US09368562B2
An array substrate and a display panel are disclosed. The array substrate comprises a plurality of first pixel units and a plurality of second pixel units. The first pixel units and the second pixel units are disposed interlaced. A first input terminal of a driving circuit of a sub-pixel unit of each of the first pixel unit receives a first pulse signal, and a second input terminal of the driving circuit of the sub-pixel unit of each of the first pixel unit receives a second pulse signal. The phases of first pulse signal and the second pulse signal are reversed, making the first pixel units and the second pixel units to be driven alternatingly. Power efficiency is increased and the life of a pixel unit is prolonged.
US09368561B2
In the case where a material containing an alkaline-earth metal in a cathode, is used, there is a fear of the diffusion of an impurity ion (such as alkaline-earth metal ion) from the EL element to the TFT being generated and causing the variation of characteristics of the TFT. Therefore, as the insulating film provided between TFT and EL element, a film containing a material for not only blocking the diffusion of an impurity ion such as an alkaline-earth metal ion but also aggressively absorbing an impurity ion such as an alkaline-earth metal ion is used.
US09368559B2
Provided is an organic light emitting display device. The device includes an organic electroluminescence element in which a pixel electrode, an intermediate layer including a light emitting layer, and a cathode electrode are successively stacked, a cathode contact including an upper electrode contacting the cathode electrode and a lower electrode disposed on the same layer as the pixel electrode to contact the upper electrode, and a line disposed on the same layer as the lower electrode. At least three cathode contacts are disposed in a direction crossing the line, and the line is disposed between the cathode contacts.
US09368548B2
The present invention relates to a light emitting device, including a plurality of light guide portions, a reflection prevention substance disposed on an inclined surface of each light guide portion of the plurality of light guide portions, and a plurality light emitting regions. Each light emitting region includes a first-type semiconductor layer, a second-type semiconductor layer, and an active layer disposed between the first-type semiconductor layer and the second-type semiconductor layer. Each light guide portion of the plurality of light guide portions is surrounded by light emitting regions of the plurality of light emitting regions.
US09368540B2
A method includes performing a first epitaxy to grow a first epitaxy layer of a first conductivity type, and performing a second epitaxy to grow a second epitaxy layer of a second conductivity type opposite the first conductivity type over the first epitaxy layer. The first and the second epitaxy layers form a diode. The method further includes forming a gate dielectric over the first epitaxy layer, forming a gate electrode over the gate dielectric, and implanting a top portion of the first epitaxy layer and the second epitaxy layer to form a source/drain region adjacent to the gate dielectric.
US09368535B2
An imaging system may include an integrated circuit package that includes an image sensor die mounted in a flip chip configuration to a package substrate. The image sensor die may be a backside illumination sensor die. The image sensor die may include an imaging device structure formed over a carrier layer. Through-silicon vias formed in the carrier layer may couple imaging device circuitry in the imaging device structure to conductive bumps on the carrier layer that are coupled to metal interconnects. A ball grid array may be formed on a surface of the package substrate that may be coupled to the conductive bumps. A glass lid may be attached to the image sensor die using attachment structures such that an air gap is formed between the glass lid and the image sensor die. Package sealing material may be deposited between the image sensor die and the package substrate.
US09368531B2
Formation of buried color filters in a back side illuminated image sensor with an ono-like structure
A semiconductor image sensor includes a substrate having a first side and a second side that is opposite the first side. An interconnect structure is disposed over the first side of the substrate. A plurality of radiation-sensing regions is located in the substrate. The radiation-sensing regions are configured to sense radiation that enters the substrate from the second side. A plurality of light-blocking structures is disposed over the second side of the substrate. A passivation layer is coated on top surfaces and sidewalls of each of the light-blocking structures. A plurality of spacers is disposed on portions of the passivation layer coated on the sidewalls of the light-blocking structures.
US09368530B2
An apparatus including a pixel array including a plurality of pixels and a filter array positioned over the pixel array, the color filter array comprising a plurality of tiled minimal repeating units, each minimal repeating unit including a plurality of enmeshed filter sets, each filter set including a different set of colors than any other filter set in the filter array. Other embodiments are disclosed and claimed.
US09368525B2
A display device includes a substrate, a display element, a transistor as a drive element of the display element, and a holding capacitance element holding electric charge corresponding to a video signal. The display element, the transistor, and the holding capacitance element are provided on the substrate. The holding capacitance element includes a first semiconductor layer including an oxide semiconductor, a first conductive film provided on the first semiconductor layer, a first insulating film provided between the first semiconductor layer and the first conductive film, and a recess formed by removing part or all in thickness of the first conductive film and the first insulating film in a selective region on the first semiconductor layer.
US09368521B2
A TFT substrate (100) includes a gate line (2) and a source line (4), a TFT (6), a transparent pixel electrode (30) electrically coupled with the TFT, a transparent electrically-conductive layer (34) including a transparent connecting portion (34A) connected with the drain electrode (15) of the TFT and the transparent pixel electrode, and a transparent insulating layer (28) provided between the transparent pixel electrode and the transparent electrically-conductive layer. The transparent connecting portion (34A) includes a first connecting portion (C1) which is a portion connected with the drain electrode and a second connecting portion (C2) which is a portion connected with the transparent pixel electrode. At least part of the second connecting portion (C2) is present in a region enclosed by the gate line and the source line. In the second connecting portion, a portion ranging from the transparent connecting portion to the transparent pixel electrode is configured to allow transmission of light.
US09368520B2
The present invention provides array substrate, manufacturing method thereof, and display device, relating to manufacturing technology field of liquid crystal display. The array substrate of the present invention includes: a base substrate, on which a plurality of gate lines and a plurality of data lines are provided; shielding electrodes, which are provided above and electrically insulated from the data lines, and the shielding electrodes at least partially cover the data lines; first electrodes, which are provided in the same layer as the shielding electrodes and are electrically insulated from the shielding electrodes; second electrodes, which are provided above and electrically insulated from the first electrodes, wherein, the shielding electrodes are applied with a shielding voltage signal, the second electrodes are applied with a stable voltage signal, and no electric field or weak electric filed is formed between the shielding electrodes and the second electrodes.
US09368518B2
A thin film transistor array panel includes: a gate conductor disposed on a substrate and including a gate line and a gate electrode, a semiconductor layer overlapping the gate electrode and including an oxide semiconductor, a data conductor including a data line intersecting the gate line, a source electrode connected to the data line, and a drain electrode facing the source electrode, a sidewall covering side surface parts of the drain electrode and the source electrode adjacent to a channel region of the semiconductor layer, and a passivation layer covering the source electrode, the drain electrode, and the sidewall.
US09368517B2
A light-emitting device having the quality of an image high in homogeneity is provided. A printed wiring board (second substrate) (107) is provided facing a substrate (first substrate) (101) that has a luminous element (102) formed thereon. A PWB side wiring (second group of wirings) (110) on the printed wiring board (107) is electrically connected to element side wirings (first group of wirings) (103, 104) by anisotropic conductive films (105a, 105b). At this point, because a low resistant copper foil is used to form the PWB side wiring (110), a voltage drop of the element side wirings (103, 104) and a delay of a signal can be reduced. Accordingly, the homogeneity of the quality of an image is improved, and the operating speed of a driver circuit portion is enhanced.
US09368499B2
A method and apparatus are described for integrating high voltage (HV) transistor devices and medium voltage or dual gate oxide (DGO) transistor devices with low voltage (LV) core transistor devices on a single substrate, where each high voltage transistor device (160) includes a metal gate (124), an upper high-k gate dielectric layer (120), a middle gate dielectric layer (114) formed with a relatively lower high-k dual gate oxide layer, and a lower high voltage gate dielectric stack (108, 110) formed with one or more low-k gate oxide layers (22), where each DGO transistor device (161) includes a metal gate (124), an upper high-k gate dielectric layer (120), and a middle gate dielectric layer (114) formed with a relatively lower high-k dual gate oxide layer, and where each core transistor device (162) includes a metal gate (124), an upper high-k gate dielectric layer (120), and a base oxide layer (118) formed with one or more low-k gate oxide layers.
US09368495B2
A semiconductor device includes a substrate, a first active fin and a second active fin on the substrate, respectively, a plurality of first epitaxial layers on the first active fin and on the second active fin, respectively, a plurality of second epitaxial layers on the plurality of first epitaxial layers, a bridge layer connecting the plurality of second epitaxial layers to each other, and a third epitaxial layer on the bridge layer.
US09368494B2
A semiconductor device with neck fins comprises a substrate, a plurality of fins having a lower portion and a neck upper portion on the substrate, and insulators disposed between each fin and flush with the lower portion of the fins.
US09368493B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide structures and methods for heat suppression in finFET devices. Fins are formed in a semiconductor substrate. A graphene layer is formed on a lower portion of the sidewalls of the fins. A shallow trench isolation region is disposed on the structure and covers the graphene layer, while an upper portion of the fins protrudes from the shallow trench isolation region. The graphene layer may also be deposited on a top surface of the base semiconductor substrate. The graphene serves to conduct heat away from the fins more effectively than other dielectric materials.
US09368490B2
An enhancement-depletion-mode inverter includes a load transistor and a drive transistor. The load transistor has a top gate architecture with a first source, a first drain, a load channel region, a first semiconductor layer, and a first gate electrode. A load gate dielectric is in the load channel region, and has a load dielectric thickness. The load transistor is configured to operate in a depletion mode. The drive transistor has a bottom gate architecture with a second source, a second drain, a drive channel region, a second semiconductor layer, and a second gate electrode. A drive gate dielectric is in the drive channel region, and has a drive dielectric thickness that is different from the load dielectric thickness. The drive transistor is configured to operate in a normal mode or an enhancement mode. The first source is electrically connected to the second drain and the first gate.
US09368483B2
A semiconductor light emitting element includes a transparent substrate and a plurality of light emitting diode (LED) chips. The transparent substrate has a support surface and a second main surface disposed opposite to each other. At least some of the LED structures are disposed on the support surface and form a first main surface where light emitted from with a part of the support surface without the LED structures. Each of the LED structures includes a first electrode and a second electrode. Light emitted from at least one of the LED structures passes through the transparent substrate and emerges from the second main surface. An illumination device includes the semiconductor light emitting element and a supporting base. The semiconductor light emitting element is disposed on the supporting base, and an angle is formed between the semiconductor light emitting element and the supporting base.
US09368473B2
The invention relates to an assembly method for connecting two electronic components together, said components each having an assembly face, wherein the two assembly faces are moved together in what is known as an assembly direction X, and a given force F is applied to one and/or the other of the components, one and/or the other assembly face(s) having: —connection inserts made of rigid material having an elongate longitudinal shape in the assembly direction X; —connection tracks made of material having a hardness less than that of the inserts and having an elongate longitudinal shape transversely to the assembly direction X, wherein, in said method: —the inserts are aligned opposite corresponding tracks such that the inserts and the tracks form in pairs, after assembly, at least one approximately transverse intersection, —the force F is applied so as make the inserts penetrate into the tracks until the assembly is produced.
US09368469B2
There is provided a method for manufacturing an electronic component package. The method includes the steps: (i) disposing a metal pattern layer on an adhesive carrier; (ii) placing at least one kind of electronic component on the adhesive carrier, the placed electronic component being not overlapped with respect to the metal pattern layer; (iii) forming a sealing resin layer on the adhesive carrier, and thereby producing a precursor of the electronic component package; (iv) peeling off the adhesive carrier of the precursor, whereby the metal pattern layer and an electrode of the electronic component are exposed at the surface of the sealing resin layer; and (v) forming a metal plating layer such that the metal plating layer is in contact with the exposed surface of the metal pattern layer and the exposed surface of the electrode of the electronic component.
US09368461B2
Disclosed herein are contact pads for use with integrated circuit (IC) packages. In some embodiments, a contact pad disclosed herein may be disposed on a substrate of an IC package, and may include a metal projection portion and a metal recess portion. Each of the metal projection portion and the metal recess portion may have a solder contact surface. The solder contact surface of the metal recess portion may be spaced away from the solder contact surface of the metal projection portion. Related devices and techniques are also disclosed herein, and other embodiments may be claimed.
US09368460B2
A method embodiment includes forming a sacrificial film layer over a top surface of a die, the die having a contact pad at the top surface. The die is attached to a carrier, and a molding compound is formed over the die and the sacrificial film layer. The molding compound extends along sidewalls of the die. The sacrificial film layer is exposed. The contact pad is exposed by removing at least a portion of the sacrificial film layer. A first polymer layer is formed over the die, and a redistribution layer (RDL) is formed over the die and electrically connects to the contact pad.
US09368455B2
An electromagnetic interference shield is described for semiconductor chip packages. In some embodiments, a package has a semiconductor die. a redistribution layer, a mold compound over the die, a plurality of vias through the mold compound and outside the die to form a shield, and a metal film over the vias. and over the mold compound.
US09368453B2
A method of forming dummy structures and an overlay mark protection zone over an active layer zone based on the shape of an overlay mark and the resulting device are provided. Embodiments include determining a size and a shape of an overlay mark; determining a size and a shape of an overlay mark protection zone based on the shape of the overlay mark; determining a shape of a plurality of dummy structures based on the shape of the overlay mark; determining a size and a shape of an active layer zone based on the size and the shape of the overlay mark and the plurality of dummy structures; forming the active layer zone in an active layer of a semiconductor substrate; forming the overlay mark and the plurality of dummy structures over the active layer zone in a poly layer of the semiconductor substrate; and planarizing the poly layer.
US09368450B1
An integrated device package includes a first die, a second die, an encapsulation portion coupled to the first die and the second die, and a redistribution portion coupled to the encapsulation portion. The encapsulation portion includes an encapsulation layer, a bridge, and a first via. The bridge is at least partially embedded in the encapsulation layer. The bridge is configured to provide a first electrical path for a first signal between the first die and the second die. The first via is in the encapsulation layer. The first via is coupled to the bridge. The first via and the bridge are configured to provide a second electrical path for a second signal to the first die. The redistribution portion includes at least one dielectric layer, and at least one interconnect, in the dielectric layer, coupled to the first via.
US09368448B2
A method is provided for forming an interconnect structure for use in semiconductor devices. The method starts with forming a low-k bulk dielectric layer on a substrate and then forming a trench in the low-k bulk dielectric layer. A liner layer is formed on the low-k bulk dielectric layer being deposited conformally to the trench. A copper layer is formed on the liner layer filling the trench. Portions of the copper layer and liner layer are removed to form an upper surface of the low-k bulk dielectric layer, the liner layer, and the copper layer. A metal containing dielectric layer is formed on the upper surface of the low-k bulk dielectric layer, the liner layer, and the copper layer.
US09368443B1
A memory includes a plurality of memory cells. A first line is over the plurality of memory cells. The first line in a first layout section includes a first metal layer and a second metal layer. The second metal layer is over the first metal layer. A second line is over the plurality of memory cells. The second line in the first layout section includes the first metal layer and a third metal layer. The third metal layer is over the second metal layer The first line is electrically isolated from the second line. The first line and the second line extend in a same direction.
US09368441B2
An electronic component and a method for fabricating the electronic component are provided. The electronic component includes a carrier, a first metal layer, a dielectric layer, a semiconductor layer, a flexible layer, at least one first opening, and at least one second metal layer. The first metal layer is disposed on the carrier. The dielectric layer is disposed on the first metal layer, and has a pattern consistent with a pattern of the dielectric layer. The semiconductor layer is disposed on the dielectric layer. The flexible layer is disposed on the carrier and encapsulates the first metal layer, the dielectric layer and the semiconductor layer. The flexible layer has a Young's modulus less than 40 GPa. The first opening penetrates the flexible layer. The second metal layer is disposed on the flexible layer and in the first opening and is electrically connected with the semiconductor layer.
US09368440B1
A method of manufacturing an integrated circuit package substrate is disclosed. The method may include forming a hole through a substrate layer in the package substrate. The method also includes inserting a prefabricated coaxial wire segment into the hole. The prefabricated coaxial wire segment may include a signal conductor, a ground conductor that surrounds the signal conductor, and dielectric material interposed between the signal conductor and the ground conductor. Furthermore, an integrated circuit package is also disclosed.
US09368438B2
Various embodiments of mechanisms for forming through package vias (TPVs) with multiple conductive layers and/or recesses in a die package and a package on package (PoP) device with bonding structures utilizing the TPVs are provided. One of the multiple conductive layers acts as a protective layer of the main conductive layer of the TPVs. The protective layer is less likely to oxidize and also has a slower formation rate of intermetallic compound (IMC) when exposed to solder. The recesses in TPVs of a die package are filled by solder from the other die package and the IMC layer formed is below the surface of TPVs, which strengthen the bonding structures.
US09368434B2
In an embodiment, an electronic component includes a housing, a die pad having a first surface and a second surface opposing the first surface, a first high voltage semiconductor device arranged on the first surface of the die pad, a further semiconductor device arranged on the second surface of the die pad and a conductive connection between the first high voltage semiconductor device and the further semiconductor device. The conductive connection is surrounded by the housing and includes a portion arranged adjacent the die pad.
US09368421B2
The present invention provides an under-fill material with which a semiconductor device having a high connection reliability can be provided while securing a usable material by reducing a difference in thermal-responsive behavior between a semiconductor element and an adherend, and a method for producing a semiconductor device using the under-fill material. In the under-fill material of the present invention, a storage elastic modulus E′ [MPa] and a thermal expansion coefficient α [ppm/K] after carrying out a heat-curing treatment at 175° C. for an hour satisfy the following formula (1) at 25° C.: E′×α<250000 [Pa/K] (1).
US09368415B1
A semiconductor material stack of, from bottom to top, a first semiconductor material having a first lattice constant and a second semiconductor material having a second lattice constant that may or may not differ from the first lattice constant and is selected from an III-V compound semiconductor and germanium is provided. The second semiconductor material of the semiconductor material stack is then scanned using an atomic force microscope (AFM) operating in a tapping mode to provide an AFM image of the second semiconductor material of the semiconductor material stack. The resultant AFM image is then analyzed and crystal defects at a topmost surface of the second semiconductor material of the semiconductor material stack can be measured.
US09368413B2
According to one embodiment, a pattern formed through light exposure is observed under two or more different optical conditions, and a focus shift and exposure amount in the light exposure are estimated based on a brightness value of the pattern under each of the optical conditions.
US09368411B2
A SOI substrate layer formed of a silicon semiconductor material includes adjacent first and second regions. A portion of the silicon substrate layer in the second region is removed such that the second region retains a bottom portion made of the silicon semiconductor material. An epitaxial growth of a silicon-germanium semiconductor material is made on the bottom portion to produce a silicon-germanium region. The silicon region is patterned to define a first fin structure of a FinFET of a first (for example, n-channel) conductivity type. The silicon-germanium region is also patterned to define a second fin structure of a FinFET of a second (for example, p-channel) conductivity type.
US09368402B2
A system and method for providing a conductive line is provided. In an embodiment the conductive line is formed by forming two passivation layers, wherein each passivation layer is independently patterned. Once formed, a seed layer is deposited into the two passivation layers, and a conductive material is deposited to fill and overfill the patterns within the two passivation layers. A planarization process such as a chemical mechanical polish may then be utilized in order to remove excess conductive material and form the conductive lines within the two passivation layers.
US09368382B2
A substrate processing apparatus is provided. The apparatus has a casing, a low port interface and a carrier holding station. The casing has processing devices within for processing substrates. The load port interface is connected to the casing for loading substrates into the processing device. The carrier holding station is connected to the casing. The carrier holding station is adapted for holding at least one substrate transport carrier so the at least one substrate transport carrier is capable of being coupled to the load port interface without lifting the at least one substrate transport carrier off the carrier holding station. The carrier holding station is arranged to provide a substantially simultaneous swap section for substantially simultaneous replacement of the substrate transport carrier from the carrier holding station.
US09368378B2
A semiconductor wafer cleaning apparatus comprising a first supporting unit, a movable unit having a first chamber, a second supporting unit having a second chamber, and a third supporting unit is provided. A micro processing chamber in which the semiconductor wafer is being processed is formed when the first chamber is brought in contact with the second chamber. Each of the supporting units is supported by a corresponding supporting plate, and each supporting plate is positioned and strengthened by a plurality of supporting bars on its peripheral. Such design will prevent the deformation of the supporting plates, reduce the particles generated by the friction of parts resulted from the opening or closure of the micro processing chamber, and allow the easy alignment of these units.
US09368373B2
A method of joining semiconductor substrates includes: forming an alignment key on a first semiconductor substrate; 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 first metal layer and a second metal layer 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.
US09368372B1
It includes the step of pressing a correcting tool against the main surface of a semiconductor chip while a solder material coated over a die pad is in a molten state and letting the solder material harden and the step of releasing the correcting tool from the chip and mounting the chip over the die pad. The correcting tool includes a first part having a first surface as a surface along the support surface of a support member for supporting the die pad and a second part having a second surface intersecting with the first surface. In the chip inclination correction process, the solder material is hardened while the first surface of the correcting tool is pressed against the upper surface of the chip and the second part of the correcting tool is pressed against the lead frame.
US09368371B2
A retaining ring comprises a generally annular body. The body comprises a top surface, a bottom surface, an outer surface connected to the top surface at an outer top perimeter and the bottom surface at an outer bottom perimeter, and an inner surface connected to the top surface at an inner top perimeter and the bottom surface at an inner bottom perimeter. The inner surface comprises seven or more planar facets. Adjacent planar facets are connected at corners. The inner bottom perimeter comprises straight edges of the planar facets connected at the corners.
US09368360B2
An anti-diffusion layer, a preparation method thereof, a thin-film transistor (TFT), an array substrate and a display device are provided, involve the display device manufacturing field and can resolve problem that a high atmosphere temperature is need in process of preparing a tantalum dioxide anti-diffusion layer by PVD or CVD, which causes the gate electrode to volatilize and affect the performance of a display device. The method for preparing the anti-diffusion layer comprises: placing a conductive base (1) and a cathode (4) in a electrolytic solution (3), taking the conductive base (1) as an anode, and forming a tantalum dioxide anti-diffusion layer on the conductive base (1) after energizing.
US09368356B2
Devices and methods based on disclosed technology include, among others, an electronic device including silicide layers capable of effectively reducing contact resistance in the electronic device including buried gates and a method for fabricating the electronic device. Specifically, an electronic device in one implementation includes a plurality of buried gates formed in a substrate and silicide layers formed over the substrate between the buried gates and protruding upwardly from the buried gates.
US09368355B2
Oxide growth of a gate dielectric layer that occurs between processes used in the fabrication of a gate dielectric structure can be reduced. The reduction in oxide growth can be achieved by maintaining the gate dielectric layer in an ambient effective to mitigate oxide growth of the gate dielectric layer between at least two sequential process steps used in the fabrication the gate dielectric structure. Maintaining the gate dielectric layer in an ambient effective to mitigate oxide growth also improves the uniformity of nitrogen implanted in the gate dielectric.
US09368353B2
A method comprises growing a channel layer comprising a first channel region and a second channel region, depositing a first hard mask layer over the channel layer, patterning the first hard mask layer, applying a first delta doping process to the first channel region to form a first delta doping layer over the first channel region, depositing a first cap layer over the first delta doping layer, depositing a second hard mask layer over the channel layer, wherein the first cap layer is embedded in the second hard mask layer, patterning the second hard mask layer and the first hard mask layer to expose the second channel region, applying a second delta doping process to the second channel region to form a second delta doping layer over the second channel region and applying a first diffusion process to the first delta doping layer and the second delta doping layer.
US09368348B2
Embodiments of the present disclosure are a method of forming a semiconductor device and methods of patterning a semiconductor device. An embodiment is a method of forming a semiconductor device, the method including forming a plurality of spacers over a first hard mask layer to form a first mask pattern, and forming a first photoresist over the plurality of spacers. The method further includes patterning the first photoresist to form a second mask pattern, and patterning the first hard mask layer using the first mask pattern and the second mask pattern in a same patterning step.
US09368346B2
A method of preparing zinc oxide nanostructures using a liquid masking layer is disclosed. The method includes preparing a substrate having a zinc oxide seed layer formed thereon; loading the substrate in a reactor in which a lower liquid masking layer, a precursor liquid layer for hydrothermal growth, and an upper liquid masking layer are disposed in order; and forming zinc oxide nanostructures in a pattern on the substrate through hydrothermal growth by heating the precursor liquid layer for hydrothermal growth.
US09368344B2
Methods of fabricating semiconductor devices or structures include forming structures of a semiconductor material overlying a layer of a compliant material, subsequently changing the viscosity of the compliant material to relax the semiconductor material structures, and utilizing the relaxed semiconductor material structures as a seed layer in forming a continuous layer of relaxed semiconductor material. In some embodiments, the layer of semiconductor material may comprise a III-V type semiconductor material, such as, for example, indium gallium nitride. Novel intermediate structures are formed during such methods. Engineered substrates include a continuous layer of semiconductor material having a relaxed lattice structure.
US09368337B2
The invention relates to light sources with laser pumping and to methods for generating radiation with a high luminance in the ultraviolet (UV) and visible spectral ranges. The technical result of the invention includes extending the functional possibilities of a light source with laser pumping by virtue of increasing the luminance, increasing the coefficient of absorption of the laser radiation by a plasma, and significantly reducing the numerical aperture of a divergent laser beam which is to be occluded and which is passing through the plasma. The device comprises a chamber containing a gas, a laser producing a laser beam, an optical element, a region of radiating plasma produced in the chamber by the focused laser beam, an occluder, which is mounted on the axis of the divergent laser beam on the second side of the chamber, and an optical system for collecting plasma radiation.
US09368336B2
An ion trap-based device and method for analyzing and detecting bipolar ions is provided. The device includes multiple electrodes of an ion trap; a radio frequency voltage source configured to form a radio frequency electric field; a direct current voltage source configured to form a bias electric field, positive and negative ions in the ion trap being separated by the bias electric field; a first and second detectors, configured to detect the positive and negative ions, respectively. A bipole and quadrupole field direct current voltage detection modes may be employed. A single positive ion or negative ion operation mode in a conventional biological mass spectrometry method is improved, so that the positive and negative ion modes are performed simultaneously; without any resolution loss, the analysis speed is increased, the sample consumption is reduced, and the accuracy of quantitative analysis of the samples is improved.
US09368334B2
Certain embodiments described herein are directed to collision cells that comprise one or more integrated lenses. In some examples, a lens is coupled to two sections of a sectioned quadrature rod assembly, the lens comprising an aperture and a plurality of separate conductive elements disposed each one side of the lens, in which a respective disposed conductive element on one side of the lens is configured to electrically couple to a first, second, third, and fourth pole segments of the sectioned quadrature rod assembly.
US09368331B2
The present invention provides a highly efficient magnetron sputtering apparatus in which a ground shield made of a magnetic material is disposed on the outer circumference of a target, the sputtering apparatus being capable of reducing unintended discharge between a cathode and the ground shield. The sputtering apparatus according to an embodiment includes: a backing plate connected to a power supply and having a target mounting surface; a magnet disposed on the back surface of the backing plate; a grounded shield containing a magnetic material and surrounding the target mounting surface; and a fixation part located between the shield and the backing plate at an outer circumference of the target mounting surface and serving as a magnetic member. This structure reduces magnetic field lines which pass through a space between the shield and the fixation part.
US09368324B2
The present invention relates to a measurement and inspection device of a scanning-type electron beam system, and provides a technique for achieving a measuring/inspecting process with high precision in accordance with a scanning speed. A secondary electron signal detection system in the present measurement and inspection device is suitably applicable to a scanning control with a plurality of scanning speeds, and the device is provided with a detector 107 for detecting a secondary electron signal (SE) derived from an irradiation onto a sample 110 with an electron beam by a scanning control process, a preamplifier 30 for current-to-voltage converting and pre-amplifying the output, an analog signal processing and amplifying unit 51 to which the output of the preamplifier 30 is inputted to carry out an analog processing and amplifying process thereon as a secondary electron signal detection unit 50, an ADC 52 for analog-to-digital converting the output thereof, and an image processing unit 205 for generating an image for use in measurements or inspections based upon the output. A control unit 210 carries out a switching control of respective units including an LPF (12) inside the analog signal processing and amplifying unit 51, in accordance with a scanning speed or the like.
US09368323B2
A cross-section processing observation apparatus includes an ion beam control unit which controls a charged particle beam generation-focusing portion and a deflector, and a DAC which converts an input digital signal into an analog signal which is to be input to the deflector. A field-of-view setting portion sets a value of a field of view of a charged particle beam where the scanning performed by the deflector is performed on the basis of a set value of a slice amount, and the field-of-view setting portion is configured to set a value of one-nth of the slice amount, where n is a first natural number, as an input digital value “1” of the digital/analog converter and to set a value obtained by multiplying said value set as the input digital value “1” by a second natural number as a value of the field of view.
US09368319B2
Foreign substances present in a sample chamber are attached to or drawn close to an objective lens and an electrode disposed close to the objective lens by applying a higher magnetic field than when normally used to the objective lens and applying a higher electric field than when normally used to the electrode disposed close to the objective lens. A stage is moved such that the center of an optical axis is located directly above a dedicated stand capable of applying voltage, the magnetic field of the objective lens is turned off, and then the potential difference between the electrode disposed close to the objective lens and an electrode disposed close to the sage is periodically maximized and minimized to thereby forcibly drop the foreign substances onto the dedicated stand capable of applying voltage.
US09368304B2
A polarized relay comprising an electromagnet, a two-pole or three-pole permanent magnet, an armature, and switches, which are mounted in and on a shelf-like support component. The support component accommodates magnetic flux pieces and the permanent magnet in an upper cavity, and the permanent magnet is magnetized while the electromagnet is still outside the support component. Subsequently, the electromagnet is inserted into lower cavity of the support component and the rest of the components of the relay are mounted.
US09368297B2
An illuminated, waterproof and dust-proof switching element for converting a linear movement of a push button into an electrical switching signal, has a housing and a cap which is axially displaceable within the housing along a stroke path between two end bearings. The cap has a protective membrane for external sealing that is formed from a flexible plastic material by way of multicomponent injection molding. The switching element includes within the housing at least four contacts, a pressure compensation element, a circuit board on which at least one push button and at least two lighting elements are arranged, a silicone pad as a restoring element, a guide, an end stop, a cap with integrally molded protective membrane, and a frame. At least two pairs of the contacts have a like contour including a linear arrangement in the region of a plug and rectangular arrangement in the interior.
US09368289B2
Techniques, apparatus, materials and systems are described for providing solar cells. In one aspect, an apparatus includes a high efficiency dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC). The DSSC includes three-dimensional nanostructured electrodes. The three-dimensional nanostructured electrodes can include a cathode; an electrolyte; and anode that includes TiO2 nanotubes arranged in a three-dimensional structure; and a photosensitive dye coated on the anode.
US09368285B1
An embedded power cell is formed by placing a cathode, anode, and electrolyte within a recess in an enclosure. The enclosure thus acts as part of an overall device and also contains the embedded power cell, eliminating the need for dedicated packaging for the power cell. In one implementation, a low-profile lithium ion battery with a polymerized electrolyte may be sealed within the enclosure. Other devices such as a cell temperature sensor, battery controller, and so forth may also be embedded within the enclosure.
US09368283B2
An electrochemical cell includes solid-state, printable anode layer, cathode layer and non-aqueous gel electrolyte layer coupled to the anode layer and cathode layer. The electrolyte layer provides physical separation between the anode layer and the cathode layer, and comprises a composition configured to provide ionic communication between the anode layer and cathode layer by facilitating transmission of multivalent ions between the anode layer and the cathode layer.
