US09419181B2
According to various embodiments, an electrode may include at least one layer including a chemical compound including aluminum and titanium.
US09419177B2
Compositions, devices, and methods for optimizing photosynthetically active radiation by utilizing a composition comprising a quantum confinement material having an emission spectra of between 300 nm and 545 nm, and a quantum confinement material having an emission spectra of between 545 nm and 750 nm where the composition may be embedded in and/or coated on one or more transparent surfaces.
US09419170B2
Methods for treating a semiconductor material are provided. According to an aspect of the invention, the method includes annealing the semiconductor material in the presence of a compound that includes a first element and a second element. The first element provides an overpressure to achieve a desired stoichiometry of the semiconductor material, and the second element provides a dopant to the semiconductor material.
US09419166B2
A method of fabricating a solar cell can include forming a first dopant region over a silicon substrate and an oxide region over the first dopant region. In an embodiment, the oxide region can protect the first dopant region from a first etching process. In an embodiment, a second dopant region can be formed over the silicon substrate, where a mask can be formed to protect a first portion of the second dopant region from the first etching process. In an embodiment, the first etching process can be performed to expose portions of the silicon substrate and/or a silicon region. A second etching process can be performed to form a trench region to separate a first and second doped region of the solar cell. A third etching process can be performed to remove contaminants from the solar cell and remove any remaining portions of the oxide region.
US09419148B2
A diode is integrated on a semiconductor chip having anode and cathode surfaces opposite to each other. The diode comprises a cathode region extending inwardly from the cathode surface, a drift region extending between the anode surface and the cathode region, and a plurality of anode regions extending from the anode surface in the drift region. The diode further comprises a cathode electrode coupled with the cathode region, and an anode electrode that contacts one or more contacted anode regions of said anode regions and is electrically insulated from one or more floating anode regions of the anode regions. The diode is configured so that charge carriers are injected from the floating anode regions into the drift region in response to applying of a control voltage exceeding a threshold voltage.
US09419147B2
A method and apparatus for making analog and digital electronics which includes a composite including a squishable material doped with conductive particles. A microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) device has a channel made from the composite, where the channel forms a primary conduction path for the device. Upon applied voltage, capacitive actuators squeeze the composite, causing it to become conductive. The squishable device includes a control electrode, and a composite electrically and mechanically connected to two terminal electrodes. By applying a voltage to the control electrode relative to a first terminal electrode, an electric field is developed between the control electrode and the first terminal electrode. This electric field results in an attractive force between the control electrode and the first terminal electrode, which compresses the composite and enables electric control of the electron conduction from the first terminal electrode through the channel to the second terminal electrode.
US09419136B2
The present disclosure relates to a transistor device having epitaxial source and drain regions with dislocation stress memorization (DSM) regions that provide stress to an epitaxial channel region, and an associated method of formation. The transistor device has an epitaxial stack disposed over a semiconductor substrate, and a gate structure disposed over the epitaxial stack. A channel region extends below the gate structure between epitaxial source and drain regions located on opposing sides of the gate structure. First and second dislocation stress memorization (DSM) regions have a stressed lattice that generates stress within the channel region. The first and second DSM regions respectively extend from below the epitaxial source region to a first location within the epitaxial source region from below the epitaxial drain region to a second location within the epitaxial drain region. Using the first and second DSM regions to stress the channel region, improves device performance.
US09419122B1
A method of making a stepped field gate for an FET including forming a first set of layers having a passivation layer on a barrier layer of the FET and a first etch stop layer over the first passivation layer, forming additional sets of layers having alternating passivation layer and etch stop layers, successively removing portions of each set of layers using lithography and reactive ion etching to form stepped passivation layers and a gate foot, applying a mask having an opening defining an extent of a stepped field-plate gate, and forming the stepped field plate gate and the gate foot by plating through the opening in the mask.
US09419120B2
A transistor device is provided that comprises a base structure, and a superlattice structure overlying the base structure and comprising a multichannel ridge having sloping sidewalls. The multichannel ridge comprises a plurality of heterostructures that each form a channel of the multichannel ridge, wherein a parameter of at least one of the heterostructures is varied relative to other heterostructures of the plurality of heterostructures. The transistor device further comprises a three-sided gate contact that wraps around and substantially surrounds the top and sides of the multichannel ridge along at least a portion of its depth.
US09419118B1
A trench IGBT has a gate electrode disposed in a trench. A tub-shaped floating P-well is disposed on one side of the trench. The tub-shaped floating P-well has a central shallower portion and a peripheral deeper portion. An inner sidewall of the trench is semiconductor material of the peripheral deeper portion of the floating P-well. On the other side of the trench is a P type body region involving a plurality of deeper portions and a plurality of shallower portions. Each deeper portion extends to the trench such that some parts of the outer sidewall of the trench are semiconductor material of these deeper P-body portions. Other parts of the outer sidewall of the trench are semiconductor material of the shallower P-body portions. A shallow N+ emitter region is disposed at the top of the outer sidewall. The IGBT has fast turn off and enhanced on state conductivity modulation.
US09419111B2
A multi-fin FINFET device may include a substrate and a plurality of semiconductor fins extending upwardly from the substrate and being spaced apart along the substrate. Each semiconductor fin may have opposing first and second ends and a medial portion therebetween, and outermost fins of the plurality of semiconductor fins may comprise an epitaxial growth barrier on outside surfaces thereof. The FINFET may further include at least one gate overlying the medial portions of the semiconductor fins, a plurality of raised epitaxial semiconductor source regions between the semiconductor fins adjacent the first ends thereof, and a plurality of raised epitaxial semiconductor drain regions between the semiconductor fins adjacent the second ends thereof.
US09419107B2
Embodiments of the present disclosure provide methods for forming nanowire structures with desired materials for three dimensional (3D) stacking of fin field effect transistor (FinFET) for semiconductor chips. In one example, a method of forming nanowire structures on a substrate includes performing an ion implantation process to dope dopants into a suspended nanowire structure on a substrate, the suspended nanowire includes multiple material layers having a spaced apart relationship repeatedly formed in the suspended nanowire structure, wherein the material layer predominantly comprises a first type of atoms formed therein, the dopants including a second type of atoms into the suspended nanowire structure, oxidating surfaces of the multiple material layers, and converting the first type of atoms in the material layer to the second type of atoms from the dopants doped therein.
US09419099B2
The present disclosure provides a method for fabricating a semiconductor device that includes forming a gate stack over a silicon substrate, forming dummy spacers on sidewalls of the gate stack, isotropically etching the silicon substrate to form recess regions on either side of the gate stack, forming a semiconductor material in the recess regions, the semiconductor material being different from the silicon substrate, removing the dummy spacers, forming spacer layers having an oxide-nitride-oxide configuration over the gate stack and the semiconductor material, and etching the spacer layers to form gate spacers on the sidewalls of the gate stack.
