US09415594B1

A jet stack includes a set of plates forming an array of body chambers, the set of plates including a nozzle plate having an array of jets wherein each jet corresponds to a body chamber, each body chamber having a body chamber port that allows fluid to flow into and out of the body chamber, and a bubble screen between the body chamber port and a remainder of the jet.
US09415591B2

This disclosure includes electrohydrodynamic (EHD) printer nozzles, associated printer heads and printers, and methods for using the same. Some EHD nozzles include a circuit with at least one depressible electrical connector and a housing configured to receive a dispensing device such that electrical communication is permitted between the at least one depressible electrical connector and a conductive tip of the dispensing device, where the housing is further configured to be releasably coupled to a printer head such that voltage can be applied across the conductive tip. Some nozzles include an additional electrode. Some of the present methods include inserting a dispensing device into an EHD nozzle having a housing with a depressible electrical connector such that the connector contacts a conductive tip of the dispensing device and applying a voltage across the conductive tip. Others of the present methods include performing maskless lithography with the present EHD printers and components.
US09415589B2

Disclosed is an inkjet printing apparatus with an inkjet printing unit performing printing onto web paper to be transported. The apparatus includes a drive roller transporting the web paper, a transportation velocity detector detecting a transportation velocity of the web paper, an encoder generating a timing reference signal of the printing by the printing unit in accordance with transportation of the web paper, the encoder being disposed in a transport roller, a printing correction data generator generating printing correction data in accordance with the transportation velocity and the timing reference signal so as to correspond to a time-dependent variation of the transport roller provided with the encoder; and an offset corrector correcting the printing of the inkjet printing unit to the web paper in accordance with the printing correction data.
US09415575B2

A laminate material may include a first flexible layer, and a self-healing composite layer in contact with the first flexible layer. The composite layer includes an elastomer matrix, a plurality of first capsules including a polymerizer, and a corresponding activator for the polymerizer. The laminate material may self-heal when subjected to a puncture or a tear.
US09415573B2

Translucent film product for vehicle mirrors and method to shield drivers from discomfort glare, particularly discomfort glare from blue light emanating from headlights. The film product embodiments include single or multiple film layers; yellow or yellow and grey tinting; tabbed or un-tabbed; and glue or static cling means to adhere the film product to vehicle mirrors.
US09415569B2

A method of bonding a first substrate to a second substrate includes providing a glass, applying the glass in a layer between the first and second substrates to form an assembly, and heating the assembly to a bonding temperature above a glass transition temperature of the devitrifying glass, selected to cause the glass to bond the first substrate to the second substrate. The devitrifying glass has constituents that include various amounts of group A in a molar concentration of 70-95%, group B in a molar concentration of 5-20%, group C in a molar concentration of 1-20%, group D in a molar concentration of 0-6%; and group E in a molar concentration of 0-10%. The group A, B, C, D and E groups are disclosed herein.
US09415568B2

The present invention relates to filled polymeric materials including a polymer and a mass of metallic fibers distributed within the polymer, and to light weight composites which comprise at least a pair of metallic layers and a polymeric layer interposed between the pair of metallic layers, the polymeric layer containing the filled polymeric material. The composite materials of the present invention may be formed using conventional stamping equipment at ambient temperatures. Composite materials of the present invention may also be capable of being welded to other metal materials using a resistance welding process such as resistance spot welding. Preferred composite materials include one or any combination of the following features: metallic fibers that are ribbon fibers; a polymer selected from a polyolefin, a polyamide, or a combination thereof; or a metallic layer (e.g., one or both of the pair of metallic layers) having a surface facing the filled polymeric material that is untreated.
US09415564B2

A fiber cement felt includes: a base fabric layer including MD and CMD yarns interwoven with each other, wherein the CMD yarns comprise twisted monofilaments; and at least one batt layer overlying the base fabric layer.
US09415552B2

A method for the manufacture of a fiber composite component reinforcement section, which bounds a cavity, whereby a supporting core, with an elastic sleeve bounding an interior space, is temporarily positioned in the cavity. The steps include: laying down fibrous material on a base molding tool to form a base element of the fiber composite component, draping fibrous material in a negative mold, arranging the supporting core on an inner surface of the fibrous material in the negative mold, positioning the negative mold fitted with the fibrous material and the supporting core, on the base element to form the reinforcement section, forming a vacuum chamber accommodating the negative mold and the base element by covering with a vacuum film, evacuating the vacuum chamber, and curing the fibrous material, whereby when using a dry fibrous material, a matrix material is injected into the fibrous material after the evacuation.
US09415532B2

The present invention relates to molding and overmolding compositions for delicate components. More particularly the invention relates to compositions for low pressure molding and overmolding, making these compositions particularly well suited for electronic devices. The molding and overmolding composition is suitable for low pressure injection molding processes, particularly at 0.5 to 200 bars at 70° C. to 240° C.
US09415527B2

A method for producing concrete blocks, and in particular paving stones, building blocks or the like, with a storage container forming a receiving space for a plurality of layers of different-colored concrete, dispensing means being provided in order to dispense partial amounts of the layers from the receiving space in such a way that a downstream release device receives a mixture of the layers of different-colored concrete, characterized in that at least a partial portion of a side wall of the receiving space is provided with at least one dispensing opening for dispensing a partial amount of the layers, the size of passage of the dispensing opening being variable by the dispensing means.
US09415521B1

A handheld drywall cutter device providing self-guiding device for a worker to accurately and single handedly cut a given edge of drywall, quickly, easily, on both sides, straight, and without wavering. By cutting both sides of drywall the device ensures accurate breaks without paper or drywall surface material tears. The device provides for measurement of depth of cut with regard to the drywall. The device can be used with drywall positioned in virtually any way or position without need for clamping or guiding the drywall itself.
US09415520B2

A robotic end of arm tooling system including a robotic arm having an end, and at least one swivel link assembly attached to the robotic arm. The swivel link assembly includes a flexible ball base connected to the end of the robotic arm, and a knuckle joint defining at least one adjustable axis. The flexible ball base is able to swivel relative to the adjustable axis. An adapter has a proximal end and a distal end, with the proximal end connected to the flexible ball base, and an end-effector connected to the distal end.
US09415513B2

A robot in one embodiment includes a navigation system, a manipulation unit, a visual recognition unit, and a processing unit. The visual recognition unit includes at least one detector configured to acquire presence information of humans within at least a portion of the area. The processing unit is operably coupled to the navigation system, manipulation unit, and visual recognition unit, and is configured to determine a presence of a human within at least one predetermined range of the robot using the presence information from the visual recognition unit, determine at least one control action responsive to determining the presence of the human within the at least one predetermined range, and control at least one of the navigation system or manipulation unit to implement the at least one control action.
US09415506B2

Provided is a robot capable of achieving more efficient and faster calculation for generating a gait. A target ZMP trajectory of a robot 1 is defined by a linear function of a target landing position that uses a time function as a coefficient. The time function is defined by a function that permits specified function transformation related to time, and a dynamics model is defined by the specified function transformation related to time. Thus, the problem of determining a target landing position is formulated as a problem accompanied by a linear constraint in which a first specified requirement (a target ZMP trajectory linearly approximated by the linear function of a target landing position falls within a permissible existence range) is satisfied.
US09415500B2

A bi-directional grip structure and hand tool incorporating the same. The structure includes a base and first and second sets of protrusions. The first and second sets of protrusions include inclined surfaces positioned in opposing directions.
US09415499B2

An electrical combination including a power tool, charger and an adapter separate from and connectable between the battery and the tool housing or battery charger to support the battery on the tool housing or the battery charger, the adapter having adapter leads for electrically coupling the battery to the power tool or the battery charger, the adapter having a mechanical lockout for allowing an electrical coupling between the adapter and the power tool while preventing an electrical coupling between the adapter and the battery charger.
US09415495B1

Disclosed is a novel nail removing tool that requires lower force to remove an embedded nail from a substrate than nail remover tools currently in use via use of a sliding fulcrum. The disclosed nail remover tool also minimizes damage to the substrate as the nail is being removed from the substrate via use of a dimple for facilitating access of the tool to a nail head.
US09415494B2

A fastening tool assembly is provided with a housing having a contact surface to contact a workpiece. A magazine is mounted in the housing to store fasteners and to convey the fasteners to a fastener outlet. A knife is mounted in the housing for translation between a latched position and a release position to drive a fastener from the magazine through the outlet during translation to the release position. A biasing member is mounted in the housing and is operably connected to the knife to bias the knife to the release position. A handle is mounted to the housing to translate relative to the housing. The handle is operably connected to the knife and the biasing member to load the biasing member and release the knife and the biasing member, thereby permitting the biasing member to return the knife to the release position to drive a fastener through the outlet.
US09415483B2

A buffing pad is comprised of a hub with a central opening for attaching the same to a power buffer. The pad includes a layer of tufted wool or other fibrous buffing medium spaced from but surrounding the hub and a block of material such as a cylindrical block of foam positioned between the fibrous buffing medium and the hub. The block of material includes an aperture therethrough that is in alignment with the central opening in the hub. The dimensions of the block of material are such as to prevent tufts of the fibrous buffing medium from entering the central opening of the hub and interfering with the ability of the buffing pad to be attached to the power buffer.
US09415482B2

A grinding tool has a grinding head (1) that includes one or more surfaces with a number of recesses (2). Fastenings are provided in one or more recesses (2) for fixing tool members (5). The fastenings are adapter strips (6) disposed in one or more of the recesses (2). The adapter strips (6) are provided with at least one internal and preferably longitudinal recess (7). The recess (7) in the adapter strip (6) has sidewalls (8). Retainer parts (9) of the tool members have complementing outer sidewalls and are mounted in these adapter strips (6). The grinding tool with a universal grinding head (1) uses all types of tool members (5) in one and the same grinding head (1). It is thus possible to change between tool members (5) with different shapes on the retainer part (9) by switching between different adapter strips (6).
US09415477B2

A method for operating a machine tool is disclosed wherein during operation of the machine tool at least one state of the machine tool is projected into a working area of the machine tool with a 3D projector at a predefined point in space in the working area. A projection device performing the method and a machine tool with such a projection device is also disclosed.
US09415476B2

A coolant application device includes a nozzle which spouts coolant and a motor which adjusts the rotation angle of the nozzle. The coolant application device also includes a housing, a hollow shaft rotatively and fluid-tightly inserted into the housing, a coolant passage formed in the hollow shaft, a port arranged at a lateral wall of the hollow shaft and communicating with the coolant passage, and an inlet passage arranged in the housing and communicating with the coolant passage through the port. The nozzle is connected to the hollow shaft and communicates with the coolant passage. The hollow shaft is coaxially arranged and directly connected to an output shaft of the motor.
US09415470B2

Apparatuses, systems and methods that facilitate the removal and/or reinstallation of sprinkler heads as part of performing repositioning, repair, replacement and/or the like of one or more sprinkler heads, such as pop-up sprinkler heads. One tool disclosed herein may be used to cut the ground surrounding a sprinkler head and then unscrew at least a retaining cap of the sprinkler head so as to remove the retaining cap and an inner housing from the ground. Another tool disclosed herein may be used to unscrew or otherwise rotate an outer casing of the sprinkler head so as to remove the outer casing from the ground. After any appropriate work or other tasks are performed in relation to the sprinkler head and/or irrigation line, the first and/or second tools can be used to reinstall/resecure the sprinkler head to the water line and at least partially below ground level.
US09415467B2

The invention relates to a method for producing a contour cut in a sheet metal web (BB) transported in a direction of transport (T) by means of a conveying apparatus (3). To accelerate the production of the contour cut, it is proposed in accordance with the invention to divide the sheet metal web (BB) into a plurality of overlapping processing strips and to assign successively two laser cutting units (10, 11) to at least two processing strips in the direction of transport (T).
US09415459B2

Welding systems including welding torch assemblies are provided. The welding torch assembly may include a welding torch adapted to be utilized in a welding operation to establish a welding arc between the welding torch and a workpiece. Shielding gas may be supplied to the welding torch for establishment of a gas shielding area around a weld pool. The welding torch assembly may also include a temperature sensing system having a non-contact temperature sensor coupled to the welding torch and adapted to sense a temperature of the workpiece at a location outside of the molten weld pool.
US09415446B2

A coated tool with a hard coating layer, which has an excellent hardness and heat insulating effect; and exhibits an excellent chipping resistance and an excellent fracturing resistance for a long-term usage, is provided. The hard coating layer included in the coated tool has a chemically vapor deposited alternate laminated structure, which is made of: a region A layer and a region B layer, each of which is expressed by the composition formula of (Ti1-xAlx)(CyN1-y); and has the average total layer thickness of 1-10 μm. In the region A layer, relationships, 0.70≦x≦0.80 and 0.0005≦y≦0.005, are satisfied; the average grain width W is 0.1 μm or less; and the average grain length L is 0.1 μm or less. In the region B layer, relationships, 0.85≦x≦0.95 and 0.0005≦y≦0.005, are satisfied; the average grain width W is 0.1-2.0 μm; and the average grain length L is 0.5-5.0 μm.
US09415445B2

A method for producing neodymium-iron-boron rare earth permanent magnetic materials comprises: controlling technological parameters of alloy smelting, coarsely pulverization, milling by jet mill, and compaction; and adding nano-sized micro powder of oxide, in such a manner that a particle size of milling by the jet mill is decreased, and fine powder collected by the powder filter and powder collected by a cyclone collector are mixed. Utilization rate of the materials and performance of magnets are significantly improved. Usage amount of rare earth is significantly saved, especially usage amount of heavy rare earth. Thus, the scarce resources are protected.
US09415439B2

The invention relates to a method and apparatus for direct chill casting ingots with in-situ homogenization. Large particles of eutectic material may form in the solid ingot and the metal may exhibit macrosegregation of alloying components, especially when large ingots are cast in this way. This can be alleviated by applying a first liquid coolant to the ingot emerging from the mold, removing the first liquid coolant at a certain distance along the ingot by means of a wiper, and then applying a second liquid coolant to perform a quench at a greater distance along the ingot. The quench raises the level of the molten sump in the ingot, which helps to overcome the indicated problems, without affecting the desired temperature rebound of the ingot shell (usually at least 425° C. (797° F.)) for a time effective to cause in-situ homogenization.
US09415434B2

The invention concerns an arrangement (20) and a method for the manufacture of can bodies from pot-shaped blanks (37). To this end, the blank (37) is inserted into a bottom tool part (45). The blank (37) is clamped between a downholder (23) and a counter support surface (47) of the lower tool part (45). For controlling a position value α determining the position and/or position change of the downholder (23), a drive arrangement (22) is provided. The drive arrangement controls the position value in accordance with a predetermined course, so as to move the downholder (23) into the clamping position or out of the clamping position EP. As soon as the downholder (23) reaches its clamping position EP, the drive unit (22) controls a force value in accordance with a predetermined course which determines the clamping force F(t) which is applied by the downholder (23) to the blank (37). This occurs preferably by an adjustment of the motor current I to a predetermined course of the desired value IE(t).
US09415433B2

Disclosed herein is a sheet metal stamping device and method for substantially inhibiting recoil from a neutral stamped position of a scrap part region. A sheet metal stamping device for stamping a sheet metal part comprising a first die body and a second is provided wherein the first die body and the second die body are in operable communication for forming the sheet metal part from a sheet metal blank. The sheet metal part includes at least one scrap region formed therein which is prone to recoil from a neutral stamped position. The first die body and the second die body have complementary elongate bead-forming regions located for forming an elongate bead region in the scrap region. And, the elongate bead-forming regions are configured such that the elongate bead substantially inhibits recoil or springback of the scrap region from the neutral stamped position when the scrap region is severed from the part. A method of stamping a sheet metal part having at least one scrap region prone to recoil formed therein utilizing the device and severing the scrap region is also disclosed.
US09415428B2

Systems, devices, and methods are provided for self-cleaning photovoltaic panels that utilize piezo devices capable of causing vibrational movement in the panels.
US09415423B2

System, methods, and computer-readable media. A method performed by a mail sorter includes receiving a plurality of mailpieces in an input of the sorter. The method includes performing a buffered sort process by transporting the mailpieces along a plurality of transport lanes, each transport lane having an output tray and a buffer, from the input to respective buffers and output trays on the transport lanes, but not transporting mailpieces from the input to an output tray on a selected transport lane. The method includes transporting mailpieces from the buffer to the output tray on the selected transport lane during the buffered sort process. The method includes selecting a new selected transport lane of the plurality of transport lanes. The method includes repeating the buffered sort process and the transporting mailpieces from the buffer to the output tray on the selected transport lane.
US09415411B2

A masking plug may including a retainer having a longitudinal axis, the retainer including a central portion and an axially aligned anchor portion, the anchor portion being outwardly biased relative to the longitudinal axis, and a plug body disposed around the central portion, wherein the anchor portion is configured to exert an axial force upon the plug body when inserted within an opening.
US09415401B2

A power assembly that can obtain duration discharge of product upon a single turn of an actuator sleeve to pressurize product and ready it for dispensing. The assembly includes a piston carried by a piston housing for reciprocation in a cylinder cup having a pump chamber. The actuator sleeve is connected through a clutch disc to a drive screw that is connected to reciprocate the piston housing and piston when the actuator sleeve is rotated. The clutch disc is operative to first disengage the actuator sleeve from the drive screw and then move a stem valve to an open position when an actuator is depressed to dispense product. The power assembly can be used with various energy storage devices such as springs, gases or elastics to exert pressure on product to be dispensed when the actuator is turned.
US09415399B2

An apparatus for mixing and separating magnetic particles in a liquid comprises a holder having a plurality of apertures configured as an array of rows and columns and a plurality of containers capable of receiving liquid containing magnetic particles, each container being sized to be placed in one of the apertures; plural magnets capable of being moved relative to the containers between a first position and a second position to change the position of the magnets and magnetic particles in the container; and a drive mechanism for moving the magnets between positions at a sufficiently high speed that the particles do not settle down due to gravitational forces during motion between the first and second positions.
US09415398B2

One aspect of the invention provides a device for sorting non-magnetic particles. The device includes: (a) a fluid holding chamber comprising an inner and outer surface; (b) a fluid in contact with the inner surface of the fluid holding chamber, said fluid containing a dispersion of magnetic particles and at least two sets of non-magnetic particles; and (c) at least two sources of magnetic fields positioned in close proximity to, or inside of, the fluid holding chamber. The at least two sources of magnetic fields produce a changeable pattern of magnetic field minima and maxima regions thereby causing said non-magnetic particles in the fluid to be transported towards the magnetic field minima regions by magnetic force. At least one of said sources of magnetic fields comprises an array of magnetizable features on a micrometer or nanometer length scale.
US09415384B2

Improved catalyst supports, supported catalyst, and method of preparing and using the catalysts for the hydrodesulfurization of a residuum hydrocarbon feedstock are disclosed. The catalyst supports comprise titania alumina having 5 wt % or less titania and have greater than 70% of their pore volume in pores having a diameter between 70 and 130 and less than 2% in pores having a diameter above 1000. Catalysts prepared from the supports contain Groups 6, 9 and 10 metals or metal compounds, and optionally phosphorus, supported on the titania alumina supports. Catalysts in accordance with the invention exhibit improved sulfur and MCR conversion in hydrotreating processes.
US09415383B2

An exhaust gas purification catalyst includes a catalytic layer on a carrier, in which a particle component A and a particle component B are mixed. The particle component A is composed of catalytic-metal-doped CeZr-based mixed oxide powder, and has a particle size distribution with a peak in a particle size range of equal to or greater than 100 nm and equal to or less than 300 nm. A CeO2/(CeO2+ZrO2) mass ratio of CeZr-based mixed oxide is equal to or greater than 30% and equal to or less than 75%. The particle component B is composed of at least one selected from a group consisting of activated alumina powder, Zr-based-oxide-supported alumina powder, and catalytic-metal-undoped CeZr-based mixed oxide powder. At least a part of particles of the particle component B has a particle size larger than that of the particle component A.
US09415362B2

The invention concerns a process for the production of a tableting excipient with the following process steps: At least two of the following components are made available: A filler/binding agent; A lubricant; A flow regulating agent; A disintegrant; The available components are mixed together.
US09415360B2

Provided is a site vehicle for mixing and loading multiple kinds of explosives with different detonation velocities. The vehicle contains a double-helix conveying system, a plurality of storage bins (5-8) and multiple sets of pipelines. Emulsified bases, porous granular ammonium nitrate and physical density modifier are stored in the main material storage bins, an adjuvant storage bin is provided with a diesel tank (4, 31), a sensitizing solution tank (40) and a washing water tank (11), and the technical effect that multiple kinds of explosives with different detonation velocities are mixed and loaded can be realized by using the different combinations of the different raw materials of the storage bins and various output pipelines and some baffle plates. The vehicle has the advantages of multiple purposes, capability of producing heavy emulsion explosive, density-modifiable heavy emulsion explosive, low density emulsion explosive, ultra-low density emulsion explosive, heavy ammonium nitrate fuel oil explosive, density-modifiable ammonium nitrate fuel oil explosive, porous granular ammonium nitrate fuel oil explosive, density-modifiable porous granular ammonium nitrate fuel oil explosive, and minor-diameter and long-distance conveying emulsion explosive, and applicability to the needs of various blasting operation environments and loading different kinds of explosives in the same blast hole.
US09415357B2

Honeycomb body interdigitating mixers have parallel cells extending along a common direction, the mixer comprising a first fluid path extending within a honeycomb body perpendicular to the common direction, at least a high aspect ratio portion of the first fluid path having an aspect ratio of height in the common direction to width perpendicular to the common direction and to the first path direction of at least 3:1, and a second fluid path extending perpendicular to the common direction, the second fluid also having a high aspect ratio portion having an aspect ratio of at least 3:1, wherein the first fluid path is fluidically connected to the second fluid path within their respective high aspect ratio portions via a group of apertures, the group extending in the common direction, the group of apertures taken together having a ratio of height to width of at least 3:1.
US09415356B1

The present invention provides a chemical-liquid mixing method and a chemical-liquid mixing apparatus capable of sufficiently generating a peroxomonosulfuric acid that is effective in removing a resist from a substrate, when a sulfuric acid and a hydrogen peroxide solution are mixed with each other. At first, an inner tank 10 is filled up with a sulfuric acid and the sulfuric acid overflowing from the inner tank 10 is allowed to flow into an outer tank 12. Then, a hydrogen peroxide solution is supplied into the inner tank 10 and the hydrogen peroxide solution is allowed to flow into the outer tank 12 whereby the two kinds of liquids of the hydrogen peroxide solution and the sulfuric acid are stored in the outer tank 12. Simultaneously when the hydrogen peroxide solution flows into the outer tank 12, a return pump 16 is activated.
US09415355B2

An improved venturi device and method for facilitating the mixture of fluid substances, such as wine and air. The device may be combined with a dispensing valve to further promote functionality. The improved venturi device is especially effective in drawing a second fluid into the primary flow of a first fluid, and when combined with a dispensing valve it obviates the need for a venturi independent from a valve to accomplish mixing at low flows and low liquid head pressure.
US09415319B1

The motorcycle transparent globe toy device provides a transparent globe within which at least one model motorcycle with rider is magnetically attracted to an interior surface via a plurality of ferrous particles. A remote controller for each motorcycle with rider dictates a speed of each. A plurality of arrangements of ferrous particles in the interior surface provides any number of patterns of a track system within the globe.
US09415312B2

A method for verifying a request signal from a client in a Web-based game including sending a start signal of a game mission to a server; sending an acquired score and a completion time of a sub-mission of the game mission to the server, and completing the sum-mission by sending a unique key corresponding to the completion of the sub-mission to the client on the basis of the completion time and the acquired score; and sending a retransmission unique key and reward requesting information corresponding to the completion of the game mission to the server when the sub-mission is completed, and approving the completion of the game mission of the client on the basis of the retransmission unique key and information on the completion of the sub-mission. Accordingly, it is possible to prevent the client from abnormally acquiring a point or an item.
US09415311B2

Providing a location-based online game for a plurality of mobile devices, including: assigning a force field around a player corresponding to each mobile device of the plurality of mobile devices, wherein a radius of the force field is proportional to a score or experience point of the player in the online game; determining a location of said each mobile device; calculating colliding forces among the plurality of mobile devices and virtual environment created in the online game; providing a forum to enable a battle among the plurality of mobile devices and the virtual environment which are calculated as being in the colliding forces and sampling metadata including water, highway, road, grass, forest, business area and residential area to generate the online game.
US09415309B2

Supplemental computing devices that provide processing and/or storage resources to game consoles to assist these game consoles in executing a game. In some instances, a game console locally executes a copy of a game using resources of the game console. In addition, however, the game console may couple to a supplemental computing device that includes resources that the game console may also utilize to increase the speed or quality of a user's gaming experience. For instance, the supplemental computing device may couple via a physical connection (e.g., a wired connection) to the game console for processing data associated with the game and providing a result back to the console, and/or for storing game data on behalf of the game console.
US09415307B2

Various embodiments disclosed herein are directed to a gesture enhanced game play system that includes a display system, a sensor system, a feedback system, and one or more computing systems. The sensor system is configured to detect at least one touch gesture when the touch gesture is at least proximate the virtual game layout. During play of the game, a player's touch gestures are evaluated as either a functional gameplay touch gesture or non-functional gameplay touch gestures. Each functional gameplay touch gesture relates directly to reaching an outcome of a current game. Each non-functional gameplay touch gesture may be associated with a feedback system that responds to the non-functional gameplay touch gestures by the player with visual, audio, tactile feedback or the altering of certain game parameters and displays, giving at least the impression that the non-functional gestures affect game outcomes.
US09415299B2

A method that incorporates teachings of the subject disclosure may include, for example, detecting movement of a cover of the device with respect to a body of the device, and determining, in response to detecting movement of the cover, that the device is ready for use. If the device is ready for use, a signal is transmitted to a computing device, and the computing device is directed to perform an initializing procedure for a gaming engine executing on the computing device. Additional embodiments are disclosed.
US09415291B2

An aspect of the invention relates to a golf swing analyzing apparatus, comprising: an arithmetic section operating to use the output of an inertial sensor to calculate bending moment acting on the golf club, the inertial sensor being attached to the golf club.
US09415290B2

An aspect of the invention relates to a golf swing analyzing apparatus, comprising: a first arithmetic section operating to use an output from a first inertial sensor and an output from a second inertial sensor to calculate a first energy amount, the first inertial sensor being attached to a portion of an upper body of a golfer, the second inertial sensor being attached to a golf club, the first energy amount being generated in the upper body of the golfer; a second arithmetic section operating to use the output from the first inertial sensor and the output from the second inertial sensor to calculate a second energy amount transferred to the golf club from the upper body of the golfer; and a processing section calculating an energy transferring ratio of an energy transferred from the upper body of the golfer to the golf club based on a ratio of the second energy amount to the first energy amount.
US09415288B2

Systems and methods for basketball shot training and an apparatus therefore are disclosed. In one embodiment, the providing a basketball shot training apparatus includes a first arm extending from a web, a second arm extending from the web, a cavity defined by the first and second arm and the web, a first-arm band disposed on and surrounding a portion of the first arm, and a second-arm band disposed on and surrounding a portion of the second arm.
US09415279B2

An adjustable golf club putter head is disclosed herein. The putter head includes a removable alignment feature that can be swapped with a different alignment feature to change the alignment pattern, and a removable divider piece that contrasts with the alignment feature and can be swapped with different divider pieces to affect the cosmetics of the putter head and also adjust the putter head's mass properties.
US09415274B2

The present invention is directed to multi-layer golf balls including a layer formed from a composition comprising a relatively soft or low modulus HNP and a layer formed from a composition comprising a relatively hard or high modulus HNP.
US09415273B2

Multi-layered golf balls containing a two or three-layered core assembly are provided. In one embodiment, the core assembly includes an inner core (center) comprising a thermoset composition, an intermediate core layer; and surrounding outer core layer. Preferably, the thermoplastic composition comprises: a) ethylene acid copolymer, b) plasticizer, and c) cation source. A fatty acid ester such as ethyl oleate is preferably used as the plasticizer. A second thermoset composition such as polybutadiene rubber may be used to form the outer core layer. The core layers have different hardness levels. In another embodiment, a two-layered core structure is provided. For example, the inner core and/or outer core layer may be made of the plasticized thermoplastic composition. The core structure and resulting ball have relatively good resiliency at given compressions.
US09415266B2

A wearable device assembly has a housing supporting a controller, display and indicator system thereon. The controller has at least one sensor wherein activity of a user wearing the device is detected. The controller selectively illuminates the indicator system to indicate a level of activity of the user.
US09415265B2

Methods, systems, and products monitor athletic performance. Location information is acquired that indicates a device is in movement. A level of difficulty associated with the location information is retrieved and associated to a distance traversed during the movement. The distance traversed and the level of difficulty are stored in a database.
US09415259B2

A device for training the body of a user (1) includes a mechanism (2) with levers (3) arranged to be operated by no more than two limbs of the user. The levers are linked to a flywheel configuration (4) such that the flywheel configuration is actuated/driven by periodic push and/or pull forces exercised by the user to those levers. The resistance of the flywheel configuration can be varied. The device can be put into at least two orientations with respect to a base plate (13), so that the levers are moved by the user either forward and backward or upward and downward. The levers are arranged to be actuated by either the user's hands or the user's feet.
US09415241B2

The charged particle beam irradiation system includes a charged particle beam generating unit, scanning electromagnets, a beam irradiation apparatus, beam radiation dose measuring instrument(s), and a beam position measuring instrument for obtaining one or both of the position and the width of the beam scanned by the scanning electromagnets. The beam position measuring instrument obtains one or both of the position and the width of the beam for each irradiation spot and determines whether the obtained result is within an allowable range and obtains one or both of the position and the width of the charged particle beam for each split during irradiation to the spot with the charged particle beam regarding a split of which a dose is managed by dividing a part of or all of irradiation spots into irradiation sections and determines whether the obtained result is within an allowable range.
US09415237B2

The invention relates to a light treatment system (10, 12). The light treatment system comprises a light source (20, 22) for emitting light (100) for illuminating a part of a human or animal body (30) for light treatment. The light treatment system further comprises a housing (40, 42) for emitting light towards the part of the human or animal body, and for at least partially covering the illuminated part of the human or animal body from view. The housing further comprises a window (50, 52, 54, 56) for emitting light from an inner part of the housing away from the housing. An effect of the light treatment system according to the invention is that the window in the housing may be used as indicator whether the light treatment system is operating and/or functioning well. Furthermore, the presence of a luminescent material, for example, on the window, may be used as indicator for, for example, ultraviolet light as part of the ultraviolet light may be converted by the luminescent material into visible light.
US09415235B2

