US09374867B2
The application discloses an illumination apparatus comprising: a light source configured to generate light; a detector configured to detect the posture of an object within a time period and generate a plurality of signals corresponding to this time period; and a processor configured to determine the status of the object within the time period, based on the plurality of signals, and adjust the light source to generate light corresponding to the determined status of the object.
US09374866B2
An organic EL module includes a flat plate-like light emitting panel configured to use an organic EL element; and a holding member configured to hold the light emitting panel. The holding member includes: a conductive member serving as at least a part of the holding member, and a capacitance component is provided between the conductive member and an electrode layer, the electrode layer being provided in the light emitting panel to supply a driving voltage thereto.
US09374861B2
A backlight unit includes: a light source configured to emit light based on a driving current; a sensing resistor configured to generate a sensing voltage based on the driving current; a first comparator configured to compare the sensing voltage to a first reference voltage divided from a reference power to thereby produce a first comparison signal; a first switching element controlled by the first comparison signal applied from the first comparator to thereby switch the sensing voltage; a second comparator configured to compare the sensing voltage applied via the first switching element to a first ramp signal to thereby produce a second comparison signal; a current control switching element configured to control an amount of the driving current based on the reference power and a current control signal applied from a current controller; an abnormality detector configured to convert the second comparison signal applied from the second comparator into a DC voltage and to compare the DC voltage to a critical voltage to thereby generate a third comparison signal; and a cut-off controller configured to compare the third comparison signal applied from the abnormality detector to a cut-off voltage to control the reference power based on the comparison result.
US09374855B2
Techniques are provided for bi-directional communication between a power supply and one or more light engines (and/or other lighting system components) via the existing power lines so that no additional communication wires are needed. In particular, the power supply can transmit information by modulating its output (voltage or current) and the light engine (or other lighting componentry, such as a sensor) can communicate back by modulating how much power it draws from the power supply. Any suitable type of modulation scheme can be used, and a master-slave arrangement can be used to control the bi-directional communication if so desired, so as to avoid multiple devices communicating over the power line communication channel at the same time. Other embodiments allow a multiple simultaneous communications over the power line communication channel.
US09374848B1
Embodiments of the present disclosure disclose a method and a device for improving lawful interception of a call is provided. The method comprises monitoring a telecommunication call of a lawful interception target subscriber. Then, the method comprises detecting a call-release trigger associated with the telecommunication call. Further, the method comprises initiating a media plane audit of the telecommunication call to determine whether the call-release trigger is a false release trigger. The media plane audit determines whether media plane resources for the telecommunication call is released in response to the call-release trigger. Additionally, the method includes performing at least one call handling action in response to determining a false release trigger.
US09374839B2
The embodiments herein provide a method and system for preventing collisions in a contention based random access preambles in a communication network. The method comprises of dividing the contention based preambles into a plurality of sub-groups, categorizing a plurality of users into a plurality of sub-groups, scheduling the users within a preamble subgroup in one or more random access channel opportunities and transmitting information on the sub-groups of the preamble and the random access channel opportunities to one or more user equipments. The users within a sub-group are provided access to the set of contention based preambles dispersed in time thereby reducing the number of user equipments colliding on a single random access preamble channel.
US09374838B2
A mobile station in a wireless communication network. The mobile station includes a radio communication that transmits an access request message to a base station via a first communication resource, and receives a timing adjustment in response to the access request message from the base station. The mobile station also includes an adjustment value storage unit that stores the timing adjustment, and a control unit that adjusts access timing corresponding to a second communication resource based on the timing adjustment value stored in the adjustment value storage unit. The radio communication unit then communicates with the base station via the first communication resource and the second communication resource.
US09374834B2
Various embodiments are disclosed relating to techniques for RTS/CTS usage in a wireless network. According to an example embodiment, a network performance may be measured within a wireless network. A variety of parameters may be measured at a wireless node to determine a network performance. In addition, it may be determined whether the network performance has reached a degraded performance threshold. A frame is transmitted via the wireless network. If the network performance has reached the degraded performance threshold, the frame may be transmitted using a Request-to-Send/Clear-to-Send (RTS/CTS) protection. In another example embodiment, a frame may be transmitted using RTS/CTS protection if an estimated transmission time for the frame exceeds a transmission time threshold.
US09374831B2
Embodiments of the invention provide coexistence among independent networks through active superframe interleaving. Network hubs and devices exchange signals over a selected channel only during active superframes of their network. Network hubs broadcast coexistence information during their active superframes. A hub of network B desiring to use the selected channel first attempts to fit its active superframes within network A's inactive superframes, if available. If network A is not providing inactive superframes, then the network B hub determines whether network A is willing to coexist using active superframe interleaving on the channel. If so, the network B hub sends an interleave request message to the network A hub, which may accept the message and send back an interleave response message. The network A hub then offers new inactive superframes, and the network B hub adapts the transmissions and receptions of network B to fit within these inactive superframes.
US09374827B2
A proposed 3GPP LTE protocol enhancement disclosed herein, enables an eNB to interface with its network core to achieve optimal resource reallocations and bearer modifications necessary to minimize negative impact on user experience in the events of LSA spectrum reclamation. A method for radio spectrum resource reallocation at an evolved Node B (eNB) comprises acquiring, from an incumbent, Licensed Shared Access (LSA) radio spectrum resource, receiving, from an Operator Administration and Management (OA&M) entity, a directive to relinquish the acquired LSA spectrum resource, performing an analysis of optimal spectrum resource reallocation for determining a proposed reallocation of remaining spectrum resources, communicating, to a network core, the proposed reallocation of remaining spectrum resources, receiving, from the network core, instructions for reallocating the remaining spectrum resources, wherein the instructions are based on the communicated proposal, and reallocating remaining spectrum resources according to the received instructions.
US09374821B2
A method and system to improve backoff counter handling with relation to a clear channel assessment (CCA) process. The method and system improve a wireless medium availability by adjusting the backoff counter such that the processing of a preamble of a frame received during a backoff is taken into account. Received frames that fall between two CCA thresholds may require decoding of information in the preamble to assess whether the wireless medium is available. A portion of the preamble is decoded that identifies information utilized to determine whether the wireless medium may be considered to be busy. However, during this determination that requires the reading of the preamble of a received frame the backoff counter may be held or decremented even though the wireless medium status is unknown. The method and system provide a set of possible adjustments to the backoff counter to account for this uncertainty and the outcome of the CCA.
US09374814B2
The present application relates to the field of communications, and disclosed are a DCI transmission method and device under cross-band carrier aggregation. The method is: for LTE-A UE which aggregates carriers having different TDD uplink/downlink configurations, according to a pre-arranged rule or high-layer signaling configuration information, determining whether a DAI and a UL index are contained in a DCI format which is used by a PDCCH for scheduling a PUSCH, and determining a CSS and a USS respectively and separately. Accordingly, it can be ensured that the size of a DCI which is transmitted in a CSS does not change, thus ensuring the normal transmission of common cell information, and at the same time, in a USS, according to the actual needs, a specific bit field in the DCI can be determined rationally, thus supporting the UL multi-frame scheduling and/or the resource overhead control of an ACK/NACK over a PUSCH.
US09374813B2
A method for allocating resources for a downlink control channel by a base station in a wireless communication system is disclosed. Specifically, the method comprises the steps of: mapping resource elements to resource element groups for each of resource blocks; forming control channel elements by using a predetermined number of resource element groups from among the resource element groups; and allocating control channel elements of a number corresponding to an aggregation level of the downlink control channel as resources for the downlink control channel, wherein the number of available resource elements included in each of the resource element groups or the number of available resource elements included in each of the control channel elements of a number corresponding to the aggregation level is uniform.
US09374807B2
A method for uplink scheduling over a communication channel in a communication network including at least one UE and an eNodeB, is described. The method comprises determining whether the UE is associated with at least one of Guaranteed Bit Rate (GBR) bearers and non-Guaranteed Bit Rate (non-GBR) bearers. Based on the determining, for each of the GBR-bearers and the non-GBR-bearers, computing a demand for resources for establishing an uplink communication, wherein the demand is computed based physical layer characteristics and transport layer characteristics associated with the communication channel. The demand computed is communicated as a request message to the eNodeB. In response to the request message, receiving an allocation of the resources for uplink scheduling from the eNodeB.
US09374805B2
A personal network may be established by interconnecting a plurality of satellites as part of the personal network. Each satellite may be configured to communicate with one or more other satellites. On any given one of the plurality of satellites, data indicating a connectivity status for the one or more other satellites is automatically received, and information indicating a capability of the one or more other satellites is automatically received. The given satellite may be configured to enable at least one other corresponding satellite in the plurality of satellites to be made available for use, so that a capability of the at least one other corresponding satellite is made available for the given satellite.
US09374799B2
The described examples provide a system and methods for identifying a location of a mobile device within an indoor venue using cellular communication signals obtained while the mobile device is within the indoor venue. An array of antennas arranged within the indoor venue detects cellular communication signals transmitted by the mobile device. The detected cellular communication signals have detectable and measurable signal parameters that allow the location of the mobile device within the indoor venue and an identifier of the mobile device to be determined. The determined identifier of the mobile device may also be used to identify the mobile device subscriber. The mobile device indoor location information may be used to update an anonymized subscriber profile associated with the mobile device subscriber.
US09374795B2
One disclosure of the present invention suggests a method for synchronizing a downlink. The method for synchronizing downlinks comprises the steps of: receiving from at least one cell, which belongs to a random group, a synchronization signal; synchronizing the downlink in accordance with the synchronization signal; and using the downlink synchronization, which is performed on the at least one cell, to synchronize the downlink with a target cell, when the target cell that belongs to the random group is converted from an off state to an on state, wherein the random group comprises geographically adjacent cells, and wherein the cells that are comprised in the random group can have mutually different cell IDs, but a portion of the synchronization signals can be identical.
US09374794B2
In a communication system including first and second base stations, an apparatus operates as the first base station. The apparatus determines a first reference timing that is used as a reference timing for transmitting a downlink signal, and adjusts the determined first reference timing to a second reference timing being used in the second base station. The apparatus corrects a deviation of the first reference timing from the second reference timing, which has occurred after adjustment of the first reference timing, in accordance with a receiving timing of a preamble signal transmitted from a mobile station device to the second base station.
US09374783B2
Embodiments of user equipment (UE) and methods for enhanced discontinuous reception (DRX) operations for inter eNB carrier aggregation (CA) in an LTE network are generally described herein. In some embodiments, a UE is configured to be served by multiple serving cells. The first set of the serving cells may be associated with a first eNB and a second set of serving cells may be associated with a second eNB. In these embodiments, DRX operations may be performed independently in multiple serving cells belonging to the different eNBs. Other embodiments for enhanced DRX operations are also described.
US09374779B2
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a method and an apparatus for reducing transmit power. The method includes allocating initial bandwidth to all terminals scheduled in a current timeslot in a cell; calculating remaining bandwidth in the current timeslot and remaining system bandwidth; if the remaining system bandwidth is greater than preset threshold bandwidth, reducing transmit power or a frequency domain to calculate expanded bandwidth; calculating a transmit power reduction value corresponding to the terminal in a current scheduling timeslot, and a time domain system power reduction value, or a final frequency domain system power reduction value of each terminal; when the time domain system power reduction value is not less than a preset threshold, or when a final frequency domain transmit power reduction value of each terminal is not less than a preset threshold, reducing transmit power of a base station.
US09374778B2
A node for use in a wireless communication system comprising at least two Tx-chains and at least two Rx-chains is provided. A first means for a switch and filter network function MSN is arranged across all Tx-chains. The first MSN is arranged to output one antenna sector signal comprising: a radio sector signal, or a split radio sector signal, the splitting of a radio sector signal allowing one radio sector signal to feed sector antennas in more than one sector, each sector having at least one sector antenna. The first or a second MSN can also be arranged across Rx-chains. Further, a method to reduce power consumption in a node and a wireless communication system comprising the node is provided.
US09374772B2
A method for implementation at a processor of a vehicular telematics unit is described. The method allows data structures formatted to store one or more wireless network communication parameters to be updated in response to a swap of a subscription with one network service provider for a subscription with a different network service provider. The method includes receiving, from a network access device of the vehicular telematics unit, a home public land mobile network (HPLMN) identifier corresponding to a wireless network service provider corresponding to an active subscription. The method also includes identifying, in a set of one or more access point name (APN) data structures each having a public land mobile network (PLMN) identifier field, a matching APN data structure having the HPLMN identifier stored at its PLMN element and designating the matching APN data structure as active.
US09374768B2
Methodologies and apparatus to support interworking operations between a cellular radio area network (RAN) and a wireless local area network (WLAN) utilizing broadcast RAN assistance information. In various embodiments, a RAN (such as a LTE/LTE-advanced RAN) transmits RAN assistance information to a multimode user equipment (UE) for use in network selection and traffic steering operations. Certain parameters, such as RAN load assistance information, may be transmitted in a first format or a second, less granular format that changes relatively infrequently over time as compared to the first format. A system information broadcast procedure utilizing a paging message is employed to transmit information in the second format. The paging message may include a change notification flag that triggers a UE to initiate a system information acquisition procedure to a retrieve system information message(s) including the relevant interworking parameters.
US09374754B2
A method for synchronising a receiving device with a transmitting device in a wireless communication network comprising forming a synchronisation sequence that has a frequency spectrum comprising peaks at multiple discrete fundamental frequencies, a signal power of the synchronisation sequence being concentrated at those frequencies, and transmitting said synchronisation sequence from the transmitting device to the receiving device.
US09374750B2
A method includes receiving information indicating a user equipment is to be handed over from a source base station and scheduling transmission of a control channel for said user equipment in dependence on identity information associated with said user equipment.
US09374749B2
Certain embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method for switching radio frequency (RF) carriers that serve communication between a base station (BS) and a mobile station (MS). The switching of carriers can be viewed as a handoff procedure between two different RF carriers within the same BS. A simplified handoff procedure for switching of RF carriers can be applied when the MS switches its physical connection from a primary RF carrier to a secondary RF carrier, as well as in the case when the BS decides to move the MS from one primary RF carrier to another primary RF carrier.
US09374738B2
A cell reselection technique establishes a data call on a different radio access technology (RAT) when a background application requests initiation of a data call while camped on a serving RAT. Rather than setting up the data call immediately on the serving RAT, a user equipment (UE) determines signal quality of the other RAT. When the signal quality is good, the UE delays call setup until after reselecting to the other RAT.
US09374734B1
Disclosed are methods and systems for using mobile-station-specific gateway-burden data for assigning mobile stations to data-access gateways. One embodiment takes the form of a method carried out by at least one network entity in a communication system that includes a radio access network (RAN) for providing wireless service to mobile stations and that further includes multiple data-access gateways. The method includes maintaining mobile-station-specific gateway-burden data that associates each of multiple mobile stations with one or more indicia of the extent to which those mobile stations have respectively consumed one or more resources of one or more of the data-access gateways. The method further includes using the mobile-station-specific gateway-burden data to assign mobile stations among the various data-access gateways such that mobile stations indicated by the mobile-station-specific gateway-burden data as having placed similar burdens on one or more of the gateways are grouped together by assignment to the same respective gateways.
US09374728B2
The present invention provides a method for measuring a location. The method comprises: receiving, by a User Equipment (UE) and from a serving cell, information on a bandwidth allocated for a positioning reference signal (PRS); receiving, by the User Equipment (UE) and from at least one or more neighbor cells, information on a bandwidth allocated for a PRS; determining whether there is a difference between the bandwidths; and measuring, by the UE and based on a result of the determination a timing difference between PRSs transmitted from the serving cell and the at least one or more neighbor cells.
US09374722B1
Methods and systems for applying a multi-path, maximum SINR, pre-processing interference rejection filter to an interference-limited signal received from a plurality of users in a wireless network operating according to the Long Term Evolution (“LTE”) standard includes receiving raw data, including training data from a plurality of users, selecting at least one modeled user, subtracting a contribution of the modeled user(s) from the training data to form a residual training signal, forming an interference rejection covariance matrix from the residual training signal, whitening the raw data using the interference rejection covariance matrix, and equalizing the whitened received data. In embodiments, an estimated contribution of a subset of the modeled users is subtracted from the raw data for filtering in a subsequent turbo loop. The subset can be selected based on an estimated post-combined SINR, an estimated outage capacity, or an estimated multiuser efficiency of the received data.
US09374717B2
An access point is identified for providing service for an access terminal. In some aspects, the identification of an access point is based on loading at one or more access points. In some implementations, an access terminal selects a cell (e.g., the cell that provides maximum throughput) based on the cell load at one or more cells. In some implementations, load estimation is based on information acquired by an access terminal from nearby access points.
US09374713B2
A non-Bluetooth device operates in a same frequency band as Bluetooth devices by employing a method of intelligent frequency hopping. The method includes: scanning a frequency band for frequency hopping communications in the frequency band by one or more Bluetooth communication devices communicating according to a Bluetooth communication protocol; determining a first frequency hopping sequence utilized by the one or more Bluetooth communication devices according to the Bluetooth communication protocol; determining a second frequency hopping sequence within the frequency band to avoid interference from the frequency hopping communications by the one or more Bluetooth communication devices; and establishing a wireless communication connection between two non-Bluetooth devices, the wireless communication connection operating in the frequency band according to a second wireless communication protocol different than the Bluetooth communication protocol, and using the second frequency hopping sequence.
US09374712B2
A method for providing secure element partitions for an NFC enabled device for a plurality of card issuers, the method comprising creating in a secure element of the NFC enabled device a plurality of secure element partitions; and allocating said secure element partitions of the secure element to the respective card issuers.
US09374711B2
A monitoring system, monitoring server, method, and program that, when an unauthorized access point is installed, effectively block wireless communications performed by the unauthorized access point, a monitoring system including a monitoring server for monitoring an unauthorized access point and multiple terminals connected to the monitoring server via a network is provided. The terminals acquire radio wave information from radio waves transmitted by an access point, and transmit the radio wave information to the monitoring server. The monitoring server detects an unauthorized access point using terminal information including the radio wave information received from the terminals, designates a terminal as a pseudo-access point using intensity of radio waves transmitted by the unauthorized access point, and instructs the terminal to transmit radio waves. The terminal transmits radio waves in accordance with the instruction from the monitoring server.
US09374710B2
A mediation server which is able to communicate with a plurality of account managing servers (104) and mediates requests for issuing subscription information transmitted from a plurality of communication devices between each communication device and any one of the plurality of account managing servers (104), the mediation server comprising, a selection unit configured to select the account managing server to which the request is to be transmitted based on information regarding a current operational status of each account managing server stored in a database, when the request is received from the communication device, and a transmission unit configured to transmit the request for issuing the subscription information to the selected account managing server.
US09374698B2
An individual uses a communication device to provide information identifying the type of emergency that the individual is experiencing. In response to receiving an emergency alert, an inquiry as to whether the received emergency alert relates to a medical emergency or to a non-medical emergency is generated and provided to the user. Upon receiving a response indicating that the emergency alert relates to a medical emergency, a medical history of the individual is automatically retrieved and a geographical location of the user is determined. A medical emergency service that is suitable for determining a type of medical assistance required by the individual is automatically identified based on the received confirmation and the retrieved medical history. A bi-directional communication with a communication device of the identified medical emergency service is established to upload to a data storage element of the communication device the medical history and geographical location of the individual.
US09374687B2
The present application discloses methods, devices, servers, and systems for notification between mobile terminals during communication. When two mobile terminals are in an active communication session, sometimes one terminal fails to respond to the other terminal due to various reasons such as distractions, additional responsibilities, or technical difficulties. The mobile terminal that is not getting a response may then utilize the process herein disclosed to notify the other terminal that a response is expected. By shaking or other convenient approaches, a mobile terminal may send out a notification request during an active communication session. The other terminal may return a notification response indicating whether the other terminal is in a current communication with a third mobile terminal or is in an idle status.
US09374686B2
A mobile phone provided with a push-to-talk function and methods for operating a mobile phone provided with a push-to-talk function are disclosed. An operation receiving module is configured to receive a user operation. A display control module is configured to cause a display module to display both first information relevant to a push-to-talk call and second information relevant to a function other than the push-to-talk, if the user operation for executing the function other than the push-to-talk is received during the push-to-talk call.
US09374684B2
A method and an apparatus for transmitting CSG information are disclosed. In the method, a base station obtains CSG reporting configuration information, determines a CSG information reporting condition is met according to the CSG reporting configuration information, and transmits CSG information of a cell that a UE is located to a mobility management entity.
US09374680B2
A method for deciding a position of a terminal connecting a Bluetooth system inside a vehicle includes measuring, by each of a plurality of Bluetooth antennas equipped inside the vehicle, a strength of received power of the terminal. A distance of the terminal is determined from each of the plurality of Bluetooth antennas based on the measured strength of received power. The position of the terminal equipped inside the vehicle is determined based on the distance.
US09374679B2
A service providing device is disclosed. The service providing device mounted in a vehicle comprises: a communication unit for receiving a terminal signal from at least one terminal device; and a control unit which determines the distance to the terminal device from the received terminal signal, determines a user riding in the vehicle on the basis of the determined distance, and provides a preset service on the basis of the determined user and terminal information included in the terminal signal. Thus, the service providing device can provide a service suitable for the user riding in the vehicle.
US09374668B2
A method of and electronic device for processing multimedia of an electronic device is provided. The method includes determining location information relative to another electronic device based on audio input from the another electronic device in a mode of sharing the multimedia, and controlling an output method of the multimedia based on the location information relative to the another electronic device. The electronic device includes a memory configured to store at least one input audio, at least one microphone configured to input the input audio, and at least one processor configured to enter a mode of sharing the multimedia and determine location information relative to at least one another electronic device based on audio input from the another electronic device and control an output method of the multimedia based on the relative location information.
US09374654B2
In particular implementations, a mobile device management system allows network administrators to control the distribution and publication of applications to mobile device users in an enterprise network. A user profile is accessed to determine a user attribute. A catalog of applications is filtered based at least in part on the user attribute and an enterprise application availability policy to determine a set of applications to be returned and provided via an enterprise mobile device application management interface.
US09374651B2
Embodiments of the present invention disclose a sensitivity calibration method and an audio device. The method of the present invention includes determining whether a first signal captured in a current frame by a primary capture module is a circuit noise. When the first signal is not a circuit noise, if the first signal has a stationary noise characteristic, a first calibration gain is determined according to the first signal and a second signal captured in the current frame by a secondary capture module. The second signal is calibrated according to the first calibration gain, so that sensitivity of the primary capture module is consistent with sensitivity of the secondary capture module.
US09374646B2
Disclosed herein, among other things, are methods and apparatus for binaural enhancement of tone language for hearing assistance devices. One aspect of the present subject matter includes a method for enhancing pitch in a hearing assistance system having a first and second hearing assistance device. A signal is received using a microphone of the first hearing assistance device. Pitch detection is performed on the signal to obtain a pitch value. The pitch value is wirelessly transmitted from the first hearing assistance device to the second hearing assistance device. In various embodiments, the pitch value of the first hearing assistance device is combined with a pitch value of the second hearing assistance device. The gain is adjusted based on the combined pitch value, in various embodiments.
US09374634B2
In an example embodiment, an apparatus includes an enclosure having a loudspeaker mounted therein. The apparatus also includes an IC package mounted inside the enclosure. The IC package includes an amplifier configured to amplify an input audio signal, received at an input of the amplifier, to produce a drive signal. The amplifier is configured to drive the loudspeaker with the drive signal via an output of the amplifier. The IC package also includes a pressure sensor configured to output a status signal, indicative of a sound pressure level inside the enclosure, from an output terminal of the pressure sensor. The apparatus also includes an audio processing circuit connected to the amplifier and configured to adjust strength of the drive signal produced by the amplifier, as a function of the sound pressure level indicated by the status signal.
US09374629B2
Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed herein to classify audio. An example method includes determining a first count of volume events having a first period of time associated with the audio. The example method also includes determining a second count of volume events having a second period of time associated with the audio. The example method also includes classifying the audio based on the first count and the second count.
US09374625B2
A user interface for a content distribution system is disclosed which allows a manager of an environment of TV sets to view which content is playing on individual TV sets, and to change, track and otherwise adjust the content. The invention advantageously provides these features without interfering with other TV sets' programming when another TV set is being adjusted, changes or tracked by the manager.
US09374611B2
In certain embodiments, a method carried out in a digital television receiver device incapable of full two way communications, of receiving switched digital television programs involves storing a virtual channel table in the digital television receiver device, the virtual channel table having entries for each available channel and having a channel type indicator that identifies switched digital channels; receiving a command indicative of selection of a switched digital channel having the switched digital channel type indicator in the stored virtual channel table; sending a request from the television receiver device for the switched digital channel; responsive to the request, receiving a response that either grants the request or denies the request; and if the response grants the request, receiving an updated virtual channel table having updated table entries. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract.
US09374607B2
Systems and methods are provided to offer a restricted playback mode playlist mode to allow one or more participating users to access a host's media playback system and interact with a reduced subset of functions in that system. An example method includes providing, via a local media playback system, a restricted playback mode open to a plurality of participating users, the restricted playback mode providing a subset of playback functions from the local media playback system to the participating users, the subset including addition of content to a playlist for playback via the local media playback system. The example method includes facilitating addition of content to the playlist by at least one participating user. The example method includes facilitating playback of content from the playlist in the restricted playback mode.
US09374606B2
Supplemental digital content is provided to be played in synchronization with primary digital content on a media device, such as a television, handheld device, smart phone, computer, and so forth. The supplemental digital content is timed to a long-form version of the primary content and is then synchronized based upon a linearized content (e.g., broadcast) schedule of the long-form content with populated pods.
US09374595B2
A method for decoding an image according to the present invention comprises the steps of: restoring a residual block by performing inverse quantization and inverse transformation for the entropy-decoded residual block; generating a prediction block by performing intra prediction for a current block; and restoring an image by adding the restored residual block to the prediction block, wherein the step of generating the prediction block further comprises a step for generating a final prediction value of a pixel to be predicted, on the basis of a first prediction value of the pixel to be predicted, which is included in the current block, and of a final correction value that is calculated by performing an arithmetic right shift by a binary digit 1 for a two's complement integer representation with respect to an initial correction value of the pixel to be predicted. Thus, the operational complexity during image encoding/decoding can be reduced.
US09374590B2
Embodiments of the present invention relate to methods and systems for ordering, communicating and applying pixel intra-prediction modes.
US09374587B2
Region-based encoding apparatus and decoding apparatus. The encoding apparatus selects an optimum region division mode from region division modes with respect to regions divided from an image frame, and transmits, to the decoding apparatus, an optimum image filtering method and an optimum filter coefficient of regions divided, according to the optimum region division mode.
US09374577B2
A method and apparatus for selecting a coding mode for a block of a current picture are disclosed. For example, the method selects a coding mode in accordance with a cost function, for coding the block, wherein the cost function comprises a coding distortion parameter and a number of coding bits parameter, wherein said coding distortion parameter is measured in accordance with at least one of: between a prediction residual and a reconstructed prediction residual, or between a transformed prediction residual and a dequantized transformed prediction residual, wherein the number of coding bits parameter is computed in accordance with at least one of: from a true number of compressed bits resulting from coding said block, directly from a plurality of bins, or directly from a plurality of quantized transform coefficients.
US09374576B2
An input image is divided into non-overlapping regions. For each of the non-overlapping regions, first output data is predicted with a first prediction function, parameters related thereto and region-specific input image data. For each region with prior-predicted neighbor regions, a pixel border portion, adjacent to the neighbor region, is defined. For the pixels in the defined border portion, second output data is predicted with a second prediction function, parameters related thereto, input image data from the border portion of the current region, and input prediction parameter data from the neighbor region. The first output prediction data is fused with the second output data to predict a final set of output prediction values.
US09374573B2
Disclosed is a three-dimensional image display device, in particular, a three-dimensional image display device using a glassless mode. The three-dimensional image display device includes a data panel for displaying an image including a left eye image and a right eye image, a light supplier disposed at a first side of the data panel, the light supplier locally radiating light to enable a left eye image and a right eye image displayed on the data panel to be seen by a left eye and a right eye of a user, respectively, a lens array including a plurality of lenses disposed at a second side being opposite to the first side of the data panel, the lens array determining a passage such that the image supplied by the light supplier is transferred to the user, and a gap layer disposed between the data panel and the light supplier.
US09374571B2
An image processing device which creates a depth map using a multi-view image includes: a detection unit which detects at least one feature in each of images included in the multi-view image; a calculation unit which calculates reliability of correspondence between the images included in the multi-view image in preparation for creating the depth map; and a creation unit which creates the depth map using the correspondence between the images included in the multi-view image when the calculated reliability is a first reliability, and creates the depth map without using the correspondence between the images included in the multi-view image when the calculated reliability is a second reliability which is lower than the first reliability.
US09374566B2
An optical micro-projection system comprising the following components: at least one laser light source (200, 400, 402, 600); at least one movable mirror (102, 103, 203) for deviating light from said light source to allow generation of images on a projection surface (104, 301, 303, 306, 603); a self mixing module for measurement of the distance (604) between the projection source and a projection surface, said self mixing module comprising:—at least one photodiode (401, 601) for monitoring the light emission power of the laser light source;—an optical power variation counter for counting optical power variations (605); successive displacements of said mirror allowing the self mixing module providing successive projection distance measurements of a plurality of points of said projection surface. A projection method for optical micro-projection system and a distance measurement method are also provided.
US09374563B2
One embodiment disclosed is an imaging system that includes a first optical component configured to receive electromagnetic energy associated with an image of an object. The system also includes a second optical component configured to split and diffract the received electromagnetic energy into a plurality of beams of different wavelengths of electromagnetic energy. The system also includes an imaging array configured to receive the plurality of beams and to selectively attenuate one or more of the plurality of beams. The system also includes an imaging detector configured to receive and capture the one or more of the plurality of beams after the beams have been selectively attenuated and recombined and re-focused into a spectrally altered version of the image.
US09374562B2
A system and method for calculating a horizontal camera to target distance is provided. A camera on board a vehicle is configured to image a target on a trailer that is aligned with the vehicle. A controller is in communication with the camera and is supplied a user-obtained measurement. The controller is configured to calculate a first horizontal distance and a second horizontal distance, and to sum the first and second horizontal distances to calculate a horizontal camera to target distance.
US09374561B1
An aerial camera system is disclosed comprising: a camera cluster, including a plurality of cameras, each camera orientated in a direction selected from a plurality of different camera directions having a downward component; one or more rotators that rotate the camera cluster about respective one or more axes in response to one or more signals, and a control module that successively provides one or more signals to the one or more rotators to rotate the camera cluster and cause the cameras in the camera cluster to acquire respective aerial images.
US09374555B2
In an approach to determine a pre-recorded video for use in place of a video feed of a user in a video conference, a computer determines a meeting tone of at least one meeting discussion in the video conference and determines a first video of one or more pre-recorded videos of a user that corresponds to the meeting tone. The computer substitutes the first video into the video conference in place of a video feed in the video conference.