US09419095B2
A method for manufacturing a dummy gate in a gate-last process and a dummy gate in a gate-last process are provided. The method includes: providing a semiconductor substrate; growing a gate oxide layer on the semiconductor substrate; depositing bottom-layer amorphous silicon on the gate oxide layer; depositing an ONO structured hard mask on the bottom-layer amorphous silicon; depositing top-layer amorphous silicon on the ONO structured hard mask; depositing a hard mask layer on the top-layer amorphous silicon; forming photoresist lines on the hard mask layer, and trimming the formed photoresist lines so that the trimmed photoresist lines a width less than or equal to 22 nm; and etching the hard mask layer, the top-layer amorphous silicon, the ONO structured hard mask and the bottom-layer amorphous silicon in accordance with the trimmed photoresist lines, and removing the photoresist lines, the hard mask layer and the top-layer amorphous silicon.
US09419088B2
A low resistance polysilicon (poly) structure includes a first poly coupled to a substrate and having a sidewall. A second poly is separated from the sidewall of the first poly and the substrate by a programming oxide. The first poly and the second poly have substantially a same planarized height above the substrate. The first poly extends from a device region to a strap region, and extends substantially parallel to a first length of the second poly. A second length of the second poly extends away from the first poly in the strap region and includes a salicide. A first diffusion region crosses the first poly and the second poly in the device region. A masked width of the first length of the second poly is defined by an etched spacer. A low resistance contact is coupled to the second length of the second poly in the strap region.
US09419087B2
A Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT) includes an elongated collector line, an elongated emitter line parallel to the collector line, and an elongated base line parallel to the collector line and positioned between the collector line and the base line. The emitter line, the base line, and the collector line are formed over fin structures.
US09419086B2
A semiconductor nanowire device includes at least one semiconductor nanowire having a bottom surface and a top surface, an insulating material which surrounds the semiconductor nanowire, and an electrode ohmically contacting the top surface of the semiconductor nanowire. A contact of the electrode to the semiconductor material of the semiconductor nanowire is dominated by the contact to the top surface of the semiconductor nanowire.
US09419085B2
A lateral device includes a gate region connected to a drain region by a drift layer. An insulation region adjoins the drift layer between the gate region and the drain region. Permanent charges are embedded in the insulation region, sufficient to cause inversion in the insulation region.
US09419079B1
A method provides a substrate having a top surface; forming a first semiconductor layer on the top surface, the first semiconductor layer having a first unit cell geometry; epitaxially depositing a layer of a metal-containing oxide on the first semiconductor layer, the layer of metal-containing oxide having a second unit cell geometry that differs from the first unit cell geometry; ion implanting the first semiconductor layer through the layer of metal-containing oxide; annealing the ion implanted first semiconductor layer; and forming a second semiconductor layer on the layer of metal-containing oxide, the second semiconductor layer having the first unit cell geometry. The layer of metal-containing oxide functions to inhibit propagation of misfit dislocations from the first semiconductor layer into the second semiconductor layer. A structure formed by the method is also disclosed.
US09419076B1
A bipolar junction transistor (BJT) is formed in a thin (less than about 20 nanometers) segment of a semiconductive material such as silicon where a lower portion of the semiconductive material has doping of a first conductivity type and forms a collector and an upper portion of the semiconductive material has doping of a second conductivity type and forms a base. Either a metal or a polysilicon emitter is formed on the base. An illustrative method for forming the BJT comprises forming first and second layers of a semiconductive material having first and second conductivity types, respectively; forming a hard mask on an upper surface of the second layer; using the hard mask to etch first and second channels in the semiconductive material on first and second opposing sides of the hard mask; removing the hard mask; and forming an emitter on the upper surface of the second layer.
US09419074B2
As disclosed herein, a semiconductor device with aspect ratio trapping including, a bulk substrate, a plurality of isolation pillars formed on the bulk substrate, wherein one or more gaps are formed between the isolation pillars, an oxide layer formed by epitaxy on the bulk substrate, between the isolation pillars, wherein the oxide layer partially fills the gaps between the isolation pillars, one or more fins formed over the oxide layer between the isolation pillars, such that the one or more fins fill the gaps between the isolation pillars, wherein the oxide layer electrically isolates the one or more fins from the bulk substrate. The size of the gaps between the isolation pillars is selected to statistically eliminate defects caused by a lattice mismatch between the bulk substrate and the oxide layer. The semiconductor device may also contain an aspect-ratio trapping layer between the bulk substrate and oxide layer.
US09419070B2
A reconstituted electronic device comprising at least one die and at least one passive component. A functional material is incorporated in the substrate of the device to modify the electrical behavior of the passive component. The passive component may be formed in redistribution layers of the device. Composite functional materials may be used in the substrate to forms part of or all of the passive component. A metal carrier may form part of the substrate and part of the at least one passive component.
US09419059B2
A first luminous body is formed on a substrate and is linear. A second luminous body is also formed on the substrate and is linear. The second luminous body extends in parallel with the first luminous body. A first anode and a first cathode are formed on the substrate, and supply electric power to the first luminous body. A second anode and a second cathode are also formed on the substrate, and supply electric power to the second luminous body. The first anode and the first cathode extend in parallel with each other, and the second anode and the second cathode extend in parallel with each other. In a range overlapping with the first luminous body when seen in a plan view, the first anode is not connected to the second anode, and the first cathode is not connected to the second cathode.
US09419057B2
A resistive memory storage device includes a lower electrode, an upper electrode and a plurality of composite material layers disposed between the lower electrode and the upper electrode. Each composite material layer includes a first layer and a second layer. The first layer is a metal-based high-K dielectric material layer having a first metal element, and the second layer is a metal layer having the first metal element.
US09419053B2
A resistive random access memory (RRAM) structure including a first transistor, a second transistor and a RRAM cell string is provided. The first transistor and the second transistor are cascaded by electrically connecting a first terminal of the first transistor and the second transistor. The RRAM cell string includes a plurality of memory cells connected with each other and is electrically connected to a second terminal of the first transistor.
US09419050B2
A manufacturing method of a semiconductor structure includes the following steps. A temporary bonding layer is used to adhere a carrier to a first surface of a wafer. A second surface of the wafer is adhered to an ultraviolet tape on a frame, and the temporary bonding layer and the carrier are removed. A protection tape is adhered to the first surface of the wafer. An ultraviolet light is used to irradiate the ultraviolet tape. A dicing tape is adhered to the protection tape and the frame, and the ultraviolet tape is removed. A first cutter is used to dice the wafer from the second surface of the wafer, such that plural chips and plural gaps between the chips are formed. A second cutter with a width smaller than the width of the first cutter is used to cut the protection tape along the gaps.
US09419049B2
An optical assembly includes a solid spacing layer between a plenoptic microlens array (MLA) and a pixel-level MLA, avoiding the need for an air gap. Such an assembly, and systems and methods for manufacturing same, can yield improved reliability and efficiency of production, and can avoid many of the problems associated with prior art approaches. In at least one embodiment, the plenoptic MLA, the spacing layer, and the pixel-level MLA are created from optically transmissive polymer(s) deposited on the photosensor array and shaped using photolithographic techniques. Such an approach improves precision in placement and dimensions, and avoids other problems associated with conventional polymer-on-glass architectures. Further variations and techniques are described.
US09419047B2
An image sensor device may include an interconnect layer, an image sensor IC adjacent the interconnect layer and having an image sensing surface, and a dielectric layer adjacent the image sensor IC and having an opening therein aligned with the image sensing surface. The image sensor device may also include an IR filter adjacent and aligned with the image sensing surface, and an encapsulation material adjacent the dielectric layer and laterally surrounding the IR filter.
