which a data strobe signal is shifted by different phase shifts at different time intervals during a write-leveling operation to be received by a storage media and compared to a clock signal for returning a data signal. At the storage media side, during the write-leveling operation, a synchronous transmission between the received data strobe signal and the clock signal causes a transition event at the data signal. The number of transition-event occurrences is counted. When the count shows that just one transition event has occurred over a full round of phase shift tests of the data strobe signal, the phase shift corresponding to the transition event is used in the adjustment of the data strobe signal, which is received by the storage media as the data extraction reference of a write operation.
US09196322B2
A semiconductor memory device that does not require a sense amplifier includes a memory cell group having at least one memory cell, a buffer unit, and a bias voltage unit. The buffer unit includes a tri-state buffer that has an input terminal coupled to the memory cell group, and an output terminal coupled to a data line unit. The tri-state buffer is operable to switch between a conducting state and a non-conducting state. The bias voltage unit controls supply of a preset bias voltage to the input terminal of the tri-state buffer. By using the tri-state buffer, the parasitic capacitance attributed to the memory cell can be reduced, such that no sense amplifier is required to ensure proper operation, thereby reducing power consumption.
US09196318B2
A voltage reference circuit includes a first enhancement-mode PMOS transistor, a first enhancement mode NMOS transistor, and a first depletion-mode PMOS transistor coupled in series between a voltage supply and a ground. A second depletion-mode PMOS transistor is coupled to the first enhancement PMOS transistor to form a feedback circuit. A first resistive device is coupled between the voltage supply and the second depletion-mode PMOS transistor, and a second resistive device is coupled between the second depletion-mode PMOS transistor and the ground. A bias circuit is coupled to a gate of the first enhancement-mode NMOS transistor. The first enhancement-mode PMOS transistor and the first depletion-mode PMOS transistor are configured to operate in saturation region. A first reference voltage across the first resistor and a second reference voltage across the second resistor are configured to be independent of the magnitude of the voltage supply and have low temperature drift.
US09196315B2
A device on an integrated circuit includes a stack of alternating semiconductor lines and insulating lines, and a gate structure over the stack of semiconductor lines. The gate structure includes a vertical portion adjacent the stack on the at least one side, and horizontal extension portions between the semiconductor lines. Sides of the insulating lines can be recessed relative to sides of the semiconductor lines, so at least one side of the stack includes recesses between semiconductor lines. The horizontal extension portions can be in the recesses. The horizontal extension portions have inside surfaces adjacent the sides of the insulating lines, and outside surfaces that can be flush with the sides of the semiconductor lines. The device may include a second gate structure spaced away from the first mentioned gate structure, and an insulating element between horizontal extension portions of the second gate structure and the first mentioned gate structure.
US09196313B2
Some embodiments include apparatus and methods having dice arranged in a stack. The dice include at least a first die and a second die, and a connection coupled to the dice. The connection may be configured to transfer control information to the first die during an assignment of a first identification to the first die and to transfer the control information from the first die to the second die during an assignment of a second identification to the second die.
US09196307B2
A system and method for recording, uploading, and archiving video recordings, including a front-end and a back-end application. The preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a front-end application wherein video is recorded using a mobile device. The recorded video is embedded with date, time and GPS location data. The video is stored on an online back-end database which catalogs the video according to the embedded data elements. The video may be selectively reviewed by relevant experts or emergency personnel for immediate response to the uploaded video and/or distribution to the proper parties. The video may also be archived for later review and use by any number of end-users.
US09196302B1
An apparatus includes: a media; a head over the media; a read channel, coupled to the head, configured to extract data from the media; control circuitry, coupled to the read channel, configured to execute a read command; and wherein the read channel is further configured to: generate, based on extracting the data from the media, a data condition indicator, and provide, for use by the control circuitry, the data and the data condition indicator.
US09196300B2
An information recording medium, on which when a spare area for a replacement block for replacing a defect block created in a predetermined area of an information recording medium is enlarged or newly allocated, defect status information of blocks within the enlarged or newly allocated spare area is changed and written on the information recording medium. By managing the defect status information of the blocks within the enlarged or newly allocated spare area, unnecessary operations of a drive system are eliminated thus improving efficiency of the drive system.
US09196292B1
A rotary spindle has a rotatable shaft that defines a shaft axis of rotation, and has a shaft top land that is normal to the shaft axis of rotation. A disk mounting hub has an outer disk mounting surface, and has an inner cylindrical bore with an inner cylindrical surface that faces and is in radial compression with an outer cylindrical surface of the shaft at a cylindrical hub-to-shaft interface. The cylindrical hub-to-shaft interface is substantially concentric about the shaft axis of rotation. A disk clamp is fastened to the rotatable shaft, and the disk clamp has a clamp bottom land that faces and is in contact with the shaft top land.
US09196289B2
A local probe storage array is provided that includes a substrate, and a polymeric layer over the substrate, the polymeric layer comprising a crosslinking agent that has been cured, the crosslinking agent comprising at least three alkyne groups.
US09196285B2
A method of fabricating a magnetic recording medium sequentially forms a magnetic recording layer, a protection layer, and a lubricant layer on a stacked body. The stacked body is enclosed in a transfer container unit without exposing the stacked body to atmosphere after forming the protection layer on the stacked body by a deposition apparatus, and the transfer container unit is transported to a vapor-phase lubrication deposition apparatus. The stacked body is removed from the transfer container unit without exposing the stacked body to the atmosphere, in order to form the lubricant layer on the stacked body within the vapor-phase lubrication deposition apparatus.
US09196284B2
There is provided an in-line type film-forming apparatus that can prevent a substrate from being dropped out of a carrier and convey the carrier at high speed. A first supporting member (41) is supported to be displaceable in a direction along an attaching face (S1) of the support base (40) in accordance with the growth of the first supporting member (41) due to thermal expansion in a horizontal direction, a second supporting member (42) is supported to be displaceable in a direction negating the growth of the first supporting member (41) due to thermal expansion in the horizontal direction along an attaching face (S2) of the first supporting member (42) in accordance with the growth of the second supporting member (42) due to thermal expansion in the horizontal direction, and a holder (3) is supported to be displaceable in a direction negating the growth of the first and second supporting members (41) and (42) due to thermal expansion in the vertical direction along an attaching face (S3) of the third supporting member (43) in accordance with the growth of the holder (3) due to thermal expansion in the vertical direction.
US09196278B1
An apparatus comprises a unitary laser diode comprising an array of two or more active regions, at least one of which outputs a light beam in response to an input current. The apparatus also includes two or more waveguides, each waveguide corresponding to an active region of the array. At least one of the waveguides receives the at least one light beam from the at least one active region.
US09196272B1
A reader sensor having a dusting layer having a thickness less than 5 Angstroms between and in contact with the AFM layer and with the pinned layer. The dusting layer comprises a non-magnetic, electrically conducting material, such as ruthenium or iridium. The reader sensor has a free layer composed of a material free of nickel (Ni).
US09196259B2
A copyright protection method of audio data applied to an electronic device. Left and right channel audio signal values are retrieved from audio signals of an audio source. Enveloping difference values between each left channel audio signal and each right channel audio signal are calculated to determine a time slot. The left channel audio signals and the right channel audio signals respectively modulated, thereby writing digital copyright information in corresponding positions of the time slot according to the modulation.
US09196258B2
A speech intelligibility enhancement (SIE) system and method is described that improves the intelligibility of a speech signal to be played back by an audio device when the audio device is located in an environment with loud acoustic background noise. In an embodiment, the audio device comprises a near-end telephony terminal and the speech signal comprises a speech signal received over a communication network from a far-end telephony terminal for playback at the near-end telephony terminal.
US09196257B2
An apparatus for converting a first parametric spatial audio signal representing a first listening position or a first listening orientation in a spatial audio scene to a second parametric spatial audio signal representing a second listening position or a second listening orientation is described, the apparatus including: a spatial audio signal modification unit adapted to modify the first parametric spatial audio signal dependent on a change of the first listening position or the first listening orientation so as to obtain the second parametric spatial audio signal, wherein the second listening position or the second listening orientation corresponds to the first listening position or the first listening orientation changed by the change.
US09196256B2
A data processing method for performing data processing on wireless received data and an associated data processing apparatus are provided, where the data processing method is applied to an electronic device. The data processing method includes the steps of: wirelessly receiving a plurality of packets corresponding to a same set of speech data from another electronic device; and selectively performing error correction operation on at least one of the plurality of packets to obtain the set of speech data, wherein whether to perform the error correction operation is determined according to at least one characteristic of the plurality of packets. More particularly, the error correction operation is selectively performed for at least one scenario of a timing critical scenario and a re-transmission limited scenario.
US09196254B1
Disclosed is a method for implementing quality control for one or more components of an audio signal received from a communication device. In one embodiment, a Goertzel calculation is used to identify different frequency components of a selected sample. The identified frequency components of the selected sample may be analyzed based on predefined factors pertaining to the typical music and speech component of a typical audio signal. The analysis of the frequency component of the selected sample gives resulting values that is compared to a bottom threshold for determining whether the identified component is a music component or a speech component. Further, the classified frequency components may be graded based on quality parameters. The quality parameters may include a predefined frequency range, allowable deviation, and noise frequency range. Further, the classified frequency components of the audio signal may be improved based on grading of the classified frequency components.
US09196247B2
A voice recognition method includes: detecting a vocal section including a vocal sound in a voice, based on a feature value of an audio signal representing the voice; identifying a word expressed by the vocal sound in the vocal section, by matching the feature value of the audio signal of the vocal section and an acoustic model of each of a plurality of words; and selecting, with a processor, the word expressed by the vocal sound in a word section based on a comparison result between a signal characteristic of the word section and a signal characteristic of the vocal section.
US09196245B2
Semantic clustering techniques are described. In various implementations, a conversational agent is configured to perform semantic clustering of a corpus of user utterances. Semantic clustering may be used to provide a variety of functionality, such as to group a corpus of utterances into semantic clusters in which each cluster pertains to a similar topic. These clusters may then be leveraged to identify topics and assess their relative importance, as for example to prioritize topics whose handling by the conversation agent should be improved. A variety of utterances may be processed using these techniques, such as spoken words, textual descriptions entered via live chat, instant messaging, a website interface, email, SMS, a social network, a blogging or micro-blogging interface, and so on.
US09196243B2
Systems and methods for spoken term detection are provided. A method for spoken term detection, comprises receiving phone level out-of-vocabulary (OOV) keyword queries, converting the phone level OOV keyword queries to words, generating a confusion network (CN) based keyword searching (KWS) index, and using the CN based KWS index for both in-vocabulary (IV) keyword queries and the OOV keyword queries.
US09196240B2
A group of users may be presented with text and a synthesized speech recording of the text. The users can listen to the synthesized speech recording and submit feedback regarding errors or other issues with the synthesized speech. A system of one or more computing devices can analyze the feedback, modify the voice or language rules, and recursively test the modifications. The modifications may be determined through the use of machine learning algorithms or other automated processes.
US09196223B2
A display panel and a display apparatus having the display panel are disclosed. The display panel includes: a substrate having a flat panel shape; a light output layer disposed on the substrate and outputting light by an electrical drive; and a semiconductor layer including a plurality of switching elements arranged in a matrix form and switching based on a driving signal for driving the light output layer, and a plurality of lines to transmit the driving signal to the plurality of switching elements, wherein each of the lines extends with a predetermined width, a first width of the line at a central portion thereof in a lengthwise direction thereof is thicker than a second width thereof at one end portion thereof in the lengthwise direction.
US09196220B2
A display apparatus includes a display panel including left-eye pixels and right-eye pixels, a three-dimensional controller which separates a first image signal into left-eye and right-eye image signals, outputs a second image signal such that the left-eye image signal is applied to the left-eye pixels during a left-eye frame, a black image signal corresponding to a black data is applied to the right-eye pixels during the left-eye frame, the black image signal is applied to the left-eye pixels during a right-eye frame, and the right-eye image signal is applied to the right-eye pixels during the right-eye frame, and an image display controller which controls the second image signal in response to a control signal, where the left-eye pixels are alternately arranged with the right-eye pixels in the unit of two pixels in a first direction and in the unit of a predetermined number of pixels in the second direction.
US09196219B1
The implementations described include automatically detecting an object in a series of images, identifying that object as having a hand shape, obtaining color value samples from the object and utilizing those color values to generate a custom color spectrum from use in detecting and tracking a user's hand. In some implementations, the custom color spectrum may be periodically updated by obtaining additional color value samples of the user's hand and updating the custom color spectrum to include those color value samples.
US09196209B2
A charge recycling circuit is configured to recycle charges which are discharged by a driving circuit during a discharge period and provide the recycled charges for charging the driving circuit during a charge period. Power consumption in the driving circuit may thus be reduced.
US09196206B2
In one embodiment of the present invention, each pixel includes first and second subpixels. CS bus lines connected to the respective storage capacitors of the first and second subpixels are electrically independent of each other. A CS voltage has a waveform that inverts its polarity at least once a frame, which includes a first subframe for sequentially scanning a series of odd rows and a second SF for sequentially scanning even rows that have been skipped during the first SF. A source signal voltage varies so as to have two frames or subframes with mutually opposite polarities. A CS voltage has a waveform that has quite opposite consequences on the effective voltage of a subpixel of a pixel connected to the jth scan line to be selected during the first subframe and on that of another subpixel of a pixel connected to the (j+1)th scan line to be selected during the second subframe. In this manner, the deterioration in display quality, which would be caused if either a source line inversion drive or a block inversion drive is applied to a multi-pixel technology, can be minimized.
US09196204B2
An image processing apparatus includes an image display unit and a luminance control unit. The image display unit includes pixels arranged in a matrix, each of which is formed of a first sub-pixel, a second sub-pixel, a third sub-pixel, and a fourth sub-pixel, and performs image display. The luminance control unit adjusts a ratio between a generation amount of first luminance generated by the first sub-pixel, the second sub-pixel, and the third sub-pixel and a generation amount of second luminance generated by the fourth sub-pixel. Over all input tones, the luminance control unit makes the generation amount of the second luminance lower than the generation amount of the first luminance and generates the second luminance so that a function representing a luminance value of the second luminance is continuous.
US09196200B2
A method of establishing a look-up table for an electrophoretic display is disclosed. The method is for establishing a plurality of driving waveforms of the electrophoretic display to the look-up table. The method includes dividing the plurality of driving waveforms to a plurality of time intervals according to a plurality of voltage values of the plurality of driving waveforms. The method also includes preparing a plurality of voltage waveform records according to the plurality of the voltage values and numbers of a unit times of the corresponding time intervals, and storing the plurality of voltage waveform records into the look-up table. Therefore, the storing capacity occupied by the look-up table of the electrophoretic display may be saved.
US09196196B2
There is provided an organic light emitting display device for providing a compensation period of a threshold voltage. The organic light emitting display device includes: a scan driver configured to supply a plurality of scan signals to a plurality of scan lines, each of the scan signals having a width greater than two horizontal periods; a data driver configured to supply a plurality of data signals to a plurality of data lines; and a pixel including an organic light emitting diode, a pixel circuit having a first transistor for controlling an amount of current supplied to the organic light emitting diode, and a compensation circuit configured to control a voltage of a gate electrode of the first transistor to compensate for deterioration of the organic light emitting diode; wherein the scan driver is configured to supply a current scan signal which partially overlaps in time with a previous scan signal.
US09196192B2
A display device includes a plurality of pixels and a power supply controller that includes a first power supply source unit supplying a high power supply voltage, and a second power supply source unit supplying a low power supply voltage. The high power supply voltage is different from the low power supply voltage. The power supply controller connects one of the first and second power supply source units to the plurality of the pixels. The one of the first and second power supply source units is switched to another of the first and second power supply source units at a switching time, at which the one of the first and second power supply source units stops operation.
US09196186B2
A display device (10) includes a timing control section (13) and a signal line drive circuit (16), either of which receives a lower power supply voltage level than the other, and a level changing circuit (20) for changing an amplitude level (T) of a reset signal (B). The timing control section (13) and the level changing circuit (20) receive the reset signal (B). The level changing circuit (20) changes the amplitude level (T) of the supplied reset signal (B) and then supply, to the signal line drive circuit (16), a reset signal (Ba) with a converted amplitude level. This makes it possible to achieve an image display with low power consumption and a stable display quality.
US09196179B2
A method and system enables users of a system such as a mass transit system to receive status information about the system. The information may relate to one or more stops or vehicles along various routes of the system. The user is provided with a display device, and one or more readers are positioned throughout the system. The display device includes a display screen that displays system status information, a driving circuit, an antenna and an inductive coil. When the display device's inductive coil is in the presence of a proximate electromagnetic field and the antenna receives a data signal, the inductive coil delivers power to the driving circuit, and the driving circuit causes the display screen to display updated system status information.
US09196173B2
Techniques are described for visualizing the mood of a group of individuals. In one example, a graphical display is divided into regions representing different emotions. Input indicative of an emotion is received from individuals located in an area of interest. As the input is received, a set of indicators is output in each of the regions of the graphical display. Each indicator represents a different one of the individuals who is experiencing the emotion associated with the region in which the indicator is displayed and is displayed with a color assigned to the emotion. The indicators are animated to move over time toward a center of the graphical display and are removed upon reaching the center of the graphical display. In this way, the graphical display depicts a current mood for the group and indicates a rate of change of each of the different emotions.
US09196171B2
There is no staff in 3JCN Music Notation. Therefore, 3JCN Music Notation is very simple compare to Western Notation. A note in 3JCN Music Notation is represented by a lower case letter for the pitch class (a through g), preceded by the note's octave (1 through 11) and followed by the note's duration (a real number). For example, 6c1 is for note “c” in 6th octave (middle C) with 1 unit of duration.
US09196163B2
There are provided a driving support apparatus and a driving support method in which the reliability can be improved. In the driving support apparatus, in a traveling direction of the host vehicle and a direction crossing the traveling direction, an intersection where the host vehicle and the moving object cross is predicted; a virtual TTC that it takes for the host vehicle to arrive at the intersection and a virtual TTV that it takes for the moving object to arrive at the intersection when the moving object moves in the direction crossing the traveling direction at a virtual speed which is set virtually, are respectively acquired; and the driving support in the host vehicle is implemented based on the relative relationship between the virtual TTC and the virtual TTV.
US09196158B2
A smart traffic control device transmits information to approaching vehicles regarding its current and future state enabling vehicles to control their speed to avoid arriving at the traffic control device until it permits the passage of traffic, thus avoiding stopping, idling and reaccelerating when reaching the traffic control device. In other embodiments the traffic control device or systems receives information from vehicles, transmitting it to other vehicles.
US09196152B2
A system and method for location-based healthcare facility management including the steps of generating a map of the healthcare facility, receiving ongoing location data of a remote device positioned within the healthcare facility, receiving ongoing patient data associated with patients being monitored in the healthcare facility, and delivering a notification to the remote device based on the location data of the remote device at a particular time. The remote devices may be notified of alarming conditions and may be notified with the best route to use for arriving to the alarming condition. The remote devices may be updated with patient data and regional data associated with the regions in which they are located and patients located nearby.
US09196143B2
The invention discloses a mobile device for monitoring a vehicle path. The mobile device includes a setting module, a satellite-positioning module, a determination module, and an alarm module. The setting module is configured to set a preset route from a starting point to a destination. The satellite-positioning module is configured to receive a satellite-positioning signal. When the mobile device is located in a vehicle, the determination module is configured to determine whether the vehicle is driving along the preset route based on the satellite-positioning signal. When the vehicle deviates from the preset route for a default alarming time, the alarm module is configured to perform an alarm action.
US09196140B1
Apparatus having corresponding methods comprise: a first Bluetooth device configured to determine identities of second Bluetooth devices that are within communication range of the first Bluetooth device based on Bluetooth signals exchanged between the first Bluetooth device and the second Bluetooth devices; and a processor configured to i) determine whether the second Bluetooth devices are allowed within the communication range of the first Bluetooth device based on the identities of the second Bluetooth devices, and ii) provide an alarm indication responsive to the processor determining that any of the second Bluetooth devices are not allowed within the communication range of the first Bluetooth device. Apparatus also comprise the second Bluetooth devices.
US09196130B2
Various embodiments of the present disclosure provide a gaming system and method providing a matching game having a player-adjustable volatility. Generally, in various embodiments, the gaming system enables a player to select one of a plurality of different sets of symbols for the gaming system to employ for a play of the matching game. The sets of symbols include different characteristics or features such that the volatility of the matching game differs depending on which particular set of symbols the player selects for the play of the matching game. The gaming system of the present disclosure thus enables the player to tailor the volatility of the matching game to the player's liking by selecting a particular set of symbols.
US09196129B2
The disclosed gaming system, gaming device and method provide a game including a plurality of awards, each of the awards associated with a plurality of award characteristics, including an award value and a level of difficulty. Based at least in part on the award characteristics associated with the awards, a player strategically chooses which award or awards to play for (i.e., which award or awards to attempt to collect) in the game. In certain multiplayer embodiments, two or more players can work together to obtain awards.
US09196117B2
A game support system includes a DB server for storing in a DB user information including a user's unique identification and the user's own money, a web server for posting information about a plurality of game rooms, and a game processing server for admitting the user to a game room selected by the user from among the plurality of game rooms and processing a game in the selected game room. The game support system further includes a participation money designation server for providing an input window to allow the user to designate a part of the user's own money as participation money required for participation in the selected game room. The system, for example, allows the user to continue to play a game without moving out to another portal or game site.
US09196115B1
An automated, replicable, process-based original concept that provides a self-validating, defined quantification of the relevance of one or more active physical efforts performed by two or more different competing real-life basketball teams engaged in at least one real-life basketball contest or its adaptations.
US09196108B2
There is provided an apparatus and a method of maintaining, repairing and/or optimizing a banknote validator using a network. The apparatus includes a banknote validator configured to count banknotes or determine genuineness or fitness of the banknotes, a wired or wireless network connection unit configured to relay or transmit one or more first data items and/or software, first data items and software updating, maintaining and/or repairing the banknote valuator and including security information, and a server configured to receive one or more second data items and software version information from the banknote validator and optionally transmit maintenance and repair results to the banknote validator through the wired or wireless network connection unit. The wired or wireless network connection unit may comprise a predetermined smart device or a web adjuster.
US09196105B2
A method includes receiving a voter list and one or more different types of ballot images. The method includes receiving a side file which associates the ballot images with the voters of the voter list, and using a control program to access the side file and select one of the ballot images which corresponds to a selected voter of the voter list. A print job is formed which includes the selected ballot image.
US09196096B2
One embodiment involves receiving selection of a first quadrilateral and a second quadrilateral in an image being edited in an image editing application. An edge of the first quadrilateral may be shared with an edge of the second quadrilateral. In this embodiment, one or more manipulations associated with the first quadrilateral and/or the second quadrilateral may be received. In response to the received manipulation(s), an updated view of the image is generated or otherwise displayed according to one embodiment. The updated view may be based at least in part on the image, the received manipulation(s), and/or one or more constraints. For example, the updated view may be based at least in part on a three-dimensional scene constraint. In embodiments, the updated view is consistent with a three-dimensional scene in the image. In some embodiments, the updated view is generated in real-time or substantially real-time.