US09368281B2
In a laminated ceramic capacitor, a cylindrical ceramic part of its ceramics includes, in a manner not exposed to the surface of the ceramics, a cylinder-shaped high-void-ratio part which has a void ratio higher than the void ratio in the cylindrical ceramic part other than the high-void-ratio part and which has two layered parts facing the left and right sides of each layered conductor, respectively, as well as two layered parts facing the outer surfaces of the two outermost layered conductors, respectively. The laminated ceramic electronic component inhibits cracking of its sintered chip.
US09368276B2
A method for producing a sintered R-T-B based magnet includes the steps of: providing a sintered R-T-B based magnet body 1; providing an RH diffusion source including a heavy rare-earth element RH (which is at least one of Dy and Tb) and 30 mass % to 80 mass % of Fe; loading the sintered R-T-B based magnet body 1 and the RH diffusion source 2 into a processing chamber 3 so that the magnet body 1 and the diffusion source 2 are movable relative to each other and are readily brought close to, or in contact with, each other; and performing an RH diffusion process in which the sintered magnet body 1 and the RH diffusion source 2 are heated to a processing temperature of more than 850° C. through 1000° C. while being moved either continuously or discontinuously in the processing chamber.
US09368274B2
A wireless power transfer system including a driver coil array, a hexagonally-packed transmitter mat, a receiver coil, and a load coil for powering a medical implant. The magnetically coupled resonance between two isolated parts is established by an array of primary coils and a single small secondary coil to create a transcutaneous power link for implanted devices as moving targets. The primary isolated part includes a driver coil array magnetically coupled to a mat of hexagonally packed primary coils. Power is injected by the driver coils into the transmitter coils in the transmitter mat to maintain resonance in the presence of losses and power drawn by the receiver coil from the magnetic field. The implanted secondary isolated part includes a receiver coil magnetically coupled to a load coil. A rectification/filter system is connected to the load coil supplying DC power to the electronic circuits of the implant.
US09368272B2
One or more techniques and/or systems described herein provide a shielded power coupling device, such as may be used to transfer electric power from a stator portion of a computed tomography (CT) apparatus to a rotor portion. The shielded power coupling device comprises a rotor portion and a stator portion, separated by an airgap, respectively comprising one or more windings and a core. The shielded power coupling device further comprises a fringe field mitigation element(s) (e.g., an electrically conductive wire) that is configured to carry an induced current that creates a magnetic field that mitigates, or substantially cancels, magnetic flux generated by current in the windings that escapes from the core near the core airgap.
US09368269B2
A hybrid battery charger is disclosed that includes a linear battery charging circuit for providing vehicle starting current and battery charging and a high frequency battery charging circuit that provides battery charging current. The linear battery charging circuit and the high frequency battery charging circuits are selectively enabled to provide vehicle starting current, maximum charging current and optimum efficiency.
US09368255B2
A conductive particle comprising a polyhedral shape in which two neighboring sides among a plurality of sides form an intersection line, and two sides meeting on the intersection line form an angle.
US09368254B2
An adhesive resin composition includes 60 to 95 parts by mass of amorphous thermoplastic polyester-based resin (A), 5 to 40 parts by mass of polyphenylene ether-based polymer (B) including a hydroxyl group and a repeating unit of 2,6-dimethylphenylene ether in a molecule thereof, and 60 to 200 parts by mass of a flame retardant per total 100 parts by mass of the amorphous thermoplastic polyester based resin (A) and the polyphenylene ether-based polymer (B).
US09368253B2
An ESD protection device having high insulation reliability and good discharge properties is provided. In producing an ESD protection device that includes a first discharge electrode and a second discharge electrode arranged to oppose each other, a discharge supporting electrode formed so as to span between the first and second discharge electrodes, and an insulator substrate that retains the first and second discharge electrodes and the discharge supporting electrode, a paste for forming a discharge supporting electrode is used and this paste contains, in addition to a powder of an alkali metal compound and/or an alkaline earth metal compound, a metal powder with a network-forming oxide adhered to particle surfaces, a metal powder and a semiconductor powder with a network-forming oxide adhered to particle surfaces, or a metal powder with a network-forming oxide adhered to particle surfaces and a semiconductor powder with a network-forming oxide adhered to particle surfaces.
US09368247B2
In a thin film device including a thin film electrode which has a main electrode layer formed of tungsten, a thin film electrode having a low resistivity is realized. There is provided a thin film device including a thin film electrode that has an underlayer and a main electrode layer formed on the underlayer. The underlayer is formed of a titanium-tungsten alloy having a crystalline structure with a wavy-like surface morphology, and the main electrode layer is formed of tungsten having a crystalline structure with a wavy-like surface morphology.
US09368244B2
In an embodiment, a hybrid molten salt reactor includes a source of energetic neutrons, the energetic neutrons having a typical energy per neutron of 14 MeV or greater, a critical molten salt reactor, and a molten salt comprising a dissolved mixture of fissile actinides and fertile actinides. The molten salt circulates in a loop through the reactor vessel and around the source of energetic neutrons. The fissile actinides and fertile actinides sustain an exothermic nuclear reaction in which the actinides are irradiated by the energetic neutrons, the energetic neutrons inducing subcritical nuclear fission, and undergo critical nuclear fission when circulating through the critical molten salt reactor. A portion of the daughter neutrons generated by nuclear reactions are captured by the fertile actinides in the molten salt and induce transmutation of the fertile actinides into fissile actinides and sustain critical fission chain reactions in the molten salt reactor.
US09368242B2
There are provided an apparatus and method for separating radioactive nuclides from a waste salt and recovering a refined salt, which are able to maximize process efficiency and operating efficiency of a process of regenerating a waste salt produced during a pyrochemical process of used nuclear fuel by converting the waste salt into a thermally stable form and distilling the waste salt under a reduced pressure using a single apparatus having two top covers which are mountable to replace radioactive nuclides included in the waste salt, and highly improve applicability and utility in a remote operation facility for disposal of a radioactive waste by further simplifying operation/handling compared with conventional processes.
US09368240B2
Provided are a safety protection system facility 43 outputting a normal actuating signal S1 in a case where the safety protection system facility 43 controls actuation of a unit provided in a nuclear facility to a safe side based on an abnormality detecting signal output at the time of occurrence of an abnormality in the nuclear facility, and where this causes the unit to be actuated normally, and a CCF countermeasure facility 44 outputting a CCF-case actuating signal S2 actuating the unit to a safe side in a case where the CCF countermeasure facility 44 determines from output results of the abnormality detecting signal and the normal actuating signal S1 that the unit is not actuated normally at the time of occurrence of the abnormality in the nuclear facility.
US09368230B2
Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a shift register unit, a gate driving circuit, a driving method and a display apparatus, which can simplify the design of connection lines among the shift register units and thereby is beneficial to achieve a narrow frame of the product. The shift register unit comprises an input module connected to an input terminal, a first control signal terminal and a first node; an output module connected to a first node, a second node, a second control signal terminal, an output terminal and a second level terminal; and an output control module connected to the first node, the second node, the output terminal, a first level terminal and the second level terminal. The embodiments of the present disclosure are used to manufacture displays.
US09368227B2
A test voltage having a first voltage or a second voltage is applied to an output terminal of a complementary fuse that includes a first fuse to one end of which the first voltage is applied and the other end of which serves as the output terminal and a second fuse to one end of which the second voltage is applied and the other end of which is connected to the output terminal. The test voltage then stops being applied. In such a state, whether output data from the output terminal of the complementary fuse coincides with an expected value is determined. The result of determination is output as a test result.
US09368222B2
Disclosed herein are techniques for pre-charging channels when programming memory cells. A pre-charge voltage is applied to both selected bit lines and inhibited bit lines during a channel pre-charge phase. The pre-charge voltage is passed to the channels of NAND strings. The voltage on the inhibited bit lines is then reduced to a program inhibit voltage. Also, the voltage on the selected bit lines is reduced to a program enable voltage. Further, the pre-charge voltage from the channels of the selected NAND strings is discharged while maintaining the pre-charge voltage in the channels of the inhibited NAND strings. The potential in the channels of the inhibited NAND strings may then be boosted and a programming voltage may be applied to a selected word line.
US09368221B2
A device for use with non-volatile memory, includes a first transistor of a first channel type coupled between first and second nodes, including a control gate supplied with a first control signal having a first phase, a second transistor of a second channel type different from the first channel type including a first terminal coupled to the first node, a second terminal coupled to a third node, a back gate coupled to the first terminal thereof, and a control gate supplied with a second control signal having a second phase substantially opposite to the first phase, a third transistor of the second channel type including a first terminal coupled to the second node, a second terminal coupled to the third node, a back gate coupled to the first terminal thereof, and a control gate supplied with the second control signal, and a protection circuit coupled between the first and second node.
US09368216B2
Apparatuses and methods for interconnections for 3D memory are provided. One example apparatus can include a stack of materials including a plurality of pairs of materials, each pair of materials including a conductive line formed over an insulation material. The stack of materials has a stair step structure formed at one edge extending in a first direction. Each stair step includes one of the pairs of materials. A first interconnection is coupled to the conductive line of a stair step, the first interconnection extending in a second direction substantially perpendicular to a first surface of the stair step.
US09368211B2
A semiconductor memory device includes a memory string having first and second selective transistors, each of which includes a charge storage layer and a control gate, a back gate transistor which includes a charge storage layer and a control gate, and memory cell transistors connected to each other and to the back gate transistor in series between the first and second selective transistors. In case any of the memory cell transistors is defective, the defect is indicated by storing a charge in the charge storage layer of at least one of the first and second selective transistors and the back gate transistor.
US09368203B1
A memory device includes a memory array, a word line driver, and source drivers. The memory array includes memory units. The memory units arranged in the same column are coupled to corresponding bit line. The memory units arranged in the same row are coupled to corresponding word line. The memory units arranged in the rows are divided into N groups, in which N is an integer greater than or equal to 2. The word line driver is configured to selectively enable the word lines. Source drivers are coupled to the memory units in the groups respectively and configured to output N source control signals. When any word line in a first group is enabled, the source control signals corresponding to the first group and a second group of which the sequence for read-write operation is next to the first group are controlled at a select level by corresponding source drivers.
US09368196B2
A semiconductor memory device according to an embodiment includes a memory cell array including memory cells, the memory cells each configured having a current rectifier element and a variable resistance element connected in series therein. Each of the memory cells has formed on a side surface thereof: a first insulating film provided on a side surface of the current rectifier element and the variable resistance element and having a composition ratio of a non-silicon element to silicon which is a first value; a silicon oxide film provided on a side surface of the first insulating film; and a second insulating film provided on a side surface of the silicon oxide film and having a composition ratio of a non-silicon element to silicon which is a second value. The first value is smaller than the second value.
US09368192B2
A semiconductor device includes a voltage supply unit suitable for providing a first voltage as a source voltage during a standby mode, and a second voltage as the source voltage during an active mode, and a precharge unit suitable for precharging a pair of input/output lines with the source voltage during the standby mode and the active mode.
US09368183B2
An integrated circuit package includes a packaging substrate with an electrical connection pad formed thereon and an integrated circuit die coupled to the electrical connection pad. The electrical connection pad includes an electroplated surface finish layer, but does not include an electrical trace configured as a plating tail. Because the electrical connection pad is free of a plating tail, signal degradation caused by the presence of plating tails in the integrated circuit package is avoided.
US09368181B2
Circuitry and a method for regulating voltages applied to magnetoresistive bit cells of a spin-torque magnetoresistive random access memory (ST-MRAM) reduces time-dependent dielectric breakdown stress of the word line transistors. During a read or write operation, only the ends of the selected bit cells are pulled down to a low voltage and/or pulled up to a high voltage depending on the operation (write 0, write 1, and read) being performed. The ends of the unselected bit cells are held at a precharge voltage while separately timed signals pull up or pull down the ends of the selected bit cells during read and write operations.
US09368171B2
A semiconductor memory apparatus may include a write driver, a data sensing section, and a programming control section. The write driver may write an input data into a memory cell in response to a write signal. The data sensing section may generate a comparison flag signal by comparing an output data outputted from the memory cell with a reference voltage in response to a verification read signal. The programming control section may generate the write signal for an initial write operation and the verification read signal in response to a write command, and generate the write signal for a following write operation as soon as the comparison flag signal is at a predetermined level.
US09368170B2
According to one embodiment, a memory device includes memory cells including storage elements, each storing information based on a change of resistance, word lines, first bit lines, second bit lines, column selection transistors connected to the first bit lines, and precharge transistors connected to the first bit lines. At least two of the precharge transistors are selected by a common control signal and apply a precharge voltage to at least two of the corresponding first bit lines before writing information to a selected memory cell, and the precharge voltage is the same as a voltage to be applied to at least two of the second bit lines paired with the at least two of the first bit lines.
US09368169B2
A method of training chip select for a memory module. The method includes programming a memory controller into a mode wherein a command signal is active for a programmable time period. The method then programs a programmable delay line of the chip select with a delay value and performs initialization of the memory module. The memory module is then placed in a write leveling mode wherein placing the memory module in the write leveling mode toggles a state of the chip select. A write leveling procedure is then performed and a response thereto is determined from the memory module. A determination is made whether the memory module is in a pass state or an error state based on the response.
US09368162B2
An integrated circuit device comprising at least one memory module comprising a plurality of memory sub-modules, and at least one power management module arranged to provide power management for the at least one memory module. The at least one power management module is arranged to determine when content of at least one memory sub-module is redundant, and place the at least one memory sub-module into a powered-down state upon determining that content of the at least one memory sub-module is redundant.
US09368148B2
A magazine-based data storage library is described that includes plurality of chambers each adapted to hold a magazine, that in turn, is adapted to hold a plurality of tape cartridges. The storage library further includes a tape drive adapted to read and write data to and from tape cartridges. The storage library further includes a vacant chamber that shifts from a first chamber when a recently used magazine is disposed therein to a second chamber when a new magazine is withdrawn there from. The recently used magazine most recently being withdrawn from a different chamber than the first chamber where it is later disposed.
US09368143B2
According to one embodiment, there is provided a method for forming a pattern including forming an island-like metal underlayer comprised of a first metal, a phase-separated release layer including a first metal, a second metal, and a metal oxide, a mask layer, and a resist layer on a processed layer in this order, forming a concave-convex pattern on the resist layer, transferring the pattern to the mask layer, the phase-separated release layer, and the processed layer in this order, dissolving the phase-separated release layer using a peeling liquid for dissolving the first metal and the second metal, and removing the mask layer from the processed layer to expose the concave-convex pattern.
US09368134B1
A method and system for fabricating a magnetic transducer are described. The magnetic transducer includes a pole and a nonmagnetic intermediate layer adjacent to the pole. The pole has a paddle and a pole tip including a plurality of sidewalls. The pole includes a first magnetic pole layer, at least one antiferromagnetic coupling (AFC) structure on the first magnetic pole layer, and a second magnetic pole layer on the AFC structure(s). At least a portion of the first magnetic pole layer resides on the sidewalls of the pole tip. The paddle has a paddle width in a track width direction. The pole tip has a pole tip width in a track width direction that is less than the paddle width.
US09368129B1
A vibration damper for a suspension has two different viscoelastic layers and two different constraint layers. The two viscoelastic layers can be tailored to have different properties, including different viscosities and/or peak vibration frequency damping at different frequencies. The vibration damper exhibits improved vibration damping as compared to a single layer damper having the same overall thickness at critical frequencies.
US09368127B2
There is provided a method of determining a main speaker that is performed by a first terminal participating in a distributed telepresence service. The method of determining a main speaker according to an embodiment of the invention includes obtaining first feature information for determining a main speaker from an audio input signal, obtaining second feature information for determining a main speaker of a second terminal from the second terminal participating in the distributed telepresence service, and determining a main speaker terminal for providing a video and an audio of a main speaker who is participating in a telepresence and is speaking based on the first feature information for determining a main speaker and the second feature information for determining a main speaker.
US09368126B2
A method, system and computer readable storage medium for assessing speech prosody. The method includes the steps of: receiving input speech data; acquiring a prosody constraint; assessing prosody of the input speech data according to the prosody constraint; and providing assessment result where at least of the steps is carried out using a computer device.
US09368124B2
A computer implemented system for audio watermarking for providing robust and blind audio watermarking. The system comprises a watermark embedding system wherein an audio signal is divided into audio frames, multi-level District Wavelet Transform (DWT) is applied on each frame, followed by Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) and embedding the watermark, further followed by inverse SVD and inverse DWT to get watermarked audio frames which are combined to generate a watermarked audio signal. The system further comprises watermark extracting detection system wherein the watermarked audio signal which may be attacked and/or modified is divided into watermarked audio frames, multilevel DWT is applied on each watermarked audio frame, followed by SVD, extracting the embedded watermarked, correlating the extracted watermark with pre-stored watermarks, calculating Peak to Sidelobe ratio (PSR) from the correlation coefficient arrays and finally comparing each PSR with a threshold to authenticate the embedded watermark.
US09368123B2
Methods and apparatus to perform audio watermark detection and extraction are disclosed. An example method includes sampling a media signal to generate samples, wherein the media signal includes an embedded message, determining a first symbol value for a first block of the samples, determining a second symbol value for a second block of the samples, and determining, using a processor, a resulting symbol value, representative of a part of the embedded message, based on the first symbol value and the second symbol value for the first block of samples and the second block of samples, wherein the first block and the second block partially overlap.
US09368121B2
A method and device are provided for coding or decoding a digital audio signal by transform using analysis or synthesis weighting windows applied to sample frames. The method includes an irregular sampling of an initial window provided for a transform of given initial size N, to apply a secondary transform of size M different from N.
US09368118B2
A voice analyzer includes a voice information acquiring unit that acquires information about voices acquired by a first voice acquiring unit which acquires the voice and is worn by a first wearer and a second voice acquiring unit which acquires the voice and is worn by a second wearer from each of the wearers, and a distance calculation unit that calculates a distance between the first wearer and the second wearer on the basis of (a) speaker identification information, which is information for determining whether the voice acquired by the first voice acquiring unit and the voice which is the same as that acquired by the first voice acquiring unit and is acquired by the second voice acquiring unit are spoken by the wearers or other persons, and (b) a phase difference between sound waves with plural frequencies included in the voices.
US09368116B2
The system and method of separating speakers in an audio file including obtaining an audio file. The audio file is transcribed into at least one text file by a transcription server. Homogenous speech segments are identified within the at least one text file. The audio file is segmented into homogenous audio segments that correspond to the identified homogenous speech segments. The homogenous audio segments of the audio file are separated into a first speaker audio file and second speaker audio file the first speaker audio file and the second speaker audio file are transcribed to produce a diarized transcript.
US09368109B2
Reliable speaker-based clustering of speech utterances allows improved speaker recognition and speaker-based speech segmentation. According to at least one example embodiment, an iterative bottom-up speaker-based clustering approach employs voiceprints of speech utterances, such as i-vectors. At each iteration, a clustering confidence score in terms of Silhouette Width Criterion (SWC) values is evaluated, and a pair of nearest clusters is merged into a single cluster. The pair of nearest clusters merged is determined based on a similarity score indicative of similarity between voiceprints associated with different clusters. A final clustering pattern is then determined as a set of clusters associated with an iteration corresponding to the highest clustering confidence score evaluated. The SWC used may further be a modified SWC enabling detection of an early stop of the iterative approach.
US09368105B1
Natural language controlled devices may be configured to activate command recognition in response to one or more wake words. Techniques are provided to allow for multiple operating modes in which different recognition parameters are employed in recognizing wake words that activate the natural language control functionality of a computing device.
US09368101B1
An acoustic control system for hospitality spaces includes a passive component (17) for producing a baseline reverberation time (RT) value within the space, and an active component (LN, MN, 15) for picking up sounds in the space (11) and reintroducing the sounds into the space such that the reintroduced sounds have an RT value and sound level capable of being adjusted and such that the resulting RT value can be adjusted to a relatively large value as compared to said baseline RT value.
US09368096B2
Microphone signals are received from a microphone. The microphone signals represent first sound waves. A determination is made about a type of noise that likely exists in the first sound waves. In response to the type of noise, cancellation signals are generated by filtering the microphone signals with at least one of: a first filter in response to the type of noise indicating that a first type of noise likely exists in the first sound waves; and a second filter in response to the type of noise indicating that a second type of noise likely exists in the first sound waves. In response to the cancellation signals, second sound waves are output from a speaker for cancelling at least some noise in the first sound waves.
US09368091B2
A capo for use with a stringed instrument, said capo comprising: an upper arm member including an upper handle having a dimension W2, an upper connection part, and a string press bar with an attached upper pad for engaging the strings of a stringed instrument, the string press bar having a dimension W4, W4 being greater than W2; a lower arm member including a lower handle at one end, a securing bar to engage a neck of a stringed instrument at a second end, and a lower connection part between the one end and the second end, the upper connection part connected to the lower connection part; and a spring disposed between said upper arm member and said lower arm member, said spring biasing the spring press bar and the securing bar toward each other.
US09368087B2
Techniques for displaying images of different dynamic ranges in a display system are provided. In some embodiments, images that have a number of dynamic ranges may be normalized to a configured dynamic range that corresponds to the full intensity reproduction capability of the device. The configured dynamic range may be wider, greater, or deeper than the relatively limited dynamic range.
US09368086B2
An image is processed in a device-independent color space by applying a modification function to one or more dimensions of that color space. The image is then converted into a target device-dependent color space. In order to minimize unwanted changes of color arising from the modification function taking image color values out of gamut when converted to the target device-dependent color space, the modification function is scaled to limit modified image values to within modification limits that are determined, for each image pixel or group of pixels, in dependence on the target device-dependent color space gamut boundary in the device-independent color space.
US09368084B2
In the display apparatus, a gate driver receives at least one clock to sequentially provide gate lines in a display panel with a gate signal in a high state corresponding to a high interval of the clock. The gate driver includes a plurality of amorphous silicon transistors and is formed in the display panel through a thin film process. The clock has a delay time of about 2.0 μs or less. If the delay time of the clock is reduced less than about 2.0 μs, a threshold voltage margin of the transistors increases, so that the gate driver may not malfunction in a high temperature aging process. As a result, the gate driver may be prevented from malfunctioning in the high temperature aging process.
US09368081B2
A display device is provided that includes a transparent display unit, a setting unit that sets transparency of a first screen that is output in the foreground to the transparent display unit, and a controller that determines transparency of a background object that is seen through the transparent display unit, based on the transparency of the first screen that is set, such that the transparency of at least one of the background object and at least one region of the first screen is changed, based on a detected event that is associated with transparency control of the transparent display unit.
US09368079B2
A method for driving a display device is disclosed. Display images of one frame are divided into detection regions; pixel polarity arrangements of each detection region are determined, and according to the determined result a data driving circuit selects a corresponding scanning method to drive the display device. The data driving circuit adopts an interlaced-to-progress scanning conversion method to drive the display device, so as to ensure that there are no data circuits in a loaded state, thereby reducing the power consumption of the display device.
US09368076B2
The present invention proposes an LCD capable of reducing flicker when showing 3D images. The LCD adds a plurality of switch units to every row of scan lines while no additional gate driver is added. The plurality of switch units separately control charging and charge sharing of pixel units, therefore pixel charging and charge sharing are separately controlled. Hence the present invention fixes flicker in 3D image display while no additional gate driver is added.
US09368062B2
The embodiment of the present invention discloses a display panel, a method for driving the display panel and a display device provided with the display panel, which belong to the field of display technology and solve the technical problems that the existing AMOLED has relatively high power consumption and thus has difficulty in meeting current energy-saving requirements on the display panel. The display panel includes a plurality of pixel units arranged in an array and each pixel unit includes at least one OLED sub-pixel and at least one EPD sub-pixel. The present invention can be applied in scenes such as a transparent window and a refrigerator door.
US09368061B2
Artifacts in a specific pattern due to a time difference in a VTDC driving scheme may be prevented. A display device includes: a display including a first pixel circuit, a second pixel circuit, and a pixel group having a first light emitting element, a second light emitting element, a third light emitting element and a fourth light emitting element arranged in a first direction; and a light emission driver generating a first sub-light-emission control signal for controlling emission of the first light emitting element and a second sub-light-emission control signal for controlling emission of the second light emitting element in a first subframe, and generating a third sub-light-emission control signal for controlling emission of the third light emitting element and a fourth sub-light-emission control signal for controlling emission of the fourth light emitting element in a second subframe.
US09368060B2
A power system for an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display includes a power supplier and a power source controller. The power supplier respectively supplies a first power source voltage and a second power source voltage to first and second power source voltage application lines. The power source controller calculates a reference power source voltage corresponding to a maximum average grayscale using a distribution for each grayscale of first to third image data, models each voltage drop of the first and second power source voltages for first to third subpixels, and reflects the voltage drop to the reference power source voltage to change the second power source voltage.
US09368057B2
The invention provides a new method to calibrate a display system such that the display system is conforming to an enforced standard for a wider range of parameters, e.g. viewing angles, than compared to traditional calibration methods. This is obtained by calculating an optimised set of calibration parameters for the display to be conform to the enforced standard for the selected range of parameters.
US09368042B2
Systems and methods can track, at a group level, times for responding to educational questions. A set of users is identified as users enrolled in an academic course. A set of responses is accessed (e.g., after being received). Each response in the set of responses is one submitted via an electronic user device associated with a user in the set of users and is one submitted in response to one or more educational questions. For each response in the set of responses, an accuracy of the response is identified and a response time for the response is identified. The response time is indicative of a time between presentation of the one or more questions and submission the response. The identified response times for at least two responses in the set of responses are aggregated. A representation of the aggregation is caused to be presented.
US09368039B2
An educational tool which is embedded within the functions of common computing devices. In the preferred embodiment, the educational tool is used as a “gateway” to a selected function or functions in a primary computing device, such as a cell phone. An educational question is presented to the user of the primary computing device. The educational question must be correctly answered before use of the selected function is allowed. The user's performance is preferably transmitted to a control computing device which can be used to monitor the user's performance.
US09368033B2
The field of use of a portable communication appliance (2)—for example a mobile telephone—is intended to be extended for assisting a driver in driving a motor vehicle (1). An upgrade system (10) for a motor vehicle (1) is provided, having a portable communication appliance (2) for providing at least one functionality which assists a driver in driving the motor vehicle (1). The portable communication appliance (2) can use image data from a camera (9) to infer a state of movement of a windscreen wiper (16, 17) on the motor vehicle (1). The portable communication appliance (2) then factors in this state of movement when providing the at least one functionality for driver assistance. An appropriate method is also provided.
US09368032B1
A vehicle parked within a parking facility is found by first tracing a path from the vehicle to an entrance of the facility, using a portable electronic device that records data describing the path from movements of the device. Then, the path is retraced to return to the vehicle, with the device displaying a map of the path and a symbol indicating the current location of the device. Alternately, a portable radio beacon device is left in the vehicle to be turned on remotely by the portable electronic device, which then displays an indication of a direction from which signal from the beacon device is being received.
US09368031B2
Environmental hazards and safe conditions can be indicated to an operator of a vehicle. An audio signal of varying intensities can be played to indicate the severity of a potential hazard. An audio signal can be played at different locations in the vehicle cabin to indicate the location of a potential hazard. Surfaces such as but not limited to windows can be tinted to indicate a hazardous or safe condition. Tinting can be of various intensities commensurate with a potential hazard. Location of tinting can indicate the location of a potential hazard.
US09368029B2
Disclosed herein is a traveler information monitoring and dissemination system. The system disclosed herein provides real time information to a traveler, wherein the real time information may be pre-selected by the traveler. The system ensures consistent and quality data are produced and issued to the traveler.
US09368025B2
A load control system includes a load control device and a remote control for configuring and controlling operation of the load control device. The load control device and remote control may be mounted to an electrical wallbox. The system may be configured by associating the remote control with the load control device, and actuating a button on the remote control to configure the load control device. A second remote control device may be directly or indirectly associated with the load control device. The load control device and remote control may communicate via inductive coils that are magnetically coupled together. The remote control may be operable to charge a battery from energy derived from the magnetic coupling between the inductive coils. The load control device and remote control may include near-field communication modules that are operable to communicate wirelessly via near-field radiation.
US09368020B1
Embodiments in the present disclosure may be directed to an off-premises alert system and method for one or more wireless power receivers in a wireless power network. The system and method may include automated software embedded on a wireless power receiver that may be triggered every time a wireless power receiver is turned on. The system and method may be employed in stores where customers may use wireless power receivers to charge their mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, and the like, while being inside the store. The method may prevent customers from not returning the wireless power receiver by producing an audible alert in the power receiver. If customer fails to return wireless power receiver, the method may then automatically report details regarding the lost wireless power receiver to an appropriate authority through automatic communication connection through any intervening network cloud-based media.
US09368004B2
An assembly for use with a surgical device includes an enclosure defining a passageway extending from an interior to an exterior thereof and a visual indicator mounted within the interior of the enclosure adjacent the passageway. The visual indicator is configured to emit light. The passageway is partially defined by a concave surface of the enclosure and/or a chamfered portion of the enclosure to facilitate the passage of light emitted by the visual indicator through the passageway and to the exterior of the enclosure to increase the external viewing angle of the light emitted from the visual indicator.
US09368001B2
The invention relates to a device for handling banknotes. The device comprises a display unit having a display surface for displaying at least one graphical user interface. Moreover, the device comprises a drive unit for tilting the display unit about the axis of rotation. The display unit is connected to a gear segment formed along a circular arc, the axis of rotation extending through the center of curvature of the circular arc. A gear which is operatively connected to the drive unit engages with the teeth of the gear segment formed along the circular arc.
US09367975B2
A wireless device access system employs short-range wireless communication to require the proximity of a user device to a restricted area prior to communicating an unlock request. The access system authenticates the unlock request and the proximity of the user to the restricted area prior to transmitting an unlock command to an access governor. Additionally, the wireless device may require the proximity of a user token prior to operation and/or the access system may include an override within the restricted area blocking any unlock command.
US09367966B2
A method and a system for automating parking payment includes receiving video data in a sequence of frames provided by a video capture device observing a parking area. The method includes detecting a vehicle in the parking area using the video data. The method further includes receiving information of a vehicle in the parking area provided by a user device. The method includes comparing the characteristics of the detected vehicle with the information from the user device. In response to the characteristics of the detected vehicle being a match to the information sent from the user device, the method includes tracking the detected vehicle across the sequence of frames. The method includes computing a duration that the detected vehicle remains stationary using the tracking. The method includes computing an amount for charging the associated user device based on the duration.
US09367957B2
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for generating a 3D object. The apparatus includes a 3D object generation unit for generating a 3D object by latticizing and dividing the structural element of a 2D web page into a plurality of polygons and a 3D object manipulation processing unit for, when an object manipulation signal is inputted in the generated 3D object, generating 3D transform matrices by changing vertex coordinate values of respective lattice elements in response to the object manipulation signal and generating a transformed 3D object by applying the generated 3D transform matrices to predefined CSS transform.
US09367956B2
A simulation application simulates a fluid flow. The simulation application divides a fluid into coarse volumetric elements (voxels) at a first resolution, and simulates the fluid flow at the first resolution. The simulation application defines a three-dimensional window that includes a portion of the coarse voxels. The simulation application divides each coarse voxel in the portion of the coarse voxels that lie within the three-dimensional window into a plurality of fine voxels at a second resolution. The simulation application simulates the fluid flow associated with each fine voxel in the plurality of fine voxels at the second resolution based at least in part on the simulation at the coarse resolution.