This invention provides devices and methods for remodeling the female genital tissue, the device comprising a treatment tip, wherein the distal end of the treatment tip is conical, spherical, hemispherical, oval or circular in shape. The device further comprises one or more energy delivery elements for simultaneous cooling of the vaginal epithelium and transmission of energy for heating the tissues underneath the epithelium. In one embodiment, said device may further comprise one or more of the following: one or more temperature sensors for measuring the temperature at or below the epithelium; one or more directional sensors mounted on the hand piece or treatment tip; and one or more depth markers to show the depth of penetration of the treatment tip into the vagina. In another embodiment, this invention provides a device having a finger holder with electrodes for remodeling the female genital tissue.
US09415232B2

A system for resuscitation of a heart attack victim. The system includes CPR device which compresses the victim's chest, a defibrillator which may be used to defibrillate the patient, and an identification system for identifying the person operating the system. Depending on the identity of the operator, the system permits varying degrees of access to components and enablement of the functions of the various subsystems.
US09415230B2

A current limiter for a defibrillation pulse is powered by the defibrillation pulse and switches the current delivery path open and closed when an excessive current condition exists. The excessive current condition is sensed by a sense resistor of the current limiter. The controlled current is delivered by an inductor which delivers a current which varies in a range about a predetermined current level during excessive current conditions. The current limiter dissipates little energy of the defibrillation pulse so that most of the energy produced by the defibrillator is delivered to the patient.
US09415226B1

During cross-chamber pacing, where anodal capture may not be desirable, pulses are applied between a cathode electrode in a first chamber and an anode electrode in a second chamber. A capture detector detects for capture of the second chamber by the pacing pulses. If capture of the second chamber persists, another electrode is selected as the anodal electrode. During single-chamber pacing, where anodal capture may be desirable, pulses are applied between a cathode electrode and an anode electrode associated with the same chamber. A capture detector detects for capture at both electrodes. If anodal capture is not detected, the energy of the pacing pulse is increased, until anodal capture is detected.
US09415221B2

The present invention is an improved hermetic package for implantation in the human body. The implantable device of the present invention includes an eclectically non-conductive bass including electrically conductive vias through the substrate. A circuit is flip-chip bonded to a subset of the vias. A second circuit is wire bonded to another subset of the vias. Finally, a cover is bonded to the substrate such that the cover, substrate and vias form a hermetic package.
US09415207B2

In one example, a cochlear lead includes a flexible body, an array of electrodes in the flexible body, and a plurality of wires passing along the array of electrodes. The plurality of wires includes a flexural geometry between each pair of adjacent electrodes and a substantially straight geometry over the electrodes. A method for forming an electrode array with a reduced apical cross section is also provided.
US09415204B2

A focal tissue stimulator is provided that includes a pair of concentric conductors. The conductors may include an inner conductor, and an outer conductor that has an elliptical annular shape and surrounds the inner conductor. The outer conductor may have a minor axis and a mutually-perpendicular, major axis, with a first portion of the outer conductor proximate the minor axis being closer in proximity to the inner conductor than a second portion of the outer conductor proximate the major axis. In this regard, the inner and outer conductors may be coupled or couplable to respective leads configured to deliver current for passage therebetween, with the elliptical annular shape of the outer conductor creating a pathway of increased current density at the first portion relative to the second portion.
US09415198B2

A method and apparatus for application of a microneedle patch to a skin surface of a patient includes use of an applicator. The applicator includes a housing, a slidably disposed applicator plate, and a compression spring. The applicator plate is moveable between a retracted position and a deployed position, and has an engaging surface suitable for mashing up against a microneedle patch and pressing it against a skin surface. A docking system transfers the microneedle patch from a support to the applicator without requiring a user to handle the microneedle patch directly. Once mounted in the applicator, the microneedle patch is deployed against a skin surface of a patient for delivery of a desired agent via a microneedle array contained on the patch.
US09415191B2

A medical article securement device holds a medical article such as a catheter hub or a connector fitting in position upon the body of a patient and inhibits movement of the medical article relative to the patient. The medical article includes an elongated body, a pair of outwardly extending wings, and a port. The securement device includes a retainer and at least one anchor pad. The retainer forms a channel into which at least a portion of the medical article is secured. The retainer includes at least one abutment that abuts against a contact point or surface on the port. The anchor pad includes an adhesive layer that is attached to both an epidural layer of a patient and at least a portion of the pair of wings.
US09415184B2

A system and related method to optimize the process of getting a child to fall asleep. The system is a computer-implemented system comprising a set of functions or algorithms to assist a child develop a routine to fall asleep. The particular routines are dependent on the age of the child, with three categories being toddlers, preschoolers and school-age children. The routines include providing for the generation of a set of sounds for selectable periods of time, dependent on the age group. The sounds include lullabies, stories, songs and white noise. The time periods range from 15-45 minutes. The method involving the use of the sound generation routine establishes a regularity of process that comforts a child and enhances the likelihood of a good transition to sleep.
US09415182B2

An apparatus comprises a mask, a sensor body configured to be attached to the mask, and an electronic module for producing an output in response to air flow through the sensor body.
US09415181B2

A face mask that may be used for bag-mask ventilation, during the induction of general anesthesia for example, and allows for two-handed or ambidextrous use. The face mask includes a dome connected to a deformable rim, which forms an enclosed air space when the rim is pressed against a patient's face. The dome has a connection port and a contoured outer surface adjacent the connection port. The contoured outer surface includes contour features such as a pair of crossed composite recesses which may each receive a different one of a user's thumbs. The connection port is aligned with the patient's mouth when the mask is in use and an adapter may be included that attaches to the connection port and provides a ventilation port as well as an intubation port that is aligned with the mouth.
US09415176B1

An autoinjector that automatically retracts a needle contained therein includes an injection assembly, having a plunger and a movable piston coupled to the plunger, a retraction assembly coupled to the injection assembly, and an end-of-dose visual indicator disposed within the retraction assembly. The retraction assembly includes an opaque section, a transparent or translucent section coupled to the opaque section, and a drug container having a hypodermic needle. The end-of-dose visual indicator is disposed within the retraction assembly such that the indicator moves upwardly from the opaque section of the retraction assembly to the transparent or translucent section of the retraction assembly upon full administration of a drug solution or medicine contained within the drug container. The end-of-dose visual indicator may be configured according to many preferred embodiments, among which may include a hollow cylinder, a split indicator ring, a co-extruded ring, and a multi-faceted polygonal cylinder.
US09415172B2

The disclosure pertains to a safety syringe having a retractable needle shield which is capable of being retracted to expose the needle for use; being advanced to a needle shielding position; and, if desired, of being removed from the syringe with the shielded needle safely contained within the retractable needle shield via a frangible segment between the syringe barrel and the needle/needle shield components. The disclosure further pertains to a method of using the safety syringe having a retractable needle shield.
US09415169B2

A gasket configured so that a pusher having a male screw thread on the outer periphery of its tip is connected to the gasket through the male screw thread and so that the gasket slides within a syringe outer tube when the pusher is operated in the longitudinal direction. The gasket includes: a gasket body having a hollow section and a female screw thread in the inner peripheral section of the hollow section engaged by the male screw thread; and projections on the outer peripheral section of the gasket body extending circumferentially of the outer peripheral section and axially arranged in spaced relation to each other. When the gasket is not yet inserted into the syringe outer tube, a screw thread located in a portion on the inner side of and in direct proximity to the projection has a smaller height than a screw thread located in the remaining portion.
US09415165B2

An injector apparatus includes a housing (101, 102) for a cartridge or syringe, a plunger (40) for cooperating in use with the cartridge or syringe to express successive doses, a dose setting arrangement (16, 20) to select a dose volume, and a drive mechanism (22, 24) releasable to advance the plunger in respective predetermined increments of magnitude to express the successive doses. The drive mechanism includes a drive spring (22) for imparting movement directly or indirectly to the plunger (40), and the dose setting arrangement includes a dose setting element (16) moveable in a dose setting routine to define a magnitude of an increment of movement of the plunger for a given dose. The drive mechanism further includes a clutch arrangement (56) operable during the dose setting routine to inhibit forward movement of the plunger and/or to isolate the dose setting element from the force of the drive spring.
US09415146B2

A system for removing cryoprotectant from a cryoprotectant-containing liquid stored a container comprises a cryoprotectant removal device that receives the cryoprotectant-containing liquid and a cryoprotectant-free dialysate liquid and that is operable to transfer cryoprotectant to the dialysate liquid. A differential conductivity device is arranged to continuously measure the difference in conductivity between dialysate liquid entering the device and dialysate liquid that has received cryoprotectant transferred by the dialyzer discharged from the device. A controller is operable to control the flow of the liquids through the device in response to the measured difference in conductivity, and particularly to stop the flow of the cryoprotectant-containing liquid when the measured differential conductivity indicates that the cryoprotectant has been substantially removed from the liquid.
US09415144B2

An antithrombotic material has an excellent anticoagulant activity and can form a stable coating layer on a base material through a simple and mild coating process. An antithrombotic material includes a copolymer configured to have 75% by mole to 25% by mole of a repeating unit (A) derived from diacetone(meth)acrylamide represented by the following formula (1) (wherein R1 is a hydrogen atom or a methyl group) and 25% by mole to 75% by mole of a repeating unit (B) derived from a monomer having at least one sulfonate group selected from a group consisting of 2-(meth)acrylamide-2-methyl-propane sulfonic acid, vinyl sulfate, allyl sulfate, styrenesulfonic acid, sulfoethyl(meth)acrylate, and sulfopropyl(meth)acrylate in a molecule, or a salt of the monomer (the total amount of the repeating unit (A) and the repeating unit (B) is 100% by mole).
US09415134B2

The invention relates to a fosfomycin preparation that comprises a) a calcium salt of fosfomycin and b) at least one sugar alcohol having a melting point above 70° C., whereby the weight ratio of sugar alcohol to calcium salt of fosfomycin is at least 0.8. Moreover, the invention proposes a method for producing the fosfomycin preparation and a polymethylmethacrylate bone cement powder that contains the fosfomycin preparation.
US09415125B2

Embodiments described herein may include systems and method for monitoring physiological parameters of a patient. Specifically, embodiments disclose wireless, reusable, rechargeable medical sensors that include an inductive coil coupled to a rechargeable battery. Additionally, embodiments disclose systems and methods for recharging and disinfecting the disclosed medical sensors.
US09415116B2

The present invention features compositions and methods that make use of complexes comprising one or more inhibitory nucleic acids and a targeting polypeptide, wherein the targeting polypeptide consists of a cell surface receptor ligand. The compositions can be used in methods of silencing gene expression in a cell, in delivering agents to a target cell, and in treating or preventing a disease or disorder in a subject.
US09415113B2

Provided herein are monomers incorporating folate or other targeting agent, polymers prepared therefrom, polymers prepared therefrom having a therapeutic agent covalently coupled thereto, as well as micelles and therapeutic compositions thereof.
US09415100B2

Disclosed are an epitope specific to hepatitis B virus (HBV) and use thereof. The disclosed epitope is a conservative position on which mutagenesis does not occur and, therefore, a composition including an antibody to the foregoing epitope or a vaccine composition including the epitope has very low possibility of causing degradation of curing efficacy due to HBV mutation, thus being very useful for HBV treatment.
US09415098B2

The present invention relates to an attenuated mutant strain of Salmonella comprising a recombinant DNA molecule encoding a VEGF receptor protein. In particular, the present invention relate to the use of said attenuated mutant strain of Salmonella in cancer immunotherapy.
US09415097B2

This invention describes novel adjuvant compositions and formulations with excellent stability at refrigerated and room temperatures and up to and about 37° C. that can be produced at remarkably low costs. This invention describes novel vaccine compositions and formulations to treat and prevent urinary tract infections caused by gram-negative bacteria including Escherichia coli and multi-drug resistant E. coli. This invention also describes methods of administration of said novel vaccine compositions and formulations and methods of treatment to prevent and treat urinary tract infections caused by gram-negative bacteria including E. coli and multi-drug resistant E. coli.
US09415096B2

An objective of the present invention is to provide a means for enabling cancer immunotherapy that targets approximately 30% of various cancer patients that highly express forkhead box M1 (FOXM1) among the Japanese, by identifying FOXM1-derived peptides that can activate cancer cell-damaging human killer T cells by binding to HLA-A2. The present invention provides a peptide of (A) or (B) below: (A) a peptide including the amino acid sequence of any one of SEQ ID NOs: 1 to 3; (B) a peptide which includes the amino acid sequence of any one of SEQ ID NOs: 1 to 3, wherein one, two, or several amino acid(s) are substituted, deleted, inserted, and/or added, and wherein the peptide shows cytotoxic (killer) T cell-inducing activity.
US09415093B2

An agent for use in the case of disorders of blood sugar metabolism, including diabetes, is described, which reduces the glucose content of food and other substances with the help of 5-D-fructose dehydrogenase and glucose isomerase.
US09415090B2

The present invention relates to methods for modulating, i.e. increasing or decreasing, the length and/or the complexity of the dendrites of a neuronal cell by influencing the amount of vascular endothelial growth factor D (VEGFD)-related signaling. The present invention further relates to methods for treating age- and/or disease-related cognitive dysfunctions, or for impairing the memory of a subject. Finally, the present invention relates to recombinant VEGFD (rVEGFD) for use in the treatment of age- and/or disease-related cognitive dysfunctions.
US09415088B2

Embodiments are related to processes for using an Anterior Gradient Homolog 3 (AGR3) therapeutic to treat an enhanced AGR2 expressing cancer, or its premalignant precursor, comprising administering an amount of an AGR3 therapeutic to a human patient in need thereof.
US09415087B2

The invention relates to the use of non-immunosuppressive cyclophilin inhibitors in the treatment of Coronavirus infection in a patient.
US09415086B2

Methods and compositions for activating an EphA receptor can be used for identifying therapeutic agents for cancer.
US09415085B2

The invention provides methods and dosing regimens for safely and effectively treating androgen-dependent prostate cancer with a gonadotrophin releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonist without causing a testosterone spike and/or other side effect of GnRH agonist therapy such as a urinary tract infection, or an arthralgia-related or cardiovascular side effect. The present disclosure also provides for methods for treating prostate cancer in a patient with a history of at least one cardiovascular event, wherein administration of degarelix to the subject decreases the likelihood of developing or experiencing an additional cardiovascular event compared to treatment with a gonadotrophin releasing hormone (GnRH) agonist.
US09415081B2

The present invention relates to a composition for preventing or treating acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), comprising one or more of the following: a homogenous cell line, and a lysate, an extract and a culture thereof as an active ingredient. The homogenous cell line, the lysate, the extract and the culture thereof, which are derived from a natural product, minimize adverse side effects of prior therapeutic agents and safe for the human body. Further, they effectively increase the count of T cells such as CD4+ T cells and decrease the number of HIVs, thereby preventing opportunistic infection, dysneuria, and neoplaia caused by immune incompetence, and ultimately the risk of death. Therefore, they are useful in preventing and treating AIDS, and relieving symptoms of AIDS.
US09415073B2

Described herein is a method of generating muscle cells in a subject. The method includes isolating a population of somatic stem cells that are CD133− and 0.3-6.0 micrometers in size and administering to a subject in need thereof an effective amount of the somatic stem cells, whereby the somatic stem cells differentiate into muscle cells in the subject.
US09415068B2

A method for inhibiting dentinal hypersensitivity by applying a dentinal hypersensitivity inhibitor on a dentin surface. The dentinal hypersensitivity inhibitor contains at least one tetracalcium phosphate particle, an alkali metal salt of phosphoric acid, and at least one acidic calcium phosphate particle. The tetracalcium phosphate particle has an average particle diameter of 0.5 to 40 μm. The dentinal hypersensitivity inhibitor contains a blended amount of the tetracalcium phosphate particle of 5 to 55 parts by weight relative to 100 parts by weight of a whole amount of the dentinal hypersensitivity inhibitor and a blended amount of the alkali metal salt of phosphoric acid of 1 to 100 parts by weight relative to 100 parts by weight of the tetracalcium phosphate particle.
US09415061B2

The present invention is concerned with immunostimulant compositions, in particular compositions comprising microparticulate form of murmyl dipeptide, and their use in the treatment of neoplastic disease.
US09415055B2

The present invention is directed to novel cyclic amines which inhibit the P2X7 receptor.
US09415048B2

Methods and compositions for reducing frequency of urination are disclosed. One method comprises administering to a subject in need thereof an effective amount of a pharmaceutical composition comprising one or more analgesic agents.
US09415041B2

The invention provides two crystalline freebase forms of biphenyl-2-ylcarbamic acid 1-(2-{[4-(4-carbamoylpiperidin-1-ylmethyl)benzoyl]methylamino}ethyl)piperidin-4-yl ester. The invention also provides pharmaceutical compositions comprising the crystalline freebase or prepared using the crystalline freebases; processes and intermediates for preparing the crystalline freebases; and methods of using the crystalline freebases to treat a pulmonary disorder.
US09415037B2

[1,2,4]triazolo[1,5-a]pyridine compounds are disclosed that have a formula represented by the following: The compounds may be prepared as pharmaceutical compositions, and may be used for the prevention and treatment of a variety of conditions in mammals including humans, including by way of non-limiting example, diseases involving cartilage degradation, bone and/or joint degradation, for example osteoarthritis; and/or conditions involving inflammation or immune responses, such as Crohn's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, allergic airways disease (e.g. asthma, rhinitis), juvenile idiopathic arthritis, colitis, inflammatory bowel diseases, endotoxin-driven disease states (e.g. complications after bypass surgery or chronic endotoxin states contributing to e.g. chronic cardiac failure), diseases involving impairment of cartilage turnover (e.g. diseases involving the anabolic stimulation of chondrocytes), congenital cartilage malformations, diseases associated with hypersecretion of IL6 and transplantation rejection (e.g. organ transplant rejection) and proliferative diseases.
US09415036B2

A pharmaceutical composition for the acute and/or chronic treatment or prevention of osteoarticular diseases includes an adequate pharmaceutical carrier or diluent, a polysaccharide and/or a glycosaminoglycan, an anti-inflammatory agent and stem cells.
US09415025B2

Therapeutic compositions and methods for treatment of late-onset Gaucher disease are described herein. The compositions comprise compounds having activity as pharmacological chaperones for mutant forms of the beta-glucocerebrosidase. Methods of treatment involve providing therapeutically effective amounts of such compositions to subjects in need thereof.
US09415024B2

Disclosed are compounds of formula I wherein R1, R2, R5 and R6 are as defined in the claims; such compounds have interesting pharmacological properties.
US09415020B2

Hypotonic formulations were evaluated for delivering water-soluble drugs and for drug delivery with muco-inert (that is, non-adhesive) mucus-penetrating nanoparticles (MPP). Hypotonic formulations markedly increased the rate at which drugs and MPP reached the epithelial surface, including deep into the vaginal folds. Minimally hypotonic formulations, preferably ranging from 20-220 mOsm/kg, provided rapid and uniform delivery of MPP to the entire vaginal surface, with minimal risk of epithelial toxicity. Data also show that there is a higher osmolality in the colon, such that vehicles with an osmolality above that of blood plasma (generally considered isotonic at ˜300 mOsm/kg), still lead to improvements in distribution in the colon due to rapid, osmotically-induced fluid absorption. The range for improved colon distribution with a hypotonic vehicle in the colon is ˜20 mOsm/kg-450 mOsm/kg.
US09415017B2

The invention relates to the use of bacterial ghosts (BG) to promote an innate immune response.
US09415012B2

The present invention relates to a sustained-release drug composition consisting essentially of microparticles of a peptide as the active substance and a biocompatible water-soluble polymer, in particular peptide as meianocortin receptor ligand. The present invention relates also to an injection formulation comprising the sustained-release drug composition suspended in an injection medium.
US09415003B2

A skin care method and kit is disclosed that includes instructions for a dietary skin care regimen. The regimen includes a list of prohibited and allowed foods. The list of prohibited foods includes red meat, chocolate, eggs, confections, alcoholic beverages, shellfish, fried foods, and tomatoes. The list of allowed foods includes chicken, turkey, non-fried fish, vegetables, fruit other than a tomato, and olive oil as a salad dressing. The skin care kit further includes a compliance report including the list of prohibited and allowed foods with corresponding data input fields for each food in the list of prohibited and allowed foods. The user indicates an amount of each prohibited and allowed food item consumed by the user in the corresponding data input field. A compliance rating system is disclosed in which the total number of servings of prohibited and allowed foods consumed by the user determines the user's compliance level.
US09415001B2

A liquid aryl group-containing polyorganosiloxane comprising an arylsiloxy unit represented by RSiO3/2 (wherein R is an aryl group), wherein: the arylsiloxy unit constitutes from 20 to 50 mol % of all the siloxy units constituting the polymer, and an average number of moles of aryl groups per 1 mole of Si atoms in the molecule is within a range of 1.20 to 1.65. A composition with an oil agent of the same, wherein the overall refractive index of the composition is not less than 1.45, and an overall viscosity at 25° C. of the composition is in a range from 100 to 100,000 mPa·s.
US09414995B2

The present application provides dental fillers, and methods of making and using dental fillers that include a treated surface that includes phosphorus and a divalent cation. Dental compositions including such dental fillers can be useful for delivering ions to the oral environment.
US09414994B2

The invention pertains to a time-controlled dispensing device comprising at least a tray and a cover, which may be lockable, for example via snap fitting, for consecutive dispensing of doses of medicaments. The device comprises a desired number of storage compartments and/or cartridges, for example disposable cartridges, each containing a predetermined dose of one or several medicaments. The tray is fitted with a transporting means for displacing the tray to a position where a desired compartment and/or cartridge will be in the only dispensing position suitable for removal of the dose, as a response to a signal from a timing means. The timing means is connected to a reminder and/or an alarming means, directed to the person using the device and a person at a distance, respectively. By way of the alarming means, removal of doses is indicated, for example through the manipulation of a lever or a hatch, and a signal may be sent for example via GSM or via the internet.
US09414988B2

A kit including a packaging material and a solid pharmaceutical or nutraceutical product, and in particular for a solid, opioid-based pharmaceutical product. The packaging material has an inner surface and an outer surface that avoids contamination of the product. At least that part of the inner surface, which is exposed to the pharmaceutical or nutraceutical product, is made of or covered with an inert material selected from the group made of polyamide, polyethylene terephthalate and epoxy resin-coated aluminium. The solid pharmaceutical or nutraceutical product is either a solid, opioid-based pharmaceutical product or is selected from the group made of acemetacin, amitriptyline, amobarbital, butalbital, carbachol, citric acid, dexmethylphenidate, fluoxetine, mephobarbital, metamizole, methadone, methylphenidate, methylphenobarbital, nicotine, nifedipine, oxprenolol, oxyconazole, pentobarbital, phenobarbital, phentermine, primidone, proparacaine, propoxyphene, secobarbital, selegiline, tetrahydropapaverine, trimethobenzamide, and mixtures thereof.
US09414985B2

A modular system of niches or crypts for the deposit of ashes and/or dry remains with easy assembly which does not require high skill training. The modular system can have different heights and widths of the niches, which is possible by the use of connectors. The modular system for crypts can be recoated with an aesthetically pleasing to the eye material, such as ceramic, marble or other materials.
US09414969B2

Implementations of ornamental cast covers are provided. In some implementations, the ornamental cast cover comprises a puppet having at least one set of appendages and one or more elastics bands each connecting a portion of the puppet on one side of the puppet to a portion of the puppet on the other side of the puppet. In some implementations, the ornamental cast cover comprises an elongated tubular leg portion having an opening through the leg portion and a foot portion having an opening through the foot portion and a flap. The flap may be detached from a portion of the cast cover to create a larger opening to insert an appendage having a cast or brace thereon. In some implementations, the leg portion and foot portion are configured to receive a cast or brace therein. In some implementations, the ornamental cast cover comprises an elongated tubular portion having a first end and a second end and a thumb strap extending from the elongated tubular portion.
US09414965B2

The present disclosure relates to a height adjustment arrangement (100) for an ear cup in a hearing protector unit, wherein the height adjustment arrangement (100) comprises an elongated member (130) and a tubular holding member (110) connected to the elongated member, wherein the holding member provides a substantially hollow interior (111). The height adjustment arrangement further comprises a clamping member (120), wherein the clamping member is arranged to be moved from an unlocked position, in which position relative movement between the elongated member (130) and the holding member (110) is enabled, to a locking position, in which position relative movement between the elongated member and the holding member is prevented. The holding member (110) comprises a first locking member (114), wherein the second end of the holding member is provided with two flanges (115a, 115b) tapering in a direction towards the clamping member, and wherein the first locking member and the flanges are axially separated. The clamping member comprises a hollow interior with a tapering part, which tapers in a direction away from the holding member, and a second locking member, wherein the tapering part and the second locking member are axially separated.
US09414962B2

A device for treatment of glaucoma and prevention of sub-scleral fibrosis and blockage. This invention relates to a device for treatment of glaucoma comprising of a circular patch (1) with a plurality of holes wherein the patch is made of biocompatible material. Further, this invention also relates to a device for prevention of sub-scleral fibrosis and blockage comprising of a circular patch with a cut integrally provided with a lip (2) wherein the patch is made of bio compatible material and having a plurality of holes.
US09414961B2

A system, method, and apparatus for generating at least one user adjustable, accurate, real-time, virtual surgical reference indicium including data for making at least one limbal and/or corneal relaxing incision for use in astigmatism correcting procedures are disclosed. An example method includes providing at least one real-time multidimensional visualization of at least a portion of an eye to a surgeon and producing at least one rotationally accurate virtual indicium including data for making at least one limbal relaxing incision, at least one corneal relaxing incision or a combination thereof on the eye in conjunction with the real-time multidimensional visualization of at least a portion of the eye.
US09414954B2

The garment is adapted to be worn by a wearer. The garment includes a main body portion. The main body portion is configured to be worn over at least a portion of the wearer's body. The main body portion includes first and second portions each defining a longitudinal axis and configured to extend toward a respective limb of the wearer so as to envelop a portion of a respective limb of the wearer. At least a portion of the first strap is releasably affixed to the main body portion, and at least a first grip layer is associated with the first portion. The first strap overlies the first grip layer. The first grip layer is configured to come into contact with a wearer's skin when the garment is worn.
US09414946B2

A device and method for deploying an intestinal sleeve is disclosed. The intestinal sleeve has an impermeable layer and a tissue ingrowth layer. The intestinal sleeve is temporarily anchored to the wall of a patient's duodenum and the wall tissue grows into the tissue ingrowth layer anchoring the intestinal sleeve within the patient's duodenum.
US09414933B2

Methods and apparatuses for restoration of human or animal bone anatomy, which may include introduction, into a bone of an expansible implant capable of expansion in a single determined plane, positioning the expansible implant in the bone in order to correspond the single determined plane with a bone restoration plane and opening out the expansible implant in the bone restoration plane. A first support surface and a second support surface spread tissues within bone. The embodiments of the disclosure may also include injecting a filling material around the implant.
US09414916B2

Apparatus for actuating a delivery system are disclosed. The apparatus may comprise an adapter. The adapter may comprise an input, a first actuator, and a second actuator. The adapter may be configured to receive a portion of a delivery system. The adapter may be configured to impart translational motion to the delivery system. The adapter may be configured to impart translational motion to a catheter. The adapter may be configured to be actuated by a motorized device or a drill. The adapter may be configured to actuate multiple delivery systems. The adapter may be configured to at least partially compress a portion of an article such as a prosthetic heart valve.
US09414908B2

According to a first aspect, the invention relates to an intraocular variable focus implant comprising a non-conducting liquid with a melting temperature above 0° C., a conducting liquid, a liquid interface formed by the non-conducting and conducting liquids, a first electrode in contact with the conducting liquid, a second electrode insulated from the conducting liquid, wherein the liquid interface is movable by electro wetting according to a change in a voltage applied between the first and second electrodes.
US09414902B2

A system and method of treating vaginal prolapse and incontinence comprises a kit. The kit includes a mesh graft configured for attachment to the anterior and posterior vaginal walls to thereby treat the vaginal prolapse. A graft delivery device is also provided for introducing and placing the mesh graft to a location deep within the peritoneal cavity and for attaching the graft thereto. A leg assembly is provided and coupled to an end of the mesh graft and cooperates with the graft delivery device to anchor and affix the mesh graft to the desired anatomical structures. The method according to the present invention contemplates a laparoscopic graft placement utilizing the components of the kit.
US09414900B2

A feather imping method uses a feather imping pin that attaches a donor feather to a receiving feather. The feather imping pin is inserted into a receiving feather shaft of the receiving feather. Feather imping is performed using the feather imping pin that connects the donor feather and the receiving feather. The feather imping pin fits inside both the receiving feather shaft of the receiving feather and a donor feather shaft of the donor feather.
US09414898B2

A method of preparing a dental prosthesis to be attached onto a dental implant. A replica including at least a segment of a customized abutment substitutes the customized abutment for supporting the dental prosthesis while it is being installed onto the physical model for its processing. An improved implant analog and the replica of the customized abutment are provided as well.
US09414895B2

The present invention relates to methods for the restoration of a decayed portion of an anterior tooth or re-restoration of a previously filled anterior tooth, and to dental matrices and composite resin dispensers that may be used in the methods for the restoration of a decayed portion of an anterior tooth.
US09414892B2

Arrangements are disclosed in which proximal portions of a marker wire are effectively secured. In one embodiment, a proximal portion of the marker wire is positioned inside a tubular member that allows for slidable movement of the marker wire within the tubular member. In some embodiments, a proximal portion of the marker wire is coupled to a spring member. Some embodiments also disclose a movement-resisting member having flaps that contact the surface of the marker wire and resist movement of the marker wire in one or more directions.
US09414877B2

Adjustable opening jacks with designs that incorporate a novel locking hinge mechanism and adjustable separation arms to achieve broader scopes of application, bone plate specificity, and variable bone size capability during various osteotomy procedures. The locking hinge mechanism constrains the upper body from moving in either the vertical plane or anterior-posterior (AP) slope trajectory depending on the mode of application. The opening jack has a configuration that allows for a straight and/or sloped opening.
US09414865B2

Eccentrically shaped bone fixation implants interact with bone fragments or joints to compress the bone fragments or joint bones together. The eccentrically shaped bone fixation implants can have longer and shorter portions along an axis and a plurality of teeth with opposing beveled surfaces in different configurations to vary both the direction and amplitude of the compressive forces applied to the bone fragments or joint bones. Instrumentation for implanting and orienting the eccentrically shaped bone fixation implants are also disclosed herein.
US09414864B2