US09374554B1
A video conferencing device has a projector that can be controlled to project far-end video onto different available display surfaces. A panoramic camera is mounted so that it captures a horizontal panorama that includes near-end users. When projecting far-end video, a display surface is selected based on the position of the users. Specifically, a display surface is selected such that when gazing at the far-end video the faces of the user are visible from the panoramic camera.
US09374553B2
Systems and methods for providing an interactive media guidance application for merging recorded video segments that are from the same program are provided. In response to a recording interruption, the interactive media guidance application may record multiple video segments. After recording the segments, the interactive media guidance application may search for and merge these segments to form a single recording. In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance application may detect the presence of a previously recorded segment. After detecting the previously recorded segment, the interactive media guidance application may automatically record the video following the end of the previously recorded segment. The interactive media guidance application may use data associated with the segments and other media cues to match the segments. The interactive media guidance application may also identify the duration of the recorded video content and provide choices for recording the video again.
US09374550B1
A telephone-and-television box able to be placed vertically or horizontally and provided with extensible frames includes a main body that is electrically connected with a display. The main body is received therein with a set top box and provided thereon with a wireless induction charger for setting a remote control, which has wireless induction charging function and can serve as a handset of a mobile phone. The telephone-and-television box can be placed horizontally or vertically, and a plurality of extensible frames are disposed at the peripheral sides of the main body for setting and locking other peripheral devices and a display thereon. Thus, the telephone-and-television box of this invention is able to combine the functions of both TV and telephone and integrate other electronic peripheral devices.
US09374543B2
A system for acquiring digital images for a device having an integrated camera includes an Application Program Interface (API). The API is adapted to receive preprocessing and other instructions from a discrete application operating on the device. The API is also adapted to process multiple image capture requests using a pipeline configuration.
US09374541B2
An imaging device includes: a pixel array section having an array of pixels, each of which has a photoelectric converting device and outputs an electric signal according to an input photon; a sense circuit section having a plurality of sensor circuits each of which makes binary decision on whether there is a photon input to a pixel in a predetermined period upon reception of the electric signal therefrom; and a decision result IC section which integrates decision results from the sense circuits, pixel by pixel or for each group of pixels, multiple times to generate imaged data with a gradation, the decision result IC section including a count circuit which performs a count process to integrate the decision results from the sense circuits, and a memory for storing a counting result for each pixel from the count circuit, the sense circuits sharing the count circuit for integrating the decision results.
US09374532B2
An easy-to-use online video stabilization system and methods for its use are described. Videos are stabilized after capture, and therefore the stabilization works on all forms of video footage including both legacy video and freshly captured video. In one implementation, the video stabilization system is fully automatic, requiring no input or parameter settings by the user other than the video itself. The video stabilization system uses a cascaded motion model to choose the correction that is applied to different frames of a video. In various implementations, the video stabilization system is capable of detecting and correcting high frequency jitter artifacts, low frequency shake artifacts, rolling shutter artifacts, significant foreground motion, poor lighting, scene cuts, and both long and short videos.
US09374530B2
There are provided a method and apparatus for displaying a preview image and a storage medium. The method includes: acquiring frames of image data when there is a need to display a preview image; weighting and processing a frame of image data currently acquired and frames of image data acquired recently for a number M of times to obtain the preview image, wherein M is a positive integer; and displaying the preview image.
US09374514B2
Camera methods and apparatus are described where the camera device includes multiple optical chains. In various embodiments two or more of the optical chains include light redirection devices such as mirrors or prisms. Sensors corresponding to multiple different optical chains, but not necessarily all optical chains, are parallel to each other. In some embodiments sensors corresponding to different optical chains are located in the same plane at the front or rear of the camera. However other sensor mounting positions are also possible.
US09374513B2
The present invention provides a mobile device and an optical imaging lens thereof. The optical imaging lens comprises six lens elements positioned in an order from an object side to an image side and an aperture stop positioned between the second and the third lens elements. Through controlling the convex or concave shape of the surfaces of the lens elements and designing parameters satisfying at least one inequality, the optical imaging lens shows better optical characteristics and the total length of the optical imaging lens is shortened.
US09374511B2
A back-illuminated type solid-state image pickup unit in which a pad wiring line is provided on a light reception surface and which is capable of improving light reception characteristics in a photoelectric conversion section by having a thinner insulating film in a pixel region. The solid-state image pickup unit includes a sensor substrate having a pixel region in which photoelectric conversion sections are formed in an array, and a drive circuit is provided on a surface opposed to a light reception surface for the photoelectric conversion sections of the sensor substrate. A through hole via reaching the drive circuit from the light reception surface of the sensor substrate is provided in a peripheral region located outside the pixel region. A pad wiring line directly laminated on the through hole via is provided on the light reception surface in the peripheral region.
US09374500B2
An image processing apparatus includes a processor and a memory storing computer-readable instructions therein. The computer-readable instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the image processing apparatus to: acquire scan data from a scan data generating unit, the scan data generating unit being configured to generate the scan data by optically reading a sheet being conveyed, the scan data representing a scanned image that includes an image indicative of the sheet, the sheet having a plurality of sides; detect a plurality of edge lines from the scanned image by analyzing the scan data, the plurality of edge lines representing the plurality of sides, respectively; determine whether the plurality of edge lines include a non-linear edge line; and correct, when the plurality of edge lines is determined to include a non-linear edge line, the scan data so that the non-linear edge line is changed to a linear edge line.
US09374499B2
An information processing apparatus displays, in a case where a second search condition in which a condition is added to a first search condition is set with a data processing apparatus which satisfies the first search condition being displayed on the map, a data processing apparatus which satisfies the second search condition and a data processing apparatus which satisfies the first search condition and does not satisfy the second search condition on the map in a distinguishable manner.
US09374496B1
A fill-in form providing device includes: a transmission section that transmits information of a user interface for a fill-in form to an image forming device in response to an acquisition request to acquire the user interface issued from the image forming device; a printing instruction section that instructs the image forming device to print a fill-in form associated with the user interface for the fill-in form, in response to a printing request to print the fill-in form based on an operation of the user interface for the fill-in form in the image forming device; a reception section that receives image data, which is generated through image reading based on the operation of the user interface for the fill-in form in the image forming device, and storage destination information; and a storage processing section that executes processing for storing the image data in the storage destination.
US09374493B2
An image scanner includes: a lid or a backing sheet as a cover unit on which a pattern is depicted; a sensor unit configured to scan a document between a platen and the cover unit; and an image processing unit configured to set a threshold value using information on a first transmitted pattern of the pattern, obtained through the document, and perform image processing based on the threshold value.
US09374490B2
An information processing system including at least one computer that is connected to an equipment unit via a network is disclosed. The information processing system includes a reception unit which receives data via the network; a data storage unit which stores the data; a first transmission unit which transmits, to the equipment unit, the data in response to a request for obtaining the data stored in the data storage unit from some equipment unit; a history information storage unit which stores history information on transmission of the data by the first transmission unit and on reception of the data by the reception unit; a projection unit which projects a first equipment unit which transmits the obtaining request on first data in response to the reception of the first data by the reception unit; and a second transmission unit which transmits information on the first data to the first equipment unit.
US09374484B2
A printing apparatus and an image forming apparatus are provided. The printing apparatus includes a printing unit to form an image on a printing medium, a scanning unit pivotally coupled to the printing unit, and a cover unit pivotally coupled to the scanning unit and having a pressing protrusion. The printing apparatus includes a first member rotatably mounted to the scanning unit to latch the scanning unit to the printing unit when the cover unit is in an open state with respect to the scanning unit, and a second member mounted to the scanning unit to rotate the first member to unlatch the scanning unit from the printing unit when pressed by the pressing protrusion of the cover unit moving from the open state to a closed state with respect to the scanning unit.
US09374473B2
Various embodiments disclosed herein provide a Peer-to-Peer (P2P, Internet Protocol (IP) telephone system. The telephone system includes a plurality of terminals coupled together via an IP network. The terminals cooperate with one another to provide telephony features without a dedicated central controller such as a PBX and/or a KSU controller. The terminals may store system-wide configuration data and files referenced by the system-wide configuration data. The terminals may further determine whether the system-wide configuration data references a file that is not stored in the terminal, and requesting the file from another terminal of the telephone system in response to determining the terminal does not have a copy of the file.
US09374466B2
A system for making outbound calls includes a first node connected to a network for placing outbound telephone calls, a second node connected to the network and accessible to the first node for reporting agent status relative to busy, ready, and time to ready, a number of agent appliances connected to the network and accessible to the second node, and a number of agent activity applications installed one per on the agent appliances. In a preferred embodiment outbound calls are predicted based on the number of agents reported ready to accept a call plus the number of agents predicted to be ready to accept a call within a specified time window.
US09374465B1
A system, computer program product, and process are provided for multi-channel language interpretation. An interpreter voice communication device receives, from a PSAP communication device on a first channel, a request for language translation of a communication. The interpreter voice communication device also receives data through the first channel that assists a language interpreter in performing the translation. An interpreter computing device establishes a language interpretation session through a second channel with a PSAP workstation. The interpreter computing device also provides a real-time language translation of the communication based upon the data received through the first channel.
US09374464B1
Systems and methods are disclosed for online data-linked telecommunications decisioning and distribution. One method includes receiving call data relating to a telephone call from a telephone device of a user to an interactive voice response (“IVR”) system; accessing a database storing correlated call data and user data; retrieving correlated call data and user data based on the telephone number of the call data; determining a confidence score defining a confidence that the received call data relates to the retrieved correlated call data and user data; correlating the received call data with retrieved call data and user data when the confidence score is greater than a threshold value; determining an IVR response to present to the user via the IVR system; and transmitting the determined IVR response to the IVR system for presentation to the telephone device of the user.
US09374463B2
Disclosed are systems, methods, and computer readable media for tracking a person of interest. The method embodiment comprises identifying a person of interest, capturing a voiceprint of the person of interest, comparing a received voiceprint of a caller with the voiceprint of the person of interest, and tracking the caller if the voiceprint of the caller is a substantial match to the voiceprint of the person of interest.
US09374458B2
System and method for determining whether an incoming call originates from inside or outside of a mobile carriers network and indicates the result to the subscriber. An example system performs a GTT (global title translation) on an incoming number to determine the hosting carrier of any mobile phone number. When the result matches the subscriber's carrier, the mobile device then indicates to the subscriber (i.e. mobile device) that the call is an “in network call.” Results of the comparison are stored and used for later incoming calls. The stored results are refreshed every time or periodically.
US09374450B2
Mobile communication terminals and methods are provided. A mobile communication terminal includes a transceiver, audio processing unit, speaker, connecting unit, display unit, input unit, and control unit. The control unit is configured to control to display, while in a silent mode, a user interface for reproduction of a music file, in response to a user input while in the silent mode, control to reproduce the music file and to output audio signals corresponding thereto through the speaker, in response to receiving an incoming call in the silent mode, stop reproduction of a music file, and output an indication of the reception of the incoming call by vibration or without sound according to a setting of the silent mode, and while in the silent mode, control reproduction of a music file depending upon detection of a change of a connection state of an external audio output device.
US09374444B2
A system and method for providing a variety of medium access and power management methods are disclosed. A defined frame structure allows a hub and a node to use said methods for secured or unsecured communications with each other. Contended access is available during a random access phase. The node uses an alternate doubling of a backoff counter to reduce interference and resolve collisions with other nodes attempting to communicate with the hub in the random access phase. Non-contended access is also available, and the hub may schedule reoccurring or one-time allocation intervals for the node. The hub and the node may also establish polled and posted allocation intervals on an as needed basis. The node manages power usage by being at active mode at times during the beacon period when the node is expected to transmit or receive frames.
US09374441B2
A method of dynamically determining and utilizing an application programming interface within an electronic device is presented. In the method, a definition of an object is received from the application programming interface, wherein the definition describes at least a portion of the application programming interface. The object is then generated based on the definition, wherein the object includes data for controlling the electronic device. The object is transferred to the application programming interface.
US09374440B2
Provided is a packet forwarding structure for supporting network based content caching of aggregate contents. The packet forwarding structure includes: a forwarding table including forwarding information on a content in order to forward a request packet from a terminal; a request list table transmitting the request packet to a destination node according to the forwarding table when the request packet arrives; a content caching information table including the forwarding table, the request list table, and position information on where a content cashed based on a content ID or a content name is stored; and a content server function block storing the cached content.
US09374439B2
An information processing apparatus that provides a proxy for a service that a service providing apparatus provides to a control apparatus, the information processing apparatus includes: a first communications unit adapted to connect to a first communications path; a second communications unit adapted to connect to a second communications path; a first determination unit adapted to determine whether or not the providing apparatus exists via the first communications unit; a second determination unit adapted to determine whether or not the providing apparatus exists via the second communications unit; a connection unit adapted to connect to the providing apparatus via the second communications unit; and a proxy unit adapted to connect to the control apparatus via the first communications unit, and provide a proxy for a service between the providing apparatus and the control apparatus.
US09374412B2
In an information generating device, a plurality of division information acquisition requests obtained by dividing an information acquisition request are transmitted through a web server, division response information corresponding to the division information acquisition requests is acquired from the information generating device through the web server, output information is generated using the acquired division response information, and thus it is possible to relieve concentration of load in the web server and to reliably perform screen display in the web browser.
US09374410B2
A method and system for switching between a unicast streaming source and a multicast streaming source of over-the-top (OTT) streams are provided. The method includes retrieving an OTT unicast stream from the unicast streaming source and an OTT multicast stream from the multicast streaming source, wherein there is a time delay between the OTT unicast stream and the OTT multicast stream; synchronizing the OTT unicast stream and the OTT multicast stream to compensate for the time delay; selecting one of the OTT unicast stream and the OTT multicast stream; and switching to a streaming source of the selected OTT stream.
US09374400B2
Aspects of the present disclosure involve systems, methods, computer program products, and the like, for collaboration conferencing with multiple participants over a communications network, and more specifically for a conferencing routing service for managing and routing collaboration participants. In one embodiment, the conferencing routing service may maintain a database of information or preferences associated with the conference requester and attempt to select a conference bridge based on the requester's information. Further, the conferencing routing service may receive performance information from a plurality of conference bridges that are able to conduct the collaboration conference and select a conference bridge in response to the performance information.
US09374396B2
In one aspect, a system for providing a user interface including recommended content in response to an endorsement input is described. The system includes a processor and a memory storing instructions that, when executed, causes the system to: receive an input from a first user; determine that the input is related to an endorsement of a first content item from a first source; determine a social correlation between the first content item and a second content item from a second source, determine a source correlation between the first source and the second source, determine recommended content using the social correlation and the source correlation and provide the recommended content to the first user.
US09374391B2
A multimedia call from an originating device is provided. At least one session may be created at an application server in response to receiving the multimedia call. An endpoint may be created within the session for communication between the originating device and the application server. The endpoint may be a composite endpoint for communication between the originating device and two or more terminating devices. The composite endpoint may be include two or more logical endpoints for communicating with and respectively associated with the two terminating devices. A portion or more of the multimedia call may be delivered from the application server to each of the terminating devices using the logical endpoint associated with each terminating device.
US09374389B2
Asset security compliance data ensuring defined asset security policies are applied to the creation and/or operation of assets to be used to implement an application and application deployment security compliance data for ensuring compliance with one or more application deployment security policies associated with the deployment of assets used to implement the application is generated. The asset security compliance data is then used to ensure each asset used to implement the application is created and used in compliance with asset security policies and the application deployment security compliance data is used to ensure that each asset used to implement the application is deployed in compliance with the application deployment security policies.
US09374377B2
A method and system for authenticating a user to provide access to a secure application configured on a mobile device are disclosed. The method includes receiving an input from the user. The input is associated with a plurality of parameters. The method includes extracting a biometric pattern based on the input. The biometric pattern may be generated from the plurality of parameters associated with the input. The method may include comparing the biometric pattern with a plurality of reference patterns. The plurality of reference patterns are pre-defined by an owner of the mobile device. Furthermore, the method may include authenticating the user when the biometric pattern matches a reference pattern associated with the secure application from the plurality of reference patterns. Moreover, the method includes allowing the user to access the secure application, based on the authentication.
US09374374B2
The disclosed system and method enhances security of people, organizations, and other entities that use what has been termed “social media.” Recent trends have shown that information posted to social media may cause tremendous damage to individuals and other entities. This includes information that was posted deliberately or unintentionally, including social security numbers, financial data and other sensitive information. Further, information that previously may have been viewed as innocuous, such as location data, has caused harm on certain occasions and may need to be protected. The disclosed system provides a novel method of screening, identifying, and preventing certain information from being posted on social media and other public locations. In addition, the disclosed system and method improves security by motivating people to use security software by offering rewards for its use.
US09374372B2
Systems and methods are disclosed for providing, generating, and managing profiles. Such systems and methods may be implemented to control access to a function of a web server or site based on a level of trust associated with a user or device profile. According to one exemplary method, session information associated with a request to access a function of a web server is identified. At least one processor determines whether the request is associated with a trusted device profile based on the at least the session information. Access to the requested function is provided when the request is associated with a trusted device profile.
US09374370B1
Systems, methods, and program products for providing secure authentication for electronic messages are disclosed. A method may comprise generating an asymmetric private key based at least in part upon an invariant biometric feature vector derived from an input biometric reading. The private key may be further based at least in part upon a user password. The resulting private key may not be stored but rather may be generated when required to authenticate an electronic message, at which time it may be used to provide a digital signature for the electronic message. The private key may be deleted after use. The private key may be regenerated by inputting both a new instance of the biometric reading as well as a new instance of the password.
US09374367B2
A method is provided for generating a soft token by which attributes of a user may be authenticated. A request to generate the soft token is transmitted from an electronic device of the user to a service provider computer via a first secure connection. After receiving the request, the service computer generates a one-time password, records the password as a session identifier, and transmits the password to the electronic device. The password is output by the electronic device via a user interface. The user enters the password into a user computer system, from where it is transmitted, via a second secure connection, to the service computer system. If the recorded password agrees with the received password, one or more attributes are read from an ID token of the user and a corresponding soft token is generated and transmitted to the electronic device or user computer system.
US09374364B2
A method for authentication includes receiving a log-in request at a first client computer, and capturing user information with the request. The method includes capturing an image of the user, and sending a request for authentication, including the user information and image, to an authentication server. The method includes determining a representative user based on the user information, and determining an authorizing agent responsible for authorizing the representative user. The method includes sending the authentication request to a client computer associated with the authorizing agent, and providing verified identification information of the representative user along with the request so that the authorizing agent can perform authentication of the requesting user based on the user information, the captured image, and the verified identification information. The method includes receiving a result of the authentication, and controlling access by the first client computer to a secure data center based on the result.
US09374363B1
Systems and methods disclosed herein relate to the protection of a plurality of protected personas on a protected network that may be isolated from a telecommunication service provider's network that supports a portable electronic device. The plurality of personas may be generated by the owners and/or administrators of the network on which the personas reside. Activating a persona on a device, whether that device is owned and maintained by the business or businesses affiliated with the protected network, enables access to a plurality of data on the business's network and restricts access to at least some of the capabilities and functionality of the device available under the original persona. Data created or modified while the protected persona is activated on the device may not be accessed while the original persona is active and may be uploaded dynamically or manually to the protected network.
US09374361B2
A user device stores first authentication information used to grant access to a resource associated with a first application, and configuration information relating to a second application. The user device receives an authentication request from the second application requesting second authentication information. Based on the configuration information relating to the second application, the user device determines whether the first authentication information contains some or all of the requested second authentication information. The user device generates an authentication response to the authentication request, using the first authentication information, and sends the authentication response to the second application in order to permit access to a resource associated with the second application.
US09374358B2
Methods, systems, and media for providing access control for a computing device are provided. In some implementations, methods for providing access control for a computing device are provided, the methods comprising: receiving a first request to authenticate the computing device from a first sender device; authenticating the computing device based at least in part on the first request; transmitting a session identifier and a session key to the first sender device; receiving an application identifier associated with the sender device from the computing device; determining, using a hardware processor, whether a sender application executing on the sender device is valid based at least in part on the application identifier; and transmitting the session key to the computing device in response to determining that the sender application is valid.
US09374354B2
A method and apparatus for sharing content by selecting a device with which the content is to be shared and performing authentication by using a device which is being called. The method of sharing content of a first device includes: performing authentication of a remote access service for sharing the content with a second device based on a call connection state between the first device and the second device; remotely accessing the second device according to a result of the authentication; and sharing the content based on the remote access.
US09374343B2
A system uses multi-level encoding where each symbol of a plurality of symbols represents more than one bit of information in a user data symbol stream for transfer using a multilevel transmission channel. The user data symbols are represented in a digital bitwise form such that each symbol is presented as a plurality of bits and each bit is subject to a different probability of error. An error correction procedure is applied based on the different error probability that is associated with each bit in the plurality. The channel can be configured to support a mosaic tile structure, each tile containing a channel symbol such that a selected tile has a collective error probability that is different from other tiles. Customized coding can be applied to the tile structure to allocate a selected amount of error correction power to the selected tile based on an overall available correction power.
US09374337B2
While each node in a cluster of nodes sources connections with the same IP if each node allocates a port on this IP independently, there may be port clashes. Also, the return traffic is not guaranteed to hit the originating node. These issues are addressed by allocating a port in such a way that the response traffic hashes back to the originating node. A good hash is chosen such that the ports are equally divided among the nodes. When a node leaves, the other nodes take over the port range used by this node. When a node joins, the node takes back its share of ports.
US09374329B2
The disclosed embodiments relate a messaging system, such as an email system, a text-messaging system or an instant-messaging system, that enables a user to save a message attachment to an online content management system (for example, to their Dropbox™). The system receives a call from a messaging system associated with the user to save a message attachment to the online content management system, wherein the call includes a link to the message attachment. In response to the call, the system commences downloading the message attachment to the online content management system. While the message attachment is downloading, the system provides a selection interface to enable the user to select a destination for the message attachment within the online content management system. After the user selects the destination and after the message attachment finishes downloading, the system saves the message attachment to the selected destination in the online content management system.
US09374327B2
The disclosure herein describes an intelligent chat system. During operation, the system monitors content provided by participants of an online chat, and automatically obtains, from a data source, additional information based on the monitored content. The system then presents the obtained additional information to the chat participants without the need for the chat participants to request the additional information.
US09374321B2
A method of transferring data in a network is provided. Data is received at a sub-switch of a first bundled switch having a plurality of sub-switches, the sub-switch being configured to only couple to connections external to the first bundled switch. The method also includes transferring the data from the first bundled switch using a multi-lane cable coupled to a second bundled switch, a first end of the multi-lane cable coupled to a sub-switch in the first bundled switch and a second end of the multi-lane cable coupled to at least two sub-switches in the second bundled switch.
US09374311B1
A multi-stage network is provided, where the network includes a first stage comprising a first plurality of network switching devices, the first plurality of network devices being classified into switching groups. The network further includes a second stage comprising a second plurality of network switching devices. A linking configuration, comprising a plurality of links between the first plurality of network switching devices and the second plurality of network switching devices, couples the first stage to the second stage. Each first stage network switching device in a given switching group includes the same number of links to any given second stage network switching device as each other first stage network switching device in that group.
US09374308B2
Embodiments of the invention relate to switch mode transition and processing upon loss of controller communication. One embodiment includes losing a connection with a controller by a switch device, entering a particular mode by the switch device, transferring flow entries of the switch device to one or more tables, and notifying network application protocols that correspond to the transferred flow entries.
US09374305B2
IHS packet transfer systems and methods include a chassis housing a source IHS and a destination IHS. A component interconnect system in the chassis communicatively couples the source IHS and the destination IHS and includes a routing table that includes a destination IHS IP address of the destination IHS and a subnet associated with a component interconnect system domain. The routing table also includes a destination IHS memory address in the destination IHS, and a destination IHS port identifier for a port that is connected to the destination IHS. The component interconnect system provides a routing engine that receives, from the source IHS, a data packet that includes the destination IHS IP address and, in response, uses the routing table and the destination IHS IP address to retrieve the destination IHS memory address and the destination IHS port identifier for providing the data packet to the destination IHS.
US09374302B2
Techniques for enabling peer-to-peer transmission of stateful packet flows in a virtualized network environment are provided. In certain embodiments, a computer system receives a packet belonging to a stateful flow between a first virtual machine and a second virtual machine, accesses flow associating information (e.g., network address) from the packet, determines a second computer system comprising a state analysis owner for the stateful flow, using the flow associating information, and transmits the first packet to the second computer system.
US09374296B2
A Software Defined Network (SDN) includes a plurality of forwarding devices and a routing control device located separate from the forwarding devices. The routing control device, establishes paths to and from the network forwarding devices. Using such paths, forwarding devices send the routing control device information reflecting the topology if the network. Embodiments disclosed herein enable automatic discovery of the topology of the network and the paths to and from the routing control device.
US09374295B2
A method, apparatus and computer program product for providing the use of an external metric as the primary tie-breaker in ISIS route selections is presented. A set of routes are identified that are to be advertised by the router as external routes within a network. The routes are advertised by the router using a Type Length Variable (TLV), wherein the TLV contains metric information to be used as a first tiebreaker when selecting routes. The network is running an Intermediate System To Intermediate System (ISIS) protocol. The TLV includes a 32-bit or a 64-bit administrative tag sub-TLV, the TLV comprising TLV#135, TLV#235, TLV#236, and TLV#237.
US09374293B2
The present invention provides a method for dynamically adjusting a resource and a scheduling device. By adopting the method for dynamically adjusting a resource and the scheduling device that are provided in the present invention, when routing is performed according to the adjusted routing table, a resource only needs to process a session in a number segment allocated to the resource itself, thereby avoiding an error caused by scheduling across number segments, improving correctness of the method for dynamically adjusting a resource, avoiding that a resource cannot be released because a service session exists for a long time, and improving resource utilization of the method for dynamically adjusting a resource.
US09374292B2
Embodiments of a system and method for providing frequency assignment with managed transceiver resources. A frequency assignment protocol manages transceiver resources in making channel assignment decisions based on a number of links and state of transceivers. Long-term traffic patterns are captured and transceiver resource decisions are made based on an analysis of the captured long-term traffic patterns to increase a selected metric, such as connectivity, capacity or any other measurable quantity.
US09374288B2
A disclosed information processing system includes an apparatus and an information processing apparatus including a service information memory unit storing service identification information identifying a service provided for the apparatus and program identification information for identifying a program required to be installed in the apparatus, a correspondence setup unit storing the apparatus identification information for identifying the apparatus and the service identification information upon a receipt of a usage request in which the apparatus identification information and the service identification information are designated, a communication unit requesting installation of a program related to the program identification information stored in the service information memory unit, and a program administrating unit returning the program related to the program identification information designated in the acquisition request, in response to the acquisition request for the program from the apparatus, wherein the program causes the apparatus to send information related to the apparatus.
US09374279B2
Methods, systems and devices are provided for motion-activated display of messages on an activity monitoring device. In one embodiment, method for presenting a message on an activity monitoring device is provided, including the following method operations: storing a plurality of messages to the activity monitoring device; detecting a stationary state of the activity monitoring device; detecting a movement of the activity monitoring device from the stationary state; in response to detecting the movement from the stationary state, selecting one of a plurality of messages, and displaying the selected message on the activity monitoring device.
US09374269B2
A method operates management network of a telecommunication network, which includes a manager and an agent who communication network using an object model. According to said object model, objects are assigned to classes of objects. The manager sends a request to the agent once the data has been matched. Following the request, the manager receives data from the agent (OMC1) exclusively on objects and/or alerts regarding which a change has been made since a specific moment in time.
US09374268B2
A device arrangement for a network includes a plurality of devices that can be actuated electronically by a user. Each device has a name memory in which is stored a device name uniquely assigned to the device, to enable the particular device to be uniquely actuated within the network. The device name stored in the name memory can be individually selected and/or changed by the user by a mobile input unit that has a short-range electronic data link to the device to be selected.
US09374267B2
Network (cloud) based customer premises equipment may receive, over a broadband access circuit, layer 2 traffic from an access device at a customer premises; provide dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) services for computing devices at the customer premises, the DHCP services providing Internet Protocol (IP) addresses to the computing devices at the customer premises; and provide network address translation (NAT) services for the computing devices at the customer premises.
US09374258B2
A method for receiving information for interference cancellation of a mobile station (MS) is disclosed. The method is performed by the MS and includes receiving a restricted virtual radio network temporary identifier (V-RNTI) set including a plurality of V-RNTIs for interference signal cancellation from a serving base station (BS), wherein each of the plurality of V-RNTIs is associated with one or more RNTIs of one or more MSs served by a neighboring cell (hereinafter, “neighboring MS”), and receiving downlink control channel including a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) bit scrambled by at least one V-RNTI of the restricted V-RNTI set, for the neighboring MS, using the at least one V-RNTI, wherein, if two or more neighboring MSs having RNTIs associated with a specific V-RNTI among the plurality of V-RNTIs are scheduled at the same time, the specific V-RNTI is used only for downlink control channel for one of the two or more neighboring MSs.
US09374255B1
A circuit for providing high speed digital communication between a master universal asynchronous receiver transmitter (UART) device and a 4-20 milliamp (mA) current loop sensor that has a 1-wire includes a safety barrier circuit, a slave modulator/demodulator (modem) circuit, and a master modem circuit. The slave modem circuit selectively converts digital sensor data received from the UART compatible interface pin into current pulses and selectively supplies digital calibration data to the UART compatible interface pin. The master modem circuit is configured to convert the current pulses into a UART compatible signal for transmission to the master UART device and selectively supply the digital calibration data.
US09374253B2
Certain aspects of the present disclosure relate to a method of wireless communication that includes receiving one or more channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) resources. The method further includes performing timing estimation based on the one or more CSI-RS resources, receiving a demodulation reference signal (DM-RS) based transmission, and utilizing the timing estimation to decode the DM-RS based transmission.
US09374246B2
A radio frequency digital receiver system and method is described in which the radio frequency digital receiver system uses a discrete Fourier transform where detection decisions are made based on a spectral estimate. The spectral estimate is formed from an output of the, in which the spectral estimate is improved by enabling spatially variant apodization (SVA) such that the detection ability of the RF digital receiver is improved. In a further embodiment, the SVA is optimized for use with Digital Signal Processing.
US09374245B2
A radio device receives a band-limited signal and estimates signal components beyond the band edges to extend the signal and eliminate the band-limited effects. The extended signal is transformed to the time domain to produce an estimate of the true time domain channel.
US09374233B2
Methods and systems for providing a composite conference environment are disclosed. More particularly, a virtual reality environment (VRE) that can accommodate the inclusion of a conventional multipoint conference as a registered user or individual participants in a conventional multipoint conference as registered users within a composite conference environment hosted by the VRE is provided. Accordingly, a conference that is spread across multiple servers, namely a virtual reality server and a conventional multipoint conference server, can be created and moderated. Moreover, audio/video streams, features, and control can be provided to all users participating in the composite conference environment.