US09367953B2
When rendering a scene that includes a complex object made up of many individual primitives, rather than processing each primitive making up the object in turn, a bounding volume which surrounds the complex object is generated and the scene is then processed using the bounding volume in place of the actual primitives making up the complex object. If it is determined that the bounding volume representation of the object will be completely occluded in the scene (e.g. by a foreground object), then the individual primitives making up the complex object are not processed. This can save significantly on processing time and resources for the scene.
US09367952B2
A system, apparatus and method of obtaining data from a 2D image in order to determine the 3D shape of objects appearing in said 2D image, said 2D image having distinguishable epipolar lines, said method comprising: (a) providing a predefined set of types of features, giving rise to feature types, each feature type being distinguishable according to a unique bi-dimensional formation; (b) providing a coded light pattern comprising multiple appearances of said feature types; (c) projecting said coded light pattern on said objects such that the distance between epipolar lines associated with substantially identical features is less than the distance between corresponding locations of two neighboring features; (d) capturing a 2D image of said objects having said projected coded light pattern projected thereupon, said 2D image comprising reflected said feature types; and (e) extracting: (i) said reflected feature types according to the unique bi-dimensional formations; and (ii) locations of said reflected feature types on respective epipolar lines in said 2D image.
US09367951B1
Graphical elements displayed on a two-dimensional display screen have an appearance that is consistent with a three-dimensional view of those elements over a range of viewing angles. A current viewing angle of a user is determined, and a view of an element to be rendered can be determined that includes an orientation appropriate for the current viewing angle. An image manipulation process is applied in order to enable the element to have the determined view from the current viewing angle of the user, taking into account the angle of the display screen with respect to the user. In at least some embodiments, an anamorphic skewing process can be used to correlate locations on the display screen with apparent positions of those locations at the current viewing angle, and cause the graphical elements to be rendered on the display screen with a skew or distortion based on the correlated locations.
US09367946B2
A computing system and method for representing volumetric data for a scene. One embodiment of the computing system includes: (1) a memory configured to store a three-dimensional (3D) clipmap data structure having at least one clip level and at least one mip level, and (2) a processor configured to generate voxelized data for a scene and cause the voxelized data to be stored in the 3D clipmap data structure.
US09367944B2
Provided is a tree model generating method according to an embodiment of the present invention. The tree model generating method includes separating and extracting a skeleton of a tree from an image including the tree to generate a matte image, applying a graph representation scheme of a two-dimensional (2D) object to the matte image to generate an object skeleton graph, generating a depth information value in accordance with a predetermined rule and allocating the generated depth information value to each node on the object skeleton graph to generate a three-dimensional (3D) primary tree model, adding branches to the primary tree model based on a branch library constructed in advance and the predetermined rule to generate a secondary tree model, and performing self-growth representation with respect to the secondary tree model based on a distance between each node on the object skeleton graph to generate a tertiary tree model.
US09367938B2
Various methods are provided for automated real-time detection of overlapping painted html elements.
US09367937B2
A clustering apparatus of probabilistic graphs, includes a center selection unit configured to select one or more centers among the probabilistic graphs. The clustering apparatus further includes a center determination unit configured to calculate a minimum bound and a maximum bound of a distance with respect to each of the centers, for each of the probabilistic graphs, and determine a center, among the centers, to which the probabilistic graphs are to be allocated based on the minimum and maximum bounds. The clustering apparatus further includes a clustering unit configured to allocate the probabilistic graphs to the center to generate one or more clusters.
US09367936B2
Methods are provided for assessing reliability of a power system of a utility company. At least one main overview display is obtained. Violation markers are displayed on the one main overview display. A monitored elements tab is updated with a list of monitored elements.
US09367933B2
A method for drawing a line having a gradient opacity across a width of the line includes receiving a path for rendering the line in a user interface, and rendering, by a computing device, a plurality of composite lines on a user interface along the path to form the line. The composite lines of the plurality of composite lines have different widths have an opacity, and are multilayered along the path. The method further includes centering, by the computing device, longitudinal-centers of the plurality of composite lines with a center of the path. The opacity of the plurality of composite lines is additive across portions of the width of the line to form the gradient opacity.
US09367932B2
The invention proposes a method for reconstructing a self-similar textured region of an image. Said method comprises determining pixels of a part of the self-similar textured region by copying sample pixels from a sample part of the self-similar textured region, the sample pixels being selected using a neighborhood matching, wherein a size of neighborhoods used for matching is selected based on an analysis of descriptors computed from coefficients of OCT transform of differently sized blocks of the sample part. The analysis of descriptors computed from coefficients of DCT transform of differently sized blocks of the sample part allows for determining the neighborhood size close to a feature size of the texture.
US09367931B1
Data including information regarding a display of the host device may be received. A display of a client device may correspond to the display of the host device. Information regarding the display of the host device may be monitored for changes. When a change is detected, a movement of an image may be identified. Instructions may be generated regarding the changes to the display. A client device may process such instructions to incorporate the detected change while maintaining a remaining portion of the display. The instructions may include a motion vector command for the image movement and a command to fill in space vacated by the moving image. As such, the client device is not required to re-process and re-render an entire display where a change pertains to only a portion thereof.
US09367928B2
The present invention relates to a method for matching point regions in images with radial distortion that, given two frames acquired by a camera with radial distortion, estimates the global image distortion and the local transformations undergone by the image regions between frames, with the objective of accurately tracking an aligning these image regions in a sequence of frames, calibrating the radial distortion using only moving image points, or estimating the relative change in focal length in cameras with radial distortion and variable zoom using only moving image points, and that comprises the following steps: extracting local image features; tracking local features; and determining the radial distortion calibration based on a computational efficient procedure that uses the information for all local features being tracked.
US09367914B2
Repositionable imaging system and method for creating a 3D image of a closed cavity of a patient's anatomy containing the imaging system, estimating characteristics of motion of the system within the cavity, and determining a metric dimension characterizing the cavity without the use of mechanical measurement. The system may include tracking device located externally with respect to the cavity to determine a scale measurement of the system's motion and the structure of the cavity. The system's computer processor is configured to determine triangulated features of the cavity and recover motion scale data with the use of data received from the tracking device. A specific imaging system includes an endoscope (equipped with an electrical coil and complemented with an external electromagnetic tracker).
US09367910B2
A method and system to analyze various dimensional parameters of a structure, such as a self-assembled block copolymer structure whether formed by graphoepitaxy or chemical epitaxy. The method involves image processing including median filtering and feature detection to determine critical dimension information, and optionally the use of a Hough transform to find periodicity values and to determine placement errors.
US09367908B1
Apparatus and method are described to overcome the perception in viewed video or other presentations containing moving vehicles that the apparent rotation rate of their wheels is frequently inappropriate for the vehicle speeds, which is caused by the stroboscopic interaction between the wheel spokes and the rate at which the images are presented. A currently preferred embodiment operates off-line under human control on a previously recorded video, identifying the wheels and replacing them with suitably altered images which are perceived to rotate at rates appropriate to the vehicle speeds; or to suppress inappropriate perception of rotation. The apparatus and method results in a new recording of the original video in which the wheels appear to rotate at the correct rate for all vehicle speeds. Alternate embodiments implement a similar but automated process operating in near-real time for operating in-line on streaming videos; and variations achieving the same ends.
US09367907B2
This flicker reducing apparatus (200) includes: a line integral value getting section (210) which gets, based on values of pixels included in ones selected from a plurality of horizontal lines that form an image, line integral values of the selected horizontal lines with respect to each image; a discrete Fourier transform section (230) which performs, between the newest image and a number of other images gotten earlier than the newest one, a discrete Fourier transform on a sequence of the line integral values of the respective images; a linear approximation section (250) which obtains an approximation line based on phase information that has been collected as a result of the discrete Fourier transform and which extracts information about the flicker from the approximation line; a flicker coefficient calculating section (260) which calculates a flicker coefficient by reference to the flicker information; and a correction arithmetic section (270) which performs flicker reduction processing on the image signal using the flicker coefficient.
US09367904B2
It is described a method for medical image comparison purposes, comprising the step of generating a first global image or mask with increased similarity to a second global image, wherein the first global image comprises at least partially a composition of different pre-captured images of a patient; wherein the pre-captured images are captured at different times.
US09367896B2
A digital camera system for super resolution image processing is provided. The digital camera system includes a resolution enhancement module configured to receive at least a portion of an image, to increase the resolution of the received image, and to output a resolution enhanced image and an edge extraction module configured to receive the resolution enhanced image, to extract at least one edge of the resolution enhanced image, and to output the extracted at least one edge of the resolution enhanced image, the at least one edge being a set of contiguous pixels where an abrupt change in pixel values occur. The digital camera system also includes an edge enhancement module configured to receive the resolution enhanced image and the extracted at least one edge, and to combine the extracted at least one edge or a derivation of the extracted at least one edge with the resolution enhanced image.
US09367890B2
An image processing apparatus, upgrade apparatus, display system and control method are provided. The image processing apparatus includes a signal input unit; a first image processing unit which processes an input signal input by the signal input unit to output a first output signal; an upgrade apparatus connection unit connected to an upgrade apparatus which includes a second image processing unit; and a first controller which controls at least one of the input signal processed by the first image processing unit and the first output signal to be transmitted to the upgrade apparatus and processed by the second image processing unit if the upgrade apparatus is connected to the upgrade apparatus connection unit.
US09367886B2
Methods and arrangements involving portable devices, such as smartphones and tablet computers, are disclosed. One particular arrangement concerns a software program that is launched following detection of audio content performed by a first musical artist. A phone can be provided with plural such software programs, tailored to respond to different types of detected content. Another aspect of the disclosed technology enables a creator of content to select software with which that creator's content should be rendered—assuring continuity between artistic intention and delivery. A great variety of other features and arrangements are also detailed.
US09367866B2
A method and system to automatically qualify a party to participate within a network-based commerce transaction is described. The system receives information from a first party. The information relates to an item to be transacted via a network-based commerce system. The system is further to receive, from a second party, a request to be qualified to transact the item via the network-based commerce system. The system is further to transmit, to the first party, a communication comprising information relating to the second party. The system is to further receive, from the first party, a response corresponding to the automatically generated communication and, responsive to receipt of the response, to automatically perform an authorization process based on the response.
US09367863B2
A temporary Internet bandwidth increase is provided. A speed preview interface is presented for obtaining a request for an Internet bandwidth increase from a customer. The eligibility of the customer for the requested increase of the Internet bandwidth is verified. The increase of Internet bandwidth for the customer is provisioned for a predetermined period of time based on the verification of eligibility of the customer. The predetermined period of time may be a temporary fixed period of time or a period of time based on billing status. When the predetermined period of time is a temporary fixed period of time, the increase in Internet bandwidth is terminated after lapse of the temporary fixed period of time.
US09367857B2
The present invention provides a method of detecting fraudulent clicks in an online environment to reduce fraudulent paid clicks for online advertisers. The method includes server side and client side code which combined enables a click verification web site to identify valid and invalid clicks and in real-time prevents advertisers from getting billed for fraudulent activity.
US09367853B2
Disclosed herein are systems and methods for implementing data upload, processing, and predictive query API exposure including means for receiving a dataset in a tabular form, the dataset having a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns; processing the dataset to generate indices representing probabilistic relationships between the rows and the columns of the dataset; storing the indices in a database; exposing an Application Programming Interface (API) to query the indices in the database; receiving a request for a predictive query or a latent structure query against the indices in the database; querying the database for a prediction based on the request via the API; and returning the prediction responsive to the request. Other related embodiments are further disclosed.
US09367852B2
A method for managing distribution of entitlements, such as personalized or enhanced experiences at a destination such a theme park. The method includes receiving a request for experience state management from an experience system that defines an experience provided by the experience system and identifies a single or multiple visitors. The method includes accessing an experience state associated with the identified visitors. The experience state defines experiences the visitor is entitled to receive and a ranked or prioritized listing of these experiences. The method includes responding to the experience system indicating whether the visitor is eligible to receive the defined experience based on their experience state and, when there are two or more eligible visitors, arbitrating amount the members of this eligible group. A feedback loop causes the experience states to be updated to modify the prioritized listings and to update an experience history for use in later arbitrations.
US09367850B2
The present invention provides for systems and methods that facilitate conveying user information between and among users effectively to thereby create a collaborative filtering environment with maintained user privacy. More specifically, the present invention allows user-profile building to occur coincident with user-browsing, for example. This can be accomplished in part by incorporating an input component on the user interface used for browsing and/or searching. A user who has opted-in to construct a personal profile makes declarations regarding his relationship with at least a portion of the information being currently viewed. The declarations are annotated to the user's profile. At the user's discretion, the user's profile can be disseminated to others in whole or in part such that other people can make use of the user's expertise, experience or opinions. In addition, the user profiles can be machine-readable and searchable.
US09367842B2
A card reader configured to read a smart card can be detachably connected to a mobile computing device. When the card reader is attached to the mobile device, an application installed on the mobile computing device permits the mobile device to communicate with the card reader in order to process transactions.Security measures can be used on the mobile device to prevent theft of a PIN during software PIN entry of a payment transaction. The mobile device can prevent the keypad or other input interface from displaying feedback. The mobile device can also prevent passcodes from being stolen by displaying media encoded with digital rights management (DRM) and by managing the media and user inputs at a secure server.A mobile device can securely communicate with a card reader for a payment transaction using asymmetric or symmetric encryption.
US09367841B2
Provided are computer implemented methods and systems for facilitating mobile device payments using barcodes displayed on mobile devices and scanned by merchants at checkout counters. When a customer is ready to tender a payment to a merchant, instead of using a credit card, cash, or check, the customer activates an application on his mobile device. The mobile device includes or obtains information about the payment system of this merchant. Furthermore, the mobile device includes or obtains information about the customer/mobile device user and then uses these two pieces of information to generate and display a barcode that encodes customer payment information specific to this merchant. The barcode is scanned at the checkout counter and processed to retrieve customer records from a database of the payment processing system. These records are then used to transfer funds between the merchant and customer, obtain discounts, and/or perform other retail transactions.
US09367838B2
A staged bill payment transaction method comprises receiving transaction information, building a staging record at a data center, and providing a retrieval key or code. The staging record comprises the transaction information and the retrieval key or code identifies the staging record for finalizing the transaction.
US09367837B2
A controller comprising: a database; a control module associated with the database; and a network interface configured to connect, over a network, to a plurality of workstations and at least one machine for performing operations to handle cash and/or other physical financial documents. The network interface receives requests from at least some of the workstations over the network, each comprising a request to pre-order a respective one of the operations. The requests are stored in the database. The network further receives, over the network, a signal from or on behalf of a slave module of the machine for retrieving one of the requests from the database. The control module processes the signal and in response releases the respective operation, the release comprising issuing an instruction to the slave module over the network controlling the machine to perform the respective operation to handle the cash and/or other physical financial document.
US09367828B2
A distributed antenna switch includes a plurality of first interfaces, each of the plurality of first interfaces configured to receive a downlink serialized data stream from a different network interface across a different first digital communication link; at least one second interface, the at least one second interface configured to communicate an aggregate downlink serialized data stream to a remote antenna unit over a second digital communication link; and wherein the distributed antenna switch is configured to aggregate the plurality of downlink serialized data streams from the different network interfaces into the aggregate downlink serialized data stream.
US09367825B2
The apparatus, systems and methods herein facilitate generation of energy-related revenue for an energy customer of an electricity supplier. The apparatuses and methods herein can be used to generate suggested operating schedules for the energy assets that including a controllable energy asset, using an objective function. The objective function is determined based on a dynamic simulation model of the energy profile of the energy assets. The dynamic simulation model is adaptive to physical changes in the energy assets based on a parametric estimation using at least one model parameter. The model parameter is at least one of an operation characteristic of the controllable energy asset, a thermodynamic property of the energy assets, and a projected environmental condition. Energy-related revenue available to the energy customer is based at least in part on a wholesale electricity market or on a regulation market.
US09367821B2
A system and method for profiling a request in a service system with kernel events including a pre-processing module configured to obtain kernel event traces from the service system and determine starting and ending communication pairs of a request path for a request. A learning module is configured to learn pairwise relationships between the starting and ending communication pairs of training traces of sequential requests. A generation module is configured to generate communication paths for the request path from the starting and ending communication pairs of testing traces of concurrent requests using a heuristic procedure that is guided by the learned pairwise relationships and generate the request path for the request from the communication paths. The system and method precisely determine request paths for applications in a distributed system from kernel event traces even when there are numerous concurrent requests.
US09367820B2
In one embodiment, an indication that a decision has been requested, selected, or applied with respect to one or more users may be obtained. After the indication that a decision that has been requested, selected, or applied is obtained, a value function may be updated, where the value function approximates an expected reward associated with the one or more users over time since the decision has been requested, selected, or applied with respect to the one or more users. The value function may be updated by performing or providing one or more updates to the value function, where a time at which each of the one or more updates is performed or provided is independent of activity of the one or more users.
US09367807B2
The current application is directed to methods, and to systems employing the methods, that allow built-in indexing methods for facts, to additionally be applied to rules within a logic-programming system. The methods and systems to which the current application is directed convert an original set of rules into an equivalent set of fact/rule pairs. In addition, a new set of rules may be directly encoded as a new set of fact/rule pairs by these methods and systems. The equivalent set of fact/rule pairs implement the original set of rules, preserving the meaning of the original rules, but the equivalent set of fact/rule pairs are indexed by built-in indexing methods for facts. The new fact/rule pairs are also indexed by built-in indexing methods for facts.
US09367804B1
Described is a system for predicting system instability. The system can measure the degree of the network's instability due to critical transitions using the leading eigenvalue of the covariance matrix, where the instability measure is invariant to (1) the changes in network structure in terms of addition/removal of nodes and links, and (2) the feedback of the global system stability to the changes in stability. Based on that, the system is operable for providing an estimation of the network's changing connectivity when the network is near critical transitions.
US09367799B2
A computing device presents a cluster visualization based on a neural network computation. First centroid locations are computed for first clusters. Second centroid locations are computed for second clusters. Each centroid location includes a plurality of coordinate values where each coordinate value relates to a single variable of a plurality of variables. Distances are computed pairwise between each centroid location. An optimum pairing is selected based on a minimum distance of the computed pairwise distances where each pair is associated with a different cluster of a set of composite clusters. Noised centroid location data is created. A multi-layer neural network is trained with the noised centroid location data. A projected centroid location is determined in a multidimensional space for each centroid location as values of hidden units of a middle layer of the multi-layer neural network. A graph is presented for display that indicates the determined, projected centroid locations.
US09367798B2
Adaptive controller apparatus of a plant may be implemented. The controller may comprise an encoder block and a control block. The encoder may utilize basis function kernel expansion technique to encode an arbitrary combination of inputs into spike output. The controller may comprise spiking neuron network operable according to reinforcement learning process. The network may receive the encoder output via a plurality of plastic connections. The process may be configured to adaptively modify connection weights in order to maximize process performance, associated with a target outcome. The relevant features of the input may be identified and used for enabling the controlled plant to achieve the target outcome.
US09367776B2
Methods and systems are provided for tracing the source of a printed document. A method may include receiving a print job for printing a page having page content, generating a log of the print job, encoding the log using a mule image to produce a data-bearing halftone image, merging the data-bearing halftone image with the page content, and printing the merged data-bearing halftone image and page content to produce a printed document.
US09367774B2
A setting storage device, includes: a storage unit which stores setting information and adjustment information to be associated with each other; and a control unit which, in case that, i) first setting information associated with first adjustment information is introduced, ii) second adjustment information has been stored in the storage unit, iii) the second adjustment information has the same name as the first adjustment information associated with the first setting information and iv) the second adjustment information has the same content as the first adjustment information associated with the first setting information, stores the first setting information in the storage unit to be associated with the second adjustment information without storing the first adjustment information.
US09367769B2
A device, method for image analysis and a computer-readable medium are provided. The method includes loading a first video stream having a first resolution, and selecting one first video frame of the first video stream. When an object exists in the selected first video frame, determine whether an image of the object in the selected first video frame matches a preset condition. If yes, the method performs image analysis to the image of the object in the selected first video frame. If not, the method loads a second video stream having a second resolution higher than the first resolution, selects one second video frame of the second video stream that the object exists in it, and performs the image analysis to an image of the object in the selected second video frame.
US09367764B2
A color information obtaining unit obtains color information of an attention point or an attention area within a target image. A similarity information obtaining unit obtains similarity information related to a level of similarity between color information of an image that is stored in a storage in advance and the color information obtained by the color information obtaining unit. A notification unit causes an output unit to output a notification based on the similarity information.
US09367762B2
An image processing device and a method performed by a computer, the image processing device comprising: a processing unit configured to operate as an image acquisition unit configured to acquire an image; a similarity map generator configured to calculate, with a region constructed with one or a plurality of pixels in the image as a constituent unit, a first similarity map based on a first algorithm, the first similarity map representing a degree of similarity between the region and a marginal region of the image, and calculate a second similarity map based on a second algorithm, the second similarity map representing a degree of similarity between the region and the marginal region of the image; and a saliency map generator configured to integrate the first similarity map and the second similarity map to generate a saliency map.
US09367761B2
An electronic device for fast object recognition is provided. The electronic device includes a first storage unit configured to store digital image data, and a processor configured to recognize an object in first image data, to receive a second object related to the first object in the first image data from a second storage unit, to store the first and second objects in the first storage unit, and to use one or more of the first and second objects stored in the first storage unit to recognize an object in second image data.
US09367755B2
There is provided an image processing apparatus including a quantization unit that quantizes an image subjected to logarithmic conversion such that a quantization error is focused on a luminance region in which expansion of an error caused due to logarithmic inverse-conversion which is inverse conversion of the logarithmic conversion is relatively small or a luminance region in which no expansion of the error occurs; and an encoding unit that encodes an index image obtained through the quantization by the quantization unit.
US09367753B2
Embodiments of the present application relate to a method for recognizing information, a system for recognizing information, and a computer program product for recognizing information. A method for recognizing information is provided. The method includes locating a card zone for each frame within a card image frame sequence comprising a plurality of frames, locating an information zone within each card zone, dividing each information zone into at least one character zone, de-blurring a character zone corresponding to a same region across all the frames in the card image frame sequence, and recognizing character string information based on the de-blurred character zone.
US09367750B2
Disclosed is a lane departure warning system. According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the lane departure warning system includes: an image obtaining unit configured to obtain a travelling image; a region of interest setting unit configured to set a predetermined region of the travelling image as a region of interest; and a controller configured to remove a shadow component included in the region of interest when brightness of the region of interest satisfies a predetermined condition, and detect a line in the region of interest in which the shadow component is removed.
US09367746B2
An image capture apparatus includes an image acquisition unit 5a, an area setting unit 5b, and an image specifying unit 5c. The image acquisition unit 5a acquires a first image group including plural images, the plural images obtained by sequentially photographing motion of an object. The area setting unit 5b sets plural areas at plural positions on each of the images of the first image group acquired by the image acquisition unit 5a. The image specifying unit 5c acquires pixel values of the plural areas set on each of the images by the area setting unit, and specifies a second image group including plural images relating to prescribed moments of motion of the object from among the first image group including plural images, based on change in the acquired pixel values of the plural areas.
US09367741B2
The invention relates to a deviation indicator with infrared imagery and a system for automatically aiming at and tracking a target. According to the invention, the deviation indicator with infrared imagery comprises an infrared pulsed laser (11) and the device (12) for controlling and processing infrared images also processes the laser pulse echoes.
US09367737B2
Methods, machine-readable media, and devices for floor plan space detection are described herein. For example, one or more embodiments include receiving an image of a floor plan, enhancing the image of the floor plan through processing, detecting a location of a door associated with a space in the image of the floor plan through a histogram of gradient of pattern feature, setting a seed in the space based on the location of the door associated with the space, spreading the seed in the space until the seed reaches a boundary of the space, and associating the seed that has been spread with the space.
US09367729B2
Various systems, methods, and programs embodied in computer-readable mediums are provided for fingerprint liveness detection. In one embodiment, a method for determining fingerprint liveness is provided that comprises receiving a plurality of image analysis data of a fingerprint image; condensing the plurality of image analysis data; and determining liveness of the fingerprint image based upon the condensed data.
US09367719B2
A laser scanning system having a laser scanning field, and a laser beam optics module with an optical axis and including: an aperture stop disposed after a laser source for shaping the laser beam to a predetermined beam diameter; a collimating lens for collimating the laser beam produced from the aperture stop; an apodization element having a first and second optical surfaces for extending the depth of focus of the laser beam from the collimating lens; and a negative bi-prism, disposed after the apodization element, along the optical axis, to transform the energy distribution of the laser beam and cause the laser beam to converge to substantially a single beam spot along the far-field portion of the laser scanning field, and extend the depth of focus of the laser beam along the far-field portion of the laser scanning field.
US09367713B2
A contactless communication device comprises a contactless front chip, a security chip concentrator and a security chipset. Wherein, said security chipset contains more than two security chips for storing and processing the contactless application data; said contactless front chip is used for implementing the interaction between said security chip and the external contactless field; said security chip concentrator, which is connected with the contactless front chip and with the security chip of the security chipset, is used for selecting a security chip based on the contactless application and implementing the connection between the selected security chip and the contactless front chip. The contactless communication device of the present invention is based on the application mode of multi-card for multi-use so that different providers can independently issue security chips separated from the contactless communication device, then the problems of data security, user management and so on caused by single-card for multi-use are avoided.
US09367708B2
A method for producing a hardware device, in particular a trusted platform module for the execution of at least one cryptographic algorithm, the hardware device corresponding to a real-time class, i.e., it fulfils specifiable run-time requirements for real-time applications, wherein the method comprises preparing at least one cryptographic algorithm in the manner of a program code; determining a maximum/longest execution time (WCET) for the algorithm, producing a tamper-proof hardware module, which is configured to execute the algorithm, and assigning the hardware module to a real-time class depending on the maximum/longest execution time (WCET).
US09367701B2
A method for operating a computing system with a trusted processor include generating a secret cryptographic key based on a physically unclonable function in at least one hardware component in the trusted processor, generating a first public key and first private key using first secret cryptographic key, and executing instruction code corresponding to a first software program. The method further includes generating output data with the trusted processor during execution of the first software program, generating encrypted data corresponding to the output data using the first public key for at least a portion of the encryption, generating a signature of the encrypted data, and transmitting with an input/output (I/O) interface operatively connected to the trusted processor the encrypted data and the signature for storage in an untrusted memory.
US09367697B1
A security module securely manages keys. The security module is usable to implement a cryptography service that includes a request processing component. The request processing component responds to requests by causing the security module to perform cryptographic operations that the request processing component cannot perform due to a lack of access to appropriate keys. The security module may be a member of a group of security modules that securely manage keys. Techniques for passing secret information from one security module to the other prevent unauthorized access to secret information.
US09367686B1
Disclosed is a system and method for antivirus checking of native images of software assemblies. An example method includes for detecting malicious native images of a machine code, the method comprising: receiving a native image of the machine code; identifying a parent assembly, which was used to create the native image; determining whether the parent assembly corresponds to the machine code; and determining that the native image is malicious when the parent assembly does not correspond to the machine code.
US09367680B2
This disclosure is directed to a system and method for providing advisement about applications on mobile communication devices such as smartphones, netbooks, and tablets. A server gathers data about mobile applications, analyzes the applications, and produces an assessment that may advise users on a variety of factors, including security, privacy, battery impact, performance impact, and network usage. The disclosure helps users understand the impact of applications to improve the experience in using their mobile device. The disclosure also enables a server to feed information about applications to other protection systems such as application policy systems and network infrastructure. The disclosure also enables advisement about applications to be presented in a variety of forms, such as through a mobile application, as part of a web application, or integrated into other services via an API.
US09367679B2
At the time of input of authentication information, even when the hand and the input screen are seen from the third person, guess of authentication information is made difficult. A plurality of keys serving as input means are divided into a first region and a second region. Then, the first region and the second region are caused to transit between a first state and a second state distinguished from each other depending on the displayed contents. When a region where a key to be inputted for the input of authentication information is arranged is in the second state, input to the above-mentioned plurality of keys is recognized as dummy.
US09367670B2
A method and system is provided of managing a current software item on a managed computer system connectable to a management computer system via a computer network. The method includes identifying, using an agent application, the current software item on the managed computer system, identifying if the current software item is an unauthorized software item; and selectively disabling the unauthorized software item.
US09367663B2
Provided herein are methods, processes and apparatuses for non-invasive assessment of genetic variations.
US09367657B2
A system and method for providing an integrated circuit that integrates with and controls a device wherein the integrated circuit design is developed based on a selection of characteristics of the device. The system and method also provide software for establishing interoperability between the integrated circuit and a controller.
US09367654B2
A method for back-end-of-line variation modeling is provided. A bounding box is defined within a design layout. A back-end-of-line variation parameter is determined for the bounding box. The back-end-of-line variation parameter is applied as a constraint for simulation of the design layout.
US09367651B2
Disclosed is a 3D scanner in the form of a wearable glove that can be worn by a user to swiftly scan the objects that the user touches. Touching the edges or corners of the object is enough for the present invention to automatically generate the necessary 3D model of the object. The user can scan an object with holes regardless of the object's size. The wearable glove is thin and light, and can be folded and carried in the user's pocket ready for use at any time or place.
US09367648B2
An optical design system generates a design state overview of a design of an optical system, the design state overview summarizing a current state and a target state of the design by describing a plurality of specifications for the optical system, the specification descriptions including target ranges for the specifications based on the target state of the design and further including current values for the specifications based on the current state of the design. The optical design system displays the design state overview. The optical design system updates the design state overview in response to the optical design system changing the current design for the optical system.
US09367645B1
The present disclosure describes systems and techniques relating to processing of network communications. According to an aspect of the described systems and techniques, a network device includes a content addressable memory (CAM) device including random access memory (RAM) devices; and a register configured to store a value for the RAM devices of the CAM device; wherein the CAM device is configured to retrieve data stored in the RAM devices of the CAM device, at a received address offset by the value stored in the register, for comparison to at least a portion of a search string received from a network processor to handle network packet processing.
US09367644B2
Information is processed by receiving from a requesting node a request to access a content management related service. The content management related service is performed at a second node in the opposite direction as the requesting node; the request is associated with an object tree. The object tree is walked to obtain information associated with the object tree. A set of one or more service context rules associated with the content management related service is determined. The object tree is processed using the set of service context rules and the results of the processed object tree are made available to the content management related service so that the content management related service is able to properly operate at the second node.
US09367630B2
A forensic system includes a result information receiving unit that receives result information which is a determination result of connection between a lawsuit and a document group including a predetermined number of documents, which is extracted from document data included in digital information, by a user, an element selection unit that calculates evaluation values of elements which commonly appear in the document group in each result information item from the characteristics of the elements and selects the elements on the basis of the evaluation values, a score calculation unit that calculates a score of each document in the document data from the selected elements included in each document of the document data and the evaluation values of the selected elements, and a recall ratio calculation unit that calculates a recall ratio related to the determination of the connection to the lawsuit on the basis of the score.
US09367629B2
In one embodiment, a method includes accessing a social graph that includes a number of nodes and edges connecting the nodes. Each of the edges between two of the nodes representing a single degree of separation between them. The nodes include a first node corresponding to a first user associated with an online social network and a plurality of second nodes that each correspond to a concept or a second user associated with the online social network. The method also includes generating a number of cards. Each card includes a suggested query referencing a query-domain associated with the online social network and zero or more query-filters for the query-domain. Each query-filter references one or more nodes of the plurality of nodes or one or more edges of the plurality of edges.