US09196093B2
A digital camera functioning as an information presentation device is provided with a CG superimposition unit 17 which functions so that a virtual object is superimposed on a real space image captured by an imaging element 3, and is displayed on a display unit 23; a visual line detection unit 12 which detects a visual line of a person included in the real space image captured by the imaging element 3; and a superimposing position determination unit 11 which determines a superimposing position of the virtual object on the basis of the visual line detected by the visual line detection unit 12.
US09196083B2
A PCS culling technique may be augmented utilizing a motion blur (three-dimensional) rasterizer. The culling technique can be used for continuous collision detection.
US09196080B2
A computer-based method for generating a stereoscopic image from a two dimensional (2D) image such as a 2D cell animation. An object is selected in the 2D image, such as an animated character, and is stored in memory as the base image. With an erosion engine, the selected object is eroded to generate a set of eroded versions of the base image corresponding to a number of erosion levels. Each erosion level image may be formed by eroding or removing a set of outer or edge pixels from the image on the prior level. The method continues with calculating a parallax shift value for each of the eroded versions of the base image. An alternate eye image is then generated by compositing the set of eroded versions along with the base image. The eroded versions are horizontally offset from the base image by the level-specific parallax shift values.
US09196077B1
Novel method and system for distributed database ray-tracing is presented, based on modular mapping of scene-data among processors. Its inherent properties include matching between geographical proximity in the scene with communication proximity between processors.
US09196075B2
Animation of computer-generated display components of user interfaces and content items is provided. An animation application or engine creates images of individual display components (e.g., bitmap images) and places those images on animation layers. Animation behaviors may be specified for the layers to indicate how the layers and associated display component images animate or behave when their properties change (e.g., a movement of an object contained on a layer), as well as, to change properties on layers in order to trigger animations (e.g., an animation that causes an object to rotate). In order to achieve high animation frame rates, the animation application may utilize three processing threads, including a user interface thread, a compositor thread and a rendering thread. Display behavior may be optimized and controlled by utilizing a declarative markup language, such as the Extensible Markup Language, for defining display behavior functionality and properties.
US09196069B2
There is disclosed a method for seamlessly replacing areas in a digital image with corresponding data from temporally close digital images depicting substantially the same scene. The method uses localized image registration error minimization over a fixed preliminary boundary. A least cost closed path which constitutes a boundary for the area to be replaced is calculated using dynamic programming. The replacement area is blended such that image data information from one image is seamlessly replaced with image data information from another image.
US09196063B2
An image-based super-resolution method using a cone-beam-based line-of-response (LOR) reconfiguration in a positron emission tomography (PET) image is provided. That is, an apparatus and method for reconfiguring a super-resolution PET image using a cone-beam-based LOR reconfiguration is provided.
US09196056B2
An electro-optical system and method are provided for analyzing images of a scene to identify the presence of a target color, such as human skin tones. The system includes a thermal detector for obtaining a thermal image of the scene within a thermal waveband. The system also includes at least one additional detector for obtaining at least one additional image of the scene at an additional waveband different from the thermal waveband. The system also includes a controller. The controller is configured to: process the thermal image to identify portions of the scene having a temperature exceeding a threshold value; process the additional image to identify portions of the scene having a target color; and output a positive response if a same portion of the scene is identified in the thermal image and the additional image.
US09196052B1
An improved burial vault of the type having a stationary portion including a floor panel, a pair of side panels extending upwardly from the floor panel of the stationary portion, a head piece extending upwardly from the floor panel of the stationary portion, a foot piece extending upwardly from the floor panel of the stationary portion, and an open top, and a pivoting portion including a lid pivotally attached to one side panel of the stationary portion. The improvement includes a camera. The improvement further includes the camera being disposed within the lid of the pivoting portion so as to allow remote viewing of the contents of the improved burial vault while the improved burial vault is partially buried in the ground so as to allow access and servicing of the camera.
US09196050B2
Systems and methods for image-based bridge identification and boundary detection are provided. One example method includes determining, by one or more computing devices, a wide bridge mask and a narrow bridge mask based at least in part on a road mask and a water mask. The method includes selecting, by the one or more computing devices, a portion of an image depicting a bridge based at least in part on the wide bridge mask and the narrow bridge mask. The method includes identifying, by the one or more computing devices, a plurality of line features included in the portion of the image depicting the bridge. The method includes determining, by the one or more computing devices, a bridge boundary in the portion of the image based at least in part on the plurality of line features. One example system includes a bridge image extraction module and a bridge boundary determination module.
US09196049B2
A system and method for regression-based segmentation of the mitral valve in 2D+t cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) slices is disclosed. The 2D+t CMR slices are acquired according to a mitral valve-specific acquisition protocol introduced herein. A set of mitral valve landmarks is detected in each 2D CMR slice and mitral valve contours are estimated in each 2D CMR slice based on the detected landmarks. A full mitral valve model is reconstructed from the mitral valve contours estimated in the 2D CMR slices using a trained regression model. Each 2D CMR slice may be a cine image acquired over a full cardiac cycle. In this case, the segmentation method reconstructs a patient-specific 4D dynamic mitral valve model from the 2D+t CMR image data.
US09196034B2
In a method of fast analysis of relief elements featuring on an inner surface of a tire, a three-dimensional image of the surface is captured, and each pixel of the image is assigned a greyscale value proportional to a topographical elevation of a point corresponding to the pixel, so as to obtain a starting image. The image is transformed into an orthogonal reference frame (OXY) in which an abscissa axis (OX) represents circumferential values and an ordinate axis (OY) represents radial values. Each point of the surface, i.e., each pixel, is assigned an altitude gradient value (f(p)) by comparing an elevation of the point with an elevation of a discrete and reduced number of points arranged on a straight line passing through a pixel being considered (p) and oriented in a circumferential direction.
US09196031B2
An appearance inspection apparatus comprises an inspection part for detecting a defect of a pattern on the basis of an image of a surface of a substrate on which the pattern is formed, which is captured by an imaging part. The inspection part comprises an image transfer part for transferring image data which is obtained by imaging a region to be inspected on the substrate and stored in an image storing memory by the imaging part to a plurality of image processing memories and a plurality of GPUs for taking image data corresponding to respective regions to be processed out of transferred image data which are transferred to the image processing memories by the image transfer part and performing an inspection process for defect detection on the image data. The inspection part further comprises an image processing control part for acquiring inspection tasks each prescribing inspection details from an inspection task holding part and controlling the plurality of GPUs in accordance with the inspection tasks, respectively, independently of the image transfer by the image transfer part.
US09196029B2
A threshold setting device, an object detection device, a threshold setting method, and a computer readable storage medium are shown. According to one implementation, the threshold setting device includes, an image acquisition unit, a ratio acquisition unit, and a setting unit. The image acquisition unit acquires an image including a specific object. The ratio acquisition unit acquires ratio information related to a ratio of a plurality of colors present in the specific object. The setting unit sets, based on the ratio information acquired by the ratio acquisition unit, a threshold used in a binarization process performed on the image including the specific object acquired by the image acquisition unit.
US09196018B2
A method includes identifying an area in an image that is associated with strong directional energy. The method further includes determining a first estimate of signal energy for the area and a second estimate of aliasing energy for the area. The method further includes estimating a severity of an aliasing error of the image based on the first estimate and the second estimate.
US09196005B2
An exemplary method includes a computer-implemented vending kiosk user interface system 1) receiving a camera image captured by a mobile device, the camera image including a visual representation of a vending kiosk located within a vicinity of the mobile device, 2) detecting the visual representation of the vending kiosk within the camera image, 3) generating, based on the detecting of the visual representation of the vending kiosk within the camera image, an augmented reality image that includes a combination of camera image content included in the camera image and virtual content associated with a vending service, and 4) directing the mobile device to display the augmented reality image. Corresponding methods and systems are also disclosed.
US09195999B2
Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media are provided for routing electronic invoices. The computer system is in data communication with a network. The computer system is programmed to receive an electronic invoice in a first electronic invoice format via the network, translate the electronic invoice from the first electronic invoice format to an intermediary electronic invoice format, and identify, using the processor, a second electronic invoice format that is different than the first electronic invoice format. The computer system is further programmed to translate the electronic invoice from the intermediary electronic invoice format to the second electronic invoice format and transmit the electronic invoice in the second electronic invoice format via the network.
US09195991B2
A system and method for placing an advertisement in a digital environment based upon a user's choice, subject to certain predetermined parameters, is disclosed. Through the method, a user is assigned a rating based upon, for example, his performance in a game. A list of advertisements which correspond to that rating is displayed to the user, who may then select a desired advertisement from the list. The selected advertisement is then displayed in the digital environment. Reports may be generated based upon the advertisements selected and the number of selections and/or impressions (e.g., uses or viewings) by the user, which may be sent to advertisers.
US09195983B2
A system for a secure cardholder and storage device includes a mobile communication device and a secure card transporter (SCT). The SCT includes a Near Field Communication (NFC) chip, a microprocessor, a magnetic stripe card reader, a contact chip card reader, a contactless card reader, an audio jack interface and a micro-USB interface. The SCT interfaces with the mobile communication device via the audio jack interface or the micro-USB interface, and the SCT captures payment card data and transmits the captured payment card data to a merchant point of sale (POS) checkout system both in the physical and virtual environments. The system provides convenient buying experience for buyers, and secure and informative transaction for sellers.
US09195982B2
An information technology system taking the form of a management console, central server, point of sale system, software running on a point of sale system and software running on a customer's mobile phone. The software on the customer's mobile phone lets a customer interact with the point of sale system, allowing the customer to view a pending economic transaction, optionally add or remove items to the transaction, and pay for the transaction using payment information stored on the mobile phone.
US09195977B2
Described is a method and system for a remote deposit system. The method comprises receiving facsimile data corresponding to facsimile of a plurality of checks, constructing digitized images of the checks as a function of the facsimile data, gathering check data from each of the digitized images, and processing the check data according to a check processing procedure to settle transactions referenced by each of the checks.
US09195974B2
A check image generator application generates a remote deposit capture RDC compatible check image. The RDC compatible check image is sent from a sender mobile device to a recipient mobile device. The RDC compatible check image may pass through a server and may be encrypted. The recipient mobile device receives the RDC compatible check image and forwards it to a financial institution for deposit.
US09195949B2
A method, computer system, and computer memory medium optimizing a transductive model Mx suitable for use in data analysis and for determining a prognostic outcome specific to a particular subject are disclosed. The particular subject may be represented by an input vector, which includes a number of variable features in relation to a scenario of interest. Samples from a global dataset D also having the same features relating to the scenario and for which the outcome is known are determined. In an embodiment, a subset of the variable features within a neighborhood formed by the samples are ranked in order of importance to an outcome. The prognostic transductive model is then created based, at least in part, on the subset, the ranking, and the neighborhood. The subset and the neighborhood are then optimized until the accuracy of the transductive model is maximized.
US09195948B2
Disclosed is a clinical diagnosis supporting method and system based on hierarchical fuzzy inference. The clinical diagnosis supporting method includes the steps of: (a) extracting check data of a plurality of check items for each of a plurality of patients from a respective check item database; (b) selecting a characteristic from the check data of each of the check items; (c) hierarchical fuzzy-inferring the check data from which the characteristic is selected, for each check item; (d) extracting a check opinion for each disease based on an output value of the fuzzy inference for each check item; and (e) making a synthetic clinical estimation based on the extracted check opinion.
US09195944B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for determining site quality scores. In one aspect, a method includes obtaining a plurality of measurements of durations of user visits to resources included in a particular site; and determining a site quality score for the particular site based at least in part on the plurality of measurements, wherein determining the site quality score for the particular site comprises computing a statistical measure from the plurality of measurements.
US09195940B2
Example methods, apparatuses, or articles of manufacture are disclosed that may be implemented, in whole or in part, using one or more computing devices to facilitate or otherwise support one or more processes or operations for a Jabba-type override for correcting or improving output of a model, such as a machine-learned model, for example.
US09195933B2
A counter includes: a count processing circuit including a nonvolatile register; a regulator receiving voltage from a direct current power supply, generating power supply voltage based on the received voltage for the count processing circuit, and supplying the power supply voltage to the count processing circuit; and a delay circuit receiving the power supply voltage and supplying a count signal to the count processing circuit after the power supply voltage is supplied to the count processing circuit. After having received the power supply voltage from the regulator, the count processing circuit updates a count value in response to the count signal and holds the updated count value in the nonvolatile register in a non-volatile manner.
US09195922B2
In an image forming device, a processor extracts a fine line region from image data, the fine line region including at least one of characters and lines; determines whether an area of the fine line region is greater than a first prescribed quantity; sets an execution condition to include a first execution condition and a second execution condition, the first execution condition being applied where the area is greater than the first prescribed quantity and being more likely to be met than the second execution condition; forms registration marks for two different colors in response to determination that a reference value set for a combination of the two different colors meets the first execution condition or the second execution condition whichever is applicable in terms of the area; and adjust image-forming positions corresponding to the two different colors subject to correction of misregistration.
US09195918B2
A light scanning device that performs rapid scanning synchronization timing detection to thereby enable automatic light amount control to be executed rapidly and with high accuracy. A light amount sensor disposed on a scanning line of the laser light receives the laser light. A controller controls the timing of emission by the laser emitting device and a light amount of the laser light based on image data, according to an output from the light amount sensor. A temperature sensor detects the temperature of the laser emitting device or in the light scanning device. A storage section stores data indicative of a relationship between temperature, current supplied to the laser emitting device, and light amount. A controller controls current to be supplied to the laser emitting device based on temperature detected by the temperature detecting unit and data stored in the storage section.
US09195914B2
Methods and systems for detection of a construction zone sign are described. A computing device, configured to control the vehicle, may be configured to receive, from an image-capture device coupled to the computing device, images of a vicinity of the road on which the vehicle is travelling. Also, the computing device may be configured to determine image portions in the images that may depict sides of the road at a predetermined height range. Further, the computing device may be configured to detect a construction zone sign in the image portions, and determine a type of the construction zone sign. Accordingly, the computing device may be configured to modify a control strategy associated with a driving behavior of the vehicle; and control the vehicle based on the modified control strategy.
US09195912B1
A face annotation method and a face annotation system adapted for a current owner to annotate contacts in online social networks (OSNs) are provided. The face annotation method includes: providing a Hierarchical Database Access (HDA) architecture for each member according to various social network contexts; providing a Fused Face Recognition (FFR) unit which uses an Adaboost algorithm to fuse a plurality types of base classifiers; and constructing a Face Recognizer by integrating the HDA architecture and the corresponding FFR unit for the owner and each member via respective types of the social network contexts; and selecting suitable personalized Face Recognizers and merging multiple personalized Face Recognizer results by using at least two collaborative FR strategies.
US09195907B1
The invention is a method for omnidirectional recognition of recognizable characters in a captured two-dimensional image. An optical reader configured in accordance with the invention searches for pixel groupings in a starburst pattern, and subjects located pixel groupings to a preliminary edge crawling process which records the pixel position of the grouping's edge and records the count of edge pixels. If two similar-sized pixel groupings are located that are of sizes sufficient to potentially represent recognizable characters, then the reader launches “alignment rails” at pixel positions substantially parallel to a centerline connecting the center points of the two similarly sized groupings. A reader according to the invention searches for additional recognizable characters within the rail area, and subjects each located pixel grouping within the rail area to a shape-characterizing edge crawling process for developing data that characterizes the shape of a pixel grouping's edge. After adjusting the orientation representation of the shape-characterizing data the reader compares the developed shape-characterizing data to previously stored shape-characterizing data to determine the character represented by the grouping on the basis of the best fit data.
US09195904B1
A method detects an object in a pair of stereo images acquired of a scene, by first generating a cost volume from the pair of stereo images, wherein the cost volume includes matching costs for a range of disparity values, for each pixel the stereo images, between the stereo images in the pair. Feature vectors are determined from sub-images in the cost volume using a feature function of the disparity values with a minimal accumulated cost within regions inside the sub-images. Then, a classifier is appled to the feature vectors to detect whether the sub-image includes the object.
US09195898B2
Implementations relate to systems and methods for real-time image recognition and mobile visual searching. A mobile device, such as a cellular phone, acquires an image and pre-processes the acquired image to generate a visual search query based on objects detected in the acquired image. The visual search query includes the acquired image or a query image extracted therefrom and metadata associated with the detected objects. The mobile device wirelessly communicates the visual search query to a remote server, and in response to the visual search query, the remote server recognizes an object in the query image based on the associated metadata. The remote server then generates information content based on the recognized object and communicates the information content to the mobile device to be presented via the mobile device.
US09195897B2
A media processing device 1 has an MICR reader 17 that reads magnetic ink characters recorded on a check; an interface 32 that communicates with a web browser; and a control unit 30 that controls the MICR reader 17 to read magnetic ink characters recorded on the check based on control data received from the web browser, and sends data based on the read result of the MICR reader 17 to the web browser.
US09195895B1
Systems and methods are provided for detecting traffic signs. In one implementation, a traffic sign detection system for a vehicle include at least one image capture device configured to acquire at least one image of a scene including a traffic sign ahead of the vehicle. The traffic sign detection system also includes a data interface and at least one processing device programmed to receive the at least one image via the data interface, transform the at least one image, sample the transformed at least one image to generate a plurality of images having different sizes, convolve each of the plurality of images with a template image, compare each pixel value of each convolved image to a predetermined threshold, and select local maxima of pixel values within local regions of each convolved image as attention candidates, the local maxima being greater than the predetermined threshold.
US09195893B2
Biometric matching technology, in which a watch list is managed, multiple images of a potential suspect are accessed, and parallel pre-processing of the multiple images is controlled. Based on the pre-processing, an image of the potential suspect to use in matching against the watch list is determined and the determined image is used to search sorted biometric data included in the watch list. A subset of persons from the watch list is identified based on the search and parallel analysis of the determined image of the potential suspect against detailed biometric data associated with the subset of persons in the watch list is controlled. Based on the parallel analysis, it is determined whether the potential suspect matches a person in the watch list and a result is outputted based on the determination.
US09195891B2
A method for determining the yield loss of a crop using remote sensor data is described. The yield loss is determined using the reflectivity of green light by the crop canopy measured from remote sensor data such as an aerial photograph that is digitized and spatially referenced to the field's longitude and latitude. Green pixel values from the aerial photograph, expressed relative to green pixel values from well-fertilized areas of the field, are transformed to yield losses using a linear transformation that was developed using empirical data. A similar method is described to determine recommended nitrogen fertilization rates for the crop fields. The yield loss data is useful for nitrogen fertilization management, as it allows a producer of crops to weigh the expense of fertilization against the loss of revenue due to yield loss.
US09195888B2
A document registration apparatus includes a receiving unit that receives a request for registration of a registration candidate document from a new registrant, a word extracting unit that extracts a word from the registration candidate document, a registrant information acquiring unit that acquires information on the new registrant, an associating unit that associates the extracted word with a group to which the new registrant belongs, a first storage unit that stores history information, a second storage unit that stores an identifier of a previous registrant and a group to which the previous registrant has belonged, an extracting unit that extracts an identifier of a previous registrant who registered a word identical to the extracted word, and extracts a group to which the previous registrant has belonged, a registration permission determining unit that determines whether to allow registration, and a document registering unit that registers the registration candidate document.
US09195866B1
A radio frequency identification (RFID) network and methods thereof for tracking subjects in a closed environment includes distributing RFID readers across the environment, at least some being at environment entry points. Readers have unique reader identifiers and communicate with a computer system. These identifiers and reader locations are stored. The ingress and/or egress of subjects bearing passive RFID tags is acquired by reading the unique subject identifiers off the tags from up to forty feet along with the reader identifiers of the readers making the readings. This informs a map comprising positions, on an environment diagram, of the subjects. The status of the readers is maintained by receiving and analyzing status signals from the readers. A subject data store is maintained and includes the ingress/egress data and electronic addresses of the subjects. An instruction set data store, each set corresponding to one of a plurality of events, is also maintained.
US09195854B2
Methods and systems are provided for turning on and off features at run time. The method includes providing a unique enabling predicate (e.g., an “if enabled” statement) for one or more executable features (blocks of code), configuring a permissions library, and caching the configured permissions library. The method further includes interrogating the cache with the first “if enabled” predicate, executing the block of code (feature) if the cache yields “true” for the requesting user, and not executing the code block if the cache yields “false” for the requesting user.
US09195851B1
Exemplary methods for offloading encryption to a client include receiving from a first client a first encrypted data and a corresponding first encrypted key, and decrypting the first encrypted key to recover a first key, without decrypting the first encrypted data. In one embodiment, the methods further include encrypting the first key using a second key to create a second encrypted key, wherein the second key is available only to the storage system, and storing the second encrypted key and the first encrypted data as received, without having to decrypt and re-encrypt the first encrypted data.
US09195846B2
Provided are, among other things, systems, methods, apparatuses and techniques for storing access grants. In one implementation, a blinding factor and access information for accessing a restricted object are obtained; blinded access information is generated for the restricted object based on the access information and the blinding factor; and an anchor node is stored into a data store, with the anchor node being accessible by submission of an identifier, the anchor node at least one of containing or referring to sufficient information to obtain access to the blinding factor and the blinded access information, and the identifier for the anchor node being independent of the blinding factor.
US09195835B2
Computer systems and applications are provided for encrypting data in a manner which preserves the ability to process the encrypted data. The method includes arranging a plurality of plaintext symbols in lexicographical order; defining respective first and second subsets of the lexicographically arranged symbols; defining a first and a second set of random tokens for use with the first and second subsets of symbols, respectively; adding a first random constant value to each token in the first set of random tokens; adding a second random constant value to each token in the second set of random tokens; defining the first set of random tokens comprises establishing a first average distance between tokens; and defining the second set of random tokens comprises establishing a second average distance between tokens; wherein the second average distance is different than the first average distance, and the second random constant value is greater than the first random constant value.
US09195833B2
In a system for facilitating distributed security and vulnerability testing of a software application, each development sandbox in a set of sandboxes receives a portion of the entire application, and the received portion may be tested based on an application-level security policy to obtain a pass/fail result. The portion of the application corresponding to a certain sandbox may be modified and rescanned (i.e., retested) until the modifications, i.e., development achieves functional and quality requirements, and a pass result is obtained. Thereafter, the scan results are promoted to a policy sandbox, where a compliance result for the entire software application can be obtained based on, at least in part, the promoted results. Other sandboxes may also perform their respective pass/fail testing using the promoted results, thus minimizing the need for synchronizing the code changes in different sandboxes before testing for security policy in any sandbox and/or during application-level scanning.
US09195831B1
A user-provided keystore may be utilized in a boot process to verify a boot image as disclosed herein. A device may be determined to be in a locked or verified state. A selected keystore may be determined to not verify against a first key such as a root key. A user may provide a keystore to a device. The system may display a prompt to the user which asks whether the user would like to continue to boot or not, if the system determines that the keystore does not verify against the first key. The user may respond to the prompt by indicating a desire to continue booting. The system may determine that the boot image verifies against the keystore and finish booting the device. Thus, the prompt may alert the user to a threat to the integrity of the boot process or device.
