US09374708B2
A method for encrypting a terminal with a subscriber identity card includes: a terminal storing the unique identity number of a subscriber identity card; the terminal detecting an operation of a user and authenticating a current user according to authentication conditions set by the user. Authenticating the current subscriber refers to that the terminal reads the unique identity number of the current subscriber identity card, and compares the read unique identity number of current subscriber identity card with the stored unique identity number of subscriber identity card; if they are the same, the terminal is controlled to enter a normal working state; and if they are different, the terminal locks by itself or disables the access of current user. The present document encrypts a mobile terminal with a subscriber identity card, so as to make the encryption technique of the terminal more secure and reliable, and improve the user experience.
US09374703B2
An approach is provided in which a mobile device collects serviceability data from applications executing on the mobile device based upon one or more serviceability state changes provided by a server. The mobile device filters the collected serviceability data according to one or more collection filter rules provided by the server and, in turn, sends the filtered serviceability data to the server accordingly.
US09374693B1
A cell phone with software to provide options to auto-respond to incoming text message or phone calls with a pre-stored text message or audio message. In some embodiments, the auto-response text message can be one selected by the user from among a plurality of pre-stored text messages. In other embodiments, the user can also choose an auto-response audio message to play to callers. In some embodiments, the cell system makes a determination of the speed at which cell phones in the system are moving for at least phones to which incoming text messages or phone calls are directed, and automatically determines whether or not to send an automated response message. In some embodiments, the cell phone makes a determination of its speed and asks the user if he or she wants to auto-respond to incoming texts or calls or both if moving at driving speed.
US09374689B1
A machine has a processor and a memory connected to the processor. The memory stores instructions executed by the processor to match a communication sender number or a communication receiver number associated with a communication to a synthetic identity. A parameter associated with the synthetic identity is selected. Delivery of the communication is coordinated such that the recipient of the communication views the parameter upon receipt of the communication.
US09374683B2
Disclosed is a method and an apparatus for device-to-device (D2D) multicast communication in a cellular mobile communication system. The method for D2D communication may include transmitting a server designation request message requesting registration as a server terminal to a base station, and transmitting service information using a D2D multicast or broadcast communication scheme based on a radio resource allocated by the base station.
US09374671B1
Systems and methods including mobile devices determining their location using a location determination system, such as a global positioning system. A database stores the identifiers of cells representative of predefined regions in a hierarchical grid system. The location coordinates as function of time are converted to visitation patterns of the mobile devices to the predefined regions, based on converting the coordinates to cell identifiers and searching the database to find matches between the cell identifiers representing the regions and the cell identifiers representing the mobile device locations. For example, mobile devices having similar visitation patterns can be identified and divided into two groups; and information relevant to a region is transmitted to one of the group but not another. The visitation patterns of the two group after the transmission is identified and compared to measure a difference.
US09374662B2
Network sharing allows different core network operators to connect to a shared radio access network. The operators may share the radio network elements, and may also share the radio resources themselves. Examples of radio access sharing architectures include GWCN and MOCN. In such multi-PLMN deployment scenarios, operators are also interested in sharing measuring nodes due to their expense. To enable sharing, method(s), apparatus(es), and/or system(s) are proposed in which network nodes may perform joint selection of positioning nodes and PLMNs; in which positioning nodes of different PLMNs may communicate; in which a positioning node may obtain and use assistance data associated with a PLMN different from that of the positioning node; and to coordinate positioning measurement.
US09374652B2
A plurality of acoustic sensors in a non-anechoic environment are calibrated with the aim of removing manufacturing tolerances and degradation over time but preserving position-dependent differences between the sensors, The sensors are excited by an acoustic stimulus which has either time-dependent characteristics or finite duration. The calibration is to be based on diffuse-field excitation only, in which indirect propagation (including single or multiple reflections) dominate over any direct-path excitation. For this purpose, the calibration process considers only a non-initial portion of sensor outputs and/or of an impulse response derived there-from. Based on these data, a frequency-dependent magnitude response function is estimated and compared with a target response function, from which a calibration function is derived.
US09374637B2
An electronic system and an electronic device thereof are provided. The electronic device includes a first housing, a speaker module, a second housing, and a bearing. The first housing has a first hole. The speaker module is disposed in the first housing, and a sound generated by the speaker module is transmitted out of the electronic device through the first hole. The second housing has a bearing surface facing to the first housing. The bearing is disposed between the first housing and the second housing. The second housing and the first housing move relative to each other by using the bearing, so the first housing covers or exposes a portion of the bearing surface.
US09374610B1
Index channel technology, in which input to display an index channel is received from a user identity and an index channel definition for the user identity is accessed. The index channel definition defines a sequence of content preview files for content files organized within channels. Display of the index channel is controlled by displaying the content preview files in the sequence defined by the accessed index channel definition and, during display of the content preview files in the sequence defined by the accessed index channel definition, a selection is received to view a content file that corresponds to a content preview file being displayed in accordance with the accessed index channel definition. Display of the content file is controlled and display of the index channel is returned at a position within the sequence of content preview files that corresponds to the received selection.
US09374609B2
A technique of using a remote control device to identify a source for transferring content on a home network, a renderer for rendering the content and a pathway within a home network to couple the source to the renderer to transfer the content. The remote control device then transmits control information to the source to set a control parameter value within the source to send the content and transmits control information to the renderer to set a control parameter value within the renderer to receive the content. The commands from the remote configure parameter values associated with a media layer in the source and/or the renderer to initiate a hand-shake to effect the content transfer, so that the source and the renderer need not initiate the hand-shake between themselves.
US09374604B2
Techniques for synchronizing streams in an adaptive streaming environment include cross-chassis and intra-chassis synchronization of video and/or audio. In an adaptive streaming system that streams content in segments or chunks at varying levels of quality corresponding to different coding rates, implementations enable seamless switching between output streams. For example, synchronizing multiple output streams for switching between coded adaptive bit rate streams across multiple chassis involve calculating an NTP/UTC offset.
US09374603B1
A method disclosed herein comprises receiving first content into a wireless access system from a backhaul link between the wireless access system and a service system, transmitting the first content from the wireless access system to a first device served by the wireless access system, receiving a second packet communication from a second device served by the wireless access system wherein the second packet communication includes a second content request, processing the second packet communication to determine a second content identifier included in the second content request, processing the second content identifier to determine if the second content is the same as the first content, buffering the first content and transmitting the buffered first content to the second device, and transferring the second packet communication to a communication network to obtain the second content.
US09374601B1
Systems and methods are provided for processing images (or other such instances of content) to detect which of the images exhibit artifacts when modified, such as by applying standard transformation algorithms to modify the images. Such techniques enable transformation algorithms to be applied to the detected images to minimize or prevent artifacts. In some embodiments, the headers of the detected images can be tagged with transformative instructions that indicate which transformation algorithms to apply. Responsive to a request from a web client to modify and render one of the detected images, embodiments obtain the requested image, read the transformative instructions in the header, apply the transformation algorithm specified in the header to modify the image so as to minimize or prevent artifacts, and render the modified image.
US09374598B2
A method for selecting a motion vector predictor is provided. The method of selecting a motion vector predictor includes the steps of selecting motion vector predictor candidates for a current block and selecting a motion vector predictor of the current block out of the motion vector predictor candidates, wherein the motion vector predictor candidates for the current block include a motion vector of a first candidate block which is first searched for as an available block out of left neighboring blocks of the current block and a motion vector of a second candidate block which is first searched for as an available block out of upper neighboring blocks of the current block.
US09374594B2
A converting apparatus includes a plurality of decoders, and a plurality of pieces of decoded data respectively corresponding to a plurality of pieces of compressed image data are generated. A switcher is configured to output the plurality of pieces of decoded data, by every predetermined amount, in association with an identification code of a corresponding portion of the plurality of pieces of compressed image data as process target data, and switch a destination decoder among the plurality of pieces of decoders every time when the predetermined amount of process target data is output. A converter is configured to apply an inverse quantization process and an inverse frequency conversion process to the predetermined amount of process target data. Each of the pieces of sub-image data converted by the converter is stored in the storage area corresponding to the identification code associated with the each of the pieces of sub-image data.
US09374586B2
A video information processing system including a processing circuit and a deblocking filter. The processing circuit provides video information including a chroma component and a luma component. The deblocking filter has an input receiving the video information and an output providing filtered video information, and is configured to selectively disable chroma deblock filtering while luma deblock filtering is enabled. The processing circuit may include a video encoder or a video decoder. The processing circuit may further include control logic providing a control signal to disable chroma deblock filtering within either or both the encoder and decoder. The video encoder may incorporate control information in the output bitstream to control deblock filtering in the downstream decoder to maintain consistency between the encoder and the decoder.
US09374585B2
Techniques for low-delay buffering in a video coding process are disclosed. Video decoding techniques may include receiving a first decoded picture buffer (DPB) output delay and a second DPB output delay for a decoded picture, determining, for the decoded picture, a first DPB output time using the first DPB output delay in the case a hypothetical reference decoder (HRD) setting for a video decoder indicates operation at a picture level, and determining, for the decoded picture, a second DPB output time using the second DPB output delay in the case that the HRD setting for the video decoder indicates operation at a sub-picture level.
US09374582B2
Provided is an apparatus that derives a luma intra prediction mode and a chroma intra prediction mode, determines a size of a luma transform unit and a size of a chroma transform unit using luma transform size information, adaptively filters the reference pixels of a current luma block based on the luma intra prediction mode and the size of the luma transform unit, generates prediction blocks of the current luma block and the current chroma block and generates a residual luma residual block and a chroma residual block. Therefore, the distance of intra prediction becomes short, and the amount of coding bits required to encode intra prediction modes and residual blocks of luma and chroma components is reduced and the coding complexity is reduced by adaptively encoding the intra prediction modes and adaptively filtering the reference pixels.
US09374581B2
In an example, the disclosure provides for receiving a coded video sequence comprising encoded pictures of a video sequence and receiving timing parameters for the coded video sequence that include an indication of whether a picture order count (POC) value for each picture in the coded video sequence that is not a first picture in the coded video sequence according to a decoding order is proportional to an output time of the picture relative to an output time of the first picture in the coded video sequence in a video parameter set (VPS) syntax structure referenced by the coded video sequence. Another example provides for encoding pictures of a video sequence to generate the coded video sequence comprising the encoded pictures and signaling timing parameters for the coded video sequence by signaling the indication in the VPS syntax structure referenced by the coded video sequence.
US09374569B2
A non-transitory storage medium readable by a non-versatile interpretation device (e.g., navigation engine of DVD player) and executable on a player device (e.g., a DVD player), the non-transitory storage medium comprising instructions executable even on the non-versatile interpretation device to enable a method of enhanced search and retrieval of one or more relevant media entities (e.g., a combination of an audio stream and a video stream corresponding to a video) from a comprehensive dataset of media entities stored on the non-transitory storage medium. The non-versatile interpretation device comprises a navigation engine built on a limited set of virtual commands embedded on to a chipset to provide interaction with the media entities. The non-transitory storage medium stores a plurality of keywords that are in-built. Each of the keywords are pre-linked to at least one of the media entities on the non-transitory storage medium.
US09374559B1
Devices, systems and methods are disclosed that encrypt media files with cryptographic keys and transmit the encrypted media files to a remote device during pre-caching. The encrypted media files may be transferred to the remote devices prior to a user issuing a request to share the particular media file. The local device may maintain cryptographic keys associated with the sent encrypted media files and only share a cryptographic key associated with a media file the user wishes to share. Without the cryptographic keys, the remote device cannot access the contents of the pre-shared encrypted media files in the remote device's cache. Upon the user sharing the media file and the remote device receiving the cryptographic key, the remote device may use the cryptographic key to decrypt the encrypted media file and display the media file at a significantly reduced latency than if the media file were sent only upon the sharing request.
US09374540B1
An integrated circuit includes an array of pixels for capturing and processing successive image frames of a moving scene, the array including at least one row of pixels (inputs); and at least one current value register, in which the current value register is configured to store current pixel values captured from the array (inputs). Also included is at least one set of multiple accumulated value registers, in which each accumulated value register is configured to communicate with the current value register. Furthermore, there is included at least one readout register, in which the readout register is configured to communicate with the set of accumulated value registers. A controller is also included for shifting and summing the rows of pixels and outputting a summed column as a time delayed integrated (TDI) signal.
US09374538B2
An image sensor includes a substrate, photosensitive devices, a color filter layer, a micro-lens layer and an infrared filter layer. The photosensitive devices are disposed in the substrate. The color filter layer is disposed to cover the photosensitive devices. The micro-lens layer is disposed on the color filter layer. The infrared filter layer directly covers the micro-lens layer.
US09374537B2
A radiation measurement apparatus includes: a radiation detector which detects incoming radiations; a measurement processor which measures a distribution of a radiation source in an object on the basis of detection signals inputted from the radiation detector; an optical camera which takes an optical image of an object existing in the field of view; a controller which generates synthesized images by superimposing the distribution of the one or more radiation sources and the optical image; a rotation unit which changes the objective field of radiation measurement by automatic or manual rotation; and a controller which causes a display unit to display the multiple synthesized images in association with rotation angles in the automatic or manual rotation.
US09374534B2
A display and a method for displaying multiple frames thereof are provided. In the method, a source device is connected by a video cable. A multiple frame displaying request sent by the source device is received through the video cable. Then, an original resolution of the display is divided into several adjusted resolutions according to the number of frames in the request, and at least one resolution data respectively recording the adjusted resolutions is sent to the source device. At least one video stream sent by the source device is received through the video cable, and frames of the at least one video stream are respectively displayed on at least one corresponding display region of the display.
US09374525B2
A shooting apparatus includes an image pickup unit, a frame setting unit that sets frames for arranging a plurality of still images obtained from the picked-up image as a combination photograph before the still images are shot, an object determination unit that determines an object from the picked-up image before the still images are shot, a still image acquisition unit that acquires the still images including the object determined by the object determination unit while the image pickup unit is shooting a moving image, an arrangement unit that arranges the still images acquired by the still image acquisition unit in the frames set by the frame setting unit, and a combining unit that combines the still images acquired by the still image acquisition unit according to the arrangement by the arrangement unit to generate the combination photograph.
US09374521B1
Techniques for entering an image-capture user interface from a locked mobile device and capturing an image while the mobile device is still in a locked state. In an example implementation, a mobile device at a lock-screen may detect a change in orientation of the mobile device from a portrait orientation to a landscape orientation. In response, the mobile device may display an image-capture UI. In some implementations, the image-capture UI may be overlaid over or displayed concurrently with one or more elements of the lock-screen. Accordingly, the mobile device may provide visual notice to a user that the phone is still in a locked state while offering image capture functionality. In another implementation, the mobile device may provide another indication that the mobile device is still locked.
US09374518B2
A focus detection sensor and an image pickup system are provided. The focus detection sensor includes photoelectric conversion units converting light into charges, memory units storing the charges generated by the photoelectric conversion units as pixel signals, transfer units transferring the charges generated by the photoelectric conversion units to the memory units, reset units resetting the photoelectric conversion units and the memory units, a detection unit outputting a first detection signal in accordance with the pixel signals stored in the memory units, and a mode switching determination unit performing switching from a first operation mode in which the transfer units are set to a transfer state in a charge accumulation period after the photoelectric conversion units are reset to a second operation mode in which the transfer units are set to a non-transfer state.
US09374512B2
Systems and methods in accordance with embodiments of the invention implement one-dimensional array cameras, as well as modular array cameras using sub-array modules. In one embodiment, a 1×N array camera module includes: a 1×N arrangement of focal planes, where N is greater than or equal to 2, each focal plane includes a plurality of rows of pixels that also form a plurality of columns of pixels, and each focal plane not including pixels from another focal plane; and a 1×N arrangement of lens stacks, the arrangement of lens stacks being disposed relative to the arrangement of focal planes so as to form a 1×N arrangement of cameras, each configured to independently capture an image of a scene, where each lens stack has a field of view that is shifted with respect to that of each other lens stack so that each shift includes a sub-pixel shifted view of the scene.
US09374510B2
Generating by a digital processing device, of a first digital image from a second digital image, by: for each pixel of the second image, determining a pixel luminance; dividing the interval ranging from the lowest to the highest luminance into a plurality of sub-intervals; and determining the value of at least one pixel of the first image by multiplying the value of a pixel of the second image by a gain determined by interpolation by taking into account the distance of the pixel luminance of the second image to the limits of the sub-interval containing this luminance.
US09374509B2
A wearable image sensor is described. In one example, an apparatus includes a camera to capture images with a wide field of view, a data interface to send camera images to an external device, and a power supply to power the camera and the data interface. The camera, data interface, and power supply are attached to a garment that is wearable.
US09374504B2
Some embodiments provide a computer program for performing a color matching operation. The computer program identifies first and second images. Each image includes several pixels. Each pixel includes a luma component value. Based on analysis of the luma component values of the pixels of the first and second images, the computer program determines a set of transforms to modify pixel values of the first image so that the pixel values of the first image are similar to pixel values of the second image. The computer program applies the set of transforms to the first image such that the pixel values of the first image are similar to the pixel values of the second image.
US09374498B2
An image processing apparatus includes connectors to each of which position information is allocated, processing units configured to be connected to the connectors, each of the processing units is configured to read position information, and to output an IP address of the processing unit determined based on the position information and identification information which denotes a function of the processing unit via the connector, and a control unit configured to be connected with the connectors in compliance with a standard for a transmission line in an IP (internet protocol) network, and to manage the IP address and the identification information of the processing unit.
US09374486B2
A driving device is used in an image reading apparatus, and reciprocates a scanning unit for reading an image on an original. The driving device comprises a pull member, a driving pulley which transmits driving force to the pull member, a following pulley which applies tension to the pull member and a pulley holder having a pulley axis which holds the following pulley rotatably. Then, the pulley axis has a lock pawl capable of locking an upper end portion of the following pulley and canceling engagement with the following pulley by being tilted toward a side of an axial center by elastic deformation. Furthermore, the lock pawl is arranged at a side of a tension acting direction from the pull member to the following pulley except the farthest position from the driving pulley among positions in a circumferential direction of the pulley axis. It is possible to attach and detach the following pulley easily at a time of maintenance or the like.
US09374485B2
An image reading apparatus includes a main unit, an openable unit, a cable connected to the openable unit and routed in the main unit, and a holding member attached to the main unit. The holding member includes a first guide portion configured to hold a first specified portion of the cable. The holding member, with the first guide portion holding the first specified portion of the cable, is configured to move from a first position to a second position. When the holding member is in the first position, the cable has no slack in a second specified portion of the cable, the second specified portion being closer to an end of the cable disposed in the openable unit than the first specified portion. When the holding member is in the second position, the cable has slack in a second specified portion of the cable routed in the main unit.
US09374480B2
An image processing apparatus according to an embodiment includes a reading unit that reads an image from a sheet to generate image data. A code generation unit generates a code representing an email address of the image processing apparatus. A display unit displays the code. A control unit receives an email transmitted from a transmission source to the email address of the image processing apparatus and transmits an email with the image data attached to an email address of the transmission source.
US09374477B2
A system includes a wrist computer and a portable video camera. The wrist computer acquires physical activity data measured by a sensor device, generates a time marker on the basis of the physical activity data, and transmits the time marker to the portable video camera according to a predefined wireless communication protocol. The portable video camera is configured to record video data, encode the video data into a video data file, and store the received time marker as meta data in the video file.
US09374470B2
A method for controlling access by of communication devices to a conference call, the method comprising associating proximity settings with a conference call, the proximity settings indicating a acceptable proximity of other communication devices relative to a selected communication device; sensing by the selected communication device proximity of the other devices within its proximity of the communication device to obtain proximity information; and determining, by a processor, from the obtained proximity information and the proximity settings an action to be performed with reference to the conference call.
US09374467B2
A system for enabling collaboration between two or more customer contact campaigns running within a call center environment includes at least one outbound contact server (OCS) resident on a digital medium, the OCS including an automated dialer application resident on a digital medium thereon or accessible thereto for dialing contact numbers from contact records assembled for the running campaigns, a call monitoring and recording system executing from software on a digital medium, for monitoring call dialing progress and business results of completed calls, a central data repository for storing dialing progress and business results data collected by the running outbound campaigns, and a data sharing mechanism executing from software resident on a digital medium, accessible to each campaign running on the OCS for sharing collected data among the running campaigns. Shared data received by individual campaign instances is processed by the receiving campaign against one or more pre-configured business rules to determine whether to modify campaign contact records, campaign dialing patterns and or campaign dialing methods.
US09374462B2
A method and system for providing a phone directory service to a user terminal in a mobile communication network are provided. The method includes displaying, when a search keyword for the phone directory service is input by a user, a business list including businesses corresponding to the search keyword on a screen of the user terminal, connecting a call connection with a business selected by the user among the businesses displayed on the screen, displaying at least one product image provided by the selected business on the screen during the call connection, displaying, if a desired product is selected by the user, order details for the selected product during the call connection, processing payment of the selected product during the call connection, and displaying details for the payment on the screen.
US09374459B1
In various embodiments, advertising campaigns can be defined that incorporate technologies such as two-dimensional bar codes or embedded links in electronic material, for directing a user to communicate with a call center. For instance, in particular embodiments, the reading of a two-dimensional bar code by a user with a smart phone may cause various forms of communication requesting a return communication. The communication from the smart phone may be sent to, and received at, the call center, where a calling campaign associated with an advertising campaign is identified using information associated with the communication. A responding communication may be initiated from the call center to the user.
US09374452B2
A powering arrangement for use with reverse power feeding arranged to detect an improperly connected POTS phone going off-hook by: measuring a first current flow from a power sourcing equipment; identifying a rapid first increase in current flow from the measured first current flow, the rapid increase defined as a rate of change greater than a predetermined minimum rate of change; identifying a second increase in current flow from the measured first current flow, the identified second increase greater than a predetermined minimum amount; confirming that the identified second increase in current flow is maintained for at least a predetermined amount of time beginning with the identified first increase in current flow; and outputting an error signal to the power sourcing equipment in the event of the identified condition.
US09374451B2
A method and system for facilitating user access to services through a wireless device of a user, involves recommending to a user a subset of services from a plurality of services available to the user in which each recommended service of the subset has at least one voice short-cut associated therewith, and selecting a service to be accessed through the user's wireless device from the subset of services according to a voice command by the user corresponding to the voice short-cut of the service.
US09374437B2
Systems and methods to provide a schema validation proxy to capture and validate messages against their schemas are discussed. The messages are part of web services being called from a client system at a server system. In example embodiments, a request message is received from a client system at a proxy system. Upon receipt of the request message, an automatic download of a schema definition file is triggered. The request message is validated against one or more schemas from the downloaded schema definition file. The request message is forwarded to the server system and the proxy system waits for the response. The corresponding response message is received by the proxy system and is validated against its schema. One or more log files are created to record results of the validating. The log files include a consolidated log file providing an overview of the results during a session.
US09374434B2
Disclosed herein are methods, systems, and computer readable media for deriving user availability from user context and user responses to communications requests. According to an aspect, a method includes monitoring communications requests. Each of the communications requests may include a request for conducting a communication session between a requesting user and a requested user. The method may also include monitoring user responses to the communications requests. Further, the method may include determining user contexts for the requested user corresponding to each of the communications requests communicated to the requested user. The method may include determining an indication of user availability for the requested user based on the user responses and the corresponding user contexts. The method may also include providing the indication of user availability to one or more authorized users.
US09374427B2
A system and method to manage files on an online cloud storage system are disclosed. In some embodiments, files stored on the online cloud storage system may be associated with a geographical location and a geographical range. A location of a user may be received. The system and method may determine a level of access to the file for the user based on the location of the user and the geographical location and geographical range of the file. If the location of the user is within the geographical range of the geographical location of the file, then the user may be given a level of permission to access the file stored on the online cloud storage system.
US09374425B2
Embodiments for server connection optimization in a persistently connected publish/subscribe environment are provided. A computer assigns an initial activity category for a client. The computer logs, into a log file, one or more select operations of a connection between a client and a first server. The computer calculates a ratio of a number of the select operations to a check time of the first server, wherein the check time is a period of time that has elapsed since a previous review of logged data. The computer sets a second activity category for the client based on a look-up of the ratio in a schedule of ratio ranges in a control file, wherein the second activity category is not the initial activity category. The computer transfers the client from the first server to a second server, in response to setting the second activity category.
US09374424B2
A system for managing home appliances can provide a push service with respect to status information of a home appliance. Further, push service can be stably implemented using a response message to a push message. This can allow home appliances to be managed efficiently.
US09374421B2
A method for sharing a content item from an originator with one or more first-order recipients may include receiving a first grouping of one or more first-order recipients that is selected to receive the content item from the originator. The method may also include receiving one or more distribution objectives from the originator. The method may also include selecting a first share time for the content item. The method may also include predicting a first predicted grouping of second-order recipients derived from the first grouping of first-order recipients for the content item at the first share time. The method may also include determining whether the distribution objectives are met for the content item. The method may also include sharing the content item at the first share time in response to the distribution objectives being met for the content item.
US09374420B2
Telemetry data from a plurality of peer computers of a peer-to-peer network is aggregated via a computer network. Each of the plurality of peer computers sends telemetry data related to transfer of a digital content item within the peer-to-peer network. A content-acquisition request querying for a recommended content source to provide a first digital content item is received from a first peer computer of the peer-to-peer network via the computer network. A response to the content-acquisition request is sent to the first peer computer via the computer network. The response identifies a second peer computer of the peer-to-peer network that has the first digital content item as the recommended content source. The second peer computer is selected according to a peer selection metric derived from the telemetry data aggregated from the plurality of peer computers.
US09374419B2
A mechanism controls global synchronization, or registration floods, that may result when a large number of endpoints in a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network such as an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) come online simultaneously after a catastrophic failure. The mechanism allows the Domain Name System (DNS) infrastructure to efficiently control the overload condition by registering user end points with backup border elements, and by staggering and by randomizing the time-to-live (TTL) parameter in registrations with backup border elements.
US09374411B1
Disclosed are various embodiments for recommending content for users. A user is associated with a user preferred character that is represented in a first network content. A library is referenced to identify a recommended character based at least upon the user preferred character, the recommended character being represented in a second network content, the library associating the preferred character to the recommended character according to a relationship score. A recommendation is sent for presentation of the second network content.
US09374409B2
This invention relates to a system for adaptive streaming in a multipath environment comprising a plurality of servers being respectively capable of transmitting multimedia content in a RTP/RTSP environment through a respective data path to a client, wherein the client includes a controller means being capable of probing each of said data paths in order to determine a respective bandwidth associated to each of said data paths and to request a chunk of said multimedia content for each of said servers according to the respective bandwidth. In addition, the invention relates to a method for adaptive streaming in a multipath environment.
US09374408B2
The present invention relates to a high picture quality video streaming service method and system. The high picture quality video streaming service system according to the present invention includes: a content server for generating a first encoding video by encoding an original video with at a constant bit rate, generating a second encoding video by encoding the original video by using 1/N of the length of a first encoding video Group Of Pictures (GOP) and 1/N of a frame rate with constant Quantization Parameters, generating a streaming video by using the first encoding video and the second encoding video, and downloading the first encoding video and transmitting the streaming video in real time; and a user terminal for downloading and playing the first encoding video, or generating and playing a video for playback by recombining frames of the first encoding video and frames of the streaming video.
US09374406B2
A client device presents streaming media and includes a stream manager for controlling streams, a request accelerator for making network requests for content, a source component coupled to the stream manager and the request accelerator for determining which requests to make, a network connection, and a media player. A process for rate estimation is provided that will react quickly to reception rate changes. The rate estimator can use an adaptive windowed average and take into account the video buffer level and the change in video buffer level in a way so to guarantee that the rate adjusts fast enough if there is a need, while keeping the windowing width large (and thus the measurement variance) large. A guarantee might be that when a rate drop or rise happens, the estimator adjusts its estimate within a time proportional to a buffer drain rate or buffer fill level.
US09374404B2
A method, system and a computer program product. The method may include: receiving a plurality of chunk requests from clients that are hosted on user devices; generating, in response to a first chunk request of the plurality of chunk requests, a first set of chunk requests for receiving different bit rate versions of the first chunk; sending to a media streamer the first set of chunk requests; receiving, from the media streamer, the different bit rate versions of the first chunk; generating a first new chunk, based on bit rate allocated for streaming of a media flow to the first client; wherein the first new chunk comprises a plurality of frames selected from at least two bit rate versions of the first chunk; and assisting in streaming to the first client, the first new chunk.
US09374390B1
Techniques allow runtime extensions to a whitelist that locks down a computational system. For example, executable code is not only subject to whitelist checks that allow (or deny) its execution, but is also subject to checks that determine whether a whitelisted executable is itself trusted to introduce further executable code into the computational system in which it is allowed to run. In general, deletion and/or modification of instances of code that are already covered by the whitelist are also disallowed in accordance with a security policy. Accordingly, an executable that is trusted may be allowed to delete and/or modify code instances covered by the whitelist. In general, trust may be coded for a given code instance that seeks to introduce, remove or modify code.
US09374379B1
Techniques are provided for controlling access to an application. A first request to use an application may be received from a first user and an application access rule associated with the first user may be accessed. Based on the application access rule, it may be determined that permission is required for the first user to use the application. In response, a second request may be sent to a second user requesting permission for the first user to use the application and a response to the second request may be received from the second user. The response may include authorization information used in determining whether the first user has permission from the second user to use the application. In response to receiving the response from the second user, the first request to use the application initiated by the first user may be handled based on the authorization information.
US09374371B2
According to one embodiment, there is provided an authentication apparatus, including: a communication unit, a verifier and a connection configuration checker. The communication unit receives a message related to network access authentication on a first communication apparatus, the message including an address of the first communication apparatus and more than zero address of an authentication relay. The verifier verifies an authenticity of the first communication apparatus in response to receipt of the message by the communication unit. The connection configuration checker identifies a first destination to which the first communication apparatus intends to connect, on the basis of the address of the first communication apparatus or the address of the authentication relay included in the message when verification succeeds, and determines whether to authorize connection by the first communication apparatus to the first destination or not.
US09374359B2
A method and system for collecting, aggregating, and displaying type specific content in an inbox like view are described. An inbox manager collects information about data objects that are stored locally and stored remotely. This information may be stored as inbox information on a local computing system. Using the inbox information, the inbox manager creates an inbox view of merged inbox items from the local data objects and the remote data objects. The inbox view is configured to display the inbox items as being merged into a single view regardless of where the respective data objects are stored.
US09374355B2
Methods, apparatus and systems are provided for programming a vehicle module. An exemplary vehicle includes a first module, a gateway module communicatively coupled to the first module, and an update module communicatively coupled to the gateway module. The update module is configured to provide authorization information and programming data to the gateway module. The gateway module is configured to verify that programming of the first module is authorized based at least in part on the authorization information and provide the programming data to the first module after verifying that the programming of the first module is authorized.
US09374351B1
The subject disclosure relates to a method for initiating an accelerated desktop session between a client and a remote. In some aspects, the method includes steps for intercepting a remote desktop connection request, connecting to a network gateway, based on the remote desktop connection request and initiating a first connection with a remote server via the network gateway using a first communication protocol. In certain aspects, the method further includes steps for receiving a token from the remote server, sending the token from a client device to the remote server or a proxy to authenticate the client device and initiating a second connection with the remote server, via the proxy, wherein the second connection is initiated using a second communication protocol. A client device and computer-readable medium are also provided.
