US09312709B2
An apparatus includes a main body having an opening and a movable member configured to hold a plug capable of transmitting an electrical current to an external device. At least one of the movable member and the plug include a magnet. The movable member and the plug are arranged such that at least one connector of the plug extends beyond a plane parallel to the opening when the movable member is in a first state, the first state corresponding to a magnetic force between a ferromagnetic material and the magnet above a predetermined magnitude. The movable member transitions from the first state to a second state when the magnetic force is below the predetermined magnitude. When the movable member is in the second state, the at least one connector of the plug remains below the plane parallel to the opening.
US09312702B2
Methods and systems for depowering an automotive battery in a controlled manner. The methods comprise (i) providing a depowering medium comprising one or more non-ionic electric conductors (for example, a carbon conductor) dispersed in a substantially non-ionic aqueous medium; (ii) contacting terminals of the battery with the depowering medium; and (iii) maintaining contact between the depowering medium and terminals for a period of time sufficient to depower the battery. The systems comprise (i) the depowering medium; and (ii) a container configured to receive a battery and the depowering medium such that the battery body is contacted with the depowering medium prior to the terminals.
US09312695B2
Methods and arrangements for managing implementation of a power transformer. There is determined at least one parameter currently relating to operation of a transformer, as well as a revenue value currently assigned to the transformer. There is determined a depreciation value currently assigned to the transformer. There is determined a power output for the transformer for a future time slot that increases total revenue with respect to a life cycle of the transformer, the power output being determined based on the at least one parameter, the revenue value, and the depreciation value.
US09312694B2
A number of load units are connected to receive power from a number of power supply units. A potential load bus is connected to have a voltage level representative of both a total potential power requirement of the number of load units and a total potential power supply capability of the number of power supply units. A first control circuit enables operation of the number of load units when the voltage level on the potential load bus indicates that a sufficient supply of power is available. An actual load bus is connected to have a voltage level representative of both an actual total power consumption of the number of load units and an actual total power supply available from of the number of power supply units. A second control circuit signals an impending loss of sufficient power supply based on the monitored voltage level on the actual load bus.
US09312689B2
An overload protection circuit for supplying electric power has advantageous applications especially in supplying power to capacitive loads. In prior art circuits, the charging current is lead to the capacitive load through a linearly operating transistor or through a power resistor. Therefore, prior art circuits often involve a risk of exceeding safe operating area of a power transistor, or circuits with a large number of components are needed. The present overload protection circuit has an inductor (L) coupled in series with a switching element (Q). Load current is measured (35, 38), and the switching element (Q) is controlled (35, 36) to supply current to the load via the inductor (L) until a determined current limit is achieved. After achieving the current limit the switching element (Q) is controlled to off-state, during which the freewheeling current of the inductor (L) is lead through a voltage dependent element (Z).
US09312686B2
A high voltage protection circuit for a non-tolerant integrated circuit is described herein. A non-tolerant integrated circuit may be a powered down integrated circuit or a low voltage tolerant integrated circuit, that may be exposed to a high voltage source such as an external circuit, device or power supply. The high voltage protection circuit includes a limiting transistor circuit, a control transistor circuit, and an isolation transistor circuit. The limiting transistor circuit limits or holds the voltage at the signal bump to be less than a voltage that can damage the circuit. The isolation transistor circuit disconnects input/output signal circuitry from normal protection circuitry. Both the limiting transistor circuit and the isolation transistor circuit are controlled by the control transistor circuit and are responsive to the power supply voltage being off.
US09312682B2
In one aspect, the present subject matter discloses a method for overvoltage protection of an electrical system. The method may generally include detecting an overvoltage condition on an electrical system; and switching on, in response to the detected overvoltage condition, an impedance connected to the electrical system, wherein the impedance clamps voltage on the electrical system.
US09312680B2
A leakage current detection interrupter (LCDI) with self-testing function, which includes: a leakage current detection unit, including multiple current-carrying wires and at least one leakage current detection wire for detecting a leakage current of the current-carrying wires; a phase protection unit, coupled to at least one current-carrying wire on the input side of the multiple current-carrying wires, and coupled to at least one current-carrying wire on the output side of the multiple current-carrying wires via the leakage current detection unit, to form a current loop; wherein the phase protection unit can generate a control signal to disconnect the electrical coupling between the LCDI and the power source. By using a temperature controlled module, the leakage current detection unit and the phase protection unit, an LCDI with self-testing function is achieved. When there is a leakage current in the current-carrying wires, or the current-carrying wire is open, or the temperature of the electrical appliance exceeds a predefined range, or the leakage current detection wire is broken, the LCDI can disconnect its electrical coupling with the power source, ensuring the safety of the appliance and enhancing the quality of the electrical grid.
US09312678B2
A surge protection device has a pulse controlled switch, a pulse generation circuit and an abnormal voltage detection circuit. The surge control switch is connected in series to a power line loop and has at least one control terminal respectively connected to output terminals of the pulse generation circuit and the abnormal voltage detection circuit. An output terminal of the abnormal voltage detection circuit is connected to the power line loop and is located in the back end of the pulse controlled switch. The pulse generation circuit serves to send a pulse to the pulse controlled switch to close the pulse controlled switch and connect to the power line loop. When continuously detecting abnormal voltage in the power line loop, the abnormal voltage detection circuit opens the pulse controlled switch and disconnects from the power line loop so as to protect back-end equipment or circuit.
US09312677B2
Molded splitter structures and systems and methods for manufacturing molded splitter structures are disclosed.
US09312671B2
A locking utility pull box lid device is provided. The device includes a lid and two locking members that are rotatably coupled to a bottom surface of the lid. An actuator bolt extends through each lid aperture and each bolt engages an engagement plate of one locking member. The rotation of the bolt moves the bolt axially and in response, the locking member is rotated between a locked and unlocked position.
US09312664B2
A spark plug having a resistor containing SiO2 and B2O3. The glass is a phase-separated glass having aggregate phase and an intervening phase. In a cross section of the resistor, when a plurality of imaginary lines perpendicular to an axial line CL1 are drawn at intervals of 0.1 mm in the direction of the axial line CL1, the number of aggregate phase located on each of the imaginary lines is determined, and the average number of aggregate phase per imaginary line is determined for each of a plurality of line groups each comprised of five consecutive imaginary lines, there are three or more consecutive line groups which satisfy the condition that the average number of aggregate phase per imaginary line is larger, by 5 or more, than the minimum average number of aggregate phase per imaginary line among the plurality of line groups.
US09312663B2
A laser device includes an optical semiconductor device formed of a compound semiconductor material; and a wavelength-selective reflection device including optical waveguides. Further, the optical semiconductor device includes first and second gain waveguides, a DBR waveguide formed between the first and the second gain waveguides, first and second electrodes to inject current in the first and the second gain waveguides, and an antireflection film formed on a device facet to which the second gain waveguide is connected. The optical waveguides in the wavelength-selective reflection device reflect light having a predetermined wavelength from incident light in the optical waveguides. The first gain waveguide is optically coupled with the wavelength-selective reflection device, so that a laser resonator is formed by the DBR waveguide and the wavelength-selective reflection device, and the first gain waveguide functions as a gain medium.
US09312659B2
Provided is a highly reliable nitride semiconductor laser element having a robust end face protection film not being peeled even in laser operation. The nitride semiconductor laser element includes: a semiconductor multi-layer structure including a group III nitride semiconductor and having a light-emitting end face; and a protection film including a dielectric multi-layer film and covering the light-emitting end face of the semiconductor multi-layer structure. The protection film includes an end face protection layer and an oxygen diffusion suppression layer arranged sequentially in stated order from the light-emitting end face. The end face protection layer includes a crystalline film comprising nitride including aluminum. The oxygen diffusion suppression layer has a structure in which a metal oxide film is between silicon oxide films. The metal oxide film is crystallized by laser light.
US09312658B2
An optoelectronic module includes a substrate, an LED and a laser LED formed on the substrate, simultaneously. A method for manufacturing an optoelectronic module includes following steps: providing a sapphire substrate, and forming two adoped GaN layers, an N-type GaN layer, an active layer and a P-type GaN layer on the sapphire substrate in sequence; providing a substrate and forming a metallic adhering layer on the substrate; forming an ohmic contact layer and a reflecting layer on the P-type GaN layer in series; arranging the reflecting layer on the adhering layer; stripping the sapphire substrate and the two doped GaN layers from the N-type GaN layer to form a semiconductor structure; etching a top end of the semiconductor structure to divide the semiconductor structure into a laser LED region and an LED region; forming two N-type electrodes on the LED region and an LED region, respectively.
US09312657B1
A Q-switched solid-state laser has a neodymium-doped yttrium vanadate single-crystal gain-element in the form of a prism. The prism incorporates the functions of a gain-element, a polarizer, a resonator end-mirror and an output coupler.
US09312655B2
A waveguide is constructed by sandwiching a transparent member (4) and a laser medium (5) between a first clad 3-1 and a second clad 3-2. Pumping light (8) is made to be incident from a direction perpendicular to a direction of the optical axes of first to fourth laser oscillation light beams 9-1 to 9-4, and to alternately propagate through the transparent member (4) and the laser medium (5) in a zigzag manner so as to pump only resonator mode regions in the laser medium (5).
US09312649B2
A connector includes a housing configured to accommodate a plurality of contact pins, the housing including a plurality of contact pin locations, wherein the plurality of contact pin locations include a first set of contact pin locations designated for a first channel and a second set of contact pin locations designated for a second channel, a first set of contact pins disposed at the first set of contact pin locations, the first set of contact pins configured to carry a first signal associated with the first channel, and a second set of contact pins disposed at the second set of contact pin locations, the second set of contact pins configured to carry a second signal associated with the second channel.
US09312643B2
A mezzanine connector assembly includes a mezzanine receptacle connector having a plurality of receptacle contacts arranged in pairs for carrying differential pair signals and each having a mating interface. The mezzanine receptacle connector has a plurality of receptacle ground shields surrounding each pair of receptacle contacts and providing electrical shielding from each other pair. The mezzanine connector assembly includes a mezzanine header connector having a plurality of header contacts arranged in pairs. Each header contact has a mating segment mated to the mating interface of the corresponding receptacle contact. The mezzanine header connector has a plurality of header ground shields surrounding each pair of header contacts and providing electrical shielding from each other pair of header contacts. The header ground shields are mechanically and electrically connected to associated receptacle ground shields to create shield boxes around the various mated pairs of header and receptacle contacts.
US09312638B2
A lever connector includes a first connector, a second connector and a lever. The lever includes a locking portion provided to be bendable inward and outward with respect to a rotation direction of the lever. The first connector is provided with a locked portion to be locked with the locking portion. The rotation of the lever causes the locking portion to be bent outward with respect to the rotation direction of the lever, and then causes the locking portion to be bent inward with respect to the rotation direction of the lever such that the locked portion is locked with the locking portion. The locking portion is provided with an abutment portion that abuts on an edge part of an attachment hole of a panel when the first connector and the second connector are attached to the attachment hole in the middle of the rotation of the lever.
US09312619B2
A network card fixing structure adapted to fix a network card on a circuit board is provided. The network card fixing structure includes a main body, at least one cable arranging structure and a fixing component. The main body has a fixing slot, wherein the network card is fixed in the fixing slot. The cable arranging structure is connected to the main body, wherein a cable is connected to the network card and is position-limited on the main body by the cable arranging structure. The fixing component fixes the main body on the circuit board. In addition, a network card module including the network card fixing structure is also provided.
US09312618B2
A connector is provided that includes a housing and the housing supports a plurality of wafers. Each wafer supports a terminal and adjacent signal wafers are configured so as to provide broad-side coupled terminals. A pair of signal terminals can be surrounded on both sides by ground terminals that offer shielding so as to help isolate one signal pair from another signal pair. The geometry of the wafers can be adjusted so as to provide a tuned transmission channel. The resultant tuned transmission channel can be configured to provide desirable performance at high signaling frequencies of 12-16 GHz or even higher signaling frequencies such as 20 GHz.
US09312611B2
A connector having a conductively coated member is provided, wherein the connector comprises a connector body capable of sealing and securing a coaxial cable, and further wherein the conductively coated member, such as an O-ring, physically seals the connector, electrically couples the connector and the coaxial cable, facilitates grounding through the connector, and renders an electromagnetic shield preventing ingress of unwanted environmental noise.
US09312609B2
A coaxial cable device and method for establishing weld and mate connectivity across a coaxial cable. The device includes an outer conductor engager and an inner conductor engager wherein the outer conductor engager includes a weld interface for engagement with a first portion of a coaxial cable, and wherein the inner conductor engager includes a mate interface for engagement with a second portion of the cable.
US09312606B2
An antenna device includes a reflector which forms an offset antenna with a portion of a rotational paraboloid being cut out, and a primary radiator which radiates a beam having an elliptical cone shape to an aperture plane of the reflector. A reflector contour of the aperture plane of the reflector is formed in an elliptical shape along an isolux line of an elliptical beam radiated from the primary radiator. Accordingly, a loss due to spillover of the reflector is compensated for in a space in which the reflector contour of the present embodiment protrudes from a general reflector contour having a virtual elliptical shape formed to be perpendicular to an axis of a beam incident on an aperture plane of the reflector. In a space in which the general reflector contour protrudes from the reflector contour of the present embodiment, degradation of illuminance efficiency of the reflector is compensated.
US09312602B2
A circularly polarized artificial impedance surface antenna (AISA) includes an impedance modulated substrate having a modulated scalar impedance to a surface wave traversing a top surface of the substrate, wherein the impedance modulation has a plurality of intertwined lines of constant impedance, and wherein each line of constant impedance follows a spiral elliptical path.
US09312601B2
An antenna device or a communication terminal device including the antenna device includes ground conductor, which serves as a plate-shaped conductor and is provided in an inner layer of a circuit board. An antenna coil is mounted so that a first main surface of a magnetic core faces the circuit board. The antenna coil is arranged so that a first conductor portion of a coil conductor is at a position that is closer to the ground conductor than a second conductor portion. The antenna coil is arranged so that the first conductor portion of the coil conductor is positioned in the vicinity of a longitudinal direction end portion of a casing, and the first conductor portion of the coil conductor is bent in a direction toward the ground conductor.
US09312598B1
An electronic article surveillance system has transmitter and receiver antennas secured to the bottom of a floor mat to provide an interrogation zone above the mat and an electronic control unit operable to energize the transmitter antenna to provide an electromagnetic field in the interrogation zone and sense electric signals from the receiver antenna to produce an alarm indicating the presence of a tag in the interrogation zone.
US09312592B2
An adjustable directional coupler circuit includes a directional coupler and a correction circuit. The directional coupler includes a first port for receiving an input signal; a second port for outputting the input signal to a load; a third port for outputting a first coupled signal including a desired first coupled signal proportional to forward power of the input signal and an extraneous first coupled signal proportional to reverse power of a reflected signal; and a fourth port for outputting a second coupled signal including a desired second coupled signal proportional to the reverse power and an extraneous second coupled signal proportional to the forward power. The correction circuit adjusts magnitude and phase of a sample of the second coupled signal to provide an adjusted second coupled signal, and to sum the adjusted second coupled signal and the first coupled signal to cancel the extraneous first coupled signal.
US09312588B2
A flexible high-frequency signal transmission line includes a dielectric body including laminated flexible dielectric layers. A signal line is provided in the dielectric body. A grounding conductor is arranged in the dielectric body to be opposed to the signal line via one of the dielectric layers. The grounding conductor is of a ladder structure including a plurality of openings and a plurality of bridges arranged alternately along the signal line. A characteristic impedance of the signal line changes between two adjacent ones of the plurality of bridges such that the characteristic impedance of the signal line rises from a minimum value to an intermediate value and to a maximum value and falls from the maximum value to the intermediate value and to the minimum value in this order.
US09312587B2
A common mode filter a manufacturing method thereof are disclosed. The common mode filter in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention includes: a magnetic substrate; a receiving groove formed on the magnetic substrate; a dielectric layer formed in the receiving groove and having a coil pattern included therein; and a magnetic layer formed on upper surfaces of the dielectric layer and the magnetic substrate.
US09312585B2
The purpose is to adjust a characteristic of the isolation circuit with a simple control. An isolation circuit 1 of the invention includes a cell region 20 including a plurality of arrayed cells 21, each of which has a first conductor 22 that has at least one capacitance C1, C2, a second conductor 23 that is connected to the first conductor 22, has an inductance, and is short-circuited to a common electric potential, and a feed line 24 that is placed without a connection with the first conductor 22 and the second conductor 23, each size of which is smaller than a wavelength λ of a signal which is subject to operation of the cells 21; at least one power amount controller 25 that controls an amount of electric power to be fed to each of the feed lines 24 of the respective cells 21 of the cell region 20, thereby controlling either or both a dielectric constant and/or magnetic permeability of the cell region 20; and a circuit section 5 that is placed at a location where the circuit section undergoes action of either or both the dielectric constant and/or the magnetic permeability and that electrically isolates an input side from an output side.
US09312580B2
In an embodiment, a system includes a battery module, a battery cell assembly that is a component of the battery module, and a battery cell of the battery cell assembly, wherein the battery cell is configured to generate heat during operation. The battery cell assembly also includes a phase change material (PCM) disposed along a thermal pathway within the battery cell assembly that transfers the heat generated by the battery cell away from the battery cell during operation. The PCM is configured to conduct a first portion of the heat generated by the battery cell during operation. Further, the PCM is configured to absorb a second portion of the heat generated by the battery cell to affect a phase change within at least a portion of the PCM.
US09312579B2
Disclosed is a battery pack including a plurality of battery cells or unit modules, wherein the battery pack is provided at an upper and lower part thereof with a coolant inlet port and a coolant outlet port, through which a coolant to cool the battery cells or the unit modules, i.e. unit cells, flows from one side to the other side of the battery module in a direction perpendicular to the stacked direction of the unit cells, the battery pack case is further provided with a flow space (‘coolant introduction part’) extending from the coolant inlet port to the battery module and another flow space (‘coolant discharge part’) extending from the battery module to the coolant outlet port, and the coolant outlet port is bent in a lateral direction at an angle of at least 30 degrees to a flow direction of the coolant introduced through the coolant inlet port.
US09312577B2
A charge/discharge input is for respectively supplying charge to, or drawing charge from, an electrochemical cell. A transition modifying circuit is coupled between the charge/discharge input and a terminal of the electrochemical cell and includes at least one of an inductive constituent, a capacitive constituent and a resistive constituent selected to generate an adjusted transition rate on the terminal sufficient to reduce degradation of a charge capacity characteristic of the electrochemical cell. A method determines characteristics of the transition modifying circuit. A degradation characteristic of the electrochemical cell is analyzed relative to a transition rate of the charge/discharge input applied to the electrochemical cell. An adjusted transition rate is determined for a signal to be applied to the electrochemical cell that will reduce the degradation characteristic. At least one of an inductance, a capacitance, and a resistance is selected for the transition modifying circuit to achieve the adjusted transition rate.
US09312567B2
The present invention relates to a non-aqueous electrolyte additive that allows for improved safety and battery characteristics of a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery, and in greater detail, the present invention relates to a non-aqueous electrolyte additive that includes at least one compound selected from a first compound group consisting of phosphazene compounds represented by the following general formula (1): (NPR2)n (1) wherein each R independently represents fluorine or a substituent including an organic group substituted with fluorine, at least one of the Rs represents the substituent including an organic group substituted with fluorine, and n is from 3 to 14; and includes at least one compound selected from a second compound group consisting of borate represented by the following general formula (2), bis(oxalato)borate, difluoro(oxalato)borate, tris(oxalato)phosphate, difluoro(bisoxalato)phosphate, and tetrafluoro(oxalato)phosphate: wherein Aa+ represents a cation, and a represents the valency of the cation.
US09312546B2
A stainless steel member comprising a stainless steel base metal; an oxide film located on the surface of the stainless steel base metal; an electroconductive layer located on the surface of the oxide film and comprising a nonmetallic electroconductive material; and an electroconductive material which is located so as to penetrate the oxide film and which electrically contacts the stainless steel base metal and the electroconductive layer is provided as a stainless steel member for a separator of a solid polymer fuel cell having excellent properties such that a degradation in performance is low even after prolonged operation. A solid polymer fuel cell using the stainless steel member is also provided.
US09312542B2
An electrode active material layer containing an electrode active material and a binder. The electrode active material layer includes a portion containing the smallest amount of the binder in a middle region across the thickness of the electrode active material layer. The binder is distributed in the electrode active material layer such that the amount of the binder increases continuously from the portion toward the core and an outer surface of the electrode active material layer. Preferably, the amount of the binder present in the electrode active material layer per unit thickness is limited to more than 10 in a region extending 10% of the thickness from the outer surface of the electrode active material layer, with 10 being assigned to the amount of the binder present in the electrode active material layer per unit thickness if the binder is uniformly distributed.
US09312535B2
Provided is a silicon oxide for an anode of a secondary battery, having a good mechanical lifespan and electrical properties, and a method for preparing the same and an anode of a secondary battery using the silicon oxide. According to the method, a mixture is prepared by mixing SiCl4 and ethylene glycol, a gel is manufactured by stirring the mixture, and the gel is heat treated to prepare silicon oxide for an anode of a secondary battery.
US09312532B2
A negative electrode material for lithium ion secondary batteries comprises amorphous coated particles that are composed of a plurality of consolidated particles having no specific shape, said consolidated particles being obtained by consolidating a plurality of primary spheroidized graphite particles, and 0.5-20% by mass of an amorphous carbon layer that covers the surfaces of the consolidated particles and binds the consolidated particles with each other; and 0.5-20% by mass of a highly crystalline carbon layer that is formed so as to cover the outer surfaces of the amorphous coated particles and has an interplanar distance ascribed to CVD processing of 0.335 nm or more but less than 0.3369 nm. The negative electrode material for lithium ion secondary batteries is also characterized by having a porosity of 5% by volume or less, and a method for producing the negative electrode material for lithium ion secondary batteries.
US09312531B2
A secondary battery is provided, including an electrode assembly, a case accommodating the electrode assembly, a cap assembly, and an electrode terminal portion. The cap assembly includes a cap plate covering the case, an inversion plate formed in the cap plate, and an insulation plate having a first side connected to the inversion plate and a second side positioned on the cap plate. The inversion plate is configured to be inverted when the internal pressure of the case is greater than or equal to a critical level. The electrode terminal portion includes a fastening part electrically connected to the electrode assembly and a short-circuit member electrically connected to the fastening part. The short-circuit member is configured to make contact with a top portion of the insulation plate when an elastic force is applied on the short-circuit member toward the cap plate.
US09312529B2
A secondary battery and a secondary battery assembly are provided. The secondary battery includes a bare cell, a housing, an opening and a terminal portion. The housing surrounds the bare cell. The opening is formed any one side of the housing, and includes a first opening, a second opening and a third opening formed adjacent to any one of the first and second openings. The terminal portion has at least one portion exposed to the outside of the housing through the opening so as to electrically connect between an external device and the bare cell. Accordingly, the two secondary batteries can be used by being easily connected to each other.
US09312527B2
A separator (1) having heat resistant insulation layers for an electric device includes a resin porous substrate (2), and heat resistant insulation layers (3) formed on both surfaces of the resin porous substrate (2) and containing heat resistant particles having a melting point or a thermal softening point of 150° C. or higher. A parameter X represented by the following mathematical formula 1 is greater than or equal to 0.15: X = ( A ′ + A ″ ) C × ( A ′ / A ″ ) 2 [ Math 1 ] where A′ and A″ represent thicknesses (μm) of the respective heat resistant insulation layers (3) formed on both surfaces of the resin porous substrate (2) while fulfilling a condition of A′≧A″, and C represents the entire thickness (μm) of the separator (1) having heat resistant insulation layers.
US09312525B2
An apparatus and method of mounting storage batteries are presented in which batteries in multiple tiers may be easily accessed for installation and servicing. A battery cabinet or relay rack has provision for multiple tiers of batteries spaced so that batteries may be inserted in each tier. The batteries are supported by a tray or other structure so that they are positioned to permit top access to the battery terminals mounted on the front or front to surfaces of the battery. Tiers are positioned further from the front of the relay rack as the height of the tier increases.
US09312520B2
Provided is a packaging material for electrochemical cells which has an identification mark that can be recognized from the outside and that is difficult to forge. The packaging material comprises a multilayer film which has a structure formed by laminating a base layer (11), an adhesive layer (13), a metal foil layer (12), an acid-modified polyolefin layer (14), and a heat-sealable layer (15) in this order, wherein the base layer (11) comprises both a oriented polyester film (11b) and a oriented nylon film (11e) with a printed layer (11c) provided on the surface of the oriented polyester film (11b) that faces the oriented nylon film (11e).
US09312516B2
A functional film of the present invention includes a support body of which a retardation value is less than or equal to 300 nm; a protective inorganic layer which is formed on the support body; one or more combinations of an inorganic layer and an organic layer which are formed on the protective inorganic layer; and a mixed layer having a thickness of 1 to 100 nm which is formed between the support body and the underlying inorganic layer, and is mixed with a component of the support body and a component of the protective inorganic layer.
US09312515B2
Provided is an organic EL device having high reliability, wherein decrease of the luminance due to the generation of a gas such as water vapor is suppressed. This organic EL device is provided with: an interlayer insulating film that is formed on a substrate; a lower electrode that is formed above the interlayer insulating film so as to correspond to a light emitting region; a light emitting layer that is formed on the lower electrode in the light emitting region; and an upper electrode that is formed on the light emitting layer. A gap is formed between the interlayer insulating film and the lower electrode.
US09312509B2
An organic light emitting display device includes a first substrate, a pixel array, metal patterns, a second substrate, and a frit. The pixel array is disposed on a first substrate. The metal patterns are arranged on the first substrate to surround the pixel array. The second substrate is disposed on the first substrate. The frit is disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate, the frit covering the metal patterns.
US09312507B2
By introducing new concepts into a structure of a conventional organic semiconductor element and without using a conventional ultra thin film, an organic semiconductor element is provided which is more reliable and has higher yield. Further, efficiency is improved particularly in a photoelectronic device using an organic semiconductor. Between an anode and a cathode, there is provided an organic structure including alternately laminated organic thin film layer (functional organic thin film layer) realizing various functions by making an SCLC flow, and a conductive thin film layer (ohmic conductive thin film layer) imbued with a dark conductivity by doping it with an acceptor and a donor, or by the like method.
US09312501B2
Disclosed are new compounds having semiconducting properties. Such compounds can be processed in solution-phase into thin film semiconductors that exhibit high carrier mobility and/or good current modulation characteristics.
US09312500B2
An organic electroluminescence device according to the invention includes: a cathode; an anode; and an organic layer being interposed between the cathode and the anode, the organic layer comprising one or more layers comprising at least an emitting layer. The emitting layer contains: an anthracene derivative represented by a formula (1) below; and a pyrene derivative represented by a formula (21) below.
US09312489B2
The disclosure relates to a method of making organic light emitting diode array. A base defining a number of convexities is provided. A number of first electrodes are applied on the number of convexities. A number of electroluminescent layers are transfer printed on the number of first electrodes to form the number of organic light emitting layers. A patterned second insulative layer is made to cover the number of first electrodes and expose the number of organic light emitting layers. A second electrode is electrically connected to the number of organic light emitting layers.
US09312479B2
The present invention relates to a variable resistance memory device and a method for forming the same. A variable resistance memory device according to the present invention includes a first electrode; a second electrode spaced apart from the first electrode; a resistance variable layer and a metal-insulator transition layer provided between the first electrode and the second electrode; and a heat barrier layer provided (i) between the first electrode and the metal-insulator transition layer, (ii) between the metal-insulator transition layer and the resistance variable layer, or (iii) between the second electrode and the metal-insulator transition layer. The present invention prevents dissipation of heat generated in the metal-insulator transition layer using a thermal boundary resistance (TBR) phenomenon, and thus current and voltage to operate the variable resistance memory device can be reduced.
US09312475B2
According to one embodiment, a magnetoresistive element includes first and second magnetic layers, a first nonmagnetic layer, a conductive layer. The first and second magnetic layers have axes of easy magnetization perpendicular to a film plane. The first and second magnetic layers have variable and invariable magnetization directions, respectively. The first nonmagnetic layer is between the first and second magnetic layers. The conductive layer is on a surface of the first magnetic layer opposite to a surface on which the first nonmagnetic layer is formed. The first magnetic layer has a structure obtained by alternately laminating magnetic and nonmagnetic materials. The nonmagnetic material includes at least one of Ta, W, Nb, Mo, Zr, Hf. The magnetic material includes Co and Fe. One of the magnetic materials contacts the first nonmagnetic layer. One of the nonmagnetic materials contacts the conductive layer.
US09312457B2
According to one embodiment, a light emitting device includes a first base section, a light emitting section, and a first wiring section. The light emitting section is embedded on a first surface side of the first base section. The light emitting section includes a light emitting element. The first wiring section is provided on the first surface of the first base section. The first wiring section is connected to the light emitting element.
US09312454B2
Provided is a novel coated phosphor capable of effectively suppressing the adverse effects of hydrogen sulfide gas generated by the reaction between a sulfur-containing phosphor and moisture in the air. Provided is a sulfur-containing phosphor having a configuration in which ZnO compound containing Zn and O is present on the surface of a sulfur-containing phosphor having a host material which includes sulfur.
US09312452B2
A method for producing at least one conversion lamina for a radiation-emitting semiconductor component is specified. A base material including a conversion substance contained therein is applied to a substrate by means of a double-layered stencil. Furthermore, a conversion lamina for a radiation-emitting semiconductor component includes a base material and a conversion substance embedded therein. The thickness of the conversion lamina is in a range of between 60 μm and 170 μm inclusive.
US09312443B2
Provided is a semiconductor light device comprising a semiconductor substrate having a first conduction type; a first cladding layer having the first conduction type deposited above the semiconductor substrate; an active layer; a second cladding layer having a second conduction type; and a contact layer. The active layer includes a window portion that is disordered via diffusion of vacancies and a non-window portion having less disordering than the window portion, and the contact layer includes a first region and a second region that is below the first region and has greater affinity for hydrogen than the first region.
US09312441B2
A semiconductor chip that emits radiation includes a semiconductor body having an active zone, which emits unpolarized radiation having a first radiation component of a first polarization and having a second radiation component of a second polarization. A lattice structure acts as a waveplate or polarization filter and causes an increase in one radiation component relative to the other radiation component in the radiation emitted by the semiconductor chip through an output side. Therefore, the semiconductor chip emits polarized radiation, which has the polarization of the amplified radiation component. The attenuated radiation component remains in the semiconductor chip an optical structure, which converts the polarization of at least part of the attenuated radiation component remaining in the semiconductor chip to the polarization of the amplified radiation component, and a reflective rear side opposite the output side.