US09195819B2
A method and system for allowing owners of a physical work, such as a book, to purchase an electronic version of the work by validating their ownership of the work using a personal electronic device, such as a smartphone, and marking the work. The owner is instructed to mark the work and to capture camera images of the work. The images are analyzed to identify the work, determine whether the work has been previously marked, and to verify that the work has been marked by the owner. Analysis may be performed remotely by a server in communication with the personal electronic device. Various means for authenticating ownership of the work are also disclosed, including 3D analysis, page curvature analysis, concurrent still image and video capture, detection of use of a video display to spoof the work, and geofencing.
US09195818B2
In various embodiments, the size, shape, and arrangement of keys on a virtual keyboard may be determined based on touchscreen contacts made by the user. Further, the actual contact patch made by the user may be analyzed to interpret which point of contact was intended, and other factors such as spelling and context may also be considered. These factors may be determined based on a calibration session and/or on continuing inputs during operation of the keyboard, and applied to future operational interpretations of the touchscreen contacts.
US09195813B2
Aspects of the disclosure provide a system that includes a protected module, an input module and a gesture engine. The protected module is configured to be accessible based on a specific gesture of a user predetermined to have a right to access the protected module. The input module is configured to receive an input gesture from a requester to access the protected module. The gesture engine is configured to be trained to process the input gesture in order to grant/deny an access to the protected module by the requester.
US09195802B2
A critical access override list may be generated dynamically based on patient profile information for a single patient or a group of patients. A single patient or group of patients is initially identified. Patient profile information for the patient or group of patients is accessed. The patient profile information is analyzed, and medications are selected for critical access override. The selected medications are added to a critical access override list available to a medication dispensing apparatus to provide quicker access to the medications for emergency situation purposes via critical access override dispensing in which fewer steps are performed than normal medication dispensing events.
US09195801B1
Systems and methods are disclosed for evaluating a patient with vascular disease. One method includes receiving patient-specific data regarding a geometry of the patient's vasculature; creating an anatomic model representing at least a portion of a location of disease in the patient's vasculature based on the received patient-specific data; identifying one or more changes in geometry of the anatomic model based on a modeled progression or regression of disease at the location; calculating one or more values of a blood flow characteristic within the patient's vasculature using a computational model based on the identified one or more changes in geometry of the anatomic model; and generating an electronic graphical display of a relationship between the one or more values of the calculated blood flow characteristic and the identified one or more changes in geometry of the anatomic model.
US09195788B2
The present invention provides a method for efficient resource-oriented power evaluation. By mapping instructions to microarchitecture components, both advantages of high-level simulation performance and fine-grained power model are obtained. The present invention effectively reduces simulation runtime overhead and provides an accurate power estimation result. The present invention is nearly as accurate as gate-level simulators, with an error rate of less than 1.2 while achieving simulation speeds of up to 20 MIPS, five orders faster than a commercial gate-level simulator. By using the present invention, it is easy to analyze power consumption profile and peak power.
US09195787B2
Described are apparatus and method for simulating spintronic integrated circuit (SPINIC), the method comprising: generating a spin netlist indicating connections of spin nodes of spin circuits and nodes of general circuits; and modifying a modified nodal analysis (MNA) matrix for general circuits to generate a spin MNA matrix for solving spin circuits and general circuits of the spin netlist.
US09195786B2
Systems and methods of using hardware to simulate software, specifically the semantic operations defined in HDL simulation languages. Traditional software HDL simulation kernel operations of advancing time, activating threads in response to notified events, and scheduling those threads of execution are handled via a simulation controller. The simulation controller is comprised of a timing wheel, an event-processor, a thread/process dispatch engine, a token processor, and a resource-allocator. These components work together with a control logic component to perform the semantic operations of an HDL software kernel.
US09195776B2
A change manager module in communication with a website receives copies of instructions to change the content or configuration of the website. These instructions are formatted into an entry for a log and stored in a log associated with the website. The entry may contain identifiers for the entry, the party that requested the change, and the website, as well as a timestamp of the time of the change, and information identifying a changed feature of the website and a changed state of the changed feature. A copy of the log entry is also transmitted to a central database in a separate memory from the memory containing the website, which stores entries from multiple websites for viewing and organizing. Entries reflecting undesired changes may then be reverted based on the data in the log entries.
US09195775B2
A system and a method render internet multimedia content in a network using an application to render the internet multimedia content and/or locally stored multimedia content on one or more rendering devices in the network. The application may provide web browser functions, such as, for example, receiving, processing, decoding and/or rendering the internet multimedia content. The application may have an enhanced user interface which may enable a user to select the internet multimedia content and a rendering device in the network, send the internet multimedia content to the rendering device and/or control rendering of the internet multimedia content on the rendering device.
US09195773B2
Techniques for generating, updating, and transmitting a structure-based data representation of a document are described herein. The structure-based adaptive document caching techniques may effectively eliminate redundancy in data transmission by exploiting structures of the document to be transmitted. The described techniques partitions a document into a sequence of structures, differentiate between cache-worthy structures and cache-unworthy structures, and generating a structure-based data representation of the document. The techniques may transmit updated structures and instructions, instead of all data of the document, to update previously cached structures at a client device; thereby resulting in higher cache hit rates.
US09195761B2
Embodiments of this invention allow a user to navigate through previously viewed documents. These documents may be associated with a key, e.g. a search or a document. In response to re-entering the search or detecting subsequent interaction with the document, the navigation may be provided. In certain embodiments, the navigation is provided through a button on a toolbar or through a menu listing.
US09195756B1
A method (and concomitant apparatus and computer-readable medium comprising software) for providing personalized search and browsing capabilities of internet web pages comprising providing an index server maintaining a dynamic index to internet web pages and employing a hierarchical plurality of topic categories whose contents are maintained and updated by the index server, permitting a user to specify any subset of the plurality of topic categories, adding to an electronic medium page link information permitting browsing of and/or execution of searches of the index server in any category of the subset but only of categories in the subset, or any subset of that subset, allowing the user to propose addition of an internet web page to the index server in conjunction with one or more categories of the subset, and adding the proposed page to the index server wherein all users can search the proposed page in the applicable one or more topic categories.
US09195750B2
A remote browsing and searching process is directed to the generation and management of a remote browse session at a network computing provider. Responsive to a search request, the network computing provider provides search results corresponding to historical content representations associated with content previously requested by the client computing device, or search results corresponding to content representations associated with current content, or to both. The network computing and storage provider may determine the search results based on a navigation path associated with a previous request for content, based on navigation paths of other client computing devices, based on relationships or differences between various versions of content, or based on any number of other factors. Interactive displays may be provided to client computing devices, allowing a user to refine the search results, zoom and manipulate content representations, and view relationships, similarities, and differences in content representations.
US09195749B2
A system for information retrieval accessing any number of search engines over a distributed network or local network is presented. The system includes one or more pre-built ontologies or lexicons, representing areas of knowledge. The system includes a settings panel where searchers can preset default languages, default ontologies, and target search engines. The system includes an application that receives a variety of searcher input from a user interface such as a spinning wheel, or from a scrolling list. Through such selections, the application subsequently builds a Boolean search engine string of terms. The Boolean search string is then passed to the target search engine for retrieving semantically accurate search results. The Boolean search string provides a tight range on the search parameters and thereby delivers higher quality results that are more precise.
US09195739B2
Functionality is described for identifying a discussion topic based on user interest information. The user interest information may originate from one or more sources, such as the user's search-related behavior. The functionality then provides an opportunity for the user to engage in a communication exchange associated with the identified discussion topic.
US09195721B2
Mobile devices can provide app recommendations that are relevant to a location of interest. A localized app recommendation can be triggered (e.g., by a mobile device coming within a threshold distance of an application hotspot or some other user action). A location of interest can be determined. The location of interest can be the current location of the mobile device or another location (e.g., the destination in a mapping app). Using the location of interest, a localized application ranking database with app hotspot data can be queried with location data representing the location of interest. App recommendations can be received and displayed on the mobile device. Icons for apps that are relevant to the location of interest can be visually distinguished from other apps.
US09195713B2
New data points are added to a streaming window of data points and existing data points are removed from the window over time. Each data point has a value for each of one or more dimensions. Each time a given new data point is added to the window or a given existing data point is removed from the window, one or more outlier detection data structures are updated. Each outlier detection data structure encompasses the data points within the streaming window for a corresponding dimension. The outlier detection data structures are used to detect outlier data points within the window over selected one or more dimensions.
US09195710B2
A database query optimizer optimizes a query that uses multiple networks. The query optimizer optimizes a query to reduce network traffic on a network or node that is overloaded or above an established parameter in a node/network attribute table. The query optimization to reduce network traffic may result in a sub-optimal query in other respects such as execution time. The result is a query optimizer that rewrites or optimizes a query to execute on multiple nodes or networks to reduce traffic on a network or node according to the loading characteristics and assigned attributes of a node or network.
US09195709B2
Structure of a resultant Every Document as a Graph (EVG) graph may be outlined using an EVG query. First metadata for a first data source may be retrieved. At least one entity key may be determined for a first entity, the entity key coming directly from the EVG query or from an entity on a preceding level of the EVG graph. Based on the first metadata and entity key, an edge may be created in the EVG graph beginning at the first entity, wherein the edge contains information retrieved from the first data source. Second metadata for a second data source may be retrieved. Based on the second metadata and information contained in the edge retrieved from first data source, a second entity may be created in the EVG graph, wherein the edge connects to the second entity, wherein the second entity contains information retrieved from the second data source.
US09195703B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for predicting context-relevant information based on large-scale aggregations of data. One of the methods includes receiving a user context of a user, wherein the user context specifies a location of a user device being used by the user. Data that represents counts of websites visited by users matching the user context is obtained. Data that represents counts of websites visited by users in general is obtained. Using the obtained counts, one or more likely websites visited by users matching the user context more frequently than by users in general is determined. Information identifying the one or more likely websites in response to receiving the user context is provided.
US09195699B2
A method and data structure is described that builds summary information using processor time that is usually proportional to the size of input data and a depth of hierarchies for a plurality of attributes. The output of computation is stored in a smaller area by eliminating redundant storage and computation. An index is generated which includes tuples or rows that include lower bound values for each of the attributes, values of children of the lower bound values based on the hierarchies of the attributes, and coverage class indicators of the coverage classes of the children.
US09195694B2
A distributed database management system provides a central database resident on a server that contains database objects. Objects, e.g., program guide data, to be replicated are gathered together into distribution packages called “slices,” that are transmitted to client devices. A slice is a subset of the central database which is relevant to clients within a specific domain, such as a geographic region, or under the footprint of a satellite transmitter. The viewer selects television programs and Web content from displayed sections of the program guide data which are recorded to a storage device. The program guide data are used to determine when to start and end recordings. Client devices periodically connect to the server using a phone line and upload information of interest which is combined with information uploaded from other client devices for statistical, operational, or viewing models.
US09195689B2
Systems and methods for converting structured data into database entries include receiving data values and metadata elements that form a data structure for the data values. The data values are converted into entries in database tables that are related according to the data structure formed by the metadata elements. The database table entries may be used to generate a webpage configured to report a metric of the data values.
US09195685B2
A method, article of manufacture, and apparatus for restoring data. In some embodiments, this includes backing up data in a first form with a backup application, updating the backup application, and using the updated backup application to restore the backed up data in a second form. In some embodiments, the first form includes a backup image. In some embodiments, the second form is individual files.
US09195680B2
There is provided a network system in which image data items are uploaded from a plurality of user terminals to a server and images are opened to public among the users. The system includes a category division unit configured to divide the works classified into the categories into a first group of works with each of which the counted browse request number of times is greater than or equal to a predetermined number, and a second group of works other than the works in the first group, and classify one of the first and second groups of the divided works as another category different from the categories.
US09195677B2
System and method for displaying and managing content includes a database of content that a user may access, select and pay for. The content is distributed to a projection device and the user is able to control the projection with the use of a pointing device.
US09195671B2
A system that enables development and execution of predictive models comprises a centralized data management system, a data extraction tool a model validation tool and a model execution tool. In embodiments, a data management system includes a data management server that can be accessed via a web browser that stores data in the form of a flat file. An extraction tool extracts data. A model validation tool validates a model by scoring an analytical environment data set and a production environment data set. A model execution tool allows a user to select when and how often a model is scored.
US09195661B2
Methods and systems for capturing, collecting, analyzing and auditing of electronic documents. In an embodiment, there is provided the ability to present an audit function or “click thru” capability with respect to image files, non-structured text, non-structured html, and pdf documents.
US09195659B2
A report generation apparatus includes a user information storage unit that stores therein user identification information for identifying a user and regional information on a region where the user is located, so as to associated with each other; a regional information obtaining part that receives user identification information and obtains regional information associated with the received user identification information from the user information storage part; and a generator that obtains device management information relating to usage of a device and generates a report using the obtained device management information and the obtained regional information.
US09195657B2
Methods, systems, and computer-readable media of columnar storage of a database index are disclosed. A particular columnar index includes a column store that stores rows of the columnar index in a column-wise fashion and a delta store that stores rows of the columnar index in a row-wise fashion. The column store also includes an absence flag array. The absence flag array includes entries that indicate whether certain rows have been logically deleted from the column store.
US09195650B2
Techniques for converting spoken speech into written speech are provided. The techniques include transcribing input speech via speech recognition, mapping each spoken utterance from input speech into a corresponding formal utterance, and mapping each formal utterance into a stylistically formatted written utterance.
US09195649B2
System, apparatus and method for determining semantic information from audio, where incoming audio is sampled and processed to extract audio features, including temporal, spectral, harmonic and rhythmic features. The extracted audio features are compared to stored audio templates that include ranges and/or values for certain features and are tagged for specific ranges and/or values. Extracted audio features that are most similar to one or more templates from the comparison are identified according to the tagged information. The tags are used to determine the semantic audio data that includes genre, instrumentation, style, acoustical dynamics, and emotive descriptor for the audio signal.
US09195648B2
Mechanisms and methods for enabling customers to manage multi-lingual knowledge bases, so that end users can access articles based on a language the end user chooses, while also providing publishers with tools to manage articles in different languages and to translate them, either using an external vendor or leveraging in house translators, and providing administrators (knowledge managers) with the ability to setup or choose which languages are available in the knowledge base, as well as default language assignments for translations.
US09195646B2
The disclosed apparatus uses a training data generation apparatus 2, which generates training data used for creating characteristic expression extraction rules. The training data generation apparatus 2 includes: a training data candidate clustering unit 21, which clusters a plurality of training data candidates assigned labels indicating annotation classes based on feature values containing respective context information, and a training data generation unit 22 which, by referring to each cluster obtained using the clustering results, obtains the distribution of the labels of the training data candidates within the cluster, identifies training data candidates that meet a preset condition based on the obtained distribution, and generates training data using the identified training data candidates.
US09195639B2
A method for generating, classifying, searching, and analyzing standardized text templates drawn from a plurality of text documents and for identifying standardized text deviations from standardized text templates. Semi-standardized documents may be represented as standardized templates and deviations from standardized templates, with such templates themselves automatically generated by a computer-implemented method from a plurality of similar text documents. The method enables enhanced analysis of semi-standardized documents and automatic extraction of information from standardized text templates.
US09195638B2
Nested fragment caching of web pages is described. In response to receiving a request for a web page, first-level fragment information of the web page is obtained. Based on the first-level fragment information, a fragment analysis process is successively performed for first-level fragments, wherein the fragment analysis process includes rendering the first-level fragments based on preset nesting information of the first-level fragments. The nesting information includes information about whether a current fragment includes other fragments. Results of the fragment analysis process are combined to generate complete content of the first-level fragments of the web page. The exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure not only allow nested fragment caching of a web page, but also recursively obtain HTML codes of each fragment when nested fragment caching of the web page is performed, thus displaying complete content of the web page to a user.
US09195636B2
Systems and methods for providing previews to mobile client devices of files stored in a web-based collaboration platform are disclosed. In one embodiment, a system sends a request to preview a file uploaded to the web-based collaboration platform. The system receives preview information for accessing and manipulating preview of the uploaded file. The preview information includes a scheme for accessing file segments of the preview of the uploaded file. The file segments are byproducts of a conversion of the file from the source format to a target format and have a requested preview format. The system further includes a viewer to access the file segments of the uploaded file using the scheme. The viewer displays the accessed file segments on a touch screen responsive to swiping actions on the touch screen, the swiping actions determined based on the source format.
US09195630B2
A computer processor system includes a plurality of multi-chip systems that are physically aggregated and conjoined. Each multi-chip system includes a plurality of chips that are conjoined together, and a local interconnection and input/output wiring layer. A global interconnection network is connected to the local interconnection and input/output wiring layer of each multi-chip system to interconnect the multi-chip systems together. One or more of the multi-chip systems includes a plurality of processor chips that are conjoined together.
US09195627B2
An apparatus and a method of controlling clock signals for a master device and a slave device are disclosed. The controlling apparatus includes: a first connection port coupled to a first clock line of the master device; a second connection port coupled to a second clock line of the slave device; and a control module receiving a first clock signal from the master device via the first connection port, producing a second clock signal according to the first clock signal, and transmitting the second clock signal to the slave device via the second connection port; wherein when the first clock signal is switched from a first logic level to a second logic level, the control module controls the first connection port to maintain the second logic level in a time interval.
US09195608B2
A system comprises a hashing logic, which executes instructions to convert raw data into a first logical address and payload data, where the first logical address describes metadata about the payload data. A hardware translation unit executes instructions to translate the first logical address into a first physical address on a storage device. A hardware load/storage unit stores the first logical address and the payload data at the first physical address on the storage device. A hardware exclusive OR (XOR) unit compares two logical address vectors to derive a Hamming distance between the two logical address vectors. A hardware retrieval unit retrieves other payload data that is stored at a second physical address whose second logical address is within a predefined Hamming distance from the first logical address, thus allowing payload data from the two logical addresses to be grouped/associated with one another.
US09195604B2
Methods for dynamic memory cache size adjustment, enabling dynamic memory cache size adjustment, memory devices, and memory systems are disclosed. One such method for dynamic memory cache size adjustment determines available memory space in a memory array and adjusts a size of a memory cache in the memory array responsive to the available memory space.
US09195603B2
The present disclosure provides a method for processing a storage operation in a system with an added level of storage caching. The method includes receiving, in a storage cache, a read request from a host processor that identifies requested data and determining whether the requested data is in a cache memory of the storage cache. If the requested data is in the cache memory of the storage cache, the requested data may be obtained from the storage cache and sent to the host processor. If the requested data is not in the cache memory of the storage cache, the read request may be sent to a host bus adapter operatively coupled to a storage system. The storage cache is transparent to the host processor and the host bus adapter.
US09195602B2
A memory system is disclosed comprising a memory controller and a first set of volatile memory devices defining a first memory hierarchy. The first set of volatile memory devices are disposed on at least one first memory module, which is coupled to the memory controller in a daisy-chained configuration. A first integrated circuit buffer device is included on the module. The system has a second set of nonvolatile memory devices defining a second memory hierarchy. The second set of nonvolatile memory devices are disposed on at least one second memory module, which is coupled to the at least one first memory module in a daisy-chained configuration. The second module includes a second integrated circuit buffer device. The system is configured such that signals transmitted between the memory controller and the second memory hierarchy pass through the first memory hierarchy.
US09195600B2
In one embodiment, the present invention includes a method for executing a transactional memory (TM) transaction in a first thread, buffering a block of data in a first buffer of a cache memory of a processor, and acquiring a write monitor on the block to obtain ownership of the block at an encounter time in which data at a location of the block in the first buffer is updated. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09195593B1
Systems and methods for utilizing memory version instructions and techniques in conjunction with garbage collection in a processor. A hardware-assisted garbage collection algorithm may be executed by a computing system to move live objects between memory regions. Special store instructions may be utilized to mark the live objects of each memory region that is about to be migrated. Mutators performing useful work may be configured to trap on a memory region which is marked for migration.
US09195589B2
Examples are disclosed for adaptive configuration of non-volatile memory. The examples include a mode register configured to include default and updated values to indicate one or more configurations of the non-volatile memory. The examples may also include discoverable capabilities maintained in a configuration table that may indicate memory address lengths and/or operating power states.
US09195588B2
SSD wear-level data (320) is generated on managed nodes (202) having SSDs (206). The wear-level data is collected by a management node (204).
US09195585B2
Techniques for surfacing host-side flash storage capacity to a plurality of VMs running on a host system are provided. In one embodiment, the host system creates, for each VM in the plurality of VMs, a flash storage space allocation in a flash storage device that is locally attached to the host system. The host system then causes the flash storage space allocation to be readable and writable by the VM as a virtual flash memory device.
US09195584B2
A multi-plane non-volatile memory die includes circuits that receive and apply different parameters to different planes while accessing planes in parallel so that different erase blocks are accessed using individualized parameters. Programming parameters, and read parameters can be modified on a block-by-block basis with modification based on the number of write-erase cycles or other factors.
US09195583B2
A method of managing meta data can be provided by generating log entry information including log data in response to changes to meta data that includes a plurality of groups of the meta data. A group of the meta data can be selected from among the plurality of groups of the meta data to provide a selected group of meta data in response to detecting that a number of pieces of the log entry information is equal to or greater than a particular threshold value. The selected group of the meta data and associated log data can be stored in a non-volatile memory device.
US09195581B2
A two-level paging mechanism. The first level gathers data from reclaimable memory locations for a process and compacts the data into a single container. The second level sends the compact container's contents to a swap file and may use optimal I/O operations to the target memory device. On-demand paging is made possible by having a first pager locate the requested data in the compact container and then having a second pager retrieve the corresponding data from the swap file.
US09195561B2
Dissatisfaction variables track inputs made by an end user at an information handling system that are associated with end user dissatisfaction regarding the operation of the information handling system, such as corrective actions, so that an alert issues if a dissatisfaction variable changes by a predetermined amount over a predetermined time period. Dissatisfaction variables identify a pattern of a change in behavior by an end user rather than the operational status of system components. For example, an increase in end user forced shutdowns of the information handling system indicates end user dissatisfaction with the information handling system, such as repeated freezes of the operating system so that performing a timely diagnostics will improve end user satisfaction and proactively correct and impending system failure.
US09195558B2
A method for comparing systems includes running, simultaneously, a first system and a second system, wherein the first system and the second system process events, collecting first data from the first system based on the processing of the events, collecting second data from the second system based on the processing of the events, wherein the second system includes at least one feature different than the first system, and performing a sequential probability ratio test based on the first data and the second data.
US09195552B2
Per-Function Downstream Port Containment (pF-DPC) is an extension to Downstream Port Containment (DPC) in the Peripheral Component Interconnect express (PCIe) standard. Pf-DPC confines non-fatal errors to specific functions of an end-point device without disabling the link between a PCIe port and the end-point device. PCIe ports configured for pF-DPC may filter (e.g., drop) packets carrying routing identifiers (RIDs) and/or addresses assigned to a function affected by a non-fatal error, while continuing to forward packets carrying RIDs/addresses associated with remaining operable functions over the corresponding link.
US09195549B1
A method, article of manufacture, and apparatus for restoring data. In some embodiments, this includes receiving a request for an object to be recovered, searching external data source systems for the object, identifying an external data source system based on the search, and processing the request for an object to be recovered based on the identified external data source system. In some embodiments, identifying an external data source system includes identifying multiple external data source systems. In some embodiments, processing the request for an object to be recovered includes receiving the object from the multiple external data source systems.