US09374344B1
A secure end-to-end communication system is implemented via one or more security processing devices. In one embodiment, a method includes: loading, by a key manager, a first set of keys into a security device; encrypting first data with the first set of keys using the security device; and sending, over a network, the encrypted first data to an external site or a mobile device. The method may further include: requesting the encrypted data from the external site or mobile device; receiving, over the network, the encrypted first data; and decrypting the received encrypted first data with the first set of keys using the security device.
US09374340B2
First and second nested virtual private networks share a common rekey service. A first key server generates first cryptographic keys and policies for use by gateways of the VPN to encrypt and decrypt data packets. The key server establishes a connection with a second key server to generate second cryptographic keys and policies independently of the first key server for use by encryption units of a second VPN that is nested with and operates independently of the first VPN. The first key server refreshes the first cryptographic keys in the first VPN gateways using a common rekey service, and cooperates with the second key server to refresh the second cryptographic keys in the second VPN encryption units using the common rekey service.
US09374335B2
A message distribution system comprising an analytics system to receive an inquiry with qualifiers to generate an estimate of the number of mobile devices associated the with qualifiers, wherein the qualifiers comprise at least one characteristic associated with at least one of a mobile device, a mobile device user, or a mobile device owner, generating an estimate of the number of mobile devices associated with the qualifiers at a future time which may receive messages, and transmit the estimate of the number of mobile devices to a common campaign system. The system comprises a common campaign system to provide the qualifiers for selection, transmit the inquiry with the qualifiers to at least the analytics system to receive an estimate of the number of mobile devices associated with the qualifiers, and receive the estimate of the number of mobile devices associated with the qualifiers.
US09374330B2
In some embodiments, techniques for electronic messaging may include receiving an email message; receiving an interaction with a user interface relating to the email message; extracting an email address associated with the email message; determining that the email address matches an entry in a whitelist; and responsive to receiving the interaction with the user interface relating to the email message and to determining that the email address matches the entry in the whitelist, removing the entry from the whitelist.
US09374322B2
Significantly optimized multi-stage networks, useful in wide target applications, with VLSI layouts using only horizontal and vertical links to route large scale sub-integrated circuit blocks having inlet and outlet links, and laid out in an integrated circuit device in a two-dimensional grid arrangement of blocks are presented. The optimized multi-stage networks in each block employ several rings of stages of switches with inlet and outlet links of sub-integrated circuit blocks connecting to rings from either left-hand side only, or from right-hand side only, or from both left-hand side and right-hand side; and employ shuffle exchange links where outlet links of cross links from switches in a stage of a ring in one sub-integrated circuit block are connected to either inlet links of switches in the another stage of a ring in the same or another sub-integrated circuit block.
US09374297B2
An example method is provided in one example embodiment and includes receiving a packet of a session from a previous hop router at a service zone of a service chain; recording the previous hop router for the session; determining an appliance to service the packet in the service zone using load balancing; recording an appliance identity for servicing the session in the service zone; determining a next hop router in the service chain for the packet using load balancing; and recording the next hop router for the session.
US09374291B2
A cyclic prefix which duplicates some samples of a terminal portion of a symbol in an OFDM data stream and which is invariant in pilot tones can be detected in the presence of signals having higher levels of noise and broadcast signals by autocorrelation with one of two selected “lags”. Autocorrelation will be found when the lag is equal to the number of samples in the FFT used to form a symbol in the data stream. A far stronger autocorrelation is found when the lag is equal to the sum of the FFT length and the length of the cyclic prefix and applied to pilots in the data stream. Overbuilt systems can be distinguished from a system of interest by use of pilots that do not coincide in frequency with a pilot of an overbuilt system.
US09374290B2
A system and method for providing Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) performance testing is disclosed. The system may comprise an input configured to receive configuration information for performance testing of a network element. The system may also comprise an output configured to transmit traffic generation information based on the configuration information to a traffic generator to generate continuous streams of bidirectional TCP traffic to the network element and to output results of performance testing based on analysis of network element response. The system may also comprise a processor configured to analyze network element response to the continuous streams of bidirectional TCP traffic, wherein the results of performance testing are based on analysis of network element response.
US09374283B2
A system and method for analyzing an online game packet are disclosed. The system for analyzing the online game packet includes a capturing unit that captures a packet transmitted between a client terminal and a game server, and an analysis unit that analyzes the packet captured by the capturing unit, and defines, according to an analyzed result, a data field included in the packet as a static field having the same field structure or a dynamic field having a field structure according to a reference field defining an arrangement rule of a field or a field structure according to a user's request. According to the present invention, the data field of the captured packet may be defined for each type according to structural characteristics, thereby automatically analyzing the packet.
US09374281B2
In one embodiment, a packet to be transmitted along a communication path in a network from a source to a destination is determined, the communication path having one or more hops between the source and the destination. An instruction is sent to one or more tracking nodes along the communication path to track a number of local retransmissions required to successfully transmit the packet from each tracking node to a respective next-hop destination. Then, reports indicating the number of local retransmissions are received from the one or more tracking nodes.
US09374280B2
A method for operating a server includes receiving, at the server, a request from a mobile device identifying a data file and retrieving the data file from a remote storage device in response to receiving the request. A party other than a party that operates the server operates the remote storage device. A number of collaborator devices are identified. Each of the number of collaborator devices is capable of establishing a mobile-to-mobile communications link with the mobile device. Respective portions of the data file are allocated to each of the number of collaborator devices based on at least one of (a) throughputs associated with the number of collaborator devices and (b) potential debits charged by the number of collaborator devices. Respective portions of the data file are transmitted to each of the number of collaborator devices according to the allocation.
US09374278B2
Methods and systems for automated network management are disclosed. A set of GUI-based network management components and running environment are provided. An Executable Procedure can be created and saved as an independent application, automatically executed through a running environment to any network system. Such Procedure may be used for automated trouble shooting, customized report or for generating a visual network device map.
US09374273B2
The invention is a method and apparatus for facilitating facilitates load balancing in a server farm. In accordance with various aspects of the invention, all of the information about each server necessary for a load balancing program to define and execute a load balancing algorithm is stored at a predetermined URL for each server. The load balancer can query the predefined URL, which returns the necessary information. The load balancer then dynamically configures the load balancing algorithm in accordance with the returned information.
US09374265B1
A GFP frame filter is provided to filter GFP frame data based on extracted GFP header data. The header data comprises EXI, PTI, and UPI fields. The header data can also comprise a generic header that can be customized to provide additional GFP frame filtering applications. The GFP frame filter comprises a plurality of programmable filters arranged to process GFP header data in parallel according to various programmable filter configurations. The plurality of programmable filters can be configured to operate in conjunction in a particular sequence.
US09374257B2
Methods and apparatuses of measuring impulse noise parameters in multi-carrier communication systems
A method and apparatus for measuring and tracking Impulse Noise parameters in a communication system are described. The method includes estimating one or more parameters of the impulse noise, the parameters including a period, an offset and duration of the impulse noise.
US09374254B1
A tuner receives a received signal using one of a plurality of transmission formats that use at least one of either a first frequency or a second frequency band. A determination unit determines the transmission format being used in the received signal from among the plurality of transmission formats. In the determination unit, a pattern matching unit stores in advance a plurality of patterns respectively expressing a received waveform of a preamble in each of the plurality of transmission formats, conducts a pattern matching process between the received signal and the each of the plurality of patterns, and obtains a correlation value. A transmission mode determination unit determines the transmission format being used in the received signal on the basis of the correlation value.
US09374250B1
Some embodiments include apparatus and methods having an input to receive an input signal, additional inputs to receive clock signals having different phases to sample the input signal, and a decision feedback equalizer (DFE) having DFE slices. The DFE slices include a number of data comparators to provide data information based on the sampling of the input signal, and a number of phase error comparators to provide phase error information associated with the sampling of the input signal. The number of phase error comparators of the DFE slices is not greater than the number of data comparators of the DFE slices.
US09374239B2
Various embodiments are directed to network controllers coordinating operation of alarm panels, and to an alarm network incorporating multiple alarm panels that each incorporate such a network controller and aspects of the coupling and interactions of those alarm panel components enabled by interactions among those network controllers. An alarm panel includes an alarm controller configured to monitor one or more points for an indication of an alarm condition and a network controller. The network controller includes a proxy server configured to present multiple proxies on an internal network and to receive multiple unicast packets, each proxy of the multiple proxies associated with an alarm panel of multiple alarm panels and each unicast packet of the multiple unicast packets directed to one of the proxies of the multiple proxies; and a multicast component to combine the multiple unicast packets received within a specified interval of time into a multicast packet.
US09374235B2
Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method for implementing communication between different networks, where the method includes: receiving a multicast data obtaining request supporting a first network protocol, and determining multicast data identity information (MDID) of multicast data that needs to be obtained; obtaining, according to the MDID, in a multicast manner and from a network device supporting a second network protocol, the multicast data that needs to be obtained, and buffering the multicast data that needs to be obtained; establishing, for the multicast data that needs to be obtained, a multicast group supporting the first network protocol; and sending the multicast data that needs to be obtained by a user apparatus to the user apparatus which joins the multicast group supporting the first network protocol.
US09374234B2
A method of controlling an information processing apparatus includes obtaining user information related to users of information terminals in a place, and obtaining, by a processor, change information related to a change in the user information.
US09374228B2
A method to verify a geographic location of a virtual disk image executing at a data center server within a data center. One embodiment includes a cryptoprocessor proximate the data center server, a hypervisor configured to send a disk image hash value of the virtual disk image, a digital certificate issued to the cryptoprocessor, an endorsement key to a data center tenant and a location provider. The method includes sending a disk image hash value of the virtual disk image, an endorsement key unique to a cryptoprocessor proximate the data center server to a data center tenant, and a digital certificate to a data center tenant. Next, the location provider sends the geographic location of the cryptoprocessor matching the endorsement key to the data center tenant.
US09374226B2
A method for generating a virtual recursive secure container and for generating a virtual secure container of relationship of rights along with a system that distributes copyrighted digital content, respecting the legal framework for intellectual property when distributed electronically, either on the Internet or any other digital medium, and offering consumers their rights as buyers of digital content.The logical components, ‘Master Avatar’ and ‘User Avatar’, which reside in the users' digital devices, create the virtual framework for relating rights of author and consumer. By providing each avatar with a key to decrypt the data of digital content distributed through the system, the virtual link for relating the rights of author and consumer is created.Digital content is only distributed in a virtual secure container if the author or a licensed medium previously published that content in the system and authorized its distribution in scenarios allowed by the system.
US09374222B2
A capability for secure communication of data from a source device to a destination device is presented. The source device has a device identifier associated therewith. The source device stores an encrypted version of the device identifier that is encrypted based on a master key of the destination device. The source device stores an encryption key. The source device communicates data to the destination device in a secure manner by encrypting the data using the encryption key and propagating the encrypted version of the device identifier and the encrypted data to the destination device. The destination device recovers the data sent by the source device by decrypting the encrypted version of the device identifier based on the master key to determine the device identifier, determining a decryption key based on the device identifier, and decrypting the encrypted data based on the decryption key to recover the data sent by the source device.
US09374219B2
A method and apparatus are described securely testing an integrated circuit (IC). When the IC is powered on, a first bit stream including unencrypted data bits and encrypted data bits is received by the IC, a second bit stream is generated based on a pseudorandom pattern, a third bit stream is generated by convolving the first bit stream with the second bit stream, the third bit stream is fed to at least one selected test data register (TDR), (i.e., a shift register), in the IC, a fourth bit stream is generated by delaying the second bit stream, and a fifth bit stream is generated by convolving a sixth bit stream output by the at least one selected TDR with the fourth bit stream. The fifth bit stream includes the same unencrypted data bits and encrypted data bits as the first bit stream.
US09374217B1
The present application is directed to data communication. More specifically, embodiments of the present invention provide a SerDes system that includes multiple communication lanes that are aligned using a clock signal. Each of the communication lanes comprises a receiver, a buffer, and a transmitter. The receiver uses multiple sampling lanes for data sampling and clock recovery. Sampled data are stored at the buffer and transmitted by the transmitter. There are other embodiments as well.
US09374215B2
Aspects of the present disclosure provide communications between local and remote devices having low-frequency (LF) and high-frequency (HF) circuits. As may be implemented in accordance with one or more embodiments, the local device transmits an LF signal to the remote device, which synchronizes its clock based on the LF signal. Another LF signal is communicated from the local device to the remote device using a reduced quality factor, which can be implemented to facilitate synchronization. The clock is resynchronized based on the second LF signal and used to transmit an HF signal with a time delay. The local device synchronizes its clock based on the HF signal, and transmits another HF signal to the remote device using the clock and another time delay. The remote device re-synchronizes its clock based on the second HF signal while accounting for a trip time for communicating the first and/or second HF signals.
US09374210B2
Multiple antennas employed at transmitting and receiving nodes can significantly increase a MIMO system capacity, especially when channel knowledge of link(s) between the transmitting and receiving nodes is available at the transmitting node. Channel knowledge may be acquired through feedback provided by the receiving node based on a plurality of common pilots transmitted by the transmitting node. The common pilots may include legacy and non-legacy pilots. If the feedback indicates that data demodulation at the receiving node can be enhanced, the transmitting node may also transmit demodulation pilot signal(s), which may coincide with the transmission of data. The receiving node can use the demodulation pilot signal(s), alone or with the common pilot signal(s), to demodulate data received from the transmitting node. The transmitting node may notify the receiving node to monitor for the demodulation pilot signal(s) through higher layer signaling and/or scheduling orders over a control channel.
US09374208B2
A method for allocating uplink and downlink physical channels to improve throughput of a wireless access system is disclosed. A method for allocating channels to optimize a wireless access system which supports radio frequencies comprises configuring one or more physical channels in a transmitter; allocating first physical channels to a receiver considering features of the one or more physical channels; and transmitting one or more control channels to the receiver through a predetermined physical channel of the first physical channels, the control channels including configuration information of the first physical channels allocated to the receiver.
US09374207B2
The invention concerns a method of scheduling the reception of at least one System Information block by a mobile device being adapted to be associated with at least a first Subscriber Identity and a second Subscriber Identity, the System Information block being intended to the second Subscriber Identity and being broadcasted with a first periodicity over a network by at least one base station of the network in the form of a plurality of bursts, according to a given frame structure having TDMA frames, each TDMA frame comprising a plurality of time gaps, at least one first time gap of a first TDMA frame being allocated to communication activity on the first Subscriber Identity, at least one burst of the System Information block being broadcasted over the network during a second time gap of a second TDMA frame. If the first TDMA frame and the second TDMA frame are one and the same TDMA frame within the frame structure but if the second time gap is distinct from the first time gap within the TDMA frame, or if the second TDMA frame is distinct from the first TDMA frame, then the method comprises allocating the second time gap of the second TDMA frame to receive the burst of the System Information block.
US09374200B2
A radio device/user equipment determines that a later received grant of bundled uplink resources collides with an earlier received grant of bundled uplink resources. The earlier received grant has associated with it an active re-transmission process. In response to that collision determination, at least a re-transmission (HARQ) buffer associated with the earlier received grant is flushed. In one embodiment all HARQ buffers are flushed; in another the HARQ buffer associated with the earlier received grant is flushed while the one associated with the later received grant is not. Several ways are described to determine whether there is a collision: whether the later received grant aligns with a boundary of the resources granted by the earlier received grant, and whether there is an actual collision among the different HARQ processes. Calculating HARQ process numbers is also described where an offset is used to account for the grants allocating bundled TTIs.
US09374198B2
Methods described herein are for wireless communication systems. One aspect of the invention is directed to a method for a HARQ process, in which the HARQ process includes a first transmission of an encoder packet and at least one retransmission. The method involves allocating a transmission resource for each respective transmission. The method involves transmitting control information from a base station to a mobile station for each respective transmission. The control information includes information to uniquely identify the HARQ process and an identification of one of a time resource, a frequency resource and a time and frequency resource that is allocated for the transmission. In some embodiments of the invention, specific control information is signalled from a base station to a mobile station to enable RAS-HARQ operation. In some embodiments of the invention, retransmission signaling in included as part of regular unicast signaling used for both first transmission and retransmissions. In some embodiments of the invention, a 3-state acknowledgement channel and associated error recovery operation enables the base station and mobile station to recover from control signaling error and reduce packet loss.
US09374192B2
When a base station apparatus and a mobile station apparatus communicate with each other using a wider frequency band consists of multiple carrier components, efficient communication is achieved without increasing control information (control signal) notified from the base station apparatus to the mobile station apparatus. The base station apparatus and the mobile station apparatus communicate with each other such that each of multiple uplink carrier components corresponds to each of multiple downlink carrier components or multiple downlink carrier component groups including multiple downlink carrier components.
US09374182B2
A vehicle and a method for controlling the same are provided. In particular, linking information of a broadcast signal having been output during a turn-off mode is transmitted to a DAB receiver upon receiving a turn-on signal. The vehicle includes a Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) receiver that is configured to receive a first DAB signal that corresponds to a selected first broadcast signal. In addition, a speaker outputs the first broadcast signal based on the received first DAB signal or a first frequency-modulation (FM) signal corresponding to the first broadcast signal. In response to receiving a turn-on signal, a controller transmits linking information of the first broadcast signal from among linking information of a plurality of broadcast signals to the DAB receiver to output the first broadcast signal output during a turn-off mode.
US09374171B2
Disclosed herein is an optical transport system configured to transport an amplitude-modulated optical signal generated at the transmitter using single-sideband modulation of an optical carrier and detected at the receiver using direct optical detection. The receiver is configured to estimate the level of signal-signal beat interference (SSBI) in the electrical signal generated upon direct detection of the received optical signal by first converting this electrical signal into a modified baseband signal configured for single-sideband modulation and then squaring and appropriately scaling this modified baseband signal. The receiver is further configured to subtract the estimated level of SSBI from the electrical signal generated by the direct optical detector and to process the resulting corrected electrical signal to recover the data encoded in the amplitude-modulated optical signal. Example analog and digital circuits for estimating the level of SSBI at the receiver are disclosed.
US09374168B2
A system of thermally tuning an optical device is described. The system may include an optical device configured to output an optical signal. An amplitude of the optical signal may be dependent on a temperature of the optical device. The system may also include a control circuit, an adjust circuit, and a heater circuit. The control circuit may be configured to output a control current. The adjust circuit may be configured to perform an approximate square-root operation on the control current and to output a modified control current. The heater circuit may be coupled to the adjust circuit and may be configured to generate heat based on the modified control current. The heater circuit may also be positioned such that the generated heat affects the amplitude of the optical signal. The control circuit may linearly adjust the control current to approximately linearly adjust the heat generated by the heater.
US09374152B2
A satellite-based communication system (1) comprises a router system (6) which receives from a switching unit (3) via a satellite system (4) network addressing information associated with communication terminals (2) connected to the switching unit (3). The network addressing information of the communication terminals (2) are stored in the router system (6) assigned to telephone numbers associated with the communication terminals (2). For enabling an exchange unit (7) to route via the satellite link (40) received data to the communication terminal (2), the router system (6) transmits to the exchange unit (7) the network addressing information associated with the communication terminals (2) connected to the switching unit (3). Hence, data can be routed flexibly in the satellite-based communication system (1) between communication terminals (2, 2′) which are not configured for satellite communication and which are used by mobile users who may move in areas covered by different satellites (43).
US09374146B2
A method and apparatus may be used in Very High Throughput (VHT) Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) management actions. Management action frames such as VHT Action frames may be used to implement VHT features in WLANs. Extensions to 802.11 Action frames may be used to support VHT features and provide backward compatibility. VHT Management Actions may be supported with VHT Action frames and VHT extensions to 802.11 Action frames in various categories such as Direct Link Setup (DLS), Public, Spectrum Management and high throughput (HT). An access point (AP) or a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) may indicate VHT capability by way of signaling.
US09374143B2
Techniques are described for carrier frequency offset (CFO) and channel estimation of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) transmissions over multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) frequency-selective fading channels. A wireless transmitter forms blocks of symbols by inserting training symbols within two or more blocks of information-bearing symbols. The transmitter applies a hopping code to each of the blocks of symbols to insert a null subcarrier at a different position within each of the blocks of symbols, and a modulator outputs a wireless signal in accordance with the blocks of symbols. A receiver receives the wireless signal and estimates the CFO, and outputs a stream of estimated symbols based on the estimated CFO.
US09374134B2
Aspects disclosed herein relate to improving technology detection and collision resolution among multiple NFC devices using a NFC type-A RF technology. In one example, a communications device is equipped to determine that a first device sensing response message includes one or more collisions, identify a first remote NFC device of the plurality of remote NFC devices by performing collision resolution on the first device sensing response message, transmit a sleep request message to the first remote NFC device that prohibits the first remote NFC device from responding to a first device sensing request message and the first device sensing request message, receive a second device sensing response message that includes collisions among the plurality of remote NFC devices, and identify a second remote NFC device of the plurality of remote NFC devices by performing collision resolution on the second device sensing response message.
US09374131B2
Techniques for performing frequency hopping in a wireless network are described. In an aspect, frequency hopping may be performed based on both cell identity (ID) and system time information. In one design, a user equipment (UE) may determine a cell ID of a cell and may obtain system time information for the cell. The UE may determine resources to use for transmission with frequency hopping based on the cell ID and the system time information. In one design, the UE may initialize a PN generator in each radio frame with an initial value determined based on the cell ID and a system frame number (SFN) for the radio frame. The UE may determine the resources to use for transmission based on a hopping function, a mirroring function, and a PN sequence from the PN generator. The UE may send a transmission on the resources to the cell.
US09374128B2
Provided is an encoding/decoding apparatus and method of multi-channel signals. The encoding apparatus and method of multi-channel signals may encode phase information of the multi-channel signals using a quantization scheme and a lossless encoding scheme, and the decoding apparatus and method of multi-channel signals may decode the phase information using an inverse-quantization scheme and a lossless decoding scheme.
US09374126B2
An antenna arrangement includes a switch having an open state and a closed state, a first antenna that operates as a first active driven element in a first frequency band in response to the switch being in the open state, and a second antenna that operates as a second active driven element in a first frequency band in response to the switch being in the open state. The closed state configures the first antenna and the second antenna to operate in a second frequency band different from the first frequency band by operatively coupling a first impedance between the first antenna and a radio frequency ground, and by operatively coupling a second impedance between the second antenna and the radio frequency ground. The first antenna functions as a parasitic element in the second frequency band and the second antenna functions as an active driven element in the second frequency band.
US09374119B1
A communication device is provided. The communication device includes an antenna unit, a sensing unit and a radio frequency unit. The antenna unit is configured to transmit a radio frequency signal. The sensing unit is coupled to a ground terminal through a first capacitor. The sensing unit is configured to sense a capacitance value through the antenna unit. The radio frequency unit is configured to generate the radio frequency signal and to regulate the energy of the radio frequency signal according to the capacitance value.
US09374117B2
A system for decoding a stereo multiplex signal, including one or more devices operable to convert the stereo multiplex signal into a sum signal (L+R) and a difference signal (L−R). The sum signal and the difference signal may be derived from a left stereo signal (L) and right stereo signal (R). The system may also be operable to determine a first transfer function HL(f) and a second transfer function (HR(f)) from the sum signal (L+R) and the difference signal (L−R). Further, the system may be operable to filter the sum signal (L+R) according to the first transfer function to provide the left stereo signal (L), and filter the sum signal (L+R) according to the second transfer function to provide the right stereo signal (R).
US09374113B2
A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, determining, by a controller of a mobile communication device, a phase shift criteria and an amplitude shift criteria associated with a modulation being implemented by the mobile communication device. The controller can determine a group of tuning steps that satisfies the phase and amplitude shift criteria and that provides a desired tuning step for a matching network of the mobile communication device. Additional embodiments are disclosed.
US09374103B1
In some embodiments, a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) system includes an output segment, a main branch, first and second edge segments, and a sub-segment. The output segment includes secondary switches that selectively connect conductive paths to an output. The main branch includes unit resistance elements, each including a resistor and a switch. The first and second edge segments each include a respective group of secondary switches that selectively connect a respective conductive path to a unit resistance element. The sub-segment includes terminal resistors connected to at least one conductive path and includes main switches that selectively connect respective terminal resistors to the unit resistance element. The main switches and the unit resistance element switches use a single switch design. The DAC system may have an improved differential non-linearity (DNL), as compared to a DAC system that does not include the unit resistance element switches or the first and second edge segments.
US09374102B1
A method and apparatus are configured to receive at a control input of an analog to digital converter (ADC) circuit, from a control output of a control circuit, a first instance of control information that indicates a conversion characteristic of the ADC, wherein the conversion characteristic is one of a first conversion rate and a first conversion resolution, to provide at a status output of the ADC status information regarding the conversion of a first analog signal by the ADC circuit, to receive at the control input of the ADC a second instance of the control information that adjusts the conversion characteristic to allocate a first portion of an ADC circuit bandwidth of the ADC circuit to continuing receiving the first analog signal and to allocate a second portion of the ADC circuit bandwidth to receiving a second analog signal.
US09374098B2
A system and method for transmitting includes a plurality of multiplexers each configured to combine a pseudo random bit sequence (PRBS) with at least one input stream according to the data control clock. At least one storage device is coupled to an output of each of the plurality of multiplexers and is configured to latch data according to the data control clock. An output multiplexer is coupled to each of the at least one storage device and is configured to select between storage paths according to the data serializer clock. A PRBS checker is configured to compare a PRBS pattern on an output of the output multiplexer with a predicted PRBS pattern. A phase rotator is configured to adjust the data serializer clock based upon the comparison of the PRBS checker to reduce latency of the transmitter.
US09374094B1
A 3D field programmable gate array (FPGA) system, and method of manufacture therefor, includes: a field programmable gate array (FPGA) die having a configurable power on reset (POR) unit; a heterogeneous integrated circuit die coupled to the FPGA die; and a 3D power on reset (POR) output configured by the configurable POR unit for initializing the FPGA die and the heterogeneous integrated circuit die.
US09374093B2
A buffer circuit comprising a capacitor, the capacitor comprising a first terminal and a second terminal, an input signal being coupled to the first terminal; a first buffer stage coupled to the second terminal of the capacitor such that the input signal is capacitively coupled to the first buffer stage; and, a pulse generator coupled to control the first buffer stage, the pulse generator being configured to generate a control pulse corresponding to a hold time of the first buffer stage such that the buffer circuit detects a transition of the input signal during the hold time.
US09374080B2
A method and apparatus is provided for outputting a reset signal during power-up until two conditions are satisfied. In one embodiment, the method and apparatus includes a voltage detector that provides a first output (“VO1”) when an output voltage of a regulator (“VREG”) exceeds a threshold voltage, thereby satisfying a first condition, a comparator receiving a first input voltage and a second input voltage, the comparator providing a second output (“VO2”) when the first input voltage exceeds the second input voltage, thereby satisfying a second condition, and a release circuit that outputs the reset signal unless the voltage detector provides VO1 while the comparator provides VO2.
US09374078B2
Hybrid-coding, multi-cell architecture and operating techniques for step devices provide advantages over binary-coded and thermometer-coded step devices by minimizing or avoiding glitches common in the transient response of binary-coded step devices and by minimizing or avoiding significant increases or degradation in one or more of area, package dimensions, pin counts, power consumption, insertion loss and parasitic capacitance common to thermometer-coded step devices having equivalent range and resolution.
US09374075B2
An input apparatus may include a pulse width control circuit, a reception circuit, and a latch circuit. The pulse width control circuit may be configured to generate a pulse width control signal by performing a logical operation on a pulse width detection signal and a clock signal. The reception circuit may be configured to selectively provide a received input signal as a period signal on the basis of the clock signal and the pulse width control signal. The latch circuit may be configured to provide an output signal by inverting the period signal, and provide the output signal as the pulse width detection signal in response to the clock signal.
US09374073B2
The present invention provides a clock signal controller structure. The invention allows for the large-skew clock signals to be converted into small-skew clock signals. The technical solution of the present invention may be adopted to synchronize two large-skew clock signals.
US09374065B2
A first transistor and a second transistor cascade-connected, a wiring which connects a drain of the first transistor and a gate of the second transistor, a capacitor whose one terminal is connected between the first transistor and the second transistor cascade-connected and whose other terminal is grounded, and a control circuit are included. The control circuit adjusts an inductance value by controlling a capacitance value of the capacitor or gate voltage of the first transistor or the second transistor.
US09374061B1
Methods of designing band-pass filters and filters are disclosed. A baseline filter design meeting first design criteria may be established, the baseline filter design including a plurality of series surface acoustic wave resonators and a plurality of shunt surface acoustic wave resonators, each surface acoustic wave resonator having a respective resonant frequency. A performance metric based on an input impedance of the baseline filter design over a pass band may be determined. One or more alternate filter designs may be established and respective performance metrics determined, each alternative filter design established by reordering the resonant frequencies of two or more of the plurality of series surface acoustic wave resonators and/or two or more of the plurality of shunt surface acoustic wave resonators. A final filter design may be selected from the baseline design and the one or more alternate filter designs based on the respective performance metrics.
US09374054B2
An arrangement of overlapping filter banks comprises a synthesis stage and an analysis stage. The synthesis stage receives a first signal segmented into time blocks and outputs, based thereon, an intermediate signal to be received by the analysis stage forming the basis for the computation of a second signal segmented into time frames. In an embodiment, the synthesis stage is operable to release an approximate value of the intermediate signal in a time block located L−1 time blocks ahead of its output block, which approximate value is computed on the basis of any available time blocks of the first signal, so that the approximate value contributes, in the analysis stage, to the second signal. The delay is typically reduced by L−1 blocks. Applications include audio signal processing in general and real-to-complex conversion in particular.
US09374049B2
Provided is a differential amplifier including: an operational amplifier (OP AMP) having an inverting input, a non-inverting input, an inverting output, and a non-inverting output, a first feedback capacitor connected to the non-inverting input and the inverting output. A second feedback capacitor connected to the inverting input and the non-inverting output, a first four-terminal transistor connected to the non-inverting input and the inverting output. A second four-terminal transistor connected to the inverting input and the non-inverting output. One of source and drain of the first transistor and a gate thereof are connected to the inverting output, the other one of the source and drain and a bulk terminal are connected to the non-inverting input, one of source and drain of the second transistor and a gate thereof are connected to the non-inverting output, and the other one of the source and drain terminals and a bulk terminal are connected to the inverting input.
US09374047B2
The present disclosure provides a buffer circuit comprising a plurality of operational amplifiers and a switch module. Each operational amplifier forms a buffer. The operational amplifier has an output stage. The stage has a first transistor and a second transistor. The first transistor and the second transistor are connected to an output terminal. The first transistor has a first control terminal. The second transistor has a second control terminal. The switch module is connected to the first control terminal of the first transistor and the second control terminal of the second transistor. The switch module connects together at least two of the first terminals of the first transistor according to a control signal. The switch module connects together at least two of the second terminals of the second transistor according to the control signal.
US09374045B2
This disclosure relates to a harmonic termination circuit that is separate from a load line. In one embodiment, the load line is configured to match an impedance at the power amplifier output at a fundamental frequency of the power amplifier output and the harmonic termination circuit is configured to terminate at a phase corresponding to a harmonic frequency of the power amplifier output. According to certain embodiments, the load line and the harmonic termination circuit can be electrically coupled to the power amplifier output external to a power amplifier die via different output pins of the power amplifier die.