US09367625B2
In one embodiment, a method includes accessing a social graph that includes a plurality of nodes and edges, receiving from a user a structured query comprising references to selected nodes and selected edges, generating a query command based on the structured query based on the structured query comprising a first query constraint and a second query constraint, identifying a first set of nodes matching the first query constraint and at least in part matching the second query constraint, identifying a second set of nodes matching the second query constraint, and generating search results based on the first and second set of nodes.
US09367614B2
Aggregated information is accessed on a computing device. The aggregated information includes video content information associated with video content and related end destination information. The aggregated information is further processed to render at least a portion of the aggregated information on a publically-accessible information medium. Thus, published content is generated.
US09367609B1
Some embodiments of the invention provide a method for tagging and searching for content. In some embodiments, a tagging mechanism is provided that allows the creation of tag chains for tagging content. In some embodiments, once the content is tagged, a search tool is provided that allows the search for content, through the search for tag chains.
US09367608B1
System and methods are disclosed for providing answers to search queries, and for searching using association data without requiring keyword matching. Datasets representing objects and their properties are created from unstructured data sources based on natural language analysis methods, and can be used to answer queries about objects or properties of objects. Implementations include general information search engines and embodiments for searching products, services, people, or other objects without knowing the names of such objects, or searching for information about known objects by using either keyword-based queries or natural language queries such as asking questions. System and methods are also provided for creating a structured or semi-structured representation of various unstructured data, in contrast to the conventional term-vector or term-document matrix representation.
US09367597B2
A method and associated system for managing rules that synchronize operations of a source system and a target system. A set of linked worksheets is generated as a function of the internal logic of the synchronization rules and of worksheets that represent data models of the source and target systems. These generated worksheets describe and relate data elements of the data models, extrinsic data that is stored externally to the source and target systems, and logical procedures performed by the synchronization rules. When the source data model, the target data model, or a logical procedure is revised, the linked worksheets are updated in response to the revision and these updates automatically propagate across the synchronization rules and across other components of the source system, the target system, and the synchronization mechanism.
US09367594B2
Techniques, systems, and articles of manufacture for determining statistics for cost-based optimization of a workflow. A method includes generating individual sets of statistics for each intermediate relation of a workflow, wherein said intermediate relations comprise results of stages of any plan of the workflow, and wherein each individual set of statistics computes cardinality of the corresponding intermediate relation; determining a global set of statistics for the workflow, wherein said global set of statistics comprises at least one of the individual sets of statistics for each of the intermediate relations; instrumenting a given plan of the workflow to collect the global set of statistics during execution; executing the given plan to collect the global set of statistics; and determining a plan of the workflow with the lowest cost by comparing the cost of multiple plans, wherein the cost of each plan is derived from the global set of statistics.
US09367593B2
A method of sorting and displaying data on a portable electronic device includes: determining geographical coordinates of the portable electronic device, providing search criteria to the portable electronic device, performing a search in a database based on the search criteria resulting in a list of database records, determining a search area of the portable electronic device and displaying selected records from the list of database records on a display screen of the portable electronic device. Each of the selected records is located within a search radius, which originates at the geographical coordinates of the portable electronic device, and within the search area, which is determined based on a pointing direction of the portable electronic device.
US09367585B2
A data storage and query method supporting an agile development and horizontal scaling, in a field of computer applications, includes steps of: transforming data into a 2-tuple (Key, MiniTable) and identifying any MiniTable (having a data set removed) with a unique Key, wherein the MiniTable includes multiple data columns; a structure of each data column is limited by a pre-defined mode; and the data columns are sorted according to a primary key defined by the mode. The data storage and query method obtains a capability of the horizontal scaling via removing dependency among the data sets, and a capability of the agile development via supporting an analogous SQL grammar by saving dependency among the data within the data sets. The data storage and query method can be applied to a data management system which supports the horizontal scaling of big data and the agile development of short development lifecycles.
US09367584B2
A data management method to host applications and manage storage, finding and retrieval of typed items with support for tagging, connections, and situated queries is provided.
US09367583B1
Systems and methods of the present disclosure are directed generally to evaluating performance of a content group of a content provider. In some implementations, a system receives a request to display a performance score and accesses a data structure storing keywords, a quality metric for each keyword, and an impression count for each keyword. The quality metric can include a quality score or a first page bid of a keyword. The system can identify keywords of the data structure corresponding to the content group of the content provider. The system can obtain the quality metric and the number of impressions via the data structure for each keyword. The system can determine, for the content group, a performance score using an impression-based weighted average of the quality metric and impression count of each of the keywords.
US09367581B2
Systems, methods, and computer program products for enabling assessment of the quality of a search index. In one embodiment, objects are processed to produce corresponding text that is stored and indexed. The objects are also processed to identify and store corresponding metadata values for indexing. Error conditions that are detected during the processing of objects to generate corresponding text are tracked and compared to determine the most severe of the error conditions. An indication of the most severe error condition is stored in a first consolidated error field. Errors that are encountered in the identification and storage of metadata values are counted and this count is stored in a second consolidated error field. Both of the consolidated error fields are indexed in the same manner as the text and metadata for the objects, so that the stored error information can be used in queries of the search index.
US09367576B2
Identifying significant media granulars may comprise partitioning a media document into one or more media granulars. A score may be assigned to each of the one or more media granulars. The one or more media granulars may be monitored to detect one or more user actions on the one or more media granular. The score associated with a respective one of the media granulars may be updated based on a number of user actions detected on the respective one of the media granulars. A media granular may be identified as being significant based on the score meeting a threshold.
US09367574B2
A bloom filter is generated for efficient query processing for unsorted data in a column of a columnar database. Bloom filters represented as bitmaps are generated for data blocks storing data for a column of a columnar database table. An indication of a query directed toward the column is received and the bloom filter for each data block is examined to determine which ones of the data blocks do not need to be read in order to service the query for the select data. Data is then read from the data blocks storing data for the column excepting the ones which do not need to be read.
US09367573B1
Methods and apparatus for archiving files in a system with primary storage and secondary storage that reduces thread contention. A single input reader thread generates list of files for processing by multiple map threads that evaluate each file in a list against a number of archive policies, such as move, purge, index and delete. Reduce threads take the lists from the map threads and generates list of files for action under a given policy, e.g., move, purge, index, delete. This arrangement eliminates thread contention for files and lists.
US09367572B2
In a system comprising media files resident on various devices, devices equipped with media servers can deliver files to devices with media clients for purposes of playback (rendering) and/or storage. Some media servers may be capable of delivering files in various formats and may offer clients delivery format options. Media clients are aware of preferential list of formats that can be supported on a device and can choose from delivery options provided by media servers. Media files are introduced on the devices either via means external to this system or by leveraging system's media servers and media clients to transfer content between devices. When media files are introduced on the devices by means external to this system, media scanners detect such media files and make it available to media servers and thus to the rest of the system.
US09367569B1
Locating a file object in a storage system includes determining at least one characteristic of the file object, obtaining a subset of nodes in the storage system by applying the at least one characteristic to criteria for storing file objects at particular ones of the nodes in the storage system, and examining the subset of nodes to determine if any contain the file object. A metadata location server may be used to obtain the subset of nodes. The criteria may include at least one policy relating to placement of objects corresponding to files at the time the files are created. The policies may relate to owners of the files. The characteristic information may include the owner of a target file corresponding to the file object, the date that the target file was created, a business organization associated with the target file, and/or the size of the target file.
US09367559B1
A method for data locality control in a deduplication system is provided. The method includes forming a fingerprint cache from a backup image corresponding to a first backup operation. The method includes removing one or more fingerprints from inclusion in the fingerprint cache, in response to the one or more fingerprints having a data segment locality, in a container, less than a threshold of data segment locality. The container has one or more data segments corresponding to the one or more fingerprints. The method includes applying the fingerprint cache, with the one or more fingerprints removed from inclusion therein, to a second backup operation, wherein at least one method operation is executed through a processor.
US09367555B2
Systems and methods for transforming a logical data object for storage in a storage device operable with at least one storage protocol, creating, reading, writing, optimization and restoring thereof. Transforming the logical data object comprises creating in the storage device a transformed logical data object comprising one or more allocated storage sections with a predefined size; transforming one or more sequentially obtained chunks of obtained data corresponding to the transforming logical data object; and sequentially storing the processed data chunks into said storage sections in accordance with a receive order of said chunks, wherein said storage sections serve as atomic elements of transformation/de-transformation operations during input/output transactions on the logical data object. The processing may comprise two or more data transformation techniques coordinated in time, concurrently executing autonomous sets of instructions, and provided in a manner preserving the sequence of processing and storing the processed data chunks.
US09367545B2
An apparatus for providing content operable in association with an input apparatus, and a method thereof are provided. According to the apparatus and method, a control signal corresponding to an action of a user is received from an input apparatus associated with the content, a content associated with the input apparatus based on the received control signal is searched, and the searched content is provided.
US09367542B2
A technique for using a reference to identify permissions required to access a resource. One or more processors detect a reference in an electronic communication. The reference points to a resource stored in storage of a data processing system. The one or more processors identify a set of permissions required to access the resource pointed to by the reference in the electronic communication. The one or more processors then perform a set of access-oriented actions associated with the set of permissions.
US09367527B2
In one embodiment, a system and method for reporting lost items includes presenting a lost item reporting link associated with an entity having a plurality of different physical establishment locations; receiving a user selection of the lost item reporting link; presenting at a website, in response to the user selection of the lost item reporting link, a graphical user interface configured to solicit lost item recovery information, the website being associated with the entity having the plurality of different physical establishments; receiving the lost item recovery information via the graphical user interface; and transmitting the lost item recovery information to a third party online lost and found system.
US09367526B1
A language processing application employs a classing function optimized for the underlying production application context for which it is expected to process speech. A combination of class based and word based features generates a classing function optimized for a particular production application, meaning that a language model employing the classing function uses word classes having a high likelihood of accurately predicting word sequences encountered by a language model invoked by the production application. The classing function optimizes word classes by aligning the objective of word classing with the underlying language processing task to be performed by the production application. The classing function is optimized to correspond to usage in the production application context using class-based and word-based features by computing a likelihood of a word in an n-gram and a frequency of a word within a class of the n-gram.
US09367522B2
Systems and methods are disclosed herein for time-based editing of an electronic presentation. An electronic presentation editing interface for editing an electronic presentation is provided. The interface includes a digital canvas including multiple canvas objects in multiple canvas layers and a digital timeline including multiple timeline objects. Each canvas object is linked to a timeline object, and a location of a timeline object on the digital timeline is indicative of a time and a canvas layer that each linked canvas object is displayed on the digital canvas.
US09367518B2
Aspects of a method and system for efficient full resolution correlation may include correlating a first signal with a second signal at a rate corresponding to a first discrete signal, wherein each sample of the first signal may be generated by summing a plurality of consecutive samples from the first discrete signal, and the second signal may be generated by summing the plurality of consecutive samples from a second discrete signal. The correlating may be performed by a matched filter and/or a correlator. The first signal comprising N samples may be generated by summing L consecutive samples for each of the N samples from the first discrete signal comprising N*L samples. The second signal comprising N samples may be generated by summing L consecutive samples for each of the N samples from the second discrete signal comprising N*L samples. The first signal and the second signal may be correlated by multiplying the N samples of the first signal with the N samples of the second signal in N multipliers and summing a plurality of outputs of the multipliers. A maximum of the correlating may be determined to achieve synchronization between the first discrete signal and the second discrete signal.
US09367517B2
A package includes a first die and a second die. The dies are connected to each other through an interface. At least one of the first and second dies includes a plurality of signal sources, wherein each source has at least one quality of service parameter associated therewith, and a plurality of queues having a different priorities. A signal from a respective one of the signal sources is allocated to one of the plurality of queues in dependence on the at least one quality of service parameter associated with the respective signal source. The interface is configured such that signals from said queues are transported from one of said first and second dies to the other of said first and second dies.
US09367510B2
Present disclosure relates to a computer-implemented method for handling two SES sidebands using one SMBUS controller. The method includes one or more of following operations: (a) establishing communication between a backplane controller and a host computer through HBA, (b) receiving control commands and control data from host computer for monitoring and controlling at least one drive of first and second group of drives, (c) determining address and device number of drive to which received control commands and control data are directed, (d) forwarding control commands and control data to first or second SMBUS sideband handler based on address received, (e) controlling the blinking of the LEDs of the drive by first or second SMBUS sideband handler, (f) generating responses by the first or second SMBUS sideband handler, (g) receiving responses by the SMBUS controller, and (h) sending the responses back to the host computer within a predetermined time period.
US09367508B2
Card detection pin and input pin configured to receive an interface reset signal are connected to each other in a high-speed data transfer memory card. A memory card control device noncompliant with the memory card initializes the interface reset signal to a memory card to a second electric potential, and then when the memory card control device detects a first electric potential of the card detection pin of the memory card, the memory card control device determines that the memory card is mounted. When the memory card is mounted in such a memory card control device, the memory card control device does not detect the mounting of the memory card, and thus does not start subsequent operation such as driving the interface reset signal to the first electric potential and supplying electric power to the memory card.
US09367500B2
In accordance with embodiments disclosed herein are mechanisms for enabling multiple bus master engines to share the same request channel to a pipelined backbone including: receiving a plurality of unarbitrated grant requests at an agent bus interface from a plurality of masters, each requesting access to a backbone connected via a common request channel; determining which of the unarbitrated grant requests is to issue first as a final grant request; storing a master identifier code for the final grant request into a FIFO buffer, the master identifier code associating the final grant request with the issuing master among the plurality of masters; waiting for a backbone grant; and presenting the master identifier code for the final grant request to an agent bus interface, wherein the agent bus interface communicates a command and data for processing via a backbone responsive to the backbone grant to fulfill the final grant request.
US09367494B2
Provided are a data processor, and a control system, in which an interrupt controller and an event link controller are adopted. The event link controller responds to a generated event signal to output a start control signal for controlling start of an operation of a circuit module. The circuit module is able to generate an event signal. The event link controller generates the start control signal according to the correspondences between event signals and start control signals which are defined by event control information. The links between the event signals and start control signals can be prescribed by the event control information. Therefore, operations of circuit modules prescribed by such links can be controlled sequentially. The control neither involves save and return processes by CPU as in the interrupt processing, nor needs priority level control as executed on competing interrupt requests.
US09367493B2
A method and system comprises transferring data from a first processor to at least one pulse generator directly connected to an interrupt control of at least a second processor. The transferring of the data bypasses memory. The method further includes reading the transferred data directly from the at least one pulse generator by the at least a second processor.
US09367490B2
Reversible connectors for accessory devices are described. In one or more implementations, a connector cable for an accessory of a host computing device is configured such that a head of the connector cable may be plugged into a corresponding port of the host in either orientation (straight or reverse). The host computing device is configured to sample signals associated with allocated pins of the connector to detect connection of the connector to an accessory port and to ascertain an orientation of the connector. A combination of high and low values of signals conveyed via these allocated pins upon insertion of the connector may be used by a controller of the host to distinguish between different types of devices and to resolve the orientation of the connector cable. A switching mechanism of the host computing device may then be configured to automatically route signals accordingly.
US09367484B2
Disclosed is a software program, USB monitoring software agent. USB monitoring software agent is a software program that monitors all USB ports of a computer and provides real-time detection of all USB devices connected to a USB port. As a USB device is detected, the device is identified, categorized, cataloged and logged in a secure persistent store, prompted for a challenge policy of use if so configured, prevent the USB device from being used if so configured, transmit information about the detected USB device to a local or remote repository by a selected industry standard telecommunication method. A method of creating a digital photograph and/or a video recording to record and identify a user of the computer contemporaneous with the insertion/removal/ejection of a USB device into or out of the computer is disclosed also.
US09367483B2
Systems, methods, and firmware for operating data storage devices and storage processors are provided herein. In one example, a data storage device is provided. The data storage device includes phase change media on which to write data, and a processing system configured to identify a write process to at least obfuscate an acoustic signature associated with writing the data on the phase change media and write the data to the phase change media in accordance with the write process.
US09367478B2
A method for controlling access to a memory of a computer system configured with at least one logical partition may include receiving a first request to map a first page of the memory, the request identifying a first requester. A first logical partition associated with the first page may be determined. It may be determined that an attribute of the first logical partition limits access to individual pages of the first logical partition to a single requester, and that the first page is available to be mapped to a requester. The first page may be mapped to the first requester and a flag indicating that the first page is unavailable for an additional mapping may be set. The first request may be from a device driver on behalf of an input/output adapter, as the first requester, to use the first page in a direct memory access transfer.
US09367474B2
Systems and methods for translating cache hints between different protocols within a SoC. A requesting agent within the SoC generates a first cache hint for a transaction, and the first cache hint is compliant with a first protocol. The first cache hint can be set to a reserved encoding value as defined by the first protocol. Prior to the transaction being sent to the memory subsystem, the first cache hint is translated into a second cache hint. The memory subsystem recognizes cache hints which are compliant with a second protocol, and the second cache hint is compliant with the second protocol.
US09367472B2
Systems and methods for reliably using data storage media. Multiple processors are configured to access a persistent memory. For a given data block corresponding to a write access request from a first processor to the persistent memory, a cache controller prevents any read access of a copy of the given data block in an associated cache. The cache controller prevents any read access while detecting an acknowledgment that the given data block is stored in the persistent memory is not yet received. Until the acknowledgment is received, the cache controller allows write access of the copy of the given data block in the associated cache only for a thread in the first processor that originally sent the write access request. The cache controller invalidates any copy of the given data block in any cache levels below the associated cache.
US09367469B2
A cache memory comprises a cache controller and a nonvolatile semiconductor memory as a storage medium. The nonvolatile semiconductor memory comprises multiple blocks, which are data erase units, and each block comprises multiple pages, which are data write and read units. The cache controller receives data and attribute information of the data, and, based on the received attribute information and attribute information of the data stored in the multiple blocks, selects a storage-destination block for storing the received data, and writes the received data to a page inside the selected storage-destination block.
US09367468B2
In a particular embodiment, a method includes identifying one or more way prediction characteristics of an instruction. The method also includes selectively reading, based on identification of the one or more way prediction characteristics, a table to identify an entry of the table associated with the instruction that identifies a way of a data cache. The method further includes making a prediction whether a next access of the data cache based on the instruction will access the way.
US09367462B2
Technologies are described herein related to multi-core processors that are adapted to share processor resources. An example multi-core processor can include a plurality of processor cores. The multi-core processor further can include a shared register file selectively coupled to two or more of the plurality of processor cores, where the shared register file is adapted to serve as a shared resource among the selected processor cores.
US09367461B2
A data processing system including multiple processors 6, 8, 10, 12 each with a local cache memory 14, 16, 18, 20 share a main memory 24 under control of a coherency controller 22. Store requests from a store requester which are to be serviced by data received from the main memory 24 trigger the coherency controller 22 to return exclusive rights to access the data to the store requester before the corresponding data is returned from the main memory 24. The store requester uses possession of the exclusive rights to access the data to permit further processing with an ordering constraint relative to the store request to proceed even though the store request has yet to be finished. The ordering constraint may be, for example, a fence instruction. The store requester in possession of the exclusive rights to access the data values ensures that the store request is finished and its results observed by any instruction as required by the ordering constraint it has released early.
US09367459B2
A scheduling method of a scheduler that manages threads is executed by a computer. The scheduling method includes selecting a CPU of relatively less load, when a second thread is generated from a first thread to be processed; determining whether the second thread operates exclusively from the first thread; copying a first storage area assessed by the first thread onto a second storage area managed by the CPU, when the second thread operates exclusively; calculating based on an address of the second storage area and a predetermined value, an offset for a second address for the second thread to access the first storage area; and notifying the CPU of the offset for the second address to convert a first address to a third address for accessing the second storage area.
US09367458B2
A coherent attached processor proxy (CAPP) within a primary coherent system participates in an operation on a system fabric of the primary coherent system on behalf of an attached processor (AP) that is external to the primary coherent system and that is coupled to the CAPP. The operation includes multiple components communicated with the CAPP including a request and at least one coherence message. The CAPP determines one or more of the components of the operation by reference to at least one programmable data structure within the CAPP that can be reprogrammed.
US09367457B1
A computer-implemented method for enabling write-back caching and replication at different abstraction layers may include (1) identifying a cache abstraction layer that implements write-back caching to selectively cache at least one write to a backing store, (2) identifying a replication abstraction layer that replicates the backing store to a secondary storage system by replicating writes committed to the backing store to the secondary storage system, (3) receiving a request to create a point-in-time image of the backing store at the secondary storage system at a point at which the writes committed to the backing store are point-in-time consistent, (4) committing the cached write to the backing store to ensure that the writes committed to the backing store are point-in-time consistent, (5) marking the point at which the writes committed to the backing store are point-in-time consistent. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US09367454B2
Systems and methods are provided that facilitate retrieval of a hash index in an electronic device. The system contains an addressing component that generates a hash index as a function of an exclusive-or identity. The addressing component can retrieve the hash index as a function of a tag value. Accordingly, required storage area can be reduced and electronic devices can be more efficient.
US09367452B1
A computer-implemented method, computer program product and computing system for defining a cache storage portion within a cache storage device coupled to a computing device. An application storage portion is defined within the cache storage device coupled to the computing device. The cache storage portion is configured to store cache data and the application storage portion is configured to store application data.
US09367446B2
A computer system and a data recovery method are provided. The computer system includes an embedded controller (EC). The data recovery method includes following steps. When the computer system stores data into the EC through a basic input/output system (BIOS), the data is backed up into a non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM) by the BIOS. The EC enters a power-off mode. The data is obtained from the NVRAM and is stored back to the EC after the EC leaves the power-off mode. Accordingly, the EC recovers from the power-off mode.
US09367443B2
An information processing apparatus includes a detecting unit that detects a capacity of a free space of a non-volatile storage device in an apparatus including the non-volatile storage device and a volatile storage device, a determining unit that determines whether the setting of notification destination information to the non-volatile storage device is available on the basis of the detected capacity, an information setting unit that sets the notification destination information to the volatile storage device when the determining unit determines that the setting of the notification destination information to the non-volatile storage device is not available, and an interval setting unit that sets an interval of communication for management with the apparatus to be shorter than that set when it is determined that the setting of the notification destination information is available, if the determining unit determines that the setting of the notification destination information is not available.
US09367442B2
Systems and methods for allocating memory usage based on voltage regulator efficiency are disclosed. According to an aspect, a method may include receiving a first efficiency value of a first voltage regulator associated with a first memory device among multiple memory devices. The method may also include receiving a second efficiency value of a second voltage regulator associated with a second memory device of the memory devices. The method may also include receiving a request to write data to one of the first memory devices and the second memory device. The method may also include determining whether to write the data to the first memory device or the second memory device based on the first and second efficiency values. Further, the method may include writing the data to the first memory device or the second memory device based on the determination.
US09367440B2
A memory device having a primary memory element, in which the memory device includes an evaluation device to ascertain whether the primary memory element experiences a state change and to activate a secondary memory element so that if (a) the primary memory element experiences a state change, the secondary memory element does not carry out a state change, and if (b) the primary memory element does not experience a state change, the secondary memory element carries out a state change.
US09367434B2
A system comprehensively tests each feasible path in a policy-based Extensible Markup Language (XML) workflow. The system may receive an input workflow and parse workflow (or proxy code of the workflow) to construct a policy control flow graph. The system may identify paths in the policy control flow graph, such as each feasible path in the policy control flow graph. The system may determine path constraints for the identified paths, where the path constraints identify path conditions for traversing the identified path in the policy control flow graph. Then, the system may generate a set of test inputs for the workflow using the path constraints that, when input into the policy-based XML workflow, cause the workflow to traverse the identified paths.
US09367433B2
A technique for operating a user interface automation framework includes accessing a datastore that includes semantic annotations with a dataset generator. The dataset generator generates input values for a test dataset from the datastore based on the semantic annotations.
US09367430B1
In an approach for generating transaction tracking data that is used to simulate a customer environment or test case scenario, a processor receives user input data, wherein the user input data includes, at least, an application topology constructed using a graphical user interface. A processor validates the user input data for, at least, supported environments of components of the application topology. A processor generates transaction tracking data based on, at least, the user input data.
US09367422B2
A power utilization index is determined for a server that defines an amount of energy that is consumed by the server for a unit of workload performed by the server. Future power usage by the server may then be predicted based on the power utilization index and a projected workload demand on the server. Moreover, workload for the server may be selectively assigned in response to the predicting. The power utilization index may be determined by a obtaining measurements of power consumed by the server in response to various workloads. Measurements of workload demands placed on the server are also obtained for the workloads. The measurements of workload demands may separately account for demands placed upon a processor subsystem of the server, a memory subsystem of the server, a network communication subsystem of the server and a storage subsystem of the server, for the various workloads.
US09367421B2
A method performed by a monitoring tool in a computer system, the method including: for a set of network nodes in a computer system: applying a correlation formula on an input based on performance data of the set, and determining a correlation score based on applying the correlation formula, the correlation score indicating a correlation between network nodes in the set; determining, based on the correlation scores, a first list including a first plurality of network nodes having a correlation score that satisfies a first threshold; identifying a second plurality of network nodes included in the first list, the second plurality of network nodes having a correlation score that satisfies a second threshold, which indicates a correlation that is higher than the first threshold; analyzing the performance data of the second plurality against a constancy metric; and removing, based on the analyzing, the second plurality from the first list.
US09367420B2
The present disclosure relates to a method and an arrangement for monitoring at least one battery, to a battery having such an arrangement, and to a motor vehicle having a corresponding battery that is used for safely monitoring the battery condition with a reduced amount of hardware. The at least one battery is monitored by analyzing measured variables of the at least one battery using at least one data processing device. The signals exchanged between the at least one battery and the at least one data processing device via a communication connection are monitored at least once.
US09367419B2
Certain aspects of the present disclosure are directed to a baseboard management controller (BMC). The BMC includes: a processor; a network interface controller assigned with a network address; and a memory having firmware. The firmware is configured to be, when executed at the processor, in communication with a plurality of computer nodes, and to receive, through the same network interface controller, management requests each for performing a management operation at one of the plurality of computer nodes and addressed to the same network address, the management requests being directed to at least two of the plurality of computer nodes.
US09367418B2
Methods and systems for monitoring of software applications are described herein. In one implementation, monitoring data corresponding to at least one component of the application is obtained based on user preferences. The monitoring data comprises data pertaining to the software application at least one of an application level and a database level. The monitoring data is transferred to a monitoring buffer after the completion of first predetermined time interval. The monitoring data is further transferred from the monitoring buffer to a database after a second predetermined time interval. The transfer process is asynchronous of the application execution process.
US09367412B2
A network-based storage system includes multiple storage devices and system controllers. Each storage device in multiple aggregates of storage devices can include ownership portion(s) that are configured to indicate a system controller to which it belongs. First and second system controllers can form an HA pair, and can be in communication with each other, the storage devices, and a separate host server. A first system controller controls an aggregate of storage devices and can facilitate an automated hotswap replacement of a second system controller that controls another aggregate of storage devices with a separate third system controller that subsequently controls the other aggregate of storage devices. The first system controller can take over control of the second aggregate of storage devices during the automated hotswap replacement of the second system controller, and can exchange system identifiers and ownership portion information with the separate third system controller automatically during the hotswap.
US09367404B2
Methods and systems for transferring a host image of a first machine to a second machine, such as during disaster recovery or migration, are disclosed. In one example, a first profile of a first machine of a first type, such as a first client machine, is compared to a second profile of a second machine, such as a recovery machine or a second client machine of a second type different from the first type, to which the host image is to be transferred, by a first processing device. The first and second profiles each comprise at least one property of the first type of first machine and the second type of second machine, respectively. At least one property of a host image of the first machine is conformed to at least one corresponding property of the second machine. The conformed host image is provided to the second machine, via a network. The second machine is configured with at least one conformed property of the host image by a second processing device of the second machine.
US09367403B2
The present invention provides a terminal, comprising: a judging unit for judging whether an application corresponding to a desktop icon can run normally upon receiving an operation instruction triggering the desktop icon; and a restoring unit for restoring the application in a preset manner when the application cannot run normally. Correspondingly, the present invention also provides an application restoring method. The technical solutions of the present invention can automatically restore an application that cannot run normally when the desktop icon is triggered, and can execute corresponding functions according to different responses to improve users' experience.
US09367400B2
Some embodiments of the invention provide techniques whereby a user may perform a system reset (e.g., to address system performance and/or reliability degradation, such as which may be caused by unused applications that unnecessarily consume system resources, an attempted un-install of an application that left remnants of the application behind, and/or other causes). In some embodiments, performing a system reset replaces a first instance of an operating system on the system with a new instance of the operating system, and removes any applications installed on the system, without disturbing the user's data.
US09367391B2
Memory devices configured to determine if an error exists in read data and to respond to determined errors, as well as methods of operating such memory devices. In at least one embodiment, an internal controller of a memory device periodically performs internal error correction operations on stored user data and corrects user data in the memory device independently from instructions from an external memory access device. In further memory devices, an internal controller performs internal error correction operations on stored user data and adjusts trim values that define voltages to be utilized during a read operation in response to determining that the read user data comprises an error.
US09367389B2
A method for applying a sequence of sensing/read reference voltages in a read channel includes (A) setting a read window based on an estimate of a read channel, (B) setting first, second, and third values of a sequence of sensing voltages to values corresponding to different ones of (i) a left-hand limit of the read window, (ii) a right-hand limit of the read window, and (iii) a point central to the read window, (C) determining whether first, second and third reads are successful, and (D) if the first, second and third reads are not successful, setting fourth and fifth values of the sequence of sensing voltages to values corresponding to different ones of (i) a point between the left-hand limit and the point central to the read window and (ii) a point between the right-hand limit and the point central to the read window.
US09367385B2
A receiver path including first, second, third, and fourth comparator modules. The first comparator module is configured to generate, based on a signal received via the receiver path, a first digital output signal indicative of a sum of first data in the received signal and a first error. The second comparator module is configured to generate, based on the signal received via the receiver path, a second digital output signal indicative of a sum of second data in the received signal and a second error. The third comparator module is configured to generate, based on the signal received via the receiver path, a third digital output signal indicative of the first data in the received signal. The fourth comparator module is configured to generate, based on the signal received via the receiver path, a fourth digital output signal indicative of the second data in the received signal.
US09367382B2
In the invariant analysis, a fault cause is judged correctly. A correlation model storing unit (112) of an operation management apparatus (100) stores a correlation model including one or more correlation functions each of which indicates a correlation between two metrics different each other among a plurality of metrics in a system. The correlation destruction detecting unit (103) detects correlation destruction of the correlation which is included in the correlation model by applying newly inputted values of the plurality of metrics to the correlation model. The abnormality calculation unit (104) calculates and outputs a centrality degree which indicates a degree to which a first metric is estimated to be center of distribution of correlation destruction on the basis of a correlation destruction degree of one or more correlations between each of one or more second metrics having a correlation with the first metric and each of one or more metrics other than the first metric among the plurality of metrics.
US09367373B2
Reliability and performance of complex applications executed across workload groups of one or more host computer systems may be improved by automating the verification of consistent policies across the workload groups. An automatic verification process may be executed on a host computer system to identify workload groups that are not collecting statistics, to identify polices that are not enforced on certain workload groups, to identify policies that are not in force for certain periods of the day, and to identify policies that are disabled. Where an application has a complex configuration, the automatic verification process allows an administrator to identify inconsistent policies.