US09312432B2
The present disclosure involves an apparatus. The apparatus includes a photonic die structure that includes a light-emitting diode (LED) die. The LED die is a vertical LED die in some embodiments. The LED die includes a substrate. A p-doped III-V compound layer and an n-doped III-V compound layer are each disposed over the substrate. A multiple quantum well (MQW) layer is disposed between the p-doped III-V compound layer and the n-doped III-V compound layer. The p-doped III-V compound layer includes a first region having a non-exponential doping concentration characteristic and a second region having an exponential doping concentration characteristic. In some embodiments, the second region is formed using a lower pressure than the first region.
US09312430B2
A light emitting device includes a substrate, multiple n-type layers, and multiple p-type layers. The n-type layers and the p-type layers each include a group III nitride alloy. At least one of the n-type layers is a compositionally graded n-type group III nitride, and at least one of the p-type layers is a compositionally graded p-type group III nitride. A first ohmic contact for injecting current is formed on the substrate, and a second ohmic contact is formed on a surface of at least one of the p-type layers. Utilizing the disclosed structure and methods, a device capable of emitting light over a wide spectrum may be made without the use of phosphor materials.
US09312426B2
Disclosed are embodiments of a structure with a metal silicide transparent conductive electrode, which is commercially viable, robust and safe to use and, thus, optimal for incorporation into devices, such as flat panel displays, touch panels, solar cells, light emitting diodes (LEDs), organic optoelectronic devices, etc. Specifically, the structure can comprise a substrate (e.g., a glass or plastic substrate) and a transparent conducting film on that substrate. The transparent conducting film can comprise a metal silicide nanowire network. For example, in one embodiment, the metal silicide nanowire network can comprise multiple metal silicide nanowires fused together in a disorderly arrangement so that they form a mesh. In another embodiment, the metal silicide nanowire network can comprise multiple metal silicide nanowires patterned so that they form a grid. Also disclosed herein are various different method embodiments for forming such a structure.
US09312418B2
A photovoltaic module employing an array of photovoltaic cells disposed between two optically transparent substrates such as to define a closed-loop peripheral area of the module that does not contain a photovoltaic cell. The module is sealed with a peripheral seal along the perimeter; and is devoid of a structural element affixed to an optically transparent substrate and adapted to mount the module to a supporting structure. The two substrates may be bonded together with the use of adhesive material and, optionally, the peripheral seal can include the adhesive material. The module optionally includes diffraction grating element(s) adjoining respectively corresponding PV-cell(s).
US09312417B2
Certain example embodiments relate to techniques for creating improved photovoltaic (PV) modules. In certain example embodiments and first and second glass substrate are provided. A PV array is provided between the first and second glass substrates. The first and second substrates are laminated together with the PV array between the glass substrates. In certain example embodiments the PV module is dimensioned to be similar to an existing roof system (e.g., a sunroof) in a vehicle.
US09312414B2
The invention relates to a device for supporting at least one solar panel comprising a rectangular frame (R) that includes two opposite struts (1, 2). The disclosed device comprises at least two supporting elements (S1, S2), each of which has a support bar (5), on one side (O) of which at least one first fastening element (6) for securing one (1) of the struts is provided. At least one support (7) is pivotally mounted on the support bar (5) at a specific distance from the first fastening element (6). The free end of said at least one support (7) includes a second fastening element (13) for securing the other one strut (2) lying opposite the one strut (1).
US09312407B2
The present invention provides a metal electrode transparent to light. The metal electrode comprises a transparent substrate and a metal electrode layer composed of a metal part and plural openings. The metal electrode layer continues without breaks, and 90% or more of the metal part continues linearly without breaks by the openings in a straight length of not more than ⅓ of the visible wavelength to use in 380 nm to 780 nm. The openings have an average diameter in the range of not less than 10 nm and not more than ⅓ of the wavelength of incident light, and the pitches between the centers of the openings are not less than the average diameter and not more than ½ of the wavelength of incident light. The metal electrode layer has a thickness in the range of not less than 10 nm and not more than 200 nm.
US09312405B2
A method of fabricating a solar cell includes forming a doped portion having a first conductive type on a semiconductor substrate, growing an oxide layer on the semiconductor substrate, forming a plurality of recess portions in the oxide layer, further growing the oxide layer on the semiconductor substrate, forming a doped portion having a second conductive type on areas of the semiconductor substrate corresponding to the recess portions, forming a first conductive electrode electrically coupled to the doped portion having the first conductive type, and forming a second conductive electrode on the semiconductor substrate and electrically coupled to the doped portion having the second conductive type, wherein a gap between the doped portions having the first and second conductive types corresponds to a width of the oxide layer formed by further growing the oxide layer.
US09312399B2
Provided are a system and method for determining a connectivity topology of local management units (LMUs) in a solar photovoltaic power generation (SPVPG) system. Each of the LMUs is connected within the SPVPG between a solar panel and a set of power lines of the SPVPG. The set of power lines connects the LMUs to form a network. The connectivity topology of LMUs in the network is determined using, for example, indirect indications of connections of an LMU and the SPVPG and indications of the physical location of the LMU with respect to other elements of the SPVPG.
US09312398B2
High density energy storage in semiconductor devices is provided. There are two main aspects of the present approach. The first aspect is to provide high density energy storage in semiconductor devices based on formation of a plasma in the semiconductor. The second aspect is to provide high density energy storage based on charge separation in a p-n junction.
US09312391B2
A solution composition for forming an oxide semiconductor includes a metal oxide precursor, and one of a metal thioacetate and a derivative thereof.
US09312381B1
A lateral superjunction MOSFET device includes a gate structure, a first column connected to the lateral superjunction structure and a second column disposed in close proximity to the first column. The lateral superjunction MOSFET device includes the first column to receive current from the channel when the MOSFET is turned on and to distribute the channel current to the lateral superjunction structure functioning as the drain drift region. The second column disposed near the first column is used to pinch off the first column when the MOSFET device is to be turned off and to block the high voltage being sustained by the MOSFET device at the drain terminal from reaching the gate structure. In some embodiments, the lateral superjunction MOSFET device further includes termination structures for the drain, source and body contact doped region fingers.
US09312380B2
A semiconductor device includes a substrate having a first conductivity type, a high-voltage well having a second conductivity type and disposed in the substrate, a source well having the first conductivity type and disposed in the high-voltage well, a drift region disposed in the high-voltage well and spaced apart from the source well, and a deep implantation region having the first conductivity type and disposed in the high-voltage well between the source well and the drift region.
US09312375B2
Some exemplary embodiments of a III-nitride power device including a HEMT with multiple interconnect metal layers and a solderable front metal structure using solder bars for external circuit connections have been disclosed. The solderable front metal structure may comprise a tri-metal such as TiNiAg, and may be configured to expose source and drain contacts of the HEMT as alternating elongated digits or bars. Additionally, a single package may integrate multiple such HEMTs wherein the front metal structures expose alternating interdigitated source and drain contacts, which may be advantageous for DC-DC power conversion circuit designs using III-nitride devices. By using solder bars for external circuit connections, lateral conduction is enabled, thereby advantageously reducing device Rdson.
US09312371B2
A structure, including a bipolar junction transistor and method of fabrication thereof, is provided herein. The bipolar junction transistor includes: a substrate including a substrate region having a first conductivity type; an emitter region over a first portion of the substrate region, the emitter region having a second conductivity type; a collector region over a second portion of the substrate region, the collector region having the second conductivity type; and, a base region overlie structure disposed over, in part, the substrate region. The base region overlie structure separates the emitter region from the collector region and aligns to a base region of the bipolar junction transistor within the substrate region, between the first portion and the second portion of the substrate region.
US09312367B2
A gate cavity is formed exposing a portion of a silicon fin by removing a sacrificial gate structure that straddles the silicon fin. An epitaxial silicon germanium alloy layer is formed within the gate cavity and on the exposed portion of the silicon fin. Thermal mixing or thermal condensation is performed to convert the exposed portion of the silicon fin into a silicon germanium alloy channel portion which is laterally surrounded by silicon fin portions. A functional gate structure is formed within the gate cavity providing a finFET structure having a silicon germanium alloy channel portion which is laterally surrounded by silicon fin portions.
US09312366B1
Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method of processing an integrated circuit (IC) structure for metal gate replacement, the method comprising: providing a structure including a first semiconductor fin and a second semiconductor fin positioned over a buried insulator layer of a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate, and a gate structure positioned over the first and second semiconductor fins, wherein the gate structure includes a gate dielectric layer and a metal layer positioned over the gate dielectric layer; forming a planarizing resist over the first and second semiconductor fins, wherein the planarizing resist includes: a first organic planarizing layer (OPL), and a second OPL over the first OPL; removing a portion of the second OPL; removing an exposed portion of the first OPL and a portion of the metal layer positioned over the second semiconductor fin; and forming a replacement metal gate (RMG) over the gate dielectric layer.
US09312363B2
A multiple-fin device includes a substrate and a plurality of fins formed on the substrate. Source and drain regions are formed in the respective fins. A dielectric layer is formed on the substrate. The dielectric layer has a first thickness adjacent one side of a first fin and having a second thickness, different from the first thickness, adjacent an opposite side of the fin. A continuous gate structure is formed overlying the plurality of fins, the continuous gate structure being adjacent a top surface of each fin and at least one sidewall surface of at least one fin. By adjusting the dielectric layer thickness, channel width of the resulting device can be fine-tuned.
US09312329B2
A first impurity diffusion region is provided within a semiconductor substrate, a second impurity diffusion region is provided within the first impurity diffusion region, a third impurity diffusion region is provided within the second impurity diffusion region, a first portion of a fourth impurity diffusion region is provided within the second impurity diffusion region so as to be spaced from the third impurity diffusion region, and a second portion of the fourth impurity diffusion region is provided in a third portion of the first impurity diffusion region on a side of a surface of the semiconductor substrate, a first contact is provided so as to be in contact with the second portion, the first contact and the third portion overlap in plan view, and a first power supply is connected to the third impurity diffusion region.
US09312326B2
Capacitor structures capable of providing both low-voltage capacitors and high-voltage capacitors are described herein. In one embodiment, a capacitor structure comprises a first electrode formed from a first metal layer, a second electrode formed from a second metal layer, and a third electrode formed from a third metal layer, wherein second and third electrodes are spaced farther apart than the first and second electrodes. The capacitor structure also comprises a first dielectric layer between the first and second electrodes, and a second dielectric layer between the second and third metal layers, wherein the second dielectric layer has a larger thickness than the first dielectric layer. The first electrode is coupled to a first power-supply rail, the third electrode is coupled to a second power-supply rail, and the second power-supply rail has a higher power-supply voltage than the first power-supply rail.
US09312324B2
Embodiments of the invention provide an organic thin film transistor, an organic thin film transistor array substrate and a display device. The organic thin film transistor comprises a transparent substrate; source and drain electrodes formed on the transparent substrate; an active layer formed on the transparent substrate by an organic semiconductor material and disposed between the source and drain electrodes; a gate insulating layer formed on the active layer; a gate electrode formed on the gate insulating layer; and first and second banks disposed on the transparent substrate, inner sides of the first and second banks being covered by the source and drain electrodes, respectively.
US09312321B2
A double-sided organic light-emitting diode and manufacturing method thereof, and a display device using double-sided organic light-emitting diode pixel configuration are described. The double-sided organic light-emitting diode includes a first electrode, a first organic semiconductor layer disposed on the first electrode, a shared electrode disposed on the first organic semiconductor layer and electrically connected to the output terminal of a thin film transistor; a second organic semiconductor layer disposed on the shared electrode, and a second electrode disposed on the second organic semiconductor. The first electrode, the shared electrode and the second electrode are electrically insulated from each other, and two organic light-emitting diodes in the double-sided organic light emitting diode can be independently controlled.
US09312316B2
An organic light emitting diode (OLED) display includes: a first substrate including a display area and a non-display area; a driving element on the display area of the first substrate, and including a driving thin film transistor, a switching thin film transistor, and a capacitor; a circuit unit on the non-display area of the first substrate; an organic light emitting element on the driving element, and including a pixel electrode, an organic emission layer, and a common electrode; an inorganic protective layer covering the circuit unit and the common electrode of the organic light emitting diode; a sealing member on the inorganic protective layer in the non-display area of the first substrate; and a second substrate on the sealing member.
US09312312B1
A display including a plurality of display units and a plurality of holes is provided. Each of the display units includes a transparent area. Each of the holes is formed by a part of the transparent areas. At least one of the holes satisfies 2 π A ≤ S < 8 3 3 A , wherein A is an area of each of the holes and the S is a perimeter of each of the holes, and the at least one of the holes is a hole of a non-quadrilateral-type shape. These holes are arranged along a first direction in staggered arrangement, parts of projections of the holes along a second direction are overlapped with one another, and the first direction is different from the second direction.
US09312306B2
According to an embodiment, a first impurity diffusion layer is provided in a region lower than a drain region and the first impurity diffusion layer diffuses impurities of a second conductivity type. A second impurity diffusion layer is provided between the drain region and the first impurity diffusion layer, and the second impurity diffusion layer diffuses impurities of a first conductivity type or the second conductivity type, and a concentration of the second impurity diffusion layer is lower than that of the first conductivity type of the drain region and that of the second conductivity type of the first impurity diffusion layer.
US09312273B2
FinFET devices and methods of making the same. A structure includes: a substrate with a buried insulator, a plurality of fins over the buried insulator, and a nitride material filing spaces between the plurality of fins, wherein the plurality of fins remain uncovered by the nitride.
US09312268B2
Integrated circuits and methods for producing the same are provided. A method for producing an integrated circuit includes forming a first and second fin overlying a substrate, where the first and second fins intersect at a fin intersection. The first fin has a first fin left end. A tunnel dielectric and a floating gate are formed adjacent to the first fin with the tunnel dielectric between the floating gate and the first fin. An interpoly dielectric is formed adjacent to the floating gate, and a control gate is formed adjacent to the interpoly dielectric such that the interpoly dielectric is between the floating gate and the control gate. The control gate, interpoly dielectric, floating gate, and the tunnel dielectric are removed from over the first fin except for at a floating gate position between the first fin left end and the fin intersection.
US09312264B2
The present invention provides a non-volatile memory device using a memory transistor including an oxide semiconductor, capable of writing with low power consumption, without receiving an influence of deterioration of a selection transistor connected in series to the memory transistor. A memory cell 1 includes a memory transistor Qm, and first and second selection transistors Q1 and Q2. During a writing operation, the memory transistor Qm and the first selection transistor Q1 are set to the ON state, and the second selection transistor Q2 is set to the OFF state. A writing current is flown to a series circuit of the memory transistor Qm and the first selection transistor Q1. The memory transistor Qm is transited from a first state that indicates a transistor characteristic to a second state that indicates an ohmic resistance characteristic. During a reading operation, the first selection transistor Q1 is set to the OFF state, the second selection transistor Q2 is set to the ON state, a voltage is applied to a series circuit of the memory transistor Qm and the second selection transistor Q2, and it is detected whether the memory transistor Qm is in the first state or the second state.
US09312262B2
A dynamic random access memory unit includes a substrate having a trench disposed therein, a self-aligned trench isolation structure formed in the bottom portion of the trench, and a first trenched gate formed in the bottom portion of the trench and above the self-aligned trench isolation structure. The substrate includes at least one pillar-shaped active body having a drain region, a body region atop the drain region, and a source region atop the body region. The first trenched gate includes a first spacer formed on the side-wall in the bottom portion of the trench to selectively cover and surround the portion of the side-wall in the trench that comprises the drain region, such for defining the width of the self-aligned trench isolation structure.
US09312256B2
An electronic device includes a silicon carbide layer having a first conductivity type and having a first surface and a second surface opposite the first surface, and first and second silicon carbide Zener diodes on the silicon carbide layer. Each of the first and second silicon carbide Zener diodes may include a first heavily doped silicon carbide region having a second conductivity type opposite the first conductivity type on the silicon carbide layer, and an ohmic contact on the first heavily doped silicon carbide region.
US09312253B2
A method for fabricating a semiconductor device provides a first chip having first terminals, a second chip having second terminals, and a third chip having third terminals. A first silicon interposer having first through silicon vias TSVs and a second silicon interposer having second TSVs is provided. The first TSVs are arrayed in a first, a second, and a third set. The first set is located in a first interposer region and matching the first terminals. The second set is located in a second interposer region and matching the second terminals. The third set is located in a third interposer region between the first and second regions and matching the TSVs of the second interposer and the third terminals. The first chip is aligned with the first set TSVs. The second chip is aligned with the second set TSVs. The second interposer is aligned with the third set TSVs. A solder of a first melting temperature is used.
US09312227B2
A method of joining semiconductor substrates, which may include: forming an alignment key on a first semiconductor substrate; forming an insulating layer on the first semiconductor substrate and the alignment key; forming a first metal layer pattern and a second metal layer pattern on the insulating layer; forming a first protrusion and a second protrusion, and an alignment recess positioned between the first protrusion and the second protrusion on a second semiconductor substrate; forming a third metal layer pattern and a fourth metal layer pattern on the first protrusion and the second protrusion, respectively; and joining the first semiconductor substrate and the second semiconductor substrate, in which the alignment key is positioned at the alignment recess when the first semiconductor substrate and the second semiconductor substrate are joined, is provided.
US09312224B1
A porous low k dielectric material containing atoms of at least Si, C, N and H (C and/or O may also be present) is used to provide an interconnect structure having reduced BEOL capacitance and resistance. The porous low k dielectric material is used as an interconnect dielectric material in which at least one interconnect metal-containing structure is embedded therein. The porous low k dielectric material has metal diffusion barrier properties due to the presence of nitrogen as an elemental constituent of the porous low k dielectric material. As such, the porous low k dielectric material can eliminate the need of a diffusion barrier liner, or reduce the thickness of the diffusion barrier liner that is typically formed between an interconnect dielectric material and the embedded interconnect metal structure.
US09312220B2
A circuit device having an interlayer dielectric with pillar-type air gaps and a method of forming the circuit device are disclosed. In an exemplary embodiment, the method comprises receiving a substrate and depositing a first layer over the substrate. A copolymer layer that includes a first constituent polymer and a second constituent polymer is formed over the first layer. The first constituent polymer is selectively removed from the copolymer layer. A first region of the first layer corresponding to the selectively removed first constituent polymer is etched. The etching leaves a second region of the first layer underlying the second constituent polymer unetched. A metallization process is performed on the etched substrate, and the first layer is removed from the second region to form an air gap. The method may further comprise depositing a dielectric material within the etched first region.
US09312214B2
A method includes applying a polymer-comprising material over a carrier, and forming a via over the carrier. The via is located inside the polymer-comprising material, and substantially penetrates through the polymer-comprising material. A first redistribution line is formed on a first side of the polymer-comprising material. A second redistribution line is formed on a second side of the polymer-comprising material opposite to the first side. The first redistribution line is electrically coupled to the second redistribution line through the via.
US09312207B2
A semiconductor device including a semiconductor substrate having a first surface and a second surface, the first surface being configured for formation of a semiconductor element; a through hole extending through the semiconductor substrate; and a through electrode disposed in the through hole. The through electrode includes an insulating film disposed along a sidewall of the through hole, a conductive layer comprising a first material disposed along the insulating film, and an electrode layer comprising a second material filled inside the through hole over the conductive layer. The first material is softer than the second material. The second material has a melting point higher than a melting point of the first material. The electrode layer includes a void portion being closed near the second surface of the semiconductor substrate.
US09312206B2
A semiconductor package includes a semiconductor die having an active face and dielectric layers disposed on the active face of the semiconductor die. At least one opening is formed through the dielectric layers and extends from a non-bond pad area of the active face to an exterior surface of the dielectric layers. An electrically conductive layer is formed in the opening and is in physical contact with the active face of the semiconductor die. A thermally conductive material fills the opening to form a thermal via for dissipating heat away from the semiconductor die.
US09312202B2
A semiconductor substrate for use in an integrated circuit, the semiconductor substrate including a channel defined on a surface of the substrate. The channel includes a first wall, a second wall, and a third wall. The first wall is recessed from the surface. The second wall extends from the surface to the first wall. The third wall extends from the surface to the first wall and faces the second wall across the channel. At least one of the second wall and the third wall includes a plurality of structures projecting into the channel from the second wall or the third wall.
US09312195B2
A first photosensitive organic insulating film (PO1) formed in contact with a passivation film (PL) covers the entire circumference of a stepped portion (TRE) at a surface of the passivation film PL formed by a topmost conductive layer (TCL) and has an outer circumferential edge (ED1) positioned, along the entire circumference, on the outer circumferential side with respect to the stepped portion (TRE). This can prevent the first photosensitive organic insulating film (PO1) from peeling off the passivation film (PL).
US09312193B2
A semiconductor package structure, comprises a substrate, a die region having one or more dies disposed on the substrate, and at least one stress relief structure disposed at one or more corners of the substrate, the at least one stress relief structure being adjacent to at least one die of the one or more dies.
US09312188B2
In a method for fabricating a semiconductor device, a first gate electrode and a second gate electrode are provided on a substrate, the first gate electrode and the second gate electrode being formed in a first region and a second region of the substrate, respectively. A conductive buffer layer is formed along sidewalls of the first gate electrode and the second gate electrode and on upper surfaces of the first gate electrode and second gate electrode. A first mask pattern covering the first region of the substrate on the buffer layer is formed. A first impurity region is formed in the substrate at sides of the second gate electrode using the first mask pattern as a mask of an ion implantation process.
US09312185B2
Embodiments of present invention provide a method of forming metal resistor. The method includes forming a first and a second structure on top of a semiconductor substrate in a replacement-metal-gate process to have, respectively, a sacrificial gate and spacers adjacent to sidewalls of the sacrificial gate; covering the second structure with an etch-stop mask; replacing the sacrificial gate of the first structure with a replacement metal gate; removing the etch-stop mask to expose the sacrificial gate of the second structure; forming a silicide in the second structure as a metal resistor; and forming contacts to the silicide. In one embodiment, forming the silicide includes siliciding a top portion of the sacrificial gate of the second structure to form the metal resistor. In another embodiment, forming the silicide includes removing the sacrificial gate of the second structure to expose and silicide a channel region underneath thereof.
US09312184B2
In a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, a split gate structure is formed on a cell region of a substrate including the cell region and a logic region. The logic region has a high voltage region, an ultra high voltage region and a low voltage region, and the split gate structure includes a first gate insulation layer pattern, a floating gate, a tunnel insulation layer pattern and a control gate. A spacer layer is formed on the split gate structure and the substrate. The spacer layer is etched to form a spacer on a sidewall of the split gate structure and a second gate insulation layer pattern on the ultra high voltage region of the substrate. A gate electrode is formed on each of the high voltage region of the substrate, the second gate insulation layer pattern, and the low voltage region of the substrate.
US09312180B2
The present invention provides a method for forming a semiconductor structure, including the following steps: Firstly, a substrate is provided, the substrate has a first region defined thereon, a plurality of fin structure is disposed within the first region, and an insulating layer is disposed on the substrate and between each fin structure; next, a first material layer is then formed on the insulating layer, and the fin structures is exposed simultaneously, afterwards, the fin structure is partially removed, and an epitaxial layer is then formed on the top surface of each remained fin structure.
US09312179B2
A method includes forming first and second fins of a finFET extending above a semiconductor substrate, with a shallow trench isolation (STI) region in between, and a distance between a top surface of the STI region and top surfaces of the first and second fins. First and second fin extensions are provided on top and side surfaces of the first and second fins above the top surface of the STI region. Material is removed from the STI region, to increase the distance between the top surface of the STI region and top surfaces of the first and second fins. A conformal stressor dielectric material is deposited over the fins and STI region. The conformal dielectric stressor material is reflowed, to flow into a space between the first and second fins above a top surface of the STI region, to apply stress to a channel of the finFET.
US09312177B2
Methods of using a screen-print mask for hybrid wafer dicing using laser scribing and plasma etch described. In an example, a method of dicing a semiconductor wafer having a plurality of integrated circuits separated by streets involves screen-printing a patterned mask above the semiconductor wafer, the patterned mask covering the integrated circuits and exposing the streets of the semiconductor wafer. The method also involves laser ablating the streets with a laser scribing process to expose regions of the semiconductor wafer between the integrated circuits. The method also involves plasma etching the semiconductor wafer through the exposed regions of the semiconductor wafer to singulate the integrated circuits. The patterned mask protects the integrated circuits during the plasma etching.
US09312176B2
Apparatuses having, and methods for forming, conductive features are described. A hole is formed in a substrate and a conductive material is deposited in the hole. A part of the conductive material that occupies a first lengthwise portion of the hole is removed, and a conductive feature that occupies a second lengthwise portion of the hole remains in the substrate.
US09312171B2
The present inventive concepts provide semiconductor devices and methods for fabricating the same. The method includes forming an inter-metal dielectric layer including a plurality of dielectric layers on a substrate, forming a via-hole vertically penetrating the inter-metal dielectric layer and the substrate, providing carbon to at least one surface, such as a surface including carbon in the plurality of dielectric layers exposed by the via-hole, forming a via-dielectric layer covering an inner surface of the via-hole, and forming a through-electrode surrounded by the via-dielectric layer in the via-hole.
US09312170B2
An integrated circuit containing elongated contacts, including elongated contacts which connect to at least three active areas and/or MOS gates, and including elongated contacts which connect to exactly two active areas and/or MOS gates and directly connect to a first level interconnect. A process of forming an integrated circuit containing elongated contacts, including elongated contacts which connect to at least three active areas and/or MOS gates, using exactly two contact photolithographic exposure operations, and including elongated contacts which connect to exactly two active areas and/or MOS gates and directly connect to a first level interconnect.
US09312157B2
A front opening wafer container suitable for large wafers such as 450 mm utilizes componentry with separate fasteners to lock the componentry together in an expedient manner providing robust connections and cost efficiencies. A container portion has an open front and receives on a bottom surface a base plate secured by twist lock connectors that also provide recesses for purge grommets. Kinematic coupling components readily and robustly lock onto the base plate. Interior wafer support components latch onto brackets on the side walls utilizing a separate locking insert with holding tabs and locking detents. A wafer retainer provides support and counters enhanced wafer sag associated with 450 mm wafers when the door is installed and seated.
US09312150B2
A method for forming metallurgical interconnections and polymer adhesion of a flip chip to a substrate includes providing a chip having a set of bumps formed on a bump side thereof and a substrate having a set of interconnect points on a metallization thereon, providing a measured quantity of a polymer adhesive in a middle region of the chip on the bump side, aligning the chip with the substrate so that the set of bumps aligns with the set of interconnect points, pressing the chip and the substrate toward one another so that a portion of the polymer adhesive contacts the substrate and the bumps contact the interconnect points, and heating the bumps to a temperature sufficiently high to form a metallurgical connection between the bumps and the interconnect points.
US09312145B2
Fin-type transistor fabrication methods and structures are provided having one or more nitrided conformal layers, to improve reliability of the semiconductor device. The method includes, for example, providing at least one material layer disposed, in part, conformally over a fin extending above a substrate, the material layer(s) including a gate dielectric layer; and performing a conformal nitridation process over an exposed surface of the material layer(s), the conformal nitridation process forming an exposed, conformal nitrided surface.
US09312136B2
A method of forming a semiconductor structure includes depositing a gate dielectric layer lining a recess of a gate structure formed on a substrate with a first portion of the gate dielectric layer covering sidewalls of the recess and a second portion of the gate dielectric layer covering a bottom of the recess. A protective layer is deposited above the gate dielectric layer and then recessed selectively to the gate dielectric layer so that a top surface of the protective layer is below of the recess. The first portion of the gate dielectric layer is recessed until a top of the first portion of the gate dielectric layer is approximately coplanar with the top surface of the protective layer. The protective layer is removed and a conductive barrier is deposited above the recessed first portion of the gate dielectric layer to cut a diffusion path to the gate dielectric layer.
US09312135B2
The generation of auxiliary crystal defects is induced in a semiconductor substrate. Then the semiconductor substrate is pre-annealed at a temperature above a dissociation temperature at which the auxiliary crystal defects transform into defect complexes, which may be electrically inactive. Then protons may be implanted into the semiconductor substrate to induce the generation of radiation-induced main crystal defects. The defect complexes may enhance the efficiency of the formation of particle-related dopants based on the radiation-induced main crystal defects.
US09312129B2
A method of forming a semiconductor substrate including providing a base substrate including a semiconductor material, and forming a first semiconductor layer overlying the base substrate having a Group 13-15 material via hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE), the first semiconductor layer having an upper surface having a N-face orientation.
US09312127B2
A method for producing a semiconductor apparatus substrate includes steps of: forming silicon-containing film having silicon content of 1% by mass or more and 30% by mass or less on an organic under layer film formed on an substrate; forming a resist film on silicon-containing film; forming a resist pattern by exposing and developing resist film; transferring pattern to silicon-containing film using resist pattern as a mask; transferring pattern to organic under layer film using silicon-containing film as a mask to leave part or all of silicon-containing film on organic under layer film; implanting ions into substrate using organic under layer film as a mask; and peeling organic under layer film used as mask for ion implantation on which part or all of silicon-containing film remains, with peeling liquid.
US09312125B2
A cyclic deposition method for thin film formation includes forming a silicon thin film on an object by injecting a silicon precursor into a chamber in which the object is loaded, depositing silicon on the object, and performing a first purge, removing an unreacted portion of the silicon precursor and reaction by-products from the interior of the chamber, pre-processing a surface of the silicon thin film by forming a plasma atmosphere in the chamber and supplying a first reaction source having a hydrogen atom, and forming the silicon thin film as an insulating film including silicon, by forming the plasma atmosphere in the chamber and supplying a second reaction source having one or more oxygen atoms, one or more nitrogen atoms, or a mixture thereof.
US09312120B2
A method for processing a semiconductor body is disclosed. In an embodiment, the method includes reducing an oxygen concentration in a silicon wafer in a first region adjoining a first surface of the silicon wafer by a first heat treatment, creating vacancies in a crystal lattice of the wafer at least in a second region adjoining the first region by implanting particles via the first surface into the wafer and forming oxygen precipitates in the second region by a second heat treatment.
US09312118B2
A mass analyzer is provided comprising a plurality of electrodes having apertures through which ions are transmitted. A plurality of pseudo-potential corrugations are created along the axis of the mass analyzer. The amplitude or depth of the pseudo-potential corrugations is inversely proportional to the mass to charge ratio of an ion. Transient DC voltages are applied to the electrodes in order to urge ions along the length of the mass analyzer. The amplitude of the transient DC voltages applied to the electrodes is increased with time and ions are caused to be emitted from the mass analyzer in reverse order of their mass to charge ratio. Two AC or RF voltages are applied to the electrodes. The first AC or RF voltage is arranged to provide optimal pseudo-potential corrugations while the second AC or RF voltage is arranged to provide optimal radial confinement of ions within the mass analyzer.