An anterior spinal plate has affixed to at least a portion of a surface thereof at least one preformed drug-eluting device fabricated from a drug-eluting matrix containing at least one elutable drug.
US09414863B2

A polyaxial bone screw assembly includes a receiver, a shank, an articulation structure for retaining the shank in the receiver and a compression insert for engagement with a longitudinal connecting member such as a rod. The articulation structure includes substantially spherical convex and concave surfaces that slidably engage both shank and receiver surfaces to provide compound articulation between the receiver and the shank. The receiver includes inwardly directed spring tabs engaging the insert and prohibiting rotation of the insert within the receiver.
US09414860B2

A manipulation device includes a body portion, a plurality of articulatable legs, and at least one lock member. The legs extend from the body portion. Each of the legs is configured to engage a surgical instrument at a distal end thereof. Each of the legs is transitionable between an unlocked condition, wherein the leg is free to articulate, and a locked condition, wherein the leg is fixed in position. The at least one lock member is operably disposed within the body portion and is coupled to at least one of the articulatable legs. The lock member is rotatable relative to the body portion between an unlocked position and a locked position for transitioning the at least one articulatable leg coupled thereto between the unlocked condition and the locked condition.
US09414858B2

A cutting device includes an elongated shaft extending between a proximal end and a distal end. A lower portion extends from the distal end of the elongated shaft and includes an outer surface and an inner surface spaced apart from the outer surface which together form a blunt end configured as a stop so as to protect adjacent tissue. An upper portion extends from the distal end of the elongated shaft and including an inner surface. The upper portion is configured so as to be disposed opposite the lower portion. A cutting element is disposed between the lower portion and the upper portion and is configured for retractable extension beyond the distal end of the elongated shaft so as to contact tissue.
US09414848B2

A surgical device comprising: a handle assembly; a locking collar; and a set of replaceable bits that load along an axis into the handle assembly; wherein the locking collar is fully removable from the handle assembly, the locking collar loads axially to a first position, and the locking collar rotates between the first position and a second position; wherein, in the first position, the locking collar is free to be axially removed from the handle assembly and the replaceable bits are free to be loaded or unloaded from the handle assembly; wherein, in the second position, the locking collar is prevented from axial movement relative to the handle assembly and the replaceable bits are prevented from being received within, or removed from, the handle assembly; and the locking collar is guided to the first position and between the first position and the second position by a groove in the handle assembly mating with a member carried by the locking collar. And a surgical device comprising: a handle assembly comprising a rotatable drive shaft; a removable handle assembly adapter for connection to the handle assembly, the removable handle assembly adapter comprising a rotatable transmission shaft for connection to the rotatable drive shaft of the handle assembly; and a removable nosepiece assembly for connection to the removable handle assembly adapter and for selectively securing the shaft of a working element to the rotatable transmission shaft of the removable handle assembly adapter; wherein the removable handle assembly adapter and the removable nosepiece assembly each comprise a locking collar; and wherein the removable handle assembly adapter and the handle assembly each comprise a connector assembly, the connector assembly comprising: a housing comprising an opening; a collet sleeve disposed within the opening and connected to an input shaft, the collet sleeve comprising a lumen for receiving an output shaft; a locking element movable relative to the collet sleeve between (i) a locked position in which the output shaft is secured to the collet sleeve, and (ii) an unlocked position in which the output shaft is not secured to the collet sleeve; and a cam element movable relative to the collet sleeve between (i) a first position in which the locking element is free to assume its unlocked position, and (ii) a second position in which the cam element cams the locking element into the locked position; such that movement of the locking collar causes the cam element to move between the first position and the second position.
US09414838B2

A tissue thickness compensator can comprise a plurality of fibers. Such fibers can include a plurality of first fibers comprised of a first material and a plurality of second fibers comprised of a second material. A tissue thickness compensator can comprise a plurality of layers wherein each layer can be comprised of one or more medicaments. Certain embodiments are disclosed herein for manufacturing a tissue thickness compensator comprising fibers, for example.
US09414836B2

Provided is a tissue ligation device for ligating tissues. The tissue ligation device includes a suture thread, and a hook-like member having a connecting portion connected to a suture thread-side of the connecting portion of the suture thread and a groove whose inner wall has a locking surface disposed so as to face the suture thread-side connecting portion and allowed to be brought into contact with the suture thread.
US09414832B2

A patient's stomach may be secured to the patient's diaphragm. A method to accomplish this includes visualizing a wall of a patient's stomach adjacent the patient's diaphragm from within the patient's stomach, inserting a fastener deployment apparatus down the patient's esophagus and into the mammalian's stomach, and fastening the patient's stomach to the patient's diaphragm with the fastener deployment apparatus and from within the stomach. The procedure may be employed to advantage to treat a hiatal hernia, for example, either alone or in conjunction with the restoration of the patient's gastroesophageal flap valve.
US09414829B2

A medical port includes: a faceplate having a through-hole; a fixing ring formed in an annular shape and having an outer circumferential surface in which an outer diameter is gradually increased from a first opening end opened at a faceplate side toward a second opening end opened at an opposite side of the faceplate side; and a moving member connected to the fixing ring and the faceplate and configured to move the fixing ring with respect to the faceplate such that the fixing ring is pulled toward the faceplate.
US09414827B2

The invention relates to a retraction system for exposing accesses in human medicine, dentistry or veterinary medicine, wherein said retraction system is arranged on the respective body region and has at least one hook-shaped retractor element 1 and retaining means for fixing the latter. The retraction system is characterized in that it is made of a radioparent material and in that it has a self-retaining action and/or is flexible at least in some areas such that, during retraction, a flexible element or a flexible section nestles against a tissue that is to be retracted.
US09414824B2

The present disclosure includes vessel closure devices, systems, and methods. A closure device configured to close an opening in a body lumen may include an elongate member having a distal end and a proximal end. An anchor member may be disposed on the elongate member proximate the distal end of the elongate member. A cap member may also be disposed on the elongate member a distance from the distal end of the elongate member. The anchor member and the cap member cooperate to close the opening in the body lumen.
US09414818B2

A surgical instrument adapted and configured for use in minimally invasive surgical procedures includes a shaft, an end effector and a proximal handle. The longitudinal shaft has proximal and distal end portions, and defines a longitudinal axis of the surgical instrument. The distal end effector is connected to the distal end portion of the shaft, and is adapted and configured for performing a surgical task. The proximal handle portion is operably connected to the proximal end portion of the longitudinal shaft and has an actuatable portion operably connected to the end effector to result in movement of the end effector. The distal end portion of the shaft can be laterally offset from the longitudinal axis of the shaft and/or have one or more bends or curves formed therein. The proximal portion of the shaft can include at least one bend to allow for comfortable positioning of a surgeon's hands.
US09414816B2

A biopsy system comprises an introducer, a biopsy device having a needle, and a marker applier. The introducer may include a closed distal tip, a lateral aperture, a proximally facing interior wall, and a ramp that guides the closed distal end of a marker applier up and into abutment with the wall as the applier is fed into the introducer. The needle of the biopsy device includes a blunt distal end and features providing clearance for the ramp as the blunt distal end is brought into abutment with the wall when the needle is fed into the introducer. The introducer may alternatively include an open distal end having resiliently biased leaves that bear against an inserted biopsy device needle. In some other versions, a fin projects laterally from the closed distal end of a marker applier, spacing the distal end away from a sidewall region of the introducer cannula.
US09414806B2

A transducer is used to send an ultrasound pulse toward a stone and to receive ultrasound reflections from the stone. The recorded time between a pulse that is reflected from the proximal surface and a pulse that is reflected either from the distal surface of the stone or from a surface supporting the stone is used to calculate the stone size. The size of the stone is a function of the time between the two pulses and the speed of sound through the stone (or through the surrounding fluid if the second pulse was reflected by the surface supporting the stone). This technique is equally applicable to measure the size of other in vivo objects, including soft tissue masses, cysts, uterine fibroids, tumors, and polyps.
US09414797B2

A mammography CT system is disclosed which includes an X-ray generator; and a first radiator-detector system. A contrast medium, including an opacifying element including an absorption peak in a first energy range, is useable for tomographic imaging of a female breast of a patient. After filtering, the X-rays with a prespecified tube voltage that form at an anode, are configured to emit an X-ray spectrum having a second energy range, wherein the radiator-detector system is configured to acquire a plurality of circumferential projections around the breast. The first energy range is a part of the second energy range and the second energy range includes an upper limit of less than 70 keV and a lower limit of greater than 20 keV. A corresponding method for generating tomographic mammography CT images is also disclosed.
US09414788B2

Disclosed herein are an X-ray imaging apparatus and a method for generating a stereoscopic image by using the apparatus. The stereoscopic image generation method includes emitting first X-rays toward a target object at a first emission angle, detecting the first X-rays which have propagated through the target object in order to acquire a first X-ray image, emitting second X-rays toward the target object at a second emission angle which is different from the first emission angle, detecting the second X-rays which have propagated through the target object in order to acquire at least a second X-ray image, and generating a stereoscopic image based on the first X-ray image and the at least second X-ray image.
US09414786B1

Various embodiments are directed to signal processing. In accordance with example embodiments, methods and apparatuses involve using at least two electrodes that sense an ECG signal. A denoising module is communicatively coupled to the at least two electrodes, and receives the ECG signal sensed by the sensing electrodes. The denoising module includes circuitry that conditions and digitizes the ECG signal, and a computing circuit that processes the digitized ECG signal to denoise the ECG signal. A communications circuit generates a communication including the denoised ECG signal for access by a remote device.
US09414783B2

A force assessment device and a method for lead extraction are provided. A force gauge is configured to measure a traction force, and a strain gauge that is configured to measure a countertraction force. An interface is communicatively coupled to the force gauge and the strain gauge, and the interface is configured to present data regarding at least one of the traction force and the countertraction force.
US09414778B2

Novel membranes comprising various polymers containing heterocyclic nitrogen groups are described. These membranes are usefully employed in electrochemical sensors, such as amperometric biosensors. More particularly, these membranes effectively regulate a flux of analyte to a measurement electrode in an electrochemical sensor, thereby improving the functioning of the electrochemical sensor over a significant range of analyte concentrations. Electrochemical sensors equipped with such membranes are also described.
US09414776B2

A suite of components comprising an objective measurement medical data collection device and a cohort database may standardize, simplify, and objectify clinical outcomes tracking, culminating in population health measurements within the restorative neurosciences such as Parkinson disease individuals diagnosed with a disease. A data collection device may comprise one or more of a gyroscope, an accelerometer, a locator, a camera and a magnetometer for collecting, for example, data related to tremors experienced by the individuals diagnosed with disease and receive instruction data responsive to evaluation of the collected data in relation to the cohort database. A related method collects objective measurements during phases of treatment such as preoperative symptomatology, probabilistic atlas linked targeting for neuromodulation, accountancy for gravitational effects of brain shift during surgery, measurements of movement and quality of life during supervised treatment and ongoing community and self-directed treatment and provides feedback to implants, intelligent devices and users thereof.
US09414769B2

The present disclosure relates, in some embodiments, to devices, systems, and/or methods for collecting, processing, and/or displaying stroke volume and/or cardiac output data. For example, a device for assessing changes in cardiac output and/or stroke volume of a subject receiving airway support may comprise a processor; an airway sensor in communication with the processor, wherein the airway sensor is configured and arranged to sense pressure in the subject's airway, lungs, and/or intrapleural space over time; a blood volume sensor in communication with the processor, wherein the blood volume sensor is configured and arranged to sense pulsatile volume of blood in a tissue of the subject over time; and a display configured and arranged to display a representative of an airway pressure, a pulsatile blood volume, a photoplethysmogram, a photoplethysmogram ratio, the determined cardiac output and/or stroke volume, or combinations thereof. A method of assessing changes in cardiac output or stroke volume of a subject receiving airway support from a breathing assistance system may comprise sensing pressure in the subject's airway as a function of time, sensing pulsatile volume of blood in a tissue of the subject as a function of time, producing a photoplethysmogram from the sensed pulsatile volume, determining the ratio of the amplitude of the photoplethysmogram during inhalation to the amplitude of the photoplethysmogram during exhalation, and determining the change in cardiac output or stroke volume of the subject using the determined ratio.
US09414762B2

Some embodiments of a mapping device may be capable of passing through cerebral veins and other cerebrovascular spaces to provide electrophysiological mapping of the brain. These embodiments of the device may also be capable of providing, simultaneously or separately, ablation energy or other treatments to targeted brain tissue. In such circumstances, a user may be enabled to analyze an electrophysiological map of a patient's brain and, at the same time or within a short time period before or after the mapping process, may be enabled to apply ablation energy for treatment of a central nervous system disorder. Such treatment may be accomplished without the use of invasive surgery in which the brain is accessed through an opening in the patient's cranium.
US09414761B2

The present subject matter relates to processing of Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals, and in particular, relates to identifying a QRS complex in an ECG signal. The method includes receiving, and filtering the ECG signal by passing through at least one of a first low-pass filter and a high-pass filter to obtain a filtered ECG signal. The filtered ECG signal is processed based on a moving average technique. Further, a search region is identified in the processed ECG signal, and a maximum amplitude peak is identified in a time interval of the filtered ECG signal that corresponds to a time span of the search region of the processed ECG signal. The maximum amplitude peak is an R peak of the QRS complex. Subsequently, a Q peak and an S peak of the QRS complex is identified based on the R peak.
US09414758B1

Monitoring of physiological signals is effected. In accordance with one or more embodiments, an apparatus, system and/or method is directed to sensing physiological signals such as ECG signals. A skin-contacting electrode apparatus includes an electrically conductive sheet having a conductive surface configured and arranged to contact a subject's skin, and conductive flexible microfibers extending from the conductive surface and configured and arranged to protrude into skin pores and sense an ECG signal.
US09414755B2

A physics-based mathematical model is used to estimate central pressure waveforms from measurements of a brachial pressure waveform measured using a supra-systolic cuff. The method has been tested in numerous subjects undergoing cardiac catheterisation. Central pressure agreement was within 11 mm Hg and as good as the published non-invasive blood pressure agreement between the oscillometric device in use and the so-called “gold standard.” It also exceeds international standards for the performance of non-invasive blood pressure measurement devices. The method has a number of advantages including simplicity of application, fast calculation and accuracy of prediction. Additionally, model parameters have physical meaning and can therefore be tuned to individual subjects. Accurate estimation of central waveforms also allow continuous measurement (with intermittent calibration) using other non-invasive sensing systems including photoplethysmography.
US09414750B2

Dental imaging systems include an optical scanner that scans one or more interrogation beams across a portion of at least one tooth to produce a dentally modulated light flux associated with light scattering, absorption, or other interaction of the interrogation beam and a tooth interior. The dentally modulated light flux is detected and processed to produce picture information associated with the tooth. Interrogation wavelengths between 800 nm and 1800 nm can be used to provide images suitable for diagnosis and assessment of demineralization or other defects. Interrogation beams at one or more wavelengths can be used. Multiple detectors can be situated to receive dentally modulated light fluxes at different wavelengths or dentally modulated light fluxes with different directions or different locations. Markers at or on a tooth can be used to for depth determination. Index matching to the tooth can improve image quality.
US09414738B2

Methods, systems, and devices for providing treatment to a target site are described. The system may include a guide assembly, an expandable support device coupled with the distal end of the guide assembly, and an operative member disposed on the expandable support device. The expandable support device may be configured to transition between a collapsed and expanded configuration. The expandable support device may be supported by one or more flexible supports aligned in parallel with an axis about which the expandable support device collapses and/or multiple splines arranged in a pattern configured to promote transitioning of the expandable support device between an expanded and collapsed configuration. The guide assembly may be configured to provide torque to the expandable support device. The operative member can include multiple electrodes arranged in parallel to the axis about which the expandable support device collapses.
US09414736B2

A dishwasher includes a tub at least partially defining a treating chamber and a spraying system for supplying liquid to the treating chamber. The spraying system includes a sprayer having a body with an interior, a liquid passage provided in the interior, and a plurality of outlets extending through the body and in fluid communication with the liquid passage.
US09414732B2

A heatable high-pressure cleaning device (10) is provided with a fuel-operated heat exchanger (19) and a fuel tank (34) which has a tank upper section (38) with a closable filling opening (34) and a tank lower section (36) forming the base (48) of the fuel tank (34). In order to develop the heatable high-pressure cleaning device (10) further in such a manner that it can be produced more inexpensively and have a longer service life, the tank upper section (38) can be connected to the tank lower section (36) in a materially joined manner via a join area (60) and the fuel tank (34) can be fillable with liquid fuel only up to beneath the join area (60) in a horizontal position of use of the high-pressure cleaning device (10).
US09414726B2

A cleaning appliance includes cyclonic separating apparatus for separating dirt from a dirt-bearing fluid flow. The separating apparatus is mounted on a main body which includes a fluid inlet for receiving a fluid flow from the separating apparatus, a system for drawing the fluid flow into the rolling assembly, and a plurality of rolling elements rotatable relative to the main body and which define with the main body a substantially spherical floor engaging rolling assembly. The main body includes a support, which is separate from the fluid inlet, for supporting the separating apparatus.
US09414721B2

The present invention refers to a rigid container for dispensing wet wipes that has a stack of non-intertwined wet wipes inside, and has an opening on its top surface covered by a lid coupled to said container. In this invention, the lid has at least one fastening device on its inner surface. Said fastening device has a first end permanently attached to the inner surface of the lid and has a mechanical element in a second end distant to the first end designed to be attached to the top wet wipe of the stack. Thus, the present invention provides a rigid container with a system for dispensing non-intertwined wet wipes contained therein, wherein only the top wet wipe of the stack contained inside the container is dispensed.
US09414719B2

This invention relates to home furnishings and accessories that utilize corner space of a shower stall as a support platform. The support platform may include a top support surface with two sides positioned to contact two perpendicular walls of the corner. A support frame may connect to the top support surface such that the bottom of the support frame and the top support surface are offset from one another. This offset configuration of the support platform may prevent the support frame from interfering with anything in the area directly below the top support surface.
US09414718B2

A portable hand washing station is provided that has a carrying case with an interior hand washing compartment. A case front wall includes a door to permit hand access into the interior of the hand washing compartment. A lid is connected to the case so that the lid is capable of extending in an upright vertical position. A shelf is connected to the interior surface of the lid. A pair of liquid dispensing reservoirs is supported on the shelf. Each of the reservoirs includes a top wall with a mouth opening, a bottom wall with a drain opening, and a touch operated flow valve connected to the bottom wall in liquid communication to the bottom wall. The flow valves extend in axial alignment each one of the valve openings so that a cleaning or rinsing solution is dispensed into the compartment when the flow valves are deflected by hand.
US09414716B2

An adjustable rack system that is adjustable in length as well as in width. The adjustable rack system may be used to vertically stack and display or store pies or other food or non-food items. The adjustable rack system comprises at least to support members that may be positioned parallel to each other. Each support member comprise a pair of top sliding rails, a pair of bottom sliding rails, and a pair of vertical supports, each vertical support used to couple one of the top sliding rails to a corresponding bottom rail.
US09414714B2

The present invention relates to a funnel comprising: a funnel body, where said funnel body includes an inner layer and an outer layer, and where said funnel body is made of a flexible material; a wide first opening and a wide second opening, where the first opening is larger than the second opening, and where the first opening has a curved portion and a planar portion; and an outwardly extending curved lip disposed on the rim of the first opening.
US09414710B2

A coffee beverage system is described, including a coffee bean packaging cartridge and a coffee brewing apparatus comprising a grinder wherein the coffee bean packaging cartridge is removably connectable to the coffee grinder apparatus. The coffee bean packaging cartridge is arranged for holding and supplying of coffee beans and includes a transportation component adapted for enabling transportation of the coffee beans. The coffee brewing apparatus comprises a motor for driving the transportation component of the first coffee bean packaging cartridge. The system further comprises a ground coffee packaging cartridge, preferably having a transportation component for enabling transportation of ground coffee which transportation component is also removably connectable to the coffee grinder apparatus.
US09414708B2

The present invention is to provide a brewing container, which includes a base formed with a through groove; a water-stopping member; a cup having a bottom end formed with a lower opening, wherein the bottom of the cup is engageable with the through groove so as to joint the cup, the water-stopping member and the base together to form a single unit; and a filtering device including an upper filtering element and a lower filtering element, wherein the lower filtering element has a larger number of openings than the upper filtering element, the bottom of the lower filtering element can be mounted inside the cup to cover the lower opening and form a first filtering space between the lower filtering element and the lower opening, and the bottom of the upper filtering element is engageable with the top of the lower filtering element to form a second filtering space therebetween.
US09414699B2

A beverage container containing a removable lid, the container including a rim, a side wall depending from the rim, a shoulder portion extending inwardly from the side wall, the removable lid comprising an edge extending over the rim, and along the side wall, and against the shoulder portion thereby attaching the lid to the container.
US09414698B2

An incredibly soft, yet supportive, form-fitting head cradle that aids in consistent and comfortable back sleep while eliminating pressure on, or anything touching, your facial skin during sleep. The Back to Beauty™ Anti Wrinkle Head Cradle is a support designed to cradle the head and neck and keep anything from touching facial skin. It is made with a down or alternatively micro fiber materials. It has unique crescent-shaped head supports to deliver the stability and comfort necessary for successful nights sleeping without anything touching the face.
US09414692B2

A bedding or seating product comprises a pocketed spring assembly comprising a plurality of parallel strings of individually pocketed springs. The product may have individual inserts between adjacent strings of springs. Adjacent individually pocketed springs are separated from each other by at least one separating seam. Each of the separating seams comprises a pair of Y-shaped or U-shaped seams which may be joined together or spaced apart.
US09414689B1

A device comprising: a bed frame comprising a platform frame and a headboard frame, wherein the platform frame is T-shaped as defined via a leg portion and a platform portion, wherein the platform portion comprises a spine portion extending longitudinally over the leg portion, wherein the headboard frame defines a U-shaped channel, wherein the spine portion extends through the U-shaped channel and the headboard frame is non-perpendicularly oriented to the platform portion when the headboard frame spans between a wall and a floor, the platform portion is secured to the wall cantileveredly, and the headboard frame is secured to the wall distal to the floor.
US09414688B2

The convertible sofa-bed includes a base, a sliding and pivoting seat, a fold-out extension pivotally connected to the seat, and a fold-down seat back pivotally mounted to the base. The seat is pivotally connected to a pair of slides that ride on side rails mounted to the base, which allow the seat to be manually shifted between a horizontal seat position over base and a horizontal bed position spaced from the base. The seat is also pivotally connected to the slide by a ball joint that allows the seat to pivot upward so that the extension can be unfolded from beneath the seat. The ball joint connection between the slides and seat frame prevents the seat from binding when shifted between the seat position and the bed position even if the seat is not perfectly square with respect to the side rails as it is manually lifted and moved.
US09414687B2

A collapsible seat and storage apparatus converts from a closed position to an open position. The apparatus includes a seat, a shelf, at least one leg, and carrying parts to allow a person to support the apparatus on his or her shoulders. In a partially open configuration, the apparatus provides a seat.
US09414679B2

An article of furniture may include a seat link and a seatback link. The seat link may include first, second and third apertures. The seatback link may be rotatably coupled to the seat link and may include fourth, fifth and sixth apertures. The seatback link and a seatback frame may be rotatable relative to the seat link and a seat-bottom frame among a first position in which only the first and fourth apertures are coaxially aligned, a second position in which only the second and fifth apertures are coaxially aligned, and a third position in which only the third and sixth apertures are coaxially aligned. The seatback link may be rotationally locked relative to the seat link by inserting a fastener in the first and fourth apertures in the first position, the second and fifth apertures in the second position, and the third and sixth apertures in the third position.
US09414678B2

A shelf has a front edge with reduced vertical dimension whereby the shelf appears to be very thin when viewed from the front. The shelf includes opposite end portions that are configured to engage spaced apart vertical support surfaces to thereby support the shelf. The shelf includes a generally planar upper portion and a lower portion structure having a generally planar horizontal rear portion and an angled front portion that extends forwardly and upwardly to provide a thin front edge of the shelf.
US09414669B2

A light pack which may be an attachment that fastens over the bristle base of the paintbrush handle by snapping or other means into place on the handle. The light pack may fit tightly but removably around the brush handle and may be snapped into place by a plurality of locking pegs on the light pack being pushed into tight fitting openings on the handle. A brush holder that is adapted to engage any regular sized one gallon (4 liter) paint can. A further embodiment provides for a paint can lid that may be used with the brush holder that fits on any regular one gallon, (4-liter) paint can, and is designed to receive the new lighted paintbrush, or any standard style paintbrush with the enlarged handle grip attachment removably installed on the handle. The paint may be a regular sized one gallon metal can or may be a plastic paint can with integral rim.
US09414667B1

An article holding device includes an elongated rigid ground shaft with a radiating helical surface, a generally C-shaped crank shaft fixed to the ground shaft, and an elongated hand shaft fixed to the crank shaft opposite the ground shaft. The crank shaft comprises a crank handle laterally offset from and substantially parallel to the ground shaft. The crank handle includes a first swivel sleeve adapted for being grasped by a first hand of a user. The hand shaft includes a second swivel sleeve adapted for being grasped by a second hand of the user. The outdoor utility article is held adjacent a free end of the hand shaft.
US09414663B2

Provided is a tool for applying cosmetics for mascara and eyebrow cosmetics which allows applying a liquid cosmetic in an appropriate amount to eyelashes or eyebrows, and with which a previously unexperienced feeling of use can be obtained. In an application tool (1) for which a plurality of bristles (30) are fixed in a double-folded manner to the inside of a long groove (12), which is formed at a partial side surface of a brush portion (10) formed at a leading end side of a brush shaft (6), comb teeth (26) are integrally formed at a predetermined pitch in a brush portion axial direction on an exposed surface (21) of the fastener (20). As a result of forming the comb teeth (26) in a space that is wide between two lines of bristle groups (30a, 30b), the liquid pool space is narrowed accordingly, so that excessive pooling of a liquid cosmetic (2) in the brush portion (10) can be prevented. Also, as a result of the comb portion being formed between the bristle group 30a and the bristle group 30b, an application tool (1) with which a previously unexperienced feeling of use can be obtained can be provided.
US09414659B2

A protective case for a mobile electronic device includes a shell defining a cavity for receiving a portion of the mobile electronic device within the cavity. The shell includes a membrane disposed adjacent a location corresponding to a screen of the mobile electronic device such that at least some of the screen of the mobile electronic device is viewable through the membrane. The shell also includes a gate disposed adjacent a location corresponding to a port of the mobile electronic device. The gate includes elastomeric flaps and is operable to at least two states including: a) a port covering state in which ends of the elastomeric flaps converge at at least one seam to close the gate protecting the port from environment outside of the protective case, and b) a port accessing state in which the elastomeric flaps separate and fold in to open the gate providing a passageway for a connector to be connected to the port of the mobile electronic device.
US09414650B2

There is provided a slide fastener. A pair of core sections are respectively provided along opposing tape side edge portions of a pair of fastener tapes. A pair of fastener element rows are respectively attached to the pair of core sections. Each of the pair of fastener element rows includes a plurality of fastener elements made of metal. Silica is applied to surfaces of the core sections and the fastener elements.
US09414649B1

A progressive compressive zipper for attaching an at least partially compressible first component, such as a foam-core punching or training bag, to a second component, such as a weighted base. The first component has a first zipper half that encircles the first component near, but not adjacent to, the surface along which it connects to the second component and then angles downward toward the connecting surface, forming a ramp. The second component has a corresponding second zipper half attached to its connecting surface. A user may place the first component against the second component and zip the first zipper half and the second zipper half together, starting with the ramp. As the zipper is engaged, the first component is compressed against the second component due to the angle of the ramp.
US09414648B2

Open-ended slide fasteners that are watertight and/or airtight. The slide fasteners include box and pin mechanisms integrated with the slide fastener and configured to compress the tape edges and create a water and air tight seal, thus eliminating the need for installing a separate component after the slide fastener has been manufactured.
US09414638B2

Golf shoes include one or more of the following: (a) a foot stabilizer system that interacts with a shoe securing system to securely engage and/or wrap around a foot of a wearer; (b) a natural motion sole, optionally including flex grooves that allow a weight transfer from back-to-front and/or from side-to-side; (c) a six cleat configuration (e.g., four cleats in a forefoot region, two cleats in a heel region, and no cleats located directly under a big toe); (d) a forefoot moderator plate positioned to moderate or reduce user feel of the forefoot cleats; (e) a lateral half heel counter extending from a rear heel area to a lateral midfoot or lateral forward heel area of the shoe; and/or (f) one or more medial, forefoot, sidewall traction elements at or near a big toe area of the sole.
US09414633B2

Systems and methods for attaching an accessory to a helmet. A helmet accessory mounting interface may be attached to a receptacle. The receptacle may be removably or permanently received by a carrier. The carrier may be attached to a helmet having a particular shape and size. The carrier also may be configured to receive any selected type of a plurality of receptacle types which, in turn, corresponds to a particular mounting interface for a helmet accessory. The receptacle may be receivable, in some embodiments removably, by any one of a number of different types of carriers.
US09414626B2

A cigarette paper is disclosed which contains pulp fibres and filler material particles, wherein at least 50% by weight, preferably at least 70% by weight and particularly at least 90% by weight of the filler material has a particle size distribution measured in accordance with ISO 13320 for which for the distribution parameter p=d10+2·d30+2·d70-d90 holds: p≦5.0 μm, preferably p≦4.0 μm and particularly preferably p≦3.5 μm, and p≧−1.0 μm, preferably p≧0.0 μm and particularly preferably p≧1.0 μm.
US09414623B2

Disclosed herein is a transformation system for at least one component of a single or multi-component nutritional substance. The transformation system obtains information regarding the nutritional substance to be transformed, the desired transformation, and the desired properties, including nutritional content, of the transformed nutritional substance, and dynamically modifies the transformation in response to this information. Also disclosed herein is an information system that enables the rapid determination of a nutritional substance's compliance, or non-compliance, with a consumer's nutritional substance requirements.
US09414620B2

A composition of matter comprises a shelf stable, partially defatted supercritical CO2 fluid solvent extracted whole grain flour derived from a cracked biomass of perilla frutescens, the flour comprising minerals and 2 to 8 percent of native seed oil, 35 to 45 percent protein, and 35 to 45 percent fiber.
US09414618B2