US09195543B2
Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method and a device for detecting data reliability, which belong to the field of computer technologies. The method includes: dividing source data into multiple source data blocks; establishing a corresponding duplicate data block for each source data block, where the duplicate data block and the source data block are stored in different physical memory blocks respectively; establishing a corresponding reliability maintenance data structure for the source data block; and registering the reliability maintenance data structure with a first reliability maintenance thread of a central processing unit, the source data block corresponding to the reliability maintenance data structure registered with the first reliability maintenance thread, comparing a reliability check value of the source data block with a reliability check value recorded in the reliability maintenance data structure, and replacing the source data block having the error with the duplicate data block.
US09195535B2
Hotspot identification can include receiving data indicating a plurality of reported events each associated with a respective number of configuration items (CIs) of a plurality of CIs and receiving data indicating a topological dependency of each of the plurality of CIs. Hotspot identification can include assigning a weight to each of the respective number of CIs, assigning a weight to CIs of the plurality of CIs having a topological dependency from the respective number of CIs, and identifying the hotspot having a weight assigned thereto that satisfies a hotspot weight threshold.
US09195533B1
The disclosure is related to an apparatus and methods for addressing variations in bit error rates amongst data storage segments. In a particular embodiment, an apparatus includes a controller that detects variations in bit error rates amongst different segments of a plurality of segments in a storage medium. The controller also adjusts a read/write operation parameter according to the detected variations amongst the bit error rates in the plurality of segments.
US09195521B2
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium may comprise a set of instructions for creating a subsystem process independent from a main system process for data computation. The set of instructions may direct at least one processor to perform acts of: in a main system process, receiving a user input; in the main system process, sending the user input to a subsystem process, the subsystem process is independent from and in parallel with the main system process; in the main system process, generating a first computation result according to the user input; in the subsystem process, generating a second computation result in parallel with the main system process according to the user input; in the main system process, receiving the second computation result from the subsystem process; and in the main system process, combining the first computation result and the second computation result.
US09195514B2
A current value of a load indicator of a system is determined, by an application entity, based on one or more of a central processor unit utilization measure of the system, a memory utilization measure of the system, a system-internal resources utilization measure, an input/output utilization measure of the system, and a secondary storage utilization measure of the system, wherein the system is associated with a plurality of P-states and a plurality of C-states. An operating mode of the system is determined, by the application entity, based on the current value of the load indicator, wherein the operating mode comprises a P-state selected from the plurality of P-states and a C-state selected from the plurality of C-states. The system is operated in accordance with the operating mode. A predictive load map associating respective time periods and respective operating modes may be generated and adaptively adjusted.
US09195512B2
The method for relocating related resource partitions includes detecting a relocation event to relocate a first resource partition operating in a first division from the first division to a second division. The first division includes a second resource partition. The first resource partition and the second resource partition are each distinct operating environments. The method also includes determining that the second resource partition is sufficiently related to the first resource partition. The method includes relocating the second resource partition to the second division with the first resource partition in response to determining that the second resource partition is sufficiently related to the first resource partition.
US09195509B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a workload optimization approach that measures workload performance across combinations of hardware (platform, network configuration, storage configuration, etc.) and operating systems, and which provides a workload placement on the platforms where jobs perform most efficiently. This type of placement may be based on performance measurements (e.g., throughput, response, and other such service levels), but it can also be based on other factors such as power consumption or reliability. In a typical embodiment, ideal platforms are identified for handling workloads based on performance measurements and any applicable service level agreement (SLA) terms.
US09195508B1
A multi-partition computer system includes a utilization monitor for monitoring resource utilization, plural prediction engines for predicting utilization during a next allocation period, a prediction rater for rating said prediction engines based on the accuracy of their predictions, and an allocation implementer for implementing an allocation determined as a function of a prediction by a highest-rated of said prediction engines as determined by the prediction rater.
US09195503B2
Provided are techniques for receiving a request to load a first resource corresponding to an application into a computing system for execution; determining whether or not the first resource is identical to a resource loaded in a virtual scope library (VSR); and, if the first resource is determined not to be identical to any particular resource loaded in the VSR, load the first resource into the VSR; and direct references to the first resource in the application to the first resource loaded in the VSR; and otherwise, if the first resource is determined to be identical to the second resource, direct references to the first resource in the application to the particular resource stored in the VSR.
US09195497B2
A microprocessor or microcontroller device may have a central processing unit (CPU), a data memory coupled with the CPU, wherein the data memory is divided into a plurality of memory banks, wherein a bank select register determines which memory bank is currently coupled with the CPU. Furthermore, a first and second set of special function registers are provided, wherein upon occurrence of a context switch either the first or the second set of special function register are selected as active context registers for the CPU and the respective other set of special function registers are selected as inactive context registers, wherein at least some of the registers of the active context registers are memory mapped to more than two memory banks of the data memory and wherein all registers of the inactive context registers are memory mapped to at least one memory location within the data memory.
US09195493B2
According to one aspect, a computer system includes a configuration with a machine enabled to operate in a single thread (ST) mode and a multithreading (MT) mode. In addition, the machine includes physical threads. The machine is configured to perform a method that includes issuing a start-virtual-execution (start-VE) instruction to dispatch a guest entity having multiple logical threads on the core. The guest entity includes all or a part of a guest virtual machine (VM), and issuing is performed by a host running on one of the physical threads on the core in the ST mode. The executing of the start-VE instruction by the machine includes mapping each of the logical threads to a corresponding one of the physical threads, initializing each of the mapped physical threads with a state of the corresponding logical thread, and starting execution of the guest entity on the core in MT mode.
US09195488B2
The invention relates to a mechanism for image deployment in a cloud environment comprising at least two hosts coupled to at least one disk, and at least one virtual machine created in at least one host of the at least two hosts by deploying an additional image to the at least one disk. The method is characterized in that the at least one host for deploying an additional image is selected according to a deployment factor representing a communality relationship between one or more existing base images in the cloud environment and the additional image.
US09195461B2
An aspect includes run-time instrumentation reporting. An instruction stream is executed by a processor. Run-time instrumentation information of the executing instruction stream is captured by the processor. Run-time instrumentation records are created based on the captured run-time instrumentation information. A run-time instrumentation sample point of the executing instruction stream on the processor is detected. A reporting group is stored in a run-time instrumentation program buffer. The storing is based on the detecting and the storing includes: determining a current address of the run-time instrumentation program buffer, the determining based on instruction accessible run-time instrumentation controls; and storing the reporting group into the run-time instrumentation program buffer based on an origin address and the current address of the run-time instrumentation program buffer, the reporting group including the created run-time instrumentation records.
US09195457B1
Documentation for an application programming interface may include a source code portion. Input may be received from a user of the documentation indicating a request to see a simulated result of executing the source code portion. A set of instructions corresponding to the source code portion may be loaded. State dependencies of the set of instructions may be resolved to form an execution environment for the instructions. Simulated results for executing the source code portion may be obtained by executing the instructions based on the execution environment.
US09195442B2
A system and method can support context-dependent expression compilation in a programming language environment. A compiler in the programming language environment can provide one or more context objects that operate to compile various context-dependent expressions in different programming contexts. Then, the compiler can use a said context object to derive a target type associated with a context-dependent expression, and use the context object to perform compatibility check for the context-dependent expression in the programming language environment.
US09195440B2
A method, system, and computer program product for amorphous data preparation for intelligent data source selection in application development are provided in the illustrative embodiments. A set of keywords is selected from a code portion of a source code. Using a subset of the set of keywords, an expected circumstance is determined, the expected circumstance being a circumstance relevant to a purpose of the source code. From a set of data sources, a data source is identified, wherein the data source provides information usable in the expected circumstance. A manner of accessing the information from the data source is identified. Pseudo-code is constructed to implement the manner of accessing the information from the data source. A weight is assigned to the data source based upon a type of input used for selecting the pseudo-code, wherein the selecting uses the pseudo-code in the source code.
US09195439B2
Exemplary embodiments support multi-threaded subgraph execution control within a graphical modeling or graphical programming environment. In an embodiment, a subgraph may be identified as a subset of blocks within a graphical model, or graphical program, or both. A subgraph initiator may explicitly execute the subgraph while maintaining data dependencies within the subgraph. Explicit signatures may be defined for the subgraph initiator and the subgraph either graphically or textually. Execution control may be branched wherein the data dependencies within the subgraph are maintained. Execution control may be joined together wherein the data dependencies within the subgraph are maintained. Exemplary embodiments may allow subgraphs to execute on different threads within a graphical modeling or programming environment.
US09195429B2
A system and method implementing a multi-user display linking multiple independent software processes with remote mobile devices is disclosed. The system/method augments multiple planes of conventional video graphics memory (VGM) controlled by a video graphics controller (VGC) in a host computing context (HCC) with a plane selection register (PSR) that enables isolation of individual planes of video memory within the VGM. The PSR is associated with a process mapping table (PMT) that maps in hardware a user process identification (PID) associated with an individual software process running within the HCC under control of a host operating system (HOS). HOS process context changes update the PSR with PMT content corresponding to an active HCC PID. A video graphics encoder (VGE) inspects areas of change within individual VGM planes and emits these changes as streaming video content to an Ethernet interface communicating with remote mobile devices associated with the HCC PIDs.
US09195427B2
Methods and devices for presenting representations of open windows in a device are provided herein. More particularly, the method includes a displaying a desktop application manager. The desktop application manager can include cards or thumbnails presented in a tray that can be navigated. The cards may be selected and placed onto the displays to make the application active. Thus, the desktop application manager can allow a user to navigate and manage open windows without scrolling the display of the windows.
US09195424B2
A print system according to the present invention includes an information processing apparatus including a Web browser, an application server including a Web application to be used via the Web browser, and a printer. The print system includes a transmission unit that, if the Web browser included in the information processing apparatus receives print data generated by the Web application and receives a print execution instruction, transmits the print data to the printer.
US09195422B2
The invention relates to an image forming apparatus having a hibernation function and a control method of the apparatus. When a transition to hibernation is instructed, it is determined whether or not a job is ongoing, and if it is determined that a job is ongoing, a job suspension request for suspending the ongoing job is issued. As a result, a job execution unit prohibits a new job input in response to the job suspension request, and if the ongoing job involves data reception from an external apparatus, the job execution unit awaits for completion of the data reception and returns the response. In accordance with the response, a pre-processing sequence to be executed at the time of return from the hibernation is generated, and hibernation processing is performed.
US09195421B2
An image forming system includes a client apparatus, a server apparatus and an image forming apparatus. The client apparatus includes a designating unit. The designating unit designates identification information stored in the server apparatus and image data. The server apparatus includes a first memory unit and a transmitting unit. The first memory unit stores the identification information. The transmitting unit transmits the identification information and the image data designated by the designating unit to the image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit, a second memory unit, an accepting unit and a control unit. The second memory unit stores first authentication information corresponding to the identification information. The accepting unit accepts second authentication information. The control unit restricts the image forming unit from outputting the image data on the sheet, when the second authentication information doesn't correspond to the first authentication information.
US09195417B2
The operation decision unit decides whether a user operation exists or not on the electronic apparatus when a user instructing a job did not log out from the apparatus after the end of the job. The terminal device decision unit decides whether the user operation exists or not on the user terminal device when it is decided that the user operation does not exists on the electronic apparatus. The authentication unit makes the user log out from the electronic apparatus when it is decided that the user operation exists on the user terminal device.
US09195416B2
In one embodiment, an email communication is received via a network. The email communication includes a content identifier identifying for-pay content hosted at a provider computing system, a sender identifier identifying a sender of the communication, and a printer identifier identifying a network-connected printer. The sender identifier is compared to a database that associates sender identifiers with payment subscriptions authorizing printing of the content. Responsive to receipt of data indicating the sender identifier is associated with a payment subscription, the content is obtained from the provider system, rasterized, and sent to the printer for printing.
US09195409B2
A method of operation of a storage system includes: establishing a first virtual disk volume including allocating a first portion and a first low performance storage capacity; generating a usage statistics for the first virtual disk volume; and calculating a first trend line for adjusting the first portion and the first low performance storage capacity based on the usage statistics.
US09195388B2
Some embodiments of the invention provide a mobile device with multiple access modes. The device in some embodiments has at least two access modes, a primary access mode and a secondary access mode, that provide different restrictions for accessing the applications and/or data that are stored on the device. In some embodiments, the primary access mode of the device provides unfettered access to all of the device's applications and/or data that are available to a user, while its secondary access mode provides access to a limited set of applications and/or data that are stored on the device. In some embodiments, the device provides tools to select applications for the secondary access mode.
US09195382B2
The disclosed subject matter relates to a method for managing display of a window. In certain aspects, the method includes presenting a window in a display area, wherein the window comprises a control icon, receiving a first input indicating a selection of the control icon and presenting a plurality of selectable options associated with the control icon, wherein each of the plurality of selectable options correspond with one of an up direction, a down direction, a left direction or a right direction. In certain aspects, the method further includes receiving a second input indicating a selection of a first one of the plurality of selectable options and adjusting a size of the window in response to the second input based on a direction associated with the first one of the plurality of selectable options. Systems and computer-readable media are also provided.
US09195376B1
A system and method for facilitating a user defined virtual space is disclosed. One or more virtual space locations and/or activities may be correlated with user specified geolocations. In some implementations, the user specified geolocations may be verified against one or more spatial requirements prior to recording the user selected space-geolocation correlations. A user request to initiate an action or activity in the virtual space may be received. Prior to executing the requested action or activity in the virtual space, the user current geolocation may be verified against that specified in a space-geolocation correlation corresponding to a virtual space location or activity indicated in the user request.
US09195375B2
The invention relates in particular to a method and a system for monitoring a graphical interface in a computer system of an aircraft cockpit. The method comprises, in addition to the display of a graphical interface of a client application based on a tree structure of graphical interaction objects composing said graphical interface, the following steps: obtaining a plurality of graphical interaction objects having a tree-structure organization; creating and adding, to said obtained tree structure, at least one new graphical interaction object defining a critical graphical display zone; modifying the tree-structure dependency of at least one critical graphical interaction object, of the obtained tree structure to make it dependent from the new graphical interaction object defining the critical zone; and performing critical monitoring only of the critical graphical objects attached to the critical zone.
US09195372B2
Methods, systems, and computer program products for grouping tabbed portions of a display object based on content relationships and user interaction levels are disclosed. According to one method, a display object including one or more tabbed portions is provided for display via a computer display device. A level of user interaction associated with each of the tabbed portions is monitored. User input for adding new information to the display object is received. A level of content relationship between the new information and the information including in the at least one of the tabbed portions is determined. A new tabbed portion is created and grouped with the at least one tabbed portion based on the determined level of content relationship and the level of user interaction associated with the at least one tabbed portion.
US09195368B2
The subject technology discloses configurations for providing a radial menu on one or more computing devices with a touch-sensitive screen. In one example, a user activates the radial menu after touching a first finger at a first or anchor point on a touchscreen that serves as a center of the radial menu. While the first finger is disposed, the user then touches a second finger at a second point some distance from the anchor point corresponding to the first finger on the touchscreen. The radial menu is generated based on a distance calculated between the anchor point and the second finger at the second point. The radial menu is not a complete circle and instead displayed as a partial circle, and the radial menu is generated so that the display area is bisected from the anchor point to the second point in some configurations.
US09195365B2
A system for configuring objects such as buttons for screens presented in a touch screen display. The configuration may be automatically based on preset styles. The graphical elements or icons and textual elements may be created once but used multiple times in various places. Multiple graphical and textual elements may be displayed on any button of the screens. The system may be based on the use of a predefined set of button styles that define the layout of each textual and graphical element in basic terms, such as left, right, and center. These styles do not necessarily prescribe a size, but a layout of the elements. The sizing, layout, justification, and clipping of each element may be determined by the button style. For each button style, the assigned textual and graphical elements may be automatically placed for the best or optimal layout and fit.
US09195364B2
The present disclosure discloses a method and apparatus for generating a dynamic wallpaper, including: a basic visual effect control parameter is initialized and a 3D transformation parameter is set; a background and particles are rendered based on the 3D transformation parameter and the basic visual effect control parameter to generate a dynamic wallpaper; the 3D transformation parameter and the basic visual effect control parameter are updated based on a touch mode and a touch position upon detection of a user's touch action on a screen; and the background and the particles in the dynamic wallpaper are re-rendered based on the updated 3D transformation parameter and basic visual effect control parameter.
US09195358B1
A folded micro-wire substrate structure includes a transparent folded flexible substrate having a first side and a second side opposed to the first side. The flexible substrate has a first portion and a second portion adjacent to the first portion of the flexible substrate. The flexible substrate has at least a first fold between the first and second portions so that the first portion is aligned with the second portion in a perpendicular direction. One or more electrical conductors is located in or on the flexible substrate, at least one electrical component is located on or in the flexible substrate in the first portion. At least one optical element is located on or in the flexible substrate in the second portion located so that the optical element directs light to or from the electrical component.
US09195356B2
A coordinate input device of the present invention includes: an M-sequence generator (12); a drive electrode driving circuit (13); and a receiving electrode selecting circuit (14) which receives a value corresponding to a coupling capacitance, an inputted coordinate position being detected in accordance with the value received by the receiving electrode selecting circuit (14), a receiving electrode group being divided into two blocks, and a first detecting section (15) and a second detecting section (16) being provided so as to correspond to the respective two blocks.
US09195354B2
Methods, systems and devices are described for operating an electronic system which includes a first plurality of sensor electrodes disposed in a first layer and configured to detect input objects at an input surface of the input device, the first plurality of sensor electrodes including a first subset of transmitter electrodes; a second plurality of sensor electrodes configured to detect a force imparted to the input surface and configured for capacitive coupling with the first subset of transmitter electrodes; and a compressible dielectric configured to compress in response to force applied to the input surface. The capacitive coupling between the transmitter electrodes and the second plurality of sensor electrodes is configured to vary in response to the applied force.
US09195352B2
Provided is a touch sensor panel which can increase the detection sensitivity of a touch relatively readily. The touch sensor panel controller supplies drive electrodes of a touch sensor panel with a high-voltage AC drive signal with its low level set to a negative voltage and drives them. The time of change of a drive waveform supplied to the drive electrodes of the touch sensor panel is shifted relative to the time of change of a drive waveform supplied to a display scan electrode. The touch sensor panel controller uses a charge pump in synchronization with clock signals of more than one phase to produce a high drive voltage to activate drive electrodes of the touch sensor panel, and the clock signals of more than one phase are initialized each time the drive electrode is subjected to AC pulse driving.
US09195347B2
An input device for an electronic device includes a proximity detector and a light source. The light source transmits light to a sensing area, which is reflected back to the proximity detector in the presence of an object in the vicinity of the sensing area, such that the proximity detector can produce an output indicative of a distance of the object from the proximity detector to give rise to a control signal for controlling the device.
US09195346B2
A touch panel includes a light guide plate, a light emitting device, a light sensing module, and a controller. The light guide plate has a touch plane. The light emitting device applies an incident light to the light guide plate, and at least a portion of the incident light is completely reflected in the light guide plate. When an object touches the touch plane, a total internal reflection of at least a portion of the incident light at a touch point is frustrated. The light sensing module detects a wavelength of an ambient light. The controller controls the light emitting device according to the ambient light wavelength detected by the light sensing module to adjust an incident light wavelength of the incident light emitted by the light emitting device so that the incident light wavelength differs from the ambient light wavelength.
US09195334B2
A sensor-integrated display panel including an operation surface for performing an input operation and an image display surface which are formed integrally with a sensor as one piece. A data transfer device supplies the sensor-integrated display panel with a drive signal for driving the sensor and outputs sensing data corresponding to a potential of a sensor signal output from the sensor. A contact electrode is provided in a frame formed around the sensor-integrated display panel to vary the potential of the sensor signal when a conductor touches or does not touch to the frame. An application executing device receives and analyzes the sensing data and generates a signal to select an operating function in accordance with an analysis result.
US09195333B2
A flat panel display device includes a plurality of scan lines elongated in a direction, a plurality of data lines elongated to intersect the scan lines, a plurality of pixel devices respectively coupled to the plurality of scan lines and the plurality of data lines, a plurality of first sensing lines elongated parallel to the scan lines, a plurality of second sensing lines elongated parallel to the data lines, and a plurality of sensing devices respectively coupled to the plurality of first sensing lines and the plurality of second sensing lines.
US09195328B2
A method is defined for providing an individual increased accessibility to a touch screen displaying first and second elements. The individual initially engages the touch screen with a contact point at a first location. The contact point is dragged across the touch screen into engagement with the first element and the first element is highlighted in response thereto. Thereafter, the individual may drag the contact point across the touch screen from the first element into engagement with the second element whereby the second element is highlighted on the touch screen and the highlight is removed from the first element. Audible announcements may accompany the contacting of the first or second elements with the contact point.
US09195326B2
An input apparatus includes a detection portion, a processor, and a memory. The detection portion is configured to detect a position. The memory is configured to store computer-readable instructions. The computer-readable instructions cause the processor to perform processes that include acquiring a plurality of first positions, determining whether a combination and a sequence of the plurality of first positions satisfy a specified first condition, acquiring a plurality of second positions after it has been determined that the combination and the sequence satisfy the first condition, determining whether a combination and a sequence of the plurality of second positions satisfy any of a plurality of second conditions, and identifying, in a case where it has been determined that the combination and the sequence of the plurality of second positions satisfy one of the plurality of second conditions, format information associated with the one of the plurality of second conditions.
US09195323B2
A pointer control system is disclosed. A remote control device is adapted to be held and pointed by a user and controls functions based on both on screen and off screen pointing. The on screen pointing may control a cursor or other pointer.
US09195322B2
An input apparatus for controlling a display apparatus includes a communication unit; a sensing unit which senses movement of the input apparatus; a first input unit which receives a user input for defining a virtual input region which is to be used as an input region of the input apparatus; and a control unit which controls the communication unit to transmit location information corresponding to a location of the input apparatus to the display apparatus when the virtual input region that is defined according to the user input is mapped to a screen region of the display apparatus and the input apparatus is located in the mapped virtual input region.
US09195321B2
Some embodiments provide a device, method, system, computer program product and user interface for pointer movement analysis with modal continuous controller conversion. Specifically, some embodiments adapt movements issued from a mouse input device, trackpad, or touchscreen to adjust a position of a UI element. Some embodiments analyze a first set of movements and adapt a subsequent second set of movements to adjust the position of the UI element within a range of UI element positions when the first set of movements satisfies a movement threshold. The movement threshold includes a spiral pattern. In some embodiments, adjusting the position of the UI element includes performing scrolling within a scroll area based on the second set of movements when the first set of movements satisfies the spiral pattern.
US09195318B2
A handheld electronic device includes a keypad having up plurality of keys and a selection member; a display component; and a processor cooperating with the keypad and the display component to provide a display at the display component. The display includes a first representation of a plurality of the keys, and at least one of: (a) a second representation of an activated one of the input members (b) a third representation including a plurality of diacritics disposed about an activated one of the input members, and (c) a fourth representation including a plurality of diacritics disposed about an activated one of the input members, and a direction of selection between the activated one of the input members and one of the diacritics. The processor cooperates with the selection member to adjust the direction of selection, and select one of the diacritics for display by the display component.