US09312113B1
The invention relates to a radio frequency ion guide construction for use in mass spectrometry that minimizes contamination by allowing ions rejected by the RF confinement field to fly through and away from the ion guide electrodes and preventing them from hitting the sensitive electric potential defining surfaces of the ion guide electrodes. At the entrance end of the ion guide, each electrode of the plurality of electrodes has a front end that is forked or that contains a recessed feature facing an interior of the ion guide. For an electrode that is forked, the teeth of the forked end may have different shapes or tapers, and a conductive mesh may be used to cover a gap between the teeth. Similarly, for an electrode that has a recessed feature, a conductive mesh may cover the recessed feature.
US09312111B2
A mass spectrometer system having: a primary ion source capable of irradiating a segment on a planar sample with a beam of primary ions, an orthogonal ion mass-to-charge ratio, the analyzer being configured to separate secondary elemental atomic ions according to their mass-to-charge ratio by time of flight; an ion detector for detecting secondary elemental atomic ions and producing mass spectra measurements; and a synchronizer. In the system, the beam of primary ions scans across the planar sample in two dimensions and the synchronizer associates the mass spectra measurements with positions on the planar sample.
US09312092B2
A deflection plate having a non-planar shape, for deflecting charged particles is provided. An associated method is also provided.
US09312087B2
Disclosed is an electronic contactor including: a lower body; a magnetic force generator disposed within the lower body and magnetized by electric power transferred from outside to perform suctioning operation; a crossbar coupled to an upper portion of the magnetic force generator and provided with a movable contact to be lifted or lowered; a pair of separable upper bodies each being provided at one side thereof with a stationary contact and an auxiliary stationary contact and respectively coupled to upper opposite ends of the lower body such that the movable contact and auxiliary movable contacts are placed therein, facing ends of the upper bodies being coupled to each other inside the upper bodies so as to face each other; and a cover coupling upper ends of the upper bodies such that an upper end of the crossbar and the movable contact are exposed.
US09312084B2
A contact slider unit is disclosed for a switching unit, in particular for a circuit breaker, having a contact slider and a contact piece. In an embodiment, the stabilising element preventing bridge rotation is arranged on the contact piece.
US09312080B2
A power tool includes at least one grip housing having at least one handle-shaped grip region and at least one switching unit having at least one movably mounted latch element. The at least one movably mounted latch element has a maximum width that extends over at least a major part of at least one maximum width of the at least one handle-shaped grip region of the at least one grip housing.
US09312074B2
A method for preparing a solid electrolytic capacitor and an improved solid electrolytic capacitor is provided. The method includes providing an anode, forming a dielectric on the anode and forming a cathode on the dielectric wherein the cathode comprises interlayers. At least one interlayer comprises a monomer, oligomer or polymer with multifunctional or multiple reactive groups and an adjacent layer comprises a molecule with crosslinkable functionality. The oligomer or polymer with multifunctional or multiple reactive groups on one layer react with the crosslinkable functionality in the adjacent layer.
US09312072B2
A winding-type solid electrolytic capacitor package structure includes a substrate body, a winding capacitor, a package body and an electrode unit. The winding capacitor has a winding body, a positive conductive lead pin having a positive end surface, and a negative conductive lead pin having a negative end surface. The package body is disposed on the substrate body to enclose the winding body, and the package body has a first lateral surface substantially flushed with the positive end surface and a second lateral surface substantially flushed with the negative end surface. The electrode unit includes a positive electrode structure for covering the first lateral surface and electrically contacting the positive end surface and a negative electrode structure for covering the second lateral surface and electrically contacting the negative end surface.
US09312071B2
An electronic device having a variable capacitance element, includes a support substrate providing physical support, a pair of anchors formed on the support substrate, and having support portions in a direction perpendicular to a surface of the substrate, a movable electrode supported by the support portions of the pair of anchors, having opposing first and second side surfaces constituting electrode surfaces, and at least partially capable of elastic deformation, a first fixed electrode supported above the support substrate, and having a first electrode surface opposing to the first side surface of the movable electrode, and a second fixed electrode supported above the support substrate, and having a second electrode surface opposing to the second side surface of the movable electrode.
US09312070B2
A multilayer ceramic capacitor has multiple laminated dielectric ceramic layers made of a dielectric ceramic, internal electrodes formed between the dielectric ceramic layers, and external electrodes electrically connected to the internal electrodes, wherein generation of cracks in the dielectric layer due to expansion of the internal electrode is suppressed by causing ceramic grains having a crystal axis ratio c/a higher than that of the ceramic grains constituting the dielectric layer to be present in non-contiguous parts of the internal electrodes between the dielectric ceramic layers, and by harnessing the stress-mitigating effect of domain switching involving these ceramic grains.
US09312068B2
Disclosed herein is a coil component capable of being protected from static electricity without loss of a main magnetic flux loop. The coil component includes: a magnetic substrate; a coil layer disposed on the magnetic substrate and having conductor patterns installed therein; and an electrostatic discharge (ESD) protecting layer disposed on the coil layer and discharging static electricity introduced into the conductor patterns.
US09312063B2
A contactless power transfer system is provided. The system includes a first coil configured to produce a magnetic field. The system also includes a second coil configured to receive power from the first coil via the magnetic field. The system further includes a field focusing element. The field focusing element includes a plurality of resonators arranged in an array. Each of the plurality of resonators, upon excitation, interfere constructively in a direction of the second coil and interfere destructively in a remaining space to focus the magnetic field onto the second coil and enhance the coupling between the first coil and the second coil.
US09312060B2
Transformer circuits having transformers with figure eight and double figure eight nested structures
A transformer includes a first loops and second loops. The first loops include a first set of input terminals. The first loops include at least three loops that are conductively coupled to each other in series by first crossovers. The second loops include a first set of output terminals. The second loops include at least three loops that are conductively coupled to each other in series by second crossovers. Each of the second conductive loops is inductively coupled to and nested within a respective one of the first conductive loops.
US09312054B2
A thermistor element includes a thermistor main body having a rectangular parallelepiped shape, and a first covering layer having reduction resistance and covering the periphery of the thermistor main body. At least a portion (exposed outer surface) of the outer surface of the first covering layer is exposed to the outside. When the shortest distance in a straight line in the first covering layer extending from a starting point on the thermistor main body to the exposed outer surface is defined as an exposed layer thickness at the starting point, the first covering layer is formed such that an exposed layer thickness measured by using any vertex of the rectangular parallelepiped thermistor main body as a starting point is equal to or greater than the smallest one of exposed layer thicknesses measured by using points on three sides and three flat surfaces which form the vertex.
US09312051B2
The invention is a coaxial conductor structure for fault-free transmission of a TEM Mode of a HF signal wave within at least one band of frequency bands forming in the context of a dispersion relation. An inner conductor and an outer conductor are spaced radially apart from the inner conductor and an axially extending common conductor section of the inner and the outer conductor. A number n of electrically conductive ring-shaped structures are each fitted between the inner and outer conductor to be radially spaced apart, each of which have an electrical path completely surrounding the inner conductor and are arranged with a spatially periodic sequence with an equal distance between the two ring-shaped structures which are adjacent along the conductor section.
US09312046B2
Magnetically aligned carbon nanoparticle composites have enhanced electrical properties. The composites comprise carbon nanoparticles, a host material, magnetically sensitive nanoparticles and a surfactant. In addition to enhanced electrical properties, the composites can have enhanced mechanical and thermal properties.
US09312038B2
The present invention includes: X-ray shielding materials; X-ray shielding material mounting plates to which the X-ray shielding portions are fixed; a driven side link and a driving side link that connect the two X-ray shielding material mounting plates to each other so that the X-ray shielding portions face each other and cross each other; connecting portions that connect each of the X-ray shielding material mounting plates to the driven side link and the driving side link; and a driving device that drives the driving side link so as to rotate. Connecting portions and are provided at positions not interfering with a movable region of the X-ray shielding material mounting plates formed in conjunction with the rotational driving of the driven side link and the driving side link. The X-ray shielding material mounting plates are moved by the rotational driving of the driving side link and accordingly, the slit width between the X-ray shielding materials is changed.
US09312037B2
The present invention provides a method for producing Cu67 radioisotope suitable for use in medical applications. The method comprises irradiating a metallic zinc-68 (Zn68) target within a sealed ceramic capsule with a high energy gamma ray beam. After irradiation, the Cu67 is isolated from the Zn68 by any suitable method (e.g. chemical and or physical separation). In a preferred embodiment, the Cu67 is isolated by sublimation of the zinc in a ceramic sublimation tube to afford a copper residue containing Cu67. The Cu67 can be further purified by chemical means.
US09312035B2
An emergency temporary spent fuel pool cooling system for a nuclear power generating facility that has a permanently installed primary loop within the nuclear containment and a mobile temporary secondary loop. The secondary loop is housed in transport vehicles that can be stored off site and is connectable in heat exchange relationship with the primary loop through quick disconnect couplings that are accessible on the outside of the reactor containment. The transport vehicles also include self-contained power and compressed air sources for powering and controlling the entire emergency cooling system. The system also has a make-up water injection capability for refueling the spent fuel pool and secondary loop.
US09312033B2
Embodiments of the present invention include a NOR-type flash memory device capable of reducing or eliminating program malfunctions. In some embodiments, the device includes a memory array, row selection circuit, column selection circuit, and program driver circuit. The memory array includes a memory sector having a first sector bit line and a second sector bit line. The memory array also includes a plurality of flash memory cells disposed on a matrix structure having a plurality of cell bit lines and a plurality of word lines arranged sequentially. The cell bit lines are alternately defined as first cell bit lines and second cell bit lines in sequential order. The first cell bit lines are connected to the first sector bit line in response to column selection signals thereof, and the second cell bit lines are connected to the second sector bit line in response to column selection signals thereof.
US09312032B2
A semiconductor memory apparatus includes: a memory area including a plurality of memory banks having main memory areas configured to transmit and receive data to and from the outside through a plurality of global data lines, respectively, and one or more redundancy memory areas configured to use any one of the global data lines as a common global data line; and a controller configured to control data to be transmitted and received through the common global data line, as a redundancy program mode, a redundancy read mode, or a redundancy erase mode is enabled.
US09312021B2
Provided are a cell string and a reading method for the cell string. The cell string includes a semiconductor body formed on a surface of an insulating layer, first and second semiconductor regions formed at respective ends of the semiconductor body and are formed by being doped with different types of impurities, two or more control electrodes which are separated from each other to be electrically isolated, and a gate insulating film stack which is formed between the semiconductor body and the control electrodes, wherein the semiconductor body is configured to include at least two layers, and adjacent layers of the semiconductor body have different energy band gaps, wherein the semiconductor body is formed by an intrinsic semiconductor or a semiconductor being doped with impurities, and wherein the first and second semiconductor regions are doped with impurities of which concentration is higher than that of the semiconductor body.
US09312020B2
Methods of operating a memory device include applying an increasing sense voltage to a plurality of memory cells, wherein memory cells of the plurality of memory cells each store data states representing two or more digits of data. The methods further include, in response to the increasing sense voltage reaching a particular level, initiating a transfer of data values of a particular digit of data for each memory cell of the plurality of memory cells while continuing to apply the increasing sense voltage to the plurality of memory cells.
US09312018B1
The present disclosure relates to sensing with boost. An apparatus includes boost logic. Boost logic includes a boost source and a plurality of boost interfaces coupled to the boost source. The boost source is configured to provide a boost clamp voltage to each of the plurality of boost interfaces. Each of the plurality of boost interfaces includes a respective buffer configured to buffer the boost source from a respective load. Each boost interface is configured to provide a boost voltage to the respective load. The boost voltage configured to increase a sense window. The boost voltage related to the boost clamp voltage.
US09312014B2
Single-layer gate EEPROM cell, cell array including the same, and method of operating the cell array
A cell array portion of a single-layer gate EEPROM device includes a plurality of unit cells formed over a substrate to share a first well region in the substrate. Each of the plurality of unit cells includes a floating gate having a first part disposed over the first well region and a second part extending from the first part to have a stripe shape, a selection gate spaced apart from the floating gate and disposed to be parallel with the second part of the floating gate, and an active region disposed in the substrate to intersect the floating gate and the selection gate.
US09312013B1
A configuration method of erase operation, a memory controlling circuit unit, and a memory storage device are provided. The method includes: determining whether a first use state of a first physical unit conforms to a first default state; and if the first use state conforms to the first default state, adjusting a first erase operation corresponding to the first physical unit from using a first mode to a second mode. Thereby, a threshold voltage distribution of memory cells in an erase state may be maintained in a proper range.
US09312010B1
Techniques are provided for programming the memory cells of a drain-side edge word line of a set of word lines before programming memory cells of any other word line of the set. Pass voltages applied to the other word lines act as stress pulses which redistribute holes in the charge-trapping material of the memory cells of the other word lines to reduce short-term charge loss and downshifting of the threshold voltage. Additionally, one or more initial program voltages used for the drain-side edge word line are relatively low and also act as stress pulses. The memory cells of the drain-side edge word line are programmed to a narrower Vth window than the memory cells of the other word lines. This compensates for a higher level of program disturb of erased state memory cells of the drain-side edge word line due to reduced channel boosting.
US09311982B2
A highly reliable semiconductor device. In a configuration where a precharged source line is discharged to a bit line by establishing electrical continuity between the source line and the bit line through a transistor to read a potential retained at a gate of the transistor, the potential of the bit line is switched in accordance with a change in potential of the source line due to the discharge. With this configuration, the voltage between the source and drain of the transistor can be kept lower than a predetermined voltage by discharge. Accordingly, the source-drain voltage of the transistor can be kept lower than its breakdown voltage, so that the semiconductor device can have high reliability.
US09311975B1
A bi-synchronous electronic device may include a FIFO memory circuit, and a first digital circuit coupled to the FIFO memory circuit and configured to operate based upon a first clock signal, and write to the FIFO memory circuit based upon a write pointer. The bi-synchronous electronic device may include second digital circuit coupled to the FIFO memory circuit and configured to operate based upon a second clock signal different from the first clock signal, and read from the FIFO memory circuit based upon a read pointer. The FIFO memory circuit may be configured to detect a jump in the write pointer to a new position, determine jump candidates for the read pointer from a current position, select a jump candidate, and synchronize the read pointer based upon the selected jump candidate.
US09311973B2
An input buffer includes an amplifier circuit configured to amplify an input signal and output an amplified signal to a first output node. The input signal is amplified according to a first bias voltage set, at a bias node, to a first level based on a power supply voltage and a reference voltage. The input buffer includes an output circuit configured to receive and buffer the amplified signal and output an output signal to a second output node. The input buffer includes a dynamic bias voltage generator configured to change the first bias voltage to a second level in response to a transition of the output signal.
US09311971B1
Systems and methods are disclosed involving adaptive power up features for high-speed synchronous RAM. In one exemplary implementation, there is provided a semiconductor device including a memory cell, power circuitry, and an output buffer with level shifting circuitry. Moreover, the device may include power circuitry comprised of a first power up circuit and a second power up circuit and/or level shifting circuitry comprised of a pull up level shift circuit and a pull down level shift circuit. Other implementations and specific circuit configurations are also disclosed.
US09311962B2
A camera configured to generate audio/video signals, the camera including a recording unit configured to record the audio/video signals on a recording medium, a meta data generation processor configured to generate automatically meta data identifying the content of the audio/video signals in response to the audio/video signals, a wireless communications processor configured to communicate the meta data separately from the recording medium, and a communications interface configured to communicate the automatically generated meta data to a personal data processing apparatus and to receive user generated meta data from the personal data processing apparatus.
US09311955B2
Methods for adhering parts together using part gap spacers are provided herein. Part gap spacers are formed in a selected pattern and a selected height on a surface of at least one surface of two parts to be oppositely disposed. When disposed opposite each other, at least some of the part gap spacers contact the opposite surface, and establish a standoff distance that is generally uniform, and thereby creating voids. Adhesive is disposed in at least some of the voids to adhere the part surfaces to each other. Further methods comprise forming part gap spacers on multiple sides of a third part to be disposed intermediate two surfaces. The part gap spacers can be formed in a variety of shapes, including bumps, tapers, ribs, and flange edges.
US09311952B2
An apparatus for energy assisted magnetic recording of a storage disk includes a plurality of dielectric waveguide cores configured to receive incident light energy from an energy source and direct the incident light energy to a target, and a near field transducer (NFT) formed at an air bearing surface of a magnetic recording device. The NFT is configured to focus the light energy received from the plurality of waveguide cores and to transmit the focused light energy onto the storage disk surface to generate a heating spot on the storage disk. The NFT includes a plurality of propagating surface plasmon polariton (PSPP) elements configured as plasmonic metal ridges. Each of the PSPP elements has a width approximately equivalent to the width of the heating spot and is disposed above a surface of a single waveguide core in a longitudinal alignment.
US09311941B1
In an in-drive erase process for erasing disk surfaces of a hard disk drive, erase spirals are written on multiple disk surfaces and at a different write frequency than that of other data patterns on the disk surfaces. The erase spirals written on a first disk surface can be used to control an erase process on a portion of the remaining disk surfaces. Erase spirals are then written on a different disk surface and can then be used to erase all data on the first disk surface. Consequently, even when every disk surface includes previously written data patterns that can potentially interfere with control of the erase process, the erase spirals so written can control the erase process with sufficient precision to thoroughly erase each disk surface.
US09311938B1
A dual stage actuated suspension has microactuators that are adhered to the suspension by adhesive such as epoxy. The epoxy is contained within an adhesive containment vessel defined by walls of an insulating material such as polyimide. Adhesive overflow channels are formed within the polyimide to receive and channel any excess epoxy that overflows over the polyimide wall. The channels may have increasing width to help draw the excess epoxy toward a centrally located reservoir.
US09311937B2
Systems and methods are provided for calibrating signals retrieved from a storage device using a first reader and a second reader. The systems and methods further include reading a first signal using the first reader and a second signal using the second reader. Control circuitry computes a calibration metric associated with the first reader and the second reader based on the combination of the first signal and the second signal. At least one of the first signal and the second signal is subsequently decoded based in part on the computed calibration metric.
US09311933B2
A method of processing a voice segment includes checking whether a voice segment is a vowel segment. If the voice segment is not a vowel segment, then the process checks whether the voice segment is a high frequency consonant or a low frequency consonant. If the voice segment is a high frequency consonant, then the voice segment will be processed to lower its frequency.
US09311929B2
A speech analysis system uses one or more digital processors to reconstruct a speech signal by accurately extracting speech formants from a digitized version of the speech signal. The system extracts the formants by determining an estimated instantaneous frequency and an estimated instantaneous bandwidth of speech resonances of the digital version of the speech signal in real time. The system digitally filters the digital speech signal using a plurality of complex digital filters in parallel having overlapping bandwidths to ensure that substantially all of the bandwidth of the speech signal is covered. This virtual chain of overlapping complex digital filters produces a corresponding plurality of complex filtered signals. A first estimated frequency and a first estimated bandwidth is generated for each of the filtered signals, and speech resonances of the input speech signal are identified therefrom.
US09311926B2
Proposed is a method and apparatus for determining a weighting function for quantizing a linear predictive coding (LPC) coefficient and having a low complexity. The weighting function determination apparatus may convert an LPC coefficient of a mid-subframe of an input signal to one of a immitance spectral frequency (ISF) coefficient and a line spectral frequency (LSF) coefficient, and may determine a weighting function associated with an importance of the ISF coefficient or the LSF coefficient based on the converted ISF coefficient or LSF coefficient.
US09311920B2
Methods, apparatus, and systems for voice processing are provided herein. An exemplary method can be implemented by a terminal. A voice bit stream to be sent can be obtained. Voice control information corresponding to the voice bit stream to be sent can be obtained. The voice control information can be used for a voice server to determine a voice-mixing strategy. The voice bit stream and the voice control information can be sent to the voice server. At least one voice bit stream, returned by the voice server based on the voice-mixing strategy, can be received. The at least one voice bit stream can be outputted.
US09311919B2
Provided are an apparatus and method for coding and decoding a multi-object audio signal. The apparatus includes a down-mixer for down-mixing the audio signals into one down-mixed audio signal and extracting supplementary information including header information and spatial cue information for each of the audio signals, a coder for coding the down-mixed audio signal, and a supplementary information coder for generating the supplementary information as a bit stream. The header information includes identification information for each of the audio signals and channel information for the audio signals.
US09311918B2
Various technologies and techniques are disclosed for providing an autoresponder that allows subscribers to opt-in to one or more autoresponder campaigns using their spoken voice. Voice input is received from a subscriber and converted to text. The subscriber is added to at least one campaign. A contact communication identifier is stored in a subscriber contact record from the text that was converted from the voice input. One or more messages are sent to the subscriber using the contact communication identifier, and according to a schedule specified in the campaign. A virtual seminar playback system is described that simulates a live virtual seminar and allows subscribers to access a playback of a media recording over a communication connection at a specified time. An autoresponder system is described that delivers messages to subscribers in multiple available formats, based upon selections received by the subscribers.
US09311913B2
According to a first example configuration, a pair of text-to-speech synthesizers produces audio representations for each of multiple words. The outputs are compared to identify instances in which a lexicon lookup algorithm and a grapheme-to-phoneme algorithm produce different audio representations for the same words. Results of the analysis are used to train a classifier that subsequently determines a degree to which a grapheme-to-phoneme algorithm is likely to detect a newly detected out-of-vocabulary word to be converted into an audio representation. According to a second example configuration, a text analyzer tags a non-standard word. A group of reviewers generate one or more proposed text-to-speech expansion rules for a detected non-standard word. When there is a high amount of agreement amongst the reviewers how to expand the non-standard word, the proposed expansion rule is published for use by respective one or more text-to-speech synthesizers.
US09311911B2
A method and apparatus provide live call text-to-speech. The method can include entering an ongoing voice call at a first communication device with a second communication device. The method can include receiving text input at the first communication device during the ongoing voice call. The method can include converting the text input to speech during the ongoing voice call to generate a text-to-speech audible signal. The method can include sending the text-to-speech audible signal from the first communication device to the second communication device during the ongoing voice call.
US09311905B2
An installation structure for an acoustic transducer for vibrating a vibrated body of a musical instrument in a first direction for permitting the vibrated body to generate sounds, including: the acoustic transducer having a main body and a vibrating portion that vibrates in the first direction; a support portion to be fixed to a housing of the musical instrument for supporting the main body; and a cover member fixed to the support portion for covering the acoustic transducer, wherein the support portion includes a base plate portion to be held in surface contact with the housing so as to be fixed thereto, a first fixing portion to which the main body is fixed and which supports the main body, and a second fixing portion to which the cover member is fixed, and wherein the first and second fixing portions are connected to the base plate portion independently of each other.
US09311903B1
An adjustable and foldable shoulder rest for a violin or viola includes a shoulder-engaging body having first and second foldable forks at first and second ends of the body for attaching to the violin or viola, first and second slidable end members for supporting the first and second forks, the first and second slidable end members being slidable between retracted and extended position, wherein the first and second slidable end members each comprises a pull-tab adjustment mechanism for relocating a protrusion shaped to engage one of a first plurality of apertures disposed in a slot. The shoulder rest may have a foam cushion with openings attached to the shoulder-engaging side of the shoulder rest. The end members may define rotational housings for receiving respective rotatable drums that receive threaded stems of the forks, thereby enabling the height of the forks to be adjusted and further enabling the forks to fold.
US09311902B2
A method of fabricating a bow stick includes winding a prepreg, in which a fiber is impregnated with a resin, on a mandrel with a diameter gradually decreasing toward a distal end, setting a semi-fabricated product, in which the prepreg is wound on the mandrel, into a mold and molding the semi-fabricated product in a shape corresponding to a cavity formed between the mold and the mandrel by heating and pressurizing the semi-fabricated product in the mold, and taking out the mandrel from a molded product molded in the shape corresponding to the cavity to acquire a long and hollow stick body. When adjusting at least one of a weight distribution, a center of gravity, and a weight of the stick body, the volume of the cavity is changed using the mandrel of which the diameter or the diameter variation is gradually changed in an axis direction.
US09311900B2
Embodiments of the invention relate to detecting and describing visible features of a data set on a visualization. Visible features among a set of data in a view-space are detected. The visible features include potential data clusters and trends. These visual features are characterized using data-space. The characterized detected features are overlaid on visualization for supporting interaction and exploration of the data. Detected features are explored across two or more clusters for comparison of select data.
US09311883B2
The technology provides embodiments for recalibration of outward facing cameras supported by a see-through, head mounted, mixed reality display system having a flexible portion between see-through displays for the eyes. Each outward facing camera has a fixed spatial relationship with a respective or corresponding see-through display positioned to be seen through by a respective eye. For front facing cameras, the fixed spatial relationship allows a predetermined mapping between positions on an image sensor of each camera and positions on the respective display. The mapping may be used to register a position of a virtual object to a position of a real object. A change in a first flexible spatial relationship between the outward facing cameras can be automatically detected. A second spatial relationship between the cameras is determined. A registration of a virtual object to a real object may be updated based on the second spatial relationship.
US09311875B2
A display device includes pixels respectively arranged in areas defined by gate lines and data lines, a gate driver that drives the gate lines in response to a gate pulse signal, a data driver that drives the data lines in response to a clock signal and a data signal, and a timing controller that applies the clock signal and the data signal to the data driver and the gate pulse signal to the gate driver in response to an image signal and a control signal. The timing controller periodically changes a pulse width of each of the gate pulse signal and the clock signal.
US09311874B2
A power connection structure of a driver IC chip including a first power terminal unit formed on one side thereof, a second power terminal unit formed on the other side thereof, and a dummy power terminal unit formed between the first power terminal unit and the second power terminal unit. The driver IC chip is mounted to a liquid crystal panel of a liquid crystal display device in a chip-on-glass (COG) type. Both of the first power terminal unit and the dummy power terminal unit and both of the dummy power terminal unit and the second power terminal unit are connected through routing lines in the driver IC chip.
US09311873B2
The present disclosure relates to a technical field of liquid crystal display, and particularly, to a polarity inversion driving method for a liquid crystal display panel, a driving apparatus and a display device. In the method, each of frames is divided into M polarity arrangement units in a same way, and every 2×M×N frames form one inversion driving period; in each of half inversion driving periods, there exists x, 0
US09311871B2
The present disclosure relates to various techniques, systems, devices, and methods for driving high resolution monitors while reducing artifacts thereon. Data may be stored on pixels of a display such that a first half of the pixels of the display (e.g., arranged in a checkerboard fashion) have data of a first polarity stored on them during a first half of a frame, then a second half of the pixels of the display have data of a second polarity stored on them during a second half of the frame. In such an arrangement, the polarity used to provide data to the pixels may be switched only one time during each frame. The data provided to drive the second half of pixels may be inverted relative to the first half of pixels. The display may use the dot inversion method to provide overall good image quality, yet operate with reduced power consumption.
US09311870B2
A driving apparatus and a display panel are provided. The display panel includes M*2N pixels, N data driving units, 2M scan lines and 2N data lines. The M*2N pixels are arranged as an M*2N matrix. M and N are positive integers. Each scan line is electrically coupled to N pixels in the same row. Each data driving unit is electrically coupled to two data lines that are not adjacent to each other.
US09311848B2
An organic light emitting display and a driving method thereof, which can effectively detect degradation information of pixels in a display. An organic light emitting display includes a pixel unit and a degradation detector. The pixel unit has a plurality of pixels positioned at intersection portions of scan lines and data lines. The degradation detector divides the pixel unit into a plurality of first blocks each including a plurality of pixels, and detects degradation information for each second block including a plurality of first blocks. In the degradation detector, the second blocks are divided so that each second block shares one or more first blocks with another second block adjacent thereto.
US09311847B2
A modular multi-panel display system includes a mechanical support structure, an array of light emitting diode (LED) display panels arranged in rows and columns and mounted to the mechanical support structure so as to form an integrated display. A receiver box is mounted to the mechanical support, where the receiver box is housed in a housing that is separate from housings of each of the led display panels. The receiver box includes a receiver card coupled to feed data to be displayed on the integrated display to a plurality of the led display panels, where the receiver box includes a network interface card configured to receive data from a control box disposed at a remote location. A monitoring circuit is disposed within the receiver box, where the monitoring circuit is configured to generate an operational data of the array of LED display panels, where the network interface card is configured to send the operational data from the monitoring circuit to a monitoring server.
US09311846B2
A display apparatus and control method are provided. The display apparatus includes a transparent display panel, an image processor that processes an image signal to display an image on the transparent display panel based on the processed image signal, a sensor which senses a user located in front of and behind the transparent display panel. The display apparatus includes a controller that determines by the sensor whether a user is located in front of, or behind, the transparent display panel if the image is displayed on the transparent display panel to be normally recognized by a user located in front of the transparent display panel. The controller controls the image processor to selectively display on the transparent display panel a reverse image of the image to be normally recognized by a user located behind the transparent display panel according to the determination.
US09311842B2
A display device includes: a display panel including a display area, and a peripheral area disposed in the vicinity of the display area; a scan driver including a plurality of stages integrated on the peripheral area; a plurality of gate lines connected to the plurality of stages, respectively; and a plurality of pixel rows in the display area and connected with the plurality of gate lines, respectively. The plurality of stages and the plurality of pixel rows are each arranged in a first direction in a line, the peripheral area includes a fan-out region between the plurality of stages and the plurality of pixel rows, and at least one of the plurality of gate lines in the fan-out region is inclined with respect to the first direction, and a second direction perpendicular to the first direction.
US09311834B2
Disclosed is a display module including a transparent display panel and a frame to fix a side of the transparent display panel, wherein the frame has a communication unit to receive data from the outside, a controller to process the received data and to output a drive command corresponding to the processed data and a display drive unit to drive the transparent display panel in response to the drive command from the controller. A display system includes a system body and a display module detachably mounted in the system body.
US09311833B2
A trailer with display screen storage and support includes infrastructure necessary to store, support and adjust the position and orientation of a large display screen displaying audio/video programming. The trailer has a bed facilitating storage of screen sections on one side of a telescoping support. A portion of the roof is attached to the telescoping support so the telescoping support emerges from within the trailer by lifting the roof portion integrated with the telescoping support. The screen display is separable into top and bottom halves, the top half affixed to the telescoping support and the bottom half separable from the top half and laterally movable to and from a storage position and to and from a position at which it may be releasably connected to the top half of the screen display. The screen display may have ends pivotable from extended to retracted configurations with respect to a center section.