The present invention relates to an infant formula milk powder capable of preventing and alleviating infant iron deficiency anemia and a preparation method thereof. The formula milk powder comprises components such as vegetable oil, fresh milk, whey powder, lactose powder, whey protein powder, oligosaccharides, complex vitamins and complex minerals, wherein the lactoferrin and vitamin C, or alternatively, an iron source (calculated as iron), lactoferrin and vitamin C are maintained in the appropriate mass ratios, and the formula milk powder of the present invention is obtained by performing mixing, homogenizing, cooling, concentrating and spray-drying, packaging or directly using a step-by-step mixing method. The formula milk powder comprises appropriate amounts of vitamin C and lactoferrin, as well as an appropriate amount of iron source as further provided, and the three are combined according to an appropriate proportion, so that the combination of the three kinds of the substances have a synergistic effect, and the absorption and utilization rate of iron are increased dramatically, thereby not only achieving the desirable iron supplementation effect, but also preventing and alleviating the phenomenon of infant iron deficiency anemia.
US09414612B2

The present invention is directed to isolated thraustochytrid microorganisms as well as strains and mutants thereof. The invention is further directed to biomasses, microbial oils, compositions, cultures, methods of producing microbial oils, and methods of using the isolated thraustochytrids, biomasses, and microbial oils.
US09414607B2

This invention relates to automated systems and methods for hanging live poultry for further processing. The system has an alignment conveyor, an alignment stunner, a hanging box, and a shackle. The alignment conveyor conveys poultry from an input point to the alignment stunner. The alignment stunner urges the poultry to move to a desired position on the alignment conveyor and stuns the poultry. The hanging box grasps the stunned poultry and places the poultry into the shackle for further processing. A computer and at least one sensor control operation of the system so that human intervention is minimized.
US09414605B2

This invention relates to a machine for shaping three-dimensional portions of food product, in particular meat, in particular for shaping portions of minced meat, provided with an interleaving paper applying device, as well as a corresponding paper applying device. The machine comprises a shaping device (1) with shaping cells (2) wherein are shaped portions (S) of food product, and a paper applying device (3) comprising an applying drum (4) provided with on its peripheral cylindrical surface (41) at least one paper applying system (5) in order to take and maintain papers (9) on its peripheral surface and apply them on the portions placed in the shaping cells. The machine also has drives the cells and applying drum in synchronism.
US09414586B2

Foaming alcohol compositions with selected dimethicone surfactants are disclosed. The dimethicone surfactants are PEG-8 to PEG-12 linear dimethicone surfactants and in particular PEG-10 linear dimethicone surfactant. The compositions are useful as antimicrobial products and in particular handcare or skincare products.
US09414584B2

The present invention provides a stabilized hypohalous acid solution (or formulation thereof), which may be conveniently packaged for sale, or stored for later use on demand. The invention further provides methods of making the stabilized hypohalous acid solution, as well as methods of use for disinfecting mammalian tissue, including wounds and burns, disinfecting or cleansing surfaces, or treating and/or preserving food products and cut flowers, among other uses.
US09414582B2

A box-type game call having a striking portion that can be moved between a plurality of striking positions is provided. The game call may incorporate a plurality of sound rails, whereby the striking portion may be pivotally connected relative to the plurality of sound rails, along at least two axes of rotation, so as to be movable to operatively engage each sound rail separately from a variety of striking positions.
US09414580B2

A portable fogger apparatus includes a portable fogger body having at least one airflow passageway. A DC blower motor is connected to the fogger body proximate to the airflow passageway and receives power from a battery, wherein the DC blower motor produces an airflow through the passageway. A mixing chamber is positioned along the at least one passageway, wherein at least a portion of the airflow is movable through the mixing chamber. A quantity of pressurized fogging liquid is housed within a container connected to the logger body. The pressurized fogging liquid is dispensable from the container into the mixing chamber where it is expelled through a nozzle and mixed with the airflow to produce a fog. The fog has an atomized micron particulate size between 5 and 60 microns. An activation switch controls activation of the DC blower motor and/or dispensing of the pressurized fogging liquid.
US09414568B2

An improved manual portion control feeder includes a food delivery mechanism that is in communication with a food reservoir and which, when actuated, dispenses a predetermined amount of food from the reservoir into another vessel. Advantageously, the feeding apparatus further includes a feedback mechanism which, responsive to an actuation of the food delivery mechanism, provides at least one of an acoustic indication and a tactile indication that is representative of the dispensing of a predetermined quantity of food by the food delivery mechanism. The acoustic and/or tactile indication enables the feeding apparatus to remain disposed on, for example, a floor and alerts the user that a predetermined amount of food has been dispensed from the reservoir since the acoustic and/or tactile indications are detectable with relative ease. This enables an animal to be provided a predetermined amount of food with minimal attention being required of the user.
US09414565B1

The present invention is in the field of soybean variety AR1215521 breeding and development. The present invention particularly relates to the soybean variety AR1215521 and its progeny, and methods of making AR1215521.
US09414564B1

The present invention is in the field of soybean variety AR1210104 breeding and development. The present invention particularly relates to the soybean variety AR1210104 and its progeny, and methods of making AR1210104.
US09414557B1

The present invention relates to a new and distinctive canola, designated CE185952R. Also included are seeds of canola CE185952R, to the plants, or plant parts, of canola CE185952R and to methods for producing a canola plant produced by crossing the canola CE185952R with itself or another canola genotype, and the creation of variants by mutagenesis or transformation of canola CE185952R.
US09414550B2

This disclosure relates to systems and methods for providing a barrier that deters or prevents terrestrial molluscs, such as slugs and snails, from entering a garden or other vegetation area. A barrier may include an inverted channel, a portion of which forms a dry chamber configured to retain salt, rock salt, a salt-based mollusc deterrent, or other mollusc deterrents, poisons, and/or baits. Mesh may be used to retain the deterrent within the dry chamber. In various embodiments, a bead or other feature may help prevent liquids, such as water, from wicking into the dry chamber.
US09414542B2

A corn header has a plurality of row units disposed adjacent each other. Each row unit has a frame and a gearbox coupled to the frame. The gearbox has a gearing assembly coupled to a rotatable shaft extending from an opening of the gearbox. Each row unit also has a stalk roll coupled to the rotatable shaft and a coupling interface comprising a self-aligning ball or roller bearing assembly. A support bracket is secured to the frame with the coupling interface operably coupling the stalk roll to the support bracket within a defined tolerable limit of misalignment.
US09414541B2

A hopper and conveyor assembly for discharging particulate material from the hopper is provided. Sealing strips may be used to prevent particulate material from moving beyond edges of a conveyor belt of the conveyor assembly.
US09414540B2

A power tool head is including a trimmer head or the like is powered with an AC or DC motor. The head and tool attachment are ergonomically constructed to facilitate use and operation. In the trimmer tool, molded line blades with or without an aerodynamic cross-section provide for effective cutting at low speeds and low power requirements. The line blades may be selectively oriented to improve strength and durability.
US09420735B2

A structure includes a housing made of a dielectric substance, an electrically conductive member embedded in the housing so as to penetrate the housing, and an electrically conductive pattern which is provided on at least one of surfaces, in which the electrically conductive member lies by penetrating the housing, so that the electrically conductive pattern is electrically connected with the electrically conductive member. The electrically conductive pattern is made up of an electrically conductive film which has no self-shape retention property.
US09420734B2

Various EMI shields with thermal management capabilities are disclosed. In one aspect, an EMI shield is provided that includes a thermal spreader plate adapted to be seated on and convey heat from an electromagnetic emissions generating component. The thermal spreader plate has a first material composition and a shield effectiveness that is absorption dominant to electromagnetic waves at a given electromagnetic emissions frequency. The EMI shield also includes a shell to cover and reflect electromagnetic emissions from the electromagnetic emissions generating component. The shell has a second material composition different than the first material composition and a shield effectiveness that is reflection dominant to electromagnetic waves at the given electromagnetic emissions frequency.
US09420733B2

A computer storage system protected from electromagnetic pulses is described. The storage system utilizes either a hard drive or a solid state drive to hold the data. The device uses fiber optics to transfer data and is powered by either a Power over Fiber system or by a switched battery system. The device protects against radiation, magnetic pulses, and electronic pulses using an enclosure that incorporates a faraday cage, a radiation shield, and/or a magnetic shield.
US09420732B2

A solar inverter is provided having a cooling module, a DC module, an inverter module and an AC module provided side-by-side within a chassis. The DC module includes an input accessible from a first side of the chassis and a disconnection switch on a second side of the chassis, with the input being configured to be connected to a DC solar power source. The AC module includes an output accessible from the first side of the chassis and a disconnection switch provided on the second side of the chassis. The cooling module is configured to pump a liquid coolant around the solar inverter in order to cool elements of the DC module, the inverter module and/or the AC module.
US09420724B2

A power converter assembly includes a housing, a cold plate located within the housing, a power converter module coupled with the cold plate, receiving a power input and providing a power output, and a thermal composite overlying the power converter module and at least partially thermally insulating the power converter module.
US09420715B2

A rack-mountable module assembly, comprising: a plurality of electronic equipment modules, each having a height in multiples of approximately 1.75 inches and a width in multiples of approximately 1.75 inches; a plurality of connectors configured to form a horizontal row of said plurality of electronic equipment modules, by connecting every two adjacent modules of said plurality of electronic equipment modules to each other; and a pair of side mounts configured to connect the horizontal row to a frame of the rack.
US09420713B2

Methods and structures for forming anodization layers that protect and cosmetically enhance metal surfaces are described. In some embodiments, methods involve forming an anodization layer on an underlying metal that permits an underlying metal surface to be viewable. In some embodiments, methods involve forming a first anodization layer and an adjacent second anodization layer on an angled surface, the interface between the two anodization layers being regular and uniform. Described are photomasking techniques and tools for providing sharply defined corners on anodized and texturized patterns on metal surfaces. Also described are techniques and tools for providing anodizing resistant components in the manufacture of electronic devices.
US09420705B2

A current conducting element including a substrate, a through hole, an electrode layer and a conductor structure is provided. The through hole is disposed through the substrate and has a first opening. The electrode layer is disposed on the substrate. A portion of the first opening is exposed from the electrode layer. The conductor structure is disposed in the through hole and contacted with the electrode layer. The electrode layer and the conductor structure form a current conducting path.
US09420704B2

In one embodiment, a meta-module having circuitry for two or more modules is formed on a substrate, which is preferably a laminated substrate. The circuitry for the different modules is initially formed on the single meta-module. Each module will have one or more component areas in which the circuitry is formed. A metallic structure is formed on or in the substrate for each component area to be shielded. A single body, such as an overmold body, is then formed over all of the modules on the meta-module. At least a conductive vertical interconnect access structure (vias) associated with each component area to be shielded is then exposed through the body by a cutting, drilling, or similar operation. Next, an electromagnetic shield material is applied to the exterior surface of the body of each of the component areas to be shielded and in contact with the exposed conductive vias.
US09420692B2

An electronic control device for executing fundamental and additional functions includes: a fundamental circuit element that executes the fundamental function; an additional circuit element that executes the additional function; and a printed wiring board having a rectangular shape divided into first and second regions. The fundamental circuit element is mounted in the first region, and the additional circuit element is mounted in the second region. The fundamental circuit element includes an operation voltage generating circuit for supplying an operation voltage to at least a part of the fundamental and additional circuit elements and a bypass capacitor for functioning for the additional circuit element. The bypass capacitor is connected to a power source wiring pattern for supplying the operation voltage to the additional circuit element. The bypass capacitor is arranged in the first region at a position nearer the second region than the operation voltage generating circuit.
US09420687B2

A method is for making an electronic device and includes forming an interconnect layer stack on a sacrificial substrate and having a plurality of patterned electrical conductor layers, and a dielectric layer between adjacent patterned electrical conductor layers. The method also includes laminating and electrically joining through an intermetallic bond a liquid crystal polymer (LCP) substrate to the interconnect layer stack on a side thereof opposite the sacrificial substrate. The method further includes removing the sacrificial substrate to expose a lowermost patterned electrical conductor layer, and electrically coupling at least one first device to the lowermost patterned electrical conductor layer.
US09420682B2

An electronic apparatus, such as a lighting fixture, includes a substrate, an electronic device such as a chip-on-board light emitting diode and a thermal interface located between the substrate and the electronic device. The thermal interface includes at least two distinct materials, including a dielectric material and a thermally conductive material. The dielectric material includes a cutout into which the thermally conductive material is located. The dielectric material can completely surround the perimeter of the electronic device or can be located proximate portions of the electronic device that are prone to arcing in order to protect the substrate from arcing. The electronic apparatus operates at a reduced temperature as compared to an electronic apparatus that does not include the thermal interface. Methods for making an electronic apparatus having a thermal interface with a discrete dielectric material and thermally conductive material are also described.
US09420679B2

Certain embodiments described herein are directed to generators that can be used to sustain a plasma in a driven mode and in an oscillation mode and optionally in a hybrid mode. In some embodiments, the generator is configured to switch between the two modes during operation. In certain instances, the plasma may be ignited when the generator is in a driven mode and may be used to analyze samples when the generator is in an oscillation mode or driven mode or hybrid mode.
US09420672B2

The invention relates to the management of atmosphere programs including lighting scenes for lighting systems, audio, video, scent or any combination of the above, particularly to a user interface for comfortably selecting an atmosphere program to be created by an atmosphere creation system. A basic idea of the invention is to provide a central control of atmosphere programs together with the possibility of interactively selecting an atmosphere program to be activated locally with an atmosphere creation system. This is particularly useful for large retail chains, which for example require a uniform lighting atmosphere in all chain shops and want to provide their shop personal to comfortably select among a predefined set of lighting scenes in an comfortable way. An embodiment of the invention relates to an atmosphere program management system (10) comprising a server (12), which is remotely accessible via a data connection and stores atmosphere programs and a remote management client (14) for accessing the server and providing a user interface for managing the atmosphere programs stored by the server.
US09420666B2

An optoelectronic device is provided having a plurality of light emitters arranged to be able to illuminate an area of an environment, a CMOS based miniaturized spectrometer arranged to obtain the light spectrum of environmental light within the area of the environment, and control devices, means or methods for modifying the emission of the light emitters, based on the obtained light spectrum. Also, a system for modifying the environmental light of an area is provided, the system having at least two optoelectronic devices, and devices, means or methods to transmit information between them. Furthermore, a method for modifying the environmental light of an area, a computer program product for performing said method, a reflective device for determining the calibration of an optoelectronic device, and a method thereof.
US09420660B2

A controller of a lighting fixture is configured to set a light modulation level of an LED to a first light modulation level in a period from a beginning of a night time slot until when a predetermined first time period elapses, regardless of a detection result of a human detecting sensor, and set the light modulation level of the LED to a second light modulation level that is lower than the first light modulation level when the first time period elapses. The controller is configured to set, when the human detecting sensor detects a person in a state where the light modulation level of the LED is set to the second light modulation level, the light modulation level of the LED to the first light modulation level for a predetermined time period.
US09420651B2

A light-emitting diode (LED) module and a method for operating the same are disclosed. The LED module is supplied through an external voltage source. The LED module includes a bridge rectifying unit, a LED unit, and an integrated circuit (IC) unit. The bridge rectifying unit rectifies the external voltage source into an inner DC voltage source. The LED unit is electrically connected to the bridge rectifying unit and driven through the DC voltage source. The IC unit is electrically connected to the bridge rectifying unit and the LED unit and is supplied through the DC voltage source, thus providing a piecewise constant-current control or a piecewise variant-current control to the LED unit.
US09420642B2

Light emitting apparatus including: substrate; LED chips on substrate; first sealing layer sealing LED chips; second sealing layer above first sealing layer; and phosphor layer containing yellow phosphor, disposed between first sealing layer and second sealing layer, wherein phosphor layer contains the yellow phosphor in higher density than first sealing layer and second sealing layer.
US09420641B2

A microwave heating apparatus includes a cavity arranged to receive a load. At least one microwave generator is configured to feed a plurality of microwaves into the cavity. At least one image-capturing device and a control unit is adapted to obtain load volume information of the load within the cavity based on information recorded by the image-capturing device about at least one portion of the load, obtain load density information using at least one of a user input and information recorded by the image-capturing device about at least one portion of the load, determine load mass information based upon the load volume information and the load density information, determine a heating pattern based upon the load mass information and control the at least one microwave generator to provide the heating pattern within the cavity.
US09420640B2

An electrical heating device including a heating resistor including a contacting device connecting the heating resistor to a current source. The contacting device includes a main electrode and a plurality of branch electrodes. The main electrode distributes current from the current source to a plurality of branch electrodes. The heating resistor includes one or more fire retardant recesses. The heating device includes one or more tire propagation blocker strips extending transversely to at least one of the plurality of branch electrodes.
US09420636B2

A mobile network access device, system and method are disclosed. The method includes sending data or a command to a storing unit or a baseband processing unit according to a logical address in a Secure Digital (SD) command, where the SD command is a result of converting a Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) Command Descriptor Block (CDB) after a terminal device encapsulates the received data or command into the SCSI CDB. In the embodiments of the present invention, the wireless Internet access function is integrated into an SD card. The mobile network access device determines to send the data or command to the baseband processing unit or storing unit according to the logical address in the SD command, which reduces the size of the mobile network access device and enables developers to design smaller terminal products.
US09420626B2

The present disclosure discloses a method for managing release of a network port of a mobile terminal, and the method includes: during a PPPoE dialup or after completion of the PPPoE dialup, network ports of a current mobile terminal are scanned; it is determined whether scanned idle network ports are released erroneously, it is determined whether restoration of connection is desired for an erroneously released network port, and the restoration of connection is implemented according to conditions of current network connection and the PPPoE dialup when the restoration of connection is desired. The present disclosure further discloses a device for managing release of a network port of a mobile terminal. The method and device make it possible to solve a problem that a network port may be released erroneously after a PPPoE connection is established in the prior art.
US09420621B2

A mobile communication method in which a radio terminal connects to a network so as to perform a communication, comprises: a step in which the radio terminal detects an occurrence of a connection failure with the network in a connected state; and a step of sending a radio link failure (RLF) report regarding the detected connection failure, from the radio terminal to the network. In the step of sending the RLF report, the radio terminal sends time information, which is contained in the RLF report, for identifying a time of occurrence of the connection failure, to the network.
US09420614B2

A method and apparatus for establishing a device-to-device (D2D) connection in a wireless communication system is provided. A first device selects at least one connection identifier (CID) among unused CIDs by the first device and other devices, and transmits a connection establishment request message to a second device. The first device receives a connection establishment response message from the second device. The connection establishment response message includes the D2D peer ID of the first device, the D2D peer ID of the second device, a CID list unused by the second device and a first CID determined by the second device. The first device transmits a connection establishment confirm message including a second CID confirmed by the first device to the second device.
US09420600B2

A circuit includes a first wireless interface circuit that communicates packetized data to a first external device in accordance with a first wireless communication protocol. A second wireless interface circuit communicates packetized data to a second external device in accordance with a second wireless communication protocol. A plurality of signal lines communicate at least four lines of cooperation data between the first wireless interface circuit and the second wireless interface circuit, wherein the cooperation data relates to cooperate transceiving in a common frequency spectrum.
US09420597B2

A scheduling method and an apparatus are provided for use in a Device-to-Device (D2D) communication system. A scheduling method of a node in a wireless communication system according to the present disclosure includes acquiring a first data rate on a first link in consideration of interference occurring when a second link is established, acquiring a second data rate on the first link without consideration of the second link, acquiring, when the second link is established, a third data rate on the second link, and determining whether to establish the second link in consideration of the first data rate, second data rate, and third data rate.
US09420584B2

According to some embodiments, a method of operating a wireless device in a wireless system comprises allocating a first uplink sub-channel to the wireless device in a first subframe associated with the wireless device. The first uplink sub-channel comprises a portion of an uplink system bandwidth, and portions of the uplink system bandwidth outside of the first uplink sub-channel are not available for transmission in the first subframe by the wireless device. The method further comprises determining a first sounding reference signal (SRS) sub-channel. The first SRS sub-channel comprises a portion of the first uplink sub-channel in frequency domain, and the SRS sub-channel is available for transmitting SRS in the first subframe by the wireless device.
US09420583B2

Systems, methods, and apparatus for communication utilizing a plurality of time slots over at least one channel are disclosed. In one or more embodiments, the disclosed method involves assigning, by at least one processor, at least one of the plurality of time slots for media data. In one or more embodiments, at least one of the plurality of time slots assigned for the media data is periodic. The method further involves assigning, by at least one processor, at least one of remaining time slots of the plurality of time slots for non-media data. In at least one embodiment, the assigning of at least one of the plurality of time slots for the media data has precedence over the assigning of the remaining time slots of the plurality of time slots for the non-media data.
US09420582B2

There is provided a method, an apparatus and a computer program product for selecting at least one extended preamble. The selected extended preamble fulfills certain criteria regarding the cyclic shift-specific timing uncertainty windows and supports for high speeds and high frequencies.
US09420575B2

The present invention relates to a wireless access system supporting carrier aggregation and carrier aggregation technology, and discloses methods for effectively detecting control signals for a plurality of cells and apparatuses supporting same. In an embodiment of the present invention, a method for detecting control signals in a wireless access system supporting multiple carrier aggregation (CA) and cross carrier scheduling may comprise calculating the start point of a reference search space in an expanded search space, calculating start points of the next search spaces which are spaced apart from the reference search space by a predetermined offset value, and performing blind decoding on the reference search space and subsequent search spaces to search control signals from a base station.
US09420564B2

An apparatus, system and method to dynamically manage an allocation of communication resources for direct device-to-device communications between a plurality of wireless communication devices in a wireless communication system. In one embodiment, the apparatus (410) includes a communication resource allocator (420) configured to: (1) select a master communication device of a plurality of wireless communication devices that form a device-to-device group, (2) provide an allocation of communication resources for device-to-device group that facilitate direct device-to-device communications therebetween. The apparatus (410) also includes a message generator (430) configured to assemble messages that include the allocation of the communication resources.
US09420560B2

The present invention generally relates to systems and methods for sharing information related to a location also referred to herein as a “spot,” such as spot alerts and/or spot comments (e.g., shared information, advertisements, etc.) received, displayed, played, and/or actuated, for example, on recipient mobile electronic devices proximately located to such location (e.g., spot). Users of the system can create spot alerts in which designated recipients can receive messages, such as spot alerts and/or spot comments (e.g., shared information, advertisements, etc.) received, displayed, played, and/or actuated, for example, on respective recipient mobile electronic devices, when located within a proximity of a defined location (e.g., spot).
US09420556B2

A method at a user equipment including detecting that a circuit switched (CS) call has been requested at the user equipment; if a most recent registration attempt or registration update attempt with a network of a first radio access technology (RAT) resulted in an abnormal state, registering with a network of a second RAT; and initiating the CS call with the network of the second RAT.
US09420544B2

A technique, including in a communication system involving a plurality of access nodes cooperatively detecting a transmission from a communication device, determining at said communication device a transmission power parameter relating to said communication device at least partly on the basis of a plurality of pathloss values including a first pathloss value for a first set of access nodes of said plurality of access nodes transmitting a first reference signal at substantially the same transmission power and a second pathloss value for one or more second access nodes of said plurality of access nodes transmitting a second reference signal at substantially the same transmission power.
US09420539B2

A method for controlling transmission of sensor data by a coordinator of a wireless sensor network, the method including transmitting a data frame received from a sensor device to a PAN coordinator; in response to no acknowledgement message being received from the PAN coordinator during a predetermined period of time for waiting to receive an acknowledgement message, retransmitting the data frame; and, in response to a number of retransmission attempts of the data frame being exceeding a maximum number of retransmission attempts, transmitting Data Transmission Stop Notification to the sensor device in order to stop to receive any data frame from the sensor device.
US09420536B2

Techniques are described for controlling power consumption in a peer-to-peer communication system. In accordance with various examples, the techniques include determining a power save mode of a first node, determining a power save mode of a second node, determining a category of data connection between the first node and the second node, and adjusting a power save parameter of the first node based at least in part on the power save mode of the first node, the power save mode of the second node, and the category of data connection.
US09420526B2

The present invention provides a method of establishing a call to or from a user equipment in a wireless communication system comprising a first wireless network and a second wireless network, the second wireless network having an association with the first wireless network, the wireless communication system having a serving node and an application server capable of communication with said serving node, and the method comprising: receiving a message from said serving node at the application server, said message having information regarding network capabilities of said user equipment; and determining at the application server whether to anchor said call in the first wireless network or the second wireless network dependent on said information regarding network capabilities of said user equipment.
US09420523B2

Methods and apparatuses to reduce a time to scan one or more frequency channel bands by a wireless communication device are disclosed. The methods include performing, at the wireless communication device, a power scan of a band of radio frequencies; determining a maximum power level for a frequency channel in the band of radio frequencies found by the power scan; comparing the maximum power level to a threshold power level; in an instance in which the maximum power level does not equal or exceed the threshold power level, attempting acquisition on a first number of frequency channels; and in an instance in which the maximum power equals or exceeds the threshold power level, attempting acquisition on a second number of frequency channels. The second number of frequency channels is greater than the first number of frequency channels.
US09420521B2

A control system includes: a storage device configured to store a list of priority callees for a plurality of mobile stations; and a controller configured to execute a procedure, including determining, based on call restriction information for call-restricted areas in which a plurality of restricted mobile stations and priority callees included on the list for the restricted mobile stations are respectively located, an allowed calling time period in which calling is allowed to the priority callees on the list for the restricted mobile stations, the restricted mobile stations being a plurality of the mobile stations located in a call-restricted area, and transmitting information indicating the allowed calling time period to the restricted mobile stations.
US09420515B2

Disclosed are apparatus and methodology for improving communications among battery operated network endpoints and a central facility. A battery operated endpoint may determine its remaining battery capacity and decide whether it is able to provide message repeating services to other endpoints within the network. The endpoint may make such decision based also on its own communications reliability to a central facility either directly or via other endpoints operating as repeaters.
US09420503B2

In one example embodiment, an apparatus is provided that includes an antenna that receives, in a first wireless network, a first identifier of a second wireless network access point. The apparatus also includes a processor that processes data received by the antenna. The apparatus transmits, in the first wireless network, the first identifier of the second wireless network access point. The apparatus establishes a tunnel to the second wireless network. The antenna transmits a second identifier of the second wireless network access point.
US09420501B2

Embodiments of the disclosure provide methods and apparatuses for handover in a heterogeneous network. According to the method, a candidate radio connectivity mode for use after handover from a source BS to a first target BS and/or a second target BS is determined; a first handover related message which comprises the candidate radio connectivity mode is sent to the source BS; and in response to receiving a second handover related message, the first target BS and/or the second target BS may be accessed, wherein the source BS is not associated with the first target BS, and wherein the first target BS is a LPN and is associated with the second target BS.
US09420493B2

At a coarse time-scale, at the start of each frame the choice of TPs to be made active and users to associate with the active TPs are determined by solving an optimization problem. The inputs to the optimization problem are averaged slowly varying metrics that are relevant for a period longer than the backhaul latency. At a the fine time-scale, in each slot each active TP independently does scheduling over the set of users associated with it, without any coordination with any of the other active TPs, based on fast changing information, such as instantaneous rate or SINR estimates.
US09420492B2

The present invention relates to a method and device for a load balance. The device comprises: a selecting module, configured to select, according to a load state and fault state of each network edge node in a network edge node pool of an access network, a network edge node having the capacity of bearing a load to serve a user equipment from the network edge node pool when a message including information indicating that the user equipment intends to access a network is received; and a sending module, configured to send a message for indicating the selected network edge node to serve the user equipment to the selected network edge node. The method and device of the present invention can improve a utilization rate of a network edge node and lower the requirement for the capacity of the network edge node.
US09420489B2

An object of the present invention is to forward a packet corresponding to trajectories of roads without it being necessary to use road trajectory information. A communication device is mounted on a vehicle. The communication device includes a reception section that receives a packet containing forwarding information that represents a transmission area of the packet that is set up based on a reference direction from a transmission source; an acquisition section that acquires a running direction of its own vehicle; and a processing section that transmits the packet containing the forwarding information to at least the transmission area of the packet that has been set up based on the running direction of its own vehicle.
US09420487B2

Provided is a method for measuring and reporting a channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS) by a terminal in a wireless communication system. The method involves acquiring, from a network, a measurement configuration for measuring radio resource monitoring, the measurement configuration including information for requesting a CSI-RS measurement report, performing a CSI-RS measurement based on the measurement configuration in order to acquire a CSI-RS measurement result, evaluating whether or not a measurement result report condition has been satisfied based on the measurement configuration, and, if the measurement result report condition has been satisfied, transmitting a measurement report message to the network. The measurement report message includes the CSI-RS measurement result.
US09420484B2

A method and a device for updating a coordinated multipoint (CoMP) transmission set are provided by the embodiments of the present invention. The embodiments of the present invention can update the CoMP transmission set, and adjust the CoMP coordinated cells flexibly, which is conducive to further improving the overall performance of the cell and the performance of the users at the edge of the cell.
US09420482B2

A radio terminal (2) is used in a radio communication system (100) and communicates with a radio station (1). The radio terminal (2) includes a measurement unit (20). The measurement unit (20) operates to perform, using a terminal measurement procedure for executing a first terminal measurement corresponding to radio access technology applied to the radio communication system (100), a second terminal measurement of a shared frequency shared by a plurality of radio systems including the radio communication system (100).
US09420479B2

Interference to a received signal is reduced in a wireless network, the interference comprising intermodulation products of at least a first signal and a second signal. Delayed interference signals comprising simulated intermodulation products are generated on the basis of the first signal and the second signal using a range of differing delay values and each of the delayed interference signals is correlated with the received signal to produce data representing a correlation for each delayed interference signal. At least one delay value is selected in dependence on a the data representative of the correlations and an interference signal comprising simulated intermodulation products generated from the first signal and the second signal using the at least one delay value is combined with the received signal.
US09420478B2

In scenarios where the quality of service is negotiated through a signalling layer whereas the services are actually carried through a bearer layer, application functions at the signalling layer are not always aware of how quality of service is individually accomplished at the bearer layer on a service basis. The invention provides a method and devices whereby events are detected on a service data flow basis at a detection device in the bearer layer and notified towards an application device in the signalling layer via a control device between the signalling and the bearer layer. The list of events to be notified is obtainable at the control device from the application device and is included in Quality of Service related rules, along with service data flow filters. This Quality of Service related rules are provided to the detection device for inspecting individual service data flows in order to detect and notify the indicated events.
US09420474B1

