US09313728B2
A communication terminal is used in a wireless communication environment which involves a plurality of coexisting communication processes with upper limit values being set respectively therein for amounts of data to be transmitted. The communication terminal includes a compressor which compresses data to be transmitted, and a compression controller which controls the compressor to compress the data if the amount of the data to be transmitted is equal to or greater than the upper limit value set depending on one of the communication processes which is to be used to transmit the data.
US09313727B2
A method, and a system for implementing the method, for creating an optimized communications link between at least two mobile network nodes, whereby lookup tables of available network interfaces may be created and updated periodically thereof, configuration data is transmitted between the mobile network nodes via an available signaling channel, at least one signaling channel is created via one of the available network interfaces based on the configuration data in order to transmit configuration data, and at least one data channel is created via one of the available network interfaces based on the configuration data, with the data channel being changed from one available network interface to another available network interface, after determining by the use of the lookup table that quality of service of the one available network interface is insufficient.
US09313724B2
A method for acquiring a cell identifier by a source cell in a radio communication system is provided. The method includes receiving information about a new cell from a User Equipment (UE) in the source cell, acquiring an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (EUTRA) Cell Global Identifier (ECGI) of the new cell from the UE, if it is determined based on the information about the new cell that there is no neighbor relationship with the new cell, determining whether a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) Identifier (ID) (PLMN ID) in the ECGI is included in a mapping table between a primary PLMN ID and a shared PLMN ID, and acquiring an X2 Internet Protocol (IP) address of the new cell from an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) according to the determination results.
US09313723B2
A method and apparatus for executing an application by using a communication address may be implemented as terminal that includes a service providing unit that provides an application, and an IP address managing unit that assigns an IP address to the application. The terminal may also have a communication unit configured to operate as a Wi-Fi Host Access Point (AP) unit or as a Wi-Fi client unit. When the communication unit operates as a Wi-Fi Host AP unit, it uses the assigned IP address to carry out its WiFi host AP functions. When the communication unit operates as a Wi-Fi client unit, it searches for an accessible Wi-Fi Host AP, identifies a service set identifier (SSID) and an IP address of a Wi-Fi Host AP, and accesses the Wi-Fi Host AP.
US09313719B2
An apparatus for providing information about an available service using a proxy server and a method thereof. The apparatus includes an available service checker, a database, an available service searcher, and an available service broadcaster. The apparatus may provide information through the proxy server regarding available services of a device that is not currently connected to a basic service set (BSS), thereby preventing generation of excessive amount of traffic.
US09313718B2
The present invention is directed to a method and an apparatus for use in a wireless communication system. Specifically, the present invention is directed to a method of assisting a discovery between hidden wireless nodes and an apparatus therefore, in which the method comprises: receiving, from a first wireless node, a first message including at least one of node identification information and service identification information; receiving, from a second wireless node, a second message including at least one of node identification information and service identification information; conveying, to the second wireless node, at least part of the first message through a third message when one or more conditions are met, wherein the third message includes counting information indicating how many hops the at least part of the first message is conveyed, wherein the one or more condition include that the service information in the first message is matched with the service information in the second message.
US09313716B2
A mobile terminal requiring operation regulation is communicably connected with a vehicular apparatus via wireless communication and executes an application for cooperating with the vehicular apparatus. An operation regulation method performed by the mobile terminal and the vehicular apparatus includes transmitting, from the vehicular apparatus to the mobile terminal, vehicle information indicating whether a vehicle including the vehicular apparatus is in a traveling state, determining, with the mobile terminal, whether the vehicle is in the traveling state based on the vehicle information when the vehicular apparatus is connected with the mobile terminal based on handsfree communication protocol, and, when the mobile terminal determines that the vehicle is in the traveling state, performing, with the mobile terminal, a regulation process for regulating one of (i) an operation of the application for cooperating with the vehicular apparatus or (ii) all or part of functions provided to the mobile terminal.
US09313714B1
A method and a communication device for accessing a communication system are disclosed. The method includes determining that an application requesting access to the communication system requires preferred access to the communication system and requesting access to the communication system using a least preferred access channel from a preferred roaming list comprising a plurality of access channels. An access node of a communication system is further disclosed. The access node includes a processor to determine whether the communication system supports a preferred access to the communication system by at least one authorized communication device of the plurality of communication devices, and transmit an indication that the communication system supports the preferred access to the communication system by the at least one authorized communication device.
US09313708B2
An apparatus and method of changing an access point in a wireless network system is provided. The wireless network system includes a first access point existing on a wireless network, and a user terminal accessing the first access point. The first access point transmits information on a second access point, which is one of a plurality of access points accessible by the user terminal, to the user terminal, and the user terminal determines whether to access the second access point and accesses the second access terminal in accordance with the determination result.
US09313705B2
When transmitting data from a data relay apparatus to a mobile station through a plurality of base stations, the plurality of base stations add sequence numbers to the data and transmits the data with the sequence number. The data relay apparatus transfers a first data and second data to the mobile station through different base stations among the plurality of base stations, in which the data relay apparatus transfers the first data received before the second data to one base station and transfers the second data while adding thereto information indicating the reception order of the first and second data. Each of the plurality of base stations, when the data transferred from the data relay apparatus contains the information added thereto, adds the sequence number to the data based on the information and transmits the data with the sequence numbers to the mobile station.
US09313704B2
The disclosure provides a method, device and system for controlling UE to take measurements, the method comprising: a radio network controller sending an ANR measurement configuration message to UE, wherein the information carries the maximum time that the UE is to take ANR measurements; the UE receiving the ANR measurement configuration message, taking the ANR measurements, timing a measurement period, and storing the measurement results; when the measurement period reaches the maximum time, the UE deleting the ANR measurement configuration message. The disclosure solves the problem of lack of specific procedure about whether UE needs to continue taking measurements and how the measurements should be taken when there is no qualified information after a long period of measurement, thereby preventing the UE from constantly being in a measurement mode, and saving resources.
US09313683B2
The present patent application improves DARP by allowing multiple users on one time slot (MUROS). It comprises means and instructions for sharing signals on a single channel, comprising setting up a new connection, allocating a new time slot if there is an unused time slot on a channel frequency, selecting an used time slot for the new connection to share with an existing connection if there is not an unused time slot on the channel frequency, and selecting a different training sequence code for the new connection if the used time slot on the channel frequency has been selected for the new connection to share with an existing connection.
US09313676B2
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to a method and system for predictive analysis of technical issues in a technical support environment. In some embodiments, the method may include receiving information associated with a first technical support issue reported by a customer, associating at least one category with the first technical support issue based on an analysis of the received information and a history of system operation status data, and transmitting at least a portion of the information associated with the first technical support issue and the associated at least one category to an agent workstation.
US09313672B2
A method for coordinated transmission in a plurality of cells of a wireless communication system, wherein a user equipment triggers coordinate transmission of a plurality of cells if it detects an interference condition between signals received by the plurality of cells, the user equipment detecting the interference condition based on a radio quality metric dynamically set by the network and triggering coordinate transmission by transmitting a trigger signal to at least a cell of the plurality of cells. A radio equipment and a user equipment for use in a wireless communication system can implement coordinated transmission with the method.
US09313668B2
In exemplary embodiments in the present disclosure a method in a first Network Node for measuring network characteristics using a performance measuring protocol is defined. The method comprises receiving a message, extracting a network address of a second network node from said message, and storing said network address of said second network node. The method further comprises setting up a session for measuring network characteristics using said performance measuring protocol between said first network node and said second network node utilizing said network address.
US09313666B2
Techniques for extending coverage of a wireless communication network (e.g., a cellular network) to indoor and other locations are described. A wireless device may communicate with a base station in a wireless network via downlink and uplink frequency channels in a licensed frequency band using frequency division duplexing (FDD). The wireless device may communicate with a piconet base station (PBS) in a pico network (piconet) via the uplink frequency channel using time division duplexing (TDD). The PBS may communicate with the wireless device on the uplink frequency channel and may exchange data with the wireless network via a wireline communication link. The PBS may forward data received from the wireless device to the wireless network and may also forward data received from the wireless network for the wireless device to the wireless device. The PBS may receive paging messages from the wireless network for the wireless device and may forward the paging messages to the wireless device.
US09313658B2
A method of providing secure communications between a base station, a relay station, and a mobile station in a communication network includes receiving, by the relay station, an unsolicited security key from the base station; receiving, by the relay station, a signaling message from the mobile station; and authenticating, by the relay station, the mobile station using the security key. A method of providing secure communications between a base station, a relay station, and a mobile station in a communication network includes receiving, by the relay station, a signaling message from the mobile station; transmitting, by the relay station, subsequent to receiving the signaling message, a security key request to the base station; receiving, by the relay station, a security key from the base station in response to the previously sent security key request; and authenticating, by the relay station, the mobile station using the received security key.
US09313654B2
Disclosed is a message communication method of transmitting and receiving a certain message, independently of any network, without privacy invasion issues. The method includes generating vendor specific data on the basis of input information, adding the generated vendor specific data to a P2P information element of a probe request frame, and transmitting the probe request frame to another message communication apparatus. Thus, an apparatus conforming to a Wi-Fi Direct standard may transmit/receive a certain message to/from another terminal independently of a use region, a use environment, and a network of a large telecommunication vendor, without privacy invasion issues.
US09313647B2
A system for registering a mobile device located in a network outside a device's home network is described. In some examples, the system receives a message including contents associated with a location of the mobile device, and extracts the contents of the received message. The system matches the extracted contents to one or more rules associated with an adjustment of subscriber data within a registration database for the home network, adjusts the data, and registers the mobile device having the adjusted data.
US09313632B1
Various embodiments of the invention provide methods, systems, and computer-program products for determining whether a local time for a first party is within a calling window of time for placing a telephone call by a second party to a mobile device of the first party. For particular embodiments, information about the mobile device is retrieved by a computer-program application residing on the device. Depending on the embodiment, this information may comprise a current time of a location where the mobile device is located, a geo-location of the device, and/or a time zone for the location where the device is located. In various embodiments, once the information has been retrieved, at least a portion of the information is sent to the second party to be used to determine whether the local time for the first party is within the calling window for placing the telephone call to the mobile device.
US09313631B2
Methods and systems for intelligently terminating calls are provided herein. In some embodiments, a method for intelligently terminating calls may include receiving a call request directed to a communication identifier associated with a first user, determining a call termination action to associate with the call request based on (a) information associated with the call request and (b) previous call termination patterns associated with the first user, and terminating the call to one or more devices associated with the communication identifier based on the determined call termination action.
US09313621B2
A method for automatically switching to a channel for transmission on a portable radio is provided. In operation, a first microphone is assigned to respond to communications received on a primary channel and a second microphone is assigned to respond to communications received on a non-primary channel. The portable radio receives independent audio communications simultaneously on the primary channel and the non-primary channel when operating in a multi-watch mode. The portable radio determines a signal gain corresponding to a voice command received at the first and second microphones. When the signal gain for the first microphone is larger than the signal gain for the second microphone, the portable radio switches to a first talk-back channel to respond to communications received on the primary channel. Otherwise, the portable radio switches to a second talk-back channel to respond to communications received on the at least one non-primary channel.
US09313619B2
Estimation of mobile device presence inside a defined region is facilitated. In one example, a device receives location information representing locations of a mobile device and corresponding time information for the locations of the mobile device. The device determines an estimated path of travel for the mobile device based on the location information and, based on the corresponding time information for the locations of the mobile device, determines whether the estimated path of travel traverses, at a defined time period of interest, a defined region that includes a defined portion.
US09313599B2
Techniques are presented for creating multichannel output signals from input audio signals. A first signal is determined based on a number of subbands into which the input audio signals are divided and based at least in part on a directional estimation wherein the subbands having dominant sound source directions are emphasized relative to subbands having directional estimates that deviate from directional estimates of the dominant sound source directions. A second signal is determined based on the number of subbands wherein an ambient component is introduced to create a perception of an externalization for a sound image. A resultant audio signal is created using the first and second signals. The resultant audio signal is one of a number of multichannel signals. Additionally, it is determined whether binaural audio output or multichannel audio output (or both) is to be output, and the appropriate number of audio output signals are determined and output.
US09313592B2
According to some aspects an electronic device adapted to detect whether it is coupled to an audio system. The electronic device includes a pulse generator adapted to generate a pulse on a ground return line of the electronic device, and a detector adapted to observe if a response signal is received by the electronic device corresponding to the pulse. If the response signal is received, the electronic device determined that it is coupled to the audio system.
US09313590B1
A hearing aid is disclosed, which can autonomously track the bias current requirements of its output amplifier and control the current bias accordingly, resulting in less power consumption than if the bias current were delivered at a constant, worst-case level. An input signal is split into different frequency bands. A volume envelope is formed for each frequency band, which may function like an instantaneous volume level for each frequency band. The volume envelopes are weighted by frequency, with high frequencies being weighted more heavily than low frequencies. The weighted volume envelopes are used to calculate a dynamic bias current level, and a current with that level is provided to the output amplifier of the hearing aid. In some cases, the narrowband input signals for the frequency bands are amplified with respective predetermined gains, and are then combined to form a broadband output signal, which is sent to the output amplifier.
US09313587B2
An at least partially implantable hearing aid has an input transducer (26) for capturing audio signals from ambient sound, an audio signal processing unit (32) for processing the captured audio signals, an actuator (20) for stimulating a patient's hearing, and a driver unit (44) for driving the actuator. The actuator has a rigid housing (64) closed on at least one side by a vibration diaphragm (66) that is driven by a piezoelectric transducer (68, 88). The housing is designed to float in the cochlea in direct contact with the cochlear liquids in order to couple vibration energy from the diaphragm directly into the cochlear liquids.
US09313572B2
A method of detecting a user's voice activity in a mobile device is described herein. The method starts with a voice activity detector (VAD) generating a VAD output based on (i) acoustic signals received from microphones included in the mobile device and (ii) data output by an inertial sensor that is included in an earphone portion of the mobile device. The inertial sensor may detect vibration of the user's vocal chords modulated by the user's vocal tract based on vibrations in bones and tissue of the user's head. A noise suppressor may then receive the acoustic signals from the microphones and the VAD output and suppress the noise included in the acoustic signals received from the microphones based on the VAD output. The method may also include steering one or more beamformers based on the VAD output. Other embodiments are also described.
US09313565B2
A portable terminal device has first and second casings (1, 2) and a biaxial hinge (3) coupling the first and second casings (1, 2). The portable terminal device also has a speaker (60) provided in the first casing (1) or the biaxial hinge (3), a sound emission hole (4), a waveguide (5) guiding a sound wave to the sound emission hole (4), and a display device (6) provided for the second casing (2). A display screen (6a) of the display device (6) and the sound emission hole (4) are disposed in a face (2a) whose orientation changes when the second casing (2) turns about a second axis, in the second casing (2).
US09313561B1
In an example, the present invention includes an integrated system on chip device. At least a pair of laser devices are associated with a channel and coupled to a switch to select one of the pair of laser devices to be coupled to an optical multiplexer to provide for a redundant laser device.
US09313557B1
Aspects of the disclosure relate generally to rack systems for housing computing devices. The rack may include a plurality of removable shelves. A removable shelf may include a column having a plurality of slots. By stacking a plurality of the removable shelves in the rack, a larger column may be formed. This larger column may provide additional space to mount other features. In one example, the larger column may be used to mount a wire duct. The wire duct may be attached to a mounting plate having a plurality of hooks. The hooks of the mounting plate may mate with the slots of the columns of the shelves. The mounting plates may be used to mount features at other locations on the rack as well.
US09313553B2
A method comprising the steps of outputting periodically a schedule for a transmission of a plurality of multimedia contents to a client receiver over a unidirectional data communication channel; transmitting said schedule to said client receiver over said communication channel before said transmission of said plurality of multimedia contents, said schedule including a metadata indicating a plurality of broadcast times for respective ones of said plurality of multimedia contents for selectively activating said client receiver in accordance with said plurality of broadcast times; estimating first and second available bandwidths of said communication channel at respective ones of first and second points in time; selecting one multimedia content file of a given compression level for transmission in response to a change of available bandwidth of said communication channel between said first and second points in time so that said plurality of multimedia contents may be received at said client receiver in accordance with respective ones of said plurality of broadcast times; and transmitting said selected multimedia content file to said client receiver.
US09313550B2
Disclosed are a method for providing a content management list which enables integrated management for the use of various contents and an apparatus for performing the same. The method for providing the content management list in a content management list provision apparatus which can be connected to a plurality of contents through a network includes the steps of: displaying the content management list including electronic program guide information of a broadcasting program; and displaying information of reserved playback contents corresponding to the reservation time of a time axis which is additionally displayed in the content management list according to an event signal for indicating a content playback reservation. Accordingly, the method enables a user to easily determine the reserved states of all available contents, and enables the user to efficiently make plans to use the various contents therethrough.
US09313536B1
This disclosure describes systems, methods, and computer-readable media related to a dynamic advertising insertion infrastructure. A stream setup message associated with a stream content request may be received. Setup information associated with the stream content request may be identified. A non-entertainment playlist selected based on, at least in part, the setup information may be received. The stream setup message may be modified, wherein the modified stream setup message comprises at least one or more references to the non-entertainment content. The modified stream setup message may be routed to a streamer system. A first response message may be received by the router from the streamer system based at least in part on the second stream setup message. A second response message that comprises at least one or more references to the second content may be received by the router. The second response message may be routed by the router to a back office.
US09313529B2
One or more network based video servers is/are connected to one or more video receivers over a shared network. Pieces of video content are each encoded at a number of constant quality levels and stored on one or more of the network based servers. Responsive to requests from a receiver, video content is selected on a server and delivered over the shared network to the receiver. The system selects the quality level of the stream to deliver based on characteristics of the video stream currently being delivered, and the number of bits already buffered at the video receiver and the available network throughput. The aim is to select the video quality being delivered according to the available network throughput to maximize quality while ensuring that video data is delivered over the network in time to be decoded and displayed without interruption. Certain exemplary embodiments make that selection in advance.
US09313528B2
Filtering contents and services streamed live to a client device, including: establishing a private relationship between a server and the client device; determining capabilities of the client device and preferences of a user of the client device; and filtering and transmitting a list of servers, services, and contents with contents and services that are at least one of: (a) preferred; and (b) capable of being presented, viewed, played, or processed on the client device. Keywords include live media stream and content filtering.
US09313527B2
Some embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to an entertainment system that includes a plurality of wireless access points. Each wireless access point includes a mass memory, at least one radio transceiver, and at least one processor. The at least one radio transceiver is configured to communicate with seat display devices. The at least one processor is configured to receive entertainment content comprising a plurality of content items, and store the entertainment content in the mass memory. The at least one processor selects a subset of content items from among the content items of the entertainment content stored in the mass memory, based on a defined rule, and downloads the subset of content items from the mass memory to a plurality of the seat display devices through the at least one radio transceiver for local storage within mass memory of the seat display devices.
US09313526B2
The present invention provides a technique for performing one or more aspects of video coding such as quantization, intra prediction coding or inter prediction coding in dependence on a perceptual model taking into account human sensitivity to data in the video signal. The perceptual model may relate to spatial frequency, temporal frequency, contrast sensitivity, color sensitivity, a structural metric, and/or one or more parameters affecting perception such as motion in the video, the distance of a recipient user from the screen, and the size, aspect ratio or resolution of the screen of the recipient terminal.
US09313522B2
A sub-pel-unit image interpolation method using a transformation-based interpolation filter includes, selecting, based on a sub-pel-unit interpolation location in a region supported by a plurality of interpolation filters for generating at least one sub-pel-unit pixel value located between integer-pel-unit pixels, one of a symmetric interpolation filter and an asymmetric interpolation filter from among the plurality of interpolation filters; and using the selected interpolation filter to generate the at least one sub-pel-unit pixel value by interpolating the integer-pel-unit pixels.
US09313516B2
A first request and a second request are received from a first client terminal and a second client terminal respectively. In response to the first request and second request, a first set of predictions is generated by predicting macroblocks of frames of a video stream. In response to the first request, a first set of quantized transform coefficients is generated by transforming the first set of predictions, and a first coded video stream is generated by coding the first set of quantized transform coefficients. In response to the second request, a second set of quantized transform coefficients is generated by transforming the first set of predictions, and a second coded video stream is generated by coding the second set of quantized transform coefficients. Finally, the first coded video stream is transmitted to the first client terminal, and the second coded video stream is transmitted to the second client terminal.
US09313513B2
A method for detecting a resynchronization marker in an encoded MPEG-4 video bitstream is provided that includes computing a first candidate resynchronization marker length based on a first version of MPEG-4 Visual and the type of a video object plane (VOP) in the video bitstream, computing a second candidate resynchronization marker length based on a second version of MPEG-4 Visual and the type of the VOP, checking the video bitstream for a first valid resynchronization marker bit sequence using the first candidate resynchronization marker length, checking the video bitstream for a second valid resynchronization marker bit sequence using the second candidate resynchronization marker length, and detecting the resynchronization marker when a valid sequence of stuffing bits is present in the video bitstream after the macroblock boundary and either the first valid resynchronization marker bit sequence or the second valid resynchronization marker bit sequence is found in the video bitstream.
US09313511B2
A system, method and computer-readable media are introduced that relate to data coding and decoding. A computing device encodes received data such as video data into a base layer of compressed video and an enhancement layer of compressed video. The computing device controls drift introduced into the base layer of the compressed video. The computing device, such as a scalable video coder, allows drift by predicting the base layer from the enhancement layer information. The amount of drift is managed to improve overall compression efficiency.
US09313510B2
A method includes encoding video at a first bitrate to produce first encoded sections, and at a second bitrate that is less than the first bitrate to produce second encoded sections. The method further includes measuring levels of objective quality, indicative of perceptual quality, of the first and second encoded sections. The method includes determining, based on the measured objective quality levels, replaceable sections among the first encoded sections, and replacement sections among the second encoded sections, each of the replacement sections to replace a corresponding one of the replaceable sections. The method includes streaming the first encoded sections except for the replaceable sections, and the replacement sections instead of their corresponding replaceable sections.
US09313509B2
Described tools and techniques relate to signaling for DC coefficients at small quantization step sizes. The techniques and tools can be used in combination or independently. For example, a tool such as a video encoder or decoder processes a VLC that indicates a DC differential for a DC coefficient, a FLC that indicates a value refinement for the DC differential, and a third code that indicates the sign for the DC differential. Even with the small quantization step sizes, the tool uses a VLC table with DC differentials for DC coefficients above the small quantization step sizes. The FLCs for DC differentials have lengths that vary depending on quantization step size.
US09313505B2
Described are techniques in video coding and/or decoding that allow for selectively breaking prediction and/or in loop filtering across segment boundaries between different segments of a video picture. A high layer syntax element, such as a parameter set or a slice header, may contain one or more indications signalling to an encoder and/or decoder whether an associated prediction or loop filtering tool may be applied across the segment boundary. In response to such one or more indications, the encoder and/or decoder may then control the prediction or loop filtering tool accordingly.
US09313501B2
Various new and non-obvious apparatus and methods for using frame caching to improve packet loss recovery are disclosed. One of the disclosed embodiments is a method for using periodical and synchronized frame caching within an encoder and its corresponding decoder. When the decoder discovers packet loss, it informs the encoder which then generates a frame based on one of the shared frames stored at both the encoder and the decoder. When the decoder receives this generated frame it can decode it using its locally cached frame.
US09313496B2
A video encoder includes: a predictive vector selecting unit that selects candidates for a first predictive vector for predicting a motion vector in a first direction, and candidates for a second predictive vector for predicting a motion vector for a second direction; a selection information setting unit that sets first selection information for identifying the first predictive vector from among the first predictive vector candidates, and second selection information for identifying the second predictive vector from among the second predictive vector candidates; and a variable length coding unit that performs variable length coding on the first and second selection information. The video encoder applies predetermined code to the second selection information indicating that the second predictive vector candidate obtained from a motion vector in the second direction, for an encoded block corresponding to the first predictive vector is the second predictive vector.
US09313488B2
Disclosed is a system and method of controlling a video decoder, including a reviewing channel data representing coded video data generated by an encoder to identify parameters of a hypothetical reference decoder (HRD) used by the encoder during coding operations. A parameter representing an exit data rate requirement of a coded picture buffer (CPB) of the HRD is compared against exit rate performance of the video decoder. If the exit rate performance of the video coder matches the exit rate requirement of the HRD, the coded video data is decoded, otherwise, a certain decoding degradation scheme can be applied, including disabling decoder from decoding the coded video data.
US09313483B2
A polarization switching device includes a lower panel; an upper panel facing the lower panel; a liquid crystal layer disposed between the lower panel and the upper panel; and a driver to apply a first driving voltage and a second driving voltage to the lower panel and the upper panel, respectively, the first driving voltage to transition among a center voltage, a first voltage and a second voltage. The first voltage and the second voltage have the same difference in value from the center voltage. The driver includes a voltage changing unit to generate the first voltage and the second voltage based on a digital data input to a first digital-analog converter.
US09313480B2
There is provided a display device including a display part including a pixel of a first series having a first horizontal pixel width and a pixel of a second series having a second horizontal pixel width smaller than the first horizontal pixel width, the pixels of the first series and the pixels of the second series being arrayed alternately in each of a horizontal direction and a vertical direction, and a light beam control part that controls a light beam from the display part or a light beam toward the display part.
US09313471B2
Techniques that relate to selecting content for playback are disclosed in various implementations. The techniques may include receiving, at a computing device and from a primary electronic content source, a first input signal for playback by a presentation device. The techniques may also include analyzing information that is indicative of content represented by the first input signal to determine whether the first input signal is intended for playback by the presentation device. The techniques may also include causing the presentation device to play back a second input signal from a backup electronic content source in response to determining that the first input signal is not intended for playback by the presentation device.
US09313470B2
A method and system for determining correction information for the universal display of an original video sequence on a plurality of displays includes correcting an original video sequence using a first display, storing correction information related to the correction of the original video sequence using the first display, correcting the original video sequence using a different display, and determining and storing the differences between the correction information related to the correction of the original video sequence using the first display and using a particular, different display. Subsequently and prior to the display of the original video sequence, the original video sequence is corrected using a combination of the stored correction information related to the correction of the original video sequence using the first display and the respective determined differences, if any, related to a particular, different display on which the original video sequence is now to be displayed.
US09313466B2
A single-plate color imaging element including color filters in a predetermined color filter array arranged on a plurality of pixels formed by photoelectric conversion elements arranged in horizontal and vertical directions, wherein in the color filter array, the first filters are vertically and horizontally arranged across a filter at a center of a 3×3 pixel group, and the 3×3 pixel group is repeatedly arranged in the horizontal and vertical directions.
US09313463B2
A video surveillance system includes a plurality of video sources, at least one processing server in communication with the video sources, and at least one monitoring station viewing video from the video sources. The video sources are distributed over a target area to be monitored by the surveillance system and are attached to a video network. The processing server allocates bandwidth to the video sources with an accuracy function which provides event/object detection accuracy as a function of image/video quality transferred over the network. The image accuracy is the accuracy with which the processing server identifies features in a video image. Bandwidth is allocated by optimizing the overall event/object detection accuracy by adjusting image/video quality for each video source optionally subject to the dynamic network conditions experienced by each video source.
US09313462B2
A method for detecting the position of a target object in the environment of a host vehicle. The method may include receiving a first position of the target object as detected by an object position sensor which emits waves and receives the waves that are reflected back by the target object, and receiving an image containing the target object as detected by an image sensor. The method may also include projecting the first position on the image, and refining the first position by computing a second refined position of the target object on the basis of a symmetry search within the image.
US09313456B2
The present invention provides a video communication system including a kiosk for recording video messages created by a user and a database for storing and providing access to the video messages. The kiosk includes a user interface for receiving user information such as name, address, email, and other identifying information. The kiosk further includes a message-recording device for recording a user video message. The video message and user message data are uploaded to a database. The database reconnects with the user through the user information to allow the user to access the video message. In an embodiment, the database sends an email web link to the user. The user may view the video message by opening the email web link and viewing the video message on an internet website.
US09313453B2
A conferencing device and method of talker localization for steering a plurality of sensors arranged in sectors around a housing to a current active direction beam. A beamformer is implemented for determining a loudest sector based on signals from the sensors. In the event the loudest sector persists for a first duration then forming signal beams from sensor signals in the loudest sector and a plurality of adjacent sectors over a further duration to create respective signal beam envelopes. Then selecting a highest energy of the beam envelopes to be a loudest non-active beam and comparing the loudest non-active beam to the current active direction beam. If the highest energy one of the beams is greater than the energy of the current active direction beam by a threshold, then selecting the highest energy one of the beams to be the current active direction beam and directing the sensors thereto.
US09313447B2
An in-field replaceable glass assembly for an electronic display placed within a housing is disclosed. The housing preferably contains a hanger at the top of the housing, where the glass assembly contains a frame surrounding a pane of glass and having a top and bottom. A tab is preferably placed at the top of the frame and adapted to hold the glass assembly in place when slipped over the hanger on the housing. The glass assembly also contains a means for attaching the bottom of the frame to the housing. In some embodiments this means is a threaded post which extends from the frame and passing through a portion of the housing. A nut may be tightened against the post. In other embodiments a threaded fastener may pass through the housing and thread into a female threaded hole within the frame.
US09313445B2
A frame for a visual presentation device with a substantially flat viewing area demarcated by a viewing area border. The frame includes fasteners for fastening the frame in front of the viewing area. The frame has a finite material thickness in which a transparent opening is formed. The opening has a distal end that faces the presentation device and a proximal end that faces viewers. A range of viewing positions is created in which the proximal end of the transparent opening hides the distal end and the viewing area border, and only a portion of the viewing area smaller that the viewing area in full is visible through the proximal end of the transparent opening. The frame suppresses visual clues to actual viewing distance and an enhanced illusion of watching the real world through a window is created.
US09313444B2
A method and apparatus for displaying a plurality of secondary images based on image data of a primary image include displaying a primary image and a plurality of secondary images based on the image data of the primary image. Each of the plurality of secondary images is displayed having a size based on a relevance of each respective one of the plurality of secondary images to the primary image. The primary image can be selected from a plurality of images or a frame of a video. Subsets of secondary images can be displayed in clusters including images having content similar to particular content of the primary image.
US09313443B2
The present disclosure provides a method and a device for identifying and displaying a CC mode of a television. The method includes: decoding received CC program signals to obtain decoding information; obtaining a CC mode corresponding to the CC program signals according to the decoding information; and performing corresponding display according to a preset rule based on the obtained CC mode. Compared with the existed technology, the embodiment of the present disclosure decodes the CC program signals, identifies the corresponding CC mode according to the decoding information, and displays the CC contents according to the identified CC mode, which simplifies the choosing of the mode and thus is convenient for the user.