US09195315B2
Provided is an interactive control device and system including an integrated display. According to one exemplary embodiment, the control device includes a collimated optical fiber optically coupled to a conventional LCD screen including a control image, the control image is projected to a remote face of the optical fiber for viewing by a user. In addition, a tactile control integrated with the collimated optical fiber provided the user with the ability to control a function associated with the control image, whereby the control image dynamically changes based on the user's movement of the tactile control.
US09195310B2
An apparatus and method for controlling a portable device are provided. The method includes a method for controlling a portable device, the method including finding at least one object to be tracked in view of a camera, differentiating motion of the at least one object from changes in camera input other than the at least one object in the camera's view, tracking the motion of the at least one object, and executing a function according to the tracked motion.
US09195298B2
A first circuit is configured to communicatively couple to a second circuit including an analog circuit and a digital circuit. The first circuit comprises a lock unit and a sleep unit. The lock unit is configured to receive a lock enable signal and to lock a configuration signal of the digital circuit in response to the lock enable signal. The sleep unit is configured to receive a sleep triggering signal indicating to switch into sleep mode and to generate an off signal to switch off the digital circuit in response to the sleep triggering signal, while the analog circuit remains on.
US09195296B2
Apparatus and methods are disclosed for power optimization in a wireless device. The apparatus and methods effect monitoring the amount of data stored in a data buffer that buffers data input to and data output from a processor. Dependent on the amount of data stored in the buffers parameters of a control function, such as a Dynamic Clock and Voltage Scaling (DCVS) function are modified based on the amount of data stored in the data buffer. By modifying or pre-empting the parameters of the control function, which controls at least processor frequency, the processor can process applications more dynamically over default parameter settings, especially in situations where one or more real-time activities having strict time constraints for completion are being handled by the processor as evinced by increased buffer depth. As a result, power usage is further optimized as the control function is more responsive to processing conditions.
US09195291B2
In an embodiment, a digital power estimator (DPE) may be provided that may monitor the processors to estimate the amount of power being consumed. If the estimate exceeds a power threshold, the DPE may throttle one or more of the processors. Additionally, throttling events may be monitored to determine if a change in the operating point is desired. In one embodiment, the DPE throttling events may be counted, and if the counts exceed a count threshold, a change in the operating point to a reduced operation point may be requested. Additionally, if the DPE estimate is below the power threshold (or a second power threshold), a second count of events may be maintained. If the second count exceeds a threshold and the operating point is the reduced operating point, a return to the original operating point may be requested.
US09195286B2
A method for performing power consumption control is provided, where the method is applied to an electronic device. The method includes: sensing a current on a current path between a battery and at least one portion of the electronic device by performing sampling operations to generate a plurality of samples; performing calculation on the samples to monitor the current; and based upon the calculation, when it is detected that the current reaches a predetermined threshold, triggering a post processing operation to be performed within the electronic device. In particular, performing the sampling operations to generate the plurality of samples further includes: utilizing an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to perform the sampling operations on a voltage difference corresponding to the current to generate the plurality of samples. For example, the voltage difference can be obtained by probing two terminals of a resistor or a Hall component. An associated apparatus is also provided.
US09195284B2
An automation device having a plurality of modules, where at least one first module is configured to supply the other modules electrical power and a second module is configured to determine the total power requirement of the automation device, wherein the second module determines the total power requirement from the information relating to the power requirement of the respective module, which information is stored in the other modules, and compares the total power requirement with a threshold value and initiates measures for reducing the power requirement of at least one of the other modules based on the comparison result to prevent an overload due to improper or inappropriate installation of the automation device in a switchgear cabinet and resultant reduced air convection.
US09195283B2
An electronic device includes a motherboard, at least one heat dissipation module, a fan module and a wind scooper. The heat dissipation module is arranged on the motherboard and provided with a first positioning component. The fan module is arranged on one side of the motherboard and faces the heat dissipation module. The wind scooper has a second positioning component corresponding to the first positioning component. The wind scooper is fixed on the heat dissipation module through the cooperation between the first positioning component and the second positioning component. The wind scooper is connected between the fan module and the heat dissipation modules, so that the airflow provided by the fan module can flow through the heat dissipation module.
US09195282B2
An immersion server includes: a first surface that is exposed when the server is submerged within a cooling liquid; and at least one vapor bubble deflector physically abutting the first surface and extending away from the first surface at an angle. The deflector divides the first surface into an upper segment and a lower segment when the server is upright. When the server is submerged, the cooling liquid surrounding the lower segment absorbs sufficient heat to evaporate and generate vapor bubbles rising to the liquid surface. The vapor bubble deflector deflects the rising vapor bubbles away from the surface of the upper segment. This enables superior liquid contact with heat dissipating components at the upper segment and better cooling of those components. The deflector can be a device-level deflector separating two or more components or a component-level deflector separating a lower segment from an upper segment of a single component.
US09195278B2
A method of manufacture of a foldable electrical connector-housing system includes: providing a first end panel having an outer first end panel side with first end panel contacts that substantially span from one edge of the outer first end panel side to an opposite edge of the outer first end panel side; providing a second end panel having an outer second end panel side, the second end panel and the first end panel with the outer second end panel side facing away from the outer first end panel side and the first end panel contacts exposed in a folded configuration; mounting an electronic component between the outer first end panel side and the outer second end panel side; and connecting a conductor to the first end panel contacts and the electronic component.
US09195276B2
Embodiments provisioning various electronic devices with optical user input devices having one or more optical sensors are described. Embodiments broadly contemplate expanding the functionality of current user input devices through use of a variety of optical sensors in a variety of configurations, as described further herein.
US09195273B2
A detachable dual mobile terminal including a first mobile terminal having a first display unit; a second mobile terminal having a second display unit; a coupling portion provided to couple or detach the first and second mobile terminals; a coupling sensor configured to sense whether the first and second mobile terminals are coupled or detached; and a controller included in each of the first and second mobile terminals and configured to unlock at least one of the first and second mobile terminals when an unlocking a code is input and when the coupling sensor senses the first and second mobile terminals are coupled to each other.
US09195272B2
In embodiments of an expandable mobile device, the device includes first and second housing parts that slide-engage relative to each other to extend and retract the device. The expandable mobile device includes a flexible display that extends from an interior of the expandable mobile device as the second housing part slides out from the first housing part. The flexible display also retracts into the interior of the expandable mobile device as the second housing part slides into the first housing part. Rollers are integrated in the first housing part and bend the flexible display around a fixed radius to position a first section of the flexible display approximately parallel to a second section of the flexible display in a retracted position of the expandable mobile device.
US09195264B2
A display device includes a display, a base, a stand for supporting the display on the base, and a rotating panel accommodated in the base. The stand has one end fixed to the display and an opposite end connected to the rotating panel. The rotating panel is rotatably connected to the base, and the stand is rotatable with the rotating panel. A supporting apparatus for supporting a display device is also provided.
US09195263B2
Novel stands for tablet computers and other electronic devices. A stand for a tablet may comprise a body having one or more attachment mechanisms at one location and a crossbar at a second location. The crossbar may comprise a portion of a first material disposed to magnetically interact with a portion of a second material that is provided by the tablet. The magnetic interaction may cause the crossbar to serve as one or more detents that movably affixes the stand in a desired position relative to the tablet.
US09195262B2
According to an embodiment, an information processing apparatus includes a selector. The selector is configured to acquire a first time obtained by converting a measurement time of a first piece of measurement data based on a clock of a first time server, a second time obtained by converting the measurement time of the first piece of measurement data based on a clock of a second time server, a third time obtained by converting a measurement time of a second piece of measurement data based on the clock of the first time server, and a fourth time obtained by converting the measurement time of the second piece of measurement data based on the clock of the second time server. The selector is also configured to select a time server with the largest number of combinations of the converted times resulting in no error among pieces of measurement data and time servers.
US09195260B2
A semiconductor device 1 includes a clock generation circuit 15 that changes a frequency of an output clock signal according to a control signal div, an arithmetic circuit (e.g., CPU0) that operates according to the clock signal, a storage circuit (e.g., IC0) that is activated according to access from the arithmetic circuit CPU0, a memory access detection unit 12 that detects a number of accesses from the arithmetic circuit CPU0 to the storage circuit IC0, and when the number of accesses increases, outputs a request signal (e.g., psreq1), and a clock control circuit 14 that generates the control signal div for lowering the frequency of the clock signal according to the request signal psreq1.
US09195259B1
Aspects of the disclosure provide an integrated circuit. The integrated circuit includes a register configured to store multiple data units, a data input generation circuit configured to combine input data for at least partially overwriting the register with the stored multiple data units to generate combined input data, and a clock-gating circuit configured to provide to the register a logically controlled gated clock signal having selectively enabled transitions. The register is overwritten with the combined input data in response to the selectively enabled transitions in the gated clock signal.
US09195256B2
A hand-held controller includes a controller body having right and left grips. The controller body defines a left control zone adjacent the left grip and a right control zone adjacent the right grip. A first set of input devices disposed in the left control zone includes a first analog joystick, a 4-way directional control adjacent the first analog joystick, and a left rocker control located adjacent the 4-way directional control. A second set of input devices disposed in the right control zone includes a second analog joystick, an array of at least four buttons adjacent the second analog joystick, and a right rocker control adjacent the button array. The hand-held controller also includes a display disposed on the controller body adjacent the left and right control zones.
US09195255B1
An apparatus includes a reconfigurable charge pump including charge pump cells configurable into multiple different arrangements. The apparatus includes a control device configured to select a first arrangement of the charge pump cells from the multiple different arrangements based, at least in part, on an input voltage received by the reconfigurable charge pump and requested parameters of a drive signal for a touch screen panel. The reconfigurable charge pump can boost the input voltage based, at least in part, on the first arrangement of the charge pump cells. The control device can generate the drive signal according to the requested parameters based on the boosted input voltage.
US09195252B1
A method and apparatus for current sensing and measurement employs two cascaded MOSFET current mirrors, wherein the mirrored current leaving the first current mirror is fed to the input of the second current mirror. Each current mirror contains a high current MOSFET and a low current MOSFET, connected source-to-source and gate-to-gate. The MOSFETs are matched so that drain-to-source current flowing in the high current MOSFET is proportional to the drain-to-source current flowing in the low current MOSFET. The ratio of high current to low current for each current mirror is M, where M is 100 or less. Voltage biasing networks are employed to maintain constant drain-to-source voltages for both MOSFETs in each current mirror.
US09195236B1
Methods and systems for road flare detection are described. A computing device configured to control the vehicle, may be configured to receive, from an image-capture device, images; image portions of the images may depict an area within a predetermined distance from a surface of a road on which the vehicle is travelling. Also, the computing device may be configured to determine, based on characteristics of an object depicted in the image portions such as color spectrum of the object, brightness of the object, and whether the object is stationary or moving with respect to the road, a likelihood that the object represents a road flare. Based on the likelihood, the computing device may be configured to modify a control strategy associated with a driving behavior of the vehicle; and control the vehicle based on the modified control strategy.
US09195230B2
A method of controlling a backing system for a vehicle and trailer assembly comprises initiating a path input mode on an electronic input device associated with an electronic control unit in the vehicle. An intended backing path is input into the electronic control unit by defining the intended backing path with an input control mechanism for the electronic input device. The path input mode on the electronic input device is ended.
US09195225B1
Graphical user interface virtual control for a controller of a motor. In one example embodiment, one or more programs that are configured, when executed, to cause one or more processors to generate and visually present a graphical user interface (GUI) virtual handwheel for a controller of a motor. In this example embodiment, the GUI virtual handwheel includes a depiction of a physical handwheel that is oriented with a perspective orientation. The depiction of the physical handwheel is configured, upon receipt of a first input from a user along the length of the depiction in a first direction, to send a first electronic signal to the controller of the motor to cause the motor to cause a first effect that corresponds to physically rotating the physical handwheel in a first rotational direction that corresponds to the first direction.
US09195224B2
The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or method that facilitates utilizing a human machine interface (HMI). An interface component can facilitate receipt of data. A human machine interface (HMI) component communicatively coupled to the interface component can include a device with a pre-programmed primitive the device employs a user-defined functionality via the received data.
US09195219B2
Discussed are a smart watch and a control method thereof. The smart watch includes a rotation sensor unit configured to sense a rotation direction and a rotation speed of the smart watch; a display unit configured to display visual information; and a processor configured to control the rotation sensor unit and the display unit and detect a first snap motion and a second snap motion of the smart watch. The first snap motion is detected when the smart watch rotates on an axis of rotation of the smart watch in a first direction at a first threshold speed or more, and the second snap motion is detected when the smart watch rotates on the axis of rotation in the first direction at less than the first threshold speed and then rotates in a second direction at a second threshold speed or more within a predetermined time.
US09195216B2
A timepiece movement includes a plate and a bridge carrying a barrel, which includes a barrel mainspring between a drum and a receiving surface of a steel or stainless steel core and a cover fixed to the drum. The spring is made of a multiphase, cobalt-nickel-chromium based alloy, having a Young's modulus of between 200 and 240 GPa and a shear modulus of between 80 and 100 GPa, and having a width to thickness ratio of between 3 and 23, and a maximum radius of the steel or stainless steel core relative to a pivot axis is less than nine times a maximum thickness of the spring. The movement includes a shake limiting mechanism including a shim-washer independent of the core and guided by a shoulder of the core.
US09195206B2
An image forming apparatus, including an image forming unit having a photosensitive drum and a developer device; a first frame made of a resin, formed in a shape of a plate, and arranged on one end, along an axial direction of the rotation axis of the photosensitive drum, of the image forming unit; a first beam formed in an elongated shape, arranged along and fixed to a planar face of the first frame; and a second beam formed in an elongated shape, arranged along the planar face of the first frame to intersect with the first beam, and fixed to the first frame, is provided. The first beam and the second beam are unfixed to each other at a mutually intersecting part thereof.
US09195189B2
A fixing device configured to thermally fix a developing agent image to a recording sheet includes a fixing belt having a tubular shape defining an inner space, a heat generating member, a nip member, and a stay which are disposed in the inner space of the fixing belt, and a rotating member disposed outside the inner space of the fixing belt. The fixing belt is nipped between the nip plate and the rotating member. The stay comprises a first receiving portion and a second receiving portion which are positioned upstream and downstream of the heat generating member, respectively, in a conveying direction of the recording sheet and are configured to receive a force exerted from the rotating member to the nip member. The heat insulator is disposed between the nip member and one of the first receiving portion and the second receiving portion of the stay.
US09195185B1
A method of thermally developing an image from a latent image recorded in an image formation layer of a photothermgraphic imaging media. The method includes heating the imaging media to a development temperature as the imaging media is transported along a surface of a first heated drum, the first heated drum having a diameter providing the imaging media with a radius of curvature that provides the imaging media with cross-web stiffness sufficient to prevent wrinkling of the imaging media when being heated to the development temperature. The method further includes maintaining the imaging media at the development temperature for a first portion of a development duration of the imaging media, transferring the imaging media to at least one second heated drum at the development temperature, and maintaining the imaging media at the development temperature for a remaining portion of the development duration as the imaging media is transported along a surface of the at least one second heated drum.
US09195178B2
A belt unit includes an endless belt, a tension roller, at least one extension roller, a first bearing portion supporting a first end of the tension roller such that the first end is movable in a tension direction and is detachably mounted to be able to release the tension force by the first end coming off from the first bearing portion, a second bearing portion supporting a second end of the tension roller to be movable in the tension direction, a first urging portion urging the first end of the tension roller, a second urging portion urging the second end of the tension roller, a first frame portion integrally supporting the first bearing portion, the first urging portion, and the extension roller, and a second frame portion integrally supporting the second bearing portion, the second urging portion, and the tension roller and detachably mounted on the first frame portion.
US09195174B2
The image forming apparatus includes a control unit that controls the potential at a transfer portion of a rotary member to be a potential of the same polarity as the charged polarity of the toner at development, when an image forming apparatus starts rotating a photosensitive member, after the start of output by a common power supply and before a charge area on the photosensitive member reaches the transfer portion.
US09195166B2
In order to achieve an improvement in terms of workability when mounting a developer agitation member and a drive transmission member to a container portion storing developer, there is provided a method of mounting a developer storage container in which, when mounting a developer agitation member to a developer storage portion, a drive transmission member is inserted for connection from an end portion of the developer agitation member, the developer agitation member exhibits a first phase and a second phase. The first phase allows connection of the developer agitation member and the drive transmission member in the insertion path of the drive transmission member, whereas the second phase does not allow connection of the developer agitation member and the drive transmission member in the insertion path of a support member.
US09195156B2
A particulate material production method is provided. The particulate material production method includes ejecting a particulate material composition liquid, which includes an organic solvent and a particulate material composition including at least a resin and dissolved or dispersed in the organic solvent, from at least one nozzle to form droplets of the particulate material composition liquid in a gas phase; and solidifying the droplets of the particulate material composition liquid to prepare particles of the particulate material composition. The droplet solidifying step includes contacting the droplets with a poor solvent for the particulate material composition.
US09195154B2
The invention provides an image forming apparatus and an electrophotographic photoreceptor, comprising: a conductive support; and at least a charge generation layer and a charge transport layer on the conductive support, wherein said charge generation layer contains a hydroxygallium phthalocyanine synthesized using a halogen solvent, said charge transport layer contains a polyester resin having a specific structural unit, and said charge transport layer is formed using a non-halogen solvent.
US09195148B2
A method for protecting a wet lens element from liquid degradation is provided. The method includes applying a thin coating of an organoxy-metallic compound to the side portions of a wet lens element to leave behind an optically inert, light absorbing metal oxide film. A liquid shield coating is applied on top of the metal oxide coating. The two coating layers protect the wet lens element from liquid degradation when the side portion of the wet lens element is submerged into a liquid. In an embodiment, the wet lens element is an immersion lithography wet lens element and the liquid is an immersion lithography liquid.
US09195144B2
A spectral purity filter is configured to allow transmission therethrough of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation and to refract or reflect non-EUV secondary radiation. The spectral purity filter may be part of a source module and/or a lithographic apparatus.
US09195141B2
It is an object of the present invention to provide a plate surface protecting liquid composition which enables an improvement in adhesion of a printing ink onto a lithographic printing plate at the beginning of printing, and to provide a method for treating a lithographic printing plate using the plate surface protecting liquid composition, which can reduce the generation of waste paper immediately after the beginning of printing. Disclosed is a plate surface protecting liquid composition for lithographic printing plate, including a polysiloxane compound having a polyether chain in the side-chain.
US09195139B2
Methods of and apparatus for performing direct-write lithography in a two-color photoresist layer are disclosed. The method includes exposing the two-color photoresist layer with transducer and inhibition images that respectively define bright spots and dark spots. The transducer image generates excited-state photo-molecules while the inhibition image converts the exited-state photo-molecules to an unexcited state that is not susceptible to conversion to an irreversible exposed state. The dark spots and bright spots are aligned, with the dark spots being smaller than the bright spots so that a portion of the excited-state photo-molecules adjacent the periphery of the bright spots absorb the inhibition radiation and transition to the unexcited state while a portion of the excited photo-molecules at the center of bright spots are not exposed to the inhibition light and transition to an irreversible exposed state. This forms in the two-color photoresist layer a pattern of sub-resolution photoresist pixels.
US09195135B2
A method for repairing a phase-defect region in a patterned mask for extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) is disclosed. A patterned mask for EUVL is received. The patterned mask includes an absorptive region having an absorption layer over a defect-repairing-enhancement (DRE) layer, a reflective region having the DRE layer without the absorption layer on top of it, a defect and a phase-defect region resulting from the defect and intruding the reflective region. A location and a shape of the phase-defect region is determined. A portion or portions of the DRE layer in the reflective region is removed according to the location and the shape of the phase-defect region to compensate the effect of the phase-defect region.
US09195134B2
Provided is an integrated circuit (IC) design method. The method includes receiving a design layout of the IC, the design layout having a first main feature, and adding a negative assist feature to the design layout, wherein the negative assist feature has a first width, the negative assist feature divides the first main feature into a second main feature and a third main feature by the first width, and the first width is sub-resolution in a photolithography process.
US09195129B2
The substrate holding device of the present invention includes a holding unit that adsorbs and holds the substrate, a measuring section that measures a physical quantity relating to a adsorption force of the holding unit with the substrate mounted on the holding unit; and a control section that carries out a first determination based on a first condition and a measurement result obtained by the measuring section and a second determination based on a second condition that is different from the first condition and a measurement result obtained by the measuring section to select one of at least three preset operations based on the result of first and second determinations to thereby execute processing depending on the selected operation.
US09195127B1
Described herein are systems and techniques for projecting content, periodically or continuously, onto a rear surface of a display medium from behind. The rear projected image is presented on an opposing or front surface of the display medium to a human audience for viewing. Additionally, non-visible light (e.g., IR light) is passed through the display medium to an area in front of the medium. The non-visible light is used to detect human gestures. In this manner, the rear projection arrangement avoids viewer obstruction during projection, yet detects and recognizes gestures made by the viewer in front of the display medium. In one implementation, the display medium comprises a thin sheet of transparent plastic material with arrays of curved optical features to redirect light received on the rear surface out the front surface toward the human audience.
US09195126B2
A projector includes a projection optical system adapted to project an image modulated by a light modulation device on a projection surface, a guide display section adapted to dispose a plurality of guides used for setting a black level area, which is an adjustment target area of a black level, on the projection image, and then displays the guides in the case in which projection is performed on the projection surface so that the projection images from a plurality of projectors including the present projector partially overlap each other, an input operation section adapted to receive a position adjustment operation of each of the guides, and a black level area setting section adapted to set the black level area, which is the adjustment target area of the black level, based on an arrangement of the guides.
US09195122B2
A relay lens system is provided. The relay lens system comprises: an air-spaced doublet comprising: a biconvex lens and a negative meniscus lens, an optical axis of the air-spaced doublet offset between the biconvex lens and the negative meniscus lens, each of the biconvex lens, the negative meniscus lens, an air space there between and an offset of the optical axis there between are selected to adjust the coma in an image travelling there through; and, a pair of cylindrical lenses, cylindrical with a relay optical path through the system, each of the pair of cylindrical lenses, and a respective air space there between, selected to adjust the astigmatism in the image.
US09195120B2
A universal adjustable lens adapter and rig system for smartphones, or similar electronic devices, that is modular in nature. The universal adjustable lens adapter includes a clamp mount assembly, a lens mount assembly, and a handle assembly. The clamp mount assembly provides a means for securing a smartphone, while the lens mount assembly provides a means for securing a camera lens. The clamp mount assembly includes a spring loaded first clamp and a fixed second clamp mounted to a clamp base and between which the smartphone is secured. Both the clamp mount assembly and the lens mount assembly are slidably connected to the handle assembly, such that the camera lens of any smartphone can be properly aligned with the camera lens attached to the lens mount assembly. Additionally, the handle assembly provides a means for manipulating and stabilizing the smartphone while taking pictures.
US09195118B2
A camera apparatus includes a camera unit that is provided with a camera lens, a camera body that rotatably holds the camera unit, and a rotating mechanism that rotates the camera unit in response to an emergency signal so as to be switched from a first state where the camera lens is stored inside the camera body to a second state where the camera lens is exposed to an outside of the camera body.
