US09402332B2
An improved shielding cage assembly that utilizes air guides is disclosed. The shielding cage has a hollow interior configured to receive an electronic module therein which generates heat during operation. An air guide member is provided that defines an entry for surrounding air to enter the shielding cage interior and circulate around the electronic module. A thermal transfer member is provided that defines at least one exit passage for the air in the interior of the shielding cage to exit.
US09402330B2
Crossbars span the width between two opposed vertical attachment bars in a half-width electronics rack or cabinet of accommodating height to enable vertical mounting of full-width electronics module in the half-width electronics rack or cabinet. The crossbars are used in opposed spaced-apart pairs with the full-width electronics module mounted vertically between the crossbars. Each crossbar includes a flat elongated main bar having five sets of three holes in a linear array, with the holes sized and spaced apart in accordance with industry standards for electronics racks. An attachment flange with a fastener opening extends from each end of the main bar and is delineated from the main bar by a notch. Between the notches, the same edge extends in a right-angle bend which further extends into a flange. Crossbars are provided in pairs, with or without packaging, racks, cabinets, and electronics modules.
US09402329B1
A cable management assembly includes a cable management arm and a cable management device. The cable management arm is arranged with a mounting hole and a positioning hole. The mounting hole includes a first hole portion and a second hole portion. The cable management device is detachably mounted to the cable management arm and includes a mounting portion and an elastic portion. Wherein the mounting portion of the cable management device is capable of entering the second hole portion from the first hole portion of the mounting hole, and the mounting portion is blocked by a blocking section adjacent to the second hole portion. The elastic portion of the cable management device is configured to enter the positioning hole to be blocked by at least one blocking wall of the cable management arm.
US09402327B2
An electronic apparatus which is capable of preventing a joint between a jack connector and a connector substrate from being broken due to prying after insertion of a plug without bringing about an increase in the size of the connector substrate. In a cantilever spring portion of a chassis, hooking portions that penetrate holes formed in the connector substrate and hook the connector substrate are provided on both sides in a width direction of the connector substrate which is vertical to a direction in which the plug is inserted. A screw, which fastens the connector substrate to the cantilever spring portion, is disposed in the same line as the plug insertion direction and on an opposite side of a plug insertion opening in the jack connector. When the connector substrate is not bent, a space is formed between the connector substrate and an end of the hooking portion.
US09402325B2
Provided is a portable electronic device with excellent shock resistance without reducing design property. A portable electronic device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention is equipped with a case including a device (e.g., a speaker), a covering member that covers the device, a protrusion that is formed on the case, and a protective member that protects the covering member. The protective member is formed to protrude from the covering member and also with a substantially equivalent height to that of the protrusion. It is preferable that the protrusion is formed at facing edges of the case, and the protective member is formed between the protrusion.
US09402320B2
According to embodiments of the invention, an electronic component assembly may be provided. The electronic component assembly may include an electronic component body. The electronic component assembly may also include a non-conductive force transfer plate affixed to the electronic component body to receive an assembly force. The electronic component assembly may also include a plurality of electrical connectors passing through the non-conductive force transfer plate, wherein first ends of the electrical connectors are located within the electronic component body and second ends are located outside the electronic component body, and the electrical connectors have a force transfer structure adapted to engage the non-conductive force transfer plate and transfer at least a portion of the assembly force from the force transfer plate to the electrical connectors.
US09402315B2
Provided is a semiconductor package including a wiring substrate having top and bottom surfaces. A first semiconductor chip is disposed on the wiring substrate in a flip-chip manner. The first semiconductor chip has a first surface facing the top surface of the wiring substrate and a second surface opposite to the first surface. First connection members are disposed between the wiring substrate and the first semiconductor chip. The first connection members include first and second contact members each including one or more magnetic materials. The first contact members include portions disposed in the second contact members. The one or more magnetic material of the first contact members have an opposite polar orientation to that of the second contact members.
US09402314B2
A semiconductor module includes a circuit substrate, a first semiconductor device substrate that is mounted on the circuit substrate and that processes an input signal of a first frequency band, a second semiconductor device substrate that is mounted on the circuit substrate and that processes an input signal of a second frequency band, and a control device substrate that is arranged between the first and second semiconductor device substrates and that controls the first and second semiconductor device substrates.
US09402309B2
The printed wiring board includes: an insulating board including a conductive metal layer formed on both surfaces of an insulating resin; and a conductor layer formed on both surfaces of the insulating board, the conductor layer including a different circuit pattern depending on a region. The circuit patterns formed on both surfaces of the insulating board includes a pattern with line width accuracy of ±10 μm or less, and a conductor layer thickness in a region having a dense circuit pattern area and a conductor layer thickness in a region having a sparse circuit pattern area have a following relational expression: conductor layer thickness in a dense region/conductor layer thickness in a sparse region=0.7 to 1.0.
US09402302B2
A device for improving antenna receiving sensitivity in a portable terminal includes an antenna in a low-frequency band of less than 900 MHz which is mounted on a predetermined position in a body housing and a touch pad unit connected to the vicinity of the antenna through a FPCB (Flexible Printed Circuit Board), in which the touch pad unit is grounded to a nearby body in the vicinity of the touch pad unit by using a conductive portion to block noise generated in the touch pad unit, thereby improving the antenna receiving sensitivity.
US09402299B2
Disclosed is a transparent electrode which is configured of: a first conductive layer that is composed of a metal or metal oxide fine wire that is formed in a pattern on a substrate; and a second conductive layer that covers the first conductive layer and contains a conductive polymer. The transparent electrode is characterized in that the fine wire of the first conductive layer satisfies the conditions mentioned below. Also disclosed is an organic electronic element. Line width (W): 20-200 μm Height (H): 0.2-2.0 μm Aspect ratio: 0.001
US09402296B2
An exemplary liquid crystal display panel includes a substrate and first conductive wires. The first conductive wires are arranged at a surface of the substrate. Each of the first conductive wires includes a plurality of first connecting portions, a plurality of second connecting portions and a conductive portion with a plurality of conductive particles. The conductive portion is sandwiched between the first connecting portions and the second connecting portions, thus electrically connecting the first connecting portions to the second connecting portions. A method for manufacturing the liquid crystal display panel is also provided.
US09402291B1
The invention relates to a lighting control console for controlling a lighting system. At least one slide control is provided in the control panel of the lighting control console, which slide control allows users to enter input values by linearly adjusting a control knob, wherein a contact holder is provided at the slide control. A linkage lever links the control knob and the contact holder. In the housing of the lighting control console, at least one light source is provided, wherein at least one light exit is provided at the control knob, and wherein a light conducting element is provided between the light source and the light exit, in which element the light of the light source can be transmitted to the light exit at the control knob.
US09402288B2
The present invention relates to a backlight of a liquid crystal display device and a driving method thereof. The backlight comprises a LED lamp bead group and a backlight driving module. The LED lamp bead group includes a plurality of strings of LED lamp bead which are opposite in term of positive and negative directions. The backlight driving module is electrically connected to the LED lamp bead group to output a voltage signal and a current signal to drive the LED lamp bead group, wherein the voltage signal is configured as more than one serials of periodic square-wave signal, under the action of which a string of LED lamp bead of positive direction and a string of LED lamp bead of negative direction emit light in an alternate manner, and the brightness of emitted light is determined by the magnitude of the current signal.
US09402284B1
An induction cooktop may be reconfigured to be used as a built-in side-by-side warmer model, a built-in front-back warmer model, a countertop side-by-side warmer model, and a countertop front-back warmer model. The cooktop may include a housing with two warmers and a control panel for supplying power to the warmers. The control panel may be detached from one side of the cooktop and reattached to another side, thereby reconfiguring the cooktop from a side-by-side warmer model to a front-back warmer model. The inclusion of a ledge around the periphery of the housing may allow the cooktop to be used as both a built-in model and a countertop model.
US09402282B2
A pulsed induction heating system removes bonded elements from underlying substrates. A coil loop of a tool fits around the base of the element to be removed. The tool heats the element and the substrate in short pulses that are followed by brief, non-heated wait periods. The temperature of the substrate is measured during the wait periods between pulses to avoid overheating. When the substrate reaches a target temperature, the adhesive is sufficiently softened such that the element and adhesive are readily scraped off without damaging the substrate.
US09402279B1
Systems and techniques relating to wireless communications are described. A described technique includes performing, at a wireless communication device, an arbitration among multiple different wireless radio technologies, which collectively use two or more radio resources of the wireless communication device, to produce an arbitration result; and operating the two or more radio resources in accordance with the arbitration result. Performing the arbitration can include performing a first level arbitration between a request associated with a first technology of the multiple different wireless radio technologies and a request associated with a second technology of the multiple different wireless radio technologies to produce a first level result; and performing a second level arbitration to produce a second level result when indicated by the first level result. The arbitration result can be based on the first level result and the second level result, if any.
US09402273B2
Methods, systems, and devices are described for a UE to determine a DRX wakeup rule in an eICIC environment. A UE may identify a measurement period associated with reduced interference from one or more cells in a wireless communications network. The cells may be a serving cell or a neighbor cell. The measurement period may be identified based on eICIC data available to the UE. The eICIC data may be sent to the UE by a serving cell and/or determined by the UE. The UE may power up a wireless modem to perform a warm-up measurement of the serving cell during the identified measurement period prior to transitioning the UE to a DRX on state.
US09402265B1
In a method of synchronizing time domain multiplexing interference mitigation schemes of at least a first, second, and third wireless communication link within a first, second, and third network, respectively, a first set of parameters defining a first set of time intervals is determined. The first set of time intervals is utilized to schedule transmissions of the first wireless communication link to reduce interference with transmissions of the second wireless communication link. A second set of parameters defining a second set of time intervals is determined. The second set of time intervals is utilized to schedule transmissions of the first wireless communication link to reduce interference with transmissions of the third wireless communication link. The second set of parameters is determined based at least in part on at least one of the first set of parameters.
US09402264B2
A wireless communication device includes at least two transceivers and a processor. A respectively selected portion of a downlink and uplink data flow signals is transmitted to and received from corresponding different wireless networks. The uplink and downlink data flow signals comprise data flows between a client entity and an Internet-Protocol-based services application. In one embodiment, the selected portions of the uplink and downlink are based on consecutively arranged packets communicated over respectively different wireless networks. In another embodiment, the selected portions of the uplink and downlink are based on relative packet sizes.
US09402257B2
Half-duplex (HD) operations enable low cost implementations of LTE terminals. Traditionally, HD operations may be linked to a particular frequency band which may not allow a mix of full-duplex (FD) and HD terminals in the same frequency band. Therefore, certain aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques for enabling coexistence, in a given frequency band, of HD and FD terminals, by introducing frequency bands designated for HD operation and overlapping existing frequency bands designated for FD operation.
US09402254B2
In accordance with an example embodiment of the present invention, a method comprises identifying at least one beacon opportunity at a wireless network device; selecting a beacon channel from a beacon slot that is a flexibly allocated frequency resource; and transmitting at least one beacon signal in the selected beacon channel multiplexed in a beacon frame during the identified beacon opportunity.
US09402246B2
A device and method in which a plurality of Zadoff-Chu sequences is allocated to a frame, a value of a parameter in the Zadoff-Chu sequence is different among the plurality of Zadoff-Chu sequences, and the Zadoff-Chu sequence allocated to the frame is different among a plurality of cells.
US09402244B2
An apparatus includes a network node configured to communicate with other network nodes via a communication network. The network node includes a plurality of transceivers and a controller. The controller includes a link management module and a packet management module. The link management module is configured to produce link profiles associated with communication links available to the network node, wherein a link profile indicates link characteristics that include a busy indication of a transceiver. The packet management module is configured to identify a link profile solution set that includes a set of link profiles corresponding to communication links for multicasting the message packet, map the link profiles of the link profile solution set to at least a portion of the plurality of transceivers, and initiate transmission of the message packet using the communication links corresponding to the link profile solution set.
US09402239B2
A method and apparatus of controlling a transmit power in a wireless local area network is provided. A wireless device operated in a TV White Space transmits a white space map indicating a list of available channels, and transmits an extended power constraint indicating a plurality of transmission channels and a plurality of maximum transmit powers, wherein the plurality of transmission channels are selected among the list of available channels and each of the plurality of maximum transmit powers corresponds to a maximum transmit power for each of the plurality of transmission channels. Interference can be mitigated between wireless devices operated in the TV White Space.
US09402237B2
Embodiments of the present invention describe methods for increasing the amount of information available to a mobile transmit diversity transmitter during soft handoff. According to embodiments of the invention, a transmit diversity transmitter may determine substantially when it is in uplink communication with one base station and downlink communication with another base station. The mobile device may transmitting a diversity signal by controlling a value of a transmit diversity parameter based on feedback signals from the downlink base station, and controlling a power level in accordance with a standard protocol, e.g. combination of transmit power control feedbacks provided by the active base stations.
US09402236B2
A method of transmission power control is performed by a radio device along with another radio device being connected to a radio control device, the radio device forming a second cell overlaid with a first cell which is formed by the another radio device and a first frequency band is used. The method comprises monitoring a failure state of the other radio device, and reducing transmission power of radio waves to be transmitted to the second cell when the failure state of the another radio device is detected.
US09402233B2
Embodiments of a distributed antenna system (DAS) and method for enhanced positioning in a wireless network are generally described herein. In some embodiments, an enhanced Node-B (eNB) operates as part of a DAS that includes one or more nodes having the same cell ID as the eNB. The eNB is to transmit a UE-specific reference signal and configure one or more of the other nodes of the cell to transmit UE-specific reference signals that are distinguishable from each other and from the UE-specific reference signal that is transmitted by the eNB. The eNB may receive location estimate information from user equipment (UE) that is determined at least in part from the UE-specific reference signals. The eNB may also configure the nodes to perform cooperative OFDMA transmission techniques for the UEs operating in the cell.
US09402231B2
A first wireless device and a second wireless device are each capable of communicating using multiple MAC protocols. The first wireless device sets a first receiver to a power savings mode, the first receiver designed to operate according to a first MAC protocol. The first wireless device then receives, from the second wireless device, an indication on a second receiver corresponding to a second MAC protocol that data is available to be transmitted to the first wireless device from the second wireless device. In response to receipt of the indication, the first wireless sets the first receiver to an active mode, and receives the data from the second wireless device using the first receiver operating in accordance with the first MAC protocol. The second receiver consumes less power than the first receiver. Reduction of power consumption in the first wireless device may be achieved.
US09402229B2
A wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) stops discontinuous reception (DRX) timers that are running and that are related to uplink and/or downlink transmissions during a DRX time period. The WTRU stops the DRX timers in response to receiving a medium access control (MAC) control element signal from an eNode-B.
US09402223B2
Before software for a routing protocol in a second wireless terminal receives a routing packet between a first wireless terminal and the second wireless terminal that are both included in an ad hoc network, stability determining software determines whether or not a link between the first wireless terminal, which is the source of the routing packet, and the second wireless terminal is stable. When the link is determined to be stable, the software for the routing protocol in the second wireless terminal processes the routing packet. This allows building of a route using only a stable link between adjacent nodes.
US09402222B2
Provided is a communication system including a plurality of base stations, a plurality of communication terminals that communicates with one of the plurality of base stations, and a relay device, the relay device including a selection unit that selects a communication terminal to be relayed from among the plurality of communication terminals on the basis of communication quality information received from each of the plurality of communication terminals, and a relay unit that relays communication between the communication terminal selected by the selection unit and the corresponding base station.
US09402220B2
An electronic apparatus is capable of sharing connection information for connecting to a specific communication line with another apparatus. The electronic apparatus includes a first communication unit configured to communicate with a base station through the specific communication line, a second communication unit configured to perform communication different from the communication performed by the first communication unit, a detection unit configured to detect, via the second communication unit, whether the another apparatus is operating, and a controller configured to control communication performed by the first and second communication units. The controller controls, on the basis of a detection result from the detection unit, whether to perform communication through the specific communication line by the first communication unit.
US09402206B2
A method and arrangement for controlling a balance between Packet Switched (PS) data, and Circuit Switched (CS) data in a cellular communication network. A network node is arranged in a cellular communication network to control communication of PS data between a first UE and a base station, and to control communication of CS data between a second UE and the base station. Both the first UE, the second UE and the base station are associated to the cellular communication network and are located in the cell. The network node comprises a controller 402 which is adapted to identify a risk of congested communication of data, and a transceiver 406 which is adapted to communicate PS data with the first base station, and to communicate CS data with the second base station. The controller is further adapted to request the second UE to change communication settings, and the controller is further adapted to reallocate transmission resources from the second UE, to the first UE.
US09402204B2
A wireless transmit receive unit and methods for code division multiple access telecommunications are disclosed that process data in a physical layer and a medium access control (MAC) layer. The physical and MAC layers communicate data between each other via transport channels. The transport channels are associated with logical channels. Logical-channel data for the transport channels is provided in data units having a bit size evenly divisible by an integer N. The respective logical channels associated with a transport channel utilize MAC headers that have a selected modulo N bit size such that there is bit alignment of the MAC headers of all the logical channels associated with a particular transport channel.
US09402200B2
This disclosure relates to a Radio Network Controller, RNC, a base station, and to methods therein. By extracting information from one or more flows of Protocol Data Units, PDUs, which information is accessible on a certain protocol layer only, congestion control is enabled and performed on another protocol layer based on said information.The present disclosure avoids that inappropriate PDUs are discarded, which else would inappropriately affect the user performance.
US09402199B2
Systems and methods for enabling a WLAN client to communicate simultaneously over more than one band at a time are described, where each client has at least one radio that is operational in each supported band. Load balancing based on traffic requirements optimizes the use of the multiple bands.
US09402196B2
The present invention relates to an integrated repeater and an integrated relay system. The integrated repeater of the present invention receives a signal from a main repeater for relaying signals transmitted from upper devices, and comprises a demultiplexer configured to demultiplex the multiplexed signal of an Ethernet signal and a mobile communication signal received from the main repeater, and separate the signals into the mobile communication signal and the Ethernet signal; a first converter configured to convert the mobile communication signal separated from the demultiplexer into a radio frequency (RF) signal, and transmit the converted RF signal; a second converter configured to convert the Ethernet signal separated from the demultiplexer into a wireless LAN signal, and transmit the converted wireless LAN signal; and a switching unit configured to deliver a signal received from the main repeater to either the demultiplexer or the second converter, depending on whether a fault of the mobile communication signal is generated.
US09402191B2
Systems and methods for communicating data over a dual-tier wireless communication system are provided. A dual-tier wireless communication system comprises an upper tier cell-free large-scale antenna system including a plurality of service-antennas distributed in a designated coverage area for providing wireless access service to mobile terminals, and a lower tier of one or more concentrated large-scale antenna system arrays arranged within a plurality of cells of the designated coverage area for providing backhaul service to the plurality of service-antennas. The upper tier and the lower tier operate in disjoint frequency bands with respect to each other.
US09402190B2
Provided herein are apparatus and methods for radio frequency (RF) signal boosters. In certain implementations, a multi-band signal booster is provided for boosting the uplink and downlink channels of at least a first frequency band and a second frequency band. In certain configurations, the downlink channels of the first and second channels are adjacent, and the signal booster includes a first amplification path for boosting the uplink channel of the first frequency band, a second amplification path for boosting the uplink channel of the second frequency band, and a third amplification path for boosting both downlink channels of the first and second frequency bands.
US09402180B2
The invention relates to a method for initiating an OTA session in a mobile radio communication network at the request of a user of a mobile terminal. The OTA session is established between the mobile terminal and a remote OTA server, the mobile terminal including a security element such as a UICC card. According to the invention, the method comprises: i) entering a special code using the man/machine interface of said mobile terminal; ii) said security element intercepting said special code; and iii) opening said OTA session between said mobile terminal and said remote server in a secure mode.
US09402174B2
A network device associates a fleet vehicle with a driver of it. The network device receives customer input associating a group of media access control (MAC) addresses of portable devices with driver identifiers and stores, in a memory, the MAC addresses associated with the driver identifiers. The network device also receives, from a vehicle telematics unit, a vehicle identifier of a vehicle connected to the vehicle telematics unit and a MAC address of a particular portable device proximate the vehicle. Based on the MAC address of the particular portable device, the network device associates a particular driver identifier and the vehicle identifier. The vehicle telematics unit may determine that driver is no longer driving when it can no longer detect a signal from the particular portable device that was proximate the vehicle.
US09402169B2
A writing instrument (e.g., a pen or stylus) is able to wirelessly receive a message, receive a responsive input from a user (either spoken or written using the writing instrument), convert the user input into text, and transmit the text in a first mode (if the responsive input is spoken) or in a second mode (if the responsive input is written). The first mode and the second modes may correspond, for example, to different recipient groups.
US09402161B2
Methods and computer products can provide personalized content based on historical interaction with a mobile device. A computing device can receive information about a user interaction with an application running on the mobile device at a first time and location. A type of the application can be identified by parsing a description of the application (e.g., using a natural language processing algorithm). An affinity model can be generated that associates the type of the application with the first time and/or location. At a second time and location, it can be determined that the second time corresponds to the first time and/or that the second location corresponds to the first location. Using the affinity model, the second time and/or location can be associated with the type of the application, and the mobile device may then display content related to the type of the application.
US09402136B2
Provided are a sound generator and an electronic apparatus using the same. The sound generator includes a vibrating body, an exciter that is attached to the vibrating body and bends to vibrate the vibrating body in the thickness direction of the vibrating body by vibrating the exciter itself, an enclosure that is joined to the vibrating body and forms a first space enclosed together with the vibrating body, and a duct that connects between the first space and the external space. A spacing between the vibrating body and the surface of the enclosure facing the vibrating body is smaller than ½ of the length of the wavelength of resonance having the lowest frequency in the bending vibration of the vibrating body.
US09402135B1
An ultrasonic audio magnetostrictive emitter configured to emit an audio modulated ultrasonic beam. The magnetostrictive emitter may include an emissive surface, a back plate and at least one magnetostrictive actuator positioned between the emissive surface and the back plate. Ultrasonic audio systems incorporating a magnetostrictive emitter may further be provided.
US09402132B2
In general, techniques are described for limiting active noise cancellation output. As one example, an apparatus comprising one or more processors may perform the techniques. The one or more processors may be configured to, when an estimated noise level increases, dynamically lowering application of active noise cancellation to at least a portion of an audio signal to obtain at least a portion of an active noise cancelled version of the audio signal.
US09402131B2
A buffer is coupled to an acoustic motor. The buffer has an input and an output. The input has an input voltage and the output has an output voltage. The buffer is coupled to a load. The buffer includes an input transistor and push-pull transistor circuitry. The input transistor has a gate, a source, and a drain, a gate-to-source capacitance, and an area. The push-pull transistor circuitry is coupled to the input transistor. Under a first set of operating conditions, the gate to source voltage of the input transistor remains constant and the output voltage is a buffered copy of the input voltage. Under a second set of operating conditions, the push-pull transistor circuitry selectively sinks or sources additional current to the load so that linearity of buffer operation is provided. A gate-to-drain capacitance of the input transistor is buffered allowing the area of the input transistor to be increased without reducing the gain of the motor.
US09402126B2
An earphone includes a housing having a sound-emitting hole, a speaker mounted in the housing, and a passive radiator mounted in between the sound hole and the speaker driver and including a vibrating diaphragm main body and a weight embedded in the vibrating diaphragm main body or bonded to the top or bottom surface of the vibrating diaphragm main body. The mounting arrangement of the passive radiator optimizes the sound performance of the earphone. The weight of the passive radiator is firmly connected with the vibrating diaphragm main body so that severe vibration of the vibrating diaphragm main body does not cause disconnection of the weight.
US09402124B2
The embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method for controlling a smart terminal device and the smart terminal device thereof. The method comprises: monitoring a wearing state of receivers of an earphone connected to the smart terminal device, wherein the wearing state comprises a putting-on state and a taking-off state; and controlling running state of one or more applications in the smart terminal device and/or an operation mode of the smart terminal device according to the wearing state of the receivers. The embodiments of the present disclosure can simplify manual operations by monitoring the change of wearing state of an earphone. The lifetime of the mechanical members of the earphone can be improved, the electric energy of the smart terminal device can be saved, and no manual operation control is needed.
US09402114B2
A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes receiving video data at an adaptive bitrate (ABR) client that includes a buffer; determining whether a buffer level for the buffer is below a target buffer level; applying a random delay for a fetch interval associated with requesting the video data; and requesting a next segment of the video data after the random delay. The random delay can provide for a plurality of fetch times to become decorrelated from each other.
US09402107B2
Methods and apparatus for providing delivery of content to client devices of a network via both multicast and unicast mechanisms. In one embodiment, a system for use in a managed content delivery network is described to bridge multicast to unicast, so that the total network bandwidth consumption is significantly lower than a corresponding unicast-only delivery solution, yet which still provides improved quality of service and user viewing experience as compared to a multicast-only delivery solution. In addition, various exemplary aspects of the present disclosure are readily adapted for real-time multicast to unicast streaming of audio and data to, among other things, minimize network bandwidth usage, while maintaining the guaranteed delivery of unicast streams with little or no modification to the existing client device logic.
US09402105B2
A method that incorporates teachings of the subject disclosure may include, for example, capturing from a plurality of media sources information describing a plurality of media content offered at the plurality of media sources, generating a plurality of exemplars of the plurality of media content offered at the plurality of media sources based on the information captured from the plurality of media sources, presenting the plurality of exemplars at a display, receiving a selection of a first exemplar of the plurality of exemplars, and presenting a portion of first media content associated with a first media source of the plurality of media sources associated with the first exemplar based on the information captured from the plurality of media sources responsive to the selection of the first exemplar. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09402104B2
Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for creating tag subscriptions and notifying users based on tag subscriptions. A system configured to create tag subscriptions receives from a user, as part of a tag subscription request, a tag, a selection of at least one media event to which the tag is to be applied, and a notification threshold. The system then establishes a tag subscription associated with the user based on the tag, the selection of at least one media event, and the notification threshold. A system configured to generate tag notifications based on a tag subscription retrieves a tag subscription including a tag, a selection of a media event, and a notification threshold. The system then monitors tags generated in association with the media event for matches with the tag, and sends a tag notification to a user when matches exceed the notification threshold.
US09402099B2
This technology concerns, in one aspect, using a person's social network graph data as a virtual visual cortex—taking image input from a smartphone or the like, and processing it with the graph data to yield a personalized form of processing based on the imagery. The user's network graph data is typically updated by such processing—providing a form of virtual image memory that can influence future social network behavior. In another aspect, the technology concerns identifying content (e.g., audio) by both fingerprint-based and watermark-based techniques, and arrangements employing such identification data. A great number of other features and arrangements are also detailed.
US09402094B2
A display apparatus and a method of controlling a display apparatus are disclosed. The display apparatus includes: a display configured to display an image based on a video signal; a sound output section configured to output a first sound based on a sound signal; a first sound receiver configured to receive a first mixed sound including the first sound and a second sound of a user; a second sound receiver which is spaced apart at a distance from the first sound receiver and is configured to receive a second mixed sound comprising the first sound and the second sound; and a controller configured to perform control in accordance with the second sound of the user, the second sound being acquired based on the first mixed sound and the second mixed sound.
US09402092B2
Task: To provide communication technology in which clock synchronization accuracy can be easily maintained, even on networks where packets can be easily lost.Resolution Means: A communication device, comprising: a transmission unit that includes a flag processing unit that, upon receipt of one or a plurality of MPEG-2 TS packets, applies flag information to the packets at a predetermined interval in the forward reproduction direction of the packets, and a time stamp application unit that generates MPEG-2 TTS packets by applying a time stamp value calculated using a GPS clock to each of the one or a plurality of MPEG-2 TS packets, including the MPEG-2 TS packets having the flag information applied by the flag processing unit, and transmits the MPEG-2 TTS packets to a transmission path.
US09402087B2
In picture encoding that generates prediction pictures from picture information of frames previously encoded and encodes picture information for each area, the encoding efficiency is improved. A plurality of motion vector candidates are stored in advance in a motion vector storage memory (107). A motion vector selection section (109) selects a motion vector to be used from the plurality of motion vectors stored in advance in the motion vector storage memory (107). A prediction picture generation section (104) generates a prediction picture from a reference picture using the selected motion vector. A differential encoding section (103) encodes a differential between the picture information of the present area and the prediction picture. A motion vector designation encoding section (110) encodes information that designates the motion vector selected by the motion vector selection section (109).
US09402084B2
A video encoding apparatus includes an inter predictor to check for availability of merge candidates configured from neighboring blocks of a current block, add into a merge candidate set, as one of the merge candidates, a combined bi-predictive motion parameter with respect to an unavailable block, the combined bi-predictive motion parameter generated by combining a list 0 motion parameter of a first available andidate block and a list 1 motion parameter of a second available candidate block, when the unavailable block is checked to be present among the merge candidates, and predict the current block by using a motion parameter corresponding to a merge candidate selected from the merge candidates including the combined bi-predictive motion parameter, to thereby generate a predicted block for the current block.
US09402082B2
An electronic device for sending a message is described. The electronic device includes a processor and instructions stored in memory that is in electronic communication with the processor. The electronic device determines whether a first picture is a Clean Random Access (CRA) picture. The electronic device also determines whether a leading picture is present if the first picture is a CRA picture. The electronic device further generates a message including a CRA discard flag and an initial CRA Coded Picture Buffer (CPB) removal delay parameter if a leading picture is present. The electronic device additionally sends the message.
US09402079B2
A video encoding method and apparatus and a video decoding method and apparatus. In the video encoding method, a first predicted coding unit of a current coding unit that is to be encoded is produced, a second predicted coding unit is produced by changing a value of each pixel of the first predicted coding unit by using each pixel of the first predicted coding unit and at least one neighboring pixel of each pixel, and the difference between the current coding unit and the second predicted coding unit is encoded, thereby improving video prediction efficiency.
US09402073B2
A display device includes control electronics and a pixilated liquid crystal (LC) panel. The control electronics receives inputs of main image data for a main image and side image data for a side image. The control electronics outputs combined image data combining the main and side images such that an on-axis viewer perceives from the combined image the main image, and an off-axis viewer perceives from the combined image the side image. The output image data comprises data values chosen from a set of available output data values for the pixels selected from multiple sets of available data values depending on at least on the side image data. For a pixel currently being processed, the output data value is chosen from the selected set of available output data values for which a resulting luminance value is closest to a target luminance value for the current pixel.
US09402071B2
The display device includes a display panel on which sub-pixel pairs are arranged in a lateral direction, and a parallax barrier shutter panel on which sub-openings that can be changed between a light transmittance state and a light-shielding state are arranged in a lateral direction. Arbitrary allocated number of adjacent sub-openings among the plural sub-openings belonging to a reference parallax barrier pitch are put into a light transmittance state, and the remaining sub-openings are put into a light-shielding state, so that a general opening is formed on the parallax barrier shutter panel. A sub-opening pitch of the sub-opening on the boundary part between the adjacent common driving areas is different from the sub-opening pitch of the other sub-openings.