US09374231B2
A controller in a video headend or other transmission element of a signal distribution system is operative to detect a condition in which unicast transmissions of a given content stream to a plurality of terminals meet a specified threshold. The controller starts a multicast transmission of the given content stream in response to the detected condition, and transitions at least one of the terminals to the multicast transmission. In one embodiment, the controller identifies at least one of the terminals as a terminal that will receive the multicast transmission of the given content stream in place of its unicast transmission prior to one or more of the other terminals receiving the multicast transmission. The controller stops the unicast transmission to the identified terminal if that unicast transmission has already been started, starts the multicast transmission, switches the identified terminal to the multicast transmission, and subsequently transitions one or more of the other terminals to the multicast transmission. The identified terminal may be a leading terminal or a trailing terminal.
US09374225B2
Security of a plurality of registered digital documents in a system are monitored and the monitoring includes determining whether signatures associated with the registered digital documents are included in data propagating in network traffic of the system. A particular signature of a particular document in the plurality of registered digital documents is detected from the data propagating in the network. It is determined, based at least in part on the detecting, that detection of the particular signature exceeds a threshold detection rate for registered digital documents in the system. The particular signature is removed from a signature database including the signatures of the plurality of registered digital documents.
US09374221B1
A user device is configured for communication with a distributed verification system over a network. The user device generates first and second keys from a master key for a password vault or other credential store, provides the first key to the distributed verification system, encrypts the credential store based at least in part on the second key, and provides the encrypted credential store to the distributed verification system. The credential store is encrypted utilizing the second key and information that is stored in a distributed manner over a plurality of servers of the distributed verification system. For example, encrypting the credential store illustratively comprises generating a ciphertext by encrypting the credential store utilizing the second key, obtaining a third key stored in the distributed manner over the servers, and encrypting the ciphertext utilizing the third key to generate the encrypted credential store that is provided to the distributed verification system.
US09374213B2
Method and apparatus for controlling in-device coexistence (IDC) interference in a wireless communication system are described in the present invention. The present invention includes transmitting UE capability information whether the UE has a capability to measure IDC, to a base station (BS); receiving measurement configuration information whether the UE is allowed to send IDC indication, from the BS; and transmitting the IDC indication and at least one of measurements which are a measurement in consideration of IDC and a measurement without consideration of IDC to the BS. It is possible to control reducing occurrence of in-device coexistence interference.
US09374205B1
A wireless communication system serves a first wireless device with a first access node using a frequency band and serves a second wireless device in an adjacent cell with a second access node that uses the same frequency band. The communication of a first resource block is scheduled between the first wireless device and the first access node. The communication of a second resource block between the second wireless device and the second access node is also scheduled. The scheduling of the first resource block and the second resource block correspond in time and frequency. The first resource block is encoded with a first orthogonal code from a family of orthogonal codes. The second resource block is encoded with a second orthogonal code from the family of orthogonal codes. After encoding, the first resource block and the second resource blocks are transmitted using the frequency band.
US09374202B2
A sample voltage is received from a device at a first slicer element and a second slicer element. A decision by the first slicer element based on the sample voltage is identified and compared with a decision of the second slicer element based on the sample voltage. The decision of the second slicer element is to be generated from a comparison of the sample voltage with a reference voltage for the second slicer element. Comparing the decisions can be the basis of a soft error ratio determined for a device.
US09374201B2
Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide methods and apparatuses for determining a packet number for a packet, based on a transmit packet number (TPN), transmitted with the packet, a locally maintained base packet number (BPN), and a value of the TPN relative to one or more edges of a locally-maintained receive window. An example method generally includes receiving a packet having a transmitted packet number (TPN), maintaining a base packet number (BPN), maintaining a receive window defined by a first edge a and a second edge b, determining a value i of the TPN relative to at least one of the first edge a or the second edge b of the receive window, and calculating a packet number (PN) for the packet based on the TPN, the BPN, and the determination.
US09374195B2
A transmitter apparatus wherein a relatively simple structure is used to suppress burst errors without changing the block sizes of encoded blocks even when the number of modulation multi-values is increased. An encoding part subjects transport data to a block encoding process to form block encoded data. A modulating part modulates the block encoded data to form data symbols; and an arranging (interleaving) part arranges (interleaves) the block encoded data in such a manner that the intra-block encoded data of the encoded blocks, which include their respective single different data symbol, get together, and then supplies the arranged (interleaved) block encoded data to the modulating part. In this way, there can be provided a transmitter apparatus wherein a relatively simple structure is used to suppress burst errors without changing the block sizes of encoded blocks even when the number of modulation multi-values is increased.
US09374187B2
A distributed antenna system includes a plurality of remote units configured to service different regions of a service area, and a head-end unit configured to process and transmit downlink signals from base stations to the remote units over optical cables, and to process and transmit uplink signals from the remote units to the base stations, wherein the remote units are configured to adjust or filter a level of downlink signals from the head-end unit and to transmit the adjusted or filtered downlink signals to mobile stations, and to process and transmit uplink signals from mobile stations to the head-end unit over the optical cables.
US09374186B1
Example embodiments of the present invention relate to an optical node comprising of at least two optical degrees; a plurality of directionless add/drop ports; and at least one wavelength equalizing array, wherein the at least one wavelength equalizing array is used to both select wavelengths for each degree, and to perform directionless steering for the add/drop ports.
US09374174B1
A device, such as a transceiver or a sensor, is provided. An interface circuit of the device terminates a signal line with an impedance matching an impedance of the signal line. A controller of the device is configured to transmit or receive data on the signal line through the interface circuit and according to a communication protocol employing pulse width modulation (PWM) for data encoding. A system having two or more devices with impedance matching interface circuits, and a method for communication with a device having an impedance matching interface circuit, are also provided.
US09374172B2
In the optical receiver available for the RZ-DPSK modulation system, the difference in the received intensity due to the difference in the intensity or optical path of the optical signal cannot be corrected automatically, therefore, an optical receiver according to an exemplary aspect of the invention includes a first photodiode receiving a normal phase optical signal from a first output of a 1-bit delayed interferometer and outputting a positive signal; a second photodiode receiving a reversed phase optical signal from a second output of the 1-bit delayed interferometer and outputting a complementary signal; a differential transimpedance amplifier inputting the positive signal and the complementary signal and including a closed feedback loop for each input of the positive signal and the complementary signal; a level adjustment unit adjusting a signal level in the closed feedback loop; a photoelectric current detection unit detecting a photoelectric current generated in each of the first photodiode and the second photodiode; and wherein the level adjustment unit adjusts the signal level on the basis of an output of the photoelectric current detection unit.
US09374162B2
Described herein are technologies related to a semiconductor package that is installed in a portable device for data communications. More particularly, the semiconductor package that contains a memory, a digital logic chip, and an optical port in a single module or mold is described.
US09374154B2
Circuit connectors for establishing EHF communication include a receiver configured to receive a transmitted EHF electromagnetic signal, and an output circuit coupled to the receiver. The output circuit has two states of operation that correspond to enabling a signal output and disabling the signal output. The output circuit is also configured to change its state of operation responsive to a state of a control signal, and a controller is coupled to the receiver and configured to produce the control signal. The control signal has two states that correspond to a first condition when the received signal exceeds a first threshold and a second condition when the received signal is less than a second threshold.
US09374150B2
An apparatus including at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform: determining for a group of symbols at least one candidate transmission symbol position, wherein the group of symbols include a first symbol position part for backhaul downlink symbol positions and a second symbol position part including the at least one candidate transmission symbol position; and generating at least one further backhaul downlink symbol for the at least one candidate transmission symbol position.
US09374145B2
A beam-forming network for an emitting array antenna having at least NB input ports connected to respective beam ports of the beam-forming network and at least NOSA>1 output ports, for associating to each output port a linear combination of input signals from respective input ports; a set of at least NOSA lossless single-mode networks, each having an input port connected to a respective output port of multi-beam network and at least NNOSAOSA>1 output ports, for associating to each output port a signal obtained by weighting an input signal from the input port; and a set of at least NNOSA≧NNOSAOSA lossless multi-mode networks, each having at least NNOSAOSA NOSANOSA input ports, each one connected to an output port of a respective single-mode network, and at least NENOSA>1 output ports connected to respective antenna ports of the beam-forming network, for associating to each output port a linear combination of input signals from respective input ports.
US09374141B2
A signal generation method is used in a transmission device that transmits a plurality of transmission signals from a plurality of antennas at the same frequency and at the same time, in the case where larger power change is performed on a first transmission signal than on a second transmission signal during generation process of the first transmission signal and the second transmission signal, the first transmission signal and the second transmission signal are mapped before the power change such that a minimum Euclidian distance between possible signal points for the first signal is longer than a minimum Euclidian distance between possible signal points for the second signal.
US09374138B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a downlink precoding method and data interacting method for coordinated multi-point transmission system and apparatus. The downlink precoding method includes: acquiring a precoding matrix indicator by a cooperating point and determining the precoding matrix of the cooperating point according to the precoding matrix indicator, the number of columns of the precoding matrix of the cooperating point being less than that of columns of the precoding matrix of a serving point; and performing, by the cooperating point, downlink precoding to the data to be transmitted according to the determined precoding matrix of the cooperating point. With the methods and apparatuses of the embodiments of the present invention, as the cooperating points participate only in the transmission of data of part of layers in the coordinated scenarios, the complexity of calculation and the feedback overhead are lowered in the UE end.
US09374137B2
A communication partner appliance is implemented within a near field communication system. The communication partner appliance includes a receiver, a detector, and a processor. The receiver receives a NFC command signal from another communication partner appliance. The detector detects whether a carrier signal from the other communication partner appliance is present at the receiver at a time other than during a transmission of the NFC command signal from the other communication partner appliance to the receiver. The processor controls a power supply element based on a determination by the detector whether the carrier signal from the other communication partner appliance is present at the receiver. The power supply element is configured to establish a connection to either a first power supply or a second power supply. The first power supply is dependent on the carrier signal, and the second power supply is independent of the carrier signal.
US09374135B2
Method and apparatus for alerting a user to presence within a vehicle of an item having an active near-field communication device (NFCD) associated therewith, such as a smartphone. A passive NFCD is located adjacent to a storage compartment within a vehicle. When the active NFCD-equipped item is placed in the compartment, communication is established between the active and passive NFCDs. A controller device is communicatively connected to the vehicle to detect a journey completion event and send a wireless message (via Bluetooth, for example) to the item. The message instructs the item to output an alert if the active and passive NFCDs are in communication with one another. Journey completion events may be turning off of a vehicle ignition, opening of a vehicle door, or a vehicle seat becoming unoccupied.
US09374133B2
In a vectoring-capable DSL system, power can be saved by a low power mode wherein data transmission is reduced or halted, but synch symbols continue to be transmitted, so that estimation of crosstalk coefficients may continue during the low power mode. When crosstalk coefficient estimates are up to date, a line may exit low power mode without causing problematic changes of crosstalk noise in other lines, since the vectoring functionality will eliminate or reduce the crosstalk.
US09374130B2
A method and apparatus are provided for providing improved spectrum efficiency by triggering a ranked transmission. In this regard, a method is provided that includes causing a configuration message to be transmitted to a mobile terminal, wherein the configuration message provides interpretation information for a frequency hopping flag bit. The method also includes determining a rank for a transmission. The method may include setting a rank indication in the frequency hopping flag bit of a downlink control message based on the determined rank of the transmission.
US09374125B1
Methods and devices are described for overcoming insertion loss notches in RF systems. In one case programmable impedances are used to move an insertion loss notch outside a frequency band of interest.
US09374111B2
A linear transform can be performed using a passive analog multi-stage charge re-use linear transform circuit. The passive analog multi-stage charge re-use linear transform circuit transforms an input analog circuit to generate a transformed analog output signal. The passive analog multi-stage charge re-use linear transform circuit may be included in a software defined radio (SDR), where the transformed analog output signal may be output to an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) of the SDR device so as to enable the ADC to perform wideband spectrum sensing. The passive analog multi-stage charge re-use linear transform circuit may also be included in a beamforming device so as to enable the device to perform spectral shifting and spatial shifting of signals. This passive analog multi-stage charge re-use linear transform circuit may promote reduced power consumption in comparison to other circuits while also supporting wideband applications at high sampling rates.
US09374106B2
A hardware accelerator receives a request to decompress a data stream that includes multiple deflate blocks and multiple deflate elements compressed according to block-specific compression configuration information. The hardware accelerator identifies a commit point that is based upon an interruption of a first decompression session of the data stream and corresponds to one of the deflate blocks. As such, the hardware accelerator configures a decompression engine based upon the corresponding deflate block's configuration information and, in turn, recommences decompression of the data stream at an input bit location corresponding to the commit point.
US09374104B2
There is provided a pipelined A/D converter in which plural stages Stage 1 to Stage N each including an MDAC (i.e., Multiplying DA Converter) are connected. The pipelined A/D converter is configured with a Gain-AMP (12) included in the MDAC for the SPM, MOS transistors (Mx1) and (Mx2) as a differential pair having output ends connected to a sampling capacitor CsI on a subsequent stage, MOS transistors (My1) and (My2) as a load unit connected to the differential pair, a current source (I3) configured to supply a current to the MOS transistors (Mx1) and (Mx2) as the differential pair, and current sources (I1) and (I2) configured to adjust the current flown across the MOS transistors (My1) and (My2) as the load unit.
US09374101B2
Provided is a sensor device including: a sensor unit converting a voltage of a periodically switched capacitor into a pulse signal by referring to a clock signal to provide the pulse signal as a first sensing signal; and a high-resolution analog to digital converter (ADC) amplifying a period of the first sensing signal 2n times (n is an integer), amplifying a period of the clock signal 2n−1 times, and generating a second sensing signal where a switching time of the capacitor is removed by removing the amplified clock signal from the amplified first sensing signal.
US09374092B2
An internal voltage compensation circuit is provided which includes a power up signal generator configured to generate a power up signal, a select signal generator configured to compare a level of a first external voltage with a level of a second external voltage to generate first and second select signals, wherein the second select signal is generated in response to the power up signal, and a voltage compensation unit configured to electrically connect an internal voltage to the first external voltage or the second external voltage in response to the first and second select signals.
US09374090B2
A circuit arrangement may be provided including a level shifting stage configured to be coupled to a first reference voltage and a second reference voltage. The circuit arrangement may also include a first input electrode in electrical connection with the level shifting stage for coupling a first input voltage and a second input electrode in electrical connection with the level shifting stage for coupling a second input voltage. The level shifting stage may be configured to generate an output voltage above a predetermined output level at the output node due to the first reference voltage when the first input voltage is in the first logic state and the second input voltage is in the second logic state. The circuit arrangement may also include a feedback circuit coupled to the output stage and the level shifting stage and a voltage stabilization circuit coupled to the level shifting stage.
US09374088B2
An impedance calibration apparatus of a semiconductor integrated circuit includes: a D/A conversion unit configured to receive a code and generate an analog voltage depending on the code; a virtual code voltage generation unit configured to detect a level of the analog voltage and generate a plurality of virtual code voltages based on the level of the analog voltage; a comparison unit configured to receive the plurality of virtual code voltages and a reference voltage as inputs, and compare the plurality of virtual code voltages with the reference voltage to generate a plurality of comparison signals; and a code generation unit configured to receive the plurality of comparison signals and generate the code using the plurality of comparison signals.
US09374087B2
A virtual world processing apparatus and method. Information on sensor capability is converted to binary data and then transmitted, or converted to eXtensible Markup Language (XML) data, or the XML data is further converted to binary data and then transmitted. Accordingly, data transmission rate may be increased and a low bandwidth may be used. In a data-receiving adaptation real world to virtual world (RV) engine, complexity of the adaptation RV engine may be reduced by omitting an XML parser.
US09374085B2
Methods, systems, circuits, and devices for power-packet-switching power converters using bidirectional bipolar transistors (BTRANs) for switching. Four-terminal three-layer BTRANs provide substantially identical operation in either direction with forward voltages of less than a diode drop. BTRANs are fully symmetric merged double-base bidirectional bipolar opposite-faced devices which operate under conditions of high non-equilibrium carrier concentration, and which can have surprising synergies when used as bidirectional switches for power-packet-switching power converters. BTRANs are driven into a state of high carrier concentration, making the on-state voltage drop very low.
US09374082B2
A clock control device and method are provided. The clock control device includes a stable time controller which receives an operational condition and generates an expiration counting value based on the operational condition; a stable time counter which receives the expiration counting value and activates a clock gating enable signal after a count value of the stable time counter is equal to the expiration counting value; a clock gating cell which transmits a clock signal after receiving the clock gating enable signal; and an oscillator which generates an oscillator clock signal and transmits the oscillator clock signal to the clock gating cell and the stable time counter.
US09374071B2
A delay circuit of a semiconductor apparatus includes a control signal generation block configured to output a control signal having an analog voltage level in response to an input signal, and an input/output block configured to delay the input signal by a delay amount based on the analog voltage level of the control signal, and output a resultant signal.
US09374069B2
A method of processing an amplitude-modulated analog signal at a carrier frequency Fc comprises: digitizing the analog signal to produce an input bit stream that represents the amplitude of the analog signal; generating an in-phase reference bit stream that is synchronous to the carrier frequency Fc and represents an in-phase digital reference signal substantially in the form of a sine and/or cosine wave; and multiplying the input bit stream with the in-phase reference bit stream to produce an output bit stream representing the amplitude modulation of the analog signal.
US09374063B1
The present invention discloses a gain-boosted N-path SC bandpass filter (GB-BPF) with a number of sought features. It is based on a transconductance amplifier (Gm) with an N-path SC branch as its feedback network, offering 1) double RF filtering at the input and output of the Gm in one step; 2) customized passband gain and bandwidth with input-impedance match, and 3) reduced physical capacitance thanks to the loop gain offered by Gm. All have been examined using a RLC model of the SC branch before applying the linear periodically time-variant (LPTV) analysis to derive the R, L and C expressions and analytically study the harmonic selectivity, harmonic folding and noise. The latter reveals that: 1) the noise due to the switches is notched at the output, allowing smaller switches to save the LO power; and 2) the noises due to the source resistance and Gm are narrowband at the output, reducing the folded noise during harmonic mixing.
US09374058B2
An impedance matching device includes a matching element array unit with a matching element array to which a transmission pulse and a received pulse pass, an extraction/calculation unit extracting pulse information from the transmission pulse and the received pulse, calculating impedance values corresponding to the pulse information, and calculating an impedance value having best response characteristics of the received pulse with respect to the transmission pulse as a matching impedance value, an array control unit routing the matching element array unit according to the matching impedance value, a first converter converting a frequency of the transmission pulse into a carrier frequency and outputting the transmission pulse to the matching element array unit, a second converter converting the carrier frequency into a low frequency, and a converter control unit outputting a signal for controlling the frequency converting of the first converter and the second converter.
US09374048B2
A power switch 307a is provided between a bias generation circuit 301 and a high potential power source, or a power switch 307b is provided between the bias generation circuit 301 and a low potential power source. A bias potential Vb output from the bias generation circuit 301 is held by a potential holding circuit 300. The bias potential Vb held by the potential holding circuit 300 is input to a bias generation circuit 301a, and a bias potential Vb2 output from the bias generation circuit 301a on which an input signal IN is superimposed is input to an amplifier circuit 302. The potential holding circuit 300 is constituted of a capacitor 306 and a switch 305 formed of, for example, a transistor with a low off-state current that is formed using a wide band gap oxide semiconductor. Structures other than the above structure are claimed.
US09374046B2
A current amplifier and a transmitter using the same. The current amplifier includes: a first transistor having a gate coupled to a former-stage circuit, a drain coupled to a current source, and a source biased at a constant voltage level; a second transistor having a gate coupled to the current source and having a source and a drain; a first impedance circuit coupled between the gate of the first transistor and the source of the second transistor; and a second impedance circuit coupled between the source of the second transistor and a ground terminal. The current amplifier receives an input current from the former-stage circuit and generates an output current at the drain of the second transistor. Note that no current source is connected to the source of the first transistor.
US09374039B2
A power amplifier includes an amplification transistor which performs power amplification, a bias circuit which outputs a bias voltage to a base of the amplification transistor, a control terminal to which a control voltage is applied for controlling switching between an operating state and a stopping state of the bias circuit, and a bias voltage adjustment circuit connected to the control terminal. The bias voltage adjustment circuit includes a variable capacitance element which is connected to the control terminal and whose capacitance value decreases as the control voltage increases, a discharge circuit which discharges electric charge accumulated in the variable capacitance element to the control terminal, and a control circuit which is connected to the bias circuit and controls the bias voltage. The bias voltage adjustment circuit outputs, to the bias circuit, a bias voltage adjustment signal which increases the bias voltage for a predetermined period after the control voltage is applied.
US09374033B2
A three-level power conversion apparatus can suppress fluctuation in a neutral point voltage even when operated as a reactive power regulator. The three-level power conversion apparatus is composed of first and second three-level converters connected to an AC power supply, positive side and negative side DC capacitors, a three-level inverter to drive an AC motor, and converter control unit for controlling the three-level converters. The converter control unit has first and second reactive current controllers for controlling so that reactive portions of input currents of each three-level converter become a prescribed reactive current reference, first and second neutral point voltage fluctuation suppressing units for controlling a PWM controller, to make a voltage difference of two DC capacitors zero, and an active current controller for supplying a prescribed circulating active current from one three-level converter to other three-level converter.
US09374022B2
A control apparatus for a voltage conversion apparatus includes: duty command signal generation means for generating a duty command signal corresponding to a duty ratio of switching elements carrier signal generation means for generating carrier signals corresponding to respective switching frequencies of the switching elements; switching control signal generation means for generating respective switching control signals of switching ON and OFF states of the switching elements, by comparing the duty command signal with the carrier signals; one arm driving control means for implementing one arm driving by alternatively turning on the first and second switching elements; and phase inverting means for bringing phases of portions, of the carrier signals, corresponding to switching at least right after arm switching, into a state where the phases are shifted from each other by 180 degrees between the first and second switching elements, at the time of the arm switching.
US09374019B2
System and method for discharging a capacitor. An example system includes a signal detector and a discharge control component. The signal detector is configured to receive an input signal and generate a detection signal based on at least information associated with the input signal, the input signal being associated with an alternate current signal received by a capacitor including a first capacitor terminal and a second capacitor terminal. The discharge control component configured to receive at least the detection signal and generate an output signal to discharge the capacitor if the detection signal satisfies one or more conditions.
US09374010B2
A power adaptor is provided. The power adaptor includes a voltage converter, a connecting port, a first transformer and a controller. The voltage converter receives an input voltage and determines whether to convert the input voltage to an output voltage according to an indicating signal. The first transformer includes a primary side and a secondary side. The primary side and the secondary side are coupled to each other, and a first end and a second end of the secondary side are coupled to the connecting port, respectively. The controller generates the indicating signal according to a voltage at the primary side of the first transformer. The connecting port is used to connect to an electrical device, and when the connecting port is electrically connected to the electrical device, a first end and a second end of the secondary side are short to a reference ground end of the secondary side.
US09374007B2
Provided is a DC/DC converter that is capable of performing stable control without being affected by noise from an output voltage and without any malfunction and is capable of operating at a relatively constant frequency. The DC/DC converter includes an ON-timer circuit configured to input a control signal, which is synchronized with a signal input to a gate of an output transistor, and output an ON-time signal. The ON-timer circuit includes: a ripple generation circuit configured to generate and output a ripple component based on the control signal; an averaging circuit configured to output a signal obtained by averaging the ripple component; and a timer circuit configured to generate and output the ON-time signal based on the signal of the averaging circuit and the control signal.
US09373991B2
A method for manufacturing a laminated iron core is provided. A laminated iron core body including a permanent magnet inserted into a magnet-insert hole is arranged between a molding die and a holding die. A cull plate is arranged between the molding die and the laminated iron core body. The cull plate has a groove shaped runner directed toward the magnet-insert hole from a resin reservoir and provided with a gate hole communicating with the magnet-insert hole, and a through hole which vertically passes through the cull plate is formed in the runner of the cull plate at a different position from a position of the gate hole. After the magnet-insert hole is filled with the mold resin a resin residue remaining in the cull plate is pushed off and removed from the gate hole and the through hole.
US09373986B2
An electric motor assembly that eliminates external component-to-component assembly seams between coupled packaging hardware that would inhibit the creation and maintenance of, for example, IP 66 and IP 67 seals while utilizing inexpensive existing motor shaft rear bearing supports and also creating additional internal electronic packaging space. The disclosure provides an assembly with a continuous (e.g., no interruptions or seams) surface area to support IP sealing of the entire packaging-to-package interface between a primary motor frame (e.g., housing) and externally attached secondary/ancillary electronic hardware.
US09373981B2
Provided is a stator of a motor which is capable of reducing a loss generated in a motor and thereby attaining a high-efficient motor, and a motor including the stator. A stator of a motor comprises a stator core including a plurality of plate members stacked together; the stator core including: a yoke of a tubular shape; and teeth each of which includes an extending portion extending inward in a radial direction of the yoke from the yoke and an increased-width portion formed at a tip end of the extending portion so as to have a greater width than the extending portion in a circumferential direction of the yoke; wherein the extending portion has a constant-width portion extending radially in a straight-line shape so as to have a constant circumferential width, a narrower portion having a smaller circumferential width than the constant-width portion, and a clamp portion for securing the plurality of plate members to each other; and wherein the clamp portion is provided in the constant-width portion.
US09373978B2
An uninterruptible power supply (UPS) apparatus is disclosed that can receive power from different electrical utility configurations. The input stage of the UPS includes a three phase rectifier bridge design having three legs configured for connection to the different electrical utility configurations. An advantage that may be realized in the practice of some disclosed embodiments of the UPS input stage is that a single UPS can have the flexibility to be used with different electrical utility configurations having different voltages and phases.
US09373977B1
Methods and systems supply uninterrupted power to a load using a backup battery module. A driver circuit connects the load and the backup battery module such that the operational range of the load voltage is narrower than the operational range of the battery voltage. Different charging and discharging paths of the driver circuit may be used to limit the DC bus voltage to values lower than the battery voltage. The proposed systems and methods can increase power efficiency and decrease the cost of power supply and conversion operations.
US09373958B2
A photovoltaic power plant includes solar cells and inverters that convert direct current generated by the solar cells to alternating current. The reactive powers generated by the inverters are based on a reactive power generated by a virtual inverter. The virtual inverter has an equivalent impedance representing the impedances of the inverters in the photovoltaic power plant. The reactive power setpoints of the inverters may be received from a local interpreter. The local interpreter may generate the reactive power setpoints from a global reactive power setpoint generated by a grid controller.
US09373955B2
Disclosed are devices and methods related to a CMOS switch for radio-frequency (RF) applications. In some embodiments, the switch can be configured to include a resistive body-floating circuit to provide improved power handling capability. The switch can further include an electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuit disposed relative to the switch to provide ESD protection for the switch. Such a switch can be implemented for different switching applications in wireless devices such as cell phones, including band-selection switching and transmit/receive switching.
US09373953B2
A disclosed battery protecting circuit for protecting a secondary battery including at least first and second cells connected in series includes a first terminal connected on a high potential side of the first cell; a second terminal connected on a low potential side of the first cell and a high potential side of the second cell; a third terminal connected on a low potential side of the second cell; a charge abnormality detecting circuit detecting abnormality of the charged state of the secondary battery; a shifting circuit shifting electric potential of the second terminal on a side of the first terminal or a third terminal when a disconnection occurs between the secondary battery and the second terminal; a disconnection detecting circuit detecting the disconnection based on the electric potential of the second terminal; and a latching circuit retaining a result detected by the disconnection detecting circuit.
US09373945B2
An electrical penetration arrangement through the wall of a containment structure, comprising a pipe penetration having a pipe which is disposed in the wall of a containment structure, penetrating the wall, so that a first opening of the pipe is disposed outside of the containment structure, and a second opening is disposed inside the structure. Power feedthroughs are disposed in the pipe penetration having conductors sealed along their axial direction by a hermetically sealing, electrically insulating material, in which cables coming from outside can be connected to first conductor ends, and cables coming from inside the containment structure can be connected to second conductor ends. Power feedthroughs are fastened in the pipe of the pipe penetration and sealed by hermetically sealing material, so that the power feedthroughs form a hermetically sealing barrier, and the first conductor ends are disposed in the interior of the pipe.
US09373943B1
A modular raceway apparatus provides a pre-wired electrical sub-assembly for on-site installation in a building or installation a pre-fabricated building component. The raceway apparatus includes normal power and emergency power tracks. Each power track includes internal wiring connected to one or more connectors for plug-and-play interconnectivity with independent power supplies and other electrical component wiring members. Each raceway track includes multiple track members separated by gaps and a coupling.
US09373939B2
A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device comprising the steps of: growing a stacked semiconductor layer on a substrate, the stacked semiconductor layer including an active layer and a cladding layer; forming a mesa structure by etching the stacked semiconductor layer, the mesa structure extending in a [011] direction; and forming a buried layer of Fe-doped InP on the side surface of the mesa structure in a reactor of an organo-metallic vapor phase epitaxy apparatus while supplying a hydrogen chloride gas into the reactor. In the step of forming the buried layer, the hydrogen chloride gas is supplied from the beginning of forming the buried layer. The buried layer has a first region and a second region. The first region has a front surface of a (311)B plane. The second region is formed on the front surface. The Fe concentration of the first region is higher than that of the second region.
US09373938B2
Various embodiments of a photonic device and fabrication method thereof are described herein. A device may include a substrate, a bottom contact layer, a current confinement layer, an intrinsic layer, an absorption layer, and a top contact layer. The bottom contact layer may be of a first polarity and may be disposed on the substrate. The current confinement layer may be disposed on the bottom contact layer. The intrinsic layer may be disposed on the current confinement layer. The absorption layer may be disposed on the intrinsic layer. The top contact layer may be of a second polarity and may be disposed on the absorption layer. The second polarity is opposite to the first polarity.
US09373934B2
A hybrid optical source includes a substrate with an optical amplifier (such as a III-V semiconductor optical amplifier). The substrate is coupled at an angle (such as an angle between 0 and 90°) to a silicon-on-insulator chip. In particular, the substrate may be optically coupled to the silicon-on-insulator chip by an optical coupler (such as a diffraction grating or a mirror) that efficiently couples (i.e., with low optical loss) an optical signal into a sub-micron silicon-on-insulator optical waveguide. Moreover, the silicon-on-insulator optical waveguide optically couples the light to a reflector to complete the hybrid optical source.
US09373917B2
Electrical connector including a connector housing having a front side that faces along a mating axis and contact passages that open to the front side. The contact passages are configured to receive corresponding ground shields of a system connector during a mating operation. The electrical connector also includes signal contacts that are coupled to the connector housing and configured to engage corresponding contacts of the system connector. The electrical connector also includes a grounding lattice that is held by the connector housing. The grounding lattice includes a support frame and lattice springs that are interconnected by the support frame. The support frame extends generally transverse to the mating axis. The lattice springs are positioned to engage the ground shields of the system connector as the ground shields are inserted into the corresponding contact passages of the connector housing.