US09313433B2
In a solid-state imaging device and an electronic camera, a first substrate of the solid-state imaging device includes first and second photoelectric converting units, a transfer unit that transfers signal charges of the first and second photoelectric converting units to a connector, and a microlens that causes light to be incident on the first and second photoelectric converting unit. A second substrate of the solid-state imaging device includes first and second memory units that hold signal charges transferred from one or the other of the first and second photoelectric converting unit to the connector and an averaging unit that averages the signal charges held in the first memory unit and the signal charge held in the second memory unit.
US09313424B2
A two-dimensional solid-state image capture device includes pixel areas arranged in a two-dimensional matrix, each pixel area being constituted by multiple sub-pixel regions, each sub-pixel region having a photoelectric conversion element. A polarization member is disposed at a light incident side of at least one of the sub-pixel regions constituting each pixel area. The polarization member has strip-shaped conductive light-shielding material layers and slit areas, provided between the strip-shaped conductive light-shielding material layers. Each sub-pixel region further has a wiring layer for controlling an operation of the photoelectric conversion element, and the polarization member and the wiring layer are made of the same material and are disposed on the same virtual plane.
US09313414B2
The present invention discloses a region based shutter adaptation method for image exposure. The method includes the steps of: (a) providing an image which is non-uniformly illuminated; (b) segmenting the image into two or more non-overlapping regions; (c) identifying brightness values for each of the regions when more than one brightness value has been produced for each of the regions; (d) applying the whole image with different shutters for different regions; and (e) exposing different regions for different exposure durations according to the brightness values respectively assigned to the regions, so that the present invention is capable of enabling different regions within the whole image which is non-uniformly illuminated to have different shutter adaptions.
US09313410B2
A display controller includes circuitry configured to cause a display device to display self-portrait photographing information in response to receiving an indication that the display device and an imaging unit are in a predetermined positional relationship.
US09313407B2
An electronic apparatus includes a photographing unit, a processing unit, and a display unit. The photographing unit creates an image signal and captures a first image corresponding to a first shutter release signal. The processing unit creates a first quick view image of the first captured image and creates a live view image based on the image signal. The display unit displays the first quick view image and the live view image. If a second shutter release signal is inputted within a first reference time from a moment at which the first shutter release signal is inputted, the processing unit creates and displays, at the display unit, a second quick view image corresponding to the second shutter release signal. If the second shutter release signal is not inputted within the first reference time, the processing unit creates and displays, at the display unit, the live view image.
US09313405B2
Embodiments of the technology involve apparatus and methods for control of displaying of images. In an example, an apparatus may include an image display, a sensor to detect posture of the image display and a processor to control sequentially displaying images of a group of images on the image display based on changes in the detected posture. The processor may control a display of a posture indicator on the image display such that the indicator may represent a relation between a change in the detected posture and an image of the group of images. Optionally, the indicator may be represented by a tilt meter. Moreover, in some embodiments, the sensor may be implemented with a gyroscopic sensor.
US09313374B2
A processing chain for a digital image signal applies a dither pattern, having a first spectrum, to the image signal at a point in the processing chain. A further noise pattern is applied to the image signal during the processing chain. The noise pattern has a second spectrum which is configured such that the combination of the first spectrum and second spectrum results in a more continuous spectrum. Another aspect describes a noise pattern which can be used as an offset dither pattern for digital images, especially before color bit depth reduction. The noise pattern has an array of values which are linearly distributed across a range, with each value in the range occurring an equal number of times.
US09313373B2
A display apparatus for receiving broadcasting includes a display unit configured to display an image thereon, a cover which partially covers the display unit, at least one signal connector which is configured to connect to a portable signal processing module that is located outside the cover and processes a signal to be displayed by the display unit, and receives the signal processed by the signal processing module, and a timing controller (T-con) configured to control a display timing of the signal received by the at least one signal connector.
US09313372B2
An image sensor is provided which includes a plurality of unit pixels, ones of which are configured to convert an input light signal into at least four frame signals. The image sensor also includes a signal processor that is configured to measure a distance from an object based on the at least four frame signals from one of the plurality of unit pixels.
US09313361B2
An information processing apparatus includes connection portion, first acquisition portion, printing condition determination portion, second acquisition portion, and first selection portion. Connection portion connects the information processing apparatus to a plurality of image forming apparatuses. First acquisition portion acquires management data in which meeting information relating to the content of meeting is associated with material information relating to material used for the meeting. Printing condition determination portion determines printing condition to be applied to printing process for the material, based on the meeting information acquired by first acquisition portion. Second acquisition portion acquires printing condition information relating to printing condition that can be set in each of the plurality of image forming apparatuses. First selection portion selects, from among the plurality of image forming apparatuses, image forming apparatus that satisfies the printing condition determined by printing condition determination portion, based on the printing condition information acquired by second acquisition portion.
US09313358B2
This invention improves the image processing speed by implementing efficient access to a buffer memory while suppressing the access count. For this purpose, when transferring ith partial image data obtained from a first signal processing unit to a buffer memory, a data-transfer controlling unit transfers data out of the ith partial image data except the data of a region overlapping an immediately preceding (i−1)th partial image data to the buffer memory, and transfers the ith partial image data including the data of the overlap region to a subsequent second signal processing unit.
US09313356B2
The storage unit stores first ability information indicating an image processing ability of each of the plurality of image reading apparatuses and second ability information indicating an image processing ability of the image processing apparatus. The accepted job is instructed to execute by any one of the plurality of image reading apparatuses and specifies at least image processing. The selecting is performed on either an image reading apparatus instructing to execute the job or the image processing apparatus based on the first ability information and the second ability information. When the image reading apparatus is selected, the image reading apparatus is controlled to execute the image processing specified in the job. When the image processing apparatus is selected, the image processing apparatus is controlled to execute the image processing specified in the job on data read by the image reading apparatus.
US09313353B2
A scanner is disclosed. The scanner detects when the to surface of the ADF scan glass is contaminated.
US09313334B2
A multipoint conference unit includes input/output ports to communicate with at least three client terminals via at least three communication channels with each communication channel communicating with one of the at least three client terminals, a memory to store data streams communicated between multipoint conference unit and the client terminals, and a processor to mix data streams received from the client terminals and to store the mixed data streams in the memory. The processor also determines a number of each of three different types of communication channels and selectively implements bandwidth extension to the communication channels based on the determination.
US09313333B2
Handling an incoming call from a caller to a user includes prompting a caller to record a message to the user and sending a special command to a user communication device indicting that the incoming call is available for screening and retrieving. In response to the user indicating a desire to screen the incoming call, the user listens to the message while the caller is leaving the message. In response to the user indicating a desire to retrieve the incoming call, the call is transferred to the user communication device. In response to the user indicating a desire to screen the call, an incoming media stream from the incoming call may be forked so that the message is being recorded while the user is listening to the message at the user communication device.
US09313326B2
A computer-implemented method for determining a zone of relevance for locating a wireless end-user and making a user notification decision including: storing information related to the enterprise in an enterprise database; storing information related to the end-user in an end-user database; accessing said enterprise and user end databases to extract enterprise and end-user related information; accessing a geographical database to extract geographic information, based on information obtained from the enterprise database; extracting relevant dynamic inputs from external sources via a predefined application programming interface; determining a value for the user notification based on weighting of said extracted information and historical use information; determining a zone of relevance for the wireless end-user; and notifying a user, wherein notifying the user meets predetermined criteria for the determined value of notification.
US09313322B2
Techniques to derive or predict location context for a user of a mobile device include receiving signal data that indicates a set of one or more distinct signal sources from which signals are received at the mobile device for each of multiple different times. The method further comprises determining whether the mobile device is moving outside a specified area at a current time based on the signal data. The method further comprises incrementing a count for a stationary state associated with the set of one or more distinct signal sources at the current time, if the mobile device is determined to be not moving outside the specified area. The method also comprises delivering a service to the mobile device based on the stationary state.
US09313314B2
Wireless network connection control method of performing control for establishing and releasing wireless network connection with another device when impacts are applied to devices, application program control method of performing control for setting and executing application program when impacts are applied to devices, and device including wireless network connection control function and application program control function which use a device impact are disclosed. According to the present invention, provided is a wireless network connection control method of a device using a device impact, including generating a corresponding impact event when physical impact applied from the outside is sensed, transceiving a search message between devices based on a time at which the impact event occurred, searching for another device in which the impact event has occurred at the same time, and performing a predetermined protocol with a corresponding device according to a search result and establishing an inter-device wireless network connection.
US09313311B2
A method and a communication system is disclosed for using a communication system connected to at least a first mobile device and a second mobile device, wherein the communication system is operable in at least a first operating state and a second operating state, wherein the connection of the communication system to the first mobile device is prioritized in the first operating state and wherein the connection of the communication system to the second mobile device is prioritized in the second operating state.
US09313303B2
An electronic device includes a housing and an electronic card connector. The housing includes a supporting wall and a number of peripheral sidewalls. The supporting wall and the number of peripheral sidewalls define an accommodating space. The peripheral sidewall defines a first through hole and a second through hole. The electronic card connector includes a tray being received in the accommodating space, a first geared rack being received in the second through hole, a cylinder gear being rotatably coupled to the supporting wall and meshed with the first geared rack, and a second geared rack being coupled to the supporting wall and meshed with the cylinder. The tray is supported by the second geared rack. The cylinder gear and the second geared rack can be both driven to move to eject the tray ejected from the accommodating space.
US09313291B2
A communication channel in a network maintains client-server transparency while providing reduced bandwidth in the channel. A first and second node can communicate a compressed form of the object data between themselves in the channel. One of the first or second nodes hosts a cache database that can store, transparently to the client, the requested object data. The stored object data can be used to decompress the compressed object data communicated between the first and second node. One of the nodes can provide control signals to the other node to indicate whether the requested object data is stored in the cache database. This configuration preserves transparency between the client and the server while permitting reduced bandwidth usage between the first and second nodes via the compressed object data.
US09313286B2
A computer-implemented method for establishing media data exposure for a computer processing device, where media data received in the computer processing device. The computer processing device pairs itself with a plurality of portable computing devices using a Bluetooth connection when media data is received. A signal strength characteristic of the Bluetooth connection is established in the computer processing device for each of the paired plurality of portable computing devices. Each signal strength characteristic with the received media data is then established to determine which signal strength characteristic is the strongest when the media data was received in the computer processing device.
US09313285B2
A method, computer program product, and system for performing a dynamic social content selection. According to an embodiment, a method may include determining, via one or more computing devices, a plurality of status indicators available to be associated with social content associated with a first user. The method may also include defining one or more rules for the plurality of status indicators based on, at least in part, a recipient characteristic. The method may further include selecting one of the plurality of status indicators to associate with the content for a second user based on the one or more rules. The method may further include providing the content and the selected one of the plurality of status indicators to the second user.
US09313278B2
Network nodes can add information to a central database (220, 300) that identifies their connections to other network nodes. The central database (220, 300) can thereby serve as a repository of information indicating connections between network nodes. When a first network node (Node 0) needs to establish a session to a second network node (Node 1), it can interrogate the central database (220, 300) to learn what existing connections, if any, can be used for the session. When existing connections provide more than one available pathway between the first and second network nodes (Node 0, Node 1), the first network node (Node 0) may select among the existing connections in response to quality of service values that are provided by the central database (220, 300) for those connections.
US09313276B2
A method of transmitting aircraft flight data for an aircraft from the aircraft to a destination server via a wireless communication link with the method including determining an operational status of the aircraft, determining flight data to be transmitted, and transmitting the determined flight data to be transmitted to the destination server.
US09313274B2
A distributed storage system that includes memory hosts. Each memory host includes non-transitory memory and a network interface controller in communication with the memory and servicing remote direct memory access requests from clients. The memory receives a data transfer rate from each client in communication with the memory host through remote direct memory access. Each memory host also includes a data processor in communication with the memory and the network interface controller. The data processor executes a host process that reads each received client data transfer rate, determines a throttle data transfer rate for each client, and writes each throttle data transfer rate to non-transitory memory accessible by the clients through remote direct memory access.
US09313270B2
Systems and methods for adaptive asynchronous data replication in a data storage system are described herein. The data storage system includes a plurality of zones each having a plurality of storage nodes, each having a plurality of storage devices. The system provides for replication according to policies associated with data items such that data items are stored among a plurality of zones. The data items are stored as one or more objects and may be replicated asynchronously or synchronously. The system adapts the synchronicity of the replication based on a combination of criteria including a put performance threshold, a backlog threshold, latency and the current synchronicity status. By automatically adjusting the replication synchronicity, the system and methods achieve improved performance while maintaining data resiliency.
US09313261B2
A method includes selecting a target mobile device based on information regarding a power storage level of the particular mobile device. The method further includes transmitting program context information associated with a task of the first mobile device to a network accessible storage device. The method further includes transmitting a notification regarding the program context information to the target mobile device. The present disclosure describes a power and task (data and/or voice) handover system that enables a user to transfer task(s) from one mobile device to another mobile device using a network (wired or wireless) based handover scheme.
US09313260B2
In a data communication system including a reception side PC for receiving data, a transmission source PC for transmitting data, and a data transfer apparatus, the reception side PC notifies the transmission source PC of a reception ID as an identifier for specifying the reception side PC in data communication. Upon receiving a transmission notification containing the reception ID from the transmission source PC, the reception side PC requests a list of data corresponding to the transmission notification of the data transfer apparatus. The reception side PC requests, of the data transfer apparatus, acquisition target data based on the list of data transmitted from the data transfer apparatus in response to the request, and then acquires the data.
US09313256B2
A plug-in management apparatus for managing plug-ins installed in application programs may comprise a local plug-in management module disposed in a client device. The local plug-in management module may be configured to detect a plug-in installed in an application program; determine an activation status of the plug-in; and when the plug-in is active, turn off the plug-in when the plug-in has been in an idle condition for a time longer than a predetermined idle time. The local plug-in management module may also be configured to delete a plug-in when an activation frequency of the plug-in is lower than a predetermined frequency; clean a plurality of caches used by the plug-in when a quantity of the plurality of caches is greater than a pre-determined cache quantity or when the plug-in has been activated for a time longer than a predetermined activation time.
US09313252B2
Various embodiments enable redundant or replica services, such as “cloud” services, to be run at geographically distributed locations. Each replica is capable of performing operations that are generally, identically performed across all replicas. In the event of an interruption at one location, services in other locations can quickly and automatically take over operations. In one or more embodiments, a Distributed Agreement Protocol is utilized to bind a CRUD-type protocol as a state machine. Binding takes place through the use of a reverse proxy that is located at each of the locations at which the service is distributed. In at least some embodiments, the Distributed Agreement Protocol is implemented as the Paxos protocol or a variant thereof, and/or the CRUD-type protocol comprises the HTTP protocol.
US09313251B2
Arrangements described herein can include automatically monitoring, on a first client device receiving multimedia content, a first QoE associated with presenting the multimedia content by the first client device. The arrangements also can include automatically determining a configuration state of the first client device while presenting the multimedia content. The method further includes sharing, by the first client device, with at least a second client device at least a portion of the configuration state of the first client device while presenting the multimedia content, wherein the portion of the configuration state of the first client device is included in a candidate configuration that is a candidate for implementation on the second client device to improve a second QoE associated with presenting the multimedia content, or other multimedia content, by the second client device.
US09313247B2
A method of transmitting data from a first terminal to a second terminal in a communication network comprising: receiving at the first terminal an data signal determining an identity of the peripheral device; supplying to a data store the identity of the peripheral device; selecting from the data store at least one parameter for processing the data signal based on the identity of the peripheral device; transmitting the data signal from the first terminal to the second terminal; and processing the data signal, wherein the data signal is processed based on the selected parameter.
US09313235B2
Systems and methods for interoperating between networks. A first network may be configured to operate according to a first real time network protocol and each of one or more second networks may be configured to operate according to respective second real time traffic protocols. A mapping may specify data routing between a plurality of ports and the routing may maintain real time behavior between the first network and the one or more second networks. Additionally, routing information may be inserted in packets routed from the one or more second networks to the first network and removed from packets routed from the first network to the one or more second networks. The packets may be routed, based on the mapping, to distinct queues for the first network and the one or more second networks for processing by an application executing on at least one device.
US09313233B2
Systems and methods are disclosed for detecting associated devices. In accordance with one implementation, a method is provided for detecting associated devices. The method includes obtaining information about a target device and determining, based on the information about the target device, one or more target observations that include a target time and a target location. The method also includes identifying one or more second observations of one or more candidate devices, wherein the candidate observations include a second time and a second location that correspond with the target time and the target location. In addition, the method includes determining, from the one or more candidate devices, any associated devices that may correspond with the target device.
US09313222B2
A method, an electronic device, and a user interface for on-demand detecting a malware are provided and adapted for estimating whether an application has vulnerabilities or malicious behaviors. The method includes the following steps. Firstly, evaluating a risk level and a test time of the application which has vulnerabilities or malicious behaviors. Next, detecting the application by selection of user to estimate the risk level of the application which has vulnerabilities or malicious behaviors and then correspondingly generating a detection result. Therefore, the method, the electronic device, and the user interface for on-demand detecting the malware can detect the risk level of the application which has vulnerabilities or malicious behaviors before getting virus pattern of the variant or new malware.
US09313216B2
The present disclosure provides a method and system for monitoring an application. The method includes creating a simulated system service; establishing a connection with a function in a device driver that manages an Input/Output (I/O) channel of the device; intercepting data transmitted from the application to the function in the device driver that manages the I/O channel of the device; replacing, based on the intercepted data, a system service requested by the application with a corresponding simulated system service; and recording a request received by the simulated system service and forwarding the request to an analysis module for analysis.
US09313209B2
A loan origination and processing system is described. The system can reside on a server computer that is coupled to a data store storing data related to a borrower. The server computer is further coupled to a brokerage network that comprises a loan officer client, a loan processor client, and a broker manager client. Each brokerage client computer executes a unique interface to the loan origination and processing system.
US09313200B2
Systems and methods are provided for recording a user's biometric features and generating an identifier representative of the user's biometric features and whether the user is alive (“liveness”) using mobile devices such as a smartphone. The systems and methods described herein enable a series of operations whereby a user using a mobile device can capture imagery of a user's face, eyes and periocular region. The mobile device is also configured analyze the imagery to identify and determine the position of low-level features spatially within the images and the changes in position of the low level features dynamically throughout the images. Using the spatial and dynamic information the mobile device is further configured to determine whether the user is alive and/or generate a biometric identifier characterizing the user's biometric features which can be used to authenticate the user by determining liveness and/or verify the user's identity.
US09313198B2
Systems and methods of authenticating users using a possession factor communicate a first authentication code to the user device and a second authentication code to an authentication device that is assumed to be the user's possession. Both authentication codes are presented to the user via their respective devices. An authentication application on the authentication device asks the user to compare the authentication codes and respond, via the authentication device, if these two authentication codes match. Authentication codes may be identical or different and match based on a user association. If a message from the authentication device indicates that the two codes match, then it is confirmed that the user possesses the authentication device and has authorized the authentication to proceed. For enhanced security, the authentication application may optionally be installed and executed on a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) installed in the authentication device.
US09313166B1
Techniques are described herein for classifying an electronic message with a particular project from among a plurality of projects. In some embodiments, first and second users associated with the electronic message are identified, and one or more first projects associated with the first user and one and more second projects associated with the second user are determined. Projects that are in common between the first projects and the second projects are determined. When only a single project is in common, the electronic message is associated with the single project. When more than a single project is in common, features associated with each of the projects found to be in common are analyzed by a machine learning model to determine the most likely project to associate with the electronic message from among the projects found to be in common.
US09313163B2
A method and system for booking reservations for a car service and delivery of such services, wherein at least one booking system and/or at least one car service provider interact with a mediator/facilitator to arrange for and provide a car for a client using at least one client terminal device that can be a mobile device. In the method, information entered into the system via the client's mobile device is transferred and adapted by the mediator/facilitator to communicate with the at least one booking system, the at least one car service provider.
US09313155B2
An electronic messaging system and method with reduced traceability. Message content and an identifier of a recipient are associated with an electronic message at a sending user device. The message content is associated via a first display and the identifier of a recipient is associated via a second display. The first and second displays are not displayed at the same time. The identifier of the recipient is not displayed at the same time as a media component of the message content via the first display. Methods, systems, and computer readable media with separation of the display of media component and recipient identifier in various implementations may provide for reduced traceability of an electronic message.
US09313148B2
An output queue of a multi-plane network device includes a first processing circuit, a plurality of storage devices and a second processing circuit. The first processing circuit generates packet selection information based on an arrival sequence of a plurality of packets. The storage devices store a plurality of packet linked lists for the output queue. The second processing circuit dequeues a packet from the output queue by selecting a linked list entry from the packet linked lists according to the packet selection information.
US09313146B2
A system for using one or more via sites to manage network bandwidth, according to one embodiment of the present invention comprises a first call manager at a source site receiving an offer message to connect a call. The offer message includes an endpoint media settings list. The first call manager determines a first filtered media preferences list based on a source media settings list and the endpoint media settings list. The first call manager and transmits an invite message to a second call manager at a first via site. The invite message includes the first filtered media preferences list. The first call manager receives from the second call manager a call settings list that includes a description of the call settings negotiated between the source site, the first via site and a destination site.
US09313142B2
A path computation element for a communications network, receives link advertisements from hybrid nodes (10) of the network and selects paths for new traffic flows based on the received link advertisements. The hybrid node has switching matrices (20, 30) operable using different protocols, and has internal links between the switching matrices. The link advertisements indicate a maximum and in a minimum bandwidth on any one of the internal links for a new traffic flow. The element can select a path via the hybrid node for a new traffic flow according to the bandwidth of the requested new traffic flow and according to the maximum and the minimum bandwidth indicated by the link advertisements. Advertising the maximum and minimum bandwidths available for a single new traffic flow for the internal links can enable more efficient path computation with little additional cost and hence maintain scalability of the link advertisements for larger networks.
US09313127B2
In an embodiment of the invention, a method of performing a byte-rotate-merge on computer hardware is discussed. Byte-rotating is performed on first and second source operands and are byte-rotated by first and second rotation constants respectively. The first byte-rotate output and the second byte-rotate output are merged. Bytes from the first byte-rotate output are output to a byte-rotate-merge output when control bits from a byte-mask are logical ones. Bytes from the second byte-rotate output are output to a byte-rotate-merge output when control bits from the byte-mask are logical zeros.
US09313121B2
Embodiments of the disclosure are directed to implementing a router Media Access Control (MAC) Ethernet switch in a network. An embodiment receives, from a first Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) router, at least one data packet with a router MAC address identifying a second MPLS router; automatically learns the router MAC address identifying the second MPLS router; accesses information to determine the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the second MPLS router based on the learned router MAC address; and transmits the at least one data packet to the second MPLS router.
US09313115B2
Traffic generators, methods, and computer readable storage media for testing a network are disclosed. A scheduler may determine a sequence of packets to be transmitted, each packet in the sequence of packets belonging to one of a plurality of flow control groups. A packet generator may generate packets in the determined sequence and output completed packets for transmission over a network under test. The packet generator may include a first processing engine and a last processing engine configured as a pipeline to perform respective sequential stages of a packet generation process, and a first bank of first-in-first-out (FIFO) queues including a plurality of FIFO queues corresponding to the plurality of flow control groups. The first processing engine may store first packet forming data associated with each flow control group in the corresponding FIFO queue of the first bank of FIFO queues.
US09313110B2
Embodiments of the disclosure provide a method and system for processing data such as a stream of tuples. One embodiment is directed toward a method for managing a stream of tuples. The method can include receiving the stream of tuples to be processed by a plurality of stream operators operating on one or more computer processors. The method can include routing the stream of tuples to a plurality of output ports, the output ports each communicate with a processing branch. The method can include receiving performance data of the stream of tuples from a measuring stream operator that measures the processing branch. The method can include determining weights to assign to each output port based on the performance data. The method can also include modifying the routing of the stream of tuples through the plurality of output ports as a function of the weight of each output port.
US09313109B1
Embodiments are provided herein for reducing neighbor cell monitoring by a mobile communication device that may include measuring a channel condition of the cell serving the idle network subscription, determining whether the measured channel condition of the cell serving the idle network subscription satisfies a threshold value, and in response to determining that the measured channel condition of the cell serving the idle network subscription satisfies the threshold value, reducing a frequency at which neighbor cells associated with the idle network subscription are monitored and monitoring the neighbor cells associated with the idle network subscription according to the reduced frequency.
US09313104B2
Systems, software, and methods for reliable wireless communication are provided. In one aspect, a computer program control device, called a node, is configured to be transmitted from a first device for receipt and processing on a second, disparate device. The node comprises a collection of managed objects or managed object representations that is effective to control said disparate device. In one exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation, the node is configured to control the processing of multiple data types.
US09313096B2
An approach is provided in which a system creates a network application model that includes network policy objects and connection rules corresponding to sending data between the network policy objects. The system converts the network application model to network configuration information, which links the network policy objects to the connection rules. In turn, a network control plane is configured based upon the network configuration information to map the network application model to a physical infrastructure.
US09313089B2
The present invention relates to operating of network entities in a communications system, wherein said communications system comprises a management network with agent and management levels, wherein a fault and/or performance management related data provided or occurring in an agent level is correlated and/or analyzed in said agent level with further fault and/or performance management related data provided or occurring in said agent level by use of configuration management relationships in said agent level, and wherein an information derived from the correlation is transmitted to at least one management level of said management network of said communications network being responsible for management of the corresponding agent level.
US09313085B2
In a computing device a domain name system (DNS) query is generated and sent, and a check is made as to whether a verified DNS response to the DNS query is received. The computing device is determined to be inside a particular network if a verified DNS response is received, and is determined to be outside that particular network if a verified DNS response is not received. A DNS response can be determined to be verified if both the DNS response has an expected value and the DNS response is digitally signed by a trusted authority, and otherwise can be determined to be not verified.
US09313077B2
Pre-distorted transmitters operable over a wide range of frequencies including a plurality of predetermined frequency bands are provided. The transmitters include a programmable digital up-converter and a programmable digital down-converter, an ADC, a DAC, a power amplifier and at least one analog filter arranged along a transmit signal path and a feedback signal path.
US09313071B2
An OFDM modulation signal receiving apparatus by which a user can generally grasp a reception state of an OFDM modulation signal and take measures to improve the reception quality thereof. The OFDM modulation signal receiving apparatus comprises: an autocorrelation calculating part that calculates an autocorrelation value of an OFDM modulation signal at predetermined periods; an intra-interval total sum value calculating part that sums up comparison result values obtained by comparing the autocorrelation value with at least one threshold in each predetermined interval to calculate an intra-interval total sum value of each predetermined interval; and a selection storage part that stores a piece of autocorrelation level data according to the intra-interval total sum value in each predetermined interval.
US09313069B2
A method and system for processing an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed (OFDM) signal. The system includes a signal source configured to provide a sequence of ordered data values and a corresponding sequence of ordered addresses. A plurality of processors includes a first processor and a last processor, wherein the first processor is coupled to the signal source. Each processor is configured to pass the data values without modification and modify the addresses of the corresponding data values. The system further includes a memory coupled to the last processor. The memory is configured to store each data value from the last processor at a corresponding modified address of the memory provided by the last processor.
US09313061B2
A wireless communication system may include a first wireless communications device, and a second wireless communications device. The first wireless communications device may include a wireless transmitter, and a modulator coupled to the wireless transmitter for modulating input data to generate a Gaussian phase shift keyed signal having a selected data symbol mapping. The second wireless communications device may include a wireless receiver, and a demodulator coupled to the wireless receiver for demodulating the Gaussian phase shift keyed signal using memory-less symbol decisions based upon the selected data symbol mapping.
US09313058B2
A plurality of line interfaces is configured to receive a spread signal over the plurality of line interface. The spread signal carrying symbols with guaranteed symbol-to-symbol state transitions between consecutive symbols. The spread signal is defined by a plurality of transition signals including a first signal over a first line interface. A clock signal is extracted based on a comparison between a first instance of the first signal and a delayed second instance of the first signal. The delayed second instance of the first signal is sampled based on the clock signal to provide a symbol output. The clock extraction circuit is further adapted to generate the clock signal based on additional comparisons between a first instance of a second signal, within the plurality of transition signals, and a delayed second instance of the second signal, where the first and second signals are concurrent signals received over different line interfaces.
US09313055B2
An apparatus and method for reducing unwanted spectral emissions of a complex signal to be transmitted comprising calculating the nth power of the complex signal to be transmitted, calculating the complex conjugate of the nth power of the complex signal to be transmitted, applying a scaling factor to the complex conjugate to form a scaled correction signal, and adding the scaled correction signal to the signal to be transmitted.
US09313046B2
Providing location information to a supervisory user includes providing a parental control, using a computer automatically to determine a location of a subordinate user, and storing location information indicative of the location of the subordinate user in a database. A request of the supervisory user to locate the subordinate user is received and a user interface informs the supervisory user of the location of the subordinate user based on the stored location information. At least one of the storing and/or the informing are based on the parental control.
US09313043B2
Communications with timeliness guarantees, also known as real-time communications are established in a shared medium with different contention based technologies. A real-time station is able to transmit a noise sequence before the intended data packet transmission. The noise sequence being is to occupy the communication medium during a period of time preferably larger than the maximum transmission time of any contention based technology that can have access to the medium, hereinafter designated alien. As such, even if an alien station is transmitting, it will finish its packet during the transmission of the noise sequence. The method prevents the alien stations from accessing the medium as these stations will sense the medium busy after the end of their packet transmissions. This method can be used to support master-multislave real-time communications on shared media in which contention based technologies operate.
US09313033B2
A first device with a changing identity establishes a secure connection with a second device in a network by acting as its own certificate authority. The first device issues itself a self-signed root certificate that binds an identity of the first device to a long-term public key of the first device. The root certificate is digitally signed using a long-term private key, where the long-term public key and the long-term private key form a public/private key pair. The first device provides its root certificate to the second device in any trusted manner. The first device can then create a certificate for one or more short-term identities acquired by the first device and sign the newly-created certificate using the long-term private key. The first device can authenticate itself to the second device by sending the newly-created certificate to the second device.
US09313029B2
A method and a system embodying the method for generating an opaque data comprising a stream identifier, comprising encrypting at least part of a stream identifier with a first secret random data to provide an encrypted stream identifier; generating a digest by applying a cryptographic hash to at least the at least the part of the stream identifier; and combining the encrypted stream identifier with the digest, is disclosed Additionally, a method and a system embodying the method for reconstructing a stream identifier from the opaque data indicating permission to access a region of a storage at an entity that generated the opaque data is disclosed.
US09313022B2
Data privacy is becoming increasingly important and, in some jurisdictions, required. Access to private data can be controlled by forcing all access to go through minimizations services that allow only authorized access to private data. These minimization services can become processing bottlenecks if the only way to modify private data is by way of requests to the minimization service. Certain homomorphic operations allow for encrypted data to be modified without being first decrypted although other operands must be encrypted. Augmenting a minimization service to provide a public encryption key provides for encryption of the other operands. Providing a records manager that can take advantage of homomorphic operations allows certain data operations to be performed without compromising security and without accessing the minimization service.