A method includes communicating data to a plurality of user equipment (UE) in a cell using a plurality of beamforms. Each of the plurality of beamforms has a main lobe and side lobes, where the main lobe is directed toward a corresponding UE of the plurality of UE. For each beamform of the plurality of beamforms, a position of the beamform is determined. Furthermore, it is determined that one or more small cells of the plurality of small cells are available to serve the corresponding UE based on determining that the one or more small cells are positioned within the main lobe of the beamform using the determined position of the beamform and one or more positions of the one or more small cells. Based on the one or more small cells being determined as available to serve the corresponding UE, beamforming is disabled to the corresponding UE from the cell, thereby preventing the side lobes of the beamform from interfering with other radio communications in the cell.
US09420461B2

Disclosed are an access authentication method and device for a WLAN hotspot. The method comprises: an access password of a WLAN hotspot is updated according to a preset update time interval; and access for a wireless workstation which is accessing to the WLAN hotspot through a soft AP is authenticated according to the updated access password. The disclosure can solve the problem in the related art that other users can use traffic without limitation once they have stolen the password which causes great damage to users who pay the bill because the access password of the WLAN hotspot can only be manually updated.
US09420456B2

A split architecture eMBMS with distributed BMSCs providing the same eMBMS service allows for a centralized key service where each BMSC is able to derive a set of MTKs from the MSK using the MTK-IDs as the differentiating input. This avoids the need to send MTKs to the BMSCs.
US09420449B2

The present invention provides a method, an apparatus, and a method for online subscription data configuration. This method for online subscription data configuration includes: acquiring, by a subscription data configuration function device (SMF), equipment capability information of a user equipment (UE) and information of a service supported by the UE; generating, by the SMF, user subscription data according to the equipment capability information of the UE and the information of service supported by the UE, and generating user service subscription data according to the information of the service supported by the UE; where the user subscription data and the user service subscription data include an international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) allocated to the UE by the SMF; performing, by the SMF, subscription data configuration on a home subscriber server (HSS) and a subscription profile repository (SPR), according to the user subscription data and the user service subscription data.
US09420448B2

A system and method for automatically comparing obtained wireless device location information from a wireless network and comparing that location with another independent source geographic location is provided. Location information is derived from two or more sources in a multiplicity of ways and a comparison is made within a Location Comparison Engine. The Location Comparison Engine makes use of databases that assist in resolving obtained raw positioning information and converting that positioning information into one or more formats for adequate location comparison. Results of the location comparison are deduced to determine if the wireless device is in some proximity to some other activity source location. Other location information used for comparison may be obtained from a multiplicity of sources, such as another network based on some activity of the wireless device user, another wireless device via a wireless network, or any system capable of providing location information to the Location Comparison Engine.
US09420440B2

A calling method for use in a terminal configured to communicate with a device, includes: establishing a data channel with the device for assisting a call, when the terminal is conducting the call with the device through a voice channel; and exchanging interaction information with the device through the data channel, the interaction information being configured to assist a first user of the terminal and a second user of the device in coordinating and interacting when conducting the call.
US09420438B2

The present invention provides a method, a system and a server for feeding back the state of a receiving end. The method includes: the server activating the function of feeding back the state of the receiving end for a first terminal (101); after the server receives a short message sent by the first terminal, the server forwarding the short message to the receiving end, and if the short message sent from the receiving end to the first terminal is not received in a preset time period from the moment that the server receives the short message, the server acquiring the current state of the receiving end and feeding back it to the first terminal (102). In the method and system, the first terminal can acquire the current state of the receiving end in the cases that the receiving end is suspended, powered off, or has not registered.
US09420431B2

A system and method for providing a vehicle occupant with hands-free usage of text messaging services over a mobile phone via a vehicle telematics unit. The method enables a vehicle occupant to send and receive communication messages such as text messages in a hands-free manner. For sending text messages, a spoken communication message is received from the occupant at the vehicle and sent to a call center for conversion to a text message using a speech to text server. The converted text message is then sent to the mobile phone for texting to the intended recipient. Received text messages can be sent from the mobile phone to the telematics unit, converted to speech and played audibly to the occupant in the vehicle.
US09420426B2

Systems and methods for inferring a current location of a user or device based on an analysis of a user location history are provided. In particular, when the current location of a device requesting a location-enhanced service cannot be determined with sufficient precision, a plurality of historical locations provided by the user location history can be scored according to a variety of parameters. The historical location receiving the highest score can be inferred to be the current location of the user, permitting the requested location-enhanced service to be performed.
US09420418B2

A system to effectuate passive check-in with respect to a user's mobile device is described. A server system may be configured to receive communications from a GPS-enabled mobile device (e.g., a mobile phone), extract a stream of locations from the received communications, and use the location information to determine whether a boundary-crossing event has occurred with respect to the mobile device. In response to detecting a boundary-crossing event, the server may communicate a message, such as a recommendation, to the mobile device.
US09420411B2

Methods, systems, computer-readable media, and apparatuses are disclosed for providing location services to an application in a Secure User Plane Location (SUPL) Enabled Terminal (SET). In some embodiments, a SUPL configuration server (SUPL CS) may configure multiple secure user plane location (SUPL) location platforms (SLPs) in a first stage. Subsequently, the SUPL CS may configure information independently for the application in a second stage, wherein the configuration information for the application includes identification of a particular Home SLP (H-SLP) configured in the first stage.
US09420405B2

A method and a system for providing control of a vehicle telematics unit using a mobile device. The method carried out by the system includes the steps of: determining a mobile device is configured to control a vehicle telematics unit; receiving at a call center a vehicle telematics unit (VTU) command from the mobile device instructing the telematics unit to provide vehicle data using short range wireless communication (SRWC); sending the VTU command from the call center to the telematics unit; and transmitting via SRWC the vehicle data.
US09420402B2

A control unit for a mobile telephone includes a Web server adapted to connect to a Web browser in the mobile telephone, wherein the Web server receives information and provides the information to the Web browser when connected to the Web browser.
US09420398B2

A remotely provisioned proxy within a wireless/mobile phone that proxies a wireless communication path between a disconnected piconet (e.g., BLUETOOTH™) device and a network resource such as a universal resource locator (URL) via a mating mobile phone. Thus, an application proxy module embodied within the mobile phone provides managed access of a piconet device connected to the mating mobile phone to remote services. A disconnected piconet device uses the full data bandwidth available to a wireless phone, without the need for the disconnected piconet device to include its own separate wireless front end, or to require use of a modem within the mobile phone. Thus, using a mobile phone with application proxy, the user need not pay for the luxury of a tethered data plan.
US09420392B2

A virtual reality system is operated by, detecting a spatial position of a head of a first person who is wearing virtual reality glasses and headphones, displaying a virtual object within a virtual environment from a virtual direction of view by the virtual reality glasses. The virtual direction of view is specified depending on the detected spatial position of the head. An acoustic recording is reproduced by the headphones. A speech sound of a second person is detected a microphone device and converted into a speech signal. The speech signal is also reproduced by the headphones, the left and right loudspeakers of the headphones being operated depending on the detected spatial position of the head such that the speech signal is reproduced by the loudspeakers as if the speech sound were to pass to the first person without the headphones being worn.
US09420373B2

A display apparatus, a hearing level control apparatus, and a method for correcting sound are provided. The display apparatus includes an audio output unit which outputs an audio signal as an audible sound; a storage unit which matches hearing levels of a plurality of users, which are measured according to frequencies, with face images of the plurality of users and stores the hearing levels and the face images; a photographing unit which captures faces of the plurality of users; and a controller which reads a plurality of hearing levels, which respectively match a plurality of face images generated by the photographing unit, from the storage unit and controls the audio output unit to output the audio signal according to an output hearing level calculated based on the read plurality of hearing levels.
US09420352B2

Methods and systems for providing audio information based on gaze information are described. In an example, a computing device may be configured to receive gaze information indicative of a wearer-view associated with the computing device. Based on the gaze information, the computing device may be configured to determine content displayed in the wearer-view. Further, the computing device may be configured to determine audio information relating to the content and cause an audio stream associated with the audio information to be played at the computing device.
US09420349B2

Aspects of the present invention are related to systems, methods and apparatus for selecting an action when known content is detected in a media stream.
US09420346B2

A media device may be configured for receiving data from one or more satellites. The media device may include one or more processors and one or more storage devices. A first tuner of a media device may tune to a first data stream that came from a first satellite transponder. A second tuner of the media device may tune to a second data stream that came from a second satellite transponder. The first data stream and the second data stream may be derived from source data based at least in part on a data distribution scheme. The data distribution scheme may include distributing at least portions of the source data with the first data stream and the second data stream. The first data stream and/or the second data stream may be processed to store and/or output for presentation content.
US09420340B2

The invention relates, in various aspects, to systems and methods for linking content stored on a computer network with content broadcast over a television network. The system includes a database, a trigger mechanism, a communications interface, and a packet generator. The database stores tokens representative of links to the stored content and delivery information representative of at least a duration for delivering the token. The trigger mechanism indicates an instruction to deliver a token over the television network, generating a signal indicating a respective one of the stored tokens and a time for starting the delivery of the respective token. The communications interface has a channel in communication with a television set top box device for transferring the respective token to the television set top box device. The packet generator generates packets within a stream of television content to be broadcast over the television network.
US09420320B2

Example methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture to estimate local market audiences of media content are disclosed herein. An example method disclosed herein includes weighting audience measurement data associated with a first geographic area based on population data associated with a second geographic area different from the first geographic area to form weighted data, determining a factor based on the audience measurement data and tuning data associated with the second geographic area, and processing the weighted data based on the factor to determine an audience exposure metric estimating exposure to media content in the second geographic area.
US09420315B2

Disclosed are efficient and user-friendly systems or methods configured to capture and share video data in real time, at a later date, or a combination thereof in an authorized manner via social media. In certain aspects, these systems and methods include capturing video, for example, from a “Jumbotron” during a sporting event or other live venue event in an authorized manner (e.g., abiding by applicable copyright laws) and sharing this captured footage with other via social media.
US09420310B2

Implementations are provided that relate, for example, to view tiling in video encoding and decoding. A particular implementation accesses a video picture that includes multiple pictures combined into a single picture, and accesses additional information indicating how the multiple pictures in the accessed video picture are combined. The accessed information includes spatial interleaving information and sampling information. Another implementation encodes a video picture that includes multiple pictures combined into a single picture, and generates information indicating how the multiple pictures in the accessed video picture are combined. The generated information includes spatial interleaving information and sampling information. A bitstream is formed that includes the encoded video picture and the generated information. Another implementation provides a data structure for transmitting the generated information.
US09420304B2

A video decoding apparatus using an inter-prediction is disclosed. The apparatus includes at least: a decoder configured to reconstruct a flag and quantized transform coefficients by decoding a bitstream, the flag indicating one among a plurality of modes for determining the motion vector of the current block; a predictor configured to determine a motion vector of a current block to be decoded in a current picture, and predict pixels in current block using the motion vector of the current block; an inverse quantizer and inverse transformer configured to inversely quantize and then inversely transform the quantized transform coefficients to thereby reconstruct residual signals; and an adder configured to add the predicted pixels to the reconstructed residual signals which correspond to the predicted pixels.
US09420295B2

Apparatus and method for optimizing encoding and decoding when using embedded block coding, in which each block is independent coded is described. Instead of coding the whole block in response to a single mode decision, the block is separated into multiple sub-blocks sharing the same block bit budget. A block is divided for example in response to color or spatial considerations. A joint mode decision is then made where mode (DPCM/PCM) as well as qn are independently determined for each sub-block, while optimizing the use of the overall bit budget by sharing bits between the sub-blocks through refinement bits.
US09420287B2

A multimedia file and methods of generating, distributing and using the multimedia file are described. Multimedia files in accordance with embodiments of the present invention can contain multiple video tracks, multiple audio tracks, multiple subtitle tracks, a complete index that can be used to locate each data chunk in each of these tracks and an abridged index that can enable the location of a subset of the data chunks in each track, data that can be used to generate a menu interface to access the contents of the file and ‘meta data’ concerning the contents of the file. Multimedia files in accordance with several embodiments of the present invention also include references to video tracks, audio tracks, subtitle tracks and ‘meta data’ external to the file. One embodiment of a multimedia file in accordance with the present invention includes a series of encoded video frames, a first index that includes information indicative of the location within the file and characteristics of each encoded video frame and a separate second index that includes information indicative of the location within the file of a subset of the encoded video frames.
US09420282B2

Embodiments for reducing redundancy in video coding are disclosed. In accordance with at least one embodiment, video content is represented as a tree structure in which the nodes of the tree structure are associated with attributes of the video content. An encoder analyzes the nodes to determine whether there is redundancy associated with a last node of a divided node. In another embodiment, bidirectional prediction video coding techniques are applied to the video content. The encoder analyzes two lists of reference frames to determine whether a third mode of bidirectional prediction is redundant to a second mode of bidirectional prediction. The efficiency of video coding is improved by refraining from sending data symbols to the decoder in the event that the video coding techniques contain redundancy.
US09420280B2

In one embodiment, a video coder for coding video data includes a processor and a memory. The processor selects a filter set from a multiple filter sets for upsampling reference layer video data based at least on a prediction operation mode for enhanced layer video data and upsamples the reference layer video data using the selected filter set. Some of the multiple filter sets have some different filter characteristics from one another, and the upsampled reference layer video data has the same spatial resolution as the enhanced layer video data. The processor further codes the enhanced layer video data based at least on the upsampled reference layer video data and the prediction operation mode. The memory stores the upsampled reference layer video data.
US09420270B2

A display device includes a controller and a display. The controller is configured to receive a first color coordinate control signal and a second color coordinate control signal, and generate an image data signal by adjusting an input image signal according to the first and second color coordinate control signals. The display is configured to display an image according to the image data signal. The first and second color coordinate control signals are transmitted to the display device by a pair of three-dimensional (3D) glasses.
US09420268B2

An apparatus and method for displaying a three-dimensional (3D) image is disclosed. On a display panel, red, green and blue subpixels are alternately arranged in a row direction and subpixels having the same color are arranged in a column direction. A 3D image filter is disposed ahead of the display panel and includes a transparent area and a non-transparent area arranged alternately. A controller determines a view image to be displayed at each subpixel of the display panel to one of two view images based on numbers allocated to the subpixels of the display panel.
US09420264B2

A lightweight, low volume, inexpensive LADAR sensor incorporating 3-D focal plane arrays is adapted specifically for modular manufacture and rapid field configurability and provisioning. The present invention generates, at high speed, 3-D image maps and object data at short to medium ranges. The techniques and structures described may be used to extend the range of long range systems as well, though the focus is on compact, short to medium range ladar sensors suitable for use in multi-sensor television production systems and 3-D graphics capture and moviemaking. 3-D focal plane arrays are used in a variety of physical configurations to provide useful new capabilities.
US09420262B1

An imaging platform and camera system with an oscillating platform having two dimensions or degrees of freedom of movement having three parallel axes about a single mounting position, an accelerometer, light meters, central processing unit, software techniques and sequence of imaging methodology to create a matrix of images by converting XYZ data into a 2-D matrix. A set of images, tagged with XYZ data at a range of degrees, are placed into the matrix. Adjacent, corresponding and opposite images for specific locations and object placement are captured. Patterns are created from sets of images previously photographed from exact XYZ coordinates that correspond to the 2-D matrix pattern, creating an illusion of 3-D oscillation of the objects, including dynamic texture, color and glimmer.
US09420261B2

Left- and right-eye captured images are output upon reception of light beams having passed through one imaging optical system, and the difference, between the left- and right-eye captured images, of each of subjects included in the left- and right-eye captured images is detected. An extraction image extracted from a region which includes a main subject and has a predetermined size is output for each of the left- and right-eye captured images. At this time, the region is set so that the difference, between the left- and right-eye captured images, of a subject which is different from the main subject and included in both the extraction images has a predetermined value.
US09420259B2

Methods, apparatuses, and software are disclosed for sending only a first video component (e.g., data comprising one of a left or right component) of content to a plurality of client devices. Further aspects provide for sending, responsive to a request from one of the plurality of client devices, both the first video component and a second video component (e.g., data comprising both of the left and right components) to one or more of the plurality of client devices.
US09420257B2

A mobile terminal includes a controller and a display configured to display a stereoscopic image comprising a first image provided to a left eye and a second image provided to a right eye. The controller searches for a plurality of objects within the first image and the second image, wherein each of the plurality of objects is correspondingly present in both the first image and in the second image to form a stereoscopic image; calculates a separation distance for each object; changes only a position of a selected object of each of the first and second images when the calculated separation distance for the selected object is equal to or greater than a threshold value to decrease the separation distance for the selected object to less than the threshold value; and causes the display to display the changed first and second images.
US09420254B2

A patient monitoring system can include stereoscopic cameras connected to a computer which includes a 3D position determination module operable to process stereoscopic images of a patient to identify 3D positions of a plurality of points on the surface of an imaged patient. A target model store can store a target model including data identifying 3D positions of a set of vertices of a triangulated 3D wire mesh model and connectivity indicative of connections between vertices. A matching module can identify the triangles in a target model surface stored in the target model store closest to points identified by the 3D position determination module and calculate a rigid transformation which minimizes point to plane distances between the identified points and the planes containing the triangles of the target model surface identified as being closest to those points.
US09420247B2

A white balance correcting apparatus and a white balance correcting method are provided. A white balance correcting apparatus includes a white balance corrector configured to divide an input image into a plurality of blocks, determine, using a reference color temperature line, adjusted color temperatures of blocks included in a white area among the plurality of blocks, and calculate red (R) and blue (B) gains to which different weights are applied according to the adjusted color temperatures of the blocks.
US09420242B2

An imaging device includes a filter, an imaging element, a lens, a spectral image generator, and an exposure adjuster. The filter includes a plurality of filter areas having different spectral transmission characteristics. The imaging element receives light transmitted through the filter and outputs image information. The lens array includes a plurality of lenses arranged approximately parallel to a light receiving surface of the imaging element and is arranged between the filter and the imaging element. The spectral image generator generates a plurality of spectral images respectively corresponding to the plurality of filter areas on the basis of the image information output by the imaging element. The exposure adjuster adjusts an exposure time of the imaging element on the basis of luminance values of the spectral images.
US09420240B2

A lighting device capable of detecting a condition in an environment includes a sensor to capture a video frame from a location in the environment. The lighting device may include a microcontroller, a processor and memory. The sensor may be electrically connected to the microcontroller, and the video frame may be transmitted to the microcontroller as data. The lighting device may also include a light source electrically connected to and controlled by the microcontroller and a rules engine stored in the memory. The processor may compare the data to rules contained in the rules engine to produce an output. The lighting device may further include an interface through which the output is accessible. After an analysis is conducted, an output may be generated responsive to detection of an anomaly.
US09420235B2

A measuring system for a 3D object includes a base, a horizontal scanning device disposed on the base, a first light emitting device, a second light emitting device, an image capture device, and a control device. The first light emitting device, the second light emitting device, and the image capture device are connected to the horizontal scanning device. The control device controls the horizontal scanning device to cause planar motion relative to the base. With the control of the control device, the first light emitting device and the second light emitting device alternate in projecting a light source onto a 3D object. The image capture device includes a double-sided telecentric lens to capture a plurality of images of the 3D object when the light source is projected onto the 3D object.
US09420221B2

The electronic camera has an imaging device that images a subject with subject reflectance R (%) with a dynamic range wider than that at displaying or printing to acquire image data and a recording device that converts the image data acquired by the imaging device with a predetermined function and records the converted image data and the information on the function as digital values (digit). Therefore, a printed image with an automatically or manually corrected density can be obtained at the displaying or the printing.
US09420213B2

Systems and methods for facilitating collaboration between video creators/publishers and users in need of video creations and/or publication of videos are provided. A profile component receives and stores profile information regarding video creators. A video request component receives a request for at least creation of a video, the request indicating one or more characteristics associated with the creation of the video. A search component responds to the request and searches the profile information in connection with identifying one or more of the video creators that can create the video based on a correlation between their respective profile information and the one or more characteristics associated with the video creation.
US09420209B2

A method of generating a pixel array layout for an image sensor (wherein the image sensor includes a plurality of unit pixels, and each of the plurality of unit pixels includes a plurality of transistors) includes forming each unit pixel to include a shallow trench isolation (STI). The STI is between a deep trench isolation (DTI) area and one of a p-well region and source and drain regions of each transistor. The p-well region is below a gate of each of the transistors, and the DTI area is filled with at least two materials.
US09420206B2

An image pickup apparatus which can detect, when pixels have a structure in which part of electrical construction is shared therebetween, a defective pixel by taking into account a high possibility of the other pixels sharing the part of electrical construction becoming defective pixels, thereby making it possible to obtain an excellent image. A ROM stores in advance position information on each defective pixel. A defective pixel-detecting section detects a new defective pixel on which position information is not stored by the storage unit, from the pixels forming each pixel group, by performing one of different types of defective pixel detection processing. A system controller causes the defective pixel-detecting section to execute one of the different types of detection processing, according to the number of defective pixels which are included in each pixel group and on which the position information is stored in the storage unit.
US09420204B2

An information processing apparatus includes a frame selection unit that selects a characteristic frame from image data representing one or a plurality of objects and including a plurality of frames, an object selection unit that selects a characteristic object from the one or the plurality of objects, a textual information generation unit that generates textual information that indicates at least one of a movement of the characteristic object and a sound from the characteristic object, and a display controller that displays an image of the characteristic frame with the textual information associated with the characteristic object.
US09420196B2

Image data may be color graded, distributed and viewed on target displays. Mappings that preserve mid-range points and mid-range contrast may be applied to view the image data for color grading and to prepare the image data for display on a target display. The image data may be expanded to exploit the dynamic range of the target display without affecting mid-tone values.
US09420195B2

An imaging apparatus includes: an imaging member; a specifying member to specify a change in an imaging environment when the imaging member performs imaging; a setting member to perform setting to determine whether an exposure condition is to be fixed or to be subjected to tracking, depending on the change in the imaging environment specified by the specifying member; and a control member to control the imaging member to image a still image according to a content set by the setting member, at a regular interval, during a predetermined time period.
US09420189B2

A management device performs a first determination to determine whether an imaging device can include an imaging area needed by any one of one or more existing applications, and an imaging area needed by a newly operated application in an imaging range determined by a zoom magnification, and if result of the first determination is affirmative, generate information indicating that the newly operated application can be installed in the imaging device.
US09420187B2

A camera system is provided that provides a smooth and centered zoom, even at high levels of magnification. The camera system corrects for misalignment between the optical axis of a lens and center of an image sensor. As a result of the misalignment, the center of an image will move during a zoom movement. The current camera system corrects for the misalignment as the zoom movement occurs. The correction is matched to the speed of the zoom in order to provide a fluid zoom movement.
US09420181B2

Determination is made whether or not a cross point coordinate of a zoom value and a degree of luminance belongs to the continuous imaging area of a two-dimensional coordinate plane. When the cross point coordinate is in a single imaging area, since the provability of shake occurrence is low, a first imaging processing is operated. In contrast, when the cross point coordinate is in the continuous imaging area, a shake correction flag representing the execution of the shake correction is set. A multiplane addition composition imaging is not performed uselessly under an imaging condition where the provability of shake occurrence is low. As a result, since the multiplane addition composition imaging is not performed without inevitability, it is possible to avoid a disadvantage that a useless addition processing is executed to thereby generate noise in a shot image stored in an image memory medium.
US09420180B2

Disclosed are a method and device for switching between double cameras, which belong to the technical field of electronic equipment. The method includes displaying an application icon corresponding to different shooting modes according to a preset operation mode, and detecting a gesture of a user corresponding to the application icon, and starting up a corresponding shooting mode according to the operation of the user. Different operation modes are provided to present an application icon capable of differentiating different shooting modes to a user and corresponding camcorder mode can be directly and rapidly started according to the application icon. Accordingly, fast switching between the cameras on a terminal equipped with double cameras is realized, and the efficiency is improved.
US09420159B2

A digital photographing apparatus includes: an image pickup lens; an image pickup device that generates an image signal; an iris that controls an amount of the light transmitted through the image pickup lens; a shutter that controls exposure; a focus detector that detects focus using light transmitted through a predetermined exit pupil region of the lens; and a timing unit that controls a time for closing and/or opening the shutter, when the image pickup device outputs image information, where regardless of the time for closing and/or opening the shutter, the focus detector detects a focus when the iris has an iris value for ensuring transmission of a light flux used to detect the focus, after the exposure is finished. To precisely perform auto focus (AF), the digital photographing apparatus performs continuous AF or simultaneously displays a live view in consideration of timing for adjusting the iris and timing for controlling the shutter.
US09420155B2

A compact optic design is disclosed in which an image capture device's cover glass (or other transparent material) is imbued with optic power and affixed directly to the device's housing. A lens barrel, in which one or more additional lens elements are mounted, may be aligned with the optical lens formed by the cover glass and an image sensor to provide a complete camera module.
US09420150B2

An electronic video camera comprises a camera body which has an objective connection for interchangeable objectives as well as at least one first side surface and one second side surface, wherein the objective connection defines a visual axis of the video camera. A first longitudinal guide is integrated into the first side face of the camera body and extends in parallel with the visual axis and a second longitudinal guide is integrated into the second side face of the camera body and extends in the same respect in parallel with the visual axis.
US09420149B2

The depth camera includes a control module and a lighting module. The control module includes a control board, a control unit mounted on the control board, a seat mounted on the control board and over the control unit and a lens rooted in the seat. The lighting module is superposed on the control module and includes a lighting board with a through hole for receiving the lens, lighting units mounted on the lighting board and a reflector set composed of a base plate and reflectors formed thereon. Each reflector has an opening surrounding one of the lighting units.
US09420147B1

A method of indexing multimedia content by creating database records that include location data is disclosed. Devices that generate multimedia content also generate location data corresponding to the location of the device when the content is generated. The location data includes geographical coordinates such as latitude and longitude as well as orientation and tilt. Other data may be recorded such as date and time of day, and light exposure. The content and location data are communicated to a Content Index Processor (CIP) that creates a database record from the location data and determines classifications for the database record that can be used by a person that is searching for particular multimedia content.
US09420143B2

The method for water-marking digital books with parameters includes developing, for each parameter, a new typeface on the basis of a pre-existing typeface, by creating at least one new code/glyph pair. The method includes developing a new coded text on the basis of the pre-existing coded text by replacing, in the pre-existing coded text, at least one code or group of codes from the pre-existing typeface. The method further includes allowing display of a character or a combination of characters from the digital book by the code or the group of codes from the new typeface allowing display of the graphically identical character or combination of characters on any screen. The code/group of codes from the new typeface has/have at least the code from the new code/glyph pair. The method also includes providing the new coded text and the new typeface as a water-marked digital book.
US09420132B2

A scanner option assembly for an image forming device. The scanner option assembly comprises a housing removably attachable to a bottom of the image forming device, and a scanner assembly mounted in the housing and being positionable to receive an original for scanning. When the housing is attached to the bottom of the image forming device, the scanner assembly receives power from the image forming device with the scanner assembly being in operable communication with a controller of the image forming device for receiving instructions from and providing scan data of an image of the original to the controller. The scanner assembly includes at least one of a flatbed scanner slidably extendible and retractable through an opening of the housing, and an automatic document feeder (ADF) assembly for automatically feeding one or more media sheets into an image capture area of the scanner assembly.
US09420130B2

An image processing apparatus includes an image storage unit that stores a plurality images having supplementary information respectively, an image analysis unit that performs an image analysis of each image stored in the image storage unit; and a time correction unit that corrects an imaging time that is included in the supplementary information of the image in such a manner that the plurality of images are arranged in an actual imaging time of the images in a case where the plurality of images are arranged in an order of the imaging time among the supplementary information, based on at least one of a result of the image analysis by the image analysis unit and a GPS information that is included in the supplementary information of the images.
US09420128B2

The present invention generally relates to systems and methods for ensuring proximity between a first, e.g., mobile device, such as a smart phone, and a second, e.g., immobile device, such as a multi-function device. The invention can include the second device displaying a pattern that represents a series of movements, which a user of the first device can mimic. The first device can thus prove that it and its user are in proximity to the second device.
US09420122B2

An image processing device includes an acquisition unit and an image processing unit. The image processing unit makes a similarity determination for each of pages following a first page, thereby searches for a similar header image resembling a reference header image and a similar footer image resembling a reference footer image, and deletes, from image data of the pages following the first page, image data of a page where a similar footer image exists and a region other than a region where the similar footer image exists is blank.
US09420117B2

Call detail records (CDRs) that are generated by different elements of an IP telephony system in connection with the same communication can be matched to one another using timing information contained in the CDRs. Other information in addition to timing information, and which is present in two CDRs relating to the same communication may be used in conjunction with timing information to match CDRs from the same communication. Also, information relating to the type of flow path that a communication follows through the elements of an IP telephony system may also be recorded in a final CDR that is created for each communication.
US09420113B1

An Internet protocol (IP) phone is installed in a private branch exchange (PBX) system without a user having to manually correlate the phone's media access control (MAC) address with the phone's extension identifier. In this regard, the PBX is configured to automatically learn the phone's MAC address and correlate such address with an extension identifier entered by the user. Thus, the phone can be installed for use with the PBX system with reduced complexity and burdens for the user.
US09420098B2

A method for responding to calls in an Interactive Voice Response system (IVR) of an organization, the method comprising receiving in an IVR a call from a customer of the organization, activating a response in the IVR based at least on former interactions with the organization, and wherein the IVR is a computerized system comprising at least one processor, and an apparatus for performing the same.
US09420096B1

A computerized method and related system and software for simplifying telephonic calling, comprising: designating a default destination area code; the user specifying a destination telephone number; and as a default, causing the call to be signaled using the designated default destination area code in combination with the specified destination telephone number, without the user entering the designated default destination area code when specifying the destination telephone number.
US09420084B2

The present invention provides a mobile terminal and a method of displaying an image using the same. A method of displaying an image includes connecting a mobile terminal displaying an image on a screen to a display apparatus through a TV-out cable; terminating the display of the image on the screen by the mobile terminal and displaying supplementary information of the image on the mobile terminal; and displaying the image in the display apparatus by transmitting the image from the mobile terminal to the display apparatus through the TV-out cable. By utilizing a display apparatus for displaying an image, and a display screen of a mobile terminal as a space for controlling the image and displaying supplementary information of the image file, the convenience of a user of the mobile terminal is improved.
US09420080B2

A method and apparatus for providing privacy for telephone conversations over communication networks is disclosed. For example, a telephony endpoint device comprises a microphone for receiving an audio signal and a gain boost circuit, coupled to the microphone, for applying a gain boost to the audio signal. The telephony endpoint device also comprises a switch, coupled to the gain boost circuit, wherein operating the switch will control whether the gain boost is to be applied to the audio signal.
US09420075B2