US09373913B2
A lever type connector includes: a first housing; a lever that is rotatably fixed to the first housing; a cam groove formed in the lever; and a second housing having a cam follower. The first housing and the second housing are fitted together by rotating the lever 30 in a fitting direction in a state in which the cam groove and the cam follower are engaged to each other. A plurality of operation protrusions (fitting operating portions) are formed on the lever so as to contact an operator's finger at the time of a fitting operation, and are arranged at an interval in the rotating direction of the lever.
US09373903B2
A flexible flat cable connector is described. The flexible flat cable connector comprises an insulating housing having first terminal holes in front end of the insulating housing and having second terminal holes in rear end of the insulating housing, wherein first terminal holes and second terminal holes are arranged in upward/downward dual-row configuration to form first insertion space and second insertion space respectively; and a plurality of terminals, forwardly extending each terminal to form first resilient portion and backwardly extending to form either second resilient portion or soldering portion, wherein terminals are secured inside the insulating housing in upward/downward dual-row configuration, first resilient portions are inserted to first insertion space and arranged in upward/downward dual-row configuration, and second resilient portions are inserted to second insertion space and arranged in upward/downward dual-row configuration; wherein soldering portions of terminals are arranged in and exposed from rear end of the insulating housing.
US09373893B2
An RFID tag and a method for optimizing a Yagi-Uda antenna for a RFID inlay or integrated circuit is provided. The method has steps comprise: 1) selecting an electrically conductively first element; 2) generating an electrically conductive second element by taking a mirror image of the electrically conductive first element and trimming the second element; 3) generating a third element” along a line of axis of symmetry of the first two elements and on the opposite side of the first element as the electrically conductive second element; 4) adjusting the distance between the first three elements for optimum performance using Et(x)=EXP[a−x·b]+E∞; and 5) optionally, if the electrically conductive first element does not contain an IC (integrated circuit) or RFID inlay, then adding an IC or RFID inlay adjacent to/or physically touching the electrically conductive first element along the line of symmetry.
US09373892B2
A dielectric waveguide slot antenna which is capable of radiating a circularly-polarized wave comprises: a dielectric waveguide having a slot through which a dielectric is exposed in a part of an electrically conductive film formed on a surface of the dielectric waveguide; a printed circuit board having a via hole opposed to the slot with the same shape as that of the slot; and a conductor plate having a first through-hole opposed to and having approximately the same shape as the via hole, and a pair of second through-holes in a vicinity of the first through-hole. The dielectric waveguide, the printed circuit board and the conductor plate are joined together with aligning the slot, the via hole and the first through-hole with each other. The printed circuit board has a conductor layer formed in positions facing to the second through-holes, and the second through-holes are arranged point-symmetrically with each other.
US09373891B2
A device for at least one of receiving and transmitting electromagnetic radiation includes a feedhorn having a substantially smooth, electrically conducting inner surface extending from an open end to a feed end, the inner surface being substantially rotationally symmetrical about a longitudinal axis, wherein an orthogonal distance from a point on the longitudinal axis to the substantially smooth, electrically conducting inner surface increases monotonically as the point on the longitudinal axis is selected at successively greater distances from the feed end of the feedhorn towards the open end of the feedhorn such that a profile of the substantially smooth, electrically conducting inner surface of the feedhorn is monotonically increasing. The feedhorn has an operating bandwidth and the feedhorn provides a maximum of −30 dB cross polarization response over at least 15% of the operating bandwidth. A method of producing a feedhorn for receiving or transmitting electromagnetic radiation includes determining a profile of an inner surface of the feedhorn based on constraints required to achieve a plurality of operating parameters, providing a pre-machined feedhorn having an initial inner surface, and machining the initial inner surface of the pre-machined feedhorn to substantially match the profile determined to achieve the plurality of operating parameters for the feedhorn. The determining the profile includes a constraint for the profile to be a monotonically increasing profile relative to a rotational symmetry axis of the inner surface of the feedhorn going from a narrow end to a wide end of the feedhorn.
US09373890B2
Disclosed is an antenna. The antenna includes a first radiating part bent in a predetermined direction, a second radiating part under the first radiating part, a conductive member connected to the second radiating part, and a coupling part spaced apart from the conductive member while surrounding a lateral side of the conductive member.
US09373886B2
A radiator in which power is fed through a slot of a reflection plate and which can be manufactured in a simple manner and an antenna including the same are disclosed. The antenna includes a reflection plate and a radiator. The radiator includes feed sections disposed on a first surface of the reflection plate, first and second radiation elements extending perpendicular to the feed section or inclined towards the reflection plate, and first and second base plates configured to support the balanced parallel strip feed sections. Here, the first and second base plates are capacitively coupled to the reflection plate.
US09373882B2
The present application relates to a near field communications (NFC) reader which includes an amplifier that drives an antenna. Capacitors of fixed value are connected in series between differential outputs of the amplifier and inputs of the antenna and form a series resonant circuit with the impedance of the antenna. Variable capacitances are provided in series with the fixed value capacitors, and the capacitance of these variable capacitances can be adjusted to compensate for manufacturing tolerances in the fixed value capacitors which cause a frequency offset between a desired resonant frequency of the series resonant circuit its actual resonant frequency, and to compensate for changes in the input impedance of the antenna that occur as the distance between the antenna of the reader and an antenna of an NFC tag changes.
US09373878B2
A communication cable includes a dielectric wave guide (DWG) that has a dielectric core member that has a first dielectric constant value and a cladding surrounding the dielectric core member that has a second dielectric constant value that is lower than the first dielectric constant. An RJ45 compatible connector is attached to a mating end of the DWG. The RJ45 connector is configured to retain a complimentary coupling mechanism on a mating end of a second DWG.
US09373868B2
A composite cathode active material including a lithium metal oxide including an oxide Formula 1 and sulfur, xLi2MnO3.(1−x−y)LiMO2.yLiMn2O4 (1) wherein 0
US09373867B2
The object is to provide a secondary battery which has an excellent cycle property even in high-temperature environment and which has small resistance increase even when it is used in high-temperature environment. An exemplary embodiment of the invention is a secondary battery, comprising: a positive electrode, a negative electrode, and an electrolyte liquid; wherein the electrolyte liquid comprises a chain-type fluorinated sulfone compound represented by a predetermined formula.
US09373859B2
A fuel cell stack has a stacked plurality of cell modules, each of the plurality of cell modules comprising a stacked plurality of single cells, each of the plurality of single cells comprising a membrane electrode assembly sandwiched between a pair of separators, a pair of end plates that sandwich the plurality of cell modules in the stacking direction, sealing plates to seal a reactant gas, disposed between the plurality of cell modules and between outermost cell modules and the end plates, and a voltage measuring terminal protruding to an outside of the cells, provided in at least one of the sealing plates.
US09373856B2
A power generation apparatus comprises a fuel cell and a reforming module, wherein the reforming module is adapted to reform hydrocarbon fuel into hydrogen and other components, and to separate the hydrogen from the other components. The apparatus is arranged so that the hydrogen is fed from the reforming module to the anode of the fuel cell. Carbon dioxide may be separated in the reforming module. Hydrogen may be recycled from the anode outflow back to the anode and/or tapped off. The apparatus may also contain a desorption module for releasing carbon dioxide. The absorption and release of carbon dioxide may be integrated and the carbon dioxide absorbent and/or desorbent may be recycled. Components of the apparatus may be thermally integrated. The apparatus may be used to generate electricity and produce hydrogen.
US09373846B2
It is an object of an exemplary embodiment of the present invention to provide a negative electrode active material having excellent rate characteristics and cycle characteristics. One embodiment according to the present invention is a negative electrode active material comprising a carbon-containing composite, wherein, in the carbon-containing composite, an active material capable of intercalating and deintercalating lithium, conductive nanofibers and conductive carbon particles are coated with a carbon material and are integrated.
US09373844B2
A positive electrode active substance including a lithium-containing metal oxide represented by the following general formula (1): LiFe1-xMxP1-ySiyO4 (1) wherein M represents an element selected from Sn, Zr, Y, and Al; 0
US09373842B2
Disclosed are a novel compound, a method for preparing the same, and a lithium secondary battery comprising the same. More specifically, disclosed are a compound in which five MO6 octahedrons are bonded to one another around one MO6 octahedron such that the MO6 octahedrons share a vertex, to form hollows and Li cations substituted instead of Na cations using an ion substitution method are present in the hollows, and a crystal structure thereof is not varied even upon intercalation and deintercalation of Li cations, a method for preparing the same, and a lithium secondary battery comprising the same as a cathode active material.
US09373840B2
A negative electrode active material for a secondary battery contains an aluminum alloy. The internal structure of the aluminum alloy has a crystalline aluminum phase in a magnesium-supersaturated solid solution state, and an amorphous aluminum phase. The amorphous aluminum phase is dispersed in the crystalline aluminum phase in the magnesium-supersaturated solid solution state. Each of these phases has a columnar shape. The magnesium content of the aluminum alloy preferably is greater than 22 at % and less than 35 at %, and more preferably, lies within a range of 25±2 at %.
US09373839B2
A negative electrode active material and a secondary battery including the same are provided. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a negative electrode active material including a Si-metal alloy including Si, the Si being present in the Si-metal alloy in an amount of 66 at % or less, and at least a portion of the Si being crystalline Si. The negative active material can provide a high-capacity battery, which can retain high capacity due to little volumetric expansion during charging and discharging, thereby demonstrating an excellent life characteristic of the secondary battery. The negative electrode active material may include a Si-metal alloy including crystalline Si having a crystal grain size of 30 nm or less. Methods of preparing a negative electrode active material and methods of preparing a secondary battery including the same are also disclosed.
US09373836B2
According to one embodiment, a non-aqueous electrolyte battery includes an outer package, a positive electrode housed in the outer package, a negative electrode housed with a space from the positive electrode in the outer package and including an active material, and a non-aqueous electrolyte filled in the outer package. The active material includes a lithium-titanium composite oxide particle, and a coating layer formed on at least a part of the surface of the particle and including at least one metal selected from the group consisting of Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba, Zr, Fe, Nb, Co, Ni, Cu and Si, an oxide of at least one metal selected from the group or an alloy containing at least one metal selected from the group.
US09373834B2
To provide a positive electrode for a lithium-ion secondary battery, which is highly filled with a positive electrode active material and has a high-density positive electrode active material layer. To provide a lithium-ion secondary battery having high capacity and improved cycle characteristics with use of the positive electrode. After graphene oxide is dispersed in a dispersion medium, a positive electrode active material is added and mixed to form a mixture. A binder is added to the mixture and mixed to form a positive electrode paste. The positive electrode paste is applied to a positive electrode current collector and the dispersion medium contained in the positive electrode paste is evaporated, and then, the graphene oxide is reduced, so that a positive electrode active material layer containing graphene is formed over the positive electrode current collector.
US09373827B2
A battery compartment insert for use with a battery holder that utilizes an assembly of two cells sealed in shrink wrap, thus replacing the need for use of the battery assembly. The insert includes a battery compartment lid for holding two separate lithium bromide battery cells and four electrical contacts. There are two electrical contacts corresponding to each battery cell. The battery compartment lid includes two diodes each corresponding to one of the battery cells and guide posts such that each individual battery cell can be taken out and replaced. The battery compartment lid corresponds to the battery holder such that two electrical contacts are each able to electrically communicate with a corresponding battery cell such that a device may be powered by the battery cells.
US09373825B2
Provided are a cell capable of preventing damage to an insulating gasket by spatter scattered when a battery case and a cover plate are laser-welded together, and thereby ensuring sealability of a cell case and a method for manufacturing the cell. A shielding member is arranged between a weld line and at least a portion of the insulating gasket adjacent to the weld line. Since the shielding member blocks the spatter scattered toward the insulating gasket, the insulating gasket is not damaged by the spatter. The insulating gasket is not damaged, so that adhesion between the insulating gasket and the cover plate is not lowered, and the sealability of the cell case is ensured.
US09373823B2
In a coating-type electron injection layer or electron transport layer using a metal oxide, the present invention aims at improving uniformity or stability of composition distribution and adhesion with another adjoining constituent layer, and improving film forming property, to thereby provide an organic electronic device and manufacture of the device whose efficiency is improved. In the organic electronic device having one pair of electrodes on a substrate, and having at least one organic layer between the electrodes, the electron injection layer or the electron transport layer is formed by application of a liquid material in which an alkaline metal salt and zinc-oxide nano particles are dissolved in alcohol.
US09373800B2
Provided is an organic light emitting element that can be driven at a low constant voltage, exhibits high luminous efficiency, and has an excellent lifetime characteristic. The organic light emitting element includes: a pair of electrodes; and an organic compound layer arranged between the pair of electrodes, in which a layer to be brought into contact with one of the pair of electrodes in the organic compound layer contains a lithium complex compound represented by the following general formula [1]: in the formula [1], R1 to R16 each independently represent a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom, a cyano group, an alkyl group that may be substituted with fluorine, an alkoxy group that may be substituted with fluorine, or a substituted or unsubstituted aryl group.
US09373799B2
It is an object of the present invention to provide an organometallic complex that can emit phosphorescence. In the following general formula (G1), X represents —O— or —N(R10)—. R1 to R9 each represent any of hydrogen, an alkyl group or a cycloalkyl group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms, an alkoxy group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms, an alkoxycarbonyl group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms, an acyl group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms, an acyloxy group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms, a halogen group, a haloalkyl group, and an aryl group having 6 to 12 carbon atoms. In addition, R10 represents any of an alkyl group or a cycloalkyl group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms, an acyl group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms, an aryl group having 6 to 12 carbon atoms, and a heteroaryl group having 4 to 10 carbon atoms. Moreover, M represents an element belonging to Group 9 or 10.
US09373797B2
Included herein is the compound: and related compounds, and light-emitting devices comprising the same.
US09373792B2
An anthracene derivative represented by the following formula (1):In the formula (1), Z is a structure represented by the following formula (2). In the formula (2), at least one pair of adjacent two substituents of R11 to R18 form a ring represented by the following formula (3) or (4):
US09373783B1
A technique relates magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM). A dielectric layer is disposed on a transistor, and the transistor is formed in a uniform crystalline substrate. A hole is formed through the dielectric layer to reach the transistor. A polycrystalline material is disposed in the hole by using selective epitaxial growth (SEG), and the polycrystalline material is annealed to create an epitaxial stud. A magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) is disposed on the epitaxial stud (SEG).
US09373779B1
A magnetic tunnel junction includes a conductive first magnetic electrode that includes magnetic recording material. A conductive second magnetic electrode is spaced from the first electrode and includes magnetic reference material. A non-magnetic tunnel insulator material is between the first and second electrodes. The magnetic reference material of the second electrode includes a non-magnetic region comprising elemental iridium. The magnetic reference material includes a magnetic region comprising elemental cobalt or a cobalt-rich alloy between the non-magnetic region and the tunnel insulator material.
US09373776B2
According to one embodiment, a magnetoresistive element includes first and second magnetic layers and a first nonmagnetic layer. The first magnetic layer has an axis of easy magnetization perpendicular to a film plane, and a variable magnetization. The second magnetic layer has an axis of easy magnetization perpendicular to a film plane, and an invariable magnetization. The first nonmagnetic layer is provided between the first and second magnetic layers. The second magnetic layer includes third and fourth magnetic layers, and a second nonmagnetic layer formed between the third and fourth magnetic layers. The third magnetic layer is in contact with the first nonmagnetic layer and includes Co and at least one of Zr, Nb, Mo, Hf, Ta, and W.
US09373775B2
Methods of forming memory cells, magnetic memory cell structures, and arrays of magnetic memory cell structures are disclosed. Embodiments of the methods include patterning a precursor structure to form a stepped structure including at least an upper discrete feature section and a lower feature section with a broader width, length, or both than the upper discrete feature section. The method uses patterning acts directed along a first axis, e.g., an x-axis, and then along a second axis, e.g., a y-axis, that is perpendicular to or about perpendicular to the first axis. The patterning acts may therefore allow for more unifoimity between a plurality of formed, neighboring cell core structures, even at dimensions below about thirty nanometers. Magnetic memory structures and memory cell arrays are also disclosed.
US09373772B2
A method for manufacturing an imaging device is presented. The method starts with providing a wafer having a membrane with an opening bonded to a substrate. A photoresist layer is deposited over the membrane and wafer surface. A portion of the substrate back surface under a central part of the membrane is etched anisotropicly. A first region of the photoresist layer is removed, exposing an opening in the membrane, so that a first isotropic etching of the substrate is performed through the membrane opening. A second region of the photoresist layer is stripped, exposing a second membrane opening, providing access for a second isotropic etching of the substrate through the first and/or second membrane opening.
US09373771B2
In various embodiments of the present invention, a thermoelectric device is provided. The thermoelectric device includes one or more thermoelements that transfer heat across the ends of the thermoelectric device. A method for creating the thermoelectric device includes forming a metal substrate, and etching one or more surfaces of the metal substrate to form etched portions. The unetched flat portions on the metal substrate are referred to as mesa cores. Thereafter, thermoelectric films are deposited on the one or more surfaces of the metal substrate. The deposition of the thermoelectric films on the mesa cores results in the formation of a thermoelement.
US09373767B2
A light emitting device of the invention includes a substrate having a metal on a surface thereof; a light emitting element installed on the surface of the substrate; a wire that connects the light emitting element and the metal; and a light reflecting member that covers the metal, the wire having a first bonding ball that is disposed on a surface of the metal, and an extension that extends above the first bonding ball, and the light reflecting member having a protrusion over the first bonding ball.
US09373759B2
The invention relates to a light-emitting semiconductor component, having: a light-emitting semiconductor chip (1) with an active region (11) which, in operation, emits light (31) having a first spectrum; a wavelength conversion element (2) which is positioned remote from the semiconductor chip (1), is downstream of the semiconductor chip (1) in the beam path of the light (31) having the first spectrum and converts the light (31) having the first spectrum at least partially into light (32) having a second spectrum; and a filter layer (3), which reflects at least a part (34) of a light (33) incident on the semiconductor component from the outside. The part (34) of the light (33) incident on the semiconductor component from the outside that is reflected by the filter layer (3) has a visible wavelength range and overlaps a color impression produced by the wavelength conversion element when the semiconductor component is in a switched-off state.
US09373744B2
Methods for treating a semiconductor material, and for making devices containing a semiconducting material, are presented. One embodiment is a method for treating a semiconductor material that includes a chalcogenide. The method comprises contacting at least a portion of the semiconductor material with a chemical agent. The chemical agent comprises a solvent, and an iodophor dissolved in the solvent.
US09373716B2
Impact ionization devices including vertical and recessed impact ionization metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) devices and methods of forming such devices are disclosed. The devices require lower threshold voltage than conventional MOSFET devices while maintaining a footprint equal to or less than conventional MOSFET devices.
US09373715B2
A semiconductor device may include a memory array including vertical memory cells connected to a digit line, word lines, and a body connection line. A row or column of the memory array may include one or more pillars connected to the body connection line. A voltage may be applied to the body connection line through at least one pillar connected to the body connection line. Application of the voltage to the body connection line may reduce floating body effects. Methods of forming a connection between at least one pillar and a voltage supply are disclosed. Semiconductor devices including such connections are also disclosed.
US09373714B2
An extended-drain transistor is formed in a semiconductor layer arranged on one side of an insulating layer with a semiconductor region being arranged on the other side of the insulating layer. The semiconductor region includes a first portion of a first conductivity type arranged in front of the source and at least one larger portion of the gate and a second portion of a second conductivity type arranged in front of at least the larger portion of the extended drain region, each of the first and second portions being coupled to a connection pad.
US09373705B1
The present invention provides a manufacturing method of a fin-shaped field effect transistor (FinFET), comprises the following steps. Firstly, providing a substrate having a fin structure; forming a gate structure on the fin structure perpendicular to a extending direction of the fin structure; performing an amorphous implantation to form an amorphous layer on a exposed portion of the fin structure exposed by the gate structure and a light-doping implantation; forming a sacrificial spacer on sides of the gate structure covering a portion of the amorphous layer on the fin structure; forming a trench on the fin structure adjacent to the sacrificial spacer; growing an alloy in the trench; and then removing the sacrificial spacer. The invention also provides a FinFET device thereof.
US09373695B2
The present disclosure provides a method of fabricating a semiconductor device that includes providing a semiconductor substrate, forming a gate structure over the substrate, forming a material layer over the substrate and the gate structure, implanting Ge, C, P, F, or B in the material layer, removing portions of the material layer overlying the substrate at either side of the gate structure, forming recesses in the substrate at either side of the gate structure, and depositing a semiconductor material in the recesses by an expitaxy process.
US09373689B2
A semiconductor structure includes a first III-V compound layer. A second III-V compound layer is disposed on the first III-V compound layer and is different from the first III-V compound layer in composition. A dielectric passivation layer is disposed on the second III-V compound layer. A source feature and a drain feature are disposed on the second III-V compound layer, and extend through the dielectric passivation layer. A gate electrode is disposed over the second III-V compound layer between the source feature and the drain feature. The gate electrode has an exterior surface. An oxygen containing region is embedded at least in the second III-V compound layer under the gate electrode. A gate dielectric layer has a first portion and a second portion. The first portion is under the gate electrode and on the oxygen containing region. The second portion is on a portion of the exterior surface of the gate electrode.
US09373686B2
According to one embodiment, a semiconductor device includes a first semiconductor layer of a first conductivity type made of silicon carbide; and a second semiconductor layer of a second conductivity type made of silicon carbide, placed in junction with the first semiconductor layer, and containing an electrically inactive element.
US09373682B2
An integrated circuit includes a guard ring structure including a guard ring with integrated well taps to reduce the silicon area required for the guard ring structure. In some embodiments, the guard ring structure includes an N-type guard ring surrounded by inner and outer P-type guard rings. The N-type guard ring is formed with interleaving deep N-wells and P-wells that are formed on an N-type buried layer and are electrically shorted together. The inner and outer P-type guard rings are formed in P-wells. The interleaving deep N-wells and P-wells of the N-type guard ring may be connected to ground or be left floating. By integrating P-well contacts in the N-type guard ring, P-well contacts, or P-taps, for the P-type guard ring can be eliminated.
US09373681B2
A method for fabricating a capacitor of a semiconductor device includes forming a mold layer over a substrate, forming a plurality of preliminary openings by selectively etching the mold layer, forming a plurality of openings where each opening is formed to have a given linewidth by forming a sacrificial layer on sidewalls of the preliminary openings, and forming a plurality of storage nodes in the plurality of openings.
US09373679B2
A semiconductor device production method includes forming a transition metal film, irradiating a surface of the transition metal film with a mono-silane gas to form a silicon-containing transition metal film, and oxidizing the silicon-containing transition metal film by an oxygen plasma treatment, thereby forming a transition metal silicate film.
US09373672B2
A display unit includes a plurality of light emitting devices, each of the light emitting devices including a function layer including at least an organic layer is sandwiched between a first electrode and a second electrode, and which have a resonator structure for resonating light by using a space between the first electrode and the second electrode as a resonant section and extracting the light through the second electrode are arranged on a substrate, wherein in the respective light emitting devices, the organic layer is made of an identical layer, and a distance of the resonant section between the first electrode and the second electrode is set to a plurality of different values.
US09373643B2
An object is to achieve low power consumption and a long lifetime of a semiconductor device having a wireless communication function. The object can be achieved in such a manner that a battery serving as a power supply source and a specific circuit are electrically connected to each other through a transistor in which a channel formation region is formed using an oxide semiconductor. The hydrogen concentration of the oxide semiconductor is lower than or equal to 5×1019 (atoms/cm3). Therefore, leakage current of the transistor can be reduced. As a result, power consumption of the semiconductor device in a standby state can be reduced. Further, the semiconductor device can have a long lifetime.
US09373638B1
A silicon germanium on insulator (SGOI) wafer having nFET and pFET regions is accessed, the SGOI wafer having a silicon germanium (SiGe) layer having a first germanium (Ge) concentration, and a first oxide layer over nFET and pFET and removing the first oxide layer over the pFET. Then, increasing the first Ge concentration in the SiGe layer in the pFET to a second Ge concentration and removing the first oxide layer over the nFET. Then, recessing the SiGe layer of the first Ge concentration in the nFET so that the SiGe layer is in plane with the SiGe layer in the pFET of the second Ge concentration. Then, growing a silicon (Si) layer over the SGOI in the nFET and a SiGe layer of a third concentration in the pFET, where the SiGe layer of a third concentration is in plane with the grown nFET Si layer.
US09373628B2
Provided are a semiconductor device and a method of fabricating the same. The method may include forming an electrode structure including insulating layers and electrode layers alternatingly stacked on a substrate, forming a channel hole to penetrate the electrode structure, forming a data storage layer on a sidewall of the channel hole, and forming a semiconductor pattern on a sidewall of the data storage layer to be electrically connected to the substrate. The electrode layers may be metal-silicide layers, and the insulating layers and the electrode layers may be formed in an in-situ manner using the same deposition system.
US09373627B2
A method includes forming Shallow Trench Isolation (STI) regions to separate a first active region and a second active region of a semiconductor substrate from each other, etching a portion of the STI regions that contacts a sidewall of the second active region to form a recess, and implanting a top surface layer and a side surface layer of the second active region to form an implantation region. The side surface layer of the second active region extends from the sidewall of the second active region into the second active region. An upper portion of the top surface layer and an upper portion of the side surface layer are oxidized to form a capacitor insulator. A floating gate is formed to extend over the first active region and the second active region. The floating gate includes a portion extending into the recess.
US09373622B2
An CMOS device comprises a plurality of NMOS transistors and a plurality of PMOS transistors, each of which comprises a gate stack constituted of a gate insulating layer and a gate metal layer on a substrate, a source/drain region in the substrate on both sides of the gate stack and a channel region below the gate stack, wherein the gate metal layer of each NMOS transistor comprising a first barrier layer, an NMOS work function adjusting layer, a second barrier layer, and a filling layer, and wherein the gate metal layer of each PMOS transistor comprising a first barrier layer, a PMOS work function adjusting layer, an NMOS work function adjusting layer, a second barrier layer, and a filling layer, and wherein the first barrier layer in the gate metal layer of the NMOS transistor and the first barrier layer in the gate metal layer of the PMOS transistor contain a doping ion to finely adjust the work function. The semiconductor device and the method for manufacturing the same according to the present disclosure utilize the sacrificial layer to diffuse impurity to the barrier layer so that the adjusting accuracy of the threshold voltage may be effectively improved, thereby facilitating in improving the whole performance of the device.
US09373621B2
An analog circuit cell array includes a plurality of transistor cell arranged in an array. Each of the transistor cells includes a first source region, a first channel region, a common drain region, a second channel region, and a second source region arranged in sequence one adjacent to another; and a first gate electrode and a second gate electrode formed on the first channel region and the second channel region, respectively, and wherein the first gate electrode and the second gate electrode are connected together for use, and the first source region and the second source region are connected together for use.
US09373620B2
A series-connected transistor structure includes a first source, a first channel-drain structure, a second channel-drain structure, a gate dielectric layer, a gate, a first drain pad and a second drain pad. The first source is over a substrate. The first channel-drain structure is over the first source and includes a first channel and a first drain thereover. The second channel-drain structure is over the first source and substantially parallel to the first channel-drain structure and includes a second channel and a second drain thereover. The gate dielectric layer surrounds the first channel and the second channel. The gate surrounds the gate dielectric layer. The first drain pad is over and in contact with the first drain. The second drain pad is over and in contact with the second drain, in which the first drain pad and the second drain pad are separated from each other.
US09373614B2
A diode (23) is arranged near a transistor (25) to protect from ESD. The diode comprises a well (5) of a first conductivity type and a doped region (4) of a second conductivity type in opposition to the first conductivity type. The transistor comprises a doped well (2) and a doped region (1) of the first conductivity type. The well (2) of the transistor is doped lower than the well (5) of the diode.
US09373609B2
In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a semiconductor package includes a semiconductor chip and a bump. The semiconductor chip has a contact pad on a major surface. The bump is disposed on the contact pad of the semiconductor chip. A solder layer is disposed on sidewalls of the bump.
US09373594B2
A structure of an under bump metallization and a method of forming the same are provided. The under bump metallization has a redistribution via hole, viewed from the top, in a round shape or a polygon shape having an angle between adjacent edges greater than 90°. Therefore, the step coverage of the later formed metal layer can be improved.
US09373589B2
The embodiments of the present invention provide a display substrate and a manufacturing method thereof, as well as a display device including the display substrate. The display substrate may include a base substrate and a thin film transistor arranged on the base substrate, the thin film transistor having a gate, a gate insulating layer, an oxide semiconductor active layer as well as a source electrode and a drain electrode arranged on the base substrate sequentially; the display substrate may further include an ultraviolet blocking layer, the ultraviolet blocking layer having a first portion arranged between the base substrate and the oxide semiconductor active layer. By arranging the ultraviolet blocking layer, the influence of ultraviolet light on the oxide semiconductor active layer can be mitigated or avoided.
US09373588B2
Embodiments of the present description include stacked microelectronic dice embedded in a microelectronic substrate and methods of fabricating the same. In one embodiment, at least one first microelectronic die is attached to a second microelectronic die, wherein an underfill material is provided between the second microelectronic die and the at least one first microelectronic die. The microelectronic substrate is then formed by laminating the first microelectronic die and the second microelectronic die in a substrate material.
US09373586B2
The present disclosure is directed to an interconnect structure. The metal interconnect structure has a metal body disposed over a semiconductor substrate and a projection extending from the metal body. A barrier layer continuously extends over the projection from a first sidewall of metal body to an opposing second sidewall of the metal body. A layer of dielectric material is disposed over the semiconductor substrate at a position abutting the metal body and the projection.
US09373585B2
An interconnect (124) suitable for attachment of integrated circuit assemblies to each other comprises a polymer member (130), possibly dielectric, coated with a conductive material (144) which provides one or more conductive lines. In some embodiments, the conductive material covers a part, but not all, of the polymer member. In some embodiments, multiple conductive lines are formed on the polymer member. In some embodiments, the polymer member is conductive. Such interconnects replace metal bond wires in some embodiments. Other features are also provided.
US09373584B2
At least one conductive line in a dielectric layer over a substrate is recessed to form a channel. The channel is self-aligned to the conductive line. The channel can be formed by etching the conductive line to a predetermined depth using a chemistry comprising an inhibitor to provide uniformity of etching independent of a crystallographic orientation. A capping layer to prevent electromigration is deposited on the recessed conductive line in the channel. The channel is configured to contain the capping layer within the width of the conductive line.
US09373577B2
A semiconductor package includes a substrate, an RF semiconductor die attached to a first side of the substrate, a capacitor attached to the first side of the substrate, and a first terminal on the first side of the substrate. The semiconductor package further includes copper or aluminum bonding wires or ribbons connecting the first terminal to an output of the RF semiconductor die, and gold bonding wires or ribbons connecting the capacitor to the output of the RF semiconductor die. The gold bonding wires or ribbons are designed to accommodate greater RF Joule heating during operation of the RF semiconductor die than the copper or aluminum bonding wires or ribbons. Corresponding methods of manufacturing are also described.