US09367370B2
Technologies are generally described to implement loopback simulation of inter-core messages in multicore processors. In some examples, a multicore processor may execute one or more processes, where each process communicates with other processes on or off the processor. Messages originating from processes on the multicore processor and destined for other processes on the multicore processor may be intercepted by a loopback simulator executing on the multicore processor. The loopback simulator may then redirect the intercepted messages to the destination processes on the multicore processor without the messages leaving the multicore processor.
US09367362B2
Administration of virtual machine affinity in a cloud computing environment, where the cloud computing environment includes a plurality of virtual machines (‘VMs’), the VMs composed of modules of automated computing machinery installed upon cloud computers disposed within a data center, the cloud computing environment also including a cloud operating system and a data center administration server operably coupled to the VMs, including installing, by the cloud operating system on at least one VM, an indicator that at least two of the VMs have an affinity requirement to be installed upon separate cloud computers; communicating, by at least one of the VMs, the affinity requirement to the data center administration server; and moving by the data center administration server the VMs having the affinity requirement to separate cloud computers in the cloud computing environment.
US09367360B2
Methods, systems, and computer-readable media for automatically configuring an inventory of hardware to interact seamlessly with a computing fabric of a data center are provided. Initially, a communicative coupling between a user device and computing units of the hardware inventory is established. The communicated coupling allows an engine running on the user device to provision the computing units with software that allows the hardware inventory to function as a fabric-computing cluster (FCC) of the data center. Provisioning involves deploying a computing fabric to the computing units, and deploying core infrastructure services to run on top of the computing fabric. The computing fabric enables the computing units to interact as a unified logical system, while the core infrastructure services represent operating-system-level components that provide underlying support of applications running on the FCC. Upon carrying out the provisioning, the components internal to the computing units of the hardware inventory are validated.
US09367358B2
A composite manager may include a set of managers virtualized as a single entity. The composite manager may also include at least one of a module to provide a single manager interface for the set of managers to manage at least one entity, and a module to provide a single manageability interface for the set of managers relative to any managing entity of the composite manager.
US09367356B2
Various embodiments can control access to a computing resource (e.g., a memory resource) by detecting that a high priority activity is accessing the resource and preventing a lower priority activity from accessing the resource. The lower priority activity can be allowed access to the resource after the high priority activity is finished accessing the resource. Various embodiments enable memory operations to be mapped to account for changes in data ordering that can occur when a lower priority activity is suppressed. For example, when an activity requests that data be written to a logical memory region, a mapping is created that maps the logical memory region to a physical memory region. The data can then be written to the physical memory region.
US09367353B1
A storage control system, and a method of operation thereof, including: a host interface module for receiving a host command from a host system; a power measurement module, coupled to the host interface module, for reading a current value of an electrical power supplied by the host system in response to the host command; and a schedule module, coupled to the power measurement module, for scheduling new operations to be executed in parallel in non-volatile memory devices, the new operations are scheduled when the current value of the electrical power does not exceed a power limit.
US09367350B2
A process in a computer system creates and uses a meta-scheduler with meta-contexts that execute on meta-virtual processors. The meta-scheduler includes a set of schedulers with scheduler-contexts that execute on virtual processors. The meta-scheduler schedules the scheduler-contexts on the meta-contexts and schedules the meta-contexts on the meta-virtual processors which execute on execution contexts associated with hardware threads.
US09367348B2
A processing unit includes a processor core and a cache memory. Entries in the cache memory are grouped in multiple congruence classes. The cache memory includes tracking logic that tracks a transaction footprint including cache line(s) accessed by transactional memory access request(s) of a memory transaction. The cache memory, responsive to receiving a memory access request that specifies a target cache line having a target address that maps to a congruence class, forms a working set of ways in the congruence class containing cache line(s) within the transaction footprint and updates a replacement order of the cache lines in the congruence class. Based on membership of the at least one cache line in the working set, the update promotes at least one cache line that is not the target cache line to a replacement order position in which the at least one cache line is less likely to be replaced.
US09367347B1
Systems and methods are provided for command execution. A stream-array data structure including a plurality of stream entries is received. One or more head pointers of one or more command chains are obtained from the stream entries. One or more source commands corresponding to the one or more head pointers are obtained in the command chains. A target command is selected from the one or more source commands based at least in part on a priority of the target command. The target command is executed, and removed from the command chains. The stream-array data structure is updated.
US09367340B2
An embodiment of the present invention provides a resource management method for a virtual machine system, where the method includes: obtaining, by a virtual resource management platform, a QoS constraint parameter of a virtual machine cluster and a current operating status statistical indicator of the virtual machine cluster, and according to the QoS constraint parameter of the virtual machine cluster and the current operating status statistical indicator of the virtual machine cluster, adjusting physical resources scheduling policy of a physical device platform or performing physical resource scheduling on the physical device platform. The method may ensure QoS of a cloud application.
US09367338B2
A computer-usable storage medium that when executed cause a computer system to perform a method for binding data in an application. An expression is created via a framework based on input from a developer. The expression is received at an expression engine wherein the expression describes a relation between a first property of a first data of the application to a first property of a second data of the application. A binding is created between the first data and the second data based on the relation via the expression engine. The first property of the second data is changed based on a change to the first property of the first data wherein the changing occurs because of the binding. The receiving the expression, the creating the binding, and the changing the first property are orchestrated via the framework to manage when the expression is executed in the application.
US09367334B2
A communication device includes at least two output apparatuses, and an interface circuit configured as an interface between the at least two output apparatuses and software drivers supported by an operating system embedded within the communication device, so that the software drivers can access the output apparatuses. The interface circuit includes an access control circuit configured to temporarily allocate a first one of the at least two apparatuses with a first one of the software drivers, so that other ones of the software drivers cannot access the first output apparatus during its allocation to the first software driver. The interface circuit also includes shared resource circuits configured to dynamically direct communication from the first software driver to the temporarily allocated first output apparatus.
US09367333B2
A method for booting a printer includes storing a configuration image of the printer on a network storage device. The configuration image includes an input/output (I/O) initialization sequence for at least one component of the printer and I/O flow control steps and timing. The method further includes downloading the configuration image from the network storage device to the printer and playing back the initialization sequence and flow control based on the configuration image.
US09367323B2
An operation is provided to signal a processor that action is to be taken to facilitate execution of a transaction that has aborted one or more times. The operation is specified within an instruction or is itself an instruction. The instruction is executed based on detecting an abort of the transactions, and includes a field indicating how many times the transaction has aborted. The processor uses this information to determine what action is to be taken.
US09367322B1
In an approach for selecting and issuing an oldest ready instruction in an issue queue, one or more processors receive one or more instructions in an issue queue. Ready to execute instructions are identified. An age of the instructions are represented in a first age array. One or more subsets of the instructions are generated for subset age arrays that each hold an age of the instructions in a subset. A major signal is generated that identifies an oldest ready instruction in the first age array and a subset signal is simultaneously generated that identifies an oldest ready instruction in each subset age array. A candidate instruction is selected with each subset signal that is represented in the subset age array of the subset signal, wherein a candidate instruction is an oldest ready instruction in the subset age array. A candidate instruction is selected with the major signal and issued.
US09367316B2
Embodiments of the invention relate to implementing run-time instrumentation indirect sampling by instruction operation code. An aspect of the invention includes reading sample-point instruction operation codes from a sample-point instruction array, and comparing, by a processor, the sample-point instruction operation codes to an operation code of an instruction from an instruction stream executing on the processor. A sample point is recognized upon execution of the instruction with the operation code matching one of the sample-point instruction operation codes. The run-time instrumentation information is obtained from the sample point. The run-time instrumentation information is stored in a run-time instrumentation program buffer as a reporting group.
US09367314B2
A processor is operable to process conditional branches. The processor includes instruction fetch logic to fetch a conditional short forward branch. The conditional short forward branch is to include a conditional branch instruction and a set of one or more instructions that are to sequentially follow the conditional branch instruction in program order. The set of the one or more instructions are between the conditional branch instruction and a forward branch target instruction that is to be indicated by the conditional branch instruction. The processor also includes instruction conversion logic coupled with the instruction fetch logic. The instruction conversion logic is to convert the conditional short forward branch to a computationally equivalent set of one or more predicated instructions. Other processors are also disclosed, as are various methods and systems.
US09367313B2
The invention relates to implementing run-time instrumentation directed sampling. An aspect of the invention includes a method for implementing run-time instrumentation directed sampling. The method includes fetching a run-time instrumentation next (RINEXT) instruction from an instruction stream. The instruction stream includes the RINEXT instruction followed by a next sequential instruction (NSI) in program order. The method further includes executing the RINEXT instruction by a processor. The executing includes determining whether a current run-time instrumentation state enables setting a sample point for reporting run-time instrumentation information during program execution. Based on the current run-time instrumentation state enabling setting the sample point, the NSI is a sample instruction for causing a run-time instrumentation event. Based on executing the NSI sample instruction, the run-time instrumentation event causes recording of run-time instrumentation information into a run-time instrumentation program buffer as a reporting group.
US09367301B1
A distributed system with multiple nodes, each of which processes input data streams according to a set of independent, asynchronous processing components connected in a manner represented by a directed graph, is dynamically updated. Such a dynamic update occurs while the system is processing input data by pausing the input data stream, making changes to the system configuration, and then restarting the input data stream. If the update fails for any reason, the system configuration is rolled back to its prior state.
US09367298B1
In general, techniques are described for a batch configuration mode for configuring network devices. A network device comprising a committed data source and a control unit may implement the techniques. The control unit may receive a plurality of separate commit commands instructing the network device to commit configuration changes to the committed data source. Each of the plurality of commit commands instructs the network device to commit an associated portion of the configuration changes to the committed data source. The control unit then groups two or more of the plurality of separate commit commands to form a batch of commit commands and executes the batch of commit commands to commit the portions of the configuration changes associated with the grouped commit commands to the committed data source as if the grouped portions of the configuration changes were associated with a single commit command.
US09367295B2
A location-based messaging system and its methods of operation are disclosed, including methods for virally distributing location-based applications are also disclosed. Methods for sending geographic location information for a target address from a computing device to a receiving device that will enable the receiving device to display a map and/or directions from a geographic location of the receiving device to the geographic location of the target address, methods for processing and distributing location-based data, and methods for receiving and responding to location-based data.
US09367291B2
An apparatus and method for generating vector code are provided. The apparatus and method generate vector code using scalar-type kernel code, without user's changing a code type or modifying data layout, thereby enhancing user's convenience of use and retaining the portability of OpenCL.
US09367282B2
Music data memory includes pieces of music within a group and other pieces of music outside the group. The next piece to be played is automatically determined by random table among pieces within the group. Favorite or newest piece is weighted to be more frequently played in the group. Piece in music data memory is automatically included into the group by random table. Newly downloaded piece into music data memory is included into the group by priority. Most frequently played piece is excluded from the group in place of newly included piece. Favorite or newest piece may be an exception of exclusion. Next piece is capable of being played in tempo similar to that of preceding piece by means of tempo-adjusted or piece replacement or repetition of the same piece for the purpose of continued baby cradling in synchronism with the same tempo of succeeding pieces.
US09367273B2
An MFP stores identification information and address information in correlation with each other for each interface. The MFP sends first identification information to a PC when receiving an inquiry of identification information from the PC through a first interface in preparation communication such as installation of a printer driver. In addition, when a request of address information using the first identification information is acquired from the PC, the MFP sends first address information corresponding to the first identification information in a case where the request of address information is acquired through the first interface, and sends second address information corresponding to second identification information in a case where the request of address information is acquired through a second interface.
US09367272B2
An image processing apparatus that generates image data from a print job and inputs the image data to an image forming apparatus includes a receiving unit that receives information indicating that the image forming apparatus interrupts printing based on the image data and a control unit that shifts a power state of the image processing apparatus from a first power state to a second power state, in which consumed power is less than that in the first power state, based on the received information.
US09367259B2
An electronic device includes a target selection unit, a priority determination unit, and a mirroring execution unit. The target selection unit is configured to select, as a mirroring target, a setting value of each of items of the electronic device if the setting value is different from an initial value. The priority determination unit is configured to determine a priority of mirroring, designated for a setting value serving as the mirroring target. The mirroring execution unit is configured to perform the mirroring so as to cause a setting value, whose determined priority is relatively high, to remain on a priority basis.
US09367249B2
The present invention relates to a method, system, and computer program product for determining storage device weight values to use to select one of the storage devices to use as a target storage to which data from a source storage is migrated. A determination is made, for each of the storage devices, of static parameter values for static parameters comprising attributes of the storage device and dynamic parameter values for dynamic parameters providing device health information determined by accessing the storage device to determine operational conditions at the storage device. Storage device weight values are determined as a function of the static parameter values and the dynamic parameter values of the device. The determined storage device weight values are used to select one of the storage devices as the target storage to which data from the source storage is migrated.
US09367242B2
According to one aspect, a system for managing information objects in dynamic data storage devices including a first data storage device having a plurality of information objects, a second data storage device operatively connectable to an output device for providing at least some of the information objects to at least one user, and at least one processor operatively coupled to the first data storage device and the second data storage device. The at least one processor is configured to automatically divide the plurality of information objects in the first data storage device to form at least one data subdivision based on division criteria, and repeatedly, in response to a dynamic operating condition determine a relevance value of at least one of the data subdivisions in the first data storage device and the second data storage device indicative of the relevance of those data subdivision to the user, and based on the relevance value, perform at least one of loading those data subdivision to the second data storage, or unloading those data subdivision from the second data storage.
US09367237B2
According to an embodiment, a shaping device includes a setting unit, a shaping unit, and a display control unit. The setting unit is configured to set, when the stroke group constitutes a figure of a first category, a first region in which no stroke is expected to exist and a second region in which a stroke is expected to exist in a circumscribing rectangle circumscribing the stroke group. The shaping unit is configured to shape the stroke group into the figure of the first category when a first feature value and a second feature value satisfy a first condition. The first feature value represents an occupancy condition of the stroke group in the first region. The second feature value represents an occupancy condition of the stroke group in the second region. The display control unit is configured to display a shaping result on a display unit.
US09367222B2
An information processing apparatus that displays a numeric value input area having multiple digit positions and changes a numeric value of the input area in accordance with a user operation on the input area, as well as a control method and a storage medium. The information processing apparatus calculates, when a movement of the plurality of digit positions of the numeric value input area is instructed by the operation of the user, a movement direction and a movement amount, performs a moving, in accordance with the movement direction and the movement amount of each numeral of the plurality of digit positions of the input area, and inserts a predetermined numeral into a digit position whose numeral became undefined by the moving of the numeral of each digit position in the moving.
US09367218B2
A playback method of a multimedia content includes: receiving the multimedia content; performing playback upon the multimedia content; detecting a user status and accordingly generating a detection result; and automatically adjusting the playback of the multimedia content in response to the detection result. A playback apparatus of a multimedia content includes a receiving block, a playback block, and a detecting block. The receiving block is used for receiving the multimedia content. The playback block is coupled to the receiving block, and used for performing playback upon the multimedia content. The detecting block is coupled to the playback block, and used for detecting a user status and accordingly generating a detection result. The playback block automatically adjusts the playback of the multimedia content in response to the detection result.
US09367216B2
A hand-held electronic device, method of operation and computer readable medium are disclosed. The device may include a case having one or more major surfaces. A visual display and a touch interface are disposed on at least one of the major surfaces. A processor is operably coupled to the visual display and touch screen. Instructions executable by the processor may be configured to a) present an image on the visual display containing one or more active elements; b) correlate one or more active portions of the touch interface to one or more corresponding active elements in the image on the visual display; c) operate the one or more active elements according to a first mode of operation in response to a first mode of touch on one or more of the active portions; and d) operate the one or more active elements according to a second mode of operation in response to a second mode of touch on one or more of the active portions, wherein in the second mode of operation, the second mode of touch activates an enhancement of one or more of the active elements.
US09367213B2
A client device downloads an interactive multimedia content package, such as a video game, from a server across a network. The package includes executable code and a plurality of graphical asset files. A wrapper component is provided in the package, which provides an intermediate layer between the executable code and a runtime environment of the client device. The wrapper component restricts functionality of the interactive multimedia content package to provide a demonstration or trial mode, in particular having time limitations (e.g. a rental mode) or functional limitations regarding the assets and/or progress within the content by the executable code. The wrapper component may be removed or inactivated, thereby achieving a full or unlimited mode of the package.
US09367202B2
The present disclosure provides an information processing method for addressing the technical problem that an operation mode of a voice input interface of a conventional electronic device is not flexible. The method comprises steps of: obtaining a voice input trigger operation by an sensing unit; in response to the voice input trigger operation, starting a voice processing system, and displaying a voice indicator in a display unit, the voice indicator occupying a portion of the display area; obtaining an input operation for moving the voice indicator by the sensing unit; making a response to the input operation for moving; controlling movement of the voice indicator within the display area based on the input operation for moving; determining a corresponding control command based on parameter information of the input operation for moving, the control command being used for controlling a processing procedure of the voice processing system. The present disclosure also provides an electronic device for implementing the method.
US09367199B2
In some example implementations, there is provided a method. The method may include selecting an action element located on a user interface, wherein the user interface includes a plurality of action elements, whereby each action element corresponds to an action performable by a user and causing a change in a state of the user interface; identifying a help overlay graphics element for each selected action element in the plurality of action elements, the help overlay graphics element describing the action corresponding to the selected action element; and dynamically positioning a plurality of help overlay graphics elements identified for at least a portion of the plurality of selected action elements on the user interface, wherein the plurality of help overlay graphics elements are positioned proximate to associated action elements. Related systems, methods, and articles of manufacture are also provided.
US09367183B2
A touch device is provided. The touch device has a touch mode and a common-electrode mode. The touch device comprises a touch-sensing module, a common-electrode layer, second touch units, second wires, a common-potential circuit and switches. The common-electrode layer comprises first touch units and first wires for connecting first touch units and the touch-sensing module. The first and the second touch units are arranged in an interlace manner. The second wires connect the second touch units and the touch-sensing module. The switch is open during the touch mode such that the first and the second touch units detect, induct and transmit a touch signal to the touch-sensing module to determine a coordinate, strength and variation of a touch. The switch is close during the common-electrode mode such that the first touch units are connected to the common-potential circuit to be further connected to a common voltage.
US09367171B2
Embodiments of the present invention disclose a touchscreen response method and a terminal, the method includes: acquiring center point coordinates of a touch when a touchscreen receives a touch operation; adjusting the center point coordinates of the touch according to a mode of a terminal and a gradient of the touchscreen; and responding to the touch operation according to the adjusted center point coordinates. The method may enable a touchscreen response to the touch operation of a user to meet the actually intended use of the user, increase the accuracy of touch response, improve user touch experience, and enable the terminal to be more intelligent.
US09367167B2
The application of a watershed algorithm to pixels and their touch values obtained from a scan of a touch sensor panel to determine patches corresponding to images of touch is disclosed. Prior to applying the watershed algorithm, background pixels having little or no touch values can be eliminated. A primary merge algorithm can then merge adjacent patches together when the saddle point between them is shallow as compared to the peak represented by the patches. However, if two candidate patches for merging have a total number of pixels below a certain threshold, these two patches may not be merged under the assumption that the patches might have been caused by different fingertips. Conversely, if two candidate patches for merging have a total number of pixels above a certain threshold, these two patches can be merged under the assumption that the patches were caused by a single thumb or palm.
US09367165B2
A display device is configured that the common electrode wiring layer is divided in a source wiring layer direction, the metal wiring layer is disposed above the source wiring layer at a position in contact with the upper part of the common electrode wiring layer, and the metal wiring layer is not disposed at a position where the common electrode wiring layer is divided. Alternatively, the metal wiring layer is not disposed at a position between the same colors as those at the division position of the common electrode wiring layer.
US09367164B2
Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a pixel circuit, a driving method thereof, an organic light-emitting display panel and a display device. The pixel circuit is provided with a touch sensing module, a driving transistor, a driving control module and a light-emitting module. The pixel circuit compensates for a threshold voltage of the driving transistor by a diode connection of the driving transistor and a discharging of a storage capacitor, so that a driving current of the driving transistor is independent of the threshold voltage of the driving transistor, and thus the driving currents of the OLEDs located at different positions on the organic light-emitting display panel are consistent, which can improve a brightness uniformity and a reliability of the display panel.
US09367157B2
An input coordinate point on the display surface of a display device is obtained from a pointing device. In a first mode of operation, every time there is a touch-on operation, based on the input coordinate point, a moving velocity is set, and based on the moving velocity, an object is moved to a position in the virtual space, the position corresponding to the input coordinate point. In a second mode of operation, if there is a touch-off operation, the moving velocity is set to a predetermined value, and an object is moved to a position in the virtual space, the position corresponding to the input coordinate point obtained immediately before the touch-off operation. Then, the display device is caused to display the virtual space within the display area.
US09367154B2
Provided is a mobile terminal device that includes a plurality of touch displays and a control unit. The control unit associatively controls screens displayed on the plurality of touch displays based on the number of simultaneous operations and operation directions. The number of simultaneous operations is the number of touch operations simultaneously carried out and accompanied by the movement of touch positions, and the operation directions are directions in which the touch positions of the touch operations have moved.
US09367153B2
A display apparatus and a method thereof. The display apparatus includes a display with variable transparency, a sensor which senses a location of at least one of a person and an object, and a controller which determines proximity of the at least one of the person and the object to the display based on a result of the sensing by the sensor, and adjusts the transparency of the display differently according to a result of the determining. Accordingly, a user can easily recognize contents displayed on the display screen having high transparency in the display apparatus.
US09367152B2
An interactive projection system includes an electronic device, a projection device and an interactive module. The projection device is connected with the electronic device for receiving a first image signal generated by the electronic device and accordingly projecting a first image. The interactive module includes a processing unit, a storage unit connected with the processing unit for storing a calibration data, an image capture unit connected with the processing unit for capturing the first image and a light point image, and a communication unit connected with the electronic device and the processing unit for transmitting an absolute coordinate information computed and generated by the processing unit according to the light point image and the calibration data to the electronic device. An output signal is generated by the electronic device with the absolute coordinate information. Therefore, the present invention avoids the repeating image calibration and reduces labor cost and time cost.
US09367142B2
Eyeglasses including a lens unit including a pair of lenses and a frame, a supporting unit supporting the lens unit, a camera mounted on the frame, a projector mounted on the frame and configured to project content on a screen, and a processor configured to control the camera and the projector. A method of controlling eyeglasses, including generating a first projector image to be projected on a screen by a projector mounted on the eyeglasses, obtaining a camera image from a camera mounted on the eyeglasses, and generating a first user input signal by analyzing the camera image.
US09367139B2
Systems, articles, and methods perform gesture identification with limited computational resources. A wearable electromyography (“EMG”) device includes multiple EMG sensors, an on-board processor, and a non-transitory processor-readable memory storing data and/or instructions for performing gesture identification. The wearable EMG device detects signals when a user performs a physical gesture and characterizes a signal vector {right arrow over (s)} based on features of the detected signals. A library of gesture template vectors G is stored in the memory of the wearable EMG device and a respective property of each respective angle θi formed between the signal vector {right arrow over (s)} and respective ones of the gesture template vectors {right arrow over (g)}i is analyzed to match the direction of the signal vector {right arrow over (s)} to the direction of a particular gesture template vector {right arrow over (g)}*. The accuracy of the gesture identification may be enhanced by performing multiple iterations across multiple time-synchronized portions of the EMG signal data.
US09367137B2
A method and system to control an alarm application being executed by a device using a touch-less gesture are described. The system includes two or more ambient light sensors arranged at respective surface locations on a same side of a device, each of the two or more ambient light sensors measuring light intensity at the respective surface location. The system also includes a processor to detect a gesture as a detected gesture based on the light intensity measured by the ambient light sensors and output a control signal to the alarm application based on the detected gesture, wherein at least one other gesture also corresponds with the control signal.
US09367133B2
Devices, systems, and methods are provided for providing physical feedback in a handheld electronic controller. In general, the devices, systems, and methods can allow a handheld controller in an electronic system to provide a shock force or impact force to a user of the controller. In one exemplary embodiment, the controller can be configured to provide the shock or impact force in correspondence with a virtual shock force or impact force in an entertainment system in communication with the controller being controlled by the user. The actual shock force or impact force can be directionally imparted to the controller such that the user feels the actual shock force or impact force in a same direction as the virtual shock force or impact force.
US09367123B2
Embodiments of the invention broadly contemplate systems, methods, apparatuses and program products providing collaborative browsing on the World Wide Telecom Web (WWTW) via a collaborative WWTW browser. According to embodiments of the invention, collaborative usage of the WWTW is enabled via connecting users and VoiceSites together.
US09367119B2
Various embodiments of the invention provide for fully-integrated, low-latency power reduction in multi-sensor systems. In certain embodiments, power consumption is minimized by modulating power and mode of operation of gyroscopes, magnetometers, and accelerometers under certain conditions. Certain embodiments provide for reduction of power consumption by the use of emulated gyroscope data.
US09367118B2
A computer system and an operating method thereof are disclosed herein. The operating method includes determining an operating state of a logic device; receiving a present power level of a mainboard; comparing the present power level of the mainboard with a present power level threshold of the mainboard, and determining whether to generate an alert signal accordingly; selectively providing the alert signal to a system controller or a baseboard management controller (BMC) according to the operating state; and adjusting, through one of the system controller and the BMC, whichever receives the alert signal, the present power level threshold of the mainboard.
US09367115B2
A power input utilization system includes a plurality of components and a plurality of power input connectors. A power utilization engine is coupled between the plurality of power input connectors and the plurality of components. The power utilization engine is operable to detect a power input to the plurality of power input connectors and determine a power input characteristic for the power input. The power utilization engine is also operable to use the power input characteristic to determine a plurality of operation characteristics for the plurality of components. The power utilization engine is also operable to operate the plurality of components using on the power input and the plurality of operation characteristics.
US09367099B2
Electronic device enclosure includes a base, a cover, and a top frame. The base comprises a bottom plate, a rear plate with a first edge coupled to an edge of the bottom plate, and two opposing side plates with a first edge of each side plate coupled to an edge of the bottom plate and a second edge of each side plate coupled to the rear plate. The top frame is positioned along a second edge of the rear plate and each side plate, the second rear plate edge being opposite the first rear plate edge, and each second side plate edge being opposite the first edge of the side plate. The base and the cover plate cooperate to form a receiving space for enclosing a plurality of electronic components, and the bottom plate, the rear plate and each side plate are each primarily composed of non-metallic material.
US09367094B2
A display module and system applications including a display module are described. The display module may include a display substrate including a front surface, a back surface, and a display area on the front surface. A plurality of interconnects extend through the display substrate from the front surface to the back surface. An array of light emitting diodes (LEDs) are in the display area and electrically connected with the plurality of interconnects, and one or more driver circuits are on the back surface of the display substrate. Exemplary system applications include wearable, rollable, and foldable displays.
US09367090B2
Docking platforms formed in one of the largest-surface-area surfaces (the back surfaces) of mobile electronic devices (1, 32). Such a docking platform comprises a docking accessory cavity (3, 41, 51, 60) having a docking connection system (49) comprising one or more docking connectors (4, 5, 42, 52, 56, 58) formed within the cavity, and optionally two or more electrical contacts (19) within the cavity, the contacts electrically connected to electronics within the electronic device and constructed and arranged to allow electrical connection to detachable docking accessories (6, 8, 27, 30, 31, 33, 36, 45, 61). The docking connection system is operable to form detachable attachments to multiple independent docking accessories simultaneously. The cavities of the docking platforms are shaped to accommodate a broad range of docking accessories that are specially adapted to sit in a generally flush manner with the back surface of the mobile electronic device while attached to the docking connectors. One type of accessory (8, 27, 33) forms an assembly with an expandable accordion (10) attached to the docking platform.
US09367089B2
An electronic apparatus combined with a magnetic attraction force includes a first body and a second body. The first body includes at least one first magnetic element, and the second body includes at least one receiving groove, at least one moving assembly, and at least one assistant magnetic element. Each moving assembly is movably disposed in each receiving groove, and each moving assembly includes a second magnetic element. Each assistant magnetic element is fixed in the receiving groove, and the magnetic attraction force between the assistant magnetic element and the second magnetic element is smaller than that between the first magnetic element and the second magnetic element. When the second body is combined with the first body, each second magnetic element is attracted by each first magnetic element, such that each moving assembly is driven to move toward the first body.
US09367088B2
A hand-held computer apparatus includes a tablet having a first connecter and an accessory docking having a second connecter for connecting to the first connecter. The second connecter has a symmetric structure, which allows the first connecter to be plugged to the second connecter in a first or a second direction. The first direction and the second direction are opposite to each other at an angle of 180 degrees. When the tablet is in a first status, in which the tablet is plugged to the accessory docking in the first direction, the tablet enters a notebook mode. When the tablet is in a second status, in which the tablet is plugged to the accessory docking in the second direction, the tablet enters a tablet mode. When the tablet is in a third status, in which the tablet is unplugged from the accessory docking, the tablet enters a regular mode.
US09367086B2
In one embodiment, a system includes a display, a position sensor configured to determine a relative orientation of the display, and computer-readable storage media embodying logic that is configured when executed to display first information at a first position of the display, determine a change in orientation of the display, determine a second position to display the first information in response to the change in orientation of the display, and display the first information at the determined second position.
US09367077B2
A BGR circuit includes a first bipolar transistor and a second bipolar transistor that are connected between a power supply terminal and a ground terminal, each base of the first bipolar transistor and the second bipolar transistor being connected to an output terminal. A first resistor is connected between the ground terminal and the first bipolar transistor. A second resistor and a third resistor are connected in series between the first resistor and the second bipolar transistor. A temperature correction circuit is connected between the ground terminal and a node between the second resistor and the third resistor, and includes a first transistor having a base connected to an end of the first bipolar transistor of the first resistor. The temperature correction circuit further includes a fourth resistor connected in series to the first transistor.
US09367070B2
A pressure regulator including a housing including an inlet flow passage and an outlet flow passage; a plunger reciprocally mounted in the housing and including a plunger flow passage having an axis offset from an axis of the inlet flow passage, and a stationary valve seat fixed to the housing and positioned between the inlet flow passage and an inlet to the flow passage of the plunger, wherein the valve seat is configured to receive and abut the inlet to the flow passage of the plunger.
US09367065B2
Models can be generated of a vehicle's view of its environment and used to maneuver the vehicle. This view need not include what objects or features the vehicle is actually seeing, but rather those areas that the vehicle is able to observe using its sensors if the sensors were completely un-occluded. For example, for each of a plurality of sensors of the object detection component, a computer may generate an individual 3D model of that sensor's field of view. Weather information is received and used to adjust one or more of the models. After this adjusting, the models may be aggregated into a comprehensive 3D model. The comprehensive model may be combined with detailed map information indicating the probability of detecting objects at different locations. The model of the vehicle's environment may be computed based on the combined comprehensive 3D model and detailed map information.
US09367060B2
A method and system of optimizing a complex manufacturing process performed to achieve one or more processing objectives for the process and/or a component produced by the process. The system includes a graphical user interface, a process module, and an optimization module. The process module includes a training module, an empirical relationships database, an analytical equations database, a heuristic knowledge database, and a process models database. The graphical user interface is used to input one or more processing variables and constraints for the processing objective. The training module generates empirical relationships from the processing variable and empirical data obtained from the manufacturing process. The process module generates a process model that takes into consideration heuristic knowledge of the manufacturing process, empirical relationships, and optionally analytical equations relating to the manufacturing process. The optimization module employs the process model to optimize the manufacturing process.