US09311832B2
A plate-like member mounting device 1 supports a front panel 14 with use of panel supporting portions 23 and a damper 12 of a base panel 11. The damper 12 is subjected to first-level deformation with a small thrust in the vertical direction, and after that, is subjected to second-level deformation with a large thrust. The damper 12 is deformed in the first direction with a thrust in a first direction, and supports the front panel 14 from a back surface side of the front panel 14 while the damper 12 is being subjected to the first-level deformation.
US09311828B2
A navigation device includes a route searching unit for searching for a route leading to an arbitrary point on the basis of map data acquired by a map data acquiring unit, an HOV lane determining unit for determining whether or not an HOV lane is included in the route which the route searching unit has searched for, a predicted arrival time calculating unit for, when the HOV lane determining unit determines that an HOV lane is included in the route, calculating a predicted arrival time required to arrive at the arbitrary point by way of the route which is shorter than a time required to arrive at the arbitrary point by way of a route in which no HOV lane is included, and a display processing unit for displaying the predicted arrival time calculated by the predicted arrival time calculating unit.
US09311816B2
Magnetometers under the road surface detect variations in the vertical and longitudinal horizontal components of the magnetic field over time in response to passing vehicles. A trajectory of these components in the phase space of these field components is regularized to obtain a magnetic signature. Magnetic signatures are compared using cross-correlation over arc length to identify vehicles. Inductance sensors can be used to detect vehicles and help determine the beginning and end of magnetic signatures.
US09311808B2
A monitoring device of a monitoring system includes a control, an alarm, a first sensor for detecting motion higher than a first predetermined height, a second sensor for detecting, on a floor of a building, motion lower than a second predetermined height, and a third sensor means for detecting an arrival in a sleeping place and a departure from the sleeping place. When the most recent motion detection fed by the third sensor to the control is the arrival in the sleeping place, the control controls the alarm to give an alarm if a predetermined first delay, beginning at the arrival in the sleeping place, is filled before information about the departure from the sleeping place has been received from the third sensor. After the third sensor has detected the departure from the sleeping place, the control controls the alarm to give an alarm if the control receives no motion detections from the first sensor and the second sensor during a predetermined second delay.
US09311805B2
An electronic communication unit such as a mobile phone comprises a processor for operating said unit; and an ambient air quality monitoring sensor; characterized in that said processor is configured to operate said unit in a first mode of operation during which a) monitoring of said air quality occurs and a level of air quality is assessed against pre-determined levels; and b) ordinary communication routines are activated provided an acceptable category of pre-determined levels is identified; and in a second mode of operation during which a) monitoring of said air quality occurs and a level of air quality is assessed against pre-determined levels; and b) an alarm routine is launched interrupting the ordinary communication routines once a level of ambient air quality is assessed to warrant the user's attention.
US09311801B2
A system, apparatus and method for alerting an emergency responder to an emergency, which includes a processor obtaining data from at least one sensor, determining, that the data indicates an emergency condition, based on the determining, obtaining location information and a unique identifier, and communicating the location information and the unique identifier to a node via a network connection.
US09311795B2
A computer-implemented method for remote presence security is described. In one embodiment, an event is detected in relation to a premises. Upon detecting the event, a location of an occupant of the premises is determined in relation to the premises. Upon determining the occupant is a predetermined distance away from the premises, a first type of notification is sent. The first type of notification includes a display of real-time video being captured at the premises.
US09311773B2
Table game tournament systems can include player terminal(s), electronic gaming table(s), and/or a remote server. A player terminal can have an outer housing, a controller located therewithin or thereabout, input and output component(s), and a communications interface to an outside gaming network having other functionally similar gaming device(s), gaming table(s), and a remote server. The controller and/or server can facilitate providing tournament information to a player, which information can include whether the player would qualify for the next tournament round, who is the most serious opponent to the player, and/or the chip difference therebetween. A terminal can also facilitate asynchronous and individually paced tournament play, switching between different tournament tables on demand, and play of other non-tournament table games thereat simultaneously with the play of the table game tournament. Portable computing devices can be used as player terminals and can permit players to play in actual or practice play-along modes.
US09311770B2
The patent involves the use of a portable device with a universal serial bus connector and memory which can store the unique biometrics of its registered owner for the purposes of identification; record the biometrics of any person attempting to use the device; confirm whether the user is the registered owner of the device; control access to electronic devices; monitor and record the operational activity of its user; store pre-defined value, duration and budgetary constraints; compare activity to pre-defined values, durations and budgetary constraints; store monetary value; visually indicate when operative; be electronically locked and de-activated; and connect and communicate directly or remotely to other electronic devices.The device can be used for example in the identification and elimination of problem gamblers from gambling devices/services while either physically present at a gambling venue or through remote access via the internet, interactive television, intranets, extranets, telephones or other digital communication services.
US09311763B2
A method for vehicle data management according to embodiments of the present invention includes receiving an accelerometer signal from an accelerometer mounted in a vehicle, determining an accelerometer specific force based on the accelerometer signal, receiving a speed signal from a speed sensor or GPS or other source on the vehicle, wherein the speed signal indicates a speed of the vehicle, determining an instantaneous acceleration of the vehicle by calculating a rate of change of the speed based on the speed signal, selecting a current observed acceleration as a lower value of the accelerometer specific force and the instantaneous acceleration, capturing video footage with a camera mounted on the vehicle, and flagging the video footage corresponding to a time when the current observed acceleration exceeds a preset safe force value.
US09311762B2
The present invention relates to a mobile communication system having a safe driving system central micro-processor which interfaces with a vehicle's controller area network or CAN BUS network and communicates between multiple transceiver micro controllers and their respective and discrete modules to remotely monitor a vehicle's operation and remotely execute commands to the vehicle.
US09311760B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for unmanned aerial vehicle authorization and geofence envelope determination. One of the methods includes maintaining, in a datastore, flight operation information associated with UAV flight operations. A request to generate a risk assessment report is received, with the request including aspects of a UAV flight operation, with the risk assessment report describing risk associated with each aspect. Flight operation information accessed from the datastore is analyzed. Performance characteristics are determined based at least in part on the analysis of the flight operation information, with the performance characteristics including information that can inform, or affect, a safe or functional UAV flight operation. Risk assessments for each aspects in the request are determined using the performance characteristics. The risk assessment report is generated using the determined risk assessments.
US09311759B2
A method for improving fuel economy on a passenger jet aircraft comprises automatically receiving a communication from the aircraft to a ground station comprising at least one subsystem operating parameter measured during the current flight, detecting whether the operating parameter meets predetermined criteria and, if the criteria are met, automatically sending a communication to indicate the aircraft's status for a next flight. If the criteria are not met, a status of the aircraft is automatically changed and a communication is sent. Other methods and systems are also described.
US09311757B2
A movement distance estimating device includes: a memory; and a processor coupled to the memory and configured to: determine, based on a first image and a second image included in images captured by an image capture device mounted on a moving body, an amount of relative movement of the moving body between a first time point at which the first image is captured and a second time point at which the second image is captured, determine a scale for the amount of relative movement, based on a relation in a three-dimensional space between a road surface and a spatial point corresponding to a feature point in an area other than a road-surface area in at least one image of the captured images, and determine a movement distance of the moving body between the first and second time points, based on the amount of relative movement and the scale.
US09311755B2
A smart object represents a 3D graphics object whose control points are disclosed to a user. The control points are displayed for a user to use in performing simple and complex transformations on the 3D graphics object. The control points are positioned in areas where transformations are more likely to be made by a user. A transformation may be an action along one or more axes of the object, such as, rotation, scaling, and translation. The user may utilize the control points to perform a series of transformations that create a particular 3D graphics object without requiring expertise in the 3D graphics modeling application.
US09311749B2
The present invention relates to a computer implemented method for controlling an image processing apparatus configured for forming an optimized polygon based shell mesh for a three-dimensional graphics image. The present invention also relates to a corresponding image processing apparatus and a computer program product.
US09311747B2
When generating an approximate right prism model, an approximate right prism model generating unit 14 expresses a hierarchical relationship among original right prism models and approximate right prism models which can be generated by using a tree structure, and generates only a right prism model existing in certain and higher hierarchical layers from among approximate right prism models respectively brought into correspondence with the nodes in the tree structure. Therefore, a three-dimensional virtual environment can be rendered at a high speed and with a high degree of quality even when no large-volume storage unit is installed.
US09311740B2
A method for providing tomosynthesis 3-D volume image data, executed at least in part on a computer, acquires a number of radiographic projection images of a subject over a range of angles. Reconstructed volume image data is generated from the acquired projection images. A number of regions of interest are defined within the reconstructed volume image data, wherein each region of interest has a number of image voxels. Image voxel data values are conditioned within at least one of the regions of interest to enhance contrast within the at least one region of interest. The conditioned image voxel data values are adjusted within the at least one of the regions of interest according to interpolation with two or more neighboring regions of interest. An image slice having at least a plurality of the adjusted image voxel data values is displayed.
US09311738B2
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for rendering paths by first generating a stencil buffer indicating pixels of the path that should be covered and then covering the path. The paths may be filled or stroked without tessellating the paths. Path rendering may be accelerated when a graphics processing unit or other processor that is configured to perform operations to generate the stencil buffer and cover the path to fill or stroke the path.
US09311735B1
A region of an image on which a content aware fill operation is to be performed is identified by a device, the content aware fill operation replacing pixel values in the region based on pixel values from one or more other regions. The device generates a reduced-size version of the image by down sampling the image, and sends the reduced-size version of the image to a remote service. The remote service generates a mapping indicating which pixels in the reduced-size version of the image are to be used as the values of which other pixels in the region of the reduced-size version of the image. The mapping is compressed and returned to the device. The device decompresses the mapping and up samples the mapping. An output image is generated based on the originally obtained image, the up sampled mapping, and an indication of the region.
US09311731B2
A method and system in a computer system for dynamically providing a graphical representation of a data store of entries via a matrix interface is disclosed. A dynamic graph system provides a matrix interface that exposes to an application program a graphical representation of data stored in a data store such as a semantic database storing triples. To the application program, the matrix interface represents the graph as a sparse adjacency matrix that is stored in compressed form. Each entry of the data store is considered to represent a link between nodes of the graph. Each entry has a first field and a second field identifying the nodes connected by the link and a third field with a value for the link that connects the identified nodes. The first, second, and third fields represent the rows, column, and elements of the adjacency matrix.
US09311727B2
A tennis swing movement analyzing apparatus of the present invention includes an acquisition unit configured to acquire sampling data obtained by sampling a swing movement of a tennis racket by a user; a calculation unit configured to, based on the sampling data, calculate an indicator selected from among the velocity, the acceleration, the angular velocity, and the position of the tennis racket or a ball hit by the tennis racket and an arbitrary combination thereof; and a screen creation unit configured to create a GUI screen displaying a graph area that is divided into a plurality of areas respectively indicating types of swings and displaying the indicator in the graph area.
US09311724B2
The present invention relates to a handheld computerized device with a bit mapped display screen on the front panel, and a touchpad installed in an alternative location. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and graphical user interface that can, for example, enable the user to see the user's finger position and motion from behind the device superimposed upon a virtual keyboard layout on the front panel. This can allow the user to use a touchpad keypad on the back of the device to input keystrokes and mouse actions, and these will be reflected on the display screen on the front of the handheld computerized device as “virtual fingers” or equivalent. The system operates by inputting touchpad data into a software biomechanical and anatomical model of the human hand, optionally supplemented by video or image information to refine this model.
US09311717B2
A system for processing a breast image is described. A glandular tissue contour detector (1) is arranged for detecting a contour (407) of a glandular tissue (303) represented in the breast image (310), the glandular tissue detector (1) detecting the contour of a region within the image that comprises the mammary glands of a breast (301) represented in the breast image (310).The glandular tissue contour detector (1) comprises a concave hull determiner (2) for determining a concave hull of the region to obtain the contour (407).A display unit (3) is arranged for displaying the breast image (310) with the contour (407) superimposed.
US09311704B2
The ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus including a cross-section region image constituting unit configured to constitute a cross-section region image at a diagnosis portion of a diagnosing object through an ultrasound probe, an elasticity information calculating unit configured to calculate elasticity information indicating hardness, an elasticity image constituting unit configured to constitute an elasticity image based on the elasticity information calculated at the elasticity information calculating unit, and an image display unit configured to display the cross-section region image and the elasticity image, includes a temporal variation analyzing unit configured to analyze temporal variation at respective measurement points from the elasticity information calculated at the elasticity information calculating unit and a temporal variation image constituting unit configured to constitute a temporal variation image based on the temporal variation analyzed at the temporal variation analyzing unit, and the image display unit displays the temporal variation image.
US09311690B2
In techniques for video denoising using optical flow, image frames of video content include noise that corrupts the video content. A reference frame is selected, and matching patches to an image patch in the reference frame are determined from within the reference frame. A noise estimate is computed for previous and subsequent image frames relative to the reference frame. The noise estimate for an image frame is computed based on optical flow, and is usable to determine a contribution of similar motion patches to denoise the image patch in the reference frame. The similar motion patches from the previous and subsequent image frames that correspond to the image patch in the reference frame are determined based on the optical flow computations. The image patch is denoised based on an average of the matching patches from reference frame and the similar motion patches determined from the previous and subsequent image frames.
US09311684B2
A lens processing management system (1) includes: a processing device (20) which processes lenses; a data supply device (10) which can supply design data to the processing device; and a control means (24) which limits the processing of lenses using the design data in the processing device.
US09311682B2
Systems and methods to identify candidates for targeted advertising in an online social gaming environment are disclosed. Example methods include generating a network graph representative of relationships between users associated with an online social gaming environment, the relationships based on connections between the users. Example methods also include collecting first social gaming data corresponding to participation by a first user and a second user in the online social gaming environment during a first period of time. The example methods further include calculating a first degree of influence of the first user of the online social gaming environment on the second user of the online social gaming environment, the first degree of influence based on the first social gaming data.
US09311680B2
Provided is an emotion information generating apparatus that is capable of recognizing a user's emotional state for each function of a terminal. The emotion information generating apparatus detects a user's emotional state and maps the user's emotional state to a function of the terminal, thus creating emotion information.
US09311673B2
A securities processor includes non-volatile storage, a first-in-first-out queue maintained in the non-volatile storage to store events, a random access memory, and an order book maintained in the random access memory to store one or more events corresponding to quotes or outstanding orders related to a security. A matching process receives the events from the queue, determines whether the event can be matched with a contra-side event stored in the order book, and executes a transaction between the received event and a matched contra side event if a match is found.
US09311672B2
A method is provided comprising receiving, at a first node, transactional data associated with a consumer (wherein the first node comprises a processor and a tangible, non-transitory memory), receiving, at the first node, a credit approval request associated with the consumer, wherein the credit approval request is associated with a proposed transaction, determining, by the first node, whether the transactional data conforms with the proposed transaction, and at least one of approving and denying the credit approval request in response to the determination.
US09311669B2
A system and method for providing online commerce that includes at an online commerce platform, configuring a product profile for selling; providing a URI link of the online commerce platform that is unique to the product profile; at the online commerce platform, receiving an HTTP request to the link; identifying a referral channel of the HTTP request; conditionally selecting a product purchase interface mode from a set of interface modes at least in part based on the referral channel; transmitting a response of the selected product purchase interface mode in reply to the HTTP request; and at the purchase interface, completing a purchase from the product purchase interface.
US09311663B2
An exemplary method includes a media content location system 1) detecting a geographic location of a mobile device associated with a user, 2) determining, based on the detected geographic location of the mobile device, that a media content instance designated as being of interest to the user is available for vending at a media content store that is within a geographic vicinity of the mobile device, 3) directing the mobile device to present a graphical depiction of the geographic vicinity of the mobile device, and 4) directing the mobile device to present a graphical object representative of the media content instance within the graphical depiction of the geographic vicinity at a position that corresponds to a geographic location of the media content store. Corresponding methods and systems are also disclosed.
US09311661B1
An estimated conversion rate for a desired advertisement term is calculated. A total number of conversion events for terms having a conversion rate is determined for each of a plurality of conversion rates, and data is generated that describes a first distribution function representing the conversion rates and the associated numbers of conversion rates. Additionally, data describing a second distribution function representing the probability of a given number of conversion events occurring is also generated. Based at least in part on the first distribution function and the second distribution function, the estimated conversion rate for the desired advertisement term is computed.
US09311651B2
Identity-Media Measurement Model (IMMM), schema, table, database or other electronically transferable form for reporting, measuring, quantifying or otherwise representing user metrics, values, etc. with respect to advertisements or other electronically interfaced propositions is contemplated. The IMMM may provide a ubiquitous tool for correlating information collected with a Media Event Data Model (MEDM) and a Media Measurement Data Model (MMDM) to represent user activities during media playback.
US09311648B2
An advertisement server device 1 includes: a bid advertisement frame display means 34 for generating a bid information registration page 500 for causing an advertiser terminal device 3-k to display one or more advertisement frames each of which corresponds to a search word and has a specified display position on a search result page 800, together with a bid status of each of the advertisement frames; a bid amount acceptance means 35 for accepting a bid amount for each advertisement placement period, for a designated advertisement frame; and a successful bid determination means 37 for, at a time of accepting a search word transmitted from a user terminal device 2-k, determining that the advertisement frame is successfully bid with a highest bid amount included in bid information whose advertisement placement period contains the time, from among bid information stored for the advertisement frame. This makes it possible to provide an advertisement server device that can easily display an advertisement in a manner better suited to the advertiser's needs, when displaying an advertisement within a page for displaying search results based on an entered search word or the like.
US09311636B2
A mobile payment method to be implemented using an electronic device includes: receiving transaction information, establishing wireless short-range communication with a mobile device provided with a payment card, during the wireless short-range communication, transmitting the transaction information to the mobile device and receiving a payment command generated based on the transaction information from the mobile device, transmitting the payment command to a payment institution server, and receiving a payment result therefrom. The payment command enables the payment institution server to identify validity of the payment card and to process the payment. The payment result is generated after completing the payment.
US09311628B2
An appointment having an associated appointment location and a reminder time is received. The method also includes tracking a current location and a travel time, the travel time comprising an estimated amount of time for travel from the current location to the appointment location. Further, the method includes adjusting the reminder time to accommodate the travel time. Furthermore, the method includes activating an event reminder in accordance with the adjusted reminder time.
US09311621B2
Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to collaborative information object management and provide a method, system and computer program product for annotating collaborative information structures. In an embodiment of the invention, a method for annotating collaborative information structures can be provided. The method can include creating a collaborative information structure document (ISD) with each of an object section and an annotation section, adding a collaborative object in a collaborative computing environment to the object section of the collaborative ISD, adding an annotation for the collaborative ISD to the annotation section of the collaborative ISD, and storing the collaborative ISD for use as a collaborative object in the collaborative computing environment.
US09311618B2
A system and method are described for storing and transmitting a sequence of presentations for display on a viewer's computer. A viewer interface is configured to receive a request to access the presentation and to transmit a script to the viewer's computer responsive to receipt of the request. An output module is configured to establish a state where a current presentation in the sequence is presented. The output module presents the first item to the viewer's computer in response to the request to receive the current item. The viewer interface is further configured to present the second item to the viewer's computer. The first presentation item corresponds to a first content of a first content type and the second presentation item corresponds to a second content of a second content type, the first content type being different from the second content type.
US09311617B2
A process analysis system processes event data describing real-world processes. The process analysis system performs the following acts: importing event instance data sets from an information management system, each set having one or more attributes describing an event instance in the real-world process; for each event instance, determining a corresponding process instance based on at least the attributes; determining event order attribute(s) for each imported event instance data set based on other event instance data sets corresponding to the same process instance; forming an analysis result set based on at least the event instance data sets and at least one first or second attribute; the client(s) presenting an analysis utilizing the analysis result set.
US09311610B2
A method for managing information relating to a change deployment in order to communicate some or all the information to a plurality of users includes providing an interface to users at workstations accessible by the users, receiving information comprising a plurality of messages from users communicating via the workstations during a change deployment session, initiating display of at least one of the messages to the users via the interface, initiating display of task data to the users via the interface, the task data corresponding to at least one task necessary for completing the change deployment, logging event data related to a plurality of events associated with the change deployment conference session, the event data comprising task status data indicating the status of the at least one task necessary for completing the change deployment, and initiating display of at least some of the event data to the users via the interface.
US09311602B2
Disclosed techniques include generating a plurality of questions, each question based upon one or more conditions of a plurality of conditions, wherein the plurality of conditions are generated a plurality of business rules associated with a forward changing rule engine; identifying, as a side effect of evaluating the plurality of business rules for outcome data, missing information corresponding to the plurality of questions; and selecting, for presentation to a user, a first question of the plurality of questions to elicit the missing information from the user.
US09311579B2
A printer includes a first sensor configured to identify a section to be identified of a movable tray. A computer in the printer drives a motor in a direction where the movable tray heads to a supplying position and stops driving the motor when an impact, where the drive load on the motor exceeds a threshold due to the movable tray hitting a separating mechanism which is at the supplying position, is detected. In addition, the computer drives the motor in a direction where the movable tray heads to a setting position, and stops driving the motor and arranges the movable tray at the setting position when the first sensor is on due to the section to be identified being identified.
US09311572B2
A portable electronic device comprises a card holding device and a card reader for introducing and removing a card into and from the card reader in at least two different directions being angled in relation to each other during introduction and removal of the card.
US09311571B2
An electronic device includes a housing and an electronic card connector. The peripheral sidewall defines a through hole. The electronic card connector includes a tray, a fixing member, a push rod and a connecting rod. The tray defines a defined space for receiving an electronic card and at least one notch. The fixing member includes at least one elastic arm having a hook. The push rod partially passes through the through hole and protrudes from of the housing. The at least one connecting rod connects the second end to the at least one elastic arm. When the at least one hook engages with the at least one notch, the tray is engaged with the housing, and when the push rod is driven to disengage the at least one hook from the at least one notch, the tray is disengaged from the housing.
US09311570B2
An apparatus for segmentation of medical image data comprises a data processing unit for obtaining a first set of image data and a second set of image data, wherein a structure is represented in both the first set of image data and the second set of image data, a classification unit configured to determine a classification of a first type of feature from the first set of image data and to determine a classification of a second type of feature from the second set of image data, and a segmentation unit configured to identify image data representing the structure in dependence on both the classification of the first type of feature from the first set of image data and the classification of the second type of feature from the second set of image data.
US09311569B2
A method by a computer includes generating polylines based on a sequence of values contained in performance trace data from a software source on a host machine node. Segments of the polylines are generated. Separate ones of the segments are categorized based on patterns of the polylines of the separate ones of the segments. For the separate ones of the segments, compressed data is generated that approximates values contained in the performance trace data corresponding to the polylines of the segment while regulating a level of fidelity of the approximations based on the categorization of the segment. The compressed data is stored in a log repository.
US09311565B2
A method, performed by a mobile communication device, may include capturing one or more images from a depth camera, wherein the one or more images include depth information. The method may further include generating an initial sculpture for an entity in the captured one or more images; performing a ray casting process on the generated initial sculpture using the depth information; and deforming the initial sculpture based on the ray casting process to generate a sculpture for the entity.
US09311560B2
Embodiments described herein use depth images to extract user behavior, wherein each depth image specifies that a plurality of pixels correspond to a user. In certain embodiments, information indicative of an angle and/or curvature of a user's body is extracted from a depth image. This can be accomplished by fitting a curve to a portion of a plurality of pixels (of the depth image) that correspond to the user, and determining the information indicative of the angle and/or curvature of the user's body based on the fitted curve. An application is then updated based on the information indicative of the angle and/or curvature of the user's body. In certain embodiments, one or more average extremity positions of a user, which can also be referred to as average positions of extremity blobs, are extracted from a depth image. An application is then updated based on the average positions of extremity blobs.
US09311557B2
A rectangular moving image region is determined using a simple configuration. When the difference between the representative value of a unit block and the representative value of the same unit block in a comparative frame exceeds a threshold, moving unit block judgment means 5 judges that the unit block is a moving unit block. Moving column block determination means 7 defines a set of unit blocks included in a column including a certain unit block as a column block and, if a column block includes a moving unit block, determines the column block as a moving column block. When a row block includes a moving unit block, moving row block determination means 9 determines the row block as a moving column block. First rectangular moving image region determination means 11 determines, as a rectangular moving image region, a rectangular region specified by unit blocks included in both the moving row block and the moving column block.
US09311555B2
Architecture for real-time extraction of maximally stable extremal regions (MSERs) is disclosed. The architecture includes a communication interface and processing circuitry that are configured in hardware to receive a data stream of an intensity image in real-time and provide labels for light image regions and dark image regions within the intensity image that match a given intensity threshold during a single processing pass. The communication interface and processing circuitry are also configured in hardware to find extremal regions within the intensity image based upon the labels and to determine MSER ellipses parameters based upon the extremal regions and MSER criteria. In at least one embodiment, the MSER criteria include minimum and maximum MSER areas, and an acceptable growth rate value for MSER areas. In another embodiment, the MSER criteria include a nested MSER tolerance value.
US09311550B2
A device and a method for image processing include an image processing device that may extract a foreground moving object from a depth map of a three-dimensional (3D) image that may include an image depth map acquirer to obtain the depth map of a successive 3D image over a period of time, a moving object segmenter to segment a moving object from the obtained depth map, and a moving object tracker to identify and track the segmented moving object.
US09311541B2
People are counted in a segment of video with a video processing system that is configured with a first set of parameters. This produces a first output. Based on this first output, a second set of parameters is chosen. People are then counted in the segment of video using the second set of parameters. This produces a second output. People are counted with a video played forward. People are counted with a video played backwards. The results of these two counts are reconciled to produce a more accurate people count.
US09311539B1
Concepts and technologies described herein provide for the detection of aircraft contrails through the identification of contrail shadows in real time imagery provided during a flight. According to one aspect of the disclosure provided herein, an antisolar point is located on a surface from the perspective of the aircraft in flight. Real time imagery encompassing the antisolar point is received and analyzed for a contrail indicator. When the contrail indicator is detected, it is determined that the aircraft is creating a contrail.
US09311533B2
A method for detecting the presence of a logo in a current picture of a video is disclosed. The method comprises: determining a current candidate logo bounding box in the current picture and a preceding candidate logo bounding box in a picture preceding the current picture; detecting the presence of a logo in the current picture if at least one of the following conditions is fulfilled: the distance between the centers of the current and the preceding candidate logo bounding boxes is below a first threshold or an overlap between the current and the preceding candidate logo bounding boxes is above a second threshold; or an overlap between the current candidate logo bounding box and a saliency mask of the current picture is above a third, wherein the saliency mask identifies regions around saliency peaks.
US09311525B2
A method, performed in an electronic device, for connecting to a target device is disclosed. The method includes capturing an image including a face of a target person associated with the target device and recognizing an indication of the target person. The indication of the target person may be a pointing object, a speech command, and/or any suitable input command. The face of the target person in the image is detected based on the indication and at least one facial feature of the face in the image is extracted. Based on the at least one facial feature, the electronic device is connected to the target device.
US09311521B2
A method for differentiating areas in a series of digital images, the method comprising the steps of: providing a series of images comprising undetermined marker areas; evaluating every image 1n for 1≦n≦N according to predetermined selection criteria and defining image marker areas as undetermined marker areas fulfilling the predetermined selection criteria; providing a new image 1new; and inserting new image marker areas in the new image 1new, said new image marker areas having the same shape and location as image marker areas present in image 1n but not in image 1n−1, and said new image marker areas being identifiable in 1new by a unique feature. Further, the application discloses a method for visualizing cell populations in tissue sections of a histological sample. Further, the application discloses a method for visualizing three-dimensional distribution of multiple cell populations in a histological sample.
US09311514B2
A barcode scanner which uses different wavelengths of light to produce different fields of view. An example barcode scanner includes a plurality of light devices each having a different wavelength of light and each associated with a different field of view for illuminating an item with a barcode, a plurality of waveband mirrors each reflecting one of the different wavelengths of light from the light devices and transmitting other wavelengths of light, an imager for receiving the different wavelengths of light reflected from the waveband mirrors and for producing corresponding images, and a controller configured to sequentially activate the light devices and the imager and to decode the barcode in an at least one of the images received from the imager.
US09311505B2
An approach is provided for providing abstracted user models in accordance with one or more access policies. A model platform determines an ontology for specifying a hierarchy of one or more abstraction levels for items data used in latent factorization models. The model platform further causes, at least in part, a generation of one or more user models for the one or more abstraction levels. The model platform also causes, at least in part, a selection of at least one of the one or more user models for generating one or more recommendations for one or more applications, one or more services, or a combination thereof based, at least in part, on one or more privacy policies, one or more security policies, or a combination thereof.
US09311500B2
Requests are submitted to a request processing entity where the requests include a cryptographic key to be used in fulfilling the request. The request processing entity, upon receipt of the request, extracts the key from the request and uses the key to perform one or more cryptographic operations to fulfill the request. The one or more cryptographic operations may include encryption/decryption of data that to be/is stored, in encrypted form, by a subsystem of the request processing entity. Upon fulfillment of the request, the request processing entity may perform one or more operations to lose access to the key in the request, thereby losing the ability to use the key.
US09311498B2
Improved techniques for facilitating emergency access to one or more contacts stored on a portable electronic device are disclosed. One or more contacts on the portable electronic device are designated as emergency contacts. While the portable electronic device is password-locked, a request to display the one or more emergency contacts on the password-locked portable electronic device is received. Without requiring a password, the one or more emergency contacts are displayed on the portable electronic device.
US09311497B2
An information processing apparatus, a computer-readable storage medium having stored an information processing program therein, an information processing method, and an information processing system, which can share, with another apparatus, information regarding data which should not be provided to a user, are provided. The number of times of reporting of data including a contents, which should not be provided to the user, from each game apparatus included in a system, is counted on the basis of information assigned to the data. When the counted value becomes equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold, the information is added and registered to identification information. The identification information is transmitted from a server of the system to each information processing apparatus, and used in each information processing apparatus.
US09311493B2
A system and method of processing an encrypted instruction stream in hardware is disclosed. Main memory stores the encrypted instruction stream and unencrypted data. A central processing unit (CPU) is operatively coupled to the main memory. A decryptor is operatively coupled to the main memory and located within the CPU. The decryptor decrypts the encrypted instruction stream upon receipt of an instruction fetch signal from a CPU core. Unencrypted data is passed through to the CPU core without decryption upon receipt of a data fetch signal.