US09402070B2
A method of combining 2D images into a 3D image includes providing a coordinate measurement device and a six-DOF probe having an integral camera associated therewith, the six-DOF probe being separate from the coordinate measurement device. In a first instance, the coordinate measurement device determines the position and orientation of the six-DOF probe and the integral camera captures a first 2D image. In a second instance, the six-DOF probe is moved, the coordinate measurement device determines the position and orientation of the six-DOF probe, and the integral camera captures a second 2D image. A cardinal point common to the first and second image is found and is used, together with the first and second images and the positions and orientations of the six-DOF probe in the first and second instances, to create the 3D image.
US09402063B2
An image pickup apparatus capable of properly performing white balance control on an image. A photographed image is divided into areas and a color evaluation value is acquired from each area. Infrared light is detected from each of areas of an object defined in association with the areas of the image. White balance correction is performed on the image using a mixed WB correction value calculated by mixing a first WB correction value calculated using the color evaluation values included in a white detection range set in a color space and a second WB correction value calculated using the color evaluation values acquired from areas each having an infrared light amount larger than a predetermined amount and included in a detection range of a predetermined color other than white, set in the color space.
US09402055B2
Provided is a system and associated method that allow meeting participants to maintain a basic awareness of the audio and visual content of a meeting using a wearable device, such as a smartwatch, well known to persons of ordinary skill in the art. Embodiments of the described system and method also provide essential interaction mechanisms such that the remote, mobile users can interact with the distributed meeting without distracting them from their other tasks. In one embodiment, the described techniques provide an unobtrusive way for users to participate in ongoing distributed meetings using a smartwatch-based interface for a video conferencing application.
US09402044B2
The invention concerns a method of processing pixel values comprising: during a first read phase, generating a first digital value as a function of pixel values by controlling, based on first and second control signals and a first set of increment rates, the rate that a first counter (220-i) is incremented; and during a second read phase, generating a second digital value as a function of pixel values by controlling, based on first and second control signals and a second set of increment rates, the rate that said first counter (220-i) is incremented, the first and second sets of increment rates each defining an increment rate for each of a plurality of states of the first and second control signals, wherein said first set of increment rates is different from said second set of increment rates.
US09402041B2
A solid-state image sensor provided with a plurality of pixels which photo-electrically convert an object image formed by an imaging optical system, wherein at least a portion of the plurality of pixels are ranging pixels in which a first photoelectric conversion unit, a barrier region and a second photoelectric conversion unit are provided in alignment in a first direction in this sequence; in the peripheral regions where are distanced from a straight line perpendicular to the first direction and passing through the center of the solid-state image sensor, for more than half of the ranging pixels, the barrier region is situated eccentrically in a direction parallel to the first direction.
US09402038B2
A solid-state imaging device includes: a pixel array section including an array of pixels in a two-dimensional matrix, the pixels including a photoelectric conversion section configured to generate signal charges in accordance with an amount of light, a discharge section configured to receive an overflow of signal charges exceeding a saturation amount of charges during an exposure period, at least a first charge accumulation section configured to receive the signal charges generated by the photoelectric conversion section after the exposure period, and a second charge accumulation section configured to receive the signal charges exceeding the saturation amount of charges, and a plurality of pixel transistors reading the signal charges; and a scanning section configured to scan the pixels so that accumulation periods for all the pixels are simultaneous in an accumulation period of the signal charges, and to selectively scan the pixels in sequence.
US09402020B2
A focus detection apparatus detects a first subject region (e.g., face region) from an image signal, detects a second subject region (e.g., human body region), in which the first subject region can be estimated, from the image signal, and performs focus detection based on an image signal corresponding to the set focus detection area. In the case where the primary subject corresponds to the first subject region detected, the focus detection area is set to a first region, and, in the case where the primary subject corresponds to the first subject region estimated based on the second subject region, the focus detection area is set to a second region that is larger than the first region.
US09402019B2
An autofocus system includes: an imaging unit which captures an image of an object formed by an optical system; an autofocus portion which performs focus adjustment of the optical system on an autofocus area set in the image captured by the imaging unit so that the object within the autofocus area comes into focus; an AF area tracking processing portion which performs tracking processing to set a predetermined object within the autofocus area as a target to be tracked, detect a presence area of the target to be tracked in an image newly captured by the imaging unit and determine the presence area as a new autofocus area; a depth-of-field computing portion which calculates a depth of field based on information acquired from the optical system; and a control portion as defined herein.
US09402017B2
An electronic device includes a housing that accommodates therein at least one heating element. At least a part of an inner surface of the housing is applied with a heat conductive material. The electronic device may be incorporated in a communication apparatus.
US09402016B1
An electronic device that mounts onto a bicycle frame or handlebar to permit video recording with a smart phone while riding. The present electronic device mount includes a housing assembly having a lateral door to receive the smart phone therethrough. The housing assembly has a front window to permit viewing of the smart phone's screen, and an opening on a rear wall that is cooperatively positioned to coincide with the smart phone's video camera. The rear opening has a mirror housing with an interior mirror disposed at a predetermined angle to redirect the video recording from the smart phone to capture the route of the rider. A swivel mechanism connects the housing assembly with the mounting assembly to permit the user to adjust a position of the housing assembly according to the view the user wants to see on the screen of the phone.
US09402008B2
A multi-mode scanner comprises a first body, a second body and a scanning module. The first body connected to the second body has connected first and second sides. A passageway accommodating a first portion of a bent document is formed between the first and second bodies. A second portion of the bent document is connected to the first portion of the bent document and supported by a second side of the first body. The first and second bodies are configured such that a weight of the bent document makes the second portion be in flat surface contact with the second side, or makes the first portion be in flat surface contact with first side. The scanning module disposed in one or both of the first and second bodies performs an image scan operation on the first portion of the bent document in the passageway to obtain an image signal.
US09402004B2
An approach for managing the amount of data spent by one or more user devices on one or more services is described. A data usage analysis platform receives an input for specifying a data budget associated with a service, wherein the service operates on one or more devices. The data usage analysis platform also monitors data usage data associated with the service across the one or more devices. Still further, the data usage analysis platform presents a report of the data usage data with respect to the data budget.
US09402000B2
The claimed subject matter provides a method for split billing. The method includes receiving a requested token. The requested token specifies conditions under which network traffic is allowed to be billed against a third party for content requested from a mobile computing device. The method also includes matching network traffic between the mobile computing device and a content provider to the specified conditions. The method further includes metering the matched network traffic to a billing account for the third party.
US09401993B1
An interactive voice response (IVR) system performs automatic language selection without requiring the caller to provide a manual language selection input. The IVR system receives an incoming call along with appropriate caller identification. The IVR system sends a request for the caller's language preference information either to the caller's device or to a service provider that hosts the caller's account. After receiving the caller's language preference information, the IVR system selects a language for the caller and provides an IVR menu tree using the selected language. The selected language is persisted as the caller's preferred language at either the IVR system or at a service provider for future use.
US09401991B2
A computer-readable storage medium containing a data server application, which when executed on a processor is configured to perform an operation providing a view of performance data based on multiple performance rating criteria for evaluating multiple customer service agents across an enterprise. The operation may include receiving data corresponding to call handling for a first agent from the multiple agents and processing the received data to generate performance data for the first agent based on process steps followed by the first agent for handling a call type. The operation also includes assigning a color scheme to the process steps depending on the importance of the steps to an enterprise and transmitting a signal to display agent performance data based on the color scheme and indicative of steps missed by the first agent.
US09401990B2
A system, device and method is provided for handling customer-agent interactions. An unsuccessful interaction may be detected between a customer and a first agent unable to resolve a problem. A successful interaction may be detected between the customer and a second agent that resolves the problem. The first agent may be sent a report summarizing the successful interaction by the second agent.
US09401989B2
A contact center auditing work assignment engine communication system hosts a multi-functional automatic bot agent to discover issues, update properties, identify and solve problems, and provide operational support for contact center managers, creating a proactive and flexible automatic audit and cooperation between a bot agent, human agents, and supervisors.
US09401981B2
An electronic device includes a short range communication module configured to establish a communication channel for collecting device-related information on at least one other electronic device. The electronic device also includes a communication module configured to establish a communication channel with a service supporting device. The electronic device also includes a control module configured to transmit a message requesting function-related information installable or updatable on the other electronic device to the service supporting device in correspondence to the device-related information and configured to control transmitting identification information for receiving the function-related information and the device-related information.
US09401980B2
A portable communication device equipped with a screen and a random access memory is described. The device can receive a data stream through a radio link and can automatically display information from the data stream on the display screen, without any user's request, where a part of this information is stored in the random access memory during a period of time that is longer than the duration of display. The device can also display information from the data stream on the display screen, upon user's request, where this information is stored in the random access memory during the duration of display only. Also described is a base able to communicate with such a portable communication device.
US09401979B2
A method transmits data between a mobile telephone and a motor vehicle. A first wireless communication connection is automatically established between the mobile telephone and the motor vehicle when a communication interface of the mobile telephone is activated in a corresponding manner, and driver-specific user data is transmitted from the mobile telephone to the motor vehicle, at least some of the user data being transmitted to the motor vehicle exclusively via a second communication connection according to the NFC standard.
US09401973B2
A server is in communication with a plurality of clients being executed by a host. The server is configured to receive a message from a first client of the plurality of clients. The message indicates that the first client currently has focus, wherein the message is transmitted by the first client with a first cookie. The server is configured to identify that a second client of the plurality of clients utilizes a second cookie that matches the first cookie, wherein the second client is currently receiving data from the server using a low-latency update mechanism. The server is also configured to downgrade the second client from the low-latency update mechanism to a high-latency update mechanism, wherein the high-latency update mechanism is configured to enable the second client to conduct a poll of the server periodically for updates.
US09401969B2
A system and method for information processing is provided. In an embodiment of the present system and method, a connection target apparatus is detected at an information processing apparatus. Upon detection, the information processing apparatus generates apparatus information and transmits the apparatus information to a server via a communication path. Based on the apparatus information, the server generates connection information and transmits the connection information to the information processing apparatus. The information processing apparatus may use the connection information to establish communication with the connection target apparatus via another communication path.
US09401944B2
Systems, methods, and devices of the various embodiments enable HTTP streaming that downloads different layers of the same media interval at different points of time before the play out time of that media interval. The various embodiments provide a download sequence that enables downloads of portions of a media interval to continue at different points in time until the play out position of the media presentation reaches a certain point with respect to the media interval. In an embodiment, the download sequence may rapidly adapt to changing network bandwidth conditions and may help ensure no stall occurs in media play out under minimum conditions. In an embodiment, the download sequence may provide an increased smoothing effect to reduce the rate of adaptation to changes in bandwidth, which may reduce the fluctuations in quality in the presence of repeated abrupt network changes.
US09401942B2
To access a communication managed by a host communicating entity between participant communicating entities including the host communicating entity via a packet network (RP), a third-party communicating entity transmits a message (MI) to the host communicating entity, which message comprises at least one parameter (PM) associated with an identifier of at least one participant communicating entity. The third-party entity's access to a peer-to-peer communication established between the host entity and a participant entity may create a conference between the three entities. The third-party entity's access to a conference communication may cause a participant to be added to the existing conference. The host communicating entity applies a restrictive policy on mixing communication flows exchanged between the communicating entities as a function of the parameter and the identifier of the participant communicating entity associated with the parameter.
US09401941B2
A computer-implemented system (and method and computer readable storage medium) are disclosed for processing interactions with song lyrics. The system is configured to provide for display on a screen of a computing device the song lyrics. The system detects a selection of a segment of the song lyrics and provides for display a menu of options for interacting with the selected segment of the song lyrics. The system receives a selection of an option from the menu of options and updates, in a user interaction database, a data field corresponding to the selected segment with the selected option from the menu of options. The system executes the selected option from the menu of options.
US09401933B1
A management entity connects with multiple security devices across a network. Each security device operates in accordance with one or more security policies. The management entity imports, over the network, data describing the security policies from the multiple security devices. The management entity classifies the imported security policies into security policy classifications based on commonality in information included in the security policies across the multiple security devices.
US09401930B2
An attribute-based policy defining subjects' access to resources is enforced by a computer system. A processing means (PDP) in the system communicates with a nearby attribute value source and at least one remote attribute value source and is adapted to evaluate the policy for an access request containing one or more explicit attribute values, which together with the policy define at least one implicit reference to a further attribute value, which is retrievable from one of said attribute value sources. The processing means reduces the policy by substituting attribute values for attributes in the policy if they are contained in the request or retrievable from the nearby source. References to further attributes retrievable from a remote source only are cached together with intermediate results. All attribute values from a given remote source are retrieved on one occasion, and the intermediate results are used to terminate the evaluation.
US09401926B1
The present invention provides a system and method designed to continually monitor and evaluate an IT system. More specifically, the present invention teaches a system and method which continually monitors and evaluates the software, networks and devices of an IT system while providing reports and analysis for identified risks. Further, the present invention teaches a system and method which provides analysis and reports regarding the value and costs of identified risks.
US09401913B2
A device may include an authentication server and a server. The authentication server may receive a first form of a password from a client device in accordance with an authentication protocol, and authenticate the client device based on a comparison of the first form to a value derived from a second form of the password stored in a password database, where the comparison fails when the first form is not comparable to a value derived from the second form. The server may establish a secure connection to the client, receive a plain-text password from the client device over the secure connection, authenticate the client device by comparing a value derived from the plain-text password with a value derived from the second form, and update the password database with a third form of the password that permits the authentication server to successfully authenticate the client device when the authentication server receives the first form.
US09401904B1
In various implementations, local identifiers associated with users may be utilized to enable access one or more functions in a Business Intelligence (BI) Environment. A mapping may be generated to associate local identifiers and users. The mapping may be utilized to enable access in the BI environment by retrieving the local identifier from a mapping and enabling access in the BI environment based on the local identifier. In various implementations, a user may access the system as another user.
US09401902B2
A method for exchanging strong encryption keys between devices using alternate input methods. At least two devices that want to communicate with one another are set in key exchange mode. The at least two devices are to communicate with one another using a short range radio or personal area network. The at least two devices negotiate with one another to determine which of the at least two devices will generate an encryption key, wherein device A represents the negotiated device and device B represents the non-negotiated device. Device A generates the encryption key and transmits the encryption key to device B using an out-of band transmission channel. The out-of-band transmission channel may be transmitting the encryption key via audio tones. A validation process determines whether the transmission of the encryption key via the out-of-band transmission channel was successful. If the encryption key has been successfully validated, the at least two devices are enabled to automatically accept communications between them over the short range radio or personal area network.
US09401901B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus, are provided for wireless networking. In some implementations, a self-configuring wireless system includes at least one wireless network device; and an access point device; wherein the access point device and the at least one wireless network device are preconfigured with a common key so as to enable the access point device to establish a secure wireless network with the at least one network device using the common key upon powering up the access point device and the at least one wireless network device at a user site.
US09401900B2
An e-mail system is disclosed that overcomes many deficiencies of, but is backward compatible with, existing e-mail systems. An exemplary method for communicating e-mail messages comprises receiving, at a server system, an original e-mail message associated with a unique message ID that is assigned by the server system. The method further comprises storing a distribution list associated with the unique message ID and a thread participation status indicator for each of the one or more recipients, and, in response to an opt-out request received from one of the recipients, updating the distribution list to thereby produce a modified distribution list that does not include the requesting recipient. The method further comprises receiving a reply e-mail message in the same thread, and sending the reply e-mail message based on the modified distribution list such that the reply e-mail message is not sent to the requesting recipient.
US09401892B2
In a method for addressing messages in a computer network in which two different types of address are used, wherein at least one first network element (4, 5, 6, 7, 8) uses exclusively a first type of address, at least one second network element (14, 15, 16, 17, 18) uses exclusively a second type of address and at least one third network element (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14) uses both types of address, at least one third network element (9) is a communication terminal which, besides its function as a communication terminal, also performs a function as an address converter for messages for which said communication terminal is neither the original sender nor an ultimate recipient.
US09401889B2
Systems, apparatus and methods described herein are configured to dynamically assign network parameters based on a location (e.g., port) of a network parameter associated with a requesting device. In some embodiments, the systems, apparatus and methods described herein are further configured to facilitate network parameter assignment by an external network parameter assignment server based on the location (e.g., port) where a network parameter of requesting device is coupled.
US09401883B2
Email tags are described. In embodiments, email messages are received for distribution to client devices that correspond to respective recipients of the email messages. Email routing decisions are applied to route an email message to an email folder for a recipient of the email message, where the email folder may include an email inbox, a junk folder, or a user-created folder. The email message is then tagged with an email tag to generate a tagged email message. The email tag includes a routing description that indicates why the email message was routed to the particular email folder.
US09401882B2
Historical content corresponding to activity of a user in at least one social networking service is aggregated. The historical content indicates a plurality of collaboration partners with whom the user collaborated via the at least one social networking service in an occupation context. Based on the aggregated historical content, at least one of the collaboration partners can be identified as at least one priority collaboration partner. Whether the user currently is not in a facility where the user works can be automatically determined. Responsive to determining that the user is not in the facility where the user works, a message indicating that the user is not in the facility where the user works can be automatically sent to the at least one priority collaboration partner.
US09401874B2
Access point functionality of a network device may be disabled, resulting in a coverage hole in a communication network and affecting performance of a client device. Various techniques can be implemented for detecting and minimizing coverage holes. In one embodiment, the network device can selectively establish a communication link with the client device depending on whether the client device is in a coverage hole and depending on whether the client device can detect another access point in the communication network. In some embodiments, the client device can determine that it is in a coverage hole in response to detecting a reserved SSID and can accordingly notify a central coordinator of the communication network. In some embodiments, the central coordinator can identify the network device (with disabled access point functionality) that can eliminate the coverage hole and can cause the network device to enable its access point functionality.
US09401869B1
Systems and methods for mapping applications onto system resource of a computing platform are discussed. The computing platform may receive, using control circuitry, a request to run a plurality of applications on a computing platform having a plurality of system resources. The computing platform may determine a plurality of mapping configurations for the plurality of applications onto the plurality of system resources. The computing platform may execute the plurality of applications with each of the plurality of mapping configurations. The computing platform may determine at least one performance metric based on the executed plurality of applications for each of the plurality of mapping configurations. The computing platform may select a selected mapping configuration among the plurality of mapping configurations based on at least one determined performance metric.
US09401867B2
Example embodiments provide methods of handling transmission of data to a mobile device through multiple channels. One example embodiment includes receiving carrier capacity values from each of a plurality of carrier controllers providing communication for a mobile device over corresponding channels, the carrier capacity values being an estimate of the number of bytes that the carrier controller can send to the mobile device on time; receiving data for the mobile device; and sending the data to the plurality of carrier controllers, the amount of the data sent to each of the carrier controllers being based on the carrier capacity value received from each of the plurality of carrier controllers.
US09401864B2
One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for forwarding named packets. During operation, the system receives a named packet with an express header. The named packet includes a payload and a name which identifies the payload. The express header includes a content identifier, a global forwarding identifier, and a local forwarding identifier. The content identifier uniquely represents an interest corresponding to the name. The global forwarding identifier includes forwarding information to facilitate global forwarding. The local forwarding identifier includes forwarding information to facilitate local forwarding. The system then makes a forwarding decision for the packet based on the content identifier, the global forwarding identifier, and optionally the local forwarding identifier.
US09401857B2
Embodiments relate to creating a coherent load or congestion map that displays the simultaneous activity of all queues of physical and virtual switches and adapters in a network without forcing clock synchronization. An aspect includes sampling, by a central processing device, a status of all queues in a plurality of elements in a network. The sampled data flows are received from the plurality of elements in the network and an image is created of the network. The image includes the status of all sampled queues in the plurality of elements at a point in time. Accordingly, a load map is created without synchronizing clocks of the plurality of elements. The load map is assembled using segments of the image of the network.
US09401855B2
Example methods and apparatus to deliver media content across foreign networks are disclosed. A disclosed example method includes receiving a request from a subscriber of a media provider, the media provider associated with a native network and identifying a foreign network associated with a current location of the subscriber. The example method also includes identifying at least one quality of service (QoS) parameter associated with the foreign network, comparing the at least one foreign network QoS parameter with a first threshold value, and at least one of prohibiting a service delivered by the media provider when the at least one foreign network QoS parameter fails to meet the first threshold value, or enabling the service when the at least one foreign network QoS parameter meets the first threshold value.
US09401851B2
A system may be configured to store a set of service-level agreements (“SLAs”) associated with a subscriber. The system may receive key performance indicator (“KPI”) information for traffic that traverses one or more nodes of a network; forecast, based on the SLA information and the KPI information, a violation of the particular SLA; take corrective action, based on the forecasting; and output, to the subscriber, derived information based on the KPI information. The derived information may be outputted after taking the corrective action, and may indicate that the particular SLA was not violated. The derived information may be outputted at a slower rate than a rate at which the KPI information is received by the system.
US09401849B2
A network management apparatus is configured to manage a network apparatuses and to store the work information and an augmented reality presenting apparatus. A tag is added to the network apparatuses and each of the network cables, and each of the tags is provided with a visible object that conforms to the tag information that includes an ID of a target to which the tag has been added. The network management apparatus transmits the guide information that includes the information that indicates the contents of a work for the work target based on the tag information of the work target or the tag shot image of the work target and the work information to the augmented reality presenting apparatus. The augmented reality presenting apparatus associates a guide that is based on the guide information with an input image from the shooting device, and displays the guide and the input image.
US09401843B2
A method and apparatus for controlling one or more aspects of reverse link communications is based on determining reverse link load softness. Such control may be implemented in the network, such as in a base station controller. Control may be sector based, wherein the softness is determined on a per sector basis and one or more aspects of the reverse link communications are adjusted, or otherwise controlled, for each sector as a function of the softness determined for the sector. In at least one embodiment, a base station controller (or equivalently, a radio network controller) is configured to evaluate the softness of reverse link loads for the sectors under its control. In one embodiment, the base station controller makes softness-based control adjustment(s), while in other embodiments, the base station controller transmits softness information and one or more mobile stations make softness-based control adjustments.
US09401820B2
The present invention relates to a mobile communication system, and more particularly relates to a method for transmitting a small-sized control signal (also known as “small data”) using a control plane in a MTC (machine-type communication) service in a mobile communication system. In the present invention, MTC data is encapsulated in an existing control procedure or control message or the like, on a control signal, without performing packet data bearer setup, and the control signal having the encapsulated MTC data is sent between a network and a terminal, thereby optimizing network resource efficiency and reducing the wireless channel load.
US09401815B2
The disclosed subject matter provides a method for installing and controlling a plurality of electrical devices such as lighting, air-conditioning, heating, and access control. The control may be from a plurality of sensors, so that one or more device can be controlled according to a sensor. Sensor types include dimmers, occupancy sensors, temperature sensors, pressure sensors, daylight sensors, On/Off touch sensors, other sensor types, or a combination of sensors.
US09401814B2
In a monitoring system, a master device that is connected to a fixed telephone network so as to perform calls to other fixed telephones sets a power supply device to an operation mode in a case where a mobile phone terminal is located within a wireless communication range of the master device, and sets the power supply device to an operation stop mode in a case where the mobile phone terminal is not located within the wireless communication range of the master device. A power supply device is connected to an electric apparatus disposed in a house, supplies power to the electric apparatus in a case where the operation mode is set by the master device, and does not supply power to the electric apparatus in a case where the operation stop mode is set by the master device.
US09401811B2
An attribute-based digital signature system is disclosed. A first signature generating unit (1) is used for generating a first signature (10) for a document (11), based on a first signature key (12) and the document (11). A re-signing unit (2) is used for generating a second signature (13) for the document (11), based on the first signature (10) and a re-signing key (14), wherein the re-signing unit (2) is arranged for handling attributes (15, 16) associated with the first signature (10) and/or the second signature (13). The second signature (13) is associated with a second set of attributes (16,16′) determined by the re-signing key (14), wherein the second set of attributes (16) comprises a plurality of attributes. The first signature (10) is associated with a first set of attributes (15), wherein the first set of attributes (15) comprises a plurality of attributes, and the re-signing unit (2) is arranged for generating the second signature (13) only if the first set of attributes (15) satisfies a set of conditions (17, 17′).
US09401806B2
The present invention develops a wireless communication transmitting scheme which allows a desired receiver to stably receive data so that data are not tapped by a third party when a transmitter transmits data to the receiver in a wireless scheme. In particular, the third party not a desired receiver taps, a bit error probability of received data is maintained to have about 50%, so that the third party cannot substantially obtain valid data. A suggested scheme of the present invention may transmit security data in a state that a transmitter and a receiver do not have a secret key unlike an existing cryptography.
US09401801B1
A wireless communications device that produces phase-synchronized local oscillator (LO) signals. The device includes a first transceiver chain to receive a first timing signal and a second transceiver chain to receive the first timing signal and a second timing signal. The first transceiver chain includes a first frequency divider to convert the first timing signal to a first LO signal. The second transceiver chain includes a multiplexer to select one of the timing signals based at least in part on a mode select signal. A second frequency divider in the second transceiver chain converts the selected timing signal to a second LO signal, and a phase alignment circuit aligns a phase of the second LO signal with a first alignment signal. The first alignment signal is activated, for a limited duration, in response to a change in state of the mode select signal.
US09401796B2
A method, computer program and apparatus operate when resuming data transmission/reception upon activiation of a serving cell, or after a long in-device coexistence interference avoidance gap, to determine whether to report to a network access node an in-device coexistence interference indicator value and send the in-device coexistence interference indicator value to the network access node, The in-device coexistence interference indicator value is reported to the network access node for a certain period if any periodic channel quality indication resource is configured for the cell, or if an aperiodic channel quality indication for the cell is requested from the network access node.
US09401794B2
A method for acquiring control information in a wireless communication system according to one embodiment of the present invention includes the steps of: receiving E-PDCCH (Enhanced-Physical Downlink Control Channel) configuration information from a base station (BS); and transmitting a confirmation response for the E-PDCCH configuration information. The terminal performs blind decoding for downlink control information in a common search space on a PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel) resource region and a search space on the E-PDCCH during a predetermined period after transmitting the confirmation response.
US09401792B2
A method and apparatus for receiving and transmitting downlink control information in a wireless communication system are disclosed. The method for receiving a downlink control signal by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system includes: receiving an Enhanced Physical Downlink Control Channel (EPDCCH) from a downlink serving base station (BS); and monitoring a plurality of EPDCCH candidates in an EPDCCH set contained in the received EPDCCH, wherein a minimum aggregation level (AL) of the EPDCCH candidates is associated with a downlink (DL) bandwidth of the wireless communication system and downlink control information (DCI) format.
US09401790B2
A method for transmitting an uplink signal at a UE in a wireless communication system includes, when a virtual cell ID for a reference signal for demodulation of a physical uplink channel is provided, generating a sequence of the reference signal on the basis of the virtual cell ID, and transmitting the generated reference signal to an eNB. A sequence hopping pattern of the reference signal can be determined on the basis of the virtual cell ID.
US09401785B2
Disclosed are a coordinated set selecting method and device, which are applicable to a wireless communication system. The coordinated set selecting method comprises the following steps: determining a transmission manner adopted by a wireless communication system, the transmission manner being joint processing or coordinated scheduling/beamforming; and, directed to the transmission manner adopted by the wireless communication system, selecting a coordinated set according to a coordinated set selecting mechanism adapting to the transmission manner. According to the technical solution of the present invention, by considering transmission characteristics of different transmission manners, a reasonable coordinated set is selected to perform coordinated multi-point transmission.
US09401783B1
Methods and systems are described for determining and transmitting at least one orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol that may comprise data associated with multiple nodes such as a first node and a second node. Each OFDM symbol may be determined using weights, time-frequency channels, and/or tones that are determined based at least in part on transmissions from the first node and the second node.
US09401781B2
In accordance with the exemplary embodiments of the invention there is at least a method, computer program, and apparatus for operating a receiver using at least four carriers to receive transport blocks from a transmitter, to compose a first codeword to acknowledge at least one of a reception and a lack of reception of individual transport blocks in a first part of the at least four carriers, to compose a second codeword to acknowledge at least one of a reception and a lack of reception of individual transport blocks in a second part of the at least four carriers, and to transmit the first codeword and the second codeword to the transmitter during one slot.
US09401773B1
Techniques for designing compact free-space optical device with all input/output ports on one side are disclosed. Instead of folding a fiber, a beam folding means is provided to turn a light beam to significantly reduce the size of the device. In one embodiment, there are a first collimator, a second collimator, and a beam folding means to turn a light beam from the first collimator back to the second collimator by two turns so that a first light path from the first collimator to the beam folding means and a second light path from the second collimator to the beam folding means are parallel. A substrate is provided to which the first and second collimators and filters are boned thereto.
US09401770B1
An apparatus comprising a switch, a balun and a splitter. The switch may be configured to provide (i) a first signal on a first path when a power signal is not present and (ii) a second signal on a second path when the power signal is present. The first path activates only the first signal. The second path activates only the second signal. The balun circuit may be configured to convert the second signal to a differential signal. The splitter circuit may be configured to generate a plurality of differential output signals in response to the differential signal.
US09401767B2
An optically powered media conversion device for performing optical to electrical conversion is disclosed. The conversion device includes at least one optical coupler for receiving at least one optical signal comprising at least one wavelength, wherein the at least one optical coupler extracts energy from the at least one optical signal, and at least one detector for extracting data from the at least one optical signal and converting the optical signal to an electrical signal using a photovoltaic process. The conversion device further includes a transmitter for converting an electrical signal to an optical signal and transmitting the optical signal to a first device.
US09401762B2
Configurations and processes for detecting a location at which noise is being generated in a network are disclosed. A device for identifying a location in a network at which noise is being generated may include: an acquiring unit for acquiring amplitude fluctuations in signals transmitted from a first device via a second device in the network; and a detecting unit for detecting a noise-generating device that is transmitting signals containing noise on the basis of the amplitude fluctuations acquired by the acquiring unit.
US09401758B2
An exemplary method is implemented by an unmanned air vehicle (UAV) for providing voice communications to an air traffic control (ATC) station. Two-way first voice communications are supported with a human operator at a control station that is in control of the UAV over a digital radio frequency (RF) link. Two-way second voice communications are supported with a controller at the ATC station over an analog RF link. The first and second voice communications are coupled to each other so that two-way voice communications are provided between the human operator and the controller. A determination is made that the first communications with the human operator is not operative. Based on this determination, autonomous voice announcements of flight parameters of the UAV are generated, and transmitted via the analog radio frequency link to the ATC station.
US09401749B2
A wireless terminal is capable of receiving a pilot signal from a base station; and determining a precoding matrix as a linear combination of two matrices V1 and V2 based on the received pilot signal. In one implementation, the two matrices V1 and V2 are sub-matrices of a matrix U of a codebook, the linear combination is u:=(V1+αV2)/√{square root over (1+|α|2)} and α is one of a real-valued number and a complex-valued number. The wireless terminal is also capable of transmitting a representation of at least a portion of the precoding matrix to the base station.