US09419041B2
A semiconductor device having a first semiconductor section including a first wiring layer at one side thereof; a second semiconductor section including a second wiring layer at one side thereof, the first and second semiconductor sections being secured together with the respective first and second wiring layer sides of the first and second semiconductor sections facing each other; a conductive material extending through the first semiconductor section to the second wiring layer of the second semiconductor section and by means of which the first and second wiring layers are in electrical communication; and an opening, other than the opening for the conductive material, which extends through the first semiconductor section to the second wiring layer.
US09419040B2
There is provided a solid state image pickup apparatus including a first semiconductor substrate and a second semiconductor substrate which are bonded to each other, and a buried portion formed in a peripheral portion of the apparatus with a depth of a bonded surface of the first semiconductor substrate and the second semiconductor substrate in such a manner that the bonded surface of the first semiconductor substrate and the second semiconductor substrate is not exposed.
US09419039B2
A structure of insulation between photodiodes formed in a doped semiconductor layer of a first conductivity type extending on a doped semiconductor substrate of the second conductivity type, the insulating structure including a trench crossing the semiconductor layer, the trench walls being coated with an insulating layer, the trench being filled with a conductive material and being surrounded with a P-doped area, more heavily doped than the semiconductor layer.
US09419030B2
A solid-state image pickup device capable of suppressing the generation of dark current and/or leakage current is provided. The solid-state image pickup device has a first substrate provided with a photoelectric converter on its primary face, a first wiring structure having a first bonding portion which contains a conductive material, a second substrate provided with a part of a peripheral circuit on its primary face, and a second wiring structure having a second bonding portion which contains a conductive material. In addition, the first bonding portion and the second bonding portion are bonded so that the first substrate, the first wiring structure, the second wiring structure, and the second substrate are disposed in this order. Furthermore, the conductive material of the first bonding portion and the conductive material of the second bonding portion are surrounded with diffusion preventing films.
US09419025B2
The present invention relates to a display device, which includes a substrate; a first conductive layer disposed on the substrate and including a first terminal; a first insulating layer disposed on the first conductive layer; a second conductive layer disposed on the first insulating layer and including a second terminal; a second insulating layer disposed on the second conductive layer; a profile relieving member disposed on the second insulating layer; and a contact assistant disposed on the profile relieving member, in which the profile relieving member covers a portion of an edge of at least one of the first terminal and the second terminal.
US09419020B2
An object is to obtain a semiconductor device having a high sensitivity in detecting signals and a wide dynamic range, using a thin film transistor in which an oxide semiconductor layer is used. An analog circuit is formed with the use of a thin film transistor including an oxide semiconductor which has a function as a channel formation layer, has a hydrogen concentration of 5×1019 atoms/cm3 or lower, and substantially functions as an insulator in the state where no electric field is generated. Thus, a semiconductor device having a high sensitivity in detecting signals and a wide dynamic range can be obtained.
US09419005B2
A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device may include the following steps: preparing a stacked structure; processing the stacked structure to form a first gate structure and a preliminary structure; forming a dielectric material layer that covers at least the first gate structure; forming a dielectric layer using the dielectric material layer, such that a portion of the dielectric layer is positioned between the first gate structure and the preliminary structure; performing an annealing process on at least one of the dielectric material layer and the dielectric layer; processing the preliminary structure to form a second gate structure; and after the annealing process has been performed, forming a first metal silicide member on the second gate structure and/or forming a second metal silicide member on an active region associated with the second gate structure.
US09418994B1
A fin field device structure and method for forming the same are provided. The FinFET device structure includes a substrate, and the substrate includes a first region and a second region. The FinFET device structure includes an isolation structure formed on the substrate and first fin structures formed on the first region. The FinFET device structure also includes second fin structures formed on the second region, and the number of the first fin structures is greater than the number of the second fin structures. The first fin structures have a first height, the second fin structures have a second height, and a gap between the first height and the second height is in a range from about 0.4 nm to about 4 nm.
US09418977B2
Exemplary methods of forming the semiconductor device, encompasses forming a first package with at least one first die on a packaging substrate that is removably coupled to a carrier. Forming a thermal contact pad on the first die package, with or without a surrounding seal ring, and bonding a second die package to the first die package where the thermal contact pad is between the two packages. Electrically coupling the first die package to the second die package with a set of conductive elements and removing the carrier from the first package.
US09418967B2
A semiconductor device includes a package substrate, an IF chip, and a core chip. The package substrate has: first electrodes aligned and disposed on a first rear surface; second electrodes aligned and disposed in the first direction (Y direction) on a first front surface; and wiring that electrically connects the first electrodes and the second electrodes. The IF chip has third electrodes bonded to the second electrodes. The core chip is connected to the IF chip. In the first direction, the length of the IF chip is more than that of the core chip but equal to or less than that of the package substrate. One of the first electrodes is disposed further toward the outside than a core chip end portion in the first direction. At least one of the second electrodes is disposed further toward the outside than the core chip end portion in the first direction.
US09418963B2
Substrates may be bonded according to a method comprising contacting a first bonding surface of a first substrate with a second bonding surface of a second substrate to form an assembly, and compressing the assembly in the presence of an oxidizing atmosphere under suitable conditions to form a bonding layer between the first and second surfaces, wherein the first bonding surface comprises a polarized surface layer; the second bonding surface comprises a hydrophilic surface layer; the first and second bonding surfaces are different.
US09418960B2
The driver semiconductor package includes a base substrate. The semiconductor package includes a semiconductor chip mounted on the base substrate. The semiconductor chip includes a core region disposed in a center part of the semiconductor chip, an internal circuit being provided in the core region. The semiconductor chip includes a plurality of IO cell regions disposed in a line along a side of the semiconductor chip, a differential circuit being provided in each of the plurality of IO cell regions. The semiconductor chip includes a non-inverting pad electrode disposed above each of the IO cell regions and electrically connected to a non-inverting terminal of the differential circuit. The semiconductor chip includes an inverting pad electrode disposed above each of the IO cell regions and connected to an inverting terminal of the differential circuit.
US09418959B1
A system of bonded substrates may include a first substrate, a second substrate, and a composite bonding layer. The first substrate may include a bonding surface and the second substrate may include a complementary bonding surface. The composite bonding layer may be positioned between the first substrate and the second substrate. The composite boding layer may include a metal matrix and a plurality of stress-reducing additives disposed in the metal matrix. Each stress-reducing additive may include a three-dimensional shape The stress-reducing additives may include a ratio of length:height of at least about 2:1. An elastic modulus of a material of the stress-reducing additive may be less than an elastic modulus of the material of the metal matrix.
US09418951B2
A mechanism of a semiconductor structure with composite barrier layer under redistribution layer is provided. A semiconductor structure includes a substrate comprising a top metal layer on the substrate; a passivation layer over the top metal layer having an opening therein exposing the top metal layer; a composite barrier layer over the passivation layer and the opening, the composite barrier layer includes a center layer, a bottom layer, and an upper layer, wherein the bottom layer and the upper layer sandwich the center layer; and a redistribution layer (RDL) over the composite barrier layer and electrically connecting the underlying top metal layer.