US09311492B2
Some embodiments of the invention provide a content-distribution system. In some embodiments, the content-distribution system distributes device-restricted content and device-unrestricted content. Device-restricted content is content that can only be played on devices that the system associates with the particular user. Device-unrestricted content is content that can be played on any device without any restrictions. However, for at least one operation or service other than playback, device-unrestricted content has to be authenticated before this operation or service can be performed on the content. In some embodiments, the system facilitates this authentication by specifying a verification parameter for a piece of device-unrestricted content. The content-distribution system of some embodiments has a set of servers that supply (1) media storage structures that store content, (2) cryptographic keys that are needed to decrypt device-restricted content, and (3) verification parameters that are needed to verify device-unrestricted content.
US09311489B2
Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and software for facilitating application forensics. In least one implementation, the identity of a user associated with an attempt to access an application program that resides in a development environment is determined. Information is generated with which to encode the identity of the user in a various views of the application program rendered in a runtime environment. A reply to the attempt is communicated that includes the information and at least a portion of the application program.
US09311481B1
A computer-implemented method for classifying package files as Trojans may include (1) detecting a resemblance between an unclassified package file and a known legitimate package file, (2) determining that the unclassified package file is signed by a different signatory than a signatory that signed the known legitimate package file, (3) determining that a feature of the unclassified package file is suspicious, the feature being absent from the known legitimate package file, and (4) classifying the unclassified package file as a Trojan version of the known legitimate package file based on the unclassified package file being signed by the different signatory and having the suspicious feature. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US09311478B2
A behavioral tracking system, method, and computer program product are provided for undoing events based on user input. In use, a plurality of unclassified events is identified on a system utilizing behavioral tracking. Additionally, input associated with at least one of the unclassified events is received from a user of the system for classifying the at least one of the unclassified events as an unwanted event. Further, the at least one unwanted event is undone in response to the receipt of the input.
US09311471B2
A system for sharing a USB Key by multiple virtual machines located at different hosts including at least two virtual machine managers, each virtual machine manager including a virtual machine transceiver module which is configured to receive a request for accessing a USB Key from a virtual machine within its host; a storage module which is configured to store an association relationship between a USB Key and the virtual machine authenticated by the USB Key; a verification module which is configured to, in response to judging that the virtual machine of the received request can access the USB Key, transmit the request for accessing the USB Key to a USB Key transceiver module of a virtual machine manager of the host where the USB Key is located; and a USB Key transceiver module which is configured to receive a request for accessing a USB Key, and to transmit an access request to a connected USB Key.
US09311465B2
A user using a client computer registers with a server computer over a computer network by submitting a biometric scan of a body part of the user. The user commands the client computer to encrypt an electronic file. The client computer generates a private key, encrypts the electronic file and transmits the key to the server computer. The client computer saves the encrypted file. The encrypted file and the key are saved at different physical locations. The owner of the file is able to grant permission to other registered users to unlock the encrypted file.
US09311461B2
A method and system for authenticating a user seeking access to a secured system in a public area. Access is granted when a user demonstrates sufficient knowledge of the user's personal characteristics stored in the system. The user initiates the access process by tapping into the stored characteristics without overtly stating information that may be overheard. The user statements reflect an awareness about the categories of user uniqueness without divulging details. The system response statements act to elicit further information from the user for response and the response statements are scored. After a cumulative score threshold is met, the user is granted access.
US09311460B2
A programmable controller system, a tool device, a tool program, a storage medium, and a programmable controller capable of affording greater convenience in terms of preventing unauthorized use of user program running on the programmable controller. In the programmable controller system, the tool device sets up a first user program execution ID in a second non-volatile memory provided in the PLC and sets up a second user program execution ID in a project provided in the tool device. The PLC performs a matching operation to determine whether or not the first user program execution ID matches the second user program execution ID and blocks the execution of the user program if there is a mismatch.
US09311459B2
Application-driven interceptor module enables offline playback of Digital Rights Management (DRM) protected content to work in a same way as online playback. Communications with the DRM module are intercepted by the application-driven interceptor that is aware of the client device's network connection status. When the interceptor application determines that the client device is offline, requests for the protected content, and license/key to the protected content may then be managed by the interceptor application. In one embodiment, the interceptor application may retrieve requests for the key/license from a locally protected data store, and provide the key/license to the DRM module. In this manner, the DRM module may be unaware that its messages are being intercepted, and may then operate the same, unaware of whether or not the client device is online or offline.
US09311455B1
A system, method, and computer program are provided for distributing payment to digital content owners. In use, usage of digital content is identified, utilizing a source of the usage of the digital content. Further, a record of the usage of the digital content is transmitted to a central collection system, for use in distributing payment to an owner of the digital content.
US09311453B2
Computerized methods and systems, and computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon, for utilizing a time-to-positivity associated with a blood culture to generate at least one treatment recommendation are provided. Methods according to embodiments of the present invention may include receiving an indication that a blood culture is positive for the presence of a particular bacterium, determining a time-to-positivity for the presence of the bacterium, and automatically generating at least one treatment recommendation utilizing the time-to-positivity. If desired, the method may further include one or more of receiving verification of the indication that the blood culture is positive for the presence of the bacterium in question and communicating the positivity determination as appropriate, e.g., utilizing alerts.
US09311443B2
Apparatus, method and computer program product for reducing overlay errors during a semiconductor photolithographic mask design process flow. The method obtains data representing density characteristics of a photo mask layout design; predicts stress induced displacements based on said obtained density characteristics data; and corrects the mask layout design data by specifying shift movement of individual photo mask design shapes to pre-compensate for predicted displacements. To obtain data representing density characteristics, the method merges pieces of data that are combined to make a photo mask to obtain a full reticle field data set. The merge includes a merge of data representing density characteristic driven stress effects. The density characteristics data for the merged reticle data are then computed. To predict stress-induced displacements, the method inputs said density characteristics data into a programmed model that predicts displacements as a function of density, and outputs the predicted shift data.
US09311442B2
Various embodiments include computer-implemented methods, computer program products and systems for verifying an integrated circuit (IC) layout. In some cases, approaches include a computer-implemented method of verifying an IC layout, the method including: obtaining data about a process variation band for at least one physical feature in the IC layout; determining voltage-based process variation band thresholds for the at least one physical feature in the IC layout; determining whether the process variation band for the at least one physical feature in the IC layout meets design specifications for the IC layout based upon the voltage-based process variation band thresholds for the at least one physical feature in the IC layout; and modifying the IC layout in response to a determination that the process variation band for the at least one physical feature does not meet the design specifications.
US09311440B2
A method includes identifying at least one local power segment of a circuit, estimating at least one performance parameter of the at least one power segment based on a computer-based simulation of the circuit, and changing a design of the circuit based on at least one electromigration avoidance strategy if the at least one parameter is greater than or equal to a threshold value. A data file representing the circuit is stored if the at least one parameter is less than the threshold value.
US09311436B2
A device may receive function information that describes a caller element that calls a called element that is separate from the caller element. The function information may identify a name or reference of the called element, a passed input, and a passed output. The passed input may be provided by the caller element to the called element, and the passed output may be received by the caller element from the called element. The caller element may be associated with a caller model, and the called element may be associated with a called model. The device may identify the called element, and may execute the caller element in a simulation environment. Execution of the caller element may cause execution of the called element without causing execution of an entirety of the called model. The device may receive the passed output from the called element based on executing the called element.
US09311431B2
The disclosure is directed to improving optical metrology for a sample with complex structural attributes utilizing custom designed secondary targets. At least one parameter of a secondary target may be controlled to improve sensitivity for a selected parameter of a primary target and/or to reduce correlation of the selected parameter with other parameters of the primary target. Parameters for the primary and secondary target may be collected. The parameters may be incorporated into a scatterometry model. Simulations utilizing the scatterometry model may be conducted to determine a level of sensitivity or a level of correlation for the selected parameter of the primary target. The controlled parameter of the secondary target may be modified until a selected level of sensitivity or a selected level of correlation is achieved.
US09311427B2
Methods and apparatuses for automatically generating a mobile-optimized website from an existing website are disclosed.
US09311420B2
The present invention discloses a solution for developer customization of Web 2.0 applications based on relationships between a content creator and a content requester. In the solution, Web 2.0 content can be received from a content creator. One or more creator established customizations can also be received where the customizations are each a set of one or more users. In the method, a communication can be established with a user who requests the Web 2.0 content. It can be determined that the user is a member of a set specified by the content creator. The customization associated with the set can be applied. Web 2.0 content as modified by the customization can be served to the user. In one embodiment, users can also establish customizations, which are also applied to the served Web 2.0 content.
US09311415B2
In some implementations, a method includes, at a computing device, identifying a first recipient of a draft electronic communication prepared by a user. A is score is obtained for a second recipient using respective messages in a plurality of historical messages in a user account associated with the user. The second recipient is a sender or receiver of the respective messages. There is suggested to a user, second recipient for the draft electronic communication in accordance with a condition that both the first recipient and the second recipient shared a single electronic communication and the score for the second recipient satisfies a predefined score threshold. The single electronic communication was communicated at a time prior to identifying the first recipient.
US09311405B2
A method of selecting graphic or video files having corresponding locators used to locate such graphic or video files using a computer. Identifiers are created by searching an area within a web page near a graphic or video file for searchable identification terms and searching an area within a web page near links to a graphic or video for searchable identification terms. The identifiers are stored in a database. User requests for graphic or video file content are received and the database of identifiers is searched to find graphic and video files corresponding criteria of the user. Graphic or video file content is then provided to the user.
US09311397B2
Video drive-by data provides a street level view of a neighborhood surrounding a selected geographic location. A video and data server farm incorporates a video storage server that stores video image files containing video drive-by data corresponding to a geographic location, a database server that processes a data query received from a user over the Internet corresponding to a geographic location of interest, and an image processing server. In operation, the database server identifies video image files stored in the video storage server that correspond to the geographic location of interest contained in the data query and transfers the video image files over a pre-processing network to the image processing server. The image processing server converts the video drive-by data to post-processed video data corresponding to a desired image format and transfers the post-processed video data via a post-processing network to the Internet in response to the query.
US09311395B2
Systems and methods are disclosed for displaying electronic multimedia content to a user. One computer-implemented method for manipulating electronic multimedia content includes generating, using a processor, a speech model and at least one speaker model of an individual speaker. The method further includes receiving electronic media content over a network; extracting an audio track from the electronic media content; and detecting speech segments within the electronic media content based on the speech model. The method further includes detecting a speaker segment within the electronic media content and calculating a probability of the detected speaker segment involving the individual speaker based on the at least one speaker model.
US09311390B2
A computer-implemented method, system, and computer program product for generating vector-based similarity scores in text document comparisons considering confounding effects of document length. Vector-based methods for comparing the semantic similarity between texts (such as Content Vector Analysis and Random Indexing) have a characteristic which may reduce their usefulness for some applications: the similarity estimates they produce are strongly correlated with the lengths of the texts compared. The statistical basis for this confound is described, and suggests the application of a pivoted normalization method from information retrieval to correct for the effect of document length. In two text categorization experiments, Random Indexing similarity scores using pivoted normalization are shown to perform significantly better than standard vector-based similarity estimation methods.
US09311383B1
A method, computer program product, and computer system for receiving, at a computing device, data from at least one user, wherein at least a portion of the data is associated with the plurality of attribute variants. A variant relationship between one or more pairs of attribute variants of the plurality of attribute variants is determined based upon, at least in part, at least the portion of the data. The distance between the one or more pairs of objects is adjusted based upon, at least in part, the variant relationship between the one or more pairs of attribute variants of the plurality of attribute variants.
US09311382B2
A processor-based personal electronic device (such as a smartphone) is programmed to automatically respond to data sent by various sensors from which the user's activity may be inferred. A wireless communication link may be used by the device to obtain data from remote sensors which may be worn by the user. A personal “scorecard” may be generated from the raw data and from data concerning other users. Personal, raw characterization data may be computed into personal statistical data by averaging over time. Then, it may be sent (anonymously) to a server that receives such data from many (or all) users. The server may return personal statistical positioning to enable comparison of the user to other participants. In certain embodiments, the generation of a personal scorecard from the personal position in the group statistics may be performed in the user's device.
US09311379B2
A method may receive, at a first node, a first message with a first message data structure from a second node. The first message data structure may include a counter for each resource of a plurality of resources that is indicative of a most current age of a master copy of the resource known by the second node. The first node may include a current data structure with a counter for each resource that is indicative of a most current age of the master copy of the resource known by the first node. The method may determine whether at least one counter in the current data structure is older than the corresponding counter in the message data structure. The method may update the counter that is older, e.g., to learn the most current age of the master copy of the resource known by the second node, based on the determination.
US09311374B2
Embodiments relate to systems and methods for replicating data from a primary resource to a secondary resource within a storage network based on resource attributes. In particular, a user can specify a policy framework comprising one or more count selections and one or more attributes. A policy generation module can determine candidate resources that match the policy framework, and order the candidate resources based on one or more factors. The policy generation module can generate a replication policy based on the ordered resources and replicate the data according to the replication policy.
US09311373B2
Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method and system for generating a uniform resource locator using one or more terms in a hierarchical taxonomy. Specifically, embodiments disclosed herein provide receiving a plurality of terms for a term set and generating a hierarchical taxonomy for the term set using the plurality of terms. Once the hierarchical taxonomy has been generated, a navigation property may be assigned to at least one term in the plurality of terms. A navigation term set that mirrors the properties of the hierarchical taxonomy is then created using the at least one term.
US09311355B2
A method autonomically refreshes a materialized query table (MQT) in a computer database to improve database performance and utility. In preferred embodiments, the query optimizer autonomically initiates a refresh of MQT depending on an estimated time for the query to access the base tables. In other preferred embodiments, the query optimizer estimates the time for the query to access the base tables and compares it to the estimated time to refresh the MQT to determine whether to refresh the MQT and run the query over the MQT rather than the base tables.
US09311350B2
Spatial location systems can be based on multi-resolution grids such as mixed aperture combinations of hexagonal cells. A particular finest resolution can be selected based on a suitable combination of intermediate grid apertures such as arbitrary combinations of aperture 3, aperture 4, and aperture 7 hexagons. Location identifiers can be uniquely assigned by generating child cells from a parent cell so that the generated child cells do not overlap child cells of other parent cells. One or more child blocks can be used at any resolution to avoid such overlap. For aperture three and aperture four hexagonal cells, blocks of four and three child cells, respectively, can be used to provide unique location identifiers.
US09311344B2
A method includes receiving, on an electronic device, one or more logical entities from a storage system having a universe of data. The one or more logical entities encapsulate data from the universe of data on the storage system. Each of the one or more logical entities belong to one of a plurality of logical-entity types defined by a universal representation format. The method additionally includes, for each of the one or more logical entities, rendering a representation of the logical entity on a spatial interface, the spatial interface comprising a plurality of spatial components.
US09311322B2
Techniques and mechanisms are provided to allow for selective optimization, including deduplication and/or compression, of portions of files and data blocks. Data access is monitored to generate a heat index for identifying sections of files and volumes that are frequently and infrequently accessed. These frequently used portions may be left non-optimized to reduce or eliminate optimization I/O overhead. Infrequently accessed portions can be more aggressively optimized.
US09311319B2
An exemplary embodiment of the present invention provides a method of generating a representation of a storage network. The method includes obtaining an request from a client system to view contents of a node in a tree model. The method also includes receiving tree information corresponding to the node and adding the tree information to the tree model.
US09311308B2
A method and apparatus for joint profiling for identifying one or more common interests of members of a group and recommending items accordingly. The method comprises receiving a user profile for each member, the user profile comprising a set of one or more topics of interest to that member; automatically mapping at least one topic from each of the profiles to a concept; deriving a group profile, in dependence upon the concepts and the topics; and generating a list of recommended items for the group based on the group profile. Also presented is a method and apparatus for joint profiling wherein a joint weight for each topic is calculated by: for each user, calculating the reciprocal of a weight associated with the topic for that user; calculating the sum of the resulting reciprocals; and calculating the joint weight as the reciprocal of the resulting sum.
US09311292B2
In one aspect, a device includes a processor and a memory accessible to the processor. The memory bears instructions executable by the processor to access past messages associated with the device, and determine that at least a first multi-term phrase appears in plural messages among the past messages. The instructions are also executable by the processor to, responsive to input invoking message composition and based at least in part on a determination that the multi-term phrase appears in plural messages among the past messages, present on the device at least plural terms from the multi-term phrase in an order in which the at least plural terms appear in the multi-term phrase as a candidate message.
US09311289B1
A method of applying conditional formatting rules to a document tab. The method includes receiving an indication of a user input selecting a document entry in a document for applying conditional formatting to the document tab based on the document entry. The method also includes outputting, for display, a conditional formatting user interface for associating one or more conditional formatting rules with the document entry and the document tab. The method further includes receiving an indication of a user input of one or more conditional formatting rules linking a property of the document tab with the document entry. The method further includes changing the property of the document tab based on the one or more conditional formatting rules.
US09311285B2
Curating chat transcripts into webpages. In one example embodiment, a method of curating chat transcripts into webpages includes generating a transcript of a chat, selecting the chat transcript for curation, curating the chat transcript by adding preferable information to the chat transcript and/or deleting non-preferable information from the chat transcript, and publishing the curated chat transcript as a webpage.
US09311282B2
A method for enriching contents of a website includes obtaining a corpus from the current website and other websites, and extracting object features from the corpus, wherein the corpus comprises specifications of the object and user reviews about the object; according to the corpus, constructing multi-dimensional vectors for the extracted features; for a specified feature, making similarity comparison of its multi-dimensional vector and multi-dimensional vectors of other extracted features; determining features with similarities higher than a predetermined threshold as the same features, and reinforcing the current website with features different from that of the object on the current website and their corresponding attributes.
US09311281B2
A method, non-transitory computer readable medium, and hotspot management computing apparatus that receives a JavaScript Object Notation with Padding (JSONP) request from a client computing device, wherein the JSONP request comprises an identifier associated with a selected hotspot associated with an image of a first web page. A HyperText Markup Language (HTML) fragment is generated based on the identifier, wherein the HTML fragment defines a first description associated with the hotspot and an input element associated with a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of a second web page including a second description associated with the hotspot. The HTML fragment is sent to the requesting client computing device.
US09311280B2
Systems and methods are herein disclosed for reducing power consumption, processor activity, network activity, and for improving a user experience during web browsing. More particularly, an ordering of IFrames, or other self-contained component within the mainframe, is modified in terms of network resources, memory resources, and processor resources in order to conserve user device resources. For instance, aspects of multicore processors and multichannel network connections are utilized to perform parallel operations on mainframe data packets and IFrame data packets when a webpage is downloaded. Since mainframes and IFrames are sourced from different URLs they can be received on separate communication channels and can be processed on different cores. Prioritization in memory storage between the two can also be used to enhance the speed with which the mainframe is loaded.
US09311279B2
A method for notification of a change to content of a document may include providing a mechanism for selecting a certain portion of content of a document by a user that the user desires to receive notification of changes to the certain portion of content. The method may also include detecting a change to the certain portion of content being made by another user. The method may further include creating the notification of the change to the certain portion of content in response to a predefined condition being meet and transmitting the notification of the change to the certain portion of content to at least the user in response to the change to the certain portion of content of the document being saved by the other user.
US09311278B2
Methods implementing and using techniques for providing a visual editor allowing graphical editing of expressions in an expression language. A graphical user interface is displayed. A first user input of an expression is received. The expression is defined in a logical or textual form, and each component of the expression is represented by a graphical element on the graphical user interface. A syntax of the first user input is verified and an alert is provided to the user in response to detecting a syntax error or an inconsistency of the first user input when verifying the syntax.
US09311264B2
According to one embodiment, a switch system includes an external host connected via a peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) port to a switch system, the external host being configured to perform functionality of a management plane and a control plane for the switch system, the external host having a processor. In another embodiment, a computer program product includes a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code including computer readable program code configured to perform functionality of a management plane and a control plane for a switch system using a processor of an external host. Other systems, computer program products, and methods are described according to more embodiments.
US09311261B2
A universal serial interface (USI) includes two transceivers configured to separately support a plurality of serial communication standards; a buffer configured to store received data and data to be transmitted; and a transceiver controller configured to connect one of the two transceivers to the buffer based on a configuration signal received from outside of the USI.
US09311259B2
A transaction is initiated within a computing environment, and based on detecting a program event recording event, an interrupt is presented for the transaction. Subsequent to the interrupt, one or more controls are set to inhibit presentation of another interrupt based on detecting another PER event. Thereafter, the transaction is re-executed and PER events detected during execution of the transaction are ignored.
US09311257B2
A memory system including a plurality of memory chips is provided. The memory system includes a first memory chip and a second memory chip that share a data bus and become active by a chip enable signal, and a controller transmitting multi chip select commands to the first and second memory chips. The first memory chip, in response to the first multichip select command, receives a first operation request transmitted by the controller through the data base, and the second memory chip, in response to the second multichip select command, receives a second operation request transmitted by the controller through the data bus before the first memory chip operates according to the first operation request.
US09311250B2
Techniques for memory de-duplication in a virtual system are described. An apparatus may comprise a first processor circuit coupled to a second processor circuit. A memory unit may be coupled to the first processor circuit and the second processor circuit, the memory unit to store private memory pages and shared memory pages for multiple virtual machines. A memory management application may be operative on the first processor circuit and the second processor circuit in a shared manner to perform memory de-duplication operations on the private memory pages stored in the memory unit to form shared memory pages. The memory management application may perform sequential memory de-duplication operations on the first processor circuit, and parallel memory de-duplication operations on the second processor circuit. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09311245B2
In one embodiment, the present invention includes a cache, compute engines connected to the cache, and a way mask disposed between the cache and the compute engines. This way mask may be partitioned into ways. Some of the ways may be dedicated to only one of the compute engines and other ways can be shared among more than one of the compute engines. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09311244B2
An interconnect has transaction tracking circuitry for enforcing ordering of a set of data access transactions so that they are issued to slave devices in an order in which they are received from master devices. The transaction tracking circuitry is reused for also enforcing ordering of snoop transactions which are triggered by the set of data access transactions, for snooping master devices identified by a snoop filter as holding cache data for the target address of the transactions.
US09311241B2
A method is described that includes performing the following for a transactional operation in response to a request from a processing unit that is directed to a cache identifying a cache line. Reading the cache line, and, if the cache line is in a Modified cache coherency protocol state, forwarding the cache line to circuitry that will cause the cache line to be written to deeper storage, and, changing another instance of the cache line that is available to the processing unit for the transactional operation to an Exclusive cache coherency state.
US09311237B2
A method and system for performing garbage collection involving sensitive information on a mobile device. Secure information is received at a mobile device over a wireless network. The sensitive information is extracted from the secure information. A software program operating on the mobile device uses an object to access the sensitive information. Secure garbage collection is performed upon the object after the object becomes unreachable.
US09311232B2
An embodiment of the invention includes a mass storage device with a storage media that includes magnetic random access memory (MRAM) devices with a NAND flash interface and NAND flash memory devices that are coupled to the MRAM devices. The storage media is partitioned into a hybrid reserved area made of a combination of MRAM array NAND array and hybrid user area made of a combination of MRAM array and NAND array and further includes a controller with a host interface and flash interface coupled to the MRAM and NAND flash memory devices through a flash interface.
US09311231B2
A connecting interface unit and a memory storage device without a crystal oscillator are provided and include a frequency detector, a phase detector, an oscillator, a sampling circuit and a transmitter circuit. The frequency detector and the phase detector respectively detect frequency difference and phase difference between an input signal from a host system and a reference signal to generate a frequency signal and a phase signal. The frequency signal and the phase signal that have passed through a filter are transmitted to the oscillator to generate the reference signal for generating a clock signal. The sampling circuit generates an input data signal according to the reference signal. The transmitter circuit modulates an output data signal according to the clock signal to generate and transmit an output signal to the host system. Accordingly, the connecting interface unit conforms to the specification of a transmission stand.
US09311226B2
The specification and drawings present a new apparatus and method for managing/configuring by the memory module controller storing operational state data for operating the memory module controller into an extended random access memory comprised in a memory module and in a host system memory of a host device during various operational modes/conditions of the memory module and the host system memory. Essentially, the memory module controller operated as a master for the data transfers as described herein. The operational state data typically comprises state information, a logical to physical (L2P) mapping table and register settings.
US09311225B2
Communicating between an application and a hardware device. A method includes an application writing data to host physical memory using an application view of the memory. The method further includes mapping the data in the physical memory to a hardware driver view, usable by a hardware driver, without needing to copy the data to a different physical storage location. The method further includes mapping the data to a hardware accessible view accessible by a hardware device without needing to copy the data to a different physical storage location.
US09311221B2
Among other things, a method includes, at a computer system on which one or more computer programs are executing, receiving a specification defining types of state information, receiving an indication that an event associated with at least one of the computer programs has occurred, the event associated with execution of a function of the computer program, collecting state information describing the state of the execution of the computer program when the event occurred, generating an entry corresponding to the event, the entry including elements of the collected state information, the elements of state information formatted according to the specification, and storing the entry. The log can be parsed to generate a visualization of computer program execution.
US09311212B2
A system includes a first application that writes a first plurality of tasks to a first memory buffer; a second memory buffer that receives a copy of the first plurality of tasks; a second application that writes a second plurality of tasks to a third memory buffer; and a fourth memory buffer that receives a copy of the second plurality of tasks. The system further includes a first comparison module that generates a first voting signal based on a first comparison between a first task and a second task. The system further includes a second comparison module that generates a second voting signal based on a second comparison between the first task and the second task. The system further includes a first central processing unit (CPU) that selectively determines whether to de-assert a module health signal based on the first voting signal and the second voting signal.
US09311211B2
Systems and methods related to performance measurement and reporting are described. In one method, a first application is profiled in a first profiling session to generate a first parameter dataset related to performance of segments of the first application. A session report is created based on the first parameter dataset. Further, based in part on the session report, comments for one or more of the segments of the application are received. A consolidated report is then generated based on the first parameter dataset and the comments.
US09311199B2
Jobs submitted to a primary location of a service within a period of time before and/or after a fail-over event are determined and are resubmitted to a secondary location of the service. For example, jobs that are submitted fifteen minutes before the fail-over event and jobs that are submitted to the primary network before the fail-over to the second location is completed are resubmitted at the secondary location. After the fail-over event occurs, the jobs are updated with the secondary network that is taking the place of the primary location of the service. A mapping of job input parameters (e.g. identifiers and/or secrets) from the primary location to the secondary location are used by the jobs when they are resubmitted to the secondary location. Each job determines what changes are to be made to the job request based on the job being resubmitted.
US09311197B2
Disclosed is a computerized method, non-transitory machine-readable medium and computer system for ensuring that critical information, such as that allowing an ecommerce customer to activate purchased downloadable software, can be retrieved even if issues occur in the primary distribution center. The method receives a call for data (e.g. key) at a first endpoint associated with a first distribution center, determining that the call for the data cannot be fulfilled at the first endpoint, and shifting the call for the data to a second endpoint associated with a second distribution center. The computer system comprises a first and second distribution center system, including modules for: fulfilling a call for data, or key; determining if a call cannot be fulfilled, determining a plurality of error indications; and redirecting calls originally directed to one of a first computer or a second computer to the other of the first computer and the second computer.
US09311193B2
For data backup and recovery based on linked file repositories with each of the linked file repositories representing an individual file system capable of storing at least one version of a file and being connected to at least one server system, each of the linked file repositories are placed in a certain position for storing a certain version of the file. Each position of each of the linked file repositories is continuously numbered. A number of the versions of the file are determined by the position of the one of the linked file repositories.
US09311192B2
Methods, systems and computer program products automatically back-up data. Communication is established among a first device, a second device, and a network-based storage device. Key words associated with uniform resource locators are identified and stored in the network-based storage device. When corruption is detected of the data stored in the first device, the key words are automatically retrieved from the network-based storage device and listed in a user interface displayed at the second device.
US09311191B2
In a backup method, a source storage device sends data to a backup storage device. The source storage device contains a processor and a cache. The processor receives a write data request which includes target data. And then, the processor reads a first period ID recorded in a period ID table, wherein the first period ID is corresponding to a first period. Next, the processor modifies the write data request by attaching the first period ID to the target data and writes the modified write data request into the cache. After a backup task corresponding to the first period is triggered, the processor identifies a second period ID. The second period ID corresponds to a previous period up to which data received by the source storage device have been duplicated to the backup storage device. And then, the processor obtains data received after the period corresponding to the second period ID and up to the first period and sends the obtained data to the backup storage device.
US09311189B2
The present invention discloses a method and a device for inputting data in a multimedia service database on an embedded device. The method includes: when multimedia file scanning is performed, storing generated directory information of a multimedia file in a random access memory database (RAM-DB), and performing a RAM-DB to backup database (BAK-DB) data backup operation in a scanning process; and if an interruption occurs in the scanning process, and when the scanning continues after the scanning interruption ends, copying data in the BAK-DB to the RAM-DB, and continuing to scan, according to existing data in the RAM-DB, a multimedia file that is not scanned. In the present invention, two database files RAM-DB and BAK-DB are configured in a multimedia service system.
US09311183B2
Systems, methods and/or devices are used to adapt a target charge to equalize bit errors across page types for a storage medium, such as flash memory, in a storage system. In one aspect, the method includes performing a sequence of operations, including: (1) determining a first target charge, a second target charge, and a third target charge, the first, second, and third target charges used for controlling first, second, and third charge distributions, respectively, in cells of the storage medium when data is written to the cells, wherein the second charge distribution is between the first charge distribution and the third charge distribution, (2) determining a first error indicator for lower/fast pages of the storage medium, (3) determining a second error indicator for upper/slow pages of the storage medium, and (4) adjusting the second target charge in accordance with the first error indicator and the second error indicator.
US09311173B2
Systems and methods for increasing robustness of a system with a remote server are provided. Some methods can include a first system remotely controlling a second system, detecting a failure in the first system or in a communication link between the first system and the second system, and temporarily removing control of the second system from the first system.
US09311163B2
In a system in which a physical server and a virtual server exist mixedly, data collected from the physical server and data collected from the virtual server are related and managed. Virtual server identification data which indicates the virtual server uniquely is generated in a network system to which the physical server belongs, to the virtual server which operates in a server virtualization function. The generated virtual server identification data can be referred to from an OS in the virtual server. The configuration data of the virtual server and the configuration data of the physical server are collected including the virtual server identification data. The configuration data of the virtual server and the configuration data of the physical server are related by using the virtual server identification data.
US09311160B2
A device receives network infrastructure requirements, and determines availabilities of network resources based on the network infrastructure requirements. The device recommends one or more of the network resources based on the availabilities of the network resources, and receives selection of particular network resources from the recommended one or more network resources. The device also connects the particular network resources to create a virtual network template, and verifies requirements for the particular network resources. The device further tests the virtual network template, and deploys the virtual network template via the particular network resources when the testing of the virtual network template is successful.