US09313017B1
In an example, a clock data recovery (CDR) circuit for a receiver includes a timing error detector circuit, a loop filter, and a phase interpolator. The timing error detector circuit is coupled to receive, at a baud-rate, data samples and error samples for symbols received by the receiver. The timing error detector circuit is operable to generate both a timing error value and an estimated waveform value per symbol based on the data samples and the error samples. The loop filter is coupled to the timing error detector to receive timing error values. The phase interpolator is coupled to the loop filter to receive filtered timing error values, the phase interpolator operable to generate a control signal to adjust a sampling phase used to generate the data samples and the error samples.
US09313011B2
A method and an apparatus for scheduling terminals in a system with multiple antenna elements combining into a common cell are provided. The method includes: receiving channel quality information fed back by the multiple terminals in the common cell, determining, according to the channel quality information fed back by the multiple terminals, all terminals capable of being bound to each antenna element; determining a first antenna element among the antenna elements in the common cell on a first time domain resource within a scheduling granularity, determining a terminal to be served on the first time domain resource, and beginning to serve the terminal; and scheduling all terminals capable of being bound to the first antenna element on each remaining time domain resource within the scheduling granularity, determining a terminal to be served on each remaining time domain resource, and beginning to serve the terminal.
US09313001B2
A method for transmitting a channel status information reference signals (CSI-RSs) for a maximum of eight antenna ports includes mapping the CSI-RSs for a maximum of eight antenna ports onto a data region of a downlink subframe having a normal cyclic prefix (CP) configuration according to a predetermined pattern; and transmitting the downlink subframe to which the CSI-RSs mapped, wherein the predetermined pattern defines the CSI-RSs to be mapped onto two OFDM symbols of the data region in the downlink subframe and mapped to at least one of four subcarrier positions in each of the two OFDM symbols, and wherein the four subcarrier positions defined by the predetermined pattern may be two consecutive subcarrier positions and two other consecutive subcarrier positions spaced apart by four subcarriers.
US09312997B2
A method for receiving a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) at a downlink subframe through a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system comprises the step of detecting the PDCCH by performing blind decoding for a search space including a plurality of PDCCH candidates included in the downlink subframe, wherein the blind decoding is performed in accordance with order of priority given to each of a plurality of sub-search spaces constituting the search space.
US09312993B2
The present invention pertains to a wireless communication system, and more particularly, to a method of receiving a downlink (DL) control channel in a wireless communication system and an apparatus therefor, and the method comprises the following steps: receiving a radio resource control (RRC) message including resource block (RB) allocation information; receiving a subframe having a plurality of physical RBs; and monitoring a plurality of downlink control channel candidates in a physical RB set corresponding to the RB allocation information from the plurality of physical RBs to detect a downlink control channel allocated to a communication device, wherein the plurality of downlink control channel candidates do not continuously exist in a virtual RB set corresponding to the physical RB set.
US09312990B2
Methods and apparatus are provided for recovering from packet loss in an end-to-end network connection having at least one wireless segment. A packet on a wireless segment of an end-to-end network connection is processed by determining whether the packet comprises one or more of a lost packet and a malformed packet; and generating a modified packet for an application associated with the packet to replace one or more of the lost packet and the malformed packet if the application is substantially tolerant to one or more of lost and malformed data. The modified packet comprises, for example, a non-original packet and/or a corrected packet. Link layer information or information from a deep packet inspection can be used to determine whether the packet comprises a lost packet or a malformed packet.
US09312982B2
The embodiments of the present invention disclose methods and apparatuses for mapping processing and de-mapping processing in an optical transport network. A Lower Order Optical Channel Data Unit (LO ODU) signal is mapped into a payload area of an Optical Channel Data Tributary (ODTU) signal in units of M bytes. M is equal to the number of tributary slots of a Higher Order Optical Channel Payload Unit (HO OPU) that are to be occupied by the ODTU signal, and M is an integer larger than 1. Overhead information is encapsulated to an overhead area of the ODTU signal. Thereafter, the ODTU signal is multiplexed into the HO OPU. In this way, an efficient and universal mode for mapping the LO ODU to the HO OPU is provided.
US09312966B1
A system includes a first low noise amplifier (LNA) having a first gain to amplify an optical input signal and to generate an amplified optical output signal. The first gain is set to compensate for signal losses in the optical input signal due to atmospheric fading. A second LNA having a second gain amplifies the amplified optical output signal from the first LNA and generates a saturated output signal when the combined first and second gain of the first LNA and the second LNA exceeds a predetermined output saturation level of a photo detector.
US09312961B2
Since it is difficult to emit a control a IQ modulator emitting modulated lightwave according to QAM format without signal degradation of said emitted signal due to low frequency dither used for the control of said modulator, a method for controlling an optical transmitter according to an exemplary aspect of the invention includes: generating a multilevel electrical signal by means of combining two or more binary electrical signals, where said multilevel signal is used to drive the modulator of adding a low frequency dither signal on several of the binary electrical signals, wherein the phase of the added dither signal depends on the value of the binary signal to which it is added; tapping a portion of light after the modulator and generating a monitor signal from the tapped light; controlling the modulator according to the monitor signal.
US09312957B2
An optical transceiver device has an optical transceiver component, an O/E conversion substrate and a switch control substrate. The optical transceiver component is connected to the first, second optical fiber network equipments for the transmission of optical signal, respectively. The O/E conversion substrate is electrically connected to an in-line equipment at a first location for transmission of electrical signal, and may convert the received optical signal into the electrical signal or convert the received electrical signal into the optical signal. The switch control substrate is electrically connected with an optical switching switch and is connected with the in-line equipment at a second location to receive a control signal for the optical switch from the in-line equipment such that the optical switching switch operates at an normal mode or an bypass mode to guarantee normal network communication of the first, second optical network equipment.
US09312953B2
A system and method for performing an in-service optical time domain reflectometry test, an in-service insertion loss test, and an in-service optical frequency domain reflectometry test using a same wavelength as the network communications for point-to-point or point-to-multipoint optical fiber networks while maintaining continuity of network communications are disclosed.
US09312948B2
Various aspects of the present disclosure enable a dockee that establishes docking with a wireless docking host that manages a docking environment to gather information about the wireless docking host, including docking host information and one or more wireless peripheral devices managed by the wireless docking host. The dockee may then store the results of the functionality information. In one aspect of the disclosed approach, the dockee may advertise the functionality information of the wireless docking host to other dockees. Other aspects, embodiments, and features are also claimed and described.
US09312945B2
A method for reporting a channel state to a base station (BS) supporting downlink (DL) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) in a wireless communication system includes measuring a DL channel based on a DL signal received from the BS, and reporting an index of a codebook for precoding of the DL signal according to the measured DL channel, wherein the codebook for precoding includes an integrated codebook having a dual structure including a codebook for a wideband and a codebook for a subband, and wherein the integrated codebook is determined depending on an index i1 of the codebook for the wideband and an index i2 of the codebook for the subband, and a structure or type of a codebook selectable using the index i2 varies according to the index i1.
US09312938B2
The present invention is directed to improvements for distributed antenna systems and more particularly to methods and systems for improving uplink communications. In one embodiment, Aggregation Point Noise Blocking provides for blocking or filtering the noise contributed by one or more of the branches coupled to an aggregation point that are not carrying the signal from a particular terminal. Signal activity from a given terminal on a particular branch can be identified and that information can be used to selectively block or filter the signal noise contributed by the other branches to an aggregation point. The selective blocking or filtering can also include an attenuation function to attenuate the signal and provide dynamic range smoothing. In another embodiment the signal can be regenerated to produce a signal that has a restored or very high SNR. An uplink regeneration block can be provided which demodulates the uplink signal to recover the transmitted information and then re-modulates the transmitted information to regenerate a signal at a restored or very high SNR.
US09312936B2
Methods and apparatuses are provided for transmitting control information to a terminal, by a base station, in a Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) mobile communication system. The control information is generated including a field indicating either a precoding scheme or a pilot format according to a type of pilot used for data demodulation in the terminal. The control information is transmitted to the terminal.
US09312922B2
It is provided a method implemented by an electronic device comprising a near field communication (NFC) system. The system comprises an NFC contactless front end, a plurality of secure element interfaces to which a plurality of secure elements are connected, and a processing unit adapted to control the NFC contactless front end and the plurality of secure elements through the secure element interfaces. The method comprises sending (S10) an initialization command to all the secure elements through the secure element interfaces, upon exposure of the NFC contactless front end to an NFC reader. The method improves the field of near field communication.
US09312921B2
An accessory for a user equipment (UE) is disclosed that includes a housing configured to be connected to the UE and accessory near field communication (NFC) circuit attached to the housing. The accessory NFC circuit includes an antenna, a charging circuit, and a transceiver circuit. The antenna is configured to inductively couple to signals emitted by a UE NFC circuit within the UE. The charging circuit is configured to output power provided by the inductive coupling through the antenna to the signals emitted by the UE NFC circuit. The transceiver circuit is configured to be powered by the charging circuit to transmit information to the UE NFC circuit that will be used by the UE to retrieve content stored on a content server and/or to authorize use of content stored on the UE. Related UEs and methods are disclosed.
US09312919B1
Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a waveguide system that includes a transmission device having a coupler positioned with respect to a transmission medium to facilitate transmission or reception of electromagnetic waves that transport communications data. The electromagnetic waves propagate along an outer surface of the transmission medium. A training controller detects an impairment on the transmission medium adverse to the transmission or reception of the electromagnetic waves and adjusts the electromagnetic waves to reduce the effects of the impairment on the transmission medium. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09312915B2
Provided is a disconnection detecting apparatus for detecting whether there is a disconnection between a current signal output device and an external device receives the current signal of a PLC analog current output module. The disconnection detecting apparatus according to an embodiment includes a monitoring unit generating different voltages according to whether a current signal input from the current signal output device is applied to the external device, a reference voltage generating unit generating a reference voltage, a comparing unit outputting a voltage according to a result obtained by comparing the voltage generated from the monitoring unit with the reference voltage, and a switching unit outputting a disconnection detecting signal on the basis of the voltage output from the comparing unit.
US09312907B2
An apparatus for enclosing a tablet computer and for simplifying operation of the computer by senior citizens is described. The enclosure receives and supports a conventional table computer but purposefully occludes or blocks access to selected user-activated controls on the tablet such as the on-off switch, and control zone regions of the touch screen regions of the display. The enclosure is supported in a stand and includes speakers to amplify sound played through the tablet, and rechargeable batteries.
US09312905B2
A mobile device and wallet case having a continuous inelastic frame conforming to the shape of a mobile device and having one or more apertures. The frame includes a foot on one side to assist in the insertion of the mobile device. The case can include transverse structures integrally formed with the frame and configured to attach a hollow-core door sized for storage. When open, the door functions as a stand for a mobile device in both the vertical position and horizontal position and bosses provide resistance to the door opening. The door can include a thumb slider aperture. The case can include a latch comprised of a frame coupled protuberance and a tooth having a female receiving recess configured to receive the protuberance. The frame inside and top edge of the frame is lined with an elastomeric liner that can extend through the button apertures.
US09312897B2
A DC offset filter for wide band beamforming receivers is disclosed. In an exemplary embodiment, an apparatus includes a first mixer configured to down-convert an RF wideband beamformed signal to generate a first baseband wideband beamformed signal, the RF wideband beamformed signal having a beam pattern selected from a plurality of beam patterns, and a notch filter configured to remove DC offset from the first baseband wideband beamformed signal independent of the beam pattern.
US09312884B2
A double quasi-cyclic low density parity check (DQC-LDPC) code and a corresponding processor are disclosed herein. The parity-check matrix of DQC-LDPC codes has regularity with its corresponding processor including an input end, an output end and a processing module. The parity-check matrix includes a double quasi-cyclic matrix. The double quasi-cyclic matrix includes a plurality of sub-matrices. The sub-matrices are arranged in an array. Each sub-matrix includes a plurality of entries, and each sub-matrix is a circulant matrix having the entries circular shifted row-by-row. The double quasi-cyclic matrix is a circulant matrix having the sub-matrices circular shifted row-by-row. The processing module is configured to process an input signal and output an output signal correspond to the parity-check matrix of a low density parity check code (LDPC).
US09312881B2
A binary arithmetic coding scheme is extended by a functionality to encode and decode non-negative integer values with particular low computational complexity.
US09312880B2
A spreading method and apparatus for spreading the spectral density of a pulse stream by summing a set of randomly selected zero-sum sequences to an incoming pulse stream and ensuring that the number of pulses output by the spreading method and apparatus is equal to the number of pulses input to the spreading method and apparatus.
US09312878B1
Superconductor analog-to-digital converters (ADC) offer high sensitivity and large dynamic range. One approach to increasing the dynamic range further is with a subranging architecture, whereby the output of a coarse ADC is converted back to analog and subtracted from the input signal, and the residue signal fed to a fine ADC for generation of additional significant bits. This also requires a high-gain broadband linear amplifier, which is not generally available within superconductor technology. In a preferred embodiment, a distributed digital fluxon amplifier is presented, which also integrates the functions of integration, filtering, and flux subtraction. A subranging ADC design provides two ADCs connected with the fluxon amplifier and subtractor circuitry that would provide a dynamic range extension by about 30-35 dB.
US09312872B1
A signal converter may include: a clock generation unit suitable for generating a counting clock signal having a given period value; a signal dividing unit suitable for dividing an input signal having time information by a preset division value correlated with the given period value; and a counting unit suitable for generating a counting value by counting an output signal of the signal dividing unit in response to the counting clock signal.
US09312864B2
In an integrated circuit that provides a clock signal, an asymmetric frequency-locked loop (AFLL) includes a first digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) that outputs a first signal having a first fundamental frequency, and a second DCO that outputs a second signal having a second fundamental frequency. The integrated circuit includes a voltage regulator that provides a power-supply voltage to the second DCO. Moreover, the AFLL includes control logic that selects one of the first DCO and the second DCO based on an instantaneous value of a power-supply voltage and an average power-supply voltage. Furthermore, the AFLL adjusts a gain of the selected DCO in the first sub-frequency-locked loop based on the instantaneous value of the power-supply voltage and the average power-supply voltage. In this way, an impact of power-supply voltage variations on a time-critical path in the integrated circuit is reduced.
US09312862B2
Adaptive clocking schemes for synchronized on-chip functional blocks are provided. The clocking schemes enable synchronous clocking which can be adapted according to changes in signal path propagation delay due temperature, process, and voltage variations, for example. In embodiments, the clocking schemes allow for the capacity utilization of a logic path to be increased.
US09312857B2
A semiconductor circuit includes: a first circuit configured to provide first voltage to an output node when a voltage level of an input node is at a first level; a second circuit configured to provide second voltage to the output node when the voltage level of the input node is at a second level; and a third circuit configured to provide third voltage to the output node when the second voltage is provided to the output node, where the second circuit is turned off when the third voltage is provided to the output node.
US09312853B2
A path switching FET and a shunt FET are separated from each other by a capacitor. The gates of the path switching FET and the shunt FET are controlled using an inverter circuit having a first internal power supply voltage (e.g., 2.5 V) as a power supply. The sources and drains of the path switching FET and the shunt FET are controlled using an inverter circuit having a second internal power supply voltage (e.g., 1.25 V) which is smaller than the first internal power supply voltage, as a power supply.
US09312852B2
A circuit and method for digital controlling the slew rate of load voltage are provided. The circuit is comprised of a digital slew-rate control unit that utilizes a feedback signal to generate control signals where the feedback signal indicates the observed rate of voltage change on the load. The circuit is further comprised of a load driver circuit that is operated by the control signals and provides a slew-rate controlled output voltage used to operate a load switch, where the load switch provides power to the load. The circuit is configured to operate the load switch using a slew-rate controlling driver, depending on the state of the load switch transition, and a non-controlling driver.
US09312829B2
A method of adjusting a loudness of an audio signal in real time may include receiving an electronic audio signal and dividing the audio signal into a plurality of frames. Processing of the frames may be performed in real time. The processing may include measuring initial loudness values for blocks of samples in a frame to produce a plurality of initial loudness values, and computing a weighted average of at least some of the initial loudness values. The weights may be selected based on one or more of the recency of the initial loudness values, variation of the initial loudness values, and estimated information content of the audio signal. The processing may further include selectively discarding at least some of the loudness values that reach an adaptive loudness threshold. Weights can be adjusted based on the variation of the loudness values of the audio signal.
US09312815B2
A broadband radio frequency, microwave, or millimeter mixer system may include a balun and a mixer. The balun may have an unbalanced port; a balanced port; a first and a second inductor tightly and inversely magnetically coupled to one another; and a third inductor which is not magnetically coupled to the first or the second inductors. The mixer may be connected to the balanced port of the balun. The balun, including its three inductors, and the mixer may all be integrated onto a single substrate that forms an integrated circuit.
US09312813B2
An instrument cluster assembly is disclosed and includes at least one gauge. The gauge comprises a dial surface and a ring spaced apart from the dial surface. The ring has an outer surface and an inner surface that includes ring graphics. The gauge further comprises a pointer rotatable about an axis. The pointer may include a pointer arm including a portion extending into a space defined between the inner surface of the ring and the dial surface and at least partially visible through the ring. The dial surface my include dial graphics.
US09312808B2
A low-noise and big tuning range voltage-controlled oscillator. Wherein a current source circuit is used for generating working current of the voltage-controlled oscillator, a resonance circuit is used for generating an oscillating signal of the voltage-controlled oscillator, the resonance circuit is an inductance and capacitance type resonance circuit, wherein capacitance adopts a metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) capacitive reactance tube or a reverse diode to increase the tuning range of the circuit, a negative resistance circuit is used for generating negative resistance to counteract positive resistance generated by the resonance circuit, and a feedback circuit is used for feeding back the oscillating signal generated by the resonance circuit to the current source circuit to add a new current to the current source.
US09312793B2
The present invention relates to a brake control circuit and a motor system. The brake control circuit is used for controlling a motor brake connected to a motor, and comprises a brake control input module and a brake control main module, wherein the brake control input module includes a control signal input unit and N relays connected in parallel to an output end of the control signal input unit, the relays are electrically connected to the brake control main module, and N is an integer greater than or equal to 2.
US09312791B2
A piezoelectric element includes: a first electrode; a piezoelectric body layer which is provided on the first electrode; and a second electrode which is provided on the piezoelectric body layer, the piezoelectric body layer is made of a composite oxide with a perovskite structure, which contains bismuth, barium, iron, titanium, and strontium, and the content of strontium with respect to barium is equal to or greater than 5 mol % and equal to or less than 18 mol %.
US09312769B2
An electric power system includes N electric power sources and N switching circuits, where N is an integer greater than one. Each switching circuit includes an input port electrically coupled to a respective one of the N electric power sources, an output port, and a first switching device adapted to switch between its conductive and non-conductive states to transfer power from the input port to the output port. The output ports of the N switching circuits are electrically coupled in series and to a load to establish an output circuit. Each of the N switching circuits uses an interconnection inductance of the output circuit as a primary energy storage inductance of the switching circuit.
US09312768B2
A buck converter includes a comparator having first and second gain stages that operate in compare and auto-zero modes. The comparator measures voltage drop across an N-channel transistor to determine when current through an inductor reaches zero. When the inductor current reaches zero, the N-channel transistor becomes inactive to prevent a reduction in efficiency caused by allowing negative inductor current to draw current from a load. The comparator is then placed in a low power state. When the comparator is not in a compare mode, the comparator can operate in an auto-zero mode to cancel offset when measuring the input of the comparator.
US09312764B2
An apparatus and a method for controlling a direct-current (DC)-DC converter used in a vehicle are provided. The apparatus includes a switching control unit checking a difference between voltages of an input unit and an output unit and controlling an operation of at least one switch formed in a converter according to an operation mode of the converter according to the difference of voltages; and the converter controlling the operation of the at least one switch based on a control signal applied from the switching control unit to allow a current to flow from the input unit to the output unit.
US09312746B2
A DC/DC converter system includes gate control circuitry, a transformer, a second stage, and soft start control circuitry. The gate control circuitry is configured to generate a first and a second gate control signal configured to open and close first and second switches of an inverter circuitry, respectively, to generate an AC signal from a DC input signal. The transformer transforms the AC signal and the second stage rectifies the AC signal to a DC output signal. The soft start control circuitry generates a signal to delay a closing of the first switch during an initial portion (Td) of a first cycle of the first switch. A method of soft-starting a DC/DC converter includes generating first and second gate control signals and delaying closing of the first switch during Td.
US09312745B2
A universal power supply system allows each board mounted DC power module or each AC/DC power supply device therein having identical dimensions and appearance to further have a specification setting circuit. When the board mounted DC power module or the AC/DC power supply device is plugged in a backboard module, the specification setting terminal outputs a specification identification signal to a monitoring circuit of the backboard module. As built in with a specification mapping table, the monitoring circuit can compare the specification identification signal to find a model number corresponding to the signal, and automatically sets a critical current value or critical power value of each board mounted DC power module for over-current protection or over-power protection. Accordingly, the universal power supply system can be adapted to different board mounted DC power modules or AC/DC power supply devices without redesigning the backboard module.
US09312744B2
A vibration generator includes a housing, a vibrating body arranged inside of a circumferential wall portion of the housing, and a band-like leaf spring arranged between the vibrating body and the circumferential wall portion. The leaf spring includes a connection portion connected to the vibrating body, an attachment portion attached to the circumferential wall portion of the leaf spring and an intermediate portion formed between the connection portion and the attachment portion to extend around the vibrating body. The connection portion and the attachment portion are arranged at one transverse side and the other transverse side of the vibrating body along a direction intersecting a vibration direction of the vibrating body. The intermediate portion is arranged in a vibration-direction outer region of the vibrating body and formed in a single layer to extend across the vibration direction of the vibrating body.
US09312742B2
An assembly includes a resistor pack, a first spring clip, and a first rigid connector. The resistor pack has a first clip-shaped cavity therein. The first spring clip is disposed within the first clip-shaped cavity and the first connector is abutted by opposing portions of the first spring clip.
US09312735B2
A stator includes a core fixed to a case of a rotary electric machine, and a plurality of winding wire coils that are wound on the core and that form a coil end protruded in the axial direction of the core. The two winding wire coils have a first and second conducting wires that are exposed in a distal end of each of the two coils. The stator includes: a joint in which the first and second wires are joined together at the coil end and in which proximal portions of the two coils approach each other with an acute angle therebetween so that the first and second wires lie on each other; and an insulating coat formed to enclose the joint with an insulating material that is coated entirely over peripheries of the two coils in their circumferential directions while filling a space across which the proximal portions form the acute angle. A rotary electric machine includes the stator, the case and a rotor.
US09312732B2
A rotor includes a shaft and a plurality of permanent magnets which are arranged around the shaft in a circumferential direction for permanent excitation. At least one of the permanent magnets is attached to the shaft by a material joint or formfit. A flux conducting device for conducting a magnetic flux of the permanent magnets has a plurality of separate soft-magnetic flux conducting elements, with each flux conducting element being mounted between two of the permanent magnets and fixed thereto so as to be indirectly held in place on the shaft. At least one of the flux conducting elements has at least one contact area sized to cover an outer edge of one of the permanent magnets in the radial direction.
US09312719B2
A chargeable energy store includes a chargeable electrical accumulator, an interface for connecting the accumulator to a device for the exchange of energy and a control unit for controlling the energy exchange of the accumulator. The control unit includes a supply voltage terminal, which is connected to the accumulator when a device is connected to the interface for the exchange of energy, and which is otherwise disconnected from the accumulator.
US09312714B2
The present invention relates to a control device and a control method, a power generation device and a power generating method, a power storage device and a power storing method, and a power control system that are capable of using generated electric power with higher efficiency. A controller (110) acquires information relating to a power storage state and the like from each power storage device (130) and determines a power transmission source and a power transmission destination of electric power generated by a power generation device (120), for example, as denoted by white arrows based on the information. The controller (110) supplies a power transmission instruction including information of the power transmission destination to the power generation device (120) as the power transmission source and supplies a power reception instruction including information of the power transmission source to the power storage device (130) as the power transmission destination. The power generation device (120) and the power storage device (130) perform power transmission and power reception based on the instructions. The present invention can be applied to, for example, a power generation device.
US09312710B2
Disclosed is a charging cradle for a headset device, which includes a housing with a surface providing a mounting depression, and a cover with a transparent surface pivotably connected to the housing so as to open and close the mounting depression. The headset device is mounted in the mounting depression so as to charge an internal battery pack provided in the headset device. The cradle protects the headset device under charging, enabling the user to observe the charging state without opening it. An earphone cover for a headset device includes a projected semi-circular fixing ring for preventing the earphone from being removed from the ear. The earphone cover is provided in various sizes to fit a user's ear size, and may be rotated to change the rotational position of the fixing ring so as to enable the user to put the headset device selectively on the right or left ear.
US09312708B2
A charger includes a loading chamber into which a battery pack is insertably/removably loaded. An insertion opening into which the battery pack is inserted is formed on an upper surface of the main body. The loading chamber is forwardly inclined to a front surface of the main body, and a bottom surface of the insertion opening is inclined with respect to a horizontal direction so that one end of the front surface side is located at a lower end and the other end of the back surface side is located at an upper end. A connecter for supplying power is disposed at the upper end side of the bottom surface. Even when the dust, rubbish or fluid entered from the insertion opening drops to the bottom surface, it flows down to the lower end side, so that less dirt adheres to the connecter.
US09312701B1
A system for optical wireless power transmission to a power receiving apparatus generally situated in a mobile electronic device. The transmitter has an optical resonator with end reflectors and a gain medium positioned between them, such that an optical beam is generated. The frequency of the beam is selected such that it is absorbed by almost all transparent organic materials in general use. A beam steering unit on the transmitter can direct the beam in any of a plurality of directions, and the beam is absorbed on the receiver by means of an optical-to-electrical power converter, through a low reflection surface. The band gap of this power converter is selected to be smaller than that of the gain medium. The receiver has a voltage converter including an inductor, an energy storage device and a switch. A beam steerer controller ensures that the beam impinges on the receiver.
US09312691B2
The present invention provides an ESD protection circuit including a discharge transistor, a first switch, a second switch, a third switch and a fourth switch. The discharge transistor forms a discharge path between a first voltage terminal and a second voltage terminal. The first switch selectively provides voltage at the first voltage terminal to a control terminal of the discharge transistor. The second switch selectively provides voltage at the second voltage terminal to the control terminal of the discharge transistor. The third switch selectively provides voltage at the first voltage terminal to a substrate of the discharge transistor. The fourth switch selectively provides voltage at second voltage terminal to the substrate of the discharge transistor.
US09312683B2
A vehicle-mounted electric rotating machine includes a field winding wound on a rotor for magnetizing a field pole of the rotor, a stator winding for generating an AC voltage in accordance with a rotating magnetic field generated by the field pole, a power converter for converting the AC voltage to a DC voltage and outputting the DC voltage through a first power supply line connected to an output terminal thereof, and a load dump handling section for performing a load dump protection operation when a voltage of the output terminal of the power converter exceeds a threshold voltage. The load dump handling section is supplied with operating power through a second power supply line provided separately from the first power supply line.
US09312679B2
Overvoltage protection device with a measuring device for monitoring overvoltage protection elements
Systems and methods for overvoltage protection are disclosed. According to one illustrative implementation, an overvoltage protection device is provided having one or more overvoltage protection elements and a measuring device for monitoring the overvoltage protection elements. Further, the measuring device may include an evaluation device, which is designed to count pulse-like overvoltage events which are arrested by the overvoltage protection element, wherein the evaluation device is connected to the overvoltage protection element via a light-measuring device and/or a device for identifying a current flow. In further implementations, overvoltage protection devices may comprise an evaluation device which, on the basis of the counted pulses and/or an identified current flow, may determine whether the overvoltage protection element is still operational, is previously damaged, or is unusable, and/or an alarm device, which indicates whether the overvoltage protection element is still operational, is previously damaged, or is unusable.
US09312667B2
A device for locking to a DIN rail includes a shaft defining an axis of rotation and first and second rail-engaging members connected to the shaft. The rail-engaging members are each shaped to engage a DIN rail in a respective engaging position. The shaft is rotatable about the axis of rotation and thereby arranged to urge each rail-engaging member into its respective engaging position with a DIN rail positioned between the first and second rail-engaging members. Other example devices for locking to a DIN rail and methods of mounting component(s) to a DIN rail are also disclosed.
US09312665B2
An electrical distribution system having a meter socket, load center combination apparatus is disclosed. The meter socket, load center combination apparatus has an enclosure having a meter socket section with a meter socket configured to receive an owner utility meter, an owner load center with a plurality of locations configured to receive circuit interface devices, and a combination cross bus connection section extending between sides of the enclosure, the cross bus connection section having one or more side openings configured to allow electrical connection to one or more main cross bus bars of a main panel, a parallel energy source disconnect, and a parallel energy source coupled to the parallel energy source disconnect. Methods of configuring electrical distribution systems are disclosed, as are other aspects.
US09312661B2
A nitride semiconductor laser element includes an n-type semiconductor layer, a p-type semiconductor layer, and an active layer between the n-type semiconductor layer and the p-type semiconductor layer. The active layer includes well layers, and at least one barrier layer provided between the well layers. The barrier layer includes a barrier layer having band gap energy higher than that of an n-side optical guide layer. The p-type semiconductor layer includes an electron barrier layer having band gap energy higher than that of all barrier layers comprised in the active layer. A p-side optical guide layer includes a first region disposed on a side of a final well layer and having band gap energy lower than that of the n-side optical guide layer, and a second region disposed on a side of the electron barrier layer and having band gap energy higher than that of the n-side optical guide layer.
US09312652B2
A switchable modular jack assembly includes a housing which defines a receptacle for receiving an RJ14 modular plug, and a socket for receiving a pre-wired adapter plug. Each of the RJ14 modular plug and the adapter plug has electrical contacts on an exposed surface thereof. The jack assembly also includes leaf spring electrical contacts which extend into the receptacle and socket. When no RJ14 modular plug is received by the receptacle, the leaf spring electrical contacts contact the electrical contacts of the adapter plug. When an RJ14 modular plug is received by the receptacle, the leaf spring electrical contacts contact the electrical contacts of the RJ14 modular plug, but not the electrical contacts of the adapter plug.
US09312646B2
A connector includes a first terminal housing that houses a first connecting terminal(s) and is attached to a device as an attached object thereof, and a second terminal housing that houses at least a portion of a cable(s) including a second connecting terminal(s) at an end portion thereof. The first connecting terminal(s) and the second connecting terminal(s) come into contact with each other and form a contact point(s) when the first terminal housing is fitted to the second terminal housing. The two terminal housings are fitted in a direction crossing an extending direction of the cable(s) that extends from the second terminal housing. The second terminal housing further includes a fixing means on a cable side with respect to the contact point(s) so as to fix a portion housing the cable(s) to the device or another member integrally fixed to the device.