The present invention concerns virtual reality viewers for use with touchscreen enabled mobile devices. The virtual reality viewer comprises: a housing configured to receive a mobile electronic device within an interior of the housing; and an input mechanism that is accessible from an exterior of the housing and that is moveable within the interior between a first position and an extended position, wherein a surface of the input mechanism is configured to contact the touch-screen of the mobile electronic device when in the extended position. The disclosed systems and methods facilitate receiving user inputs on the exterior of the housing and providing the user inputs to the touchscreen within the housing using the electro-mechanical input mechanism. Accordingly, the viewer can be used with a variety of smartphones without requiring magnetic switches or a wireless/cable connection between the input device and the smartphone.
US09420069B2

A server can efficiently distribute images for a web page as groups of images. The server receives a request from a client for a group of images associated with a web page. The request encodes an image group identifier and a retrieving function. The server executes the retrieving function with the image group identifier to obtain the group of images. In response to the request, the group of images are transmitted over a number of data communication connections between the client and the server that are less than a number of images in the group of images.
US09420052B2

Web navigation pattern histories are used to navigate to a plurality of visited web sites. A navigation map is generated comprised of a node for each visited web site. Each node in the navigation map is connected by an edge to at least one other node in the navigation map, and the edge is associated with the link from the given visited web site to the next web site. For each visited web site, the corresponding node stores an address for the given web site, a relevance rating for the given visited web site, a link from the given visited web site to a next web site and optionally a title of the web site. A presentation of a node in the navigation map is based on the relevance rating. A plurality of navigation maps for a plurality of users can be merged by identifying navigation maps having similar search goals.
US09420048B2

A mobile device includes a storage unit which stores application specification information that specifies an application to be activated in association with movement information that is a combination of a movement source and a movement destination, a position information acquisition unit which repeatedly acquires current position information of a user, and a control unit that calculates a movement direction of the user based on a history of the position information that the position information acquisition unit acquires, selects any one of the movement information that is stored in the storage unit based on the calculated movement direction and the current position information of the user, reads the application specification information associated with the selected movement information from the storage unit, and activates the application associated with the application specification information that is read.
US09420045B2

Some embodiments include a method for determining whether to establish a connection between a computer and a network. In some embodiments, the method includes: receiving first network information from a network; determining a first trust level for the network by matching the network information to provisioning information, wherein the provisioning information indicates the first trust level and an authentication method of the network; verifying that network supports the authentication method, wherein the verifying includes exchanging information with the network; after verifying that the network supports the authentication method, establishing a connection to the network, wherein the connection provides access to an Internet.
US09420030B2

A system, method, and computer program for distributing web events via distribution channels are provided. A web event is established in an origination channel. One or more parameters associated with the web content may be identified. The web event is then added to one or more distribution channels based on the one or more parameters. The web event is then distributed to one or more identified users via the one or more distribution channels.
US09420022B2

A client media application sends a first request for a first chunk of a particular media stream. In response to the request, the client media application begins receiving data packets associated with the requested first chunk of the particular media stream. The data packets are received through a socket having a buffer. Rather than waiting until all of the data packets associated with the first chunk of the particular media stream have been read from the buffer by the client media application before sending a request for a second chunk of the particular media stream, the client media application monitors the amount of data that has been received compared to an expected amount of data, and sends the second request when it determines that the amount of data remaining to be received is less than the size of the buffer.
US09420017B2

A cloud-based system is disclosed including at least one local client device communicatively coupled, via an intermediate network, with a server device having an information processing, organization, and management engine, and further including distributed local and cloud databases spread across separately owned user accounts. The information processing, organization, and management engine includes one or more information processing, organization, and management blocks responsive to selections by the owner of content and other users of the system to control access to and use of content by users of the system.
US09420015B2

A method, system, and/or apparatus for automatically tracking a mobile user using the user's mobile device. This invention is particularly useful in the field of social media, such as for detecting and tracking the location and activity of a user and her community. The method or implementing software application uses or relies upon location information available on the mobile device from any source, such as cell phone usage and/or other device applications. The social media system automatically determines a location type and/or user activity from context information. The context information can include current and past location and user and/or community information, time-dependent information, and third party information. The location activities can be presented to the community using pictograms selected to represent user activities.
US09420007B1

A first service submits a request to a second service on behalf of a customer of a service provider. The request may have been triggered by a request of the customer to the first service. To process the request, the second service evaluates one or more policies to determine whether fulfillment of the request is allowed by policy associated with the customer. The one or more policies may state one or more conditions on one or more services that played a role in submission of the request. If determined that the policy allows fulfillment of the request, the second service fulfills the request.
US09420004B2

Techniques for grouping virtual machine (VM) objects for networking and security services in a virtualized computing system are described. In one example embodiment, VM attributes and identity attributes are obtained from a virtual center and an identity server, respectively. One or more desired security groups are then formed based on security requirements of the virtualized computing system. A user defined dynamic expression is then associated with the one or more security groups. One or more expression attributes are then determined by evaluating the user defined dynamic expression using the obtained VM attributes and identity attributes. VM objects are then grouped based on the determined one or more expression attributes. The grouped VM objects are then associated with the created one or more security groups for providing the networking and security services.
US09419992B2

Various systems and methods are provided that detect malicious network tunneling. For example, VPN logs and data connection logs may be accessed. The VPN logs may list client IP addresses that have established a VPN connection with an enterprise network. The data connection logs may list client IP addresses that have requested connections external to the enterprise network and remote IP addresses to which connections are requested. The VPN logs and the data connection logs may be parsed to identify IP addresses that are present in the VPN logs as a client IP address and in the data connection logs as a remote IP address. If an IP address is so present, user data and traffic data associated with the IP address may be retrieved to generate a risk score. If the risk score exceeds a threshold, an alert to be displayed in a GUI is generated.
US09419990B2

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium includes executable instructions to identify specified network interactions initiated by a client machine. The specified network interactions are compared to normative values to produce a promiscuity score indicative of the risk of the client machine contracting malicious software. Depending upon the promiscuity score, prophylactic actions are optionally applied to the client machine.
US09419987B2

The present invention discloses a method and a device for prompting information about an e-mail. The method comprises: extracting information from a currently opened e-mail; according to the extracted information, determining whether an unsafe webpage link is contained in content of the currently opened e-mail; and if yes, providing security prompting information to a user. By means of the present invention, security is ensured when a person uses an e-mail box.
US09419978B2

Systems and methods provide personal channels from a network-capable user terminal. A first user terminal may receive a request from a second user terminal for access to a personal channel created by a user and stored on the first user terminal in association with media content. In response to the request, the first user terminal may access the media content associated with the requested personal channel and provide the media content to the first user terminal over the network. A data center accessible by both the first and second user terminals may facilitate the access to the personal channel by storing information associated with the personal channel, including terminal identifiers and metadata, and providing a searchable catalog interface to identify personal channels to view.
US09419977B2

An approach for providing value-based resource management and admission control is described. A value-based platform may receive a request from a user or a service provider to access an asset, a service, or a combination thereof. The value-based platform may further apply a policy rule to account information associated with the user to determine a user value score. The value-based platform may also generate prioritization information for admitting the user to the asset, the service, or a combination thereof based on the user value score.
US09419976B2

Embodiments of systems, apparatuses, and methods to securely download digital rights managed content with a client are described. In some embodiments, a system establishes a secure root of trust for the client. In addition, the system establishes a secure tunnel between an agent of the client and a storage system of the client. Furthermore, the system securely downloads the digital rights managed content to the storage system via the secure tunnel and securely provides the digital rights managed content from the storage system to a display.
US09419971B2

A computer program product includes a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, where the program instructions are executable by a processor to cause the processor to perform a method. The method includes receiving input from a touchscreen of a mobile electronic device, and receiving input from a plurality of contact sensors of the mobile electronic device, wherein the contact sensors are positioned along an external surface of the mobile electronic device. The method further includes unlocking access to the resources of the mobile electronic device in response to receiving input from the touchscreen meeting predetermined touchscreen input criteria and receiving input from the plurality of contact sensors meeting predetermined contact sensors input criteria. Optionally, the method may further receive input from a camera of the mobile electronic device, and only unlock the device in response to further receiving input from the camera meeting predetermined finger position criteria.
US09419970B2

Apparatus and methods for distributing access control clients. In one exemplary embodiment, a network infrastructure is disclosed that enables delivery of electronic subscriber identity modules (eSIMs) to secure elements (e.g., electronic Universal Integrated Circuit Cards (eUICCs), etc.) The network architecture includes one or more of: (i) eSIM appliances, (ii) secure eSIM storages, (iii) eSIM managers, (iv) eUICC appliances, (v) eUICC managers, (vi) service provider consoles, (vii) account managers, (viii) Mobile Network Operator (MNO) systems, (ix) eUICCs that are local to one or more devices, and (x) depots. Moreover, each depot may include: (xi) eSIM inventory managers, (xii) system directory services, (xiii) communications managers, and/or (xiv) pending eSIM storages. Functions of the disclosed infrastructure can be flexibly partitioned and/or adapted such that individual parties can host portions of the infrastructure. Exemplary embodiments of the present invention can provide redundancy, thus ensuring maximal uptime for the overall network (or the portion thereof).
US09419969B2

A method and system are provided for granting access to a secured website of a content provider. The method includes: detection of a user's request for accessing secured website on a first communication device, the request indicating that at least one access code for accessing secured website is stored on an authentication server; transmission of a request for a validation to a second communication device identified with indication; and after verification of the validation received from the second communication device, forwarding the request for access to the secured website to the content provider using the stored website access code corresponding to the security code.
US09419968B1

Mobile push user authentication for native client based logon is described. In one method, an authentication server receives from a user interface at a native client a password for native-client based logon to a remote server. The method determines whether a portion of the password includes a one-time password (OTP). When the password includes an OTP, the method validates the remaining portion of the password as a first authentication factor, and validates the OTP as a second authentication factor. When the password does not include an OTP, the method sends a mobile push notification to a registered device, validates the password as the first authentication factor, receives a response to the mobile push notification, and validates the response to the mobile push notification as the second authentication factor. The native-client based logon is authorized when the first authentication factor and the second authentication factor are validated.
US09419967B2

A server computing device for a social networking web site receives from a user, via access of the web site, confidential information regarding the user, including information that the user does not socially share on the web site. The device associates the confidential information with a user identifier that uniquely identifies the user on the web site, and with an export group identifier corresponding to a type of the confidential information. The device associates the export group identifier with a password different from a user password the user employs to access the web site. The device receives, from a third party, a purported user identifier, a purported export group identifier, and a purported password, which the device validates against the user identifier, the export group identifier, and the password. Where validation is successful, the device permits access to the confidential information by the third party.
US09419965B2

A digital certification analyzer (or “analyzer”) provides protection for digital content stored on servers, file sharing systems, hard drives and USB enabled external drives or other digital repositories. The analyzer prevents unauthorized access from both owners/administrators and recipients of digital content being shared through a web based or file sharing type service. The analyzer protects the owner of the shared digital content from unauthorized access, while allowing multiple protection instances to be applied to multiple digital content shares within a digital file hosting and sharing environment. Timers are provided to limit access to digital content at the discretion of the owner of the digital content.
US09419961B2

A system that incorporates the subject disclosure may perform, for example, operations including receiving an encrypted secure token from a secure token application function that is remote from the communication device, storing the encrypted secure token in a secure element memory of the secure element, accessing user input requesting the encrypted secure token where the secure device processor is separate from the secure element and is in communication with the secure element, generating a modified secure token by adding identification information to the encrypted secure token and by performing a second encryption of the encrypted secure token with the identification information, receiving the modified secure token from the secure element, and providing the modified secure token to a receiving device. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09419960B2

A method, apparatus and/or computer program provides secure user authentication in a network having a dynamic set of services. The method comprises a client authenticating with an edge service and generating a query key. The edge service issues a request to the dynamic set of services. The request comprises (i) an encrypted identifier associated with the client, (ii) a private portion of the request being encrypted with the query key, and (iii) a public portion of the request. In response to ascertaining from the public portion of the request that it is able to respond to the request, one or more of the dynamic set of services respond to the edge service with (i) an identifier associated with the dynamic set of services, and (ii) the identifier associated with the client. The edge service then authenticates that it is able to respond to the request, including generating a session key.
US09419953B2

A secure identifier is derived, using a secured microcontroller of a computing device, that is unique to a pairing of the computing device and a particular domain. Secure posture data corresponding to attributes of the computing device is identified in secured memory of the computing device. The secure identifier and security posture is sent in a secured container to a management device of the particular domain. The particular domain can utilize the information in the secured container to authenticate the computing device and determine a security task to be performed relating to interactions of the computing device with the particular domain.
US09419949B2

A method of increasing communication security may include determining whether a first computer system is authorized to communicate with a second computer system, wherein the determining is performed at a third computer system. A message may be communicated from the third computer system for delivery to the first computer system, wherein the message includes a first data portion and a second data portion, wherein the first data portion includes a first instance of a session key, and wherein the second data portion includes a second instance of the session key. Another message, including the first data portion, may be communicated from the first computer system for delivery to the second computer system. Yet another message may be communication from the first computer system for delivery to the second computer system. Message validation associated with the yet another message may be performed using the first instance of the session key.
US09419939B2

A system, method, and device for use in videoconferencing. The method typically includes installing a videoconferencing services switch at an access point to an IP network, and registering a plurality of subscribers for videoconferencing services. Each subscriber typically has a plurality of endpoints. The method further includes receiving subscriber-specific settings to be applied to multiple videoconferencing calls from the plurality of endpoints associated with each subscriber. The method further includes storing the subscriber-specific settings at a location accessible to the switch, and configuring the switch to connect calls from the plurality of endpoints at each subscriber based on the corresponding subscriber-specific settings.
US09419932B1

A method for managing an e-mail response based on the e-mail domains of the recipients is provided. The method receives a first e-mail sent to a plurality of e-mail addresses that includes e-mails with different domain names, provides a list of different domain names associated with a plurality of e-mail addresses and an e-mail address of a sender of the first e-mail, generates, based on a selection of one or more of the different domain names, a distribution list including one or more e-mail addresses limited to e-mail addresses having a selected domain name, and providing the distribution list in an addressee field associated with the e-mail response.
US09419929B2

A communication unit connects an e-mail data transfer protocol to transfer e-mail data items with an external device. An e-mail data storage unit stores the e-mail data items transferred from the external device. The control unit does not cause the external device to transfer the e-mail data items when the e-mail data transfer protocol is connected and when a total number of subjects of the e-mail data items and a data content of a latest e-mail data item stored in the external device respectively coincide with a total number of subjects of the e-mail data items and a data content of a latest e-mail data item stored in the e-mail data storage unit, at the time point when the e-mail data transfer protocol is connected between the communication unit and the external device.
US09419921B1

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for receiving an outbound packet from a virtual machine executing on the data processing apparatus, the packet having header information including a destination Internet Protocol (IP) address, a destination port, a source IP address, and a source port, and wherein the source IP address and source port are associated with the virtual machine; selecting a different port than the source port from a plurality of ports associated with the virtual machine; changing the source port in the header information to the selected port; and sending the modified packet to an external network by way of a gateway that is configured to change the source IP address of the packet to an IP address of the gateway before routing the packet to its destination.
US09419911B2

A method for packet job scheduler in data processing based on workload self-learning is disclosed. In response to receiving an incoming packet, the packet processor checks workload usage of an isolation group (IG) associated with the incoming packet, the IG being a classification of packets defined for the purpose of processing the incoming packet. The packet processor then determines whether the workload usage of the IG associated with the incoming packet exceeds a predetermined threshold. In response to the workload usage of the IG associated with the incoming packet not exceeding the predetermined threshold, the packet processor forwards the incoming packet to be executed by a packet execution unit, and then it updates the workload usage of the IG associated with the incoming packet based on execution of the incoming packet by the packet execution unit.
US09419908B2

Systems and methods are disclosed for managing congestion in a data network. In a data network, various data flows are transmitted between source and destination nodes. One or more computing devices of the network may be configured to detecting congestion in a first path and provide an indication of the congestion, directly or indirectly, to a destination device. A switch associated with the path is designated for performing rebalancing of the flow based at least in part on a control message generated in response to an instruction received, either directly or indirectly, from a source device. Reassignment of the congested flow to a new path can help alleviate congestion and improve network performance.
US09419903B2

An embodiment of the invention includes an Openflow switch. The Openflow switch includes Openflow ALL groups. The Openflow ALL groups include ALL group buckets. During ingress ALL group buckets are represented in ingress as a list of output ports with associated queue ID's and associated copy-counts. Each ALL group bucket is represented in egress by an egress Openflow table entry where the egress Openflow table entry matches a group ID and a bucket ID. An action entry in an ALL group bucket table entry is the set of actions in the Openflow ALL group bucket excluding an output port and queue assignment.
US09419900B2

According to one embodiment, a method for handling congestion in a network includes determining that there is congestion on a first device in a network, setting a congestion indicator in a header of a packet to indicate an amount of congestion at the first device, sending the packet to all devices that send traffic to the first device, receiving the packet having the multi-bit indicator in a header thereof at a device that sends traffic to the first device, and reducing a congestion window by a factor of between about 5% and about 50% based on a severity of the congestion indicated by the multi-bit indicator, wherein the congestion window is reduced by a greater factor when the congestion is indicated as being more severe. Other systems and methods for handling congestion in a network are described according to more embodiments.
US09419899B2

Disclosed are various embodiments for automated service interface optimization. In one embodiment, a service client and/or a service provider is reconfigured to use an optimized version of a data transfer interface, where the optimized version transfers fewer data items from the service provider to the service client. In another embodiment, service calls from a service client for multiple different data objects are aggregated into an aggregated service call for a data object. In yet another embodiment, an optimized data object is provided to a service client in response to a request for an unoptimized data object. If the service client attempts to use a data item excluded from the optimized data object, the excluded data item is then provided to the service client.
US09419898B2

A network management assembly is disclosed for managing a flow of network management traffic across a network containing a plurality of discrete network domains. The assembly can include a first management terminal which is arranged to transmit network management traffic to each of the network domains via a respective first communication link, and a second management terminal which is arranged to receive network management traffic from each of the network domains via a respective second communication link. Each of the first communication links can permit a flow of network management traffic from the first management terminal to a respective domain, and prevent a reverse flow of network management traffic from the respective domain to the first management terminal. Each of the second communication links can permit a flow of network management traffic from a respective domain to the second management terminal, and prevent a reverse flow.
US09419894B2

A method implemented by a hypervisor located in a first network device (ND), the method comprising sending to and receiving from a second ND a first type of packet, wherein each packet of the first type of packet comprises media access control (MAC) layer information of a client; and sending to and receiving from a third ND a second type of packet, wherein each packet of the second type of packet contains no client MAC layer information.
US09419893B2

In a central controller, a method for managing resources comprising sending a request to a node in a domain controlled by the central controller, wherein the request requests at least a portion of a resource of the node, receiving a response from the node, wherein the response contains information on the availability of the portion of the resource, and storing the information on the availability of the portion of the resource for use in establishing a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) label switched path (LSP).
US09419892B2

In some embodiments, an apparatus includes a first edge device that is operatively coupled to a second edge device via a switch fabric. The first edge device and the second edge device collectively define an edge device network operating with a network-address-based protocol. The first edge device communicates with the second edge device via a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) tunnel through the switch fabric. Furthermore, the first edge device is operatively coupled to the switch fabric such that a node of the switch fabric can be modified without coordination of the edge device network. Additionally, the first edge device is operatively coupled to the second edge device to define the edge device network such that an edge device of the edge device network can be modified without coordination of the switch fabric.
US09419889B2

Methods and systems for discovering a path of network traffic that travels from a source host to a destination host are disclosed. A method involves, at the source host, generating probe packets that have the same load balancing parameters as packets of an application that generates application packets for transmission from the source host to the destination host and a path discovery signature comprised of bits from at least one of the network layer header and the transport layer header. The method also involves transmitting the probe packets from the source host to the destination host. In some embodiments, the steps of the method are performed when program instructions contained in a computer-readable storage medium are executed by one or more processors.
US09419883B2

A method of establishing a service operations administration and maintenance (OAM) session between an originator and a reflector in a communication network includes continuously monitoring, by the reflector, any test packets transmitted by the originator. The originator transmits to the reflector, at a time indicated by a first timestamp, a test packet. The reflector receives the test packet at a time indicated by a second timestamp and generates a unique flow identifier that identifies the reflector. The reflector transmits the test packet to the originator. The reflector assigns a sequence number to the test packet. The originator receives the test packet at a time indicated by a fourth timestamp. The reflector stores the unique flow identifier at least for the duration of the OAM session.
US09419880B2

One aspect of the disclosure relates to a method for handling a service request from a requesting entity in a telecommunications network. A first service request for a particular service is received from the requesting entity. A sequence identifier is assigned to the requesting entity from which the first service request is received. The first service request is rejected by sending a reject message to the requesting entity and the assigned sequence identifier is also communicated to the requesting entity. At some later time, the sequence identifier is transmitted (e.g. broadcasted) in the telecommunications network in order. A second service request for the particular service is then received from the requesting entity and the serving entity now allows the request for the service.
US09419877B2

To provide a call processing time measurement device which can measure the time required to process a measurement-object message to be measured. When a measurement-object message detection module detects a measurement-object message, a response request message transmission module transmits a response request message towards a node designated as a measurement object right after the measurement-object message. A response request message transmission time record module records the transmission time of the response request message transmitted by the response request message transmission module. A response message reception time record module records the reception time of the response message transmitted from the designated node. A processing time calculation module measures the message processing time of the designated node by calculating a difference between the reception time of the response message and the transmission time of the response request message.
US09419875B2

A video quality assessment method and a video quality assessment apparatus are provided. The method includes: acquiring parameter information of video data, where the parameter information includes a bit rate, a frame rate, and packet information; performing calculation according to the bit rate or the frame rate to obtain benchmark video quality of the video data; calculating the number of successively lost packets according to the packet information, and calculating the number of effective packet loss times; performing calculation according to the number of effective packet loss times to obtain video packet loss and distortion quality of the video data; and performing calculation according to the benchmark video quality and the video packet loss and distortion quality to obtain final video quality. Using the number of effective packet loss times can accurately assess videos more effectively and reduce algorithm complexity.
US09419871B2

A method and system are disclosed for remotely monitoring devices and Internet connectivity on a computer network. The method uses and the system includes at least two units, i.e., a monitoring station, which is a client device local to the network being monitored, and a centralized server which receives status updates and configuration requests from the monitoring station.
US09419858B2

A cable modem termination system (CMTS) may determine, for a plurality of cable modems served by the CMTS, a corresponding plurality of SNR-related metrics. The CMTS may assigning the modems among a plurality of service groups based on the SNR-related metrics. For any one of the modems, the CMTS may configure physical layer communication parameters to be used by the one of the modems based on a SNR-related metric of a service group to which the one of the modems is assigned. The physical layer communication parameters may include one or more of: transmit power, receive sensitivity, timeslot duration, modulation type, modulation order, forward error correction (FEC) type, and FEC code rate. The CMTS and the modems may communicate using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) over a plurality of subcarriers, and the physical layer communication parameters may be determined on a per-subcarrier basis.
US09419853B1

Certain aspects of the present disclosure relate to a technique to configure a data source name (DSN) for use during a data source access. A driver is selected. An identifier is provided that identifies a class, and a library or an application that implements a driver interface for accessing the data source. A connection string is forwarded with the identifier from an implementation of the driver interface to the driver. The connection string is forwarded from the driver to a driver manager managing a client.
US09419844B2

A method of generating media programming includes providing a first media source having a plurality of media elements, tags associated with each of the media elements, and one or more first media source templates for assembling of the media elements into media programming. The method further includes providing a second media source, the second media source having at least a second template and receiving a request for media programming at the second media source. The method further includes in response to the request, generating media programming including selected ones of the media elements assembled in accordance with at least the second template.
US09419840B1

A system and method involve receiving a plurality of samples of at least one orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) signal, the samples containing at least one complete OFDM symbol including data samples and a cyclic prefix, using an initial symbol timing offset (STO) estimate to initialize an N×1 vector of occupation probabilities α, where Nis the number of sub-carriers of the OFDM signal, and, for each subsequent set m of OFDM samples received containing at least one complete OFDM symbol, determining a STO estimate from a set of candidate STO estimates, updating the vector of occupation probabilities α, and determining a final STO estimate. The final STO estimate is used to determine a carrier frequency offset and may be determined using the STO estimate with the highest occupation probability.
US09419839B2

Transmission quality is improved in an environment in which direct waves dominate in a transmission method for transmitting a plurality of modulated signals from a plurality of antennas at the same time. All data symbols used in data transmission of a modulated signal are precoded by hopping between precoding matrices so that the precoding matrix used to precode each data symbol and the precoding matrices used to precode data symbols that are adjacent to the data symbol in the frequency domain and the time domain all differ. A modulated signal with such data symbols arranged therein is transmitted.
US09419834B2

An M-ary Phase Shift Keying (MPSK) demodulation apparatus and method are disclosed herein. The MPSK demodulation apparatus includes an amplifier, a carrier frequency recoverer, a plurality of correlators, and a symbol detector. The amplifier amplifies a received signal. The carrier frequency recoverer recovers a carrier frequency from the received signal, and generates a plurality of signals having a set phase difference. Each of the plurality of correlators outputs a signal, maintained at a set signal level for a specific period of time, using the received signal and the plurality of signals. The symbol detector collects the output signals of the plurality of correlators, and detects a received symbol by comparing the absolute value magnitudes of the collected output signals.
US09419832B2

In a radio system which allocates resources using as units resource blocks which are formed by frequency components and time components, control information for mobile station devices, and identification information which is used to identify a format for a control information transmission channel which transmits the control information is transmitted from the base station device to the mobile station devices by means of the control information transmission channel.
US09419827B2

A multi-phase partial response receiver supports various incoming data rates by sampling PrDFE output values at a selected one of at least two clock phases. The receiver includes a calibration circuit that performs a timing analysis of critical data paths in the circuit, and this analysis is then used to select the particular clock phase used to latch the output values. These techniques permit the multiplexer outputs from for each phase of the partial response receiver to directly drive selection of a multiplexer for the ensuing phase, i.e., by avoiding regions of instability or uncertainty in the respective multiplexer outputs.
US09419826B2

The present invention discloses an adaptive filtering method and system based on an error sub-band. The present invention includes performing analysis filtering processing on an error signal and an input signal to obtain an error sub-band signal and an input sub-band signal respectively; and performing calculation according to the input sub-band signal and the error sub-band signal to obtain a new adaptive filtering weight, and updating a weight in an adaptive filter.
US09419823B2

A disclosed PLC system includes a PLC modem electrically connected to a transmission medium that transmits or carries medium or high voltage without electrical isolation. The PLC system further includes a voltage divider that draws power from the transmission medium to the PLC modem, thereby eliminating a need of a separate power source for operating the PLC modem. Since the PLC modem is electrically connected to the transmission, the PLC modem or communication connections of the PLC modem may be located at a same potential level as the transmission medium and thus the PLC modem does not see a surge during a surge event occurs in the transmission medium. Therefore, the disclosed PLC system eliminates the use of a line coupler and a surge protection component for providing high-voltage isolation and surge protection to the PLC modem.
US09419814B2

In one embodiment, an occurrence of a triggering event is detected and it is determined that a virtual disk will be assembled in response to the triggering event. A time is determined at which the virtual disk will be assembled. When it is ascertained that the assembly time occurs, the virtual disk is assembled. It may also be determined whether a connection request is received for the virtual disk during a predetermined time.
US09419813B2

The present invention concerns a method and a device for transmitting data between a sender, and at least two receivers, in a network where a data between a sender and a receiver is carried on a connection and where a unicast connection enables a sender to send the data and a receiver to acknowledge a reception of the data. The method comprises the steps of opening a unique unicast connection identified with a connection identifier; and indicating the connection identifier to the sender and the receivers, so that the sender sends the data on the unicast connection, and the receivers receive the data on the unicast connection.
US09419808B2

A computer-implemented method, computer program product, and computing system is provided for creating resonance around posts to a collaboration session by important individuals. In an implementation, a method may include determining an importance level associated with a first user. The method may also include receiving content from the first user for publication to a collaboration session. The method may also include publishing the content from the first user to the collaboration session. The method may further include preventing publication of content from at least another user to the collaboration session for a resonance time period proximate publishing the content from the first user.
US09419806B2

A device certificate binds an identity of a first device to a public key of the first device. The first device comprises a certificate authority service that creates for a process on the first device a process certificate certifying one or more capabilities of the process on the first device. The process certificate is presented to the second device. Upon validating the process certificate using the device certificate, the second device permits the process on the first device to have on the second device one or more of the verified certified capabilities.
US09419794B2

An SOC implements a security enclave processor (SEP). The SEP may include a processor and one or more security peripherals. The SEP may be isolated from the rest of the SOC (e.g. one or more central processing units (CPUs) in the SOC, or application processors (APs) in the SOC). Access to the SEP may be strictly controlled by hardware. For example, a mechanism in which the CPUs/APs can only access a mailbox location in the SEP is described. The CPU/AP may write a message to the mailbox, which the SEP may read and respond to. The SEP may include one or more of the following in some embodiments: secure key management using wrapping keys, SEP control of boot and/or power management, and separate trust zones in memory.
US09419777B2

Multiple wireless devices in a network perform full duplex communication in which the transmission path and receiving path are spatially separated to allow simultaneous transmission and receiving. The wireless devices can either be controlled using a centralized, or point, coordination function or a distributed coordination function. A full-duplex wireless device senses the medium during transmission by itself and selectively continues the transmission when a signal is sensed on the medium. A full-duplex wireless device measures signal being transmitted by its transmitter and estimates parameters that can be used to cancel the contribution of the locally transmitted signal to the locally received signal concurrently being received during the transmission. The transmit antenna and the receive antenna of a full-duplex wireless device can be configured to be spatially isolated from each other to minimize interference between the antenna functions.
US09419776B2

A method and apparatus for operating supplementary cells in licensed exempt (LE) spectrum. An aggregating cell operating in a frequency division duplex (FDD) licensed spectrum is aggregated with a LE supplementary cell operating in a time sharing mode for uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) operations. The LE supplementary cell may be an FDD supplementary cell dynamically configurable between an UL only mode, a DL only mode, and a shared mode, to match requested UL and DL traffic ratios. The LE supplementary cell may be a time division duplex (TDD) supplementary cell. The TDD supplementary cell may be dynamically configurable between multiple TDD configurations. A coexistence capability for coordinating operations between the LE supplementary cell with other systems operating in the same channel is provided. Coexistence gaps are provided to measure primary/secondary user usage and permit other systems operating in the LE supplementary cell channel to access the channel.
US09419774B2