US09311155B2
Described herein are systems and methods for providing software administration tools, for use in administering server configurations, such as in a traffic director or other type of server environment. In accordance with an embodiment, the system comprises a command-line interface and/or command-line shell which provides an autocompletion feature for remote objects including wherein, in response to an instruction from an administrator to invoke the feature, the system determines configurable remote back-end objects based on the context of the command-line at the time of invocation, and uses the information to one of autocomplete the command-line input or provide a list of remote back-end objects.
US09311151B2
A portable device and a task processing method and apparatus for the portable device are provided. The method comprises the steps of: obtaining task requirement information of a user; determining, from a first system and a second system, an execution system for responding to a system task corresponding to the task requirement information based on a predetermined policy; and transmitting the task requirement information to the execution system such that the execution system can execute the system task based on the task requirement information. With the present invention, it is possible to automatically determine, based on the task requirement information, an execution system for executing a system task corresponding to the task requirement information, such that the user operation can be facilitated.
US09311146B2
Accepting a job having a job size representing a number or quantity of processors; computing an expected size, and a standard deviation in size, for the accepted job; adding the expected size to the standard deviation in size to determine a sum; comparing the sum to a number or quantity of available clusters at each of a plurality of non-leaf nodes of a tree representing a high-performance computing environment; and when the number or quantity of available clusters is more than the sum at a sub-tree of the tree and, going down one level further in the sub-tree, the number of available clusters is less than the sum, selecting the sub-tree for the accepted job such that the accepted job is placed on one or more clusters associated with the selected sub-tree.
US09311143B2
Methods and systems to identify and reproduce concurrency violations in multi-threaded programs are disclosed. An example method disclosed herein comprises determining whether a condition is met and serializing an operation of a first thread of a multi-threaded program relative to an operation of a second thread of the multi-threaded program. The serialization of the operations of the first and second threads results in a concurrency violation or bug thereby causing the multi-threaded program to crash. In this way, the operations of the first and second threads of the multi-threaded program that are responsible for the concurrency violation are identified and can be revised to remove the bug.
US09311127B2
A computer implemented method of managing an adapter includes enabling an adapter to be shared by operating systems and logical partitions. The adapter includes a plurality of multiple virtual functions. A virtualization intermediary may assign a virtual function of the plurality of virtual functions to at least one of an operating system and a logical partition. The virtual function may be used to modify an operational status of the adapter.
US09311125B2
An apparatus is provided for supporting a plurality of operating systems by single hardware, wherein the plurality of operating systems include a server operating system to provide an integrated user interfaces for applications running on the plurality of operating systems, and at least one client operating system to provide a user interface for applications running on the client operating system through the server operating system under the control of the server operating system.
US09311124B2
Various embodiments here in provide systems, methods, and software for integrated management of centrally modified software systems. Some embodiments include a landscape virtualization management application through which software systems in the form of virtual appliances may be selected, deployed, and started. The virtual appliance in such embodiments may have been transported to an implementing organization, encapsulated in a virtual appliance, in a preconfigured and pre-modified form.
US09311118B1
For each of a plurality of different tenants configured to concurrently execute in a virtual environment, a respective class loader graph can be constructed. For each respective class loader graph, unique types of edges between nodes that affect class loading can be identified. The edges can be traversed. Based on traversing the edges of the class loader graph, a respective unique dependency identifier (UDI) can be assigned to each class loader request. Class loader requests that are assigned the same UDI can be identified in at least two of the tenants. Responsive to identifying the class loader requests that are assigned the same UDI, a shared class loader can be assigned to each of the class loader requests. Each respective class loader request that is assigned the same UDI can be configured to call the shared class loader to load at least one class required by the respective tenant.
US09311115B2
A graphical user interface (“GUI”) can be presented on a remote control accessory device that has user input and display devices. The portable media device can provide the accessory with a GUI image to be displayed. The accessory can specify the configuration of the remote GUI image and send that information to the portable media device. The portable media device can generate a GUI image based on the configuration and send the GUI image to the accessory. The accessory can display the GUI image on one part of its display and other information on another part of its display. The portable media device can define different GUI image types for use with different types of input controls of the accessory. Based on which input control is currently active, the portable media device can send the corresponding GUI image to the accessory for display on the accessory display.
US09311090B2
A method, circuit arrangement, and program product for selectively predicating instructions in an instruction stream by determining a first register address from an instruction, determining a second register address based on a value stored at the first register address, and determining whether to predicate the instruction based at least in part on a value stored at the second register address. Predication logic may analyze the instruction to determine the first register address, analyze a register corresponding to the first register address to determine the second register address, and communicate a predication signal to an execution unit based at least in part on the value stored at the second register address.
US09311085B2
A method and apparatus for handling low power and high performance loads is herein described. Software, such as a compiler, is utilized to identify producer loads, consumer reuse loads, and consumer forwarded loads. Based on the identification by software, hardware is able to direct performance of the load directly to a load value buffer, a store buffer, or a data cache. As a result, accesses to cache are reduced, through direct loading from load and store buffers, without sacrificing load performance.
US09311084B2
A system and method for efficiently performing microarchitectural checkpointing. A register rename unit within a processor determines whether a physical register number qualifies to have duplicate mappings. Information for maintenance of the duplicate mappings is stored in a register duplicate array (RDA). To reduce the penalty for misspeculation or exception recovery, control logic in the processor supports multiple checkpoints. The RDA is one of multiple data structures to have checkpoint copies of state. The RDA utilizes a content addressable memory (CAM) to store physical register numbers. The duplicate counts for both the current state and the checkpoint copies for a given physical register number are updated when instructions utilizing the given physical register number are retired. To reduce on-die real estate and power consumption, a single CAM entry is stores the physical register number and the other fields are stored in separate storage elements.
US09311071B2
Systems and methods which forces or automatically upgrades a mobile application installed on a mobile device for security, stability or any other concerns via a server-side configuration file are disclosed. In one embodiment, a configuration file including a list of build identifiers that have been banned or flagged is placed on a server, which can be a server providing cloud-based collaboration or file sharing services, for access by associated mobile applications and/or devices. A mobile application installed on a mobile device can download the configuration file and determine whether a build identifier of the mobile application is listed on the configuration file. If so, the mobile application can shut down, prompt or force an upgrade, or restrict operation of the mobile application in other ways.
US09311066B1
Systems and methods for managing deployment of an update to computing devices are provided. An update deployment manager determines one or more initial computing devices to receive and execute an update. The update deployment manager further monitors a set of performance metrics with respect to the initial computing devices or a collection of computing devices. The update deployment manager may modify the rate of deployment based on the monitored performance metrics. For example, the update deployment manager may select additional computing devices to receive and execute an update. Further, the update deployment manager may halt deployment of the update. Moreover, the update deployment manager may rollback the deployment of the update.
US09311051B2
A random number generator may include an input configured to receive a plurality of entropy bits generated by an entropy source of a random number generator, wherein the random number generator is configured to generate a plurality of random numbers; and an entropy health monitor coupled with the input, wherein the entropy health monitor is configured to perform a corrective action based on the plurality of entropy bits.
US09311048B1
A file receiver receives an electronic structure file that includes structure-file data associated with a spatial arrangement and detects a content object for processing that includes content-object data. A file transformation engine transforms the structure-file data from the structure file into an electronic record. A rendering engine renders an image of the transformed structure-file data arranged in the spatial arrangement. An interface engine detects an input corresponding to specification of a position of a data segment. A parsing engine defines a segment-position specification indicative of the position. A template engine generates an electronic template that associates an identifier of the data segment with the segment-position specification and associates the electronic template with a template identifier. A record classifier determines that the content object corresponds to the template identifier. The parsing engine further extracts, using the segment-position specification, a portion of the content-object data that corresponds to the data segment.
US09311045B2
An elastic buffer module including a memory unit, a write control module, and a read control module is provided. The memory unit receives, stores, and outputs a data sequence from a transmitting side. The write control module removes at least part of auxiliary data from the data sequence and writes the data sequence that has the auxiliary data removed into the memory unit. The read control module reads the data sequence from the memory unit and adds auxiliary data to the data sequence to adjust a write state of the transmitting side and a read state of a receiving side. Additionally, an elastic buffering method of a transmission interface is also provided.
US09311043B2
Various techniques for adaptively varying audio feedback data on an electronic device are provided. In one embodiment, an audio user interface implementing certain aspects of the present disclosure may devolve or evolve the verbosity of audio feedback in response to user interface events based at least partially upon the verbosity level of audio feedback provided during previous occurrences of the user interface event. In another embodiment, an audio user interface may be configured to vary the verbosity of audio feedback associated with a navigable list of items based at least partially upon the speed at which a user navigates the list. In a further embodiment, an audio user interface may be configured to vary audio feedback verbosity based upon the contextual importance of a user interface event. Electronic devices implementing the present techniques provide an improved user experience with regard to audio user interfaces.
US09311027B2
Examples disclose a method to query an availability of a target device. Additionally, the method generates a document for transmission to the target device based on the availability of the target device.
US09311025B2
Relay server, storage medium storing instructions executable by the relay server, and control method
A relay server includes: a communication device communicable with a recording apparatus, a conversion server which converts image data, and a storage server which stores the image data; and a controller. The controller is configured to: acquire, from the recording apparatus, a storing instruction for storing converted image data into the storage server, the converted image data being image data converted by the conversion server; acquire account identification information for identifying an account of the recording apparatus in the storage server, from the recording apparatus via the communication device; acquire the converted image data from the conversion server via the communication device; and transmit the acquired converted image data and the acquired account identification information to the storage server via the communication device in a state in which the acquired converted image data and the acquired account identification information are associated with each other.
US09311021B1
Methods and systems for a read ahead operation are provided. The method includes maintaining a data structure by an adapter to track whether data blocks associated with a logical unit number (LUN) have been written or modified; extracting a starting logical block address (LBA) for executing a read request for reading data stored using the LUN; generating a LBA range for a read ahead operation that is used to predict data that may be read subsequent to the read request; determining if blocks associated with the LBA range for the read ahead operation have been written or modified; only reading ahead the blocks associated with the LBA range, when the blocks have been written to or modified; and temporarily storing the read ahead data at a cache LUN maintained by the adapter.
US09311011B2
Mobile computing devices may be configured to compile and execute portions of a general purpose software application in an auxiliary processor (e.g., a DSP) of a multiprocessor system by reading and writing information to a shared memory. A first process (P1) on the applications processor may request address negotiation with a second process (P2) on the auxiliary processor, obtain a first address map from a first operating system, and send the first address map to the auxiliary processor. The second process (P2) may receive the first address map, obtain a second address map from a second operating system, identify matching addresses in the first and second address maps, store the matching addresses as common virtual addresses, and send the common virtual addresses back to the applications processor. The first and second processes (i.e., P1 and P2) may each use the common virtual addresses to map physical pages to the memory.
US09311009B2
A memory system, system including the memory system and method of reducing memory system power consumption. The memory system includes multiple memory units allocable to one of a number of processor units, e.g., processors or processor cores. A memory controller receives requests for memory from the processor units and allocates sufficient space from the memory to each requesting processor unit. Allocated memory can include some Single Level per Cell (SLC) memory units storing a single bit per cell and other memory units storing more than one bit per cell. Thus, two processor units may be assigned identical memory space, while half, or fewer, than the number of cells of one are assigned to the other.
US09311005B2
A method, system and computer-usable medium are disclosed for managing storage control unit input/output (I/0) operations in a multi-host environment. A storage control unit sends a busy status message when it has exhausted its resources to process new I/O requests. Once the utilization of the storage control unit's resources has subsided to a predetermined upper utilization value, it sends an availability status message to a first predetermined number of host systems that are owed an availability status message. After the first predetermined number of availability status messages are sent, the storage control unit then waits for a predetermined period of time before sending a second predetermined number of availability status messages.
US09311004B1
A transactional memory (TM) receives a lookup command across a bus from a processor. The command includes a memory address. In response to the command, the TM pulls an input value (IV). The memory address is used to read a word containing multiple result values (RVs), multiple reference values, and multiple prefix values from memory. A selecting circuit within the TM uses a starting bit position and a mask size to select a portion of the IV. The portion of the IV is a lookup key value (LKV). Mask values are generated based on the prefix values. The LKV is masked by each mask value thereby generating multiple masked values that are compared to the reference values. Based on the comparison a lookup table generates a selector value that is used to select a result value. The selected result value is then communicated to the processor via the bus.
US09311001B1
A method and system for managing allocation of storage resources, comprises the steps of: the storage network management system allocating one or more virtual data storage volumes for use by a host computer; the storage network management system presenting the virtual data storage volumes to the host computer as representative of available physical storage on the one or more storage arrays, but not allocating physical data storage for the virtual data storage volumes, wherein the virtual data storage volumes can include regions that are either allocated to physical storage or are unallocated to physical storage; the storage management system creating a data storage pool that includes the one and the more data storage arrays; and upon receiving a write request to the virtual data volume that covers an unallocated region of the volume, the storage network management system allocating physical storage from the storage pool for the virtual data volume.
US09310998B2
According to one embodiment, an electronic device, includes a display controller and a drawing module. A display controller can display first content by one of a first image with a first gradation and a second image with a second gradation lower than the first gradation on a screen. The drawing module can draw a locus input by handwriting on a screen. The display controller displays the first content by the second image when the locus is drawn by the drawing module on the first content.
US09310994B2
Bezel gestures for touch displays are described. In at least some embodiments, the bezel of a device is used to extend functionality that is accessible through the use of so-called bezel gestures. In at least some embodiments, off-screen motion can be used, by virtue of the bezel, to create screen input through a bezel gesture. Bezel gestures can include single-finger bezel gestures, multiple-finger/same-hand bezel gestures, and/or multiple-finger, different-hand bezel gestures.
US09310992B2
This invention relates to panning in a three dimensional environment on a mobile device. In an embodiment, a computer-implemented method for navigating a virtual camera in a three dimensional environment on a mobile device having a touch screen. A user input is received indicating that an object has touched a first point on a touch screen of the mobile device and the object has been dragged to a second point on the touch screen. A first target location in the three dimensional environment is determined based on the first point on the touch screen. A second target location in the three dimensional environment is determined based on the second point on the touch screen. Finally, a three dimensional model is moved in the three dimensional environment relative to the virtual camera according to the first and second target locations.
US09310988B2
A system and machine-implemented method for providing a visual cue of overscrolling displayed content on an electronic device. When the end of a scrollable page or content has been reached, the visual cue corresponds to the user's physical scrolling input. The content in the window is effectively attached to the window so that when the end of the content is reached in one direction, the window containing the content is pulled in the same scrolling direction. The pulling in the scrolling direction occurs in a logarithmically decreasing manner, providing a tactile-like visual effect that the outer frame of the window is resisting the attempt to scroll further in the scrolling direction. The visual resistance effect may include squishing or stretching portions of the window without distorting the content within the window.
US09310981B2
A user viewing an online content item using an online content client application can, from within that application, launch an operating application to operate on the content item. The operating application can interact with the online content management provider to obtain a current copy of the content item and to save a modified content item back to the online content management service, e.g., if the user instructs the operating application to save the item. Interactions between the client application, the operating application and the online content management service can occur without requiring the user to manually initiate upload or download of any content items. Operations on an online content item can also be initiated from within an operating application.
US09310978B2
To provide an operation apparatus and image forming apparatus which can adequately notify users of status information of other apparatuses connected to the operation apparatus. The operation apparatus has: status information acquiring means 503 for acquiring status information of a multi-functional printer 100 associated with a specific tab item from the multi-functional printer 100; status information converting means 508 for converting the acquired status information into tab-type status information; tab item displaying means 510 for displaying tab-type status information in a tab display area which displays the specific tab item and which displays the other associated tab items in a tab display area which displays other tab items other than the specific tab item; and condition screen displaying means 513 for displaying a setting condition screen associated with the specific tab item to be displayed in one screen together with the tab which displays the tab-type status information.
US09310967B2
A border menu can be presented on four sides of an outer border of a graphical user interface. The border menu can be presented at the top of a stack of a graphical user interface. The border menu can include a set of user-selectable options, each selectable via a pointing device, each of the user-selectable options being associated with at least one of an icon or text button. At least one of the user-selectable options can be presented along each of the four sides of the outer border of the border menu. Selection of each of the user-selectable options can result in triggering an event, which results in firing of a programmatic action to run executable code for a corresponding one of the user-selectable options. At least a portion of the user-selectable options can include application-specific options for an application running on the computing device.
US09310945B2
A touch-sensing display device comprises a plurality of row electrodes and column electrodes, a capacitance detector, detecting first capacitance-variation values of the row electrodes and second capacitance-variation values of the column electrodes, and detecting third capacitance-variation values of each intersection of the row electrodes and the column electrodes. The processor counts the first number of the first and second capacitance-variation values, exceeding a first threshold, counts the second number of the first and second capacitance-variation values up to a maximum capacitor-variation value, and counts the third number of the third capacitance values, exceeding a second threshold. The processor makes the touch-sensing display device enter a bending mode when the first and second numbers are over a first predetermined number and a second predetermined number respectively, and the third number is below the first number. The processor further raises the second threshold when entering the bending mode.
US09310942B2
According to an embodiment, a touch-sensitive display device includes a display panel including data lines, gate lines crossing the data lines, and a pixel array including pixels arranged in a matrix form; a touch screen including Tx lines, Rx lines crossing the Tx lines, and touch sensors formed at crossings of the Tx lines and the Rx lines; a display driving circuit configured to supply video data voltages to the pixels of the display panel; and a touch screen driving circuit configured to sequentially supply at least one delayed pulse to each of the Tx lines, and sense an output signal of each of the touch sensors through the Rx lines, wherein an edge of each of the at least one delayed pulse is present in a horizontal blank period.
US09310940B2
Various embodiments of a capacitive touchscreen or touch panel having dual finger or hand navigation and fingerprint reading capabilities. In one embodiment, fingerprints are read and processed by the same capacitive touchscreen controller that reads and processes capacitively-sensed finger or hand touches made across the touchscreen or touch panel. A small portion of the capacitive touchscreen or touch panel is dedicated to reading an authorized user's fingerprints, while a larger or main portion of the capacitive touchscreen or touch panel is dedicated to sensing a user's finger or hand navigation across the touchscreen or touch panel.
US09310935B2
An architecture is described that can utilize photo-sensors embedded in a substantially transparent layer of a UI display for tracking objects that approach or hover over the UI display. The photo-sensors can be configured to detect light of certain wavelengths (e.g., visible light, infrared light) that are propagated toward the UI display, while ignoring light emanating from the UI display when displaying content. Accordingly, by examining various characteristics of the incoming light such as intensity, the architecture can identify a location of a shadow incident upon the display caused by an approaching or hovering selector object blocking portions of incoming light. Additionally or alternatively, the architecture can identify a location of higher intensity for light emanating from the selector object.
US09310928B2
A touch screen includes a capacitive sensor, a sensor driving portion, and a control portion. The capacitive sensor detects a touch position coordinate in a scanning plane for each frame of the scanning plane. The sensor driving portion drives the capacitive sensor at a speed of a frame rate, the frame rate representing a number of frames detected by the capacitive sensor per unit time. The central portion acquires an amount of movement of the touch position between successive frames based on positional information detected by the capacitive sensor, and sets the frame rate depending on the amount of movement.
US09310915B2
An object is to provide a touch panel with high-accuracy and high-speed operation. A touch panel includes a plurality of pixels each including a display element and a photo sensor, a photo sensor reading circuit to which an output signal of the photo sensor is provided, a display element select circuit which provides an image signal to the display element, a plurality of edge sensitive latches provided in series, and a logic circuit. The logic circuit generates a signal by performing a logic operation on an output signal of the plurality of edge sensitive latches and provides the generated signal to the photo sensor reading circuit.
US09310912B2
Pre-stored no-touch or no-hover (no-event) sensor output values can initially be used when a sensor panel subsystem is first booted up to establish an initial baseline of sensor output values unaffected by fingers or other objects touching or hovering over the sensor panel during boot-up. This initial baseline can then be normalized so that each sensor generates the same output value for a given amount of touch or hover, providing a uniform response across the sensor panel and enabling subsequent touch or hover events to be more easily detected. After the initial normalization process is complete, the pre-stored baseline can be discarded in favor of a newly captured no-event baseline that may be more accurate than the pre-stored baseline due to temperature or other variations.
US09310911B2
A semiconductor layer for an active element included in each of a plurality of pixels in a display section is constituted by an oxide layer containing at least one element selected from the group consisting of In, Ga, and Zn. There is provided, for the display section, a liquid crystal panel's timing controller (13) configured to carry out control so that (i) a length of a first period during which image data is written is not more than twice that of the second period and/or (ii) one (1) frame period is longer than 16.7 msec.
US09310910B2
The invention relates to a touch panel with an electrode bridging structure. The touch panel includes an electroconductive substrate and an electroconductive film disposed on the electroconductive substrate. Surfaces of the electroconductive substrate have upper and lower electrodes. The invention is characterized in that at least two electroconductive bridging portions are disposed between the electroconductive substrate and the electroconductive film, and can electrically connect the electroconductive substrate to the electroconductive film. Thus, the upper and lower electrodes of the touch panel can perform the induction conduction through the electroconductive bridging portions, thereby effectively increasing the conduction rate, decreasing the power load of the touch panel and saving the energy.
US09310905B2
The present invention relates to a detachable touchpad for a handheld computerized device. This detachable touchpad is configured to reversibly attach to the back of a handheld computerized device that lacks a rear mounted touchpad, and with appropriate software, allow the user to at least in part control the handheld computerized device from behind the device.
US09310903B2
A displacement detection device includes an image sensor, a processing unit and an output unit. The image sensor is configured to detect reflected light from a working surface to successively output image frames. The processing unit is configured to identify a hovering height and calculate a first axis displacement and a second axis displacement according to the image frames. The output unit is controlled by the processing unit to output a first ratio of the first axis displacement but not to output the second axis displacement when the hovering height is higher than a predetermined height.
US09310900B1
Systems and methods for testing a stylus are described. A processing device determines that a stylus is disposed in a holder above a touch panel that generates position data for each point of contact between the stylus and the touch panel. In response to such determination, the processing device performs one or more tests of the stylus. The processing device may cause the holder to move the across the surface of the touch panel, receive position data, and compare the position data to reference data to determine operation of the stylus.
US09310890B2
Techniques are disclosed for managing active applications on a mobile computing device, referred to collectively herein as a manage active apps mode. The manage active apps mode may be invoked by shaking the device while pressing the device's power button (or while manipulating one or more other user interface control features). The device may include one or more accelerometers, for example, to detect when (and possibly how) the device is being shaken. When invoked, the manage active apps mode may be configured to perform the function of closing, stopping, force stopping, quitting, or deleting of one or more of the device's active applications, for example. In some cases, the mode function performed may be determined by the direction the device is being shaken, such as if the device is being shaken from side-to-side or up-and-down.
US09310887B2
An apparatus and method for the remote control and/or interaction-with one or more electronic-devices. A remote-controller that contains motion sensors (e.g., accelerometers; inertial sensors; MEMS sensors) may be held-by or worn-by a user. When the remote-control mode is activated, selection-menus (containing selectable-objects) along with a cursor (or point-of-action) may be presented to the user on an active-display(s). When the remote-controller is moved in one or more dimensions in space, a cursor or point-of-action is moved by a related amount on the active-display. A user may move the remote-controller in-order to position a cursor or point-of-action, on or near a desired selectable-object on the active-display(s). Corresponding to the user's selection(s); control action(s) may be performed on the device(s) being controlled/interacted-with. A single remote-controller is able to control multiple electronic devices. In one embodiment, a remote-controller has a single button and is able to control a plurality of electronic-devices.
US09310883B2
Methods, apparatus, and computer programs for controlling a view of a virtual scene with a handheld device are presented. In one method, images of a real world scene are captured using a device. The method further includes operations for creating an augmented view for presentation on a display of the device by augmenting the images with virtual reality objects, and for detecting a hand in the images as extending into the real world scene. In addition, the method includes operations for showing the hand in the screen as detected in the images, and for generating interaction data, based on an interaction of the hand with a virtual reality object, when the hand makes virtual contact in the augmented view with the virtual reality object. The augmented view is updated based on the interaction data, which simulates on the screen that the hand is interacting with the virtual reality object.
US09310881B2
A data processing system includes components for providing a pleasant user experience. Those components may include a family interaction engine that provides a family channel. The family interaction engine may provide for creation of a user group. The family channel may present content of interest to multiple users in the user group. When a user is detected near the data processing system, the family interaction engine may automatically present content of interest to that user. When used for presenting media content, the data processing system may also cause supplemental data to automatically be presented, wherein the supplemental data is relevant to the media content and to a predetermined interest of the user. The data processing system may also provide a ranked list of applications for potential activation by the user. The applications may be ordered based on the current context. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09310880B2
A self-service computer with dynamic interface. The self-service computer includes a processor for receiving environment information, for selecting among different user interface features including different transaction screens and different transaction screen content based upon the environment information, and for providing selected user interface features during a transaction involving a customer.
US09310879B2
Methods and systems for automatically parsing the content of a user's browser history to extract information about that user's browsing habits, interests, likes, and dislikes utilizing text analytics and unsupervised machine learning. A topic model can be utilized to filter the display of web content and employ visualization techniques to highlight specific content (e.g. keywords) that correspond with the users specific tastes. The analysis can be as coarse or fine as the user desires and all of the analysis can be done locally on the user's own data processing device.
US09310875B2
An apparatus is described that includes a processor. The processor has a processing core to execute an instruction that specifies a performance state of an application thread. The instruction belongs to the application thread. The processor includes a register to store the performance state. The processor includes power management control logic coupled to the register to set a performance state of the processing core as a function of the performance state.
US09310872B2
A clock frequency controller for a processor and a method of operation thereof. The clock frequency controller may be embodied in a processor, including: (1) a processing core operable at a clock frequency to undertake a processing of a graphics application, and (2) a clock frequency controller coupled to the processing core and operable to adjust the clock frequency based on a current frame rate of the processing and a target frame rate for the processing.
US09310867B2
A method, apparatus, and system in which an interconnect for an integrated circuit communicates transactions between one or more initiator Intellectual Property (IP) cores and one or more target IP cores coupled to the interconnect, including a power manager having a hierarchy of two or more layers including a hardware logic portion to control a power consumption of two or more domains in the integrated circuit, where each layer of the power manager performs its own function; wherein the power manager has its own dedicated CPU or dedicated state machine to execute power management instructions; and wherein the power manager controls the power consumption of two or more domains without using a CPU IP core utilized by other IP cores on the integrated circuit to execute power management instructions.
US09310860B2
A method and apparatus are configured to partition a computing system chassis (22, 222) interior into first and second thermal chambers (60, 62, 260, 262), wherein the first thermal chamber (60, 260) includes a processor (24, 224), a memory (30, 230) and a chipset (28, 228) and the second thermal chamber (62, 262) includes an optical disk drive cage (46, 246), a hard disk drive (44, 244) and a power supply (40, 240). A fan unit (110, 410) is configured to be secured within the optical disk drive cage (46, 246).
US09310848B2
In an embodiment there is provided an electronic apparatus in which two housings are detachable and rotatable, and in which when one housing is detached from the other housing, and having a bracket for attachment and detachment that is easily rotated. An electronic apparatus may include an upper housing having a display; a lower housing which is rotatably connected with a bracket from which the upper housing is detachable by hinges; and a torque variable structure which changes rotational torque of the bracket at the hinges. The torque variable structure is capable of reducing the rotational torque of the bracket at the hinges in a state in which the upper housing is detached from the bracket, rather than a state in which the upper housing is mounted on the bracket.
US09310844B2
Techniques applied to a computing device having a display, a base, and components that allow repositioning of the display relative to the base are provided, which can be used for stabilizing and changing the position of the display relative to the base. A determination is made via a processor as to when the display is changing position relative to the base. A determination is also made via the processor as to when a stabilizing portion of the display is in contact with a stabilizing portion of the base. A force between the stabilizing portion of the display and the stabilizing portion of the base is decreased when the display is changing position relative to the base and when the stabilizing portion of the display is in contact with the stabilizing portion of the base.
US09310840B2
A docking assembly for a handheld device comprising a handle and associated methods are disclosed herein. The docking assembly may include a base, a tube extending from the base, and a dock cup in rotatable communication with the tube. The dock cup may be configured to mate with the handle. The docking assembly also may include an electrical connection assembly configured to mate with the handle when the handle is positioned within the dock cup. Moreover, the docking assembly may include a first locking assembly configured to lock the handle in the dock cup to prevent the handle from being removed from the dock cup, and a second locking assembly configured to lock the orientation of the dock cup to prevent rotation of the dock cup.
US09310826B2
A vehicle pedal assembly comprising a pedal including a pedal stub arm having a metal pedal arm molded into a plastic stem with inserts molded therein and an actuator bar coupled to the stem of the pedal. Fasteners extend through the actuator bar and into the inserts in the stem for securing the actuator bar to the pedal. The actuator bar is adapted to exert an active force against the pedal. In one embodiment, both the pedal arm and the actuator bar include one or more bends defined therein. The pedal arm has a length and shape dependent upon the distance and position of the floor or pedal pad relative to the pedal. The actuator bar has a length and shape dependent upon the distance and position of the pedal relative to an actuator arm.
US09310814B2
A cooling device operating method and corresponding cooling device used in an inspection apparatus. The method controls a cooling device which in turn cools a wafer chuck on which a semiconductor wafer is loaded. The temperature of the wafer chuck is controllable using the cooling device and a heating device. Low temperature and high temperature inspections of the wafer are performed under control of the controller. The cooling device is continuously run via the controller for the low temperature inspection, but it is stopped at least one time at the start of the high temperature inspection via the controller.
US09310800B1
A method and apparatus for evaluating a group of robotic platforms is present. The method controls the group of robotic platforms to perform operations in an operating area. Environmental signals are generated in the operating area. A response of the group of robotic platforms to an input is identified. A determination is made as to whether the response is a desired response.
US09310792B2
Disclosed herein are representative embodiments of methods, apparatus, and systems for controlling and scheduling power distribution in a power network, such as household power network. One disclosed embodiment is a system comprising a central controller and a control device coupled to a household appliance. The central controller can comprise computing hardware coupled to a wireless transceiver. The central controller can be configured to generate and transmit control signals for controlling the operational state of the household appliance according to the schedule. Furthermore, the control device can be configured to receive the transmitted control signals from the central controller and to control the operational state of the household appliance in response to the control signals.