US09374044B2
Systems and methods for compensating for a non-linear characteristic of a non-linear filter in a transmit chain of a transmitter using predistortion are disclosed. In one embodiment, a transmitter includes a power amplifier configured to amplify a radio frequency input signal to provide an amplified radio frequency signal, a non-linear filter configured to filter the amplified radio frequency signal to provide an output signal of the transmitter, and a predistorter configured effect predistortion of the amplified radio frequency signal, where the predistortion compensates for a non-linear characteristic of the non-linear filter. In this manner, the output signal is as if the non-linear filter were a linear, or substantially liner, filter. The predistortion applied by the predistorter may be fixed or adaptive.
US09374041B2
A multi-way Doherty power amplifier, DPA, is disclosed, comprising a first path comprising a carrier amplifier or at least one carrier amplifier segment partitioned from the carrier amplifier; a second to N-th paths each comprising at least one carrier amplifier segment and/or at least one peaking amplifier segment partitioned from a peaking amplifier; and a power splitter for splitting an input power signal to each of the at least one carrier amplifier segment and/or at least one peaking amplifier segment in a same path, wherein N is an integer not less than 2; a signal preparation unit configured for generating separately input power signal for the first path and each of the second path to N-th paths; and an impedance inverting network configured for combining output signal power from each path. The performance of each amplifier cell can be maximized independently without any compromises made for each other.
US09374040B2
The linearity of a power amplifying module employing an envelope tracking scheme is improved. The power amplifying module includes a first bipolar transistor having a base to which a first radio frequency signal is input and an emitter grounded, and a second bipolar transistor having a base to which a first constant voltage is applied, a collector to which a first power supply voltage is applied, the first power supply voltage adapted to vary in accordance with an amplitude of the first radio frequency signal, and an emitter connected to a collector of the first bipolar transistor. The second bipolar transistor is configured to output a first amplified signal, obtained by amplifying the first radio frequency signal, from the collector of the second bipolar transistor.
US09374032B2
A PWM output apparatus includes a calculating circuit configured to calculate an output width of a PWM output signal of a first signal and a second signal, which have phases different from each other, based on a command value of a PWM output. A comparing circuit compares the output width and a reference period which is set longer than a predetermined dead time period. A PWM output signal generating circuit outputs the PWM output signal to a dead time inserting block as a corrected PWM output signal, when a set/clear signal generating circuit outputs the set signal, and carries out a correction of setting the first signal of the PWM output signal to be inactive to output to the dead time inserting block as the corrected PWM output signal, when the set/clear circuit outputs the clear signal. The dead time inserting block corrects the corrected PWM output signal.
US09374031B2
A control apparatus for an AC motor includes a current sensor and an estimation section. The current sensor detects current flowing through one phase of the motor. The estimation section repeats an estimation process. In the estimation process, d-axis and q-axis current estimation values are calculated based on the presently detected current of the one phase and a previous current estimation value of another phase of the motor, and a present current estimation value of each phase is calculated based on smoothed values of the d-axis and q-axis current estimation values. The estimation section performs the estimation process based on a phase lag element. The phase lag element is a difference between the presently detected current and a previous current estimation value of the one phase or the previously detected current.
US09374030B2
According to one embodiment, there is provided a generator excitation apparatus including a plurality of first power converters and a second power converter. The plurality of first power converters are electrically connected to windings of respective phases of rotors of a wound rotor type induction generator in which the windings of the rotors of the respective phases are electrically independent, and are configured to bidirectionally convert DC and AC. The second power converter is configured to bidirectionally convert DC and AC between DC sides of the first power converters and a three-phase DC power supply. The DC sides of the first power converters are electrically connected together to a DC side of the second power converter.
US09374029B2
A motor driving circuit may include a timing detection circuit configured to receive a signal that corresponds to the Hall signal output from the Hall sensor, and to generate a timing signal which is asserted at a predetermined timing in every cycle of the Hall signal. The timing detection circuit may include a counter configured to perform a counting operation according to a clock signal; a reset unit configured to reset a count value of the counter for every cycle of the counter, to a value obtained by multiplying the count value obtained immediately before the reset operation by a negative coefficient; and a comparison unit configured to assert the timing signal at every timing at which there is a zero-crossing in the value of the counter.
US09374023B2
The present application presents a power conversion control device that does not reduce electric power conversion efficiency. A mode judging section judges whether a direction of current flowing through an inductor has been reversed or not based on both an average value of current flowing through the inductor, the average value being calculated by an average current calculating section, and a difference (i.e peak current) between a maximum value and a minimum value of a current flowing through the inductor, the difference being calculated by a peak current calculating section. And then if the judging section has determined that the direction of current flowing through an inductor has been reversed, the power conversion control device makes the switching elements ON/OFF-operation corresponding to either one of a power running mode or an electric power regenerating mode.
US09374008B2
The present invention relates to a switching mode power supply and a driving method thereof. In the present invention, a supply voltage is generated by using a start voltage that corresponds to input power, and a switching operation frequency of a power switch is changed according to an increase/decrease of the supply voltage.
US09374001B1
Methods and systems for improving load transient response in power conversion systems are provided herein. The system includes a primary stage and a secondary stage, an isolation barrier electrically isolating the primary stage and the secondary stage, and a primary stage controller positioned in the primary stage. The primary stage controller is configured to adjust a step-up converter reference voltage based on a load current signal indicative of a load transient. The load current signal is transmitted from the secondary stage.
US09373994B2
Apparatus for an electromagnetic engine producing both mechanical and electrical power. The apparatus includes a signal generator, such as a device that plays a pre-recorded signal. The output of the signal generator is connected to an amplifier that is connected to a first coil assembly. The coils are positioned around a cylindrical cavity or sleeve in which a permanent magnet piston reciprocates in response to the amplified signal applied to the coils. A second coil assembly is magnetically coupled to the first coil assembly. The second coil assembly includes a tuned circuit and provides an electrical output. The tuned circuit of the second coil assembly includes a coil and a capacitor selected for a specific frequency.
US09373988B2
Cooling assemblies, such as those configured to cool electric machines (e.g., electric motors and generators) and components of electric machines (e.g., rotors and stators).
US09373984B2
An apparatus, such as an electrical machine, is provided. The apparatus can include a rotor defining a rotor bore and a conduit disposed in and extending axially along the rotor bore. The conduit can have an annular conduit body defining a plurality of orifices disposed axially along the conduit and extending through the conduit body. The rotor can have an inner wall that at least partially defines the rotor bore. The orifices can extend through the conduit body along respective orifice directions, and the rotor and conduit can be configured to provide a line of sight along the orifice direction from the respective orifices to the inner wall.
US09373976B2
A device charging system that uses the fact that individual devices do not need to be continuously charged for an extended charging period in order to be fully charged at the end of the period. With automatic timing and switching, different devices can be charged at different times during the charging period with the result that all the devices are fully charged at the end of the period. Several charging power boxes that fit into one or more charging cabinets that are controlled by one or more timers. Each charging power box also includes a heat sensor and circuit breaker. User appliances or electronic devices can be stacked in the cabinets, plugged into numerous outlets available on the charging power boxes and then locked inside the cabinet for overnight charging and security. Any abnormal rise in temperature within the cabinet can shut down the entire charging process.
US09373972B2
The present inventions, in one aspect, are directed to techniques and/or circuitry to adaptively charge a battery/cell using data which is representative of a change in terminal voltage of the battery/cell. In another aspect, the present inventions are directed to techniques and/or circuitry to adaptively charge a battery/cell using data which is representative of partial and/or full relaxation time of the battery/cell. In yet another aspect the present inventions are directed to techniques and/or circuitry to determine whether the data which is representative of partial and/or full relaxation time exceeds a predetermined range and/or is greater than a predetermined value.
US09373969B2
Described is an energy share pack comprising a housing, at least one energy storage component within the housing, at least one energy conversion component within the housing, and a connection point for connecting to more than one of energy users, energy sources and other energy share packs simultaneously for sharing energy. The energy share pack may have an energy generation component for generating harvestable energy, and two or more ports of any combination of the following types: bidirectional power port, bidirectional USB port, unidirectional output power port, and unidirectional input power port. The share pack ports may operate simultaneously at different voltage levels, and at least one port may be bi-directional. Furthermore, the share packs may have an integrated display for providing information on the energy share pack in which the display is integrated and information about other energy share packs connected thereto.
US09373962B2
A multiple UPS system has a plurality of UPS subsystems with a separate UPS data communications bus coupling a controller of each UPS subsystem to an associated controller of an associated tie cabinet. The multiple UPS system further includes a data communications tie bus that couples the controllers of the tie cabinets to each other. The controllers of the tie cabinets arbitrate power line based coordinating signals between the UPS buses without the use of auxiliary signals.
US09373960B2
The present disclosure provides for distributed resource scheduling performed by an advanced resource scheduling (ARS) module implemented on a distributed grid management (DGM) server in a power system. The ARS module is configured to automatically generate a resource schedule for controllable distributed energy resources (e.g., resources that are remotely controllable by DGM server and ARS module) in a distribution network of the power system, such as power generation resources and energy storage resources, to provide power in a cost-effective (e.g., optimal) manner. The ARS module is configured to take into account the operating limits of the distributed energy resources (DERs), the cost curves of the DERs, the system load demand, and other operating constraints to determine the most economical operating plan for the DERs, using an optimization technique such as the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm.
US09373959B2
The present invention relates to a photovoltaic module. A photovoltaic module according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises a solar cell module, a micro-inverter to convert DC power generated by the solar cell module into AC power, a controller to control the micro-inverter's operation, and an interface unit connected to power grid supplying external electrical power and to provide the AC power to the power grid, the controller to control operation of the micro-inverter such that the AC power is matched to the external electrical power flowing into the power grid. The photovoltaic module according to the present invention can provide electrical power generated at solar cell modules through a simple connection to power grid which supplies electrical power to home, reducing consumption of electrical power flowing into home.
US09373956B2
A method of optimizing power loads of a power strip is disclosed. The power strip includes single or three phase power input, a plurality of circuit breakers, and a plurality of outlets, with at least one circuit breaker being associated with at least one outlet. The method includes: obtaining real-time current measurements for each phase of the single or three phase power input of the power strip; obtaining real-time current measurements for each circuit breaker of the plurality of circuit breakers of the power strip; logging the real-time current measurements for each phase of the single or three phase power input and for each circuit breaker of the plurality of circuit breakers; and analyzing the real-time current measurements of the single or three phase power input and the plurality of circuit breakers to determine a preferential order of outlets in which to apply a new load.
US09373954B2
Provided is an ESD protection device having excellent discharge characteristics at a low applied voltage. An ESD protection device includes a first discharge electrode and a second discharge electrode that are disposed so as to face each other, a discharge auxiliary electrode formed so as to span between the first discharge electrode and the second discharge electrode, and an insulator base that holds the first discharge electrode, the second discharge electrode, and the discharge auxiliary electrode. The discharge auxiliary electrode includes a plurality of metal particles (22) containing a first metal as a main component. Fine irregularities are formed on the surfaces of the metal particles (22). More specifically, the metal particles (22) has a fractal dimension D of 1.03 or more. Since electric charges are concentrated on the fine irregularities, discharge can be generated in the discharge auxiliary electrode by applying a relatively low voltage.
US09373952B2
A low fault current isolation arrangement senses a loss of voltage and automatically isolates and de-energizes a down live primary wire if overcurrent protection devices have not cleared the high impedance fault in an electric power distribution network. Incorporating an operator selectable time delay response, the low fault current isolation arrangement permits overcurrent protection devices to attempt to detect and shut down the affected conductor, and then isolates and shuts down the low current fault if the overcurrent devices are not successful. The isolation arrangement continuously monitors AC voltage as remotely provided by smart meters even after a fault location is de-energized, and serves as a back up, and not as a replacement, for existing overcurrent protection schemes. A host computer operates in conjunction with plural smart meters each coupled to an associated customer distribution transformer in conjunction with the fault isolator to detect and shut down high impedance faults.
US09373951B2
A current limiter (100, 200, 400, 500, 700) comprises a switch (110) and connection means (105, 125) to a load and to a DC-voltage source. A control component (115) measures the current from a load to a DC-voltage source to the switch and controls the switch (110) to an open position if the current is above a threshold. In the closed position, the switch (110) admits current from the load to the DC-voltage source. The current limiter also comprises a transmission line (120) with a first (121) and a second (122) end. The first end (121) is connected to the input port of the switch (110), and the second end (122) is left open or connected to make the transmission line (120) connected in series with the switch (110).
US09373950B2
The invention relates to Modular multilevel converter valve protection method, the modular multilevel converter valve consists of 6 arms, the arm includes sub modules, 1 arm is controlled by 1 control host, 6 control hosts is controlled by 1 summary control host, the method of the invention includes that the arm realizes locking sub module, bypass sub module, trip requests and system switching request and the summary control host implements summary and control response. The invention improves the reliability of two protection system through the use of dual redundancy protection method, clears the protection division through the layered protection frame of the upper summary control host and multi arm control host. And finally, it improves the whole safety and reliability of the modular multilevel converter valve.
US09373944B2
A cover assembly for a floor box includes a base with a central opening and a cover pivotally connected to the base by a hinge member. The hinge member has a hinge body with a first end pivotally connected to the base for pivoting with respect to the base and second end pivotally connected to the cover for pivoting with respect to the cover. A tab extends from the second end of the hinge body to contact a bottom surface of the cover to limit pivoting movement of the cover with respect to the hinge body. A slide surface is provided on the base that contacts an end of the cover during pivoting movement of the cover to prevent wear on a gasket with the opening of the base.
US09373942B2
The present invention relates to a modular data transmission system which is constructed for contactless data transmission by means of electromagnetic waves having a wavelength in the millimeter range. A modular data transmission system according to the invention comprises a mounting rail, a first bus participant and a second bus participant. The first bus participant comprises a transmitting/receiving module. The second bus participant also comprises a transmitting/receiving module. The first bus participant and the second bus participant are releasably secured to the mounting rail so as to be able to be attached to each other, and the transmitting/receiving modules of the first and second bus participants are constructed in order to transmit data by means of electromagnetic waves having a wavelength in the millimeter range. Another modular data transmission system according to the invention comprises a mounting rail and at least a first bus participant. The mounting rail comprises at least one transmitting/receiving module. The first bus participant comprises a transmitting/receiving module and is releasably secured to the mounting rail. The mounting rail allows additional bus participants to be secured in an attachable manner to the first bus participant. Furthermore, the transmitting/receiving modules of the mounting rail and the first bus participant are constructed for data transmission by means of electromagnetic waves having a wavelength in the millimeter range.
US09373926B2
There is provided a laser chamber housing a pair of discharge electrodes and a gas circulation fun, the laser chamber including: a magnetic bearing configured to support a shaft of the gas circulation fan, with the shaft being in non-contact with the magnetic bearing; and a touchdown bearing configured to operate as a bearing when the magnetic bearing is uncontrollable, the touchdown bearing being provided with solid lubricant configured of one or more of an Au plating layer, a Ni-containing plating layer, and a Cu plating layer.
US09373924B2
A device for producing a crimp connection includes a mobile supply unit that can be connected with a crimping press station for storing and supplying crimp contacts to the crimping press station. The mobile supply unit has two supply rolls with crimp contacts that can be attached laterally to the mobile supply unit. Each supply roll is assigned to a respective coupling device by which the supply unit can be connected in two docking locations with the crimping press station.
US09373920B2
A connector includes a module and a housing that accommodates the module. The module includes multiple contacts each including a first contact part to contact a board, a second contact part to contact a connection object, and a body extending at angle from the first contact part to the second contact part; and a molded part insert-molded with the contacts arranged as inserts. The molded part covers a portion of the body part through a surface of the first contact part of each of the contacts facing toward the board. In each contact, a width of the portion of the body covered with the molded part is smaller than a width of a spring portion of the body. The spring portion is exposed from the molded part and supports the second contact part in such a manner as to allow its displacement.
US09373911B2
The present invention is to provide a waterproof audio connector which includes an isolation base mounted in the electronic device, having an inserting port and an assembly port respectively at a front end and a rear end thereof, having a plurality of first assembly slots longitudinally and concavely disposed at an inner surface thereof between the two ports; a plurality of signal terminals each having a contacting portion at the end thereof and fastened with the first assembly slot corresponding thereto; an isolation plate having a side surface abutted against outer edges of the first assembly slots and forming a filler space between another side surface thereof and an edge of the assembly port; and a waterproof sealant formed by waterproof glue which is filled into the filler space and solidified later, so as to watertightly seal all gaps among the signal terminals, the isolation plate and the assembly port.
US09373901B2
Grounding finger for shielding at an electrical connection between a plug connector and a mating plug connector of an electrical line, having a sleeve-like support element which has a first outer edge and a second outer edge, axial connecting webs being provided between the outer edges, and having a plurality of spring limbs which act radially outward and, at least at one end, are connected to one of the edges in order to generate a spring-loaded contact force to the outer plug connector, with some of the connecting webs being interrupted and being formed in each case with at least one contact lug which faces radially inward.
US09373896B2
Systems, devices, and methods for determining and applying true time delay (TTD) values for compensating for free-space path length differences between a phased array and a reflector in wideband communication are disclosed. TTD values are determined for individual and groups of antenna elements in phased array fed reflector (PAFR) antennas based distances from a focal region of the reflector. The distance from the focal region of the reflector and the offset of the phased array from the reflectors focal plane can be used to determine path length differences. Corresponding TTD values for antenna elements are then determined based on the path length difference associated with the antenna elements. Each antenna element can be coupled to a TTD element to provide the corresponding TTD value to the signals received by and generated by the antenna elements of the phased array. The TTD elements include transverse electromagnetic (TEM) mode mechanisms.
US09373888B1
Methods and apparatus for a phased array radar system including an array comprising columns of super-elements containing radiator elements located along a length of the super-element, wherein the super-elements form the columns such that super-elements are arranged end-to-end, wherein the super-elements are arranged in the column at randomized locations to reduce sidelobes. In a further embodiment, super element lengths can be randomized.
US09373884B2
An improved dual-polarized, omnidirectional antenna is characterized inter alia by the following features: each sector antenna (5) comprises at least one antenna gap (6) comprising an associated reflector (11), which is arranged at least in part in a reflector plane (13′), at least one dual-polarized radiator (7, 9) being arranged in the antenna gap (6), in front of the reflector (11) the sector antennae (5) are additionally arranged mutually offset along the central axis (1) thereof, the sector antennae (5) are arranged in such a way that, in an axial view along the central axis (1), the reflector walls (13), arranged in a respective reflector plane (13′), of the reflectors (11), overlap or intersect.
US09373877B2
The communication sheet according to the present invention includes a dielectric layer including a dielectric substrate, a first conductor layer that is a conductor layer including a mesh sheet-like mesh conductor disposed on one surface of the dielectric substrate, wherein an opening region from where the mesh conductor is removed is formed, and a second conductor layer that is a conductor layer including a sheet-like sheet conductor disposed on another surface of the dielectric substrate opposite to the first conductor layer, wherein the sheet conductor in a region opposite to the opening region from where the mesh conductor is removed is not removed.
US09373875B2
A storage element for a solid electrolyte energy store and a method of producing a storage element are provided. The storage element has a three-dimensional grid structure made of a material that comprises an electron-conducting redox pair.
US09373860B2
To diagnose a fault of a fuel cell stack, an alternating current having a first optimal frequency of a first frequency domain to diagnose a drop in cell voltage and an alternating current having a second optimal frequency of a second frequency domain to diagnose a cause of the drop in cell voltage are supplied to the fuel cell stack are provided. A distortion rate is then calculated based on voltage of the fuel cell stack according to the alternating current of the first optimal frequency, and the drop in cell voltage is diagnosed based on the calculated distortion rate. Also, impedance is calculated based on voltage and a current of the fuel cell stack according to the alternating current of the second optimal frequency and amount of water is calculated based on the calculated in the fuel cell stack, and the cause of the drop in cell voltage is diagnosed based on the calculated impedance and amount of water.
US09373855B2
Provided is a fuel-cell system having a control device which controls driving of a first fuel supply device and a second fuel supply device. The control device includes, a driving-interval setting unit which sets first driving intervals for the first fuel supply device and second driving intervals for the second fuel supply device, a first fuel-supply-device control unit which sets valve-open durations of the first fuel supply device according to the first driving intervals, and a second fuel-supply-device control unit which sets valve-open durations of the second fuel supply device according to the second driving intervals. The driving-interval setting unit sets the second driving intervals to be shorter than the first driving intervals.
US09373852B2
A fuel cell stack includes a stacked body, a first terminal plate, a first insulator, a first end plate, a second terminal plate, a second insulator, a second end plate, a fluid manifold, a fluid channel, a fluid hole, a first connection passage, and a second connection passage. The stacked body includes a plurality of separators and a membrane electrode assembly. The plurality of separators and the membrane electrode assembly are stacked in a stacking direction. The membrane electrode assembly includes an electrolyte membrane and a pair of electrodes sandwiching the electrolyte membrane therebetween. The stacked body has a first end and a second end opposite to the first end in the stacking direction. The first terminal plate, the first insulator, and the first end plate are disposed at the first end of the stacked body.
US09373851B2
A fuel cell equipped with at least an air electrode side power collector layer, an air electrode catalyst layer, a polymer electrolyte membrane, a fuel electrode catalyst layer and a fuel electrode side power collector layer and provided with a porous body layer having a porous body at a liquid fuel side of the fuel electrode side power collector layer assumes a structure in which the porous body layer is provided with a gas flow velocity (superficial velocity in the layer) of 10 to 5000 cm/s at a differential pressure of 100 kPa. The porous body layer is a diffusion medium of a fuel into the fuel electrode catalyst layer and a discharge resistor of gases comprising carbon dioxide and steam which are electrode reaction products and a vapor of the liquid fuel in progress of electrode reaction. An interface of the gases and a gases layer are also provided.
US09373848B2
The present invention provides a conductive protective layer-forming paste for current collector laminates which can be used even for high voltage designs to protect current collectors from corroding without loss of cell characteristics, and a current collector laminate, an electrode laminate, and nonaqueous secondary cells (e.g. a lithium secondary cell, an electric double layer capacitor) that include a conductive protective layer formed therefrom. The paste for forming conductive protective layers for current collector protection includes: polytetrafluoroethylene; and a conductive filler (b). The current collector laminate includes: a conductive protective layer (A); and a current collector (B), the conductive protective layer (A) being formed by coating the paste for forming conductive protective layers onto the current collector (B).
US09373843B2
A binder for an electrode of a lithium battery, and a lithium battery containing the binder. The binder includes: a carbon nanotube; and a polymer chemically bonded to the carbon nanotube, and thus may form a conducting path by improving dispersion of the carbon nanotube. Accordingly, the binder may have high capacity and improve the lifetime of the lithium battery.
US09373835B2
The invention relates to a lithium vanadium oxide which corresponds to the formula Li1+αV3O8 (0.1≦α≦0.25). It is composed of agglomerates of small needles having a length l from 400 to 1000 nm, a width w such that 10
US09373831B2
An electrical energy storage and/or generation device with an architecture including a stack of electrical storage and/or generation elements, such as microbatteries. An electrical connection is not made between the different stacked elements during manufacture, but subsequently with assistance of an electronic control unit to configure, in series and/or in parallel, all or a proportion of the elements, and to configure electrical outputs of the device, such as the electrical voltage or the storage capacity.
US09373822B2
To provide a method of efficiently manufacturing an organic light-emitting element with excellent light-emitting characteristics by application, the method includes: preparing ink and filling an inkjet device having an ink ejection nozzle with the ink; preparing a substrate having a base layer including a first electrode; and positioning the inkjet device above the substrate, and causing the inkjet device to eject a drop of the ink onto the base layer, wherein, in the preparation of the ink, a value Z denoting a reciprocal of the Ohnesorge number Oh determined by density ρ (g/dm3), surface tension γ (mN/m), and viscosity η (mPa·s) of the ink and a diameter r (mm) of the ink ejection nozzle satisfies Formula 1, in the ejection of the drop of the ink, speed V (m/s) of the ejected drop satisfies Formula 2, and the value Z and the speed V (m/s) satisfy Formula 3.
US09373814B2
A pixel define layer (PDL) of an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display panel, which comprises a first PDL (21) and a second PDL (22) overlapped on the first PDL. The first PDL (21) is a hydrophobic film layer provided with openings (210) corresponding to luminous regions of sub-pixel units; and the second PDL (22) is a hydrophilic film layer provided with openings (220) corresponding to the openings (210) of the first PDL. The PDL can avoid the mutual pollution of organic light-emitting materials in luminous regions of different colors in adjacent sub-pixel units in the preparation process.
US09373812B2
The present invention provides a white OLED display device and a packaging method thereof. The white OLED display device includes: a glass cover plate, a color filter layer coated on the glass cover plate, a transparent protective layer covering the color filter layer, a hydrophobic layer self-assembled on the transparent protective layer, a desiccant layer disposed on the hydrophobic layer, and a TFT substrate disposed with a white OLED layer. The color filter layer, the transparent protective layer, the hydrophobic layer and the desiccant layer are sandwiched between the glass cover plate and the TFT substrate disposed with the white OLED layer. The white OLED display device provided by the invention disposes the hydrophobic layer on the transparent protective layer, which can avoid the occurrence of mura caused by uneven distribution of desiccant.
US09373805B2
An optical sensor that can be produced at a low cost from inexpensive silicon fine particles as raw materials and a method for making the optical sensor are provided. In an optical sensor 1, a layer of epoxidized n-type silicon fine particles 24 coated with a coating film having a functional group is selectively fixed and bonded onto only a pattern portion of a surface of a transparent electrode 51 coated with a coating film having a first functional group, and a layer of p-type silicon fine particles 25 coated with a coating film having a third functional group is fixed and bonded thereon. The first and second functional groups and the second and third coupling groups are respectively fixed with each other via bonds formed between them and coupling reactive groups in a coupling agent.
US09373793B2
The present invention provides a novel compound that is capable of largely improving a life span, efficiency, electrochemical stability and thermal stability of an organic light emitting device, and an organic light emitting device in which the compound is included in an organic compound layer.
US09373788B2
A method for fabricating a semiconductor device includes supplying a first source gas including a germanium (Ge) precursor onto a semiconductor substrate for a first time period, and periodically interrupting the supplying of the first source gas for the first time period to form Ge elements on the semiconductor substrate.
US09373787B2
A nonvolatile memory device includes an inserted electrode line disposed between a first and a second electrode lines and extending in parallel with the second electrode line. The inserted electrode line is coupled to the second electrode line. A first intermediate pattern disposed between the inserted electrode line and a second intermediate pattern is disposed between the inserted electrode line and the second electrode line. One of the first and second intermediate patterns is a variable resistor and the other of the first and second intermediate patterns is a selector. The first intermediate pattern covers a bottom surface and a portion of sidewalls of the inserted electrode line.
US09373786B1
In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a memory cell includes a two terminal access device disposed above a semiconductor substrate. The access device includes a two terminal resistive switching device having substantially zero retention. The two terminal resistive switching device has a low resistance state and a high resistance state. A memory device is disposed above the semiconductor substrate. The memory device is coupled to the access device.
US09373784B2
A semiconductor memory device includes a first insulating portion. The semiconductor memory device further includes a phase-change material element that contacts the first insulating portion. The semiconductor memory device further includes an electrode that contacts a side surface of the phase-change material element, the side surface of the phase-change material element being not parallel to a top surface of the electrode. The semiconductor memory device further includes a second insulating portion surrounding the phase-change material element.
US09373774B2
A piezo actuator includes an actuator body with a plurality of piezo elements and a tensioning device loading the actuator body with a bias. The tensioning device includes a traction device mounted as a biased winding on the actuator body in a plurality of turns around the actuator body. The traction device is at least one of resilient or flexible.
US09373770B2
An industrial thermoelectric generation assembly and method are provided. A plurality of thermoelectric generation elements is provided. Each element has a first side, a second side opposite the first side, and a lateral surface. A thermally insulative material surrounds the lateral surface of each thermoelectric element. The first side of each thermoelectric element is disposed to contact a process heat source, and the second side is configured to be exposed to an ambient environment. At least two of the plurality of thermoelectric generation elements are wired in series. The thermoelectric generation elements, being good thermal insulators, provide good thermal insulation to the process. Withholding heat within the process (which is desired), is converted to electricity.
US09373765B2
An optoelectronic semiconductor chip includes a semiconductor body of semiconductor material, a p-contact layer and an n-contact layer. The semiconductor body includes an active layer intended for generating radiation. The semiconductor body includes a p-side and an n-side, between which the active layer is arranged. The p-contact layer is intended for electrical contacting the p-side. The n-contact layer is intended for electrical contacting the n-side 1b. The n-contact layer contains a TCO layer and a mirror layer, the TCO-layer being arranged between the n-side of the semiconductor body and the mirror layer.
US09373757B2
To provide an illumination method and a light-emitting device which are capable of achieving, under an indoor illumination environment where illuminance is around 5000 lx or lower when performing detailed work and generally around 1500 lx or lower, a color appearance or an object appearance as perceived by a person, will be as natural, vivid, highly visible, and comfortable as though perceived outdoors in a high-illuminance environment, regardless of scores of various color rendition metric. Light emitted from the light-emitting device illuminates an object such that light measured at a position of the object satisfies specific requirements. A feature of the light-emitting device is that light emitted by the light-emitting device in a main radiant direction satisfies specific requirements.
US09373755B2
A semiconductor device having light-emitting diodes (LEDs) formed on a concave textured substrate is provided. A substrate is patterned and etched to form recesses. A separation layer is formed along the bottom of the recesses. An LED structure is formed along the sidewalls and, optionally, along the surface of the substrate between adjacent recesses. In these embodiments, the surface area of the LED structure is increased as compared to a planar surface. In another embodiment, the LED structure is formed within the recesses such that the bottom contact layer is non-conformal to the topology of the recesses. In these embodiments, the recesses in a silicon substrate result in a cubic structure in the bottom contact layer, such as an n-GaN layer, which has a non-polar characteristic and exhibits higher external quantum efficiency.
US09373751B2
A light emitting element includes a first conductivity-type semiconductor layer, a first electrode, a second conductivity-type semiconductor layer and a second electrode. The second conductivity-type semiconductor layer has a square peripheral shape. The first electrode includes a first connecting portion on a first diagonal line and a first extending portion extending from the first connecting portion onto the first diagonal line. The second electrode includes a second connecting portion on the first diagonal line facing the first connecting portion via the first extending portion. Two second extending portions extend from the second connecting portion and having a first portion and a second portion respectively. The first connecting portion includes an end portion closer to the second connecting portion than a straight line intersecting the tip ends of the two second extending portions, and a center portion at a side father from the second connecting portion than the second diagonal line.
US09373746B2
A semiconductor light emitting device includes a substrate, a semiconductor laminate disposed on the substrate and divided to a plurality of light emitting cells with an isolation region, and a wiring unit electrically connecting the plurality of light emitting cells. A region of lateral surfaces of each of the light emitting cells in which the wiring unit is disposed has a slope gentler than slopes of other regions of the lateral surfaces of each of the light emitting cells.
US09373741B2
A photovoltaic device that includes an upper cell that absorbs a first range of wavelengths of light and a bottom cell that absorbs a second range of wavelengths of light. The bottom cell includes a heterojunction comprising a crystalline germanium containing (Ge) layer. At least one surface of the crystalline germanium (Ge) containing layer is in contact with a silicon (Si) containing layer having a larger band gap than the crystalline (Ge) containing layer.
US09373740B1
Provided is a wavelength converting structure for near-infrared rays and a solar cell using the same. More particularly, provided is a novel wavelength converting structure for near-infrared rays using gap plasmon characteristics and up-conversion nanoparticles. When applying the wavelength converting structure for near-infrared rays to a solar cell, it is possible to convert the light within a wavelength range of near-infrared rays into electric energy so that the photoconversion efficiency may be improved.