US09373576B2
An integrated circuit (IC) package substrate is provided. In one embodiment, the IC package substrate includes a dielectric layer having first and second opposing surfaces and a matrix of pillars disposed in the dielectric layer and arranged to receive a matrix of conductive elements of an IC die. Each pillar of the matrix of pillars is exposed at the first surface of the dielectric layer. Each pillar of the matrix of pillars extends through the dielectric layer to contact a metal layer attached to the second surface of the dielectric layer.
US09373571B2
An electronic multi-output device has a substrate including a first pad, a second pad and a plurality of pins. A first chip with a first transistor has a first terminal on one chip surface and a second and third terminals on the opposite chip surface. The first chip with its first terminal is tied to the first pad. A second chip with a second transistor has a first terminal on one chip surface and a second and third terminals on the opposite chip surface. The second chip with its first terminal is tied to the second pad. The second terminals are connected by a discrete first metal clip and a second metal clip to respective substrate pins. A composite third chip has a third and a fourth transistor integrated so that the first terminals of the transistors are on one chip surface. The second terminals are merged into a common terminal. The patterned third terminals are on the opposite chip surface. The first terminals are vertically attached to the first and second metal clips, respectively. The common terminal is connected by a common clip to a substrate pin.
US09373565B2
A microelectronic package can include a substrate and a microelectronic element having a face and one or more columns of contacts thereon which face and are joined to corresponding contacts on a surface of the substrate. An axial plane may intersect the face along a line in the first direction and centered relative to the columns of element contacts. Columns of package terminals can extend in the first direction. First terminals in a central region of the second surface can be configured to carry address information usable to determine an addressable memory location within the microelectronic element. The central region may have a width not more than three and one-half times a minimum pitch between the columns of package terminals. The axial plane can intersect the central region.
US09373562B2
A semiconductor device provided herewith includes a semiconductor substrate; a brazing material bonded to the semiconductor substrate; a heat sink connected to the semiconductor substrate via the brazing material and a resin. The heat sink includes a protruding portion formed outside of a range in which the heatsink is connected to the semiconductor substrate via the brazing material. The protruding portion is making contact with the brazing material. The resin seals the semiconductor substrate, the brazing material and the protruding portion.
US09373558B2
The present invention is intended to increase the moisture resistance of a resin-sealed electronic control device. The resin-sealed electronic control device includes: a semiconductor chip; a chip capacitor; a chip resistor; a bonding member; a substrate; a case; a heat radiating plate; a glass coating; and a first sealing material. The glass coating directly covers the electronic circuit formed by the element group including: the semiconductor chip; the chip capacitor; and the chip resistor, the bonding member and the substrate, and is sealed by the first sealing material. By being water impermeable, the glass coating prevents water absorption in the vicinity of the element group, and can prevent an increase in the leak current of the semiconductor chip due to water absorption, and an insulation performance drop such as lowered insulation resistance caused by migration within the element group.
US09373556B2
A module IC package structure for increasing heat-dissipating efficiency includes a substrate unit, an electronic unit, a package unit, a first heat-dissipating unit and a second heat-dissipating unit. The substrate unit includes a circuit substrate. The electronic unit includes a plurality of electronic components disposed on the circuit substrate and electrically connected to the circuit substrate. The package unit includes a package gel body disposed on the circuit substrate for enclosing the electronic components. The first heat-dissipating unit includes a heat-dissipating base layer disposed on the top surface of the package gel body. The second heat-dissipating unit includes a plurality of heat-dissipating auxiliary layers disposed on the top surface of the heat-dissipating base layer. Whereby, the heat-dissipating efficiency of the module IC package structure can be increased by matching the heat-dissipating base layer and the heat-dissipating auxiliary layers.
US09373552B2
A method of calibrating or monitoring an exposing tool including forming a substrate pattern in a substrate, wherein forming the substrate pattern includes providing a first patterned photo resist layer having an etch coating layer disposed thereon and using the first patterned photo resist layer and the etch coating layer to pattern an underlying layer. The patterned underlying layer is then used as a masking element when etching the substrate pattern into the substrate. A second photo resist pattern is formed over the substrate pattern. An overlay measurement is executed of the second photo resist pattern to the substrate pattern.
US09373546B2
Methods and apparatus for forming FinFET structures are provided. Selective etching and deposition processes described herein may provide for FinFET manufacturing without the utilization of multiple patterning processes. Embodiments described herein also provide for fin material manufacturing methods for transitioning from silicon to III-V materials while maintaining acceptable crystal lattice orientations of the various materials utilized. Further embodiments provide etching apparatus which may be utilized to perform the methods described herein.
US09373542B2
Integrated circuits and methods for fabricating integrated circuits with improved contact structures
Integrated circuits with improved contact structures and methods for fabricating integrated circuits with improved contact structures are provided. In an exemplary embodiment, a method for fabricating integrated circuits includes providing a device in and/or on a semiconductor substrate. Further, the method includes forming a contact structure in electrical contact with the device. The contact structure includes silicate barrier portions overlying the device, a barrier metal overlying the device and positioned between the silicate barrier portions, and a fill metal overlying the barrier metal and positioned between the silicate barrier portions.
US09373539B2
A collapsible probe tower device and methods of forming thereof, are disclosed. In one example embodiment, a method of forming a device includes providing a semiconductor die substrate having a contact pad and a probe pad, wherein the contact pad and probe pad are adhered to the substrate, forming a contact bump by applying a conductive material to a contact structure surface of a contact tower, wherein the contact tower includes the contact pad, forming a probe bump by applying a conductive material to a probe structure surface of a probe tower, wherein the probe tower includes the probe pad, and heating the conductive material that forms the contact bump and the probe bump to provide a first reflow, wherein after the first reflow, the height of a top surface of the probe bump exceeds the height of a top surface of the contact bump.
US09373538B2
A design layout is provided such that an underlying conductive line structure underlies a stitch region in an overlying conductive line structure. A stitch-induced via structure can be formed between the underlying conductive line structure and the overlying conductive line structure when a stitch region in a hard mask layer is etched multiple times. At least one of the underlying conductive line structure and the overlying conductive line structure is electrically isolated from other conductive line structures in a same design level so as to avoid unintentional electrical shorts.
US09373536B2
A stress reduction apparatus comprises a metal structure formed over a substrate, an inter metal dielectric layer formed over the substrate, wherein a lower portion of the metal structure is embedded in the inter metal dielectric layer and an inverted cup shaped stress reduction layer formed over the metal structure, wherein an upper portion of the metal structure is embedded in the inverted cup shaped stress reduction layer.
US09373534B2
A rotary positioning apparatus includes a fixing base, a rotation mechanism, two driving modules and a carrier. The rotation mechanism is disposed on the fixing base, the first driving module is disposed on the fixing base and coupled to the rotation mechanism to drive the rotation mechanism rotating around a first rotation axis relatively to the fixing base. The carrier has plural accommodating slots on a circular-arc surface thereof and is pivoted to the rotation mechanism through a second rotation axis passing through the curvature center of the circular-arc surface and perpendicular to the first rotation axis, on which the curvature center is located. The second driving module is disposed on the rotation mechanism and coupled to the carrier to drive the carrier rotating around the second rotation axis relatively to the rotation mechanism. An automatic pick-and-place system and an operation method using the rotary positioning apparatus are also provided.
US09373531B2
A substrate can be appropriately accommodated in a cassette. A substrate transfer device includes a substrate transfer unit that delivers the substrate with respect to the cassette configured to accommodate the substrate; a detection unit that detects the substrate accommodated in the cassette; and a control device than controls the substrate transfer unit. Further, the control device includes a transfer control unit configured to control the substrate transfer unit to accommodate the substrate at a predetermined target accommodation position; a determination unit configured to determine an actual accommodation position for the substrate based on a detection result of the detection unit after the detection unit detects the substrate accommodated in the cassette; and a correction unit configured to correct a predetermined target accommodation position as an accommodation position for another substrate based on a difference between the actual accommodation position and the target accommodation position for the substrate.
US09373518B2
A method for combinatorially processing a substrate is provided. The method includes introducing a first etchant into a reactor cell and introducing a fluid into the reactor cell while the first etchant remains in the reactor cell. After initiating the introducing the fluid, contents of the reactor cell are removed through a first removal line and a second removal line, wherein the first removal line extends farther into the reactor cell than the second removal line. A level of the fluid above an inlet to the first removal line is maintained while removing the contents. A second etchant is introduced into the reactor cell while removing the contents through the first removal line and the second removal line. The method includes continuing the introducing of the second etchant until a concentration of the second etchant is at a desired level, wherein the surface of the substrate remains submerged.
US09373512B2
An apparatus and method for performing ion implantation while minimizing and/or repairing amorphization of the substrate material. The process comprises exposing a substrate to an ion beam and either concurrently or promptly following the ion implantation using a laser to anneal the surface. In addition, a laser may be utilized to preheat the substrate prior to ion implantation. The laser heats the substrate to a temperature that does not cause the resist layer to be damaged. By utilizing a laser to heat the substrate from the top surface the resist is not damaged allowing for the use of photo resist material.
US09373502B2
Embodiments described herein relate to a structure for III-V devices on silicon. A Group IV substrate is provided and a III-V structure may be formed thereon. The III-V structure generally comprises one or more buffer layers and a channel layer disposed on the one or more buffer layers. The one or more buffer layers may be selected to provide optimal microelectronic device properties, such as minimal defects, reduced charge accumulation, and reduced current leakage.
US09373500B2
The embodiments herein relate to methods and apparatus for depositing an encapsulation layer over memory stacks in MRAM and PCRAM applications. The encapsulation layer is a titanium dioxide (TiO2) layer deposited through an atomic layer deposition reaction. In some embodiments, the encapsulation layer may be deposited as a bilayer, with an electrically favorable layer formed atop a protective layer. In certain implementations, gaps between neighboring memory stacks may be filled with titanium oxide, for example through an atomic layer deposition reaction or a chemical vapor deposition reaction.
US09373499B2
A plasma processing apparatus comprises a processing chamber in which a plurality of substrates are stacked and accommodated; a pair of electrodes extending in the stacking direction of the plurality of substrates, which are disposed at one side of the plurality of substrates in said processing chamber, and to which high frequency electricity is applied; and a gas supply member which supplies processing gas into a space between the pair of electrodes.
US09373484B2
A plasma generator according to an embodiment of the present invention is provided to generate a high density and stable plasma at near atmospheric pressure by preventing a transition of plasma to arc. The plasma generator includes a plate-shaped lower electrode for seating a substrate; and a cylindrical rotating electrode on the plate-shaped lower electrode, wherein the cylindrical rotating electrode includes an electrically conductive body that is connected to a power supply and includes a plurality of capillary units on an outer circumferential surface of the electrically conductive body; and an insulation shield layer that is made of an insulation material or a dielectric material, exposes a lower surface of the plurality of capillary units, and shields other parts.
US09373478B2
There is provided a radiation generating apparatus having a simple structure and capable of shielding unnecessary radiation, cooling a target, reducing the size and weight of the apparatus, and achieving higher reliability, and a radiation imaging apparatus having the same. A transmission type radiation tube is held inside a holding container filled with a cooling medium. The transmission type radiation tube includes an envelope having an aperture, an electron source arranged inside the envelope so as to face the aperture of the envelope, a target unit for generating a radiation responsive to an irradiation with an electron emitted from the electron source, and a shield member for shielding a part of the radiation emitted from the target unit. The cooling medium contacts at least a part of the shield member.
US09373472B2
A circuit breaker module includes a faceplate with a number of passages and a number of circuit breakers, each circuit breaker including an operating mechanism, conductor assembly, and a housing assembly. Each circuit breaker housing assembly includes a first body, a second body, and a plurality of pins. The first body defines a cavity. The second body defines a cavity. The first body and the second body have complimentary shapes. At least one of the first body or the second body includes a plurality of pin cavities. The pins and pin cavities disposed in an alignment pattern. The first body and the second body are coupled to each other defining an enclosed space, the enclosed space structured to accommodate an operating mechanism and conductor assembly.
US09373466B2
An inner wall for partitioning a storage chamber is disposed in a case. A switching member operating a movable contact inside the storage chamber is positioned inside a penetrating portion formed between an inner recess formed on an inner wall and a first cutout portion formed in an inner clamping piece of a lid body. The switching member is formed integrally with a flange portion, and the flange portion closes the penetrating portion. As a result, dust, dirt and moistures are unlikely to enter the storage chamber through the penetrating portion.
US09373462B2
The invention provides a push switch including a keytop movable in a first direction, a switch, first and second circuit boards, an electronic component mounted on the second circuit board, first and second circuits electrically connected to the switch, and a body. The switch is turned on or off in response to movement of the keytop. The first circuit on the first circuit board is configured to protect the switch. The second circuit on the second circuit board is configured to actuate the electronic component in response to a turn-on or turn-off of the switch. The body includes a main body and first and second holders. The first holder at the main body holds the first circuit board. The second holder at the main body or the first holder holds the second circuit board in spaced relation to the first circuit board in the first direction.
US09373455B2
A hydromechanical stored-energy spring mechanism is provided for operating at least one switching contact of a circuit breaker, for example, in a high-voltage switching system. The hydromechanical stored-energy spring mechanism includes a hydraulically operated close-open (CO) delay circuit configured to delay triggering of a switching process of the circuit breaker, and an electromechanical actuator provided in place of a hydraulic operation of the CO delay circuit. The electromechanical actuator generates a mechanical time delay or acceleration over an extended temperature range.
US09373451B2
An electronic component manufacturing method includes the steps of preparing at least one electronic component chip having a first surface and a second surface opposite each other; holding the electronic component chip between a first plate and a second plate such that the first surface is in contact with a first elastic layer of the first plate and the second surface is in contact with a second elastic layer of the second plate; and turning the electronic component chip by relatively moving the first and second plates in a planar direction thereof using a planar movement mechanism and moving the first and second plates in accordance with a turning path of the electronic component chip using the planar movement mechanism and a vertical movement mechanism.
US09373445B2
A multilayer ceramic capacitor includes a multilayer body including a plurality of stacked dielectric layers including a dielectric ceramic that includes a plurality of crystal grains and a plurality of internal electrodes disposed at a plurality of interfaces between the dielectric layers, and external electrodes. The multilayer body includes a Ba and Ti containing perovskite compound, La, Mg, Mn and Al, and satisfies conditions such that in a case in which a content of Ti is set to 100 molar parts, a fraction of each content of La, Mg, Mn and Al relative to the content of Ti is such that La is about 0.2 to about 1.2 molar parts, Mg is about 0.1 molar part or less, Mn is about 1.0 to about 3.0 molar parts and Al is about 0.5 to about 2.5 molar parts, and an average number of crystal grains included in each of the dielectric layers in the stacking direction is one or more to three or less.
US09373444B2
A power electronic capacitor module for vehicle that may reduce the number of solderings by inserting and thereby mounting a capacitor between a single pair of bus bars and thereby may simplify an assembly process. The power electronic capacitor module for vehicle may include a single pair of bus bars disposed to be separate from each other and each having an external electrode support member; an insulating support frame formed to expose the external electrode support member and wrap around a single pair of bus bars and thereby support the bus bars; and a capacitor element having a single pair of external electrodes and inserted between a single pair of bus bars to thereby be supported by the bus bars or the external electrode support members and electrically connect the external electrodes to the external electrode support members.
US09373438B1
A coupled inductor array has length, width, and height. The coupled inductor array includes a monolithic magnetic core formed of a magnetic material having a distributed gap, and a plurality of windings embedded in the monolithic magnetic core. Each winding forms a respective winding loop of one or more turns around a respective winding axis, and each winding axis extends in the height direction. Areas of the monolithic magnetic core enclosed by the winding loops are greater than areas of the monolithic magnetic core outside of the winding loops, as seen when the coupled inductor array is viewed cross-sectionally in the height direction. One possible application of the coupled inductor array is in a multi-phase switching power converter.
US09373431B2
A NTC thermistor element that includes a substrate composed of a ceramic material containing Mn, Ni, Fe and Ti; and a pair of external electrodes on the substrate. When the molar amount of Mn in the substrate is a [mol %] and the molar amount of Ni in the substrate is b [mol %], a and b satisfy a+b=100, 44.90≦a≦65.27 and 34.73≦b≦55.10. When the molar amount of Fe is c [mol %] and the molar amount of Ti is d [mol %], c and d satisfy 24.22≦c≦39.57 and 5.04≦d≦10.18 based on a+b=100.
US09373424B2
An electron beam writing apparatus comprising a stage that a sample is placed on, an electron optical column, an electron gun emitting an electron beam disposed in the optical column, an electrostatic lens provided with electrodes aligned in an axial direction of the electron beam disposed in the optical column, and a voltage supply device for applying positive voltage constantly to the electrostatic lens. A shield plate is disposed between the XY stage and the electron optical column to block reflected electrons or secondary electrons generated by irradiation to the sample with the electron beam. The electrostatic lens is disposed immediately above the shield plate to change a focal position of the electron beam. A voltage supply device applies a positive voltage constantly to the electrostatic lens.
US09373420B2
A semiconductor test device performs a test using a high-speed internal clock. The semiconductor test device includes a clock generator suitable for generating an internal clock in response to a test mode signal during a test mode, a data generator suitable for generating internal data in response to the internal clock, and a data latch circuit suitable for latching the internal data in response to the internal clock, and outputting the latched data to an internal logic circuit.
US09373413B2
A shift register unit, a shift register circuit, an array substrate and a display device can avoid a phenomenon that light lines and dark lines appear alternately in a horizontal direction in a gray scale state when the display device is lighted up normally, wherein the phenomenon is generated because a clock signal causes an abnormal output of a gate scanning voltage of the shift register unit when a frame start signal comes. The shift register unit comprises a capacitor (C1), a first transistor (T1), a second transistor (T2), a third transistor (T3), a fourth transistor (T4), a fifth transistor (T5), a sixth transistor (T6), and a voltage pulling-down control module. The shift register unit, the shift register circuit, the array substrate and the display device can be used for the manufacture of a display.
US09373410B1
Providing for a memory cell capable of operating a one time programmable, multi-level cell memory is described herein. In some embodiments, a program signal having a first polarity and a first current compliance is applied to a memory cell. In an aspect, the memory cell is switched to a first program state from a non-program state in response to the first program signal. Furthermore, in an embodiment, an additional program signal having a second polarity is applied to the memory cell. In another aspect, the memory cell is switched to an additional program state different from the first program state in response to the additional program signal, wherein: the memory cell inherently resists switching back from the additional program state to the first program state, and the second polarity is opposite to the first polarity.
US09373402B2
A semiconductor memory and a method of programming the same are provided. A semiconductor memory device may include a memory cell array including a plurality of normal memory cells, a select transistor, and a dummy memory cell. The semiconductor memory device may include a voltage generator configured for generating a program voltage applied to a normal memory cell selected among the plurality of normal memory cells, and for generating a dummy word line voltage applied to the dummy memory cell in a program operation. The semiconductor memory device may include a control logic configured for controlling the voltage generator to adjust the dummy word line voltage based on the program voltage.
US09373399B2
Apparatus and methods are disclosed, including a method that performs a first operation on a first resistance variable element using a common source voltage, a first data line voltage and a first control gate voltage, and then performs a second operation on a second resistance variable element using the common source voltage, a second data line voltage and a second control gate voltage. Additional apparatus and methods are described.
US09373397B1
Embodiments of the invention are directed towards a memory device comprising a plurality of wordlines each coupled to a row of memory cells in a subtile of the memory device, a plurality of level one column select circuits coupled to each cell in a plurality of groups of cells in a subtile, a plurality of level two column select circuits coupled to each of the plurality of groups of cells in the subtile, a common bit line coupled to the plurality of level one column select circuits and the plurality of level two column select circuits, the common bit line also coupled to a sense and program circuit, wherein the sense and program circuit addresses each first cell in each of the groups of cells to form a single page of memory.
US09373395B1
Described is an apparatus which comprises: a complementary resistive memory bit-cell; and a sense amplifier coupled to the complementary resistive memory bit-cell, wherein the sense amplifier includes: a first output node; and a first transistor which is operable to cause a deterministic output on the first output node.
US09373390B1
A semiconductor memory device, may include a memory cell array including memory cells, in which a page to be programmed within the memory cell array may include: a first memory cell programmed in a first program state; a second memory cell programmed in a second program state; and a third memory cell programmed in a third program state, and the second program state has a threshold voltage distribution higher than that of the first program state by one step or more, and a threshold voltage distribution lower than that of the third program state by one step or more, and a first main verification voltage for verifying the first program state is used as a third pre-verification voltage for verifying the third program state.
US09373387B1
Aspects disclosed include static random access memory (SRAM) arrays having substantially constant operational yields across multiple modes of operation. In one aspect, a method of designing SRAM arrays with multiple modes operation is provided. The method includes determining performance characteristics associated with each mode of operation. SRAM bit cells configured to operate in each mode of operation are provided to the SRAM array. SRAM bit cells are biased to operate in a mode of operation using dynamic adaptive assist techniques, wherein the SRAM bit cells achieve a substantially constant operational yield across the modes. The SRAM bit cells have a corresponding type, wherein the number of SRAM bit cell types in the method is less than the number of modes of operation. Thus, each SRAM array may achieve a particular mode of operation without requiring a separate SRAM bit cell type for each mode, thereby reducing costs.
US09373383B2
Embodiments are directed to a system for sensing a data state of a selected memory cell. The system includes a first reference cell, a sample-and-hold sense amplifier and a switching system. During a first sensing phase the switching system is configured to open a first series communication path that places the selected memory cell in series with the first reference cell, thereby creating a first series voltage divider. During the first sensing phase, the switching system is further configured to open a first branch communication path that taps an input of the sample-and-hold sense amplifier into a first divided voltage between the selected memory cell and the first reference cell.
US09373381B2
A semiconductor apparatus includes a first memory, a second memory, and a shared reference resistor. The first memory is electrically coupled to the shared reference resistor, and the second memory is also electrically coupled to the shared reference resistor. Each of the first and second memories performs a basic calibration operation thereof by selectively using the shared reference resistor in response to a clock signal, and a mirror function signal, which has different logic levels according to which memory between the first and second memories performs calibration operations.
US09373379B2
An active control device and a semiconductor device including the same are disclosed, which can control an active command in response to a pin change of a command address. The active control device includes: a bank decoding unit configured to decode a bank address to output a bank selection signal; an active controller configured to output a first active control signal, a second active control signal, and an active delay signal to control an active operation of a bank in response to the bank selection signal, a first active signal, and a second active signal; an address latch unit configured to latch a row address to output an address delay signal; and an address output unit configured to output an address corresponding to the address delay signal.
US09373361B2
A multi-stage sensor is situated on the head transducer and configured to interact with a magnetic recording medium. A first sensor stage of the multi-stage sensor has a temperature coefficient of resistance. A second sensor stage of the multi-stage sensor is coupled to the first sensor and has a temperature coefficient of resistance. The first sensor stage is configured to preferentially sense asperities of the media relative to the second sensor stage, and the second sensor stage configured to preferentially sense proximity to, and contact with, a surface of the media relative to the first sensor stage. The first and second sensor stages may be connected in series or in parallel.
US09373360B2
A method comprising using at least one hardware processor for receiving a video and metadata associated with the video, indicating, in a video player, a current time in the video, receiving an indication of a different time in the video and responsive to said receiving of the indication, displaying a datum of the metadata, wherein the datum is correlated with the different time in the video.
US09373359B2
A method for rendering text onto moving image content. The method comprises receiving a request to translate dialog associated with moving image content, transmitting an interface, transmitting a time-stamped transcription, and receiving a translation of the dialog.
US09373346B1
An apparatus, according to one embodiment, includes a magnetic head having a plurality of servo writer elements, and an actuator, the actuator being sandwiched between first and second servo writer elements of the plurality of servo writer elements. The actuator is also configured to actively adjust a distance between the first and second servo writer elements. Other systems, methods, and computer program products are described in additional embodiments.
US09373324B2
Systems and methods for applying feature-space maximum likelihood linear regression (fMLLR) to correlated features are provided. A method for applying fMLLR to correlated features, comprises mapping the correlated features into an uncorrelated feature space, applying fMLLR in the uncorrelated feature space to obtain fMLLR transformed features, and mapping the fMLLR transformed features back to a correlated feature space.
US09373320B1
Systems and methods facilitating removal of content from audio files are described. A method includes identifying a sound recording in a first audio file, identifying a reference file having at least a defined level of similarity to the sound recording, and processing the first audio file to remove the sound recording and generate a second audio file. In some embodiments, winner-take-all coding and Hough transforms are employed for determining alignment and rate adjustment of the reference file in the first audio file. After alignment, the reference file is filtered in the frequency domain to increase similarity between the reference file and the sound recording. The frequency domain representation (FR) of the filtered version is subtracted from the FR first audio and the result converted to a time representation of the second audio file. In some embodiments, spectral subtraction is also performed to generate a further improved second audio file.
US09373318B1
A system may be configured to interact with a user through speech using a first and second audio devices, where the first device produces audio and the second device captures audio. The second device may be configured to perform acoustic echo cancellation with respect to a microphone signal based on a reference signal provided by the first device. The reference and microphone signals may have the same nominal signal rates. However, the signal rates may drift from each other over time. In order to synchronize the rates of the signals, each of the devices maintains a signal index. The second device compares the values of the two signal indexes over time to determine rate differences between the reference and microphone signals and then corrects for the rate differences.
US09373308B2
An input information obtaining portion of a control section obtains requests input from an input device by a user, which requests include a display region moving request to enlarge/reduce or scroll an image displayed on a display device and a request to generate/erase a viewport, change the size of a viewport, or move a viewport. A viewport control portion successively determines the number, arrangement, and size of viewports accordingly. A display region determining portion determines the region of an image to be displayed next in each viewport. A loading portion determines tile images to be newly loaded, and loads the data of the tile images from a hard disk drive. A decoding portion decodes the data of tile images used for rendering the image in each viewport. A display image processing portion updates the display region independently for each viewport.
US09373303B2
A display apparatus and a control method which displays an image based on an image signal transmitted from the outside are provided. The display apparatus includes a display which generates light in a plurality of colors and displays an image; a signal receiver which receives an image signal; a signal processor which processes the received image signal in order to display an image based on the image signal; and a controller which analyzes the image signal received by the signal receiver and obtains color reproduction feature information of the image signal, and changes each color distribution of light generated by the display to display an image in a color which corresponds to the color reproduction feature information obtained, based on the image signal.
US09373301B2
An image processing device for processing an image signal is provided. The image processing device includes a circuit board, a slot and an image processing module. The slot, disposed on the circuit board, is to be plugged in by either a first connector corresponding to a first image interface format or a second connector corresponding to a second image interface format. The image processing module, disposed on the circuit board and coupled to the slot, detects the image signal inputted from either the first connector or the second connector to determine a target image interface format, and processes the image signal by an image processing method corresponding to the target image interface format.
US09373296B2
A display apparatus includes pixels each including first and second sub-pixels having different transmittances from each other under a same gray scale, gate lines commonly connected to the first and second sub-pixels to apply a gate signal to the first and second sub-pixels, a first data line applying a first data signal to one of the first and second sub-pixels, and a second data line applying a second data signal to the other one of the first and second sub-pixels. The first sub-pixel has the transmittance lower than the transmittance of the second sub-pixel, and the second sub-pixel connected to an i-th gate line of the gate lines is disposed between the first sub-pixel connected to the i-th gate line and the first sub-pixel connected to an (i+1)th gate line of the gate lines.
US09373295B2
A liquid crystal display device with a touch panel includes: pixel electrodes as a plurality of electrodes to each of which a potential corresponding to a gray-scale value is applied; common electrodes as a plurality of electrodes that extend in one direction; detection electrodes as a plurality of electrodes that extend in a direction different from the one direction and detect a contact position on the panel; a liquid crystal layer that is formed of a liquid crystal composition; and a drive pulse output unit that sequentially applies a potential for detecting a touch to drive electrodes as a plurality of electrodes of a portion of the common electrodes, wherein the drive pulse output unit can output a drive pulse to the drive electrode at plural different timings within one horizontal synchronizing period for display.
US09373294B2
A liquid crystal display (LCD) including a display panel and a source driver is provided. The display panel includes a plurality of pixels arranged in an array. The source driver is coupled to the display panel and includes a plurality of source lines. Each of the source lines of the source driver is responsible for performing the pixel-writing to six corresponding pixel columns in the display panel.
US09373272B2
Embodiments of the invention may provide the ability to dynamically create and update map projections to reduce the spatial distortion in a desirable way for a specific map view. For example, as a map view is changed, a new central meridian may be selected and a new map projection may be created based on the selected central meridian. Dynamically updating map projections so that all map layers are correctly representing the most important spatial attributes for the given situation may enable a map analyst to correctly interpret the maps being viewed.
US09373268B2
A speech aid system includes a tube for mounting at a tracheostomy of a user, a voice parameter acquiring device mounted to the tube and generating a voice parameter signal according to airflow applied within the tube resulting from attempt by the user to speak, a processor generating an audio signal corresponding to the voice parameter signal, and a sound generator for mounting in an oral cavity of the user. The sound generator produces a substitute glottal sound corresponding to the audio signal.
US09373267B2
A context-aware training system senses a user action that may expose the user to a threat, such as a cybersecurity threat. The system selects a training action from a collection of available training actions and causes the training action to be delivered to the user or a group of users. The system includes an administrator interface that enables an administrator to select, customize and/or assign constraints to the training action that will be delivered to the user(s).
US09373266B2
A segmented, interactive audio-visual content progress bar and method of use whose divisions provide an information and instructional index of performance content. The progress bar provides a time linear segmentation of a user component of a performance content and a sound signal corresponding to the performance content. The progress bar provides a time progress marker advancing with time as a corresponding indicator of the user component of the performance content.
US09373265B2
In one embodiment, a conditioning apparatus for conditioning a user includes a target, and an illumination source spaced apart from the target. The illumination source is configured to project a light upon the target for use in response to movement of the user.
US09373259B2
A method for managing a public transport system comprises receiving information indicating a change of status of a component of a public transport system; identifying a commuter who is affected by the change of status; generating an alternative travel advisory for the commuter based on the change of status; and transmitting the alternative travel advisory to the commuter. In some embodiments the change of status includes a delay in an expected time of arrival of a public transport vehicle; identifying the commuter includes locating the commuter in the vehicle; and the alternative travel advisory includes a message advising the commuter to leave the vehicle. In some embodiments, locating the commuter in the vehicle is based on comparing a location of the commuter with a location of the vehicle. In some embodiments, the method further comprises receiving from the commuter information indicating that the commuter has boarded the vehicle.
US09373258B2
The present disclosure is directed to a computer that receives weather information from a weather service provider (“WSP”) server and automatic vehicle locating system (“AVL”) collected information from an AVL server, accesses a material performance specification for at least one treatment material, and determines, based on the weather information and/or AVL collected information and the material performance specification, a treatment recommendation for a selected roadway segment and/or route.