US09312645B2
An electrical system may include a busbar assembly and a connector assembly. The busbar assembly may include first and second busbars. A first contact tab extends from the first busbar. A second contact tab extends from the second busbar. The first and second contact tabs include first and second interface ends, respectively, within a common plane. The connector assembly includes a housing that retains first and second electrical contacts. The first electrical contact includes a first contact terminal and the second electrical contact includes a second contact terminal. The first contact terminal defines a first interfacing space and the second contact terminal defines a second interfacing space. The first and second interfacing spaces are aligned with one another. The first and second interface ends are configured to mate with the first and second contact terminals within the first and second interfacing spaces, respectively.
US09312637B2
Communication system including a support frame having a pair of spacer walls that oppose each other. The spacer walls defines a receiving gap directly therebetween. The communication system also includes a floatable connector assembly including a connector module and a communication cable coupled to the connector module. The connector module is configured to engage a mating module along a central axis to establish a communicative connection. At least a portion of the connector assembly is disposed between the spacer walls within the receiving gap. The communication system also includes a positioning gasket having a plurality of alignment members that directly engage at least one of the connector assembly or the support frame. The alignment members permit the connector assembly to float with respect to the support frame during the mating operation in a direction that is transverse to the central axis.
US09312626B2
A shield connector (10) to be connected to a device-side connector (110) provided on a device includes female terminals (42) to be connected to device-side terminals (112) provided in the device-side connector (110), a housing main body (20) including a wire pull-out hole (25) from which outer wires (50) connected to the female terminals (42) are pulled out, a shield shell (60) to be connected to a shield case (100) of the device while covering the housing main body (20), and a resin molded body (80) held in close contact with the outer peripheral surfaces of the outer wires (50). The resin molded body (80) is vertically sandwiched by an opening edge portion (25A) of the wire pull-out hole (25) in the housing main body (20) and a shell-side holding portion (67) provided on the shield shell (60).
US09312625B2
A safety socket includes hot/neutral slots formed in a bottom of the safety socket, a movable shielding member arranged in the safety socket to correspond to the hot/neutral slots, and an elastic element having two ends respectively fixed to the movable shielding member and a top of the safety socket. With such an arrangement, when the hot/neutral slots simultaneously receive plug prongs to insert therein, the movable shielding member is caused to move toward the top of the safety socket and when the plug prongs are withdrawn, the movable shielding member is returned by elasticity of the elastic element to shield the hot/neutral slots. Through such an operation, the moving direction of the movable shielding member is changeable so that unnecessary space of the safety socket can be eliminate to overcome the problem that a conventional safety socket has a bulky size.
US09312624B2
A safety device prevents the terminal of an electrical plug from being disengaged from or engaged with an electrical receptacle. When the terminal is engaged with the receptacle, a tubular lock-in member slides over the plug to obstruct the release of a plug securing means that secures the plug to the receptacle. A retainer member attaches to the lock-in member and engages the receptacle or a part attached to the receptacle to limit the movement of the lock-in member. When the terminal is disengaged from the receptacle, a lock-out member obstructs contact between the terminal and the receptacle and engages the plug securing means. The lock-in member obscures the plug securing means and is secured to the lock-in member by the retainer member and the keyed lockable means.
US09312623B2
A connector for an electronic device is provided. The connector includes a connector housing to be connected to the electronic device, a terminal fitting held by the connector housing, and a relay terminal to be held between a distal end of the terminal fitting and the contact portion of the electronic device when the connector housing is connected to the electronic device. The relay terminal includes an electrically-insulating member and an electrically-conductive portion. The electrically-conductive portion includes a conductor provided on the electrically-insulating member to electrically couple a contact portion of the electronic device and the terminal fitting to each other. The conductor extends in a direction intersecting a center axis of the connector in a state in which the conductor is in contact with at least one of the contact portion of the electronic device and the terminal fitting.
US09312616B2
A plug connector set-up for a control unit includes: a pin support having a pin; and a guide element having a lead-through for positioning the pin at a circuit board of the control unit. The lead-through has an entrance opening on the side facing the pin support and an outlet opening on the side facing away from the pin support. A diameter of the entrance opening is greater than a diameter of the outlet opening. The pin includes a centering region having a diameter which is less than the diameter of the entrance opening and greater than the diameter of the outlet opening.
US09312613B2
A terminal fixation structure includes a terminal fixing portion including a terminal housing chamber, a terminal including a positioning recessed portion and housed in the terminal housing chamber, and a positioning rib provided in a center of the terminal fixing portion to protrude into the terminal housing chamber and fitted into the positioning recessed portion.
US09312612B2
A variable impedance interface device connecting a coaxial connector to an external component with a housing having a first end adapted to receive a coaxial connector and a second end having an interface where the housing is attachable to an external component, such as a printed circuit board. A cavity within the housing is defined by an inner surface and has a cavity first end and a cavity second end. The inner surface tapers between the cavity first end and the cavity second end. A mating position in the cavity has a certain dimension due to the taper of the inner surface, and defines a location at which a coaxial connector received by the housing positions. An impedance of the housing is based on the mating position and may be varied due to the impedance of the interface such that signal degradation at the interface is reduced.
US09312599B2
An antenna device includes a housing defining an interior cavity, and an RF antenna situated within the housing. The RF antenna receives high definition television signals broadcast over the air. An MHL connector is mounted on the housing. An external audio or video streaming signal device is coupleable to the MHL connector. An MHL to HDMI converter circuit situated within the interior cavity of the housing receives signals from the external audio or video streaming signal device and processes these signals into an HDMI signal format. The HDMI signals are provided on an HDMI output connector mounted on the housing. RF signals from the RF antenna are provided to an RF coaxial cable connector also mounted on the housing.
US09312595B2
Embodiments are provided of antenna mounting assemblies and vehicles that include such assemblies. In one aspect, an antenna mounting base for supporting a vehicle antenna with respect to a vehicle body panel that defines a panel aperture comprises: an antenna mounting portion; a flange extending from a surface of the antenna mounting base; and at least one tab defining a recess with the flange, the recess being sized and configured to mateably engage at least a portion of the body panel that borders the panel aperture.
US09312589B2
Provided are coaxial waveguide microstructures. The microstructures include a substrate and a coaxial waveguide disposed above the substrate. The coaxial waveguide includes: a center conductor; an outer conductor including one or more walls, spaced apart from and disposed around the center conductor; one or more dielectric support members for supporting the center conductor in contact with the center conductor and enclosed within the outer conductor; and a core volume between the center conductor and the outer conductor, wherein the core volume is under vacuum or in a gas state. Also provided are methods of forming coaxial waveguide microstructures by a sequential build process and hermetic packages which include a coaxial waveguide microstructure.
US09312586B2
A circuit includes a first input terminal, a first transmission line, a first sampling switch coupled to the first input terminal through the first transmission line, a first sampling capacitor coupled to the sampling switch, and a first open-circuit quarter wavelength stub coupled to the first transmission line, the first open-circuit quarter wavelength stub configured to reduce kickback noise on the first transmission line. A method for reducing kickback noise in a circuit includes determining a frequency associated with a kickback noise on a first transmission line of the circuit, the circuit having an input terminal coupled to the first transmission line, configuring a length of an open-circuit quarter wavelength stub to correspond to the determined frequency, and coupling the open-circuit quarter wavelength stub to the first transmission line to filter the frequency associated with the kickback noise.
US09312576B2
A portable electronic device is provided. Connector includes the first and data pins. Processor includes input and output pins and detection pin coupled to the input pin. First resistor is coupled between the detection pin and first voltage. When the processor detects that the first and second pins of charger are coupled to the first and second data pins of the connector, the processor provides switching signal to the selector, so as to couple the first and second data pins of the connector to the input and output pins of the processor, respectively, and to provide second voltage different from the first voltage, to the second pin of the charger via the output pin. The processor obtains charging current value of the charger according to voltage of the detection pin. The charger includes second resistor coupled between the first and second pins.
US09312572B2
An embodiment of the invention provides for an electrochemical cell comprising: a fuel electrode comprising a metal fuel, a second electrode, an ionically conductive medium communicating the electrodes, the ionically conductive medium comprising at least two different additives, wherein at least one additive is selected from the group consisting of: macroheterocyclic compounds, phosphonium salts, hetero-ionic compounds and their derivatives; and, at least one additive is selected from the group consisting of: macroheterocyclic compounds, phosphonium salts, hetero-ionic compounds, and their derivatives. The fuel electrode and the second electrode are operable in a discharge mode wherein the metal fuel is oxidized at the fuel electrode functioning as an anode, whereby electrons are generated for conduction from the fuel electrode to the second electrode via a load. An ionically conductive medium and methods of operating an electrochemical cell are also disclosed.
US09312570B2
Systems and methods for a demo mode for a computing device are disclosed. In some implementations, a computing device receives a first input for entering a demo mode. The computing device prompts, in response to the first input, for a user input indicating whether the user wishes to place the computing device in the demo mode. The computing device receives the user input indicating that the user wishes to place the computing device in the demo mode. The computing device enters the demo mode responsive to the user input indicating that the user wishes to place the computing device in the demo mode. Entering the demo mode includes adjusting battery settings of the computing device.
US09312562B2
The battery cell plate frame assembly comprising a frame, and a sub-assembly comprising a conductive cell plate connector bracket, a conductive terminal, a fuse interposed between the connector bracket and the terminal and a non-conductive bridge separately supporting the connector bracket, the terminal and the fuse. In one form, the connector bracket and terminal include planar elements frictionally connected to the bridge. The bridge includes grasping prongs to releasably support the fuse. The fuse includes a wire connected to the connector bracket and a wire connected to the terminal.
US09312555B2
A hydrogen generator includes: a reformer configured to generate a hydrogen-containing gas by using a raw material; a hydro-desulfurizer configured to remove a sulfur compound in the raw material; a recycle passage through which the hydrogen-containing gas is supplied to the raw material before the raw material flows into the hydro-desulfurizer; a booster configured to supply the raw material to the reformer; a raw material supply passage through which the raw material to be supplied to the reformer flows; and an ejector which is disposed on the raw material supply passage provided downstream of the booster and upstream of the hydro-desulfurizer and into which the hydrogen-containing gas flows from the recycle passage.
US09312551B1
A passive anode gas recovery system for fuel cells is revealed. The system includes a fuel cell, a fuel supply device, an electronically controlled regulator, a first ejection module, a second ejection module, a hydrogen recovery module, and a controller. The system is a passive fuel recovery system disposed on an outlet end of an anode of the fuel cell. By the controller, the hydrogen recovery module recovers unconsumed hydrogen gas in the fuel cell provided by the fuel supply device into two ejection modules with different orifice diameters for recycling and reuse. The system has advantages of low cost, no extra energy consumed, and no external controller required. The system can be applied to developing fuel cell systems with high efficiency and low cost.
US09312544B2
A liquid electrolyte fuel cell comprises means to define an electrolyte chamber (208), and two electrodes (10), one on either side of the electrolyte chamber (208), each electrode comprising:—a sheet (11) of metal through which are defined a multiplicity of through-holes (14), and—a gas-permeable layer (16) of fibrous and/or particulate electrically-conductive material which is bonded to and in electrical contact with the sheet of metal (11), and which comprises catalytic material (18). The electrode (10) may be arranged such that the gas-permeable layer (16) faces the electrolyte chamber (208).
US09312541B2
A cobalt oxide is disclosed and is represented by a chemical formula of Co1-yMyO2, wherein 0≦y≦0.9, and M is selected from the group consisting of alkali metal elements, alkaline-earth metal elements, Group-13 elements, Group-14 elements, transition metal elements, and rare-earth elements. A composite of cobalt oxide includes a cobalt oxide and an aluminum phosphate layer coated on a surface of the cobalt oxide.
US09312517B2
An electronic device may be provided with a display. The display may have an active area with an array of display pixels and an inactive border region containing metal lines and other support circuitry. The array of display pixels may be formed from organic light-emitting diode structures in an organic-light-emitting diode layer. The display may also include an encapsulant layer on the organic light-emitting diode layer and a substrate layer. An opaque masking layer may be formed in the inactive border region. The opaque masking layer may overlap structures in the inactive border region such as the support circuitry, thereby blocking the support circuitry from view. The opaque masking layer may be formed a glass layer in the display, in part of a polarizer in a display, under a planarization layer, or between other layers in the display.
US09312514B2
A flexible display may suppress a generation of cracks in an inorganic layer and suppress the spread of cracks. A flexible display includes a flexible substrate and an inorganic layer formed on the flexible substrate. A display unit is formed on the inorganic layer. The display unit includes a plurality of pixels. Each pixel includes an organic light emitting diode. A thin film encapsulation layer covers the display unit. A crack suppressing layer is formed along the edge of the flexible substrate. The crack suppressing layer is disposed on the inorganic layer at an exterior side of the thin film encapsulation layer.
US09312512B2
A flexible organic light-emitting display apparatus includes a flexible substrate, a barrier layer on the flexible substrate, a display portion on the barrier layer, an encapsulation layer covering the display portion, and a porous layer between the flexible substrate and the display portion.
US09312510B2
An organic EL display device includes an inorganic insulating film including a contact part as an opening where a contact electrode made of a conductive film is exposed, a TFT circuit layer provided on the inorganic insulating film and including a circuit including a thin film transistor, an organic EL element layer provided on the TFT circuit layer and including an organic EL element whose light emission is controlled by the circuit, and a sealing layer covering the organic EL element layer and made of an inorganic insulating material.
US09312504B2
A flexible organic light emitting diode display device, comprising: a first flexible substrate and a second flexible substrate opposite to the first flexible substrate wherein on the first flexible substrate, there are formed in sequence a thin film transistor, a first passivation layer, a first electrode, an organic electroluminescence layer, a second electrode, a stress absorption layer is disposed between the second electrode and the second flexible substrate, and material for the stress absorption layer is a resin material. The stress absorption layer of the flexible organic light emitting diode display device can absorb a stress occurring as it is bent, so as to prevent electrodes from being broken due to the action of the stress and affecting the display quality. There is further disclosed a manufacturing method of the flexible organic light emitting diode display device.
US09312502B2
Iridium compounds and their uses are disclosed herein. For example, carbazole containing iridium compounds are disclosed. The compounds are useful in many devices, including, but not limited to, electroluminescent devices.
US09312494B2
Provided is an organic light emitting device with enhanced durability during continuous driving. The organic light emitting device includes: an anode, a cathode, and an organic compound layer being placed between the anode and the cathode and including at least a hole transport layer and an emission layer, in which: the emission layer contains a blue light emitting material; the hole transport layer contains a plurality of kinds of organic compounds; and an organic compound having the smallest ionization potential among the organic compounds includes a compound having no absorption spectrum peak in a blue color wavelength region in a radical cation state.
US09312480B2
Some embodiments include a memory cell having a data storage region between a pair of conductive structures. The data storage region is configured to support a transitory structure which alters resistance through the memory cell. The data storage region includes two or more portions, with one of the portions supporting a higher resistance segment of the transitory structure than another of the portions. Some embodiments include a method of forming a memory cell. First oxide and second oxide regions are formed between a pair of conductive structures. The oxide regions are configured to support a transitory structure which alters resistance through the memory cell. The oxide regions are different from one another so that one of the oxide regions supports a higher resistance segment of the transitory structure than the other.
US09312474B2
Disclosed are electronic devices comprising a semiconductor memory unit capable of reducing the switching current of a variable resistance element for switching between different resistance states. One implementation of a disclosed electronic device may include a first magnetic layer having an easy magnetization axis in a first direction and having a variable magnetization direction, a third magnetic layer having a magnetization direction pinned in the first direction, a second magnetic layer interposed between the first magnetic layer and the third magnetic layer, and having a magnetization direction pinned in a second direction different from the first direction, a tunnel barrier layer interposed between the first magnetic layer and the second magnetic layer, and a non-magnetic layer interposed between the second magnetic layer and the third magnetic layer.
US09312471B2
The invention relates to a method of implementing a ferroelectric tunnel junction, said junction comprising to films each forming an electrode-type conductive element, and separated by a film forming a ferroelectric element acting as the tunnel barrier, said ferroelectric element being able to possess a remanent polarization. According to the invention, the ferroelectric element possesses a domain structure, said domains corresponding to regions of the ferroelectric element the polarization of which is oriented one way in a single direction; and when a voltage is applied between the electrodes, the absolute value of the voltage being equal to or higher than the absolute value of what is called a saturation voltage, the ferroelectric element main comprises only a single domain; and when a voltage is applied between the electrodes, the absolute value of the voltage being lower than the absolute value of what is called the saturation voltage, the ferroelectric element comprises a plurality of separate domains, the spatial distribution of said domains and their proportions being controlled by the chosen voltage value.
US09312465B2
Packaging photon building blocks having only top side connections in a molded interconnect structure
Standardized photon building blocks are packaged in molded interconnect structures to form a variety of LED array products. No electrical conductors pass between the top and bottom surfaces of the substrate upon which LED dies are mounted. Microdots of highly reflective material are jetted onto the top surface. Landing pads on the top surface of the substrate are attached to contact pads disposed on the underside of a lip of the interconnect structure. In a solder reflow process, the photon building blocks self-align within the interconnect structure. Conductors in the interconnect structure are electrically coupled to the LED dies in the photon building blocks through the contact pads and landing pads. Compression molding is used to form lenses over the LED dies and leaves a flash layer of silicone covering the landing pads. The flash layer laterally above the landing pads is removed by blasting particles at the flash layer.
US09312462B2
A lead 1 includes a die-bonding portion 11 with an opening 11a penetrating in a thickness direction. Another lead 2 is spaced from the lead 1. An LED unit 3 includes an LED chip 30 with a electrode terminal 31 connected to the lead 1 and another electrode terminal 32 connected to the lead 2. The LED unit 3, mounted on a surface of the die-bonding portion 11 on a first side in z direction, overlaps the opening 11a. A wire 52 connects the lead 2 and the electrode terminal 32. A support member 4 supporting the leads 1-2 is held in contact with another surface of the die-bonding portion 11 on a second side in z direction. These arrangements ensure efficient heat dissipation from the LED chip 30 and efficient use of light emitted from the LED chip 3.
US09312461B2
A light-emission element assembly includes: a light-emission element; a mold section in which the light-emission element is molded; a pad section protruding from an undersurface of the mold section, and electrically connected to the light-emission element; and a reinforcement section provided in the pad section, and projecting towards a side on which the mold section is provided.
US09312456B2
An encapsulating sheet is formed from an encapsulating resin composition which contains an encapsulating resin and silicone microparticles, and the mixing ratio of the silicone microparticles with respect to the encapsulating resin composition is 20 to 50 mass %.
US09312448B2
A contact to a semiconductor layer in a light emitting structure is provided. The contact can include a plurality of contact areas formed of a metal and separated by a set of voids. The contact areas can be separated from one another by a characteristic distance selected based on a set of attributes of a semiconductor contact structure of the contact and a characteristic contact length scale of the contact. The voids can be configured to increase an overall reflectivity or transparency of the contact.
US09312445B2
The light emitting device includes a first semiconductor layer, a second semiconductor layer and an active layer provided between the first semiconductor layer and the second semiconductor layer. A first light extraction layer is provided on the first semiconductor layer and includes a nitride semiconductor layer. The first light extraction layer includes a plurality of first layers. The refractive indexes of the first layers decrease with increasing distance from the first semiconductor layer.
US09312444B2
A semiconductor light emitting device includes a supporting substrate, a light emitting layer including a nitride semiconductor, and a nitride multilayer film. The nitride multilayer film includes a first layer including a first nitride semiconductor containing aluminum nitride, a second layer including a second nitride semiconductor containing gallium nitride, and a third layer including the first nitride semiconductor containing aluminum nitride.
US09312439B2
There is provided a semiconductor light emitting device including a first conductivity-type semiconductor base layer and a plurality of light emitting nanostructures disposed to be spaced apart from one another on the first conductivity-type semiconductor base layer, each light emitting nanostructure including a first conductivity-type semiconductor core, an active layer, an electric charge blocking layer, and a second conductivity-type semiconductor layer, respectively, wherein the first conductivity-type semiconductor core has different first and second crystal planes in crystallographic directions.
US09312431B2
Methods of cutting a light-emitting device chip wafer by using a laser scribing process. The method includes: preparing a wafer that has a plurality of semiconductor chips on an upper surface of the wafer; attaching a first tape covering the semiconductor chips to the upper surface of the wafer; forming scribing lines to define each of the semiconductor chips on the wafer by irradiating a laser beam onto a lower surface of the wafer; attaching a second tape to the lower surface of the wafer; and breaking the wafer into a plurality of chips by applying a physical force to the wafer along the scribing lines.
US09312427B2
A semiconductor structure and a method for forming the same are provided. The semiconductor structure comprises: a substrate (100); and a plurality of zigzag structures (200) formed on a surface of the substrate (100), in which each zigzag structure (200) has a first long side (202) and a first short side (204), the first long side (202) of one zigzag structure (200) is adjacent to the first short side (204) of another zigzag structure (200) adjacent to the one zigzag structure (200), each first long side (202) defines a first surface (300) of each zigzag structure (200), each first short side (204) defines a second surface (302) of each zigzag structure, and each first surface (300) is a growth surface for a compound semiconductor layer.
US09312425B2
A crack resistant solar cell module includes a protective package mounted on a frame. The protective package includes a polyolefin encapsulant that protectively encapsulates solar cells. The polyolefin has less than five weight percent of oxygen and nitrogen in the backbone or side chain. In other words, the combined weight percent of oxygen and nitrogen in any location in the molecular structure of the polyolefin is less than five. The polyolefin also has a complex viscosity less than 10,000 Pa second at 90° C. as measured by dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) before any thermal processing of the polyolefin. The protective package includes a top cover, the encapsulant, and a backsheet. The solar cell module allows for shipping, installation, and maintenance with less risk of developing cracks on the surfaces of the solar cells.
US09312423B2
A photo detector and a method for fabricating the same are provided. The photo detector includes a first substrate and a photo conversion element. The first substrate has a sensor element array for receiving a light with a spectrum in a specific wavelength range. The photo conversion element is disposed on the sensor element array, where the photo conversion element includes a photo conversion material layer and a doped photo conversion material column structure layer. A luminescent spectrum of the doped photo conversion material layer column structure layer is overlapped with the spectrum in a specific wavelength range, and a luminescent spectrum of the photo conversion material layer is non-overlapped with the spectrum in a specific wavelength range.
US09312416B2
An electronic article has a perimeter and includes a superstrate, an optoelectronic element disposed on the superstrate, and a silicone encapsulant that is formed from a curable silicone composition and that is disposed on the optoelectronic element sandwiching the optoelectronic element between the superstrate and the silicone encapsulant. The electronic article is formed using a method that includes the step of depositing the curable silicone composition on the optoelectronic element in a pattern defining at least one passage extending from an interior of the electronic article to a perimeter of the electronic article. The method also includes laminating the superstrate, the optoelectronic element, and the curable silicone composition. The curable silicone composition has a complex viscosity of from 10,000 to 50,000,000 cPs at 25° C. as measured at 1 radian per second at 1 to 5% strain. During lamination, the curable silicone composition cures to form the silicone encapsulant and air escapes from through the at least one passage.
US09312412B2
The invention relates to high efficiency solar collection devices having a matte surface, a low refractive index surface, or both, that increases solar radiation transmission into the device. The matte surface is on a thermoplastic and may be provided in many ways, such as by a matting agent, by the use of a matte chill roll, embossing, or other techniques. The matte and/or low refractive index surface may be a coating, film (single or multi-layer) or sheet (single or multi-layer). The invention is especially useful in both rigid and flexible photovoltaic modules.
US09312410B2
Novel N-structured In As/Al Sb(Al Ga Sb)/Ga Sb based type-II SL pin detector with p on n and n on p configurations are given to detect light in the Mid Wavelength Infrared Range—MWIR with a cut-off wavelength of 5 μm. Better carrier confinements are performed by placing AlSb layers switching from InAs layers to Ga Sb layers successively in the growth direction throughout the SL pin diode where zero bias detectivity is improved as 6×1013 A/Hz1/2 at a wavelength of 4.2 μm at 79K. RoA value is measured as 1.8×106 Ωcm2 which is better than nBn devices. Dark current density is also obtained in the range of 4-7×10−7 A/cm at zero bias and Vb=0.3V respectively at 79K.
US09312406B2
An all back contact solar cell has a hybrid emitter design. The solar cell has a thin dielectric layer formed on a backside surface of a single crystalline silicon substrate. One emitter of the solar cell is made of doped polycrystalline silicon that is formed on the thin dielectric layer. The other emitter of the solar cell is formed in the single crystalline silicon substrate and is made of doped single crystalline silicon. The solar cell includes contact holes that allow metal contacts to connect to corresponding emitters.
US09312403B2
A photosensor includes an emitter element, an emitter-encapsulating portion, a receiver element, a receiver-encapsulating portion, a circuit portion, and a circuit-encapsulating portion. The emitter-encapsulating portion encapsulates the emitter element. The receiver-encapsulating portion encapsulates the receiver element. The circuit portion includes a luminous element for indicating an operation. The circuit-encapsulating portion encapsulates the circuit portion. The circuit-encapsulating portion includes an operation indicator portion facing the luminous element. The emitter-encapsulating portion, the receiver-encapsulating portion, and the circuit-encapsulating portion are connected to one another with a conductive leadframe. The emitter-encapsulating portion, the receiver-encapsulating portion, and the circuit-encapsulating portion are formed from the same resin material containing a light diffusing agent.
US09312402B2
A micro optical package structure with filtration layers includes a substrate having a light-emitting area and a light-receiving area, a light-emitting chip being deposited in a light-emitting area, a light-receiving chip being deposited in a light-receiving area, two packaging resin bodies for enclosing the light-emitting chip and the light-receiving chip, respectively, and being separately deposited in the light-emitting area and the light-receiving area, respectively, and the filtration layers formed on the packaging resin bodies surface for filtering out lights of different wavelengths. The micro optical package structure needs neither barrier nor protective cover between or outside the packaging resin bodies, so can be microminiaturized. The micro optical package structure can filter out visible lights of specific wavelengths without using any additional filters.
US09312390B2
Provided is a remote control system with which leakage current flowing in a switch can be reduced so that power consumption can be reduced. The remote control system includes a portable information terminal, a server, and an electric device. The on/off of the switch included in the electric device is controlled using information transmitted from the portable information terminal to the server. The switch includes a transistor formed using a semiconductor whose band gap is larger than that of single crystal silicon in a channel formation region.
US09312387B2
Disclosed are methods and devices that involve formation of alternating layers of different semiconductor materials in the channel region of FinFET devices. The methods and devices disclosed herein involve forming a doped silicon substrate fin and thereafter forming a layer of silicon/germanium around the substrate fin. The methods and devices also include forming a gate structure around the layer of silicon/germanium using gate first or gate last techniques.
US09312385B2
A technique for improving characteristics of a semiconductor device (DMOSFET) is provided. A semiconductor device is configured so as to include: an n-type source layer (102) disposed on an upper portion of a first surface side of an SiC substrate (106); a p body layer (103) which surrounds the source layer and has a channel region; an n−-type drift layer (107) which is in contact with the p body layer (103); a gate electrode (116) which is disposed on an upper portion of the channel region via a gate insulating film; and a first p+ layer (109) which is disposed in the p body layer (103), extends to a portion below the n+ source layer (102), and serves as a buried semiconductor region having an impurity concentration higher than that of the p body layer (103). In this manner, since the first p+ layer (109) is formed in the middle of the p body layer (103), it is possible to reduce the diffusion resistance of the p body layer (103). Thus, it is possible to make a parasitic bipolar transistor harder to turn on.
US09312383B1
Semiconductor devices having vertical field effect transistors with self-aligned source and drain contacts are provided, as well as methods for fabricating vertical field effect transistors with self-aligned source and drain contacts.
US09312378B2
Various embodiments provide transistors and fabrication methods. An exemplary transistor can include a silicon nitride layer disposed between a gate dielectric layer and a gate electrode layer. The silicon nitride layer can have a first surface in contact with the gate dielectric layer and a second surface in contact with the gate electrode layer. The second surface can include silicon atoms having a concentration higher than the first surface. A sidewall spacer can be formed on the semiconductor substrate along sidewalls of each of the gate electrode layer, the silicon nitride layer, and the gate dielectric layer. The disclosed transistor can have a reduced turn-on voltage with reduced power consumption.
US09312372B2
A semiconductor device in which an element region including at least an IGBT region is formed on a semiconductor substrate is presented. The IGBT region including: a collector layer; a drift layer; a body layer; a gate electrode placed inside a trench extending from the front surface of the semiconductor substrate to the drift layer; an emitter layer; and a contact layer having a higher impurity concentration than the body layer. In the semiconductor device, assuming that an x direction is a direction in which the trench extends along the front surface of the semiconductor substrate and that a y direction is a direction orthogonal to the x direction along the front surface of the semiconductor substrate, a distance from the contact layer to the emitter layer in the x direction is larger than a distance from the contact layer to the trench in the y direction.
US09312370B2
The present disclosure relates to integrated circuit (IC) structures and methods of forming the same. An IC structure according to the present disclosure can include: a doped substrate region adjacent to an insulating region; a crystalline base structure including: an intrinsic base region located on and contacting the doped substrate region, the intrinsic base region having a first thickness; an extrinsic base region adjacent to the insulating region, wherein the extrinsic base region has a second thickness greater than the first thickness; a semiconductor layer located on the intrinsic base region of the crystalline base structure; and a doped semiconductor layer located on the semiconductor layer.
US09312369B2
According to various embodiments, a bipolar transistor structure may include: a substrate; a collector region in the substrate; a base region disposed over the collector region, an emitter region disposed over the base region; a base terminal laterally electrically contacting the base region, wherein the base terminal includes polysilicon.
US09312364B2
A method forming a semiconductor device that in one embodiment includes forming a gate structure on a channel region of fin structures, and forming a flowable dielectric material on a source region portion and a drain region portion of the fin structures. The flowable dielectric material is present at least between adjacent fin structures of the plurality of fin structures filling a space between the adjacent fin structures. An upper surface of the source region portion and the drain region portion of fin structures is exposed. An epitaxial semiconductor material is formed on the upper surface of the source region portion and the drain region portion of the fin structures.
US09312360B2
A semiconductor device is provided that includes a pedestal of an insulating material present over at least one layer of a semiconductor material, and at least one fin structure in contact with the pedestal of the insulating material. Source and drain region structures are present on opposing sides of the at least one fin structure. At least one of the source and drain region structures includes at least two epitaxial material layers. A first epitaxial material layer is in contact with the at least one layer of semiconductor material. A second epitaxial material layer is in contact with the at least one fin structure. The first epitaxial material layer is separated from the at least one fin structure by the second epitaxial material layer. A gate structure present on the at least one fin structure.
US09312358B2
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device is disclosed. A p-type substrate is doped to form an N-well in a selected portion of a p-type substrate adjacent an anode region of the substrate. A p-type doped region is formed in the anode region of the p-type substrate. The p-type doped region and the N-well form a p-n junction.