US09373724B2
Disclosed is a method of driving a transistor including a semiconductor layer, a first insulating layer, a second insulating layer, a first conductive layer, and a second conductive layer such that the semiconductor layer is disposed between the first and second insulating layers, one surface of the first insulating layer opposite the other surface in contact with the semiconductor layer is in contact with the first conductive layer, one surface of the second insulating layer opposite the other surface in contact with the semiconductor layer is in contact with the second conductive layer. The method includes applying a voltage VBG that satisfies the relation of VBG≦VON1×C1/(C1+C2) to the second conductive layer.
US09373719B2
A semiconductor device is provided. The semiconductor device includes an active fin region, at least a gate strip, and a dummy fin region. The active fin region comprises at least an active fin. The gate strip is formed on the active fin region and extending across the active fin. The dummy fin region, comprising a plurality of dummy fins, is formed on two sides of the active fin region, and the dummy fins are formed on two sides of the gate strip.
US09373713B2
A silicon carbide semiconductor device and method of manufacture thereof is made by providing a channel control zone which has impurity concentration distribution increased gradually from a first doping boundary to reach a maximum value between the first doping boundary and a second doping boundary, then decreased gradually toward the second doping boundary, so that the silicon carbide semiconductor device is formed with a lower conduction resistance and increased drain current without sacrificing threshold voltage.
US09373709B2
An all-electric spin field effect transistor is disclosed, which includes an injection node, injecting an electron in a first spin direction; a detection node, detecting the electron in the first spin direction; and a gate, disposed between the injection node and the detection node such that the electron changes from the first spin direction to a second spin direction by carrying out precession; if the second spin direction is parallel to the first spin direction, the electron is able to pass through the detection node; if the second spin direction is antiparallel to the first spin direction, the electron is unable to pass through the detection node.
US09373708B2
To establish a processing technique in manufacture of a semiconductor device including an In—Sn—Zn—O-based semiconductor. An In—Sn—Zn—O-based semiconductor layer is selectively etched by dry etching with the use of a gas containing chlorine such as Cl2, BCl3, SiCl4, or the like. In formation of a source electrode layer and a drain electrode layer, a conductive layer on and in contact with the In—Sn—Zn—O-based semiconductor layer can be selectively etched with little removal of the In—Sn—Zn—O-based semiconductor layer with the use of a gas containing oxygen or fluorine in addition to a gas containing chlorine.
US09373700B2
A field plate trench transistor having a semiconductor body. In one embodiment the semiconductor has a trench structure and an electrode structure embedded in the trench structure. The electrode structure being electrically insulated from the semiconductor body by an insulation structure and having a gate electrode structure and a field electrode structure. The field plate trench transistor has a voltage divider configured such that the field electrode structure is set to a potential lying between source and drain potentials.
US09373693B2
A III-N semiconductor channel is compositionally graded between a transition layer and a III-N polarization layer. In embodiments, a gate stack is deposited over sidewalls of a fin including the graded III-N semiconductor channel allowing for formation of a transport channel in the III-N semiconductor channel adjacent to at least both sidewall surfaces in response to a gate bias voltage. In embodiments, a gate stack is deposited completely around a nanowire including a III-N semiconductor channel compositionally graded to enable formation of a transport channel in the III-N semiconductor channel adjacent to both the polarization layer and the transition layer in response to a gate bias voltage.
US09373692B2
A method for forming a field effect power semiconductor device includes providing a semiconductor body comprising a main horizontal surface and a conductive region arranged next to the main horizontal surface, forming an insulating layer on the main horizontal surface, and etching a narrow trench through the insulating layer so that a portion of the conductive region is exposed, the narrow trench comprising, in a given vertical cross-section, a maximum horizontal extension. The method further includes forming a vertical poly-diode structure comprising a horizontally extending pn-junction. Forming the vertical poly-diode structure includes depositing a polycrystalline semiconductor layer comprising a minimum vertical thickness of at least half of the maximum horizontal extension and maskless back-etching of the polycrystalline semiconductor layer to form a polycrystalline region in the narrow trench.
US09373687B2
In a semiconductor device, a YAG substrate is formed as a single-crystal substrate of any of surface orientations (100), (110), and (111). In the fabrication of the semiconductor device, a TMAl gas is first fed onto the YAG substrate so as to form a nucleation layer made of aluminum, which is a group-III element. Then, an NH3 gas is fed onto the nucleation layer. This turns the surface of the nucleation layer into a group-V element and then forms a group-III-V compound layer of AlN. Then, a mixed gas of TMAl gas and NH3 gas is fed onto the group-III-V compound layer so as to form another group-III-V compound layer. Finally, a group-III nitride semiconductor layer is crystal-grown on the group-III compound layer.
US09373683B2
The thin film transistor includes a gate, a gate insulating layer, a semiconductor layer, and a source and a drain. The gate insulating layer covers the gate. The semiconductor layer is located on the gate insulating layer which is disposed above the gate. The source and the drain are disposed above the gate insulating layer and are electrically connected to the semiconductor layer, respectively. The source and the drain are respectively located in different layers. A first contact resistance is existed between the semiconductor layer and the source, a second contact resistance is existed between the semiconductor layer and the drain, and. the first contact resistance is less than the second contact resistance.
US09373677B2
A method of forming a dielectric material, comprising doping a zirconium oxide material, using a dopant precursor selected from the group consisting of Ti(NMe2)4; Ti(NMeEt)4; Ti(NEt2)4;TiCl4; tBuN═Nb(NEt2)3; tBuN═Nb(NMe2)3; t-BuN═Nb(NEtMe)3; t-AmN═Nb(NEt2)3; t-AmN═Nb(NEtMe)3; t-AmN═Nb(NMe2)3; t-AmN═Nb(OBu-t)3; Nb-13; Nb(NEt2)4; Nb(NEt2)5; Nb(N(CH3)2)5; Nb(OC2H5)5; Nb(thd)(OPr-i)4; SiH(OMe)3; SiCU; Si(NMe2)4; (Me3Si)2NH; GeRax(ORb)4.x wherein x is from 0 to 4, each Ra is independently selected from H or C1-C8 alkyl and each Rb is independently selected from C1-C8 alkyl; GeCl4; Ge(NRa2)4 wherein each Ra is independently selected from H and C1-C8 alkyl; and (Rb3Ge)2NH wherein each Rb is independently selected from C1-C8 alkyl; bis(N,N′-diisopropyl-1,3-propanediamide) titanium; and tetrakis(isopropylmethylamido) titanium; wherein Me is methyl, Et is ethyl, Pr-i is isopropyl, t-Bu is tertiary butyl, t-Am is tertiary amyl, and thd is 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-3,5-heptanedionate. Doped zirconium oxide materials of the present disclosure are usefully employed in ferroelectric capacitors and dynamic random access memory (DRAM) devices.
US09373673B2
In accordance with an embodiment, a semiconductor device comprises a semiconductor die, an interposer, and conductive bumps bonding the semiconductor die to the interposer. The semiconductor die comprises a first metallization layer, and the first metallization layer comprises a first conductive pattern. The interposer comprises a second metallization layer, and the second metallization layer comprises a second conductive pattern. Some of the conductive bumps electrically couple the first conductive pattern to the second conductive pattern to form a coil. Other embodiments contemplate other configurations of coils, inductors, and/or transformers, and contemplate methods of manufacture.
US09373670B2
A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor layer over a substrate. The semiconductor layer changes direction at least twice and has at least two different widths in the same plane. The length of a current path through the semiconductor layer is greater than a shortest path through the semiconductor layer in the same plane.
US09373668B2
An organic light emitting diode display device and a method of fabricating the organic light emitting diode display device are discussed. The organic light emitting diode display device includes, a plurality of first electrodes extending in a first direction and a second direction; a common line to adjacent plurality of first electrodes; a pixel definition layer disposed at boundaries of the plurality of first electrodes; an adhesive pattern disposed on the common line; a wall on the adhesive pattern and overlapping the common line; an organic layer on the plurality of first electrodes and on the wall; and a second electrode on the organic layer and contacting the common line in a portion under an overhang of the wall, wherein the organic layer is spaced apart from the adhesive pattern by a distance, and wherein the distance is covered by a portion of the second electrode.
US09373667B2
The present invention provides a display device which inhibits deterioration in display quality caused by color mixture of luminescent layers. In a case where vapor deposition particles are deposited onto a substrate, P+2Lc≧{(Ts×M+0.96×G×Wn)/(Ts−G)}+2Dm and 3 μm≦Dm ≦5 μm are satisfied, where “M” is a width of a mask opening, “Wn” is a width of an injection hole, “G” is a distance between the TFT substrate and a vapor deposition mask, “Ts” is a distance between the TFT substrate and a vapor deposition source, “P” is a width of a first pixel opening, and “Lc” is a width of a non-display region.
US09373664B2
A variable resistance memory device, and methods of manufacturing the same, include a plurality of first conductive structures extending in a first direction, a plurality of second conductive structures extending in a second direction crossing the first direction over the first conductive structures, the second conductive structures, and a plurality of memory cells that are formed at intersections at which the first conductive structures and the second conductive structures overlap each other, and each includes a selection element and a variable resistance element sequentially stacked. An upper surface of each of the first conductive structures has a width in the second direction less than a width of a bottom surface of each of the selection elements.
US09373662B2
A display panel including: a cathode electrode formed in a cathode region of the display panel, the cathode electrode entirely covering an active region of the display panel a plurality of pixel units in columns and rows in the active region of the display panel; a ring-shaped edge negative voltage line formed in a ring-shaped edge portion of the cathode electrode configured to supply a negative power supply voltage to the cathode electrode; and a plurality of compensation negative voltage lines connected to the ring-shaped edge negative voltage line, the compensation negative voltage lines extending along a column direction of the display panel and arranged along a row direction of the display panel.
US09373657B2
A system and method for fabricating a 3D image sensor structure is disclosed. The method comprises providing an image sensor with a backside illuminated photosensitive region on a substrate, applying a first dielectric layer to the first side of the substrate opposite the substrate side where image data is gathered, and applying a semiconductor layer that is optionally polysilicon, to the first dielectric layer. A least one control transistor may be created on the first dielectric layer, within the semiconductor layer and may optionally be a row select, reset or source follower transistor. An intermetal dielectric may be applied over the first dielectric layer; and may have at least one metal interconnect disposed therein. A second interlevel dielectric layer may be disposed on the control transistors. The dielectric layers and semiconductor layer may be applied by bonding a wafer to the substrate or via deposition.
US09373654B2
A solid-state imaging device includes pixels respectively having photoelectric conversion units and arranged in matrix in basic pattern units, and an optical member arranged on the incidence side of incident light than the pixels and having constituent elements respectively corresponding to the pixels. The pixels include first, second and third wavelength range light pixels. Each basic pattern is comprised of a combined arrangement pattern of the wavelength range light pixels. Misregistration constituent elements with the occurrence of misregistration exist in the constituent elements. The misregistration increases toward the misregistration constituent elements separated from a center position of a pixel array of the pixels. The misregistration of the misregistration constituent element for the first wavelength range light pixel and that of the misregistration constituent element for the third wavelength range light pixel are smaller and larger than that of the misregistration constituent element for the second wavelength range light pixel, respectively.
US09373651B2
A display device includes a first substrate including a protrusion electrode pattern, a second substrate disposed opposite to the first substrate, and a liquid crystal layer disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate. The protrusion electrode pattern is made of a conductive polymer material, and a state of the liquid crystal layer changes from an isotropic state to an anisotropic state when an electric field is applied.
US09373648B2
This semiconductor device (100A) includes: an oxide layer (15) which includes a semiconductor region (5) and a conductor region (7) that contacts with the semiconductor region; a source electrode (6s) and a drain electrode (6d) which are electrically connected to the semiconductor region; an insulating layer (11) formed on the source and drain electrodes; a transparent electrode (9) arranged to overlap at least partially with the conductor region with the insulating layer interposed between them; a source line (6a) formed out of the same conductive film as the source electrode; and a gate extended line (3a) formed out of the same conductive film as a gate electrode (3). The source line is electrically connected to the gate extended line via a transparent connecting layer (9a) which is formed out of the same conductive film as the transparent electrode.
US09373647B2
A thin film transistor array panel includes: first to third gate lines extending in one direction and parallel to each other; a data line insulated from and intersecting the first to third gate lines; a first thin film transistor connected to the first gate line and the data line; a second thin film transistor connected to the second gate line and an output terminal of the first thin film transistor; a third thin film transistor connected to the third gate line and the data line; a fourth thin film transistor connected to the second gate line and an output terminal of the third thin film transistor; and first to fourth sub-pixel electrodes respectively connected to the first to fourth thin film transistors.
US09373632B2
Roughly described, a memory device has a multilevel stack of conductive layers. Vertically oriented pillars each include series-connected memory cells at cross-points between the pillars and the conductive layers. SSLs run above the conductive layers, each intersection of a pillar and an SSL defining a respective select gate of the pillar. Bit lines run above the SSLs. The pillars are arranged on a regular grid which is rotated relative to the bit lines. The grid may have a square, rectangle or diamond-shaped unit cell, and may be rotated relative to the bit lines by an angle θ where tan(θ)=±X/Y, where X and Y are co-prime integers. The SSLs may be made wide enough so as to intersect two pillars on one side of the unit cell, or all pillars of the cell, or sufficiently wide as to intersect pillars in two or more non-adjacent cells.
US09373626B2
An embodiment of a semiconductor device includes a plate line that is connected to ferroelectric capacitors selected from a plurality of ferroelectric capacitors and covers the selected ferroelectric capacitors and regions between the selected ferroelectric capacitors from above top electrodes.
US09373613B2
Disclosed herein are systems and method for voltage clamping in semiconductor circuits using through-silicon via (TSV) positioning. A semiconductor die is disclosed that includes a silicon substrate, a bipolar transistor having collector, emitter, base and sub-collector regions disposed on the substrate, and a through-silicon via (TSV) positioned within 35 μm of the sub-collector region in order to clamp a peak voltage of the bipolar transistor at a voltage limit level.
US09373612B1
An electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuit includes an electrostatic discharge bus, first and second resistors coupled in series, first and second capacitors coupled in series, and first and second transistors. The first resistor is coupled to the electrostatic discharge bus. The first capacitor is coupled to the second resistor. The first transistor has a control input that is coupled between the first and the second resistors. The second transistor has a control input that is coupled between the first and the second capacitors.
US09373604B2
A device package includes a plurality of dies, a molding compound extending along sidewalls of the plurality of dies, and a polymer layer over and contacting the molding compound. The molding compound comprises a non-planar top surface, and a total thickness variation (TTV) of a top surface of the polymer layer is less than a TTV of the non-planar top surface of the molding compound. The device package further includes a conductive feature on the polymer layer, wherein the conductive feature is electrically connected at least one of the plurality of dies.
US09373598B2
A die includes a substrate, a metal pad over the substrate, and a passivation layer covering edge portions of the metal pad. A metal pillar is formed over the metal pad. A portion of the metal pillar overlaps a portion of the metal pad. A center of the metal pillar is misaligned with a center of the metal pad.
US09373592B2
Circuit arrangement embodiments that use relative groupings of energy pathways that include shielding circuit arrangements that can sustain and condition electrically complementary energy confluences.
US09373591B2
A semiconductor device which prevents a crack from occurring on a pad region is provided. The semiconductor device includes a lower pad, an upper pad which is formed above the lower pad, an insulation layer which is formed between the lower pad and the upper pad, a via net for electrically connecting the lower pad and the upper pad in the insulation layer, the via net having a net shape in which a unit grid is connected with its adjacent unit grids to form a net structure, and at least one via hole for electrically connecting the lower pad and the upper pad in the unit grid of the via net.
US09373587B2
An electronic component device, includes, a plurality of wiring layers including a component connection pad in a center part and an external connection pad in a periphery, an insulating layer formed on the wiring layers, and the insulating layer in which the component connection pad and the external connection pad are exposed, a frame member arranged on the insulating layer, and the frame member in which an opening portion is provided in an area of the center part in which the component connection pad is arranged, and a connection hole is provided on the external connection pad, an electronic component arranged in the opening portion of the frame member and connected to the component connection pad, a sealing resin formed in the opening portion of the frame member and sealing the electronic component, and a metal bonding material formed on the external connection pad in the connection hole.
US09373582B1
A method for forming a via in an integrated circuit comprises patterning a first opening in a first hardmask, the first hardmask disposed on a first organic self-planarizing polymer (OPL) layer, removing an exposed portion of the first OPL layer to define a cavity, removing an exposed portion of a second hardmask in the cavity, removing an exposed portion of a first dielectric layer disposed under the second hardmask to further define the cavity, removing an exposed portion of a first cap layer in the cavity, removing an exposed portion of a second dielectric layer to further define the cavity, removing an exposed portion of a second cap layer to further define the cavity, removing an exposed portion of a liner layer over a second conductive material in the cavity, and depositing a conductive material in the cavity.
US09373575B2
A device includes a substrate having a front side and a backside, a through-via extending from the backside to the front side of the substrate, and a conductive pad on the backside of the substrate and over the through-via. The conductive pad has a substantially planar top surface. A conductive bump has a non-planar top surface over the substantially planar top surface and aligned to the through-via. The conductive bump and the conductive pad are formed of a same material. No interface is formed between the conductive bump and the conductive pad.
US09373574B2
Disclosed are semiconductor packages and methods of forming the same. In the semiconductor packages and the methods, a package substrate includes a hole not overlapped with semiconductor chips. Thus, a molding layer may be formed without a void.
US09373555B2
A power semiconductor module includes a metal plate having a through hole with an eaves; an insulated metal block including a metal block having an element mounting region on an upper surface, and an insulating layer on surfaces other than the upper surface and a portion of the upper surface other than the element mounting region; a circuit pattern disposed over the metal plate with the insulating material interposed therebetween; a power semiconductor element fixed to the element mounting region of the upper surface of the metal block; and a connection conductor connecting the power semiconductor element and the circuit pattern. The insulated metal block is fitted into the through hole in the metal plate so that the insulating layer on the upper surface of the insulated metal block contacts the eaves of the through hole to electrically insulate between the metal block and the metal plate.
US09373551B2
An apparatus for increasing the uniformity in a critical dimension of chemical vapor deposition and etching during substrate processing, comprising a plurality of gas injectors for admitting a processing gas into an etching chamber. Each gas injector of the plurality of gas injectors is disposed along a track within the etching chamber and moveable along the track. Further, each gas injector is coupled with a throttling valve or nozzle to permit adjustment of processing gas flow rate. A method for increasing the uniformity in a critical dimension of chemical vapor deposition and etching during substrate processing includes performing a chemical deposition or etch using the plurality of moveable and adjustable gas injectors and measuring the critical dimension uniformity. Adjustments to the location of at least one gas injector or the processing gas flow rate to at least one gas injector are made to increase critical dimension uniformity.
US09373547B1
Provided is a method for forming a two-dimensional array of semiconductor quantum confined structures. The method includes providing a layer that has first atoms and second atoms, the first atoms having a different size than the second atoms; providing an indenter template that includes at least one indenter structure extending from a surface of the indenter template; contacting the layer and the at least one indenter structure together with a pressure sufficient to generate an elastic deformation in the layer but without generating plastic deformation of the layer; annealing the layer; and forming at least one quantum confined structure in a region of the layer in a region of the layer not pressed by the at least one indenter structure.
US09373535B2
Semiconductor devices and fabrication methods are provided having an isolation feature within a fin structure which, for instance, facilitates isolating circuit elements supported by the fin structure. The fabrication method includes, for instance, providing an isolation material disposed, in part, within the fin structure, the isolation material being formed to include a T-shaped isolation region and a first portion extending into the fin structure, and a second portion disposed over the first portion and extending above the fin structure.
US09373530B2
A pick tool for picking a planar object from a supply station is presented, in particular to be used for picking a semiconductor die from a carrier tape, said pick tool comprising: a work surface, said work surface comprising at least one contact region that may be brought into contact with a first surface on a first side of the planar object; one or more vacuum outlets in the work surface that may be connected to a vacuum source to allow for temporarily fixing the planar object to the work surface; and wherein a flexible seal is provided to maintain vacuum if the planar object becomes deformed.
US09373526B2
According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method for forming a chip package is provided. The method includes: providing a conducting plate, wherein a plurality of conducting pads are disposed on an upper surface of the conducting plate; forming a plurality of conducting bumps on a lower surface of the conducting plate; patterning the conducting plate by removing a portion of the conducting plate, wherein the patterned conducting plate has a plurality of conducting sections electrically insulated from each other, and each of the conducting bumps is electrically connected to a corresponding one of the conducting sections of the patterned conducting plate; forming an insulating support layer to partially surround the conducting bumps; and disposing a chip on the conducting pads.
US09373522B1
A method of removing titanium nitride hardmask is described. The hardmask resides above a low-k dielectric layer prior to removal and the low-k dielectric layer retains a relatively low net dielectric constant after the removal process. The low-k dielectric layer may be part of a dual damascene structure having copper at the bottom of the vias. A non-porous carbon layer is deposited prior to the titanium nitride hardmask removal to protect the low-k dielectric layer and the copper. The titanium nitride hardmask and the non-porous carbon layer are removed with a gas-phase etch using plasma effluents formed in a remote plasma from a chlorine-containing precursor. Plasma effluents within the remote plasma are flowed into a substrate processing region where the plasma effluents react with the non-porous carbon layer and the titanium nitride.
US09373519B2
A method for creating a pattern on a substrate (101) is presented, the method comprises: providing a substrate (101) comprising silicon; creating a sacrificial layer (102) on the substrate (101), wherein the sacrificial layer is formed on a first surface area (101a) of the substrate thereby leaving a second surface area (101b) exposed; depositing a first functional layer (103) at least on the second surface area (101b) of the substrate (101); removing the sacrificial layer (102); wherein: removing the sacrificial layer (102) is performed by etching the sacrificial layer (102) with an acidic aqueous solution that does not adversely affect the first functional layer (103) and the substrate (101).
US09373517B2
Semiconductor processing systems are described including a process chamber. The process chamber may include a lid assembly, grid electrode, conductive insert, and ground electrode. Each component may be coupled with one or more power supplies operable to produce a plasma within the process chamber. Each component may be electrically isolated through the positioning of a plurality of insulation members. The one or more power supplies may be electrically coupled with the process chamber with the use of switching mechanisms. The switches may be switchable to electrically couple the one or more power supplies to the components of the process chamber.
US09373513B2
A semiconductor device includes a substrate including an active region defined by a device isolation pattern and a floating gate on the active region. The floating gate includes an upper portion, a lower portion having a width greater than a width of the upper portion, and a step-difference portion between the upper portion and the lower portion. A dielectric pattern is on the floating gate, and a control gate is on the dielectric pattern. The lower portion of the floating gate has a height of about 4 nm or more.
US09373508B2
A semiconductor device and a fabricating method thereof are provided. The semiconductor device is formed on a substrate and includes a first first-type metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) and a second first-type MOSFET. The first first-type MOSFET includes a first gate structure, a first source area and a first drain area on the substrate. The second first-type MOSFET includes a second gate structure, a second source area, and a second drain area on the substrate. A first pocket implant process is applied to the first first-type MOSFET via a first photomask, while a second pocket implant process is applied to the second first-type MOSFET via a second photomask. The first and second gate structures are facing different directions.
US09373505B2
In this disclosure, a mark segmentation method and a method for manufacturing a semiconductor structure applying the same are provided. The mark segmentation method comprises the following steps. First, a plurality of segments having a width WS and separated from each other by a space SS formed on a substrate are identified by a processor. Thereafter, a plurality of marks are set over the segments by the processor. This step comprises: (1) adjusting a width WM of each one of the marks being equal to m(WS+SS)+WS or m(WS+SS)+SS by the processor, wherein m is an integer; and (2) adjusting a space SM of adjacent two of the marks by the processor such that WM+SM=n(WS+SS), wherein n is an integer.
US09373495B2
Disclosed is a fluorine-containing resin film which is formed from a fluorine-containing resin composition and has a thickness of 10 to 50 μm, wherein the fluorine-containing resin composition is prepared by adding 10 to 30 parts by mass of titanium oxide or a composite-oxide-type inorganic pigment to 100 parts by mass of a resin component comprising 60 to 95 parts by mass of a vinylidene fluoride resin and 5 to 40 parts by mass of a methacrylic acid ester resin, and wherein the peak intensity ratio of a II-type crystal, which is expressed by (A)/((A)+(B))×100 wherein A represents the peak height at 840 cm−1 and B represents the peak height at 765 cm−1 in a measurement chart produced by an infrared absorption spectrum, is 60% or more and the total crystallinity is 30% or more as calculated from an X-ray diffraction profile.
US09373493B2
A mass spectrometer and method capable of optimizing the opening time of a collision cell includes: an ion source (10) for ionizing a sample; a first mass analyzer (30) for selecting first desired ions from the ions generated in the ion source (10); a collision cell (40) for fragmenting some or all of the first desired ions into product ions; a second mass analyzer (50) for selecting second desired ions from the first desired ions and the product ions; a detector (60) for detecting the second desired ions; and a control section (200) for controlling the collision cell (40) in such a way that the cell performs a storing operation for storing the first desired ions and the product ions for a given storage time and then performs an opening operation for ejecting the stored ions for a given opening time based on information about settings in an adjustment mode.
US09373491B2
An object of the present invention is to provide a mass spectrometer having a simple structure and being capable of precisely measuring a total pressure and performing mass spectrometry with high precision. A mass spectrometer according to one embodiment includes a quadrupole configured to selectively pass therethrough an ion of a target gas having a predetermined mass-to-charge ratio among components of a measurement gas ionized by an ion source, an ion detector configured to detect an ion current value based on the ion of the target gas that passes through the quadrupole, a total pressure measurer configured to detect a photoelectric current value based on vacuum ultraviolet light generated when the ion source ionizes the measurement gas, and an arithmetic unit configured to calculate a partial pressure of the target gas by using the photoelectric current value and the ion current value.
US09373487B2
In a pause time assigned for switching voltage applied to a quadrupole mass filter or other ion transport optical system so as to switch the mass-to-charge ratio of a target ion in an SIM measurement, the polarity of direct-current voltage applied to a pre-quadrupole mass filter is temporarily reversed. The voltage polarity reversal time is changed according to length of the pause time so that the ion intensity can sufficiently rise by the time the next dwell time begins. When the polarity of the voltage applied to the pre-quadrupole mass filter is reversed, the electric charges which lie on an insulating film of contaminants or other substances attached to the surface of the pre-quadrupole mass filter or on an insulating support structure are dispersed, whereby the charge-up is eliminated. Since ions are prevented from passing through, charge-up of a main quadrupole mass filter in the subsequent stage is also reduced.
US09373485B2
Improved designs of target assemblies and darkspace shields are disclosed. Methods of improving darkspace gap in sputtering chambers and sputtering chambers having an improved darkspace gap are also disclosed. Disclosed is a target assembly having a substantially coplanar backing plate and a target are vertically spaced from the darkspace shield.
US09373480B2
In a SEM device which enables observations under an atmospheric pressure, in the event that a diaphragm is damaged during an observation of a sample, air flows into a charged particle optical barrel from the vicinity of the sample, due to the differential pressure between the inside of the charged particle optical barrel under vacuum and the vicinity of the sample under the atmospheric pressure. At this time, the sample may be sucked into the charged particle optical barrel. In this case, a charged particle optical system and a detector are contaminated thereby, which causes performance degradation or failures of the charged particle microscope. For coping therewith, it is necessary to prevent the charged particle optical barrel from being contaminated, without inducing a time lag, with a simple structure. In a charged particle beam device adapted to place a sample in a non-vacuum environment, there is provided a filter member which is placed on the path of a primary charged particle beam at least in a state where the primary charged particle beam is directed to the sample and, further, is adapted to transmit or pass, therethrough, the primary charged particle beam and secondary charged particles derived from the sample, while intercepting at least a portion of a scattering substance which is scattered in the event of a fracture of the diaphragm.
US09373468B2
A contactor or switch assembly adapted for switching power to a circuit. The housing has internal walls that laterally extend within the interior compartment to define a protection chamber. Current carrying contacts are disposed in the protection chamber of the housing. The current carrying contacts include conductive bodies that protrude from the housing and are configured to close the circuit. Arc dissipation areas are provided in the protection chamber and are located proximate to the current carrying contacts. Magnets are provided proximate ends of the dissipation areas. The magnets create magnetic flux or a magnetic field that extends across the current carrying contacts. The magnetic flux directs electric arcs radiating from one or more of the current carrying contacts into the arc dissipation areas, thereby increasing the effective distance that the electric arcs travel wherein the electric arcs are dissipated in the dissipation areas.
US09373467B2
An electromagnetic contactor includes a contact device having a contact housing case formed from an insulating material and housing a pair of fixed contacts and a movable contact disposed to be capable of contacting to and separating from the pair of fixed contacts. On an inner peripheral surface of the contact housing case along the movable contact, arc extinguishing permanent magnets magnetized so that magnetic pole faces facing each other have same polarity are disposed to be near the movable contact.
US09373464B2
A keyswitch with force feedback function includes a vibrating source, a switching circuit and a controller. The vibrating source is connected to a cap of the keyswitch. The switching circuit is switched on according to states of the keyswitch. The controller is electrically connected to the vibrating source and the switching circuit. When the switching circuit is switched on, the controller outputs a first driving signal to the vibrating source, and the vibrating source transmits a pressing vibration to the cap of the keyswitch. A period of the first driving signal is smaller than or equal to a predetermined period, a user can feel vibration of the keyswitch due to the pressing vibration.
US09373459B1
A pivoting lockout member that is mounted to a pair of hinge member installed onto a control switch. Each of the hinge members includes a planar flange having a hole formed therethrough that is dimensioned to accept the face plate screw of a control switch. The lockout member has a pair of hinge arms that are connected together and spaced apart by a central U-shaped member. A pair of lock flanges extend at right angles to the U-shaped member and have holed formed therethrough that are aligned with each other to accept a conventional padlock. The locking member is moved between an unlocked position where the control switch handle is free to move, and a locked position where the U-shaped member captures the handle and prevent it from being operated.
US09373457B2
An electric power circuit breaker with an energy storage device and an indicating device including an indicator lever with an indicator and an indicating cam of loaded and unloaded states of the loading mechanism. The indicating cam is mounted on the loading shaft in proximity to the loading cam, and includes a notch for receipt of the indicator lever when the mechanism is in the loaded state. The indicating cam includes a single ramp for progressively bringing the indicator lever into position up to the notch to guarantee latching of the opening latch maintained in a tripped position by the auxiliary release.
US09373456B2
Spring operated actuator devices for an electrical circuit breaker and/or electrical switching device include at least one clock spring comprising a disc shaped body with gear teeth and a spiral spring, a cam shaft holding the at least one clock spring with an inner end portion of the spiral spring attached to the cam shaft, and a drive cam held by the cam shaft adapted to be in communication with a follower that directs an actuator to open or close a mobile contact to maintain open and closed energy status of the electrical circuit. The at least one clock spring is configured as a closing spring of the spring operated actuator.
US09373447B2
Utilizing a variable capacitor for RF and microwave applications provides for multiple levels of intra-cavity routing that advantageously reduce capacitive coupling. The variable capacitor includes a bond pad that has a plurality of cells electrically coupled thereto. Each of the plurality of cells has a plurality of MEMS devices therein. The MEMS devices share a common RF electrode, one or more ground electrodes and one or more control electrodes. The RF electrode, ground electrodes and control electrodes are all arranged parallel to each other within the cells. The RF electrode is electrically connected to the one or more bond pads using a different level of electrical routing metal.