US09401742B2
Methods and apparatus for wireless communications are described. A method of wireless communications includes determining an energy for a first signal received at a first finger of a rake receiver after a reference signal is received at a second finger of the rake receiver, determining an energy for a second signal received at a third finger of a rake receiver before the reference signal is received at the second finger of the rake receiver, and selecting the first signal as a new reference signal when the energy of the first signal exceeds the energy of the second signal by a predefined threshold amount. In another aspect, a method includes assigning a signal received at a rake receiver to a finger of the rake receiver, and deassigning the finger if the signal has an energy level below a preselected lock threshold energy for a predefined time.
US09401740B2
A method of a transmitter, includes multiplying a data sequence by a first code, and multiplying a training sequence by a second code that is orthogonal to the first code. The method further includes adding the multiplied data and training sequences, and transmitting, to a receiver, the added data and training sequences.
US09401734B2
In a wireless communication system, transmitters that transmit data, receivers that receive data, and repeaters that relay data communicate with one another in a wireless manner. The transmitter wirelessly communicates with the receiver by using first slave-device identification information for performing communication as a slave device of the receiver. The receiver wirelessly communicates with the transmitter by using first master-device identification information for performing communication as a master device of the transmitter, and wirelessly communicates with the repeater by using second slave-device identification information for performing communication as a slave device of the repeater. The repeater wirelessly communicates with the receiver by using second master-device identification information for performing communication as a master device of the receiver.
US09401730B2
A two way radio includes a first push to talk button and a second push to talk button. The first push to talk button is configured to cause transmission of a first signal on a first channel. The second push to talk button is configured to cause transmission of a second signal on a second channel. The first and second channels are in a single radio network. A radio peripheral device for operation with a two-way radio includes a connector configured to be connected to the two-way radio; a speaker configured to output audio based on a received audio signal that is received from the two-way radio via the connector; a microphone; a first push-to-talk button configured to provide a first indication to the two-way radio; and a second push-to-talk button configured to provide a second indication to the two-way radio.
US09401729B2
Methods and systems for encoding a frame utilizing at least two line-codes having different minimal Hamming distances. The method includes maintaining over the frame absolute value of running disparity lower than or equal to K, while: encoding a first part of the frame utilizing a first line-code having a binary code word length N′ and a minimal Hamming distance D′; and encoding a second part of the frame utilizing a second line-code having a binary code word length N″ and a minimal Hamming distance D″ lower than D′. Where the value of K is lower than both N′/2 and N″/2.
US09401725B2
A circuit arrangement is provided for suppressing offset, offset drift, and 1/f noise during analog/digital conversion. The arrangement includes an analog/digital converter configured to convert an analog input signal into output data, an inverter configured to invert the input signal, a switching element connected upstream of the analog/digital converter and downstream of the inverter and configured to periodically change over between the input signal and the inverted input signal at a predefinable switching frequency, and a switchable negator circuit connected downstream of the analog/digital converter and configured to periodically negate the output data from the analog/digital converter at the switching frequency, the output data being negated when the inverted input signal is applied to the analog/digital converter. An analog/digital converter is also provided with suppression of offset, offset drift, and 1/f noise during analog/digital conversion. A gradient amplifier having a circuit arrangement or an analog/digital converter is also provided.
US09401722B2
A phase-locked loop (PLL) includes a state machine programmed to automatically produce a set of control signals to select a charge-pump current and integrating capacitance value to automatically adjust a loop bandwidth of the PLL. A charge-pump DAC generates a charge-pump current of magnitude controlled by the state machine control signals. An integrator integrates the charge-pump output current to produce an integrated charge-pump output signal. The integrator has a plurality of capacitors switchably selected by control signals from the state machine to produce an integrating capacitance value. A voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) produces a PLL output frequency in response to the integrated charge-pump output signal.
US09401710B2
An active diode that features improved control of transistor turn-off is provided. Such an active diode may include a comparator to compare voltages between opposite ends of a parasitic diode, and a gate driver to control a gate terminal of the transistor according to the comparison result of the comparator. Furthermore, the active diode may further include an off-timing controller to control the transistor to be turned off at a point in time when voltages of the opposite ends of the parasitic diode turn positive. Thus, the active diode may be turned off when required.
US09401707B1
A push-pull driver is provided with a differential amplifier that amplifies a difference between an input voltage and an output voltage to drive a bias node coupled to a diode-connected bias transistor. The push-pull driver is configured to control the drain-to-source voltage for a source-follower output transistor having its gate tied to a gate for the diode-connected bias transistor to be proportional to the drain-to-source voltage for the diode-connected bias transistor. This proportionality prevents excessive static current variation that would otherwise be present in the source-follower output transistor.
US09401703B1
A relaxation oscillator system has a relaxation oscillator and a frequency control (FC) unit. The oscillator includes first and second oscillator sub-circuits and a latch. The first and second oscillator sub-circuits receive from the FC unit, respectively, first and second control signals for controlling corresponding outputs provided to the latch by the first and second oscillator sub-circuits. The latch outputs a variable frequency feedback signal provided to the FC unit. The FC unit receives a frequency control signal for controlling the frequency of an oscillator output signal and generates the first and second control inputs based on the frequency control signal and the feedback signal so that changes to the oscillator frequency are implemented by each oscillator sub-circuit while that sub-circuit is in an idle state to avoid glitches in the oscillator output signal.
US09401699B2
A phase locked loop includes a voltage-controlled oscillator and a current mirror circuit that supplies a drive current to the voltage-controlled oscillator. The current mirror circuit includes a filter between a bias current generator and current mirror transistor. The filter includes a first and a second switch driven in unison with a small duty cycle.
US09401695B2
An immittance conversion circuit includes a first terminal and a second terminal, and includes: a conversion target circuit configured to amplify or attenuate a signal with desired frequency and gain characteristics, and output the resultant signal; a difference signal detection circuit configured to supply the input terminal of the conversion target circuit with a signal of a difference between signals generated at the first and second terminals; an immittance conversion drive circuit configured to perform differential output processing to generate a voltage of a difference between a correction voltage and the signal outputted from the conversion target circuit, and output feedback signals to an immittance conversion generation circuit; and the immittance conversion generation circuit having an immittance conversion generation action to generate, at each of the first and second terminals, a signal of currents or voltages of the corresponding inputted feedback signal and the signal inputted to the first or second terminal. A signal of a difference between the signals generated at the first and second terminals is inputted to the immittance conversion drive circuit as the correction voltage.
US09401691B2
A bulk acoustic wave (BAW) resonator device includes a substrate defining a cavity, a bottom electrode formed over the substrate and at least a portion of the cavity, a piezoelectric layer formed on the bottom electrode, and a top electrode formed on the piezoelectric layer. An air-wing and an air-bridge are formed between the piezoelectric layer and the top electrode, the air-wing having an inner edge that defines an outer boundary of an active region of the BAW resonator device. The BAW resonator device further includes a temperature compensation feature having positive temperature coefficient for offsetting at least a portion of a negative temperature coefficient of the piezoelectric layer. The temperature compensation feature extends outside the active region by a predetermined length.
US09401686B2
A volume control assembly includes a housing that may be positioned proximate an external electronic device. A processor is coupled to the housing. A loud actuator is coupled to the housing and the processor. The loud actuator determines a maximum volume of an audio signal. A quiet actuator is coupled to the housing and the processor. The quiet actuator determines a minimum volume of the audio signal. An amplifier is coupled to the housing and the processor. The amplifier amplifies the audio signal above the minimum volume and below the maximum volume. An input is coupled to the housing, the processor and the external electronic device. The input receives the audio signal from the external electronic device. An output is coupled to the housing, the processor and the external electronic device. The audio signal is directed to the external electronic device between the minimum and maximum volume.
US09401684B2
The subject matter described herein includes methods, systems, and computer readable media for synthesizing sounds using estimated material parameters. According to one aspect, a method for sound synthesis using estimated material parameters is provided. The method includes at a computing platform including a memory and a processor, estimating, by the processor and based on a recorded audio sample of an impact on a physical object, one or more material parameters of a physical object for use in synthesizing a sound associated with a virtual object having material properties similar to the physical object. The method further includes storing the one or more material parameters in memory. The method further includes using the estimated material parameters to generate a synthesize sound for the virtual object.
US09401679B1
A compensation capacitor can be added to an amplifier for stability. Disclosed are systems and methods for improving the power supply rejection ratio (PSRR) performance of an amplifier in the presence of one or more compensation capacitors.
US09401676B2
A solar collector assembly includes a photovoltaic panel having first and second sides, a frame, and a first gas-filled chamber on the first side of the photovoltaic panel. The first gas-filled chamber is at least partially defined by a portion of the frame and by a portion of the first side of the photovoltaic panel. A gas functions as a heat exchange fluid and collects heat from solar energy and/or heat generated by the photovoltaic panel. The photovoltaic panel accumulates and converts solar energy to electrical energy. The solar collector assembly may include a second gas-filled chamber provided on the second side of the photovoltaic panel. The second gas-filled chamber is at least partially defined by a portion of the frame and by a portion of the second side of the photovoltaic panel. Solar collector systems and methods of generating electrical energy and/or thermal energy are also described.
US09401663B2
A power converter circuit includes a synchronization circuit configured to generate at least one synchronization signal. A series circuit includes a number of converter units configured to output an overall output current. At least one of the converter units generates an output current such that at least one of a frequency and a phase of the generated output current is dependent on the synchronization signal.
US09401659B2
A high voltage analog switch can be used in medical ultrasound applications. The high voltage analog switch can pass high voltage transducer excitation signals without necessarily having any high voltage power supplies. The high voltage analog switch can include three output switches, with one of the output switches having a clamp circuit for ensuring that transistors of an output switch on an input end of the high voltage analog switch remain OFF when the high voltage analog switch is OFF.
US09401658B2
A power supply apparatus includes a power source, power converters and an output connector. The power converters are configured for converting an input power from the power source into conversion powers. The output connector is configured for receiving the conversion powers from the power converters and outputting a parallel output power, a serial output power or separate output powers corresponding to the conversion powers from the power converters. A method of generating power by a power supply apparatus is also disclosed herein.
US09401647B2
A switching mode power supply, having: a power switch; an energy storage component coupled to the power switch; a current sense resistor configured to generate a current sense signal; a mode select resistor configured to generate a mode select resistor; a ZCD (Zero Cross Detecting) circuit configured to generate a ZCD signal; and a control circuit configured to provide a switch control signal to control the on and off of the power switch, the control circuit having a multi-function pin configured to receive the mode select signal, the current sense signal and the ZCD signal.
US09401639B2
A system and method capable of injection locking the phases of a peak-valley multiphase regulator includes comparing an output voltage error signal with a ramp control signal and providing a corresponding slope reset signal, using transitions of the slope reset signal to develop a equally spaced high side ramp signals and equally spaced low side ramp signals, and injecting a corresponding one of the high side signals and a corresponding one of the low side ramp signals into each of the phases which correspondingly develop equally spaced pulse control signals for multiphase operation. Such injection locking allows the additional phases to operate out of phase with the first phase and allows operation at high duty cycles.
US09401636B2
A multi-function power regulator for prioritizing functions and allocating resources thereof, the multi-function regulator including a plurality of resources each having a resource capacity limit. The multi-function regulator also includes a shunt converter is configured to perform one or more shunt converter functions while consuming one or more of the resources, a series converter is configured to perform one or more series converter functions while consuming one or more of the resources. A control engine coupled to the shunt converter, the series converter, and a plurality of sensors, the control engine is configured to monitor and control the one or more shunt converter functions and the one or more series converter functions. The multi-function regulator also includes a priority control engine coupled to the control engine, the priority control engine is configured to set a priority order for performing the one or more shunt converter functions and/or the one or more series converter functions and configured to determine whether one or more resource capacity limits has been exceeded or not exceeded by the shunt converter functions and/or the series converter function and in response to one or more exceeded resource capacity limits adjust the operation of the shunt converter functions and/or the series converter based on the priority order such that the one or more resource capacity limits exceeded is no longer exceeded.
US09401624B2
A charging system 100 includes an electronic equipment 1 and a charging device 2. The charging device 2 includes a control unit 22 that controls a magnetic field generated from a variable magnetic field generating unit 25 which generates a variable magnetic field, and the control unit 22 controls a strength of the magnetic field generated from the variable magnetic field generating unit 25, in accordance with a remaining capacity or an available charging free capacity in a battery 11 of the electronic equipment 1 receiving a power transmitted from a feed circuit 21.
US09401622B2
Systems and methods for converting voltages between different voltage levels in a receiver are disclosed. In an aspect, a wireless power receiver apparatus for charging a chargeable device is provided. The wireless power receiver apparatus for charging a chargeable device can include a receive antenna configured to wirelessly receive power at a level sufficient for charging the chargeable device. The wireless power receiver apparatus can also include converter circuitry. The converter circuitry can be coupled to the receive antenna. The converter circuitry can be configured to receive an input voltage derived from the wirelessly received power. The converter circuitry can also be configured to produce an output voltage that is scaled to a value relative to the input voltage based on a relationship between the input voltage and a first voltage level threshold.
US09401621B2
A wireless charging system may auto-position an electronic device for charging. A docking station may include a transmission source providing wireless charging to the electronic device when the device is moved into charging range by motion elements configured to move the electronic device along one or more docking surfaces of the docking station. In some embodiments, position sensors may detect the presence and location of the electronic device. A control unit may operate the motion elements to move the electronic device toward the charging area.
US09401620B2
A charging battery unit includes a receiving unit and a battery. The receiving unit includes a fixing member and a coil fixed on the fixing member. The coil receives external electromagnetic signals to generate induction currents. The battery is electrically connected to the coil and receives the induction currents generated by the coil. The present disclosure also relates an electronic device with the charging battery unit.
US09401600B2
The present invention provides an overvoltage protection circuit, an overvoltage protection method and a panel driving circuit, wherein, the overvoltage protection circuit adjusts drive output voltage of LED strings coupled with a main IC and a secondary IC and includes a main IC overvoltage triggering circuit and a secondary IC overvoltage triggering circuit, wherein, the main IC overvoltage triggering circuit connected respectively in series with said main IC and several LED strings, said secondary IC overvoltage triggering circuit connected respectively in series with the secondary IC and several LED strings, overvoltage protection triggering points are set respectively in the main IC and the secondary IC, and the voltage value of the overvoltage protection's triggering point of the secondary IC is less than that of the main IC.
US09401598B2
The invention relates to a control unit for a motor vehicle. Said control unit comprises a voltage converter which has an inlet for a direct voltage network. Said voltage converter is designed to generate a direct voltage smaller than an input voltage on the inlet for the direct voltage network and the direct voltage is emitted on the outlet side. According to the invention, the voltage converter comprises an inverter and a transformer which is connected to said inverter. Said voltage converter also comprises an inlet for a discharge signal and is designed to discharge by means of the inverter an intermediate circuit capacitor which is connected to the inlet of the direct voltage network in accordance with the discharge signal, and to reduce a working frequency of the inverter, in particular, compared to the frequency with no discharge signal.
US09401589B2
A cable bend limiter provides one or more joints including alternating sleeves and outer ball sections enclosing inner ball sections. Friction is controlled by washers at, or low friction surface treatments on, either side of the outer ball sections.
US09401585B2
A corona ignition device for igniting fuel in an internal combustion engine by means of a corona discharge. The corona ignition device comprises a central electrode, an insulator into which the central electrode is plugged, a housing into which the insulator is plugged, a coil body onto which a coil from a winding wire is wound, which coil is connected to the central electrode, and a contact element that is located in a recess of the coil body and contacts the wire. It is provided that the contact element has a slot that runs in the longitudinal direction of the coil body, and the coil body has an opening in a side wall of the recess, wherein the wire is fed through the opening in the side wall of the recess and is held in the slot of the contact element.
US09401577B2
An RJ-45 insertion and extraction tool is disclosed that allows a user to plug and unplug an RJ-45 connector from an RJ-45 socket in a quick and easy way that does not disturb other cables plugged into adjacent sockets.
US09401563B2
A cable header connector includes a contact module having a support body and a plurality of cable assemblies held by the support body and arranged in a column. The cable assemblies each have a contact terminated to a cable and a ground shield coupled to and providing electrical shielding for the contact sub-assembly. The support body has contact channels extending along respective contact channel axes which are parallel to each other, and at least one cable channel intersecting the contact channels. The cables extend through the contact channels and through the at least one cable channel to an outside of the support body. The cables emerging from the support body at corresponding cable exits at respective angles to the contact channel axes.
US09401561B2
An exemplary header insert assembly, and methods of manufacture and use thereof. In one embodiment, the header insert assembly comprises a connector insert assembly having an insert body assembly consisting of an insert body element. The insert body element includes an electronic component receiving cavity that is configured to receive any number of electronic components. The insert body assembly also includes a wire termination feature that includes termination slots that position the wire ends of the wire wound electronic components adjacent to a substrate to which the wire ends are ultimately to be secured. The wire ends are then secured to the substrate using, for example, a mass termination technique. The aforementioned header insert assembly can then be optionally inserted into a single or multi-port connector assembly. Methods of manufacturing the aforementioned single or multi-port connector assemblies are also disclosed.
US09401548B2
A crimp terminal includes a bottom portion. A pair of conductor press-fastening portions respectively extend from opposite side edges of the bottom portion. A serration is formed in a face of the bottom portion on which a conductor of a wire is to be placed. The serration extends in a direction perpendicular to an axial direction of the placed conductor. A direction indication mark portion is provided on the face of the bottom portion. The direction indication mark portion is indicative of a direction perpendicular to an extending direction of the serration.
US09401543B2
A broadband antenna for a wireless communication device includes a grounding unit for grounding; a first radiating element; a second radiating element electrically connected to the grounding unit; a signal feed-in element for transmitting a radio signal to the first radiating element in order to emit the radio signal via the first radiating element; and a passive component comprising an inductor, where the passive component is electrically connected between the first and the second radiating elements to work in conjunction with the first radiating element, the second radiating element and the grounding unit to form a loop antenna effect.
US09401531B2
A high-frequency signal transmission line includes a dielectric body including a plurality of dielectric sheets. A signal line is provided in the dielectric body. A connector is mounted on a first main surface of the dielectric body and electrically connected to the signal line. A ground conductor is provided on a second main surface side of the dielectric body, compared with the signal line, and faces the signal line across the dielectric sheet. In the ground conductor, conductor-missing portions are provided in which no conductors are provided in at least portions of regions overlapping with the signal line in planar in connection portions. Adjustment conductors are provided in the second main surface of the dielectric body, and overlap with at least portions of the conductor-missing portions in the planar view.
US09401530B2
Disclosed herein is a storage battery recycling apparatus in which a pulse current is applied to polar plates or electrodes of a storage battery functioning as a secondary cell through the SCR phase control so as to remove sulfate formed in a film or membrane on the electrodes of the storage battery, thereby recovering the performance of the storage battery in a deteriorated state. The inventive storage battery recycling apparatus includes: a transformer unit 200 for transforming a commercial AC power voltage supplied thereto from an external power source through a power input unit 100; an SCR driving unit 400 for converting the AC power voltage transformed by the transformer unit 200 into a voltage having a pulse waveform through the SCR phase control; an output terminal 500 adapted to be in close contact with the electrodes of the storage battery for supplying the converted pulse voltage outputted from the SCR driving unit 400 to the electrodes of the storage battery so as to charge the storage battery; an SCR controller 300 for controlling the operation of the SCR driving unit 400; a setting unit 600 and a display unit 650 for setting and displaying the operational environment of the storage battery recycling apparatus; a voltage detecting unit 900 and a current detecting unit 950 for detecting the voltage and current of the storage battery; and a microcomputer 700 for controlling the operation of each of the constituent elements.
US09401516B2
A fuel cell that includes a membrane electrode assembly having an electrolyte, an anode catalyst, and a cathode catalyst; and a plurality of frame-gaskets is provided. Each of the frame-gaskets may be disposed between an anode-side separator and the membrane electrode assembly or between a cathode-side separator and the membrane electrode assembly. Additionally, the membrane electrode assembly is provided with an aperture which is used to combine the membrane electrode assembly with the frame-gasket assembly.
US09401513B2
Titanium suboxide (TixO2x-1) nanoparticles useful as a support for a catalyst electrode of a fuel cell, and a method for synthesizing the titanium suboxide (TixO2x-1) nanoparticles by using TiO2, a Co catalyst and hydrogen gas at a low temperature ranging from 600 to 900° C. are described Since the titanium suboxide nanoparticles show high corrosion resistance to acid and durability and have excellent thermal and electric conductivities, a catalyst electrode manufactured by using the same as a support exhibits improved catalytic activity and oxidation reduction (redox) properties.
US09401507B2
Methods for producing lithium iron phosphate or lithium manganese phosphate or lithium iron manganese phosphate, by colloidal synthesis are provided. Such methods include the operation of reacting a lithium salt, an iron(II) halide (and/or a manganese(II) halide) and a phosphorus compound, which, under the reaction conditions, is capable of releasing the phosphate ion, in the presence of an organic surfactant or a mixture of organic surfactants including an alkylamine or alkenylamine, in which the surfactant or mixture of surfactants is capable of dissolving the lithium salt and the iron halide (and/or the manganese halide), where used, in an organic solvent, which is liquid at room temperature, in which the surfactant or mixture of surfactants is soluble, the reaction being performed at a temperature not lower than 250° C.
US09401503B2
A battery includes at least two sealing frames and at least one cell. The sealing frames include a base body defining an opening wherein the base body includes a first sealing surface embodied to be elastically compressible and positioned against opposite sides of a tapered area of the at least one cell.
US09401499B2
A secondary battery includes a jelly roll including a positive and negative electrode plates respectively having positive and negative electrode non-coating portions and at least one separator; positive and negative electrode terminals each having a contact portion, an electrode terminal and an extending portion; elastic members respectively provided between the positive and negative electrode non-coating portions and the contact portions; an outer case that accommodates the jelly roll and the terminal portions in the state that the outer case is connected to the negative electrode terminal portion; a cap plate that seals the outer case; a support portion that supports and insulates the contact portion of each of the terminal portions respectively provided at both ends of the jelly roll; and a positive lead provided in the state that the positive electrode lead is insulated from the cap plate, and electrically connected to the positive electrode terminal portion.
US09401483B2
A light-emitting element with improved heat resistance is provided without losing its advantages such as thinness, lightness, and low power consumption. A light-emitting element is provided which includes a first electrode, a second electrode, and an EL layer between the first electrode and the second electrode, in which the EL layer includes a layer containing a condensed aromatic compound or a condensed heteroaromatic compound, and a layer containing 2,9-bis(naphthalen-2-yl)-4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline (abbreviation: NBPhen) in contact with the layer containing the condensed aromatic compound or the condensed heteroaromatic compound.
US09401480B2
The present invention relates conductive nanostructured copolymer materials, such as thin film. In particular, the nanostructured copolymer material comprises plurality of chains substantially parallel to each other, each conductive chain comprising a plurality of conductive polyacetylene polymer blocks positioned along the chain and a plurality of polar poly(vinyl alcohol) polymer blocks in between the polyacetylene polymer blocks to form a pattern of alternatively repeating polyacetylene polymer blocks and poly(vinyl alcohol) polymer blocks and a ratio of polyacetylene polymer to poly(vinyl alcohol) polymer to provide the nanostructured copolymer material with conductivity of at least 1 S/cm. In some aspects, the invention relates to photoelectric devices comprising a nanostructured copolymer material and capable to convert light to electrical current.
US09401479B2
A method of manufacturing a display apparatus includes: joining a first thin-film glass substrate onto a first carrier substrate; providing a touch pattern unit on a surface of the first thin-film glass substrate, which is opposite to a surface facing the first carrier substrate; separating the first thin-film glass substrate from the first carrier substrate; turning over the first thin-film glass substrate and joining the turned over first thin-film glass substrate onto the first carrier substrate; joining a second thin-film glass substrate onto a second carrier substrate; providing a display unit between the surface of the first thin-film glass substrate opposite to the surface on which the touch pattern unit is provided and a surface of the second thin-film glass substrate, which is opposite to a surface facing the second carrier substrate; and removing the first carrier substrate and the second carrier substrate.
US09401467B2
Provided are a light emitting device (LED) package and a lighting system including the same. The LED package comprises a package body comprising a recess in an upper portion thereof, and an LED chip provided in the recess of the package body. The LED package has a structure in which the LED chip may be buried into a recess formed on a planar surface on the upper portion of the package body such that a bottom surface of the recess lies below the planar surface. Thus, a main path through which heat generated from the LED chip is transmitted may be expanded from a bottom surface of the LED chip up to a lateral surface thereof to widen a dissipation area, thereby improving thermal emission efficiency.
US09401465B2
The present invention includes an N-type semiconductor layer, an active layer, a P-type semiconductor layer, a metal mirror layer, a protection adhesive layer and a metal buffer layer that are sequentially stacked. The protection adhesive layer is selected from a group consisting of a metal oxide and a metal nitride, fully covers one side of the metal mirror layer away from the P-type semiconductor layer, and includes a plurality of conductive holes. The metal buffer layer penetrates through the conductive holes to be electrically connected to the metal mirror layer. After forming the metal mirror layer on the P-type semiconductor layer, the protection adhesive layer that fully covers the metal mirror layer is directly formed to thoroughly protect the metal mirror layer by using the protection adhesive layer, thereby maintaining a reflection rate of the metal mirror layer and ensuring light emitting efficiency of a light emitting diode.
US09401464B2
A display apparatus having a self-luminous display panel is provided. The self-luminous display panel including: a first electrode layer; a second electrode layer; a substrate which is disposed on a light-emitting surface of the second electrode layer; a light emitting layer which is interposed between the first electrode layer and the second electrode layer, and generates light based on holes and electrons transmitted by voltages applied to the first electrode layer and the second electrode layer; and a linear grid layer which is interposed between the substrate and the second electrode layer, and including linear grids arranged at a predetermined pitch in order to polarize and filter light generated by the light emitting layer and emitted through the substrate.
US09401458B2
It is an object to provide a flexible light-emitting device with long lifetime in a simple way and to provide an inexpensive electronic device with long lifetime using the flexible light-emitting device. A flexible light-emitting device is provided, which includes a substrate having flexibility and a light-transmitting property with respect to visible light; a first adhesive layer over the substrate; an insulating film containing nitrogen and silicon over the first adhesive layer; a light-emitting element including a first electrode, a second electrode facing the first electrode, and an EL layer between the first electrode and the second electrode; a second adhesive layer over the second electrode; and a metal substrate over the second adhesive layer, wherein the thickness of the metal substrate is 10 μm to 200 μm inclusive. Further, an electronic device using the flexible light-emitting device is provided.
US09401452B2
A light emitting device includes a p-side heterostructure having a short period superlattice (SPSL) formed of alternating layers of AlxhighGa1-xhighN doped with a p-type dopant and AlxlowGa1-xlowN doped with the p-type dopant, where xlow≦xhigh≦0.9. Each layer of the SPSL has a thickness of less than or equal to about six bi-layers of AlGaN.
US09401451B2
A high efficiency configuration for a solar cell module comprises solar cells arranged in a shingled manner to form super cells, which may be arranged to efficiently use the area of the solar module, reduce series resistance, and increase module efficiency.
US09401450B2
Methods of fabricating solar cell emitter regions using ion implantation, and resulting solar cells, are described. In an example, a method of fabricating alternating N-type and P-type emitter regions of a solar cell involves forming a silicon layer above a substrate. Dopant impurity atoms of a first conductivity type are implanted, through a first shadow mask, in the silicon layer to form first implanted regions and resulting in non-implanted regions of the silicon layer. Dopant impurity atoms of a second, opposite, conductivity type are implanted, through a second shadow mask, in portions of the non-implanted regions of the silicon layer to form second implanted regions and resulting in remaining non-implanted regions of the silicon layer. The remaining non-implanted regions of the silicon layer are removed with a selective etch process, while the first and second implanted regions of the silicon layer are annealed to form doped polycrystalline silicon emitter regions.
US09401448B2
A photon detector article includes a photon detector configured to receive a primary waveform, the photon detector includes a multiplication region; a photon absorption region; a punch through voltage range; and a breakdown voltage; a source in electrical communication with the photon detector and configured to provide the primary waveform that includes a first voltage that is: less than a maximum value of the punch through voltage range, or effective to maintain a charge carrier in the absorption region; and a second voltage that is greater than the breakdown voltage; and a reference member in electrical communication with the source and configured to provide a reference waveform in response to receiving the primary waveform.
US09401445B2
An adhesive for solar battery back sheets obtainable by mixing (A) a urethane prepolymer having an isocyanate group at the end with (B) a polyol, wherein the urethane prepolymer (A) is obtainable by a reaction of a hydroxyl group-containing compound with an isocyanate compound, and the hydroxyl group-containing compound comprises a polycaprolactone polyol. Also, cured reaction products of the adhesive. Also, a solar battery back sheet and a solar cell module comprising the adhesive.
US09401443B2
Photovoltaic devices and methods for preparing a p-type semiconductor generally include electroplating a layer of gallium or a gallium alloy onto a conductive layer by contacting the conductive layer with a plating bath free of complexing agents including a gallium salt, methane sulfonic acid or sodium sulfate and an organic additive comprising at least one nitrogen atom and/or at least one sulfur atom, and a solvent; adjusting a pH of the solution to be less than 2.6 or greater than 12.6. The photovoltaic device includes an impurity in the p-type semiconductor layer selected from the group consisting of arsenic, antimony, bismuth, and mixtures thereof. Various photovoltaic precursor layers for forming CIS, CGS and CIGS p-type semiconductor structures can be formed by electroplating the gallium or gallium alloys in this manner. Also disclosed are processes for forming a thermal interface of gallium or a gallium alloy.
US09401441B2
A fabricating method of a back-illuminated image sensor includes the following steps. First, a silicon wafer having a first surface and a second surface is provided, wherein a number of trench isolations are formed in the first surface, and at least one image sensing member is formed between the trench isolations. Then, a first chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process is performed to the second surface using the trench isolations as a polishing stop layer to thin the silicon wafer. Because the polishing rate of the silicon material in the silicon wafer is different with that of the isolation material of the trench isolations in the first CMP process, at least one dishing depression is formed in the second surface of the silicon wafer. Finally, a microlens is formed above the dishing depression, and a surface of the microlens facing the dishing depression is a curved surface.
US09401438B2
A solar cell module includes a first solar cell, a second solar cell and an electrically connecting member. The first solar cell has a first connecting side having at least one first protruding portion and at least one first recess portion that are adjacent to each other. The second solar cell has a second connecting side having at least one second protruding portion and at least one second recess portion that are adjacent to each other. The shape of the first protruding portion matches the shape of the second recess portion while the shape of the first recess portion matches the shape of the second protruding portion. The electrically connecting member electrically connects the first upper electrode layer of the first solar cell and the second lower electrode layer of the second solar cell.
US09401437B2
The fabrication and characterization of large scale inverted organic solar array fabricated using all-spray process is disclosed. Solar illumination has been demonstrated to improve transparent solar photovoltaic devices. The technology using SAM has potential to revolute current silicon-based photovoltaic technology by providing a complete solution processable manufacturing process. The semi-transparent property of the solar module allows for applications on windows and windshields. The inventive modules are more efficient than silicon solar cells in artificial light environments. This significantly expands their use in indoor applications. Additionally, these modules can be integrated into soft fabric substances such as tents, military back-packs or combat uniforms, providing a highly portable renewable power supply for deployed military forces.