US09310791B2
Disclosed are methods adapted to aid in a calibration of a robotic end effector. The method includes providing a robotic component having an end effector and a light beam sensor provided in a fixed orientation to the end effector fingers, rotating a light beam of the light beam sensor relative to a geometrical calibration feature of a teach tool mounted in an approximately known orientation to an article, and determining a precise location (e.g., center) of the geometrical calibration feature based upon engagement of the light beam with edges of the geometrical calibration feature. In another aspect, a rotational orientation of the fingers of the end effector are calibrated using the teach tool. A novel teach tool and a robot calibration system including the teach tool are disclosed, as are other aspects.
US09310784B1
A method and apparatus are provided for monitoring the thermal state of a data center. According to the method and apparatus, thermal sensors are placed at various locations in a data center and readings from those sensors are collected. Once collected, the readings are used in controlling the operation of the data center.
US09310783B2
A method and apparatus for dynamic clock and power gating and decentralized wakeups is disclosed. In one embodiment, an integrated circuit (IC) includes power-manageable functional units and a power management unit. Each of the power manageable functional units is configured to convey a request to enter a low power state to the power management unit. The power management unit may respond by causing a requesting functional unit to enter the low power state. Should another functional unit initiate a request to communicate with a functional unit currently in the low power state, it may send a request to that functional unit. The receiving functional unit may respond to the request by exiting the low power state and resuming operation in the active state.
US09310781B2
Disclosed herein is an apparatus and method for interaction between content and an olfactory recognition device. In the method for interaction between an olfactory recognition device and a content device, the method allows the olfactory recognition device to interact with the content device. If a connection to the content device has been made to enable data communication with the content device, an open signal is transmitted to the content device. As a response to the open signal, an approval signal is received from the content device. A device information datasheet that is information about the olfactory recognition device is transmitted to the content device in response to the approval signal. An acknowledgement signal is received from the content device.
US09310780B2
An analog wearable electronic device that is operationally coupleable to a transmitting device. The transmitting device permits viewing a simulation of a display provided on the wearable electronic device, changing information displayable on the simulated display and transmitting the changed information and/or information from which the changed information is derivable to the wearable electronic device. The wearable electronic device includes a receiver for receiving from the transmitting device the changed information and/or the information from which the changed information is derivable. A controller assembly processes the changed information and/or derives the changed information, and an actuation mechanism moves a display indicator based at least in part on the changed information. The changed information is thereafter reflected on the display of the wearable electronic device by the display indicator.
US09310768B2
The invention describes a method of manufacturing a holographic mask capable of producing an image pattern that contains elements of a sub-wavelength size along with decreased deviations from the original pattern. The original pattern is converted into a virtual electromagnetic field and is divided into a set of virtual cells with certain amplitudes and phases, which are mathematically processed for obtaining the virtual digital hologram. The calculation of the latter is based on parameters of the restoration wave, which is used to produce the image pattern from the mask, and on computer optimization by variation of amplitudes and phases of the set of virtual cells and/or parameters of the virtual digital hologram for reaching a satisfactory matching between the produced image pattern and the original pattern. The obtained virtual digital hologram provides physical parameters of the actual digital hologram that is to be manufactured.
US09310767B2
Disclosed a system for reconstructing an image of an object hidden by a flame. The system comprises a laser source emitting an infrared radiation and a lensless, off-axis interferometric arrangement that divides the infrared radiation into an object beam and a reference beam. The object beam is enlarged and then irradiates the object, that scatters it. The reference beam is enlarged and then interferes with the scattered object beam, so as to create a hologram. The system comprises an infrared detector which detects the hologram and a processor that reconstructs the image of the object by numerically processing the hologram.
US09310763B2
An image forming device includes: an image forming unit; an enclosure; and an intake duct. The image forming unit includes a photosensitive member having an axis. The enclosure is configured to house the image forming unit and includes a first wall provided on one side of the image forming unit with respect to a first direction parallel to the axis. An air intake is formed in the first wall to allow air communication between an interior and an exterior of the enclosure. The intake duct is elongated in the first direction. Air drawn in through the air intake flows into the intake duct. The intake duct includes an opposing part. The opposing part opposes the image forming unit in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction. An opening is formed in the opposing part. Air introduced into the intake duct flows toward the image forming unit through the opening.
US09310753B2
A scissor lift apparatus includes a sliding carriage member and a pivoting linkage added to a conventional scissor lift in order to lower the force required to lift a tray holding heavy media during the initial portion of the lifting action where the scissor lift is fully compressed.
US09310746B2
A printing apparatus having a plurality of sheet storage units that stores sheets to be supplied to a printing unit includes a reception unit configured to receive, from an external printing apparatus in which a sheet storage unit group constituted by arbitrary sheet storage units of a plurality of sheet storage units has been formed, paper information that is information of sheets stored in respective sheet storage units that constitute the sheet storage unit group, and a creation unit configured to form a sheet storage unit group corresponding to a sheet storage unit group formed in the external printing apparatus using arbitrary sheet storage units of the plurality of sheet storage units which the printing apparatus has, based on the information of the sheets stored in each of the plurality of sheet storage units which the external printing apparatus has, and the paper information received by the reception unit.
US09310742B2
An image forming apparatus includes: an update unit configured to cause an image forming unit to form a first measurement image, to cause a measurement unit to measure the first measurement image, and to update a process condition based on a measurement result; a first determination unit configured to cause the image forming unit to form a plurality of second measurement images, to cause the measurement unit to measure the plurality of second measurement images, and to determine the process condition based on a measurement result, the plurality of second measurement images being formed according to a plurality of test process conditions; and a second determination unit configured to determine the plurality of test process conditions, based on environment information obtained by an obtainment unit and the process condition updated by the update unit.
US09310741B2
When a colorimeter is colorimetrically measuring a test pattern, a control unit controls a motor such that the colorimeter and a facing member are closer to each other. A recording material on which the test pattern has been formed is brought into contact with the colorimeter. Even when the colorimeter is not colorimetrically measuring the test pattern, the control unit controls the motor such that the colorimeter and the facing member are closer to each other. The recording material on which the test pattern has been formed is brought into contact with the colorimeter.
US09310740B2
An image forming apparatus includes a UI application that configures functions supported in an energy saving mode and in a normal mode, an energy saving memory control service that manages settings of the configured functions supported in the energy saving mode, and a filtering service that filters external access to the image forming apparatus in the energy saving mode along with the settings. In the energy saving mode, the filtering service determines whether the image forming apparatus remains in the energy saving mode or returns to the normal mode in order to process the access using the settings.
US09310739B2
Provided is a printing apparatus that manages a number of printed pages in a single color level and a number of printed pages in monochrome. The printing apparatus includes a receiving unit configured to receive setting information related to displaying an aggregation result of a number of printed pages from a managing apparatus; a displaying unit configured to control displaying an aggregation result of a number of printed pages; and a determining unit configured to determine whether or not the received setting information indicates a first setting to display a first aggregation result of a number of printed pages of each level among a plurality of color levels on an apparatus configured not to manage a number of printed pages of each level among the plurality of color levels. The displaying unit is configured to control to display the first aggregation result in response to a determination result of the determining unit.
US09310717B2
A developer accommodating unit includes: a flexible container, provided with an opening for permitting discharge of a developer, for accommodating the developer; and a frame for accommodating the flexible container and for accommodating the developer discharged from the flexible container. The flexible container includes a projected portion projected from a part of a side forming the flexible container toward an outside of or toward an inside of the flexible container.
US09310713B2
In a developer container or the like, developer is conveyed efficiently by utilizing a projecting portion included in a transmitting member and another projecting portion. A velocity vector that is generated at a free end of a conveying member and is oriented upward becomes largest during a period from when the conveying member having been in contact with the projecting portion is released from the projecting portion until when the free end of the conveying member comes into contact with a storage chamber.
US09310712B2
An object of the present invention is to provide a toner-conveying roller that has high toner-conveying property and in which a roller-shape thereof is less likely to be transferred to the image, a mold capable of manufacturing said roller, and a method of manufacturing said mold. The toner-conveying roller according to the present invention has a shaft body and a urethane foam layer formed around the shaft body, and recesses and protrusions are irregularly formed on a circumference surface of the urethane foam layer. The mold for manufacturing the roller according to the present invention has recesses and protrusions irregularly formed on the inner surface of a mold for manufacturing the roller. The method of manufacturing a mold used for manufacturing a roller according to the present invention includes: a powder sintering step of applying particles on an inner surface of a mold member, and forming recesses and protrusions on the inner surface of the mold member by heating the mold member having the particles on the inner surface thereof to sinter the particles; or, a fluorine coating step of applying particles on an inner surface of a mold member, and forming recesses and protrusions on the inner surface of the mold member by coating the inner surface having the particles applied thereon with fluorine resin.
US09310711B2
An image forming apparatus determines a time length of a non-image-forming period in which image formation is not performed, the non-image-forming period being from when image formation on one recording sheet ends to when image formation on the next recording sheet starts, and based on the determined time length, decides the number of times of executing measurement (BD interval measurement) of a generation timing difference between detection signals corresponding to light beams emitted from two light emitting elements. The image forming apparatus executes the decided number of times of BD interval measurement and calculates an average value of the resultant measurement values.
US09310702B2
An electrophotographic photoreceptor includes a conductive substrate and a photosensitive layer provided on the conductive substrate, wherein an outermost surface layer of the electrophotographic photoreceptor is composed of a cured film of a composition containing a reactive charge transport material, a zinc stearate coverage of the surface of the outermost surface layer is 5.0% or more, and an oxygen permeability coefficient of the outermost surface layer before coating with zinc stearate is 2.0×1012 fm2/Pa·s or more.
US09310701B2
A device for guiding electromagnetic radiation into a projection exposure apparatus for semiconductor lithography includes an optical fiber and an actuator for the mechanical manipulation of a section of the fiber as a result of which a temporally averaged homogenization of an intensity profile of electromagnetic radiation emerging at an exit end of the fiber can be achieved. A projection exposure apparatus for semiconductor lithography is equipped with the abovementioned device.
US09310690B2
An illumination system includes an optical integrator having a plurality of light entrance facets, whose images at least substantially superimpose in a mask plane. A spatial light modulator transmits or reflects impinging projection light in a spatially resolved manner. A pupil forming unit directs projection light onto the spatial light modulator. An objective images a light exit surface of the spatial light modulator onto the light entrance facets of the optical integrator so that an image of an object area on the light exit surface completely coincides with one of the light entrance facets. A control unit controls the spatial light modulator such that along a scan direction a length of an image, which is formed on a mask from a light pattern in the object area, gradually increases at a beginning of a scan cycle and gradually decreases at the end of the scan cycle.
US09310689B2
Methods and apparatus are provided for promoting the coalescence of fuel droplets in a stream generated by a radiation source droplet stream generator for use in lithographic apparatus. Various examples are described in which a modulating voltage source is applied to the emitter so that the electrical characteristics of the droplets may be controlled. This results in acceleration and deceleration of droplets in the stream which causes them to merge and promotes coalescence.
US09310687B2
Negatives, and laminates containing negatives, for exposing liquid photopolymers in UV flexographic plate making are created by printing opaque images directly onto the protective or release cover films used in plate making processes. Combining negatives and cover films in this way eliminates two layers and two interfaces in the exposure process, reducing cost and improving quality. By bringing the negative images as close as possible to the liquid photopolymer, printed dots of “digital quality” are created.
US09310685B2
Provided herein are a method and apparatus for the formation of conductive films on a substrate using precise sintering of a conductive film and thermal management of the substrate during sintering. In particular, a method may include depositing a conductive metal-based ink on a translucent or transparent substrate, positioning a mask between the deposited conductive metal-based ink and a light source, exposing the mask and the underlying deposited conductive metal-based ink to the light source, sintering the conductive metal-based ink exposed to the light source, and cleaning the non-sintered conductive metal-based ink from the translucent or transparent substrate. The mask may be configured to shield at least a portion of the conductive metal-based ink from the light source. The portion of the conductive metal-based ink shielded from the light source may remain non-sintered in response to the sintering of the conductive metal-based ink exposed to the light source.
US09310682B2
A positive-type resist composition according to the present invention includes a fluorine-containing aliphatic alcohol, a polymer, a vinyl compound and a photoacid generator, wherein the fluorine-containing aliphatic alcohol is a monohydric C2-C8 aliphatic alcohol in which the number of hydrogen atoms is equal to or less than the number of fluorine atoms. This positive-type resist composition has a small influence on organic materials, such as less dissolution and swelling of the organic materials, and can form a resist film on an organic polymer substrate etc. by a wet application process such that the resulting resist film or resist pattern shows high solvent resistance.
US09310680B2
Provided is an alkali-developable photocurable/thermosetting resin composition from which a cured coating film that has excellent thermal shock resistance and exhibits excellent PCT resistance, HAST resistance and electroless gold plating resistance, which are important as a solder resist for semiconductor packages, can be formed. The alkali-developable photocurable/thermosetting resin composition is characterized by comprising (A) a carboxyl group-containing photosensitive resin, (B) a photopolymerization initiator, (C) a block copolymer and (D) a thermosetting component.
US09310678B2
The invention provides a vinyl ether group-containing copolymer, preparation process and use thereof. The copolymer comprises of the structural units represented by the following general formulae I, II and III, wherein, R1 is O or HN, R2 is an alkyl group with a carbon atom number of 1-4, cyclohexyl or a group represented by the following general formula IV (m represents a positive integer of 1-3), n is a positive integer of 1-4, the molar numbers of the structural units represented by the general formulae I, H and III are x, y and z, respectively, and x:y:z=3-8:1-4:1-5, the weight average molecular weight of the copolymer is 5000-20000. A color light blocking agent added with the copolymer can increase sensitivity. Furthermore, the copolymer has solubility in an alkaline solution, and thus, the color light blocking agent added with the copolymer has a superior developing property.
US09310676B2
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus for embossing a flexible substrate. More specifically, the present invention relates to an apparatus for embossing a curable composition coated flexible substrate with an optically variable image transferred from an embossing foil, especially belt, or sheet of an optically transparent fluoropolymer. The optically variable image is irradiated through the embossing belt, or sheet with ultraviolet light contemporaneously with the embossing so that the transferred imprint pattern cures, hardens, and retains its shape.
US09310671B2
A stereo imaging device is disclosed. The stereo imaging device includes a pair of holders, an imaging element, an association pillar and a pair of isometric beams. The holders are used to clamp a handheld electronic device. The imaging element includes a bottom plate having a guide slot and is movably connected to the two holders. The association pillar is fastened in the guide slot and can be moved in the guide slot along a first axis. One end of each of the two beams is pivotally connected to the association pillar, and the other ends of the beams are respectively connected to the top plates of the two holders.
US09310663B2
A Mach-Zehnder modulator arrangement includes at least one electro-optic Mach-Zehnder modulator having a first optical waveguide forming a first modulator arm and a second optical waveguide forming a second modulator arm. A travelling wave electrode arrangement includes first waveguide electrodes for applying a voltage across the first optical waveguide and second waveguide electrodes for applying a voltage across the second optical waveguide. The first waveguide electrodes are capacitively coupled to the second waveguide electrodes. A driver unit supplies an alternating voltage to the travelling wave electrode arrangement. The driver unit includes a first output port coupled to the first waveguide electrodes and a second output port coupled to the second waveguide electrodes. The driver unit supplies a first varying signal to the first waveguide electrodes via the first output port and a second varying signal to the second waveguide electrodes via the second output port.
US09310661B2
An electrophoretic medium comprises an electrophoretic layer, a layer of lamination adhesive and a polymeric layer disposed between the electrophoretic layer and the lamination adhesive layer, the polymeric layer being impermeable to the fluid. A second form of electrophoretic medium has a layer of a complex of an alkali metal and a polymer in contact with the electrophoretic layer. A third form of electrophoretic medium comprises a plurality of discrete droplets of internal phase in a binder, and further comprises a salt.
US09310652B2
An array substrate includes a pixel electrode having a contact portion, a pair of main pixel electrodes extending in a first direction from the contact portion, and a sub-pixel electrode arranged between the contact portion and an end of the main pixel electrode so as to connect the main pixel electrodes. A counter substrate includes a common electrode having first, second and third main common electrodes. The third main common electrode is arranged substantially in the center between the pair of main pixel electrodes. A sub-common electrode is arranged between the contact portion and the sub-pixel electrode in the first direction. The third main common electrode includes a cutout portion, and the sub-pixel electrode crosses the third main common electrode at the cutout portion. The first sub-common electrode includes cutout portions, and the pair of main pixel electrodes cross the first sub-common electrode at the cutout portions, respectively.
US09310650B2
Provided are a display device and a method of manufacturing the same. The display device includes a first substrate, a second substrate facing the first substrate and separated from the first substrate, a plurality of liquid crystal parts disposed between the first and second substrates, and separated in a horizontal direction from each other, spacers for separating the liquid crystal parts between the first and the second substrates, and immobilization patterns disposed in each of the liquid crystal parts, and including an optically active material.
US09310648B2
Provided are a liquid crystal panel assembly having no light guide plate (LGP) and a liquid crystal display apparatus. The liquid crystal panel assembly includes: a light source which generates light; a liquid crystal panel which displays the light generated from the light source as an image; at least one optical film disposed at a rear of the liquid crystal panel; a reflector sheet which is disposed at a rear of the optical film and reflects the light from the light source toward the optical film; a reflector which concentrates the light from the light source; an upper chassis and a lower chassis which house the light source, the liquid crystal panel, the optical film, the reflector sheet, and the reflector therebetween; and a middle chassis installed between the upper chassis and the lower chassis, wherein the reflector and the middle chassis form a single body.
US09310641B2
A display device with a higher contrast ratio is provided. The display device is provided with stacked polarizing plates arranged displaced from a parallel nicol state. Moreover, in the display device, at least one of a pair of stacked polarizing plates is displaced from a parallel state. The pair of stacked polarizing plates is arranged in a cross nicol state. A retardation plate may be provided between the polarizing plate and the substrate. As a result, the contrast ratio can be increased.
US09310635B2
The present invention provides a curved liquid crystal display device, which includes a backlight module (1), a mold frame (3) mounted on the backlight module (1), a liquid crystal panel (5) arranged on the mold frame (3), and a bezel (7) that retains the liquid crystal panel (5) on the mold frame (3). The backlight module (1) includes a curved backplane (11) and optical components (13) arranged in the curved backplane (11). The curved backplane (11) includes a bottom board (111) and a bracing (9) mounted to the bottom board (111). The bracing (9) includes a base (91), a pair of guide rails (93) mounted to the base (91), a screw (95) rotatably mounted to the base (91), and a pair of slide blocks (97) that are in engagement with the screw (95) and slidable along the guide rails (93). The bottom board (111) includes a pair of protrusions (113) formed a surface thereof that is in contact engagement with the slide blocks (97) to correspond to the slide blocks (97). The pair of slide blocks (97) are arranged to respectively press against the pair of protrusions (113) so as to cause deformation of the bottom board (111) to form the curved backplane (11).
US09310629B2
An optical modulator may include a leftmost waveguide, a rightmost waveguide, and a dielectric layer disposed therebetween. In one embodiment, the waveguides may be disposed on the same plane. When a voltage potential is created between the rightmost and leftmost waveguides, these layers form a silicon-insulator-silicon capacitor (also referred to as SISCAP) structure that provides efficient, high-speed optical modulation of an optical signal passing through the modulator. As opposed to a horizontal SISCAP structure where the dielectric layer is disposed between upper and lower waveguides, arranging the dielectric layer between waveguides disposed on the same plane results in a vertical SISCAP structure. In one embodiment, the leftmost and rightmost waveguide are both made from crystalline silicon.
US09310620B2
Certain aspects of the disclosure relates to a laser beam collimation apparatus and a manufacturing method thereof. In one exemplary embodiment, the laser beam collimation apparatus includes a laser and a collimating lens disposed opposite the laser, in which the laser is mounted on a laser seat, and the collimating lens is mounted on a collimating lens seat. A transparent rigid ring is provided between the collimating lens seat and the laser seat, and at least one gap is provided between the transparent rigid ring and the laser seat and between the transparent rigid ring and the collimating lens seat, and the at least one gap is filled with a photosensitive adhesive, wherein the at least one gap comprises at least one of a first gap between the transparent rigid ring and the laser seat and a second gap between the transparent rigid ring and the collimating lens seat.
US09310619B2
To provide a thin optical sheet having improved efficiency for light utilization, an optical sheet (5) of one mode of the present invention includes, in sequence from a light entry side to a light emission side, a plurality of first prisms (13), a ¼ wavelength plate (11), and a polarized-light separating element (12), the plurality of first prisms (13) each having (i) a first surface (13a) through which light enters the first prism and (ii) a second surface (13b) that reflects the light, having entered the first prism, toward the light emission side, the optical film further including, between the plurality of first prisms in an in-plane direction of the optical film, a second prism (14) that reflects light.
US09310618B2
Generally, near seamless electronics displays may be employed in cinema and exhibition applications. Laser scanned displays may be enabled such that the display may display three dimensional (“3D”) content. A first method to enable a laser scanned display for 3D content may employ polarization, with or without polarization conversion and another method may employ multiple colors. Additionally, the envelope function that may be employed across the display may be achieved by changing laser power as a beam is scanned on the screen or by changing the dwell time of the laser beam on the pixels. One method of minimizing the effects of seams in the screen may be to reduce the screen resolution near the seams by screen design and/or laser beam dwell time or illumination energy.
US09310614B2
A head mounted display (HMD) and an imaging method thereof are provided. The HMD comprises a beam splitter, a pico projector, an application processor, an eye image sensor, an adjustment apparatus, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), and an eyeglass frame. The application processor controls the pico projector to project a beam. The eye image sensor captures an eye image. The ASIC performs a perspective correction on the eye image to generate a frontal eye image. The ASIC obtains a beam location of the beam and obtains a pupil location according to the frontal eye image. The ASIC according to the beam location and the pupil location controls the adjustment apparatus to adjust the beam splitter. The eyeglass frame carries the beam splitter, the pico projector, the application processor, the eye image sensor and the ASIC.
US09310612B2
The present specification relates to a mobile device, a head mounted display (HMD) paired with the mobile device and a method of controlling therefor, and more particularly, to a method of providing a notification for an occurrence of an event from at least one of the mobile device and the HMD based on a position of the mobile device for the HMD.
US09310604B2
An illumination optical apparatus includes a light splitting device which splits the beam into a plurality of beams with respective polarization states different from each other, a spatial light modulation device which is arranged on at least one of a first optical path in which a first beam out of the plurality of beams travels and a second optical path in which a second beam out of the plurality of beams travels, and which has a plurality of optical elements arranged two-dimensionally and driven individually and a control device which controls the spatial modulation device to combine the first beam and the second beam at least in part.
US09310596B2
A compound microscope device allows simultaneous observation of one specimen by a transmission electron microscope and an optical microscope. The compound microscope device 1 of the present invention has a transmission electron microscope 2 and an optical microscope 4. A specimen 10 and a reflection mirror 41 are disposed on an electron optical axis C of an electron ray. The reflection mirror 41 is inclined from the electron optical axis C toward the optical object lens 43 and the specimen 10. Light from the specimen 10 (fluorescent light, reflection light, and the like) is reflected by the reflection mirror 41 and enters into the optical object lens 43. The electron ray from the electron microscope 2 passes through a mounting center hole 42 of the reflection mirror 41. This makes it possible to observe one specimen simultaneously by the electron microscope 2 and the optical microscope 4.
US09310590B1
The invention discloses a five-piece lens assembly for capturing image. It includes a first lens element with positive refractive power having a convex image-side surface and a convex object-side surface. A second lens element has a concave image-side surface. At least one of the image-side surface and the object-side surface of the first lens element and the second lens element is aspheric. An object-side surface and an image-side surface of the third lens element are aspheric and have inflection points. A fourth lens element has a concave object-side surface and a convex image-side surface. A fifth lens element has a concave object-side surface and a convex image-side surface, and both of the two surfaces are aspheric. The object-side surface of the fifth lens element has at least one inflection point and the image-side surface has at least two inflection points. The second through fifth lens elements have refractive power.
US09310578B2
Certain types of aggregation enclosures include cable input ports and downwardly angled cable output ports. A cover is pivotally coupled to the body so that the cover moves between an open position and a closed position. A modular component panel may be disposed within the enclosure. The component panel includes one or more distribution components (e.g., fiber distribution components or power distribution components) configured to connect at least a portion of an incoming cable to at least a portion of an outgoing cable.
US09310574B2
A multimedia data transmission device configured for connecting a data source and a multimedia display device includes a first connection terminal, a second connection terminal, and a transmission cable. The first connection terminal is electrically connected to the data source. The second connection terminal is optically coupled with the multimedia display device. The transmission cable is optically interconnected between the first connection terminal and the second connection terminal.
US09310573B2
An identifying system includes a master device having a lighting member for emitting light and an optical sensor for sensing light, and a slave device having a light guiding member with a light entering portion and a light sensing portion. The light entering portion receives the light from the lighting member, and the light sensing portion is located in a working range of the optical sensor. When the slave device is connected to the master device, the light of the lighting member enters the light guiding member via the light entering portion, and is guided to the light sensing portion.
US09310568B2
Fiber patch cable assemblies are described. More particularly, fiber patch cable assemblies that provide adaptability between a terminal and a drop cable having different connection formats are described.
US09310565B2
Described herein are technologies related to passive or active cloaking devices. More particularly, the passive or active cloaking devices utilize input/output grating couplers and waveguides to create an impression of invisibility on an object that is covered by the passive or active cloaking devices.
US09310561B1
Embodiments describe optical devices including a first waveguide, comprising a first cross-sectional area, to receive a light comprising a first optical mode, and a second waveguide, adjacent to the first waveguide, to receive a light comprising a second optical mode orthogonal to the first optical mode. The second waveguide comprises a second cross-sectional area different than the first waveguide such that an absorption/gain coefficient of the second waveguide for light comprising the second optical mode is equal to an absorption/gain coefficient of the first waveguide for light comprising the first optical mode. The optical devices may comprise modulators, photodetectors, or semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs).
US09310559B2
A two-dimensional array of linear wave guides includes a plurality of 2D planar wave guide assemblies, columns, sets or layers which each produce a respective depth plane to for a simulated 4D light field. Linear wave guides may have a rectangular cylindrical shape, and may stacked in rows and columns. Each linear wave guide is at least partially internally reflective, for example via at least one opposed pair of at least partially reflective planar side walls, to propagate light along a length of the wave guide. Curved micro-reflectors may reflect some modes of light while passing others. The side walls or a face may reflect some modes of light while passing others. The curved micro-reflectors of any given wave guide each contribute to spherical wave front at a defined radial distance, the various layers producing image planes at respective radial distances.
US09310558B2
An optical PCB includes a substrate layer, a first light waveguide layer and a second light waveguide layer. The first light waveguide layer and the second light waveguide layer are positioned on the substrate layer and are optically coupled with each other. The first light waveguide layer includes a first tapered end facing toward the second light waveguide layer, and the second light waveguide layer includes a second taped end facing toward the first light waveguide layer. The first light waveguide layer and the second light waveguide layer are optically coupled with each other via the first tapered end and the second tapered end.
US09310554B2
One embodiment provides an integrated circuit including a first non-planar structure and a waveguide configured to provide electromagnetic waves to the first non-planar structure. The first non-planar structure provides a first signal in response to at least some of the electromagnetic waves.
US09310553B2
Embodiments of the present disclosure provide optical connection techniques and configurations. In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a receptacle for mounting on a surface of a package substrate, the receptacle having a pluggable surface to receive an optical coupler plug such that the optical coupler plug is optically aligned with one or more optical apertures of an optoelectronic assembly that is configured to emit and/or receive light using the one or more optical apertures in a direction that is substantially perpendicular to the surface of the package substrate when the optoelectronic assembly is affixed to the package substrate. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.
US09310552B2
Described embodiments include photonic integrated circuits and systems with photonic devices, including thermal isolation regions for the photonic devices. Methods of fabricating such circuits and systems are also described.
US09310547B2
A backlight assembly includes a light guide member extending in a direction and having a light incident surface and a light exiting surface. A light source faces the light guide member and supplies light to the light guide member through the light incident surface. A reflecting member reflects light exiting from the light exiting surface of the light guide member. The reflecting member includes a groove receiving the light guide member. A first reflecting portion is disposed under the light guide member and reflects light refracted by the light guide member in an upward direction. A second reflecting portion is disposed on the light guide member and reflects light refracted by the light guide member in a downward direction.
US09310545B2
A lighting assembly includes a light guide and light source. The light guide includes light input regions, at least one of the light input regions associated with an optical modifying characteristic, and the light guide is configured to propagate light by total internal reflection. The light source is located adjacent the light input regions. The light source and light input regions are variably positionable relative to one another to vary a location at which light is incident on the light input regions such that light emitted from the light source is selectively apportioned between the light input regions. A characteristic of the light output from the lighting assembly is modified based on the optical modifying characteristic of the at least one of the light input regions and the relative positioning of the light source and the light input regions.
US09310544B2
A polarizer including a base film, a first alignment layer disposed on the base film, a phase delay layer disposed on the first alignment layer, a second alignment layer disposed on the phase delay layer, and a polarizing layer disposed on the second alignment layer. The phase delay layer includes a first liquid crystal composition including first liquid crystals, a first antioxidant, and a derivative thereof.
US09310540B2
The invention provides a sheet-like light collector device comprising a light receiving side and a light exit side, and a plurality of curved structures of light guiding material comprising an organic dye configured to absorb at least part of the light of a light source and to convert at least part of the absorbed light into converted light in the visible wavelength range. Each curved structure has a convex curved part at the light receiving side, a concave part at the light exit side, and a light exit edge part at the light exit side. Each curved structure has a curvature and light guide thickness configured to facilitate transport of incoupled light and the visible converted light in the direction of the light exit edge part to provide device light escaping from the light exit edge part.
US09310537B2
A color filter substrate and a display device are provided. The color filter substrate comprises a substrate; a color filter layer provided on the substrate; and a photochromic material, the photochromic material and the color filter layer cooperating to display different colors by adjusting the light irradiated onto the color filter substrate. In the color filter substrate and the display device, the photochromic material is introduced into the color filter substrate. In this way, by adjusting the light emitted from the backlight source, the photochromic material is excited to display different colors and the color gamut of the pixel units is thus changed. This color filter substrate and liquid crystal panel can be better applied to different environments.