US09312357B1
A semiconductor device and a method for manufacturing the same. The method includes steps hereinafter. A substrate is provided with a first dielectric layer thereon. The first dielectric layer is provided with a trench. Then, a metal layer is formed to fill the trench and to cover the surface of the first dielectric layer. The metal layer is partially removed so that a remaining portion of the metal layer covers the first dielectric layer. A treatment process is performed to transform the remaining portion of the metal layer into a passivation layer on the top portion and a gate metal layer on the bottom portion. A chemical-mechanical polishing process is performed until the first dielectric layer is exposed so that a remaining portion of the passivation layer remains in the trench.
US09312352B2
A method for fabricating a field-effect transistor is provided. The method includes: forming a gate dielectric layer and a barrier layer on a substrate in sequence; forming a first silicon layer on and in contact with the barrier layer; performing a thermal treatment to form a silicide layer between the barrier layer and the first silicon layer; and forming a second silicon layer on and in contact with the first silicon layer.
US09312351B2
Provided is a floating gate flash cell and method for forming the same. The flash includes two floating gate transistors and a common source area therebetween. Each floating gate transistor includes a floating gate having a central portion disposed over a substrate surface and opposed lateral edges that extend into trenches and below the substrate surface. A control gate is disposed over said floating gate with a control gate dielectric between the floating gate and the control gate. The floating gates have side edges that are orthogonal to the opposed lateral edges and a common source area which is a substrate diffusion area, is positioned between respective facing side edges of the floating gates.
US09312349B2
To provide a semiconductor device in which the threshold value is controlled. Furthermore, to provide a semiconductor device in which a deterioration in electrical characteristics which becomes more noticeable as a transistor is miniaturized can be suppressed. The semiconductor device includes a first semiconductor film, a source electrode and a drain electrode electrically connected to the first semiconductor film, a gate insulating film, and a gate electrode in contact with the gate insulating film. The gate insulating film includes a first insulating film and a trap film, and charge is trapped in a charge trap state in an interface between the first insulating film and the trap film or inside the trap film.
US09312345B2
The application relates to a high-resistivity silicon substrate (100) with a reduced radio frequency loss for a radio frequency integrated passive device. The substrate comprising a bulk zone (110) comprising high-resistivity bulk silicon and a preserved sub-surface lattice damage zone (120b) comprising fractured silicon above the bulk zone. The lattice damage zone is processed into the substrate and the preserved lattice damage zone is configured to achieve the RF loss reduction of the substrate by suppressing a parasitic surface conduction.
US09312338B2
A semiconductor device includes a single crystalline semiconductor body with a first surface and a second surface parallel to the first surface. The semiconductor body contains chalcogen atoms and a background doping of pnictogen and/or hydrogen atoms. A concentration of the chalcogen atoms is at least 1E12 cm−3. A ratio of the chalcogen atoms to the atoms of the background doping is in a range from 1:9 to 9:1.
US09312334B2
A semiconductor component is disclosed. One embodiment provides a semiconductor body having a cell region with at least one zone of a first conduction type and at least one zone of a second conduction type in a rear side. A drift zone of the first conduction type in the cell region is provided. The drift zone contains at least one region through which charge carriers flow in an operating mode of the semiconductor component in one polarity and charge carriers do not flow in an operating mode of the semiconductor component in an opposite polarity.
US09312327B2
A semiconductor device having a capacitor which includes a first electrode electrically coupled to a transistor and a second electrode separate from the first electrode and covered with an interlayer insulating film, in which a plurality of coupling holes are formed in the interlayer insulating film and are in contact with the second electrode at the lower ends; and, when the capacitance of the second electrode is represented by C [nF] and the total area of the lower ends of the coupling holes is represented by A [μm2], the following expression (1) is satisfied. C/A≦1.98 [nF/μm2] (1) The elution of the second electrode constituting the capacitor at the lower ends of the coupling holes is suppressed.
US09312323B2
To provide a light emitting device high in reliability with a pixel portion having high definition with a large screen. According to a light emitting device of the present invention, on an insulator (24) provided between pixel electrodes, an auxiliary electrode (21) made of a metal film is formed, whereby a conductive layer (20) made of a transparent conductive film in contact with the auxiliary electrode can be made low in resistance and thin. Also, the auxiliary electrode (21) is used to achieve connection with an electrode on a lower layer, whereby the electrode can be led out with the transparent conductive film formed on an EL layer. Further, a protective film (32) made of a film containing hydrogen and a silicon nitride film which are laminated is formed, whereby high reliability can be achieved.
US09312314B2
The invention relates to a light apparatus (1) for generating light. The light apparatus includes a light emission structure (2) including light emission material (9), a capacitor structure (3) including at least two capacitor electrode films (11, 12) and a dielectric film (14) between the capacitor electrode films, and a film encapsulation (30) including at least one film for encapsulating and thereby protecting at least the light emission material. The capacitor structure is integrated in the light apparatus such that the capacitor electrode films and the dielectric film are at least partly arranged in parallel to the light emission structure. Since films, in particular, thin films, are used for the capacitor structure and the encapsulation and since the capacitor structure is integrated in the light apparatus, the light apparatus can be relatively thin.
US09312310B2
A display panel, a fabricating method thereof and a display device. The display panel, including: a transparent substrate; a plurality of display pixels, provided on the transparent substrate, wherein each of the plurality of display pixels includes: a plurality of first transparent self-luminous sub-pixels, provided on a light exiting surface of the transparent substrate; and a plurality of second self-luminous sub-pixels, provided on a surface of the transparent substrate opposite to the light exiting surface, and a light exiting direction of each of the second sub-pixels a direction towards the light exiting surface of the transparent substrate.
US09312308B2
An organic luminous means and an illumination device comprising such a luminous means are specified. An optical display apparatus, emergency lighting, motor vehicle interior lighting, an item of furniture, a construction material, a glazing and a display comprising such a luminous means and, respectively, comprising an illumination device having such a luminous means are furthermore specified.
US09312299B2
An image sensor pixel includes a photosensitive element, a floating diffusion region, a transfer gate, a dielectric charge trapping region, and a first metal contact. The photosensitive element is disposed in a semiconductor layer to receive electromagnetic radiation along a vertical axis. The floating diffusion region is disposed in the semiconductor layer, while the transfer gate is disposed on the semiconductor layer to control a flow of charge produced in the photosensitive element to the floating diffusion region. The dielectric charge trapping device is disposed on the semiconductor layer to receive electromagnetic radiation along the vertical axis and to trap charges in response thereto. The dielectric charge trapping device is further configured to induce charge in the photosensitive element in response to the trapped charges. The first metal contact is coupled to the dielectric charge trapping device to provide a first bias voltage to the dielectric charge trapping device.
US09312297B2
A semiconductor apparatus includes a first semiconductor chip, a second semiconductor chip, and a flare prevention plate. On the first semiconductor chip, a photoelectric conversion unit configured to perform photoelectric conversion on light received in a light receiving area is formed. The second semiconductor chip is electrically connected to the first semiconductor chip, the second semiconductor chip being disposed on a surface of the first semiconductor chip on a side of the light receiving area. The flare prevention plate is disposed on the second semiconductor chip, the flare prevention plate being configured to block light, the flare prevention plate being in contact with the second semiconductor chip.
US09312295B2
A semiconductor device has a chip region including a back-side illumination type photoelectric conversion element, a mark-like appearance part, a pad electrode, and a coupling part. The mark-like appearance part includes an insulation film covering the entire side surface of a trench part formed in a semiconductor substrate. The pad electrode is arranged at a position overlapping the mark-like appearance part. The coupling part couples the pad electrode and mark-like appearance part. At least a part of the pad electrode on the other main surface side of the substrate is exposed through an opening reaching the pad electrode from the other main surface side of the substrate. The mark-like appearance part and coupling part are arranged to at least partially surround the outer circumference of the opening in plan view.
US09312293B2
Image sensors may include a plurality of photodiodes. The photodiodes may be isolated from each other using isolations regions formed from p-well or n-well implants. Deep and narrow isolation regions may be formed using a multi-step process that selectively places implants at desired depths in a substrate. If desired, the multi-step process may include only one photolithographic patterning step, which in turn can help reduce costs, fabrication time, and alignment errors. The process may include passing ions through a stack of alternating layers of material such as alternating layers of oxide and nitride. After each implant, a layer in the stack may be removed and ions may be passed through the layers remaining in the stack to form an implant at a different depth in the substrate.
US09312286B2
A display device includes an array substrate and a color filter substrate. The array substrate including data lines in a periphery circuit area, and the color filter substrate including a common electrode. A portion of the common electrode of the color filter substrate corresponding to the periphery circuit area of the array substrate includes a plurality of stripe electrodes separated from each other, extending in a length direction of the data lines and overlapped with the data lines. For each data line, two adjacent stripe electrodes among the plurality of stripe electrodes overlapped with the data line are connected through a bypass electrode which is substantially not overlapped with the data line. In case of the data lines being broken or shorted with the common electrode, the data line can be repaired by using a separate stripe electrode, thereby enabling normal operation of the circuitry.
US09312284B2
An active device array substrate includes a substrate, first signal lines, second signal lines, pixel units, selection units, an insulating layer, and a driving unit. The second signal lines and the selection lines are electrically connected with the driving unit. The insulating layer is disposed among the first signal lines, the second signal lines and the selection lines and has contact holes. The contact holes are disposed corresponding to the first signal lines, and a portion of the selection lines are electrically connected with the first signal lines via the contact holes. The selection line corresponding to the contact hole the farthest from the driving unit and the closest to a reference axis of the substrate and the selection line corresponding to the contact hole the closest to the driving unit and the reference axis respectively receive a start signal and a terminal signal provided by the driving unit.
US09312281B2
A TFT array substrate includes a pixel region and a wiring region disposed outside the pixel region. The wiring region has a wiring layer including scan or data wirings. A repair wiring layer including repair wiring is disposed insulatedly below or above the wiring layer. A scan or data wiring has a first intersection and a second intersection with a repair wiring section of the repair wiring. When the scan or data wiring is broken, a repair wiring section is cut off the repair wiring by a first cut-off point and a second cut-off point, and the broken scan or data wiring is electrically connected to the repair wiring section through soldering the first intersection and the second intersection. Thus, products that would otherwise be rejected in the manufacturing process of LCD panels can be repaired, which decreases the reject ratio, increases the yield and saves the production cost.
US09312280B2
A semiconductor device capable of retaining data for a long time is provided. The semiconductor device includes first to third transistors, a fourth transistor including first and second gates, first to third nodes, a capacitor, and an input terminal. A source of the first transistor is connected to the input terminal. A drain of the first transistor and a source of the second transistor are connected to the first node. A gate of the second transistor, a drain of the second transistor, and a source of the third transistor are connected to the second node. A gate of the third transistor, a drain of the third transistor, the capacitor, and the second gate of the fourth transistor are connected to the third node.
US09312272B2
A method and circuit for implementing an enhanced transistor topology with a buried field effect transistor (FET) utilizing the drain of a FinFET as the gate of the new buried FET and a design structure on which the subject circuit resides are provided. A drain area of the fin area of a FinFET over a buried dielectric layer provides both the drain of the FinFET as well as the gate node of a second field effect transistor. This second field effect transistor is buried in the carrier semiconductor substrate under the buried dielectric layer.
US09312271B2
According to an embodiment, a non-volatile memory device includes electrodes, an inter-layer insulating film between the electrodes and at least one semiconductor layer extending through the electrodes and the inter-layer insulating film. The device includes a charge storage layer between the semiconductor layer and each electrode, a first insulating film between the charge storage layer and the semiconductor layer, and a second insulating film. The second insulating film includes a first portion between the charge storage layer and each electrode, a second portion between each electrode and the inter-layer insulating film, and a third portion that links the first portion and the second portion. In a cross-section of the third portion parallel to the first direction and a second direction toward each electrode from the charge storage layer, a curved surface on the charge storage layer side has a curvature radius larger than a surface on the electrodes side.
US09312260B2
An integrated circuit includes a first diffusion area for a first type transistor. The first type transistor includes a first drain region and a first source region. A second diffusion area for a second type transistor is separated from the first diffusion area. The second type transistor includes a second drain region and a second source region. A gate electrode continuously extends across the first diffusion area and the second diffusion area in a routing direction. A first metallic structure is electrically coupled with the first source region. A second metallic structure is electrically coupled with the second drain region. A third metallic structure is disposed over and electrically coupled with the first and second metallic structures. A width of the first metallic structure is substantially equal to or larger than a width of the third metallic structure.
US09312258B2
A strained silicon substrate structure includes a first transistor and a second transistor disposed on a substrate. The first transistor includes a first gate structure and two first source/drain regions disposed at two sides of the first gate structure. A first source/drain to gate distance is between each first source/drain region and the first gate structure. The second transistor includes a second gate structure and two source/drain doped regions disposed at two side of the second gate structure. A second source/drain to gate distance is between each second source/drain region and the second gate structure. The first source/drain to gate distance is smaller than the second source/drain to gate distance.
US09312257B2
A semiconductor device is described, which includes a first transistor, a second transistor, and a capacitor. The second transistor and the capacitor are provided over the first transistor so as to overlap with a gate of the first transistor. A semiconductor layer of the second transistor and a dielectric layer of the capacitor are directly connected to the gate of the first transistor. The second transistor is a vertical transistor, where its channel direction is perpendicular to an upper surface of a semiconductor layer of the first transistor.
US09312250B2
Various embodiments provide a chip. The chip has a carrier, an integrated circuit formed above the carrier, and an energy storage element. The energy storage element has a first electrode and a second electrode and is used to supply the integrated circuit with electrical energy. The carrier, the integrated circuit and the energy storage element are monolithically formed, the first electrode being formed from the carrier.
US09312244B2
A microelectronic package can include a substrate having first and second opposed surfaces, and first and second microelectronic elements having front surfaces facing the first surface. The substrate can have a plurality of substrate contacts at the first surface and a plurality of terminals at the second surface. Each microelectronic element can have a plurality of element contacts at the front surface thereof. The element contacts can be joined with corresponding ones of the substrate contacts. The front surface of the second microelectronic element can partially overlie a rear surface of the first microelectronic element and can be attached thereto. The element contacts of the first microelectronic element can be arranged in an area array and are flip-chip bonded with a first set of the substrate contacts. The element contacts of the second microelectronic element can be joined with a second set of the substrate contacts by conductive masses.
US09312233B2
Methods of forming molded panel coreless package structures are described. Those methods and structures may include fabrication of embedded die packages using large panel format and use of molding to improve rigidity of the panel, as well as to embed the die in a non-sacrificial mold material. The methods and structures described include methods for manufacturing thin, coreless substrate architectures which possess low warpage.
US09312228B2
An inventive semiconductor device includes a semiconductor chip having a passivation film, and a sealing resin layer provided over the passivation film for sealing a front side of the semiconductor chip. The sealing resin layer extends to a side surface of the passivation film to cover the side surface.
US09312218B2
A semiconductor device has a semiconductor die mounted to a substrate. A leadframe has a base plate and integrated tie bars and conductive bodies. The tie bars include a down step with an angled surface and horizontal surface between the conductive bodies. The leadframe is mounted to the semiconductor die and substrate with the base plate disposed on a back surface of the semiconductor die and the conductive bodies disposed around the semiconductor die and electrically connected to the substrate. An encapsulant is deposited over the substrate and semiconductor die and into the down step of the tie bars. A conductive layer is formed over the conductive bodies to inhibit oxidation. The leadframe is singulated through the encapsulant in the down step and through the horizontal portion of the tie bars to electrically isolate the conductive bodies. A semiconductor package can be mounted to the substrate and semiconductor die.
US09312210B2
A method for fabricating a semiconductor device includes forming, over a substrate, a plurality of first conductive structures which are separated from one another; forming multi-layered dielectric patterns including a first dielectric layer which covers upper ends and both sidewalls of the first conductive structures; removing portions of the first dielectric layer starting from lower end portions of the first conductive structures to define air gaps, and forming second conductive structures which are filled between the first conductive structures.
US09312209B2
A method for bypassing a defective through silicon via x in a group of n adjacent through silicon vias, includes receiving a plurality of relief signals to identify the defective through silicon via x, activating x−1 switch circuits to connect x−1 data circuits to through silicon vias 1 to x−1 in the group of n adjacent through silicon vias, activating n−x switch circuits to connect n−x data circuits to through silicon vias x+1 to n in the group of n adjacent through silicon vias, and activating a switch circuit to connect a data circuit to an auxiliary through silicon via which is adjacent through silicon via n in the group of n adjacent through silicon vias.
US09312204B2
An integrated circuit and a method of forming an integrated circuit including a first dielectric layer including a surface, a plurality of first trenches defined in the dielectric layer surface, and a plurality of first wires, wherein each of the first wires are formed in each of the first trenches. The integrated circuit also includes a plurality of second trenches defined in the dielectric layer surface, and a plurality of second wires, wherein each of the second wires are formed in each of the second trenches. Further, the first wires comprise a first material having a first bulk resistivity and the second wires comprise a second material having a second bulk resistivity, wherein the first bulk resistivity and the second bulk resistivity are different.
US09312197B2
Support base-attached encapsulant for collectively encapsulating a semiconductor device mounting surface of a substrate or semiconductor device forming surface of a wafer, containing a support base having one fibrous film or a plurality of the fibrous films being laminated, the fibrous film subjected to surface treatment with an organosilicon compound, and a resin layer of thermosetting resin formed on one surface of the support base. The support base-attached encapsulant inhibit the substrate or wafer from warping and semiconductor devices from peeling away from the substrate, and collectively encapsulate the semiconductor device mounting surface of the substrate or the semiconductor device forming surface of the wafer even when a large-diameter wafer or large-area substrate is encapsulated. The support base-attached encapsulant has uniformity and homogeneity without opening or tangle of fiber, and is excellent in reliability such as heat resistance, electrical insulation property, moisture resistance, excellent in versatility, economical efficiency, and mass-productivity.
US09312186B1
This disclosure provides a horizontal structure by using a double STI recess method. The double STI recess method includes: forming a plurality of fins on the substrate; forming shallow trench isolation between the fins; performing first etch-back on the shallow trench isolation; forming source and drain regions adjacent to channels of the fins; and performing second etch-back on the shallow trench isolations to expose a lower portion of the fins as a larger process window for forming gates of the fins. Accordingly, compared to conventional methods limited by fin height from the STI, the double STI recess method provides greater fin height, which is a larger process window for HGAA nanowire formation, to easily produce multi-stack HGAA nanowires with high current density. The number of layers used in the multi-stack HGAA nanowires is not limited and may vary based on different designs.
US09312174B2
A method for manufacturing contact plugs for semiconductor devices includes the following steps. A substrate is provided. The substrate includes a plurality of transistor and a first dielectric layer filling spaces between the transistors formed thereon. The transistors respectively include a gate and a source/drain. A patterned sacrificial layer is formed on the first dielectric layer. The patterned sacrificial layer includes a plurality of first openings corresponding to the gates of the transistors. A second dielectric layer filling up the first openings in the patterned sacrificial layer is formed and followed by removing the sacrificial layer to form a plurality of second openings in the second dielectric layer. The second openings are formed correspondingly to the sources/drains of the transistors. An etching process is performed to etch the first dielectric layer through the second openings to form a plurality of first contact holes exposing the sources/drains of the transistors.
US09312173B2
A method of forming a metal semiconductor alloy on a fin structure that includes forming a semiconductor material layer of a polycrystalline crystal structure material or amorphous crystal structure material on a fin structure of a single crystal semiconductor material, and forming a metal including layer on the semiconductor material layer. Metal elements from the metal including layer may then be intermixed metal elements with the semiconductor material layer to provide a metal semiconductor alloy contact on the fin structure. A core of the fin structure of the single crystal semiconductor material is substantially free of the metal elements from the metal including layer.
US09312159B2
A substrate is transported between a first space and a second space, which are separated by a partition wall, through an opening portion formed in the partition wall. A transport apparatus includes a support device having a support portion which supports the substrate, the support device being provided so as to block the opening portion while a clearance between the partition wall and the support device is formed, the support device moving the support portion from a state where the support portion faces the first space to a state where the support portion faces the second space; and an adjustment device which adjusts an amount of the clearance, thereby suppressing the movement of fluid from the first space to the second space.
US09312149B2
A device includes a bottom chip and an active top die bonded to the bottom chip. A dummy die is attached to the bottom chip. The dummy die is electrically insulated from the bottom chip.
US09312148B2
A method of packaging a semiconductor device includes forming an insulating layer over a semiconductor device, wherein the semiconductor device has a contact pad, and a thickness of the contact pad is greater than a thickness of the insulating layer. The method further includes forming a molding compound to cover the semiconductor device and a space between the semiconductor device and a neighboring semiconductor device, wherein both semiconductor devices are on a carrier wafer. The method further includes planarizing a surface of the semiconductor device by removing the molding compound and the insulating layer over the contact pad.
US09312146B2
Embodiments of the invention provide a thin film transistor and a manufacturing method thereof and a display device. The thin film transistor includes a gate electrode, a gate insulation layer, an active layer, an ohmic contact layer, a source electrode and a drain electrode, and the source electrode and the drain electrode are connected to the active layer by the ohmic contact layer. The ohmic contact layer is provided at a lateral side of the active layer and contacts the lateral side of the active layer.
US09312144B2
A composition for forming a silicon-containing resist under layer film includes a silicon-containing compound which is obtained by hydrolysis, condensation or hydrolysis-condensation of a second silicon compound containing one or more compounds represented by the following general formula (1), wherein R represents an organic group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms, Ra, Rb and Rc each represents a substituted or unsubstituted monovalent organic group having 1 to 30 carbon atoms, w=0 or 1, x=0, 1, 2 or 3, y=0, 1 or 2, z=0, 1, 2 or 3; when w=0, 5≧x+z≧1, and the case where (x, z)=(1, 1), (3, 0) or (0, 3) are not included; and when w=1, 7≧x+y+z≧1, and the case where (x, y, z)=(1, 1, 1) is not included. The composition forms a resist under layer film with extremely less number of coating defects, and excellent adhesiveness in fine pattern and etching selectivity.
US09312142B2
Methods for polishing a semiconductor wafer using a pad resurfacing arm and an apparatus therefor are disclosed. Embodiments may include providing a semiconductor wafer on a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) tool, the CMP tool including a polish pad and a pad resurfacing arm which includes a pad cleaning part, a pad conditioning part, and a slurry dispensing part, dispensing a slurry to the polish pad utilizing the pad resurfacing arm, and polishing the semiconductor wafer utilizing the polish pad.
US09312140B2
A semiconductor structure with low resistance conduction paths and methods of manufacture are disclosed. The method includes forming at least one low resistance conduction path on a wafer, and forming an electroplated seed layer in direct contact with the low resistance conduction path.
US09312137B2
Native oxide growth on germanium, silicon germanium, and InGaAs undesirably affects CET (capacitive equivalent thickness) and EOT (effective oxide thickness) of high-k and low-k metal-oxide layers formed on these semiconductors. Even if pre-existing native oxide is initially removed from the bare semiconductor surface, some metal oxide layers are oxygen-permeable in thicknesses below about 25 Å thick. Oxygen-containing species used in the metal-oxide deposition process may diffuse through these permeable layers, react with the underlying semiconductor, and re-grow the native oxide. To eliminate or mitigate this re-growth, the substrate is exposed to a gas or plasma reductant (e.g., containing hydrogen). The reductant diffuses through the permeable layers to react with the re-grown native oxide, detaching the oxygen and leaving the un-oxidized semiconductor. The reduction product(s) resulting from the reaction may then be removed from the substrate (e.g., driven off by heat).
US09312131B2
Epitaxial layers are selectively formed in semiconductor windows by a cyclical process of repeated blanket deposition and selective etching. The blanket deposition phases leave non-epitaxial material over insulating regions, such as field oxide, and the selective etch phases preferentially remove non-epitaxial material while deposited epitaxial material builds up cycle-by-cycle. Quality of the epitaxial material improves relative to selective processes where no deposition occurs on insulators. Use of a germanium catalyst during the etch phases of the process aid etch rates and facilitate economical maintenance of isothermal and/or isobaric conditions throughout the cycles. Throughput and quality are improved by use of trisilane, formation of amorphous material over the insulating regions and minimizing the thickness ratio of amorphous:epitaxial material in each deposition phase.
US09312126B2
The present invention discloses a method for processing a gate dielectric layer deposited on a germanium-based or Group III-V compound-based substrate, belonging to a semiconductor device field. The method comprises the steps of depositing a high-K gate dielectric layer on the germanium-based or Group III-V compound-based substrate, and then performing a plasma process to the high-K gate dielectric layer by using fluorine plasma, wherein during the plasma process, a guiding electric field is applied so that fluorine ions, when being accelerated to a surface of the gate dielectric layer, has an energy of 5-50 eV and the fluorine plasma drifts into the high-K gate dielectric layer, a ratio of a density of the fluorine ions in the high-K gate dielectric layer and a density of oxygen atoms in the high-K gate dielectric layer being 0.01-0.15:1.
US09312124B2
A method of fabricating a semiconductor device may include: forming a field region defining an active region in a substrate; forming a gate trench in which the active and field regions are partially exposed; forming a gate insulating layer on a surface of the active region; conformally forming a gate barrier layer including metal on the gate insulating layer and partially exposed field region; forming a gate electrode layer including metal on the gate barrier layer; and/or forming a gate capping layer. Forming the gate insulating layer may include forming a first gate oxide layer by primarily oxidizing the active region's surface, and forming a second gate oxide layer between the active region's surface and the first gate oxide layer by secondarily oxidizing the active region's surface. The gate capping layer may be in contact with the gate insulating layer, gate barrier layer, and/or gate electrode layer.
US09312116B2
The present invention provides a mass distribution spectrometry which reduces an influence of the dispersion in the times at which ionizing beams irradiate a sample, on a mass spectrometry result, and can measure the mass distribution with high reliability. The mass distribution spectrometry is a mass spectrometry which includes irradiating the sample with a primary ion beam and detecting generated secondary ions, wherein this primary ion beam has a spread toward a direction perpendicular to a travelling direction, has a path length of each primary ion contained in the primary ion beam between a primary ion source and a surface of the sample adjusted by deflecting a trajectory, and is obliquely incident on the surface of the sample.
US09312109B2
A radiation detection assembly includes an ionization chamber for detecting radiation. An exterior enclosure houses the ionization chamber within an interior volume. A pair of support structures support the ionization chamber with respect to the exterior enclosure. The support structures are disposed opposite each other at a surface of the ionization chamber such that the ionization chamber is symmetric with respect to an axis extending between the support structures. A method of supporting the radiation detection assembly is also provided.
US09312106B2
Phase angle between opposing electrodes in a plasma reactor is controlled in accordance with a user selected phase angle. Direct digital synthesis of RF waveforms of different phases for the different electrodes is employed. The synthesis is synchronized with a reference clock. The address generator employed for direct digital synthesis is synchronized with an output clock signal that is generated in phase with the reference clock using a phase lock loop. The phase lock loop operates only during a limited initialization period.
US09312103B2
A dynamic pattern generator (DPG) device and method of making a DPG device are disclosed. The DPG device is used in semiconductor processing tools that require multiple electron-beams, such as direct-write lithography. The device is a self-aligned DPG device that enormously reduces the required tolerances for aligning the various electrode layers, as compared to other design configurations including the non-self-aligned approach and also greatly simplifies the process complexity and cost. A process sequence for both integrated and non-integrated versions of the self-aligned DPG device is described. Additionally, an advanced self-aligned DPG device that eliminates the need for a charge dissipating coating or layer to be used on the device is described. Finally, a fabrication process for the implementation of both integrated and non-integrated versions of the advanced self-aligned DPG device is described.
US09312101B2
A method includes scanning a lithography mask with a repair process, and measuring back-scattered electron signals of back-scattered electrons generated from the scanning. An endpoint is determined from the back-scattered electron signals. A stop point is calculated from the endpoint. The step of scanning is stopped when the calculated stop point is reached.
US09312089B2
The disclosure relates to a method for making field emission cathode. A microchannel plate is provided. The microchannel plate includes a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface. The microchannel plate defines a number of holes extending through the microchannel plate from the first surface to the second surface. The plurality of holes are filled with a carbon nanotube slurry. The carbon nanotube slurry is adhered on inner walls of the plurality of holes. The carbon nanotube slurry in the plurality of holes is solidified.
US09312088B2
A circuit breaker includes a breaker handle that is remotely operated using a modular actuator mechanism. The actuator mechanism may be a solenoid or other electromechanical actuator that converts an electrical signal to a mechanical force which is applied to the breaker handle. The actuator mechanism is mechanically connected to the circuit breaker in a removable fashion, such as by a tab-and-slot connection, and electrically connected to the circuit breaker in a removable fashion using a plug, edge connector, or other suitable mechanism such that the electrical connection is made when the actuator mechanism is installed, and without the need for additional wiring or other installation steps.
US09312086B2
A proximity switch (20, 20A) that snaps quickly and locks between first and second positions of movable electrical contacts (32). A magnet (42) moves a first shaft (26) toward a magnetic target (62) when the target is proximate a sensor end (43) of the switch housing (22). A spring (44) urges the first shaft (26) away from the sensor end. Movement of the first shaft causes a second spring (64) to urge a second shaft (28) in the direction of the first shaft. Next the second shaft is released (52) to move in the direction urged by the second spring. The switch may be adapted to a client cable pin configuration via an adapter plug (80) in the housing with a flexible interconnection circuit (82) folded in a chamber between the adapter plug and leads from fixed electrical contacts (38) of the switch.
US09312083B1
A switch coupling assembly is configured for coupling switch handles to provide simultaneous actuation and deactivation of an electrical device. The switch handles are arranged in a side by side configuration and have passages are aligned. A coupling rod is inserted through the passages in the handles. A spacer is positioned between the switch handles and receives the coupling rod therethrough. An outside surface of the coupling rod is threaded to interact with either or both of the inner surface of the spacer or the inner surface of the handles in order to prevent inadvertent axial motion of the rod relative to the spacer or the switch handles.
US09312073B2
The exemplary embodiment has an object to provide a nonaqueous electrolyte solution having a flame retardancy over a long period and having a good capacity maintenance rate. The exemplary embodiment is a nonaqueous electrolyte solution containing a lithium salt, at least one oxo-acid ester derivative of phosphorus selected from compounds represented by a predetermined formula, and at least one disulfonate ester selected from a cyclic disulfonate ester and a linear disulfonate ester represented by the predetermined formulae.
US09312067B2
Inductive devices are disclosed. Multiple partial windings may be created relative to a core, where each of the partial windings is initially discontinuous. Multiple printed conductors may be created on a substrate, where the multiple printed conductors are arranged to electrically connect the multiple partial windings. The multiple partial windings may be electrically connected to the multiple printed conductors to create a complete winding around the core.