US09418949B2
The invention provides a semiconductor device including a substrate, a dielectric layer, a dummy bonding pad, a bonding pad, a redistribution layer, and a metal interconnect. The substrate includes a non-device region and a device region. The dielectric layer is on the non-device region and the device region. The dummy bonding pad is on the dielectric layer of the non-device region. The metal interconnect is in the dielectric layer of the non-device region and connected to the dummy bonding pad. The bonding pad is on the dielectric layer of the device region. The buffer layer is between the bonding pad and the dielectric layer. The buffer layer includes metal, metal nitride, or a combination thereof. The redistribution layer is on the dielectric layer and connects the dummy bonding pad and the bonding pad.
US09418947B2
The described embodiments of mechanisms of forming connectors for package on package enable smaller connectors with finer pitch, which allow smaller package size and additional connections. The conductive elements on one package are partially embedded in the molding compound of the package to bond with contacts or metal pads on another package. By embedding the conductive elements, the conductive elements may be made smaller and there are is gaps between the conductive elements and the molding compound. A pitch of the connectors can be determined by adding a space margin to a maximum width of the connectors. Various types of contacts on the other package can be bonded to the conductive elements.
US09418941B2
A semiconductor wafer contains a plurality of semiconductor die with bumps formed over contact pads on an active surface of the semiconductor die. A b-stage conductive polymer is deposited over the contact pads on the semiconductor wafer. The semiconductor wafer is singulated to separate the die. An insulating layer is formed over a carrier with openings formed in the insulating layer. The die is mounted to the carrier with the conductive polymer disposed in the openings of the insulating layer. The conductive polymer is heated to a glass transition temperature to liquefy the conductive polymer to an electrically conductive state. An encapsulant is deposited over the die and insulating layer. The carrier is removed to expose the conductive polymer. An interconnect structure is formed over the die, encapsulant, and conductive polymer. The interconnect structure is electrically connected through the conductive polymer to the contact pads on the die.
US09418925B2
In an embodiment, an electronic component includes a dielectric core layer, one or semiconductor dies comprising a first major surface, a first electrode arranged on the first major surface and a second major surface that opposes the first major surface. One or more slots are arranged within the dielectric core layer adjacent the semiconductor die and a redistribution structure electrically couples the first electrode to a component contact pad arranged adjacent the second major surface of the semiconductor die. The semiconductor die is embedded in the dielectric core layer and a portion of the redistribution structure is arranged on side walls of the slot.
US09418924B2
An apparatus relates generally to an integrated circuit package. In such an apparatus, a package substrate has a first plurality of via structures extending from a lower surface of the package substrate to an upper surface of the package substrate. An die has a second plurality of via structures extending to a lower surface of the die. The lower surface of the die faces the upper surface of the package substrate in the integrated circuit package. The package substrate does not include a redistribution layer. The die and the package substrate are coupled to one another.
US09418922B2
A semiconductor device with reduced thickness is disclosed and may include forming a back end of line (BEOL) comprising a redistribution layer on a dummy substrate. A first semiconductor die may be bonded to a first surface of the BEOL and a second semiconductor die may be bonded to the first semiconductor die. The first and second semiconductor dies may be electrically coupled to the BEOL. The first and second semiconductor dies and the BEOL may be encapsulated utilizing a first encapsulant. The dummy substrate may be removed thereby exposing a second surface of the BEOL opposite to the first surface. A solder ball may be placed on the exposed second surface of the BEOL. The second semiconductor may be stacked stepwise on the first semiconductor and may be flip-chip bonded. The semiconductor dies may be electrically coupled to the BEOL utilizing a lateral plating layer or conductive wires.
US09418900B1
A method for forming fins includes growing a SiGe layer and a silicon layer over a surface of a bulk Si substrate, patterning fin structures from the silicon layer and the SiGe layer and filling between the fin structures with a dielectric fill. Trenches are formed to expose end portions of the fin structures. A first region of the fin structures is blocked off. The SiGe layer of the fin structures of a second region is removed by selectively etching the fin structures from the end portions to form voids, which are filled with dielectric material. The silicon layer of the fin structures is exposed. The SiGe layer in the first region is thermally oxidized to drive Ge into the silicon layer to form SiGe fins on an oxide layer in the first region and silicon fins on the dielectric material in the second region.
US09418896B2
Provided are a semiconductor device and a fabricating method thereof. The fabricating method includes forming first to fourth fins, each extending in a first direction, to be spaced apart in a second direction intersecting the first direction, forming first and second gate lines, each extending in the second direction, on the first to fourth fins to be spaced apart in the first direction, forming a first contact on the first gate line between the first and second fins, forming a second contact on the first gate line between the third and fourth fins, forming a third contact on the second gate line between the first and second fins, forming a fourth contact on the second gate line between the third and fourth fins and forming a fifth contact on the first to fourth contacts so as to overlap with the second contact and the third contact and so as not to overlap with the first contact and the fourth contact, wherein the fifth contact is arranged to diagonally traverse a quadrangle defined by the first to fourth contacts.
US09418895B1
Deep reactive ion silicon etching of a device wafer, laser-induced release of individual dies, and individual placement of the dies on flexible substrates facilitate formation of circuits having relatively large external inductors for powering devices such as RFID devices. Small flexible tabs enable die-inductor connection. The absorption properties of both an adhesive layer and an ablation layer may be employed to facilitate debonding of individual dies from a glass handler without damaging integrated circuits associated with the dies. Die packs including cavities for accepting individual dies facilitate fabrication processes using dies having small dimensions.
US09418893B2
Disclosed an organic electroluminescent device and a method for fabricating the same. The device may include a thin film transistor disposed on a substrate; a first electrode formed for each pixel on the thin film transistor; a first pixel define layer formed to cover an edge portion of the first electrode; a second pixel define layer formed on the first pixel define layer; an organic layer formed on the first electrode; and a second electrode formed on the organic layer.
US09418891B2
A method for fabricating a semiconductor device includes forming a silicon-containing layer; forming a metal-containing layer over the silicon-containing layer; forming an undercut prevention layer between the silicon containing layer and the metal containing layer; etching the metal-containing layer; and forming a conductive structure by etching the undercut prevention layer and the silicon-containing layer.
US09418883B2
A device for holding a wafer-shaped article comprises an annular chuck base body having a plurality of movable contact elements for securing a wafer-shaped article to the annular chuck base body, and a gear mechanism driving the contact elements in unison between a first position and a second position. The annular chuck base body comprises a housing formed from a material that is resistant to attack by strong inorganic acids. The annular chuck base body also comprises a reinforcing ring fitted within the housing and formed from a material whose coefficient of linear thermal expansion is substantially less than that of the housing material.
US09418869B2
A method for etching a tungsten containing layer is provided. An etch gas is provided comprising O2 and a fluorine containing component, wherein the etch gas has at least as many oxygen atoms as fluorine atoms. A plasma is formed from the etch gas. The tungsten containing layer is etched with the plasma formed from the etch gas.
US09418866B2
A gas processing method is described. A workpiece is mounted on a platform in a chamber on which a silicon oxide film is formed on a surface of the workpiece; HF gas and a NH3 gas, as reaction gases, are discharged onto the workpiece on the platform from a plurality of gas discharge holes of a shower plate; and a treatment for causing a reaction between the reaction gases and the silicon oxide film on the surface of the workpiece is performed. Subsequently, the reaction product resulting from the treatment is heated and removed by decomposition, whereby etching is performed. The shower plate is divided into a plurality of regions in correspondence with the workpiece, and the gas discharge holes in one or more of the regions are blocked to control a distribution of at least one of the HF gas and the NH3 gas.