US09195116B2
Systems and methods for focus control in a pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) camera system are described herein. An example of a method described herein includes identifying a set of trace curves associated with the camera system, each of the trace curves specifying relationships between focus lens positions and zoom lens positions for a corresponding camera position, selecting a trace curve using the set of trace curves and one or more of pan angle, tilt angle or installation height of the camera system, and identifying a focus lens position for a current zooming factor of the camera system based on the selected trace curve.
US09195091B2
A liquid crystal display device sandwiching liquid crystal between a TFT substrate having a rectangular plane and an opposing substrate having a rectangular plane, wherein a long side of the TFT substrate is longer than a long side of the opposing substrate, the long side of the opposing substrate is formed with a chamfer, and a light shielding film made of metal is formed on the TFT substrate around a position corresponding to the center of the long side of the opposing substrate. By using the light shielding film, the chipping condition of the opposing substrate near the chamfer can be accurately and rapidly evaluated.
US09195090B2
A polymer film that has: a ratio R (VT/VM) of a sound velocity in a transverse direction VT to a sound velocity in a machine direction VM of from 1.05 to 1.50; and an in-plane retardation Re(λ) and a thickness-direction retardation Rth(λ) satisfying formula (I): (I) 0≦Re(630)≦10, and |Rth(630)|≦25, wherein Re(λ) represents an in-plane retardation at a wavelength of λ (nm); and Rth(λ) represents a thickness-direction retardation at a wavelength of λ (nm).
US09195089B2
A liquid crystal display touch panel structure includes first and second substrates configured therebetween a liquid crystal layer, a TFT layer, and a common electrode layer. The TFT layer is disposed on one surface of the second substrate facing the liquid crystal layer. The TFT layer has plural gate driving lines and plural source driving lines for driving corresponding transistors and capacitors according to a display pixel signal and a display driving signal so as to perform a display operation. The common electrode layer is disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate. The common electrode layer has a plurality of polygon apertures, wherein the plurality of polygon apertures are arranged at positions corresponding to at least part of the gate driving lines and at least part of the source driving lines of the thin film transistor layer.
US09195088B2
An operating device for an electric appliance has a plurality of display elements, a plurality of operating elements below a translucent operating surface in order to operate by applying a finger and drawing the finger over the operating surface. The operating elements are flat capacitive sensor elements and together with the display elements have common accommodation housings. The sensor elements are placed on top of the accommodation housings and the display elements are arranged in through-holes in the housings. The operating device has at least two accommodation housings that are arranged next to each other.
US09195084B2
A display device that prevents unnecessary radiation emitted from a circuit that drives a display panel from leaking to outside while achieving a reduction in the size of a cover member includes a liquid crystal panel, a drive circuit that drives the liquid crystal panel that is disposed on a rear surface of the liquid crystal panel, a rear frame in which the outer peripheral portion and an area around the outer peripheral portion other than the central portion constitute a rear case and which is made of a conductive material that covers, in the region constituting the rear case, sides and a rear of the drive circuit board disposed on the rear surface of the liquid crystal panel, and a cover member that covers from the rear the area of the rear frame other than the region constituting the rear case.
US09195080B2
The photo mask includes a mask substrate, and a mask pattern formed to include a plurality of unit mask patterns which are arranged in a single line for a fine pattern formation. The unit mask pattern is configured to include a body portion positioned at a center and wing portions formed in a triangular shape at both sides of the body portion.
US09195077B2
A device for measuring a characteristic reading distance of an individual, includes a measurement support carrying at least one ultrasound emitter member and at least one ultrasound receiver member, at least one of these members, referred to as a main measurement member, possessing a measurement axis on which emission or reception by the main measurement member is privileged, and being suitable for emitting or receiving ultrasound propagating in a measurement cone centered on its measurement axis. The device further includes an electronic processor unit adapted, as a function of the ultrasound signal received by the receiver member, to deliver a signal representative of the distance between the measurement support and an eyeglass frame worn by the individual's head, and to deduce therefrom the characteristic reading distance, and elements to verify that the eyeglass frame is situated at least in part in the measurement cone of the main measurement member.
US09195076B2
The present invention provides an accessory for eyeglasses or sun glasses which fit over the arms of the sunglasses and allows the user to add flotation pieces, lights or lighting elements, or embellishments. The accessory can be quickly installed and allows the user to customize the color and design of their accessory.
US09195072B2
An ophthalmic lens incorporating clearly identifiable, highly visible embedded labels that are not visible to the wearer or others when placed on the eye may be utilized to allow an individual to easily distinguish between the normal state of the lens and the inverted state of the lens as well as serve any number of functions, including acting as a brand label, a prescription label or as a cosmetic enhancer. The embedded label comprises holographic recordings revealed only in transmitted light.
US09195065B2
Provided is a three-dimensional image display system including: eyeglasses including a type information transmission unit which transmits type information of the eyeglasses and a potential information transmission unit which transmits a biopotential of a viewer as potential information; and a three-dimensional display TV including a type information reception unit which receives the type information, an electrode position determination unit which determines, based on the received type information, a position of an electrode included in the eyeglasses, a potential information reception unit which receives the transmitted potential information, and a wearing conditions determination unit which determines wearing conditions of the viewer wearing the eyeglasses, based on the determined electrode position and the received potential information.
US09195046B2
A protective film for a cellular phone screen that is operable to protect the screen and further functions to provide image magnification of images displayed on the screen. The protective film further includes a body that is generally planar in manner having four contiguous walls operable to define an interior volume. Disposed within the interior volume are a first lens and a second lens. The first lens and the second lens are configured in a bi-convex arrangement. The body further includes disposed on one side thereof a pressure sensitive adhesive that is operable to releasably secure the protective film to a screen of a cellular phone.
US09195039B2
An inverted microscope includes: a stage which places a specimen thereon; a light source unit which has a light source irradiating light to the specimen on the stage; an objective lens which focuses at least observation light from the specimen on the stage; a body unit which holds at least the objective lens; a condenser which is provided on an optical axis of the objective lens; a condenser holding unit which holds the condenser; a condenser moving mechanism which movably supports the condenser holding unit and moves the condenser holding unit along the optical axis; a transmission mechanism which transmits power for moving the condenser to the condenser moving mechanism; and an input unit which inputs the power to the transmission mechanism. The input unit is provided above the condenser holding unit.
US09195036B2
A zoom lens includes, in order from an object side, a first lens unit having a positive refractive power, a second lens unit having a negative refractive power, a third lens unit having a negative refractive power, and a fourth lens unit having a positive refractive power. During change of magnification from the short focal end to the long focal end, the first lens unit is stationary, the second lens unit is moved to an image side, the third lens unit is moved, and the fourth lens unit is stationary. A positive lens, included in the fourth lens unit or the first lens unit, satisfies the condition formulas: 1.40
US09195035B2
A zoom lens includes, in order from object side: a positive first unit immovable for zooming; a negative second unit moving during zooming; a third unit moving during zooming; a stop; and a positive fourth unit immovable for zooming. The first unit includes, in order from object side, a fixed negative front first unit, a positive middle first unit moving for focusing, and a fixed positive rear first lens unit. Each of the front first and the second units includes at least one positive lens and two negative lenses. Average of Abbe constants and average of partial dispersion ratios of positive lenses in the front first unit, average of Abbe constants and average of partial dispersion ratios of negative lenses in the front first unit, combined focal length of the positive lenses in the front first unit and focal length of the front first unit are appropriately set.
US09195023B2
Some embodiments disclosed herein relate to an optical device with one or more optical components (e.g., lenses) attached to a retainer portion or clip. The optical device can be removably attached to mobile electronic devices, such as mobile phones, tablet computers, media players, and the like. The retainer portion may be configured so as not to interfere with a user's view of a display panel of the mobile device. The optical device may include one or more energy conveying paths to allow energy to be conveyed to and/or from various components of the mobile device, such as flashes or microphones. In some embodiments, additional features may be provided, such as optical components tilted to complement a tilt of an onboard camera of a mobile device, and structures or adapters to reduce friction or allow an optical device to be attached to mobile devices of varying thicknesses.
US09195019B1
Disclosed is a low-shrink buffer tube having a reduced diameter. The buffer tube provides adequate crush resistance and is suitable for deployments requiring mid-span access.
US09195017B2
An optical module includes a first light-guide element, an optical element, a first optical fiber, and a beam splitter. The first light-guide element includes a first surface and a second surface. The optical element corresponds to the first surface. The first optical fiber is contacted with the second surface. The beam splitter is attached to the first surface, the beam splitter partially reflects and partially transmits a light beam striking thereon. A refractive index of the beam splitter is different from a refractive index of the first light-guide element.
US09195011B2
Provided is a single-fiber connector including a housing; and a single-position ferrule disposed within the housing, the single-position ferrule including a single fiber hole which extends though the housing parallel to a longitudinal center axis of the ferrule and is configured to receive a fiber. The fiber hole is disposed in the ferrule at a fiber position located according to a predetermined distance offset from the longitudinal center axis of the ferrule and a rotation of a predetermined number of degrees around the longitudinal center axis of the ferrule in a predetermined direction.
US09195006B1
A fiber termination assembly includes an optical fiber inserted into an optical ferrule disposed in an optical passageway of a heat conductive housing, the optical passageway providing an optical path aligned with the openings of the housing, the optical ferrule including a central bore concentrically disposed about the optical path and configured to receive a portion of a proximal end of the optical fiber therein, the optical ferrule and optical fiber secured in relation to the heat conductive housing with epoxy at a distal end of the optical ferrule, wherein the optical ferrule is transparent at a predetermined wavelength of light such that for light coupled into an input surface of the proximal end of the optical fiber at least a portion of the light propagating as cladding modes is stripped out of the optical fiber and transported to and dissipated in the heat conductive housing.
US09195005B2
A fully additive method for forming optical waveguides and devices, such as thermo-optic polymer switches and electro-optic polymer modulators, is disclosed. A first polymer material of refractive index N1 is coated onto a suitable substrate to form a first cladding layer. The first cladding is then selectively patterned using a mold to form an impression of the waveguide core into the first cladding layer. Next, a core layer is formed by ink-jet printing onto the imprinted first cladding layer with a core material of refractive index N2 (N2>N1). The core layer is subsequently coated by ink-jet printing with a second polymer material of refractive index N3 (N3
US09195004B2
The disclosure relates to providing printed structures of polymer that have substantially flat printed surfaces. In one embodiment, the disclosure relates to a post-printing treatment apparatus for receiving a substrate supporting a polymer printing thereon. The polymer can be PMMA or other suitable polymer. In a related embodiment, the polymer defines a thermoplastic polymer having a glass transition temperature. The apparatus can comprise of a chamber, and input manifold, an exhaust manifold, a solvent reservoir and a gas reservoir. The solvent reservoir provides one or more solvent systems adapted to chemically bind, and potentially react, with the polymer. The gas reservoir provides one or more gases for drying the substrate and printed polymer after the solvent treatment step. In one application, a substrate having printed surface thereon is placed in the chamber and exposed to the solvent system for sufficient period of time to provide substantially flat print surfaces.
US09194999B2
A display apparatus includes a liquid crystal panel and a backlight unit that emits light toward the back surface of the liquid crystal panel. The backlight unit includes: an LED; a wiring substrate having the LED mounted thereon; a light guide plate which light from the LED enters through a side surface and exits through a main surface toward the back surface of the liquid crystal panel; and a support component including a first support member that supports the LED and a second support member that supports the light guide plate. The support component is able to move between a first position at which the first support member supports the LED and the second support member supports the light guide plate and a second position at which the first support member is apart from the LED and the second support member supports the light guide plate.
US09194991B2
A fiber optic sensor structure includes a first substrate, a second substrate, a third substrate, a first fiber optic sensor and a second fiber optic sensor. The first substrate has a first groove, while the second substrate has a second groove. A manufacturing method includes: arranging the first fiber optic sensor in the first groove and arranging the second fiber optic sensor the second groove; and stacking the second substrate on the first substrate and stacking the third substrate on the second substrate. When assembled, the first fiber optic sensor is provided between the first substrate and the second substrate, and the second fiber optic sensor is provided between the second substrate and the third substrate to form a double-layer fiber optic sensor.
US09194980B2
Disclosed are a polarizing film including a polyolefin and a dichroic dye having a solubility parameter difference between the polyolefin and the dichroic dye is less than 7.4, and a display device including the polarizing film.
US09194979B2
A separated colored liquid composition used in a device involving an optical modulation technique in which a liquid is moved or subjected to a change in shape by an external electric field to change color or brightness, the separated colored liquid composition containing a colored liquid, a non-colored liquid immiscible with the colored liquid, and at least one additive selected from a fluorine-based surfactant and a silicone-based surfactant. Use of such a composition as a composition for forming an image in a device involving an optical modulation technique in which a liquid is moved or subjected to a change in shape by an external electric field to change color or brightness.
US09194978B2
A locator for determining the depth of a buried electromagnetic marker includes a transmission antenna and two reception antennas. The locator has a major axis and is configured. The transmission antenna is configured to generate an oscillatory magnetic field parallel to the major axis. The first reception antenna of the two reception antennas is configured to couple with an oscillatory magnetic field parallel to the major axis emitted by the electromagnetic marker and to generate a first detected signal. The second reception antenna is displaced along the major axis from the first antenna and configured to couple with an oscillatory magnetic field parallel to the major axis emitted by the electromagnetic marker and to generate a second detected signal. The locator includes analogue to digital converters and a processor which is configured to calculate the depth of the electromagnetic marker.
US09194972B2
The present invention provides a method of determining a physiochemical property of a drilling fluid at a drilling site during a drilling phase, said method comprising detecting a nuclear magnetic resonance signal from out-of-hole drilling fluid at said site and calculating therefrom a value indicative of said property.
US09194971B2
Techniques related to making resistivity measurements of an underground formation surrounding a borehole involve using a tool having an insulating pad mounted on the conductive body of the tool. The pad has a current injector electrode and a current return electrode electrically isolated from each other and mounted on a face of the pad. The pad is positionable in use to be adjacent the wall of the borehole. At least two impedance ratios are determined. The first is the ratio of the electrical impedance between the current injector electrode and the tool body and the electrical impedance between the current return electrode and the tool body. The second is the ratio of the electrical impedance between the current injector electrode and the formation, and the electrical impedance between the current return electrode and the formation on the other hand. The tool is arranged such that in operation, the two impedance ratios are substantially equal and there is substantially no potential difference between the tool body and the formation.
US09194966B2
A system to detect ionizing particles includes an enclosure which holds a fluid in a tensioned metastable state. The interaction of a particle with the liquid creates a respective vapor pocket that can be seen and recorded, and also results in a shock wave that can be heard and recorded. The level of tension metastability in combination with agents, such as Be and B atoms, and surfactants that minimize evaporation losses is associated with a particular type of particle.
US09194965B2
An imaging system is provided. The imaging system includes an X-ray radiation source. The imaging system also includes a source controller coupled to the X-ray radiation source and configured to modulate an exposure pattern from the X-ray radiation source to enable a coded exposure sequence. The imaging system further includes a digital X-ray detector configured to acquire image data that includes at least one coded motion blur.
US09194955B1
A method for obtaining data and communicating with a bicycle mounted cloud based activity monitor is provided. The method includes accepting into a server a plurality of sensor data and GPS location coordinates from a device attached to a bicycle, wherein the activity monitor communicates data to the cloud server via a wireless coupling. The method further includes writing information relating to sensor, GPS, and alarm functions from the cloud based server into the bike mounted activity tracker via a wireless link.
US09194954B2
A method for geo-referencing an area by an imaging optronics system which comprises acquiring M successive images by a detector, the imaged area being distributed between these M images, with M≧1. It comprises: measuring P distances d1, d2, . . . , dP between the system and P points of the area, called range-found points, with P≧3, distributed in K of said images with 1≦K≦M; acquiring the positioning xm, ym, zm of the detector at acquisition of the M images; measuring the attitude φm, θm, ψm of the detector at acquisition of the M images; acquiring the coordinates in these K images of image points (p1, q1), (p2, q2), . . . , (pP, qP) corresponding to the P range-found points; and estimating the parameters of exposure conditions xe, ye, ze, ψe, θe, φe corresponding to the M images as a function of positionings, of attitudes, distances and coordinates of the image points, to correct errors on the parameters xm, ym, zm, ψm, θm, φm of each of the M images.
US09194949B2
A method for determining a location of a vehicle. The method includes steps of acquiring a plurality of sensor data from a radar sensor associated with the vehicle; obtaining an approximate location of the vehicle using a GPS unit; comparing the sensor data to a database of geo-referenced sensor data; and based on the comparison, determining a location of the vehicle.
US09194948B1
An apparatus for providing a dynamic target impact point sweetener may include memory and a processor. The memory may store at least a target library indicating respective target parameters for a plurality of known potential targets. The processor may be configured by stored instructions to generate a composite multi-dimensional representation of a target based on radar data received at the apparatus from other aerial vehicles collecting projections over an area in which the target is located and based on radar data collected by an aerial vehicle in which the apparatus is located, identify the target based on the composite multi-dimensional representation, and generate aimpoint data regarding the target based on an identity of the target. The aimpoint data defining the most vulnerable point on the target.
US09194944B2
Disclosed is a measurement device that can accurately measure size, position, the presence of an object, and the like by means of a simple and low-cost method. Specifically, disclosed is a measurement device that is provided with: a transmitter that transmits radio waves; a vibrating surface that vibrates mechanically; a receiver that receives radio waves; and a controller that transmits radio waves from the transmitter, and on the basis of the signal of the radio waves reflected by the vibrating surface and received by the receiver, outputs information about a measured object on the pathway between the transmitter and the receiver with the vibrating surface therebetween.
US09194943B2
A ranging system includes a time of flight subsystem including circuitry incorporated in a mobile node and a base station for generating a TOF signal between the mobile node and the base station, measuring the time taken for transmission of the TOF signal, and generating a TOF distance signal based on the measured time. An accelerometer, mounted in the mobile node, generates an accelerometer signal. A distance filter generates the distance estimate. The filter is configured to (i) initialize the value of a distance estimate signal based on the TOF distance signal, (ii) detect a human step based on variances in the accelerometer signal, and (iii) change the value of the distance estimate signal by a predetermined quantum only upon detection of the human step, the change being positive or negative depending on a direction of the TOF distance signal relative to the distance estimate signal.
US09194931B2
The present invention proposes a length measurement method and a length measurement device. The length measurement method includes steps of emitting the laser via a laser ranging module in a reference direction to order to detect a reference distance between a reference point on a target and the laser ranging module, taking the reference direction as a the measurement direction, taking the reference distance as a first distance, executing a border detecting procedure according to the measurement direction and the first distance in order to detect a border of the target, and calculating measurement distance between the border and the reference point according to border location information of the laser ranging module corresponding to the border, the reference direction and the reference distance.
US09194927B2
A simple method to denoise ratio images in magnetic resonance imaging, includes generating a MRI sequence provided for acquiring data from an object to be imaged, wherein the MRI sequence is configured for generating at least two different standard images, respectively a first standard image and a second standard image, acquiring the two different standard images, and combining the two different standard images in a ratio image. The ratio image is obtained by calculating a ratio of the first standard image and the second standard image that is tunable by a parameter γ wherein the parameter γ is automatically chosen for maximizing the negentropy of the ratio image.
US09194925B2
A computer-implemented method for quantifying fat and iron in anatomical tissue includes acquiring a plurality of multi-echo signal datasets representative of the anatomical tissue using a magnetic resonance (MR) pulse sequence. A plurality of multi-echo signal datasets are selected from the plurality of multi-echo signal datasets and used to determine a first water magnitude value and a first fat magnitude value. In response to determining that the multi-echo signal datasets include at least three multi-echo datasets, a first stage analysis is performed. This first stage analysis comprises selecting a first effective transverse relaxation rate value. Next, first algorithm inputs comprising the first water magnitude value, the first fat magnitude value, and the first effective transverse relation rate value are created. Then, a non-linear fitting algorithm is performed based on the first algorithm inputs to calculate a second water magnitude value, a second fat magnitude value, and a second effective transverse relaxation rate value. A first proton density fat fraction value is then determined based on the second water magnitude value and the second fat magnitude value.
US09194911B2
A digital on-die-test engine (OTE) generates stimuli signals for an analog/RF circuit, where the OTE is embedded within the circuitry. The stimuli signals are injected into the circuit, feed through the circuit, and are received back into the OTE for analysis. The OTE includes an input subsystem to receive signals from various locations throughout the circuit. The received signals are sub-sampled before being tested. The OTE includes memory-aware and memory-less algorithms for testing the signals. The OTE is capable of changing the configuration of the circuit, where needed, following the tests.
US09194909B2
A test structure for an integrated circuit device includes one or more experiments selectively configured to receive one or more high-speed input signals as inputs thereto and to output at least one high-speed output signal therefrom, the one or more experiments each including two or more logic gates configured to determine differential delay characteristics of individual circuit devices, at a precision level on the order of picoseconds to less than 1 picosecond; and wherein the one or more sets of experiments are disposed, and are fully testable, at a first level of metal wiring (M1) in the integrated circuit device.
US09194908B2
A metrology device optically measures the electrical conductivity of a magnetic sample, such as a Tunneling Magnetoresistance (TMR) or Giant-Magneto Resistance (GMR) device, using Time Domain Thermo Reflectance (TDTR) to measure a cooling curve for the sample while a magnetic field is applied to the sample. The thermal conductivity of the sample may be determined using the cooling curve and the variation of the cooling curve with varying applied magnetic fields is measured. The electrical conductivity is determined for the sample in the magnetic field based on the thermal conductivity. If desired, single reflectance changes may be measured at a particular delay after heating, and the reflectance change at this delay may be used to determine the electrical conductivity. Of particular interest is the amount of change in electric conductivity for a given applied magnetic field because this yields a measure of the sensitivity of the sensor.
US09194905B2
A processing circuit has an input terminal to which an input signal generated by an input signal generator is inputted via an input line. An external capacitor is connected to the input line in parallel with the processing circuit. The processing circuit includes a pulse circuit, at least one switch, a controller, a detector and a determiner. The pulse circuit generates a pulsed voltage having at least one pulse. The least one switch is provided between the pulse circuit and the input line. The controller controls the at least one switch so as to apply the pulsed voltage to the input line via a resistor. The detector detects a change in a voltage of the input line caused by application of the pulsed voltage to the input line. The determiner determines whether the processing circuit is in a normal or abnormal condition based on the change detected by the detector.
US09194903B2
An apparatus for measuring a surface potential of an object on an underlying structure is disclosed. A relatively-moving mechanism moves a probe and a second support member relative to each other until the probe faces a reference structure on the second support member, an electric potential measuring device measures the surface potential of the reference structure through the probe, the controller calibrates the electric potential measuring device such that a measured value of the surface potential of the reference structure becomes 0, the relatively-moving mechanism moves the probe and a first support member relative to each other until the probe faces the object on the first support member after the calibration, and the electric potential measuring device measures the surface potential of the object through the probe.
US09194898B2
An intelligent electronic device (IED) having a gain control unit adapted to selectively regulate operating ranges of output signals of a sensing circuit of the device is described. In one embodiment, the IED is a digital electric power and energy meter, which operating ranges for supply voltages and supply currents of electrical services may be adjusted to match pre-determined ranges for input signals of a data acquisition system or a data processing module of the meter.