US09373256B2
A vehicle presence detection system for effectively detecting the presence of a vehicle in a location based upon a measured radio wave signal strength by a receiver. The vehicle presence detection system generally includes a main receiver adapted for receiving a radio wave signal from a transmitter and a control unit in communication with the main receiver that determines a signal strength of the radio wave signal received by the main receiver. The control unit determines that a vehicle is near the transmitter or the main receiver when the signal strength of the radio wave signal is reduced by a threshold loss.
US09373254B1
A system and a method are disclosed for compensating for discontinuous clock signals, default-high data buses, when generating and receiving an infrared signal on a mobile device with minimal hardware. The system can compensate for clock signals that are discontinuous using an effective bitrate in place of a nominal bitrate when processing signals. The effective bitrate can be determined by determining the length of a break in the clock signal that is discontinuous and adjusting the nominal bitrate based on the length and recurrence frequency of the break in the clock signal. Additionally, processed signals transferred on default-high data buses can be inverted to ensure the correct IR signal is output or received.
US09373253B2
A safety controller includes a first interrupt signal output unit outputting a first interrupt signal in a cycle synchronous with that of a first carrier signal defining a control cycle of a control target; a second interrupt signal output unit outputting a second interrupt signal in a cycle synchronous with that of a second carrier signal defining a control cycle of the control target, the first and second carrier signals having the same cycle and a predetermined phase difference; and a control unit executing tasks and controlling the control target by switching and scheduling time partitions according to outputs of the first and second interrupt signals from the first and second interrupt signal output units. The control unit stops controlling the control target upon detecting, as an abnormality related to the first and second interrupt signals, that the first and second interrupt signals are not output in a predetermined order.
US09373248B2
A control unit (101), such as a remote control device, includes a profile selector (104). The profile selector (104), which may be a single profile selector button integrated into the side or top of a remote control, allows quick and simple selection of an operating mode or user profile. The control unit (101) includes an indicator (107) that provides indicia of the currently selected mode or profile. Examples of indicators include multicolored lights and display devices. Where multicolored lights are used as the indicator (107), actuation of the profile selector (104) causes the indicator (107) to change from a first color to a second color.
US09373242B1
A system for sensing occurrences of hand washing events includes a dispenser of a hand sanitizing solution and a motion sensor that is coupled to the dispenser. The motion sensor is configured to sense vibrations of the dispenser. When at least a threshold amount of movement is sensed, logic is configured to analyze samples from the motion sensor in order to determine whether the sensed vibrations result from activation of the dispenser. If so, the dispenser activation is logged and reported for use within a system, such as a system for monitoring compliance with a hand washing policy.
US09373241B2
Monitoring systems and methods may monitor locations and/or speeds of a wireless tracking device. An administrative hub comprising a location database including speed limit data for at least selected road segments may be configured to monitor locations of the wireless tracking device based on data reported by the wireless tracking device. The administrative hub may also be configured to compare a speed of the wireless tracking device based on the data reported by the wireless tracking device to the speed limit data for a road segment associated with the location of the wireless tracking device.
US09373232B2
A print data generation apparatus generating print data to print texts on a print medium, includes a processor, and a memory configured to store a database having a plurality of records in which texts are respectively set for fields and associating the records with operation keys, template data in which at least arrangement positions of the texts to be printed on a print medium are set, link information associating the arrangement positions in the template data with the fields of the database, and computer-readable instructions that instruct the processor to execute steps including detecting operation of the operation keys, and generating, when it is detected that one of the operation keys has been operated, print data such that the texts that are respectively set, in the database, for the fields of the record that corresponds to the operated operation key are arranged in the arrangement positions associated with the fields.
US09373231B2
A print data generation apparatus generating print data includes a processor, and a memory configured to store a database having a plurality of records in which texts are respectively set for fields, template data which is associated with one of operation keys and in which at least arrangement positions of the texts to be printed are set, link information associating arrangement positions in the template data with the fields of the database, and computer-readable instructions instructing the processor to execute steps including detecting operation of the operation keys, selecting, from among the plurality of records of the database, the record to be used for printing, and generating print data such that the texts that are respectively set for the fields of the selected record are arranged in the arrangement positions associated with the fields by link information, by using the template data corresponding to the operated operation key.
US09373226B1
A system and method for determining paylines in a slot game based on player characters are disclosed. A given player character may correspond to distinctive paylines along which symbols in a pull outcome may be assessed for rewards, for gameplays to be implemented in a game space, and/or any for other types of results provided by a slot game. In some examples, the number of the paylines corresponding to the given player character may correlate with various aspects regarding the given player character such as, without limitation, a class, a level, a race, a number of experience points, one or more skills, virtual items, and/or any other aspects regarding the given player character. In some examples, the combinations of symbols appearing on active paylines in a pull outcome may trigger one or more gameplays for implementation in a game space associated with the slot game.
US09373222B2
In overview, the technology is primarily directed to the implementation of linked gaming in respect of a plurality of gaming machines. In particular, a controller device is disclosed, this controller device being adapted to enable the management of a plurality of linked games via a single piece of hardware. This is achieved in part by virtualization of jackpot controllers within the controller device. More specifically, a user is enabled to configure a plurality of virtual jackpot controllers by way of interaction with a graphical user interface, and select compatible electronic gaming machines to participate in a linked game provided by a given one of the virtual jackpot controllers.
US09373214B2
To provide a game presenting system having a plurality of game systems for each executing a process of a game in which a plurality of users participate, and a game presenting machine for presenting a situation of the game executed by the game system, wherein the game presenting machine obtains a motion image related to the game executed by each of the plurality of game systems, and produces a game presenting screen image showing, as a list, at least some of the plurality of motion images obtained.
US09373198B2
A system and method of identifying carts exhibiting tendencies that are indicative of damaged or defective wheels. A shopping cart may be identified and tracked visually through one or more surveillance cameras. By comparing the cart's tracked movement to known symptomatic movement patterns, the system may identify defective or damaged carts. Alternatively, by analyzing movement and positioning of a cart's swiveling wheels, the system may identify defective or damaged carts. Alternatively, by identifying if a customer has abandoned a cart, the system may identify defective or damaged carts. A notification message may be transmitted to an associate to repair or replace the identified problematic cart. The notification may be displayed on a mobile computing device, a workstation, or other like systems.
US09373184B2
A method for rendering data on a display device is described. Data representative of graphics objects rendered on the display device is received. The data is analyzed to identify white space areas. The white space areas are compared to a display area to be rendered on the display device. The white space areas are areas that are substantially free of displayed objects according to a criterion. Based on the comparison, one or more of the white space areas are identified for rendering the display area. The display area is automatically rendered in the identified white space areas on the display device without user intervention. When the white space areas are insufficient to render the display area, the display area may be automatically rendered based on one or more criteria.
US09373177B2
Recently there has been an increase in awareness of work/life stressors and their debilitating affect on human functionality. These stressors can arise from environmental conditions, poor quality artificial lighting and/or too much or too little ambient lighting, poorly configured or ineffectual display screens. The invention includes a method of presenting an image to be viewed by the subject on a background of a first color, and by way of an iterative process a user is led through a series of screens in order to determine their optimum color combination. A means is provided for storing reaction times and for varying the image to be viewed in a second and subsequent interval, so as to derive second and subsequent reaction times. An optimum color is selected that corresponds to the quickest reaction time.
US09373167B1
A machine-implemented display method that, with respect to a volume dataset being rendered, enables a user to navigate to any position in space and look in any direction. Preferably, the volume dataset is derived from a computer tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan. With the described approach, the user can see details within the dataset that are not available using conventional visualization approaches. The freedom-of-motion capability allows the user to go to places (positions) within the volume rendering that are not otherwise possible using conventional “orbit” and “zoom” display techniques. Thus, for example, using the described approach, the display image enables a user to travel inside physical structures (e.g., a patient's heart, brain, arteries, and the like). In this approach, a display image includes information visually representing an amount of difference between a current pixel and its neighbor pixels.
US09373165B2
Methods and systems enabling ultra-high resolution topography measurements of patterned wafers are disclosed. Measurements obtained utilizing the ultra-high resolution metrology may be utilized to improve wafer metrology measurement accuracies. Additionally, measurements obtained utilizing the ultra-high resolution metrology may also be utilized to provide feedback and/or calibration control to improve fabrication and design of wafers.
US09373164B2
A refrigerator according to one embodiment of the present invention includes: a memory for storing information on food stored in a storeroom; a weight detecting unit disposed in the storeroom for detecting the weight of the food in order to determine whether food is received or withdrawn; a controller for creating a request for confirmation information on the received or withdrawn food when the food is determined to have been received or withdrawn; a speech output unit for outputting the request created by the controller as speech; and a speech input unit for receiving the response to the output request as speech, wherein the controller analyzes the response and updates information on the food stored in the storeroom.
US09373153B2
A mechanism is provided for diagnosing graphics display problems during running of an application. A frame of the application drawn by a graphics processing unit is selected. A central processing unit draws the frame. The graphics processing unit drawn frame and the central processing unit drawn frame are compared to determine if there is a graphics problem.
US09373150B2
In the case where a projector is used in combination with another projector, individual use of only one projector is enabled. A slave projector operates together with a master projector. In this case, the operation methods to start up the projector are a first method in which only a first key is pressed, a second method in which the first key and a second key are pressed simultaneously, and a third method in which the first key and a third key are pressed simultaneously. When the slave projector detects a user's operation with a remote controller, if the operation is done by the first method or the second method, the slave projector ignores this operation. Meanwhile, if the operation is done by the second method, the slave projector starts up the own device irrespective of the command from the master.
US09373147B2
In one embodiment, a method includes receiving from a server, by a mobile computing device, real-time activity stories for display by the mobile computing device. The real-time activity stories are sent automatically by the server to the mobile computing device while a user is interacting with the mobile computing device. The method also includes receiving from the server, by the mobile computing device, news-feed stories for display by the mobile computing device. The news-feed stories are sent by the server to the mobile computing device in response to requests from the mobile computing device for the news-feed stories. The method also includes displaying, by the mobile computing device, to the user the real-time activity stories and the news-feed stories in a scrollable visual stack.
US09373137B2
A method for mapping transactions between a real world and a virtual world may include receiving information associated with a real world item at a virtual business object (VBO) controller. Information associated with a user is received at the VBO controller. In response to receiving by the VBO controller a decision to buy the real world item, the VBO controller generates a VBO, which includes the information associated with the real world item. In response to receiving at the VBO controller a decision not to buy the real world item, the VBO controller generates a VBO light, which includes the information associated with the real world item. Either the generated VBO or the VBO light is transmitted to a VBO inventory database associated with the user based on the user's information.
US09373136B2
A portable device receives a particular RFID signal identifying that a particular attribute is associated with a particular item placed proximate to the RFID tag emitting the particular RFID signal, wherein the particular RFID signal is identified from among a plurality of RFID signals, wherein a selection of the plurality of RFID signals are each associated with a separate attribute from among a plurality of attributes. The portable device displays a visual representation depicting that the particular item is associated with the particular attribute.
US09373130B2
A computer-implemented method for processing mobile device location data is provided. Location data is filtered based on age and accuracy or precision of location coordinates. Location data is partitioned based on the location coordinates into a plurality of clusters including a plurality of location data instances. The plurality of clusters are filtered based on a number of data instances in a particular cluster and a period of time over which data instances of the particular data cluster are generated. A distance is determined from a location coordinate corresponding to the data instances of one or more of the plurality of clusters to a particular predetermined location, and the one or more of the plurality of clusters are correlated with the particular predetermined location in response to the distance being less than a predetermined distance. The invention further provides a location data processing system.
US09373118B2
A method for retrofitting a vending machine with a video communications device includes securing a video communications device with a mounting feature of the video communications device removably coupled with a mounting location on a vending machine. The video communications device includes a video communications module for real-time interactions with a ticket office. The video communications module includes a display, a camera, a speaker, and a microphone. The video communications device includes a video communication device communications interface. The method includes electronically coupling the video communications device with a power supply of the vending machine and communicatively coupling the video communications device with the vending machine such that functions of the vending machine are controllable using the video communications device. The method includes communicatively coupling the video communications device with the ticket office for real-time video communications with the ticket office.
US09373097B2
A system and method for tracking passengers during travel events and generating alerts if rules for those travel events are violated includes readers, which are installed in vehicles and obtain location data from one or more positioning systems. As passengers enter or exit the vehicles, the passengers swipe access cards in the readers. The readers then tag passenger identity information with the obtained location data. This information is then transmitted to a monitoring system, which generates rules for each of the travel event of the passengers. During the travel events, the received location data and time information is analyzed and to determine if any of the vehicles are violating the generated rules. The monitoring system generates alerts if any of the generated rules are violated.
US09373091B1
A method and system for providing a user of a wireless communication device (WCD) with vending service. The WCD may present the user with data indicating items available for purchase from a vendor. The WCD may then receive the user's directive to order an item from the vendor. In response, the WCD may obtain data stored at a transponder in proximity to the WCD that indicates a location of the WCD. In one example, the transponder may be at a fixed location, such as by being affixed to a fixed object at a venue (e.g., a stadium seat), in which case the stored data may indicate the fixed location. The WCD may then send an order for the item and the obtained data to the vendor. In turn, the vendor may use the data to determine a location of the WCD and then deliver the item to the determined location.
US09373090B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a system, method, and program product for predicting the classification of a work-item notification generated by an issue tracking system. A computing device analyzes a new work-item notification using a trained binary classifier that was trained using at least a past and/or current work-item history that was collected as a tuple that includes information reflecting the workitem-ID, actor, timestamp, attribute, work-item start-value, and work-item end-value. The computing device, in response to analyzing the new work-item notification, predicts a classification of the new work-item notification. In an embodiment, the classification is used for display of the new work-item notification.
US09373082B2
An assessment engine includes a definition of inquiry skills being assessed. Assessment models are used to infer skill demonstration as one or more students engage in inquiry within computerized simulations and/or microworlds. A pedagogical agent and/or help system provides real-time feedback to one or more students based on the assessment model outputs, and/or based on additional models that track one or more students developing proficiency across inquiry tasks over time. A pedagogical agent and/or help system for science inquiry tutoring responds in real-time on the basis of knowledge-engineered and data-mined assessment and/or tracking models.
US09373080B1
A plurality of user made decisions concerning unknown data objects are received from a plurality of users. Each specific user made decision concerns a specific unknown data object made by a specific user, wherein the specific decision could not be made automatically with a sufficient level of confidence without user input. Accuracy of the received user made decisions is automatically determined, as empirical data determinative of the accuracy of the decisions becomes available over time. User weights are automatically dynamically calculated, based on the determined accuracy of decisions made by associated users. Multiple user made decisions received from multiple users concerning a specific unknown data object are aggregated, taking into account the user weights. A definitive decision concerning the specific unknown data object is automatically made without prompting any user for confirmation, based on the aggregating of the user made decisions concerning the specific unknown data object.
US09373075B2
A mechanism is provided in a data processing system for applying a genetic algorithm to semantic sentiment analysis. The mechanism provides a sentiment analysis model to a sentiment analysis algorithm. The mechanism trains the sentiment analysis model using a genetic algorithm based on a training corpus of documents with corresponding desired sentiment analysis values for a given domain to form a trained sentiment analysis model. The mechanism performs the sentiment analysis algorithm on an input document using the trained sentiment analysis model to form a domain-specific sentiment analysis result. The mechanism outputs the domain-specific sentiment analysis result.
US09373072B2
An antenna includes first and second radiation portions including one lead wire that is folded back into a loop shape to define a folded-back portion and that includes a first power feed portion at a first end and a second power feed portion at a second end. The lead wire portion extending toward the folded-back portion and the lead wire portion extending through the folded-back portion are close enough to each other near each of the first and second power feed portions in the first and second radiation portions, respectively, to be electromagnetically coupled to each other. The power feed portions of the antenna are coupled to a wireless IC chip. The power feed portions may be coupled to a feed circuit in a feed circuit board coupled to a wireless IC.
US09373069B2
Dynamic magnetic stripe communications devices are provided as magnetic stripe emulators. A magnetic stripe emulator may include a coil. Drive circuits may be coupled to this coil in order to produce electromagnetic fields from the coil operable to communicate with a magnetic stripe reader.
US09373065B1
A pharmaceutical filling system for a high volume pharmacy is described. The system can include a paper feed device and method. The system may include a paper collator with at one selectively openable shelf. A control device may monitor the capacity of the selectively openable shelf, and instruct a printer to hold printing additional print jobs. The selectively openable shelf may then be opened to allow the printed literature resting thereon to fall to a lower shelf, and the printer can then be restarted. Sheets of printed literature may be drawn from the paper collator, collected with any other sheets of printed literature associated with a prescription order, and mated with the prescription order for shipment.
US09373062B2
A printer and printing control method to enable print data received from a host computer to be selectively deleted without modifying the host computer or application. A data receiving unit 100 receives print data from a host computer 40. A deletion line parameter unit 81 sets the number of deletion lines that are to be deleted from the received print data. A print data deletion unit 87 deletes the print data corresponding to the deletion lines set by the deletion line parameter unit 81. A printing unit 120 then prints a receipt using the actual (i.e., corrected) print data, which is the received print data remaining after deletion of the selected deletion lines by the print data deletion unit 87.
US09373056B2
A method for processing an image is proposed. The method comprises identifying a first group of keypoints in the image. For each keypoint of the first group, the method provides for identifying at least one corresponding keypoint local feature related to said each keypoint; for said at least one keypoint local feature, calculating a corresponding local feature relevance probability; calculating a keypoint relevance probability based on the local feature relevance probabilities of said at least one local feature. The method further comprises selecting keypoints, among the keypoints of the first group, having the highest keypoint relevance probabilities to form a second group of keypoints, and exploiting the keypoints of the second group for analyzing the image. The local feature relevance probability calculated for a local feature of a keypoint is obtained by comparing the value assumed by said local feature with a corresponding reference statistical distribution of values of said local feature.
US09373049B1
Techniques for determining whether touch-input gestures approximate straight lines and for animating a display with such gestures are described. Some techniques receive a gesture input through a display, define an oriented bounding box for the gesture, and determine whether the gesture approximates a straight line based on an amount of the gesture that is contained within the oriented bounding box. Other techniques determine a linear regression line for pixel locations comprising a gesture, determine distances of the pixel locations from the linear regression line, and render the set of pixel locations to the display based on the distances and a threshold. Further techniques record a gesture input through a display, determine a sequence of frame updates for the gesture, each frame update including a part of the gesture, and provide the frame updates for sequential updating of the display to effect an animation of the gesture on the display.
US09373043B2
A method and an apparatus are used for detecting a road partition, the method comprising: a step of obtaining a disparity top view having a road area; and a step of detecting parallel lines as the road partitions from the disparity top view.
US09373038B2
A data processing apparatus may utilize an artificial neuron network configured to reduce dimensionality of input data using a sparse transformation configured using receptive field structure of network units. Output of the network may be analyzed for temporally persistency that is characterized by similarity matrix. Elements of the matrix may be incremented when present activity unit activity at a preceding frame. The similarity matrix may be partitioned based on a distance measure for a given element of the matrix and its closest neighbors. Stability of learning of temporally proximal patterns may be greatly improved as the similarity matrix is learned independently of the partitioning operation. Partitioning of the similarity matrix using the methodology of the disclosure may be performed online, e.g., contemporaneously with the encoding and/or similarity matrix construction, thereby enabling learning of new features in the input data.
US09373027B2
It's an object of the invention to provide an object detection device capable of detecting an object for detection in an input image with high precision. In an object detection device 1, a detection window setting unit 11 receives a photographic image 21 photographed by a camera. The detection window setting unit 11 sets a detection window area in the photographic image 21 and generates a normal window image 22 by cutting out the detection window area from the photographic image 21. An image processing unit 12 performs image processing such as enlargement and reduction, etc. on the photographic image 21. Each modified window images 23 is cut out from each of the enlarged photographic image 21 and the reduced photographic image 21. A degree calculation unit 13 calculates matching rates indicating a possibility the object for detection in the window image for each window images on the basis of feature data 51 indicating a feature of the object for detection. A determination unit 14 determines whether or not the detection object is present in the detection window area on the basis of the matching rates of each window image.
US09373023B2
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for standoff facial and ocular acquisition. Embodiments of the invention address the problems of atmospheric turbulence, defocus, and field of view in a way that minimizes the need for additional hardware. One embodiment of a system for acquiring an image of a facial feature of a subject includes a single wide field of view sensor configured to acquire a plurality of images over a large depth of field containing the subject and a post processor coupled to the single sensor and configured to synthesize the image of the facial feature from the plurality of images.
US09373021B2
There is described an apparatus for outputting a group of images for display, the group being taken from a plurality of images, each image in the plurality of images having a face located therein, the apparatus comprising a processor configured to: retrieve a set of images from a storage medium, the set of images containing at least the plurality of images from which the group of images to be displayed is selected; identify the face in each of the plurality of images; identify variable features on the face in each of the plurality of images; establish the group of images in accordance with a measure of the dissimilarity between the variable features in the plurality of images; and output the group of images for display.
US09373019B2
Techniques are disclosed for light-based communication using a passive light-reflective device having specially coded reflective or printed optics. The optics can be mounted to an object and configured to reflect light such that a receiver is able to receive the reflected light. The optics are further configured to alternatively display a number of different patterns that change as the receiver moves with respect to the optics, thus causing the receiver to receive an apparent stream of modulated light, which represents coded information that can be decoded into meaningful information. The optics can be mounted to a traffic control or other roadside device. As a vehicle approaches and passes the traffic control device, light reflects off of the optics in a series of patterns. This reflected light can be received by the vehicle and processed to relay the information to the operator or on-board vehicle system.
US09373018B2
A hand-held indicia-reading device includes a housing and a cable having a unitary-construction. The indicia-reader has a head portion with an indicia-reading system including a printed circuit board. The entire handle portion of the reader is typically over-molded onto a host-connector cable. The host-connector cable includes a circuit board connector on one end and a connector for connecting to a host at an opposite end extending from a base portion of the handle.
US09373010B1
A passive tag embedded in a package includes multiple conductive coils. A first coil receives radio frequency (RF) energy used to power the tag. Additional coils receive and/or transmit data signals, clock signals, and carrier signals. The RF energy and other signals may be at different frequencies. An RF probe includes a first coil to emit the RF energy to power the tag. The RF probe includes additional coils corresponding to the additional coils in the tag. The RF probe may turn off the RF signal used for power during communication. The RF energy may be rectified to provide DC power to circuits in the tag, or may be used directly for adiabatic circuits. The RF probe and the package may have complementary shapes to facilitate alignment of the coils.
US09373008B2
This invention provides a system and apparatus that is able to authenticate and prevent illegal manufacturing and unauthorized operation of disposable bioprocess components. This invention utilizes a ferro-electric random access memory chip (FRAM) chip to store error-correctable information on a RFID tag attached to the disposable bioprocess components, where the error-correctable information is written in sequence into the memory chip, so that the redundant information can remain in the chip when the RFID tag and disposable bioprocess component is gamma-sterilized. Also, this invention includes a method for authenticating the disposable bioprocess component that reduces liability in that a counterfeit poor quality disposable component is not used on the hardware so the user will not file an unjustified complaint.
US09373004B2
A method of deleting log records may include identifying a plurality of log records generated during a time period, for each identified log record, determining whether a delete request associated with the log record has been made, and, in response to determining that a delete request has not been received, identifying a unique identifier associated with the log record, searching a user activity table for an entry having a key table index associated with the unique identifier, where the entry is associated with a timestamp, using the key table index and the timestamp to identify a key associated with the unique identifier and the timestamp from a key table, encrypting at least a portion of the log record with the identified key to generate an encrypted value, and storing the encrypted value as an entry in the log record database that is associated with the identified log record.
US09373003B2
Systems and methods are provided for automatically handling multiple levels of encryption and decryption. An electronic file is received to add to encrypted storage. The electronic file is encrypted to generate a new level of encryption for the electronic file using an encryption process that uses encryption data to generate the new level of encryption and to decrypt the new level of encryption. A set of existing encryption data associated with the electronic file is identified, wherein each existing encryption data from the set of existing encryption data is associated with an existing level of encryption already applied to the electronic file. The encryption data is added to the set of existing encryption data associated with the electronic file so that the existing levels of encryption and the new level of encryption can be decrypted.
US09372997B2
A computing device is described that includes one or more processors and at least one module operable by the one or more processors to determine whether the computing device is currently designated to display private information, receive an incoming communication, and determine that the incoming communication includes content that is private information. The at least one module is further operable by the one or more processors to, if the computing device is currently designated to display private information, output, for display, an indication of the incoming communication, and, if the computing device is not currently designated to display private information, refrain from outputting, for display, the indication of the incoming communication.
US09372996B2
An approach is provided for protecting data owned by an operating system on a mobile computing device having multiple operating systems. A map specifying protected data regions for the operating systems on the mobile computing device is generated. At least a portion of the map is secured with a shared key. Based on the map and the shared key, and in response to a data cleanup activity being performed by a software utility being executed on another, currently running operating system included in the multiple operating systems, a data region included in the protected data regions is determined to be owned by the operating system. Based on the data region being owned by the operating system and the data region being specified by the map, the data cleanup activity is blocked from being performed on the data region owned by the operating system.
US09372991B2
Prior to execution of computer program instructions, the computer identifies one or more addresses in memory corresponding to the locations of one or more of the computer program instructions in the computer program. During execution of the computer program instructions, the computer identifies in the computer program another computer program instruction located in another address in the memory, and in response, the computer makes an indication that the computer program has an indicia of maliciousness.
US09372987B1
A machine has a processor and a memory storing instructions executed by the processor to issue a challenge in response to a first request, evaluate a response to the challenge to establish confirmation that the first request originated from a human user, issue a user identification in response to the confirmation, store the user identification with encrypted identity data, receive a second request that includes the user identification, and return the encrypted identity data in response to the second request.
US09372982B2
A system and computer program product for using a multi-user operating system. A user attempts to access the multi-user operating system. The system prompts the user to enter a shared credential associated with the multi-user operating system and an individual credential of the user. The system verifies the entered shared credential and the entered individual credential. The system grants the access to the user if both the entered shared credential and the entered individual credential are verified. The system tracks commands entered by the user granted the access via the entered shared credential while the user is using the multi-user operating system. The tracked commands indicate the entered individual credential.
US09372979B2
The present invention discloses methods, devices, and systems for unobtrusively recognizing a user of a mobile device. Methods including the steps of: unobtrusively collecting motion data from the mobile device during normal device usage by monitoring standard authorized-user interaction with the device, without any form of challenge or device-specified action; demarcating the motion data into user motion-sequences based on changes in a motion-state or an elapsed time-period without an occurrence of the changes, wherein the motion-state refers to a placement and speed of the mobile device at a point in time; calculating user motion-characteristics from the user motion-sequences; and generating a motion-repertoire from the user motion-characteristics, whereby the motion-repertoire enables unobtrusive recognition of the user. Preferably, the method further includes the step of: detecting unidentified motion-characteristics that are not associated with the motion-repertoire, thereby enabling unobtrusive recognition of unidentified usage.
US09372965B2
Systems, methods, and devices for displaying digital content. In one embodiment, a method of simulating digital content includes providing information corresponding to a plurality of pixels of displayable content at an electronic device; and simulating the displayable content at the electronic device by displaying a representation of a first subset of the plurality of pixels during a first time period and displaying a representation of a second subset of the plurality of pixels during a second time period.
US09372963B2
A method may include receiving, at an application server, a session initiation protocol (SIP) message including a public user identifier (ID) associated a user. The public user ID corresponds to a plurality of user devices. The method also includes determining an applicable order of alerting at least one of the plurality of user devices. The method further includes identifying at least one available user device associated with the user, based on a terminal identifier (ID) associated with each at least one available user device. The method includes selecting a user device from the at least one available user device based on the applicable order of alerting. A SIP invite message, including a terminal ID for the selected user device, is generated. The method includes sending the SIP invite message to the selected user device based on the applicable order of alerting, and receiving a response to the SIP invite message.
US09372952B1
One aspect identifies an interconnect and associated design rule(s) and moves a portion of the interconnect to an adjacent track by using a spreading process on a one-dimensional design data based on the design rule(s) to determine whether the interconnect including the moved portion provides a DRC clean implementation. This aspect examines an interconnect in its entirety without being confined within a prescribed boundary of a fixed region in the layout. The one-dimensional design data provides expedient runtime and may be converted back into two-dimensional form for the layout. Another aspect iterates through multiple spreading distances to route or modify interconnects in a layout by performing multiple Boolean operations on the interconnect and adjacent shape(s) to determine the final form of the newly created or modified interconnect complying with various design rules.
US09372951B2
Semiconductor device design methods and conductive bump pattern enhancement methods are disclosed. In some embodiments, a method of designing a semiconductor device includes designing a conductive bump pattern design, and implementing a conductive bump pattern enhancement algorithm on the conductive bump pattern design to create an enhanced conductive bump pattern design. A routing pattern is designed based on the enhanced conductive bump pattern design. A design rule checking (DRC) procedure is performed on the routing pattern.
US09372950B2
A circuit layout method and a circuit layout apparatus are disclosed. The circuit layout apparatus comprises a display apparatus, an input device, a stack up database and a processor. The display apparatus shows a system interface. The input device inputs a user request in response to the system interface. The processor selects a stack up data table, corresponding to the user request, from the stack up database, and generates a design rule of a computer aided design (CAD) according to the stack up data table. The processor checks whether a circuit board design complies with the design rule.
US09372949B1
A model checking tool, which is used to test a circuit design, attempts to reach a target state from an initial state in the state-space of the circuit design using one or more intermediate states. Through an iterative process, the tool identifies intermediate states in the state-space of the circuit design that are used to generate starting states for subsequent iterations of the process. The intermediate states help to restrict the scope of the state-space search to reduce the time and memory requirements needed to reach the target state. The model checking tool also explores the state-space in parallel from a subset of computed restart states, which reduces the possibility of bypassing any essential intermediate or target states.
US09372934B2
Systems and methods are disclosed for creating and using a Shortcode for any street or postal address, including an imbedded Shortcode (ISC) that differentiates and visually distinguishes the alpha-numeric characters constituting the Shortcode within the visual display of the full street address. A Shortcode may be automatically created and uniquely associated with a full street or postal address for anywhere in the world, including a street number, street name and/or type, city, state, country, or any street or unit prefix or suffix designation. The ISC enables the Shortcode to be visually identified by distinguishing the Shortcode from the other characters constituting the full traditional street or postal address.
US09372924B2
A computer implemented method and system for natural language processing ambiguity resolution includes storing an ontology specifying a set of grammatical rules. A phrase comprising at least one current word to be processed is retrieved. A current word from the phrase is annotated with possible ontological classes according to the ontology. Any ontological rules associated with the possible ontological classes are retrieved. Ontological classes are eliminated based on the ontological rules. A surviving possible ontological class is determined to be an accurate ontological class for the current word. In another aspect of this disclosure, an ontology is stored in computer memory, the ontology having multiple ontological classifications, and word instances, each word instance associated with at least one of the ontological classifications. All word instances belonging to the selected ontological classification are retrieved.