US09312062B2
In a common mode choke coil, electrodes of input/output terminals are located on a bottom surface of a bottom layer. First linear conductors and second linear conductors are located on base material layers. A primary coil includes the first linear conductors and via hole conductors. A secondary coil includes the second linear conductors and via hole conductors. In a plan view as seen from a direction of winding axes of the primary coil and the secondary coil, as for a plurality of first linear conductors and second linear conductors which are adjacent in a plan direction, there are provided a first region in which the second linear conductors are located between the first linear conductors, and a second region in which the first conductors are located between the second linear conductors.
US09312058B2
An electromagnetic linear actuator has a frame (stator) and an armature each at least partially formed of soft magnetic material. The armature can be moved relative to the frame along a longitudinal axis, they form a gap therebetween in an open position and lie against each other in a closed position with the gap closed. A first armature coil is connected to the armature so that a force acting on the first armature coil is transferred to the armature. An excitation magnetic field is generated and guided at least partially by the frame and the armature and acts with a force on the first armature coil when current flows through the first armature coil, to close the gap. The frame, the armature, and the excitation magnetic field are configured so that a retaining force takes effect when the gap between the frame and the armature is closed.
US09312057B2
Apparatus and methods for manufacturing magnets, and magnets, having magnetically oriented grains, and apparatus including such magnets. The field of a permanent magnet may be shaped by applying an external field to the material from which the magnet is made in such a way as to magnetize different regions of the material in different directions. The apparatus may include, and the methods may involve, a metal-powder press that may press metal powder in the presence of a magnetic field. The press may compress the powder in an axial direction. The field may have flux lines that are transverse to the axial direction. The field may have flux lines that are along the axial direction.
US09312049B2
The invention relates to an electrical contact element, an electrical contact arrangement and methods for manufacturing an electrical contact element and for reducing oxidization of a contact section of an electrical contact element. In order to avoid that the durability of the contact element and therefore of the contact arrangement is negatively influenced by growing oxide layers on contact surfaces, the contact element is provided with a cover layer with a chemical reducing agent that can be activated by frictional forces.
US09312048B2
An electroconductive sheet and a touch panel having a first electroconductive section and a second electroconductive section, the second electroconductive section being disposed on the display-panel side. The first electroconductive section has a plurality of first electroconductive patterns arranged in the x-direction, a plurality of first large grids being respectively connected to the first electroconductive patterns. The second electroconductive section has a plurality of second electroconductive patterns arranged in the y-direction, a plurality of second large grids being respectively connected to the second electroconductive patterns. The area occupied by thin metal wires in the second electroconductive patterns is larger than the area occupied by thin metal wires in the first electroconductive patterns. The area occupied by thin metal wires in the second large grids is larger than the area occupied by thin metal wires in the first large grids.
US09312045B2
A conductive paste composition for a solar cell contains a conductive powder, a glass frit, and a vehicle. The glass fit includes glass containing SO2 within a range of 0.05 to 5.0 (mol %) in terms of oxide.
US09312044B2
A formulation including: an organic semiconducting polymer selected from the diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) and fused thiophene co-polymer structures of the formulas (I), (II), or combinations thereof, or salts thereof, in an amount of from 0.1 to 5 wt % based on the total weight of the formulation: formulas (I) and (II), respectively, where m is an integer from 1 to 2, n is an integer from 4 to 80, X and Y are independently selected from a divalent heteroaryl, such as a thiophene, R1, R2, R3, and R4 is each a hydrocarbylene substituent as defined herein, a first solvent is selected from a cyclic aliphatic in an amount of from 2 to 98 wt %; and a second solvent selected from an aromatic in an amount of from 98 to 2 wt %. Also disclosed are method of making and using the disclosed formulations, for example, for use in electronic devices.
US09312041B2
Fragrances having a fresh character are usually very volatile and therefore not very economical in typical applications such as washing or cleaning processes for example. For that reason they have to be used in relatively large amounts in order to bring about appropriate effects. The present invention describes photolabile pro-fragrances of formula (I) that allow for a greatly improved persistence of the fragrance impression, in particular one having a fresh character, in typical applications. Said pro-fragrances attach very readily to target substrates, such as textiles for example. A more economical use of the fragrances in question can be ensured in this way.
US09312031B2
A semiconductor chip includes a memory array including a plurality of memory cells, a plurality of terminals including a plurality of test terminals to output a result of a specific test, and a circuit that outputs the result to a selected one of the plurality of test terminals based on a chip identification data.
US09312027B2
A method of operating a nonvolatile memory device includes determining whether a program operation is performed on even memory cells coupled to even bit lines of a selected page, setting a coupling resistance value between odd bit lines of the selected page and page buffers depending on whether the program operation for the even memory cells is performed, performing a program operation on the odd memory cells coupled to the odd bit lines, and coupling the odd bit line to the page buffer based on the set coupling resistance value and performing an verification operation for verifying whether threshold voltages of the odd memory cells on which the program operation is performed are a target voltage or more.
US09312025B2
Provided are an information processing, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a refresh control program, and a refresh control method. An information processing apparatus which can work in a plurality of operation modes, includes: a flash memory; and a control section. The control section is configured to acquire an operating time period of each of the operation modes. The control section is further configured to calculate a weighted time period of each of the operation modes by weighting the operating time period of each of the operation modes by using a weighting coefficient of the corresponding operation mode. The control section is further configured to perform refresh processing of the flash memory when an integrated weighted time period exceeds a refresh threshold value which has been determined previously, where the integrated weighted time period is calculated by adding up the weighted time periods of the operation modes.
US09312024B2
Provided is a flash memory device capable of efficiently performing a refresh operation. The flash memory device includes a normal memory array including a plurality of normal memory cells arranged in a matrix of word lines and bit lines, wherein the plurality of normal memory cells are divided into a plurality of memory blocks and are programmable and erasable; a refresh address generation unit configured to generate a refresh block address, wherein the refresh block address is sequentially increased in response to activation of a refresh driving signal; and a refresh driving unit driven to refresh a memory block specified by the refresh block address among the memory blocks of the normal memory array in a unit refresh frame, and generate the refresh driving signal. In the flash memory device, a refresh operation may be efficiently performed to fix a data disturbance.
US09312022B1
Methods for memory input timing self-calibration, apparatuses for input timing self-calibration, and systems are disclosed. One such method includes sequentially programming a plurality of delay trim settings into a delay circuit of a data path. The data path can include a data latch coupled to the delay circuit. A clock is coupled to the data latch to clock data into the data latch. Transitions of the data are substantially aligned with transitions of the clock. An output of the data latch is read after each delay trim setting is programmed. A boundary is determined between a first output state of the data latch and a second output state of the data latch wherein the boundary is associated with a particular delay trim setting of the plurality of delay trim settings. The particular delay trim setting is programmed into the delay circuit.
US09312019B1
According to an embodiment, an operation method for a memory device which has a first memory element and a second memory element respectively provided on both sides of a semiconductor member includes applying a first voltage to a second word line, the first voltage being negative for a voltage of a cell source line, and applying a second voltage to a first word line, the second voltage being positive for the voltage of the cell source line when reading out a data from the first memory element.
US09312002B2
A programming technique for a set of resistance-switching memory cells such as ReRAM cell involves programming the low resistance cells to the high resistance state (in a reset process) early in a programming operation, before programming the high resistance cells to the low resistance state (in a set process), to minimize losses due to leakage currents. The reset process can be performed in one or more phases. In some cases, a current limit is imposed which limits the number of cells which can be reset at the same time. Initially, the cells which are to be reset and set are identified by comparing a logical value of their current resistance state to a logical value of write data. If there is a match, the cell is not programmed. If there is not a match, the cell is programmed.
US09311997B2
A resistive memory device includes memory cell array blocks, a reference cell array block, two first and second sink transistors, and a word line. Each of the memory cell array blocks includes a row line, and the reference cell array block includes a reference row line. One of the first sink transistors is disposed between one end of the row line and a ground and the other of the first sink transistors is disposed between an opposite end of the row line and the ground. One of the second sink transistors is disposed between one end of the reference row line and the ground and the other of the second sink transistors is disposed between an opposite end of the reference row line and the ground. The word line is coupled to gates of the first and second sink transistors.
US09311996B2
A semiconductor storage device according to an embodiment includes a plurality of resistance-change storage elements. A plurality of bit lines are connected to the storage elements, respectively. A voltage control circuit controls a decreasing rate of an absolute value of a voltage of a selected bit line among the bit lines when data is written to one of the storage elements.
US09311993B2
A nonvolatile semiconductor memory device comprises a memory cell array including a plurality of memory cells, and a control circuit for the memory cell array. The control circuit is configured to perform a pre-read operation to read pre-selected memory cells before a read operation on target memory cells is performed and to change a read voltage to be applied to the target memory cells during the read operation based on a result of the pre-read operation.
US09311992B2
Methods are systems for calculating log-likelihood ratios for a decoder utilized in an electronic non-volatile computer storage apparatus are disclosed. A log-likelihood ratio handler is configured to provide an input log-likelihood ratio to the decoder, wherein the input log-likelihood ratio is one of: a uniform input log-likelihood ratio for all bits calculated based on an estimated raw bit error rate for a particular data unit, or a bit-based input log-likelihood ratio for each bit calculated based on a confidence value for a cell containing said each bit. The decoder of the electronic non-volatile computer storage apparatus is configured to decode encoded data at least partially based on the input log-likelihood ratio from the log-likelihood ratio handler.
US09311989B2
In an embodiment of the invention, power is provided to an SRAM array without causing latch-up by charging the positive voltage node in the SRAM array and the Nwell regions in the SRAM at approximately the same rate.
US09311987B2
A semiconductor memory device includes a memory cell array, a refresh control circuit, an address counter and an address converter. The memory cell array includes a plurality of memory cells. The refresh control circuit is configured to receive a refresh command and output m refresh control signals during one refresh cycle for refreshing all the memory cells of the semiconductor memory device. The address counter is configured to generate counting signals for refreshing memory cells in response to the m refresh control signals. The address converter is configured to receive the counting signals and output refresh addresses by converting the counting signals in response to a cycle select signal. The address converter is configured to output refresh addresses such that the number of m refresh control signals during one refresh cycle is variable.
US09311986B2
A semiconductor memory device includes a control signal generator suitable for generating a control signal corresponding to temperature information, a refresh controller suitable for enabling a refresh signal for a smart refresh operation at a predetermined moment in response to a refresh command signal and enabling the refresh signal for a normal refresh operation at a moment corresponding to the control signal in response to the refresh command signal, and a data storage suitable for storing a data and performing the smart refresh operation and the normal refresh operation in response to the refresh signal of the refresh controller.
US09311984B1
A smart refresh device includes an address control block configured to determine whether a specific row address is a row hammer address, and invert a first row hammer address and perform an addition/subtraction of an address; a repair control block configured to determine whether the row hammer address is a repaired address and output a stored repair address as a second repair control signal; a repair address storage block configured to store an output address of the address control block and output a stored address as a latch address; a fuse block configured to output a repair signal representing information on a repair address to the repair control block, and output a decoding signal according to the latch address; and an operator configured to add and subtract the decoding signal according to an addition signal and a subtraction signal.
US09311980B1
A word line supply voltage generator is selectively activated and deactivated to allow internal memory operations that are sensitive to variations on word line voltages to be performed with a stable word line voltage. Techniques for deactivating and reactivating the voltage generator are also disclosed that enable more rapid recovery from deactivation such that subsequent operations can be commenced sooner.
US09311977B2
A waveform generator circuit includes a memory with address locations storing output waveform defining data bits. An address counter generates an address for sequentially addressing the address locations in the memory. The memory responds by sequentially outputting the output waveform defining data bits at the addressed locations. An output circuit receives the waveform defining data bits output from the memory and operates to generate an output signal waveform having logic state values dependent on the sequentially output waveform defining data bits.
US09311972B2
A semiconductor memory device includes, in part, a first data I/O block and a second data I/O block. During a write operation, the first data I/O block transmits input data supplied through a first pad to a first global I/O line, and further generates a write internal signal. The second data I/O block transmits the write internal signal to a second pad in response to a monitor enable signal. During a read operation, the first data I/O block supplies data from the first global I/O line to a first pad, and further generates a read internal signal. The second data I/O block transmits the read internal signal to the second pad in response to a monitor enable signal.
US09311967B2
A system, a memory device and a method are contemplated in which the apparatus may include a plurality of memory cells, a plurality of voltage reduction circuits, and control circuitry. The plurality of voltage reduction circuits may be configured to reduce a voltage level of a power supply coupled to the plurality of memory cells. The control circuitry may be configured to select one of the voltage reduction circuits based on one or more operating parameters. The control circuitry may be further configured to activate the selected voltage reduction circuit upon receiving a write command directed towards the memory cells. The control circuitry may be further configured to execute the write command. Upon completion of the write command, the control circuitry may be further configured to de-activate the selected one of the voltage reduction circuits.
US09311963B2
An apparatus, comprises an obtaining unit which obtains moving image data; a recording unit which records the obtained moving image data on first and second media; and a control unit which controls the recording unit to, in accordance with an instruction to start recording on the second medium during recording of the moving image data on the first medium, start recording of the moving image data on the second medium, and in accordance with an instruction to stop recording on the second medium during recording of the moving image data on the first medium, stop recording of the moving image data on the second medium and record, on the first medium, additional information about positions in the moving image data recorded on the first medium that correspond to the start and stop instructions.
US09311961B2
The image processing device includes an image data input unit for receiving data of moving images and still images; an image grouping unit for classifying the moving images and the still images into groups; an image analyzer for analyzing the moving images and the still images classified by group, and obtaining analysis information of the images, and information on relationship between the moving images and the still images; a frame image extractor for extracting frame images from the moving images according to at least one of the analysis information and the relationship information; a layout determining unit for determining a layout of the still images and the frame images according to at least one of the analysis information and the relationship information; and an image arranging unit for arranging the still images and the frame images according to the layout.
US09311956B2
An information processing device includes: a data processing unit that executes a process of reproducing content recorded in a medium, wherein the data processing unit acquires a token from the medium, the token being management data corresponding to content recorded in the medium, compares a server ID recorded in the acquired token with a server ID recorded in a server certificate acquired from a server from which the management data is acquired, and halts reproduction of content when the two server IDs are not identical.
US09311953B2
The present invention relates to an information recording medium that has good enough recording characteristics even without containing Pd. The information recording medium has a recording layer including an oxide of Mn in which Mn atoms are partially or fully present as Mn with a valence of +4.
US09311949B2
An aspect of the present invention relates to a method of manufacturing magnetic powder, which comprises adding an alkali metal salt compound comprising a substituent selected from the group consisting of an alkali metal salt of a carboxyl group and an alkali metal salt of a hydroxyl group to a water-based magnetic liquid comprising magnetic particles dispersed in an acidic water-based solvent to cause the magnetic particles to aggregate in the water-based magnetic liquid; and collecting the aggregated magnetic particles to obtain the magnetic powder.
US09311947B2
A metal magnetic powder having a metal magnetic phase mainly composed of ferromagnetic elements, and composed of particles containing one or more kinds of elements selected from rare earth elements including Y, and Al, Si. And the method for producing the metal magnetic powder, including the steps of: eluting the non-magnetic components in the particles under an action of a reducing agent acting on the metal magnetic powder, in a solution containing a complexing agent capable of forming the complex with the non-magnetic components; and forming an oxide layer on the particles in the solution after eluting the non-magnetic components into the solution, without drying the particles.
US09311936B2
According to one embodiment, a magnetic recording head includes a main pole configured to apply a recording magnetic field to a recording layer of a recording medium, a trailing shield opposed to the main pole with a write gap therebetween, and a high-frequency oscillator between the main pole and the trailing shield in a range of a width of the main pole in a track width direction, and configured to generate a high-frequency magnetic field. The high-frequency oscillator includes a spin injection layer, an intermediate layer, and an oscillation layer, and at least the oscillation layer comprises divided oscillation regions.
US09311935B2
A method of forming a wave guide for a heat assisted magnetic recording slider of a disk drive includes depositing a layer of waveguide material onto a substrate, and depositing a layer of a hard mask material onto the waveguide material. The method then includes depositing a layer of photoresist onto the hard mask material, and exposing the photoresist to produce a hard mask pattern that includes a waveguide pattern. The method also includes stripping the photoresist material leaving the hard mask pattern having a first line edge roughness. The method also includes removing the waveguide material not covered by the hard mask, the waveguide having sidewalls which having a line edge roughness which is substantially equal to the first line edge roughness. Also disclosed is an apparatus for accomplishing the method.
US09311921B2
A method, an apparatus, a computer readable storage medium configured with instructions for carrying out a method, and logic encoded in one or more computer-readable tangible medium to carry out actions. The method is to decode audio data that includes N.n channels to M.m decoded audio channels, including unpacking metadata and unpacking and decoding frequency domain exponent and mantissa data; determining transform coefficients from the unpacked and decoded frequency domain exponent and mantissa data; inverse transforming the frequency domain data; and in the case M
US09311917B2
A machine, system and method for user-guided teaching of deictic references and referent objects of deictic references to a conversational system. The machine includes a system bus for communicating data and control signals received from the conversational system to the computer system, a data and control bus for connecting devices and sensors in the machine, a bridge module for connecting the data and control bus to the system bus, respective machine subsystems coupled to the data and control bus, the respective machine subsystems having a respective user interface for receiving a deictic reference from a user, a memory coupled to the system bus for storing deictic references and objects of the deictic references learned by the conversational system and a central processing unit coupled to the system bus for executing the deictic references with respect to the objects of the deictic references learned.
US09311916B2
An apparatus and method for improving voice recognition are disclosed herein. The apparatus includes a standard voice transmission unit, a Mel-frequency cepstrum coefficient (MFCC) generation unit, and an MFCC compensation unit. The standard voice transmission unit generates a standard voice. The MFCC generation unit generates voice feature data (MFCC) based on the utterance of the standard voice before voice recognition. The MFCC compensation unit stores a gain value generated based on the standard voice, and compensates for the distortion of the voice feature data based on the utterance of a user using the gain value during the voice recognition.
US09311908B2
The invention relates to a diaphragm (1) for an ultrasonic transducer having a diaphragm body (2) which is made of metallic material and is provided on an outer surface region (5; 8) with a coating (10). In order to make it possible for the diaphragm surface to be provided with a particularly damage-resistant coating, the coating (10) has a transparent form such that the surface region (5; 8) of the diaphragm body (2) is visible through the coating (10).
US09311906B2
The present invention discloses a kind of electronic organ with free-combined keys and the method to realize free combination of key groups. The electronic organ comprises host processor and key groups. The method includes steps: S1, Connect freely combined key groups to the electronic organ; S2, The host processor obtains the number of the key groups, address information and locations of keys in key groups; S3, The host processor sets the function or scale for each key according the number of key groups, address information and locations of keys in key groups. The present invention realizes free combination and disassembly of key groups by a method recognizing the free-combined key groups. It makes miniaturization and portability of electronic organ possible and strengthens user experience. Its structure is simple and it brings good economic and social benefits. The present invention can be applied to a variety of electronic organs.
US09311904B2
A woodwind instrument such as a clarinet includes a main tube including an upper tube and a lower tube and a correcting tone hole used solely for interval correction is formed in the lower tube. An airflow adjuster is installed in the correcting tone hole. The airflow adjuster is formed in an M shape by bending a film member at three positions. The airflow adjuster can properly arrange a turbulent airflow in the correction tone hole during performance and can reduce undesired sound generated from the correcting tone hole.
US09311896B2
Among other things, one or more techniques and/or systems are disclosed for rendering a glyph. Rendering data for the glyph can be received, such as size, shape, color, etc., along with first sub-pixel position for initially rendering the glyph on a display. A first rendering quality can be identified for the first sub-pixel position and second rendering quality can be identified for a second sub-pixel position, which may comprise an alternate rendering position. A sub-pixel position shift can be selected for the glyph based at least upon a comparison of the first and second rendering qualities. The sub-pixel position shift can comprise a difference between the first sub-pixel position and the second sub-pixel position, where the second rendering quality is selected/preferable over the first rendering quality. The glyph can be rendered by applying the selected sub-pixel position shift.
US09311888B2
An image processor includes a input converter converting an input image into linear first image data of a first color gamut; a color gamut converter converting first image data into second image data expressing a second color gamut narrower than the first color gamut; a blend coefficient selector selecting a first blend coefficient when hue and saturation belong to a first color domain range, a second blend coefficient, having a reduced synthesis ratio of second image data compared with the first blend coefficient, when hue and saturation belong to a second color domain range, and a third blend coefficient, between the first and second blend coefficients, when hue and saturation belong to a color domain between the first color domain range and the second color domain range; and a color synthesis unit synthesizing first image data and second image data according to the decided blend coefficient.
US09311882B2
A display device includes a data driver having i data output terminals (i being a natural number greater than 1) and outputting data voltages to the i data output terminals in accordance with a source output enable signal provided from a timing controller, an output controller connected between the i data output terminals and i data lines, and i garbage switches respectively connected to the i data lines and connecting the i data lines to a ground terminal at a power input timing when a power supply voltage is applied to the display device, and interrupting the connection between the i data lines and the ground terminal at a timing later than an output timing of a first source output enable signal provided from the timing controller after the power input timing.
US09311879B2
Disclosed is an LCD device. The LCD device comprises a panel, a data driver configured to output a data voltage to a data line; a gate driver configured to sequentially output a scan signal to a plurality of gate lines, a common electrode formed at the panel in correspondence with each of the pixels, a common voltage generator configured to generate a common voltage to be supplied to the common electrode, a timing controller configured to output a first selection signal or a second selection signal, and a selector configured to output a correction common voltage corresponding to a negative liquid crystal driving voltage or the common voltage to the common electrode by using the scan signal, the first selection signal, or the second selection signal.
US09311869B2
The present invention discloses a display system, comprising at least one jointed screen which is composed of a plurality of liquid crystal display panels jointed with each other, in which, each liquid crystal display panel is provided with a first polarizer only at a light entering side thereof, so that a visible angle at which contents displayed by the liquid crystal display panel can be seen from a light exiting side thereof is an obtuse angle; two adjacent jointed liquid crystal display panels are jointed with each other at their adjacent sides, and a joint angle formed at the light exiting side is greater than a right angle, such that the light exiting side of each display panel is located in a region covered by an angle range of the visible angle of at least one display panels other than said display panel.
US09311868B2
A liquid crystal display device that can reduce picture quality deterioration due to a kickback voltage and can accurately detect a kickback voltage is provided. The liquid crystal display device includes: a liquid crystal panel including a detector configured to generate a kickback voltage detection signal, a detection line for supplying the kickback voltage detection signal, and a ground pattern along and adjacent to one side of the detection line; and a common voltage generator connected to the detection line and configured to generate a common voltage corresponding to the kickback voltage detection signal and to supply the generated common voltage to the liquid crystal panel.
US09311867B2
The present disclosure relates to devices and methods for reducing power consumption of a display. One electronic display includes a first switch coupled between a first gate of a first transistor and a second gate of a second transistor to selectively connect the first gate to the second gate. The display includes a second switch coupled between the second gate of the second transistor and a third gate of a third transistor to selectively connect the second gate to the third gate. The display also includes driving circuitry that controls the first switch to connect the first gate to the second gate to share a first charge between the first and second gates. The driving circuitry also controls the second switch to connect the second gate to the third gate to share a second charge between the second and third gates. Accordingly, power consumption of the display may be reduced.
US09311863B2
A dimming method and dimming device for a backlight module are provided. The dimming method includes the following steps. Light distribution information of a plurality of light sources of the backlight module corresponding to a display panel is provided. According to the light distribution information of each of the light sources, a plurality of light contribution ratios of the light sources corresponding to a plurality of different positions of the display panel are obtained respectively. According to the light contribution ratios corresponding to the different positions, the needed intensity of each of the light sources is determined respectively.
US09311861B2
A display device includes a display panel including a display region and first and second drivers. Feature data indicating feature values of first and second images displayed on first and second portions of the display region are exchanged between the first and second drivers, and the first and second drivers drive the first and second portions of the display region in response to the feature data.
US09311860B2
A computer program product (CPP) for controlling a liquid crystal display (LCD) includes code for applying a test voltage to each liquid crystal element (LCE) disposed in an addressable array forming the LCD, and code for detecting an amount of light received by photosensors while applying the test voltage to the LCEs, wherein each photosensor is aligned behind and logically associated with one of the LCEs. The CPP further includes code for applying selected voltage levels to each LCE to display an image, and code for controlling an amount of backlight produced by backlighting elements in an addressable array while the image is displayed. Each backlighting element is aligned behind and logically associated with one LCE, and at least one backlighting element is controlled to compensate for a difference between the amount of light detected by the photosensor logically associated with at least one LCE and the other photosensors.
US09311852B2
Provided are a pixel circuit and an organic light-emitting display. The pixel circuit comprises a driving thin film transistor and a light-emitting diode which is connected between a low level input terminal and a high level input terminal of a driving power supply in series, the pixel circuit further comprises a first capacitor and a driving control unit, a first terminal of the first capacitor is electrically connected with a first electrode of the driving thin film transistor through the driving control unit, a second terminal of the first capacitor is connected with a gate of the driving thin film transistor, a second electrode of the driving thin film transistor is electrically connected with the gate of the driving thin film transistor through the driving control unit, the driving control unit is connected with a gate line and a data line. Since respective pixel circuits may output uniform currents, the brightness of light-emitting diodes in the pixel circuits is uniform, and in turn the display brightness of the organic light-emitting display comprising the pixel circuits is uniform.
US09311849B2
An inverter is disclosed. The disclosed inverter includes first, second, third, and fourth transistors, where each of the first, second, third, and fourth transistors is a P-type thin film transistor. The inverter also includes a first capacitor. The inverter allows for wide voltage output swing performance and low power consumption.
US09311845B2
A circuit and method of driving a display panel requiring gray scale control wherein the voltage applied to a row of pixels is equal to the sum of voltages of opposite sign with respect to ground applied respectively to the row electrode and column electrodes whose intersection with the row defines the pixels. Gray scale is realized through modulation of the voltage applied to the column electrodes. Typically for video application, 256 individual gray levels are required corresponding to luminance levels ranging from zero (no emissive luminance) to full luminance. The required luminance for each gray level is not a linear function of the gray level number but rather corresponds to an approximate quadratic function of this number. The present invention facilitates generation of luminance values for each gray level that approximates this functional dependence (i.e. Gamma corrected) with a non-linear voltage ramp terminated by a digital clock having 256 (8 bit) resolution. The voltage at the ramp termination is held at a constant value and fed to the output buffer of the gray scale drivers for the display columns.
US09311836B1
A suspended segmented display array in one embodiment includes multiple cables offset from a wall via standoff members. Adjacent display panels attach to cables via finger releasable clamps and present varied and unique visual displays. A versatile and cost-effective display system thus is established that accommodates a wide range of content which can readily be changed out.
US09311831B2
The present invention relates to detectable warning panels, and in particular to detectable warning panels that display text and/or other graphic information such as commercial messages, trademarks, logos, directions, slogans, pictures, names, product illustrations, emblems, promotional information related to a product or service, Quick Response Codes, matrix code, two-dimensional bar code, optical machine-readable labels, and combinations thereof.
US09311829B2
A method for personalized labeling of decal decorated item at a point of sale for consumer by laminating a personal label on or adjacent a preexisting decal applied to the item. The personal label may comprise an access code to a secure information source, identification information or a greeting.
US09311825B2
An apparatus for interoperably utilizing multiple biosensor data obtained from a finger of the user. A biometric sensor board is retained in a housing adapted for retaining a finger of the user and maintaining multiple sensors in contact with the skin thereof. Implementations are described for fingertip and ring mounted sensor boards. In one implementation, these sensors can be sensors electrodermal response (EDR), or photoplethysmograph (PPG) signals, or temperature, or acceleration in three axes, and combinations thereof. The biometric sensor board registers and processes the signals from the sensors and communicates them to a mobile device which interoperably utilizes multiple sensor information to determine aspects of user emotional state within an application to generate results which are displayed on the mobile device.
US09311824B2
The teachings described herein are generally directed to a system, method, and apparatus for separating and mixing tracks within music. The system can have components that include a processor, an input device, a database, a transformation module, an emulation recording module, an integration engine, an output module, and an output device, wherein each component is operable in itself to perform it's function in the system and operable with other system components to provide a system to a listener of music.
US09311820B2
A device receives aviation information associated with aviation in a geographical region, and receives configurability options associated with the aviation information. The device analyzes the aviation information based on the configurability options to generate analyzed information, and receives a request for a flight path for a UAV to travel from a first location to a second location in the geographical region. The device calculates the flight path from the first location to the second location based on the analyzed information and capability information associated with the UAV, and generates flight path instructions for the flight path. The device provides the flight path instructions to the UAV to permit the UAV to travel from the first location to the second location via the flight path.
US09311819B1
Maps are created that display representations of GPS data generated from a plurality of GPS devices. The GPS data received from the GPS devices is embodied as a representation having descriptive features that visually indicate the location, direction of travel, and speed of travel of the GPS device, and the representation is associated with a road segment on the map. The display of the GPS data from a plurality of GPS devices can be used for editing information about roads on maps and determining preferred routes.
US09311818B2
A dynamic fusion method of images includes: receiving broadcast information from surrounding vehicles of a host vehicle; determining whether at least one of the surrounding vehicles travels in the same lane as the host vehicle to become a neighboring vehicle of the host vehicle according to the broadcast information; determining whether the neighboring vehicle is too close to the host vehicle and blocks the view of the host vehicle; and performing a transparentization or translucentization process on the neighboring vehicle in an image captured by the host vehicle when the neighboring vehicle blocks the view of the host vehicle.
US09311815B2
Disclosed herein is an improvement of methods and systems used to configure electronic components and modules to a vehicle. A low cost programmer tool, or key fob dongle, may manage devices coupled to a vehicle communication network. The system is designed for on-board management of multiple vehicle network protocols to support configuration of various electronic modules to a vehicle. A method for using a key fob dongle is disclosed herein. The method includes inserting the key fob dongle into an on-board diagnostic (OBD)-II connector of a vehicle, transmitting a communication detection request to the OBD-II connector, and beeping a predetermined amount of times in response to the communication detection request, wherein the beeping a predetermined amount of times identifies a vehicle communication protocol.
US09311812B2
A transmitter in an RFID system, the transmitter includes a signal generator which has a PIN diode and generates a first signal, a directional unit connected to a cathode of the PIN diode; and an antenna connected to the directional unit, wherein the signal generator has a first terminal configured to receive a first control signal to control a frequency band of the first signal and a second terminal configured to receive a second control signal to control a modulation depth of the first signal.
US09311791B2
A tactile feel control device is disclosed. The tactile feel control device can include an electric motor configured to be mechanically coupled to a manual control interface that is movable by a user. The tactile feel control device can also include a bias module operable to generate a bias to be applied by the electric motor. The bias can be configured to provide a desired tactile feel to the user at the manual control interface. In addition, the tactile feel control device can include a control module operable to output a drive signal to the electric motor configured to apply the bias. The bias can be insufficient, alone, to cause movement of the manual control interface.