US09401433B1
A p-type metal oxide semiconductor material is provided, which is composed of AlxGe(1-x)Oy, wherein 0
US09401432B2
A semiconductor device of one embodiment of the present invention includes a semiconductor, an insulator, a first conductor, and a second conductor. In the semiconductor device, a top surface of the semiconductor has a region in contact with the insulator; a side surface of the semiconductor has a region in contact with the insulator; the first conductor has a first region overlapping with the semiconductor with the insulator positioned therebetween; the first region has a region in contact with the top surface of the semiconductor and a region in contact with the side surface of the semiconductor; the second conductor has a second region in contact with the semiconductor; and the first region and the second region do not overlap with each other.
US09401423B2
When forming transistors with deuterium enhanced gate dielectrics and strained channel regions, the manufacturing processes of strain-inducing dielectric material layers formed above the transistors may be employed to efficiently introduce and diffuse the deuterium to the gate dielectrics. The incorporation of deuterium into the strain-inducing dielectric material layers may be accomplished on the basis of a deposition process in which deuterium is present in the process environment during deposition. The process temperature of the deposition process may be chosen to perform—potentially in combination with further subsequently performed process steps—a sufficient diffusion of deuterium to the gate dielectrics.
US09401422B2
A trench-type DMOS device includes a substrate as a public drain region, an active region and a voltage-dividing ring formed on the substrate, and a first dielectric layer formed on the substrate. Multiple trenches are located on the first dielectric layer, and the trenches extend from the surface of the first dielectric layer into the interior of the substrate. The trenches comprise at least one first trench distributed in the active region and a second trench outside the active region. A gate oxide layer is formed in the trench and polycrystalline silicon is filled to form a gate. The active region further comprises a source electrode region and a P-type heavily doped region under the source electrode region. A second dielectric layer covers the first dielectric layer and the multiple trenches. A metal layer covers the second dielectric layer to form a first electrode region and a second electrode region.
US09401421B2
A switching device provided herewith includes first to fourth semiconductor layers and a gate electrode. The second semiconductor layer is of a first conductive type or an un-dope type and located on the first semiconductor layer. A hetero junction is formed between the first and the second semiconductor layers. The third semiconductor layer is of a second conductive type and located on the second semiconductor layer. The fourth semiconductor layer is of a second conductive type and located on the third semiconductor layer. A hetero junction is formed between the third and the fourth semiconductor layers. The gate electrode electrically connected to the fourth semiconductor layer.
US09401417B2
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes forming an epitaxial layer within a source/drain region of a semiconductor substrate, forming a fluorine-containing layer on the surface of the epitaxial layer, forming a metal gate structure within the gate region after the step of forming the fluorine-containing layer, forming an interlayer dielectric to cover the semiconductor substrate, the epitaxial layer and the metal gate structure, forming a contact hole penetrating the interlayer dielectric to expose a portion of the epitaxial layer, forming a metal silicide layer on or in the epitaxial layer on a bottom of the contact hole so that the fluorine-containing layer is disposed on the periphery of the metal silicide layer.
US09401416B2
A method includes forming at least one fin in a semiconductor substrate. A placeholder gate structure is formed above the fin. The placeholder gate structure includes a placeholder material and a cap structure defined on a top surface of the placeholder material. The cap structure includes a first cap layer disposed above the placeholder material and a second cap layer disposed above the first cap layer. An oxidization process is performed on at least a portion of the second cap layer to form an oxidized region above a remaining portion of the second cap layer. A portion of the oxidized region is removed to expose the remaining portion. The remaining portion of the second cap layer is removed. The first cap layer is removed to expose the placeholder material. The placeholder material is replaced with a conductive material.
US09401413B2
The semiconductor device has a barrier layer formed on a channel layer, an n type diffusion preventing layer formed on the barrier layer and containing aluminum, and a source electrode and a drain electrode formed on the diffusion preventing layer. The semiconductor device further has a p type cap layer formed on the diffusion preventing layer sandwiched between the source electrode and the drain electrode and a gate electrode formed on the cap layer. The diffusion preventing layer has an aluminum composition ratio greater than the aluminum composition ratio of the barrier layer.
US09401411B2
In some aspects of the invention, a layer containing titanium and nickel is formed on an SiC substrate. A nickel silicide layer containing titanium carbide can be formed by heating. A carbon layer precipitated is removed by reverse sputtering. Thus, separation of an electrode of a metal layer formed on nickel silicide in a subsequent step is suppressed. The effect of preventing the separation can be further improved when the relation between the amount of precipitated carbon and the amount of carbon in titanium carbide in the surface of nickel silicide from which the carbon layer has not yet been removed satisfies a predetermined condition.
US09401404B2
A semiconductor device is disclosed comprising: a substrate having a surface comprising germanium; a layer of gallium on said surface; and a layer of gallium arsenide on the gallium covered surface. The semiconductor heterostructure of gallium arsenide on germanium is fabricated by the steps of: protecting by a shutter a surface comprising germanium in an environment having a partial pressure of arsenic less than 10−8torr; epitaxially growing a layer of gallium on the said surface immediately after exposure of said surface; and epitaxially growing a layer of gallium arsenide on the gallium covered surface.
US09401403B2
A nitride semiconductor structure of the present disclosure comprises a semiconductor substrate, and a layer formed over the semiconductor substrate and comprising plural nitride semiconductor layers. The semiconductor substrate has, from a side thereof near the layer comprising the plural nitride semiconductor layers, a surface region and an internal region in this order. The surface region has a resistivity of 0.1 Ωcm or more, and the internal region has a resistivity of 1000 Ωcm or more.
US09401388B2
A method for manufacturing a photoelectric converter includes a first step of preparing a semiconductor substrate including a metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistor, a second step of forming a plurality of interlayer insulating films above the semiconductor substrate, and a third step of forming a photoelectric conversion portion above the semiconductor substrate. The second step includes a step of forming a first film containing hydrogen. The third step includes a step of forming a first electrode, a step of forming a photoelectric conversion film, and a step of forming a second electrode. The method includes a step of performing heat treatment between the step of forming the first film and the step of forming the photoelectric conversion film.
US09401385B2
The inventive concepts provide a semiconductor memory device including variable resistance memory elements. The semiconductor memory device may include a first bit line disposed at a first height from a semiconductor substrate, a second bit line disposed at a second height, which is different from the first height, from the semiconductor substrate, a first variable resistance memory element connected to the first bit line, and a second variable resistance memory element connected to the second bit line. The first and second variable resistance memory elements may be disposed at substantially the same height from the semiconductor substrate.
US09401383B2
This disclosure is directed at a photoconductive element for a digital X-ray imaging system which consists of a detector element comprising a semiconducting layer for absorbing photons, an insulator layer on at least one surface of said semiconducting layer and at least two electrodes on one surface of said insulator layer; and a switching element wherein at least one layer within said switching element is in the same plane as at least one said layer within said detector element.
US09401382B2
Provided are an image sensor and a method of manufacturing method of manufacturing the image sensor. The image sensor includes a substrate, photoelectric transducers and switching elements formed in layers on the substrate in this order. Each of the photoelectric transducers includes a hydrogenated amorphous silicon layer. Each of the switching elements includes an amorphous oxide semiconductor layer. The image sensor further includes a blocking layer arranged between the hydrogenated amorphous silicon layers of the photoelectric transducers and the amorphous oxide semiconductor layers of the switching elements, where the blocking layer suppresses penetration of hydrogen separated from the hydrogenated amorphous silicon layers.
US09401381B2
A portion on the light exit end surface side of a fiber optic plate includes a first portion and a second portion. The first portion corresponds to a peripheral portion of a semiconductor photodetecting element. The second portion corresponds to a thin portion of the semiconductor photodetecting element and projects more toward the semiconductor photodetecting element than the first portion. A height of a step made between the first portion and the second portion of the fiber optic plate is lower than a height of a step made between the thin portion and the peripheral portion of the semiconductor photodetecting element. The semiconductor photodetecting element and the fiber optic plate are fixed by a resin, in a state in which the first portion and the peripheral portion are in contact and in which the second portion and the thin portion are separated.
US09401379B2
An image sensor module includes an image sensor bearer and an image sensor, the image sensor bearer being fashioned as an injection-molded circuit bearer, and the image sensor being situated on the image sensor bearer, and the image sensor bearer including at least one holding device that is integrally formed on the image sensor bearer.
US09401377B2
An array bolometric detector for detecting an electromagnetic radiation in a predetermined infrared or terahertz wavelength range, including a substrate, and an array of bolometric microplates for the detection of the radiation, suspended above the substrate by support elements. The detector includes a membrane arranged above each microplate, and having patterns having a refractive index smaller than that of the membrane formed therein. The patterns are placed periodically along at least one axis of the membrane, according to a period shorter than or equal to λ n , where λ is a wavelength to be detected and n is the average refractive index of the medium separating the microplate from the membrane. The width of the patterns along the axis increases from a central location of the membrane towards the periphery thereof.
US09401371B1
A method for manufacturing a memory device, which can be configured as a 3D NAND flash memory, and includes a plurality of stacks of conductive strips, including even stacks and odd stacks having sidewalls. Some of the conductive strips in the stacks are configured as word lines. Data storage structures are disposed on the sidewalls of the even and odd stacks. Active pillars between corresponding even and odd stacks of conductive strips include even and odd semiconductor films connected at the bottom of the trench between the stacks, and have outside surfaces and inside surfaces. The outside surfaces contact the data storage structures on the sidewalls of the corresponding even and odd stacks forming a 3D array of memory cells; the inside surfaces are separated by an insulating structure that can include a gap. The semiconductor films can be thin-films having a U-shaped current path.
US09401360B2
A semiconductor device may include a substrate including an NMOS region and a PMOS region. A gate structure can include a gate pattern and a spacer pattern, where the gate structure is on the substrate. A first etching stop film can be on the substrate in the NMOS region and a second etching stop film can be on the substrate in the PMOS region. A contact hole can penetrate the first and second etching stop films and a contact plug can be in the contact hole. A thickness of the first etching stop film can be greater than a thickness of the second etching stop film. Related methods are also disclosed.
US09401352B2
Embodiments relate to a field-effect device that includes a body region, a first source/drain region of a first conductivity type, a second source/drain region, and a pocket implant region adjacent to the first source/drain region, the pocket implant region being of a second conductivity type, wherein the second conductivity type is different from the first conductivity type. The body region physically contacts the pocket implant region.
US09401343B2
A method of processing a semiconductor wafer includes forming semiconductor dies in the semiconductor wafer, each die having an active region containing devices of an integrated circuit and an edge region surrounding the active region, adjacent ones of the dies being separated by a scribe line. The method further includes forming interconnect wiring over the active region of each semiconductor die in an interlayer dielectric, forming ancillary wiring over the edge region of each die in the interlayer dielectric, forming a passivation on the interlayer dielectric, forming bond pads over the interconnect wiring of each die, the bond pads of each die being in electrical connection with the interconnect wiring of that die, and forming additional bond pads over the ancillary wiring of each semiconductor die, the additional bond pads of each die being in electrical connection with the interconnect wiring of that die.
US09401340B2
A semiconductor device comprises a circuit layer composed of a conductive material, and a semiconductor element mounted on the circuit layer, wherein an underlayer having a porosity in the range of 5 to 55% is formed on one surface of the circuit layer, a bonding layer composed of a sintered body of a bonding material including an organic substance and at least one of metal particles and metal oxide particles is formed on the underlayer, and the circuit layer and the semiconductor element are bonded together via the underlayer and the bonding layer.
US09401333B2
According to one embodiment, a semiconductor device includes a circuit substrate, a semiconductor element, a sealing resin layer, and a conductive shielding layer. The circuit substrate includes an insulating layer, a plurality of interconnections forming first interconnection layers provided on an upper surface side of the insulating layer, a plurality of interconnections forming second interconnection layers provided on a lower surface side of the insulating layer, and a plurality of vias penetrating from the upper surface to the lower surface of the insulating layer. The semiconductor element is mounted on the upper surface side of the circuit substrate. The conductive shielding layer covers the sealing resin layer and part of an end portion of the circuit substrate. Any of the plurality of vias and the conductive shielding layer are electrically connected.
US09401331B2
A semiconductor device is made by forming a first conductive layer over a carrier. The first conductive layer has a first area electrically isolated from a second area of the first conductive layer. A conductive pillar is formed over the first area of the first conductive layer. A semiconductor die or component is mounted to the second area of the first conductive layer. A first encapsulant is deposited over the semiconductor die and around the conductive pillar. A first interconnect structure is formed over the first encapsulant. The first interconnect structure is electrically connected to the conductive pillar. The carrier is removed. A portion of the first conductive layer is removed. The remaining portion of the first conductive layer includes an interconnect line and UBM pad. A second interconnect structure is formed over a remaining portion of the first conductive layer is removed.
US09401330B1
An integrated circuit (IC) package substrate with non-uniform dielectric layers is disclosed. The IC package substrate is a multilayer package substrate that has dielectric layers and metal layers stacked up alternately. The dielectric layers in the package substrate have different thickness. The metal layers may be ground, signal or power layers. A thicker dielectric layer is placed in between a signal layer and a power layer in the package substrate. The thicker dielectric layer may be at least twice as thick as other dielectric layers in the package substrate. The thicker dielectric layer may provide better impedance control in the package substrate.
US09401328B2
An electric contact structure includes a first structural layer; a second structural layer made of dielectric material extending over the first structural layer; and an intermediate layer made of conductive material extending between the first structural layer and the second structural layer. A trench extends in the second structural layer delimited laterally by a wall of the second structural layer and at the bottom by a surface region of the intermediate layer. A diffusion barrier extends in the trench covering the surface region of the intermediate layer and the wall of the second structural layer. The diffusion barrier is a TiW—TiN—TiW tri-layer.
US09401323B1
A semiconductor structure having a through semiconductor via (TSV) which includes a semiconductor wafer of a semiconductor material and having a front side and a back side; front end of the line (FEOL) components; an insulative annulus extending from the front side to the back side, the insulative annulus having a center including the semiconductor material such that the semiconductor material in the center of the insulative annulus is recessed from the back side to form a recess; a metal filling the recess; a through silicon via (TSV) extending in a straight line from the metal-filled recess, through the center of the semiconductor material in the center of the insulative annulus and into the FEOL components such that there is semiconductor material between the TSV and the insulative annulus.
US09401322B2
A structure having air gaps between interconnects is disclosed. A first insulating material is deposited over a workpiece, and a second insulating material having a sacrificial portion is deposited over the first insulating material. Conductive lines are formed in the first and second insulating layers. The second insulating material is treated to remove the sacrificial portion, and at least a portion of the first insulating material is removed, forming air gaps between the conductive lines. The second insulating material is impermeable as deposited and permeable after treating it to remove the sacrificial portion. A first region of the workpiece may be masked during the treatment, so that the second insulating material becomes permeable in a second region of the workpiece yet remains impermeable in the first region, thus allowing the formation of the air gaps in the second region, but not the first region.
US09401318B2
A quad flat no-lead package includes an encapsulant, and a plurality of chip pads, a plurality of bond pads and a chip disposed in the encapsulant. Each chip pad is connected to at least one of the chip pads adjacent thereto by a first extending portion. The chip pads and the bond pads are arranged in an array. The chip pads are disposed at the center of the array and the bond pads are disposed around the chip pads. Each of the bond pads and at least one of the bond pads or one of the chip pads adjacent thereto each has a second extending portion formed therebetween and corresponding to each other. Every two of the second extending portions corresponding to each other are separated by a groove. The chip is mounted on a top surface of the chip pads and is electrically coupled to the bond pads.
US09401313B2
A method of automated optical inspection (AOI) for a plurality of unique semiconductor packages can comprise providing a plurality of semiconductor die formed as a reconstituted wafer. A plurality of unit specific patterns can be formed by forming a unit specific pattern over each of the plurality of semiconductor die, wherein each of the unit specific patterns is customized to fit its respective semiconductor die. A plurality of images can be acquired by acquiring an image for each of the plurality of unit specific patterns. A plurality of unique reference standards can be created by creating a unique reference standard for each of the plurality of unit specific patterns. Defects can be detected in the plurality of unit specific patterns by comparing one of the plurality of unique reference standards to a corresponding one of the plurality of images for each of the plurality of unit specific patterns.
US09401308B2
Packaging devices, methods of manufacture thereof, and packaging methods are disclosed. In some embodiments, a packaging device includes a first substrate including a post passivation interconnect (PPI) structure including a PPI pad disposed thereon, and a second substrate including a contact pad disposed thereon. A conductive bump is coupled between the PPI pad and the contact pad. A molding material is disposed over portions of the PPI structure proximate the conductive bump. A top surface of the molding material contacts the conductive bump at a height of the conductive bump having a width C, and the contact pad has a width B. A ratio R of C:B comprises about 1.0 or greater.
US09401306B2
A manufacturing process, which we term Self-Aligned Capillarity-Assisted Lithography for manufacturing devices having nano-scale or micro-scale features, such as flexible electronic circuits, is described.
US09401297B2
Proposed are an electrostatic chuck mechanism and a charged particle beam apparatus including a first plane that is a plane of a side in which a sample is adsorbed, a first electrode to which a voltage for generating an adsorptive power between the first plane and the sample is applied, and a second electrode that is arranged in a position relatively separated from the sample toward the first plane and through which a virtual line that is perpendicular to the first plane and contacts an edge of the sample passes, wherein the first plane is formed so that a size in a plane direction of the first plane is smaller than that of the sample.
US09401289B2
A semiconductor device has a semiconductor wafer with an interconnect structure formed over a first surface of the wafer. A trench is formed in a non-active area of the semiconductor wafer from the first surface partially through the semiconductor wafer. A protective coating is formed over the first surface and into the trench. A lamination tape is applied over the protective coating. A portion of a second surface of the semiconductor wafer is removed by backgrinding or wafer thinning to expose the protecting coating in the trench. A die attach film is applied over the second surface of the semiconductor wafer. A cut or modified region is formed in the die attach film under the trench using a laser. The semiconductor wafer is expanded to separate the cut or modified region of the die attach film and singulate the semiconductor wafer.
US09401286B2
Disclosed is a plasma processing device that provides an object to be treated with plasma treatment. A wafer as an object to be treated, which is attached on the upper surface of adhesive sheet held by a holder frame, is mounted on a stage. In a vacuum chamber that covers the stage therein, plasma is generated, by which the wafer mounted on the stage undergoes plasma treatment. The plasma processing device contains a cover member made of dielectric material. During the plasma treatment on the wafer, the holder frame is covered with a cover member placed at a predetermined position above the stage, at the same time, the wafer is exposed from an opening formed in the center of the cover member.
US09401282B2
Provided is a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, which efficiently removes a high permittivity film (high-k film). The method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes: (a) supplying a processing gas containing an organic compound into a process chamber to form a predetermined film on a substrate; (b) supplying a first cleaning gas into the process chamber with the substrate being unloaded from the process chamber to remove films adhered to an inner wall of a reaction tube defining the process chamber and members disposed in the process chamber; (c) supplying a modifying gas into the process chamber after performing (b) to modify a carbon-containing film remaining in a nozzle of the members configured to supply the processing gas; and (d) supplying a second cleaning gas into the process chamber to remove a film obtained by modifying the carbon-containing film in (c).
US09401280B2
A semiconductor process includes the following steps. A first gate is formed on a substrate, wherein the first gate includes a stacked gate on the substrate and a cap on the stacked gate. A spacer material is formed to conformally cover the first gate and the substrate. The spacer material is etched to form a spacer on a side of the first gate and a block on the other side of the first gate corresponding to the side. A material covers the substrate, the block, the first gate and the spacer, wherein the top surface of the material is a flat surface. The block, the spacer and the material are pulled down with the same pulling selectivity so that an assisting gate is formed from the block and a selective gate is formed from the spacer.
US09401277B2
Provided are systems and methods for processing the surface of substrates that scan a laser beam at one or more selected orientation angles. The orientation angle or angles may be selected to reduce substrate warpage. When the substrates are semiconductor wafers having microelectronic devices, the orientation angles may be selected to produce controlled strain and to improve electronic performance of the devices.
US09401276B2
An apparatus for forming porous silicon layers on at least two surfaces of a plurality of silicon templates in a batch electrochemical anodic etch process is provided. The apparatus comprises a plurality of edge-sealing template mounts operable to prevent formation of porous silicon at the edges of a plurality of templates. An electrolyte is disposed among the plurality of templates. The apparatus further comprises a power supply operable to switch polarity, change current intensity, and control etching time to produce the porous silicon layers.
US09401271B2
Apparatus and methods for wafer processes such as etching and chemical vapor deposition processes are disclosed. In some embodiments, the apparatus includes a susceptor and a ring disposed beneath the susceptor to influence a thickness of the deposited epitaxial layer.
US09401264B2
A plasma system includes an RF generator and a matchbox including an impedance matching circuit, which is coupled to the RF generator via an RF cable. The plasma system includes a chuck and a plasma reactor coupled to the matchbox via an RF line. The RF line forms a portion of an RF supply path, which extends between the RF generator through the matchbox, and to the chuck. The plasma system further includes a phase adjusting circuit coupled to the RF supply path between the impedance matching circuit and the chuck. The phase adjusting circuit has an end coupled to the RF supply path and another end that is grounded. The plasma system includes a controller coupled to the phase adjusting circuit. The controller is used for changing a parameter of the phase adjusting circuit to control an impedance of the RF supply path based on a tune recipe.
US09401255B2
An opening/closing-body drive device is achieved, in which a malfunction, caused by the electrical contacts of the relay switch freezing, can be reliably prevented from occurring. The control unit 60 includes a freeze determiner 61 which determines that the relay switch(es) is frozen when an opening/closing-body drive motor 27a does not drive a specified amount in accordance with opening/closing operational conditions of a back door 3 and when the temperature of the control unit 60 that is detected by a temperature detector 80 is lower or equal to a predetermined value; and a freeze releaser 62 which releases a frozen state of the relay switch(es) by intermittently supplying electric current for a predetermined number of times to the relay switch(es) without supplying a drive current to said opening/closing-body drive motor 27a, when said freeze determiner 61 determines that the relay switch(es) is frozen.
US09401251B2
A circuit breaker includes a housing and a line strap at least partially disposed within the housing. The line strap has a top surface and an opposing bottom surface, a first side surface and an opposing second side surface. A line strap insulator is positioned within the housing and has a first sidewall and a second sidewall. Each of the first sidewall and the second sidewall extend from a point above the line strap top surface to a point below the line strap bottom surface. The line strap insulator is fabricated from an electrically insulative material.
US09401241B2
A solenoid coil assembly for hazardous environments comprises a solenoid coil and an enclosure entirely filled with encapsulation material. The encapsulation material leaves zero or almost zero volume in the enclosure for hazardous material to accumulate in any amount that could explode. This allows the solenoid coil assembly to be constructed without the usual industry standard flame paths. Additionally, the enclosure may be made of physically rigid and strong material such as metal or the like to better withstand harsh and corrosive conditions within hazardous environments without being explosion proof. The walls of such an enclosure need only have a moderate thickness and weight relative to enclosures that are explosion proof, as there is no meaningful risk of an explosion occurring within the enclosure. The combination of a rugged exterior and a zero-volume interior allows the solenoid coil assembly to reduce weight and cost while providing superior environmental protection.
US09401230B2
Cu—Ni—Si—Co copper alloy strip having excellent balance between strength and electrical conductivity which can prevent the drooping curl is provided. The copper alloy strip for an electronic materials contains 1.0-2.5% by mass of Ni, 0.5-2.5% by mass of Co, 0.3-1.2% by mass of Si, and the remainder comprising Cu and unavoidable impurities, wherein the copper alloy strip satisfies both of the following (a) and (b) as determined by means of X-ray diffraction pole figure measurement based on a rolled surface: (a) among a diffraction peak intensities obtained by β scanning at α=20° in a {200} pole figure, a peak height at β angle 145° is not more than 5.2 times that of standard copper powder; (b) among a diffraction peak intensities obtained by β scanning at α=75° in a {111} pole figure, a peak height at β angle 185° is not less than 3.4 times that of standard copper powder.
US09401228B2
Disclosed embodiments include nuclear fission reactor cores, nuclear fission reactors, methods of operating a nuclear fission reactor, and methods of managing excess reactivity in a nuclear fission reactor.
US09401227B2
A post package repair device may include a plurality of bank groups, each of the plurality of bank groups including fuses indicating repair information, configured to share a predetermined number of fuses. The post package repair device may include a resource detection unit configured to determine the availability of the fuses from among the plurality of bank groups.
US09401226B1
A device includes a redundant region of a magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) array that includes first memory cells. The device includes a data region of the MRAM array that includes second memory cells. The device includes a fail address region of the MRAM array, a first row of the fail address region including validity data, wherein the validity data includes multiple validity indicators, a last row indicator, or both.
US09401223B2
A method and apparatus for conducting at-speed testing of a memory array in an integrated circuit (IC) is disclosed. In one embodiment, an IC includes a memory array and a plurality of input circuits coupled to provide input signals into the memory array. Each of the plurality of input circuits includes an input flip-flop having a data output coupled to a corresponding input of the memory array, selection circuitry configured to select a data path to a data input of the input flip-flop and a data path shift register coupled to control a state of a selection signal provided to the selection circuitry, wherein the data path shift register includes a plurality of multiplexers. When operating the IC in a test mode, the plurality of input circuits is configured to provide input signals into the memory array at an operational clock speed of the IC.
US09401220B2
A multi-phase gate driver includes a start/end signal generator circuit and X shift register modules. The start/end signal generator circuit is configured to sequentially output N start signals and N end signals according to a first control signal, a second control signal and N groups of clock signals. Each start and end signals have a delay relative to the previous one. Each group of clock signals includes a first clock signal and a second clock signal, which are inverted to each other. The X shift register modules are electrically coupled to the start/end signal generator circuit and each includes N shift register units. The Mth shift register unit of the first shift register module outputs a gate signal according to the Mth group of clock signals, the Mth start signal, and the gate signal outputted from the Mth shift register unit in the second shift register module.
US09401216B1
In a nonvolatile memory block that contains separately-selectable sets of NAND strings, a bit line current sensing unit is configured to sense bit line current for a separately-selectable set of NAND strings of the block. A bit line voltage adjustment unit is configured to apply a first and second bit line voltages to separately-selectable sets of NAND strings that have bit line currents greater and less than the minimum current respectively, the second bit line voltage being greater than the first bit line voltage.
US09401215B2
A method for driving a nonvolatile memory device includes performing an erase operation with respect to a plurality of memory cells, stopping the erase operation by a suspend command, calculating a residual time of the erase operation that has not yet been performed, performing a first operation, comparing a first vacant time between a completion time point of the first operation and a start time point of a second operation with the residual time, performing the erase operation that has not yet been performed if the residual time is equal to or shorter than the first vacant time, and performing the second operation if the residual time is longer than the first vacant time.
US09401212B2
A method includes, in a plurality of memory cells that share a common isolation layer and store in the common isolation layer quantities of electrical charge representative of data values, assigning a first group of the memory cells for data storage, and assigning a second group of the memory cells for protecting the electrical charge stored in the first group from retention drift. Data is stored in the memory cells of the first group. Protective quantities of the electrical charge that protect from the retention drift in the memory cells of the first group are stored in the memory cells of the second group.
US09401207B2
A memory device includes a first select transistor having a first current electrode coupled to a first bit line, a control electrode and a second current electrode. A second select transistor has a first current electrode coupled to a second bit line, a control electrode and a second current electrode. A first bi-directional resistive element has a cathode coupled to the second current electrode of the first select transistor and an anode coupled to an internal node. A second bi-directional resistive element has a cathode coupled to the internal node and an anode coupled to the second current electrode of the second select transistor. A third transistor has a first current electrode coupled to a third bit line, a second current electrode coupled to the internal node, and a control electrode coupled to a word line.
US09401201B1
A memory and a method for operating a memory are provided. The memory includes a memory cell configured to be powered from a first voltage source, a bitline, and a write driver configured to write to the memory cell through the bitline, the write driver comprising a pull-up circuit to pull up bitline voltage towards a second voltage source while using the first voltage source to limit the bitline voltage, the first and second voltage sources being in different voltage domains.
US09401198B1
A NVDRAM includes a first NV element coupled to a first terminal of a second NV element at a transfer node. A volatile cell has a transfer transistor coupled to the transfer node and has a storage node. A first NV line is coupled to the second terminal of the first NV element. Circuitry applies an alternated signal to the transfer node, couples the second terminal of the second non-volatile element to a second NV line, and applies a program signal across the first and second NV lines during a program mode that establishes a logic state. The circuitry applies a read signal across the first and second NV lines, couples the second terminal of the second NV element to the second NV line, and replaces the alternated signal with floating during a restore mode that loads the logic state into the storage node.
US09401193B2
A memory device includes a memory bank including a plurality of word lines, and a word line controller capable of activating a first word line, which is accessed during a previous write operation, among the plurality of word lines, while activating a second word line corresponding to an input address among the plurality of word lines, during an active operation.
US09401190B1
Systems and methods are provided herein for implementing a programmable integrated circuit device that enables high-speed FPGA boot-up through a significant reduction of configuration time. By enabling high-speed FPGA boot-up, the programmable integrated circuit device will be able to accommodate applications that require faster boot-up time than conventional programmable integrated circuit devices are able to accommodate. In order to enable high-speed boot-up, dedicated address registers are implemented for each data line segment of a data line, which in turn significantly reduces configuration random access memory (CRAM) write time (e.g., by a factor of at least two).
US09401182B2
A rack mount device comprising: a housing; first and second drawer sections to be withdrawable from the housing; storage sections provided in the first and second drawer sections, each of storage sections including memory devices; a control module to control the memory devices; a connection cable to couple an external connection terminal of the housing and the control module and include an excess length portion corresponding to movement of the control module; a cable protective tube to be inserted by the excess length portion, one end of the cable protective tube fixed in a vicinity of a connection portion to the control module of the connection cable, another end of the cable protective tube fixed on a bottom plate side of the housing, the cable protective tube including a folded-up section which moves along with the drawing operation; and a cable protective tube deformation device to move the folded-up section.
US09401178B2
Enables event analysis from sensors including environmental, physiological and motion capture sensors. Also enables displaying information based on events recognized using sensor data associated with a user, piece of equipment or based on previous motion analysis data from the user or other user(s) or other sensors. Enables intelligent analysis, synchronization, and transfer of generally concise event videos synchronized with motion data from motion capture sensor(s) coupled with a user or piece of equipment. Enables creating, transferring, obtaining, and storing concise event videos generally without non-event video. Events stored in the database identifies trends, correlations, models, and patterns in event data. Greatly saves storage and increases upload speed by uploading event videos and avoiding upload of non-pertinent portions of large videos. Creates highlight and fail reels filtered by metrics and can sort by metric. Compares motion trajectories of users and objects to optimally efficient trajectories, and to desired trajectories.