US09194896B2
The invention relates to an apparatus and method for tracking energy consumption. An energy tracking system comprises at least one switching element, at least one inductor and a control block to keep the output voltage at a pre-selected level. The switching elements are configured to apply the source of energy to the inductors. The control block compares the output voltage of the energy tracking system to a reference value and controls the switching of the switched elements in order to transfer energy for the primary voltage into a secondary voltage at the output of the energy tracking system. The electronic device further comprises an ON-time and OFF-time generator and an accumulator wherein the control block is coupled to receive a signal from the ON-time and OFF-time generator and generates switching signals for the at least one switching element in the form of ON-time pulses with a constant width ON-time.
US09194889B2
Provided is a probe card including a plurality of unit plates including pad areas and contact probe areas, a plurality of electrode pads formed in the pad areas, a plurality of contact probes formed in the contact probe areas, and a plurality of interconnecting layers electrically connecting the electrode pads and the contact probes. The plurality of unit plates has different sizes and are arranged and laminated so as to expose all the pad areas of each unit plate.
US09194879B2
A sample analysis apparatus is provided with a structure for stopping rotation of a disc at a precise position. The sample analysis apparatus includes a disc configured to rotate on a rotation shaft and having at least one detection zone, an optical sensing apparatus configured to detect a reaction result at the at least one detection zone, at least one position determining protrusion provided on an exterior surface of the disc, a slider movably disposed to in a radial direction relative to the disc, and a stopper mounted to the slider and configured to stop rotation of the disc by blocking the at least one position determining protrusion.
US09194878B2
An automatic analysis device has a light scattering photometer incorporated therein, and improved accuracy resulting from reducing the influences from external light. The automatic analysis device includes a scattered light measurement unit disposed inside the main-body casing, and openable/closable protective covers to cover the top face of the main-body casing. A first protective cover at the center includes a light-shielding part to block external light. The protective covers include see-through parts enabling viewing of the inside. The light-shielding part is configured to cover an area of the reaction disk at least corresponding to the area above the scattered light measurement unit, thus reducing external light leaking into the scattered light measurement unit, and thus removing influences from external light on the scattered light measurement. The protective cover may have a divided structure.
US09194877B2
The present invention provides systems and methods for analysis of samples, particularly biological and environmental sample to detect biomolecules of interest contained therein. A variety of system components are described herein, including, but not limited to, components for sample handling, mixing of materials, sample processing, transfer of materials, and analysis of materials. The invention further provides mechanisms for combining and integrating the different components and for housing, moving, and storing system components or the system as a whole. The systems may include any one or more or all of these components. The system finds particular use when employed for analysis of nucleic acid molecule using mass spectrometry, however, the invention is not limited such specific uses.
US09194871B2
The present invention concerns a monoclonal antibody and corresponding hybridoma cells and antigens suitable for isolating fetal cells from maternal blood. The inventive monoclonal antibody reacts with a surface antigen present on fetal red blood cells including their nucleated precursor cells, but not with surface antigens on adult erythroid cell.
US09194858B2
An apparatus and method for determining a concentration of an additive in a mixture is provided. The apparatus for determining the concentration of an additive in a mixture comprises a distillation system, a filtration system, a detection system and a fluid transportation system. An alternative apparatus is a portable apparatus comprising a distillation system, a filtration system, a detection system and a fluid transportation system removably coupled to a portable container. A method for determining the concentration of the additive in the mixture includes concentrating the additive in the mixture, removing the additive from a fraction of the mixture and measuring a spectral signature of both the non-additive fraction of the mixture and the mixture. A spectral signature value of the non-additive fraction of the mixture to the mixture is determined and then compared to spectral signatures of a plurality of reference mixtures containing known concentrations of the additive.
US09194856B2
method for diagnosing corrosion of an underground storage tank system is provided. The method includes the following steps. A sample from the underground storage tank system is collected, wherein the sample comprises at lease one metal ion. The species and the concentration of the metal ion in the sample are detected by an analysis instrument. A concentration threshold value is determined from a database according to the species of the metal ion. A mapping step is performed, wherein the concentration of the metal ion and the concentration threshold value are compared to diagnose if the underground storage tank system is corroded.
US09194853B2
The invention concerns the use of cyclic azaboronates as sensitive materials in sensors for the detection of the presence of peroxides, in particular hydrogen peroxide, in a gaseous environment. It further concerns new cyclic azaboronates, as well as sensors comprising these azaboronates as sensitive materials. Applications for the invention include the following: fight against terrorism, monitoring for security purposes of sites in which peroxides or peroxidable compounds are manufactured, stored, and/or used, monitoring of atmospheric pollution, etc.
US09194852B2
A method and an apparatus for accelerating the equilibration of a fluid, typically the reference fluid of an analyzer, are provided, the surface of the fluid being in contact with a gas phase. The device can include a cassette, which can be exchangeably inserted into an analyzer and which holds at least one flexible, gas-tight bag, in which the fluid and the gas phase are accommodated. The cassette or the analyzer can include at least one transmitting element, which can be caused to vibrate and which mechanically contacts the flexible bag in order to input mechanical energy into the liquid in at least one wall region.
US09194849B2
A housing of a column unit is tubular-shaped, and includes a first opening and a second opening, and an inner space separated from outside air by an insulating material. An air cooling section including a cooling device is arranged on a side of the first opening of the housing. At the time of cooling the inside of the inner space of the housing, air is caused, by a fan, to flow through the air cooling section and from the side of the first opening to a side of the second opening. A column section including a separation column and a heater is arranged inside the housing. A gap through which air flows from the first opening to the second opening is formed between the column section and an inner wall of the inner space of the housing.
US09194844B2
The invention relates to a method of nondestructive and contactless testing of components (3), wherein ultrasonic waves (6) are irradiated onto the surface of the component (3) at a predefinable, non-perpendicular angle of incidence (9) using an ultrasonic transmission sound transducer (1) arranged spaced apart from the surface of the component (3) and the intensity of the ultrasonic waves (7) reflected from the surface of the component (3) is detected with time resolution and/or frequency resolution by the antenna array elements (2n) of an ultrasonic antenna array (2) configured for detecting ultrasonic waves (7) and the phase shift of the ultrasonic waves guided at the surface of the test body is determined therefrom with respect to the ultrasonic waves (7) directly reflected at the surface of the component (3).
US09194836B2
The present invention is directed to electronic methods of detecting target analytes such that upon binding of the target analyte a shift in electrochemical potential is seen. This assay relies on the use of an electroactive moiety (“EAM”) that is attached to an electrode and comprises a self-immolative moiety, whose presence gives the EAM a first E0, and whose absence, upon irreversible cleavage gives the EAM a second E0. This difference is detected, and if such change occurs, it is an indication of the presence of a target analyte.
US09194832B2
The structural health of a structure such as an aircraft is monitored by spraying a paint formulation containing a loading of carbon nanoparticles to provide a paint layer forming part of a paint system. The paint layer forms a smart skin whose electrical properties may be monitored to determine structural health.
US09194830B2
An apparatus for performing nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements of a material of interest includes an NMR tool and a processor. The NMR tool includes a transmitter antenna; a transmitter coupled to the transmitter antenna; and a receiver antenna configured to receive NMR signals in response to transmitted pulses of electromagnetic energy transmitted by the transmitter antenna. The NMR signals include at least a first signal and a second signal of a phase-alternated group of signals. The processor is configured to receive the NMR signals; receive a first system gain related to the first signal and a second system gain related to the second signal, each system gain being related to a system comprising the NMR tool and the material of interest; and calibrate the NMR signals using the first system gain and the second system gain.
US09194826B2
The electron beam apparatus is provided with a stage for mounting a sample thereon, a primary optical system for generating an electron beam having an irradiation area and irradiating the electron beam onto the sample, a secondary optical system for detecting electrons which have been generated through the irradiation of the electron beam onto the sample and have acquired structural information of the sample and acquiring an image of the sample about a viewing area and an irradiation area changing section for changing the position of the irradiation area with respect to the viewing area.
US09194818B2
A distance measurement system includes: an irradiating means for irradiating two coherent electromagnetic waves having frequencies different from each other to an object under measurement in a partially displacing manner while having a same area; an electromagnetic wave detecting means for detecting electromagnetic waves from at least two or more areas on the object under measurement with a boundary line being interposed therebetween to extend in a direction substantially perpendicular to the displacement direction; a signal generating means for generating a difference signal or a summation signal of respective outputs of the electromagnetic waves detected in the electromagnetic wave detecting means at symmetrical positions with respect to the boundary line; and a measuring means for obtaining a phase difference or intensity difference of the difference signal or summation signal to obtain measurement values.
US09194816B2
In a method of detecting a defect of a substrate, a first light having a first intensity may be irradiated to a first region of the substrate through a first aperture. A defect in the first region may be detected using a first reflected light from the first region. A second light having a second intensity may be irradiated to a second region of the substrate through a second aperture. A defect in the second region may be detected using a second reflected light from the second region. Thus, the defects by the regions of the substrate may be accurately detected.
US09194806B2
A means for detecting active oxygen in the human body, which quantitatively detects the amount of active oxygen remaining in the body by applying urine to a detection paper, and is characterized by providing a means for detecting active oxygen in the human body, which detects the amount of active oxygen by submerging a test strip into urine, on which has been applied a color indicating agent that changes color by reacting with malondialdehyde (MDA) and to which has been coupled a support stick, and observing color change. The present invention can affordably and simply identify active oxygen, because the test strip changes color when simply wetted with urine and the test does not require additional technically skilled laboratory staff or expensive equipment. Also, the invention enables simple testing regardless of time and space since a specific facility is unnecessary for the test, thereby providing another advantage of general usage.
US09194800B2
Systems, devices, and methods are described for identifying, classifying, differentiating, etc., objects. For example a hyperspectral imaging system can include a dark-field module operably coupled to at least one of an optical assembly, a dark-field illuminator, and a hyperspectral imaging module. The dark-field module can include circuitry having one or more sensors operable to acquire one or more dark-field micrographs associated with scattered electromagnetic energy from an object interrogated by the dark-field interrogation stimulus. The hyperspectral imaging module can be operably coupled to the dark-field module, and can include circuitry configured to generate an angular-resolved and spectrally resolved scattering matrix based on the one or more dark-field micrographs of the object.
US09194796B2
A method and an apparatus for detecting hidden hazardous substance including the steps of: performing terahertz imaging for a detected object; judging whether there is a suspicious area containing the hidden hazardous substance in a terahertz image of the detected object obtained by the terahertz imaging; performing a multi-wavelength spectroscopy measurement to the suspicious area, determining whether the hazardous substance is contained in the suspicious area according to results of multi-wavelength spectroscopy measurement; and outputting the image of the detected object and hazardous substance detecting result. Also disclosed is an apparatus for implementing the method for detecting the hidden hazardous substance according to the present invention. Determination of the hidden hazardous substance can be performed from the perspectives of shape features and substance composition, thus the accuracy of detection is greatly increased.
US09194774B2
Methods and systems for venting a well that receives a liquid. The method includes providing a microplate including a well that has a cavity with an open inlet and a closed end. The cavity extends between the open inlet and the closed end. The cavity is defined by a wall surface having a cross-sectional contour that includes at least one continuous section and at least one discontinuity section. The method also includes depositing a liquid into the open inlet of the well. The liquid enters the cavity and flows toward the closed end to at least partially fill the well. The liquid flows along the continuous section of the wall surface and remains separated from the discontinuity section of the wall surface, thereby maintaining a gas exhaust path along a spacing between the liquid and the discontinuity section as the liquid flows toward the closed end.
US09194757B2
A magnetostrictive torque sensor includes first to fourth detection coils each wound around a steering axle (a sensor shaft) so as to surround a magnetostrictive film formed on the sensor shaft and a multi-turn winding bias coil that is separated from the first to fourth detection coils and that is wound around the sensor shaft so as to surround the magnetostrictive film. By applying a DC component current to the bias coil, a sufficient bias magnetic field is applied to the magnetostrictive film so that the hysteresis is prevented.
US09194749B2
Body temperature measurements are obtained by scanning a thermal radiation sensor across the side of the forehead over the temporal artery. A peak temperature measurement is processed to compute an internal temperature of the body as a function of ambient temperature and the sensed surface temperature. The function includes a weighted difference of surface temperature and ambient temperature, the weighting being varied with target temperature through a minimum in the range of 96° F. and 100° F. The radiation sensor views the target surface through an emissivity compensating cup which is spaced from the skin by a circular lip of low thermal conductivity.
US09194746B1
A system that measures deviation of printed color at selected locations on a moving substrate from a target color. The system comprises using a printed test image of target color, a calibrated spectrophotometer to provide spectral response values of the target color on the test image, a photonic device that provides tri-stimulus values from inline printed images and a computing device. The computing device compares the tri-stimulus values to spectral response values for the test image to calculate a spectral transformation matrix at each location selected to remove variations in optical and mechanical parameters. The spectral transformation matrix is applied to future mapped sets of tri-stimulus values of printed colors captured by the photonic device from selected locations to determine in real-time the deviation of color and thereby control color quality.
US09194745B2
Identification of a material composition. The material composition is configured with a sequential pattern applied to one or more surfaces of the body. The sequential pattern identifies the specific material composition. A discrete section or sub-section of the material is analyzed, after which the discrete section or sub-section may be sorted for recycling.
US09194734B2
A liquid replenishment system includes a reservoir, a first temperature sensor positioned in the reservoir at a full level, a second temperature sensor positioned in the reservoir at an add level, and a controller. The controller is connected to both the first and second sensors. The controller receives temperature signals from the first and second temperature sensors at first and second times. The controller sends an add liquid signal if temperature sensed by the first temperature sensor is substantially different at the first and second times and if temperature sensed by the second temperature sensor is substantially different at the first and second times. The controller sends a full signal if temperature sensed by the first temperature sensor is substantially the same at the first and second times and if temperature sensed by the second temperature sensor is substantially the same at the first and second times.
US09194727B2
A method of calibrating a mechanical instrument assembly includes reading a memory device coupled with a mechanical testing instrument, the mechanical testing instrument having one or more mechanical characteristics with values unique to the mechanical testing instrument, and reading includes reading of one or more calibration values based on the one or more mechanical characteristic values. The method further includes calibrating the mechanical instrument assembly according to the one or more calibration values. The mechanical testing instrument is coupled with the mechanical instrument assembly.
US09194724B2
In a gas sensor (100), a base end portion (175b) of a second outer wall (175) of an outer protector (171) is airtightly connected to a forward end portion (164c) of a first inner wall (164) of an inner protector (161). The outer protector (171) has a taper wall (172) which is located on the axially forward end side of the second outer wall (175). The taper wall (172) has the shape of a tapered tube whose diameter decreases toward the axially forward end side, and has a second outer hole (176), which is a forward end opening. The entire taper wall (172) is disposed on the axially forward end side in relation to the inner bottom wall (162) of the inner protector (161).
US09194723B2
A system for damping the reflection wave at the open end (6) of a magnetostrictive sensor system has at least one magnet device (2) movable relative to a measuring wire (1) that can be deflected mechanically and that experiences a deflection under the influence of a current pulse (3). The deflection can then be processed by a signal device (5). The system has at least one damping part (8) lying against the measuring wire (1) by a sleeve-shaped enclosure (11). The sleeve-shaped enclosure (11) can be deformed from an expanded initial state intended for attaching the sleeve-shaped enclosure to the damping element (9), to a constricted functional state that exerts a clamping force on the damping element (9). The method is characterized in that the sleeve-shaped enclosure (11) is constricted to an increasing extend from the end (19) of the sleeve-shaped enclosure adjacent to the signal device (5) to the other end (19′) so that the tubular damping element (9) is likewise pressed into a conical contour. At least the conical contour of the sleeve-shaped enclosure (11) is continuous and without interruption.
US09194716B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on one or more computer storage devices, for ranking categories of points of interest. In one aspect, a method includes receiving at a current time a location of a user's electronic device and retrieving data identifying multiple points of interest. Each point of interest is within a predetermined distance to the location and is associated with a category. Each of the points of interest is scored based on proximity of the point of interest to the location. Each of the categories is ranked based on the scores of the points of interest included in the categories and on the probability of receiving a query from a user relating to the subject matter of the category at the current time in the location. Data identifying points of interest is provided to the electronic device based on the ranking and the scoring.
US09194715B2
A method of providing navigation guidance information to a user of a portable electronic device includes uploading a track file to a server, the track file containing a plurality of waypoints that form a track, adding a plurality of navigation points to the plurality of waypoints to produce a modified track file, the plurality of navigation points providing navigation guidance to the user of the portable electronic device, and the plurality of navigation points containing data for creating a graphical depiction of intersections associated with the turn-by-turn navigation guidance. The method further includes downloading the modified track file to the portable electronic device, and providing bi-directional turn-by-turn navigation guidance to the user of the portable electronic device when the user reaches each of the plurality of navigation points as the user follows the path indicated by the modified track file.
US09194711B2
A method of operation of a navigation system includes: identifying a device location; selecting a maneuver type with the device location; and determining a junction-type with the maneuver type for displaying on a device.
US09194706B2
A system for confirming a direction of travel of a vehicle includes a location determining system and a control unit. The location determining system is configured to be coupled to a vehicle that travels in a network of plural route segments having fixed positions. The location determining system also is configured to obtain data representative of a measured heading of the vehicle. The measured heading represents a direction of travel of the vehicle. The control unit is configured to receive a designated route segment that is at least one of selected by operator input or provided by a trip plan that designates operational settings of the vehicle for a trip. The control unit is configured to compare the measured heading of the vehicle with one or more designated headings associated with the route segments to verify whether the vehicle is actually traveling on the designated route segment.
US09194703B2
An electronic circuit for driving a resonator of a MEMS-type resonator device is provided. The resonator includes a mass connected to a spring and a damping element, an actuation element for actuating the mass via an actuation signal, and a detection element for detecting motion of the mass. The electronic circuit includes a conversion means connected to the detection element to supply a mass oscillation derivative signal, a means of comparing the derivative signal amplitude and a reference amplitude for supplying a control signal, and a decision unit for supplying a digital actuation signal. The actuation signal includes rectangular pulses determined on the basis of the derivative signal and of the control signal to adapt the mass oscillation amplitude according to the reference amplitude.
US09194696B2
An apparatus and method for determining contours of a patient's foot. The apparatus includes an alignment section that orientates the foot relative to an optical imaging section. The alignment section includes at least one support member located proximate a focal length of the imaging section, that engages the plantar surface substantially only in the immediate area of the fifth metatarsal head of the foot. The support generates a dorsally-directed load that locks the midtarsal joint. The alignment section further includes a heel stirrup and a laser beam or other reference line for aligning the second metatarsal head with the distal one-third of the lower leg, to place the subtalar joint in a neutral condition. The foot is thus suspended in space such that the imaging section is able to obtain an accurate measurement of the plantar surface without distortion of the soft tissues or bone structure of the foot.
US09194690B2
A torque transmission assembly comprising: (i) an optical fiber coupled to an optical sensing component and capable of rotating and translating the optical sensing component and of transmitting light to and from the optical sensing component; and (b) an annular structure surrounding the optical fiber, the annular structure in conjunction with said optical fiber transmits torque from a rotating component to the optical sensing component, wherein the annular structure does not include a steel wire torque spring.
US09194689B2
An apparatus for measuring displacement is disclosed. The disclosed displacement measurement apparatus may include a magnet unit having magnet sub-units arranged repeatedly in a particular pitch (p) to generate a sine-wave magnetic flux density; a sensor unit including a sensor array for measuring the sine-wave magnetic flux density; and a measurement part configured to measure a displacement of the magnet unit and the sensor unit displaced relatively to each other, based on the measured value of the sine-wave magnetic flux density, where the sensor array comprises two or more sensors arranged separated by a gap of p/k in-between (where k is 2n, n is an integer greater than or equal to 1) along an arrangement direction of the magnet sub-units.
US09194686B2
An apparatus that includes two non-coinciding arrangements disposed in an two axes Cartesian coordinate system such that each arrangement having a non-zero projection on a respective axis from among the two axes. Each one of the arrangements includes a pair of oppositely directed, spaced apart, co-axial radiating-capable elements, each of the elements being hollow with internal space, and being slotted throughout its entire extent. A first circuitry coupled to the arrangement and being configured to sense an electric field projection along the axis and to convey it to a first feeding terminal. A second circuitry coupled to a slot of the arrangement and being configured to sense a magnetic field's projection along said axis and to convey it to a first feeding terminal.
US09194681B2
An all-fire detection circuit for an electrically initiated inertial igniter munition. The all-fire detection circuitry including: an input configured for receiving an input voltage over a duration responsive to an acceleration of the munition; an electrical storage device configured to receive a portion of the input voltage over the duration and to thereby accumulate a charge, an output coupled to the electrical storage device; a first diode having a first anode coupled to the input and a first cathode coupled to the electrical storage device; and a comparator configured to compare a voltage at the output and a reference voltage and to produce a result based on the comparison.
US09194677B1
A projectile, such as a guided mortar projectile, has both a front obturator and an aft obturating device. The aft obturating device is located aft of the front obturator, and serves to trap pressurized gases behind the aft obturating device, so as to provide further propulsion to the projectile with the trapped pressurized gases, even after the front obturator has cleared the muzzle of a launcher. The aft obturating device provides less resistance to movement of pressurized gases across the aft obturating device in the aft direction, than to movement of pressurized gases across the aft obturating device in the forward direction, and may act as a check valve with regard to such gas flows. The aft obturating device may be part of a cap that is coupled to a tail boom of the projectile, and that drops away from the projectile after launch.
US09194668B2
The invention is an energetic unit comprised of: a container comprised of a base, an upper part, and a cover; a substrate located in the base and comprised of a thin, ribbon-like strip of flexible material that provides electrical contact to external firing circuits; a semiconductor bridge (SCB) chip electrically and physically attached to the substrate; and one or more layers of energetic material which, are packed into the upper part of the container between the SCB chip and the cover.
US09194664B1
A shield for mounting a 120 mm gun to a tank turret includes a casting with a through hole configured to receive the 120 mm gun. A mounting flange is disposed in the through hole for fixing the 120 mm gun to the casting. A pair of trunnions are defined by a combination of the casting and a pair of respective trunnion caps. A shroud is removably fixed to the casting and includes a pair of bosses that interlock with a pair of protrusions in an interior of the casting.
US09194646B2
A toy launch apparatus for projectiles having a soft exterior and an open bottom with a bordering strong inner wall. The projectile's open bottom is positioned atop a slot, with respect to a launch deck and a carriage in a housing assembly. A cocking assembly includes a pivotal launch arm and a launch spring connected to the carriage movable with an engaged slide, a slide link and carriage lock, which are cocked when a user pulls the slide rearward. At a first rearward position of the slide the carrier is restrained in a cocked configuration. On the way to a second rearward position of the slide, the slide, slide link and carriage lock disengage from the carriage, launch arm and launch spring. When the carriage and launch arm are triggered, the launch spring releases and the launch arm impacts the inner wall of the projectile for discharge.
US09194616B2
A disclosed cryogenic refrigerator includes a first stage displacer; a first stage cylinder configured to form a first expansion between the first stage cylinder and the first stage displacer; a second stage displacer connected to the first stage displacer; and a second stage cylinder configured to form a second expansion space between the second stage cylinder and the second stage displacer, wherein a helical groove is formed on an outer peripheral surface of the second stage displacer so as to helically extend from a side of the second expansion space toward the first stage displacer, the helical groove communicates with the first expansion space, and a cross-sectional area of the helical groove becomes smaller from a side of the second expansion space to a side of the first expansion space.