A hybrid diplexer-circulator system including a circulator and a modified-diplexer is provided. The circulator includes a first circulator-port, a second circulator-port coupled to a first chain comprising a receiver module, and a third circulator-port coupled to a second chain comprising a satellite modem. The first chain receives first-frequency signals and reflects second-frequency signals. The second chain receives the second-frequency signals reflected from the first chain and transmits third-frequency signals. The modified-diplexer includes: a first diplexer-port of the modified-diplexer, which is shared as the first circulator-port; a second diplexer-port; and third diplexer-port in the second chain. The second diplexer port inputs the first-frequency signals from a filter in the first chain. The third diplexer-port: inputs the second-frequency signals reflected by the first chain; outputs the second-frequency signals to be received by the satellite modem; inputs third-frequency signals transmitted by the satellite modem; and outputs the third-frequency signals to the third circulator-port.
US09419763B2

The present invention relates to methods for searching an enhanced physical downlink control channel (E-PDCCH), and a device for supporting the methods. According to one embodiment of the present invention, a method for searching an enhanced physical downlink control channel (E-PDCCH) in a wireless access system can comprise the steps of: performing a blind decoding on a control channel region and searching a legacy physical downlink control channel (PDCCH); and searching the E-PDCCH on the basis of the searched legacy PDCCH. In this case, in a subframe to which the E-PDCCH is allocated, using all symbols of the subframe from a first symbol to a third symbol is always preferred for allocation of the legacy PDCCH.
US09419757B2

This invention provides a method and apparatus for coordinating downlink transmission(s) in a wireless communication system comprising a cluster of base station clients in communication with a base station cluster coordinator. The method comprises: receiving from each of the cluster of base station clients, a UE parameter set for each UE served by the respective base station clients; determining cluster parameter sets in respect of respective transmission modes, based on the UE parameter sets; evaluating the cluster parameter sets at the base station cluster coordinator, in order to select at least one of the transmission modes for the base station clients; generating at the base station cluster coordinator at least one output according to the at least one transmission mode; and transmitting each output to at least one of the base station clients to control the corresponding base station client to perform the selected downlink transmissions.
US09419752B2

Wireless communication in a wireless network comprises a wireless station obtaining a transmission opportunity period (TXOP) for communicating with an access point (AP) over a wireless communication channel. The wireless station sends an announcement to the AP to share the transmission opportunity period with at least another wireless station, as a multi-user transmission opportunity period for simultaneously transmitting data from said wireless stations to the AP on multiple uplink (UL) spatial streams over the wireless channel. UL TXOP transmission information is communicated based on one or more indications included in a quality of service (QoS) data frame and a frame header.
US09419751B2

In a transmission scheme wherein multi-slot packet transmissions to a remote station can be terminated by an acknowledgment signal from the remote station, code symbols can be efficiently packed over the multi-slot packet so that the remote station can easily decode the data payload of the multi-slot packet by decoding only a portion of the multi-slot packet. Hence, the remote station can signal for the early termination of the multi-slot packet transmission, which thereby increases the data throughput of the system.
US09419743B2

The present invention includes novel techniques, apparatus, and systems for optical WDM communications. Tunable lasers are employed to generate subcarrier frequencies representing subchannels of an ITU channel to which client signals can be mapped. Client circuits can be divided and combined before being mapped, independent of one another, to individual subchannels within and across ITU channels. Subchannels may be independently routed to a single subchannel receiver filter, such that each subchannel detected at the receiver may come from a different source location. Network architectures and subchannel transponders, muxponders and crossponders are disclosed, and techniques are employed (at the subchannel level/layer), to facilitate the desired optical routing, switching, concatenation and protection of client circuits mapped to these subchannels across the nodes of a WDM network. Subchannel hopping may also be used to increase the optical network security.
US09419742B2

Consistent with one example of the disclosed implementations, a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) may be provided that includes s group of lasers and an arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) disposed on a substrate. Each laser in the group may supply an optical signal, such that each optical signal has a different wavelength. Each laser may be tunable to at least two designated wavelengths, which are separated from one another by a free spectral range (FSR) of the AWG. As a result, the optical signals provided from each laser may be combined by the AWG, regardless of which designated wavelength the optical signals have. Accordingly, a PIC may be provided that has a relatively simple construction but can supply optical signals having tunable wavelengths.
US09419739B2

An apparatus and a method for allocating resources for transmitting an HARQ ACK/NACK signal for a downlink subframe using a PUCCH format 3 in a time division duplex (TDD) system using a single carrier are provided. Since the resources are allocated through a resource indicator transmitted using a power control field transmitted on a PDCCH of the downlink subframe, the resources for transmitting the HARQ ACK/NACK signal may be allocated by effectively using resources allocated to a duplicately transferred control signal.
US09419737B2

A control network communication arrangement includes a second protocol embedded into a first protocol in a way that modules supporting the second protocol may be aware of and utilize the first protocol whereas modules supporting only the first protocol may not be aware of the second protocol. Operation of modules using the second protocol does not disturb operation of the modules not configured to use or understand the second protocol. By one approach, the messages sent using the second protocol will be seen as messages sent using the first protocol but not having a message necessary to understand or as needing a particular response. In another approach, modules using the second protocol can be configured to send messages within a CAN message frame without being compatible with CAN.
US09419727B1

A communications method comprising the following steps: emitting a series of pulses from a transmitter through water, wherein each pulse comprises a plurality of electromagnetic component signals, wherein each component signal has a fixed combination of wavelength and polarization state that differs from the wavelength and polarization state combinations corresponding to the other component signals; encoding data onto each pulse by varying the amplitude of selected component signals of each pulse; receiving each pulse with a receiver; and retrieving the data by detecting the component signals based on the component signals' wavelength, polarization state, and amplitude.
US09419724B2

A coherent optical receiver according to an exemplary aspect of the invention includes a coherent optical receiving part performing coherent detection by inputting and mixing local oscillation light and main signal light received through a transmission line with a signal applied at a transmitting side, outputting the signal applied to the main signal light as an electric signal, and regenerating and outputting an original signal on the basis of the electric signal; and a local oscillation optical frequency control part receiving channel information on a transmission line adjacent to the main signal light, and outputting the local oscillation light after changing a frequency of the local oscillation light depending on the presence or absence of adjacent channel signal light of other signal light in an adjacent channel.
US09419722B2

We disclose an optical transponder, in which one or more all-electronic feedback paths are used to obtain a relatively accurate estimate of the device-specific signal distortions in the transmitter portion thereof. The obtained estimate is used to enable the digital signal processor of the optical transponder to carry out electronic pre-distortion (EPD) that can significantly reduce or cancel these signal distortions without the use of detailed factory-calibration measurements or optics dedicated to feedback purposes. The use of all-electronic feedback paths may enable a beneficial reduction in the cost of the EPD functionality, e.g., by eliminating a significant extra cost associated with the implementation of optically generated feedback.
US09419721B2

An electronic device comprising an optical gate, an electrical input an electrical output and a wide bandgap material positioned between the electrical input and the electrical output to control an amount of current flowing between the electrical input and the electrical output in response to a stimulus received at the optical gate can be used in wideband telecommunication applications in transmission of multi-channel signals.
US09419715B2

The present invention relates to a system for interoperating a full-duplex radio-over-fiber (RoF) network in a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network and to a method associated with the system. The system comprises, at the central station (100), a laser diode (105a), a first optical circulator (105b), an optical carrier generating unit (105c), and a second optical circulator (105d). The system comprises, at a base station (101), a third optical circulator (101a) a band pass filter (101b) coupled to the third optical circulator (101a) and configured to select only the optical signal having a corresponding pass band in which is used for converting an uplink signal as a remote local oscillator signal. The unselected optical signal is transmitted as downlink data.
US09419714B2

The present disclosure is a novel utility of a software defined radio (SDR) based Distributed Antenna System (DAS) that is field reconfigurable and support multi-modulation schemes (modulation-independent), multi-carriers, multi-frequency bands and multi-channels. The present disclosure enables a high degree of flexibility to manage, control, enhance, facilitate the usage and performance of a distributed wireless network such as flexible simulcast, automatic traffic load-balancing, network and radio resource optimization, network calibration, autonomous/assisted commissioning, carrier pooling, automatic frequency selection, frequency carrier placement, traffic monitoring, traffic tagging, pilot beacon, etc.
US09419705B2

A radio receiving apparatus for receiving the variable-length RLC PDU data in an RLC layer includes the buffer memory sectioned into a plurality of areas having a predetermined maximum data length of the RLC PDU data. By referring to a sequence number SN included in each received RLC PDU data, the radio receiving apparatus stores the RLC PDU data having an identical sequence number SN into an identical area, and assembles an RLC SDU data on a basis of the RLC PDU data stored in each area.
US09419699B2

A method for improving multiple-user (MU) multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) protocol efficiency includes transmitting an MU frame to multiple devices. The MU frame is beamformed to enable a corresponding one of the devices to receive an intended stream at high power. The MU frame includes an additional sounding-field. Acknowledgement (ACK) responses are received from at least some of the plurality of devices. Each of the ACK responses includes a sounding response frame including a channel feedback.
US09419687B1

A radio frequency signal is transmitted by a powered mobile device that emulates a signal of a passive radio frequency identification (RFID) device signal. The emulated signal is transmitted at an intermediate frequency communication (IFC) range, which is at least a magnitude of five greater than a range at which the passive RFID device is able to receive the radio frequency signal from a NFC reading device (referred to as an NFC range). The NFC reading device responds to the transmission signal from the powered mobile device as if an equivalent signal containing the transmission information were sent from the passive RFID device. This permits a powered mobile device to emulate a passive RFID device at an expanded range.
US09419686B2

A receiver of a near field communication device includes a local oscillator, a first channel, and a second channel. The local oscillator may be configured to generate a first local oscillating signal. The first channel may be configured to process an input signal by mixing the input signal with the first local oscillating signal. The second channel may be configured to process the input signal by mixing the input signal with a second local oscillating signal that has a phase difference of 90 degrees with respect to the first local oscillating signal. Each of the first and second channels may include a comparator unit that includes a comparator configured to compare, in a comparator mode, an amplifier output signal with a reference voltage whose level increases in a step-wise manner and the comparator unit may be configured to set a level of the reference voltage to be used in a normal mode based on an output signal of the comparator.
US09419684B2

The invention relates to an inter-module communication apparatus where the reflection is reduced so that the communication channel can provide high speed and broadband as compared to inductive coupling. When modules having a signal line terminated with a terminating member and a feedback signal line are layered on top of each other so that the signal lines are coupled to each other and the return signal lines are coupled to each other using capacitive coupling and inductive coupling, the impedance of the terminating members is a coupling impedance that reflects the proximity effects in the coupling state between the modules.
US09419683B2

A connector for data transmission at an interface between two apparatuses for food production, such as meat and sausage production, having a first connecting element connected to the first apparatus and being at least one first data transmission part, a second connecting element connected to the second apparatus and being at least one second data transmission part, the first data transmission part being galvanically isolated from the second data transmission part such that data transmission from the first connecting element to the second connecting element is effected in a galvanically isolated manner.
US09419682B2

An apparatus for providing near field communication (NFC) for a mobile device, includes a USB (universal serial bus) signal processing unit configured to convert a signal of the mobile device, which is received through a USB interface into a value to be processed in a central processing unit, and convert a value received from the central processing unit into a signal to be transmitted to the USB interface. Further, the apparatus includes an analog signal processing unit configured to convert an analog signal received from an outside device into a digital signal, and convert a digital signal of the central processing unit into an analog signal to transmit the converted analog signal to the antenna.
US09419676B2

A receiver for receiving a pilot generated based on a polyphase sequence having a constant time-domain envelope and a flat frequency spectrum is disclosed. In one design, the receiver includes at least one demodulator and at least one processor. The demodulator(s) receive at least one single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) symbol transmitted via a communication channel and including pilot symbols generated based on a polyphase sequence. The demodulator(s) remove a cyclic prefix in each SC-FDMA symbol and demodulate the at least one SC-FDMA symbol to obtain received pilot symbols. The processor(s) derive a channel estimate for the communication channel based on the received pilot symbols.
US09419657B1

A hybrid polar I-Q transmitter includes an I-Q derivation circuit configured to receive a first and second I-Q data components comprising a first I-Q data pair, and generate a first and second I-Q derived data components comprising a second I-Q data pair, respectively, based thereon, by utilizing a resolution information of a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) and a design criteria. The I-Q derivation circuit is further configured to determine a residual angle corresponding to a phase angle difference between the first I-Q data pair and the second I-Q data pair. The hybrid polar I-Q transmitter further comprises a modulation circuit configured to compensate the determined residual angle corresponding to the phase angle difference between the first I-Q data pair and the second I-Q data pair.
US09419652B2

The present disclosure illustrates a BCH decoding method and a decoder thereof. In this BCH decoding method, the BCH decoder receives an encode data at first, then calculates a syndrome of the encode data. After calculating the syndrome of the encode data, the BCH decoder calculates at least one error location of the encode data in response to the syndrome. Next, the BCH decoder detects at least one determining bit which a first bit string of the encode data comprises. The determining bit is configured for operatively determining whether to continue decoding the encode data. Finally, when the determining bit is detected, an error correction is then performed based upon the error location, such that the BCH decoder outputs decode data.
US09419641B1

A D/A converter is configured to output tri-level potentials from an output terminal. A high potential terminal and the output terminal are connected through a p-type MOS transistor. An intermediate potential terminal and the output terminal are connected through p-type and n-type MOS transistors, which are connected in series and have low threshold voltages. A low potential terminal and the output terminal are connected through an n-type MOS transistor. The p-type MOS transistor and the n-type MOS transistor connected to the Intermediate potential terminal have a positive voltage and a negative voltage between gate-source paths in off-states, respectively, and a substrate bias effect and hence remain in the off-state stably.
US09419640B2

A microphone circuit has a clip detection circuit (30) which detects when an analog to digital converter (ADC, 12) output has reached a threshold. A variable capacitance (34a, 34b, 34c, 34d), which functions as a variable input load associated with the microphone (11), is controlled based on the clip detection circuit output, the feedback is thus based on the ADC output level, and the processing of this signal can be implemented without requiring baseband processing of the signal—it can simply be based on a state of the ADC output.
US09419637B1

Provided are, among other things, systems, methods and techniques for converting a continuous-time, continuously variable signal into a sampled and quantized signal. According to one implementation, an apparatus includes multiple processing branches, each including: a continuous-time quantization-noise-shaping circuit, a sampling/quantization circuit, and a digital bandpass filter. A combining circuit then combines signals at the processing branch outputs into a final output signal. The continuous-time quantization-noise-shaping circuits include adjustable circuit components for changing their quantization-noise frequency-response minimum, and the digital bandpass filters include adjustable parameters for changing their frequency passbands.
US09419631B2

A charge pump circuit used for a charge pump phase-locked loop that includes a charging and discharging unit, two complementary circuit units, two operational amplifier units, an inverter unit, and a current mirror unit. The charge pump circuit resolves the matching problem of charging and discharging currents and the charge sharing problem in existing charge pump circuits. Both complementary circuit units positively and reversely compensate the charging and discharging unit to keep the charging and discharging currents of capacitors constant. Thus, the problem of the change of charging and discharging currents is resolved, the voltage linear variation of the charge pump capacitors is achieved, and the charging and discharging of the capacitors can be accurately controlled. The charge pump circuit is simple in structure, easy to integrate, high in the matching precision of the charging and discharging current sources, and suitable for low voltage and low power consumption applications.
US09419629B1

A delay-locked loop (DLL) has a fractional phase frequency (PF) detector that reduces false locking and harmonic locking. The PF detector has a trunk, an upper branch, a lower branch, and a logic module. A delay line provides the PF detector a set of fractional phase-delayed clock signals that are used to prime and/or activate corresponding flip-flops of the trunk, upper branch, and lower branch in a sequence. The use of flip-flops in the lower branch activated by different fractional phase-delayed clock signals avoids false locking and harmonic locking over a wider range of initial delay magnitudes than conventional DLLs.
US09419625B2

A method of configuring a prescaling circuit in a performance counter circuit for a computer processing system can include receiving a first number of signaled events at a prescaling circuit configured to generate event counts for a performance counter circuit. The method can include generating event counts at a current event-count rate for the first number of signaled events and determining a detected event-count rate for the signaled events based on a rate at which the first number of signaled events are received at the prescaling circuit. The method can include determining that the detected event-count rate is greater than the current event-count rate. The method can include increasing the current event-count rate in response to determining that the detected event-count rate is greater than the current event-count rate.
US09419621B1

The present application describes a SoC device with observer units for monitoring a state of a respective functional unit of the SoC combiner units for generating combinational events based on one or more observer events issued by the observer units and one or more feedback events from issued by action units and action units for generating feedback events and/or action request based the on at least one combinational event.
US09419619B2

A chip includes a logic circuit which has a plurality of transistors and is configured to carry out a logical data processing function, the transistors being operated in a first direction when carrying out the data processing function, and a readout circuit which is configured to control the logic circuit in such a manner that the transistors are operated in a second direction opposite the first direction and is configured to determine an identification of the logic circuit on the basis of an output from the logic circuit when operating the transistors in the second direction.
US09419615B2

A circuit comprises a voltage supply node, a reference voltage node, and a plurality of transistors coupled with the voltage supply node and the reference voltage node. The circuit also comprises a circuit input, a first delay element and a second delay element. The first delay element is coupled with the circuit input and one transistor of the plurality of transistors. The second delay element is coupled with the circuit input and a second transistor of the plurality of transistors. The circuit further comprises a circuit output coupled with the first transistor of the plurality of transistors and the second transistor of the plurality of transistors. The circuit additionally comprises a bias generator coupled with the circuit output, the first transistor of the plurality of transistors and the second transistor of the plurality of transistors.
US09419607B2

Example circuitry includes: a transformer circuit having first windings and second windings, where the second windings are magnetically orthogonal to the first windings; first transistors to provide a first voltage to a load, where each of the first transistors is responsive to a first control signal that is based on a first signal through a first winding; second transistors to provide a second voltage to the load, where each of the second transistors is responsive to a second control signal that is based on the first through the first winding, and where the first and second control signals cause the first transistors to operate in a different switching state than the second transistors; and control circuitry responsive to signals received through the second windings to control the first transistors and the second transistors to operate in a same switching state.
US09419598B2

A controllable delay element includes a delay element to provide a variable delay from an input signal to an output signal. The variable delay can be controlled by a digital delay input. The delay element has a delay range that is controlled in response to a delay range input. The delay range of the delay element can be calibrated to a desired range of delays in response to a relative delay between a first timing reference and a second timing reference. A common timing reference is applied to a plurality of receivers and a strobe receiver. The delay through the strobe receiver is adjusted to measure the delay mismatches between the plurality of receivers. The mismatches are used to select a value for the delay through the strobe receiver.
US09419596B2

One aspect of the technology is an integrated circuit, comprising a bias circuit and a sense amplifier. The bias circuit has a diode-connected transistor and a first bias voltage. The first bias voltage is represented by a first term inversely dependent on a first mobility of charge carriers of the diode-connected transistor and inversely dependent on a first gate-to-channel dielectric capacitance of the diode-connected transistor. The sense amplifier is coupled to another transistor that has a gate coupled to the first bias voltage of the bias circuit.
US09419594B2

A clock data recovery system is described. It includes a high pass filter for transmitting a filtered data signal in response to receiving an input data signal; an adder for summing the filtered data signal with a feedback signal, wherein the adder produces a summed input signal; a plurality of clocked data comparators for receiving the summed input signal, wherein the clocked data comparators determine an input data bit value; a plurality of clocked error comparators for receiving an error signal associated with clock recovery and DFE tap adaption; an equalization and adaptation logic for selecting an error sample such that a phase associated with the error sample is locked at h0=h1+h2; and a phase mixer for transmitting a delay in response to receiving the phase and the delay is transmitted to the clocked-data comparators and the clocked-error comparators.
US09419591B2

A circuit includes a ring oscillator that includes a plurality of delay stages coupled in series to generate an output frequency for the ring oscillator. A capacitive array is operatively coupled between a supply rail and a power rail for each of the delay stages to supply power to the delay stages. The capacitive array selectively adjusts the output frequency of the ring oscillator via a capacitive setting of the capacitive array.
US09419584B2

An antenna duplexer has a first filter passing a signal in a first frequency band and a second filter passing a signal in a second frequency band which is higher than the first frequency band. The first filter includes a first series resonator having a lowest antiresonance frequency and second series resonators. A propagation angle of a main elastic wave of the first series resonator a propagation angle of a main elastic wave of each of the second series resonators are different from each other so that an electromechanical coupling coefficient of the first series resonator is smaller than an electromechanical coupling coefficient of the second series resonators.
US09419583B2

A resonator includes a piezoelectric plate and interdigitated electrode(s). The interdigitated electrode includes a plurality of conductive strips disposed over a top surface of the piezoelectric plate. A two-dimensional mode of mechanical vibration is excited in a cross sectional plane of the piezoelectric plate in response to an alternating voltage applied through the interdigitated electrode. The two-dimensional mode of mechanical vibration is a cross-sectional Lamé mode resonance (CLMR) or a degenerate cross-sectional Lamé mode resonance (dCLMR).
US09419579B2

A band pass filter circuit includes an input terminal, an output terminal, a signal line, and a plurality of main LC parallel resonators. First ends of the plurality of main LC parallel resonators are connected to the signal line, and second ends of the plurality of main LC parallel resonators are connected to one another. At least one attenuation-pole-defining sub LC parallel resonator including an inductor and a capacitor is inserted between a ground and the connected second ends of the plurality of main LC parallel resonators.
US09419572B2

The present invention discloses an audio device having haptic compensation function capable of compensating a haptic effect according to a power measuring result and an audio signal. An embodiment of the audio device comprises: an audio signal generating circuit operable to generate an audio signal; a power measuring circuit operable to measure a remaining electric quantity of a power source and thereby generate a power measuring result; and a haptic compensating circuit, coupled to the audio signal generating circuit and the power measuring circuit, operable to adjust a gain of the audio signal or the derived signal thereof according to the power measuring result and thereby output a haptic compensation signal which is used to compensate the haptic effect.
US09419569B2

Methods and systems for a pseudo-differential low-noise amplifier at Ku-band may comprise a low-noise amplifier (LNA) integrated on a semiconductor die, where the LNA comprises differential pair transistors with an embedded inductor tail integrated on the semiconductor die. The embedded inductor tail may comprise: a first inductor with a first terminal capacitively-coupled to a gate terminal of a first transistor of the differential pair transistors and a second terminal of the first inductor coupled to second, third, and fourth inductors. The second inductor may be coupled to a source terminal of the first transistor of the differential pair transistors, the fourth inductor may be coupled to a source terminal of the second transistor of the differential pair transistors, and the third inductor may be capacitively-coupled to a gate terminal of the second transistor of the differential pair transistors and also to ground. The second inductor may be embedded within the first inductor.
US09419567B2

The present disclosure relates to a system for biasing a power amplifier. The system can include a first die that includes a power amplifier circuit and a passive component having an electrical property that depends on one or more conditions of the first die. Further, the system can include a second die including a bias signal generating circuit that is configured to generate a bias signal based at least in part on measurement of the electrical property of the passive component of the first die.
US09419562B1

An amplifier may include a plurality of stages, wherein each stage may have an amplifier stage output configured to generate an amplifier output signal and a transistor coupled at its gate terminal to the amplifier input and to the gate terminals of the transistors of the other amplifier stages. Each stage may be configured to periodically and cyclically operate in an amplifier mode in which the amplifier stage generates at its corresponding amplifier stage output a power-amplified version of a signal received at the amplifier input and a in reset mode in which the transistor of the stage operating in the reset mode has an electrical property thereof reset. At any given time, at least one amplifier stage is operating in the amplifier mode. The amplifier may be configured to output as an output signal one of the amplifier output signals corresponding to an amplifier stage operating in the amplifier mode.
US09419561B2

The present disclosure includes circuits and methods for power amplifiers. In one embodiment, a main amplifier stage and peaking amplifier stage of a power amplifier receive a modulated supply voltage. The peaking amplifier stage is biased dynamically to adjust the bias of peaking stage to compensate for changes in the power supply voltage. A bias voltage may be increased as the supply voltage on the peaking stage decreases, and the bias voltage may be decreased as the supply voltage on the peaking stage increases. Accordingly, bias characteristics of the peaking stage are maintained across supply voltage variations, and the efficiency of the power amplifier is improved.
US09419551B2

A driver circuit for driving an electrical motor coil is provided which comprises combined switched inductance boost voltage converter circuitry and switched inductance buck voltage converter circuitry. An input node of the driver circuit is provided to be coupled with the electrical motor coil, which provides the inductive element of both the boost and buck circuitry. Further the boost and buck circuitry share a storage capacitor, which provides the capacitive element of each circuitry, and a voltage developed across the storage capacitor by the boost circuitry forms an input of the switched inductance buck voltage converter circuitry. Bidirectional driving of the electrical motor coil is thus provided from a driver circuit which only need be supplied with a single unidirectional supply and the current drawn from that supply is significantly reduced because of the manner in which the boost and buck circuitry operate synergistically to recycle electrical power which is moved back and forth between the electrical motor coil and the storage capacitor. A corresponding driver board, electrical motor driver apparatus, method of operating a driver circuit and apparatus are also provided.
US09419547B2

The present invention provides an auxiliary excitation winding set to be installed at the rotary part of the electric machine (104) composed of a rotary part of the permanent magnetic electric machine or a rotary part of the reluctance electric machine of the switched DC electric machine with conduction ring and brush (1000), and an electric conduction ring and brush device (107) is served as an interface for transmitting the electric power, thereby inputting the excitation electric power to the auxiliary excitation winding set; and through controlling the value and the polarity of excitation voltage and current, the magnetic pole of the rotary part of magnet-motive electric machine (104) of the switched DC electric machine with conduction ring and brush (1000) can be performed with the excitation effect of auxiliary excitation or differential excitation or auxiliary compound excitation or differential compound excitation.
US09419542B2

A three-level inverter circuit includes first to fourth front-stage switches connected in series, and a floating capacitor connected between a connection point of the first and second front-stage switches and a connection point of the third and fourth front-stage switch elements, and outputs an intermediate voltage of a DC power supply through a connection point of the second and third front-stage switches. A bridge circuit includes first, second, third, and fourth rear-stage switches which are bridge-connected to first to fourth terminals. The first terminal thereof is connected to a connection point of the second front-stage switch and the third front-stage switch and a second terminal thereof is connected to the second input terminal.
US09419537B1

A driver circuit for powering a load is disclosed. The driver circuit includes an input for connection to a ballast, a rectifier, a switch, and a fault circuit. The rectifier converts AC power received from the input into DC power. The rectifier includes a rectifier input. The switch is electrically connected to the rectifier input. The switch is activated to create a short circuit at the rectifier inputs in response to receiving an activation signal. The fault circuit is electrically connected to the switch. The fault circuit generates the activation signal in response to detecting at least one of an over voltage, an over temperature, and an over current condition of the driver circuit.
US09419534B2

A power inverter is provided comprising: a control board comprising: a processor that generates an AC waveform from a pulse width modulation (PWM) signal according to instructions or data stored in a memory associated with the processor; and an output at which a signal having the AC waveform is provided; a power supply module that is connected to the control board, comprising: an input connected to the output of the control board at which the AC waveform signal is provided; and an output at which an AC power signal is provided on a channel of the power inverter.
US09419524B2

A direct current power source includes an electric control unit (ECU101) for converting a portion of input direct current electric energy into alternating polarity electric energy or ripple electric energy. The converted alternating polarity or ripple electric energy is supplied to the primary winding of a transformer, and an alternating polarity or ripple electric energy output by the secondary winding of the transformer is rectified by a full wave rectifier for use as a direct current auxiliary power source. The direct current power source uses voltage accumulation to boost the direct current electric energy, eliminating the need for a full power transformer.
US09419517B2

An electric power conversion device of an embodiment includes the electric power conversion device expressed as an equivalent circuit including, a power supply, a first parasitic inductance, a first diode; a second parasitic inductance connected to the first diode in series, a second diode connected to the first diode in parallel, a third parasitic inductance connected to the second diode in series, a switching element, a gate circuit, and a load. The equivalent circuit includes a first circuit loop and a second circuit loop. The first circuit loop includes the power supply, the first parasitic inductance, the first diode, the second parasitic inductance, the switching element, and the gate circuit. The second circuit loop includes the power supply, the first parasitic inductance, the second diode, the third parasitic inductance, the switching element, and the gate circuit.
US09419515B2

A charge pump circuit is disclosed. The charge pump circuit includes a first circuit powered by a first supply voltage and configured to adjust a voltage of an output in response to first and second sets of control signals. The first circuit includes a set of transistors having respective switching voltages. A control circuit powered by a second voltage, less than the first supply voltage, is configured to generate the first and second sets of control signals. A voltage shifting circuit is configured to bias voltages of the first and second sets of control signals relative to the switching voltages.
US09419499B2

A rotating electric machine includes a rotor, a stator, a cooling device and a pair of cooling liquid collection tanks. The stator includes an annular stator core and a stator coil. The stator core is disposed radially outside the rotor so as to surround the rotor. The stator coil is mounted on the stator core so that a pair of coil ends of the stator coil protrude axially outward respectively from opposite axial end faces of the stator core. The cooling device is configured to supply cooling liquid to vertically upper parts of the coil ends of the stator coil. Each of the cooling liquid collection tanks is arranged to surround a vertically lower part of a corresponding one of the coil ends so as to collect and temporarily reserve therein the cooling liquid moved from the upper part to the lower part of the corresponding coil end.
US09419498B2

A rotary electric machine according to the present invention includes a stator including a stator core and stator coils, a rotor provided rotatably with a gap to the stator, a housing that stores the stator and the rotor, a fan that circulates air inside the housing through the gap in the housing, a heat exchanger that cools the air circulated by the fan, and an air guiding plate including an air guiding route formed therein for guiding the air cooled by the heat exchanger such that the cooled air flows into the gap without coming into contact with the stator coils.
US09419496B2

A return mechanism is achieved which requires only a small force for operation. In one aspect of the present invention, a return mechanism (10) includes: a first spring (1) that acts between an operating section (11) and a working section (12); and a second spring (2) that acts between the operating section (11) and a base (13). A direction in which the second spring acts when the operating section (11) is in a first position is not parallel to a direction in which the second spring (2) acts when the operating section (11) is in a second position. A component which, of a force of the second spring, acts in a direction of motion of the operating section (11) is smaller when the operating section (11) is in the second position than in the first position.
US09419492B2