US09401172B2
An optical disc medium includes a land and a groove at which information can be recorded. A predetermined number of address information units which record address information of the land or groove are provided in a circumferential direction of the optical disc medium. The address information unit of the land includes three or more address recording areas capable of recording address information. The address information is recorded on one area selected from among the three or more address recording areas. The address information unit of the land has address information which is recorded, in the same modulation, on the side of the inner adjacent groove and on the side of the outer adjacent groove. The one area to be selected from among the three or more address recording areas for recording the address information of the land is different among three address information units adjacently arranged in a radial direction.
US09401171B2
An aspect of the present invention relates to a magnetic recording medium, which comprises a nonmagnetic layer containing a nonmagnetic powder and a binder and a magnetic layer containing a ferromagnetic powder and a binder in this order on a nonmagnetic support, wherein the nonmagnetic layer has a thickness of equal to or less than 300 nm; a composite elastic modulus as measured on a surface of the magnetic layer ranges from 6.0 to 8.0 GPa; the magnetic layer comprises an abrasive with a specific surface area by BET method ranging from 14 m2/g to 40 m2/g; and a surface abrasive occupancy on a surface of the magnetic layer ranges from 0.2% to 2%.
US09401168B1
A disk apparatus control device including an A/D converting section that samples an analog current amount signal indicating a current amount for a drive current of a motor that moves a head for accessing a storage disk of a disk apparatus, and converts the analog current amount signal into a digital current amount signal indicating the current amount. The device can further include a control signal generating section that, according to digital control, generates a digital control signal corresponding to a manipulation amount of the drive current, based on a difference between the current amount indicated by the digital current amount signal and a target value for the current amount of the drive current. Additionally, the device can include a D/A converting section that converts the digital control signal into an analog control signal, and outputs the analog control signal to a drive current generating section that generates the drive current.
US09401154B2
A method for recognizing an audio sample locates an audio file that closely matches the audio sample from a database indexing a large set of original recordings. Each indexed audio file is represented in the database index by a set of landmark timepoints and associated fingerprints. Landmarks occur at reproducible locations within the file, while fingerprints represent features of the signal at or near the landmark timepoints. To perform recognition, landmarks and fingerprints are computed for the unknown sample and used to retrieve matching fingerprints from the database. For each file containing matching fingerprints, the landmarks are compared with landmarks of the sample at which the same fingerprints were computed. If a large number of corresponding landmarks are linearly related, i.e., if equivalent fingerprints of the sample and retrieved file have the same time evolution, then the file is identified with the sample.
US09401152B2
On the basis of a bitstream (P), an n-channel audio signal (X) is reconstructed by deriving an m-channel core signal (Y) and multichannel coding parameters (α) from the bitstream, where 1≦m
US09401148B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for inputting speech data that corresponds to a particular utterance to a neural network; determining an evaluation vector based on output at a hidden layer of the neural network; comparing the evaluation vector with a reference vector that corresponds to a past utterance of a particular speaker; and based on comparing the evaluation vector and the reference vector, determining whether the particular utterance was likely spoken by the particular speaker.
US09401133B2
Embodiments are directed to an adjustable, floor-mounted electric guitar effect performance and storage apparatus for providing easier access to effect pedals and/or floorboards used by guitarists on stage during practices and/or performances. The apparatus includes two platforms, a lower and an upper, each of which is capable of holding various configurations of electric guitar effect pedals and/or floorboards. The upper platform is extendible and retractable by pushing or pulling with one's foot to gain access to pedals on the lower platform. Extension and retraction (gliding back and forth) is made possible by the use of standard drawer slides, installed in reverse, allowing the upper platform to move away and reveal the lower platform. In addition, the height of the upper platform can be adjusted for performance or storage.
US09401124B2
As to enhance the rendering while minimizing needed computation time, the method comprises the steps of determining noise information, said noise information being representative of noise level estimated for at least a part of said image; the noise information being determined for the achromatic component of the image; sampling said part of the image according to said noise information; and rendering said at least a part of the image according to said sampling.
US09401123B2
A display device having a network function according to an exemplary embodiment is configured to include: a network interface unit that performs data communication with external displays through a network; and a controller that transmits access request signals to the external display devices through the network interface unit and receives a list of input sources information that access is permitted based on the access permission or not according to the access request, wherein the controller transmits a request signal of an image program according to specific input sources based on the received list to the external display devices.
US09401119B2
Upon each detection of an image switch by a display switch detection portion (27) included in a display control circuit (200), a selection frequency determination portion (23) makes a determination for each row corresponding to a scanning signal line as to whether or not the row includes any pixel with a middle tone. Further, a scanning signal output control portion (26) performs drive control such that any scanning signal line corresponding to a row without such a pixel is selected at intervals of one frame period. This results in reduced power consumption in selecting the scanning signal lines.
US09401114B2
A display control apparatus applied for an image display apparatus having a plurality of display regions is provided. The display regions are respectively corresponding to a plurality of backlight modules and the luminance of the backlight modules are independently controlled. The display control apparatus includes a backlight control unit. The backlight control unit receives a first image data to generate a plurality of local backlight control signals accordingly. The local backlight control signals are used for controlling the luminance of the backlight modules. The backlight control unit divides the first image data to be a plurality of local image data respectively corresponding to the display regions. Furthermore, the backlight control unit generates one of the local backlight control signals according to one of the local image data respectively.
US09401108B2
A data driver supplies a data signal to a display panel to control luminance of a plurality of pixels. The data signal comprises a plurality of frames, and each of the frames comprises a plurality of sub-frames. Each of the sub-frames comprises an addressing time, followed by an emission time, followed by an erase time. Subpixels each include a first scan line switch controlled by the first scan line signal to turn on during the addressing time of each sub-frame and to turn off during the emission time and the erase time of each sub-frame. A second scan line switch is controlled by a second scan line signal to provide a discharge path to discharge the storage capacitor during the erase time of each sub-frame.
US09401105B2
A display device is provided which includes a display panel including a plurality of pixels; a gate driving unit configured to drive gate lines; a data driver configured to drive data lines; and a timing controller configured to generate a plurality of control signals for controlling the gate driving unit and the data driver. The timing controller converts the data signals into an image data signal, a horizontal synchronization signal, a vertical synchronization signal, and a data enable signal, a pulse width of each of the horizontal and vertical synchronization signals corresponding to an aspect ratio of the data signals or a size of a black image display area. The timing controller generates the plurality of control signals according to the image data signal, the data enable signal, and pulse widths of the horizontal synchronization signal and the vertical synchronization signal.
US09401104B2
The invention provides a chemical-mechanical polishing composition including (a) an abrasive comprising wet-process silica particles, (b) a water-soluble polymer, (c) an oxidizing agent, (d) a chelating agent, (e) a pH-adjusting agent, and (f) an aqueous carrier, wherein the pH of the polishing composition is about 1 to about 7. The invention also provides a method of polishing a substrate, especially a nickel-phosphorus substrate, with the polishing composition.
US09401100B2
The selective aggregation of marker objects on a map is disclosed. A plurality of marker objects is received in response to a query. The marker objects are each defined by a set of coordinates to a specific location on the map. The map is segregated into a plurality of bounding areas each defined by a set of bounding coordinates. A bounding area count of the number of marker objects having coordinates within a first one of the bounding areas is generated. The bounding area count is compared to a predetermined threshold. If the bounding area count is greater, a first aggregate marker is displayed in the first one of the bounding areas of the map. Otherwise, each of the marker objects within the first one of the bounding areas of the map is displayed. The marker objects are positioned according to the set of coordinates associated therewith.
US09401099B2
Methods and apparatus for displaying closed-captioning content on a display device. In response to determining that closed-captioning is desired, a display area of the display device is partitioned into non-overlapping portions. A first portion of the display area is configured to display the closed-captioning content and a second portion of the display area is configured to display a computer desktop. The closed-captioning content may be transformed by replacing at least some text in the closed-captioning content with at least one symbol based, at least in part, on a context of the at least some text in the closed-captioning content.
US09401095B2
Provided is an information processing system including a position management unit configured to manage positions of avatars operated by users in a virtual space, a schedule management unit configured to manage a schedule of communication of the users, and a control unit configured to cause communication between terminals used by the users who are scheduled to have the communication to be established when the avatars of the users who are scheduled to have the communication gather in a predefined place in the virtual space and to cause at least one of an image and a voice to be transmitted and received.
US09401088B2
A system for predicting a travel time for a traffic route is disclosed. The traffic route comprises one or more road segments. A predicted travel time for each of those segments is calculated based, in part, on traffic speed data for each of the one or more road segments. A total travel time is then calculated for the route, the total travel time including a predicted travel time for each of the one or more road segments.
US09401086B2
A first mobile monitoring system includes one or more mobile monitoring devices, a network, a server and a storage memory. The server is implemented to analyze the collected signals and the traffic information to identify at least one traffic flow according to travel routes of the one or more wireless devices; determine whether the identified at least one traffic flow exceeds an updating threshold based on the collected signals; derive at the server when the traffic flow exceeds the updating threshold, an updating priority indicating an order in which the traffic flows are processed based on the collected signals; and update a dynamic traffic transportation plan map based on the at least one traffic flow, the updating threshold and the updating priority.
US09401084B2
A remote determines an acknowledgement is not received for a command transmitted to a first device, broadcasts a discovery message, receives a response from a second device that received the discovery message and a proximity signal from the remote, and configures itself to control the second device. The remote may also transmit an acknowledgement to the second device. The second device may notify the first device. In various implementations, configuration information in the response may include pairing information and the remote may unpair itself from the first device and pair with the second device. In some implementations, the remote may include a table for controlling devices and the remote may utilize an entry in the table for the second device instead of the first device. In various implementations, the remote may receive responses to the discovery message from multiple devices and may select one to configure itself to control.
US09401077B2
Embodiments provide systems, methods, processes, computer program code and means for using mobile devices to conduct transactions with ATM devices.
US09401065B2
A gaming system is described. The gaming system can include one or more host devices and EGM clients that communicate with one another over a network. Various non-gaming applications can be maintained on the host device. In response to a request received from an EGM client, a non-gaming application program can be executed on the host device. Content from the non-gaming application can be converted to a media stream that is sent to the EGM client for output. The media stream can be processed using a codec executed on the EGM. Input data associated with the content can be received at the EGM and sent to the host device. The content from the non-gaming application executed on the host can be adjusted in response to the input data received from the EGM.
US09401063B2
A personal powered proximity payment device that can be owned by or issued to an individual user is provided. The device is a non-ISO card device that includes an internal dual-mode (contact and contactless) chip card coupled to a display and a robust PIN entry or biometric reading means. The device provides proximity payment functions, and optional proximity payment on/off and local pre-purchase account holder verification functions to the individual user.
US09401052B2
A road toll system comprises a vehicle-mounted unit comprising a satellite navigation system implementing a position tracking function; transmitting means for transmitting position or route information to a remote server; and a unique identification device for attaching to the vehicle, and associated with the satellite navigation receiver. The road toll system function is enabled only when the identification device is present. The identification device comprises an electronic device which is adapted to alter by detachment or attempted detachment such as to prevent the road toll system function being enabled. This system increases the security of this type of system and makes fraudulent use of the system increasingly difficult.
US09401043B2
An efficient numerical method for accurately rendering translucent materials using photon beam diffusion is provided that can account for multilayer materials and directional incident and exitant effects at the surface. In an embodiment, refracted incident light is represented continuously as a photon beam instead of as discrete photons. An integration scheme for calculating a radiant exitance value at a point on the surface of the translucent material is disclosed that uses importance sampling and evaluates a radiant function at a limited number of points along the beam.
US09401042B2
A method of providing image data for constructing an image of a region of a three dimensional target object, comprising providing, from a radiation source, incident radiation directed at a target object, detecting an intensity of radiation scattered by the target object, and determining image data for each of a respective plurality of slices within the target object each indicating one or more characteristics of the target object at a respective depth within the target object, wherein the image data is determined based on the detected intensity of radiation via an iterative process wherein running estimates of the image data for each of the plurality of slices are updated step by step.
US09401034B2
Methods, systems, and computer-storage media for efficiently tessellating two dimensional (2-D) curves using a graphics pipeline running on a graphics processing unit (GPU) are provided. A central processing unit (CPU) converts a geometry having one or more 2-D curves into an intermediate tessellation having at least one Bezier fan with a fan origin and four control points. The intermediate tessellation is sent on to the graphics pipeline. A hull shader in the graphics pipeline is configured to approximate the Bezier fan curve by subdividing the curve into a defined number of triangles based on a maximum value of a width or a height of a bounding box containing the four control points of the Bezier fan. A domain shader in the graphics pipeline is configured to determine a vertex position for each of the defined triangles along the curve of the Bezier fan.
US09401029B2
A moving object detection method according to an embodiment performs a stacking process step of: dividing captured images into p groups each including m successive images; and for each group, applying a stacking method to the m images. Subsequently, for each group, the method extracts a candidate for space debris based on an evaluation value for space debris detection, which is obtained from pixel values at the same pixel positions overlapping one another across the m images superposed one another. Thereafter, the method judges whether the extracted candidate for the space debris in each group is chosen as a final candidate for the space debris based on the coincidence or proximity in terms of the movement direction and the moving velocity.
US09401026B2
Cluster centers of an image are initialized. The image includes a plurality of pixels. Pixels of the plurality of pixels in a pattern are labeled. The cluster centers are recomputed based on the labeling of the plurality of pixels.
US09401023B2
A first size adjusting unit adjusts a size of a first clothing image which is an image of a first piece of clothing worn on an upper half of a body based on a width of a shoulder part of the first piece of clothing in the first clothing image. A second size adjusting unit adjusts a size of a second clothing image which is an image of a second piece of clothing worn on a lower half of a body based on a width of a waist part of the second piece of clothing in the second clothing image. A display control unit causes a display to display a screen on which the first piece of clothing and the second piece of clothing are vertically displayed, based on the first clothing image and the second clothing image.
US09401019B2
An imaging tomosynthesis system, in particular a mammography system, includes a computer system which generates x-ray projections of an examination object from a plurality of projection angles. The system further reconstructs a stack of tomosynthetic slice images, generates at least one overview image of density values of an examination object from the tomosynthetic image data, selects characteristic density values in the stack at at least one plane position, and determines the geometric level of the at least one selected characteristic density value. The overview image is then displayed with a color value correlated to the geometric level of the at least one characteristic density value.
US09401017B2
Systems and methods for segmenting a medical image are provided. In some embodiments, the method includes receiving an image acquired from at least a portion of a subject's anatomy, selecting a first point within a target structure identified on the image, and determining a second and a third point associated with extents of a target biological tissue, the first, second and third points defining a sector described by the first point, a central angle and a subtended arc. The method also includes determining a plurality of arc points along the subtended arc, and extending a plurality of linear segments along directions determined by the first point and the plurality of arc points. The method further includes determining an intensity profile along each linear segment to identify boundaries of the target biological tissue, and generating a contour of the target biological tissue using the identified boundaries.
US09401012B2
A computing device and a method for correcting color distortion are provided, in particular for correcting purple flare. A digital image has an array of pixels each represented by a green (G), a red (R) and a blue (B) primary color, and for each pixel, the computing device establishes a minimum value between the R and B intensity values, and compares the minimum value and the G intensity value. The original R, G and B intensity values are maintained if the G intensity value is equal or greater than the minimum value. The R and B intensity values are attenuated by an adjustment value if the G intensity value is less than the minimum value. The adjustment value is calculated as the difference of the minimum value and the G intensity value.
US09401009B2
A method of enhancing a quality of a 3 dimensional (3D) image includes classifying an input 3D image into a plurality of sub-areas based on noise characteristics of the plurality of sub-areas of the input 3D image, denoising each of the plurality of sub-areas of the input 3D image by using different denoising methods according to noise characteristics of each of the classified plurality of sub-areas and obtaining a second 3D image after the denoising, and enhancing a contrast ratio of the second 3D image after the denoising.
US09401007B2
An image providing system includes: a terminal to run at least one application, to request an image from a service device, to determine whether the application supports all screen densities, to extract and transmit a resolution value of an area for displaying the image when all screen densities are supported, and to extract and transmit screen density information supported in the application when not all screen densities are supported; a service device to resize the image to match at least one resolution, to check a resolution value of the terminal and provide the image resized to match the checked resolution value to the terminal when the image is requested from the terminal, and when only screen density information is transmitted from the terminal, to calculate a resolution value from the screen density information and provide the image resized to match the calculated resolution value to the terminal.
US09401004B2
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for tracking and filtering state change methods provided to a graphics pipeline. State shadow circuitry at the start of the graphics pipeline may be configured in different modes. A track mode is used to capture the current state by storing state change methods that are transmitted to the graphics pipeline. A passthrough mode is used to provide different state data to the graphics pipeline without updating the current state stored in the state shadow circuitry. A replay mode is used to restore the current state to the graphics pipeline using the state shadow circuitry. Additionally, the state shadow circuitry may also be configured to filter the state change methods that are transmitted to graphics pipeline by removing redundant state change methods.
US09400999B2
Technology is disclosed for detecting, classifying, and/or enforcing policies on social networking activity. The technology can store a content policy, classify content posted to a social network, determine that the classification corresponds to the content policy, and apply an action specified by the content policy to the posted content.
US09400998B2
A business object model, which reflects data that is used during a given business transaction, is utilized to generate interfaces. This business object model facilitates commercial transactions by providing consistent interfaces that are suitable for use across industries, across businesses, and across different departments within a business during a business transaction. In some operations, software creates, updates, or otherwise processes information related to a message-based communication arrangement, an organizational center replication request, and a payment schedule business object.
US09400996B2
Systems and methods for collecting, selecting, and displaying an image or image set in a network based environment are described. The systems and methods can collect multiple images for any given item from multiple sources, select a desired image (or set of images) that best depicts that item, and then display that selected image (or image set) in the network based environment. The desired image (or image set) that best depicts the item can be selected using any number or combination of pre-selected criteria. By using the pre-selected criteria, the process needs no manual intervention, and can therefore be automated or semi-automated to save both time and cost.
US09400995B2
Content recommendation includes: determining a plurality of user behavior categories pertaining to a plurality of user behaviors by a plurality of users within a period of time, and a plurality of user behavior frequencies corresponding to the plurality of user behavior categories; determining whether the number of user behavior categories exceeds a preset category threshold; in the event that the number of user behavior categories exceeds the preset threshold, excluding one or more user behavior categories such that the number of remaining user behavior categories does not exceed the preset threshold; determining, based at least on the remaining user behavior categories and corresponding user behavior frequencies, user preference data comprising frequency distribution information of a plurality of pieces of content information targeted by user behaviors in the remaining user behavior categories; and recommending content information to a user based on the user preference data.
US09400994B2
A method for providing an item suggested by a retailer to a user prior to an upcoming transaction at a point of sale terminal includes detecting a presence of the user at an item impulse device in a facility of retailer, wherein the item impulse device is located proximate to the point of sale terminal. When the presence of the user is detected at the item impulse device and prior to the upcoming transaction a purchase history of the user and one or more items the user currently possesses are obtained. The item suggested the retailer for the user to purchase is determined based on at least one of the purchase history and the one or more items the user currently possesses. A notification indicating the item suggested by the retailer is generated and provided to the user.
US09400992B2
A method and system for populating a software catalogue in software applications which monitor the presence of software products on a plurality of computers. The proposed method aims at populating a software catalogue with a limited manual intervention of an administrator. The present invention reduces the cost of producing and maintaining a comprehensive knowledge base (the catalogue) which contains definitions of software products and the related signature. Information about software products and their related signature is obtained through a process using some special files (e.g. XML files) which contains information and/or pointers to other products.
US09400988B2
A method of selecting a promotional content for media content items. The method comprises providing a database hosting a plurality of uniform resource locators (URLs) each of a web document through which at least one of a plurality of media content items being available for presentation, receiving an ad request for embedding an in stream advertisement in a media content item, analyzing the ad request to extract a video content URL of a certain web document through which the media content item is made available for presentation, matching between the video content URL and at least one of the plurality of URLs to acquire at least one identifier of the media content item, selecting an in stream advertisement based on the at least one identifier, and responding to the ad request with an indication of the in stream advertisement.
US09400985B2
A system and method for communication of proximity based content is disclosed between a mobile computing device having a Short Range Communication (SRC) device and a Proximity Short Range Communication (PSRC) device associated with a location or object using near field magnetic induction. The SRC device and/or the PSRC device can include at least two antennas to provide magnetic induction diversity. The method comprises defining a proximity boundary with dimensions defined by a magnetic induction diversity communication range of at least one of the SRC and PSRC devices. A proximity signal is communicated in the proximity boundary between the SRC device and the PSRC device. At least one action is performed by the mobile computing device or the PSRC device when the proximity signal is detected between the SRC device and the PSRC device.
US09400984B2
Methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture to share media are disclosed. An example system includes an application program distribution interface to download an application program to a user device, the application program to receive user input from a first user. The example system also includes a query interface to receive representative information and an indication of a second user from the user device. The example system also includes a media content recognizer to identify the media content based on the representative information, a media access provider to selectively provide the second user with access to the media content, and an audience-interest interface to credit audience-interest to the media content when the second user is provided access to the media content.
US09400977B2
In certain embodiments, an electronic device can include a secure element that detects a mechanical input. The mechanical input can correspond to an instruction to transmit securely stored payment information to another device and/or to release such information to an application on the device (e.g., for use in an in-app commerce transaction). This feature can inhibit or prevent unauthorized transmission of payment information. When the mechanical input is detected, payment information can be transmitted to a point of sale (POS) terminal (e.g., via near-field communication) or released to an app on the device. Further, a user can either use default payment information or interact with the device (before or after providing the mechanical input) to select appropriate payment information for a transaction. For example, the user can select between credit cards, debit cards and/or stored-value cards (e.g., transit card).
US09400975B2
A system for evaluating network users comprises one or more processors communicatively coupled to one or more memories operable to receive, over a network comprising a plurality of network users, electronic first user content generated by a first user, provide the first user content over the network to a second user, receive, over the network, a second user response to the first user content generated by the second user, determine a second user response delay time for the second user response, wherein the second user response delay time is associated with the amount of time between when the first user content was provided over the network and when the second user response was received, and generate a first list of network users that have responded to first user content, wherein the first list is organized based at least in part on the second user response delay time.
US09400968B2
The disclosure includes a system and method for indexing synthetically modified images of a high quality image. An image recognition application receives images of a product, crops background regions from the images, scales the image based on a minimum value among width and height of the image and generates multiple image sizes, blurs the images, brightens the image and indexes the images as being associated with the product. The images can be of box-shaped packages that include four or six images or cylindrical packages that include, for example, eight images of the packages. The images can be indexed in a k-dimensional tree for faster retrieval.
US09400960B2
Methods for verifying satisfaction of prognostic algorithm requirements for a component of a certain device of interest are provided. A method according to an example of an embodiment of the invention can include providing a prognostic algorithm requirements statement for a preselected component contained in each of a plurality of a certain type device, receiving field data indicating a number of premature component failures and a total number of replacements including both due to premature failures and scheduled maintenance, determining a probability density function providing a probability of failing to replace the prematurely failed components, determining a confidence value indicating a level of confidence that failure avoidance requirements provided in the prognostic algorithm statement are being met, and verifying whether or not the prognostic algorithm requirements provided in the prognostic algorithm requirements statement are being satisfied according to a preselected minimum level of confidence.
US09400955B2
Features are disclosed for reducing the dynamic range of an approximated trained artificial neural network weight matrix in an automatic speech recognition system. The weight matrix may be approximated as two low-rank matrices using a decomposition technique. This approximation technique may insert an additional layer between the two original layers connected by the weight matrix. The dynamic range of the low-rank decomposition may be reduced by applying the square root of singular values, combining them with both low-rank matrices, and utilizing a random rotation matrix to further compress the low-rank matrices. Reduction of dynamic range may make fixed point scoring more effective due to smaller quantization error, as well as make the neural network system more favorable for retraining after approximating a neural network weight matrix. Features are also disclosed for adjusting the learning rate during retraining to account for the low-rank approximations.
US09400951B2
To realize a dot pattern which can be read even by a frame buffer of which algorithm for search is simple and of which resolution is low without sacrificing an information dot for defining a direction of a block. There is provided a dot pattern, wherein a plurality of reference points is provided in an area of a block having a predetermined information dot arranged thereon; a plurality of virtual reference points to be defined is arranged from the reference points (for example, a central point of a grid area); an information dot is arranged, of which information is defined by a distance and a direction from the virtual reference point; and at least the information dot at the predetermined position is made into a direction dot showing the direction of the block by a direction from the virtual reference point.
US09400936B2
Methods and systems for tag recognition in captured images. A candidate region can be localized from regions of interest with respect to a tag and a tag number shown in the regions of interest within a side image of a vehicle. A number of confidence levels can then be calculated with respect to each digit recognized as a result of an optical character recognition operation performed with respect to the tag number. Optimal candidates within the candidate region can be determined for the tag number based on individual character confidence levels among the confidence levels. Optimal candidates from a pool of valid tag numbers can then be validated using prior appearance probabilities and data returned, which is indicative of the most probable tag to be detected to improve image recognition accuracy.
US09400925B2
Technology is disclosed for inferring human attributes from images of people. The attributes can include, for example, gender, age, hair, and/or clothing. The technology uses part-based models, e.g., Poselets, to locate multiple normalized part patches from an image. The normalized part patches are provided into trained convolutional neural networks to generate feature data. Each convolution neural network applies multiple stages of convolution operations to one part patch to generate a set of fully connected feature data. The feature data for all part patches are concatenated and then provided into multiple trained classifiers (e.g., linear support vector machines) to predict attributes of the image.
US09400923B2
The present invention relates to a patient interface identification system for identifying a patient interface that is suited for a face (16) of a user (18), comprising: a receiving unit (12) for receiving a test picture (14) including the face (16) of the user (18); a database (22) for storing reference picture including faces of other users, wherein each reference picture is referenced to a patient interface advice; a processing unit (24) for comparing the received test picture (14) with at least a subset of said reference pictures stored in the database (22), wherein comparing said test picture (14) with said subset of reference pictures includes a comparison of image based features of the user's face (16) and the other users' faces; and a user interface (26) for communicating a patient interface advice including information related to a patient interface that is suited for the face (16) of the user (18), which patient interface advice is based on the comparison of said test picture (14) with the subset of reference pictures stored in the database (22).
US09400916B1
Methods, systems, and programming for user identification and authentication are presented. In one example, an apparatus for user authentication is disclosed. The apparatus comprises: a surface on which an object is placed; a light source configured for providing light illuminating a first portion of the surface; a brightness measuring unit configured for measuring brightness distribution in a second portion of the surface, wherein the brightness distribution is caused by the object that spreads the light from the first portion to the second portion; and a determiner configured for determining whether the object is an organic body part based on the brightness distribution.
US09400914B2
A method and electronic device for generating fingerprint enrollment data are provided. The method includes the steps of capturing first input data, wherein the first input data is divided into a plurality of first blocks and each of the first blocks has an index value; capturing second input data, wherein the second input data is divided into a plurality of second blocks and each of the second blocks has the index value; comparing and combining the first input data with the second input data to generate a comparison result; accumulating the index values of the first blocks and the second blocks in an area of overlapping between the first input data and second input data; and generating prompting information according to the comparison result.
US09400908B2
There is provided in one embodiment an imaging apparatus having a lens assembly. The lens assembly can comprises a lens element having a first light transmissive substrate and a second light transmissive substrate, the first light transmissive substrate including a first electrode, the second light transmissive substrate including a second electrode. The lens element can further comprise liquid crystal material intermediate the first light transmissive substrate and the second light transmissive substrate.
US09400907B2
An optical code scanner is presented that includes an improved user interface and an improved external computer interface. The user interface includes illumination devices that illuminate an air gap between the edges of a weigh plate and the top surface of the optical code scanner. The illumination devices provide guidance to the operator that allows the operator to optimize scanning performance. The external computer interface exposes controls that allow an external computer to determine what information is displayed to an operator.
US09400903B2
The present invention relates to a communication method, device, and system. The communication method include using low-frequency alternating magnetic field signals to control a communication distance between a first radio frequency (RF) device and second RF device. The communication device receives and uses a first low-frequency alternating magnetic field signal transmitted from a second RF device to control the communication distance to the second RF device. The communication system includes a first RF device and a second RF device. The first RF device generates and transmits a first low-frequency alternating magnetic field signal and receives a second low-frequency alternating magnetic field signal, and the second RF device generates and transmits the second low-frequency alternating magnetic field signal and receives the first low-frequency alternating magnetic field signal. The first RF device and the second RF device control the communication distance using the first and second low-frequency alternating magnetic field signals.
US09400889B2
A computer readable medium includes executable instructions to analyze program instructions for security vulnerabilities. The executable instructions convert diverse program instruction formats to a common format. A system model is derived from the common format. A static analysis is performed on the system model to identify security vulnerabilities. Security vulnerabilities are then reported.
US09400880B2
A biometric security method and apparatus for a capacitive sensor system is provided herein, where the method may include capturing a set of raw capacitive frames for a body part via the capacitive sensor system, wherein each raw capacitive frame includes a distribution of a plurality of capacitance levels measured from the body part; creating a capacitive profile based on the set of raw capacitive frames; comparing a first value in the capacitive profile to a second value in a biometric template generated from an enrolled body part, wherein the first value and the second value are located at a similar location with respect to the capacitive profile; and, generating an authentication signal based on a difference between the first value and the second value.
US09400878B2
Context captured with sensors of an information handling system is applied to selectively lock access to currently unlocked information, with conditions for locking access based upon the context. Nervous states enforce locking of selected information based upon the confidence of the security of the information under sensed external conditions. Increased sensitivity for locking access includes reduced timeouts to a lock command, increased response to sensed conditions, and more rapid response where unlocked access is to sensitive information.
US09400876B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a simplified authentication transaction for reconnecting a storage device to a host apparatus that has completed authentication in the past. According to one embodiment, an authentication log is recorded in the host. Plural units of this log information are recorded in the storage device. At the time of transferring a content decryption key and usage rules between the host and the storage device, the decryption key and usage rules are recorded into the host as a log for the transfer. The used authentication log is recorded into the storage device as RAPDI. If RAPDI indicates the authentication log in the simplified authentication transaction, recovery transaction is permitted. The host device deletes/invalidates or holds the log for the transfer in accordance with non-permission/permission. In the case of permission, the key and usage rules are recovered by using a log for the transfer prior to the simplified authentication transaction.
US09400872B2
A software and hardware system is described that enables effective lifestyle management by providing a dynamic assessment of a user's physical and behavioral metrics via a high feedback ratio interface.
US09400871B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for selecting content for user devices specific to a particular user. The aspects generally relate to providing related content items to a particular user across multiple different user devices, such as mobile devices, tablet computers, desktop computers, and televisions. The selection of the content items for a particular user and the device to which the content items are to be sent are based one or more of the following factors: user history data, subject matter category duration, frequency duration adjustment, behavioral duration adjustment, and device prioritization.