US09367056B2
A test-operation control apparatus, system and method are disclosed to reduce time and cost required for test operation by automatically performing test-operation on a control point of facilities installed on site based on a previously established template sequence and operational conditions of the situation on the spot. The test-operation control apparatus includes: a storage unit configured to store a basic sequence with respect to each of one or more control points set in the facilities installed on the spot (or site); an input unit configured to selectively receive one or more of the control points and receive operational conditions of each basic sequence with respect to each of the one or more of the selected control points; and a controller configured to combine the basic sequences with respect to each of the one or more of the selected control points according to the inputted operational conditions to generate a test-operation sequence.
US09367047B2
A measurement program for sequentially measuring measurement points, which are to be measured with a touch sensor, is created on the basis of a machining program, which is read in, for machining a turning tool. Then, the rake face height is measured on each of the measurement points and the measurement data is stored. Subsequently, a calculation method of a correction amount is selected so as to calculate the correction amount, and whether or not the calculated correction amount is smaller than a regulation value is determined. The machining program is modified on the basis of the correction amount when the correction amount is not smaller than the regulation value, while the machining program is modified on the basis of the correction amount in accordance with the selected method when the correction amount is smaller than the regulation value.
US09367039B2
A device (100) for displaying time information, including: (i) a first mobile (3) including a first toothset (31) and a first disk (32) bearing numerals (33) which are intended to indicate the units of the time information, (ii) a second mobile (4) including a second toothset (41) and a second disk (42) bearing numerals (43) intended to indicate the tenths of the time information, and (iii) a mechanism (90) for driving the first and second mobiles, the mechanism including (i) a control mobile (1) including a third toothset (1a) arranged so as to collaborate by obstacle, with the first toothset, a fourth toothset (1b) arranged so as to collaborate by obstacle, with the second toothset, a drive wheel (2) including a fifth toothset (2c) designed to collaborate by obstacle, with the third and fourth toothsets.
US09367037B2
A timepiece barrel for pivotal assembly between a plate and a bar and including at least one spring housed between a pivoting drum and a cover and hooked between the drum at an outer end thereof and an arbor at an inner end thereof, the arbor pivoting integrally with a ratchet about a pivot axis. The barrel includes a one-piece sub-assembly coaxial to the arbor and including, about a boss, at least the ratchet and/or the arbor, and the guide arbor in the plate is fitted into the boss which is integral with the ratchet, the boss forming the guide member in the bar, making it possible to assemble the bar and plate with subsequent attachment of the arbor.
US09367033B2
An image forming device is provided. The device includes a main body which includes a main controller controlling operations of the image forming device, a consumable unit mounted on the main body to enable communication with the main controller, and a CRUM chip which is provided in the consumable unit and stores usage information of the consumable unit and characteristics information The main controller and the CRUM chip transmit and receive signals which include data and integrity detection data between each other. The integrity detection data is generated by accumulating and reflecting integrity detection data included in a previous signal.
US09367031B2
A process cartridge includes a photosensitive drum; a light guide member; a shutter portion movable between a closed position where the shutter portion covers the surface of the drum and an open position where the surface of the drum is exposed; and a connecting portion, provided at each of end portions of the shutter portion with respect to an axial direction of the drum, for connecting the shutter portion so as to be movable relative to a main body portion of the process cartridge. The light guide member includes an incident portion, at one end portion thereof with respect to the axial direction of the drum, for irradiating the surface of the drum with light incident on the incident portion. The incident portion is positioned outside the connecting portion with respect to the axial direction of said photosensitive drum.
US09367030B2
A rotary cam apparatus including an operation member including a contact portion is provided. The rotary cam includes a cam profile contacting the contact portion to move the operation member, and an elastic member applying an elastic force to the operation member in a direction in which the contact portion contacts the cam profile. The cam profile includes a first cam line separated by a first distance from a rotating center of the rotary cam, a second cam line separated by a shorter second distance from the rotating center, a first conversion line connected to the first cam line from the second cam line, and a second conversion line connected to the second cam line from the first cam line including one or more straight connection lines separated by a distance greater than the second distance and less than the first distance from the rotating center.
US09367027B2
A photosensitive cartridge includes a photosensitive drum, and a guide member. The guide member is configured to guide light emitted from the light source toward a surface of the photosensitive drum to neutralize charge on the surface of the photosensitive drum. The guide member includes a first part, a second part, and a third part. The first part is configured to receive the light. The first part extends in a direction intersecting an axial direction of the photosensitive drum. The second part faces the photosensitive drum and extends in the axial direction. The third part connects the first part and the second part. The third part is configured to allow the light to pass through the first part toward the second part.
US09367024B2
An image forming apparatus includes a fixing unit, discharge unit, first and second guides, and top cover. The discharge unit is disposed obliquely above a heating member of the fixing unit. The first guide extends from a position above the heating member toward the discharge unit and has an upstream portion in a conveying direction of an image-fixed sheet. The second guide is disposed above the heating member and faces the upstream portion. The second guide defines an upper portion of the conveying path. A part of the second guide faces the upstream portion in the first position, and exposes the upstream portion in the second position. The top cover is movable between an open position where the second guide is exposed and a closed position where the second guide is covered. The first guide has a guide surface sloping downward in the conveying direction.
US09367021B2
An image forming apparatus includes a controller and multiple image forming units each of which includes an image bearer, a toner image forming device to form a toner image on the image bearer, a transfer device to transfer the toner image from the image bearer onto a transfer medium, a cleaning device to remove toner from a surface of the image bearer, a waste-toner tube through which toner removed by the cleaning device is transported, and a toner conveying member to transport toner by rotation and disposed inside the waste-toner tube. The controller changes a rotation speed of the toner conveying member for each of the multiple image forming units according to toner type including a first toner and a second toner having poorer flow properties than the first toner, and at least one image forming units uses the second toner and the rest use the first toner.
US09367017B2
A post-processing device receives sheets ejected one by one from an image forming device, stores, in a storage tray, a number of sheets included in one set on which post processing is to be performed at a post-processing position at once, performs conveyance processing of one stored set of a sheet stack to the post-processing position, ejects the sheet stack to an ejection unit, detects a paper jam of the sheet stack during conveyance processing, when detecting the paper jam, predicts a first time when a beginning sheet of a subsequent ejected set arrives at the storage tray and a second time when the sheet stack with the paper jam is completely ejected in case of retrying conveyance processing, judges that retrial of conveyance processing is possible when the first time is no earlier than the second time, and when judging that the retrial is possible, retries conveyance processing.
US09367002B2
The present invention provides an apparatus having a part of a current detecting circuit configured to detect current to a heater in a fixing unit so that a main body of the image forming apparatus may have one configuration for 100 V and 200 V and provides an equal resolution of current detection for an apparatus for 100 V and an apparatus for 200 V.
US09366996B2
A sealing structure includes a housing to accommodate powder, a powder roller having a surface to bear and convey the powder, and an entrance seal disposed between the powder roller and the housing to allow powder remaining on a circumferential surface of the powder roller to enter the housing. A pair of left and right edge seals is provided in a circumferential direction of the powder roller to overlap with outer circumferential surfaces of both ends of the entrance seal, respectively. Both ends of the entrance seal include powder damming sections extended from both ends thereof along the pair of left and right edge seals, respectively. A pair of inner edges of the respective powder damming sections is each sandwiched between a corresponding one of the pair of left and right edge seals and the powder roller while substantially symmetrically inclining from the rotation direction of the powder roller.
US09366995B2
A developing device includes a housing, a developer carrier, a conveying member and a surface layer. The conveying member conveys the developer in the first conveying direction and supplies the developer to the developer carrier. The surface layer is arranged on the circumferential surface of the developer carrier and formed on a surface of a predetermined cylindrical base member. The surface layer is formed by an immersion method of immersing the base member in an immersion tank so that an axial direction of the base member extends along a vertical direction. A lower end side of the base member at the time of the immersion is arranged in a downstream side of the housing in the first conveying direction and an upper end side of the base member at the time of the immersion is arranged in an upstream side of the housing in the first conveying direction.
US09366992B2
A developer container may include a container body accommodating developer, a conveyance member, and a rotation member having a rotary shaft and an elastic part supported by the rotation member and configured to convey the developer. The container body may include a first support part to which the rotary shaft is loosely fitted, and a second support part that supports the rotary shaft. The container body may further include a sliding contact part that the elastic part sliding-contacts while being elastically deformed when the conveyance member is being rotated. In some examples, a distance from a center of the rotary shaft to a leading end of the elastic part gradually increases from the one end portion-side of the rotary shaft towards the other end portion-side of the rotary shaft.
US09366991B2
A developing cartridge is provided for use with an image forming apparatus and may include a housing, a developing roller rotatably provided in the housing, and a developing roller gear configured to rotate integrally with the developing roller. Further, the developing cartridge can include a driving input gear configured to receive an external driving force and apply the received driving force to the developing roller gear. The driving input gear can be meshed with the developing roller gear or an intermediate gear can be provided to mesh with the developing roller gear and the driving input gear. Such an intermediate gear can be configured to apply the received driving force to the developing roller gear. Also, the developing cartridge can include a receiving member which is disposed between the housing and the developing roller gear and between the housing and the driving input gear.
US09366986B2
A development device includes a developer carrier, a restriction member to control a layer thickness of the developer on the developer carrier, first and second developer supply members being in contact with the developer carrier. Each of the developer supply members is configured to rotate at a speed having a constant ratio to a rotation speed of the developer carrier. The second developer supply member and the restriction member are arranged in this order downstream of the first developer supply member in a rotating direction of the developer carrier. A peripheral speed (a speed of the outer peripheral surface) of the second developer supply member is set to be slower than that of the first developer supply member.
US09366973B2
A substrate support is provided for a lithographic apparatus. The support comprises a substrate table constructed to hold a substrate and a chuck for the substrate table. In operation, the substrate table is supported by the chuck and clamped thereto. The substrate support comprises a first set of burls on a surface of the support block for abutting against the substrate table during the clamping and a second set of burls on a surface of the substrate table for abutting against the support block during the clamping.
US09366971B2
The present invention provides a highly controllable device for exposure from the back side and an exposure method, and also provides a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device using the same. The present invention involves exposure with the use of the back side exposure device of which a reflecting means is disposed on the front side of a substrate, apart from a photosensitive thin film surface by a distance X (X=0.1 μm to 1000 μm), and formation of a photosensitive thin film pattern in a self alignment manner, with good controllability, at a position a distance Y away from the end of a pattern. The invention fabricates a TFT using that method.
US09366970B2
An illumination optical system which illuminates a surface to be illuminated on the basis of light from a light source has a first optical path in which a diffractive optical element can be arranged at a first position thereof; a second optical path in which a spatial light modulator with a plurality of optical elements arrayed two-dimensionally and controlled individually can be arranged at a second position thereof; and a third optical path which is an optical path of light having passed via at least one of the first optical path and the second optical path and in which a distribution forming optical system is arranged. The distribution forming optical system forms a predetermined light intensity distribution on an illumination pupil located in the third optical path, based on the light having passed via at least one of the first and second optical paths.
US09366963B2
A resist composition comprising a polymer comprising recurring units (a) of formula (1) and having a Mw of 1,000-500,000 as base resin is provided. R1 is H or methyl, X is a single bond or —C(═O)—O—R5—, R2 is a single bond or C1-C4 alkylene, R3 is C2-C8 alkylene, R4 is an acid labile group, R5 is a single bond or C1-C4 alkylene, and 0
US09366952B2
A lithographic method is disclosed that includes, on a substrate provided with a layer of a resist and a further layer of a material provided on the layer of resist, providing a pattern in the further layer, the pattern defining a space via which an area of the layer of resist may be exposed to radiation, a distance between features of the pattern defining the space, and exposing the layer of resist to radiation having a wavelength greater than the distance between features of the pattern defining the space, such that near-field radiation is generated which propagates into and exposes an area of the resist.
US09366950B2
A method for simultaneously projecting two images onto a projection surface may include generating a first and second illumination beam based on first and second image data, which are representative of a first and second image, wherein the first illumination beam has electromagnetic radiation having a first property, wherein the second illumination beam has electromagnetic radiation having a second property, which differs from the first property, and deflecting the first and second illumination beams toward the projection surface so that the first illumination and second beam generates a first and second beam spot on the projection surface, respectively, wherein the first and second beam spot is moved over the projection surface so that with the aid of the first and second beam spot, the first and second image are displayed for a first and second observer on the surface, respectively, and the second image is superimposed on the first image.
US09366949B2
A pico projection fixing module includes a bracket main body, at least two collimator lenses, and at least two color light sources. The bracket main body includes an upper part, a lower part, a connecting part and at least two assembling seats. The upper part and the lower part are located at bilateral sides of the connecting part. Each of the assembling seats includes an opening and a clamping part. The opening is formed on the connecting part. The clamping part is disposed on the upper part and the lower part. The at least two collimator lenses are installed on the connecting part and corresponded to the corresponding openings. The at least two color light sources are installed on the corresponding clamping parts and aligned with the corresponding collimator lenses. The clamping parts corresponding to the assembling seats are separated from each other.
US09366936B2
An electrophoresis display apparatus of this disclosure is provided with a pair of substrates, an electrophoresis layer including electrophoresis particles and a dispersion medium in which the electrophoresis particles are dispersed, a barrier wall which is arranged between the pair of substrates and divides a cell in which the electrophoresis layer is arranged, and a sealing member which seals the electrophoresis layer arranged in the cell, in which the sealing member includes a first layer and a second layer laminated on the first layer, and in which the electric resistance of the second layer is lower than that of the first layer.
US09366926B2
A pixel unit comprises a pixel electrode, a data line and a TFT, and further comprises: a backup TFT, a source electrode of which is isolated from the data line, and a drain electrode of which is isolated from the pixel electrode; a first repair line, one end of the first repair line and the source electrode of the backup TFT being isolated from each other and there being an overlapping region therebetween, and the other end of the first repair line and the data line or a source electrode of the TFT being isolated from each other and there being an overlapping region therebetween; and a second repair line.
US09366925B2
Provided is an electro-optical apparatus that includes a first insulation layer, a retention capacitance region including a plurality of retention capacitances disposed on the first insulation layer, a second insulation layer formed so as to cover the first insulation layer and the plurality of retention capacitances, and a plurality of pixel electrodes arranged on the second insulation layer so as to respectively overlap a corresponding one of the plurality of retention capacitances in a plan view. The first insulation layer includes a recessed portion formed in a region including the retention capacitance region, and the retention capacitances are provided on a bottom face of the recessed portion.
US09366922B2
The present invention provides a thin film transistor (TFT) array substrate and a method for manufacturing the same. A transparent and electrically conductive layer and a first metal layer are deposited on a substrate, and a first multi tone mask is utilized to form gate electrodes and common electrodes. A gate insulating layer, a semiconductor layer and a second metal layer are deposited on the substrate, and a second multi tone mask is utilized to form source electrodes, drain electrodes and pixel electrodes. The present invention can simplify the manufacturing process thereof.
US09366921B2
The present invention discloses a fringe field switching (FFS) liquid crystal display and a color filter substrate. The liquid crystal display includes an upper substrate, a lower substrate, and a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between the upper substrate and the lower substrate. The lower substrate includes a common electrode and a pixel electrode, and the pixel electrode includes at least one branch electrode and an end electrode for connecting the branch electrode; and an auxiliary electrode corresponding to the end electrode is arranged on the upper substrate. In the presence of the auxiliary electrode, unwanted electric fields between the end electrode and the common electrode are effectively attenuated, and arrangement of liquid crystal molecules at the boundary of a pixel element where the end electrode is located is stabilized, so that disclination lines are improved, pictures are displayed uniformly with high quality.
US09366907B2
This invention relates to a composition for a photo-alignment layer which can exhibit superior thermal stability, alignability, and alignment rate, and can also suppress generation of an afterimage and further improve a voltage holding ratio when applied to a liquid crystal cell, and to a photo-alignment layer and a liquid crystal alignment layer using the same. The composition for a photo-alignment layer includes a cyclic olefin-based photo-alignment polymer and a polyamic acid ester-based photo-alignment additive.
US09366891B2
An LCD includes a liquid crystal panel having a TFT substrate, a CF substrate, and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the two substrates; a TFT ambient light photosensor having a semiconductor layer for detecting external light; a photodetector unit having a capacitor in which a predetermined reference voltage is charged and a voltage charged by leakage current of the TFT ambient light photosensor is lowered; and an ambient light photosensor reader unit for reading a voltage charged in the capacitor for a predetermined read period. The photodetector unit is disposed on a first surface of the TFT substrate that is in contact with the liquid crystal layer, and the surface of the photodetector unit except for the semiconductor layer and its periphery is covered by a light-shielding layer. Malfunction or reduced sensitivity of an ambient light photosensor due to light from backlights is prevented with a simple structure.
US09366886B2
An optical switch includes a microresonator comprising a silicon-rich silicon oxide layer and a plurality of silicon nanoparticles within the silicon-rich silicon oxide layer. The microresonator further includes an optical coupler optically coupled to the microresonator and configured to be optically coupled to a signal source. The microresonator is configured to receive signal light having a signal wavelength, and at least a portion of the microresonator is responsive to the signal light by undergoing a refractive index change at the signal wavelength. The optical switch further includes an optical coupler optically coupled to the microresonator and configured to be optically coupled to a signal source. The optical coupler transmits the signal light from the signal source to the microresonator.
US09366882B2
Eyeglasses including a front frame to which two side arms are connected, and having electric and/or electronic elements connected to each other by an electric circuit, wherein the electric circuit is composed at least partially of at least one flexible printed circuit, which is housed into a seat formed at least partially inside the front frame and at least partially inside at least one arm.
US09366881B2
The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for providing a variable optic insert into an ophthalmic lens. The variable optic insert may have surfaces within that have differing radii of curvature. A liquid crystal layer may be used to provide a variable optic function and in some embodiments, the liquid crystal layer may comprise polymer networked regions of interstitially located liquid crystal material. An energy source is capable of powering the variable optic insert included within the ophthalmic lens. In some embodiments, an ophthalmic lens is cast-molded from a silicone hydrogel. The various ophthalmic lens entities may include electroactive liquid crystal layers to electrically control refractive characteristics.
US09366873B2
An infrared laser zoom beam expanding system, applied to the field of laser processing, and comprising a first lens, a second lens and a third lens. The first lens and the third lens are plane-convex plus lenses, and the second lens is a meniscus minus lens. The first lens, the second lens and the third lens respectively comprise a first surface and a second surface, a third surface and a fourth surface as well as a fifth surface and a sixth surface. The radiuses of curvature of the first to sixth surfaces are ∞, −27, 10, 1.7, ∞, −103. The center thickness of the first to third lenses is 2, 1, 4. The outer diameters of the first to third lenses are 10, 3, 34. Proportions of the refractive indexes to the Abbe numbers of the first to third lenses are 1.8:25, 1.48:68, and 1.8:25. A distance between the second surface and the third surface is 10-27. An distance between the fourth surface and the fifth surface is 119-125, The unit is millimeter, and a tolerance is 5%. The system may perform beam expanding on entering light by 2-16 times, which may be adaptable to laser devices with different emergent diameters and divergence angles, and improve efficiency and accuracy of laser processing.
US09366871B2
An immersive headset device is provided that includes a display portion and a body portion. The display portion may include microdisplays having a compact size. The microdisplays may be movable (e.g., rotational) relative to the body portion and can be moved (e.g., rotated) between a flipped-up position and a flipped-down position. In some instances, when the microdisplays are flipped up, the headset provides an augmented reality (AR) mode to a user, and when the microdisplays are flipped down, the headset provide a virtual reality (VR) mode to the user. In certain implementations, the headset includes an electronics source module to provide power and/or signal to the microdisplays. The electronics source module can be attached to a rear of the body portion in order to provide advantageous weight distribution about the head of the user.
US09366866B2
An image display apparatus includes a light source, a display device, an at least one illumination prism, and an at least one eyepiece optic. The light source emits illumination light. The display device modulates the illumination light and emits the modulated light as image light. The illumination light emitted from the light source is incident on the illumination prism. The at least one eyepiece optic transmits the image light emitted from the display device.
US09366862B2
This disclosure concerns an interactive head-mounted eyepiece with an integrated processor for handling content for display and an integrated image source for introducing the content to an optical assembly through which the user views a surrounding environment and the displayed content. The optical assembly includes absorptive polarizers or anti-reflective coatings to reduce stray light.
US09366860B1
A galvanometer-based optical scanner limits a range of mirror rotation angles and includes posts extending from an adjustable base to define a range of angles for rotation of the mirror and cushioning carried by the posts for softening an impact of the mirror when making contact with the posts. A band of rubber-like material is placed around the posts to provide the cushioning. Operation of the scanner is such that an adjustable mirror stop is provided which does not stop rotation of the rotor itself, but stops rotation of the mirror.
US09366857B2
The disclosure relates to a correction light device for the irradiation of optical elements of an optical arrangement, in particular a lens, such a microlithography lens having a correction light, which include at least one correction light source and at least one mirror arrangement that deflects the light from the correction light source in the beam path to the optical element such that at least part of at least one surface of at least one optical element of the optical arrangement are irradiated in a locally and/or temporally variable fashion. The correction light strikes the surface of the optical element at a flat angle such that the obtuse angle between the optical axis of the optical arrangement at the location of the optical element and the correction light beam is less than or equal to 105°.
US09366856B2
A method of combining and co-aligning a plurality of radiation beams each having a respective waveband, includes the steps of passing each of said radiation beams to a respective lateral deflector to impart a selected lateral displacement to said beam. Each of said radiation beams with respective imparted lateral displacements is then passed to an optical collimating element which passes said radiation beams to an optical deflecting element which applies a wavelength dependent deflection to the radiation beams. The respective lateral displacements are selected having regard to the waveband of each beam to cause all to exit the optical deflecting element at the same angle so they are co-aligned.
US09366855B2
Optical camera systems for nondestructive internal inspection of online, operating power generation turbines, including gas turbine combustor and turbine sections that are at high operating temperatures in the range of over 600° C. (1112° F.). The system includes one or more temperature and vibration-compensating lens systems in the optical tube mount. The lens is circumferentially retained within a lens mount, with a mounting ring in contact with only the lens axial face. A biasing element exerts axially oriented biasing force on the first lens face through the first mounting ring, allowing for mount flexure in response to operational turbine vibration and temperature changes. The lens mount is advantageously combined with aspheric lenses capable of withstanding continuous operating temperatures above 600° C. The aspheric lenses, alone or in combination with spherical lenses, establish a wider field of view, and require fewer lenses in combination than lens mounts incorporating only spherical lenses.
US09366850B2
Provided is a microscope objective lens that sufficiently corrects on-axis and off-axis chromatic aberrations and that has a long working distance. A microscope objective lens OL includes, in order from an object side, a first lens group G1 with positive refractive power and a second lens group G2 with negative refractive power. The first lens group G1 of the microscope objective lens OL includes a diffractive optical element GD including a diffractive optical surface D, and the diffractive optical element GD is arranged at a position closer to the image than a section where a diameter of a light flux passing through the first lens group G1 is the largest.
US09366846B2
An imaging lens includes first to sixth lens elements arranged from an object side to an image side in the given order. Through designs of surfaces of the lens elements and relevant optical parameters, a larger field of view and a shorter system length of the imaging lens may be achieved while maintaining good optical performance.
US09366843B2
The invention comprises an iris imaging apparatus comprising an image sensor and an optical assembly. The optical assembly comprises an image-side surface and an object-side surface. The optical imaging lens assembly may be configured such that D1≦6 mm, PXRES≧10 pixels per mm, PXSIZE≦1.75 μm; and D2≦500 mm. D1 is a distance between the object-side surface of the optical assembly and the imaging surface. D2 is a maximum distance between the object-side surface of the optical assembly and the object plane. PXRES is pixel resolution in the object plane, achieved by the image sensor in imaging the object plane, when the distance between the object-side surface of the optical assembly and the object plane is less than or equal to D2. PXSIZE is pixel size of the image sensor. The invention additionally includes methods for configuring an imaging apparatus for iris imaging.
US09366840B2
A method for manufacturing a base structure of lens-focusing mechanism first prepares a conductive member having at least two conductive parts, interconnection part, contacts and two conductive pins. The conductive parts have proximity ends separated and staggered to each other. An insulating base is formed by injection molding and encapsulates the conductive member wherein the conductive pins, the interconnection part and the contacts are exposed out of the insulating base. The interconnection part is cut and then a spring member is mounted to the insulating base and electrically connected to the conductive pins through the contacts. The present invention can solve the problem of difficulty in assembling conductive pins and connecting the spring member for the insulating base. The conductive member is arranged within the insulating base such that plastic material can be saved, the flatness, the stability and the anti-damage ability of base can be enhanced.
US09366836B2
A cable supporting device includes a first support and a second support. The first and second supports have respective first and second channel members with an inwardly facing opening. The channel members support and retain a cable or fiber optic component, for example a fiber optic cable or drop wire. The supports may be used in an enclosure or suspended from an aerial transmission line.
US09366833B2
An optical communication module is composed of a photoelectric conversion element to transduce an optical signal into an electrical signal or an electrical signal into an optical signal, an optical fiber including an end and being optically coupled to the photoelectric conversion element, a receiving member including an outer surface and receiving the end of the optical fiber and the photoelectric conversion element, and a plurality of electrodes protruded from the outer surface of the receiving member and aligned in a straight line. The optical fiber is drawn from the outer surface of the receiving member and in an oblique direction relative to a direction of the alignment of the plurality of electrodes.
US09366832B2
An optical connection structure comprising: a substrate including a main surface and an optical waveguide in which a beam is incident or emitted in a direction intersecting with the main surface; a receptacle including a first lens and a connector guide and disposed on the substrate such that the first lens and the optical waveguide are optically coupled; and an optical connector including a second lens and a guide unit and holding an optical fiber so as to be optically coupled with the second lens, wherein: the receptacle and the optical connector are configured to be detachably through the connector guide and the guide unit; and the first lens and the second lens are optically coupled by mounting the optical connector to the receptacle.
US09366831B2
An optical device has a first frame element and second frame element. At least portions of a plurality of optical fiber pairs of an array each including an exposed end are arranged between the two frame elements. A region is defined between opposing surfaces of the two frame elements to hold the optical fibers. When holding the fibers, the two frame elements cooperate to positionally align and orient the exposed ends of each of the optical fibers for at least one of transmitting and receiving light. An optical system with the device includes a TAP photodiode array such that a portion of light is transmitted from at least a pair of input optical fibers to a corresponding pair of photodiodes of the array, and a portion of light is reflected back from an optical filter to output optical fibers corresponding to the input optical fibers.
US09366829B2
A ganged connector housing is configured to receive a plurality of single-fiber connectors. Each connector is removably retainable at a respective location in the connector housing. Each single-fiber connector comprises a ferrule configured to receive and retain a single multicore fiber. The single-fiber connectors have a high-density packing footprint within the connector housing. Each single-fiber connector and its respective ferrule is configured to enable individual repositioning, tuning, alignment, repair or replacement of a respective multicore fiber terminated therein, independent of other optical fibers within the plurality of single fiber ferrules, and without requiring replacement of the entire set of multicore fibers.
US09366827B2
An optical connector assembly and an optical connector adapter with a shutter each provide better heat radiation performance by blocking light outputted from a first optical fiber held by a first optical connector plug with a shutter thereby controlling temperature of an adapter body of the optical connector adapter not to exceed a prescribed level even when light having optical high power is outputted from the first optical fiber for about 15 minutes. An countermeasure against the light having optical high power is provided in a side wall of one of first and second receiving holes to be irradiated with the light outputted from the first optical fiber toward the second receiving hole and reflected thereafter by the shutter plate disposed in one of the first and second receiving holes.
US09366824B2
Optical circuit switches and switching methods are described. An optical circulator may form a first plurality of bidirectional optical beams from a first plurality of input optical beams and a corresponding first plurality of output optical beams. Each bidirectional optical beam may consist of the corresponding input optical beam and the corresponding output optical beam overlaid to follow, in opposing directions, a common optical path. A mirror array may be disposed to reflect the first plurality of bidirectional optical beams. A reflector may be disposed to intercept bidirectional optical beams reflected from the mirror array and to reflect at least some of the intercepted bidirectional optical beams back to the mirror array.
US09366823B1
This disclosure provides systems, methods, and apparatus for a MEMS mirrors based optical circuit switch. The optical circuit switch includes digital to analog converter (DAC) for converting digital position codes into analog mirror position signals. A mapper transforms the analog mirror position signal into a mapped mirror position signal. The mapped mirror position signal is provided to a MEMS actuator that positions the MEMS mirror based on the mapped mirror position signal. The mapper transforms the analog mirror position signal into the mapped mirror position signal such that the MEMS mirror position has a substantially linear relationship with the analog mirror position signal provided by the DAC.
US09366822B1
A photonic resonator system is designed to use thermal tuning to adjust the resonant wavelength of each resonator in the system, with a separate tuning circuit associated with each resonator so that individual adjustments may be made. The common electrical ground connection between the tuning circuits is particularly formed to provide thermal isolation between adjacent resonators by including a capacitor along each return path to ground, where the presence of the capacitor's dielectric material provides the thermal isolation. The use of capacitively coupling necessarily requires the use of an AC current as an input to the heater element (conductor/resistor) of each resonator, where the RMS value of the AC signal is indicative of the amount of heat that is generated along the element and the degree of wavelength tuning that is obtained.
US09366820B2
A coherent mixer includes a multi-mode waveguide that has a side surface and an end; a waveguide group including a plurality of semiconductor regions connected to the end; a first semiconductor region that has a side surface extending substantially parallel to the side surface of the multi-mode waveguide; and an external semiconductor region having a side surface extending substantially parallel to an edge of the waveguide group. The side surface of the semiconductor region is spaced apart from the side surface of the multi-mode waveguide by a distance smaller than or equal to a reference value. The side surface of the external semiconductor region is spaced apart from the edge of the waveguide group by a distance smaller than or equal to the reference value. The reference value is a maximum value of distances between arbitrary adjacent semiconductor regions in the waveguide group.
US09366817B2
A method is provided to integrate all active and passive integrated optical devices on a silicon (Si)-based integrated circuit (IC). A Si-based substrate, instead of a Si-on-insulator (SOI) substrate, is used for integrating the devices. Therefore, cost is down and heat dissipation efficiency is enhanced. Besides, rapid melt growth (RMG) is used for solving problems on integrating the electric circuit and the optical devices. The present invention can be used to develop a proactive optical transceivers on a standard chip; or, to fully and compatibly integrate all devices on a circuit for an optical communication chip.
US09366810B2
The cladding absorption of single-mode, double-clad, gain-producing fibers is increased in fiber designs that includes a trench region disposed between the core and inner cladding regions. Increased cladding absorption is achieved while maintaining single-mode operation.
US09366809B1
An optical sensor having dual resonant long period gratings (DRLPGs) separated by an inter-grating fiber spacing IGS of a length and material to provide temperature insensitivity over a wide wavelength range. The materials of the IGS and DRLPGs are such that the difference between the dn/dT of the core and the dn/dT of the cladding in the IGS is opposite in sign to that of the DRLPGs. The DRLPGs and the IGS are also composed of materials and have dimensions such that the turn-around points λD, as well as the general functional form of the respective spectral variation of their propagation constant difference Δβ versus wavelength are substantially similar.