US09373441B2
A composite electronic component with a built-in coil is provided which can be produced inexpensively, which can effectively increase insulating reliability, and which has the antistatic function. Coil wirings are disposed inside a sintered body that is formed by stacking a plurality of ferrite layers, which are fired as an integral unit. Voltage nonlinear members are incorporated in the sintered body at a different height position from those of the coil wirings. First inner electrodes and second inner electrodes are disposed in opposing relation with the voltage nonlinear members interposed therebetween. A magnetic circuit forming portion is constituted by a part of the ferrite layers and the coil wirings in a portion in which the coil wirings are arranged, and an antistatic portion is constituted in a portion in which the remaining ferrite layers, the voltage nonlinear members, and the first and second inner electrodes are arranged.
US09373436B2
An inductor assembly includes an inductor core, a winding, and a coolant conduit. The inductor core defines a cavity and the winding is disposed about the inductor core such that a portion of the winding is disposed within the cavity. The coolant conduit extends from a first end of the cavity towards an opposed second end of the cavity and includes an inlet port and an outlet port in fluid communication with each other through the coolant conduit.
US09373407B2
A non-volatile memory device with a current injection sensing amplifier is disclosed.
US09373404B2
In an embodiment, a target memory cell in a first block of memory cells of a memory device and a target memory cell in a second block of memory cells of the memory device are sensed concurrently while a read voltage is applied to a selected access line coupled to the target memory cell in the first block of memory cells and while a read voltage is applied to another selected access line coupled to the target memory cell in the second block of memory cells.
US09373400B2
A semiconductor memory device includes: a semiconductor region extending vertically from a first region of a substrate; a plurality of gate electrodes disposed on the first region of the substrate in a vertical direction, but separated from each other along a sidewall of the semiconductor region; a gate dielectric layer disposed between the semiconductor region and the plurality of gate electrodes; a substrate contact electrode extending vertically from the impurity-doped second region of the substrate; and an insulating region formed as an air gap between the substrate contact electrode and at least one of the plurality of gate electrodes.
US09373398B1
A method can include programming programmable resistive elements (PREs) in a first integrated circuit (IC) device to establish functions of configurable circuits of the first IC device; and creating at least one second IC device by forming non-programmable connections based on resistive states of the PREs of the first IC device to provide the functions of the first IC device in the second IC device.
US09373394B2
A reference column of a semiconductor memory includes a reference bit line; a reference source line; and first to Nth resistive memory cells disposed between the reference bit line and the reference source line. Data of a first state is stored in the first resistive memory cell and data of a second state is stored in the Nth resistive memory cell before a read operation, and the first and Nth resistive memory cells form current paths between the reference bit line and the reference source line in the read operation.
US09373391B1
A resistive memory apparatus is provided. The resistive memory apparatus includes a plurality of memory cell pairs, and each of the memory cell pairs includes an active area, first and second word lines, a source line, first and second resistors and first and second bit lines. The active area is formed on a substrate, and the first and second word lines are formed on the substrate, and intersected with the active area. The source line is formed on the substrate and coupled to the active area. The first and second resistors are disposed on the substrate, and respectively coupled to the active area. The first and second bit lines are formed on the first and second resistors and coupled to the first and second resistors. The first and second bit lines are extended along a first direction which is substantially parallel to the first and second word lines.
US09373382B1
A method for healing phase-change memory device includes steps as follows: At least one memory cell comprising a phase-change material with a shifted current-resistance characteristic function (shifted I-R function) is firstly provided. A healing stress is then applied to the phase-change material to transform the shifted I-R function into an initial current-resistance characteristic function (initial I-R function), wherein the shifted I-R function is a translation function of the initial I-R function.
US09373377B2
Apparatuses, integrated circuits, and methods are disclosed for testmode security systems. In one such example apparatus, a data storage is configured to store data. A testmode security system is configured to allow a user to access one or more testmodes of the apparatus at least partially responsive to the data storage not storing sensitive data and disallow the user from accessing the one or more testmodes of the apparatus at least partially responsive to the data storage storing sensitive data.
US09373371B2
A memory, a system and a method for controlling dynamic burst length control data can generate clocks for both an upstream counter and a downstream counter by using substantially the same latency delayed received command indications. A downstream clock generation circuit generates a clock signal from a received command indication delayed by both a delay locked loop and latency delays stored in latency control circuits. An upstream clock generation circuit generates a clock signal from the received command indication delayed by the delay locked loop and capture indications from the latency control circuits.
US09373369B1
A data storage device includes a nonvolatile memory apparatus including a plurality of memory areas, and a controller configured to randomize write data and generate random write data based on an offset value of a target memory area of the memory areas and a flag corresponding to the target memory area.
US09373367B1
A data storage device may include: a nonvolatile memory device including first and second memory cells adjacent to each other; and a controller suitable for performing a distribution adjusting operation for adjusting a threshold voltage of the second memory cell based on whether a read operation on the first memory cell fails.
US09373356B2
According to one embodiment, a magnetic recording and reproducing device includes a magnetic recording medium, a recording unit, and a reproducing unit. The magnetic recording medium includes a first track including first and second sub-tracks extending in a first direction. The second sub-track is arranged with the first sub-track in a second direction intersecting the first direction. The recording unit records information in the first and second sub-tracks. The reproducing unit reproduces the information recorded in the first and second sub-tracks while opposing the first, second sub-tracks, and a boundary between the first and second sub-tracks. The first sub-track includes first magnetic recording components including first and second components. The second sub-track includes second magnetic recording components including third and fourth components. A first recording symbol is formed of the first and third components. A second recording symbol is formed of the second and fourth components.
US09373352B2
An optical information reproduction apparatus using holography can appropriately correct an angle and a wavelength of a reference beam in a direction perpendicular to multiplexing while data is reproduced. In the optical information reproduction apparatus which reproduces information from an optical information recording medium by using holography, an angular error signal in the direction perpendicular to multiplexing of the reference beam is generated by using a signal detected by a light detecting unit. A perpendicular angle adjustment element adjusts an angle of the reference beam in the direction perpendicular to multiplexing, based on the angular error signal. A wavelength error signal is generated from a signal detected by the light detecting unit, and a wavelength is adjusted based on the wavelength error signal.
US09373343B2
An audio signal with a temporal sequence of blocks or frames is received or accessed. Features are determined as characterizing aggregately the sequential audio blocks/frames that have been processed recently, relative to current time. The feature determination exceeds a specificity criterion and is delayed, relative to the recently processed audio blocks/frames. Voice activity indication is detected in the audio signal. VAD is based on a decision that exceeds a preset sensitivity threshold and is computed over a brief time period, relative to blocks/frames duration, and relates to current block/frame features. The VAD and the recent feature determination are combined with state related information, which is based on a history of previous feature determinations that are compiled from multiple features, determined over a time prior to the recent feature determination time period. Decisions to commence or terminate the audio signal, or related gains, are outputted based on the combination.
US09373342B2
The present disclosure is directed towards a method for speech intelligibility. The method may include receiving, at one or more computing devices, a first speech input from a first user and performing voice activity detection upon the first speech input. The method may also include analyzing a spectral tilt associated with the first speech input, wherein analyzing includes computing an impulse response of a linear predictive coding (“LPC”) synthesis filter in a linear pulse code modulation (“PCM”) domain and wherein the one or more computing devices includes an adaptive high pass filter configured to recalculate one or more linear prediction coefficients.
US09373341B2
Method for measuring level of speech determined by an audio signal in a manner which corrects for and reduces the effect of modification of the signal by the addition of noise thereto and/or amplitude compression thereof, and a system configured to perform any embodiment of the method. In some embodiments, the method includes steps of generating frequency banded, frequency-domain data indicative of an input speech signal, determining from the data a Gaussian parametric spectral model of the speech signal, and determining from the parametric spectral model an estimated mean speech level and a standard deviation value for each frequency band of the data; and generating speech level data indicative of a bias corrected mean speech level for each frequency band, including using at least one correction value to correct the estimated mean speech level for the frequency band, where each correction value has been predetermined using a reference speech model.
US09373340B2
The invention includes a method, apparatus, and computer program to selectively suppress wind noise while preserving narrow-band signals in acoustic data. Sound from one or several microphones is digitized into binary data. A time-frequency transform is applied to the data to produce a series of spectra. The spectra are analyzed to detect the presence of wind noise and narrow band signals. Wind noise is selectively suppressed while preserving the narrow band signals. The narrow band signal is interpolated through the times and frequencies when it is masked by the wind noise. A time series is then synthesized from the signal spectral estimate that can be listened to. This invention overcomes prior art limitations that require more than one microphone and an independent measurement of wind speed. Its application results in good-quality speech from data severely degraded by wind noise.
US09373338B1
An automatic speech recognition engine receives an acoustic-echo processed signal from an acoustic-echo processing (AEP) module, where said echo processed signal contains mainly the speech from the near-end talker. The automatic speech recognition engine analyzes the content of the acoustic-echo processed signal to determine whether words or keywords are present. Based upon the results of this analysis, the automatic speech recognition engine produces a value reflecting the likelihood that some words or keywords are detected. Said value is provided to the AEP module. Based upon the value, the AEP module determines if there is double talk and processes the incoming signals accordingly to enhance its performance.
US09373334B2
A method including the steps of assessing at least two metadata parameters associated with an audio bitstream (e.g., an encoded Dolby Digital (AC-3), Dolby Digital Plus, or Dolby E bitstream), determining individual metadata parameter quality values, each of the individual metadata parameter quality values indicative of quality (e.g., correctness) of a different one of the at least two metadata parameters, and generating data indicative of a metadata score, where the metadata score is a value determined by a combination (e.g., a linear combination or other weighted combination) of the individual metadata parameter quality values. The metadata score is indicative of overall quality (e.g., correctness) of the at least two metadata parameters. Another aspect is a system (e.g., a test device or measurement device, or another test or measurement product, or a processor) configured (e.g., programmed) to perform any embodiment of the method.
US09373329B2
The subject matter of this specification can be embodied in, among other things, a method that includes receiving an audio signal and initiating speech recognition tasks by a plurality of speech recognition systems (SRS's). Each SRS is configured to generate a recognition result specifying possible speech included in the audio signal and a confidence value indicating a confidence in a correctness of the speech result. The method also includes completing a portion of the speech recognition tasks including generating one or more recognition results and one or more confidence values for the one or more recognition results, determining whether the one or more confidence values meets a confidence threshold, aborting a remaining portion of the speech recognition tasks for SRS's that have not generated a recognition result, and outputting a final recognition result based on at least one of the generated one or more speech results.
US09373319B2
A device is provided for influencing the passenger compartment noise in a motor vehicle includes, but is not limited to a noise signal generator for generating an offsetting noise signal, which includes, but is not limited to a control input for receiving a control signal that is representative of the engine load of the motor vehicle, and a loudspeaker for receiving the offsetting noise signal and emitting an offsetting noise into the passenger compartment of the motor vehicle. The noise signal generator furthermore includes, but is not limited to an input for a temperature signal of a temperature sensor and is equipped to generate the offsetting noise signal as a function of a signaled temperature.
US09373310B2
Some embodiments provide a drum structural framework comprising a top shell mount, bottom shell mount, rod holders, and tension rods. The top shell mount and bottom shell mount are mounted to either ending edge of a drum shell disposed between the two mounts. A first set of the rod holders are coupled to the top shell mount and an aligned second set of the rod holders are coupled to the bottom shell mount. The tension rods link the two sets of rod holders without hindering resonance of the drum shell. Tuning assemblies on the rod holders adjust the distance separating the top shell mount from the bottom shell mount, thereby controlling the force imposed on the drum shell. Each rod holder includes one or more dampeners that isolate energy passing from the drumhead to the shell from also reverberating throughout the structural framework of the tension rods and rod holders.
US09373293B2
A display apparatus includes a source driver and a display panel. The source driver provides a plurality of pixel voltages which respectively correspond to a maximum gray-level voltage or a minimum gray-level voltage. The display panel includes a plurality of data lines, a plurality of pixel switches, a plurality of pixel capacitors, and a plurality of gray-level switches. The data lines are coupled to the source driver to receive the pixel voltages. Each pixel switch is respectively coupled to the corresponding data line to transmit the corresponding pixel voltage. Each pixel capacitor is respectively coupled between the corresponding pixel switch and a common voltage to receive the corresponding pixel voltage. Each gray-level switch is respectively coupled to the corresponding pixel capacitor in parallel and respectively receives a gray-level control signal. The gray-level switches regulate voltage drops across the pixel capacitors according to the corresponding gray-level control signals.
US09373289B2
The disclosure is directed toward driving methods and a driving circuit which are particularly suitable for bi-stable displays. In certain embodiments, methods provide the fastest and most pleasing appearance to the desired image while maintaining the optimal image quality over the life expectancy of an electrophoretic display device.
US09373288B2
An electronic device includes a backlight unit and a liquid crystal layer adjacent the backlight unit. The backlight unit has a plurality of planar emission devices distributed over a viewable display area. The plurality of planar emission devices are disposed in a configurable zone arrangement having a plurality of zones of the viewable area. Each zone includes at least one planar emission device. The liquid crystal layer is configured to selectively filter light generated by the plurality of planar emission devices. The electronic device further includes a processor coupled to the backlight unit and configured to control a brightness level of the at least one planar emission device in each zone separately from other planar emission devices in other zones.
US09373286B2
In one embodiment, a method a method of displaying an image on a display device is described. The display device includes a plurality of clusters. Each cluster has a plurality of pixels and an independent light source associated therewith. Each of the plurality of clusters are illuminated with their associated independent light source. The plurality of pixels in a cluster are refreshed with bits of gray scale. Simultaneously with the refreshing, the light source associated with the cluster where the plurality of pixels are being refreshed is switched off. When the plurality of pixels have been refreshed, the light source is switched on with a predetermined intensity of light. Each of the clusters are refreshed at a rate that is fast enough to eliminate flicker.
US09373284B2
A light emitting diode (LED) backlight driving circuit includes a power supply, an LED lightbar coupled to the power supply, and a constant current driving chip coupled to a control end of the power supply and coupled to a cathode of the LED lightbar. The constant current driving chip includes an adjusting dimming unit coupled to the cathode of the LED lightbar, and the adjusting dimming unit adjusts an external pulse-width modulation (PWM) dimming signal. A controllable switch unit is connected in series between an output end of the power supply and the constant current driving chip, and logical operation of the controllable switch unit is relative to logical operation of the adjusting dimming unit. The controllable switch unit turns off when the adjusting dimming unit turns off or before the adjusting dimming unit turns off, and the controllable switch unit turns on when the adjusting dimming unit turns on or after the adjusting dimming unit turns on.
US09373283B2
A pixel circuit, an organic electroluminescent display panel and a display device are provided. The pixel circuit includes a luminous device (D1), a photosensitive device (P1), a drive control sub-module (1), a data write sub-module (2), a light-emitting control sub-module (3) and a touch detection sub-module (4). Upon the data write sub-module (2) being turned on, a data signal at the data signal terminal (Data) is transmitted to the drive control sub-module (1) by the data write sub-module (2). Upon the light-emitting control sub-module (3) being turned on, the light-emitting control sub-module (3) controls the drive control sub-module (1) to drive the luminous device (D1) to give off light, so as to achieve a display function. Upon the touch detection sub-module (4) being turned on, the touch detection sub-module (4) controls output of a touch detection signal from the drive control sub-module (1) to a touch signal read terminal. The touch detection signal is decreased as the light intensity irradiated onto the photosensitive device is increased, so as to achieve a touch detecting function. Touch and display functions are integrated in the pixel circuit, so that the production cost involved in arranging a display drive circuit and a touch circuit separately can be saved, and thickness of the display panel can be thinned as well.
US09373282B2
A pixel circuit for increasing accuracy of current sensing of an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display is disclosed. In one aspect, the pixel circuit includes an OLED, a driving circuit, and first to third transistors. The driving circuit is configured to adjust a magnitude of a current flowing through the OLED based at least in part on a data signal received from a data line. The first transistor is configured to electrically connect the data line and a holding capacitor based at least in part on a scan signal. The second transistor is configured to electrically connect the holding capacitor and the driving circuit based at least in part on a write control signal. The third transistor is configured to electrically connect the data line and an anode electrode of the OLED based at least in part on a sensing control signal.
US09373281B2
A pixel unit circuit, a compensating method thereof and a display device. The pixel unit circuit includes a driving transistor, a first transistor, a second transistor, a third transistor, a fourth transistor, a storage capacitor and a light-emitting device (OLED). The pixel unit circuit, the compensating method thereof and the display device may compensate the light emitting device by combining an internal compensation and an external compensation, and have advantages of both the internal compensation and the external compensation. The Mura phenomenon caused by non-uniformity in threshold voltages or drifts of threshold voltages in the N-type depletion or enhanced driving transistor TFT may be eliminated effectively by the internal compensation, which may enhance a display effect. Additionally, the pixel unit circuit, the compensating method thereof and the display device may have a function for extracting characteristics of the driving TFT and characteristics of the light emitting device, which may be applicable to the external compensation driving effectively.
US09373280B2
An organic light emitting diode (OLED) display device and a method of driving the same are discussed. The method includes sensing a threshold voltage and mobility of a driving thin film transistor (TFT) included in each pixel using a sensing line connected per pixel and supplying the threshold voltage and the mobility to a timing controller in a measurement mode, by a data driver, and supplying image data input from an external source to the data driver by a timing controller, the timing controller adding and multiplying an offset value and gain value corresponding to the threshold voltage and mobility of the driving TFT, sensed by the data driver in the measurement mode, with the image data to compensate the image data, wherein the compensation of the image data includes varying a weight of the gain value according to luminance of the image data.
US09373271B2
A defibrillator training system having a magnetic training pad connectable to a torso dummy is provided. The magnetic connection between the training pad and the torso dummy allows the defibrillator training pads to be re-used by being magnetically attached and detached to and from the torso dummy without requiring replacement pads.
US09373262B2
An intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance system is disclosed including a ground station and one or more aerial vehicles. The aerial vehicles are autonomous systems capable of communicating intelligence data to the ground station and be used as part of a missile delivery package. A plurality of aerial vehicles can be configured to cast a wide net of reconnaissance over a large area on the ground including smaller overlapping reconnaissance areas provided by each of the plurality of the aerial vehicles.
US09373251B2
Mobile base station devices and wireless communication transportable systems for receiving and demodulating Global Positioning System (GPS) modulated signal into location finding baseband signal and for receiving and demodulating video spread spectrum modulated signal into a video baseband spread spectrum signal and converting video baseband spread spectrum signal into a video Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed (OFDM) baseband signal and modulating and transmitting OFDM modulated signal. Digital spread spectrum baseband signal comprises in-phase and quadrature phase cross-correlated Time Constrained (TCS) waveforms and cascaded Long Response (LR) filter filtered baseband signals. Wireless communication transportable devices and transponders in an automobile.
US09373245B2
Smart notification appliances used in a mass notification system (MNS) have integrated software and distributed hardware for real time information to in-building, immediate vicinity and distributed recipients during emergency situations. Programmable control configurations in the smart notification appliances provide flexible installations. A distributed architecture system provides distributed intelligence in the smart notification appliances for maximum survivability and robust operation of the MNS. Audio messages are stored in each smart notification appliance with a one-to-one relationship to a speaker circuit. This configuration provides any circuit with either a live page or a plurality of preconfigured messages, in effect a multi-channel system limited only by the number of stored messages and controllable by software. Similarly, programmable light strobe intensity, flash rate and color may be controlled through the smart notification appliances.
US09373239B2
A computing device, methods, and systems for providing in-vehicle prescription and medical reminders are disclosed. One example method for providing in-vehicle prescription and medical reminders includes identifying a vehicle occupant; determining, based on medical information associated with the occupant, whether a medical activity is due to be performed; and alerting the occupant if a medical activity is due to be performed. An example medical activity includes administering prescription medication. Example implementations include identifying the occupant based at least in part on biometric data; alerting the occupant by a visual, audible, or haptic alert; prompting the occupant to provide a response acknowledging the alert; and notifying designated third parties. The medical information can be received from an online profile or obtained through vital-sign sensors.
US09373236B2
Systems and methods are provided for securing handheld electronic devices. To provide an optimal shopping experience for consumers, handheld electronic devices must be made accessible to users, while simultaneously being secured to prevent theft. A security system can include a coupler connected to an electronic device. The coupler can include a connector operative to provide power and/or data to the electronic device. A cable transferring the power and data can also include an alarm path and a security cable for providing security. The security cable may be difficult to cut, and the alarm path can direct an alarm to sound if the cable is cut or if the electronic device is disconnected from the coupler.
US09373230B2
A method is disclosed for reprinting a paper copy of a receipt at a physical store location and based off of an electronic receipt. The electronic receipt may be viewed on a mobile electronic device with electronic receipts software thereon. A customer may pair their mobile electronic device with a POS terminal in a store location. Information may be sent to a server or computer system to request that a receipt be reprinted. The server may then process the request and transmit receipt information to the POS terminal where a paper copy of the receipt is printed for the customer.
US09373223B1
A method and system comprises integrating a contest framework into a game. The contest framework at least comprises means for communicating with a transactional server, a plurality of listeners being configured to monitor interactions during a play of the game for communication to the transactional server, and means for displaying notifications from the transactional server. The transactional server is at least configured for processing received interactions in conjunction with a progressive jackpot contest associated with the game and communicating notifications regarding the processing to the contest framework. A communicating with the transactional server at least comprises associating the game with a progressive jackpot contest and setting parameters for the progressive jackpot contest.
US09373220B2
Methods of administering wagering games may comprise receiving a first wager from each player. Cards comprising a partial hand, which may be three player cards available to respective players individually, may be dealt to each player. An election to fold or a second wager, which may be between one and four times an amount of the ante wager, at the player's option, to continue participation in the wagering game may be received from each player. Additional cards, which may be two community cards available to all players, may be dealt to complete the hand, which may be a five-card poker hand, of each player. The first and second wagers may be resolved and a payout may be paid on each of the first and second wagers to each player holding a complete hand of a predetermined rank, which may be a pair of jacks, or higher.
US09373219B2
A gaming system for performing integrity checks of a gaming machine is described. The gaming system includes a host server comprising having a processor, an interface for communicating with a plurality of gaming machines, an oversight module, and a database of expected gaming machine configurations. The gaming system further includes the plurality of gaming machines configured to present game play of a wager-based game. Each gaming machine includes a cabinet, a display coupled to the cabinet, and a processor coupled to the cabinet. The gaming system is configured to perform an integrity check of the plurality of gaming machines through the host server.
US09373218B2
The gaming machine includes: a cabinet having a display window; one or more reels disposed in the cabinet so that the or each reel is visible from outside the cabinet through the display window, the or each of the one or more reels being provided with a reel band having symbols; and a light application device configured to apply visible light representing visual information which enables recognition of information related to games to the reel band. The or each of one or more reels has a mirror layer which reflects the visible light from the light application device. The light application device is disposed in a position out of a sight area in which the one or more reels are visible from outside the cabinet through the display window.
US09373216B2
A computer-implemented method for enhancing game components in a gaming system using various three-dimensional enhancements. The three-dimensional enhancements may involve stacks of gaming components to provide and integrate additional symbols, multi-faceted gaming components, multi-faceted gaming surfaces running multiple games in parallel, items animating to simulate real-world physics, merging components, shapes to push up or down gaming components to create stacks, and so on. Further example three-dimensional enhancements are described.
US09373215B2
A gaming machine includes a cabinet having a main video display mounted on a front side of the cabinet. The gaming machine also includes at least one more additional video display mounted on the front side of the cabinet either above or below the game video display. The player controls include a separate player control touch screen mounted on a ledge projecting forwardly from the front side of the gaming machine cabinet, and facing upward to present reconfigurable player touch controls for the gaming machine. These controls may be reconfigured within a game or to change the game presentation on the machine in response to player commands or gaming network conditions.
US09373213B1
Disclosed in some examples are systems, methods, and machine readable mediums which allow for efficient and dynamic adaptation of one or more game objects based upon a proximity to another game object. In some examples, placement (or movement) of a game object may trigger a proximity check wherein the game map is checked to determine a set of game objects which are within a predefined proximity to the placed game object which may affect the behavior or appearance of the game object. The appropriate adaptations (if any) may be determined using a lookup table or other rule set where the inputs include the set of game objects and the locations of each of the game objects in the set relative to the placed object.
US09373212B2
Various prison services are rendered more efficient by providing inmates access to portable electronic devices in a controlled and regulated manner. A dispenser is employed to control and monitor the checking out and return of portable electronic devices and to communicate with such devices during use by inmates to monitor inmate use and ensure the portable electronic devices are only used by inmates as authorized.
US09373206B2
The present invention proposes the device, system and method used for the non-contact security information interaction. Said system used for the non-contact security information interaction comprises: a terminal for setting a parameter configuration in a non-contact IC card programmable read-write device, and initiating an information interaction with a server and said non-contact IC card programmable read-write device; and a non-contact IC card programmable read-write device for performing communication with a non-contact IC card and said terminal based on a predetermined parameter configuration in order to complete the security information interaction. The device, system and method used for the non-contact security information interaction disclosed in the present invention realize the support and selection for the multi-application on the non-contact IC card programmable read-write device, and can execute the on-line based application.
US09373203B1
Real-time feedback may be generated during a driving session from status data collected via one or more sensors. This feedback data may include various metrics related to a student's driving skills, which may be utilized to generate tagged driving events. A user may also manually enter tagged driving events. The tagged driving events may include real-time information based on the collected status data, such as acceleration, braking, cornering data, descriptions entered by the user. The location of these tagged driving events may be mapped in real time. Sensors used to collect this data may be integrated within the device displaying the feedback or located on another device, in which case the status data may be communicated to the device displaying the feedback. The displayed real-time feedback may be viewed by an instructor to assess a student's driving skills in real time and to calculate a driver feedback score.
US09373202B2
A vehicle information recording apparatus for a vehicle includes a collision determination section and an information management section. The collision determination section determines the presence or absence of a collision between the vehicle and an object based on (i) detection values of impact sensors which detect impacts applied to the vehicle and (ii) detection values by proximity sensors which detect an approach of the object to the vehicle. The information management section records collision data concerning the collision based on a determination result by the collision determination section. This enables a detection of a collision with an object as a recording target while reducing influence of vibration or noise.
US09373196B2
An information processing system that acquires image data captured by an image capturing device; identifies a density of distribution of a plurality of feature points in the acquired image data; and controls a display to display guidance information based on the density of the distribution of the plurality of feature points.
US09373192B2
Systems and methods for simplifying a three-dimensional mesh providing a three-dimensional model, such as a three-dimensional model of a cityscape, are provided. In particular, mesh simplification techniques can preserve important structural shapes in the original three-dimensional mesh. Important features in a representation of a city scene or other scene can be represented by structural edges (e.g. building outlines, bridges, curved structures such as curved highway overpasses, etc.). These structural edges can be detected and a representation of the structural edges can be constructed in the mesh. The mesh can then be simplified using the structural edges as high-level simplification criterion such that the structural edges are preserved during simplification.
US09373185B2
Systems and methods are described for animating 3D characters using synthetic motion data generated by generative models in response to a high level description of a desired sequence of motion provided by an animator. In a number of embodiments, an animation system is accessible via a server system that utilizes the ability of generative models to generate synthetic motion data across a continuum to enable multiple animators to effectively reuse the same set of previously recorded motion capture data to produce a wide variety of desired animation sequences. One embodiment of the invention includes a server system configured to communicate with a database containing motion data including repeated sequences of motion, where the differences between the repeated sequences of motion are described using at least one high level characteristic. In addition, the server system is configured to train a generative model using the motion data, the server system is configured to generate a user interface that is accessible via a communication network, to receive a high level description of a desired sequence of motion via the user interface, to use the generative model to generate synthetic motion data based on the high level description of the desired sequence of motion and to transmit a stream via the communication network including information that can be used to display a 3D character animated using the synthetic motion data.
US09373176B2
An image compression method includes at least the following steps: receiving a plurality of pixels of a frame, wherein pixel data of each pixel has a plurality of color channel data corresponding to a plurality of different color channels, respectively; encoding the pixel data of each pixel and generating bit-streams corresponding to the plurality of color channel data of the pixel, wherein the bit-streams corresponding to the plurality of color channel data of the pixel are separated; packing bit-streams of a same color channel data of different pixels into color channel bit-stream segments, wherein each of the bit-stream segments has a same predetermined size; and concatenating color channel bit-stream segments of the different color channels into a final bit-stream. Alternatively, color channel bit-stream segments of the same pixel are concatenated into a concatenated bit-stream portion, and concatenated bit-stream portions of different pixels are concatenated into a final bit-stream.
US09373169B2
A system for determining a position characteristic for an object in a room comprises an optically identifiable element (103) positioned on a background surface for a detection area of the room. A camera (101) is positioned across the detection area from the optically identifiable element (103) and captures an image comprising the detection area and the optically identifiable element (103). A detector (403) detects the optically identifiable element (103) in the image based on an optical property. An occlusion processor (405) determines an occlusion property for an occlusion of the optically identifiable element (103) in the image in response to the optical property. A position processor (407) determines a depth position in response to the occlusion property where, the depth position is indicative of a position of the object along the optical axis of the camera (101). The invention may for example allow presence detection and rough localization of a person in a room.
US09373168B2
An intelligent autofocus method and device for a digital pathology image, method are device are able to couple a feedback from the behavior of the user, for example by gaze tracking arrangement, to the actually focal representation of an image and adjust the imaging setup accordingly with regard to the focal plane. The adjustment is performed in such a way that the focal plane is selected which optimizes and sharpens the actual object of interest which was previously determined.
US09373166B2
An endo-robot can be tracked and a reconstructed 3D volume of data can be created for virtual endoscopy. The 3D position and orientation of each image captured by the endo-robot is determined. The longitudinal distance traveled inside the structure of interest is determined. The position, orientation and longitudinal distance are used to register the position of the endo-robot to a corresponding position inside the 3D volume of data. Virtual endoscopy can be used to locate areas of interest and correlate clinical findings with the images of the areas of interest.
US09373157B2
Provided is a display concealing system capable of forming a concealing image by a simple process of reversing a display position of a normal image. A display concealing system according to the present disclosure includes a display unit configured to display an image, an image forming unit configured to form an image to be displayed on the display unit, and an optical device configured to transmit or cut off the image to be displayed on the display unit. The image forming unit forms a normal image and a concealing image, and sends image data on the normal image and the concealing image to the display unit such that the normal image and the concealing image are synthesized. The optical device transmits the normal image, and cuts off the concealing image. The concealing image is an image that includes reversing sections formed by dividing the normal image at least horizontally or vertically such that each of the reversing sections is formed of a predetermined number of pixels in a state where an array of the pixels is reversed.
US09373149B2
Disclosed is an autonomous neighborhood vehicle controllable through a neighborhood social network. In one embodiment, an autonomous neighborhood vehicle can autonomously navigate to a destination specified by a user of the neighborhood social network. In one embodiment, a computer system of the autonomous neighborhood vehicle is communicatively coupled to the neighborhood social network through a wireless network to autonomously navigate to a destination specified by the user of the neighborhood social network. A navigation server provides a remote sensing capability to the autonomous neighborhood vehicle. A particular user of a third-party application is authenticated as being a verified user of the neighborhood social network having a verified residential address. An information of the particular user is communicated to the third-party application from the neighborhood social network based on a personal address privacy preference of the particular user.