US09311790B2
In an exemplary method of locating a public facility, a public facility is provided at a fixed location and includes a facility locating module. A wireless signal is generated from the facility locating module. Software code accessible to the portable electronic device is provided. The software code causes the portable electronic device to detect the wireless signal and to generate a location indicating output from the portable electronic device to identify at least one of a location of the public facility, a distance to the public facility from the portable electronic device, and a direction from the portable electronic device to the public facility.
US09311786B2
Examples disclosed herein relate to systems and methods, which may receive wagers on one or more paylines. The systems and methods may utilize one or more objects in a platform based game. The systems and methods may determine one or more payouts based on the one or more objects in a platform based game. The systems and methods may display one or more presentations based on the one or more platform results.
US09311783B2
Gaming apparatus and methods of conducting a wagering game of chance. A gaming machine is disclosed which is configured for mutually concurrent play of a plurality of games of chance on a single display screen. A method of conducting a wagering activity includes providing a player with a plurality of differing games of chance, at least some of which are mutually concurrently playable on a single screen display of a gaming device and enabling mutually concurrent play of the plurality of differing games of chance on the single screen display. Various other gaming machine configurations and methods of play related to multiple differing games of chance on a single display screen are also disclosed herein. Networked gaming machines are also disclosed.
US09311782B2
Gaming apparatus and methods of conducting a wagering game of chance. A gaming machine is disclosed which is configured for mutually concurrent play of a plurality of games of chance on a single display screen. A method of conducting a wagering activity includes providing a player with a plurality of differing games of chance, at least some of which are mutually concurrently playable on a single screen display of a gaming device and enabling mutually concurrent play of the plurality of differing games of chance on the single screen display. Various other gaming machine configurations and methods of play related to multiple differing games of chance on a single display screen are also disclosed herein. Networked gaming machines are also disclosed.
US09311777B2
Gaming devices, gaming systems, methods of configuring gaming devices, and computer programs for configuring gaming devices are featured. A gaming system for playing a wagering game is disclosed which includes a processor(s), an input device(s), a gaming device(s), and a memory device(s) storing instructions that, when executed by at least one of the processors, cause the gaming system to: receive, via at least one of the input devices, a desired value for a player-performance variable and/or a game-configuration variable for at least one of the gaming devices; based on the desired value, output a recommended value for a configuration parameter for the gaming device(s); and, responsive to a confirmation input received via at least one of the input devices, configure the gaming device(s) in accordance with at least the recommended value for the first configuration parameter.
US09311774B2
A gaming system including a number of host devices each coupled to one or more gaming machines, wherein content provided by the host device is output on the gaming machine. To output the content provided by the remote host, a host-controlled process that is authenticated by the gaming machine and executed in a secure memory location such that it is isolated from other processes executing on the gaming machine may be utilized. The host-controlled processes may be decoupled from the process used to execute the game of chance played on the gaming machine such that the content output by the host-controlled process doesn't alter the play of game of chance.
US09311772B2
A disclosed a player tracking unit provides a touch screen display with a touch screen controller integrated into the touch screen sensor assembly. Game service interfaces may be presented on the touch screen display that allow a user to obtain one or more game services. With the touch screen sensor, a user may navigate through the game service interface and supply information required to obtain a game service. Types of interfaces provided with the gaming machine include a jackpot interface for displaying one or more jackpots selected by the player or one or more jackpots that the player is eligible to win.
US09311766B2
The present disclosure is directed to a system and method for wirelessly communicating Radio Frequency (RF) signals. In some implementations, a microSD payment system includes an antenna element and a card element. The antenna element affixes to a surface of a mobile device and includes antenna for wireless communicating RF signals with retail terminals and a connection to a microSD card element. The card element includes a shape and dimensions approximately equal to a standard microSD card and wirelessly executes transactions with the retail terminals using the antenna of the antenna element.
US09311748B2
Methods and systems for generating data objects for multi-resolution geometry in a three-dimensional model are provided. A region of high resolution geometry in the three-dimensional model having a level of detail that is higher than a level of detail associated with geometry data surrounding the region of high resolution geometry can be identified. A boundary of the region of high resolution geometry can be extended and high resolution geometry can be generated within the extended boundary. The high resolution geometry can be spatially partitioned into a plurality of geospatial data objects according to a hierarchical spatial partitioning scheme. The geospatial data objects can be selectively stored in a memory. For instance, geospatial data objects associated with the extended boundary can be identified and excluded from a hierarchical tree data structure storing geometry data associated with the three-dimensional model.
US09311746B2
A computer-implemented method for generating a three-dimensional (3-D) model of a virtual try-on product. At least a portion of an object is scanned. The object includes at least first and second surfaces. An aspect of the first surface is detected. An aspect of the second surface is detected, the aspect of the second surface being different from the aspect of the first surface. A polygon mesh of the first and second surfaces is generated from the scan of the object.
US09311737B1
Systems and methods can be used to store data in a temporal voxel buffer. A first voxel array is stored in association with a first voxel in a voxel grid. The first voxel array includes a plurality of time values. A parameter value is stored in association with each time value of the first voxel array. A second voxel array is stored in association with a second voxel in the voxel grid. The second voxel array stores at least one time value. At least one parameter value is stored in association with the at least one time value of the second voxel array. At least one of the time values stored in the first voxel array is different from each of the at least one time value included in the second voxel array.
US09311734B1
Methods and systems for highlighting portions of digital images. In one aspect, a digital image including an object is received. A user selection of a portion of the digital image including at least a portion of the object is received, and the selected portion of the digital image is highlighted. User selected tagging information associated with the selected portion of the digital image is received and transmitted to a computing system.
US09311730B2
The present invention provides a display apparatus adapted to display a plurality of graph structures each of which is made up of a plurality of elements, by aggregating the plurality of graph structures into a single graph structure as well as provides a display method of the display apparatus and a program used for the display apparatus, the display apparatus including: an acquisition hardware unit adapted to acquire a plurality of graph structures; a distinguishing hardware unit adapted to distinguish the plurality of elements between unchanged elements which have not changed in the plurality of graph structures and changed elements which have changed with transition between/among the plurality of graph structures; an aggregating hardware unit adapted to aggregate the plurality of graph structures; and a display hardware unit adapted to display the aggregated graph structure such that the unchanged elements and the changed elements will be identifiable.
US09311729B2
An information processing apparatus that tests independence among a multiplicity of variables includes an execution section and a determination section. The execution section executes a test for conditional independence between two variables in a graphical model that are at least not independent in the case where a condition variable serving as a condition for independence between the two variables is provided on a path between the two variables. The determination section determines whether or not a V-shaped structure is present on a path between the two variables, the V-shaped structure being a graph structure in which first and second variables that are independent are each not independent of a third variable. The execution section does not execute a test for conditional independence between the two variables in the case where the condition variable is provided only on a path determined to have the V-shaped structure.
US09311725B2
Systems and methods for creating an electronic signature that looks like a handwritten signature.
US09311722B2
In certain embodiments, the invention relates to systems and methods for altering an image to compensate for variation in one or more physical and/or supervenient properties (e.g., optical absorption and/or scattering) in heterogeneous, diffuse tissue, thereby attenuating the effects of tissue waveguiding. The methods enable the proper identification of emission image regions that evidence waveguiding of electromagnetic radiation, and enables compensation of emission images for such waveguiding. The methods preserve the depth localization accuracy of the FMT approach and improve optical reconstruction in the targeted areas while eliminating spurious components of fluorescence from the acquired data set. Calibration methods for probe concentration mapping are also presented.
US09311710B1
A method for measuring a width of a gap of a display module includes the following steps. A sample image of the display module is captured from a viewpoint, the sample image includes a frame region corresponding to a frame part of the display module, an inner region corresponding to a display part of the display module, and a gap region corresponding to the gap between the frame and the display parts. A first line and a second line segments are determined in the sample image, the first line segment is a part of a boundary between the frame and the gap regions, and the second line segment is a part of a boundary between the gap and the inner regions. A distance between the first line and the second line segments is calculated to obtain the width of the gap.
US09311703B2
A method, system and computer program for categorizing heart diseases is presented. An example method includes receiving a series of cardiac images of a heart, the cardiac images including a myocardium, and interior fibrous muscles of the heart. Cardiac images are segmented, into a myocardium segmentation showing an anatomical shape and a motion of the myocardium, and an interior fibrous muscles segmentation showing an anatomical shape and a motion of the interior fibrous muscles. The myocardium segmentation is converted into a regional characterization of the anatomical shape and motion of the myocardium. The interior fibrous muscles segmentation is converted to a regional characterization of the anatomical shape and motion of the interior fibrous muscles. Heart conditions are characterized based on the regional characterizations of the anatomical shape and the motion of the myocardium and the interior fibrous muscles.
US09311700B2
A method and system for performing model-based registration and critical dimension measurement is disclosed. The method includes: utilizing an imaging device to obtain at least one optical image of a measurement site specified for a photomask; retrieving a design of photomask and utilizing a computer model of the imaging device to generate at least one simulated image of the measurement site; adjusting at least one parameter of the computer model to minimize dissimilarities between the simulated images and the optical images, wherein the parameters includes at least a pattern registration parameter or a critical dimension parameter; and reporting the pattern registration parameter or the critical dimension parameter of the computer model when dissimilarities between the simulated images and the optical images are minimized.
US09311687B2
The present disclosures relates generally to digital watermarking and data hiding. One claim recites an apparatus comprising: means for storing a watermark signal; means for embedding a watermark signal in a first portion of a video signal; means for preconditioning the watermark signal in a first manner to allow expanded detection of said preconditioned watermark signal in the presence of first distortion; means for embedding the watermark signal preconditioned in the first manner in a second portion of the video signal; means for preconditioning the watermark signal in a second manner to allow expanded detection of said preconditioned watermark signal in the presence of second distortion; and means for embedding the watermark signal preconditioned in the second manner in a third portion of the video signal. Of course, other claims are provided too.
US09311681B2
Users of a social networking system initiate conversations between other users and additional users who may not be registered to use the social networking system. Each additional user is identified by an item of contact information, and conversation messages are sent to an additional user using the contact information. The conversations are associated with the item of contact information and saved in the social networking system. A user of the social networking system may subsequently claim the item of contact information. The claiming user is given access to the associated conversations if the social networking system can verify that the item of contact information belongs to the claiming user.
US09311677B2
Described are computer systems for interactions with a user device and third party computers. In an embodiment, a computer system for determining and displaying total loss calculations includes accessing third party computer systems for a plurality of data items. The computer system may include data storage devices, computer processors, a communications device, and a memory coupled to the computer processors. The memory may store program instructions which are operative with the computer processors to provide to a user device for display a total loss calculator graphical interface, receive inputs from the user device, request data from third party computers based on the received inputs, determine whether the data needed to perform a total loss calculation has been received, and perform a total loss calculation based on the requested data from the third party computer and the user inputs received from the graphical interface provided to the user device.
US09311665B2
Systems and techniques for automated customer display of product information. A price verification and product information station broadcasts a radiofrequency identification (RFID) interrogation signal and receives an RFID return message from an RFID tag affixed to a product in the immediate vicinity of the station. The station relays the return message to a server, which generates information responsive to the return message, for example, by decoding the RFID return message to extract product information included in the RFID return message. The server organizes and formats the product information extracted from the return message, and the retrieved information, and transmits it to the station, which displays the information.
US09311659B2
A method and system for conducting an online payment transaction through a point of sale device. The method includes receiving input from a user selecting an item for purchase through the point of sale device; calculating a total purchase amount for the item in response to a request from the user to purchase the item; and sending payment authorization for the total purchase amount from the point of sale device to a payment entity, in which the payment authorization is sent to the payment entity via a mobile communication device of the user. The method further includes receiving a result of the payment authorization from the payment entity through the mobile communication device; and completing the payment transaction based on the result of the payment authorization.
US09311657B2
The disclosed embodiments relate to a system or method of providing location-based content during a customer service session between a mobile device of a customer service requestor and a communication device associated with a customer service provider via a communication channel. The disclosed method includes establishing the customer service session between the customer service provider and the mobile device of the customer service requestor. The method also includes determining, by a processor, a geographic location of the mobile device. The method further includes providing, by the processor, during or after the customer service session, to the customer service requestor via the mobile device, content based on the determined geographic location of the mobile device.
US09311655B2
Briefly, embodiments of methods or systems for display of a location-related promotional message with search query results are disclosed.
US09311654B1
A computer-implemented method includes capturing an image by a mobile computing device and determining a geographic location and a direction of the mobile computing device while capturing the image. The method includes generating a display that includes the image and that identifies the locations of merchants that have at least one offer available for a user of the mobile device based on the geographic location and the direction of the mobile computing device and generating the at least one offer based on the past transactions of the user.
US09311649B2
A system and method for managing media advertising enterprise data. An enterprise data management (EDM) module can be configured to include a set of rules at an enterprise level to manage disparate and disconnected records. A scoring function with respect to each record can be computed based on the rules to determine the highest priority. The rules in association with the scoring function can be stored locally in an EDM database. A matching process can then be performed to accurately match similar records regardless of manual input, location, and format of the records in a distributed system. Each record can then be assigned with a parent enterprise advertiser. Such an optimization mechanism can interactively manage and report records at the enterprise level in a simple and efficient manner.
US09311640B2
The disclosure relates to digital signal processing such as digital watermarking, and the utilization of portable devices (e.g., smartphones) for such signal processing. One claim recites a smartphone comprising: a touch screen display; memory for storing a payload and for storing a digital image depicting a virtual card; means for processing the payload with an erasure code generator, in which the erasure code generator produces a plurality of outputs corresponding to the payload; means for embedding a first of the plurality of outputs in a first version of the digital image and proceeding with embedding until each of the plurality of outputs are respectively embedded in one of a plurality of versions of the digital image; and means for displaying embedded versions of the digital image so that a receiver analyzing captured image data representing the touch screen display can recover the payload. Of course, other claims and combinations are disclosed too.
US09311638B1
The present invention is directed to an apparatus, system and method for pre-authorizing international use of an electronic credit or debit card (collectively “payment card”) using an electronic card case with biometric verification means for validating the card holder's biometric sample. Card holder may select a payment card housed within the electronic card case, which releases the selected payment card for use upon validation of the biometric sample and also causes the activation of the locator unit positioned within to determine location information for the electronic card case and by extension the selected payment card. The electronic card case's processor transforms the geographical location information into pre-authorized location information for the selected payment card, to now include the geographical location and identifying card account information and the electronic card case communication means transmit the pre-authorized location information to the issuing bank for pre-authorization of the international financial transaction.
US09311635B2
A system operates to carry out financial transfers in response to data read from data bearing records. A cell phone having a camera stores in memory indicia corresponding to account data from a plurality of magnetic stripe cards. A user can operate the phone to select one of the accounts stored in the memory. The memory further includes a scanned user-identifying written signature. The user can use the phone during an item purchase to wirelessly transmit each of an item's identifier captured by the camera, selected account data, and the user signature.
US09311632B1
Proximity-triggered notifications/alerts are communicated to bank customers as a result of a previously abandoned/canceled ATM transaction that has subsequently been pre-queued for completion. In this regard, the present invention recognizes when the customer is proximate in location to a financial institution channel suitable for completing the transaction and sends the customer an alert, which is typically received by the customer via a mobile communication device. The alert indicates that the previous abandoned ATM transaction has been pre-queued for completion and provides the customer with the location of the nearest financial institution channel suitable for completing the transaction. In specific embodiments of the invention, pre-queuing of the transaction for completion provides for the customer to complete the transaction from the last existing point in the transaction completed by the customer.
US09311630B2
A secure payment method includes receiving, by a merchant, a purchase request from a purchaser in a transaction. The merchant requests a payment that is in a specified medium and that is uniquely identified by a unique identification. A merchant computer controlled by the merchant receives the payment that is in the specified medium and that is uniquely identified by the unique identification. The transaction is authorized by the merchant in response to receiving the payment that is in the specified medium and that is uniquely identified by the unique identification. The specified medium is issued by a private third party.
US09311629B2
A system and method manages information relating to a problem definition initiative in order to communicate some or all the information users. The method includes providing an interface users at workstations accessible by one or more of the users, receiving information comprising a plurality of messages from users communicating via the workstations during a problem definition initiative session, initiating display of at least one of the plurality of messages to the users via the interface, logging event data related to a plurality of events associated with the problem definition initiative session, and initiating display of at least some of the event data to the users via the interface.
US09311627B1
An incoming physical mail item addressed to a resident of a controlled-environment facility is converted to a digital format mail item, which is associated with the resident and archived in an electronic database. A determination may be made whether the resident is allowed to receive the physical mail item. If so, the digital format mail item may be delivered to the resident as an electronic message If an electronic message service is not available to the resident, the digital format mail item is printed for distribution to the resident within the controlled-environment facility via a commissary provisioning system, print station, or print kiosk. Delivery via commissary provisioning system may be made at a commissary point-of-sale within the facility, or printed mail items may be included in a commissary order for the resident, and delivered to the resident at the facility with the order.
US09311625B2
A system for supporting collaborative activity in a network includes a storage component storing data related to the network and a model of the network; a processor that accesses the stored data and the model to process the data according to the model, where the stored data relates to the collaborative activity including user-defined data created by interaction of a user and the model, and context data related to the user, where the user-defined data and the context data, as metadata, are stored in the storage component; and a user interface, provided by the processor, that presents the user-defined data, the context data, and the model in a form readable by the user, the interface permitting the user to define a set of arbitrary domains, relate the user-defined data to the domains, and view relationships between the user-defined data and the context data, and the domains.
US09311623B2
One or more artifact drafts may be associated with each of a plurality of artifacts, each of the artifact drafts representing a state of the associated artifact at a point in time and one or more commands in a command stack that transformed the artifact draft's parent into the artifact draft. Multiple traceability links and traceability vertices represent connections between the artifact drafts of the artifacts. A traceability link includes an edge between an artifact draft of an artifact and an artifact draft of another artifact. A module is operable to navigate through said one or more artifacts of the plurality of artifacts from a reference temporal point via the plurality of traceability links.
US09311620B2
A system and process for ranking at least one of the quality and importance of content on a social network is disclosed. The system and process include monitoring one of actions and information of social network users, determining whether the actions or information of the social network users fits a predefined definition of a game between at least two social network users, determining the results of the game between the at least two social network users, applying a sports ranking algorithm to the results between the at least two social network users, and determining a rank of at least one of the quality and importance of content of the social network users based on an outcome of the sports ranking algorithm.
US09311619B2
A computing system configured to gather social media content includes a memory; a content collection and ingestion system, stored in the memory and configured, when executed on a computer processor, to communicate with one or more computing systems to direct a search of a content source using a received collection request and to ingest the results of the directed search into a data store; and a content management system, stored in the memory and configured, when executed on a computer processor, to display the ingested results on a display.
US09311606B2
According to one embodiment, a quantum computer includes a crystal, an optical resonator, and a light source. A host crystal included in the crystal satisfying three conditions a first condition that maximum phonon energy of the host crystal is low, and so that a homogenous broadening of a 3F3(1) level of the Pr3+ ion resulting from relaxation due to phonon emission is smaller than respective hyperfine splits of a 3H4(1) level and the 3F3(1) level of the Pr3+ ion, a second condition that a site of the Pr3+ ion does not have inversion symmetry, and the Pr3+ ion has a Stark level in which the 3H4(1) level and the 3F3(1) level of the Pr3+ ion are not degenerate, and a third condition that each atom in the host crystal has no electronic magnetic moment.
US09311604B2
Registration rejections are reported to a universal integrated circuit card (UICC). Remote access can be provide to registration rejection data stored in the UICC, the registration rejection data can be transmitted to a service provider, one or more UICC applications can be executed based on the registration rejection data, and/or the registration rejection data can be logged or tracked. In addition, action taken by the UICC can be automated based on the registration rejection using artificial intelligence.
US09311600B1
A method and system comprise providing means and method for producing, modifying, and/or exploiting the structure of a policy manifold. Each of the policies at least comprises information for mapping state and/or sensory information as input to action preferences as output. One or more processing units assign each of the policies a policy coordinate on a policy manifold. The policy coordinate may in part be determined by a dissimilarity matrix or other means for organizing the coordinates of the policies on the policy manifold according to the properties of the policies and the topology of the policy manifold. The policy manifold comprises a dimensionality that is lower than a combined dimensionality of the input and the output, wherein the policy manifold at least in part determines a behavior of the intelligent artificial agent.
US09311588B2
The invention relates to a secure portable object of the smart card type comprising (a) an object body and (b) a micro-module comprising a processor and at least one memory in which a first application executed by a first execution engine in a first execution space is stored. The invention is characterized in that a second application is further stored in the said at least one memory, where the said second application is executed by a second execution engine distinct from the first execution engine, in a second execution space distinct from the first execution space. The invention particularly applies to smart cards.
US09311577B2
An image forming apparatus that is capable of decreasing the stopping time during which the image forming apparatus stops and of increasing productivity. An image forming unit executes print jobs in order. An operation unit receives an instruction inputted by a user. A generation unit generates a setting job concerning a device setting based on a user's instruction inputted through the operation unit. A setting unit sets execution timing of the setting job generated by the generation unit based on a user's instruction inputted through the operation unit. A control unit stops an operation of the image forming unit and to execute the setting job generated by the generation unit at the execution timing set by the setting unit, and resumes the operation of the image forming unit after the setting job finishes.
US09311575B2
An information processing apparatus for generating drawing data by using a print job including setting information and print data. The information processing apparatus includes a plurality of drawing data generation units that generate drawing data; a selection unit that selects one of the plurality of drawing data generation units that is compliant with a print instruction for the print data; and a print job output unit that outputs the print job to the drawing data generation unit selected by the selection unit.
US09311563B2
Method and apparatus for generating hierarchical saliency images detection with selective refinement
A method of generating a saliency image, which includes: converting an input image into an input image of the first size and an input image of the second size; applying a saliency extraction scheme to the input image of the first size to generate a first saliency image; converting the first saliency image to the second size; extracting an area that satisfies a first condition from the converted first saliency image; determining an area of the input image of the second size that corresponds to the extracted area; and generating a second saliency image by multiplying an image generated by applying the saliency extraction scheme to the determined area, and the converted first saliency image.
US09311553B2
A digital image of the object is captured and the object is recognized from plurality of objects in a database. An information address corresponding to the object is then used to access information and initiate communication pertinent to the object.
US09311549B2
Identifying at least one object in data for photographed images includes detecting a reference pattern in the data, locating the reference pattern in a table of patterns, and identifying the at least one object according to the reference pattern. The pattern may be located on the at least one object. The at least one object may be a greeting card. The pattern may categorize the greeting card by season and/or occasion. The pattern may identify a sender of the greeting card. The pattern may be provided on an item that is separate from the at least one object. The table of patterns may include a record for at least some of the patterns and the record may include additional information associated with the pattern. The additional information may include tasks that are performed in connection with the pattern. The additional information may include geometric and color parameters of the pattern.
US09311542B2
A method and an apparatus for detecting a continuous road partition with a height that includes obtaining disparity maps having the continuous road partition, and U-disparity maps corresponding to the disparity maps; obtaining an intermediate detection result of the continuous road partition detected from the U-disparity maps of first N frames; and detecting the continuous road partition from the U-disparity map of a current frame, based on the obtained intermediate detection result.
US09311537B2
A method of detecting a supporting surface region in an image captured by a camera is disclosed. An object in the image is detected. One or more regions of the image in which a lower part of the detected object exists are determined. A degree of confidence for each of the regions is determined. The degree of confidence indicates likelihood of a corresponding region being a supporting surface region. One or more of the regions are selected based on each corresponding degree of confidence. Similarity of other regions in the image to at least one of the selected regions is determined. The supporting surface region is detected based on the determined similarity.
US09311535B2
One aspect comprises obtaining one or more image regions from a first image of an eye. Each of the image regions may include a view of a respective portion of the white of the eye. The aspect may further comprise applying several distinct filters to each of the image regions to generate a plurality of respective descriptors for the region. The several distinct filters may include convolutional filters that are each configured to describe one or more aspects of an eye vasculature and in combination describe a visible eye vasculature in a feature space. A match score may be determined based on the generated descriptors and based on one or more descriptors associated with a second image of eye vasculature.
US09311534B2
A method and an apparatus for tracking an object are disclosed. The method includes determining a first position by a first tracking template and determining a second position by a second tracking template, the first and second tracking templates being formed based on first and second feature sets, respectively, the first feature set being different from the second feature set, and the first feature set and the second feature set including one or more features; and determining a final position based on the first position and the second position, wherein the first tracking template is updated for each of a predetermined number of frames, the second tracking template is updated based on a predetermined rule, the second tracking template and the first tracking template are independently updated, and the update frequency of the second tracking template is lower than the first tracking template.
US09311530B1
Embodiments generally relate to summarizing a photo album in a social network system. In one embodiment, a method includes grouping photos into a plurality of groups of photos, and selecting a plurality of representative photos, where each representative photo represents a respective group from the plurality of groups, where the selecting is based on a quality score of each of the photos, and where each quality score is based on different types of attributes. The method also includes enabling the plurality of representative photos to be shared.
US09311520B2
Methods and electronic devices for performing color-based reaction testing of biological materials. The method includes capturing and interpreting digital images of an unexposed and later exposed paddle at various delay times within an automatically calibrated environment. The test paddle includes a unique identification mechanism (UID), a Reference Color Bar (RCB) providing samples of standardized colors for image color calibration, compensation and corrections, and several test-specific sequences of Chemical Test Pads (CTP). The method further includes locating the paddle in the image, extracting the UID and validating the paddle, extracting the RCB and locating the plurality of CTP in each image. The method further reduces image noise in the CTP and calibrates the image automatically according to lighting measurements performed on the RCB. To determine test results, the method further determines several distances between the CTP and its possible trajectory in the color space described by the Manufacturer Interpretation Color Chart.
US09311512B2
In some embodiments, a processor-based system may include a processor, the processor having a processor identification, one or more electronic components coupled to the processor, at least one of the electronic components having a component identification, and a hardware security component coupled to the processor and the electronic component. The hardware security component may include a secure non-volatile memory and a controller. The controller may be configured to receive the processor identification from the processor, receive the at least one component identification from the one or more electronic components, and determine if a boot of the processor-based system is a provisioning boot of the processor-based system. If the boot is determined to be the provisioning boot, the controller may be configured to store a security code in the secure non-volatile memory, wherein the security code is based on the processor identification and the at least one component identification. Other embodiments are disclosed and claimed.
US09311511B2
An electronic device of a board protection mechanism includes: a substrate, a first shell, a first protection area, a second shell, a second protection area, and an adhesive piece, where the first protection area is located between a first surface of the substrate and the first shell and uses a structure between an operation board and the substrate for protection, the second shell is located at a second surface of the substrate and includes a groove and a feed inlet that are connected; the second protection area is located at the groove of the second shell and includes a wire mesh, surrounding the electronic element area and is electrically connected to the substrate; and the adhesive piece is filled into the feed inlet to cover the groove and fixed to the first shell, the second shell, the wire mesh, and the electronic element area.
US09311508B2
A processor of an aspect includes a decode unit to decode a user-level instruction. The user-level instruction is to indicate a page of a secure enclave and is to indicate a linear address. An execution logic is coupled with the decode unit. The execution logic is operable, in response to the user-level instruction, to change an initial linear address of the page of the secure enclave. The initial linear address is to be stored in an enclave page storage metadata unit. The initial linear address is to be changed by the execution logic to the linear address that is to be indicated by the user-level instruction. The change to the linear address is performed without contents of the page of the secure enclave being lost.
US09311506B1
A method for storing and transmitting data across a computer network to one or more destinations is disclosed including storing source data on a secure data storage of a secondary device connected to a computing device. The computing device is configured to operate via an operating system and the secure data storage is adapted to receive input unilaterally from the computing device and store it as source data. Receiving one or more of routing, scheduling, and prioritization information for one or more destinations including other network-connected storage mediums or network-connected computing or peripheral devices, and transferring the source data from the secure data storage to the one or more destinations through a communications interface component connected to the computer network are also performed. The transferring is implemented via the secondary device while bypassing the central processor and in accordance with the one or more of routing, scheduling, and prioritization information.
US09311499B2
The method, program and information processing system secures data, and particularly security sensitive words, characters or data objects in the data, in a computer system with territorial, geographic and triggering event protocols. The method and system determines device location within or without a predetermined region and then extracts security data from the file, text, data object or whatever. The extracted data is separated from the remainder data and stored either on media in a local drive or remotely, typically via wireless network, to a remote store. Encryption is used to further enhance security levels. Extraction may be automatic, when the portable device is beyond a predetermined territory, or triggered by an event, such a “save document” or a time-out routine. Reconstruction of the data is permitted only with security clearance and within certain geographic territories. An information processing system for securing data is also described.
US09311495B2
A method of policy management in a Data Loss Prevention (DLP) system uses a policy model that associates a user with one or more DLP endpoints. When an endpoint is added to the system, a set of policies for that endpoint are determined using an identity of the user that is associated with the endpoint and a list of roles or groups for that user. At policy distribution time, the method determines a set of endpoints to which the policy is to be distributed.
US09311494B2
In search that uses searchable code, the search query and the secure index is collated in round-robins fashion, registering the required secure index and a characteristic quantity of deposited data in a database server to realize the searchable code. The server uses the characteristic quantity to perform clustering on the secure index. For search, collation is first performed only for representative data of a cluster. For a hit, the collation priority is raised for all the data included in the cluster. When there is no hit, the priority is lowered. After calculating the priority, collation is performed sequentially for all the data on the basis of the priority.
US09311490B2
A method, device, system, or article of manufacture is provided for improved delivery of contextual data to a computing device while preserving data privacy. In one embodiment, a method comprises sending, from a first computing device, to a second computing device, first communication data; receiving, at the first computing device, from the second computing device, second communication data; in response to determining that a data privacy attribute of the second computing device is the same as a predetermined data privacy attribute, determining to protect the second communication data, including: converting the first communication data to a first set of text; converting the second communication data to a second set of text; and applying a privacy filter to the first set of text to generate a first set of filtered text, wherein the privacy filter removes any text that is associated with the second set of text; determining a first keyword from the first set of filtered text; sending, from the first computing device, to a computer, the first keyword; and receiving, at the first computing device, from the computer, contextual data associated with the first keyword.
US09311486B2
A computer-implemented method for modeling a configuration of components connected directly or indirectly to a baseboard of a computer system includes: (a) defining a group of device description files at a network based firmware generator, each device description file describing a component in a set of components which is selectively included in the configuration, and each device description file specifies the identification information associated with the component to which the device description file is associated, (b) providing, at a remote computing device in communication with the firmware generator via a network, a graphical user interface configured to allow a user to visually generate a configuration instruction of baseboard firmware and send the configuration instruction to the firmware generator, and (c) constructing a firmware image at the firmware generator in accordance with the configuration instruction.