An interface for transmitting electrical power to a motor of a motor-compressor is provided. The interface may include a receptacle having a first end portion coupled with a stator of the motor and a second end portion defining a hole at least partially extending therethrough. The interface may also include a plug configured to be detachably coupled with the receptacle. The plug may include a rigid, conductive rod having a first end portion configured to be coupled with a penetrator of the motor-compressor, and a second end portion configured to be at least partially disposed in the hole of the receptacle and detachably coupled therewith. The rigid, conductive rod may be configured to electrically couple the penetrator with the receptacle, and the receptacle may be configured to transmit the electrical power to the stator.
US09419491B2

A motor connecting member, which connects a motor winding and a terminal block, includes a terminal to be connected to the terminal block, a winding connecting portion to be connected to the motor winding, and an extended portion extending between the terminal and the winding connecting portion. The extended portion is made by plastically deforming a single wire having a circular cross section, and is bent in a predetermined shape fitted for connection between an end of the motor winding connected with the winding connecting portion and the terminal block.
US09419490B2

The present invention is directed to connection technology for providing a sufficient connection strength in bonding a wire material and a twisted wire each having a large diameter when directly bonding the wire material, which is used for a stator of an electric motor and a generator, and the twisted wire serving as a lead wire by ultrasonic bonding. A twisted wire having a plurality of core wires is hardened by ultrasonic vibration using a pressurized vibration tool when the twisted wire is connected to a wire material. After that, the twisted wire is reversed such that the hardened surface thereof faces the wire material and then comes into contact with the wire material. In this state, ultrasonic waves are applied to the hardened surface from the opposite side using the vibration tool, thereby connecting the hardened surface of the twisted wire and the wire material.
US09419487B2

A rotary electric machine includes: a stator core that is formed of a plurality of split core pieces that are annularly arranged therein, coil conductors being wound around respective split core pieces. One ends of the respective coil conductors which are wound around the respective split core pieces are connected to power supply terminals for corresponding phases, and other ends of the respective coil conductors are connected to each other to form a neutral point, the respective coil conductors are formed of rectangular wires, and the neutral point-side end portions of the respective coil conductors are led to an outside of the stator core from one point on a circumference of the stator core.
US09419475B2

A UPS system includes a power distribution assembly having a plurality of side faces and comprising an AC input and an AC output and at least two UPS assemblies having respective side faces confronting respective ones of the side faces of the power distribution assembly, each of the at least two UPS assemblies comprising a plurality of converter modules and an interconnection module configured to switchably couple AC inputs and AC outputs of the converter modules to respective ones of the AC input and the AC output of the power distribution assembly through conductors passing through the confronting side faces. The conductors may couple the power distribution assembly to the at least two UPS modules without the use of conduit and/or cable trays.
US09419465B2

A wireless charger is disclosed. The charger contains a coil with a plurality of taps, thereby facilitating charging according to different frequencies and standards. Detection of the standard appropriate to a particular receiver may be accomplished by modulation of the power carrier or via low power modalities, including NFC or Bluetooth.
US09419461B2

When power required by a load is larger than or equal to reception peak-cut power, a secondary battery discharges at a power rate that is larger or equal to a difference between the required power and the reception peak-cut power, and when the required power is smaller than or equal to the reception peak-cut power, the secondary battery discharges at a power rate that is smaller than or equal to the discharge improving power value. When power generated by the load is larger than or equal to transmission peak-cut power, the secondary battery charges at a power rate that is larger or equal to a difference between the regenerative power and the transmission peak-cut power, and when the regenerative power is smaller than or equal to the transmission peak-cut power, the secondary battery charges at a power rate that is smaller than or equal to the charge improving power value.
US09419456B2

A device includes a battery pack receptacle that removably connects to a battery pack used for a cordless device. A universal serial bus (USB) port is connected to the battery pack receptacle. The battery pack is used as a power source for the USB port. An attachment device is connected to the battery pack receptacle that attaches the battery pack receptacle to a utility bag.
US09419451B2

A method and apparatus for protecting against certain energy sources used to charge a battery is disclosed.
US09419449B2

A battery protection chip may comprise: a first end, configured to output a strong pull up signal when a voltage of at least one battery in a battery pack protected does not reach a balance threshold, and to output a weak pull down signal when voltages of all batteries in the battery pack protected reach the balance threshold; and a second end, configured to output a strong pull down signal when a voltage of at least one battery in a battery pack protected does not reach a balance threshold, and to output a weak pull up signal when voltages of all batteries in the battery pack protected reach the balance threshold.
US09419447B2

A battery control device that controls a battery module in which a plurality of cell groups, in each of which a plurality of cells are connected in series, are connected in series or series-parallel, includes: a plurality of cell controller ICs that control each of the plurality of cell groups; and one or more connectors that are provided for connecting the plurality of cell controller ICs to the battery module; wherein: the plurality of cell controller ICs include first and second cell controller ICs that are provided in sequence, so as to control two or more of the cell groups that are connected in series; and an auxiliary connection member (a pin) is provided for connecting GND terminal side wiring of the first cell controller IC and VCC terminal side wiring of the second cell controller IC together, externally to the battery control device.
US09419445B2

The embodiments herein provide a method and system for extending battery power at cell sites. The method for extending battery power at cell sites comprises providing a combination of a valve-regulated lead-acid (VRLA) battery and a Li-ION battery, mixing cell chemistry of the VRLA battery and the Li-ION battery and charging the VRLA-Li-ION battery combination with a single charger circuit. The method further comprises providing a rectifier to both the VRLA battery and the Li-ION battery and activating each battery based on the available power. The Li-ION battery and the VRLA battery are the primary battery and secondary battery. The charging current through the VRLA battery is regulated by varying a pulse width of a high current switch based on the current read through the current sensor attached to a VRLA current path.
US09419438B2

In some embodiments, a system includes a power system coupled to a power bus, and a power line communication (PLC) gateway coupled in series with the power bus. In other embodiments, a system includes first and second power circuits coupled in series with a power bus, and first and second power-line communication circuits coupled in series with the power bus. In additional embodiments, a system includes a power converter coupled to a power bus and having one or more switching frequencies, and a power-line communication circuit coupled to the power bus and having one or more communication frequencies, where at least one of the switching frequencies is substantially greater than at least one of the communication frequencies.
US09419430B1

A system and method for assessing and modeling operation of a transformer includes a controller connected to a power transformer. The controller is configured to calculate theoretical information related to operation of the power transformer, assess information related to actual operation of the power transformer, and manipulate one of more parameters associated with one or more equations used to calculate the theoretical information so that the calculated theoretical information more closely approximates the information associated with the actual operation of the power transformer. In a preferred embodiment, the controller is configured to automatically manipulate the parameters associated the theoretical calculation of operation of the power transformer although the controller may also be configured to request user confirmation of manipulation of one or more of the parameters of the equations associated with the theoretical calculations related of expected actual operation of the power transformer.
US09419427B2

A device for protection against an electric arc in an electric installation comprising: at least one detection apparatus of the electric arc, at least one short-circuiter establishing a short-circuit for extinction of the electric arc, an electronic control unit of the short-circuiter commanding to an established state of said short-circuit in case of detection of the electric arc by the detection apparatus, and a switchgear apparatus for interrupting said short-circuit at the end of a predefined short-circuit time delay as from the time this short-circuit is established.
US09419425B2

An apparatus, method, and system are disclosed for housing and terminating various cables. The apparatus is mounted on a base, which allows it to be pivoted to different positions. The apparatus includes a portion capable of receiving a cable containing various types of wires. A patch panel is provided on a track assembly in order allow various operations such as termination of the wires. The apparatus can remain above ground, or positioned below ground when not being accessed.
US09419423B2

A bus bar for electric power distribution switchboard is disclosed, which can include a conducting body, which longitudinally extends along a principal axis and, which, seen in a transversal cross-section, has a first side and a second side transversally connected by a third side and a fourth side. The body has, on the first side, at least a first slot and a second separated slot, and wherein the first slot has a first bottom portion from which a first lateral wall and a second lateral wall protrude transversally facing to each other, and the second slot has a second bottom portion from which a third lateral wall and a fourth lateral wall protrude transversally facing to each other. Each of the first bottom portion and the second bottom portion includes two substantially straight tracts, which form an angle of less than 180° between them.
US09419422B2

Devices in the form of flush-mounting plates are disclosed which are adapted to connect, for example, one or more receptacles to an electrical box that is disposed inside of a wall. Such flush-mounting plates include a back side that is adapted to be connected to the electrical box through a set of screws disposed through corresponding apertures located in the flush-mounting plate and electrical box, and a front side that is adapted to be connected to the one or more receptacles and a cover plate having a planar exterior surface. The one or more receptacles are positioned between the flush-mounting plate and the cover plate, such that the cover plate, one or more receptacles, and flush-mounting plate are connected to the electrical box in a manner that the exterior surface of the cover plate is substantially flush with an outer wall that surrounds the electrical box. In addition, the cover plate may be connected to the flush-mounting plate through a set of magnets or mechanical means.
US09419421B1

An apparatus for facilitating using a screw to secure a receptacle cover plate over a junction box recessed in a wall, the junction box including at least one tapped screw receiver, and the cover plate defining at least one hole corresponding to the at least one tapped screw receiver. A bushing is provided with internal (female) threads at a first end. At a second end of the bushing is provided either external (male) threads, or internal threads into which a stud is engaged having external threads. The external threads engage the at least one tapped screw receiver. The at least one screw extends through the at least one hole defined in the cover plate to threadingly engage the internal threads of the bushing, thereby securing the cover plate to the junction box.
US09419415B2

A spark plug includes an insulator with a through hole, a center electrode disposed at a tip end side of the through hole, a metal terminal nut disposed at a rear end side of the through hole, a resistor disposed in a position between the center electrode and the metal terminal nut inside of the through hole and apart from the center electrode, and a conductive seal that is disposed between the resistor and the center electrode inside of the through hole and contacts both the center electrode and the resistor. A contact surface between the resistor and the conductive seal includes at least one point where a distance in the central axis direction from a virtual plane that includes a rear end of the resistor and is vertical to the central axis is local maximum, and include at least one point where the distance is local minimum.
US09419412B2

There is provided an integrated laser. The integrated laser includes a semiconductor waveguide having a first section, a second section and a third section. The integrated laser further includes an active region formed on the third section of the semiconductor waveguide, the active region configured for generating light, and a coupler formed on the second section of the semiconductor waveguide, the coupler configured for coupling said light between the semiconductor waveguide and the active region. In particular, the first section comprises a multi-branch splitter having a ring structure formed between two branches of the multi-branch splitter for emission wavelength control of the integrated laser. Preferably, the multi-branch splitter is a Y-branch splitter and the ring structure is formed in a space between two branches of the Y-branch splitter. There is also provided a method of fabrication thereof, an integrated tunable laser and an integrated tunable laser system.
US09419411B2

A semiconductor laser diode is disclosed. The semiconductor laser diode including a primary surface constituted by two short sides and two long sides, comprises: an active layer; an electrode provided above the active layer; a first pad connected to the electrode; a second pad connected to the first pad; an inner interconnection configured to connect the electrode to the first pad electrically, the inner interconnection being provided along the long sides; and an outer interconnection configured to connect the first pad to the second pad electrically, the outer interconnection being provided along the long sides, the outer interconnection having a width along the short sides narrower than a width of the first pad along the short sides and a width of the second pad along the short sides. The active layer, the first pad, and the second pad are arranged along the long sides.
US09419410B2

An optical semiconductor device includes: an electric-optic conversion element that is provided with a diode; and a driving circuit that drives the diode in a forward direction, the driving circuit including a first switching circuit that is provided with a first switch, and a second switching circuit that is provided with a second switch, wherein the first switching circuit constitutes a first signal line that charges the electric-optic conversion element with an electric charge by bringing the first switch into an ON state and the second switch into an OFF state, and the second switching circuit constitutes a second signal line that discharges the electric charge stored in the electric-optic conversion element by bringing the second switch into an ON state and the first switch into an OFF state.
US09419398B2

Systems and methods of the invention relate to transferring energy from a vehicle to a device via a track circuit. Embodiments of the present invention include a power source of a vehicle that can be utilized to transfer energy through a track circuit to a device coupled thereto. The track circuit can include a section of track having a first pair of insulated joints located on a first rail and a second pair of insulated joints on a second rail, each pair separated by a distance. Moreover, a signal can be communicated to the vehicle based on receipt of the transferred energy.
US09419386B2

An indication circuit includes a recommended standard 232 (RS232) connector, first to fourth electronic switches, first and second light-emitting diodes (LEDs), and first to fourth resistors. When the RS232 connector outputs a first voltage, the first LED emits, when the RS232 connector outputs a second voltage, the second LED emits.
US09419382B2

A cable connector assembly including: a cable including a number of wires, an insulative housing, a number of contacts retained in the insulative housing and soldered to corresponding wires of the cable, a spacer assembled to the insulative housing and retaining respective rear portions of the contacts, a metal case enclosing the insulative housing and having a slit, a copper foil enclosing the metal case and covering the slit, and an insulative member over-molded on the copper foil and a front end of the cable, wherein the spacer defines a sustaining portion extending into the slit for supporting a portion of the copper foil located above the slit.
US09419381B2

An object of the present invention is to provide a shield case capable of applying shield to a connection portion by means of various versatile connectors. A configuration is made such that the shield case includes a lower case (8) to be mounted on a housing (3) of an electronic control device and an upper case (9) to be fitted into the lower case (8) with a harness (2) having a female connector (5) being nipped. In the shield case, the lower case (8) and the upper case (9) are fastened to the housing (3) by screws (10) with a shield conductor (7) of the harness (2) being nipped between the lower case (8) and the upper case (9).
US09419376B1

An example of a connector for host devices is provided. Aspects of the disclosure relate generally to a connector that allows a user to blindly connect the connector to a host device. For example, a magnetic system between the connector and host device may attract when the connector is oriented correctly with the host device's socket, and repel when the connector is incorrectly oriented. The connector may have a cord that is positioned such that, when the user incorrectly orients the connector over the host device's socket, the cord may interfere with the host device's housing, thereby indicating to the user to re-orient the connector. The connector may also employ multiplexed pins so the pins can perform more than a single function. For example, the data (D+/D−) pins may transmit music in the form of audio signals, and information content in the form of electrical signals.
US09419375B2

A connector for a cable has an outer housing, an inner housing at least partially received within the outer housing, a strain reliving attachment mechanism, and a rotational locking mechanism. The strain relieving attachment mechanism has an assembly path with an preliminary mating position and a final mating position. The rotational locking mechanism is engaged with the strain relieving attachment mechanism along the assembly path from a locking position located between the preliminary mating position and the final mating position. The rotational locking mechanism couples the inner housing to the outer housing in a rotatory locked manner upon engagement with the strain relieving attachment mechanism.
US09419364B2

The disclosure relates to a flat contact for insertion in a receiving member of a connector in an insertion direction (E), a receiving block for inserting the flat contact, and a connector comprising a receiving block and/or a flat contact. A solution is provided in which the positioning of a flat contact relative to the receiving block is simple and precise. This is achieved by a flat contact for insertion in a receiving member of a connector in an insertion direction (E) comprising a clamping portion having clamping projections which protrude in a width direction (B) and a positioning portion which has at the narrow sides thereof guiding faces which extend parallel with the insertion direction (E), the guiding faces projecting beyond the clamping projections in the width direction (B).
US09419353B1

The electrical wire connection strip includes a bottom housing portion and an upper housing portion that are slidably connected to one another. The electrical wire connection strip is connectable to additional electrical wire connection strips to form a segmented electrical wire connection block or strip, where each segment can be designated to accept a certain wire gauge size.
US09419350B2

A coaxial cable connector having an outer barrel and a coaxial compression collar applied to the outer barrel. The outer barrel is formed with an inner compression band which moves between an uncompressed position and a compressed position. The compression collar includes an outer compression band configured for deformation in response to axial compression of the coaxial cable connector. The inner compression band moves from the uncompressed position to the compressed position in response to deformation of the outer compression band.
US09419347B2

A circularly polarized antenna exhibiting a high performance characteristic can be produced by utilizing a ground plane, a half-loop, and an electric dipole in a predetermined configuration. The circularly polarized antenna can provide benefits, such as wide axial ratio bandwidth, high gain, and simple structure, over other unidirectional circularly polarized antennas.
US09419345B2

The present invention relates to a dual reflector antenna with a hybrid subreflector, and more particularly, to a dual reflector antenna with a subreflector having a structure in which an ellipse and a hyperbola are combined. An exemplary embodiment of the present invention provides a dual reflector antenna including: a main reflector; and a hybrid subreflector which faces the main reflector and has a first structure and a second structure which are combined therein.
US09419340B2

An ultrawideband antenna for use in communications equipment, comprising a first folded branch antenna element with an electrical connection at a first end and a second folded branch antenna element with an electrical connection at a first end. The folded branch antenna elements are of a triangular shape, or a combination of polygonal shapes. By using the present invention, the volume of an antenna is reduced and the ultra wide bandwidth can be achieved.
US09419339B2

Methods of forming a microelectronic packaging structure and associated structures formed thereby are described. Those methods and structures may include forming a package structure comprising a discrete antenna disposed on a back side of a device, wherein the discrete antenna comprises an antenna substrate, a through antenna substrate via vertically disposed through the antenna substrate. A through device substrate via that is vertically disposed within the device is coupled with the through antenna substrate via, and a package substrate is coupled with an active side of the device.
US09419327B2

A system that includes a phase shifter and a radiating element of an electrical circuit; wherein the phase shifter is arranged to: (a) receive, from a first lead of a feed line, a first signal that is a radio frequency (RF) signal; (b) delay the first RF signal by about 180 degrees to provide a delayed signal; and (c) provide the delayed signal to a first feeding point of the radiating element; wherein the radiating element further comprises a second feeding point that is arranged to receive from a second lead of the lead line a second signal that is a RF signal; wherein the delayed signal and the second signal are substantially in phase. The system can include or be an improved MB antenna.
US09419326B2

An antenna pattern frame includes: a radiator having an antenna pattern part for receiving an external signal; a radiator frame having the radiator injection-molded to have the antenna pattern part formed thereon and including the antenna pattern part buried at an inner side of an electronic device; and an over-mold part injection-molded together with the radiator frame and over-molded to be formed on the antenna pattern part in order to prevent the antenna pattern part from becoming separated from the radiator frame.
US09419323B2

A power combiner/divider W1 which includes: a body portion in which a cavity is formed; a center coaxial connector which is formed on an approximately center portion of the body portion; a plurality of peripheral coaxial connectors 14 which are arranged concentrically about the center coaxial connector 11 and are formed on the body portion; a radial line which is formed in the cavity formed in the body portion; a center coaxial line which has one end thereof connected to the center coaxial connector and the other end thereof connected to a center portion of the radial line; and a peripheral coaxial line which has one end thereof connected to the peripheral coaxial connector and the other end thereof connected to an outer peripheral portion of the radial line, an impedance conversion part is provided to the radial line in one or plural stages.
US09419318B2

A method of producing a photoelectric conversion element, which contains an electrically conductive support, a photosensitive layer having porous semiconductor fine particles that have adsorbed a dye formed on the support, a charge transfer layer; and a counter electrode; containing the steps of: applying a dispersion liquid, in which the content of solids excluding semiconductor fine particles is 1% by mass or less based on the total amount of the dispersion liquid, on the support, to form a coating; heating the coating, to obtain porous semiconductor fine particles; and sensitizing the porous semiconductor fine particles by a dye having a structure represented by Formula (1): M(LL1)m1(LL2)m2(X)m3·CI  Formula (1) wherein M represents a metal atom, LL1, LL2, and X each are a ligand, CI represents a counter ion, m1 represents an integer of 1 to 3, m2 and m3 each represent an integer of 0 to 2.
US09419310B2

A battery pack is disclosed. The battery pack includes a battery cell, a protection circuit module, and a temperature sensor, which are each held by a case. The case includes a dedicated space for the temperature sensor and a fixing element to fix the temperature sensor in the dedicated space.
US09419306B2

The invention provides a nonaqueous electrolyte for batteries and a nonaqueous secondary battery using the same which maintains small internal resistance and high electric capacity in high temperature storage. The nonaqueous electrolyte has an electrolyte salt, a compound of general formula (1), and a compound of general formula (2) dissolved in an organic solvent. The ratio of the compound of formula (2) to the sum of the compound of formula (1) and the compound of formula (2) is 0.1 to 8 mass %. In the formulae, R1, R2, R3, and R4 each independently represent C1-C8 alkyl.
US09419304B2

A nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery according to an embodiment of the invention includes: a flat electrode assembly including a positive electrode and a negative electrode; a bottomed prismatic hollow outer can storing the flat electrode assembly and a nonaqueous electrolyte and having an opening portion; and a sealing plate sealing the opening portion of the hollow outer can. The nonaqueous electrolyte contains at least one of a lithium salt having an oxalate complex as an anion and lithium difluorophosphate (LiPF2O2). The outer surface area of a battery outer body including the hollow outer can and the sealing plate is 350 cm2 or more. With this configuration, the nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery has excellent battery characteristics.
US09419299B2

Alkali (or other active) metal battery and other electrochemical cells incorporating active metal anodes together with aqueous cathode/electrolyte systems. The battery cells have a highly ionically conductive protective membrane adjacent to the alkali metal anode that effectively isolates (de-couples) the alkali metal electrode from solvent, electrolyte processing and/or cathode environments, and at the same time allows ion transport in and out of these environments. Isolation of the anode from other components of a battery cell or other electrochemical cell in this way allows the use of virtually any solvent, electrolyte and/or cathode material in conjunction with the anode. Also, optimization of electrolytes or cathode-side solvent systems may be done without impacting anode stability or performance. In particular, Li/water, Li/air and Li/metal hydride cells, components, configurations and fabrication techniques are provided.
US09419297B2

A fuel cell module includes a first area where an exhaust gas combustor and a start-up combustor are provided, an annular second area around the first area where a heat exchanger is provided, an annular third area around the second area where a reformer is provided, an annular fourth area around the third area where an evaporator is provided, and a first partition member provided between the first area and the second area. The first partition member has a combustion gas hole for allowing the combustion gas to flow from the first area to the second area. A baffle circular member is provided inside the first partition member, between the exhaust gas combustor and the start-up combustor.
US09419295B2

In various aspects, systems and methods are provided for operating a molten carbonate fuel cell at conditions that can improve or optimize the combined electrical efficiency and chemical efficiency of the fuel cell. Instead of selecting conventional conditions for maximizing the electrical efficiency of a fuel cell, the operating conditions can allow for output of excess synthesis gas and/or hydrogen in the anode exhaust of the fuel cell. The synthesis gas and/or hydrogen can then be used in a variety of applications, including chemical synthesis processes and collection of hydrogen for use as a fuel.
US09419293B2

System and methods for measuring operating parameters of a fuel cell system are presented. In certain embodiments, the systems and methods may be configured to measure a high frequency resistance of a fuel cell system. A method for measuring a high frequency resistance of a fuel cell system may include inducing a current signal and a voltage signal through the FC system at a center frequency using a switched load. The current signal and the voltage signal may then be measured and filtered to isolate the current signal and the voltage signal from noise signals occurring in the FC system. A high frequency resistance of the FC may then be calculated based on the filtered current and voltage signals.
US09419292B2

A PEM-fuel-cell-stack backup electric generator comprising: a fuel-cell stack, formed by a plurality of stacked PEM fuel cells electrically connected in series for supplying electrical energy to an electrical load; a cell-voltage monitor for measuring the voltage supplied by each fuel cell; an electrical-energy management and conditioning unit, connected between the fuel-cell stack and the electrical load; a blower for supplying the amount of air necessary for the chemical reactions that occur in the fuel cells; a hydrogen recirculator for recirculating hydrogen between the outlet and the inlet of the fuel-cell stack; a hydrogen-purging device for carrying out a primary purging of hydrogen at a lower flow rate, and a secondary purging of hydrogen at a higher flow rate; and a controller, programmed for managing operation of the electric generator differently at start-up, at shut-down, and during normal operation thereof.
US09419287B2

A bifunctional catalyst for catalyzing both an oxygen reduction reaction and an oxygen evolution reaction is provided, wherein the catalyst comprises a doped graphene backbone having thiol functional groups. A method for producing a bifunctional catalyst is also provided.
US09419276B2

The present disclosure relates to an anode active material comprising a composite of a core-shell structure, a lithium secondary battery comprising the same, and a method of manufacturing the anode active material. According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an anode active material of a core-shell structure comprising a core including alloyed (quasi)metal oxide-Li (MOx—Liy) and a shell including a carbon material coated on a surface of the core. According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method of manufacturing the anode active material of the core-shell structure. According to an aspect of the present disclosure, an anode active material with high capacity, excellent cycle characteristics and volume expansion control capacity, and high initial efficiency is provided.
US09419274B2

The present invention relates to the use of porous structures comprising sulfur in electrochemical cells. Such materials may be useful, for example, in forming one or more electrodes in an electrochemical cell. For example, the systems and methods described herein may comprise the use of an electrode comprising a conductive porous support structure and a plurality of particles comprising sulfur (e.g., as an active species) substantially contained within the pores of the support structure. The inventors have unexpectedly discovered that, in some embodiments, the sizes of the pores within the porous support structure and/or the sizes of the particles within the pores can be tailored such that the contact between the electrolyte and the sulfur is enhanced, while the electrical conductivity and structural integrity of the electrode are maintained at sufficiently high levels to allow for effective operation of the cell. Also, the sizes of the pores within the porous support structures and/or the sizes of the particles within the pores can be selected such that any suitable ratio of sulfur to support material can be achieved while maintaining mechanical stability in the electrode. The inventors have also unexpectedly discovered that the use of porous support structures comprising certain materials (e.g., metals such as nickel) can lead to relatively large increases in cell performance. In some embodiments, methods for forming sulfur particles within pores of a porous support structure allow for a desired relationship between the particle size and pore size. The sizes of the pores within the porous support structure and/or the sizes of the particles within the pores can also be tailored such that the resulting electrode is able to withstand the application of an anisotropic force, while maintaining the structural integrity of the electrode.
US09419260B2

A battery charger includes a battery attachment section configured to have a rechargeable battery releasably attached thereto. The battery attachment section includes a flat attachment surface having a width corresponding to a width of a bottom surface of a case of the battery to be charged and a length greater than a length of the bottom surface of the case of the battery to be charged; a plurality of locking hooks provided on the attachment surface; a charger terminal configured to contact a terminal of the battery to be charged, the charger terminal including a plurality of plate-shaped contact pieces configured to be inserted into engaging grooves of the battery to be charged; and an attachment projection adjacent to the attachment surface and configured to secure the battery to the charger.
US09419258B2

A device includes a battery pack receptacle that removably connects to a particular adapter of multiple adapters for a particular associated battery pack that is used for a cordless device. A universal serial bus (USB) port is connected to the battery pack receptacle. The battery pack is used as a power source for the USB port.
US09419257B2

A high voltage battery includes an electrode assembly. A pouch-shaped case is sealed by an edge portion to cover the electrode assembly and has an open inlet formed at one side of the case to allow an electrolyte to be injected to the case therethrough. An outlet is connected to the inlet and discharges gas generated inside the case outside a vehicle.
US09419253B2

The present invention provides a battery pack and its fabricating method, a battery and an electronic device. The battery pack provided by the present invention comprises: an outer package, which is in a laminated form and has a conductive layer therein; and a battery cell, which has a positive electrode terminal and a negative electrode terminal and is housed in the outer package, wherein, the positive electrode terminal or the negative electrode terminal of the battery cell is electrically connected to said conductive layer at the part led out from the outer package. With the battery pack and its fabricating method provided by the present invention, the influence of electrostatic discharge can be eliminated with a more simple structure.
US09419252B2

A rechargeable battery case that prevents a short circuit of a cell by inducing bending of a case under a lateral/longitudinal compression condition in a specific manner. The rechargeable battery case includes an opening in the case through which an electrode assembly is inserted. A bottom portion is provided at an end of the case opposite to that of the opening. A front portion is connected to the bottom portion. A back portion is connected to the bottom portion and the front portion. A joint portion is arranged between the front, back and bottom portion. Further, a first area and a second area are disposed longitudinally in the front and back portions. The second area is on either side of the first area. The joint portion in the second area is thicker than the joint portion in the first area.
US09419243B2

Provided is an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display including: a first plastic layer; a first barrier layer formed on the first plastic layer; a first intermediate layer formed on the first barrier layer; a second plastic layer formed on the intermediate layer; an OLED layer formed on the second plastic layer; and a thin-film encapsulation layer encapsulating the OLED layer.
US09419241B2

An organic electroluminescent element includes: first and second electrodes; and luminous units between the electrodes on a substrate, adjacent luminous units each being separated by an intermediate electrode layer, wherein at least one of the electrodes is a transparent electrode; the luminous units are each an organic functional layer including an organic luminous layer; the intermediate electrode layer includes an independent connecting terminal for electrical connection; a thin-film layer is disposed on a surface of the transparent electrode being at least one of the electrodes; and the thin-film layer has a variable refractive index across a thickness of the thin-film layer, the variable refractive index having an extreme value at which the refractive index changes from an increase to a decrease or an extreme value at which the refractive index changes from a decrease to an increase.
US09419240B2

An organic light emitting transistor includes a substrate, a first insulating layer on the substrate, an auxiliary gate electrode between the substrate and the first insulating layer, the auxiliary gate electrode corresponding to a first area, a switching gate electrode between the substrate and the first insulating layer, the switching gate electrode corresponding to a second area defined adjacent to at least one side of the first area, the switching gate electrode being insulated from the auxiliary gate electrode, a source electrode on the first insulating layer, the source electrode corresponding to the second area, a semiconductor layer on the first insulating layer, the semiconductor layer corresponding to at least the first area and the semiconductor layer being connected to the source electrode, a drain electrode corresponding to at least the first area, and a light emitting layer interposed between the drain electrode and the semiconductor layer.
US09419232B2

The invention disclosed nanostructured organic materials and a process for the preparation thereof. Further the present invention herein provides nanostructured organic material comprising divalent zinc metal complex of N,N′-Di-(phenyl-3,5 dicarboxylic acid)-perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic acid diimide doped with hydrazine hydrate, which exhibits increased charge carrier mobility at low operating voltage at atmospheric condition useful in organic field effect transistors (OFETs).
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