US09373148B2
Configurations are provided for suggesting one or more other users within a same or proximate geolocation to enable the user to engage in activities with these suggested users. When the user performs a check-in for a new or different geolocation in an online social networking service, the subject technology can suggest other users who have recently checked-in and/or changed their location to the same place or region. The subject technology can sort one or more suggested users based on geographic proximity, how recently the user checked-in, a distance from the user, and other criteria (e.g., interests, demographic information (e.g., gender, age, etc.), social networking profile, etc.). The suggested users are selected, in one example, to identify one or more users that are typically not in the same place or geolocation but have newly arrived here. The subject technology can prioritize the selection of suggested users based on different criteria.
US09373143B2
A system and method are described for changing window's functionality upon detecting resizing events. According to one example method, a plurality of size thresholds is defined that are associated with a plurality of functional states for a window. Upon detecting that a size of a window reaches a first size threshold, a first functional state is applied to a window. Then, upon detecting another size threshold as the window is being increased or decreased in size, another functional state associated with the detected threshold is applied to the window.
US09373132B2
A system and method for providing advertisement in a digital yearbook includes a server and a user device for presenting media content on a display. Yearbook data is accessible by the user device and includes text and graphics pertaining to an organization and at least one advertisement. If/when the user device is connected to a network, the user device checks for a replacement advertisement and if there exists the replacement advertisement, the user device replaces one of the at least one advertisements with the replacement advertisement before the user device accesses the yearbook data. The user device presents the yearbook data and one or more of the group consisting of at least one advertisement and the replacement advertisement on the display.
US09373128B2
A method for determining similarity information for users of a network is disclosed. The method comprises constructing a graph from user interaction data, wherein the graph links users of the network according to their interaction, and weighting links between users according to the strength of interaction between the users. The method further comprises, for each of a plurality of users, identifying from among the other users with whom the user interacts: a maximum similarity user to whom the user is connected via a maximum weight link, and a minimum similarity user to whom the user is connected via a minimum weight link. Finally the method comprises assembling a plurality of relative similarity triplets, each triplet comprising a user and that user's identified maximum and minimum similarity users.
US09373124B2
Multiple copies of the same coupon are delivered to a consumer simultaneously via different delivery channels. After one copy of the coupon has been presented in connection with a transaction and used, the coupon is marked as used with respect to all delivery channels for that consumer. Different copies of the coupon can have different coupon identifiers, for example when delivered through different channels. Consumers also can access such multichannel coupons without having to login each time they wish to access their coupons from multiple channels. In one implementation, each consumer has a user profile. A promotion is associated with that consumer's user profile. Each user profile also is associated with different channel identifiers representing communication channels to deliver instances of the promotion to the consumer. Each delivered instance of the promotion includes a coupon identifier associated with the promotion.
US09373122B2
Customer data is securely downloaded to a browser toolbar by performing a check to determine whether a request for customer data includes a request for personal identifiable information requiring encryption by a public encryption key generated by the browser toolbar. The customer is authenticated based on a set of a user credential and an account specific access credential. The account specific access credential is associated with the account of the customer. Requested personal identifiable information is encrypted using the public encryption key generated by the browser toolbar. Encrypted personal identifiable information is transmitted to the browser toolbar.
US09373117B2
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.
US09373114B2
A banking system operates responsive to data read from data bearing records. The system includes an automated banking machine comprising a card reader. The card reader includes a movable read head that can read card data along a magnetic stripe of a card that was inserted long-edge first. The card reader includes a card entry gate. The gate is opened for a card that is determined to be properly oriented for data reading. The card reader can encrypt card data, including account data. The machine also includes a PIN keypad. The card reader can send encrypted card data to the keypad. The keypad can decipher the encrypted card data. The keypad can encrypt both deciphered card data and a received user PIN. The card data and the PIN are usable by the machine to authorize a user to carry out a financial transfer involving the account.
US09373112B1
A method that includes obtaining a current location of a mobile device of a customer; sending the current location to a cardless payment system; receiving data identifying a plurality of merchants, each merchant having an account with the cardless payment system; displaying a list of the plurality of merchants on the mobile device; and simultaneous with displaying the list of the plurality of merchants, for each merchant in the list displaying on the mobile device whether the merchant is authorized to perform a cardless payment transaction with the customer.
US09373111B2
A method is disclosed. It includes presenting a payment card to an access device, obtaining additional data, encrypting the additional data, and passing the encrypted additional data to the access device.
US09373108B2
A method for point of sale payments includes receiving, from a seller device over a network, payment information. The payment information is associated with payment code information in a database. The payment code information is then sent to the seller device over the network for posting at a service location. The payment code information is then captured by a payer device at the service location and transmitted over the network. The payment information is then retrieved from the database using the associated payment code information. The payment information is then sent to the payer device over the network. A payment confirmation is received from the payer device over the network and, in response, a payment from a payer account to a seller account is initiated and the payment information and an indication of the payment confirmation is sent to the seller device over the network.
US09373104B2
Methods, program products and systems to assign photographers on an event invite and automate requesting, uploading and sharing of the event's photos/videos are described here. The solution would allow to assign photographers for an event using the event's invite itself, indirectly triggering the auto-creation of a new photo/video album and allowing the photographer invitees to upload their photos/videos for the event, either real-time or manually at a later time. Thereafter, once an event is complete, the event's photo/video album would be either automatically or manually shared with the event's guests depending upon the preferences set by the event's owner.
US09373102B2
A system and method for delivering content in real-time using advanced messaging technology that reduces the risk of content being lost or dropped in transmission. The system and method utilize a custom, simplified XML format to deliver real-time textual, numeric, and metadata content directly to subscribers. The XML tag set specifies all of the information needed to package, process, and distribute real-time content messages and includes an advanced tagging structure that allows granular content customization. Messages are built on the fly using multi-channel data processing techniques. The XML delivery system and method offers an array of real-time market-specific page-based “Alert” services and aggregated newswires with accompanying real-time numeric data feeds. These feeds contain proprietary assessments and other price data across a broad spectrum of global and regional commodity markets, including oil, petrochemicals, metals, electric power, natural gas, coal, and risk.
US09373101B2
A method for filtering social media content based on interest categories. Users of a social network can be associated with one or more interest categories. Posts or updates made in the social network by friends of a first user are associated with one or more interest categories. A social feed can be filtered based on the interested categories or the first user of the social feed and/or the interests associated with the posts or updates made by the first user's friends. In some cases, the filtered social media content is ordered based on expertise of the first user's friends in the particular interest categories of those users' posts.
US09373100B2
A quality management system for products including a multiplicity of barcode indicators, each operative to provide a machine-readable indication of exceedance of at least one threshold by at least one product quality determining parameter, the at least one threshold being at least one of a time duration threshold and a combined temperature and time threshold, a barcode indicator reader operative to read the barcode indicators and to provide output indications and an indication interpreter operative to receive the output indications and to provide human sensible, product unit specific, product quality status outputs.
US09373095B2
Provided is a method of controlling a component for a network system. The method of controlling the component for the network system includes recognizing low-price period or high-price period information, recognizing a scheduled operation time including a scheduled operation start time of the component, determining whether a change condition of the scheduled operation time is satisfied, and changing the scheduled operation time when the change condition is satisfied and operating the component at the changed scheduled operation time.
US09373094B2
A Dynamic Web Service server may facilitate custom Enterprise Application interface development with little or no developer input by dynamically creating a web service for performing a particular transaction according to a transaction map. An Enterprise Application client device may create a transaction map by “recording” a transaction between an Enterprise Application client and an Enterprise Application server and mapping transaction fields to a custom interface generated to collect data for re-performing the recorded transaction. The Enterprise Application client device may call the dynamic web service, and the Dynamic Web Service server may then perform the recorded transaction using input data collected in the custom interface.
US09373092B2
A system for automated distribution of supervisory functions in an enterprise is provided. The system includes a monitor module configured to monitor performance of resources in the enterprise. The system further includes a skill finder module configured to find at least one skilled resource for at least one type of work request. The system further includes an assignment module configured to assign the at least one skilled resource a subset of supervisory role for the at least one type of work request.
US09373089B2
A method of monitoring a position of a moveable entity includes equipping a moveable entity with a position sensor that outputs position signals indicating current geographical positions of the sensor, and using a machine learning system to process the position signals in accordance with a machine learning algorithm to identify reference positions indicated by the position signals corresponding to a first type of activity performed by the entity. Rules are defined based on the identified reference positions. The computer processor then monitors the position signals and apply the rules to the position signals to identify positions that violate the rules.
US09373086B1
Mechanisms are provided, in association with a Question and Answer (QA) system, for implementing corpus identified reasoning when evaluating questions. An input question is received and an answer to the input question and supporting evidence for the answer are determined based on an evaluation of a corpus of information. The supporting evidence is analyzed to identify reasoning criteria specifying a reason as to why the answer is considered to be a correct answer by a provider of the supporting evidence. Rules are generated based on the identified reasoning criteria with the rules correlating the answer with the identified reasoning criteria and features of the input question. The rules are stored as entries in a reasoning data structure a subsequent question is processed based on the reasoning data structure.
US09373083B2
An information analytic system including an information gathering unit configured to gather at least one piece of information from at least one of a plurality of devices connected to a network, an information analysis unit configured to analyze the gathered information, and a rule generation unit configured to generate at least one rule based on the analysis performed by the information analysis unit. The rule analysis unit is configured to analyze each generated rule to identify the rules that can be applied to the corresponding piece information, and to apply applies the identified rule to the corresponding piece of information. The rule analysis unit is also configured to analyze unapplied rules and to determine what additional information is required to apply each unapplied rule to at least one piece of information.
US09373079B2
A system is described for improving decision making for individuals, groups and organizations. The system enables participants to collaboratively provide informational statements as well as supporting and opposing arguments and share them and then rate them. The system visually facilitates participants prioritizing arguments, and allows participants to rate arguments on clarity, agreement, and relevance. The system includes multiple levels of authority, both inherent and topic-assignable, which enable posts to be made visible/invisible based on authority level and/or “need to know”. The system allows decision makers to increase the reach of participants in decisions while keeping the input and process manageable yielding better decisions. All posts, ratings, and edits of posts and ratings within the system are archived along with any reasons given, and archives are reviewable by users.
US09373074B2
Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques for time management and scheduling of synchronous neural processing on a cluster of processing nodes. A slip (or offset) may be introduced between processing nodes of a distributed processing system formed by a plurality of interconnected processing nodes, to enable faster nodes to continue processing without waiting for slower nodes to catch up. In certain aspects, a processing node, after completing each processing step, may check for received completion packets and apply a defined constraint to determine whether it may start processing a subsequent step or not.
US09373061B2
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a printer driver includes a printer driver core component and a print setup user interface component. The print setup user interface component causes the computing device to control a display section to display one or more setup user interface portions by determining whether a setup user interface portion designated by designation information obtained from the printer driver core component is implemented in the print setup user interface component; in response to determining that the designated setup user interface portion is not implemented, searching for a compatible setup user interface portion; and in response to determining that the designated or compatible setup user interface portion is implemented, controlling the display section to display the designated or compatible setup user interface portion.
US09373053B2
An image processing system comprises an image processor configured to perform an edge detection operation on a first image to obtain a second image, to identify particular edges of the second image that exhibit at least a specified reliability, and to generate a third image comprising the particular edges and excluding other edges of the second image. By way of example only, in a given embodiment the first image may comprise a depth image generated by a depth imager, the second image may comprise an edge image generated by applying the edge detection operation to the depth image, and the third image may comprise a modified edge image having only the particular edges that exhibit at least the specified reliability.
US09373051B2
A facility implementing systems and/or methods for creating statistically significant signatures for targets of interest and using those signatures to identify and locate targets of interest within image data, such as an array of pixels, captured still images, video data, etc., is described. Embodiments of the facility generate statistically significant signatures based at least in part on series approximations (e.g., Fourier Series, Gram-Charlier Series) of image data. The disclosed techniques allow for a high degree of confidence in identifying and tracking targets of interest within visual data and are highly tolerant of translation and rotation in identifying objects using the statistically significant signatures.
US09373047B2
A biometric authentication device includes a photographing unit configured to photograph a biological body and acquire biological body information; an authentication unit configured to match registered biological body information that is registered in advance with the biological body information and perform authentication; a posture determination unit configured to determine steadiness of a posture of the biological body based on history of posture information relevant to the posture of the biological body when photographed; and an update determination unit configured to determine to update the registered biological body information when the posture determination unit determines that the posture of the biological body is steady.
US09373046B2
A detection system for vehicle operation according to an exemplary aspect of the present disclosure includes, among other things, at least one camera operable to generate an image and a display unit operable to communicate information on a display. A controller is coupled to the at least one camera. The controller is configured to command the display unit to communicate the information in response to detecting data within the image corresponding to visible light emitted in at least one predetermined frequency range. A controller and a method of detecting a traffic device are also disclosed.
US09373044B2
A lane departure warning system has a trailer detector for detecting that a trailer is attached to a vehicle, a lane boundary detector for detecting a position of a lane boundary on a roadway over which the vehicle is travelling, and an information processor including a calibrator for generating calibration parameters used in determining an unintended lane departure event with respect to the lane boundary. The information processor initiates a process for allowing an operator to provide trailer width information when the trailer detector indicates that the vehicle is towing a trailer. The lane departure warning system also includes a sensor for detecting a hitch angle between the vehicle and the trailer. A controller determines a lateral offset of the trailer relative to the vehicle based on the hitch angle and a length of the trailer for generating a warning signal when the lateral offset crosses the lane boundary.
US09373039B2
The invention allows detecting which graphics, if any, have been added to the video signal at any given time by utilizing only the various signals provided by prior art hardware. A first video signal, graphics signal(s), and a second video signal are received. It is then determined which graphics, if any, are present in a given frame of the received second video signal based on comparing actual values of pixels of the received second video signal and calculated values of pixels derived from the first video signal, and the graphics signal(s), and the combination of graphics signal(s) which produces the best match is searched for.
US09373032B2
A forensic verification system (1100) extracts a print signature via a print signature extractor (1110) from an interior of a halftone contained in an image. The system (1100) utilizes a comparator (1120) to compare the print signature to a reference signature stored in a registry to determine differences between the print signature and the reference signature. The system (1100) utilizes a forensic analyzer (1130) to perform a forensic analysis on the signatures based on the comparison to authenticate the image.
US09373020B2
In measurement data selection, when a vector composed of measurement data obtained for respective combinations of light emitting positions, light detection positions, and resolving times in a time-resolved waveform is given as y, a vector in which pixel values of learning image data are components is given as x, and a system matrix for calculating internal image data from the measurement data is given as A1, the vector y which meets the conditional expressions (2) and (3) min∥y∥00 (2), ∥x−A1Ty∥22≦ε2 (3) or the conditional expression (4) min(∥y∥00+β∥x−A1Ty∥22) (4) is determined, and upon measurement of a subject, only the measurement data corresponding to nonzero components of the vector y is used to prepare the internal image data.
US09373015B2
A method for managing mobile assets includes initially certifying a physical existence and location of a mobile asset. The certifying includes receiving certification information about the location and data representing the physical existence of the mobile asset into a database. After certification, interrogation information is received into the database. The interrogation information includes read information from an electronically readable tag associated with the mobile asset, user-entered information about at least one of an instant location of the mobile asset and user-entered data representing the physical existence of the mobile asset, and geolocation information of the reader. At least one of the instant location and the user-entered data representing the physical existence of the mobile asset is validated by cross-referencing the certification information and the interrogation information to identify any discrepancies. The absence of discrepancies indicates a positive validation and the presence of any discrepancies indicates a negative validation.
US09373011B2
A system and method is provided for the identification and authentication of precious metals and small jewelry. The system can include an embedded RFID tag, RFID tag reader and reader based unit (wired or wireless), and a basic tag information system for tag capture, look-up and display. The RFID tag can be embedded in absorbing dielectric medium inside epoxy in a tiny cavity placed in the metal or jewelry. A thin layer of epoxy placed over the tag can ensure that the tag will not be damaged from rubbing against skin, abrasion or chemicals while still allowing the desired electromagnetic properties (antenna and the circuitry performance). The RFID tag information can be transferred to a computer through the reader, and can be matched with preprogrammed information in a database.
US09373000B1
Techniques described herein relate to facilitating interaction in the physical world, after initial interaction has occurred within the virtual world, while also maintaining at least a degree of privacy, anonymity, safety, and/or deniability for the physical world parties. This may be accomplished, according to some example embodiments, by the exchange of one or more self-identifiers between virtual world personas, each of which is defined by its sending physical world party but that lacks any personal identification information associated with the sending party. Content of a self-identifier may only be known to the sending physical world party, at least until the receiving party is authorized and/or consents to view or display the self-identifier in a manner that may be perceived by the sending party. A sending party that perceives their own self-identifier, as displayed by a receiving party, may correlate the receiving party with a virtual world persona to which the self-identifier was sent.
US09372995B2
A vulnerability countermeasure device stores configuration information associating multiple computers connected via a network and software possessed by each computer, vulnerability information associating the software with information related to the vulnerability of the software, and countermeasure policy information associating the software with a countermeasure policy to be executed if there is a vulnerability in the software; calculates the computer that data will reach based on information related to a route of the data included in the data received from a used terminal; acquires software existing in the computer based on the calculated computer and configuration information; assesses whether or not there is a vulnerability in the acquired software based on the acquired software and the vulnerability information; and is provided with countermeasure unit for executing a countermeasure to a vulnerability in accordance with a countermeasure policy with respect to the software assessed to have the vulnerability.
US09372985B2
There is provided an information processing device including a first program execution unit that loads, interprets, and executes code of a computer program created by a procedural language. The program execution unit includes at least one port, and via this port, executes a second computer program created by a procedural language executed by a second program execution unit after authenticating with the second program execution unit.
US09372984B2
An embodiment of the invention provides for an authenticated launch of VMs and nested VMMs. The embodiment may do so using an interface that invokes a VMM protected launch control mechanism for the VMs and nested VMMs. The interface may be architecturally generic. Other embodiments are described herein.
US09372981B2
An electronic device and a method for unlocking a screen of the electronic device are provided. The electronic device includes a screen and a storage unit. The method includes detecting, in a screen-locked state, intent of a user to unlock the screen; if it is detected that the user intends to unlock the screen, extracting contact information from the storage unit of the electronic device, where the extracted contact information includes a first attribute value and a second attribute value; displaying the first attribute value of the extracted contact information on the screen and prompting the user to input a second attribute value; and detecting an input of the user, and comparing the input of the user with the second attribute value; if the input of the user is the same as the second attribute value, unlocking the screen; and otherwise, maintaining the screen-locked state.
US09372980B2
Systems and methods may provide for receiving an authentication input and determining an authentication orientation of a mobile platform during entry of the authentication input. In addition, a determination may be made as to whether to validate a user based on the authentication input and the authentication orientation of the mobile platform. Platform orientation may also be used to detect malware.
US09372978B2
A device with a touch sensitive display and a plurality of applications, including a camera application, while the device is in a locked, passcode-protected state: displays a lock screen interface, the lock screen interface including a camera access indicia; detects a gesture; in response to a determination that the gesture starts on the camera access indicia: ceases to display the lock screen interface; starts a restricted session for the camera application; displays an interface for the camera application, without displaying a passcode entry interface; and maintains the device in the locked, passcode-protected state for the applications other than the camera application; and in response to a determination that the gesture starts at a location other than the camera access indicia: displays a passcode entry interface, wherein in response to entry of a correct passcode in the passcode entry interface, the device enters an unlocked state.
US09372975B2
According to an aspect of an embodiment, a system for secure recording and sharing of audio data includes a communication interface, a registration module, a microphone, an encryption engine, and a storage device. The registration module is configured to register an attendee device associated with an attendee for a meeting. The microphone is configured to convert sound generated at the meeting to audio data representing the sound. The encryption engine is configured to encrypt the audio data. The storage device is configured to store and associate the encrypted audio data with the attendee device for subsequent access by the attendee.
US09372973B2
An attribute-based access control policy (e.g., XACML policy) for a set of elements depends on attributes carried by elements in one of several predefined categories. In order to evaluate such policy for a set of elements, the invention provides a method including the steps of (I) selecting a primary category; (II) partitioning the elements in the primary category into equivalence classes with respect to their influence on the policy; and (III) using the equivalence classes to replace at least one policy evaluation by a deduction. The result of the evaluation may be represented as an access matrix in backward-compatible format. The efficiency of the policy evaluation may be further improved by applying partial policy evaluation at intermediate stages, by forming combined equivalence classes containing n-tuples of elements and/or by analyzing the influence of each element by extracting functional expressions of maximal length from the policy.
US09372972B2
A system and method for establishing and monetizing trusted identities in cyberspace relying upon user opt in. Users request to attain secure IDs for accessing parties that will rely on secure IDs to complete a transaction, for example merchants and service providers (relying parties). The relying parties (RPs) communicate with identity service providers and attribute providers via an Attribute Exchange Network (AXN) in order to obtain verified attributes associated with an entity (end user or user) that wishes to conduct business with the relying party. The relying party makes requests for verified attributes that are important to consummating business transactions for the relying party. Users are informed of requests for attributes on behalf of relying parties and users have the option to verify attributes, and add new attributes that may be useful or required for conducting business with relying parties.
US09372969B1
The present invention is directed to an apparatus, system and method for managing bank transactions, configured for communicating with a depositor's account at a banking institution and operative for obtaining account balances, available funds for future transactions, confirming account balances or placing automatic holds on available funds as well as any other check transaction management services that a depositor may require to effectively manage his/her checking or savings account.
US09372966B2
A method and a system for naming-conflict-free integration of software components originating from software component manufacturers (OEM), comprising software development devices from different software component manufacturers (OEM) that manufacture and encrypt software components with the respective cryptographic key, wherein when a naming conflict occurs during the integration of encrypted software components, at least one of the encrypted software components in which the naming conflict occurred is expanded by a naming conflict resolution rule to thereby allows for the resolution of naming conflicts in encrypted software components that can originate from different software component manufacturers without the source code of the software components becoming visible to third parties.
US09372961B1
A pharmaceutical verification (PV) camera system that captures an image of the contents of a vial on an automated dispensing line is closed. Faster image processing time is achieved by utilizing a learning algorithm that stores camera parameters for a successful image associated with data for a prescription processed on the automated dispensing line. During processing of a prescription order, when the vial contents and availability of stored parameters is confirmed, the stored parameters are transmitted to the camera and an image of the vial contents is captured and stored. When a previously un-encountered or un-trained vial is detected, the camera engages the autofocus feature to capture an image. The learning algorithm evaluates the image based on feedback from one or more metric. Upon agreement with the metric standards, an image is accepted and archived and the camera parameters associated with that vial prescription are stored for later use.
US09372960B2
A medical support system enables one server bidirectionally connected to one terminal to bidirectionally communicate with another server bidirectionally connected to another terminal. Each of the one server and the other server comprises: a conference processing unit configured to perform a conference between the one terminal and the other terminal; an image sharing processing unit configured to bidirectionally share an image between the one server and the other server; and a control unit configured to control the entire server over a network, wherein the control unit of the one server transmits only operation information sent from the one terminal to the control unit of the other server, and the control unit of the other server controls based on the received operation information.
US09372957B2
A three-dimensional mask model of the invention provides a more realistic approximation of the three-dimensional effects of a photolithography mask with sub-wavelength features than a thin-mask model. In one embodiment, the three-dimensional mask model includes a set of filtering kernels in the spatial domain that are configured to be convolved with thin-mask transmission functions to produce a near-field image. In another embodiment, the three-dimensional mask model includes a set of correction factors in the frequency domain that are configured to be multiplied by the Fourier transform of thin-mask transmission functions to produce a near-field image.
US09372956B1
A method of enabling the use of a programmable device having impaired circuitry includes determining one or more locations of the impaired circuitry of the programmable device; generating a defect map for the programmable device based on the determined locations of the impaired circuitry; generating a plurality of configuration bitstreams to implement a circuit in the programmable device; selecting one of the plurality of configuration bitstreams that does not use the impaired circuitry indicated by the defect map; and programming the programmable device with the selected configuration bitstream.
US09372948B1
Techniques for using a speed measurement circuit to measure speed of an integrated circuit. The speed measurement circuit includes a ring oscillator and a counter circuit. The ring oscillator includes an AND gate with an inverting input and a non-inverting input. The ring oscillator also includes a programmable interconnect point context (PIP-context) having a first programmable interconnect point (PIP), a first interconnect, a second PIP, and a second interconnect coupled in series. The ring oscillator also includes a third interconnect and a third PIP coupled in series with the PIP-context and with an inverting input of the AND gate. The counter circuit is coupled to an output of the AND gate and configured in the programmable integrated circuit.
US09372945B2
A method for modeling a subsurface anomalous density zone including the steps of forming a density model, computing a response to the density model, inverting the response to arrive at a geometric model of the anomalous density zone, and applying a sharpening function to boundary regions of the geometric model to distinguish between the anomalous density zone and a surrounding region.
US09372944B2
A numerical analysis device executes: Step 102 of selecting a fluidic device model and a pipe model used for transient analysis from among fluidic device models and pipe models that are located between a start point and an end point set in the pipeline network model constructed as a 3D model of a pipeline network that includes fluidic devices and pipes; Step 104 of dividing the selected fluidic device model and pipe model into volume elements and into junction elements; Step 106 of deriving volumes of the respective volume elements obtained and pressure loss coefficients corresponding to the respective junction elements, based on the shape of the fluidic device model, a shape of the pipe model, and a physical quantities of the fluid, of associating the volumes with the volume elements, and of associating the pressure loss coefficients with the junction elements.
US09372942B1
In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a request for data visualization. The request specifies input data, at least one user query, and a data-visualization type. The method further includes inferring at least one additional query based on a user-interface (UI) range of freedom associated with the request. In addition, the method includes causing a map-reduce framework to process the input data according to the at least one user query and the at least one additional query. The causing yields resultant data. Further, the method includes storing in a cache a portion of the resultant data that relates to the at least one additional query. The method also includes generating the requested data visualization based on a portion of the resultant data that relates to the at least one user query.
US09372939B2
An Internet service is configured to provide information to a user of the service in ranked order according to demographic profile information about the user provided by the user. Such information might include advertising information and/or search results (e.g., rendered as hyperlinks) to search queries posed by the user. The information may be returned in a ranked order according to reward credits offered by advertisers and/or content providers associated with the advertising information and/or web sites represented by the search results. A process for verifying whether or not an Internet operation (e.g., sending an e-mail message or accessing a web site) is being attempted by a human being or an automated process may be incorporated with the service by using a quiz process that requires user interaction.
US09372932B2
A system and method for presenting a user with only data relevant to a task on which the user is currently working, while preventing display and other data from other tasks from intruding on a user's work environment. Conventional tagging is replaced and/or supplemented by a centralized method for creating, managing, and applying categories that does not require display space in individual applications for user interaction. Data access and display can be controlled across all applications, allowing the user to concentrate on a particular issue or project without being distracted or wasting display-space on information that is not relevant to the current issue or project on which a user is working.
US09372929B2
Methods and systems for node and link detection in social network analysis. Interactive noise reduction allows reduction of the data set under analysis to enable substantially real time detection of links and nodes.
US09372899B2
Ordering search results may include obtaining an exposed log file from a log system, computing a Bayesian posterior probability for relevancy between the log file and a search request, computing an expected value of the relevancy between the log file and the search request based on the Bayesian posterior probability, storing the search request and an identifier of the log file as a key and the expected value of the relevancy between the log file and the search request as a value into a search data structure, in response to receiving a search request submitted by a user, finding expected values of relevancy between the submitted search request and log files that are relevant to the submitted search request from the search data structure, and ordering the found log files in a descending order of the expected values.
US09372875B2
An image data display system classifies image data into a cluster based on a predetermined condition regardless of whether or not the image data conforms to DCF standard and displays information specific to the image data when displayed as a slide show. A CPU creates a cluster, including a plurality of the image data, and a slide show table having first and second cluster name candidates based on a FAT data or an Exif data and a third cluster name candidate input by a user. The image display screen combines any two of the above first, second, and third cluster name candidates and displays a list of the combined candidates as cluster names indicating contents of the image data. The user can select the cluster name in high visibility and can easily display the desired image data as the slide show.
US09372868B2
A mechanism is provided for improved file synchronization of a magnetic tape. A destination device determines whether one or more file checksums exist in an extended file attribute associated with an identified file. Responsive to one or more file checksums existing in the extended file attribute associated with the identified file, the destination device reads the one or more file checksums out of the extended file attribute without accessing the magnetic tape. The destination device transmits the one or more file checksums to a source device. The source device segments the data of the new file into fixed-length blocks that do not overlap one another. The source device calculates one or more new file checksums for each of the fixed-length blocks. The source device transmits the one or more new file checksums to the destination device.
US09372865B2
Techniques associated with deduplication metadata access in a deduplication file system are described, including determining a state of a file system, reading a table associated with the file system, including reading block numbers associated with files in the file system, the table being stored in a storage, wherein the block numbers include a block number and logical block number, determining whether each of the block numbers exists in a reconstruction map, modifying the reconstruction map, obtaining a hash value associated with each of the block numbers, reading data blocks from a disk using the plurality of block numbers, and constructing deduplication metadata in system memory (i.e., RAM) using a read of the data blocks.
US09372855B1
Database Definition Language (DDL) transactions are defined that include one or more DDL operations that are to be executed to modify aspects of a relational database, such as its structure. If performance of one or more of the DDL operations in a DDL transaction fails, then the changes made to the relational database by some or all of the DDL operations may be reversed. Instructions and state information may be generated and stored prior to, during, and/or following the execution of a DDL operation that may be utilized to reverse the changes to a relational database made by the DDL operations. User interfaces might also be provided for defining, selecting, editing, and executing DDL transactions, and for providing information relating to the execution and rollback of DDL operations in a DDL transaction.
US09372846B1
A method and computer program product for an abstract syntax tree (AST) builder for faster Earley parser. The algorithm for building an AST based on an amplified LRE (Left Recursive Earley parser) technique is provided. The proposed method constructs the AST during the recognition process. The proposed method preserves enough structural information during recognition phase that allows to avoid a mapping step and to eliminate the converter module. The LRE method is used in such a way that the AST processor can produce its output working directly with LRE data structures. This important feature leads to essential performance improvement of the entire parsing process.
US09372841B2
A device includes a display screen and a processor. The processor is configured to convert a textual document into sequentially ordered portions of text and display at the same designated location on the display screen the portions of text one at a time in the sequential order for a user to read.
US09372832B2
A road information providing apparatus includes a position detection unit, a matching unit, a reference point ranking unit, a calculation unit, a weighting unit, and a transmit unit. The position detection unit detects a present position of a vehicle. The matching unit specifies reference points based on the present position and map data. The reference point ranking unit defines a ranking of each reference point. The calculation unit calculates a priority value of each forward road link corresponding to one of the reference points. The weighting unit recalculates a weighted priority value of each forward road link based on the priority value of corresponding forward road link and the ranking of corresponding reference point. The transmit unit transmits the weighted priority value of each forward road link in order of increasing weighted priority value to an in-vehicle device.
US09372826B2
For remote direct memory access (RDMA) by a client to a data record stored in a cache on a server, a hash map is received by a client from a server. The hash map includes one or more entries associated with a key for the data record stored in the cache on the server that stores a server-side remote pointer referencing the data record stored in the cache on the server. The client, using the key, looks up the server-side remote pointer for the data record from the hash map, and then performs one or more RDMA operations using the server-side remote pointer that allow the client to directly access the data record stored in the cache on the server.