US09418865B2
Provided are methods for processing semiconductor substrates or, more specifically, etching silicon containing antireflective coatings (SiARCs) from the substrates while preserving silicon oxides layers disposed on the same substrates. An etching solution including sulfuric acid and hydrofluoric acid may be used for these purposes. In some embodiments, the weight ratio of sulfuric acid to hydrofluoric acid in the etching solution is between about 15:1 and 100:1 (e.g., about 60:1). The temperature of the etching solution may be between about 30° C. and 50° C. (e.g., about 40° C., during etching). It has been found that such processing conditions provide a SiARC etching rate of at least about 50 nanometers per minute and selectivity of SiARC over silicon oxide of greater than about 10:1 or even greater than about 50:1. The same etching solution may be also used to remove photoresist, organic dielectric, and titanium nitride.
US09418863B2
Disclosed is an etching method for etching an etching target layer. The etching method includes: a first step of depositing a plasma reaction product on a mask layer made of an organic film formed on the etching target layer; and after the first step, a second step of etching the etching target layer. The mask layer includes a coarse region in which a plurality of openings are formed, and a dense region surrounding the coarse region. The mask layer exists more densely in the dense region than in the coarse region. The coarse region includes a first region and a second region positioned close to the dense region compared to the first region. In the second step of the etching method, a width of the openings in the first region becomes narrower than a width of the openings in the second region.
US09418861B2
Provided are a display substrate, a display device, and a method of manufacturing the display substrate. The display substrate includes: a substrate in which a pixel region is defined; a gate electrode and a gate pad are formed on the substrate; a gate insulating layer formed on the gate electrode and the gate pad; a buffer layer pattern overlaps the gate electrode and is formed on the gate insulating layer; an insulating film pattern formed on the buffer layer pattern; an oxide semiconductor pattern formed on the insulating film pattern; a source electrode formed on the oxide semiconductor pattern; and a drain electrode formed on the oxide semiconductor pattern and is separated from the source electrode.
US09418855B2
A halogen element-containing metal material and a nitrogen-containing material are alternately supplied to a process chamber with a flow rate of an inert gas supplied to the process chamber together with the nitrogen-containing material during the supplying of the nitrogen-containing material to the process chamber being more increased than a flow rate of the inert gas supplied to the process chamber together with the metal material during the supplying of the metal material to the process chamber.
US09418849B2
A method includes forming a sacrificial layer over a bottom substrate. The sacrificial layer is patterned based on a desired etching distance. A top layer is formed over the sacrificial layer. At least one release hole is formed through the top layer. The sacrificial layer is etched through the at least one release hole.
US09418845B2
A semiconductor device and a method for manufacturing the same are provided. A barrier film is formed in a device separating structure, and the device separating structure is etched at a predetermined thickness to expose a semiconductor substrate. Then, a SEG film is grown to form an active region whose area is increased. As a result, a current driving power of a transistor located at a cell region and peripheral circuit regions is improved.
US09418842B2
A coating liquid for forming a metal oxide thin film includes: an inorganic indium compound; an inorganic calcium compound or an inorganic strontium compound, or both thereof; and an organic solvent.
US09418838B2
An electronic device with improved variable resistance characteristics and a method for fabricating the same are provided. In an embodiment of the disclosed technology, a method for forming an electronic device with a semiconductor memory includes forming a crystalized doped layer over a substrate; forming a barrier layer over the doped layer; forming a metal layer over the barrier layer; and reacting the barrier layer with a portion of the metal layer. The electronic device and the method of fabricating the same according to embodiments of the disclosed technology may have improved variable resistance characteristics.
US09418837B2
A semiconductor device manufacturing method that includes: forming a gate insulating film containing a hafnium oxide and a zirconium oxide on a workpiece having a source, a drain and a channel; and subjecting the gate insulating film to a crystallization heat treatment at a temperature of 600 degrees C. or less is provided. The gate insulating film subjected to the crystallization heat treatment has a relative permittivity of 27 or more.
US09418828B2
A method for characterizing the saturates portion of a petroleum or hydrocarbon sample that includes compounds with boiling points of 1000° F. (538° C.) or higher includes use of laser desorption ionization (LDI) to desorb and vaporize petroleum saturates into the gas phase. After ionization, the saturate compounds cations can be detected using mass spectrometry. The mass spectrum generated from the ionized saturated compounds is then characterized by assigning molecular formulas to any “detected” masses that exhibit a peak with an intensity greater than a defined signal to noise threshold. After making the molecular assignments, the abundance of each assigned molecule can be determined based on the signal magnitude of the peaks in the mass spectrum. The assigned molecules and the corresponding abundances can then be grouped based on a variety of factors.
US09418823B2
A magnetron assembly for a rotary target cathode comprises a rigid support structure, a magnet bar structure movably attached to the rigid support structure, and at least one actuation mechanism coupled to the rigid support structure and configured to change a distance of the magnet bar structure from a surface of a rotatable target cylinder. The magnetron assembly also includes a position indicating mechanism operative to measure a position of the magnet bar structure relative to the surface of the rotatable target cylinder. A communications device is configured to receive command signals from outside of the magnetron assembly and transmit information signals to outside of the magnetron assembly.
US09418811B2
A relay includes a fixed contact point, a movable contact member and an electromagnetic device. The electromagnetic device includes a bobbin, a coil, a movable iron core, a first armature, a second armature, and a ferromagnetic member. The first armature has a first hole to which a first end portion of the movable iron core is insertion-fitted. The second armature has a second hole to which a second end portion of the movable iron core is insertion-fitted. The bobbin has a first rib formed on each of facing surfaces of a pair of first side pieces and a second rib formed on each of facing surfaces of a pair of second side pieces. The first armature is interposed between the first ribs of the pair of first side pieces and the second armature is interposed between the second ribs of the pair of second side pieces.
US09418810B2
A multiphase medium voltage vacuum contactor is disclosed which can include a mounting frame on which there are positioned: for each phase, a current interrupter having a vacuum bulb which contains a fixed contact and a corresponding movable contact; and an actuator for moving the movable contacts between a closed position where they are coupled each to a corresponding fixed contact and an open position where they are each electrically separated from the corresponding fixed contact, and an electronic unit driving the actuator. An exemplary voltage transformer for feeding the electronic unit can be mounted on the frame. One or more sacrificial fault-protection devices and/or current sensors can be operatively associated to the voltage transformer and embedded into an electrically insulating coating encasing the transformer.
US09418809B2
A two-wire smart load control device, such as an electronic switch, for controlling the power delivered from a power source to an electrical load comprises a relay for conducting a load current through the load and an in-line power supply coupled in series with the relay for generating a supply voltage across a capacitor when the relay is conductive. The power supply controls when the capacitor charges asynchronously with respect to the frequency of the source. The capacitor conducts the load current for at least a portion of a line cycle of the source when the relay is conductive. The load control device also comprises a bidirectional semiconductor switch, which is controlled to minimize the inrush current conducted through the relay. The bidirectional semiconductor switch is rendered conductive in response to an over-current condition in the capacitor of the power supply, and the relay is rendered non-conductive in response to an over-temperature condition in the power supply.