US09310528B2
A method for manufacturing a lens which includes raised portions arranged on a surface of the lens with a pitch smaller than or equal to a predetermined pitch, and is configured to reduce reflection of light having a wavelength longer than or equal to the predetermined pitch includes preparing a molding die in which recessed portions corresponding to the raised portions are formed, filling a molten resin material into a cavity of the molding die via a gate, and curing the resin material in the molding die. The molding die includes a peripheral region in a periphery of the gate, and an adjacent region adjacent to the peripheral region. First recessed portions in the peripheral region are deeper than second recessed portions in the adjacent region.
US09310522B2
The present invention provides an optical layered body which stably keeps light resistance such as ultraviolet resistance and oxidation resistance while keeping conventional physical properties and optical properties as the outermost surface material of an image display device, which is excellent in an antistatic property and which is capable of providing high image contrast when employed for an image display device. The optical layered body has a light transmitting substrate and a resin layer formed on one surface of the light transmitting substrate and is characterized in that the resin layer contains a binder resin, a polythiophene, an auxiliary conductive agent, and a leveling agent.
US09310520B2
An optical material which has a relative permeability different from 1 to light having a wavelength in, for example, the infrared region or shorter than the infrared region and which is stable in structure, and a liquid and a solid (optical element) using the optical material. The optical material is a powder used as a component of a liquid or solid to which an illuminating light is irradiated, and includes a large number of resonating elements which constitute the powder and each of which is formed of a conductor having a width approximately same as or smaller than a wavelength of the illumination light, and a protective film which is formed of a disc-shaped insulator, wherein an entire surface of each of the split-ring resonators is covered by the protective film.
US09310515B2
A method for determining a petrophysical property of a formation includes detecting radiation events resulting from imparting neutrons into the formation at an energy level of at least 1 MeV. The petrophysical property is determined from an elastic scattering cross section of the formation. The elastic scattering cross-section related to a number of detected radiation events.
US09310513B2
A method and apparatus for borehole logging, the method comprising collecting detector output data from a radiation detector of a borehole logging tool, and resolving individual signals in the detector output data by (i) determining a signal form of signals present in the data, (ii) making parameter estimates of one or more parameters of the signals, wherein the one or more parameters comprise at least a signal temporal position, and (iii) determining the energy of each of the signals from at least the signal form and the parameter estimates. The logging tool is shorter, logging tool speed is greater, dwell time is shorter and/or resolution is improved.
US09310505B2
A technique includes providing a source in a first well and a seismic receiver in a second well to detect a seismic event that is caused by the source. The technique includes referencing clocks in the source and receiver to a common reference time frame and determining a time in the reference time frame at which the seismic source generates the seismic event.
US09310498B2
Method of performing a 3-D seismic survey using a plurality of vibroseis sources, and an array of seismic sensors arranged within a survey area. Each vibroseis source emits a distinctive acoustic signal and each seismic sensor of the array is in a continuous state of readiness to detect reflected acoustic signals. The method includes assigning vibroseis points (VPs) to each vibroseis source, moving each vibroseis source to assigned VPs where the vibroseis source emits an acoustic signal, recording the emission time of the acoustic signal by each vibroseis source at its assigned VPs together with the geographic position of the assigned VPs, continuously listening for reflected acoustic signals using the seismic sensors and recording a time domain record of the reflected acoustic signals received by each seismic sensor. Reflected acoustic signals associated with emission of an acoustic signal by a vibroseis source at an assigned VP are then determined.
US09310496B2
Provided are a calibration apparatus and method that may be used for setting a magnitude of an electric pulse based on a result obtained by imaging at least one imaging object, and that may be used for calibrating by mapping at least one photon energy corresponding to an absorption edge of at least one calibration object.
US09310489B2
The present invention provides a transmitter comprising: a plurality of antennas; and a radio transmitting part transmitting from each of the antennas a positional information signal containing the same positional information, the positional information being transmitted from the antennas through channels which are different between the antennas. The transmitter enables prevention of the positioning error and the positioning time from increasing by solving problems of null points and signal interferences, problems relating to a positional information transmitter disposed indoors, in a positioning system for acquiring a current position both indoors and outdoors.
US09310478B2
A radar sensor device having at least one planar antenna device that includes a plurality of vertically oriented antenna columns which are configured as a sparse array in one plane in parallel at defined mutual distances and which each have at least two line-fed patch elements, the sparse array of antenna columns is designed to have such a minimal redundancy that the amount of defined distances among the antenna columns in the sparse array is at least equal to all of the different distances between any two antenna columns of a corresponding non-sparse array of a planar antenna device having the same antenna aperture and the same characteristics of the antenna columns, but is the most minimum possible number.
US09310468B2
A includes a plurality of antennas and a controller. Each antenna is configured to detect a reflected radar signal reflected by an object in a field-of-view of the system. The controller is configured to receive an antenna signal from each antenna corresponding to the reflected radar signal detected by the antenna. The controller is also configured to determine a reflected signal profile of each antenna signal. The controller is also configured to determine a composite data set based on a combination of the reflected signal profiles. The controller is also configured to determine if the composite data set includes a composite data point characterized as greater than a composite threshold. The controller is also configured to determine if any of the reflected signal profiles indicate that the radar signal is reflected by more than one object.
US09310467B2
A sensor mounting for a sensor for object detection includes a housing for the sensor, a holder on which the housing is pivotably held, an adjusting device for an angular orientation of the housing and an angular gear mechanism for controlling the adjusting device. The angular gear mechanism includes a drive wheel and a driven wheel, the drive wheel being connected to an engagement contour for the transmission of torque to the drive wheel, and a gear mechanism housing of the angular gear mechanism being set up so as to permit mounting of the drive wheel at different sides of the angular gear mechanism.
US09310464B2
A data processor data processor is capable of compensating with multipath phase compensation data for a multipath phase error in the at least one subcarrier phase associated with the multipath-impacted signal arising from the transmitted OFDM-like signal. The phase compensation data results in or comprises an adjustment to the estimated range based on a direct signal vector length of a direct path signal and a multipath-impacted signal vector length of a multipath-impacted signal that are determined through observed signals or observed signal vectors of the receiver. The data processor estimates the location of the receiver or estimated range, based on the precise estimate, with the above adjustment for multipath.
US09310452B2
Parallel magnetic resonance imaging (pMRI) reconstruction techniques are commonly used to reduce scan time by undersampling the k-space data. In GRAPPA, a k-space based pMRI technique, the missing k-space data are estimated by solving a set of linear equations; however, this set of equations does not take advantage of the correlations within the missing k-space data. All k-space data in a neighborhood acquired from a phased-array coil are correlated. The correlation can be estimated easily as a self-constraint condition, and formulated as an extra set of linear equations to improve the performance of GRAPPA. We propose a modified k-space based pMRI technique call self-constraint GRAPPA (SC-GRAPPA) which combines the linear equations of GRAPPA with these extra equations to solve for the missing k-space data. Since SC-GRAPPA utilizes a least-squares solution of the linear equations, it has a closed-form solution that does not require an iterative solver.
US09310446B2
A magnetic field direction detector for detecting whether a magnetic flux has a component of field from a first side or a second side of a detection axis; the magnetic field direction detector comprising: a first magneto-resistive sensor; and a perturbation generator; wherein the perturbation generator causes an external magnetic field to be perturbed so as to cause the apparent direction of flux to change by an angle θ1 at the first magneto-resistive sensor.
US09310442B2
A battery includes a plurality of battery cells connected in series between a positive terminal and a negative terminal and a resistor connected in series with the battery cells. The battery also includes a plurality of cell voltage detection units which each include a plurality of voltage measurement inputs connected to a respective group of the battery cells. The battery is configured to determine cell voltages of the battery cells connected to the respective cell voltage detection unit. The cell voltage detection units are connected to each other by a communication bus and are configured to transmit, via the communication bus, the determined cell voltages to a microcontroller which is galvanically decoupled from the cell voltage detection units by an electrical isolation device. The resistor includes a first connection connected to a selected voltage measurement input of one of the cell voltage detection units.
US09310438B2
A deposition detection circuit (3) provided in a deposition detection device (1) includes a determination circuit (4) determines whether the movable contact (9) is deposited based on a step input signal and a transient response signal when a drive signal is in an off state. The transient response signal is generated so as to correspond to voltage less than or equal to operating voltage of the electromagnetic relay switch (5) according to an excitation coil (6) and a fixed resistor (R1).
US09310436B2
A system has in an integrated circuit a seed memory coupled to seed a vector generator that provides a vector to at least one scan chain of a first functional unit. A signature generator is configured to generate a signature from scan chain data, the signature is compared to an expected signature in a signature memory. A state memorizer is provided for saving a state of the functional unit and to restore the state of the functional unit as testing is completed. The system also has apparatus configured to determine an idle condition of the functional unit despite a non-idle state of the system; and a control unit configured to operate a test sequence when the functional unit is idle, the test sequence saving a state of the unit, generating vectors and signatures and verifying the signatures, and restoring the state of the unit.
US09310431B2
The present disclosure relates to a diagnosis framework to shorten yield learning cycles of technology node manufacturing processes from the high defect density stage to technology maturity. A plurality of defect under test (DUT) structures are designed to capture potential manufacturing issues associated with defect formation. A test structure is formed by arranging the DUT structures within a DUT carrier unit, which has been yield-hardened though heuristic yield analysis such that a defect density of the DUT carrier unit is essentially zero. Possible outcomes of an application of test patterns and various failure scenarios associated with defects formed within the DUT structures within the DUT carrier unit are simulated and stored in a look-up table (LUT). The LUT may then be referenced to determine a location of a defect within the test structure without the need for iterative analysis to correctly select defect candidates for physical failure analysis (PFA).
US09310424B2
A mechanism is provided for determining a modeled age of a mufti-core processor. For each core in a set of cores in the multi-core processor, a determination is made of a temperature, a voltage, and a frequency at regular intervals for a set of degradations and a set of voltage domains, thereby forming the modeled age of the multi-core processor. A determination is made as to whether the modeled age of the multi-core processor is greater than an end-of-life value. Responsive to the modeled age of the multi-core processor being greater than an end-of-life value, an indication is sent that the multi-core processor requires replacement.
US09310421B2
An apparatus for testing a thyristor valve includes: a current source circuit that provides an electric current when a thyristor valve as a test target is turned on; a voltage source circuit that provides a reverse voltage or a forward voltage when the thyristor valve is turned off; and a first auxiliary valve provided between a connection point between the thyristor valve and the voltage source circuit and the current source circuit, and that insulates the current source circuit from the voltage source circuit to protect the current source circuit from a high voltage of the voltage source circuit.
US09310406B2
The invention discloses a region-based security evaluation method for the distribution system, which belongs to the eld of electric power distribution system operation. The method contains the following steps: (1) acquiring distribution system security region and security boundaries according to substation transformer capacity of the distribution system and link relationships among the substation transformers (101); (2) acquiring the distance between operating point and the security boundaries (IO2); (3) judging whether the operating point is within the distribution system security region according to the distance between the operating point and security boundaries (103); if yes, performing step (4), otherwise, performing step (5); (4) acquiring the load shortage or excess L,- of a link unit (I04); (5) adjusting the load of the substation transformers until the operating point comes back to the distribution system security region, then performing step (4) (IO5). The method provides more information than traditional N-I simulation in distribution system security assessment; and reduces calculation, increases the operating speed and satisfies the requirement of real-time and on-line operation.
US09310401B2
A power monitoring device for identifying the state of an electric appliance based on user feedbacks and a power monitoring method thereof are provided. The power monitoring device includes a measurement module, a variation detection and search module, and an electric appliance signature database established based on user feedbacks. When the measurement module detects a variation of a power consumption feature, the variation detection and search module searches the electric appliance signature database according to the variation to obtain electric appliances similar to the variation and the states thereof. A user contributes data to the electric appliance signature database by confirming the search result, or selecting the correct electric appliance and the state thereof. When the user confirms the search result, the power monitoring device establishes an association between the electric appliance and its electric appliance signatures and updates the electric appliance signature database.
US09310397B2
A sensor array including multiple current sensors provides input for power measurement and management systems. The sensor array includes split ferrite cylinder portions connected by a frame, so that when the array is installed around multiple branch circuits in a power distribution panel or raceway, the ferrite cylinders are completed to surround the conductor(s) of the associated branch circuit. Voltage sensing may also be incorporated within the sensors by providing an electrically conductive plate, wire or other element that capacitively couples to the corresponding wire(s).
US09310387B2
A test apparatus, which may compare detection data of a detector with reference data and correct a positional error in the detector due to the failing of a motor, and a method of controlling the same are provided. The test apparatus includes a detector configured to irradiate light to a plurality of chambers of a reaction device and detect a detection target, a motor configured to move the detector such that light is irradiated to the plurality of chambers, and a controller configured to compare detection data of the detector regarding the reaction device with reference data, determine a positional error in the detector, and correct the positional error.
US09310386B2
Novel methods for determining the unknown biological activity of a clostridial neurotoxin in a sample with respect to the known biological activity of a clostridial neurotoxin in a reference sample, comprising the step of comparing the biological activity of a clostridial neurotoxin preparation with the biological activity of a standard preparation of a reference clostridial neurotoxin in certain in vitro systems.
US09310384B2
A family of novel feline bitter taste receptors, referred to as feline TAS2R (fTAS2R), are disclosed herein. Isolated polynucleotides encoding the novel feline bitter taste receptors and chimeric polypeptides are also disclosed, as are expression vectors and host cells for expression of the novel feline bitter taste receptors. Methods of identifying compounds that bind to the novel feline bitter taste receptors and modulate their activity are disclosed.
US09310378B2
The invention provides a novel additive for improved analysis by mass spectrometry. More specifically, ascorbic acid has been found to reduce or eliminate the presence of adducts commonly present in mass spectra. The improved processes and compositions of the invention allow for increased accuracy, sensitivity and throughput for samples analyzed by mass spectrometry.
US09310374B2
The present disclosure provides conjugate structures (e.g., polypeptide conjugates) and hydrazinyl-indole compounds used to produce these conjugates. The disclosure also provides methods of production of such conjugates, as well as methods of using the same.
US09310372B2
The invention generally relates to the field of immunochemistry including antibody therapy, diagnostics, and basic research and specifically relates to the area of selecting affinity molecules such as natural antibodies, including artificial antibodies, antibody mimics, and aptamers. The invention relates particularly to a method of selecting affinity molecules using a homogeneous noncompetitive assay in a high throughput process.
US09310367B2
The invention provides compositions, methods, and kits for the diagnosis or detection of infection by a pathogen that causes Lyme disease in a subject.
US09310366B2
The present invention presents the isolation, characterization and synthesis of oligosaccharides of Bacillus anthracis. Also presented are antibodies that bind to such saccharide moieties and various methods of use for such saccharide moieties and antibodies.
US09310357B2
Methods and systems for detecting chemical and biological agents using oligonucleotide aptamers. A sensor includes a detection complex between an aptamer that has a binding domain for the chemical or biological agent, and a first oligonucleotide with a sequence complementary to a region of the aptamer. In the absence of the agent, the aptamer and the first oligonucleotide form an intermediate combination. In the presence of the agent, the intermediate combination dissociates. The sensor further includes a second oligonucleotide with a sequence that interacts with a region of the first oligonucleotide to form a duplex structure only when the first oligonucleotide is dissociated from the aptamer. When the duplex structure is formed, it can interact with a reporter molecule which in turn initiates a signal reporting detection of the chemical or biological agent.
US09310353B2
A method to detect bioavailable metal ions from an oral care composition and a method to select for compounds that inhibit the uptake of metal ions into cells.
US09310352B2
An optical fiber is combined with a photonic crystal structure (PCS) that is optically coupled to the optical fiber. The fiber has an exposed fiber surface, and the PCS is affixed to the optical fiber and disposed on or in proximity to the exposed fiber surface. The PCS includes an elongate probe member configured for biological probing. The elongate probe member includes an optical resonant cavity. In an experiment, this was accomplished using an optical fiber tip with a semiconductor template attached to its side face. The semiconductor structure had a thin, needle-like tip (including a nanobeam cavity) which can be suitably inserted inside (or broken off inside) a biological cell without causing cytotoxicity.
US09310350B2
A method of detecting hydrate formation includes monitoring a gas phase of interest. The gas phase is a mixture of gases comprising at least one hydrate forming gas. The monitoring includes determining the concentration of at least one component of the mixture of gases, or determining a ratio of concentration between two components of the mixture, at least one of which is the hydrate forming gas. When a change in the determined concentration or in the determined ratio of concentration is detected, relative to an earlier determination or relative to a pre-established base level concentration or base level range of concentration then formation of a hydrate is indicated. Apparatus for carrying out the method and methods for estimating the location of hydrate formation in a pipeline are also described.
US09310348B2
The submergence detecting device includes a submergence detecting terminal and a submergence judging device. The submergence detecting terminal is composed of at least two conductive sections disposed within a case. The submergence detecting terminal detects a submergence state by coming into contact with water that has infiltrated a predetermined area within the case. The submergence judging device is disposed within the case. At least a signal related to submergence detection is inputted into the submergence judging device from the submergence detecting terminal. The submergence judging device then judges whether or not submergence has occurred. The submergence detecting terminal is disposed in a position away from the submergence judging device in the downward direction.
US09310340B2
A solution for evaluating the condition of a rail component based on resonant response profiles across a set of bands of vibrations. The vibrations can be induced into the target component during normal operation of the target component. The resonant response profile of the rail component can vary depending on wear or damage, and thus can be used to determine whether the rail component can safely remain in use. An embodiment comprises an isolated segment of rail of a length selected to allow a single railroad wheel on it at a time, with a set of devices which can acquire the resonance signals from the wheel.
US09310339B2
A hybrid inspection system and method are provided which utilize both an air-coupled transducer and a liquid-coupled transducer in order to enjoy the advantages offered by both types of transducers. The hybrid inspection system may include a first probe that includes the air-coupled transducer, such as a capacitive machined ultrasonic transducer, which is configured to emit ultrasonic signals and to air couple the ultrasonic signals into a workpiece. The hybrid inspection system may also include a second probe that includes the liquid-coupled transducer, such as a piezoelectric transducer, configured to receive the ultrasonic signals emitted by the air-coupled transducer of the first probe via a liquid coupling between the transducer and the workpiece.
US09310336B1
The invention relates to the identification of molecules using electromagnetic write-heads and magneto-resistive sensors. In one embodiment, an electromagnetic write-head magnetically excites a molecule with an alternating magnetic field. A magneto-resistive sensor measures the resonant response of the magnetically excited molecule. A processor compares the resonant response to a table of known responses of different molecules to identify the chemical composition of the molecule based in whole or in part on the comparison.
US09310329B2
A system for measuring crop moisture content in a harvester elevator includes a receiver and processing node and one or more moisture sensing instruments coupled to one or more paddles of the harvested elevator, respectively. The moisture sensing instruments each include a moisture sensor and a transmitter in communication with a receiver and processing node. The moisture sensor is configured to dynamically measure the moisture content of a static harvested crop, relative to the sensor and corresponding paddle, at ascends in the harvester elevator.
US09310328B1
The method of detecting leukemia involves placing a suspension of red blood cells in a reservoir having a capillary tube partially immersed in the reservoir. An alternating current is applied to electrodes (one in the reservoir, the other in the capillary tube) at different frequencies. The electrical resistance is measured at the interface between the electrode and the suspension in the capillary tube. At the same time, CCD (charge coupled device) cameras take images, both top views and side views. The electrical resistance will show a peak at a characteristic resonant frequency, which is different for cancerous blood cells than for normal blood cells. The CCD images will show a pattern of maximum repulsion from the electrode at the resonant frequency in the top view, and minimum height of blood cells on the side of the electrode at the resonant frequency in the side view.
US09310326B2
Provided is a device for determining a monomer molecule sequence of a polymer including different electrodes, and a method of efficiently determining a monomer molecule sequence of a polymer.
US09310322B2
The present specification discloses an X-ray security inspection machine that has a machine housing defining an X-ray tunnel for receiving an article to be inspected, a conveyor belt for conveying the article, two rollers for receiving and moving the conveyor belt, and a conveyor belt tracking device positioned along the path between the two rollers. The conveyor belt tracking device has a mounting bracket for mounting the conveyor belt tracking device to the inspection machine and a guide frame with an upper portion and a lower portion, where the upper portion and lower portion are spaced apart from each other and the conveyor belt passes through the space between the upper portion and lower portion.
US09310304B2
Provided are methods for multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of short tandem repeat (STR) loci that can be used to rapidly generate a highly specific STR profile from target nucleic acids. The resulting STR profiles are useful for human identification purposes in law enforcement, homeland security, military, intelligence, and paternity testing applications.
US09310301B2
The invention relates to an optical detection system for a thermal cycling device including at least one light source, a light detection device for detecting light received from a plurality of biological samples, and a lens having first and second surfaces formed on the lens, the second surface substantially opposed to the first surface. The first surface may be configured to collimate light and the second surface may be configured to direct light into each of the plurality of biological samples.
US09310300B2
A structure is configured to retain optical diagnostic assay components in a manner that enables them to be synergistically combined or coupled both mechanically and electrically with a conventional mobile electronic device (such as a smartphone), such that the pairing maintains a mutually advantageous relationship to provide a compact portable optical assay apparatus in which the optical assay portion has access to the image sensor, battery power, microprocessor, and data capture, analysis, storage, display and transmission capabilities of the smartphone, and the smartphone portion provides the overall apparatus with features of transportability, user interface, and information storage, analysis and retrieval, and transmission of assay results to a separate site, such as a site of records related to the provider of the sample being assayed. Methods of providing such structure and of performing an optical assay of sample material utilizing such structure are described.
US09310297B2
A turbidity sensor and a method for determining at least one physical, chemical and/or biological measured variable of process automation in a medium by means of at least one optical sensor, comprising the steps of sending transmission signals into the medium, wherein the transmission signals are converted into received signals by interaction with, especially by scattering from, the medium as a function of the measured variable; receiving the received signals; and converting the received signals into the measured variable as a function of environmental conditions at the location of installation and, adjusting the sensor based on a calibration graph corresponding to environmental conditions at the location of installation.
US09310289B2
Systems, devices, and methods are described that modulate a specimen-background dark-field micrograph contrast.
US09310280B2
A method and system for taking a sample of ballast water. The method includes withdrawing a sample of ballast water via a tube inserted in a ballast water pipe, wherein the tube includes a sample inlet, and isokinetic flow is achieved via a pump that controls the flow of the sample ballast water through the tube inlet by comparing a flow of the ballast water pipe with a flow of the sample ballast water through the tube; and controlling the flow of water through the sample tube inlet when a flow of the ballast water pipe is sensed to be different; withdrawing a portion of the sample ballast water for testing; and returning remaining sample ballast water to the ballast water pipe.
US09310278B2
An appearance inspection apparatus and an appearance inspection method for detecting a shape, surface unevenness, shine or changes in tone on the surface. The method includes steps of acquiring reflected luminance data on the sample surface by casting a slit light having an intermediate wavelength of three types of lights having different wavelengths, receiving reflected light of the slit light, acquiring surface data by casting two lights of different wavelengths other than the intermediate wavelength at a position other than the position illuminated by the slit light on the sample surface from two different directions so as to overlap two lights with each other and receiving reflected light, detecting surface unevenness from a ratio between the intensities of lights, changes in tone by combining reflected luminance data and surface data, gloss on the sample surface based on the presence or absence of surface unevenness and the changes in color tone.
US09310270B2
An apparatus for processing a tire-wheel assembly comprising a single-cell workstation including a plurality of sub-stations. The plurality of sub-stations includes a weight application sub-station, and an audit balancing sub-station. The apparatus also includes a tire/wheel transporting device positioned within reach of all of the plurality of sub-stations. A method is also disclosed.
US09310267B2
A differential pressure sensor includes a pressure sensing die comprising a semiconductor die, having a thinned portion forming a diaphragm. The diaphragm includes piezo-resistive elements that exhibit varying resistance based on force exerted on the diaphragm. A first support structure is bonded to a first surface of the semiconductor die, having an aperture defined through the support structure such that a first surface of the diaphragm is exposed through the aperture. A second support structure is bonded to the opposite side of the semiconductor die having an aperture aligned with the opposing side of the diaphragm. Electrical components in electrical communication with the piezo-resistive elements are arranged outside the region defined by the bond between the first and second support structures and the semiconductor die. An oil-filled volume may be defined between the semiconductor die and a harsh medium which transmits a fluid pressure to the die without the harsh medium contacting the die.
US09310266B2
A pressure transducer assembly that includes a pressure-responsive diaphragm to which a sensing element is mounted and an electronic package that includes wire-bonding pads adapted be electrically connected to the sensing element by wire bonding equipment. The diaphragm and wire bonding pads are supported within the transducer so that they lie in proximity to each other and in non-intersecting planes.
US09310255B2
A heat-dissipation system and a matrix thermal sensing circuit are provided. The heat-dissipation is used in an electronic device. The electronic device comprises a circuit board and a plurality of load elements disposed on the circuit board. The matrix thermal sensing circuit includes a current sensing module and a calculation module. The current sensing module includes a plurality of sensing nodes. Each sensing node is electrically connected to a current feeding terminal of one corresponding load element, and senses the working current of the corresponding load element respectively. The calculation module is connected to the current sensing module and is used to determine thermal state of the location of the sensing node according to the working current respectively.
US09310248B2
A monitoring system for a multi-laser module includes detectors corresponding to each laser and situated to receive a portion of the associated laser beam uncombined with other beams. Laser characteristics are measured and stored, and in operation are used to identify device failures. A comparator receives a reference value and compares the reference value with a current operational value. If the current value is less that the reference value, a possible failure is indicated. Signal cross-coupling among the detectors is also used to identify undesirable scattering that can be associated with surface contamination or device failure.
US09310235B2
Double isolation for double chamber differential pressure meter, where the differential pressure meter comprising an axial conduit in which there is arranged a plate provided with an orifice which can be extracted into an accessory chamber which communicates with the axial conduit through a passage, there being arranged in relation to said passage a closure formed by two closure elements which can move independently between a position in which they do not interfere with the aforementioned passage and a position in which they interrupt it such that said closure elements allow establishing a leak-tight closure between the axial conduit and the accessory chamber to extract the plate without interrupting the flow of gas or fluid through the axial conduit.
US09310229B2
A sensor system having a sensor element, a housing in which sensor element is situated and which seals the sensor element from the outside world, at least one first electrical contact element which is electrically coupled with the sensor element; a plug connector, which has at least one second electrical contact element, and at least one spring element which is coupled between the at least one second electrical contact element and the at least one first electrical contact element for electrical contacting, so that the sensor element is electrically connected to the second electrical contact element of the plug connector.
US09310227B2
Method for operating a multi-channel rotary encoder comprising at least one printed circuit board on which one or a plurality of functional units (1, 1a, 1b, 1c, 2, 3, 4) are arranged as integrated components and are interconnected, at least one position transducer (6, 7) generating absolute and incremental measurement values which are each fed to a control unit (5) by means of at least one channel (37, 38), the control unit being disposed as a management and safety monitoring unit and controlling a downstream-connected machine, wherein the rotary encoder consists of at least three functional units (1, 2, 3), that the position transducer (6) is arranged in a first functional unit (1) and generates absolute location-position values (9) in this functional unit (1), which are fed by a second functional unit (2), which is connected as an interface, as first secure data (39) by means of the first secure channel (37) to the control unit (5), and that the position transducer (6) feeds its incremental measurement values to a third functional unit (3) which generates absolute location-position values (8) by calculation and feeds said values (8) through the second functional unit (2) by means of a second secure channel (38) as second secure data (40) to the control unit (5) (FIG. 1).
US09310224B2
A magnetic field sensor structure having a number of inner, outer and intermediate electrodes, arranged in a particular manner, such that groups of four electrodes can be used to form horizontal Hall elements, whereby neighboring Hall elements “share” one of the two readout electrodes. Multiple Hall elements may be biased and readout simultaneously. A modulated or unmodulated readout-technique may be used. Integrated magnetic concentrator may be added to the structure. The number of Hall elements may be odd or even. The structure can be used e.g. to measure the magnetic field of a 2-pole, 4-pole or 6-pole ring or disk magnet.
US09310220B2
A minimum remaining driving range estimated to be the distance which the vehicle can travel on the remaining battery power, in a case where a power load which accessories capable of receiving electric power from a battery place on the battery is the greatest within a variable range in accordance with input of operations, and a maximum remaining driving range estimated to be the distance which the vehicle can travel on the remaining battery power, in a case where the power load is the smallest within the variable range, are displayed on a display unit.
US09310205B2
Methods and systems for assisting a user at an event and venue are described. A user is guided or navigated to different points of interest at a venue. The points of interest include seat locations or surrounding services and facilities, such as restaurants, shops, and restrooms. Advertisements and promotions associated with surrounding services may be displayed to the user. The user may be notified of the presence of friends and family at the same venue, and be provided with real-time information about the event.
US09310204B2
A method and apparatus for processing routes is disclosed. An area of interest associated with a number of routes for a number of aircraft and an identification of a number of weightings for a number of characteristics for the number of routes are identified. The number of characteristics includes at least one of a number of environmental characteristics or a number of economic characteristics. A number of new routes are generated based on information about the number of routes associated with the area of interest. Values are identified for characteristics in the number of characteristics for each new route in the number of new routes and for each route in the number of routes based on the information. A performance value is identified for the each new route and for the each route based on the values and the number of weightings for the number of characteristics.
US09310195B2
Apparatus (100) adapted to provide an indication of an angular position of an input member (106) over multiple turns includes at least two rotatable members (104A-104D) configured, in use, to rotate in accordance with rotation of an input member (106), and at least one sensing device (114A) configured to measure and output an angular position of at least one of the rotatable members. The rotatable members are configured to rotate simultaneously but at different rates. The apparatus further includes a device (114) configured to use the angular position measurements from the at least one sensing device to produce an cation of an angular position of the input member over multiple turns.
US09310187B2
An image capturing apparatus includes a dividing unit configured to divide light from a light source into reference light and measurement light; a first dichroic mirror arranged in a measurement optical path for guiding the measurement light to an object to be examined; a second dichroic mirror arranged in a reference optical path for guiding the reference light to a reference object; and a light receiving unit configured to receive interference light between the measurement light passing through the first dichroic mirror and the reference light passing through the second dichroic mirror.
US09310185B2
Systems and methods are presented for modulating a beam of radiation, such that the modulated beam exhibits substantially null residual amplitude modulation (RAM). An electro-optical modulator is presented that includes a waveguide, a first region associated with the waveguide and a second region associated with the waveguide. The waveguide is designed to guide a beam of radiation. A first electric potential applied to the first region causes a first modulation to the beam of radiation while a second electric potential applied to the second region causes a second modulation to the beam of radiation. The first modulation combined with the second modulation provides substantially null residual amplitude modulation of the beam of radiation.