US09372821B2
In one embodiment a limited functionality link state protocol node has one or two interfaces configured to send and receive link state protocol packets. In response to receiving, by the partially-participating link state protocol node on a first interface, a particular link state protocol data unit (LSP): sending the particular LSP from a second interface of the partially-participating link state protocol node without updating the local link state database when the second interface is currently participating in the link state protocol distribution; and sending an acknowledgment of the particular LSP from the first interface when the second interface is not currently participating in the link state protocol distribution.
US09372813B2
A system and method implementing revocable secure remote keys is disclosed. A plurality of indexed base secrets is stored in a register of a coprocessor of a local node coupled with a local memory. When it is determined that a selected base secret expired, the base secret stored in the register based on the base secret index is changed, thereby invalidating remote keys generated based on the expired base secret. A remote key with validation data and a base secret index is received from a node requesting access to the local memory. A validation base secret is obtained from the register based on the base secret index. The coprocessor performs hardware validation on the validation data based on the validation base secret. Hardware validation fails if the base secret associated with the base secret index has been changed in the register of the selected coprocessor.
US09372800B2
A multi-chip system includes multiple chip devices configured to communicate to each other and share resources. According to at least one example embodiment, a method of providing memory coherence within the multi-chip system comprises maintaining, at a first chip device of the multi-chip system, state information indicative of one or more states of one or more copies, residing in one or more chip devices of the multi-chip system, of a data block. The data block is stored in a memory associated with one of the multiple chip devices. The first chip device receives a message associated with a copy of the one or more copies of the data block from a second chip device of the multiple chip devices, and, in response, executes a scheme of one or more actions determined based on the state information maintained at the first chip device and the message received.
US09372789B2
Disclosed are systems, computer-readable mediums, and methods for reading a sequence number from regions of a solid state storage device. A latest region is determined based upon the sequence numbers and a checkpoint file is read within the latest region. A request for a block of data of a first branch is received. A first block of pointers associated with the first branch from the checkpoint file is read. A first pointer from the first block of pointers and a second block of pointers pointed to by the first pointer are read. A second pointer from the second block of pointers and a third block of pointers pointed to by the second pointer are read. A third pointer from the third block of pointers and data pointed to by the third pointer are read. The block of data of the first branch is determined based upon the read data. The block of data is returned.
US09372788B2
A method includes determining a size of a recommended spare memory space of each of one or more storage nodes based on a state of the storage nodes, and adjusting a spare memory space of each of the storage nodes based on the size of the recommended spare memory space.
US09372784B2
This disclosure relates to computer test systems and, more particularly, to automatically configuring computer test systems. A method, computer program product, and system receives a list of one or more software patches installed on an in-field computer system, the list including a version of each of the one or more software patches. Source code, managed by a source code revision tool, corresponding to the version of each of the one or more software patches, is identified. A compiling and installation system compiles one or more newly compiled software patches from the source code managed by the source code revision tool for each of the software patches installed on the in-field computer system. The compiling and installation system automatically installs the one or more newly compiled software patches on a test computer system to replicate the in-field computer system.
US09372782B1
Embodiments of the present invention provide a system and method for a dynamic tracing framework for debugging in a virtualized environment. Embodiment of the present invention can include selecting a home node and a set of remote nodes to which apply a set of probes. Data collection is performed by a tracing agent of each node and the collection of data is shared across multiple software systems.
US09372776B2
The presently disclosed subject matter includes a device, system and method for monitoring activity at a computerized device, the device running one or more processes, at least one of the processes executing one or more system events being part of an activity. An activity of interest can be identified if system events related to the activity of interest are identified. An activity is monitored at the device using API queries to obtain descriptive information of the at least one respective system event executed as part of the activity. Using non-intrusive monitoring methods which are based on API queries enables to reduce the potential of interference of the monitoring with applications running on the monitored device.
US09372767B2
A recovery consumer framework provides for execution of recovery actions by one or more recovery consumers to enable efficient recovery of information (e.g., data and metadata) in a storage system after a failure event (e.g., a power failure). The recovery consumer framework permits concurrent execution of recovery actions so as to reduce recovery time (i.e., duration) for the storage system. The recovery consumer framework may coordinate (e.g., notify) the recovery consumers to serialize execution of the recovery actions by those recovery consumers having a dependency while allowing concurrent execution between recovery consumers having no dependency relationship. Each recovery consumer may register with the framework to associate a dependency on one or more of the other recovery consumers. The dependency association may be represented as a directed graph where each vertex of the graph represents a recovery consumer and each directed edge of the graph represents a dependency. The framework may traverse (i.e., walk) the framework graph and for each vertex encountered, notify the associated recovery consumer to initiate its respective recovery actions.
US09372765B2
A method for recovering system status consistently to a designed recovering time point in a distributed database, wherein the distributed database comprises a primary server and multiple region servers, comprising: when the region servers detect a change of system status, analyzing an event for the change to generate an event log and storing the event log to the database; after a preset condition, the region servers generate a snapshot respectively; when the primary server receives the instruction to recover the system status to a designed time point, indicates the region servers to implement: reading the event log and snapshots stored in region servers; finding the snapshot closest to the designed time point; finding the event log and snapshot corresponding to an time interval between the time recorded in the snapshot and the designed time point to recover the system status to the designed time point.
US09372763B2
A storage control device includes a processor. The processor is configured to request a plurality of disk devices storing data therein to notify the processor of degradation information on degradation of data stored in the respective disk devices. The processor is configured to instruct, based on first information among notified degradation information, the plurality of disk devices to rewrite data. The first information serves as a trigger of rewriting data. The first information is notified by at least one of the plurality of disk devices.
US09372761B1
In one example of a time-based checkpoint restore method, a backup of data is commenced. Prior to completion of the backup, a failure is experienced such that only a portion of the data is backed up. A first partial saveset is created, and time and path checkpoints are identified. The backup is then retried, using the time and path checkpoints. Data backed up prior to failure is incrementally backed up, and the remaining data not already backed up is fully backed up. A second partial saveset of these backups is created and combined with the first partial saveset to create a resultant saveset that can then be used to create a full backup image that includes a full backup of the data.
US09372758B2
Systems and methods are disclosed for performing a plurality of prescribed data management functions in a manner that reduces redundant access operations to primary storage, where the system includes a data management engine for performing data management functions, including at least a snapshot function and a back-up function. An electronic service level agreement (SLA) specifies a schedule for performing data management functions, where point-in-time images of data include a reference to a baseline image and difference data indicating changes at a later, specific point in time. The data management system also creates a point-in-time image of the primary storage data in response to a schedule requiring some data management functions to be performed concurrently, and communicates the difference information to secondary storage to update the back-up copy of the primary data, such that the primary storage is accessed only once for all updates to the secondary storage.
US09372755B1
The present invention relates to an apparatus, method, and/or sequence that adaptively provide the recovery of data after a power cycle sequence, wherein only minimal updates are provided for control blocks associated with the data.
US09372748B2
Reliability of one or more software modules is projected according to a current state in a development life cycle of the software modules and any of various additional indicators. Preferably, a data processing support provider separate from the service-providing enterprise maintains historical field support data concerning significant field defect events with respect to various resources, and uses this data for projecting reliability of the resources. Preferably, software module reliability projections are used to support an analysis of risk of degradation of a service specified in a service requirements specification when provided by a configuration of data processing resources specified in a configuration specification.
US09372735B2
In various embodiments, systems and methods are presented for providing resources by way of a platform as a service in a distributed computing environment to perform a job. The system may be comprised of a number of components, such as a task machine, a task location service machine, and a high-level location service machines that in combination are useable to accomplish functions provided herein. It is contemplated that the system performs methods for providing resources by determining resources of the system, such as virtual machines, and applying auto-scaling rules to the system to scale those resources. Based on the determination of the auto-scaling rules, the resources may be allocated to achieve a desired result.
US09372731B1
Systems and methods are described for managing computing resources. In one embodiment, mappings between a plurality of parameters of an abstracted firmware framework to corresponding firmware settings of computing components are maintained. The mappings are determined based on predetermined associations between vendor-specific firmware settings and abstracted firmware settings that implement a standardized interface that is independent of the vendor-specific firmware settings. In response to receiving one of the plurality of parameters, the received parameter is translated to corresponding vendor-specific firmware settings based on the mappings.
US09372721B2
Techniques are provided for processing and categorizing data received from data sources. The processing and categorizing of the received data comprises: determining whether the digital data can be associated with one or more categories by determining whether a first match between one or more image characteristics of the one or more categories and one or more image characteristics of the digital data is found; in response to determining that the first match is found: associating the one or more categories with the digital data; determining, based at least in part on the one or more categories, one or more applications that are to be used to process the digital data; in response to determining the one or more applications that are to be used to process the digital data, initiating the one or more applications to process the digital data.
US09372720B2
A multimedia data preprocessing apparatus for a virtual machine is provided. The multimedia data preprocessing apparatus includes a detection unit configured to detect multimedia data included in an application, a generation unit configured to generate a thread for processing the detected multimedia data, and an allocation unit configured to allocate the generated thread to an idle core.
US09372714B2
An information terminal apparatus includes a memory and a processor. The memory stores information indicating a front operating system. The processor runs a first virtual machine that executes a first operating system. The processor runs a second virtual machine that executes a second operating system. The processor controls user interface of the information terminal apparatus by executing the front operating system. The processor detects, by referring to the information stored in the memory, that the front operating system is changed from the first operating system to the second operating system. The processor notifies, upon the detection, the first virtual machine of a first notification indicating that the user interface stops. The processor notifies, upon the detection, the second virtual machine of a second notification indicating that the user interface restarts.
US09372708B2
Embodiments of the invention relate to synchronizing multicast groups of a virtual machine during migration of the virtual machine. A first list and a second list, indicating multicast groups corresponding to the first port and second port respectively, are obtained in response to detection of migration of the virtual machine from a first port to a second port of a same switch. The second list is updated so that the second list contains the multicast groups in the first list. An undesired multicast group is aged. Multicast groups of a virtual machine may be synchronized in the process of migration of the virtual machine, thereby reducing or removing the time during which the virtual machine multicast service is disrupted.
US09372706B2
In one embodiment, a method for placing virtual machines in a collection is provided. A plurality of equivalence sets of hosts is determined prior to placing virtual machines in the collection. The hosts in an equivalence set of hosts are considered similar. An equivalence set of hosts in the plurality of equivalence sets is selected to place the virtual machines in the collection. The method then places at least a portion of the virtual machines in the collection on one or more hosts in the selected equivalence set of hosts.
US09372696B2
A microprocessor includes a plurality of memories each configured to hold microcode instructions. At least a first of the plurality of memories is configured to provide M-bit wide words of compressed microcode instructions, and at least a second of the plurality of memories is configured to provide N-bit wide words of uncompressed microcode instructions. M and N are integers greater than zero and N is greater than M. The microprocessor also includes a decompression unit configured to decompress the compressed microcode instructions after being fetched from the at least a first of the plurality of memories and before being executed.
US09372691B2
A method includes: preparing a substrate having a plurality of light sources on a front side, a case to be provided on a back side of the substrate, the case having a side wall along a periphery of the case, and a mask having a light shielding member and a side wall projecting to the back side at a periphery of the mask, the light shielding member having a plurality of windows for transmitting light from the plurality of light sources, an outer shape of the mask being larger than an outer shape of the substrate and an outer shape of the case when viewed from the front side; fixing the case, the substrate, and the mask; filling a fluid material between a side wall of the case and a side wall of the light shielding member; and hardening the fluid material.
US09372686B1
A method includes resolving a new direct repository within non-transitory memory by a computing device in communication with the non-transitory memory in response to a package content update associated with a lineage of direct repositories. The method includes applying a tag to each direct repository and determining whether the tag applied to the new direct repository matches an indirection tag associated with an unresolved indirect repository. The indirection tag includes a key-value pair indicating a status of the corresponding direct repository. The method further includes resolving the indirect repository by the computing device when the tag applied to the new direct repository matches the indirection tag. The resolved indirect repository points to the new direct repository.
US09372683B2
A method for generating identifiers for software components is provided. A processing device scans source code for an annotation associated with generating an identifier for an object. The processing device generates, using the annotation, an identifier value for the object. When the object does not have a previously assigned value, the processing device assigns the identifier value to the object. When the object has a previously assigned value, the processing device concatenates the identifier value to the previously assigned value of the object and assigns the concatenated identifier value to the object. The processing device then recursively descends into the sub-object's hierarchy by repeating the steps of scanning, generating, and assigning or concatenating and assigning described above.
US09372668B2
In one embodiment, a method for interconnecting portlets is disclosed. A first view is displayed on a computing device, wherein the first view is associated with a software application in a first state and includes a first portlet. A first event is received from the first portlet. A state model for the software application is accessed, wherein the state model includes a plurality of transitions between states of the software application, and wherein one transition of the plurality of transitions is triggered to bring the software application into a second state based on a type of the first portlet and data associated with the type of the first portlet. The one transition is executed to bring the software application into the second state, and a second view is displayed, wherein the second view is associated with the software application in the second state.
US09372665B2
Method and apparatus for multiplying a signed first operand na bits and a signed second operand nb bits, wherein na and nb are different positive integer numbers, the method comprising generating single bit products of pairs of a single bit from the signed first operand and a single bit from the signed second operand with a logical AND function to produce na times nb single bit products, selectively inverting for the signed first operand and the signed second operands the single bit products of the first operand bit na−1 multiplied with the second operand bits 0 to nb−2, selectively inverting the single bit products of the signed second operand bits 0 to na−2 multiplied with the signed second operand bit nb−1, after the step of inverting adding the single bit products in accordance with their respective order for producing an intermediate product, and adding a ‘1’ bit value at bit positions nb−1, na−1 and na+nb−1 for receiving a final product.
US09372661B2
An apparatus and method of a portable terminal outputting a sound effect are provided. An operation method of the portable terminal includes sensing an input, identifying a handwriting tool used for the input and a handwriting face displayed, and outputting a sound that mimics an actual handwriting operation of the portable terminal.
US09372660B2
A display controlling apparatus captures a displayed object, and selects a transmission object to transmit to an image outputting apparatus from objects which are display targets. The display controlling apparatus controls so that in a case where it is determined that the transmission object is an image output target, the transmission object is displayed with preference over another object. Also, the display controlling apparatus captures a transmission object after the control.
US09372657B2
When assigning display IDs to displays which form a multi-screen system, the displays are arranged such that short distance radio communication is possible and an ID setting apparatus which can perform the short distance radio communication is employed. After each display ID is set in the ID setting apparatus, the ID setting apparatus and each of the displays are placed near each other in a contactless manner so as to transfer the display ID set in the ID setting apparatus to the display and assign the display ID to the display.
US09372654B2
An image processing system capable of executing a processing flow in a destination image processing apparatus without retransmitting the processing flow from a source image processing apparatus to the destination image processing apparatus when the version of the destination image processing apparatus is upgraded. The source image processing apparatus analyzes whether or not the processing flow is executable by the destination image processing apparatus before transmitting the processing flow, and if it is unexecutable, the source image processing apparatus performs alternate configuration of an inexecutable setting based on the analysis result. The source image processing apparatus transmits the processing flow including the alternate setting to the destination image processing apparatus. If the destination image processing apparatus fails in executing the processing flow, the destination image processing apparatus executes the processing flow based on the alternate setting included in the received processing flow.
US09372651B2
When it is detected that a file has been stored in a hot folder, an apparatus stands by for a predetermined period of time not to process the file based on settings associated with the hot folder. When the predetermined period of time elapses, the apparatus processes the file based on the settings associated with the hot folder.
US09372649B2
In some embodiments, a method which includes receiving an indication of the presence of a first message from a first client device, the first message including a first specification file and a first network address associated with a first print data file. The method includes retrieving the first print data file from the first network address. The method includes processing the first specification file and the first print data file by a raster image processor.
US09372643B2
A method of and system for managing a data set stored on units of storage space in a storage facility is disclosed. The method and system may include identifying prospect extents of the data set. The prospect extents may include a first prospect extent stored on a first unit of storage space and a second prospect extent stored on a second unit of storage space. The method and system may include congregating the first prospect extent and the second prospect extent on a destination unit of storage space in the storage facility.
US09372641B2
A sequence of storage devices of a data store may include one or more stripesets for storing data stripes of different lengths and of different types. Each data stripe may be stored in a prefix or other portion of a stripeset. Each data stripe may be identified by an array of addresses that identify each page of the data stripe on each included storage device. When a first storage device of a stripeset becomes full, the stripeset may be shifted by removing the full storage device from the stripeset, and adding a next storage device of the data store to the stripeset. A class variable may be associated with storage devices of a stripeset to identify the type of data that the stripeset can store. The class variable may be increased (or otherwise modified) when a computer stores data of a different class in the stripeset.
US09372637B1
Operational characteristic I/O patterns of each storage volume of a storage volume group, and at least one operational characteristic of each storage volume associated with an application, are determined. Unsupervised learning is used to form clusters of storage volumes of similar characteristics. Labels are generated, assigned, and aggregated for each characteristic of each storage volume. Templates are received that includes labels of storage volume characteristics of known application types. An application type associated with the storage volume group is inferred, based on a best-fit match of the aggregate labels of the storage volumes of the storage volume group to the labels included in the templates of storage volume characteristics of known application types.
US09372626B2
Parallel storage system testing is provided. An input/output (I/O) pattern is received. One or more sets of jobs are determined, based, at least in part, on the I/O pattern. Each of the one or more sets of jobs identifies one or more jobs. Each job identifies one or more I/O operations. Each set of jobs of the one or more sets of jobs is assigned to a processing node of one or more processing nodes. The one or more sets of jobs are executed concurrently.
US09372618B2
Methods and apparatus for controlling one or more displays using an application manager. The application manager may be displayed in response to a received gesture input. The application manager may provide information regarding applications or screens executing in one or more physical displays on the device. Furthermore, the application manager may be manipulated to change various aspects regarding the applications or screens executing in the one or more displays. This manipulation may include changing the actively displayed screen for a display, movement of screens between displays, or other manipulation of the arrangement or status of the screens.
US09372616B2
A method includes, a computer generating at least one bookmark to provide an indication of placement, the computer configuring the at least one bookmark to have multiple functions; and the computer configuring the at least one bookmark to have an image based the placement.
US09372601B2
An information processing apparatus that controls a user interface to display content, acquires position information corresponding to an input received at the user interface, determines a condition corresponding to the position information, and controls the user interface to display data corresponding to the input based on a result of the determining.
US09372598B2
Provided are techniques for reference-based circular scrolling on a computer display. Techniques include generating a circular scrolling bar in a computer display, the scrolling bar comprising a plurality of segments; populating the circular scrolling bar with reference-based information corresponding to an information source, wherein each segment of the plurality of segments displays a unique reference corresponding to a corresponding discrete portion of the information source; presenting the corresponding discrete portion of the information source corresponding to a particular segment in response to contact with the particular segment.
US09372596B2
In general, techniques are described for providing a user interface to create report specifications and included source definitions for business reporting and analysis. For example, a computing device includes a user interface (UI) module for displaying a graphical user interface (GUI) and receiving a selection of a data element at a start location of the GUI. The UI module may display an overlay element having a boundary forming a plurality of paths from the start location to a plurality of end locations, the paths corresponding to a plurality of report options associated with the data element. The UI module may receive a second input indicative of a traversal of the overlay element along a chosen path. The computing device may include a definition module operable to create a definition for a report specification based at least in part on the report option corresponding to the chosen path.
US09372594B2
A method for adding an icon to an interface of an Android system, where the Android system has N interfaces, includes: a. obtaining add command information; b. obtaining, according to the add command information, space information of an icon to be added; c. obtaining remaining space information of an Mth interface according to the add command information; d. judging whether the space information of the icon to be added is greater than the remaining space information of the Mth interface; if yes, executing step e; if no, executing step f; e. judging whether the Mth interface is a last interface to be judged; if yes, executing step g; if no, assigning M+1 to M and returning to step c; f. adding the icon to the interface; and g. establishing another interface, and adding the icon to the newly established interface; where M and N are natural numbers, and 1≦M≦N.
US09372592B1
An electronic device may present an interface providing information related to one or more content items. For example, the interface may present representations related to a plurality of content items to indicate relative values among the content items of at least one metric. Additionally, each representation may further indicate at least one of a quality of the value of the metric or a different metric value. A user may navigate the interface to more specific or more general views for a particular metric, characteristic and/or category, and may use the interface to view more information about a selected content item. Alternatively, the representations may represent, or may be arranged according to, authors, publishers, genres, etc. In some examples, the representations may represent terms obtained from content items that satisfy one or more metrics, such as terms that occur in content items sold within a specified period of time.
US09372585B2
A detecting device and method for a capacitive touch screen is proposed. A plurality of frequency settings is employed. Each frequency setting corresponds to a type of driving mode of a type of driving potential. These frequency settings are used for setting the detecting device for the capacitive touch screen. When the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio of the signals in the capacitive touch screen is not appropriate, frequency settings are changed by selecting one that yields a more appropriate S/N ratio among the frequency settings. The driving mode includes a single-electrode driving mode in which only a single driving electrode in the capacitive touch screen is driven at a time, and a multiple-electrode driving mode in which multiple driving electrodes are simultaneously driven at a time, and there can be several types of driving potentials.
US09372580B2
In one embodiment, a method includes sending a first set of signals to a first set of lines of a touch sensor. The method also includes receiving a second set of signals on a second set of lines of the touch sensor in response to sending the first set of signals. The second set of lines are capacitively coupled to the first set of lines. The method includes sending a third set of signals and receiving a fourth set of signals. The fourth set of signals is capacitively generated based on the third set of signals. The method also includes determining a fifth set of signals by compensating the second set of signals based on the fourth set of signals and determining whether a touch occurred based on the fifth set of signals.
US09372571B2
A canvas (e.g., a digital page or sheet of paper) on which a user can input data is displayed on a display device of a computing device in response to the canvas being invoked. The canvas can be invoked in different manners, such as by the user activating a switch or button at an “eraser” end of a stylus that mimics a pen/pencil configuration. The user can input any digital data such as notes, drawings, and so forth on the canvas that he or she desires. In response to the canvas being dismissed (e.g., by the user again activating a switch or button at an “eraser” end of a stylus that mimics a pen/pencil configuration), display of the canvas ceases. The digital data input by the user is saved or otherwise processed by the computing device.
US09372570B2
An apparatus, method and computer program are provided. The method comprises: controlling a touch sensitive display, while a user digit is detected hovering a distance from the touch sensitive display, to display a transient indication of first content for pasting, wherein if the user subsequently moves the user digit away from the touch sensitive display such that the user digit is no longer detected, the transient indication of the first content for pasting is removed from display on the touch sensitive display.
US09372566B2
Disclosed is the structure of a touch window. The touch window includes a transparent window, a touch sensor module on one surface of the transparent window, and a transfer film layer between the transparent window and the touch sensor module. The transfer film layer is provided in the touch sensor module to remove the structure of a printed pattern, so that the conventional problems related to the flatness caused by a printing step are solved, thereby improving the adhesive efficiency and expanding the realization range of various colors.
US09372560B2
The present invention relates to a signal detection system of a touch screen, and more particularly to a signal detection system of a large-sized mutual capacitive multi touch screen that is capable of effectively reducing RC time delay, signal distortion, an effect of noise, parasitic resistance, and parasitic capacitance.
US09372552B2
An interaction management module (IMM) is described for allowing users to engage an interactive surface in a collaborative environment using various input devices, such as keyboard-type devices and mouse-type devices. The IMM displays digital objects on the interactive surface that are associated with the devices in various ways. The digital objects can include input display interfaces, cursors, soft-key input mechanisms, and so on. Further, the IMM provides a mechanism for establishing a frame of reference for governing the placement of each cursor on the interactive surface. Further, the IMM provides a mechanism for allowing users to make a digital copy of a physical article placed on the interactive surface. The IMM also provides a mechanism which duplicates actions taken on the digital copy with respect to the physical article, and vice versa.
US09372551B2
An image reading apparatus includes: a light source that irradiates light; a switching unit that switches a direction of the light irradiated by the light source to one of a plurality of predetermined directions; a light guiding unit that guides the light whose direction is switched by the switching unit and that travels in one of the plurality of directions to a position predetermined for each of the directions; and a light sensor that, in a case where an object is in the predetermined position, measures light reflect by the object out of the light guided to the position by the light guiding unit.
US09372541B2
A gesture recognition system and method verifies the operability of the gesture system by providing a test target that is configured to generate a test stimulus that is recognizable by the gesture recognition system. The test stimulus from the test target is received and processed in the gesture recognition system to generate a test response. The processor verifies that the test response corresponds to the test stimulus.
US09372524B2
In one embodiment, the present invention includes a multicore processor having a power controller with logic to dynamically switch a power management policy from a power biased policy to a performance biased policy when a utilization of the processor exceeds a threshold level. Thus at low utilizations, reduced power consumption can be realized, while at higher utilizations, greater performance can be realized. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09372515B2
A chassis sub-assembly for computing devices includes a first heat sink plate and a second heat sink plate. The first heat sink plate includes a first plurality of perforations and the second heat sink plate includes a second plurality of perforations. The chassis sub-assembly also includes a first computing device and a second computing device. Each of the first and second computing devices is positioned between the first heat sink plate and the second heat sink plate. The first and second computing devices are in contact with both the first and second heat sink plates, and define a channel gap between the first and second computing devices. At least some of the first and second plurality of perforations are aligned with the channel gap. The first plurality of perforations, the channel gap, and the second plurality of perforations define an airflow channel.
US09372512B2
A portable electronic device includes a cover, a main body, a first bracket, a second bracket and a rotary shaft. The main body includes a top surface, a bottom surface opposite to the top surface, and a guiding groove disposed on the top surface. One end of the first bracket pivots to the cover, and the other of the first bracket is slidable in the guiding groove. One end of the second bracket pivots to the cover. The rotary shaft pivots to the other of the second bracket and the main body to allow the second bracket to rotate about an axis of rotation relative to the main body. An orthographic projection of the guiding groove on the bottom surface of the main body and an orthographic projection of the rotary shaft on the bottom surface of the main body are overlapped with each other.
US09372508B2
A flexible display device includes a base, a flexible display panel, a detecting unit and a control unit. The flexible display includes a touch control unit that could be exposed outside of or received within the base. The detecting unit is used to detect the operating state of the flexible display panel. Then, the control unit controls the touch control unit according to a detected result of the detecting unit. Accordingly, the flexible display device according to the present invention may effectively reduce the accidental contact-induced malfunctions.
US09372506B2
An electronic device includes: a battery; a fixing member coupled to the battery; a printed board partially fixed to the fixing member; and a housing that houses the battery, the fixing member, and the printed board, the battery being fixed to the housing.
US09372504B2
A multi display apparatus is provided. The multi display apparatus includes a first display device and a second display device arranged adjacent to each other, and a hinge device provided to rotate the first display device and the second display device relative to each other, wherein the hinge device includes a first hinge member fixed to the first display device, and a second hinge member fixed to the second display device and connected to the first hinge member such that the second hinge member is movable in a circumferential direction with respect to an interface between adjacent side surfaces of the first display device and the second display device.
US09372502B1
A system clock signal distributed to electronic configurable and reconfigurable computing devices within a distributed computing system. The distributed computing devices, which may be dual-die chip carriers (DDCC), include input addressable data/clock ports on which system clock signals are accepted and may be propagated on one or more data/clock output ports. The input and/or output ports of various distributed computing devices may be configured and reconfigured according to system preferences or requirements.
US09372499B2
A clock doubler includes a first NAND gate having a first input for receiving a clock input signal and a second input, a second NAND gate having a first input and a second input for receiving a complement of the clock input signal, an output NAND gate having a first and second inputs coupled to outputs of the first and second NAND gates, respectively, and an output for providing a clock output signal, an inverter chain having an input for receiving the clock input signal and responsive to first and second control signals to selectively provide a first true output to the first input of the second NAND gate, and a second complementary output to the second input of the first NAND gate, and a control signal generation circuit providing the first and second control signals in response to the outputs of the first and second NAND gates.
US09372497B2
A rotary actuator has a first rotatable part having a control surface with an undulating or sawtooth profile, and has a fixed second part having at least one detent element running on the control surface. The detent element is accommodated, in a manner which allows movement against a restoring force, in an aperture which tapers in a V shape towards the first part. The detent element is accommodated with play between the side walls bounding the aperture. The detent element interacts with the radially oriented control surface in such a way that, as it runs up a projection on the control surface as a result of a movement of the first part, it is moved against one side wall and, upon passing beyond the projection, strikes against the other side wall due the restoring force.
US09372496B2
The invention relates to an electronic device with a bandgap reference generator including a first path with series connection of a first bipolar transistor, a first resistor and a second resistor, and a second path with series connection of a second bipolar transistor and a third resistor. The first and second paths are supplied current via a common node through a fourth resistor controlled by an amplifier sensing voltage drops within the first and second paths. A curvature compensation stage compensates for a variation of base emitter voltage of the bipolar transistors by drawing a compensation current from the common resistor node.
US09372484B2
The present invention relates to automated guided vehicles, hereinafter referred to as AGVs, and specifically to AGVs used for entertainment purposes. More specifically, the present invention relates to a safety system for a passenger carrying AGV used for entertainment purposes. The present invention acts to prevent a passenger carrying automated guided vehicle from deviating from its intended path.
US09372483B2
A method for the calculation of flight paths taking into consideration events of relevance for the radiation dose comprises the following steps: a) collection of radiation data for atmospheric radiation (10); b) examination of the radiation data and conclusion about an event of relevance for radiation dose generating a temporary increase in exposure; c) creation of a model using the radiation data, wherein the model contains at least one estimate of the geographical location of a region with a radiation intensity increased by the event of relevance for radiation dose; d) determination of flight-relevant parameters; e) calculation of a possible flight path in the light of the flight-relevant parameters taking into consideration the model created in step c), wherein the flight path is adjusted in respect of a reduction of exposure to radiation.
US09372481B2
An encoder includes a measurement target which is coupled to a motor, a module which is positioned relative to the measurement target and generates signals based on motion of the measurement target, and a control device which generates and outputs position data based on the signals from the module and includes a position detector, an abnormality detector, a cause analyzer, a non-volatile memory, and a non-volatile memory controller. The position detector detects a position of the motor, the abnormality detector detects an abnormality based on state information including a state of the position detector, the cause analyzer analyzes the state information when the abnormality detector detects the abnormality such that a cause of the abnormality detected by the abnormality detector is identified, and the non-volatile memory controller stores in the non-volatile memory a result of analysis obtained by the cause analyzer.
US09372474B2
An external piece for a time piece and a method of manufacturing the same, including a top surface and a bottom surface. At least one of the faces includes a longitudinal curvature and a transverse curvature that are different.
US09372473B2
A timepiece mechanism including a movable component oscillating about a rest plane passing through a pivot axis. An arbor of the movable component includes a main protruding portion which forms the largest radius of the movable component about this axis. The protruding portion is delimited by two surfaces defining a profile inscribed in a rectangle whose shape proportion is greater than 2 wherein the direction of the length defines a main axis, which occupies a determined angular position with respect to the rest plane in the rest position of the movable component. The mechanism has a preferred direction of magnetization that is substantially orthogonal to the main axis of the arbor in the rest position.