US09418795B2
An apparatus and associated method for an energy-storage device (e.g., a capacitor) having a plurality of electrically conducting electrodes including a first electrode and a second electrode separated by a non-electrically conducting region, and wherein the non-electrically conducting region further includes a non-uniform permittivity (K) value. In some embodiments, the method includes providing a substrate; fabricating a first electrode on the substrate; and fabricating a second electrode such that the second electrode is separated from the first electrode by a non-electrically conducting region, wherein the non-electrically conducting region has a non-uniform permittivity (K) value. The capacitor devices will find benefit for use in electric vehicles, of all kinds, uninterruptible power supplies, wind turbines, mobile phones, and the like requiring wide temperature ranges from several hundreds of degrees C. down to absolute zero, consumer electronics operating in a temperature range of −55 degrees C. to 125 degrees C.
US09418788B2
A capacitive device is disclosed, including a first conductor formed on a lower metal layer and coupled to a first terminal. A second conductor is formed on an upper metal layer and a plurality of wires is partitioned into groups, each group including one wire from a respective metal layer. First and second wires of each group are coupled to a second terminal. A third wire of each group, adjacent to the first wire, is coupled to the first conductor. A fourth wire of each group, adjacent to the second wire, is coupled to the second conductor. Fifth wires of a first subset of the groups are coupled to the second conductor and fifth wires of a second subset of the groups are coupled to the first conductor. The fifth wire of each group is adjacent to the first wire and the second wire.
US09418787B2
Apparatus and method for winding coils (B) of conductor wire (W) around respective poles (10c) of a core (10) of a component of a electric dynamo machine, wherein a dispenser arm (11) rotates around the poles to deliver the wire (W) to form wire turns; a first wire guide (32) is positioned and moved during winding adjacent to an axial end (A) of a pole (10c) being wound; a second wire guide (36) is positioned and moved in a first slot (10a) adjacent to the pole (10c) being wound; a third wire guide (37) is positioned and moved in a second slot (10b) adjacent to the pole (10c) being wound. A termination member (80) is capable of achieving connection of the coil leads to termination structures (91) of the core (FIG. 5).
US09418781B2
Magnetic system possessing and producing polar and field properties comprising an application of organized ensemble of constituted constructions of magnetic apparatus as means of construction. The magnetic system as an application produces magnetic phenomena and interactions, such as the production of three different interactions and also their related respective three opposites, depending on the distance existing between the magnetic constructions. It is a fully systemized product that can be used as an experimental instrument for exploitation of new designing possibilities in magnetic constructions, containing also a process of operation.
US09418780B2
A magnetic composite material including a dielectric material and magnetic metal particles in the dielectric material, wherein and a real part μ′ of a complex permeability is greater than about 1 at a frequency of about 3 gigahertz (GHz), and the loss tangent tan δ is less than or equal to about 0.1.
US09418777B2
A method is disclosed for electrically conductively connecting two superconductive cables. The ends of the two cables are arranged next to each other and parallel to one another, in such a way that their free ends point in the opposite direction, and their conductors are located at least approximately on the same level next to each other. Two conductors of the two cables are electrically conductively connected to each other through electrical contact elements (10, 11, 12). The screens (6) of the two cables (1, 2) are connected through by separate contact elements (13, 14, 15) and the two cable ends are treated in this manner for constructing a transmission length for electrical energy are arranged jointly in a housing (16) of a cryostat so that during operation of the transmission length, a flowable cooling agent with electrically insulating properties flows through a housing (16) of a cryostat.
US09418770B2
Certain example embodiments of this invention relate to the use of graphene as a transparent conductive coating (TCC). In certain example embodiments, graphene thin films grown on large areas hetero-epitaxially, e.g., on a catalyst thin film, from a hydrocarbon gas (such as, for example, C2H2, CH4, or the like). The graphene thin films of certain example embodiments may be doped or undoped. In certain example embodiments, graphene thin films, once formed, may be lifted off of their carrier substrates and transferred to receiving substrates, e.g., for inclusion in an intermediate or final product. Graphene grown, lifted, and transferred in this way may exhibit low sheet resistances (e.g., less than 150 ohms/square and lower when doped) and high transmission values (e.g., at least in the visible and infrared spectra).
US09418765B2
In a nuclear reactor core, each of a plurality of pressure tubes contains fuel elements spaced apart to permit coolant to flow through spaces between adjacent fuel elements. Each fuel element comprises fuel pellets in cladding, e.g., sapphire, having a melting temperature of at least 1900° C. and does not form significant hydrogen if exposed to high temperature steam. Each pressure tube has an internal insulator sleeve, e.g., fused silica, that has relatively low thermal conductivity over a range of normal operating temperatures and relatively high thermal radiation transmission at temperatures higher than said normal operating temperature range. When coolant is absent from said spaces, the insulator sleeve transmits to the pressure tube at least about 10%, but preferably more than about 40% of thermal radiation from the fuel for conduction through the pressure tube to the moderator and fuel temperature remains within safe limits after the reactor is shut down.
US09418756B2
Provided are a threshold voltage compensation circuit of TFT and a method for the same, a shift register and a display device. The threshold voltage compensation circuit includes an input terminal, an output terminal connected to the source of the thin film transistor, a first resistor to a Kth resistor connected in series, and Kth connectable link and at least one first connectable link. Since a voltage dividing circuit having connectable links divides the voltage input to the source of the thin film transistor, such that the gate-source voltage of the thin film transistor can be changed by changing the voltage of the source of the thin film transistor when the voltage of the gate of the thin film transistor is maintained unchanged, so as to control a leakage current of the thin film transistor under a turn-off state, such that the thin film transistor can be turned off normally.
US09418750B2
In non-volatile memories, bit lines and word lines commonly to driving and decoding circuitry on a single end. Techniques are presented for determining the time constant associated with charging the far end of such lines from the near end, at which the circuitry is connected. While driving a discharged line from the near end, the number of clock cycles for the current to drop from a first level to a second level can be used to estimate the time constant for the far end. Alternately, the line can be initially charged up, after which the current is monitored at the near end. The differences in time constants for different word lines can be used to vary the time used when accessing a selected word line.
US09418740B2
A memory includes BLs and WLs. Resistance-change memory elements are connected between the BLs and the WLs via selection gates, respectively. A BL driver applies a voltage to a selected BL among the BLs. A WL driver applies a voltage to a selected WL among the WLs. In a write operation, the BL driver and the WL driver apply a first voltage between a reference voltage and a write voltage to selection candidate memory elements connected to the selected BL or the selected WL among the memory elements to bring the selection candidate memory elements to a half-selected state. The BL driver and the WL driver apply a second voltage to the selection candidate memory elements in the half-selected state at different timings, respectively, in order to bring the selection candidate memory elements to a write state and then return the selection candidate memory elements to the half-selected state.