US09400867B2
A method and system (20) is provided for condition based monitoring reliability maintenance capabilities for an asset (70), such as one or more machines, by establishing a network including of a sensor (60) or a plurality of sensors installed, temporarily or in generally fixed locations, on asset (70), wherein sensor (60) provides time sequenced operational information in the form of data based on vibrations, temperature, electrical signals, or other operating conditions. Sensors (60) are connected to a local controller (40) which transmits the data via a local or wide area network (45), either through wired or wireless communication paths, in data packets, each containing divided portions of the operational information. The data packets are mapped and stored into multiple, dedicated databases for ease of retrieving and analyzing the data. Preferably, a cloud-based storage arrangement (120) is employed to storing the mapped data.
US09400864B2
A method and a system of maintaining slack continuity in incremental statistical timing analysis includes using a computer to forward propagating both scalar and statistical arrival times in a single timing environment; computing for a timing end point one or more projected statistical slack value; computing a scalar reverse engineered required arrival time from the projected statistical slack value; back propagating the scalar reverse engineered required arrival time using scalar delay values, measuring a resulting slack and performing a redesign based on the reverse engineered scalar required arrival time and resulting slack; and incrementally re-executing selected steps to re-compute a new scalar reverse-engineered required arrival time and new resulting slack.
US09400863B2
Methodologies and an apparatus enabling a generation of color undeterminable polygons in IC designs are disclosed. Embodiments include: determining a plurality of first routes extending horizontally in an IC design, each of the plurality of first routes being placed on one of a plurality of equally spaced vertical positions of the IC design; determining whether a second route overlaps one of the vertical positions of the plurality of equally spaced vertical positions; and selecting a design rule for the second route based on the determination of whether the second route overlaps.
US09400852B2
Communication method of a content requester, an intermediate node of one or more intermediate nodes, and a content owner in a content centric network are provided. A communication method of a content requester in a content centric network (CCN) includes, where the CCN includes the content requester, one or more intermediate nodes, and a content owner, generating a content request packet including a cache token, the cache token being used to determine one or more of the intermediate nodes in which to store content requested from the content owner, and transmitting the generated content request packet to the intermediate nodes and the content owner.
US09400850B2
Exemplary systems and methods for providing a tailored user interface associated with a web page are disclosed. An exemplary method includes a user interface computing system identifying, from computing code representative of a web page and based on a predefined element selection heuristic, one or more select elements of the web page and generating a user interface including data representative of the one or more select elements for display on a display screen, the user interface having a presentation scheme that is different from a presentation scheme of the web page and that is tailored to facilitate interaction with the data representative of the one or more select elements by a user utilizing a set of user inputs. Corresponding systems and methods are also disclosed.
US09400847B1
Embodiments of methods and systems for incorporating user generated content into a web page are disclosed. Certain embodiment may allow a different amount of user-generated content to be incorporated into a set of web pages associated with the same product. More particularly, according to one embodiment, a first amount of user-generated content can be presented on an initial web page associated with the product and a different amount of user generated content can be presented on subsequent pages. Moreover, in other embodiments, differing sort orders may be utilized in conjunction with the initial web page and subsequent pages with the result that the user-generated content is incorporated into the initial web page according to a first sort order and user generated content is incorporated into subsequent web pages according to a different sort order.
US09400846B2
A method and system for managing information in an on-line community is described. One embodiment assigns, in an information management system, a distinct domain to each member of the on-line community, each member of the on-line community being associated with a client computer that is connected with the information management system over a network, each distinct domain being capable of hosting at least one on-line information archive associated with the member assigned to that distinct domain; associates with each on-line information archive at least one member-configurable data entry form, each member-configurable data entry form associated with a given on-line information archive defining a format of a specific type of information item that may be posted to that on-line information archive, each member-configurable data entry form associated with the given on-line information archive including a name and at least one form field, the name being specifiable by the member of the on-line community associated with the given on-line information archive, the at least one form field being definable and configurable by the member of the on-line community associated with the given on-line information archive; and sets access permissions for each on-line information archive in accordance with preferences of the member associated with that on-line information archive, the access permissions specifying which members of the on-line community are permitted to access that on-line information archive and to what extent each of those members is permitted to access that on-line information archive.
US09400844B2
A system for identifying keywords which may include a non-acquiescence information collector operative to collect information indicating, for each individual website from among a multiplicity of websites, at least one keyword which brought at least one user into contact with said individual website but did not result in a defined criterion for acquiescence of a user to at least one suggestion presented by said website; and a negative keyword definer operative to define at least one specific keyword which brought at least one user into contact with a specific website but did not result in a transaction between said user and said website, as a negative keyword for said specific website. Positive keyword extraction based on aggregation of visitor acquiescence information may be provided. Paradigm structuring may include template generation of invitations and/or attribute based generation of invitation cueing sets.
US09400840B2
Disclosed are systems, apparatus, methods and computer-readable storage media for combining topic suggestions from different topic sources to assign to textual data items. In some implementations, a first automated topic source provides one or more first topic suggestions to associate with a textual data item. Each first topic suggestion has a respective first characteristic, which can be adjusted. A second automated topic source provides one or more second topic suggestions to associate with the textual data item. Each second topic suggestion has a respective second characteristic, which can be adjusted. The first and second topic suggestions are combined to define a combined list. A reference value is determined or retrieved to impact ordering of the topic suggestions in the combined list.
US09400838B2
A search system for searching for electronic documents, and providing a search result in response to a search query is provided. The search system includes a processor, a user interface module adapted to receive a search query from a user, the search query having at least one search query term, and a query processing module that analyzes the search query term to identify candidate synonym words. The query processing module also determines which of the candidate synonym words are equivalent terms to the search query term, and in a same sense as the search query term. In addition, the search system includes a search engine that executes a search based on the search query term and the equivalent terms.
US09400834B2
One embodiment of the present invention provides a computing system. The computing system includes a processor and a computer-readable storage medium. The computer-readable storage medium stores instructions which when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform a method. The method comprises assigning a vertex identifier of a first vertex to a second vertex in a graph based on an edge between the first vertex and the second vertex. The vertices represent elements in a data set, the edge represents a type and strength of relationship between the vertices. The method further comprises provisionally assigning each vertex to a vertex cluster associated with the vertex identifier, and converging the assignments based on a measure of cluster quality associated with all the vertex clusters. Each vertex cluster represents information of interest in the data set. One measure of clustering quality is called “modularity.”
US09400824B2
Systems and methods for sorting data are disclosed. In some implementations, a method of sorting a set of data includes, at a computing device including one or more processors and memory, formatting the set of data for display using a first data column and a second data column. The first data column includes a first plurality of values; the first plurality of values is user-visible; the second data column includes a second plurality of values; and the second plurality of values is also user-visible. In some implementations, the method further includes, causing the set of data to be displayed in a sort order in accordance with a third plurality of sort parameters. The third plurality of sort parameters is calculated in accordance with (i) the first plurality of data values and (ii) the second plurality of data column; and the third plurality of sort parameter is user-invisible.
US09400822B2
In one embodiment, a method includes generating a first query requesting a data structure of a specific data type, retrieving the data structure of the specific data type from one or more hierarchical graphs using the first query, retrieving one or more data items from the hierarchical graphs using the data structure, and validating the retrieved data items by determining whether the data structure corresponds to the retrieved data items.
US09400809B2
A method and apparatus are provided for performing an image search based on a search query having a portion P1 and a portion P2. Based on the first search query, a second search query is generated that includes a portion P3 and the portion P2 such that the second search query is broader in scope than the first search query, while still retaining the portion P2 of the first query. A first image search is then performed for the first search query to obtain a first set of search results and a second image search is performed for the second search query to obtain a second set of search results. Consequently, an image from the first set of search results is selected for presentation to a user, wherein the selection is based on content of the second set of search results.
US09400801B1
A method for editing a non-native file on a mobile device using a remote application, including establishing a connection between a local-side component and a remote-side component on a remote computer; wherein the local-side component identifies an editor on the remote computer based on parameters of the file; on the remote computer, activating an editor for a file located on the mobile device; upon selection of the editor, using the local-side component to transmit the file to the remote-side component; storing the file in a storage on the remote computer; opening the file using the editor and giving the editor control over the file using a protocol for remote connection; editing the file on the mobile device as if the editor on the remote computer were native; saving the file on the remote storage and transmitting the file to the mobile device; and replacing the file on the mobile device with the transmitted file.
US09400800B2
A collection-synchronizing system synchronizes a local data collection with a remote device. During operation, the system can detect the remote device, and receives collection summaries for one or more data collections stored at the remote device. A collection summary can include at least one additive hash value that represents one or more content items of a data collection. Then, for a data collection that exists at the local device and the remote device, the system compares a remote additive hash value for the remote data collection with a local additive hash value for the local data collection. If the system determines that the local additive hash value does not match the remote additive hash value, the system synchronizes structured names for the data collection at the local device and the remote device.
US09400799B2
Techniques and mechanisms are provided for migrating data blocks around a cluster during node addition and node deletion. Migration requires no downtime, as a newly added node is immediately operational while the data blocks are being moved. Blockmap files and deduplication dictionaries need not be updated.
US09400797B2
Systems and method relating generally to data processing, and more particularly to systems and methods for combining recovered portions of a data set. In one particular case, a system is disclosed that includes a stitching circuit and a data recovery circuit. The stitching circuit is operable to: receive a data set including at least a first fragment and a second fragment; replicate data from at least one of the first fragment and the second fragment as stitching values; and aggregate the first fragment with the second fragment with the stitching values between the first fragment and the second fragment to yield a combined data set. The data recovery circuit is operable to process the combined data set to yield an original data set.
US09400794B2
There is provided a group management apparatus connected to a substrate processing apparatus configured to store at least a configuration file, the group management apparatus including a controller configured to: receive a command for generating a file group for the configuration file; receive the configuration file and at least one associated file related to the configuration file from the substrate processing apparatus according to the command for generating the file group; and generate the file group including the configuration file and the associated file received from the substrate processing apparatus and store the file group in a state where an output is possible.
US09400789B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for associating resources with entities. One of the methods includes clustering a plurality of first documents into one or more first document groups, wherein each of the one or more first document groups is associated with a proper name of an author; receiving a query that specifies a particular proper name of a particular author; generating a result list of one or more documents that satisfy the query, the documents being listed in order of rank; ranking the one or more first document groups based on the one or more documents that satisfy the query; and providing the one or more first document groups, wherein the one or more first document groups are presented in an order based on the ranking.
US09400782B2
There is disclosed an enhanced text entry system which uses word-level analysis to automatically correct inaccuracies in user keystroke entries on reduced keyboards such as those implemented on a touch-sensitive panel or display screen, or on mechanical keyboard systems. A method and system are defined which determine one or more alternate textual interpretations of each sequence of inputs detected within a designated auto-correcting keyboard region.
US09400781B1
According to an aspect, a first word in a first language and a second word in a second language in a bilingual corpus are stemmed. A probability for aligning the first stem and the second stem and a distance metric between the normalized first stem and the normalized second stem are calculated. The first word and the second word are identified as a cognate pair when the probability and the distance metric meet a threshold criterion and stored as a cognate pair in a set of cognates. A candidate sentence in the second language is retrieved from a corpus. The candidate sentence is filtered by the active vocabulary of a user in the second language and the set of cognates. A sentence quality score is calculated for the candidate sentence; and the candidate sentence is ranked for presentation to the user based on the sentence quality scorer.
US09400780B2
A computer-implemented method of managing perspective data associated with a common feature in items is disclosed. The method can include identifying a common feature in a first item and a second item, the first item having a set of perspective data and establishing a subset of perspective data associated with the common feature. The method can include associating the subset of perspective with the second item. The method can include determining a set of relevancy scores for the subset of perspective data associated with the common feature and establishing a set of relevant perspective data from the subset of perspective data. The set of relevant perspective data can have relevancy scores outside of a relevancy threshold. The method can include associating the set of relevant perspective data with the second item.
US09400776B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for adaptive column selection. One of the methods includes obtaining a size of a display area. The method includes obtaining column descriptors, each column descriptor identifying a column and a column width. The method includes determining a set of columns to present, including comparing the column width of a column to an available size remaining, and including the column in the set in response to determining that the column size is less than the available size. The method includes calculating an aggregate width of all the columns in the set. The method includes allocating a portion of the size to each column in the set of columns based on a ratio of width of the respective column and the aggregate width. The method also includes presenting the columns in the set of columns on the display area.
US09400769B2
A method for generating a document, comprising providing a set of content items in a first configuration for the document, using a processor, generating alignment data representing a measure for the alignment of the content items in the first configuration, using the alignment data to determine if the content items are aligned with one another within a predefined threshold measure for alignment for the document, and a document layout system comprising a processing module configured to generate a document layout.
US09400760B2
An information processor includes a plurality of first processing units; and a direct memory access unit coupled to at least one first processing unit. The information processor includes at least one first memory unit coupled to the direct memory access unit. The first memory unit includes a second memory unit. The first memory unit includes a second processing unit for processing data stored in the second memory unit. The second memory unit is adapted to be accessed by at least one first processing unit through the direct memory access unit, and the second processing unit is separate from the plurality of first processing units and the direct memory access unit. The first memory unit includes at least one register to be accessed by the at least one first processing unit and the second processing unit. The second processing unit is for receiving operation instructions from the at least one register.
US09400746B2
A FLASH memory control technique with wear leveling between the different blocks of the FLASH memory. By a controller managing the blocks of a FLASH memory within a data storage device, some of the blocks are pushed into a spare queue waiting to be allocated as data blocks or system blocks and some blocks are pushed into a jail queue to be inaccessible. When the jail queue is full and any block within the spare queue has an erase count greater than any block within the jail queue, for wear leveling between the different blocks within the FLASH memory, the controller releases a first block selected from the jail queue and pushes a second block selected from the spare queue into the jail queue.
US09400745B2
A storage system includes a memory controller connected to a solid state memory device and a read status table that tracks a pending read from the solid state memory device and a physical address of the solid state memory device that is associated with the pending read. The memory controller releases the physical address for reassignment when the read status table indicates that no pending reads are associated with the physical address. In certain embodiments, the read status table may be included within the memory controller. In certain embodiments, subsequent to the release of the physical address, erase operations may erase data at the physical address and the physical address may be reassigned to a new logical address by ensuing host write operations.
US09400741B1
Reclaiming storage from a file system hosting of storage objects includes assigning objects and respective files to version sets, each version set containing a primary object and respective snapshots. Each block of storage is associated with the version set of the file(s) that contain the block. Blocks residing in an extent that is to be reclaimed are identified, and for each block (i) an offset is obtained that specifies a location of the block in a file, (ii) files whose objects are assigned to the version set associated with the block are identified, (iii) a block pointer at the location in each of the identified underlying files is examined, and for each file whose block pointer points to the block, updating the block pointer to point to a new block location outside of the extent, to which the block is moved.
US09400737B2
A method, computer program product, and computer system for receiving, by a computing device, a selection of one or more files for which to have one or more automated unit tests generated for an application under test. An action in the application under test is received while the application under test is used. Behavior data of how the application under test responds to the action is tracked. An automated unit test of the one or more automated unit tests is generated for underlying code of the application under test invoked when receiving the action based upon, at least in part, the behavior data of how the application under test responds to the action.
US09400736B2
Embodiments of the invention relate to transforming a program-event-recording event into a run-time instrumentation event. An aspect of the invention includes a method for transforming a program-event-recording event into a run-time instrumentation event. The method includes enabling run-time instrumentation for collecting instrumentation information of an instruction stream executing on a processor. The method also includes detecting, by the processor, a program-event-recording (PER) event, the PER event associated with the instruction stream executing on the processor. The method further includes writing a PER event record to a collection buffer as a run-time instrumentation event based on detecting the PER event, the PER event record identifying the PER event.
US09400726B2
A method of monitoring power usage includes 1) accessing power usage data for power distribution unit infeeds of a plurality of power distribution units; 2) accessing stored circuit descriptions describing interconnections of the power distribution unit infeeds to a number of power feed circuits; 3) transforming the plurality of power distribution units into a power usage monitor for monitoring power usage of the power feed circuits by aggregating at least some of the power usage data based on the interconnections of the power distribution unit infeeds to the number of power feed circuits; and 4) outputting representations of the aggregated power usage data.
US09400725B2
The present disclosure generally relates to the automated testing of a system that includes software or hardware components. In some embodiments, a testing framework generates a set of test cases for a system under test using a grammar. Each test case may perform an action, such as provide an input to the system under test, and result in an output from the system under test. The inputs and outputs are then compared to the expected results to determine whether the system under test is performing correctly. Specifically, the system under test may be analyzed to determine whether it is capable of properly processing control instructions and input signals and/or generating expected output control signals and additional control/feedback information. The data can then be interpreted in the grammar system and/or used as input to a fault isolation engine to determine anomalies in the system under test.
US09400724B2
In an embodiment, a method provides first and second storage pools having a plurality of corresponding storage blocks to a storage solution. The method monitors each storage block of the first plurality for an indication of failure by either (a) simultaneously writing a same data to a storage block of the first plurality and a corresponding storage block of the second plurality and, if writing the same data to the corresponding storage block of the second plurality completes before writing the same data to the storage block of the first plurality, indicating the first plurality of storage to be failed or (b) employing an internal procedure of the storage solution. The method, upon determining the indication, replaces the storage block with an unused storage block from a plurality of backup storage blocks or declaring the entire storage solution at a lower performance level.
US09400720B2
Seamless failover in a database replication environment which has a primary database server and a plurality of standby database servers, is described. An example method includes orderly terminating transactions on the primary database server, where the transactions are originated from client applications. The transaction logs of the primary database server are drained and the transaction logs are replicated from the primary database server to the plurality of standby database servers. One of the standby database servers is designated as a new primary database server processing user transactions.
US09400719B2
Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method for recovery of a two-phase commit transaction. A computer transmits a first transaction identifier to a data store, wherein the first transaction identifier defines a two-phase commit transaction. The computer transmits a prepare command for the first transaction identifier to a first resource manager. The computer determines if a failure and restart occurred within a distributed data processing environment, wherein the failure and restart occurs after the first resource manager receives an end command, but prior to completing execution of the prepare command for the first transaction identifier. Responsive to determining the failure and restart did occur within the distributed data processing environment, the computer retrieves the first transaction identifier from the data store. The computer transmits a rollback command for the retrieved first transaction identifier to the first resource manager.
US09400717B2
A system for processing data comprises a deduplicating system, an interface, and a processor. The deduplicating system stores a copy of data stored in a data storage system by storing a set of segments that is able to reconstruct the data stored in the data storage system. The interface receives an indication to revert data stored in the data storage system to a state of data at a snapshot time stored in the deduplicating system. The processor is configured to determine a subset of the data stored in the data storage system that has changed between the data stored in the data storage system and the state of data at the snapshot time stored in the deduplicating system using a first list of fingerprints associated with the data stored on the data storage system and a second list of fingerprints associated with the state of data at the snapshot time stored in the deduplicating system.
US09400716B2
An apparatus including a storage array, a primary controller, a secondary controller and a solid state device. The storage array may be configured to be accessed by a plurality of controllers. A first of the plurality of the controllers may be configured as the primary controller configured to read and write to and from the storage array during a normal condition. A second of the plurality of the controllers may be configured as the secondary controller configured to read and write to and from the storage array during a fault condition. The solid state device may be configured to (i) store data and (ii) be accessed by the storage array and the secondary controller.
US09400714B2
A method begins by a dispersed storage (DS) processing module sending a plurality of undecodeable portions of a plurality of data files via a public wireless communication network to one or more targeted devices of a private wireless communication network. The method continues with the DS processing module sending data content indicators regarding the plurality of data files and in response to a selection of a data file of the plurality of data files based on a corresponding one of the data content indicators, sending, via the private wireless communication network, one or more encoded data slices of each of one or more sets of encoded data slices of the data file such that, for each of the one or more sets of encoded data slices, the one or more targeted devices obtains at least a decode threshold number of encoded data slices to decode the data file.
US09400704B2
A method, system and computer program product are provided for implementing distributed debug data collection and analysis for a hardware I/O adapter, such as, a Single Root Input/Output Virtualization (SRIOV) adapter in a virtualized system. A predetermined event triggers a base error collection sequence. Adapter driver data is collected and virtual function (VF) device drivers are locked out responsive to triggering the base error collection sequence. Adapter debug data is collected and the adapter is reinitialized including an indication to VF drivers if VF error data is to be collected. The virtual function (VF) device drivers are unlocked allowing the VF device drivers to commence recovery of a respective virtual function (VF).
US09400702B2
Embodiments of the invention provide a programming model for CPU-GPU platforms. In particular, embodiments of the invention provide a uniform programming model for both integrated and discrete devices. The model also works uniformly for multiple GPU cards and hybrid GPU systems (discrete and integrated). This allows software vendors to write a single application stack and target it to all the different platforms. Additionally, embodiments of the invention provide a shared memory model between the CPU and GPU. Instead of sharing the entire virtual address space, only a part of the virtual address space needs to be shared. This allows efficient implementation in both discrete and integrated settings.
US09400694B2
Systems and methods provide an extensible, multi-stage, realtime application program processing load adaptive, manycore data processing architecture shared dynamically among instances of parallelized and pipelined application software programs, according to processing load variations of said programs and their tasks and instances, as well as contractual policies. The invented techniques provide, at the same time, both application software development productivity, through presenting for software a simple, virtual static view of the actually dynamically allocated and assigned processing hardware resources, together with high program runtime performance, through scalable pipelined and parallelized program execution with minimized overhead, as well as high resource efficiency, through adaptively optimized processing resource allocation.
US09400688B2
Resource restrictions are associated with a user identifier. A resource restriction agent receives operating system calls related for resources and provides resource request data to a resource agent. The resource agent determines whether the resource is restricted based on the resource request data and resource restriction data and generates access data based on the determination. The resource restriction agent grants or denies the system call based on the access data.
US09400678B2
In one embodiment, a system includes a processor and logic integrated with and/or executable by the processor. The logic is adapted to: define a hardware feature policy for one or more hardware components of a system; and enable and/or disable one or more hardware features of one or more of the hardware components based on the hardware feature policy, wherein the hardware feature policy comprises instructions to enable and/or disable access to the one or most hardware features based on one or more criteria selected from a group consisting of: a feature access schedule; a volume feature access group; a job feature access group; and an user feature access group.
US09400677B2
An operating system of a data processing system receives a request from a first process to acquire an exclusive lock for accessing a resource of the data processing system. A second priority of a second process is increased to reduce total execution time. The second process is currently in possession of the exclusive lock for performing a transactional operation with the resource. The second priority was lower than a first priority of the first process. The operating system notifies the second process to indicate that another process is waiting for the exclusive lock to allow the second process to complete or roll back the transactional operation and to release the exclusive lock thereafter.
US09400675B1
Aspects of the present disclosure are directed towards a method of receiving a first command for a virtual machine (VM) instance. This includes performing automatic command line parsing on the first command. This can further include associating, based on automatic command line parsing, a first tag with the VM instance. This can further include causing the first tag to be displayed as associated with the VM instance.
US09400673B2
A cloud manager monitors available resources on host computer systems, including a number of hardware threads supported by CPUs on the host computer systems. The cloud manager receives a request to provision a virtual machine (VM) that includes a hardware multithreading parameter that specifies whether hardware multithreading is allowed on the host computer system. The cloud manager then selects a host computer system for the VM taking the hardware multithreading parameter into consideration. The VM is then placed on the selected host computer system using the hardware multithreading parameter.
US09400669B2
Management of virtual resources may be provided by interconnecting a plurality of virtual appliances with common executable software services. A data packet may be sent through multiple virtual appliances invoking services within each if rules stored within respective virtual appliances correspond to a request for service in the data packet. The data packet may be passed through multiple virtual appliances prior to being returned to a hypervisor.
US09400666B2
A fault tolerant system includes a primary virtual machine that is formed on a primary machine in which a primary hypervisor runs, and is configured to input virtual interrupt based on an external interrupt from the primary hypervisor to a primary guest OS, and a secondary virtual machine that is formed on a secondary machine in which a secondary hypervisor runs, and is configured to input the virtual interrupt to a secondary guest OS on the basis of timing information on the virtual interrupt transmitted from the primary virtual machine. The primary virtual machine is configured to transmit the timing information on the virtual interrupt including the number of branch instructions executed by the primary guest OS before inputting the virtual interrupt, and including an execution suspension position when inputting the virtual interrupt to the secondary virtual machine.
US09400661B2
A system to provide embedded user interface (UI) may comprise a request collector to receive a request directed at a host application from a user interface (UI), a response collector to receive a response from the host application, and a response dispatcher to dispatch the response to the UI via the asynchronous communication channel. The request and the response may be communicated via an asynchronous communication channel.
US09400649B2
A method for automatically and transparently annotating document source code, the method including: receiving an output stream produced by a source code of a generator; wrapping the output stream to produce a copy of the output stream; automatically annotating the copy with source information, wherein the source information maps a relationship between data in the output stream and the source code of the generator; and storing the source information on a memory device.
US09400648B2
A system may include computer code for analyzing an upgrade from a first version to a second version of a software program that has been customized without performing the upgrade. The system may provide default state information of default program objects. The default program objects would be included in a default installation of the second version of the software program. The computer code may retrieve current state information of current program objects from an application database. The software program that has been customized may include the current program objects. The system may generate upgrade information based on a comparison between the current state information and the default state information. The upgrade information may identify a subset of the current program objects that would be impacted by the upgrade.
US09400640B2
This invention provides a system and a method for online, web-based point of sale (POS) building and configuration, which can assist non-expert business operators in building, editing and testing a point of sale system to manage their businesses. The business operations range from a single branch to a large chain of stores or branches. The key advantages of the Web-based POS builder are that it is completely built on the foundation of the Web. The POS builder is accessible anywhere in the world. It can be used by a person of any skill level. The POS builder builds, edits, and tests new POS terminals in real time.
US09400631B2
According to embodiments of the invention, systems, methods and devices are directed to multifunctional media players that allow multiple musicians to play musical instruments at the same time in different locations. Various embodiments of the invention implement several novel features, including, in one embodiment, an orchestra system that includes a system configured to provide a plurality of multifunctional media players playing various songs. Each multifunctional media player includes a picture capturing device and a sound recorder as communication means to control synchronization among other said multifunctional media players.
US09400627B2
A display employing a signal transmission scheme using an optical interconnection together with an electrical interconnection is provided. The display includes a screen including a plurality of sub displays configured to display information, a plurality of sub signal processors electrically connected to the plurality of sub displays, the sub signal processors being configured to perform conversion between an optical signal and an electrical signal, and a main signal processor optically connected to at least a portion of the plurality of sub signal processors.
US09400613B1
This disclosure relates to a method, article of manufacture, and apparatus for intelligent pairing for snapshot based backups. In some embodiments, this includes according to rules, obtaining a list of available devices in a storage group using a snapshot method, among the list of available devices, generating a list of currently paired devices with a source using the snapshot method, generating a list of unrelated but available devices using the source, the list of currently paired devices, and the list of available devices, if the list of currently paired devices is not empty, selecting one or more target devices from the list of currently paired devices and pairing the one or more target devices with the source, otherwise, selecting the one or more target devices from the list of unrelated but available devices and pairing the one or more target devices with the source.
US09400598B2
Systems and methods according to the present invention provide a user interface for scrolling through lists of information on user interfaces.
US09400597B2
Grids are commonly used to provide an environment for users to orient objects within a drawing program. The properties of a grid are usually defined and set at the time the grid is created and do not change. An effective way to provide a useful grid that can adapt to objects a user has drawn is provided herein by presenting a dynamic grid on a display. The dynamic grid may adjust grid properties, such as the position of the origin, the angle of the grid, the size of gridline spacing, the coordinate mode, etc. The new grid properties are adjusted to accommodate what the user may draw next, based upon what the user previously drew.
US09400589B1
A credit score user interface that may comprise a circular visual interface to view a consumer's credit information is disclosed herein. Sections of the circular visual interface may correspond to credit categories, where each section is sized according to the impact of the associated credit category on the consumer's credit score. One of the category sections may be selected, and credit information about a specific consumer that is related to that section may be displayed. The selected credit category may change based on touch input. A change in selection may cause new credit information related to the newly selected credit category to be displayed about the specific consumer.
US09400587B2
Exemplary systems and methods may provide a user interface configured to provide a user with access to a plurality of browse contexts associated with a plurality of distribution models by way of which media programs are distributed through a media service, provide one or more user interface tools for use by the user to select which of the browse contexts is presented in the user interface and values of a refinement setting to be applied to refine the content of the browse contexts, track the values of the refinement setting individually for each of the browse contexts, and use the tracked values of the refinement setting to refine the content of the browse contexts presented in the user interface. Corresponding systems and methods are also described.
US09400582B2
Electronic devices may use touch pads that have touch sensor arrays, force sensors, and actuators for providing tactile feedback. A touch pad may be mounted in a computer housing. The touch pad may have a rectangular planar touch pad member that has a glass layer covered with ink and contains a capacitive touch sensor array. Force sensors may be mounted under each of the four corners of the rectangular planar touch pad member. The force sensors may be used to measure how much force is applied to the surface of the planar touch pad member by a user. Processed force sensor signals may indicate the presence of button activity such as press and release events. In response to detected button activity or other activity in the device, actuator drive signals may be generated for controlling the actuator. The user may supply settings to adjust signal processing and tactile feedback parameters.
US09400580B2
A touch panel can include a substrate; driving lines on the substrate along a first direction, each of the driving lines including first driving electrodes, second driving electrodes and first connecting patterns; and sensing lines on the substrate along a second direction, each of the sensing lines including first sensing electrodes, second sensing electrodes and second connecting patterns, wherein each of the first connecting patterns connects the first driving electrodes adjacent thereto, and the second driving electrodes overlap and contact the first driving electrodes, and wherein each of the second connecting patterns connects the first sensing electrodes adjacent thereto, and the second sensing electrodes overlap and contact the first sensing electrodes.
US09400574B2
An interactive touch system includes a display device, a light source device and an invisible light detecting device. The display device is adapted to provide an image beam to a display surface. The light source device includes a light-emitting element and a light-guide element. The light-guide element has a conical surface and a cylindrical curved surface facing the conical surface. The curvature center of at least partial section of the cylindrical curved surface is not located on the central axis of the conical surface. The light-emitting element is adapted to emit an invisible light beam toward the conical surface, and the invisible light beam is reflected by the conical surface and the cylindrical curved surface to be diverged and range over the display surface. When an object moves to the display surface, the invisible light beam is reflected by the object to be detected by the invisible light detecting device.
US09400563B2
A method and an apparatus are provided for displaying pictures according to hand motion inputs. An application is executed for displaying a picture from among a sequence of pictures on a display. Groups of skin color blocks corresponding to a hand are detected from among image frames output from a camera. A motion is detected among the groups of skin color blocks. Direction information is obtained on the detected motion. The application is controlled to display a previous picture or a next picture in the sequence of pictures on the display according to the direction information.