US09311467B2
Detecting propensity profile for a person may comprise receiving artifacts associated with the person; detecting profile characteristics for the person based on the artifacts; receiving a plurality of predefined profiles comprising a plurality of characteristics and relationships between the characteristics over time, each of the plurality of predefined profiles specifying an indication of propensity; matching the profile characteristics for the person with one or more of the plurality of predefined profiles; and outputting one or more propensity indicators based on the matching, the propensity indicators comprising at least an expressed strength of a given propensity in the person at a given time.
US09311464B2
Authentication via accelerometer may be provided. Upon receiving a request to unlock a device, a user may perform an authentication movement that may be detected by an accelerometer on the device. If the authentication movement is determined to match an approved movement, the device may be unlocked.
US09311458B2
Examples are disclosed for establishing a secure destination address range responsive to initiation of a direct memory access (DMA) operation. The examples also include allowing decrypted content obtained as encrypted content from a source memory to be placed at a destination memory based on whether destination memory addresses for the destination memory fall within the secure destination address range.
US09311457B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for determining distributing web applications. One of the methods includes associating at least one user account and at least one developer account with an application execution system, the at least one user account including user data. A web application is transferred from the developer account into a shared area accessible by the at least one user account. A request is received to associate the web application with the user account from the shared area. The web application is associated with the user account, wherein the web application is configured to access the user data of the user account, and wherein access to the user data of the user account is based on authentication associated with the user account. The installed web application is executed using the user data to create user results based on the user data.
US09311454B2
Embodiments of the present disclosure provide systems and methods for sharing media files. One embodiment of the system, among others, can be implemented as follows. The system includes a file sharing application configured to initiate a communication session with a file server, where the file server that manages download requests for a collection of media files, where the collection of media files are subject to a trial period. The system further includes media file selection logic configured to prompt a user to select a subset of media files from the collection of media files that was downloaded from the file server after the trial period is detected to have expired. In accordance with this embodiment, the user selects a subset of media files that the user would like to keep for continued use and the remaining media files not selected by the user are then configured to be inaccessible by the user after the trial period has expired. Other systems and methods are also provided.
US09311449B2
An embodiment in accordance with the present invention provides a method of forecasting a demand for a particular hospital unit. The method can be executed by programming the steps into a computer readable medium. One step includes logging a total number of beds in the particular hospital unit and available nursing slots to determine a capacity for the particular hospital unit. The method also includes analyzing data for patients scheduled to stay in the particular hospital unit data to predict stochastic arrivals in order to estimate a total inflow. A length of stay of a patient in the particular hospital unit is predicted using a survival analysis based on physician orders to estimate a total outflow. Additionally, the method includes executing an algorithm designed to use the capacity, total inflow, and total outflow to determine the demand for the particular hospital unit.
US09311433B2
A system for solving equations of a given scientific code for a large dataset represented as a mesh includes first computing circuitry, second computing circuitry, and communication circuitry. The first computing circuitry includes software to arrange the mesh in a sequential order, and a memory to store the mesh data and the results obtained in the execution of the scientific code. The second computing circuitry includes software to execute the scientific code for one vertex of the mesh, and a cache memory to store all the neighboring vertices to the one vertex. The communication circuitry is between the first and second computing circuitry so that the first computing circuitry fed the second computing circuitry with the vertices of the mesh following the sequential order, and the scientific code is executed for all the vertices of the mesh and its results are returned to the first computing circuitry.
US09311430B2
A dialog manager receives previous user actions and previous observations and current observations. Previous and current user states, previous user actions, current user actions, future system actions, and future observations are hypothesized. The user states, the user actions, and the user observations are hidden. A feature vector is extracted based on the user states, the system actions, the user actions, and the observations. An expected reward of each current action is based on a log-linear model using the feature vectors. Then, the current action that has an optimal expected reward is outputted.
US09311424B2
A computing device comprising a transmitter/receiver adapted to communicate with a network and an application adapted to send a plurality of object requests through the transmitter/receiver, wherein, the plurality of object requests are placed in an order dependent upon at least one of an object size and an object type.
US09311422B2
Techniques are disclosed for dynamically simulating a web page as it would appear on various different types of media devices. A user request is received, through a user interface, to render a structured document in a web browser. The web browser can execute on a first type of device to render the structured document in a layout specific to a second type of media device having a different display requirement than the first type of media device. The second type of media device can be selected from a list of predefined types of media devices. A set of presentation semantics is associated with the structured document. A media-dependent style rule encoded in the set of presentation semantics is identified. If the display requirement of the second type of media device satisfies the rule, the structured document is laid out in accordance with a style property associated with the satisfied rule.
US09311419B2
An improved system for data card emulation involves a watch that can emulate any one of multiple data cards corresponding to multiple entities. The watch includes a memory for storing bar code information corresponding to data cards of the multiple entities. It provides an interface for identifying an entity and a display for displaying a bar code corresponding to a data card of the entity. The interface may include at least one of a bar code reader or a bar code emulator. The interface may include at least one of a magnetic stripe reader or a magnetic stripe emulator. The interface may receive a transmission such as a pulsed light transmission or a radio frequency transmission.
US09311414B2
The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for refining content selection criteria to facilitate content selection via a computer network. In some embodiments, a tool identifies a first entity used to select content of a first content provider. The first entity can correspond to a canonical stable identifier in a database. The tool can identify a plurality of sets of entities that each comprise the first entity and an additional entity different from the first entity. Each of the plurality of sets of entities can be associated with content of a corresponding content provider. The tool can determine a performance metric for the additional entity. The tool can compare the performance metric with a performance threshold. The tool can associate the additional entity with the content of the first content provider based on the comparison.
US09311412B2
In a method for automatically notifying a computer user of Internet content, a computer reads a user-created rule on the computer. A current version of a web page named in the user created rule is requested from another computer. The current version of the web page is searched for specific content, which is defined in the user-created rule. A determination is made that the specific content meets a target condition, and the computer user is notified that the target condition has been met.
US09311411B2
Techniques are described herein for processing social search results. Such social search results may be included in a relatively higher-ranked (e.g., a highest-ranked) subset of a user's search results and/or selected from a relatively lower-ranked subset of the user's search results in response to a determination that the relatively higher-ranked subset includes social search result(s). In one example, the social search results (or a subset thereof) may be annotated to include publicly available rich metadata. Such metadata may be extracted from user profiles on social networking domains from which the social search results are received. In another example, the social search results (or a subset thereof) may be clustered such that they are consecutively ranked. In yet another example, the social search results (or a subset thereof) may be configured to be displayed in a designated arrangement (e.g., in a grid having multiple columns).
US09311403B1
Methods, systems and computer program product embodiments for hashing techniques for determining similarity between data sets are described herein. A method embodiment includes, initializing a random number generator with a weighted min-hash value as a seed, wherein the weighted min-hash value approximates a similarity distance between data sets. A number of bits in the weighted min-hash value is determined by uniformly sampling an integer bit value using the random number generator. A system embodiment includes a repository configured to store a plurality of data sets and a hash generator configured to generate weighted min-hash values from the data sets. The system further includes a similarity determiner configured to determine a similarity between the data sets.
US09311400B2
A software tool allows a computer user to view only search results that have become available since he last performed the same search. A user enters a search term by way of an input/output device, and the CPU performs the requested search. The computer system identifies and displays only the new results. The user can toggle this feature on and off.
US09311394B2
Speech representing a desired video site or video subject is detected and digitized at a TV remote, and then sent to a TV. The TV or in some embodiments an Internet server communicating with the TV use speech recognition principles to recognize the speech, enter a database using the recognized speech as entering argument, and return a link to an Internet site hosting the desired video. The link can be displayed on the TV for selection thereof by a user to retrieve the video.
US09311393B1
Disclosed is a system and method for creating and managing artist-specific applications (ASAs) that each relate to an individual artist, integrates content related to the artist, and connects fans with the artist through multimedia experiences provided through the ASA. An ASA may include a unified player interface that displays a selectable plurality of songs that are associated with the ASA. The ASA may search for other music (such as locally stored music, music associated with other ASAs, and/or streaming music) and display the other music in the unified player interface for selection as well. Upon selection of the other music, the unified player interface may play the selected music, delivering a seamless experience for users who have locally downloaded music (or other music) and an ASA.
US09311392B2
A document analysis apparatus comprises: a feature expression acquisition unit acquiring a feature expression appearing during an attention period in an analysis object document collection; a document collection acquisition unit acquiring a feature expression containing document (FECD) collection in which a feature expression appears, from an analysis population including an analysis object document collection; a context determination unit specifying an analysis/FECD corresponding to an analysis object document among a FECD collection for every feature expression, and specifies a context in which the feature expression appeared in multiple analysis/FECDs; a context comparison determination unit specifying a non analysis/FECD not corresponding to an analysis object document among a FECD collection, and within that, compares a context in which the feature expression has appeared and a context specified previously; and a feature degree setting unit performing giving or the like of a feature degree to a feature expression from the comparison.
US09311388B2
A method for semantic and contextual searching over a knowledge repository. The method includes creating a search query for each concept related to the target concept to form a search context, wherein the search query for each related concept comprises at least one word derived from a record of that concept previously authored in the project, running the search query on a search index of a knowledge repository to identify a record of the related concept for which the search query is created, and fetching the record of the target concept from the repository as a search result such that the fetched record of the target concept is linked in the knowledge repository to a record of the related concept returned as a result of running the search query on at least one record of the at least one related concept.
US09311387B1
Automatically generating a parser is disclosed. Raw data is received from a first remote device. A determination that the raw data does not, within a predefined confidence measure, conform to any rules included in a set of rules is made. A clustering function is performed on the raw data. At least one parser rule is generated based on the clustering.
US09311386B1
A method for network resource classification and identifying user interests based on the classification. The method uses a provided hierarchy of categories for classifying network resources, wherein each category is assigned a text item describing the category and the method includes obtaining resource description data collections corresponding to the network resources, and generating, using a semantic correlation algorithm, a category score vector of a network resource by comparing the resource description data collection to the text item assigned to each category in the hierarchy of categories, wherein the category score vector comprises a category score for each category in the hierarchy of categories, wherein the category score is determined based on at least a semantic correlation measure between the resource description data collection and the text item assigned to a corresponding category, wherein the plurality of network resources are classified based at least on the category score.
US09311385B2
Rating content of a digital file includes analyzing, by a computer, data associated with content of the digital file based on predetermined criteria defining a confidence level in the content of the digital file. Each predetermined criterion includes a range of values and at least one threshold delineating a lower confidence level and a higher confidence level. Different confidence ratings are assigned to different segments of the content based on determining that the different segments correspond to different thresholds of the predetermined criteria. The computer associates the different confidence ratings to the different segments.
US09311380B2
Techniques, systems, and articles of manufacture for processing spatial joins using a MapReduce framework. A method includes partitioning a spatial data domain based on a distribution of spatial data objects across multiple nodes of a cluster of machines, defining at least one operation to be performed on the partitioned spatial data domain based on one or more predicates of a query, and executing the at least one defined operation on the partitioned spatial data domain to determine a response to the query.
US09311378B2
A method, a system and a computer program of synchronizing data between a data management system and an external system are disclosed. The method includes creating a first database instance and a second database instance using an integration data model. The method further includes synchronizing data between the second database instance and the external system. A services framework is created and the first database instance and the second database instance are interfaced using the services framework which includes an entity definition repository, a change tracking repository, and a data export element. Also disclosed are a system and a computer program for synchronizing data between a data management system and an external system.
US09311371B2
Various embodiments may operate to access individual lines of information included in a file stored in an electronic storage medium, to detect the existence of data clusters in the file based on neighboring cell content in a horizontal direction (corresponding to the individual lines), and in a vertical direction (orthogonal to the horizontal direction), to identify at least some of the data clusters as being associated with predefined table types (comprising vertical tables, horizontal tables, or cross tables), to merge some of the data clusters into section tables having common properties, and to transform the tables resulting from the merging activity, as well as remaining un-merged data clusters, into a single flat table. The stored file may comprise a spreadsheet file.
US09311370B2
The present invention may comprise a system and method for a Virtual Attribute Federation System (VAFS) and may be composed of a Virtual Attribute Federation Manager (VAFM) and a system of Virtual Attribute Enabled Directories (VAED) modified to accept federation of virtual attributes. The VAFM produces signed and trusted calculation methods and coordinates a synchronized dispersal of these methods to the VAEDs. The VAEDs may have local mappings which allow for federation-time configuration of the calculation methods.
US09311365B1
A system and method for managing music associated with a user account of an online music provider including receiving a request from a client device to add a song to the user account. A first match search is performed for the corresponding hash pair in a matching pipeline. Each hash pair in the matching pipeline includes a logical link corresponding to a song in a master repository. A second match search is performed when the first match search determines that the song is missing from the master repository. The second match search includes fingerprint matching. The song is associated with the user account when either first or second match search identifies the song to be in the master repository. An upload of the song to the online music provider is requested when the first and second match search determines that the song is missing from the master repository.
US09311361B1
A system and a computer-implemented method for automatically determining the visual appeal of online content are provided. The method includes storing a plurality of software implemented algorithms in the memory device, receiving one or more generated items of online content, determining graphics and textual content parameters of the received items of online content, comparing the determined parameters to the set of desired parameters, ranking the items of online content based on the comparisons, and outputting the ranked items of online content. Each algorithm includes one or more rules capable of recognizing graphic content parameters, recognizing textual content parameters, and relating the graphic content parameters and the textual content parameters to a set of desired parameters accessible to the rules.
US09311360B2
A method for associating data with a target biological sequence includes identifying, in a network, one or more references to data, where the data has a relevance level greater than a predetermined threshold. The method includes associating the one or more references to one or more probe sequences corresponding to a segment of a biological sequence to which the data pertains The one or more probe sequences are ranked based on one or more criteria and the probe sequences are assigned a level of affinity to a segment of the target biological sequence based at least on the ranking of each reference.
US09311357B2
Systems and methods for generating a report for a resource are described. The report is generated from databases comprising data sets related to a plurality of resources. An example method includes dynamic generation of a first query upon selection of at least one attribute by a user. The first query includes instructions for being performed on the data sets. The method further includes determining that the first query is stored in a table schema. The table schema is associated with a first trigger. The method also includes invoking the first trigger based on the determining. The first trigger is configured to execute the first query to generate a materialized view upon execution of the first query. The method may include generating the report by executing a second query on the materialized view. The second query may be created based on materialized view data.
US09311353B2
Various aspects of this disclosure are directed to displaying, by a computing device, a plurality of components of a graphical user interface. Each of the plurality of components may display one or more members of at least one dimensional level of a database having a plurality of dimensions. Each dimension of the plurality of dimensions may include one or more dimensional levels. The computing device may determine a first dimensional level of a first dimension of the plurality of dimensions having one or more members displayed in two or more of the plurality of components, and may display a control element including an indication of the dimensional level having the one or more members displayed in each of the two or more components.
US09311340B2
Multiple partial-image selections are received. Each of the multiple partial-image selections includes a user-selected portion of one of a group of images. Partial-image search criteria are derived from a combination of the multiple partial-image selections. A search is performed for images that correspond to the partial-image search criteria derived from the combination of the multiple partial-image selections. Visual search results are returned. The visual search results include at least one identified image that includes features that correspond to the partial-image search criteria derived from the combination of the multiple partial-image selections.
US09311338B2
A computer implemented method and apparatus for analyzing image content and associating behaviors to the analyzed image content. The method comprises accessing a digital image; determining one or more patterns in the digital image; associating, based on the one or more determined patterns, a set of pre-defined behaviors with each determined pattern; and storing interactions with the digital image, wherein the interactions are associated with the behaviors.
US09311334B2
A mechanism is provided for automatically performing join operations. Source data is received and a metadata model is received. The metadata model includes a hierarchical structure. The source data is aligned to the hierarchical structure in the metadata model to form a source data hierarchy. Based on the source data hierarchy, the source data is joined to geocoded information.
US09311333B1
A method is used in managing files of file systems. A group transaction record for an indirect data block of a file of a file system is created. The indirect data block of the file includes a set of data blocks of the file. A set of transaction entries is added to the group transaction record. Each transaction entry of the set of transaction entries includes information regarding an operation performed on a data block of the set of data blocks. The group transaction record is stored in a journal. The journal includes metadata transactions upon a plurality of files of a plurality of file systems.
US09311332B2
Systems and methods for replicating input-output (I/O) events of a cluster shared volume (CSV) are presented. Such systems may include a cluster device or node (in a cluster of devices), a coordinator node, and a replica server. Replication techniques disclosed herein may include capturing, using a processor operatively associated with a cluster device, a direct I/O event generated at the cluster device (e.g., by a virtual machine). A legacy file system filter driver of the cluster device may be used and enabled to perform the capturing of the direct I/O event. The legacy file system filter driver may be different than a CSV filter driver associated with the CSV, and may be enabled after the CSV filter driver is enabled. The captured direct I/O event may then be transmitted to the replica server using, e.g., a replication filter, to maintain a backup copy of the event at the replica server.
US09311330B1
This disclosure relates to a method, article of manufacture, and apparatus of performing backup in a failover cluster. In some embodiments, this includes determining whether a repository is part of a failover cluster, based on a determination that the repository is part of the failover cluster, analyzing a role associated with the repository, upon a determination that the role indicates the repository is a failover candidate within the failover cluster, triggering a secondary backup of the repository, and upon a determination that the role indicates the repository is a primary repository within the failover cluster, triggering a primary backup of the repository.
US09311323B2
Technologies are presented for data deduplication that operates at relatively high throughput and with relatively less storage space than conventional techniques. Building upon content-dependent chunking (CDC) using Rabin fingerprints, data may be fingerprinted and stored in variable-size chunks. In some examples, data may be chunked on multiple levels, for example, two levels, variable size large chunks in the first level and fixed-size sub-chunks in the second level, in order to prevent sub-chunks common to two or more data chunks from not being deduplicated. For example, at a first level, a CDC algorithm may be employed to fingerprint and chunk data in content-dependent sizes (variable sizes), and at a second level the CDC chunks may be sliced into small fixed-size chunks. The sliced CDC chunks may then be used for deduplication.
US09311321B2
In one example a method includes: receiving a first input value associated with a first data field; responsive to determining that the first data field is associated with an increment operation, selecting a second input value associated with a corresponding second data field of a previously transmitted message; comparing the first input value and second input value to determine if the first input value includes a sum of the second input value and an increment value; when the first input value includes the sum of the second input value and increment value, generating a message that omits the first input value for the first data field, and providing an operator symbol indicating the increment operation to specify that the first data field of the message is to be associated with the sum of the increment value and second input value of the second data field in the previously transmitted message.
US09311312B2
The application relates to a method for the electronic archiving of data objects by means of a data processing device, wherein the method comprises the following steps: receipt of a hash value tuple comprising one or a plurality of hash values, wherein each hash value is assigned to a data object, receipt of time information on the hash value tuple indicating a time period within which the hash values of the hash value tuple should be electronically archived and comparison of the time information with a predetermined time specification, wherein archiving steps are carried out if the time information specifies a time period for electronic archiving that is shorter than the predetermined time specification. The application furthermore relates to a computer program product.
US09311311B2
A method for preventing suspension of transactions in a database computing system by monitoring active database logs of the database computing system is provided. The method comprises switching archive units of the database computing system due to full database log condition occurring during system operations of the database computing system. The method further comprises maintaining a database log history table, wherein the database log history table captures a threshold count of the active database logs generated by system threads of the database computing system. The method further comprises defining a temporary location for archiving the active database logs based on the switched archive units of the database computing system, and the maintained threadhold count of active database logs in the database log history table due to full database log condition occurring during system operations of the database computing system.
US09311306B2
An information processing apparatus uses unique IDs to manage items, such as electronic files and folders, to be operated and includes: an information share window ID managing section managing, in a share window ID management DB, information of the window Ids corresponding to windows of Web browsers that are to share information; an item storing processing section storing item information in an item information DB when a first operation for the item is instructed from a first Web browser; a stored item processing section executing a second operation based on the item information stored in the item information DB and the information of the window Ids stored in the share window ID management DB when the second operation is instructed from a second Web browser; This apparatus enables collaborative operations between two windows of Web browsers.
US09311298B2
Tools are provided to allow developers to enable applications for Conversational Understanding (CU) using assets from a CU service. The tools may be used to select functionality from existing domains, extend the coverage of one or more domains, as well as to create new domains in the CU service. A developer may provide example Natural Language (NL) sentences that are analyzed by the tools to assist the developer in labeling data that is used to update the models in the CU service. For example, the tools may assist a developer in identifying domains, determining intent actions, determining intent objects and determining slots from example NL sentences. After the developer tags all or a portion of the example NL sentences, the models in the CU service are automatically updated and validated. For example, validation tools may be used to determine an accuracy of the model against test data.
US09311272B1
A system and method for reducing central processing unit usage when inverting or dividing multiple floating point numbers is disclosed. An example system may receive a plurality of floating point numbers to be inverted as denominator values. The denominator values may be grouped into pairs and multiplied. Products of pairs may be multiplied to produce combinations of products of denominator values until all denominator values have been multiplied together. The product of all denominator values may be inverted using a single division. The combinations of products of denominator values from the multiplications achieved before the division may be multiplied with the inverted product from the division to compute inversions of all denominator values. In some embodiments, an example system may receive a plurality of floating point numbers as numerator values that each correspond to a denominator value. Numerator values may be multiplied with corresponding inversion denominator values to produce division results.
US09311258B2
An electronic apparatus includes a first communication unit configured to perform I2C bidirectional communication with an external apparatus using two signal lines included in a transmission path as I2C communication lines, a second communication unit configured to perform bidirectional differential communication with the external apparatus using the two signal lines as high-speed data communication lines, a switching unit configured to select a first communication state in which the first communication unit is connected to the two signal lines or a second communication state in which the second communication unit is connected to the two signal lines, and a controller configured to control operation of the switching unit.
US09311256B2
A storage device includes a non-volatile memory having a plurality of storage areas. Received data is encrypted with a first cryptographic key and stored in one of the storage areas. Upon receiving an request from a host, a key processor replaces the first cryptographic key used to encrypt data stored on a specified one of the non-volatile memories with a different cryptographic key not previously used for any of the storage areas by generating a second cryptographic key, converting the previously used keys into first value by an operation, converting the candidate key into a second value by the same operation. The first and second values are compared, and when the first information is not the same as the second information, the second cryptographic key replaces the first cryptographic key, and when not, the second cryptographic key is discarded and a new second cryptographic key generated.
US09311253B2
For data processing in a computing storage environment by a processor device, the computing storage environment incorporating at least high-speed and lower-speed caches, and managed tiered levels of storage, a Solid State Device (SSD) tier is variably shared between the lower-speed cache and the managed tiered levels of storage such that the managed tiered levels of storage are operational on large data segments, and the lower-speed cache is allocated with the large data segments, yet operates with data segments of a smaller size than the large data segments and within the large data segments.
US09311251B2
Methods and apparatuses for implementing a system cache within a memory controller. Multiple requesting agents may allocate cache lines in the system cache, and each line allocated in the system cache may be associated with a specific group ID. Also, each line may have a corresponding sticky state which indicates if the line should be retained in the cache. The sticky state is determined by an allocation hint provided by the requesting agent. When a cache line is allocated with the sticky state, the line will not be replaced by other cache lines fetched by any other group IDs.
US09311236B2
An unused free memory shortage relative to an adjusted heap maximum size associated with a memory heap of application memory is detected. The adjusted heap maximum size is set to a heap size smaller than a maximum heap allocation size. An increase to the adjusted heap maximum size that resolves the unused free memory shortage is calculated. The adjusted heap maximum size is increased by the calculated increase to the adjusted heap maximum size.
US09311229B2
A system and method for flash memory management is provided. In particular, the system and methods herein provide for management of flash memory, particularly NAND flash memory, in a manner that potentially reduces the number of write/erase cycles typically experienced by a data storage device. When unsecure data records are to be written to the flash memory, the new or updated unsecure data records are stored in the first available location in the flash memory (e.g. a block) providing a best fit for the data records. Where the data records are updates, the updated version is stored with an incremented version number to indicate that the updated version is the current version. Older versions of the data records are deleted during garbage collection. When secure data records are to be written to the flash memory, new or updated secure data records are stored in the location in the flash memory with the most available space. Any older versions of secure data records are immediately deleted.
US09311218B2
In a method for determining a quality assessment of a software code, the coverage is concomitantly calculated when determining the assessment. In order to increase the coverage, additional measurement results and assessments may be taken into account. Following changes to the software base, it is determined which of the additional measurements and assessment results should be renewed in order to provide or ensure the defined coverage.
US09311215B2
A method, computer program product, and computer system for defining, at a computing device, one or more channels for executing one or more test scenarios. One or more keyword keywords, each with one or more associated keyword implementations for at least one channel of the one or more channels, are defined. One or more test scenarios is defined, wherein at least one test scenario of the one or more test scenarios includes at least one keyword implementation of the one or more keywords.
US09311214B2
A performance management system is provided for monitoring performance of an application across a distributed computing environment, including within one or more mainframe computers. In the mainframe environment, a transaction manager is configured to receive a transaction request from an application executing remotely from the mainframe computer. An event agent is invoked via a user exit by the transaction manager and operates to detect events caused by the handling of the transaction by the transaction manager. Upon detecting such events, the event agent generates event messages for select events associated with the transaction, where the event message includes identifying information for the transaction. A translator agent is configured to receive the event messages from the event agent and transmit the event data record to a server located remotely from the mainframe computer, where the event data record includes the identifying information for the transaction.
US09311213B2
A database of module performance may be generated by adding tracing components to applications, as well as by adding tracing components to modules themselves. Modules may be reusable code that may be made available for reuse across multiple applications. When tracing is performed on an application level, the data collected from each module may be summarized in module-specific databases. The module-specific databases may be public databases that may assist application developers in selecting modules for various tasks. The module-specific databases may include usage and performance data, as well as stability and robustness metrics, error logs, and analyzes of similar modules. The database may be accessed through links in module description pages and repositories, as well as through a website or other repository.
US09311209B2
Associating processor and processor core energy consumption with a task such as a virtual machine is disclosed. Various events cause a trace record to be written to a trace buffer for a processor. An identifier associated with a task using a processor core of the processor is read. In addition, one or more values associated with an energy consumption of the processor core are read. In response to the event, the one or more values associated with the energy consumption of the processor core and the identifier are written to the trace buffer memory.
US09311206B2
An apparatus and method for monitoring general purpose input output, GPIO, signals at GPIO pins of a GPIO port of a system on chip, SoC. The apparatus comprises a first checksum generation unit adapted to generate a first checksum on the basis of GPIO bits stored in GPIO registers of the SoC, being connected via corresponding input output, IO, pad circuits to provide analog GPIO signals at the GPIO pins. A second checksum generation unit is adapted to generate a second checksum on the basis of the analog GPIO signals at the GPIO pins representing the GPIO bits. Checker logic is adapted to compare the first checksum generated by the first checksum generation unit with a second checksum generated by the second checksum generation unit.
US09311201B2
A method of testing a device is disclosed. Test data is obtained for a device testing program that tests the device. An adaptation command for testing the device is determined at an adaptive testing engine using obtained test data. The adaptation command is sent from the adaptive testing engine to a tool control application. The tool control application uses the adaptation command to control an operation related to the testing of the device.
US09311198B2
In embodiments of the present disclosure systems and methods implementing active-hot standby redundancy in server architectures are described. In an active-hot standby redundancy architecture, two matching service instances are installed in a network on different host computers. A standby service instance may maintain state information for every session maintained at an active service instance that it is poised to replace using a publish-subscribe communications network. When a failure occurs in the active instance, the standby instance may promote itself to active, and assume all aspects of the service identity and role of the Active instance it is replacing. Service to user entities continues without interruption, although transactions that are ongoing just as the failure occurs may be lost.
US09311190B1
Capturing post-snapshot quiescence writes in a linear image backup chain. In one example embodiment, a method for capturing post-snapshot quiescence writes in a linear image backup chain may include taking a first snapshot of a source storage at a first point in time, identifying a first set of block positions of blocks that are allocated in the source storage at the first point in time, identifying a second set of block positions of blocks that are written to the first snapshot during post-snapshot quiescence of the first snapshot, resulting in a first quiesced snapshot, copying the blocks in the first set of block positions from the first snapshot to a full image backup, and copying the blocks in the second set of block positions from the first quiesced snapshot to a first incremental image backup.
US09311188B2
A computer-based system includes a backup server, a production server, a recovery agent that executes on the production server, a database on the production server, a backup database on the backup server, and a meta data file on the backup server. The meta data file includes file names, a file directory, and file attributes. The system is configured to copy the metadata file from the backup server to a production server. When the copying of the metadata file from the backup server to the production server is complete, and before or during a time period in which backup data is copied from the backup server to the production server, the system is configured to receive a request from the production server to restore a file from the backup server with a higher priority than other files on the backup server.
US09311186B2
A method begins by a processing module dispersed storage error encoding data to produce a plurality of sets of encoded data slices in accordance with dispersed storage error coding parameters. The method continues with the processing module determining a plurality of sets of slice names corresponding to the plurality of sets of encoded data slices. The method continues with the processing module determining integrity information for the plurality of sets of slice names and sending the plurality of sets of encoded data slices, the plurality of sets of slice names, and the integrity information to a dispersed storage network memory for storage therein.
US09311170B2
Deleting objects used or managed by an application or application or application instance is disclosed. Second program instructions identify the objects. Second program instructions write an executable program to delete the objects which were identified. Objects than can be deleted include local queues, alias queues, remote queues, security objects, channel objects, process objects, etc. The first program instructions identify a queue object and determine whether the queue object contains a work item. If so, the second program instructions write into the executable program a command to clear the work item. Deleting a queue object managed by an application or application instance is also disclosed. Channels used by other applications or other application instances to lock and access a queue defined by the queue object are identified. Then, the channels are stopped. Afterwards, the work item(s) on the queue are cleared and then the queue object is deleted.
US09311166B2
Provided is a proxy apparatus having an embedded remote user interface client (RUIC) and an embedded remote user interface server (RUIS) that transmits a UI component received from an external RUIS or session information of the UI component to an external RUIC. Thus, a user can use contents of a remote user interface server (RUIS) with a new RUIC while maintaining a session state between the external RUIS and an existing RUIC. Since the UI components, prohibited from being forwarded by the external RUIS, are not forwarded to the new RUIC, the contents policy, which corresponds with the business needs of contents providers, can be ensured.
US09311164B2
A system and method for ballooning with assigned devices includes inflating a memory balloon, determining whether a first memory page is locked based on information associated with the first memory page, when the first memory page is locked unlocking the first memory page and removing first memory addresses associated with the first memory page from management by an input/output memory management unit (IOMMU), and reallocating the first memory page. The first memory page is associated with a first assigned device.
US09311154B2
Techniques are disclosed for managing deployment conflicts between applications executing in one or more processing environments. A first application is executed in a first processing environment and responsive to a request to execute the first application. During execution of the first application, a determination is made to redeploy the first application for execution partially in time on a second processing environment providing a higher capability than the first processing environment in terms of at least a first resource type. A deployment conflict is detected between the first application and at least a second application.