US09418737B2
A nonvolatile semiconductor memory device includes: a memory cell array; and a control circuit that controls a voltage applied to this memory cell array. The memory cell array includes: a first wiring line; a second wiring line intersecting the first wiring line; and a memory cell disposed at an intersection of these lines and including a variable resistance element. In a rewrite operation of the memory cell, the control circuit repeatedly perform a pulse application operation and a verify operation, the pulse application operation applying a pulse voltage to the memory cell, and the verify operation applying a first voltage to the memory cell to determine whether the rewrite operation has been completed or not. The control circuit is configured to, in a read operation from the memory cell, apply a second voltage to the memory cell. The second voltage has a voltage value larger than the first voltage.
US09418722B2
A method and apparatus for refreshing a row of a memory device prior to a scheduled refresh. A memory array may include a plurality of memory cells. The memory array may be configured to be refreshed at a first refresh time interval. The memory device may also include an intermediate refresh circuit. The intermediate refresh circuit may be configured to detect a triggering event and request a refresh for a row of the memory array in response to detecting a triggering event.
US09418714B2
One embodiment provides, in a sense amplifier for an electronic memory array in which a selected memory cell drives a developing voltage differential according to a logic state of the memory cell, a method to store the logic state. The method includes poising source voltages of first and second transistors at levels offset, respectively, by threshold voltages of the first and second transistors. The method also includes applying the voltage differential between a gate of the first transistor and a gate of the second transistor, the first and second transistors configured to oppose each other in a cross-coupled inverter stage of the sense amplifier.
US09418712B1
A memory system and method for power management are disclosed. In one embodiment, a memory system is provided comprising at least one memory die, a sensor configured to sense an average amount of power consumed by the memory system over a time period, and a controller. The controller is configured to maintain a token bucket that indicates an amount of power currently available for memory operations in the at least one memory die and is further configured to reduce a number of tokens in the token bucket by an amount of power consumed over the time period as indicated by the average amount of power sensed by the sensor over the time period. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09418711B2
A plurality of memory mats classified into groups selected by bits of a row address, a main word driver for selecting a main word line based on bits of the row address, an FX driver for selecting a word driver selecting line based on bits regardless of the bits of the row address, and a plurality of sub-word drivers selected by the main word line and the word driver selecting line to drive the corresponding sub-word line are arranged.
US09418691B2
An apparatus includes a slider body, a laser diode, an optical path, and a heating element. The laser diode is configured to produce energy and is subject to temperature changes as a result of producing energy. The optical path within the slider body is configured to deliver the energy to heat a magnetic recording medium. The heating element is disposed along a length of the optical path within the slider body and is configured to control a temperature of the optical path to mitigate temperature-induced mode hopping of the laser diode.
US09418686B1
A method, executed by a computer, for monitoring head wear includes reading from a cartridge a high frequency pattern and a low frequency pattern, determining a first read amplitude corresponding to the high frequency pattern and a second read amplitude corresponding to the low frequency pattern, and determining a head wear metric according to the first read amplitude and the second read amplitude.
US09418685B1
Embodiments of the present invention provide methods, systems, and computer program products for compensating for loss of current through shorted tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) sensors. In one embodiment, for a magnetic head having multiple TMR read sensors, a first voltage limit is set for most parts and a second voltage limit is set for all of the parts. A number of TMR read sensors which are allowed to function between the first and the second voltage limits is determined using a probability algorithm, which determines the probability that the application of the second voltage limit will result in a dielectric breakdown within an expected lifetime of a drive is below a threshold value. For the number of TMR read sensors which are allowed to function at voltages between the first and second voltage limits, a determined subset of those sensors are then allowed to function at the second voltage limit.
US09418680B2
According to one aspect, a method for detecting voice activity is disclosed, the method including receiving a frame of an input audio signal, the input audio signal having an sample rate; dividing the frame into a plurality of subbands based on the sample rate, the plurality of subbands including at least a lowest subband and a highest subband; filtering the lowest subband with a moving average filter to reduce an energy of the lowest subband; estimating a noise level for each of the plurality of subbands; calculating a signal to noise ratio value for each of the plurality of subbands; and determining a speech activity level of the frame based on an average of the calculated signal to noise ratio values and a weighted average of an energy of each of the plurality of subbands. Other aspects include audio decoders that decode audio that was encoded using the methods described herein.
US09418678B2
A sound processing device includes: a nonlinear processing unit that outputs a plurality of sound signals including sound sources existing in predetermined areas by performing a nonlinear process for a plurality of observed signals that are generated by a plurality of sound sources and are observed by a plurality of sensors; a signal selecting unit that selects a sound signal including a specific sound source from among the plurality of sound signals output by the nonlinear processing unit and the observed signal including the plurality of sound sources; and a sound separating unit that separates a sound signal including the specific sound source that is selected by the signal selecting unit from the observed signal selected by the signal selecting unit.
US09418675B2
A method and a wearable communication system for personal face-to-face and wireless communications in high noise environments are provided. A noise cancellation device (NCD) operably coupled to a wireless coupling device (WCD) includes a speech acquisition unit, an audio signal processing unit, one or more loudspeakers, and a communication module. The NCD receives voice vibrations from user speech via a contact microphone and a second microphone and converts the voice vibrations into an audio signal. The NCD processes the audio signal to remove noise signals and enhance a speech signal contained in the audio signal. A loudspeaker emits the speech signal during face-to-face communication. The NCD transmits the speech signal to a communication device via the WCD and receives an external speech signal from the communication device during wireless communication. With the NCD, the signal intelligibility and signal-to-noise ratio can be improved, for example, from −10 dB to 20 dB.
US09418667B2
A method and apparatus for processing a signal, and more particularly, to an apparatus for processing a mix signal and method thereof are disclosed, by which a mix signal such as an audio signal and a video signal can be encoded/decoded. The present invention includes receiving at least one of a mix signal and source signals and generating a unified side information corresponding to a unified source signal using the mix signal and the at least one of the source signals, wherein the unified source signal is generated by grouping at least one source signal.
US09418665B2
A device control system includes an ambient sound obtainer that obtains ambient sound around the plurality of devices at a first time, an operation state obtainer that obtains the operation states of the plurality of devices at the first time from the plurality of devices through a network, and a database manager that stores the operation states at the first time obtained by the operation state obtainer and the ambient sound obtained by the ambient sound obtainer at the first time in a database while associating the operation states and the ambient sound with each other.
US09418663B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for handing off a user conversation between computer-implemented agents. One of the methods includes receiving, by a computer-implemented agent specific to a user device, a digital representation of speech encoding an utterance, determining, by the computer-implemented agent, that the utterance specifies a requirement to establish a communication with another computer-implemented agent, and establishing, by the computer-implemented agent, a communication between the other computer-implemented agent and the user device.
US09418658B1
A voice interaction architecture has a hands-free, electronic voice controlled assistant that permits users to verbally request information from cloud services. Since the assistant relies primarily, if not exclusively, on voice interactions, configuring the assistant for the first time may pose a challenge, particularly to a novice user who is unfamiliar with network settings (such as wife access keys). The architecture supports several approaches to configuring the voice controlled assistant that may be accomplished without much or any user input, thereby promoting a positive out-of-box experience for the user. More particularly, these approaches involve use of audible or optical signals to configure the voice controlled assistant.