US09400560B2
Disclosed is an image display device capable of recognizing a hand of a user and predefining an operating region. Image recognition means recognizes the position of a hand of the user. Operating region setup means predefines the operating region, on an imaging region plane of imaging means and around a position on which the user's hand is projected, for the purpose of enabling the user to issue instructions to the image display device. When the position on which the user's hand is projected moves and comes close to the periphery of the operating region, the operating region setup means moves the operating region in the direction of the movement of the position on which the user's hand is projected. Further, the image recognition means recognizes a hand-waving motion of the user, whereas the operating region setup means sets the size of the operating region in accordance with the magnitude of the user's hand-waving motion. Consequently, the image display device provides increased ease of operation and makes it possible to define the operating region in accordance with a user's intention without imposing a significant processing load on itself.
US09400554B2
Provided are an information display system, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, and a display control method. The information display system includes a transmission type head-mounted display and a control section. The control section includes a gaze point detecting section configured to detect a point of gaze of a user, a first judgment section configured to judge whether the user gazes at a certain area on a virtual screen or on the background beyond the virtual screen, a second judgment section configured to judge whether a sight-line region around the intersection of the virtual screen and a sight line of the user overlaps with an object displayed on the virtual screen, and a display control section configured to, in response to a movement of the point of gaze, change at least one of a display position and a display mode of the object on the basis of judgment results.
US09400553B2
Embodiments that relate to scaling a visual element displayed via a display device are disclosed. In one embodiment a method includes receiving and using gaze tracking data to determine gaze locations at which a user is gazing on the display device. Depth tracking data is received and used to determine that a user's pointer is at a predetermined location. In response, a locked gaze location on the screen is locked, where the locked gaze location includes at least a portion of the visual element. In response to locking the locked gaze location, the visual element is programmatically scaled by a predetermined amount to an enlarged size. A user input selecting the visual element is then received.
US09400552B2
An apparatus for checking a gaze object includes an eye detector configured to detect eyes from a captured image of a user who stares at objects while the objects displayed on a display move at certain frequencies, a frequency converter configured to check a motion of the detected eyes and convert the motion of the eyes into an eye moving frequency, and a discriminating unit configured to compare the eye moving frequency and moving frequencies of the objects and discriminate an object at which the user stares depending upon whether or not the eye moving frequency is identical with the moving frequencies of the objects.
US09400551B2
Methods, apparatuses, and computer program products are herein provided for causing presentation of a notification on a display based on the user's susceptibility to notice the notification and the desired intrusiveness of the presentation of the notification. A method may include determining that a notification should be presented to a user on a display. The method further includes determining a susceptibility level pertaining to the likelihood the user will notice the notification. The method further includes causing presentation of the notification on the display based at least in part on the susceptibility level and an intrusiveness level for presentation of the notification. The intrusiveness level pertains to how intrusive presentation of the notification should be to the user's experience. Corresponding apparatuses and computer program products are also provided.
US09400545B2
Embodiments of systems, apparatuses, and methods for energy efficiency and energy conservation including enabling autonomous hardware-based deep power down of devices are described. In one embodiment, a system includes a device, a static memory, and a power control unit coupled with the device and the static memory. The system further includes a deep power down logic of the power control unit to monitor a status of the device, and to transfer the device to a deep power down state when the device is idle. In the system, the device consumes less power when in the deep power down state than in the idle state.
US09400540B2
An apparatus, computer readable medium, and method of event based dynamic power management. The method includes responding to receiving an indication of an event that is external to a hardware block engine by adjusting the power to the hardware block engine, if the event indicates that the power to the hardware block engine should be adjusted. The method may include receiving a second event that is external to the hardware block engine. The method may include determining whether or not the power should be adjusted to the hardware block engine based on the event and the second event. If it is determined that the power should be adjusted, then the power may be adjusted to the hardware block based on the event and second event. A method of monitoring a component and sending an indication of an event that the component will not require a hardware block engine is disclosed.
US09400536B2
The present invention is to provide an electronic device capable of automatically resetting, which includes a main circuit system and an external circuit system. The main circuit system is able to send out a power supply state signal according to the voltage thereof and an activation state signal according to whether the main circuit system is properly activated. The external circuit system is able to receive the power supply state signal and the activation state signal, switch a switch between a turned-on state and a turned-off state for automatically cutting off electricity supplied to the main circuit system through the switch while the main circuit system is improperly activated and then supplying electricity to the main circuit system thereafter. Thus, whenever the electronic device is improperly activated, the electricity supplied to the main circuit system can be automatically cut off and then restored to reset the main circuit system automatically.
US09400533B2
An electrical connector assembly comprises an electrical connector and a bracket for retaining a fan. The electrical connector includes an insulating housing, a plurality of contacts received in the housing and a retaining device retained on one end of the housing. Said retaining device includes a locking portion, one end of the housing defines an outside face, the locking portion located at an interior of the outside face. It can reduce the installation space of fixing the bracket.
US09400524B2
An information handling system chassis is built at least in part from ceramic elements. For example, a transparent aluminum oxide ceramic portion covers a touchscreen to provide a rigid outer surface for accepting end user inputs. As another example, a ceramic chassis element has a ceramic material formed around a metal material of similar substance with bonding of the ceramic to the underlying material enhanced with oxidation of the outer surface of the metal material.
US09400520B2
Provided is an attachment for use with tablet terminals which prevents a tablet terminal from unexpectedly popping up and allows a user to soon find the tablet terminal in a bag. An attachment for use with tablet terminals includes a terminal holding part configured to detachably hold a tablet terminal without hindering the user from operating the touchscreen surface of the tablet terminal and a ring insertion part which allows the terminal holding part to be held on a personal organizer including a ring.
US09400509B2
A hydronic system for heating and/or cooling fluid feed additives passing through a delivery line is disclosed. The system includes a hydronic heating system which will heat fluid passing through a closed loop radiant line which is closely positioned adjacent a portion of the delivery line extending between the fluid delivery system and the target destination. The system also includes a cooling system which will cool the fluid circulating through the radiant line to cool the delivery line and the fluid feed additive therein. The system of this invention prevents the fluid feed additive from freezing during the cold months and cools the same during warm months.
US09400505B2
An electric vehicle may comprise a board including first and second deck portions each configured to receive a left or right foot of a ride, a wheel assembly disposed between the deck portions and including a ground-contacting element, a motor assembly mounted to the board and configured to rotate the ground-contacting element around an axle to propel the electric vehicle, at least one sensor configured to measure orientation information of the board, and a motor controller configured to receive orientation information measured by the sensor and to cause the motor assembly to propel the electric vehicle based on the orientation information. The electric vehicle may include exactly one ground-contacting element, and the motor may be a hub motor.
US09400504B2
A control device for a mobile robot, the robot comprising a camera and a communication unit, comprises a display unit displaying an image corresponding to the image taken by the camera and transmitted by the communication unit, and a user interface, wherein the user interface is configured to allow a user to control a position of a pointer on the image displayed by the display unit, and the user interface comprises a selection unit allowing the user to select a position of the pointer on the image displayed by the display unit, the control device further comprising a computation unit and a communication system, the computation unit being configured to compute displacement commands and send them through the communication system to the robot, said displacement commands being computed to make the robot move to a physical position corresponding to the pointer's position selected by the user on the image.
US09400500B2
An automated driving system can determine, based on input from one or more sensors disposed on an autonomous vehicle, a required fuel level to complete a planned vehicle path and a current fuel level for the autonomous vehicle. If the current fuel level is below the required fuel level, the automated driving system can identify one or more refueling stations and send an indication to a driver of the autonomous vehicle requesting selection of one of the identified refueling stations. If a refueling station selection is received, the automated driving system can update the planned vehicle path to include a stop at the selected refueling station. If a refueling station selection is not received, the automated driving system can determine a critical fuel level. If the current fuel level falls below the critical fuel level, the automated driving system can drive the autonomous vehicle to a proximate refueling station.
US09400499B2
Systems and methods for integrating quantum computing systems into mobile systems for the purpose of providing real-time, quantum computer-based control of the mobile systems are described. A mobile system includes a data extraction subsystem that extracts data from an external environment of the mobile system and a quantum computing subsystem that receives data from the data extraction subsystem and performs a quantum computing operation in real-time using the data from the data extraction subsystem. A result of the quantum computing operation influences a behavior of the mobile system, such as the navigation of the mobile system or an action performed by the mobile system. The on-board quantum computing subsystem includes on-board quantum computing infrastructure that is adapted to suit the needs and spatial constraints of the mobile system.
US09400492B2
A motor control device includes a model control system that controls a motor machine model position using a target value (a position instruction after differentiation) related to a position instruction, and a feedback control system that controls a motor position using the target value (a position instruction after differentiation) related to the position instruction and an amount of control (model position) of the model control system. The feedback control system controls the motor position using the amount of control (model position) of the model control system at all times.
US09400482B2
A paper conveyance device comprises: a conveyance member having a conveyance surface for conveying a recording medium, the conveyance member extending in a first direction along a front-rear direction of the image forming apparatus that has an opening member for exposing inside of the apparatus, and including a handle disposed on an exposure surface of the opening member, and a swing pivot point that is used to swing the conveyance member around the first direction to expose the conveyance surface when the handle is operated in the open state. The handle is disposed in at least one position in a range between positions near a center of the conveyance member in the first direction. The positions are a certain distance away from the center of the conveyance member along the first direction.
US09400477B2
A cleaning device includes a cleaning member that includes a cleaning portion that cleans a light transmission member, which has a substantially elongated shape and which transmits light, and a support portion that supports the cleaning portion and a wall portion that is disposed on one end side of the light transmission member in a longitudinal direction of the light transmission member and that has a surface that is formed along a direction that intersects the longitudinal direction of the light transmission member. The cleaning member and the wall portion each have a configuration in which when an end of the cleaning member makes contact with the wall portion and is pressed, the support portion is bent in a convex manner toward a side opposite to a side on which the light transmission member is disposed.
US09400474B2
An image forming apparatus including an apparatus main body including an inner wall that defines an accommodation portion, photoconductive drums arranged in parallel at intervals in a predetermined direction toward a first side from a second side, in the accommodation portion, chargers disposed corresponding to the photoconductive drums, respectively, each charger charging a corresponding one of the photoconductive drums, a frame body configured to support the photoconductive drums and the chargers and be accommodated in the accommodation portion, a regulating member disposed between the inner wall and a first-side end portion of the frame body in the predetermined direction, the regulating member configured to apply an urging force to the frame body and regulate an air current, and a pressing member configured to press the frame body against the urging force of the regulating member and regulate a movement of the frame body relative to the apparatus main body.
US09400469B2
An image forming apparatus includes a charging roller, a temperature sensor, a humidity sensor, a sampling part, a life consumption degree calculating part and a warning processing part. The sampling part executes temperature/humidity inputting process inputting temperature of the temperature sensor and humidity of the humidity sensor. The life consumption degree calculating part calculates a life consumption degree of the charging roller from a last time to a present time in the temperature/humidity inputting process by applying respective representative values of last and present inputted temperature and humidity into a model formula. The warning processing part outputs a warning when an addition value of the life consumption degrees exceeds a predetermined threshold value. The life consumption degree calculating part uses the model formula deriving larger life consumption degree in a case where the representative value of the temperature and the representative value of the humidity are respectively larger.
US09400464B2
A fixing device includes an endless fixing belt, fixing-belt holding members which hold the fixing belt at opposite ends, a pressure member to be brought into contact with the fixing belt, a nip forming member arranged inside the fixing belt to form a nip area by contacting the pressure member with the fixing belt, a nip supporting member, side plates where the fixing-belt holding members and the nip supporting member are fixed, and a pressing mechanism which presses the pressure member against the nip forming member. The nip forming member includes at least three layers including a heat absorbing layer contacting the nip supporting member. With no load applied, the nip supporting member assumes a shape protruding at longitudinal center toward the pressure member and is in contact with the nip forming member while having the shape protruding at the center portion.
US09400457B1
An intermediate transfer element is included in an image formation apparatus, has a shape like an endless belt, and includes at least a resin base material layer and a surface layer. The surface layer is composed of a cured (meth)acrylic resin, the cured (meth)acrylic resin contains a constitutional unit derived from a polyfunctional (meth)acrylic monomer, the polyfunctional (meth)acrylic monomer contains n alkylene oxide structures and m (meth)acryloyl groups, with relation of n/m≦5 and m≧3 (n and m being a positive integer) being satisfied, and the alkylene oxide structure contains an alkylene group having a carbon number not smaller than 2.
US09400455B2
An imaging device includes a moving surface for transferring a developed toner image during an image transfer operation, a sensing unit for detecting the amount of residual toner remaining on the moving surface after the image transfer operation, and a cleaning unit for selectively cleaning the residual toner from the moving surface. A controller coupled to the sensing unit and the cleaning unit selectively adjusts an operating characteristic of the cleaning unit based on the amount of residual toner detected by the sensing unit.
US09400453B1
A developing device includes a housing, a developer carrying member, and a magnet member. The housing contains magnetic developer. The developer carrying member is rotatably supported on the housing and carries the developer on its circumferential surface. The magnetic member has a shaft fixed inside the developer carrying member and a plurality of developer carrying member-side magnetic poles fixed to the shaft in its circumferential direction. An even number of the developer carrying member-side magnetic poles are formed by plastic magnets, one or more other of the developer carrying member-side magnetic poles are formed by rubber magnets, and one or more pairs of the plastic magnets located opposite each other across the shaft have the same shape and are fixed in axial symmetry with respect to the shaft.
US09400447B2
An image forming apparatus includes a first power source configured to supply charging voltage to a first charging unit, and a second power source configured to supply predetermined voltage to at least one of a second charging unit, a second developing member, and a second transfer unit. The first and the second power sources are grounded via a common resistor component. When the second power source in a state of supplying no voltage or supplying voltage lower than the predetermined voltage at a first timing starts supplying the predetermined voltage while the first power source is supplying the charging voltage, a control unit causes a separating mechanism to move a first developing member to a separation position before a second timing at which an area of a first photosensitive member that is at a charging position at the first timing reaches a developing position.
US09400446B1
An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier that holds a developer image, a developer transport unit that transports a developer to the image carrier by performing a rotational movement, a voltage application unit that applies, between the developer transport unit and the image carrier, a voltage that contains a direct-current voltage component and an alternating-current voltage component and that is used for transporting the developer from the developer transport unit to the image carrier, and a detector that detects a rotation phase of the developer transport unit from an alternating-current component waveform of a power supply of the voltage application unit.
US09400439B2
A toner including a crystalline resin wherein the crystalline resin contains a crystalline resin having a urethane bond, a urea bond or both thereof, and wherein the crystalline resin has an average crystallite diameter of 20 nm to 70 nm.
US09400431B2
A supporting assembly configured to support a plurality of tubes includes a first supporting rod, a second supporting rod opposite to the first supporting rod, a bridging member, and a rolling member. The first supporting rod includes several first parallel recesses. The bridging member is connected to one end of the first supporting rod or one end of the second supporting rod. The rolling member is received by the bridging member.
US09400425B2
This invention relates to an apparatus and method for cleaning a photomask. This apparatus, suitable for use in removing an adhesive residue from a photomask, includes a photomask disposed such that a surface thereof on which an adhesive residue is left behind is directed downwards, a metal plate formed adjacent to the adhesive residue, and a laser generator for irradiating a laser onto the metal plate so that the adhesive residue is removed by heat generated from the metal plate.
US09400423B2
A manufacturing method for a photomask for wafer processing includes a step of forming a groove on the front side of a light shielding plate in an area where light is to be passed. The groove has a depth not reaching the back side of the light shielding plate. A uniting step applies a bonding agent capable of transmitting light to the front side of the light shielding plate after performing the groove forming step and next attaching a transparent plate through the bonding agent to the front side of the light shielding plate to thereby unite the light shielding plate and the transparent plate. A grinding step holds the transparent plate on a chuck table after performing the uniting step. The back side of the light shielding plate is ground until the groove is exposed to the back side of the light shielding plate.
US09400420B2
The present invention relates to rear-projection film with “day/night” effect comprising at least two layers, where the film comprises at least one grey layer comprising at least one thermoplastic with transmittance of from 10% to 70% in the visible wavelength range and at least one layer comprising at least one thermoplastic and scattering particles, and also to the use of the said films as rear-projection areas in the vehicle interior sector.
US09400414B2
A non-retro-reflective imaging system and methods in which a relay optic is configured to segment a source image into a plurality of slices and reimage each of the slices individually onto a rotated image plane such that a substantially in-focus reconstruction of the entire image is obtained, while substantially eliminating retro-reflection from the system. According to one example a non-retro-reflective imaging system includes a segmented relay optic configured to reimage a source image onto an image plane tilted with respect to an optical axis of the system, and further configured to slice the image volume into a plurality of image slices and spatially position the plurality of image slices such that a depth of focus of each image slice overlaps the tilted image plane. The system further includes an image sensor co-aligned with the tilted image plane and configured to produce a reconstructed image from the plurality of image slices.
US09400412B2
An optical modulator includes a liquid crystal cell containing liquid crystal material having liquid crystal molecules oriented along a quiescent director direction in the unbiased state, and a voltage source configured to apply an electric field to the liquid crystal material wherein the direction of the applied electric field does not cause the quiescent director direction to change. An optical source is arranged to transmit light through or reflect light off the liquid crystal cell with the light passing through the liquid crystal material at an angle effective to undergo phase retardation in response to the voltage source applying the electric field. The liquid crystal material may have negative dielectric anisotropy, and the voltage source configured to apply an electric field to the liquid crystal material whose electric field vector is transverse to the quiescent director direction. Alternatively, the liquid crystal material may have positive dielectric anisotropy and the voltage source configured to apply an electric field to the liquid crystal material whose electric field vector is parallel with the quiescent director direction.
US09400408B2
A liquid crystal display includes: a thin film transistor array panel; a counter panel opposite to the thin film transistor array panel; a liquid crystal layer between the thin film transistor array panel and the counter panel; and pixel electrodes in the thin film transistor array panel, where each of the pixel electrodes includes a first sub-pixel electrode and a second sub-pixel electrode, where each of the first and second sub-pixel electrodes is divided into sub-regions by domain dividers, which controls pretilt angles of liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer, vertically adjacent pixel electrodes includes an upper pixel electrode and a lower pixel electrode, and the pretilt angles of the liquid crystal molecules in two bottom sub-regions of the second sub-pixel electrode of the upper pixel electrode and in two top sub-regions of the first sub-pixel electrode of the lower pixel electrode are opposite to each other.
US09400397B2
An image shake correction device capable of reducing a sliding friction force occurring with movement of a movable member, thereby reducing load on a drive unit for driving the movable member and improving the positioning accuracy of the movable member. The movable member of the correction device is supported to be movable in a yaw direction and supported to be pivotable in a pitch direction, and a ball is held between the movable member and a guide groove formed in a stationary member and extending in the yaw direction. When the movable member moves in the yaw direction, the ball rolls along the guide groove. When the movable member pivots in the pitch direction, a contact point where the movable member contacts with the ball functions as a pivotal fulcrum for the movable member.
US09400390B2
Aspects of the present invention relate to head worn computing lighting systems and stray light control.
US09400381B1
In examples, an electrowetting element comprises an electrode for use in applying a voltage for controlling a configuration of first and second fluids which are immiscible. A surface of the electrode comprises a recess which is located away from a perimeter of the surface and which is formed by a region of the electrode having a reduced thickness.
US09400371B2
An image forming lens system includes a front lens unit having a positive refractive power, and a rear lens unit, and does not include any other lens unit. The front lens unit includes a first lens unit having a positive refractive power and a second lens unit having a negative refractive power. Each of the first lens unit and the second lens unit includes a positive lens and a negative lens. The second lens unit is a focusing lens unit. The rear lens unit includes a positive lens and a negative lens. The second lens unit is the only lens unit that moves, in the front lens unit, and the following conditional expressions (1) and (2′) are satisfied: 0.5
US09400352B2
A polarization-maintaining optical fiber of the invention includes: a core; a pair of stress-applying parts disposed at both sides of the core at a distance; and a cladding coat that surrounds the core and the paired stress-applying parts. The maximum refractive index of the core is greater than each of maximum refractive indexes of a first cladding coat, a second cladding coat, and a third cladding coat. The maximum refractive index of the second cladding coat is lower than each of maximum refractive indexes of the first cladding coat and the third cladding coat. The coefficient of thermal expansion of each of stress-applying parts is greater than a coefficient of thermal expansion of the cladding coat. Each stress-applying part is provided to cut the second cladding coat at a position in a circumferential direction.
US09400351B2
A multi-core fiber (1) is a multi-core fiber including 10 or greater of even numbered cores and a cladding surrounding the core. In the even numbered cores, a half of cores (11a) are disposed in such a manner that centers are located on the apexes of a regular polygon (RP) whose center is at an origin point (O) in a cladding (20). In the even numbered cores, other cores (11b) are disposed in a manner that centers are located on perpendicular bisectors (LV) of the edges of a regular polygon on the inner side of the regular polygon (RP). The other cores (11b) are disposed in a specific range in the regular polygon (RP).
US09400339B2
The present disclosure provides an apparatus and method for measuring electrical properties of an underground formation surrounding a borehole. The apparatus preferably comprises a downhole tool positionable in the borehole, a sensor pad positionable on the downhole tool, and a plurality of electrodes mounted on the sensor pad and configured to face a wall of the borehole. The apparatus further comprises an insulating layer extending over at least a portion of the plurality of electrodes facing the wall of the borehole.
US09400336B2
A photonic spectrometry device is provided. The photonic spectrometry device comprises several identical spectrometers each spectrometer comprising a radiation sensor and being capable of providing a measurement spectrum corresponding to the measurements of the sensor during a time interval, the spectrometers being capable of performing measurements simultaneously on one same radiation-emitting product and of providing measurement spectra for one same time interval, and a processor capable of determining a net spectrum from each of the measurement spectra provided by the spectrometers for one same time interval, and of determining a global spectrum resulting from the summation of the net spectra determined for one same time interval.
US09400335B2
A direct-converting x-ray radiation detector is disclosed for detecting x-ray radiation, at least including a semiconductor used to detect x-ray radiation and at least one electrode attached to the semiconductor. In an embodiment, the semiconductor and the at least one electrode are electrically conductively connected and the at least one electrode is designed to be transparent and electrically conductive. A CT system is further disclosed, at least including the direct-converting x-ray radiation detector.
US09400327B2
A method for producing an ultrasonic sensor for a motor vehicle is disclosed. The method involves providing a sensor housing, a membrane for emitting and/or receiving ultrasonic signals, and a decoupling element, which is arranged between the sensor housing and the membrane, the decoupling element being injection-moulded onto an inner surface of the sensor housing and the membrane being subsequently inserted into the sensor housing.
US09400320B2
A method and apparatus for reporting almanac versions and almanac identification by a mobile station to a server is provided. The server compares the almanac version and almanac identification held by the mobile station with almanac versions and almanac identifications held by the server. The server then sends instructions to the mobile station to match the server versions of the almanac versions and almanac identifications for the almanac versions and almanac identifications that the mobile station should hold.
US09400314B2
A system and method for testing multiple power supplies. Multiple power supplies are received including a power-end and an adapter end for connection to a power supply tester. Programmable loads and test parameters are configured for the power supply tester in response to a user selection. The multiple power supplies are automatically tested utilizing the test parameters. Performance characteristics of the multiple power supplies are measured during testing. The performance characteristics of the multiple power supplies are recorded. Results indicating whether each of the multiple power supplies passed the testing are displayed utilizing one or more displays and light emitting diodes.
US09400311B1
In order to detect and locate defects, or faults, in a plurality of chips or other circuits sharing a common design, said chips are each tested for incorrect outputs, or failures, in response to inputs. The incorrect outputs are then collectively diagnosed in a single simulation by simulating a series of suspected fault candidates on a simulated chip of the chip design, and afterward comparing the incorrect outputs generated by each fault candidate to the incorrect outputs of the individual chips, to determine if a fault candidate generates all failures for a chip and no others. The test inputs and expected outputs may be predetermined through Automatic Test Pattern Generation. The fault candidates may be determined by use of a backtrace process such as back cone tracing. The failures may be recorded in association with a measure point, the input pattern that resulted in the failure, and the failure value.
US09400307B2
A semiconductor test system includes test head pins; per-pin resources which are connectable to the test head pins on a one-to-one basis; shared resources, each of which is connectable to one of the test head pins; a tester controller for controlling the per-pin resources and the shared resources; and a tabular-form test plan including: a first column for specifying a measurement function that uses at least one of the per-pin resources and the shared resources; and at least one second column for specifying input and output parameters of the measurement function, the tabular-form test plan further including program rows, the tabular-form test plan being executed by the tester controller, the tabular-form test plan further including a third column for specifying how rows that are executed by asynchronous parallel execution are to be grouped.
US09400305B2
An instrument for detecting partial electric discharges includes: an input stage set up to receive a discharge signal representative of one or more partial discharge pulses and a sync signal representative of an alternating voltage applied to the electric apparatus; a data processing stage for receiving the discharge signal and the sync signal, and extracting substantially in real time for each pulse detected the value of an amplitude parameter, correlated with a pulse amplitude, and the value of a phase parameter, representative of the phase of the voltage applied to the electric apparatus concurrently with the pulse, and transferring to output a processed digital signal including the values extracted. The processing stage includes a filtering module set up to disable substantially in real time the transfer to output of the values of the parameters extracted for one or more pulses.
US09400304B2
This disclosure relates to the field of current transformers, for testing the excitation characteristic of a current transformer is disclosed. The method comprise applying alternately positive and negative DC voltages across terminals of secondary winding of a CT to be tested and acquiring a secondary current; constructing a mathematical model of the relationship between the secondary current and a root mean square (rms) equivalent voltage at rated frequency of the CT from the relationship between a magnetic flux of a secondary winding iron-core of the CT and the rms equivalent voltage; and generating an excitation characteristic curve according to the mathematical model. The method and apparatus of the embodiments may test CTs requiring lower testing voltage as well as CTs with knee-point up to tens of kV by supplying a relatively low voltage and power, which makes the embodiments widely applicable.
US09400303B2
Provided is a method of detecting a state of a power cable in an inverter system. The method includes detecting a direct current (DC)-link voltage value of a DC-link capacitor included in an inverter, detecting a battery voltage value of a battery supplying a DC power to the inverter, comparing the DC-link voltage value with the battery voltage value, and determining the state of the power cable connecting the inverter to the battery to be abnormal when a difference between the DC-link voltage value and the battery voltage value is out of a preset range.
US09400301B2
Systems and methods for cabling verification may include one or more operations including, but not limited to: receiving floor plan data representing a floor plan of a premises; receiving at least one user input specifying a location of at least one cabling endpoint relative to the floor plan; receiving at least one user input selecting at least one cabling verification test for the at least one cabling endpoint; receiving one or more cabling verification test results for the at least one cabling endpoint obtained by at least one testing device; and updating at least one database element associated with the at least one cabling endpoint and maintained by the cloud-based server.
US09400298B1
A capacitive sensor includes a switching capacitor circuit, a comparator, and a charge dissipation circuit. The switching capacitor circuit reciprocally couples a sensing capacitor in series with a modulation capacitor during a first switching phase and discharges the sensing capacitor during a second switching phase. The comparator is coupled to compare a voltage potential on the modulation capacitor to a reference and to generate a modulation signal in response. The charge dissipation circuit is coupled to the modulation capacitor to selectively discharge the modulation capacitor in response to the modulation signal.
US09400296B2
The invention relates to an apparatus and method for tracking energy consumption. An energy tracking system comprises at least one switching element, at least one inductor and a control block to keep the output voltage at a pre-selected level. The switching elements are configured to apply the source of energy to the inductors. The control block compares the output voltage of the energy tracking system to a reference value and controls the switching of the switched elements in order to transfer energy for the primary voltage into a secondary voltage at the output of the energy tracking system. The electronic device further comprises an ON-time and OFF-time generator and an accumulator wherein the control block is coupled to receive a signal from the ON-time and OFF-time generator and generates switching signals for the at least one switching element in the form of ON-time pulses with a constant width ON-time.
US09400295B2
A method and device are disclosed for estimating a power demand level of an active circuit on a power supply line. A ripple amplitude and a ripple frequency associated with operation of the active circuit may be monitored on the power supply line. The ripple amplitude and ripple frequency may be compared with corresponding references. The ripple amplitude and ripple frequency may be associated with an estimated power demand level of the active circuit on the power supply line based on the comparison. A ripple generator generates a controlled ripple on the power supply line for calibration.
US09400294B2
A current sense resistor and a method of manufacturing a current sensing resistor with temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) compensation are disclosed. The resistor has a resistive strip disposed between two conductive strips. A pair of main terminals and a pair of voltage sense terminals are formed in the conductive strips. A pair of rough TCR calibration slots is located between the main terminals and the voltage sense terminals, each of the rough TCR calibration slots have a depth selected to obtain a negative starting TCR value observed at the voltage sense terminals. A fine TCR calibration slot is formed between the pair of voltage sense terminals.
US09400292B2
An electrical current transducer comprising a housing, at least one magnetic core comprising an air gap and defining a central passage configured to receive a primary conductor carrying a primary current to be measured through the central passage, a magnetic field detector positioned at least partially in the air gap, and a grounding element. A lateral surface of the magnetic core is positioned against the grounding element without direct fixed attachment between the magnetic core and the grounding element, and the grounding element overlaps the magnetic core to an extent configured to ensure that a capacitive coupling (C3) between the magnetic core and the grounding element is greater than a capacitive coupling (C2) between the magnetic core and the magnetic field detector.
US09400289B2
A clamp sensor detects a detected value for a clamped object and includes: a main body with two main surfaces and two side surfaces; first and second clamp units whose front ends can open and close and form a ring-shaped body surrounding the clamped object; and an opening/closing mechanism for the clamp units. The first clamp unit is fixed to the main body at one side surface. The second clamp unit has a base end rotatably supported by a support shaft disposed toward the other side surface. The opening/closing mechanism includes: a biasing member biasing the second clamp unit to open the clamp units; and a sliding portion disposed on the other side surface and capable of sliding along the length of the main body. When slid toward the clamp units, the sliding portion presses the second clamp unit to close the front ends.
US09400285B2
Example automated diagnostic analyzers and methods for using the same are disclosed herein. An example apparatus described herein includes a first carousel rotatably coupled to a base and having a first axis of rotation. The example apparatus includes a second carousel rotatably coupled to the base and vertically spaced over the first carousel such that at least a portion of the second carousel is disposed over the first carousel. In the example apparatus, the second carousel has a second axis of rotation and a plurality of vessels. The example apparatus also includes a pipetting mechanism offset from the second axis of rotation. The example pipetting mechanism is to access the first carousel and the second carousel.