US09366797B2
The present disclosure relates to the technical file of display, in particular to a side type backlight module, a method for producing the same and a display apparatus. The backlight module comprises: a LED source; a light guide plate; a wedge-shaped light guide portion located between the LED source and the light guide plate; two reflectors having reflective faces located on a top and a bottom of the wedge-shaped light guide portion and inclined with respect to an upper surface or a lower surface of the light guide plate, for adjusting the light emitting angle of the LED source; and a silicon gel part located between the LED source and the wedge-shaped light guide portion. With the inclined reflectors arranged on the top and the bottom of the silicon gel part, the present disclosure may avoid the light leak, improve the optical efficiency and suppress the light leak and hot spots effects of the light incident end of the light guide plate.
US09366791B2
An Al film is formed so that film forming particles are incident at normal incidence to grating wall surfaces of a diffraction grating having multiple grating portions and are incident at oblique incidence to optical effective surfaces. After that, oxidation treatment is performed from a direction to be incident at normal incidence to the optical effective surface so that the Al layer on the optical effective surface is changed to Al2O3 layer. Hence, in the diffraction grating having the multiple grating portions, the Al2O3 layer is formed on the optical effective surface for transmitting light, and the Al layer is formed on the grating wall surfaces as a light shielding layer. Thus, flare of the diffractive optical element can be suppressed.
US09366789B2
The present application generally relates to multi-layer sealing films, methods of making such films, materials for inclusion in such films, retroreflective sheeting and articles including such films, and methods of making retroreflective sheeting and articles including such films. The multi-layer sealing film may include two or more layers. One exemplary embodiment of a two-layer film includes a first layer including a thermoplastic polymeric material including reaction products of alkylene and reaction products of at least one non-acidic comonomer and a second layer including one of a polyolefin, a polyester, a polymethyl methacrylate, a polyamide, a polycarbonate, an ethylene-methacrylic acid, and a polyurethane. In some embodiments, at least one of the layers of the multi-layer sealing film has an elastic modulus of at least 3.5×105 kPa and the flexural rigidity of the retroreflective article is less than about 4.0×10−8 N·m2.
US09366787B2
A light extraction substrate includes a glass substrate having a first surface and a second surface. A light extraction layer is formed on at least one of the surfaces. The light extraction layer is a coating, such as a silicon-containing coating, incorporating nanoparticles.
US09366786B2
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing an X-ray/γ-ray focusing optical system comprising the steps of: providing a capillary substrate; and sequentially accumulating a plurality of alternation layers, each consisting of an X-ray/γ-ray opaque material and an X-ray/γ-ray transparent material, on an inner surface of the capillary substrate in a Fresnel pattern by atomic layer deposition.
US09366785B2
A moth-eye mold fabrication method includes: (a) providing an aluminum film deposited on a base, the aluminum film having a thickness of not less than 0.5 μm and not more than 5 μm, a surface of the aluminum film having a plurality of crystal grains whose average crystal grain diameter is not less than 200 nm and not more than 5 μm; (b) after step (a), anodizing the surface of the aluminum film to form a porous alumina layer which has a plurality of minute recessed portions; and (c) after step (b), bringing the porous alumina layer into contact with an etching solution, thereby enlarging the plurality of minute recessed portions of the porous alumina layer. A method of readily fabricating a mold is produced that is for manufacture of an antireflection film in which a moth-eye structure is superposed over an antiglare structure.
US09366776B2
Integrated formation modeling systems and methods are described. An example method of performing seismic analysis of a subterranean formation includes obtaining seismic data of the formation, obtaining fluid from the formation and analyzing at least some of the fluid to determine a fluid parameter. The example method additionally includes generating a model of the formation based at least on the seismic data and modifying the model based on the fluid parameter.
US09366774B2
A technique includes obtaining data indicative of images of a marine seismic source event, which are acquired by underwater cameras and processing the data to determine an attribute (a seismic bubble volume or motion, as non-limiting examples) that is associated with the seismic source event.
US09366770B2
An earthquake determination system which includes a plurality of observation terminal devices are connected by a communication network. When estimated P-wave detection information is received from the plurality of the observation terminal devices, a distance D between the observation terminal devices and a time interval δ between detection times are acquired and when transmission limit distance of local vibration energy is DSL, the minimum propagation speed of the earthquake P waves is SP, and the maximum detection error between detection times by the pair of observation terminal devices is Δt, the seismic analysis processor determines occurrence of an earthquake, if the both of the two pairs of the observation terminal devices satisfy the relationships of 2DSL
US09366762B2
A method and device for detecting the presence of a deception scheme intended to thwart a satellite navigation system (SNS). A detector receives “receiver measurements” of various types from the SNS receiver. It conditions these values, so that they may be readily used by a process that determines whether the receiver is operating in a statistically normal state.
US09366761B2
A radio signal processing system includes a first antenna; a second antenna; a first receiver communicatively coupled to the first antenna; a second receiver communicatively coupled to the second antenna; a first processing unit communicatively coupled to the first receiver and configured to receive a first signal from at least one of the first antenna and the second antenna when the system is operating in a first mode; a second processing unit communicatively coupled to the second receiver and configured to receive a second signal from the second antenna when the system is operating in a first mode; and wherein the first processing unit is further configured to receive a third signal from both the first antenna and the second antenna when the system is operating in a second mode.
US09366750B2
A method and apparatus for: receiving a radio frequency (RF) signal on a first channel; determining a radio signal strength of the RF signal; performing a correlation of the RF signal with a predetermined sequence of a wireless data packet to determine whether the RF signal contains the predetermined sequence; in response to the RF signal not containing the predetermined sequence, generating an indication that the RF signal is not a wireless data packet; and determining whether the radio signal strength of the RF signal exceeds a predetermined threshold. In response to i) the radio signal strength exceeding the predetermined threshold and ii) the indication being generated: measuring a parameter associated with the RF signal; determining whether the RF signal is a radar signal based on the parameter; and changing from the first channel in response to the RF signal being determined to be a radar signal.
US09366746B2
Methods of connecting or linking real objects to machines or the virtual world in real time utilizing a device are disclosed. In one embodiment, a wireless tag attached to an object in communication with an electronic device, such as a cellular phone, tablet computer, laptop computer, or watch, monitors and updates the position of a wireless tag locally and on a machine/network/cloud. Methods of using a wireless tag in safety, loss/theft prevention, health-care, tracking, advertising and marketing, education, games, finance, payment, and athletic are disclosed. In another embodiment, methods of providing an application programming interface and/or a software development kit based on the devices are provided, allowing software developers the ability to create their own programs or applications on top of the disclosed system is disclosed. Methods of allowing developers to distribute and/or monetize applications developed through the application programming interface and/or a software development kit are also disclosed.
US09366732B2
Estimation of a state-of-health (SOH) in a battery are disclosed. An example technique includes determining if a terminal voltage of the chemical battery differs from a calculated terminal voltage. In response to determining that the terminal voltage of the chemical battery differs from the calculated terminal voltage, calculating a range of voltages by taking the convolution of a terminal current of the chemical battery with a range of impulse responses from a look up table of impulse responses corresponding to different SOH. The technique further includes comparing the terminal voltage of the chemical battery with the range of calculated voltages to determine a second impulse response that corresponds to the case where the terminal voltage matches the calculated voltage. The look up table of impulse responses corresponding to different SOHs is then used to determine the SOH of the chemical battery from the second impulse response.
US09366728B2
A battery sensing section measures a voltage across a secondary battery. A current sensing section measures a current flowing through the secondary battery. A control section holds the value of an external impedance present in a discharge path outside the secondary battery, discharges the secondary battery from a first time to a second time at which an integrated discharge capacity based on a measured discharge current becomes equal to a predetermined discharge capacity reference value, calculates the internal impedance present in the secondary battery at the second time based on the measured voltage, calculates the second open voltage at the second time by multiplying the sum of the external impedance and the internal impedance by the measured discharge current, and calculates the recovered capacity of the secondary battery based on the first open voltage at the first time, the second open voltage and the discharge capacity reference value.
US09366721B2
The present invention relates to an apparatus for burn-in of a device under test (4), characterized by: a thermal conductive plate (2) including a cooling channel (3) for allowing passage of a cooling medium for regulating temperature of the thermal conductive plate (2); the device under test (4) placed on the thermal conductive plate (2); a pressure chamber (5) engaged to the device under test (4), comprising a hollow housing (6) including an integrated cooling passage (7), an air inlet (8), a seal (9) and air outlet (10) aid in regulating temperature of said pressure chamber; and a pin guide means comprising an upper guide (11) embedded in the thermal conductive plate (2) and a lower guide (12) for guiding movement of the pogo pin (13) and its connection with the device under test (4).
US09366717B2
A device for detecting a change in voltage across a switch includes a resistive-capacitive network and a timer circuit. The resistive-capacitive network includes an impedance, a first resistive element, and a first capacitive element to provide a signal representative of a voltage across the switch. The timer circuit generates a detection signal that is representative of the change in the voltage across the switch after switching on of the switch. The timer circuit raises a level of the detection signal if the voltage across the switch does not fall below a predetermined value after switching on of the switch. The resistive-capacitive network is configured such that parasitic capacitances of the device are compensated or over compensated so as to prevent the timer circuit from raising the level of the detection signal if the voltage across the switch does fall below the predetermined value after switching on of the switch.
US09366714B2
One aspect of the inventive technology disclosed herein, in certain embodiments, may involve the determination of at least one measured, instantaneous intra-string current difference for each of the power generating string, and the use of such determinations to assess the existence of leakage current, a frequent ground fault predecessor, thereby enabling preclusion of a ground fault that would otherwise result. Certain methods and detection architecture may enable precise abnormality location, e.g., enabling the identification of which solar module assembly in particular is faulty. Another aspect relates generally, in certain embodiments, to detection circuit architecture operable to sequentially impress a leakage current inducing voltage upon each rail of a photovoltaic system. Another relates generally, in certain embodiments, to the use of at least one current interrupter at each end of a string to preclude flow therethrough in the event of e.g., unintended field reversal.
US09366713B2
Embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods for detecting a sustained arc in an electrical system containing polymer-based, semi-conducting components which derive their conductivity from carbon black, carbon nanotubes or other conductive materials. Over a time period, current and voltage data for a cable signal are collected, from which spectral information is extracted. The spectral information has a frequency component and an amplitude component. The cable signal is processed to remove a line frequency signature that includes the electrical system's line current frequency and its harmonics. One or more off-harmonic frequency bands are extracted from the cable signal and analyzed to determine the presence of an arc signature therein. Analysis of the off-harmonic frequency bands can include applying a matched filter to the off-harmonic frequency bands to obtain an indicator signal and determining if the indicator signal exceeds a threshold that indicates the presence of the sustained arc.
US09366707B1
A reflectometer for use in measuring scattering (S-) parameters for a device under test (DUT) includes a test port, a radio frequency (RF) output signal source, and a local oscillator (LO) signal. The LO signal is used to downconvert the RF output signal to an incident IF signal. The reflectometer is useable as a master reflectometer with a slave reflectometer such that the master reflectometer provides the slave reflectometer with a synchronization signal to synchronize signals generated by the second reflectometer to the incident IF signal. Phase and magnitude of transmission S-parameters of the DUT are measurable when the reflectometer is used as the master reflectometer in combination with the slave reflectometer. The master reflectometer and the slave reflectometer can be reconfigurable to reverse the master/server roles of the reflectometers.
US09366703B2
A current sensor includes a Rogowski coil disposed on a flexible printed circuit board with at least one active lead passing through the Rogowski coil.
US09366695B2
A SPM head incorporates a probe and a cantilever on which the probe is mounted. The cantilever has a planar reflecting surface proximate a free end of the cantilever. The cantilever extends from a mechanical mount and a single-mode optical fiber is supported by the mechanical mount to provide a beam axis at an angle away from normal relative to the reflecting surface.
US09366689B2
Systems and methods for thermal imaging for measuring mixing of fluids are provided. In one embodiment, a method for measuring mixing of gaseous fluids using thermal imaging comprises: positioning a thermal test medium parallel to a direction gaseous fluid flow from an outlet vent of a momentum source, wherein when the source is operating, the fluid flows across a surface of the medium; obtaining an ambient temperature value from a baseline thermal image of the surface; obtaining at least one operational thermal image of the surface when the fluid is flowing from the outlet vent across the surface, wherein the fluid has a temperature different than the ambient temperature; and calculating at least one temperature-difference fraction associated with at least a first position on the surface based on a difference between temperature measurements obtained from the at least one operational thermal image and the ambient temperature value.
US09366679B2
A method for the diagnosis and/or therapy control of systemic sclerosis is disclosed wherein soluble CD90 is detected in body fluids. By measuring the concentration of soluble CD90 certain forms of diseases can be differentiated by applying the ex vivo method.
US09366678B2
The invention provides mass spectrometry methods, compositions and systems which enable a unique platform for analyte quantitation accessing very high degrees of multiplexing and accurate quantification, particularly well-suited for a range of quantitative analysis for proteomics applications. Embodiments of the present methods and systems combine isotopic coding agents characterized by very small differences in molecular mass with mass spectrometry methods providing large resolving power to provide relative or absolute analyte quantification in a large number of samples.
US09366677B2
In a first aspect, provided herein is a method of determining assembly, homogeneity and/or thermodynamic stability of biological macromolecular complexes. In particular, the method allows determining maximum stability of the complexes based on fluorescence changes at an appropriate wavelength as a function of temperature whereby the fluorescence changes reflect the status of assembly, homogeneity and/or thermodynamic stability of the biological macromolecular complexes. The method is based on identifying two state and multistate unfolding fluorescence curves as a function of temperature by fitting the curves according to a multistate unfolding model. In addition, a computer program and a computer program storage medium as well as an apparatus and a system is provided for determining the assembly, homogeneity and/or thermodynamic stability of biological macromolecular complexes.
US09366674B2
A device is disclosed for conducting a non-invasive analysis of a bodily fluid to determine the presence and level of a certain constituent carried by the bodily fluid. An indicator formulation of the device changes color in response to exposure to the constituent to provide a visible indication of the presence and level of the constituent carried by the bodily fluid. A carrier substrate of the device is constructed of a material having voids providing a high void volume within the substrate. The device is made by applying a chromagen to the carrier substrate to create a chromagen-laden carrier member. Then, a selected reagent having a particular constituent-specific formulation is applied to the chromagen-laden member. The selected reagent then combines with the chromagen, thereby establishing the indicator formulation within the carrier substrate in place for reception of a sample of the bodily fluid.
US09366669B2
A substrate, which is useful for performing biological, chemical and diagnostic assays, and a method for preparing the substrate are provided. The substrate has an upper surface with a coating disposed thereon. The coating comprises a charged polymer, a non-ionic polyether, and a silicate compound. The substrate can increase capture phase binding and reduce non-specific binding of biomolecules for a biological microarray.
US09366665B1
A breath analyzer device (1) having an inlet region (2) and a sensor arrangement (3), wherein the inlet region (2) is configured to receive a breath sample from a test subject and direct the sample to the sensor arrangement (3), and the sensor arrangement is configured to provide a signal representative of the concentration of a volatile substance within the sample. The inlet region (2) includes a heater (20, 24) arranged between: a sample inlet port (6) which is open to atmospheric air outside the device (1); and a sample outlet port (11) which is open to the sensor arrangement (3), the heater (20, 24) extending at least part way along a tortuous flow channel (18) which extends between the inlet port (6) and the outlet port (11) for the direction of the sample to the sensor arrangement (3).
US09366661B1
A method of determining adulteration of a fuel including subjecting to an analytical technique a marked fuel mixture comprising (a) a fuel; (b) a compound characterized by Formula I: wherein X is carbon, oxygen, or sulfur; when X is O or S, R1 and R2 are lone non-bonding electron pairs; when X is C, R1 and R2 each independently are hydrogen, C1 to C20 alkyl, or C6 to C10 aryl; R3 and R3′ each independently are hydrogen or C1 to C4 alkyl; R4 and R4′ each independently are hydrogen, C1 to C4 alkyl, C4 to C10 cycloalkyl, or C6 to C10 aryl; R5 and R5′ each independently are C4 to C10 alkyl; R6 and R6′ each independently are hydrogen or C1 to C6 alkyl; and R7 and R7′ each independently are hydrogen or C1 to C4 alkyl; and (c) a heavy compound, wherein the heavy compound comprises a compound of Formula I having at least one atom replaced with an isotope tag.
US09366654B2
A method of measuring a crystallographic orientation of an object using an ultrasonic transducer and a detector array including a plurality of ultrasonic detectors includes: determining a minimum distance between the transducer and the detector of the detector array closest to the transducer; placing the transducer and the detector array in contact with a surface of the object such that the transducer and the detector of the detector array closest to the transducer are separated by at least the minimum distance; using the transducer to generate an ultrasonic surface wave pulse in the surface of the object, the ultrasonic surface wave pulse having a pulse duration and including a longitudinal surface wave and a Rayleigh wave; and measuring a time of flight of a surface wave generated by the transducer between the transducer and each detector of the array to determine the crystallographic orientation of the object.
US09366649B2
An apparatus, system and method for detecting, identifying, classifying and/or quantifying chemical species in a gas flow using a micro-fabricated ion filter coupled to a system adapted to apply drive signals to the ion filter. Coupled to the ion filter is a system adapted to measure the output of the ion filter, which in turn is coupled to a system adapted to extract numerical parameters from the measured output of the ion filter to facilitate chemical detection, identification, classification and/or quantification of the gas flow.
US09366647B2
An integrated semiconductor device for manipulating and processing bio-entity samples and methods are described. The device includes a lower substrate, at least one optical signal conduit disposed on the lower substrate, at least one cap bonding pad disposed on the lower substrate, a cap configured to form a capped area, and disposed on the at least one cap bonding pad, a microfluidic channel, wherein a first side of the microfluidic channel is formed on the lower substrate and a second side of the microfluidic channel is formed on the cap, a photosensor array coupled to sensor control circuitry, and logic circuitry coupled to the fluidic control circuitry, and the sensor control circuitry.
US09366646B2
Provided is a hydrogen measurement sensor capable of monitoring a content of hydrogen within molten metal in real-time using an aluminum or magnesium alloy casting method, and, more particularly, a hydrogen measurement sensor having a junction structure of a solid oxygen ion conductor and a solid hydrogen ion conductor in molten metal capable of measuring a content of hydrogen within aluminum-magnesium alloy-molten metal using a new method which generates a fixed concentration of oxygen gas from a solid reference material at a high temperature by replacing a reference material of a standard gas method which is difficult to handle with a solid reference material or external air which is easy to handle or has the same effect as that of the gas reference material by using a feature in which the external air contains a predetermined pressure (0.21 atm) of oxygen.
US09366644B1
Systems and methods for detecting a liquid. Detection a liquid may include detecting liquid at a boundary of an area and reporting the presence of the liquid. Reporting liquid at a boundary may prevent leaking of the liquid form the area. Detecting also includes detecting liquid inside the area. The amount of liquid detected inside the boundary may relate to a range of amounts of liquid. The minimum amount of the range may represent the minimum amount of liquid that is permissible in the area prior to taking action to deal with the liquid.
US09366636B2
Disclosed are devices, arrangements and methods for quantifying the concentration of an analyte present in bodily fluid, including: an assay pad having at least one chemical reagent capable of producing a detectable signal in the form of a reaction spot upon reaction with the analyte; a light source; a detector array; a processor; and a memory in communication with the processor, the memory comprising: (a) at least one value indicative of one or more of: (i) the level of hematocrit contained in the sample; (ii) the volume of the sample applied to the assay pad; or (iii) imperfections present in the reaction spot; and (b) at least one algorithm for calculating the concentration of the analyte contained in the sample.
US09366632B2
The invention generally relates to droplet based digital PCR and methods for analyzing a target nucleic acid using the same. In certain embodiments, methods of the invention involve forming sample droplets containing, on average, a single target nucleic acid, amplifying the target in the droplets, excluding droplets containing amplicon from the target and amplicon from a variant of the target, and analyzing target amplicons.
US09366630B2
Quantitative fluorescence imaging systems and methods using angular illumination to obtain automatic focus information. Laser scanning (e.g., point or line scanning) with angular illumination in combination with an area imaging sensor, such as with a bi-telcentric scanner, is used to determine sample height (relative to a detection axis orthogonal to a platform holding the sample) and also correct for sample height in subsequent scans.
US09366620B2
The characteristics of a specimen are measured by holding the specimen on an aperture array structure having apertures, applying an electromagnetic wave to the aperture array structure, and detecting frequency characteristics of the electromagnetic wave reflected by the aperture array structure. A liquid is directly or indirectly attached to at least a part of a first principal surface. The electromagnetic wave is applied from side including a second principal surface. The apertures of the aperture array structure have a size which does not allow the liquid to leak from the first principal surface side to the second principal surface side, and the liquid is attached to the first principal surface of the aperture array structure in a state open to an atmosphere under air pressure.
US09366614B2
A porosity measuring device (10) according to the present invention includes a magnetic field generating section (20), a dispersoid measuring section (30) configured to measure movement of a dispersoid (s) dispersed in a dispersion medium (m) in a state where a magnetic field is generated by the magnetic field generating section (20), and an operating section (40) configured to obtain a porosity of the dispersoid (s) on the basis of a measurement result of the dispersoid measuring section (30). The operating section (40) obtains a magnetophoretic velocity of the dispersoid (s) from the measurement result of the dispersoid measuring section (30). The operating section (40) preferably obtains the magnetophoretic velocity of the dispersoid (s) from the measurement result of the dispersoid measuring section (30).
US09366608B2
A tensile test machine which has a simple structure and which can measure the strength of a sample having a minute tensile strength is provided. The tensile test machine 100 has a first gripping member 117 and a second gripping member 125 which oppose each other in the horizontal direction and grip two end portions of a sample WK. The first gripping member 117 is supported by a moment receiving member 113a of a torque meter 113 through a first support beam 116 and a tensile force transmitting member 115. The tensile force transmitting member 115 is formed so as to extend in the radial direction of the moment receiving member 113a. The second gripping member 125 is supported by a displacement table 121 through a second support beam 124 and a gripping member support base 123. It is displaced in the direction away from the first gripping member 117, and the amount of displacement is measured by a displacement measuring device 128. An external computer 130 measures the tensile strength of the sample WK using the tensile force sensed by the torque meter 113 and the amount of displacement of the second gripping member 125 sensed by the displacement measuring device 128.
US09366595B2
Fluid-leakage detection system (14) for a domestic fluid distribution installation (1), comprising: a main fluid feed pipe (9) connected to at least one item of fluid consuming equipment (13) through a corresponding secondary pipe (11), a cutoff valve (15) for cutting off the main feed pipe (9) in the event of the detection of any leak, a small-leak detection device (16) activated in the case of zero global consumption, a flow meter (25) on the secondary pipe of each item of consuming equipment (13) for establishing the state of the global consumption.
US09366580B2
A thermal processing and control system (300) includes a thermal processing station (312) for receiving food products (14) being carried on a conveyor system (316). A first scanning station (318) is located upstream from the thermal processing station (312) for scanning the food products being carried by the conveyor (316). An actuator (420) automatically connects temperature measuring devices (402) with selected food products (14). A diverter conveyor (324) diverts selected food products (14) from the conveyor (316) to a transverse conveyor (326) for either further processing or alternative processing, depending on how system (300) is configured. The temperature measuring devices (402) are automatically removed from the food products at station (329).
US09366575B2
A temperature measuring apparatus includes: an infrared measuring unit; a guide light emitting unit; an optical unit that (i) allows the guide light emitted by the guide light emitting unit to travel toward the object, and (ii) allows the infrared radiation radiated from the object to enter the infrared measuring unit; a position adjusting unit that makes a position adjustment of irradiating the measurement target region with the guide light emitted by the guide light emitting unit while keeping within a predetermined range a misalignment between an optical axis of the infrared radiation entering the infrared measuring unit from the measurement target region and an optical axis of the guide light emitted by the guide light emitting unit; and a focusing unit that adjusts a focus of the infrared measuring unit and a focus of the guide light emitting unit.
US09366566B2
A dark photodiode that is optically isolated from the signal photodiode and having a dark current in the absence of photons. A reference generating circuit configured to produce a reference voltage based on voltage at an anode of the signal photodiode. A voltage regulator circuit configured to regulate dark photodiode voltage at an anode of the dark photodiode based on the reference voltage. A current mirror circuit configured to produce, at an anode connecting to the signal photodiode, a mirrored current that is a mirrored version of a portion of the dark current.
US09366564B2
Use of an acoustic wave receiving apparatus which includes: a resonator including a first mirror on which measurement light is incident, a second mirror which is arranged to face the first mirror and on which acoustic waves from an object are incident, an acoustic wave reception layer interposed between the first mirror and the second mirror, and a compensation layer; and a detector for detecting a variation in an optical path length between the first mirror and the second mirror that occurs in response to deformation of the acoustic wave reception layer caused by incidence of the acoustic waves, wherein the variation in the optical path length due to a film thickness distribution of the acoustic wave reception layer is compensated by refraction in the compensation layer.
US09366558B2
Heteronuclear radioisotope nanoparticle of core-shell structure and a preparation method thereof are provided. The Heteronuclear radioisotope nanoparticle of core-shell structure comprising core of two different radioisotopes selected from a group consisting of 198Au, 63Ni, 110mAg, 64Cu, 60Co, 192Ir and 103Pd, and a shell comprising SiO2 surrounding the core.The Heteronuclear radioisotope nanoparticle of core-shell can be used as a tracer for the purpose of detecting variation of volume ratio or for the evaluation of the behavior characteristic of a water resource, based on information about phase ratio in the flow of multiphase fluid existing in a process which is operated under extreme condition such as high temperature and/or high pressure conditions.
US09366540B2
Location determination is facilitated based on motion data accumulated at a vehicle in cases in which a beacon is not available. One method includes receiving, by a first device, first information about a vehicle indicative of a position and a direction of the vehicle. The position is measured by the vehicle based on a measured angular rotation rate and radius of a wheel of the vehicle and the direction of the vehicle is measured by the vehicle based on a measured amount of a turn radius of a steering wheel device of the vehicle. The method also includes determining a previously determined location of the vehicle. The method also includes generating second information about a location of the first device based on the previously determined location of the vehicle and the first information. Error estimates for the location and/or tuning bias for sensors at the vehicle can also be determined.
US09366530B2
A system for recommending a size of a wearable item implements a method that includes identifying a reference wearable item and a size for the reference wearable item. The system accesses a wearable item database and retrieves a three-dimensional model of the reference wearable item. The system also receives, via a user interface, a functional requirement. The system accesses the wearable item database and identifies set of candidate objects, each of which satisfies the functional requirement. Based on the size of the reference wearable item, the system will determine a size for each of the candidate objects. The system will select at least one of the plurality of candidate objects as a recommended object and presents each recommended object and the size of each recommended object to a user.
US09366523B2
The rotational angle sensor for measuring the rotational angle of a shaft has two code disks, the first code disk of which is rotationally fixed to the shaft while the second code disk is held between the shaft and the housing by two spring groups. Each code disk is assigned to a sensor. The sensor of the first code disk generates a periodic rotational angle signal while the sensor which is assigned to the second code disk generates a coarse signal (U2) which is different from the first signal and which can be used to ascertain which rotation of n possible rotations the shaft is in, wherein n>1.
US09366522B2
Stylus head displacer displaces a stylus head on a first measurement path. A path definer defines the first measurement path. A displacement controller controls the stylus head displacer such that the stylus head displaces along the first measurement path. A position detector detects a position of the stylus head. A depression amount detector detects the depression amount of the stylus head. A measurement results memory stores the position and amount of depression of the stylus head. The depression amount detector outputs an error signal when detecting a measurement error. The displacement controller stops displacement of the stylus head in response to the error signal and displaces the stylus head to a starting point of the first measurement path, and controls the stylus head displacer such that the stylus head is displaced from the starting point to an end point of the first measurement path with a fixed depression amount.
US09366517B2
A method of demilitarizing an energetic is disclosed. The method comprises indirectly heating the energetic in a chamber to a temperature below a combustion temperature of the energetic to at least partially decompose the energetic and substantially preclude combustion of the energetic such that the indirect heating produces a decomposition gas, and separating at least a portion of the decomposition gas from the chamber. The method may further comprise monitoring the decomposition gas and/or passing the separated decomposition gas through an air abatement system. The method may further comprise adjusting at least one of the following: the indirect heating of the energetic, the separating of the decomposition gas, the air abatement system, and a residence time of the energetic in the chamber. The energetic may be a bulk energetic.
US09366513B1
The various embodiments disclosed and pictured illustrate an indicator for determining if and/or where a projectile has struck a target. The illustrative embodiment pictured herein is specifically adapted for application to a shaft, such as a shaft of an arrow. The external surface of the indicator may be textured so as to retain a certain amount of liquid within the target upon striking the target. In one example, the indicator is configured for use with deer hunting such that the external texture of the indicator is configured to retain a specific amount of deer blood so that the hunter may determine, based on blood characteristics retained within the indicator, if and where the arrow to which the indicator is affixed struck the deer.
US09366510B1
Adapter assemblies for arrow assemblies include an insert configured to be received within an arrow shaft and configured to be coupled to a point. The adapter assembly further includes an outer sleeve disposed around at least a portion of the insert. Arrow assemblies include an arrow shaft and an adapter assembly including an insert and an outer sleeve for coupling a point to the arrow shaft.
US09366509B2
The archery arrow having improved flight characteristics of the present invention is designed to improve the accuracy of the arrow which is equipped with a dampening medium within the central bore of the arrow shaft. The dampening materials in an embodiment may include, but not be limited to, silicon, epoxies or urethanes and selection of various dampening materials may provide for varying degrees of stiffness. The dampening effects of internal dampening materials decrease the initial deflection distance of the arrow and also serves to decrease the deflection with each oscillation. In addition, the dampening medium adopted in the present invention provides for an arrow having a selectable center of gravity location that has improved flight characteristics. Thus, the dampening materials adopted in the present invention provide for a selected location of center of gravity and a desired attenuation of oscillations.
US09366500B1
A direct spray type compressed air gun includes: an air gun body having a handgrip mounted at the lower part thereof; a gun barrel mounted at front side of the air gun body; a compressed-air cylinder mounted at the rear side of the air gun body; a valve part spaced apart from the rear end of the gun barrel; a barrel holder for fixing the gun barrel to the air gun body; a hammer part inserted into the rear end part of the gun barrel; a spring mounted between the hammer part and the barrel holder; a hammer moving part mounted at the rear end of the hammer part; a latch part mounted on the air gun body to block movement of the hammer part; a trigger part mounted on the air gun body and presses the latch part; and a loading lever part joined with the hammer moving part.
US09366489B1
A charging handle for a firearm having an elongate member, a bolt engaging element at a forward end, a handle portion at a rearward end, the handle portion including a first projection from the elongate member and a second projection from the elongate member opposing the first projection, the first projection having a first surface defining an elongate opening at least partially therethrough extending substantially parallel with a longitudinal axis of the elongate member and configured to receive a first end of a lanyard, and the second projection having at least one surface defining a pivot point opening with a pivot axis substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the elongate member, and a latch having a surface defining a first opening therethrough, where the latch pivots around a pivot pin positioned through the pivot opening and the first opening through the latch.
US09366484B2
A heat dissipation pipe loop and a backlight module using the heat dissipation pipe loop are provided. The heat dissipation pipe loop includes: a first evaporator section, a second evaporator section arranged opposite to the first evaporator section, a first pipe, a second pipe arranged opposite to the first pipe, and a heat dissipation liquid arranged in the first pipe and the second pipe. The first pipe includes a first gas pipe connected to the first evaporator section, a first condenser pipe connected to the first gas pipe, and a first liquid pipe connected to the first condenser pipe and the second evaporator section. The second pipe includes a second gas pipe connected to the second evaporator section, a second condenser pipe connected to the second gas pipe, and a second liquid pipe connected to the second condenser pipe and the first evaporator section.