US09194606B2
The invention relates to a water heater comprising a water tank, and a number of passageways for connection of valves and water tubes, in which an integrated channel or void is at least extending below the water tank and leads into an outlet to a drain. In one aspect, the invention also relates to a combination for a water heater comprising a top cover and a bottom tray, and in another aspect to a bottom cover for a wall mounted water heater.
US09194604B2
A burner assembly for a grain bin for heating air moving through the assembly to dry grain in the bin. The burner assembly has a collector adapted to receive fuel from a fuel line. A burner housing attaches to the collector receives fuel from the fuel line. A nozzle is secured to the burner. A flame diverter downstream from the burner housing diverts the flame outwardly from the burner nozzle toward the housing wall. A flame cone having a slope generally similar to the slope of the diverter is positioned near the burner to define a gap between the inside face of the diverter and the outer surface of the flame cone so as to provide a path for the burning fuel to travel from the burner outwardly toward the housing walls for a more complete combustion of the fuel.
US09194599B2
An Electronically-Controlled Register vent (ECRV) that can be easily installed by a homeowner or general handyman is disclosed. The ECRV can be used to convert a non-zoned HVAC system into a zoned system. The ECRV can also be used in connection with a conventional zoned HVAC system to provide additional control and additional zones not provided by the conventional zoned HVAC system. In one embodiment, the ECRV is configured have a size and form-factor that conforms to a standard manually-controlled register vent. In one embodiment, a zone thermostat is configured to provide thermostat information to the ECRV. In one embodiment, the zone thermostat communicates with a central monitoring system that coordinates operation of the heating and cooling zones.
US09194598B2
An occupancy sensing electronic thermostat is described that includes a thermostat body, an electronic display that is viewable by a user in front of the thermostat, a passive infrared sensor for measuring infrared energy and an infrared energy directing element formed integrally with a front surface of the thermostat body. The passive infrared sensor may be positioned behind the infrared energy directing element such that infrared energy is directed thereonto by the infrared energy directing element. The thermostat may also include a temperature sensor and a microprocessor programmed to detect occupancy based on measurements from the passive infrared sensor.
US09194597B2
Systems and methods are disclosed for incorporating manual changes to the setpoint for a thermostatic controller into long-term programming of the thermostatic controller. For example, one or more of the exemplary systems compares the actual setpoint at a given time for the thermostatic controller to an expected setpoint for the thermostatic controller in light of the scheduled programming. A determination is then made as to whether the actual setpoint and the expected setpoint are the same or different. Furthermore, a manual change to the actual setpoint for the thermostatic controller is compared to previously recorded setpoint data for the thermostatic controller. At least one rule is then applied for the interpretation of the manual change in light of the previously recorded setpoint data.
US09194595B2
A steam dispersion apparatus includes a steam chamber communicating in an open-loop arrangement with a first steam source for supplying steam to the steam chamber. The steam chamber includes a steam dispersion location at which steam exits therefrom at generally atmospheric pressure. A heat exchanger communicates in a closed-loop arrangement with a second steam source for supplying steam to the heat exchanger at a pressure generally higher than atmospheric pressure. The heat exchanger is located at a location that is not directly exposed to the air to be humidified, the heat exchanger being in fluid communication with the steam chamber so as to contact condensate from the steam chamber. The heat exchanger converts condensate formed by the steam chamber back to steam when the condensate contacts the heat exchanger.
US09194574B2
An illumination light source includes a light emitting module having a light emitting part, a circuit unit, a base, a tube-like first housing member to accommodate the circuit unit, and a second housing member having a plurality of radiation fins. The light emitting module is disposed on one opening-side of the first housing member, while the base is disposed on the other opening-side. The second housing member includes a rotary ring body with a rotation axis agreeing with the center axis of the first housing member, and the plurality of the plate-lake radiation fins. The plurality of the radiation fins is parallel to one virtual plane containing the rotation axis, and disposed at intervals between each other in the direction orthogonal to the virtual plane. The inner wall of the rotary ring body surrounds the outer walls of the first and second housing members to combine the members.
US09194573B2
An assembly for high-powered LEDs provides a direct attachment of the LED to a ceramic thermal conductor/electrical insulator sealed in a housing with a compression element between a portion of the housing and ceramic heat sink to provide a predetermined range of biasing force locating the ceramic heat sink against the portion of the housing with dimensional changes in the ceramic heat sink caused by thermal expansion of the ceramic heat sink.
US09194564B2
A Christmas light includes a reflector holder defining an axis, a lamp body and a reflector. The reflector holder has an axial hole, an axial engagement slot and a radial slot in spatial communication with the axial engagement slot. The lamp body includes a light emitter and a tenon formed at one side thereof. The lamp body extends through the axial hole in the reflector holder with the tenon sliding into the axial engagement slot and finally engaged in the radial slot once the reflector holder is rotated relative to the lamp body. The reflector has a bottom opening for mounting onto the reflector holder from above, thereby enclosing the light emitter within the reflector.
US09194559B2
An illumination lens includes a light receiving surface 101; and a light exit surface 103. When the axis of 101 is designated as Z-axis, a position of the bottom of the lens is designated as z=0 and X-axis and Y-axis are defined in a plane which contains z=0 and is perpendicular to Z-axis, 101 is symmetric about YZ-plane and XZ-plane and a cross-sectional area of a cross section of 101 parallel to XY-plane monotonously decreases with increase in z-coordinate. When the maximum value of z-coordinate on 101 is designated as d and a radius of the cross section of 103 at z=0 is designated as r, a point (x, y) on a cross section of 101 at z=0.3d is represented by ( x a ) 2 + ( y b ) 2 = f ( θ ) 0 ≤ θ ≤ π 2 ( 1 ) where a and b represent constants and θ = tan - 1 ( y x ) f ( 0 ) = f ( π 2 ) = 1.0 , and f ( θ ) ≤ 1.0 ( 2 ) 1 ≤ x a + y b ( 3 ) and there exists a point at which f(θ)≦0.95 and a<0.5r and b<0.5r.
US09194558B2
A lighting device includes a laser providing high brightness coherent light and a light scattering element having luminescent material adapted for converting part of the light from the laser into a different wavelength, and transmitting and scattering part of the light from the laser without conversion. The lighting device may be used as the a light source in a lamp bulb or other light emission device.
US09194555B2
A unique pattern arrangement, placement density, and wattage sizing of LEDs in a line voltage Linear Task Light produces uniform illumination with negligible point-source shadowing typically seen in other similar LED task lights. A desired energy code compliant 7½ Watts per foot is achieved using a greater number and smaller sized LEDs than in competitor's products, resulting in a better price-point efficiency in terms of dollars per Watt ($/W). The resulting product meets all Leed certification requirements, is California Title 24 compliant, and uses proximity sensing circuitry to further reduce energy consumption by shutting off when the illuminated area is vacant for a period of time. The LED Task Light disclosed is capable of higher illumination when needed, without sacrificing energy code compliancy through the use of timing circuitry to automatically reduce illumination intensity and corresponding energy consumption after a preset time interval.
US09194551B1
A rotary image projector has a dynamic image projector. A lens set is mounted inside a front portion of a housing of the dynamic image projector, and a motor, a slide assembly and a light-casting assembly is mounted inside a rear portion of the housing. The slide assembly is mounted on a spindle of the motor and is located between the light-casting assembly and the lens set. The motor drives the slide assembly to rotate to vary a position of the slide assembly aligning to the light-casting assembly in generation of dynamic images. The projector further has a transparent inflatable figure inflated by a blower for demonstration. The dynamic image projector is mounted on the transparent inflatable figure and the inflatable figure serves as a projection screen for the dynamic image projector projects a movable dynamic image on the inflatable figure.
US09194550B2
A lighting apparatus having a base member and a directional member are shown and described. The base member includes a first surface having a plurality of reflective elements extending therefrom. The base member also including a plurality of openings arranged in a pattern. Each opening is configured to receive a respective light source. The directional member has a portion of a reflective surface positioned relative to at least one opening to reflect light radiating from a lighting source disposed within the opening towards a portion of at least one of the reflective elements extending from the base member.
US09194544B2
There are provided a light-emitting device, an illuminating apparatus, and a display apparatus in which, in order to apply light to an object to be illuminated with uniformity in light intensity, the quantity of light which is applied to a part of an edge of a to-be-illuminated region of the to-be-illuminated object located near a light-emitting section can be lessened. A backlight unit includes a printed substrate, a plurality of light-emitting sections each of which has a base support, an LED chip and a lens, and reflective members each of which is placed around the light-emitting section and has a first wall portion and a second wall portion.
US09194532B2
A merchandise display security device for displaying and protecting articles of merchandise includes a security sensor having adjustable retaining arms for securely retaining articles of merchandise having various dimensions. Each of the opposed retaining arms includes a grip portion at a first end and a rack portion at a second end opposite the grip portion that operatively engages a rotatable pinion gear. The rack portions are disposed about the pinion gear such that the retaining arms are moveable in a lateral direction in opposite directions to accommodate articles of merchandise having various widths. The retaining arms are rotatably disposed within a base portion and a cap portion removably attached to the base portion such that the retaining arms are rotatable about a lateral axis to accommodate articles of merchandise having various thicknesses.
US09194531B2
A kinematic mount in which mobile spheroid bodies belonging to one component mate with conical depressions in a second component. The mobility of the spheroid bodies is achieved using round shafts and tight-fitting holes.
US09194524B2
An embodiment includes a rapid-connect coupler including a coupler body configured to convey a fluid; a coupling head at a first end of and communicating with the coupler body, the coupling head configured to transition between a coupled configuration and a de-coupled configuration. The coupler may further include a stop apparatus configured to allow the coupling head to transition from the de-coupled configuration to the coupled configuration without obstruction, and the stop apparatus may be configured to provide a hard-stop as the coupling head transitions from the coupled configuration to the de-coupled configuration.
US09194522B2
A fluid coupling including an annular adapter with a cam receiving groove and an annular coupler slidable onto the adapter with cam levers movable to engage cams within the cam receiving groove. The adapter is made of Ultra High Density Polyethylene and has a metal insert or collar defining the cam receiving groove.
US09194520B2
A releasable plug connection for inserting a nozzle tube into a jack includes a hollow cylinder and a sleeve displaceably mounted on the cylinder. A nozzle tube, forming the hollow cylinder, is provided with radially spring-loaded lugs, the free ends of which are in contact with a locking surface. The locking surface is formed on a flange of the sleeve, which can slide relative to the hollow cylinder against the force of a spring. To release the connection, the sleeve is pushed back so that the lugs are pushed inwardly, and ends of the lugs slide from the locking surface. As soon as the lug ends have left the locking surface, the nozzle tube shoots from the jack under the action of the spring.
US09194514B2
A fitting assembly for maintaining a leak free seal connection with an associated fluid conduit during and after exposure to extreme heat is provided. The fitting assembly includes a coupling body including an inside surface defining a bore for receiving the associated fluid conduit. The coupling body is made of a first corrosion resistant material having a first coefficient of thermal expansion. The at least one ring is made of a complementary second corrosion resistant material having a second larger coefficient of thermal expansion such that the second material will expand at a greater rate that the first material during heating to a first temperature generally exceeding annealing temperatures of both the first material and the second material. The second material contracts at a greater rate that the first material during subsequent cooling to a second temperature below the annealing temperatures thereby restoring compressive and tensile stresses in the associated fluid conduit and the fitting assembly for ensuring that the fitting assembly maintains a leak free seal connection with the associated fluid conduit.
US09194509B2
An apparatus for assisting an actuator to close a valve has a cylindrical booster housing with a central axis. The booster housing includes an upward facing piston cavity and a downward facing lower cavity with internal threads for selectively coupling with external threads of a piston head of a valve actuator. A bulkhead is formed between the piston cavity and the lower cavity. The bulkhead has an opening for selectively accepting an actuator stem of the valve actuator therethrough. A booster piston is located within the piston cavity. The booster piston has a piston mounting means located on its bottom side for selectively securing a top end of the actuator stem of the valve actuator to the booster piston. The booster piston is moveable upwards in an axial direction to move the valve from a lower open position to an upper closed position.
US09194502B2
Methods and apparatus for removing fluid from fluid valves are described. An example apparatus for controlling fluid flow includes a fluid regulator having a body defining an inlet port, an outlet port and an aperture therebetween. The body further defining a bore fluidly coupled to a valve and at least one of the outlet port or the inlet port. The valve is to enable fluid contained within the body to be removed therefrom.
US09194499B2
One embodiment of the face seal described herein includes a seal seat and a seal element carried by a seal housing. The seal element cooperates with the seal seat to establish a seal. The housing includes a seal element support and a shroud. The shroud includes a stem and a tip, and the tip is an insert secured to the stem.
US09194495B2
A fluid pressure apparatus includes a piston, and a packing provided on an outer circumference of the piston. The packing includes a support ring made of a low-friction material, and a ring-shaped seal member mounted to the support ring. When at least a certain amount of transverse load acts on the piston, an outer circumferential surface of the support ring abuts against an inner circumferential surface of the slide hole, whereby the piston is prevented from contacting with the inner circumferential surface of the slide hole.
US09194480B2
A method is disclosed for assembly of a planetary gear drive, wherein the gear drive includes a ring gear, a sun gear, and a plurality of planet gears engaged with the ring gear and sun gear. The method includes mounting the planet gears within a carrier, with the planet gears freely rotatable relative to the carrier. A gear alignment tool is inserted through a bore in a front face of the carrier and is used to index the planet gears into an aligned rotational position for proper subsequent engagement with the ring gear and sun gear.
US09194479B2
A pin for guiding a gear has a substantially cylindrical outer surface section, wherein the outer surface section comprises a substantially cylindrical rolling surface section, which is aligned and formed so as to make possible the guiding of the gear. The outer surface section further has a groove, which is formed so as to accommodate a retaining ring, wherein the groove is disposed with respect to the rolling surface section so as to make possible a guiding, directly or indirectly via the retaining ring, of a rolling-element assembly along the axial direction of the pin. In this way it is possible to provide a guiding of a gear wherein a small tolerance chain is implemented with respect to the axial position.
US09194464B2
A four-stage multi-stage transmission, in which a ring gear of a first planetary gear set is connected to a sun gear of a fourth planetary gear set, a ring gear of the fourth planetary gear set is connected to the output shaft, a sun gear of the first planetary gear set and a carrier of a second planetary gear set are couplable to the housing via a first brake, a carrier of the first planetary gear set is couplable to the housing via a second brake, the drive shaft is couplable to the carrier of the fourth planetary gear set via a first clutch, and a ring gear is couplable to the sun gear of the fourth planetary gear set via a second clutch. Adjustment of further couplings, within the multi-stage transmission, facilitates a set of gears having similar properties.
US09194462B2
In a handheld power tool having a planetary gear set which is at least switchable between a first and a second gear and which is assigned a switching annulus gear which is at least shiftable between a first and a second switching position and which has the first switching position in the first gear and the second switching position in the second gear, the switching annulus gear is assigned a synchronization unit which is designed to enable a synchronization of the switching annulus gear with a planet carrier or with a blocking element of the planetary gear set when the switching annulus gear is shifted between the first and the second switching position to switch over the planetary gear set.
US09194458B2
The durability of a frictional power transmission belt is improved. A V-ribbed belt (10) comprises an adhesion rubber portion (12) and a compression rubber portion (14) provided below the adhesion rubber portion (12). A cord (11) that is a tension member of the belt is embedded in the adhesion rubber portion (12). The adhesion rubber portion (12) includes an upper layer (12A) constituting the upper side and a lower layer (12B) constituting the lower side, which are located across the cord (11). The upper layer (12A) and the lower layer (12B) are obtained by vulcanizing a rubber composition including a high-viscosity elastomer such as EPM or EPDM, and a low-viscosity elastomer which is lower in Mooney viscosity than the high-viscosity elastomer, and contain modified nylon microfibers as short fibers (21A), (21B), respectively. The short fibers (21A), (21B) are oriented, respectively, in the width direction and longitudinal direction of the belt.
US09194457B2
Provided is a frequency-sensitive shock absorber, which includes a cylinder filled with a working fluid and a piston rod having one end disposed inside the cylinder and the other end extending to the outside of the cylinder. The frequency-sensitive shock absorber includes a main piston valve assembly and an auxiliary piston valve assembly. The auxiliary piston valve assembly includes: a spool unit configured to open or close a communication passage for communicating a rebound chamber with a compression chamber while moving within a housing; and upper and lower support members configured to support the spool unit. The upper and lower support members have protrusions protruding toward the spool unit, respectively, and as the spool unit moves, the communication passage is closed when the protrusions of the upper and lower support members contact the spool unit.
US09194455B2
A shock absorber includes an annular outer seat protruding from a valve main body, an inner seat protruding inward of the outer seat of the valve main body, an intermediate seat disposed between the outer seat and the inner seat of the valve main body and protruding to surround an opening section of a passage, a first disk having a larger diameter than the outer seat and seated on the intermediate seat, a spring member configured to press the first disk toward the outer seat, a second disk stacked on the first disk, and a communication unit configured to bring the passage in communication with a space between the intermediate seat and the outer seat. The first disk starts to be pressed by the spring member to abut the outer seat while abutting the inner seat and the intermediate seat.
US09194448B2
A disc brake for a commercial vehicle includes a brake caliper which extends over a brake disc, a brake application device which is arranged in the brake caliper for pressing brake pads against the brake disc, and at least one adjustment spindle which is rotatably mounted in a bridge via a threaded coupling. A wear adjusting device is positioned in the brake caliper by which a wear-induced change of the clearance between the brake pad and the brake disc can be substantially compensated for via an axial movement of the adjusting spindle. The disc brake is designed such that the adjusting spindle has at least one axial groove on an outer side, the length of the groove being limited in the direction of the brake application device. A stop, which is axially fixed relative to the bridge, engages into the axial groove in a relatively displaceable manner.
US09194443B2
The invention relates to a synchronizing device between two revolving components, comprising a clutch (3) between a hub (4) arranged on a shaft (1) in a rotationally fixed manner and a coupling member (2) that is rotatably mounted in relation to the hub (4), the clutch (3) having a selector sleeve (5) with an internal claw gear (6) which extends along the axial length of the selector sleeve (5) and by means of which claw gear the selector sleeve (5) is mounted in an axially displaceable manner on a claw rim (9) of the hub (4) and can be slid up onto a claw rim (9) of the coupling member (2) for coupling purposes. In order to provide advantageous constructional conditions it is proposed that the hub (4) forms at least one stop (19) for the selector sleeve (5) on the front side facing away from the coupling member (2), the stop (19) protruding radially over the claw rim (7) and the selector sleeve (5) receiving the stop (19) in a frontal stop recess (20).
US09194439B2
A dog clutch operable to bypass a variator of a transmission is disclosed. The dog clutch includes a housing engaged with an input ring of the variator. The dog clutch also includes a piston engaged with the housing and movable from a first position in which the piston is disengaged from an output ring of the variator to a second position in which the piston is engaged with the output ring. The variator input ring and output ring are locked together when the dog clutch is in the second position to prevent the variator from producing continuously variable torque output. The variator is operable to produce continuously-variable torque output when the dog clutch is in the first position.
US09194437B2
A mounting structure of a drive-shaft may include a shaft, a housing, a spring guide slidably disposed inside the housing having one end facing the shaft, and a spring with one end supported by a spring guide and the other end supported by the housing, in which a transmission has a companion flange with a cup-shaped coupling portion at an end, so when the housing enters the coupling portion, an elastic force of the spring biases the housing into the coupling portion.
US09194434B2
A spindle motor is configured to rotate a disk in a case defined by a base plate and a top cover arranged to cover an upper side of the base plate. The spindle motor includes a fluid dynamic bearing including a lubricant oil. A rotating portion body of the spindle motor includes an air hole. An upper opening of the air hole is in communication with an annular space between the top cover and the rotating portion body. A lower opening of the air hole is in communication with a gap between a stator and a magnet. Accordingly, even if a gas including the lubricant oil vaporized through a liquid surface of the lubricant oil leaks into the annular space, at least a portion of the gas including the lubricant oil flows into the air hole.
US09194432B2
A bearing cage for a rolling element bearing assembly includes an outer surface, an inner surface defining a bore, and a plurality of pockets. Each pocket of the plurality of pockets is configured to house a rolling element of the rolling element bearing assembly. The plurality of pockets are arranged sequentially around the bearing cage with respect to an axis of the bore. A guide portion of the inner surface is tapered in an axial direction of the bore such that dimensions of the bore increase towards a central region of the bore, and the bearing cage further includes a plurality of conduits providing fluidic communication between the inner surface of the bearing cage and the outer surface of the bearing cage.
US09194427B2
Disclosed is a bearing device including: a bearing housing made of an Al alloy and having a bearing holding hole; a sliding bearing having a cylindrical shape and forced into the bearing holding hole; and a shaft supported with an inner circumferential surface of the sliding bearing, wherein in the sliding bearing to be forced into, a plurality of hardened convex portions projecting toward the second circumferential direction end surface being formed on the first circumferential direction end surface, a plurality of hardened concave portions corresponding to the plurality of hardened convex portions being formed on the second circumferential direction end surface, a first hardened area being formed on each of the hardened convex portions of the first circumferential direction end surface and its vicinity, and a second hardened area being formed on each of the hardened concave portions of the second circumferential direction end surface and its vicinity.
US09194426B2
A synthetic resin-made thrust sliding bearing includes a synthetic resin-made upper casing, a synthetic resin-made lower casing, and a synthetic resin-made thrust sliding bearing piece interposed between the upper casing and the lower casing.
US09194419B2
An insert (100) having a first insert portion (102) a second insert portion (104) and a third insert portion (106) for installation into a first bore portion (136), a second bore portion (138) and a third bore portion (140) respectively in which the first bore portion (136) is larger than the second and third insert portions (104, 106) and the second bore portion (138) is larger than the third insert portion (106).
US09194416B2
A self-drilling screw made of an austenitic or other stainless steel, is provided having a drilling tip. The shank is integrally formed of an austenitic or other stainless steel and has a galvanically applied thin coating at least in the tip region, with the coating being harder than a non-coated region. The thin coating has a pearl-like or columnar surface, a coating thickness of at least 2 μm and a hardness in a range of from 500 to 1500 HV0.3. The self-drilling screw can be produced more simply than a typical self-drilling screw, in which the drilling tip consists of a harder material than the shank and is welded to the shank made of stainless steel. The coating ensures the drilling capacity and thread formation.
US09194406B2
A sensor holding member holding a position sensor and an attachment member that attaches the sensor holding member to a cylinder tube are formed separately. The sensor holding member is placed with a sensor attachment groove oriented in the direction of the axis of the cylinder tube and in contact with the outer surface of the cylinder tube. The attachment member is placed so as to straddle the sensor holding member. By tightening an attachment screw and fixing the attachment member with an attachment band, the sensor holding member is pressed against and fixed to the outer surface of the cylinder tube by the attachment member. Loosening the attachment screw allows the sensor holding member to be displaced relative to the attachment member in the direction of the axis of the cylinder tube.