US09372468B2
An open/closed sensing device includes an opening and closing member, a member that receives the opening and closing member when the opening and closing member is closed, at least one magnetic force holder on one of the opening and closing member and the receiving member and that includes a conductive holding frame and a magnet held in the holding frame so as to magnetize the holding frame, a conductive to-be-attracted member that is disposed on a portion of the other one of the opening and closing member and the receiving member, the portion corresponding to the magnetic force holder, and to which the holding frame is attracted when the opening and closing member is closed, and a sensing circuit that connects in series the holding frame and the to-be-attracted member and that electrically senses whether the holding frame and the to-be-attracted member are in contact with each other.
US09372462B1
An image forming apparatus includes a movable image bearing member, a transfer member, a constant voltage source for applying a transfer voltage and a returning voltage to the transfer member, an executing portion capable of selectively executing an operation in a first mode in which image formation is executed at a first speed and an operation in a second mode in which the image formation is effected at a speed slower than the first speed, and a setting portion for setting a falling time from transfer voltage falling start timing toward the returning voltage until a current flowing through said transfer member is zero. The setting portion sets the falling time in the operation in the second mode so as to be longer than the falling time in the operation in the first mode.
US09372449B1
A peripheral surface of a pressing roller in a fixing device has a pair of drive transmission surface portions and a paper passing surface portion. The drive transmission surface portions are respectively formed at both end portions of the pressing roller in an axial direction to transmit rotational driving force of the pressing roller to the fixing belt. The paper passing surface portion is positioned between the pair of drive transmission surface portions and has a dynamic friction coefficient lower than that of the drive transmission surface portion. It is determined whether a slip of the fixing belt occurs based on a difference between temperatures detected by a first temperature sensor that detects the temperature of the drive transmission surface portion and a second temperature sensor that detects the temperature of the paper passing surface portion. Thereby, even a slight slip of the fixing belt 42 is reliably detected.
US09372423B2
The invention provides an image formation method, a toner set, and a white toner, by which a masking function of an image layer formed by a white toner on a recording medium can be developed efficiently, and low temperature fixability can be improved. An image formation method for fixing an image forming layer (A) to be formed using a white toner, and an image forming layer (B) to be formed adjacent to the image forming layer (A) using a toner different from the white toner on a recording medium; wherein the following relational expressions (1) and (2) are satisfied: 1.000
US09372422B2
The disclosure provides sustainable toner particles of from about 180 nm to about 250 nm in a sustainable toner composition having a hot offset temperature of from about 190° C. to about 220° C.
US09372420B2
A heat treating apparatus for powder particles containing a binder resin and a colorant, the heat treating apparatus including: a treating chamber in which a heat treatment of the powder particles is performed; a raw material-supplying unit for supplying the powder particles to the treating chamber; a hot air-supplying unit that supplies hot air to the treating chamber; a cold air-supplying unit that supplies cold air for cooling the heat-treated powder particles; and a recovering unit that recovers the heat-treated powder particles. The raw material-supplying unit includes an introducing tube and a distributing member, and the distributing member is provided with a protruding member on a portion opposite to an outlet portion of the introducing tube, and the distributing member includes a supplying tube including two or more flow paths that extend radially outwardly from the protruding member to a wall surface of the treating chamber.
US09372406B2
A film layer on a substrate of the wafer is patterned to form a first plurality of areas of the film layer and a second plurality of areas of the film layer. The first plurality of areas of the film layer is removed. The second plurality of areas of the film layer is kept on the substrate. A first portion of the film layer is kept on the substrate. A first edge of the first portion of the film layer is substantially near an edge of the wafer. The first portion of the film layer defines a boundary for the wafer.
US09372402B2
Described herein are organometallic or inorganic complexes with high extreme ultraviolet (EUV) optical density (OD) and high mass density for use in thin films. These thin films are used as high resolution, low line edge roughness (LER) EUV photoresists. The complexes may also be included in nanoparticle form for use in photoresists.
US09372400B2
A grayscale mask plate and method of fabricating the same, a color film substrate and method of fabricating the same, and a display device are disclosed. The grayscale mask plate comprises a transparent substrate and a light blocking layer on the transparent substrate. The light blocking layer comprises an exposure region with an optical translucent film which has a light blocking ratio decreasing gradually or stepwise from a center of the optical translucent film to an edge of the optical translucent film. As a result, the intensity of light transmitted through the exposure region is uniform, such that a post spacer fabricated by the grayscale mask plate has a relatively flat top face. Thus, the post spacer exhibits a linear variation in its hardness under the action of an external force.
US09372398B2
Provided herein are block copolymer thin film structures and methods of fabrication. The methods involve directing the assembly of ABA triblock copolymers such that desired features are formed by domains of the assembled ABA triblock copolymer. In some embodiments, an ABA triblock copolymer is directed to assemble by a chemical pattern. Chemical patterns with periods much different than the natural period of the ABA triblock copolymer may be used to direct assembly of the ABA triblock copolymer.
US09372387B2
A laser projector includes a laser light source to emit laser light modulated in accordance with image information, a scanner to drive the laser light along two axes in horizontal and vertical directions and make scanning two-dimensionally with the laser light, a scanning mirror drive part to produce a drive signal of the scanner, a light source data conversion part to change arrangement in a horizontal direction of data applied to the laser light source and a timing generation part to synchronize the scanning mirror drive part with the light source data conversion part, and a start direction of laser scanning in the horizontal direction is changed every frame of the image information.
US09372384B2
A quick attachment and release mounting mechanism for a camera. The mechanism includes a clamping base with clamping structure adapted to be secured around an object, such as a paddle, and an adapter. The clamping base includes a receptacle which is trapezoidal and narrower at the top, and also tapers from one end to the other. The receptacle is disclosed forwardly of the clamping structure. The adapter includes a fastener adapted to engage a camera, and a leading portion with a shape that is complementary to that of the receptacle. A latch mechanism is provided to latch the adapter and receptacle together. The latch mechanism is shielded from accidental disengagement by a frame.
US09372370B2
A liquid crystal display includes: a substrate; a thin film transistor disposed on the substrate; a pixel electrode disposed on the thin film transistor; and a roof layer facing the pixel electrode, wherein a plurality of microcavities are formed between the pixel electrode and the roof layer, each microcavity includes liquid crystal materials, a partition wall is formed between the microcavities, and the roof layer includes a dry film.
US09372363B2
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a photo-responsive cross-linked liquid-crystalline polymer film, containing: a process of preparing a photopolymerizable monomer solution by dissolving in a solvent a polyfunctional liquid-crystalline monomer, a monofunctional liquid-crystalline monomer, a polyfunctional photo-responsive monomer and a photopolymerization initiator; a process of forming a photopolymerizable coating by applying the photopolymerizable monomer solution to a surface of an alignment film by means of a wet coating method and performing removal of the solvent; and a process of forming a film by photopolymerizing the monomers through light irradiation of the photopolymerizable coating under a non-oxygen atmosphere.
US09372359B2
To provide a thin liquid crystal display device equipped with the capacitance-type touch panel, and specifically the thin liquid crystal display device with a lower cost and a higher reliability.The thin liquid crystal display device includes a CF substrate and a TFT substrate formed with a transparent electrode common line, the CF substrate having a plurality of transparent lines, the transparent electrode common line being isolated into a plurality of belt-like forms by an isolation slit, and an area where the transparent line and the transparent electrode common line constitutes an upper electrode and a lower electrode of the capacitance-type touch panel. Furthermore, there are provided a redundant slit and a disconnectable point of the metal common line.
US09372351B1
A circuit includes a front-end circuit, a receiver stage and a controller. An example front-end circuit includes a common base input device, a first current mirror and a second current mirror, where the common base input device has its emitter coupled to a photodiode, its collector coupled to an input of the first current mirror, and its base coupled to a reference voltage to reverse bias the photodiode and where an output of the first current mirror is input into the second current mirror. In another example, a voltage drop resistor is coupled to a cancellation signal output of the first current mirror and an operational transimpedance amplifier (OTA) has inputs coupled to the voltage drop resistor and to a reference voltage and an output coupled to a compensating impedance and to a control input of a variable current source designed to feed the emitter signal input.
US09372348B2
A method and apparatus of displaying an electronic video image using a head-worn near-to-eye display in a non-immersive fashion, such that the wearer can choose, through simple adjustments of their neck and eye angles, to either look at the displayed video image or their natural environment. The invention also relates to the incorporation of prescription lenses into the optical chain of the near-to-eye display. The invention also relates to the use of motion and position sensors incorporated into the head-worn device to enable automatic stabilization of the video image. The invention also relates to the use of motion and position sensors incorporated into the head-worn device to automatically adjust the vertical angle of either the camera or the electronic display or both, by sensing the vertical angular position of the user's head.
US09372342B2
Provided is an optical fingerprint acquisition apparatus. The fingerprint acquisition apparatus has an improved optical lens unit and can correct distortion of an image caused by a light refractor. The optical lens unit includes two cylindrical lenses disposed so that an optical axis of incident light does not coincide with a central axis of the lenses. The optical lens unit corrects an image that is distorted into a rectangle by a light refractor, thereby restoring a square shape. In particular, the fingerprint acquisition apparatus is useful in the simultaneous acquisition of multiple fingerprints as well as the acquisition of a single fingerprint.
US09372335B2
A finder optical system includes an image inverter optical member and an eyepiece lens system. The eyepiece lens system includes a first lens element, a positive biconvex second lens element, and a meniscus third lens element having a concave surface on the eyepoint side, in that order from the object side. A diopter adjustment operation is performed by moving the second lens element along the optical axis. Conditions (1) and (2) are satisfied: −0.2
US09372333B2
The invention relates to a microscope having an illumination beam path with wide field illumination of a sample and a first detection beam path having a spatially resolved surface receiver, which is reached by a first part of the detection light coming from the sample via the first detection beam path, or an image divider assembly for a microscope. In order to lengthen the optical path length, at least a second part of the detection light coming from the sample is masked out of the detection beam path and, via deflection means belonging to the detection beam path, is led into a second detection beam path and, preferably via further deflection means, is deflected back in the direction of the detection in such a way that detection light is applied to at least two partial regions beside one another on the surface receiver. At least the second part of the detection light runs in an optical element having an optical density that is increased as compared with the first detection beam path, in order to lengthen the optical path length, and the optical element is designed to be displaceable at an angle, preferably perpendicular, to the optical axis of the first detection beam path in order to adjust the optical path length, and has flat surfaces, at least on the light entry and light exit side thereof; a prism is provided, preferably a glass prism, preferably at least in the second detection beam path after a first beam deflection, for deflection in a direction parallel to the first detection beam path, in order to increase the path length and for reverse deflection.
US09372328B2
A projection system includes: a relay system that focuses light having exited through a first image plane on a second image plane; and an enlarging system that enlarges and projects an image focused on the second image plane on a third image plane, wherein the relay system includes a first lens element on which the light having exited through the first image plane is incident, the first lens element having positive refracting power, a reflective member that reflects a light having passed through the first lens element, the reflective member having positive refracting power, and a second lens element on which a light reflected off the reflective member is incident and which focuses the light reflected off the reflective member on the second image plane, the second lens element having positive refracting power.
US09372325B2
A photographic lens optical system. The photographic lens optical system includes a first lens, a second lens, a third lens, a fourth lens, a fifth lens, and a sixth lens that are sequentially arranged in a direction from an object toward an image sensor. The first lens has a negative (−) power, and the emission surface thereof may be convex toward the object. The second lens may have a positive (+) power, the third and fourth lenses have positive (+) powers, and the fifth lens has a negative (−) power. Furthermore, the sixth lens is an aspherical lens having a positive (+) power.
US09372318B2
An optical fiber enclosure includes a generally rectangular housing including mounting tabs, the mounting tabs to secure the optical fiber enclosure to a rack; a plurality of trays slidable relative to the housing, the plurality of trays extendable from a front side of the housing; and a plurality of cable management clips along a front edge of a tray of the plurality of trays, the cable management clips arranged to retain optical fiber cables entering the enclosure.
US09372312B2
An optical device and a method of manufacturing an optical device. The optical device includes: a conversion means for converting propagation light propagating through an optical waveguide into parallel light and for outputting the parallel light; and a first lens means for focusing the parallel light outputted from the conversion means on a core of an optical fiber. The method includes: converting propagation light propagating through an optical waveguide into parallel light; outputting the parallel light; and focusing, using a first lens, the parallel light on a core of an optical fiber.
US09372309B2
A method for making a splice between optical fibers in a joint device suitable for housing the joint between a first electrical cable includes a first optical fiber and a second electrical cable including a second optical fiber. The joint device includes a sleeve having a cylindrical portion. The method includes (i) splicing the first optical fiber and the second optical fiber so as to form the splice and (ii) winding at least a portion of the excess length of the first optical fiber and at least a portion of the excess length of the second optical fiber around the cylindrical portion of the sleeve in a helix substantially coaxial with the cylindrical portion.
US09372307B1
A method of forming monolithically integrated III-V optoelectronics with a silicon complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) device. The method may include; forming a buried waveguide in a buried oxide (BOX) layer of a semiconductor-on-insulator (SOI) substrate; forming a first optoelectronic device and a second optoelectronic device adjacent to the buried waveguide; and forming a CMOS device on a semiconductor layer above the BOX layer.
US09372303B2
Disclosed is an optical connection component manufacturing apparatus that manufactures an optical connection component in which a refractive index matching body is attached to a front end face of an optical fiber. The optical connection component manufacturing apparatus includes: a holding unit that includes a holding face holding a refractive index matching liquid including the refractive index matching body; a dispenser that supplies the refractive index matching liquid to the holding face; and a static electricity generating device that charges the optical fiber so that the refractive index matching liquid held on the holding face is adsorbed onto the front end face of the optical fiber, wherein the holding face has an outer peripheral edge connected in a curved line.
US09372300B2
Provided is a light-emitting unit that includes: a light-guide section having a light entering surface; and a plurality of light sources opposed to the light entering surface of the light-guide section and arrayed in a first direction, and each having an anisotropy in emission intensity. A pattern shape of light applied from any of the light sources to the light entering surface has a shape anisotropy, and the light sources are each disposed to allow a longitudinal direction of the pattern shape to be inclined relative to the first direction.
US09372298B2
The invention relates to a luminaire that enables the use of more sparsely distributed light sources, having a uniform fixture surface brightness and good color mixing. The luminaire comprises first and second light guide layers (10, 11) optically coupled together by at least one optical coupler (12a, 12b), which allows the passage of light from the first (10) to the second light guide layer (11). The luminaire also comprises a plurality of light sources (16a, 16b), each of which being arranged such that light emitted by the light source (16a, 16b) is coupled into the first light guide layer (10) at an interface surface (17)arranged substantially perpendicularly to a longitudinal axis of the first light guide layer (10). The luminaire further comprises a scattering element (14) adapted to cause light to be emitted from an emitting surface of the second light guide layer (11). By providing two optically coupled light guide layers (10, 11), one for receiving light emitted by the light sources (16a, 16b) and the other for emission, greater opportunity for dispersion and color mixing of the light is provided.
US09372290B2
A spectrum analyzer includes an input member, a predetermined output plane and a reflection type diffraction grating. The input member receives an optical signal. The reflection type diffraction grating includes a non-Rowland circle curved grating profile curved surface and a plurality of diffraction structures. The diffraction structures, each having a pitch and disposed on the grating profile curved surface, are configured to separate the optical signal into a plurality of spectral components. At least some pitches of the spectral components are different from each other. One of the spectral components indicating a central wavelength is emitted to the predetermined output plane in a direction substantially perpendicular to the predetermined output plane. The grating profile curved surface is used for focusing the spectral components on the predetermined output plane.
US09372282B1
Disclosed are improved ophthalmic and otorhinolaryngological device materials and devices formed therewith. The device materials are soft, high refractive index styrenic device materials that are used to form the ophthalmic or otorhinolaryngological devices, particularly ophthalmic implants (e.g., intraocular lenses).
US09372279B2
The probable location of petroleum deposits is determined by identifying a severe-weather-inducing site from severe weather such as mesocyclones, tornados, funnels aloft, wall clouds or supercells, water spouts, and a high density of multiple lightning ground strikes. Typically the severe-weather-inducing site is located by identifying the initial appearance of the tornado vortex signature in modern Doppler radar or monitoring the severe weather, recording data as to its position and its velocity and acceleration with respect to the ground or water surface if it is moving, and determining the inducing site from such data. The occurrence of multiple severe weather sites in a dense pattern is also used to determine the probable location of petroleum deposits.
US09372276B2
An electromagnetic well logging instrument includes an instrument housing, at least one transmitter coil disposed on the housing and at least one receiver coil disposed on the housing. At least one of the transmitter and receiver coils is formed from a combination solenoidal (axial) and saddle coils. The net dipole moment direction of the combined coil is determined by selecting the relative turn-areas of the saddle and solenoidal coil. The combined coil can be formed from a single wire wound to have both a longitudinal magnetic dipole moment and a transverse magnetic dipole moment with respect to a longitudinal axis of the housing.
US09372268B2
A method for erasing bright burn includes: applying, to a scintillator, visible light having an intensity peak at a wavelength in the range of 405 nm to 500 nm, wherein the scintillator includes cesium iodide and is provided in a radiographic imaging device having a photoelectric transducer.
US09372265B2
A method for measuring and registering 3D coordinates has a 3D scanner measure a first collection of 3D coordinates of points from a first registration position. The 3D scanner collects 2D scan sets as 3D measuring device moves from first to second registration positions. A processor determines first and second translation values and a first rotation value based on collected 2D scan sets. 3D scanner measures a second collection of 3D coordinates of points from second registration position. Processor adjusts the second collection of points relative to first collection of points based at least in part on first and second translation values and first rotation value. Processor identifies a correspondence among registration targets in first and second collection of 3D coordinates, and uses this correspondence to further adjust the relative position and orientation of first and second collection of 3D coordinates.
US09372259B2
A pulse transmission controller generates transmission timing signals for a high-frequency radar transmission signal in every transmission cycle. A transmission phase shifter gives a transmission signal generated by a modulator phase shifts each corresponding to a transmission cycle on the basis of the transmission timing signals generated at intervals that are equal to the transmission cycle. A reception phase shifter gives a reception signal that is output from an A/D converter reception phase shifts that are opposite in direction to the respective transmission phase shifts given by the transmission phase shifter on the basis of the transmission timing signals generated at intervals that are equal to the transmission cycle.
US09372256B2
Radar imaging for medical diagnosis addresses the need for non-ionizing and low-cost alternatives to conventional medical diagnosis methods, such as mammography x-ray techniques, which expose patients to ionizing radiation for cancer detection. An ultra wide band (UWB) sensor can produce very fine beams at the V- or W-bands using beam forming techniques developed specifically for wafer scale antenna arrays. The high bandwidth radio waves can penetrate tissue and resolve tissue anomalies with high-resolution. Pseudo-random coding creates a signal that allows the correlating receiver to extract very low energy reflected signals from background noise providing coding gain. An integrated panel of sensor antenna arrays enables rapid scanning of the subject area, such as breast tissue, to detect anomalies by eliminating the need for mechanical scanning (e.g., moving the sensors relative to the subject) because the wafer scale antenna array can instantaneously take the desired topographic picture of the subject area.
US09372254B2
A position estimation device which includes: a distance estimation unit which estimates, using a receiving strength of a signal received by a wireless terminal from each of a plurality of base stations communicating with the wireless terminal, distance information indicating a distance from the base station to the wireless terminal; a position estimation unit which estimates a first position to be a current position of the wireless terminal using base station information indicating a position of the base station and the estimated distance information; and a correction unit which corrects the distance information based on an acceleration and a direction of the wireless terminal, the estimated first position, and the base station information. The position estimation unit further estimates a second position to be a current position of the wireless terminal using the base station information and the corrected distance information.
US09372227B2
A system for testing a device under test (DUT) includes a probe card and a test module. The probe card includes probe beds electrically coupled to a circuit board and a first plurality of electrical contacts coupled to the circuit board, which are for engaging respective ones of a plurality of electrical contacts of a test equipment module. Probes are coupled to respective probe beds and are disposed to engage electrical contacts of the DUT. The probe card includes a second plurality of electrical contacts coupled to the circuit board. The first and second pluralities of contacts are mutually exclusive. The test module includes a memory, a processor, and a plurality of electrical contacts electrically coupled to respective ones of the second plurality of electrical contacts of the probe card. The circuit board includes a first electrical path for electrically coupling the test equipment module to the test module.
US09372224B2
The disclosure describes a method for checking the proper method of operation of a current sensor which is designed to measure a battery current. During a precharge phase which begins at a time at which at least one electrical component is connected to a battery and during which the electrical component is precharged by a precharge current, at least one measured value provided by the current sensor is compared with an expected current value determined from an expected temporal profile of the precharge current. The disclosure also describes a computation unit and a battery which are designed to carry out the method according to the disclosure.
US09372217B2
A measuring device for detecting a conductor that carries alternating voltage, includes a voltage source configured to produce two phase-shifted alternating voltages, two complex impedance elements having first connections, which are connected to the alternating voltages, and second connections, which are connected to each other and to which a differential voltage is applied, and a control device configured to control the alternating voltages in such a way that a component of the differential voltage synchronous with the alternating voltages is minimized in magnitude. The control device is configured to detect the conductor if a ratio of the alternating voltages does not correspond to a ratio of the complex impedance elements in the absence of the conductor. The second complex impedance element is changeable with a control voltage. A probe is configured to provide the control voltage as a function of an alternating electromagnetic field induced by the conductor.
US09372215B2
An electrical resistance measurement apparatus includes a light irradiation unit that irradiates a conductive thin film with terahertz light, a reflection light detection unit that detects reflection light from the conductive thin film, and a computer containing a storage that stores correlation between the reflectance of the terahertz light from the conductive thin film and electrical resistance of the conductive thin film. The computer further containing a processor that determines, reflectance of the terahertz light from the conductive thin film based on a result of detection performed by the reflection light detection unit, and determines the electrical resistance of the conductive thin film based on the correlation and a result of the determination of the reflectance.
US09372207B1
A current measurement and voltage measurement transducer for power measurements has an upper split core attached to an upper housing and a lower split core attached to a lower housing. The upper housing and lower housing have a common hinge surface and engaging surfaces for maintaining closure and providing a magnetic circuit which surrounds a conductor placed inside the transducer, and the magnetic circuit is coupled to windings around the split core, thereby providing a measurement of current. The housings also provide one or more piercing pins which penetrate the insulation of the conductor and provide a voltage measurement.
US09372204B2
The present invention provides a sensor body (1′) that can be used as part of a sensor assembly, optionally a capacitive sensor that is used to measure the clearance between the tip of a gas turbine engine blade and the surrounding casing. The sensor body includes a core layer (2) having an electrically conductive electrode layer (6). An outer insulating layer (4) substantially surrounds the core layer (2) and extends along a front part (8) of the sensor body to define a window layer (10) that provides a hermetic seal that excludes gas from any interface between the constituent layers of the sensor body. The core layer (2) and the outer insulating layer (4) are formed from the same electrically non-conducting ceramic material to avoid any problems with differential thermal expansion. The electrode layer (6) is embedded within a front part of the sensor body and extends between the core layer (2) and the window layer (10).
US09372203B1
Disclosed are various actuators for probe exchangers for use in scanning probe microscopes (SPMs). The probe exchange actuators are designed so as to impose no net forces on a probe clamp attached to the high resolution piezoelectric positioning mechanism to which the probe is being transferred. These actuators therefore impose no net force on the delicate high resolution piezoelectric positioning mechanism, thus helping protect it from physical damage during the probe exchange process.
US09372192B2
A lateral flow assay detects and differentiates between viral and bacterial infections. A combined point of care diagnostic device tests markers for viral infection and markers for bacterial infection, to effectively assist in the rapid differentiation of viral and bacterial infections. In one preferred embodiment, the bacterial marker is CRP. In another preferred embodiment, the viral marker is MxA. In some embodiments, it is unnecessary to lyse the cells in the sample prior to applying it to the device.
US09372189B2
The purpose of the present invention is to provide: a biomarker specific to lymphocytic infundibuloneurohypophysitis; and use applications of the biomarker. Provided are: a biomarker comprising an anti-rabphilin 3a antibody; and a test method using the biomarker.
US09372183B2
A method is provided for the discrimination of cells from other particles, as well as of different types of cells in raw milk samples by impedance microflow cytometry. A method is provided of analysing the quality of raw milk in terms of its bacterial and somatic cell content without the need to pre-treat the milk sample, such that the analysis can take place directly at the production site. One advantage is discriminating and counting somatic cells from milk particles (consisting mainly of lipid vesicles) by high-frequency impedance analysis directly performed on untreated raw milk. Another advantage is that the method allows diagnosing the status of a mastitis infection directly after milking according to the analysis of the somatic cell count. Another advantage is to allow a fast method for determining the bacterial cell count in raw milk directly after milking. In addition, viability of both somatic and bacterial cells can be determined without the need of any cell label. A further advantage is, that the analysis can be obtained in real-time, directly after the raw milk has passed the micro channel of the microfluidic device.
US09372177B2
A method of detecting high-temperature exposure of a composite may include applying a composition comprising an adduct suitable for detecting heat and/or mechanical stress in a composite, wherein the adduct reverts to first and second adduct components after exposure of the composition to a temperature of from about 190° C. to about 260° C. to a surface of the composite; exposing the surface to which the composition has been applied to ultraviolet light; and measuring fluorescence of the composition.
US09372176B2
An ultrasonic inspection method for inspecting a first article. The method includes, in a first inspection process: measuring the distance between a first surface of the first article and a nominal axis at three or more measurement locations along the axis of the surface; using the measured distances to produce a mathematical model of the surface of the first article; transmitting an ultrasonic wave from a first side of the first article through the first surface of the first article at a plurality of inspection locations along the axis of the first surface, and receiving a transmitted waveform which has passed through at least part of the first article; using the model to normalize each transmitted waveform at each inspection location to the nominal axis; and identifying a signature signal from the normalized transmitted waveform at each inspection location.
US09372174B2
An ultrasonic inspection probe comprising: a flexible ultrasonic array, a flexible coupling component arranged to ultrasonically couple the flexible ultrasonic array to a workpiece at a coupling boundary surface, a loading component arranged to apply a pressure to the coupling component to a surface opposite the coupling boundary surface to maintain contact between the coupling boundary surface and a workpiece.
US09372164B2
Herein disclosed is an x-ray florescence (XRF) test system which comprises an XRF test instrument used for testing a test target's responses to X-rays, the instrument including a test window allowing the X-ray and its responsive energy to pass through, and at least one window protecting film allowing X-rays to pass through and providing protections to the window, the film being configured to be coupled with the window in a fashion to be removed from or applied or reapplied over the window. The corresponding calibration mode can be manually or automatically applied according to the specific film presently in use.
US09372162B2
A method and a system are provided to characterize subterranean formations, which includes extracting drill cuttings from a drilling fluid, and grouping the drill cuttings into a group of cuttings based on a time of arrival of the drill cuttings at the Earth's surface, wherein these steps can be repeated at least once to provide a plurality of groups of drill cuttings that arrive sequentially at different recorded times that correspond to different downhole locations.
US09372160B2
A method and system for optically inspecting the ends of a manufactured part at a single inspection station having a measurement axis are provided. The system includes a fixture assembly having a rotatable first fixturing component and a rotatable second fixturing component mating with and removably connected to the first fixturing component to transmit torque from the first fixturing component to the second fixturing component. The second fixturing component has a device for holding the part in a generally horizontal orientation and permit rotation of the horizontally held part between first and second angular positions about the measurement axis. The system also includes an actuator assembly, an illumination device, a lens and detector assembly and at least one processor to process electrical signals generated by the lens and detector assembly to determine at least one geometric dimension or any visual defects at the ends of the part.
US09372149B2
An optofluidic platform is constructed to comprise a vertical integration of optical and fluidic layers. The optical layer enables interaction of light with a fluid for a variety of purposes, including particle detection, manipulation, and analysis. The vertical integration allows layers to be permanently or temporarily attached to each other. Temporary attachments provide the advantage of reusing the same optical layer with different fluidic layers. Most preferably, the optical layer comprises antiresonant reflecting optical waveguide. Further, a fluidic layer can be configured to act as an interface between the optical layer and other fluidic layers attached thereon. Moreover, the fluidic layers can be configured to perform fluidic functions. The optofluidic platform can also comprise a protective layer. As such, a liquid solution can be introduced in the optofluidic platform and single particles contained therein can be optically detected with extremely high sensitivity and without the need for advanced microscopy equipment.
US09372146B2
A thread gauge, which allows to reliably know the time for replacement by visual checking and improves the predetermined dimensional accuracy of a thread product has a go-side thread measuring portion extending from one side of a shank portion coaxially with the shank portion or a not-go-side thread measuring portion extending from an other side of the shank portion coaxially with the shank portion, a wear checking gauge line having a predetermined length and a predetermined depth formed on male thread portions and female thread portions formed on the go-side thread measuring portion or the not-go-side thread measuring portion.
US09372143B2
An image flow cytometer has a flow chamber with a flow channel formed therein to permit a microparticulate sample to flow through the flow channel. An irradiation optical system irradiates the sample in the channel with incident light in an irradiation spot smaller than a selected representative size, e.g., smaller than the sample. The system scans an irradiation position perpendicular to the flow direction of the sample. A detection optical system is opposed to the irradiation optical system through the flow chamber, or is off the optical axis of the incident light. The detection system detects a light intensity of resultant light from the flow chamber. A control unit detects the microparticulate sample according to a change of the light intensity of the resultant light detected by the detection optical system.
US09372140B2
The present invention comprises a device for measuring at least one property of a substance or medium such as the viscosity, the shearing stress, the specific weight and whether the substance or the medium shows Newtonian behavior. The device comprises a carrier arranged at least at one attachment point, a pivot arm connected pivotally or rotatably to the carrier at a rotation point located at a distance from the attachment point, a drive acting selectively on the pivot arm for driving the pivot arm in an oscillating movement, and a measurement setup for measuring the oscillation of the pivot arm to be caused with a drive, characterized in that a center of inertia lies substantially at the attachment point.
US09372132B2
A blood component sampling system and method are disclosed. The system is pre-connected and includes a collected blood component container and a reservoir having substantially fixed volume and at least one volumetric indicator indicating a selected volume and a sample container docking station configured to cooperate with a sample collection container. The system and method provide ease of sampling with reduced risk of contamination.
US09372126B2
An apparatus for detecting deformation of an elongate body may comprise a light source configured to sequentially provide light of multiple frequencies, an optical receiver configured to receive light from the light source, and a filter disposed between the light source and the optical detector. The filter may comprise multiple segments, each of the segments configured to filter light at one of the frequencies so as to alter the amount of light incident on said optical receiver. A total amount of light detected by the optical receiver may change during the sequence so as to be indicative of deformation of the elongate body.
US09372119B2
Described are methods and systems for vicarious polarimetric calibration and performance validation of a remote sensor. The system includes a plurality of reflective mirrors configured and arranged to reflect radiation from a source of radiation onto the remote sensor with accurately known polarimetric properties. Each of the reflective mirrors are located so that the target images do not overlap. The remote sensor is configured to receive the radiation reflected from the plurality of reflective mirrors and store the received radiation as image data (e.g., the image of each mirror appears as a point target). The system includes a processor configured to process the received data to provide direct calibration and performance validation for each polarimetric or spectral channel of the remote sensor. In addition, the calibration method removes all atmospheric effects except for transmittance and provides reference targets that have high polarimetric contrast, full spectrum performance and easy to deploy.