US09366477B2
The invention relates to a process for drying sludge having the following steps: a) applying a sludge having a dry matter content of 15% to 30% to a floor of a drying hall (10), or sludge already present, b) predrying the sludge in the drying hall (10), wherein the sludge is mixed, c) introducing at least a part of the predried sludge into a heated thermal dryer (12), wherein the sludge introduced in each case into the thermal dryer (12) is replaced in the drying hall (10), by carrying out the step a), by a sludge having a dry matter content of 15% to 30% which then likewise passes through step b), d) drying the sludge in the thermal dryer (12) to a dry matter content of 80% to 95%, wherein air (14) taking up moisture from the sludge flows over or through the sludge, wherein the air (14) is brought to a temperature in a range from 70° C. to 160° C., or wherein, by heating the sludge, water vapor is liberated from the sludge, wherein the sludge, after achieving the dry matter content of 80% to 95%, is discharged from the thermal dryer (12), wherein the sludge discharged from the thermal dryer in each case is replaced by predried sludge by carrying out step c), which predried sludge then likewise passes through step d), e) passing the air (14) heated in step d), or the water vapor through a first region of a heat exchanger (17), through which ambient air (16) passes in a second region, wherein the air (14) heated in step d) or the water vapor releases heat to the ambient air (16), with condensation of the moisture present in the heated air or in the water vapor, wherein the heated air (14) or the water vapor is cooled to a temperature in the range from 10° C. to 60° C., and the ambient air (16) is heated to a temperature at most 40 K above the ambient temperature and the former temperature is at most 50° C., and f) promoting the predrying according to step b) by introducing the ambient air (18) heated in step e) into the drying hall (10), in such a manner that the ambient air (16) flows onto or over the surface of the sludge applied to the floor of the drying hall (10).
US09366475B1
According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a device for chilling and dispensing a beverage from a bottle is provided. The device comprises mounting rail configured to attach to a bar top structure and having a top rail plate and a rail freezing and chilling mechanism under the top rail plate. The device also includes a dome configured to attach to the top rail plate and having a dome plate, interior storage tank and a dome freezing and chilling mechanism between the dome plate and the interior storage tank. The rail freezing and chilling mechanism and the dome freezing and chilling mechanism are configured to build a layer of frost on top of the top rail plate and along the dome plate from humidity of ambient air. The dome is configured to seat the bottle in an inverted position and chill and dispense the beverage from the interior storage tank.
US09366466B2
An air conditioner and a method of controlling the same are provided. The air conditioner and the method analyze a power used pattern according to input power data, compute expected power according to the pattern to dynamically control power, so the power consumption is expected and controlled according to the pattern to stably control a power amount without repeating unnecessary control instead of collective and simple control according to a fixed target. Since an expected amount of the power consumption can be computed, power control is easy and energy consumption is reduced.
US09366460B2
A method for refrigeration through voltage-controlled entropy change includes applying a voltage signal to a piezoelectric material to generate strain in the piezoelectric material, generating strain in a magnetic material attached to the piezoelectric material, and generating a change in a temperature of the magnetic material in response to the strain in the magnetic material.
US09366455B1
A system including a heatable tube, through which a liquid flows, with at least one opening formed through an outer wall of the tube and a laser directing a laser beam through the opening to an inner surface of the heatable tube to heat the cylinder. The system may be utilized within a hot water heater. A method and a hot water heater system are also disclosed wherein the liquid is indirectly heated with a laser.
US09366454B2
A heatable connection apparatus includes electrically heatable hoses and a junction piece having two nipples for corresponding ones of the hoses. Each hose has two electric heating elements embedded therein. The ends of the heating elements are routed out of the hose for connection. The heating elements from one hose end are connected to corresponding ones of the heating elements from the other hose end to form two heating-element pairs lying diametrically opposite one another. Each heating-element pair is bent downward and guided through with the crimp first from above under a bracket of the housing downward toward the housing bottom, from where it is deflected by 90° along the bottom of the junction piece in tight contact therewith. On the opposite side, the heating-element pair is guided upward and pushed with the crimp first from below and through the bracket.
US09366453B2
To obtain a control system of an air conditioning system capable of easily confirming a set content of an interlocking control. A simulation device that generates simulation operation information simulating an interlock operation of facility devices based on interlock settings information, a display controller that makes a display device display a layout plan and the simulation operation information in accordance with the display of the facility devices in the layout plan.
US09366441B2
A combustor with a burner maintains combustion stability. The burner includes an air hole member 31 with a plurality of air holes 34, 35 provided at an upstream side of the combustion gases generated by a combustion chamber 1. A first fueling nozzle 33 jets fuel in a direction crossing a central axis of the burner towards at least two of air holes 35. A plurality of second fueling nozzles 32, one for each of the remaining air holes 34, are provided to jet the fuel in a direction routed along the burner axis towards the corresponding air hole 34. A fuel header 30 distributes the fuel to the first fueling nozzle 33 and each of the second fueling nozzles 32. A fuel header storage unit 70 shrouds the fuel header 30, fueling nozzles 32, 33, and has an air inflow hole 71.
US09366436B2
A combustion chamber of a gas turbine with an outer combustion chamber wall and with tiles attached to the inner side of said wall or to a combustion chamber of the single-wall design, wherein the combustion chamber has in a center area, relative to the flow direction, a slot extending around the circumference of the combustion chamber and dividing the outer combustion chamber wall and the tiles for the supply of mixing air.
US09366428B2
A torch assembly adapted to be attached to an associated fuel supply, the torch assembly has a housing, a fuel line at least partially contained within the housing, a burn tube extending from the housing and adapted to receive fuel from the fuel line, an attachment member operatively connected to the housing for connecting the torch assembly to the associated fuel supply, the attachment member in fluid communication with the fuel line for delivering fuel from the associated fuel supply to the fuel line; a control apparatus having a trigger for actuating an on/off valve adapted to permit or stop flow through the fuel line, a regulator adapted to at least partially restrict flow in the fuel line, and a controller operatively connected to the regulator to adjust the position of the regulator to vary the flow of fuel through the fuel line.
US09366427B2
A solid fuel burner may include a system for electrodynamic homogenization. One or more electrodes may apply an electric field to burning solid fuel or a region proximate the burning solid fuel. The electric field causes mixing and homogenization of volatilized fractions of the solid fuel, combustion gases, and air. The improved mixing and homogenization may reduce emission of carbon monoxide (CO), reduce emission of oxides of nitrogen (NOx), reduce oxygen in flue gas, increase temperature of flue gas, and/or allow for a larger grate surface.
US09366423B2
Disclosed is an LED illumination device of a simple configuration, capable of suppressing thermal resistance to a low level, and of effectively dissipating heat generated from LED elements. Rigidity of a mounting plate is ensured by a wall of a certain height, and thereby the mounting plate now becomes possible to endure saturation vapor pressure of a coolant liquid possibly exerted thereon, and vacuum state or near-vacuum state when the coolant liquid is injected, without being deformed. Since the rigidity of the mounting plate is ensured by the wall, a wall composing a bottom face of recesses may now be thinned, and this is advantageous in view of allowing the heat generated from the LED elements to effectively conduct to the coolant liquid, and of effectively cooling the LED elements.
US09366413B2
In various embodiments, a lighting device is provided. The lighting device may include: a pump light source; a phosphor arrangement; and a light control element arranged between the pump light source and the phosphor arrangement; wherein the light control element is configured to split the pump light beam into a reflected part and a transmitted part and for controlling the ratio between reflected part and transmitted part; and wherein the phosphor arrangement includes at least one phosphor which can be irradiated with the reflected part and/or transmitted part of the pump light of the pump light source and emits said pump light again at least partly in a wavelength-converted fashion.
US09366409B2
A luminaire provides light having a distribution pattern with high center beam candle power and a gradual gradient across a wide area. The luminaire includes a light source having first and second sets of light emitting elements selected and positioned to achieve the desired light distribution pattern. The luminaire further includes an optic configured to refract light emitted from the light source to achieve the desired light distribution pattern.
US09366383B2
A holder includes a holding member, an attaching member, and a connecting structure. The holding member is configured to hold the portable electronic device thereon. The mounting member can be attached to an object, such as a user's arm or wrist. The connecting structure includes a first connecting member and a second connecting member rotatably coupled to the first connecting member. The first connecting member is coupled to the attaching member; the second connecting member is coupled to the holding member.
US09366377B2
In an example embodiment, a mounting structure for mounting a display monitor to a panel. The mounting allows the display monitor to be rotated so that it can be seen from either side of the panel.
US09366365B2
The composite tube comprises a tubular arrangement of knitted fiber characterized by a plurality of interlocking loops. The tubular knitted pattern allows for variable electrical, mechanical and geometrical tube options. A matrix material is applied over the knitted fiber pattern and is allowed to cure. The matrix material may include a combination of resin and epoxy constituents.The matrix material may be applied by a vacuum bag molding process. The flexible knitted reinforcing layer allows use of an inflatable bladder to hold the reinforcing layer in the desired shape, thereby facilitating tube constructions of varying shapes and diameters. Continuous application of the matrix material avoids overlapping seams that are prone to delamination. Methods are provided for reinforcing the composite tube construction including one or more folded layers of knitted fiber, a reinforcing wrap made of knitted fiber, and an inflatable balloon element in combination with a layer(s) of knitted fiber.
US09366364B2
A fitting for providing a substantially fluid-tight seal between an opening in a chamber wall and a pipe passing through the opening, the fitting including a tubular sleeve adapted to allow the pipe to pass through the sleeve, a flange extending radially outwardly from the sleeve, the fitting incorporating an energy transfer device enabling heating to cause the fitting and the wall to fuse or bond together in order to form a substantially fluid-tight seal.
US09366362B2
A spring-style railway hose support has a retraction-biased extension unit of a longitudinally compressible spring and a pair of oppositely directed internal wireforms within the longitudinally compressible spring. The internal wireforms engage respective ends of the longitudinally compressible spring, and a closed end of each is configured to allow it to project beyond a respective end of the longitudinally compressible spring. The retraction-biased extension unit is adapted to be directly or indirectly connected to a railway brake hose and to a railway car component that is positioned above the hose on a railway car.
US09366357B2
The present invention relates to an electromagnetic valve for a tank valve of a fuel supply system of a gas fuel motor vehicle, comprising a magnetic coil with an inner guide, and a magnetic armature which can move axially in the inner guide. The magnetic anchor consists of an anchor, a seal element which is arranged between the anchor and a fuel inlet, and a counter pole which abuts the seal element. The present invention also relates to such a tank valve and to a fuel supply system having such an electromagnetic valve.
US09366350B2
A gas cylinder is provided with a pressure regulator including a valve body including an upper first chamber, intermediate second and third chambers, a lower channel threadedly secured to and communicating with a container body, a passageway having one end communicating with the container body, a lower through hole communicating with the intermediate third chamber and the channel, and an internally threaded top neck; a high-pressure safety valve; a low-pressure safety valve; a coupler on the valve body; a moveable member on a bottom of the intermediate third chamber; a spring biased hollow member in the intermediate second chamber and having a bottom engaged the moveable member; an externally threaded stem in the upper first chamber and complimentarily disposed on the hollow member; a hollow cap threadedly secured to the stem and the neck respectively; and a knob mounted on the stem.
US09366349B2
A slam-shut safety device includes a valve body defining a flow path, a valve disc support, and a valve disc that is mounted on the valve disc support and is movable between an open first position spaced away from the valve seat and a closed second position seated against a valve seat. A reset pin is operatively coupled to the valve disc support and is shiftable between an untripped position placing the valve disc in the open position and a tripped position placing the valve disc in the closed position. An anti-rotation assembly is carried by cooperating portions of the valve disc and the valve disc support, with the anti-rotation assembly comprising at least one protrusion and at least one receiving area sized to receive the protrusion, the anti-rotation assembly arranged to stop rotation of the valve disc relative to the valve disc support.
US09366339B2
A vehicle shift control device includes: a parking lock device selectively switched by driving of an electric motor between a lock position restraining rotation of wheels and a non-lock position not restraining the rotation of the wheels; and an electronic control device controlling the electric motor, the vehicle shift control device providing a parking lock switching control of selectively switching the parking lock device between the lock position and the non-locking position in an activated state of the electronic control device, wherein if the electronic control device is switched from the deactivated state to the activated state, the vehicle shift control device provides a wall abutment control of driving the parking lock device with the electric motor to a mechanical displacement end before starting the provision of the parking lock switching control, and if a temperature of the electric motor is lower than a predefined low-temperature determination value, the vehicle shift control device provides an electric motor heat generation control of energizing the electric motor without rotating the electric motor after the electronic control device is switched from a deactivated state to an activated state and before starting the provision of the wall abutment control.
US09366338B2
A hydraulic system for actuating a transmission shifting element that comprises control and shifting valves. A first surface of a valve slide of the control valve is a differential surface between two functional surfaces of the slide that axially bound an area of the slide having a smaller diameter, by which the actuation pressure is adjusted. When the shifting valve is in a second switch position, a total force component acts upon the slide of the control valve which moves the slide such that the actuation pressure is equal to a system pressure. The total force component corresponds at least to the sum of a first force component equivalent to a pressure signal applied to a second surface of the slide of the control valve and a second force component equivalent to an actuation pressure applied to the first surface of the slide of the control valve.
US09366334B2
The present invention relates to a transfer case (16) lubrication system (42) that includes a housing (44) defining a chamber and having a lower portion (58). A partition (46) extends from the lower portion (58) and is disposed in the chamber so as to define a reservoir for oil, adjacent to the partition (46) and spaced from the chamber. First and second sprocket (50)s are supported in the chamber, with the first sprocket (48) being spaced from the reservoir. The system also includes a pump assembly (52) having an oil pump (78), a pickup (80) in fluid communication with the pump and at least partially disposed in the reservoir, and a spray bar (82) in fluid communication with the pump for directing oil from the reservoir to a predetermined location within the chamber. A chain (54) connects the sprockets and is spaced from the partition (46) so as to generate a windage force for transferring oil from the chamber to the reservoir in operation.
US09366332B2
A power transmission device includes a casing, a first shaft, and a second shaft, wherein the first shaft has a protruding portion which protrudes from the casing, a fan is provided at the protruding portion, a fan cover configured to cover the fan has an extending portion which extends toward a bearing supporting portion of the second shaft along a side surface of the casing, and the extending portion is inclined so as to approach the side surface of the casing toward the bearing supporting portion side from the fan side.
US09366330B2
A gearbox supporting device of a wind turbine with a rotor, a substantially horizontally oriented rotor shaft, a gearbox and a main frame. The gearbox supporting device includes at least one rolling bearing arranged between a rotor hub and the gearbox and at least two supports on the gearbox. The supports each have at least one central supporting body, at least one frame and a plurality of flat elastomer bodies that are or can be clamped between the frame and the supporting body. At least two of the supports are fixed bearings for absorbing at least 50% of the rotor thrust acting in the axial direction of the rotor shaft during the operation of the wind turbine.
US09366327B2
Serially-connected ball screw pair and piezoelectric actuator macro-micro driving and guiding device
A serially-connected ball screw pair and piezoelectric actuator macro-micro driving and guiding device includes, from the bottom to the top, a sliding seat (1), a ball screw pair, a sliding table guide rail pairs, a nut seat (6), a piezoelectric actuator (7), a micro-moving table, a nut seat guide rail pairs and a sliding table (1). The axis of a ball screw is symmetric with respect to two sliding table rail pairs, a nut (3) of the ball screw pair is fixedly mounted into the nut seat (6), one end of the piezoelectric actuator (7) is fixedly connected with the nut seat (6) and the other end thereof is fixedly connected with the micro-moving table (8), the axis of the piezoelectric actuator is symmetric relative to two sliding table rail pairs, an upper surface of the micro-moving table is fixedly mounted to a lower surface of the sliding table, and two nut rail pairs are symmetric relative to the axis of the ball screw. The ultra precision feeding in a long stroke within a full journey can be achieved; and the piezoelectric actuator only endures the driving force without enduring the driving torque generated by the driving force of the ball screw pair, thus, so that the piezoelectric actuator is in a good stressed status, which is applicable to a large-load ultra-precision feed system.
US09366322B2
One embodiment includes a tensioner that includes a housing, a piston, and a shoe. The piston extends from the housing. The shoe is carried by the piston and has a recess. The recess receives a portion or more of the piston.
US09366318B2
A transmission includes a transmission input element, a transmission output element and a gear ratio changing system in a torque path between the transmission input element and the transmission output element. A torsional vibration damping arrangement with an input region and an output region is provided in the torque path. A first torque transmission path and, parallel thereto, a second torque transmission path, and a coupling arrangement for superposing the torques transmitted via the torque transmission paths, are provided between the input region and the output region. The torsional vibration damping arrangement includes a phase shifter arrangement for generating a phase shift of rotational irregularities transmitted via the first torque transmission path relative to rotational irregularities transmitted via the second torque transmission path.
US09366314B2
The present invention relates to a cover fabric for power transmission belt, which covers at least a part of working surface of a power transmission belt coming into contact or engage with a pulley and thereby transmitting power, in which the cover fabric contains a yarn, the yarn contains at least a fluorine-based fiber, and the fluorine-based fiber is formed of at least one slit yarn, and the cover fabric is subjected to an adhesion treatment.
US09366305B2
In a hydrostatic fluid guide device, a damping mechanism is provided. A fluid is supplied to the damping mechanism by a hydrostatic pressure caused by natural fall, instead of being pressurized and supplied. Thus, it is possible to suppress a decrease in the pressure of the fluid in a hydrostatic fluid guide mechanism, and to position a movable body with high accuracy by setting rigidity for load support during linear movement of the movable body to a value substantially equal to a design value.
US09366302B1
Friction disks, such as rotors and stators, including floating wear liners are disclosed. The friction disks may include a core and a floating wear liner configured to contact a contact surface of the core. The cores may include a retention ring that is substantially concentric with the core and extends axially beyond the plane of the contact surface. The retention ring may retain one or more floating wear liners in a substantially concentric position aligned with the contact surface to provide frictional contact with the core during braking.
US09366297B2
A system for transmitting power from a drive shaft to a seed meter shaft of a seeder is disclosed. The system comprises a first transmission that connects to one of the drive shaft and the seed meter shaft. The first transmission also connects to a clutch assembly. The clutch assembly connects to a flexible drive shaft assembly, and the flexible drive shaft assembly connects to a second transmission. The second transmission connects to the other of the drive shaft and the seed meter shaft. The clutch assembly is detachable from the first transmission and the flexible drive shaft assembly and the flexible drive shaft assembly is directly connectable to the first transmission.
US09366294B2
An inner-shaft bearing bracket structure may include an inner-shaft that may be installed between a differential gear or a reduction gear connected to a motor or a engine for generating rotational power of a vehicle and a drive shaft for transmitting the rotational power to wheels of the vehicle in a vehicle width direction, bearings which wrap an outer peripheral surface of the inner-shaft and to which the inner-shaft may be rotatably coupled, and a bearing bracket which connects a pipe that houses and supports the bearings therein and a boss formed in the motor to project forward, wherein the bearing bracket may be disposed on a side surface of the boss and may be coupled by bolts in the vehicle width direction of the vehicle body.
US09366290B2
A high strength, low friction engineered material includes a low friction material filling interstices of a metal microlattice. The metal typically comprises 5 volume % to 25 volume % and the interstices typically comprise 75 volume % to 95 volume %, based on the total volume of the metal microlattice and the interstices. The low friction material preferably fills 100 volume % of the interstices. The metal microlattice can be formed of a single layer, or multiple layers, for example layers of nickel, copper, and tin. The low friction material is typically a polymer, such as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), polyamide (PAI), polyetheretherketone (PEEK), polyethylene (PE), or polyoxymethylene (POM). The low friction material can also include additive particles to modify the material properties. The engineered material can be used in various automotive applications, for example as a bearing, or non-automotive applications.
US09366287B2
An object is to provide a tilting-pad bearing device whereby it is possible to levitate a rotation shaft with a low supply-oil pressure. A tilting-pad bearing device includes a plurality of bearing pads disposed around a rotation shaft so as to support the rotation shaft rotatably, a support member interposed between the plurality of bearing pads and a bearing housing supporting the plurality of bearing pads, the support member supporting each of the plurality of bearing pads pivotably, and an oil-supply mechanism configured to supply a lubricant oil to at least one oil groove formed on a bearing surface of at least one of the plurality of bearing pads. The at least one oil groove is disposed inside and outside a contact area of the bearing surface which is in contact with an outer circumferential surface of the rotation shaft when the rotation shaft is stopped.
US09366283B2
Blind rivet nut with a rivet shank and method for forming blind rivet nut. The blind rivet nut includes a set head. a threaded section having a thread, and a deformation section arranged between the set head and the threaded section, having at least one reinforcement region.
US09366272B2
A hydraulic fan circuit is provided. The hydraulic fan circuit includes a tank, a motor having a fluid inlet and a fluid outlet and a pump to draw fluid at a low pressure from the tank and discharge the fluid at elevated pressures to the motor via the fluid inlet. The hydraulic fan circuit further includes a directional control valve disposed between the fluid outlet of the motor and the tank. The directional control valve is operable to move between a flow blocking position and a flow passing position. Further, the directional control valve is configured to reduce a positive speed of the motor below a lowest positive speed attainable through control of pump output. Furthermore, the hydraulic fan circuit includes a pressure control circuit configured to provide a pilot fluid flow at varying pressure to move the directional control valve.
US09366267B2
An oil-hydraulic unit includes a power module generating heat when energized. The power module is provided on the bottom surface of a recess facing hydraulic oil in a tank. Thus, the power module is cooled by the hydraulic oil in the tank. This reduces the difference in temperature between the power module and the hydraulic oil in the tank. In the oil-hydraulic unit, the temperature sensor detects the temperature of the power module. The oil temperature in the tank is estimated based on the temperature detected by the temperature sensor.
US09366256B2
An oil-lubricated automotive volumetric vacuum pump includes a circumferential pump room wall surrounding a pump room. A rotor comprises a rotor body with an oil receiving cavity and a guiding slot. The rotor body is adjacent to the pump room wall. The rotor rotates inside the pump room. A vane with a vane body and a vane end portion shifts in the guiding slot. The rotor body, the vane, and the circumferential pump room wall define at least two pump chambers. An oil discharge channel with a flow opening in a plane is arranged at the vane end portion of the vane and/or at the guiding slot. The flow opening opens so that oil can flow from a pump chamber through the oil discharge channel to the oil receiving cavity only in a retracted position of the vane end portion during a final compression phase of the respective pump chamber.
US09366255B2
A vacuum type of scroll pump includes a frame, a stationary plate scroll, an orbiting plate scroll, a non-energized type of tip seal or seals, an eccentric drive mechanism assembled to and supported by the frame and to which the orbiting plate scroll is assembled so as to be drivable by the eccentric drive mechanism in an orbit about a longitudinal axis of the pump, and a mechanism for adjusting the seal(s) created by the tip seal(s) without having to disassemble any of the frame, plate scrolls or parts of the eccentric drive mechanism from one another, i.e., while a pump head assembly of the pump remains intact.
US09366254B2
A scroll-type compressor for a vehicle, comprising a housing, a fixed scroll and a movable scroll provided in the housing, and a drive mechanism that is provided in the housing and that drives the movable scroll in a manner that disables rotating and enables orbit, by rotation of a drive shaft supported at a front end and a rear end by a front bearing device and a rear bearing device, is provided. The housing includes a first housing, a second housing and a third housing. The compressor includes a vibration isolator that is provided between the movable scroll and the first housing, wherein the vibration isolator is made of a vibration absorbing material and is capable of absorbing vibrations generated at the movable scroll to thereby prevent transfer of the vibrations from the movable scroll to the mounting member via the first housing.
US09366253B2
In a scroll compressor of the present invention, tip seals and are fitted in tip seal grooves provided in higher and lower tip surfaces of spiral wraps. One end of the tip seals then repeats contact and non-contact with a bottom land of the other scroll by a revolution in an orbiting manner of an orbiting scroll. In addition, a projection extending in a vertical direction from a back surface of the tip seals is provided at one end of the tip seals that become in a cantilever state. Furthermore, a hole in which the projection is fitted and engaged is formed in one end bottom surface of the tip seal grooves in which the tip seals are fitted.
US09366252B2
A pump has a suction region, a pressure region, and a pressure space which has an outflow region. A rotor is connected to a shaft in which rotor delivery elements are displacably received. The rotor has expelling regions connected to the pressure region by way of a first fluid path. A cold starting device is prestressed into a first functional position to shutoff a second fluid path from the pressure region to the pressure space, and is configured to be displaced counter to the prestress into a second functional position to open the second fluid path. The cold starting device is arranged in its second functional position at least in regions with a relief face which faces away from the pressure region in a relief receptacle. The relief face is loaded during operation of the pump with a pressure being smaller than a system pressure in the outflow region.
US09366250B1
A hydraulic device includes a cover plate with a cylinder hole opposite an end surface of a rotating shaft of a gear which receives two thrust forces in the same direction. A piston extends through the cylinder hole. A working liquid in a high pressure side acts on a back surface of the piston to press the piston onto the end surface of the rotating shaft, thereby causing a drag that cancels the two thrust forces acting on the gear.
US09366249B2
The disclosure relates to a pistol pump for delivering fluids comprising a piston, a cylinder element, and a pressure chamber arranged between an inlet valve and an outlet valve. The pressure chamber is closed off by a cover. The outlet valve comprises a closing body, a preload device which acts on the closing body, and a supporting mechanism configured to support the preload device. The outlet valve is arranged on the outer circumference of the cylinder element and adjusts a fluid flow conducted through at least one outflow opening between the cover and the cylinder element. The closing body is configured as a movable annular disk guided on the cylinder element, the inner diameter of which annular disk is matched to the outer diameter of the cylinder element.
US09366225B2
An actuating system for controlling the flight of a power wing profile or kite controlled via at least two cables for conversion of wind energy into electrical or mechanical energy, includes a first unit for exerting an action of unwinding-winding of the cables to the same extent, and a second unit set between the power kite and the first unit for providing an action of differential control of the cables. The system employs a single motor or motor/generator.
US09366216B2
Vehicles equipped with an automatic start-stop system may include an interface for conveying inhibitors preventing an engine from auto-stopping in addition to the status of the automatic start-stop system. The system may identify one or more inhibitors actively preventing an auto-stop event from occurring and select at least one of the active inhibitors based on a priority scheme. The interface may communicate the at least one selected inhibitor to a driver using a display or a speaker, or both.
US09366208B2
A fuel injector body has a fuel chamber and a valve seat around a fuel outlet. A valve body is positioned at the valve seat and a valve stem extends through the fuel outlet and fuel chamber. Engagement (disengagement) of valve body and valve seat closes (opens) the injector. The fuel chamber can comprise primary and secondary chambers connected by a valve passage and a metering member that restricts fuel flow between the chambers, thereby providing a flow-dependent closing force that reduces the dependence of fuel flow through the injector on fuel inlet pressure and that makes that flow dependent on an injector actuating force. The injector body or the valve body can comprise a spray-shaping surface arranged at least partly around the valve seat, which spray-shaping surface is arranged to direct a spray of fuel flowing through the fuel outlet.
US09366206B2
A fuel-air separator includes a chamber with an interior side-wall surface and adjacent interior top and bottom surfaces. An inlet of the fuel-air separator opens to the interior side-wall surface to admit fuel and air and to cause the fuel and air to flow helically down and along the interior side-wall surface. A diptube opens to the bottom surface and extends along an axis of the interior side-wall surface to a fuel outlet, while the separated air is released to the atmosphere.
US09366200B2
The invention relates to seal assembly for a rotary piston internal combustion engine comprising a rotating block (11) of a rotational shape with radially situated cylinders (12) with pistons (13) and an outer stationary case (10) with at least one intake port (14) and/or exhaust port (15). The outer surface (16) of the rotating block (11) is a rotational surface with a straight line or curved profile curve, on which transverse and/or side sealing parts, which are placed in the stationary case (10), sit. In circular side grooves (2) there is a side seal consisting of circular side sealing segments (1) that are always placed between neighboring transverse sealing strips (3), which are placed in transverse grooves (4). Those sealing strips (3) go through the side grooves (2) across. In the place, where the side sealing segments (1) and transverse sealing strips (3) meet, there are joints (5) with notches (7) for inserting the side sealing segments (1) and transverse sealing strips (3).
US09366199B2
The present disclosure relates to an improved internal combustion engine including a cylindrical cylinder, on either side a cylinder head is emplaced and a reciprocating piston and oil reserve tank is also located in the piston for lubricating the cylinder and it has two series of fire, compression and oil rings, located on two sides of the piston in order to seal the cylinder housing. The improved engine provides more compaction, discharge and better breath in comparison with common engines; wherein air is compressed into the cylinder and smoke exits from the cylinder speedily. The improved engine has a significant impact on fuel saving. In addition, smoke and air filters are emplaced on the valves which will produce less emissions compared with the similar engines. In comparison with similar engines in double-ended combustion engines, the fuel consumed is cut by 50% or cut by 25%. in single combustion engines.
US09366192B2
A hazardous gas detection system includes a first and second plurality of air sampling ports in fluid communication with an exhaust duct of a gas turbine enclosure. The first and second plurality of air sampling ports is fluidly connected to a first and second outlet orifice respectfully. A primary sensor is in fluid communication with the first outlet orifice and a secondary sensor is in fluid communication with the second outlet orifice. The primary and secondary sensors generate signals indicative of hazardous gas concentrations in first and second aggregated exhaust air samples. A computing device monitors the hazardous gas concentrations, monitors functionality of the primary and secondary sensors and generates a command signal indicating an operating mode for the gas turbine based on at least one of the hazardous gas concentrations in the first and second aggregated exhaust air samples and the functionality of the primary and secondary sensors.
US09366188B2
A purge process of a gas turbine supply pipe network provided with fuel (diesel or natural gas) at least partly containing synthesis gas comprises of injection of inert gas in intervalve portions or collectors of the pipe network likely to contain fuel when the fuel supply is stopped. The injection of gas is implemented in the said portions of the network according to a sequence of respective injection.
US09366187B2
A slinger combustor has an annular combustor shell defining a combustion chamber having a radially inner fuel inlet for receiving a spray of fuel centrifuged by a fuel slinger. The combustion chamber has a fuel atomization zone extending radially outwardly from the fuel inlet and merging into a radially outwardly flaring expansion zone leading to a combustion zone. A plurality of nozzle air inlets are defined in the fuel atomization zone of the combustor shell. The nozzle air inlets have a nozzle axis intersecting the stream of fuel and a tangential component in a direction of rotation of the fuel slinger. A plurality of dilution holes are defined in the combustor shell and have a dilution axis intersecting the combustion zone. The dilution axis of at least some of the dilution holes has a tangential component opposite to the direction of rotation of the fuel slinger.
US09366178B2
Methods and systems are provided for an engine including a first turbocharger having a first compressor and a second turbocharger having a second compressor. An EGR differential between the first compressor and the second compressor may be increased under a condensation condition, and decreased under a surge condition. The EGR differential may also be decreased when a compressor outlet temperature exceeds an outlet temperature threshold.
US09366177B2
A supercharged internal combustion engine comprising a two channel turbine fluidly connects the two channels within the turbine housing by virtue of at least one opening in the housing wall which separates the two channels wherein at least one displaceable wall part is provided which serves for opening up the opening in the housing wall to optimize the performance of the turbine responsive to the exhaust gas flow rate.