US09372915B2
Relational clustering has attracted more and more attention due to its phenomenal impact in various important applications which involve multi-type interrelated data objects, such as Web mining, search marketing, bioinformatics, citation analysis, and epidemiology. A probabilistic model is presented for relational clustering, which also provides a principal framework to unify various important clustering tasks including traditional attributes-based clustering, semi-supervised clustering, co-clustering and graph clustering. The model seeks to identify cluster structures for each type of data objects and interaction patterns between different types of objects. Under this model, parametric hard and soft relational clustering algorithms are provided under a large number of exponential family distributions. The algorithms are applicable to relational data of various structures and at the same time unify a number of state-of-the-art clustering algorithms: co-clustering algorithms, the k-partite graph clustering, and semi-supervised clustering based on hidden Markov random fields.
US09372912B2
A method, a server, a database and a computer program product by means of which comparison data of decision making applications can be enriched so that they may be utilized in other decision making applications. An application specific default database is first defined by selecting attributes to be assessed; selecting items to be compared; linking the selected attributes to the items by default attribute values and saving the defined default database of the decision making application to a global database. From the saved default attributes of items it is then calculated global attribute values to said items. The global attributes are then saved also to the global database. A second decision making application may be converted from the global attributes by first selecting a sub-group of items from all items of the global database. Then global attributes of items of the sub-group are converted to the local attributes, whereby speeding up creation of the second decision making application.
US09372910B2
Various systems, processes, and products may be used to manage remote data replication. In particular implementations, a system and process for managing remote data replication may include the ability to store versions of a disk at a first site, a second site, and a third site. The version of the disk at the first site may store input/output for a host system, the version at the second site may be a synchronous replication of the version at the first site, and the version at the third site may be an asynchronous replication of the version at the first site. The system and process may also include the ability to synchronize the version at the first site with the version at the third site if the second site is unavailable and synchronize the version at the second site with the version at the third site if the first site is unavailable.
US09372908B2
A first data structure stores indications of storage locations that need to be copied for forming a consistency group. A second data structure stores indications of new host writes subsequent to starting a point in time copy operation to form the consistency group. Read access is secured to a metadata storage area and a determination is made as to whether the second data structure indicates that there are any new host writes. In response to determining that the second data structure indicates that there are new host writes, write access is secured to the metadata storage area, the first data structure is updated with contents of the second data structure to determine which additional storage locations need to be copied for formation of a next consistency group, and the second data structure is updated to indicate that that the second data structure is in an initialized state.
US09372905B2
A system may determine metadata information associated with data included in a data structure. The system may identify a category, associated with the data, based on the metadata information. The system may present, for display, a user interface that allows a user to build a graphical query based on the category. The graphical query may include a user-defined visual representation of a data structure query associated with the data. The system may receive information associated with the graphical query based on presenting the user interface. The information associated with the graphical query may be received based on input provided via the user interface, and may include information associated with the category. The system may provide the information associated with the graphical query.
US09372901B2
An application search system provides search results for applications based on one or more attributes of the applications. A search query is received by the application search system from a partner. The application search system retrieves a set of applications in response to the search query. In addition, the application search system receives, from one or more sources, restrictive information regarding one or more security attributes for one or more applications in the set of applications. A security value is generated for each of the one or more applications in the set of applications. The security value includes a security attribute value for each of the one or more security attributes. The application search system provides the retrieved set of applications for display at a user interface to the partner. Furthermore, each generated security value is also displayed in conjunction with the corresponding application.
US09372897B2
Methods for determining a relationship score between a first entity and a second entity. A first computer-readable representation of a first spatial region containing the first entity is generated. A second computer-readable representation of a second spatial region containing the second entity is generated. The first computer-readable representation and the second computer-readable representation are compared at decreasing resolutions until a matching condition is reached. A relationship score is assigned to one or more of the first entity and the second entity based on the resolution at which the matching condition is reached.
US09372896B1
A spam score is assigned to a business listing when the listing is received at a search entity. A noise function is added to the spam score such that the spam score is varied. In the event that the spam score is greater than a first threshold, the listing is identified as fraudulent and the listing is not included in (or is removed from) the group of searchable business listings. In the event that the spam score is greater than a second threshold that is less than the first threshold, the listing may be flagged for inspection. The addition of the noise to the spam scores prevents potential spammers from reverse engineering the spam detecting algorithm such that more listings that are submitted to the search entity may be identified as fraudulent and not included in the group of searchable listings.
US09372895B1
A method of forming a keyword based search query that uses a plurality of keywords, in which the keywords of the query are arranged into groups of purpose-related keywords, in which each keyword is associated with a designation of its relative importance. The keywords of a group may be identified manually by the searcher, or existing keywords in a group may be used to suggest or automatically add additional related keywords to the group. The keywords of a group need not be semantically related, but only related to a common purpose of the keyword group. Additional keywords can be suggested to the searcher, or automatically added to the groups. Suitable additional keywords may be identified by reference to previous searches in which the existing keywords were grouped with those additional keywords. Keywords may also be derived from text designated by the searcher, using all or portions of one or more documents or text blocks that the user identifies as describing a concept of interest to the searcher. The searcher may also select sources to search and may designate the importance of sections of those sources.
US09372893B2
The present disclosure provides techniques to rank search results. The techniques may include acquiring a set of primitive characteristics and extracting effective characteristics from the set of primitive characteristics based on historical transaction data. The effective characteristics include characteristics that can have an influence on ranking of search results. The techniques may also include determining an initial weight of each of the effective characteristics based on the historical transaction data, and training the initial weight using the historical transaction data and a predetermined training model to obtain a final weight. Based on the final weight, the search results may be ranked. In some aspects, the techniques may also optimize the ranking to ensure the objectivity and accuracy of ranking results.
US09372892B1
A method for use in processing database queries performed on a database, having tables made up of outer table data and corresponding inner table data, distributed among storage associated with multiple nodes of a multi-threaded cluster of computers is described. The method involves constructing a Bloom filter at nodes by merging Bloom filter components on each node using different startingOffset positions for each thread and then, once the Bloom filter is complete at a node and using the complete Bloom filter as a join filter in a table join operation, without regard to Bloom filter construction occurring at others of the multiple nodes.
US09372888B2
Embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods for searching a repository of information such as a database using a keyword search and/or an attribute search in near real time. According to one embodiment, a method of searching a repository of information can comprise receiving a set of search criteria for performing the search and selectively performing one or more of an attribute search and a keyword search of the information in the repository based on the received search criteria.
US09372882B2
Methods, systems, and computer program products are provided for partitioning online databases. Online database operations, such as, for example, SPLIT, MERGE, and DROP, are used to alter the arrangement of partitions in a federated database. A SPLIT operation splits rows at one partition across a plurality of other partitions. A MERGE operation merges rows at a plurality of partitions in to one partition. A DROP operation shifts responsibility for rows of data from one partition to another partition and then drops the rows from the one partition.
US09372874B2
A content processing apparatus according to the present disclosure includes: a content input unit that acquires target content that is content to be processed; a content analysis unit that extracts at least one object included in the target content and feature information indicating a feature of the object, and specifies context information based on analytical information and the extracted feature information, the context information indicating contexts of the objects and including attribute information for supplementing the features of the objects, and the analytical information being information for specifying the contexts of the objects; an output control unit that calculates processing priority of each of the objects based on the context information; and a candidate process extracting unit that extracts a candidate process that is executable on the target content based on the context information and the processing priority.
US09372872B2
According to an aspect of the present invention, a display control apparatus is capable of displaying on a display apparatus a content of a plurality of files classified into a plurality of groups. If a number of files from a first file, which is a display target to the display apparatus, to a second file, which is included in a group newly determined as a display target, in the predetermined order is equal to or greater than a predetermined number, the display control unit causes the display apparatus to display a content of at least one file between the first file and the second file in the predetermined order before a display target file is changed from the first file to the second file and a content of the second file is displayed. Accordingly, display of many files can be prevented from being skipped.
US09372871B2
Implementations relate to presenting search results to a user. In particular, disclosed techniques include presenting both image search results and 3D model search results to a user. The user can manipulate the 3D model depicted in the 3D model search results by rotating, translating or zooming. Implementations thus provide a rich synergistic exploration experience to the user.
US09372863B2
The present invention discloses a method, an apparatus, and a system for updating a metadata file. The method include: sending a message to a server on a network side to request a metadata file corresponding to media presentation; receiving a metadata file returned by the server according to the message that requests the metadata file corresponding to the media presentation, where the metadata file includes information about duration of a part of described media presentation; determining update time of the metadata file according to the information about the duration of the part of described media presentation; and sending a request for updating the metadata file to the server according to the update time.
US09372862B2
A method for automatic folder ownership assignment, including ascertaining which first folders, among a first multiplicity of folders, have at least one of modify and write permissions to non-IT administration entities, adding the first folders to a list of candidates for ownership assignment, defining a second multiplicity of folders which is a subset of the first multiplicity of folders and not including the first folders and descendents and ancestors thereof, ascertaining which second folders among the second multiplicity of folders, have permissions to non-IT administration entities, adding the second folders to the candidates, defining a third multiplicity of folders, which is a subset of the second multiplicity of folders and not including the second folders and descendents and ancestors thereof, ascertaining which third folders among the third multiplicity of folders are topmost folders, adding the third folders to the candidates, and recommending possible assignment of ownership of the candidates.
US09372861B2
Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to element identification for elements in a collaborative computing environment and provide a method, system and computer program product for identifying unstructured elements of a collaborative place in a hierarchically structured manner. In one embodiment of the invention, a method for locating an unstructured element in a collaborative computing environment can be provided. The method can include receiving a request for an unstructured element in the collaborative environment, extracting a hierarchy of unique identifiers from the request, locating a last folder referenced by the hierarchy of unique identifiers, and returning a reference to the folder as a location of the unstructured element.
US09372860B2
A method for content recommendation for a user, wherein a song or a video is recommended to the user and a confidence measure is determined for the recommended song. The confidence measure is displayed to the user, so the user may get more confidence into the recommendation of the system.
US09372851B2
Methods and systems are provided for creating a calendar event using context. A natural language expression including at least one of words, terms, and phrases of text may be received at a calendar event creation module from an application. The calendar event creation module may identify one or more slots in the text of the natural language expression related to the calendar event using a first grammar module and a second grammar module. The one or more slots identified by the first grammar module and the second grammar module that indicate a calendar event may be compared to determine whether there is a match between the one or more identified slots. If a match is found, at least one calendar event using the one or more slots identified by the first grammar module and the second grammar module may be created.
US09372842B2
Described is an improved approach for implementing a handshake mechanism to permit effective versioning and updates for data within an enterprise application. Version numbers are associated with sales catalog objects, where the appropriate version number is associated with the specific object to be published as the run-time object for the sales catalog. Each of the sales catalog versions is associated with a unique identifier, where one of the identifiers is recognized as the “run-time” version identifier. The sales catalog having the recognized run-time identifier value is visible to and accessible to the ordinary users of the system as the runtime sales catalog. All other sales catalog versions associated with other identifiers are not visible/accessible to ordinary users.
US09372836B2
The various aspects provide methods, servers, and systems for identifying independent portions of an HTML document so that the identified portions may be processed in parallel. The independent portions may be associated with an iframe tag having both the seamless and sandbox attributes. At runtime, a browser may detect the presence of both attributes, and process the contents of the iframe in parallel.
US09372834B2
Some embodiments provide a novel operation for aligning a symbol with an associated character in a digital content processing application. In some embodiments, the alignment operation uses a font property of the character to align the symbol with the character. In some embodiments, the character has a slanted display orientation and the font property is an angle at which the character is slanted. Symbols that are associated with characters include diacritical marks, accents, mathematical symbols that align above or below a character, and other symbols of the character. The character, sometimes referred to as a “base character”, may be a character in text, in an equation, etc.
US09372827B2
Software, firmware, and systems are described herein that migrate functionality of a source physical computing device to a destination physical computing device. A non-production copy of data associated with a source physical computing device is created. A configuration of the source physical computing device is determined. A configuration for a destination physical computing device is determined based at least in part on the configuration of the source physical computing device. The destination physical computing device is provided access to data and metadata associated with the source physical computing device using the non-production copy of data associated with the source physical computing device.
US09372825B1
A network storage controller uses a non-volatile solid-state memory (NVSSM) subsystem as a global cache that is shared between a number of network storage servers in a network storage system. Portions of global cache are allocated to each of the network storage servers. Allocation of portions of the global cache is controlled based on a usage pattern of the global cache by each of the network storage servers. The storage operating system determines, for example, a percentage of cache hit and/or a response time for responding to the requests from the clients by a particular network storage server with a particular allocated portion. The percentage of cache hit and response time are projected for various potential sizes of the particular portion. A size of the particular portion that provides a better percentage of cache hit and/or response time is selected, and reallocated to the particular network storage server.
US09372824B2
A method is provided in which the present invention is for a method in which a telecommunications terminal determines whether its user is available to accept an incoming invitation to participate in a telecommunications session based on: (1) a characteristic of the use of a software application, (2) a characteristic of the use of a resource of a terminal, (3) a sensor input, (4) a characteristic of the incoming invitation or (5) any combination of (1), (2), (3), (4), and (5).
US09372820B2
Network resource management system utilizing physical network identification for bridging operations
The disclosed network resource management system employs a hardware configuration management (HCM) information handling system (IHS) that may couple to a single administered IHS or to multiple administered IHSs via an administrative network. An HCM tool in the HCM IHS may generate, modify and store hardware configuration information, including physical network identifications (PNet IDs), in an HCM database and share the HCM database with the administered IHSs. The administered IHS may be a bridging IHS. A bridging tool may extract hardware configuration information, including PNet IDs, from the HCM database. The bridging tool may utilize the hardware configuration information, including PNet IDs, to enable the bridging IHS to bridge networks internal to the bridging IHS with networks external to the bridging IHS.
US09372819B2
An I/O device obtains multiple unique N_Port IDs (identifiers) for a NPIV N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) capable physical adapter. Fabric management routines are able to assign the multiple unique N_Port IDs to distinct fabric zones. LUNs (logical unit numbers) are able to be associated with the multiple unique N_Port IDs such the LUNs associated with unique N_Port ID do not exceed a limitation. The I/O device is able to associate different resources with different unique N_Port IDs to limit the scope of actions of one or more hosts. The I/O device is able to configure one or more LUNs by the multiple unique N_Port IDs to control access. Different unique N_Port IDs are able to be configured to have different quality of service attributes and/or different levels of security. The I/O device may include multiple independent logical partitions (LPARs) and assign each multiple unique N_Port IDs.
US09372818B2
A multi-matrix bus system is disclosed that provides proactive quality of service (QoS) by propagating, as soon as possible through an arbitration node in a network transfer request path, a highest priority value coming from an upstream arbitration node or master that has a current bus request pending at the arbitration node. The bus system ensures that any last downstream arbitration node knows at any time which is the highest priority request pending in the network transfer request path from the masters that are competing to share the bus layer switches and arbitration nodes in the network transfer request path.
US09372817B2
This invention for a VDMA will enable ultra HD resolution (4K) encode/decode at 30 frames per second. This invention maximizes interconnect/DDR utilization and reduces CPU intervention using virtual alignment, sub-tile optimization, transaction breakdown strategy, 4D indexing, a dedicated interface with the host and frame padding. The VDMA has separate buffers for non-determinative synchronous data transfers and determinative asynchronous data transfers.
US09372809B2
A system and method for efficiently storing data both on-site and off-site in a cloud storage system. Data read and write requests are received by a cloud data storage system. The cloud storage system has at least three data storage layers. A first high-speed layer, a second efficient storage layer, and a third off-site storage layer. The first high-speed layer stores data in raw data blocks. The second efficient storage layer divides data blocks from the first layer into data slices and eliminates duplicate data slices. The third layer stores data slices at an off-site location.
US09372808B2
This invention mitigates these deadlocking issues by a adding a separate non-blocking pipeline for snoop returns. This separate pipeline would not be blocked behind coherent requests. This invention also repartitions the master initiated traffic to move cache evictions (both with and without data) and non-coherent writes to the new non-blocking channel. This non-blocking pipeline removes the need for any coherent requests to complete before the snoop request can reach the memory controller. Repartitioning cache initiated evictions to the non-blocking pipeline prevents deadlock when snoop and eviction occur concurrently. The non-blocking channel of this invention combines snoop responses from memory controller initiated requests and master initiated evictions/non-coherent writes.
US09372803B2
A system and method are presented. Some embodiments include a processing unit, at least one memory coupled to the processing unit, and at least one cache coupled to the processing unit and divided into a series of blocks, wherein at least one of the series of cache blocks includes data identified as being in a modified state. The modified state data is flushed by writing the data to the at least one memory based on a write back policy and the aggressiveness of the policy is based on at least one factor including the number of idle cores, the proximity of the last cache flush, the activity of the thread associated with the data, and which cores are idle and if the idle core is associated with the data.
US09372799B2
To enable efficient tracking of transactions, an acknowledgement expected signal is used to give the cache coherent interconnect a hint for whether a transaction requires coherent ownership tracking. This signal informs the cache coherent interconnect to expect an ownership transfer acknowledgement signal from the initiating master upon read/write transfer completion. The cache coherent interconnect can therefore continue tracking the transaction at its point of coherency until it receives the acknowledgement from the initiating master only when necessary.
US09372798B2
A data processing apparatus (2) comprises a first protocol domain A configured to operate under a write progress protocol and a second protocol domain B configured to operate under a snoop progress protocol. A deadlock condition is detected if a write target address for a pending write request issued from the first domain A to the second domain B is the same as a snoop target address or a pending snoop request issued from the second domain B to the first domain A. When the deadlock condition is detected, a bridge (4) between the domains may issue an early response to a selected one of the deadlocked write and snoop requests without waiting for the selected request serviced. The early response indicates to the domain that issued the selected request that the selected request has been serviced, enabling the other request to be serviced by the issuing domain.
US09372794B2
The technique introduced here involves using a block address and a corresponding generation number as a “fingerprint” to uniquely identify a sequence of data within a given storage domain. Each block address has an associated generation number which indicates the number of times that data at that block address has been modified. This technique can be employed, for example, to maintain cache coherency among multiple storage nodes. It can also be employed to avoid sending the data to a network node over a network if it already has the data.
US09372777B2
Methods and arrangements for enhancing a ticket relative to user interaction with a system. An information technology ticket related to user interaction with an information technology system is received, and a system trace is activated, wherein additional input related to the user interaction with the information technology system is accepted. Information derived from the trace of the information technology system is associated with the information technology ticket. Other variants and embodiments are broadly contemplated herein.
US09372770B2
A system for validating a hardware platform is provided. The system includes a database that stores one or more test specifications, a compiler that generates a target image based on (i) a device driver obtained from a device driver generator, (ii) a platform independent target application code, (iii) a kernel source, and (iv) a run time environment, and a software driven validation generator that analyzes the run time specification and the device programming specification and generates (i) one or more test cases based on (a) the one or more test specifications, and (b) the device programming specification, and (ii) a control software based on the test cases. The test cases include configurations that are specific to the hardware platform. The hardware platform is validated based on (i) an execution of the target image and the control software on the hardware platform, and (ii) the one or more test cases.
US09372760B1
A computer-implemented method for securely storing backup data while facilitating fast failovers may include 1) identifying, at a primary site, a virtual disk file that includes a backup image, 2) modifying a boot sector within the virtual disk file to add a boot loader that supports reading disks encrypted with whole disk encryption, 3) encrypting the backup image within the virtual disk file, except for at least one decryption area, with whole disk encryption, and 4) storing the virtual disk file at a secondary site after encrypting the backup image within the virtual disk file. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US09372759B2
A computing system includes: an adaptive back-up controller configured to calculate an adaptive back-up time based on a reserve power source for backing up a volatile memory to a nonvolatile memory; and a processor core, coupled to the adaptive back-up controller, configured to back up at least a portion of the volatile memory to the nonvolatile memory within the adaptive back-up time.
US09372756B2
Methods by a processing system are disclosed that control recovery of operational state values of a complex event processing (CEP) engine that processes values of events. A window size is determined based on a property of an event query. Events' values are retrieved from a distributed log which are restricted to occurring within a timeframe defined based on the window size. The distributed log stores events' values that have been processed by the CEP engine. The retrieved events' values are replayed to the CEP engine for processing to recover the operational state values of the CEP engine. Related processing systems are disclosed that control recovery of operational state values of a CEP engine that processes values of events.
US09372753B2
It is disclosed a method for protecting a computer network against a failure. The method comprises: identifying a number of possible failures which might occur within the computer network, the number of possible failures comprising at least one possible failure; and, based on detected availability of resources in the computer network, determining a protection state of the computer network allowing to circumvent the possible failure and dynamically updating the determined protection state based on changes of the detected availability. The method further comprises, upon occurrence of the failure, if the occurred failure corresponds to the possible failure, bringing the computer network into an operative protection state corresponding to the determined and dynamically updated protection state.
US09372752B2
An apparatus for coherent shared memory across multiple clusters is described herein. The apparatus includes a fabric memory controller and one or more nodes. The fabric memory controller manages access to a shared memory region of each node such that each shared memory region is accessible using load store semantics, even in response to failure of the node. The apparatus also includes a global memory, wherein each shared memory region is mapped to the global memory by the fabric memory controller.
US09372746B2
A method system and computer program product are disclosed for identifying silent failures in an application, comprising of generating a finite state machine (FSM) model of the application based on an input data, extracting state specific invariants relevant to the generated FSM, performing a localized invariant violation check at each state of the generated FSM and upon detection of an invariant violation at any state of the FSM, logging the violation as a silent failure.
US09372744B2
A transmission signal transmitted via a common data signal line, includes a management data region different from a control/monitoring data region including data of control data and monitoring data signals. The slave station acquires input information from an input part corresponding to its own station, acquires control data for reference by an output part of another station in a correspondence relation with the input part from the transmission signal, and obtains a pseudo output change timing equal to a true output change timing of the output part based on the control data. A signal configuring data indicating a first failure state when a time difference between the pseudo output change timing and an input change timing of the input part is smaller than a first threshold value or a second failure state when the time difference is larger than a second threshold value is superimposed on the management data region.
US09372742B2
Provided are a system and a method for self-healing in a critical system. The present invention monitors a current situation of the critical system, determines whether a system has an error by analyzing the monitoring result, judges whether to perform self-healing in a current state or drive safety software which provides a minimum basic service according to self-healing of the system error or not when the system error occurs, and evaluates self-healing performance after healing the system error. According to exemplary embodiments of the present invention, it is possible to continuously provide a software service and further improve the reliability of the self-healing system through the evaluation of the self-healing performance.
US09372733B2
Embodiments of systems and methods for a distribution manager are presented herein. Specifically, embodiments may receive a request for support for a mobile application and determine a platform server to support the mobile application based on capacity data associated with a set of platform servers in an application table associated with the mobile application. Embodiments may also deliver identification of the platform server over the network, the identification of the platform server comprises connectivity information configured to allow the mobile application to connect to the platform server.
US09372732B2
A method, system, and/or computer program product allocates computer processing work. One or more processors identify: an input data that is stored in a first computer for processing by a computer program; a virtual machine, stored in a second computer, that is capable of executing the computer program; a first set of constraint rules against moving the input data from the first computer; and a second set of constraint rules against moving the virtual machine from the second computer. The one or more processors assign a weight to each constraint rule, and sum the weight of all constraint rules that are applicable. In response to the first total constraint rule weight exceeding the second total constraint rule weight, movement of the input data from the first computer to the second computer is prohibited and the virtual machine is moved from the second computer to the first computer.
US09372727B2
A system, method and computer program for transferring a running virtual machine from a first to a second physical machine, where each of the physical machines has a different instruction set architecture. The system may comprise a receiver for receiving a transfer request. In response to receiving the transfer request, the virtual machine is paused and a state of the virtual machine is collected. A first interface component operable on the first physical machine stopped and a second interface component operable on the second physical machine is started. The state is transferred to the second interface component. The virtual machine is started on the second physical machine in response to the state transfer.
US09372712B2
A system and computer program product for optimizing virtual storage in a virtual computer system including at least one virtual machine, each virtual machine being associated with one or more virtual disks. A target set of virtual machines among the virtual machines comprised in the virtual computer system is determined based on information related to the virtual machines and on shrinking constraints. For each virtual machine in the target set of virtual machines, each virtual disk associated with the virtual machine is identified. Furthermore, for each virtual disk associated with the virtual machine, the following occurs: the virtual disk is analyzed, a virtual disk saving quantity based on the virtual disk analysis is estimated, a resized virtual disk based on the estimated virtual disk saving quantity is generated, and the current virtual disk is replaced with the resized virtual disk.
US09372711B2
Various embodiments of the present invention provide a mobile computing device that operates multiple, co-existing and independent operating system environments on a common kernel. A booting process for initiating a multiple operating system environment is also provided. Additionally, various embodiments of the present invention include processes for managing a switch between one operating system environment to a second operating system environment.
US09372704B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, relating to software execution. One of the methods includes executing, on a computer including a single memory for storing data and instructions, a virtual environment including a data memory and an instruction memory, the instruction memory configured to be unreadable by instructions stored in the instruction memory; receiving, at the virtual environment, a software module comprising multiple instructions; and performing validation of the software module including: identifying, in the software module one or more calls to the single memory; and verifying that the one or more calls to the single memory are in the data memory.
US09372703B2
A simulation apparatus includes: operations of: dividing code of a program in a target processor into blocks; setting an execution result of an externally-dependant instruction depending on an external environment as a prediction result; carrying out function simulation based on the prediction result; calculating an execution time of the externally-dependant instruction according to instruction execution timing information and a function simulation result; generating host code which makes a host processor execute performance simulation based on the function simulation result: correcting the execution time of the externally-dependant instruction based on a delay time of the externally-dependent instruction and a execution time of an instruction executed before or after the externally-dependent function if an execution result of the externally-dependent function when the host processor executes the host code differs from the prediction result; and setting a corrected execution time of the external-dependent instruction as the execution time of the externally-dependant instruction.
US09372701B2
An interface for managing digital information is provided. Digital information including one or more digital files is stored in memory. An icon is associated with the digital information and rendered inside a translucent bubble. The bubble may be manipulated in the digital environment by a user.
US09372700B2
[SUBJECTS] To suppress decrease in boot speed and slowness in operation of a terminal even when the terminal is booted the second or subsequent time in a private mode in which the terminal directly writes to a virtual disk.[SOLVING MEANS] In a network boot system 100, a network boot server 10 and a terminal 20a are connected over a network 30, the network boot server 10 providing a disk image, as a virtual disk 22b, containing an operating system that operates on the terminal, the terminal 20a being provided with a storage device 21a. The OS is provided with a read cache mechanism that stores data read from the server as cache data in the storage device. Generation management data M and rewrite management table T2 are provided. When the client terminal is booted the second or subsequent time in a private mode in which the terminal directly writes to the virtual disk, the read cache mechanism replaces the rewrite management table with the generation management data and boots up a read cache while avoiding using cache data that has been modified.
US09372687B1
A method to customize an online software application. The method includes displaying, using a user interface of the online software application, a message inviting user contribution to a customizable component of the online software application, receiving, from an initial seed user via a network connection and in response to displaying the message, a structural specification of the customizable component suggested by the initial seed user according to a requirement based on an attribute of the initial seed user, determining that a new user of the online software application matches the attribute of the initial seed user, and configuring, based on the structural specification of the customizable component suggested by the initial seed user, an instantiation of the online software application for the new user to perform a pre-determined task according to the requirement.
US09372682B2
The invention relates to a method for programming lighting bus subscribers, comprising the steps of: determining available lighting bus subscribers, e.g. sensors and/or actuators such as for example operating devices for lighting means, by a central unit connected to the lighting bus subscribers via a bus; selecting, by means of the central unit, at least one lighting bus subscriber from the available lighting bus subscribers; setting the selected lighting bus subscribers into an update mode and allocating an update identification to the lighting bus subscribers; and transferring update software, in particular firmware, provided with the update identification to the selected lighting bus subscribers.
US09372675B1
In one implementation for providing a user interface of a software application, a request to enable a user to perceive the user interface of the software application may be received. A context and a user interface expression may be determined based on the request. The user interface expression may be evaluated based on the context to generate a user interface definition. The user interface definition may be provided to a user interface renderer. The user interface renderer may be configured to process the user interface definition to enable the user to perceive the user interface.
US09372674B2
Embodiments are disclosed that relate to dynamically generating a preview placeholder template for presenting data in a user interface. For example, one disclosed embodiment provides a method comprising receiving a request to display a list of items, each item of the list of items comprising a plurality of parts each having a full appearance defined by a corresponding portion of a full version template. The method further comprises, for an item in the list of items, rendering a full version of a representation of the item, and generating via the full version template a preview placeholder template defining an appearance of a thin version of a list item representation comprising a subset of the plurality of parts. The method further comprises storing the preview placeholder template, and retrieving the preview placeholder template from storage and rendering a thin version of each of one or more list items.
US09372672B1
Techniques that enable relatively easier translation of programs by translators, without requiring undue disclosure of information about the program. A translation assistant provides a model of the program instructions, for the translator to view the screen elements and translate them in context, without seeing the program code. The programmer and the translation assistant, working together, capture screen images to be reviewed by the translator, which provide context for translation. The translation assistant intercepts coded instructions to write to the screen when the program is in use. The intercepted instructions are logged and converted to descriptions in a screen-presentation language. The screen-presentation language is sent to the translator, who can edit the text of the wording on-screen, without seeing the underlying program code. An alternative communication line can be established between the programmer and the translator, for questions about intended meaning.
US09372664B2
A method and apparatus for comparing event data sets. A method, system and computer program for comparing event data sets comprising: calculating one or more derivatives for each event in a first and second set of events; classifying each event by the calculated derivatives; and evaluating a similarity of the first and second sets of events based on the classifications of the respective events.
US09372662B2
A fluid meter (27) comprising a housing (28) defining at least one crankcase (29) and two cylinders (25, 26), a crankshaft (11) disposed in the crankcase (29), two pistons (3, 4) respectively mounted in the cylinders (25, 26) for reciprocal movement, a first connecting rod (12) connected to one of the pistons (3) and to the crankshaft (11) for rotating the crankshaft (11) in response to the movement of the one piston (3), and a second connecting rod (13) connected to the other piston (4) and to the crankshaft (11) for rotating the crankshaft (11) in response to the movement of the other piston (4), wherein the first and second connecting rods (12, 13) have yoke slots (16, 17) with a circumferential periphery (62) for receiving a crank pin (19) radially offset from the crankshaft (11). The fluid meter (27) is characterized in that the circumferential periphery (62) of each one of said yoke slots (16, 17) has at least one resilient portion (61) for allowing a play? between said crank pin (19) and said circumferential periphery (62) of said yoke slot (16, 17) at said at least one resilient portion (61). The invention further relates to a multiple fluid meter assembly (61) comprising at least two fluid meters (27) as defined above, and to a fuel dispensing unit comprising a fluid meter (27) or a multiple fluid meter (61) as defined above.