US09400279B2
The instant invention is to provide a method for detecting and measuring malaria infection utilizing the induction by hemozoin (HZ); a method for screening a vaccine for malaria infection and a preventative or therapeutic agent for malaria infection using the method for detecting and measuring; and a means for regulating the induction of innate immunity using the HZ, synthetic HZ, or derivatives thereof as an adjuvant or immunostimulant. Malaria infection is detected and measured of by detecting and measuring HZ-induced, TLR9-mediated, and MyD88-dependent innate immune activity. The detection and measurement of malaria infection can be used to diagnose malaria infection. The method for detecting and measuring is also used for screening a vaccine for malaria infection and a preventative or therapeutic agent for malaria infection. Further, HZ, synthetic HZ, or derivatives thereof are used as an adjuvant or immunostimulant to regulate HZ-induced innate immune induction.
US09400276B2
The invention relates to a method for detecting and measuring the presence of mono-nucleosomes and oligo-nucleosomes and nucleosomes that contain particular histone variants and the use of such measurements for the detection and diagnosis of disease. The invention also relates to a method of identifying histone variant biomarkers for the detection and diagnosis of disease and to biomarkers identified by said method.
US09400275B2
The method according to the invention consists in providing a wafer having a bottom layer, a top first sacrificial layer and an insulating layer, structuring the first sacrificial layer to form a three dimensional structure onto which a first structural layer is deposited to define a corresponding three dimensional structure on the bottom surface of the first structural layer. The method consists also in forming a second three dimensional structure on the upper surface of the first structural layer.
US09400272B2
A system and method is provided for non-invasively measuring changes in a specimen suspected of containing one or more microbes, by monitoring changes in the dielectric constant of the specimen caused by metabolic processes of such microbes.
US09400266B2
A gas chromatograph includes a sample inlet configured to receive a sample of interest and a carrier gas inlet configured to receive a carrier gas. A plurality of fluid flow valves are operably coupled to the sample inlet and the carrier gas inlet. A detector is operably coupled to the plurality of fluid flow valves and is configured to provide an analytic indication relative to the sample of interest. A controller is operably coupled to the plurality of fluid flow valves and is coupled to memory storing user-configurable information that is accessed by the controller to affect operation of the gas chromatograph.
US09400259B2
A method and apparatus for the manipulation of colloidal particulates and biomolecules at the interface between an insulating electrode such as silicon oxide and an electrolyte solution. Light-controlled electrokinetic assembly of particles near surfaces relics on the combination of three functional elements: the AC electric field-induced assembly of planar aggregates; the patterning of the electrolyte/silicon oxide/silicon interface to exert spatial control over the assembly process; and the real-time control of the assembly process via external illumination. The present invention provides a set of fundamental operations enabling interactive control over the creation and placement of planar arrays of several types of particles and biomolecules and the manipulation of array shape and size. The present invention enables sample preparation and handling for diagnostic assays and biochemical analysis in an array format, and the functional integration of these operations. In addition, the present invention provides a procedure for the creation of material surfaces with desired properties and for the fabrication of surface-mounted optical components.
US09400255B2
An X-ray fluorescence spectrometer includes: a sample stage configured to place a sample thereon; an X-ray source configured to irradiate the sample with primary X-rays; a detector, which is configured to detect fluorescent X-rays produced from the sample irradiated with the primary X-rays, and which includes an X-ray incident window formed by a window material through which fluorescent X-rays is transmittable; and a gas blowing mechanism configured to blow a gas to at least one of an outer surface of the X-ray incident window and the sample stage.
US09400251B2
A fine particle measuring apparatus is provided. The fine particle measuring apparatus includes a detection unit configured to detect light emitted from a fine particle and a processing unit having a memory device storing instructions which when executed by the processing unit, cause the processing unit to calculate a corrected intensity value of the detected light and generate spectrum data based on the corrected intensity value.
US09400239B2
A system for evaluating integrity of a cutting blade includes at least one stress wave generator for generating at least one stress wave in a cutting blade under test. A sensor detects a signal generated by the at least one stress wave. An integrity analyzer coupled to the sensor determines an indication of integrity of the cutting blade based on at least one characteristic of the signal.
US09400238B2
A shearing force test device comprises a substrate mounted with an elastomer having a free end capable of moving toward or away from the substrate; the free end is connected with a test head; the elastomer is installed with two U-shaped elastic arms arranged at a distance and capable of mutually neutralizing horizontal position offsets; the free ends of the two U-shaped elastic arms are connected together; the test head is fixedly installed on the free end; the two U-shaped elastic arms are provided with the fixed end of the elastomer there between; the fixed ends of the two U-shaped elastic arms are connected together, and are fixedly connected with the substrate; and the other ends of the two U-shaped elastic arms away from the free ends are fixedly connected together via a connecting plate.
US09400237B2
An ultra-high temperature optical method incorporates speckle optics for sensing displacement and strain measurements well above conventional measurement techniques. High temperature pattern materials are used which can endure experimental high temperature environments while simultaneously having a minimum optical aberration. A purge medium is used to reduce or eliminate optical distortions and to reduce, and/or eliminate oxidation of the target specimen.
US09400232B2
A measuring rod capable of receiving a plurality of instrumentation cables transmitting data to a data processing device, includes a section of epicycloidal shape.
US09400222B2
A pedal operation amount detecting device that is provided in an operating pedal apparatus including a transmitting member having a pedal arm of an operating pedal that is arranged so as to be pivotable about a support axis and that is depressed, and an output member to which a depression force is transmitted from the transmitting member and to which a reaction force corresponding to the depression force is applied, the pedal operation amount detecting device including a sensor member that is arranged on a load transmission path at a position offset from the transmitting member in a direction parallel to the support axis and that is deformed by the depression force and the reaction force, and the pedal operation amount detecting device electrically detecting a deformation of the sensor member.
US09400220B2
The present disclosure relates to a method for detecting focus plane based on Hartmann wavefront detection principle, the function of which is to detect the position of a silicon wafer in a photolithograph machine in real time so as to accomplish adjustment of the leveling and focus of the silicon wafer. By utilizing microlens array to detect the wavefront carrying information about the position of the silicon wafer based on the Hartmann wavefront detection principle, the spherical wavefront is divided by the respective subunits of the microlens array and is imaged on the respective focus planes of the subunits. If the silicon wafer is located on the focal plane, the incident wavefront for the microlens array is a planar wavefront so that the diffraction light spots are on the focus of the respective subunits of the microlens array; and if the silicon wafer is defocused, the incident wavefront for the microlens array is a spherical wavefront so that the diffraction light spots are shifted on the focus plane of the microlens array. Based on Hartmann wavefront detection principle, the detection of the spherical wavefront may be implemented by the microlens array shifting the imaged light spots for the plane wavefront and the spherical wavefront, so as to accomplish the defocusing measurement for the silicon wafer. The system for detecting focus plane has a simple configuration, a higher accuracy and efficiency, so it is applied to measurement for detecting the focus plane in various types of photolithography machines in a high accuracy and in real time.
US09400219B2
Metallic thermal emitters consisting of two layers of differently structured nickel gratings on a homogeneous nickel layer are fabricated by soft lithography and studied for polarized thermal radiation. A thermal emitter in combination with a sub-wavelength grating shows a high extinction ratio, with a maximum value close to 5, in a wide mid-infrared range from 3.2 to 7.8 μm, as well as high emissivity up to 0.65 at a wavelength of 3.7 μm. All measurements show good agreement with theoretical predictions. Numerical simulations reveal that a high electric field exists within the localized air space surrounded by the gratings and the intensified electric-field is only observed for the polarizations perpendicular to the top sub-wavelength grating. This result suggests how the emissivity of a metal can be selectively enhanced at a certain range of wavelengths for a given polarization.
US09400218B2
A bolometer including: at least one electromechanical microsystem or nanosystem, the microsystem or nanosystem including a support and a mobile mass hung from beams above the support, the mobile mass forming an absorber of optical flux; actuation electrodes configured to set the mobile mass in vibration and arranged laterally relative to the mobile mass; and detection electrodes to detect variation in vibration frequency of the mobile mass arranged laterally relative to the mobile mass.
US09400216B2
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a detector (100) suitable for attaching to a light fitting. The detector comprises a passive infra red sensor (102) and a clip (128) suitable for suspending the detector from a light fitting.
US09400212B2
A display unit has modular groups of light emitting elements or pixels. A light emitting element in the display unit can be used as a light receptor for accepting control information without needing to connect the display unit to a network or a controller.
US09400208B2
A load cell (10), which includes a weighing system (14) having a force application point (18), a load boom arm (20) for receiving the loads to be weighed at a position remote from the force application point (18) and an adjusting device, wherein an adjusting weight boom arm (28) is provided which extends in a longitudinal direction (A) defined by the load boom arm on the side opposing the load boom arm (20) relative to the force application point (18) and which has at least two pre-determined adjusting weight engagement points (36, 38). An activating unit (34) places at least one adjusting weight (30, 32) on at least one of the adjusting weight engagement points (36, 38).
US09400204B2
An electronic fuel sensor which utilizes the characteristics of fluid (such as gasoline) to dissipate heat more readily than a gas. Specifically the fuel sensor utilizes a linear array of sensors comprising a couple heat detector and heat source which can determine which of the sensors are in fluid and which are in air.
US09400199B2
The present invention relates to a method and a device for the measurement of pressure signals in a blood treatment system, whereby system changes can be identified and can be differentiated additionally reliably between system changes in blood flow direction and in transmembrane direction in order to enable a targeted action.
US09400198B2
In a flow sensor, an upstream heating element and a downstream heating element are disposed, respectively, upstream and downstream in a flow direction of a fluid so as to undergo mutual thermal interference. By controlling heating currents flown through the respective heating elements, an average temperature control portion maintains an average temperature of the two heating elements at a temperature predetermined degrees higher than a temperature of the fluid detected by a fluid temperature detection portion while a voltage ratio control portion performs control so that a temperature difference or a ratio of applied voltages between the two heating elements takes a predetermined value. A detection signal corresponding to a flow direction of the fluid is obtained from a state of the control on the heating currents and whether a flow direction of the fluid is forward or backward is determined.
US09400197B2
A fluid flow sensor that utilizes hot-wire anemometry and is a small, light weight, cost effective, easily manufactureable, and low power consuming device. The fluid flow sensor operates by exposing a hot wire loop to a fluid stream such that the amount of heat lost to fluid convection is a function of one or more fluid-related parameters (e.g., fluid speed, fluid type, fluid density, etc.). The heat loss affects the resistance in the wire loop, which can then be used to estimate the fluid speed or other fluid-related parameter. According to an exemplary embodiment, the fluid flow sensor includes one or more wire loops that are made from pre-formed wires and are wire bonded, micro-welded or otherwise non-monolithically attached to a substrate that may or may not include embedded sensor circuitry.
US09400190B2
In embodiments of the present invention improved capabilities are described for identifying a first location, at time one, of a plurality of automobiles using cell phone tower triangulation to locate a cell phone within each of the plurality of automobiles, identifying a second location, at time two, for each of the plurality of automobiles using cell phone tower triangulation to locate the cell phone within each of the plurality of automobiles, calculating a vehicle speed for each of the plurality of automobiles using the first and second locations already identified, and creating a traffic condition measure for a route in proximity to the first and second locations. The computer program product may repeat this process in real-time to calculate a real-time traffic condition measure that may be a traffic density measure the computer program product may use to predict a travel time.
US09400189B2
Methods and systems are provided for generating an electronic map display. In one implementation, a method is provided for determining a route distance based on information for a route, comparing the route distance with a distance threshold, generating a list of points of interest (POIs) when the route distance is less than the distance threshold, the list of POIs identifying POIs that are located along the route, grouping the POIs into one or more buckets based on location, calculating POI densities of the buckets based on the POIs included in each corresponding bucket, ranking the buckets based on the POI densities, providing POI information associated with the POIs included in the ranked buckets, wherein the POI information is provided based on the ranking of the buckets, and generating an electronic map display with the POI information.
US09400186B1
Situational traveler experiences are collected over time from a number of diverse travelers. The situational traveler experiences are associated with one or more locations traversed by the number of diverse travelers using previous travel route recommendations. Contextual categories of the situational traveler experiences are identified. Historical analytics are performed on the collected situational traveler experiences within the contextual categories of the situational traveler experiences. A historically-contextual travel route suggestion, derived from the historical analytics performed on the collected situational traveler experiences within the contextual categories of the situational traveler experiences, is provided as part of a new travel route recommendation requested by a new traveler.
US09400185B2
It is an object of the present invention to predict a destination easily, and a destination display method for displaying a predicted destination. The destination prediction apparatus of the present invention includes: a behavior history acquiring unit that acquires, the behavior history; a visit history acquiring unit that acquires the visit history; a similar behavior date-and-time extractor that performs a similarity determination between a behavior within a predetermined period prior to a present date and time and a behavior in another period with reference to the behavior history and that extracts a date and time of the behavior in another period determined to be similar as a similar behavior date and time from the behavior history; and a destination candidate extractor that extracts, as a destination candidate, a location visited within a predetermined period before or after the similar behavior date and time from the visit history.
US09400165B2
A rotational position sensing device for sensing rotation of an axially adjustable shaft of a shaft and arm assembly of a door that does not require readjustment after the shaft and arm assembly are adjusted includes a fixed bracket supporting a post, a position sensor having an upper portion, a lower portion and an extended portion, and a rotating portion. The extended portion extends from the upper portion of the position sensor and constrains the post of the bracket such that the upper portion of the position sensor is unable to axially rotate relative to the bracket. The rotating section is adapted to be fixed to the shaft and engage with the lower portion of the position sensor, such that the rotating portion rotates relative to the upper portion of the position sensor.
US09400157B2
A system, according to an embodiment of the present invention, having an optical device and a shock attenuator is provided. The optical device is configured to operate with a weapon. The shock attenuator is disposed between the optical device and the weapon. The system includes the shock attenuator that is configured to reduce shock experienced by the optical device during operation of the weapon to less than 250 g's.
US09400152B1
A pull through gun cleaning device includes a plurality of cylindrical double coned pressure sections having a longitudinal tunnel disposed therein. A cable member is threaded through the tunnel of each cylindrical double coned pressure section. A tubular woven sheath is disposed over each cylindrical double coned pressure section disposed along the cable member, and the cable member to form a pull cord. A total length of the pull cord is configured such that where the plurality of cylindrical double coned pressure sections are inserted into one end of a barrel, the pull cord extends past another end of the barrel. Each of the plurality of cylindrical double coned pressure sections provides a radial force pressing the tubular woven sheath of each cylindrical double coned pressure section of the plurality of cylindrical double coned pressure sections against an inside surface or a rifling of the barrel.
US09400149B2
A shell feeding system for a top loading shotgun in one embodiment includes a barrel, receiver, and a magazine. The magazine includes a cavity configured to receive a plurality of ammunition shells in stacked end-to-end relationship. The magazine is positioned above the barrel and extends forward from the receiver. Shell guide grooves are formed by internal surfaces in the receiver which engage and guide each shell in a feed pathway towards the lower part of the receiver for chambering. A portion of the guide grooves may be arcuately shaped to rotate and reposition the shell for loading by the bolt into the chamber. In one embodiment, the receiver and magazine may be formed as a unitary integral structure formed as either a single piece or in half sections coupled together.
US09400143B2
The present invention relates to a device for reducing the vibrations of a tube bundle of a heat exchanger inside its shell, wherein this device allows a secure and quick insertion after the bundle has been manufactured. This easy insertion after manufacturing the bundle allows the high temperatures to which the bundle is subjected for the attachment by means of brazing to not affect the properties of the device, particularly the elasticity achieved by means of tempering, for example.
US09400142B2
A heat exchanger plate, where the plate is provided with a heat transfer surface having a corrugated pattern, comprising a diagonal open and closed side distribution support section positioned between a diagonal open respectively closed groove and the heat transfer surface, and a diagonal open and closed side adiabatic support section positioned between the open respectively closed diagonal groove and a port hole, where the heat exchanger plate further comprises a transfer path between the diagonal open side distribution support section and the heat transfer surface and a bypass path between the diagonal closed side distribution support section and the heat transfer surface. A heat exchanger comprising a plurality of heat exchanger plates is also disclosed. The advantage of this heat exchanger plate is that it allows for heat exchangers with an improved efficiency.
US09400134B2
Method of liquefying a hydrocarbon stream from a feed stream including (a) passing the feed stream through a first cooling stage having at least two heat exchangers and against a component refrigerant in a first refrigerant circuit, to provide a cooled hydrocarbon stream; (b) passing the cooled hydrocarbon stream through a second cooling stage against a second refrigerant in a second refrigerant circuit, to provide a liquefied hydrocarbon stream; (c) passing the second refrigerant through one of the heat exchangers of the first cooling stage. The heat exchangers of the first cooling stage are shell and tube heat exchangers having two or more tube circuits. The first refrigerant circuit includes a refrigerant compressor and the second refrigerant circuit includes a refrigerant compressor. The refrigerant compressor of the first refrigerant circuit and the refrigerant compressor of the second refrigerant circuit are interconnected and are arranged to be driven by a common driver.
US09400131B2
Systems and methods for generating liquid water include multiple atmospheric water generation devices adapted to produce liquid water from atmospheric humidity, used in conjunction with a turbine. The turbine is usable to simultaneously provide power to the devices, while the air intake thereof is used to move air associated with the devices, enabling a generally continuous supply of atmospheric air to be processed while reducing the accumulation of heat associated with the devices.
US09400129B2
An apparatus for controlling an air conditioner and a method for operating the same are provided. The apparatus may include a control apparatus that enables easy access to data for the air conditioner, to determine and control an operation state thereof visually, and for which a mode of reception of the data from the air conditioner may be different corresponding to connection modes and positions of a plurality of component devices of the air conditioner to which the control apparatus is connected, making the data received thus different from one another according to the connection modes. These differences in the data permit various data to be easily displayed, enabling a user to change the connection modes as required, and to provide various information on the air conditioner by producing the data of the air conditioner in a frame on an output different from one another.
US09400127B2
Cryogenic electronics based upon semiconductive devices, superconductive devices, or a combination of the two present opportunities for a wide variety of novel, fast, and low power devices. However, such cryogenic electronics require cooling which is typically achieved through fluid refrigerants such as liquid nitrogen or liquid helium. Solid state refrigeration based upon adiabatic demagnetization in paramagnetic salts offers one alternative but requires that the solid state cooler and cryogenic electronic circuits be different physical elements. The inventors present solid state cooling for semiconductor materials including but not limited to silicon. Beneficially active electronic devices can be integrated monolithically with solid state semiconductor coolers exhibiting magnetic cooling within the whole substrate or predetermined regions of the substrate. Alternatively, active devices may be formed with semiconductor layers integral to them that exhibit magnetic cooling.
US09400126B2
[Problem to be solved] To reduce the fluctuation in the driving force.[Means to solve Problem] A magnetic cooling/heating apparatus comprising: a heat transfer unit 1000A comprising a plurality of heat transfer devices 50-1, 50-2, . . . arranged in parallel at intervals, wherein the heat transfer device 50-1 comprises magnetic bodies 10A-10F with a magneto-caloric effect and heat-conductive parts 30A-30G that transfer the heat of the magnetic bodies 10A-10F, both of which are alternately arranged; a magnetic unit 2000A comprising a plurality of magnets 21A, 21C, . . . that are arranged so as to face against each of the magnetic bodies 10A-10F of the heat transfer unit 1000A and to selectively apply and remove the magnetic field to/from each of the magnetic bodies 10A-10F; and a motor 350 that moves at least one of the heat transfer unit 1000A and the magnetic unit 2000A facing each other, relative to each other in the direction in which the heat transfer devices 50-1, 50-2, . . . are arranged, wherein a magnetically-permeable heat-insulating part 60 that has the equivalent magnetic permeability to that of the magnetic bodies 10A-10F and blocks heat conduction is formed between the heat transfer devices 50-1, 50-2, . . . of the heat transfer unit 1000A.
US09400125B2
The invention relates to a process and apparatus (1) for transferring heat from a first relatively cold medium to a second relatively hot medium, comprising a gastight rotor (4) rotatably mounted in a frame (2), and, mounted inside the rotor (4), a compressor (10), a first heat exchanger (8) for transferring heat from the fluid to the second medium and located relatively far from the axis of rotation of the rotor (4), an expansion chamber (11) for expanding the fluid, and a channel (14) for conveying the expanded fluid from the expansion chamber (11) to the compressor (10), wherein the first heat exchanger (8) is thermally insulated from the channel (14).
US09400095B2
A lighting apparatus includes: a light source unit that has a case storing therein a light-emitting panel and a wiring board mounted on a non-light emitting face thereof; and an attachment unit that has a housing storing therein a circuit board and configured to be detachably attached to the light source unit. The case has a wiring board storage. The housing has a circuit board storage. The case and the housing are arranged such that a whole of the wiring board storage and a whole of the circuit board storage are arranged at different positions in a direction perpendicular to an attachment direction of the light source unit and the attachment unit.
US09400074B2
A method of documenting installation of a fluid handling device in a fluid flow system using a form and an identification device. The identification device has a first portion with first identification information and a second portion with second identification information. The method comprises installing the fluid handling device in the fluid flow system. The method further comprises checking for leaks associated with the fluid handling device installed in the fluid flow system. The second portion of the identification device is separated from the fluid handling device while the first portion of the identification device remains coupled to the fluid handling device after checking for leaks. The second portion of the identification device is then affixed to the form.
US09400070B2
Apparatus and method for mechanically attached connections of conduits may include a conduit gripping member, a drive member, and a seal member, the drive member causing axial movement of the conduit gripping member to indent into an outer surface of the conduit when the assembly is pulled-up, the drive member causing the seal member to form a zero clearance seal at a location that is axially spaced from the conduit gripping member. The zero clearance seal may comprise a face seal arrangement including a gasket, and the conduit gripping member may be a ferrule, ring or other device that can grip and optionally seal against the conduit outer surface. The assembly may include a sensing function for detecting or sensing a characteristic or condition of an assembly component or the fluid or both. In one embodiment, a body coupling member has a two piece construction of a main body and a conduit socket insert. A flared fitting embodiment is also provided. Sensing functions are also incorporated into fittings other than just zero clearance fittings.
US09400068B2
A pipe connection accessory 1 comprising a sleeve 4 designed to be crimped onto one end of a pipe tube and designed to engage at least indirectly with another pipe element, is characterized in that that surface 4A of the sleeve which is intended to come into crimped contact with the end of the tube comprises an adhesive-coated portion 10 comprising an adhesive made up of at least two components, one of which is encapsulated. This adhesive-coated portion is advantageously set back, preferably with projecting collars.
US09400062B2
A thermoelement and a thermovalve incorporating the same, in which reliable operation is achieved with a simple internal structure, and there is no risk of contaminant jamming. The thermoelement includes a casing, a mounting portion, a shaft, a heat-sensitive medium, and a seal member for drawing the shaft into the casing when the heat-sensitive medium expands. The thermovalve includes a body including a valve body linked to a shaft of a thermoelement, and a seating part on/from which the valve body can be seated/separated.
US09400057B2
A rotationally adjustable valve is disclosed whereby the user is able to control the flow of fluids from complete shutoff to maximum flow by rotating the body of the valve, said rotation being axial to the flow of the fluid. Additionally, the user is able to attach high and low pressure test probes directly to the valve, as it is rotatably adjusted, so that additional equipment is not required next to the valve. An embodiment of this invention includes the use of an adjustable Cv disk to set the maximum flow of the valve, rather than just create a simple 180° on/off, very similar to a current 90° ball valve that this device will replace. All of the problems associated with the ball valve have been minimized including creating a linear relationship between the percentage open of the valve and the percentage of maximum flow of the valve.
US09400051B2
A transmission includes an electro-hydraulic controller that includes redundancy in the hydraulic circuit that permits single fault failures to be compensated for by changing the flow path of hydraulic fluid to bypass the single fault failure. The redundancy results in the ability of the transmission to maintain full operation in all modes.
US09400047B2
A cartridge assembly for use in conjunction with a linear motion guided screw assembly includes (a) a cylindrical housing having an axial bore, at least a portion of the bore being defined by a threaded surface configured to engage a screw shaft; (b) at least one bearing disposed in the axial bore of the housing; (c) at least one retainer ring disposed in the axial bore of the housing; and, (d) a cylindrical lubricant block disposed in the axial bore of the housing, the lubricant block being fabricated from a microporous polymer which is impregnated with a lubricant oil.
US09400039B2
A camshaft adjuster (1) has a plurality of locking mechanisms (5) arranged on different pitch circles concentrically with respect to the axis of rotation (7) of the camshaft adjuster (1).
US09400029B2
A damper unit includes a first damper arranged to transmit a torque around a rotation axis transmitted from an input member side to an output member side, an intermediate member arranged to transmit a torque around the rotation axis transmitted from the first damper to the output member side, and a second damper arranged to transmit a torque around the rotation axis transmitted from the intermediate member to the output member side, wherein at least a portion of the second damper is disposed on a straight line that passes through the first damper and is parallel or substantially parallel to the rotation axis.
US09400024B2
A railway vehicle brake disc which can reduce aerodynamic sound raised high speed running, improve cooling performance during braking, and improve durability comprises a donut-shaped disc section having a sliding surface on a front surface side, a plurality of fin sections, each convexly provided in a rear surface of the disc section in a radial pattern, and a bolt hole passing through the disc section and the fin section. The disc section is mounted on a wheel in a state where the fin sections contact a plate section of the wheel using a bolt inserted into the bolt hole. The fin section has a groove formed along a circumferential direction in at least one of an area on an inner peripheral side and an area on an outer peripheral side of the bolt hole when viewed in a radial direction of the disc section.
US09400017B2
A bushing arrangement for centring two shaft portions to be connected, having at least one outer bushing, and at least one inner bushing arranged radially inwards of the at least one outer bushing, the at least one outer bushing and the at least one inner bushing being connected via at least one elastomer body, on which at least one sealing lip is formed. At least one encircling recess is formed in the elastomer body which extends from one axial end of the bushing arrangement in such a manner into the elastomer body that the at least one recess extends radially around the at least one sealing lip and around at least a portion of the axial extent of the inner bushing.
US09400015B2
A synthetic resin-made thrust sliding bearing includes a synthetic resin-made upper casing which is fixed to a vehicle body side via a mounting member; a synthetic resin-made lower casing which is superposed on the upper casing so as to be rotatable about an axis in a circumferential direction relative to the upper casing; and a synthetic resin-made sliding bearing piece disposed in a space between the upper casing and the lower casing.
US09400013B2
A bearing liner comprising a fabric impregnated with a binder, the fabric comprising: (a) a bearing element contact surface comprising lubricating fibers and (b) structural fibers supporting the bearing element contact surface, wherein at least some of the structural fibers include a structural component and a lubricating component.
US09400008B2
A device is provided including a textile article. The textile article includes a leading edge comprising an open loop and a secured loose end. The device further includes a piece of hardware threaded through the open loop. The textile article is configured to easily unravel by removing the piece of hardware from the open loop and pulling upon the secured loose end.
US09399996B2
A cam plate for use with a pump includes at least one camming surface configured to enable an impeller to rotate in a first direction and substantially prevent the impeller from rotating in a second direction opposite the first direction. A ring recess is defined in the cam plate. The ring recess is configured to receive at least a portion of a cam ring that is configured to rotate within the ring recess. A follower recess is at least partially defined by the at least one camming surface and extends from the ring recess. The follower recess is configured to receive at least one cam follower therein.
US09399992B2
A method and apparatus for a pump control system. One or more embodiments of the invention include a pump controller that can perform a self-calibrating procedure, can provide precise motor speed control, can provide a limp mode before shutting down the motor when system parameters are exceeded and/or fault conditions occur, can detect fault conditions, and can store fault conditions for later retrieval.
US09399990B2
The present invention relates to a vacuum source for providing vacuum to at least a first vacuum drain through conduits, comprising at least a first and a second vacuum pump. The vacuum source comprises a control system adapted to detect the consumed airflow, and to control the operation of each of the first and second vacuum pump based on the detected airflow.
US09399983B2
A wind turbine blade extending along a longitudinal axis from a root end to a tip end and in a transverse plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis, the transverse plane having a main axis extending through an elastic center point, wherein the wind turbine blade comprises a sensor system including a first sensor set for measuring a first bending moment in a first sensor position at a first distance from the root end, the first sensor set comprising a first primary sensor for measuring a primary component and a first secondary sensor for measuring a secondary component, wherein a first primary sensor axis in the transverse plane is oriented in a direction defined by the first primary sensor and the elastic center point, and a first secondary sensor axis in the transverse plane is oriented in a direction defined by the first secondary sensor and the elastic center point, and wherein an angle between the first primary sensor axis and the first secondary sensor axis is in the range from 50° to 130°.
US09399979B2
An ignition system for an internal combustion engine includes an ignition transformer with two primary windings. The ignition system is designed to generate, for a given ignition event, a unipolar current through the secondary winding by way of a control circuit that is configured to first energize and deenergize the first primary winding to establish a first electrical arc across the spark-plug electrodes and, when the current in the secondary winding reaches, or drops below, a current threshold, repeatedly energizes and deenergizes the second primary winding to establish a plurality of second current pulses across the electrodes in order to maintain the burn phase.
US09399973B2
An intake device includes: an intake port; a valve body which is disposed in the intake port and rotated around a rotating shaft between an opening position and a closing position; and a seal surface which is integrally provided at the intake port and made up of an inner wall surface with which the valve body comes into contact at the closing position of the valve body, wherein the seal surface includes a first seal surface having an inner contact portion which protrudes to the inside of the intake port and a first outer contact portion which is located further to the outside than the inner contact portion, and a second seal surface having a second outer contact portion without having the inner contact portion.
US09399966B2
An ECU for controlling an engine counts an unused time TIM of engine in a low-temperature environment. If the unused time TIM is shorter than a predetermined reference value, the ECU sets idle speed immediately after start of operation of the engine to a first idle speed, and if the unused time TIM is longer than the reference value, sets the idle speed to a second idle speed higher than the first idle speed. If duration of the second idle speed exceeds a reference period determined by state of driving of the vehicle, the ECU sets the idle speed to be lower than the second idle speed. In this manner, increased vibration in idling operation in a low-temperature environment can be prevented.
US09399963B2
A variety of methods and arrangements for detecting misfire in a skip fire engine control system are described. In one aspect, a window is assigned to a target firing opportunity for a target working chamber. A change in an engine parameter is measured during the window. A determination is made as to whether a firing opportunity before the target firing opportunity is a skip or a fire and/or whether a firing opportunity after the target firing opportunity is a skip or a fire. Based at least in part on this skip/fire determination, a determination is made as to whether the target working chamber has misfired. In various embodiments, if the target working chamber is identified as persistently misfiring, the firing sequence is modified so that the target working chamber is deactivated and excluded from the firing sequence. In still other embodiments, a torque model is used to detect engine-related problems.
US09399961B2
Air/fuel imbalance monitoring systems and methods for monitoring air/fuel ratio imbalance of an internal combustion engine are disclosed. In one embodiment, adjusting engine operation responsive to cylinder air/fuel imbalance based on a determined total number of instances where sensed peak-to-peak exhaust air-fuel ratios differentials are less than a threshold normalized to a total number of peak-to-peak oscillations. The approach can be used to indicate air/fuel ratio imbalances between engine cylinders.