US09372656B2
A video display system is provided. The video display system includes: a first media device; and a second media device, wherein the first media device is connected to the second media device through a universal serial bus power delivery (USB PD) interface, and the first media device transmits both data and a protected video content to the second media device simultaneously through the USB PD interface, wherein the second media device displays the protected video content on a first electronic device through the USB PD interface.
US09372655B2
An image display apparatus, a method of driving the image display apparatus, and a computer readable recording medium are disclosed. The image display apparatus includes at least one operation executor configured to perform a random operation, a communication interface configured to request resource sharing to the peripheral device and to receive a result of the request in order to share resource of the peripheral device, and a controller configured to control the communication interface for the request and the reception and to control the operation executor to perform the operation according to the received result.
US09372645B2
A communication device may acquire function execution information and authentication information, and execute a first determination process. The first determination process may determine whether a state of the communication device is an executable state in which the communication device is capable of executing a specific process or a non-executable state without using the authentication information. The communication device may execute a second determination process determining whether the communication device is capable of executing the communication with a second device in a case where it is determined that the state of the communication device is the executable state, and execute the communication with the second device in a case where the communication device is capable of executing the communication.
US09372642B2
A mechanism is provided in a data processing system. The mechanism determines a maximum queue depth of a queue for each solid state drive in a plurality of solid state drives. A given data block is mirrored between a group of solid state drives within the plurality of solid state drives. The mechanism tracks outstanding input/output operations in a queue for each of the plurality of solid state drives. For a given read operation to read the given data block, the mechanism identifies a solid state drive within the group of solid state drives based on a number of empty slots in the queue of each solid state drive within the group of solid state drives.
US09372638B1
A computer-implemented method for backing up virtual machine data may include (1) identifying a volume of data for a guest system within a virtual machine that may be scheduled for a backup from outside the guest system, (2) identifying, before the backup may be scheduled to occur, a plurality of blocks within the volume of data that have changed since a previous backup of the volume of data, (3) partially performing the backup by copying the plurality of blocks to a backup image and (4) completing the backup from outside the guest system once the backup may be scheduled to occur by copying to the backup image an additional plurality of blocks within the volume of data that have changed since identifying the plurality of blocks. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US09372627B2
Embodiments of the present invention relate to dynamic feedback-based throughput control for storage systems. In one embodiment, a method of and computer program product for storage throughput control are provided. A plurality of I/O requests is received at a rate controller. The plurality of I/O requests is sent from the rate controller to a storage system at a first rate. Throughput of the storage system is observed. The first rate is dynamically adjusted based on the variance between the observed throughput of the storage system and the first rate.
US09372623B2
To provide an information processing terminal capable of solving the problem in which the positions of operational objects cannot be adjusted in accordance with the holding style so as to improve operativity. A display input unit has a display screen and receives a touch operation made to the display screen. A detecting unit detects a position at which the touch operation has been made on the display screen. A control unit displays operational objects or icons on the display screen. The control unit also moves icons to an icon gathering area in accordance with the number of detected areas among a plurality of setting areas set up in the display screen, or the setting areas including an operated position detected by detecting unit 2.
US09372622B2
A method for recording a track and an electronic device using the same are provided. When the electronic device loads an operation system, the recording module is automatically enabled and enters a standby state. When a display unit of the electronic device displays an operating interface and the recording module is triggered, the recording module is switched from the standby state to an active state. When the recording module is at the active state, a drawing layer is displayed and covers the operating interface, and an input track is received via the drawing layer. When a storing command is received, the input track is stored to obtain a composite image.
US09372614B2
A system (and method) are disclosed for enlarging a portion of a view of a user interface displayed within a touch-sensitive screen. The system is configured to determine a predetermined touch area corresponding to a touch applied on the screen. The system provides, for display on the screen, a user interface, the user interface including selectable objects and a scrim of the user interface in response to a plurality of selectable objects being within the predetermined touch area. The system generates a magnified view of the selectable objects within the touch area and provides, for display on the screen over the scrim of the user interface, the magnified view. The area of the magnified view is greater than the touch area. Once a selection is made within the magnified view, the magnified view and scrim view are removed and the normal view of the user interface is returned.
US09372612B2
A scroll viewer control that displays associated content having inertial snap points in a scrollable view. The scroll viewer control applies inertial movement to displayed content such that even after a user completes a scroll gesture, the displayed content continues to scroll with reducing velocity until the scroll slows to a stop within the scrollable view. In so doing, the scroll viewer control enforces an inertial snap point by causing the scroll to stop when a boundary of the scrollable view coincides with the inertial snap point. A content control may implements an interface that allows the scroll viewer control to discover the snap point set associated with the content. Furthermore, the content control may notify the scroll viewer control of changes in the snap point set.
US09372607B1
Methods and systems are provide access to cloud services over the Internet for customizing user interface of a vehicle. One method includes receiving a request to access a server that provides logic for defining a custom user interface for a vehicle associated with a user account. The method also includes receiving selection options for associating applications to the custom user interface. The applications including interfaces associated with functionalities of the vehicle and interfaces for connecting with internet accessible services. The method includes receiving arrangement selections for placing at least one of the interfaces at a user defined location of a display screen of the vehicle. The selection options of the associated applications and the arrangement selections defining the custom user interface for the user account. The method further includes communicating the custom user interface to memory and electronics of the vehicle over a wireless internet connection. The custom user interface is to be rendered on the display screen of the vehicle.
US09372595B2
A surface texture measurement device displays in a display an operation screen based on display information of a current operation screen, and displays in the display a guidance screen when guidance display is requested by pressing a guidance screen display button on the operation screen. The operation screen has icon display for one or more buttons that activate predetermined functions. The guidance screen has a button list field that displays a list of icon display and function name display for the buttons included in the current operation screen and a description display field that displays a function description for any of the buttons included in the current operation screen.
US09372589B2
Structured information about nodes may be generated and shared using sub-nodes. A node in a social networking system may be associated with sub-nodes that are definable by the node owner, such as menu items for a restaurant or songs in playlists for an artist. Users of the system may interact with the sub-nodes, and the interactions may be presented back on the page to a user, aggregated according to the user's connections in the social networking system (e.g., which songs your friends listened to the most by the artist, which menu items were consumed the most). Users may associate other sub-nodes to the node, such as identifying other menu items served by a restaurant, and the node owner may confirm these associations. Location awareness functionalities may be used to inform a user of highly recommended sub-nodes nearby as indicated by other users of the social networking system.
US09372586B2
A touch display includes a display module and a touch module. The touch module includes a first three-layer electrode structure and a transparent cover substrate, wherein the first three-layer electrode structure is disposed above a polarizer, and the transparent cover substrate is disposed above the first three-layer electrode structure. The first three-layer electrode structure includes a bottom index matching layer, a mesh electrode layer and a top index matching layer, wherein the mesh electrode layer is sandwiched between the bottom index matching layer and the top index matching layer.
US09372578B2
The present invention discloses a touch point detection method, device, a touch driving circuit and a touch panel. After determining a to-be-determined touch point among touch detection points of a touch panel, it is determined whether the to-be-determined touch point is influenced by noise of a display driving circuit according to a touch signal, a first noise value and a second noise value of touch detection points in a line where the to-be-determined touch point is located; and after it is determined that the to-be-determined touch point is influenced by the noise of the display driving circuit, it is determined whether the to-be-determined touch point is a touch point according to the second noise value and a preset first threshold value; the second noise value is the noise value of the touch driving circuit when the display driving circuit is turned on. Because it is determined whether the to-be-determined touch point is influenced by the noise of the display driving circuit before determining whether it is a touch point, it is possible to effectively identify interference of noise on the touch signals, improve signal-to-noise ratio of touch signals, and ensure accuracy of touch determining operation.
US09372565B2
The dynamic tactile interface includes: a tactile layer defining a peripheral region and a deformable region adjacent the peripheral region and operable between a retracted setting and an expanded setting; a substrate including an attachment surface and coupled to the peripheral region and defining a fluid conduit adjacent the deformable region and a fluid channel fluidly coupled to the fluid conduit; a border region proximal a periphery of the substrate and defining a cavity configured to receive an instrument, the cavity supporting the instrument in a first configuration and releasing the instrument in a second configuration; and a bladder fluidly coupled to the fluid channel and coupled to the cavity, the instrument compressing a portion of the bladder in the first configuration to displace fluid from the bladder into the fluid channel to transition the deformable region from the retracted setting to the expanded setting.
US09372562B2
A mobile terminal including a touch screen display unit configured to display content; and a controller configured to receive a setting of a region included in the displayed content, display a first graphic object corresponding to a first type of data included in the content in the set region and display a second graphic object corresponding to a second type of data included in the content in the set region, receive a selection of the first graphic object, extract the first type of data included in the content, and display the first type of data extracted from the content without the second type of data.
US09372553B2
The stylus directional force sensing technique described herein employs a directional tip sensor which measures the magnitude and direction of force applied to a stylus tip. This information is then used to control the behavior of the stylus in an application. In one embodiment, this simple design only measures the stylus angle when the tip is actually pressing on the surface. This has the added benefit of reducing power requirements and computational complexity.
US09372550B2
A technique is disclosed for automatic switching of a mobile device between a videoconference operating mode and a teleconference operating mode, where the automatic switching is based on a detected functional use and current position of the device in relation to a user of the device. In at least some embodiments, the disclosed technology includes a video-audio switching system that works in coordination with a sensor mechanism associated with the device to enable the automatic switching. The technology disclosed herein enables the user to carry out a conversation via the device (i.e., conference session) without interruption when transitioning between different settings, (e.g., using the device while sitting at an office to using it while on-the-go to an appointment).
US09372549B2
The invention shows a method to control a pointing device with an angular, rate sensor, that comprises generating an ensemble of orthogonal unit vector associated signals by at least one angular rate sensor to represent angular rates in a dimensional space for each mutually orthogonal unit vector direction of said dimensional space, amplifying the at least one of said signal non-linearly for determination of cursor on a screen for (x,y) coordinates of the screen, applying a decision criterion to determine the state of the pointing device as based on said unit vector associated signals. The invention also shows a pointer utilizing the method and a system comprising such a pointer.
US09372546B2
Hand pointing has been an intuitive gesture for human interaction with computers. A hand pointing estimation system is provided, based on two regular cameras, which includes hand region detection, hand finger estimation, two views' feature detection, and 3D pointing direction estimation. The technique may employ a polar coordinate system to represent the hand region, and tests show a good result in terms of the robustness to hand orientation variation. To estimate the pointing direction, Active Appearance Models are employed to detect and track, e.g., 14 feature points along the hand contour from a top view and a side view. Combining two views of the hand features, the 3D pointing direction is estimated.
US09372544B2
In one or more implementations, a static geometry model is generated, from one or more images of a physical environment captured using a camera, using one or more static objects to model corresponding one or more objects in the physical environment. Interaction of a dynamic object with at least one of the static objects is identified by analyzing at least one image and a gesture is recognized from the identified interaction of the dynamic object with the at least one of the static objects to initiate an operation of the computing device.
US09372537B2
Techniques are described herein to assist users to operate non-physical controls in situations where the users are unable to visually locate the controls. According to one embodiment, the device containing the non-physical controls is designed to give non-visual feedback to the user based, at least on part, on the distance between (a) the current position of user input, and (b) the location of the non-physical control. At least one characteristic of the non-visual feedback changes as that distance changes.
US09372535B2
Human-electronics interfaces in which at least two wearable electromyography (“EMG”) devices are operated to control virtually any electronic device are described. A first wearable EMG device is worn on a first part/location of a user's body and a second wearable EMG device is worn on a second part/location of the user's body. Muscle activity is detected by the two wearable EMG devices and corresponding communication signals are transmitted to an electronic device to control functions thereof. The two wearable EMG devices may communicate with one another. This configuration enables a user to perform elaborate gestures having multiple components (e.g., “two-arm” gestures) with each wearable EMG device detecting a different component, as well as separate gestures (e.g., separate “one-arm” gestures) individually detected and processed by each wearable EMG device.
US09372531B2
As a user is being presented with interactive media by a presenting device, a separate monitoring device may be used to monitor the presentation of the interactive media and detect an event that occurs therein. Such a monitoring device may be configured and positioned to access media content from the presentation of the interactive media. For example, the monitoring device may be configured and positioned to record video content with a camera and record audio content with a microphone. Having accessed this media content, the monitoring device may generate an identifier, such as a fingerprint or watermark, of the media content and compare the generated identifier with a reference identifier that is generated from the source of the media content. Based on the generated identifier matching the reference identifier, the monitoring device may detect that an event has occurred within the interactive media presentation and present a corresponding notification.
US09372527B2
The disclosure provides a data access management method and a data access management apparatus which includes an enabling signal generating unit for generating an enabling signal according to a processing signal, a power supplying unit for generating a voltage signal according to the enabling signal, at least a first storage unit for storing a plurality of pieces of data and staying in a standby state or a disable state according to the voltage signal, and a first processing unit. Each piece of data respectively has an access time. The first processing unit calculates a non-access proportion of the data not been accessed for a preset time, according to the access times and then determines whether the non-access proportion is larger than a preset proportion, to generate the processing signal for controlling the at least storage unit to stay in the disable state or the standby state.
US09372525B2
A playback device includes tangible storage configured to receive transfer of media content from a remote communications device to the playback device while the remote communications device is operating in a high power mode. Interface logic is coupled to the tangible storage and configured to signal the remote communications device during the transfer to prepare the remote communications device to enter a low power mode after the transfer is complete. The remote communications device includes a content manager configured to transfer of media content from the remote communications device to a playback device while the remote communications device is operating in a high power mode. Power logic is coupled to the content manager and configured to prepare the remote communications device to enter a low power mode after the transfer is complete, responsive to receipt of a signal from the playback device during the transfer is complete.
US09372519B2
According to one embodiment, a method for dynamically sharing power grids of a device includes providing power from a first power supply to a first power grid in a first component of the device. The method also includes providing power from a second power supply to a second power grid in a second component of the device and dynamically changing, by a controller, a state of a first switch that controls a sharing of power between the first power grid and the second power grid during a runtime of the device.
US09372518B1
A power distribution system for a data center includes a transformer that transforms three-phase source power to three-phase operating power. The phase-to-neutral operating voltage for each phase is at least about 260 volts. Power distribution units are coupled to the transformer. The power distribution units supply operating power from the transformer to computer systems in the data center.
US09372517B2
A reset system comprises an enable circuit, a buck converter and a reset circuit. The enable circuit is connected to a system power source. When a voltage of the system power source is greater than a first voltage, the enable circuit outputs an enable signal with a steep leading edge. The buck converter converts the system power source to a micro-controller power source according to the enable signal. The reset circuit is connected to the system power source and the micro-controller power source. When a voltage of the system power source is less than a second voltage, the reset circuit outputs a reset signal to reset the micro-controller. The first voltage is smaller than the second voltage.
US09372516B2
A system for cooling heat producing components in a building includes a duct coupled to a room of the building and one or more air moving devices. The duct includes a constricted section. The air moving devices move air through the constricted section of the duct such that water in the air is converted from water vapor to water droplets. The water droplets are carried downstream from the constricted section in a two-phase mixture comprising air and water.
US09372514B2
The present invention discloses an apparatus for fastening an expansion card, which includes: a “[” shaped bracket, where a pair of guide rails is symmetrically disposed on two arts of the “[” shaped bracket and a pair of first connection parts is symmetrically formed, and a backplane is permanently connected to the bottom of the “[” shaped bracket, where at least one expansion card slot is disposed on the backplane; and a “]” shaped compression element for the expansion card, where a pair of sliding blocks is symmetrically formed on two arms of the “]” shaped compression element for the expansion card and a pair of second connection parts is symmetrically formed, where each sliding block is embedded in a guide rail and can be slid along the guide rail; The present invention improves convenience of assembly and maintenance of an expansion card.
US09372503B1
A method embodiment of the present disclosure includes receiving a delay value associated with an interconnect delay that is measured across interconnect circuitry communicatively coupling a host semiconductor device with a semiconductor device. The method also includes delaying a local clock signal by an amount of delay indicated by the delay value to produce a delayed local clock signal. The method also includes receiving a delayed source clock signal, where the delayed source clock signal is received from the host semiconductor device via the interconnect circuitry. The method also includes outputting a master clock signal based on a comparison of the delayed source clock signal and the delayed local clock signal, where the master clock signal is utilized to generate one or more aligned clock signals on the semiconductor device that are aligned with a source clock signal generated on the host semiconductor device.
US09372490B1
A system and method for adaptive activity management of on-chip voltage regulators based upon the workload information is provided to force each on-chip regulator to operate in its most power-efficient load current. In the proposed regulator-gating technique, regulators are adaptively turned ON when the current demand is high and turned OFF when the current demand is low to improve the voltage conversion efficiency. With the proposed regulator-gating system and method, the overall voltage conversion efficiency from the battery or off-chip power supply to the output of the on-chip voltage regulators experiences an approximately 3 times improvement over the prior art techniques.
US09372489B2
Provided is a voltage regulator including a leakage current sink circuit capable of suppressing an influence of a leakage current of an output transistor at high temperature, and reducing power consumption of the voltage regulator at normal temperature. The voltage regulator includes: a reference voltage circuit configured to output a reference voltage; an output transistor configured to output an output voltage; a voltage divider circuit configured to divide the output voltage to output a feedback voltage; an error amplifier circuit configured to amplify a difference between the reference voltage and the feedback voltage, and output the amplified difference to control a gate of the output transistor; and a leakage current sink circuit connected to an output terminal and configured to be prevented from operating at normal temperature, and suppress an influence of a leakage current from the output transistor only at high temperature.
US09372486B2
A flow meter, and related system and method are provided. The flow meter includes a coupler, a support member, an image sensor, a valve, and one or more processors. The coupler is adapted to couple to a drip chamber. The support member is operatively coupled to the coupler. The image sensor has a field of view and is operatively coupled to the support member. The image sensor is positioned to view the drip chamber within the field of view. The one or more processors are operatively coupled to the image sensor to receive image data therefrom and to the actuator to actuate the valve. The one or more processors are configured to estimate a flow of fluid through the drip chamber and to actuate the valve to control the flow of fluid through the drip chamber to achieve a target flow rate.
US09372469B1
An image forming system includes an image forming apparatus that includes an image forming section which forms an image on a recording medium, and an opening/closing portion which is opened outward; and a recording-medium storage device that stores a recording medium to be fed to the image forming section, the recording-medium storage device being formed separately from the image forming apparatus and having a space allowing the opening/closing portion to be opened outward when the recording-medium storage device is connected to the image forming apparatus so as to cover the opening/closing portion.
US09372466B2
A cleaning blade lubricant including an acicular shape lubricant is provided. The cleaning blade lubricant is applied to a cleaning blade of an electrophotographic printing device for improving the cleaning performance of a cleaning blade of an electrophotographic printing device.
US09372460B2
An image forming apparatus includes: a correction unit configured to correct image data based on a correction condition; an image forming unit configured to form an image based on the image data corrected by the correction unit; a measurement unit configured to measure a measurement image formed by the image forming unit; an update unit configured to control the correction unit to correct measurement image data based on the correction condition, control the image forming unit to form the measurement image based on the corrected measurement image data, and update the correction condition based on a measurement result and reference data corresponding to the measurement image; and a control unit configured to control whether or not to convert a measuring result of a target measurement image by the measurement unit to target reference data corresponding to the target measurement image.
US09372459B2
An image forming apparatus includes a developer image forming portion configured to form a developer image on a recording medium; a fixing portion configured to fix the developer image to the recording medium; a transportation portion configured to transport the recording medium to form a second image on the recording medium; and a transportation speed setting portion configured to set a transportation speed of the recording medium when the fixing portion fixes the developer image to the recording medium. The transportation speed setting portion sets a first transportation speed when the first image is fixed to the recording medium and a second transportation speed when the second image is fixed to the recording medium according to first developer used for forming the first image and second developer used for forming the second image. The first transportation speed is different from the second transportation speed.
US09372458B2
In an image forming apparatus including a fixing unit having a film and a heater in contact with the inner surface of the film, an electrical breakdown may occur in the protection layer of the heater, when a surge voltage is applied to a power supply line connected to the heater. An arrester is provided on a power supply line connected to the heater of the image forming apparatus.
US09372453B2
A fixing device includes a light source that radiates a laser beam, a converging member that converges the laser beam, and a roller that is positioned so as to be in contact with the converging member and that transports a recording medium, which enters between the roller and the converging member. The converging member includes a lens that converges the laser beam, which is incident on a first surface of the lens, and emits the laser beam from a second surface of the lens and a holding member made of a material that does not transmit the laser beam, the holding member holding the lens. In the cross-sectional view perpendicular to a rotation axis of the roller, a contact surface in which the roller and the converging member are in contact with each other includes at least a portion of a surface of the holding member and the second surface.
US09372452B2
A fixing device includes a light source that emits laser light; a condensing member including a lens having a first surface from which the laser light enters and a second surface from which the laser light emerges, the lens condensing the laser light that has entered from the first surface and emitting the laser light from the second surface; and a roller provided in contact with the condensing member and that transports a recording medium advanced into a position between the roller and the condensing member. A portion of the second surface is made of a material that blocks the laser light. In a section perpendicular to an axis of rotation of the roller, a plane of contact between the roller and the condensing member includes at least a part of the portion made of the material that blocks the laser light.
US09372445B2
In a constitution provided with no primary-transfer roller, in order to ensure a contact length between each of photosensitive drums and an intermediary transfer belt, the photosensitive drums are disposed with projecting amounts of a plurality of levels with respect to a stretching surface of the intermediary transfer belt, and therefore an apparatus is liable to be increased in a height direction. In order to avoid this, four image bearing members are arranged, along the intermediary transfer belt, with the same projection amount with respect to the stretching surface of the intermediary transfer belt, and a depressing member for depressing a belt surface between two central image bearing members toward an outside is provided.
US09372431B2
In a scanning optical apparatus including a light source, a light deflector having a reflecting surface, and a single scanning lens, a light flux deflected in a main scanning direction is focused on an image surface. The reflecting and image surfaces are conjugate to each other with respect to a sub scanning direction, Bmax×Bmin>0, and Dmax×Dmin<0 where Bmax and Bmin are a maximum value and a minimum value, respectively, of paraxial focal points, Dmax and Dmin are a maximum value and a minimum value, respectively, of midpoints of focal depth in the sub scanning plane, the values being determined with reference to the image surface, wherein the value of the image surface is 0 and the values on a farther-from-the-scanning-lens side behind the image surface have positive values.
US09372418B2
An electrophotographic photosensitive member in which a leak hardly occurs, and a process cartridge and electrophotographic apparatus having the same are provided. The conductive layer in the electrophotographic photosensitive member includes a binder material, a first metal oxide particle, and a second metal oxide particle. The first metal oxide particle is a titanium oxide particle coated with tin oxide doped with phosphorus, tungsten, niobium, tantalum, or fluorine, and the second metal oxide particle is an uncoated titanium oxide particle. The contents of the first and second metal oxide particles in the conductive layer is 20 to 50 vol. % and 1.0 to 15 vol. %, respectively based on the total volume of the conductive layer. The content of the second metal oxide particle in the conductive layer is 5.0 to 30% by volume based on the content of the first metal oxide particle in the conductive layer.
US09372416B2
A method for manufacturing an electrophotographic photosensitive member using plasma CVD includes steps of placing a cylindrical base member in a reactor which can be evacuated, the reactor having an electrode therein, so as to be spaced apart from the electrode, introducing a raw material gas for deposited film formation into the reactor, and applying an alternating voltage of a rectangular wave having a frequency in the range of 3 kHz to 300 kHz between the electrode and the cylindrical base member so that a potential at one of the electrode and the cylindrical base member with respect to a potential at the other becomes alternately positive and negative, to decompose the raw material gas, and forming a deposited film on the cylindrical base member. The magnitude of the potential difference between the electrode and the cylindrical base member is selectively controlled.
US09372413B2
In an EUV (extreme ultraviolet) lithography apparatus, an illumination system includes a multifaceted field mirror and a multifaceted pupil mirror. A field facet mirror within mirror focuses EUV radiation onto a particular associated pupil facet mirror, from where it is directed to a target area. Each field facet mirror is modified to scatter unwanted DUV (deep ultraviolet) radiation into a range of directions. The majority of DUV falls onto neighboring pupil facet mirrors within the pupil mirrors, so that the amount of DUV radiation reaching target E is suppressed in comparison to the wanted EUV radiation. Because the distance between mirrors is much greater than the width of an individual pupil facet mirror, good DUV suppression can be achieved with only a narrow scattering angle. Absorption of EUV radiation in the scattering layer can be minimized.
US09372412B2
A lithographic apparatus having an optical column capable of creating a pattern on a target portion of a substrate is disclosed. The optical column may have a self-emissive contrast device configured to emit a beam, and a projection system configured to project the beam onto the target portion. The apparatus may also have an actuator to move the optical column or a part thereof with respect to the substrate. The apparatus may be constructed to reduce the optical effect of density variation in a medium around the moving part of the optical column on the beam.
US09372411B2
A projection objective of a microlithographic projection exposure apparatus includes a wavefront correction device including a refractive optical element that has two opposite optical surfaces, through which projection light passes, and a circumferential rim surface extending between the two optical surfaces. A first and a second optical system are configured to direct first and second heating light to different portions of the rim surface such that at least a portion of the first and second heating light enters the refractive optical element. A temperature distribution caused by a partial absorption of the heating light results in a refractive index distribution inside the refractive optical element that corrects a wavefront error. At least the first optical system includes a focusing optical element that focuses the first heating light in a focal area such that the first heating light emerging from the focal area impinges on the rim surface.
US09372408B2
A method for generating a pattern of a mask includes obtaining data of a plurality of polygons representing a plurality of pattern elements, grouping polygons which overlap or contact with each other among the plural polygons in one group, not setting an evaluation position for evaluating an image of a pattern of the one group on a line segment of sides which overlap or contact with each other among sides of the polygon of the one group, and setting an evaluation position at a portion except for the line segment, and repeating calculating the image of the pattern of the one group, evaluating the calculated image at the set evaluation position, and correcting the pattern based on a result of the evaluating, and generating the pattern of the mask based on a result of the repeating step.
US09372395B2
A method of manufacturing a mask, the method including forming initial ribs such that forming the initial ribs includes forming at least two photoresist patterns such that the at least two photoresist patterns have different widths, are formed on at least one side of a mask substrate, and overlap each other, and performing an etching process at least two times; and forming final ribs such that the final ribs have curved sides having a different curvature radius than a curvature radius of initial curved sides of the initial ribs and have defined slit patterns, forming the final ribs including removing all but one of the at least two photoresist patterns, and performing an etching process.
US09372391B2
A method and system for fracturing or mask data preparation or optical proximity correction or proximity effect correction or mask process correction is disclosed in which a set of shaped beam shots is determined that is capable of forming a pattern on a surface, where the set of shots provides different dosages to different parts of the pattern, and where the dose margin from the set of shots is calculated. A method for forming patterns on a surface is also disclosed.
US09372388B2
There is provided a projection optical system (1) that projects from a first image plane on a reducing side to a second image plane on an enlargement side, including a first refractive optical system (11) that includes eight lenses (L1) to (L8) and forms a first intermediate image (31) on the enlargement side using light that is incident from the reducing side, a second refractive optical system (12) that includes six lenses (L9) to (L14) and forms the first intermediate image (31) on the reducing side into a second intermediate image (32) on the enlargement side, and a first reflective optical system (20) that includes a first reflective surface (21a) with positive refractive power that is positioned closer to the enlargement side than the second intermediate image (32).
US09372383B2
A plate provides clearance between a camera and a quick-release receiver securing the camera to a support.
US09372382B2
A rotary mechanism is provided, including a first housing, a second housing, a rotary module, an elastic element, and a speed-reduction module. The rotary module connects to the first housing and extends therefrom to connect with the second housing. The elastic element connects the second housing and the rotary module. The speed-reduction module connects to the rotary module. When an external force is exerted on the second housing, and the second housing rotates relative to the first housing along a first direction, the elastic element stores an elastic potential energy. When the external force is released, the second housing rotates relative to the first housing along a second direction by the elastic force. The second direction is opposite to the first direction, and the speed-reduction module reduces the rotary speed of the second housing relative to the first housing.
US09372377B2
Gate lines are arranged in a first direction. Drain lines are arranged in a second direction. A first electrode has slits formed therein. Aperture regions surrounded by the drain lines and the gate lines include an aperture region including the slits having a first inclined angle and an aperture region including the slits having a second inclined angle, the second inclined angle being different from the first inclined angle. The aperture region including the slits having the first inclined angle and the aperture region including the slits having the second inclined angle are alternately formed in the first direction. Within the aperture regions arranged adjacent to each other in the first direction, a first region and a second region forming a pair by being arranged so as to be opposed to each other via one of the gate lines form one of pixels.
US09372375B2
A display device includes a TFT substrate with gate signal lines, drain signal lines, thin-film transistors connected thereto, a gate driver connected to the gate signal lines, a drain driver having output terminals connected to drain signal lines, and a film substrate having first wirings. The first wirings are disposed between the drain driver and the film substrate. The drain driver is mounted on the film substrate, and the output terminals are connected to the first wirings between the film substrate and the drain driver. The output terminal includes first group terminals formed in parallel with a longer edge of the drain driver, and second group terminals formed in parallel with the longer edge and disposed between the loner edge and the first group terminals.
US09372364B2
A display panel is provided. A first substrate includes a display area and a peripheral area. The peripheral area surrounds the display area. A second substrate is disposed on the first substrate. The second substrate faces the first substrate along a first direction. A liquid crystal layer is interposed between the first substrate and the second substrate. A multi-layered sealant is disposed on the peripheral area of the first substrate. The multi-layered sealant surrounds the liquid crystal layer. The multi-layered sealant includes a first sealant layer including an acrylate resin having a functional group having at least 3 carbon atoms, and a second sealant layer including an epoxy resin having a (meth)arcylate group.
US09372362B2
A liquid crystal display includes a first substrate, a plurality of pixel electrodes disposed on the first substrate and including a first sub-pixel electrode and a second sub-pixel electrode, the first sub-pixel electrode and the second sub-pixel electrode respectively including a cruciform stem part, and a plurality of fine branch parts which extends from the cruciform stem part, and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the first substrate and a second substrate facing the first substrate, the second substrate including a common electrode in which an opening corresponding to the cruciform stem part of the pixel electrode is defined.
US09372358B2
Disclosed is an LCD device with reduced thickness and bezel width. The LCD device includes a liquid crystal display panel configured to include an upper substrate and a lower substrate that are facing-coupled to each other, a backlight unit configured to include a light guide plate which irradiates light incident from a light source module on the liquid crystal display panel and an optical sheet disposed on the light guide plate, and a coupling member configured to couple the liquid crystal display panel to the light guide plate with the optical sheet therebetween such that a sealed space is provided between the liquid crystal display panel and the light guide plate.