US09418653B2
An operation assisting method comprising comparing input spoken voices with a preliminarily stored keyword associated with an operation target and determining whether or not the keyword is spoken, determining whether or not similarity between or among the input spoken voices falls within a predetermined range. In a case where it is determined that the keyword is not spoken, determining whether or not eyes of a user are directed at the operation target, and in a case of the similarity falling within the predetermined range, determining that the keyword is spoken, in a case of being determined that the eyes of the user are directed at the operation target.
US09418633B1
The present invention is a pick holder for a musical instrument. The pick holder has a plurality of retention clips on its face, in which can be placed musical instrument picks. The material of the face of the flexible container and pick holder is such that the musician's thumb can easily swipe or move a guitar pick across it. The present invention can be positioned so that the musician can easily reach the face containing the picks using the thumb of the strumming hand.
US09418624B2
An image output apparatus, according to the present invention, for outputting images to a display apparatus including an image processing unit capable of performing image quality adjustment processing differently depending on types of images, comprises a selection unit that selects images to be output to the display apparatus according to a user operation, and a control unit that gives a predetermined notice when the number of types of images selected by the selection unit is greater than a maximum adjustable number, which is the number of types of images on which the image processing unit can perform image quality adjustment processing in parallel.
US09418623B2
A backlight unit includes a power converter configured to generate a light source driving voltage in response to a voltage control signal, a plurality of light emitting diode strings, where each of the light emitting diode strings receives the light source driving voltage through a first terminal thereof, a plurality of transistors corresponding to the light emitting diode strings, where each of the transistors includes: a first electrode connected to a second terminal of a corresponding light emitting diode string thereof; a second electrode; and a control electrode, and a controller connected to the control electrode and the second electrode, where the controller outputs a plurality of current control signals to control electrodes of the transistors and generate the voltage control signal, where the controller generates an over-current detection signal when any one of the current control signals has a pulse width less than a predetermined reference width.
US09418620B2
Systems and methods process standard video signal data and control a reflective display panel to brightly display videos and images in colors selected from a broad range of colors. In certain implementations, an input video/image signal is first transformed from a RGB encoding to an encoding based on a new color system that encodes colors using spectral, black, and white components. The reflective display panel includes an array of pixels, with each pixel comprising one or more self-parallelizing interferometric modulators (“SPIMs”). Each SPIM contains a plurality of electrodes disposed on a bottom plate, a fixed top plate, and a movable plate separated by a cavity. Appropriate voltages are applied to the electrodes to vary the cavity depth of the SPIM in order for the SPIM to reflect a color of a particular wavelength or to appear black or white.
US09418617B1
Examples methods and systems for distinguishing winks from other eye motions are described. In some examples, a method for distinguishing winks from other eye motions may account for changes in orientation of a computing device relative to a user, calibrate eye gesture recognition, or increase efficiency of the computing device. A computing device may be configured to receive sensor data corresponding to an eye and determine a distribution of magnitude changes in the sensor data over an interval of time. The computing device may identify clusters that correspond to ranges of magnitude changes within the distribution and use the clusters as reference data to identify ranges of sensor data for different types of eye motions, including differentiating winks from clusters indicative of ranges of normal eye activity and blinks.
US09418616B2
A graphics processing unit includes a set of geometry processing units each configured to process graphics primitives in parallel with one another. A given geometry processing unit generates one or more graphics primitives or geometry objects and buffers the associated vertex data locally. The geometry processing unit also buffers different sets of indices to those vertices, where each such set represents a different graphics primitive or geometry object. The geometry processing units may then stream the buffered vertices and indices to global buffers in parallel with one another. A stream output synchronization unit coordinates the parallel streaming of vertices and indices by providing each geometry processing unit with a different base address within a global vertex buffer where vertices may be written. The stream output synchronization unit also provides each geometry processing unit with a different base address within a global index buffer where indices may be written.
US09418613B2
The present invention provides a GOA circuit of LTPS semiconductor TFT, employed for forward scan transmission, comprising a plurality of GOA units which are cascade connected, and N is set to be a positive integer and an Nth GOA unit utilizes a plurality of N-type transistors and a plurality of P-type transistors and comprises a transmission part (100), a transmission control part (200), an information storage part (300), a data erase part (400), an output control part (500) and an output buffer part (600). The transmission gate is employed to perform the former-latter level transferring signal, and the NOR gate logic unit and the NAND gate logic unit are employed to convert the signals, and the sequence inverter and the inverter are employed to save and transmit the signals to solve the issues that the stability of the circuit is poor, and the power consumption is larger as concerning the LTPS with single type TFT elements, and the problem of TFT leakage of the single type GOA circuit to optimize the performance of the circuit. The ultra narrow frame or frameless designs can be realized.
US09418611B2
The line banding image artifact that results from the interaction of LCD ripple and LED flicker in an LCD device that utilizes LED backlighting strings is substantially reduced by selecting a number of LED strings, individually driving the number of LED strings with a corresponding number of identical clock signals that are equally phase delayed, and selecting the frequency of the clock signals so that the product of the frequency of the clock signal multiplied by the number of LED strings is equal to the line clock frequency.
US09418592B2
An organic light emitting display device includes: an organic light emitting display panel configured to include a plurality of power lines, a plurality of scan lines and a plurality of data lines; a power supplier configured to apply a reference voltage to the power lines; and a controller configured to apply at least one control signal to the power supplier. The reference voltage is gradually varied along the distance from the power supplier.
US09418589B2
A display device is disclosed. In one aspect, the device includes a display panel that includes i) a plurality of pixels including first and second light emission control transistors, ii) a first light emission driver configured to generate a first switching control signal, iii) a second light emission driver configured to generate a second switching control signal, iv) a signal controller configured to generate and transfer a first light emission control signal and v) a light emission controller configured to generate and transfer a second light emission control signal. The light emission controller acquires information of a gray depth from a result value obtained by summing gray data, determines a light emission control algorithm according to the gray depth, and generates the second light emission control signal so that the pixels emit light during different light emission periods for a plurality of frames.
US09418584B2
A display device includes a display panel including a plurality of scan lines, a plurality of data lines which crosses the plurality of scan lines, and a plurality of pixels that is connected to the plurality of scan lines and the plurality of data lines, a scan driving unit which provides a plurality of scan signals, each of which includes a scan-on signal and a scan-off signal, to the plurality of scan lines, a data driving unit that provides data voltages to the plurality of data lines, and a timing control unit that determines an order in which the scan signals are provided to the plurality of scan lines, where the scan-on signal is provided to each of the plurality of scan lines based on an order of averages of the data voltages transferred to the pixels connected thereto.
US09418581B2
A transmission-type head-mounted display device which makes a user visually recognize a display image screen as a virtual image, includes: a display control unit which causes a guide image for guiding the user's line of sight to the center of the display image screen, to be displayed on the display image screen; and a display unit which displays the guide image.
US09418579B2
An electronic billboard includes a base, bracket, a display and a touch device. The bracket is removable and mounted to the base. The display is removable and mounted to the bracket. The display includes a slot and a receiving portion configured to receive a host. The touch device is received in the slot.
US09418576B2
A label assembly including one or more dissolvable thermal direct adhesive labels mounted on a release liner. According to one embodiment, each label includes a base layer, a thermal direct layer, an adhesive layer, and a barrier layer. The base layer, which has an upper surface and a lower surface, is water-dissolvable and may be made of a water-dissolvable paper. The thermal direct layer is positioned directly over the upper surface of the base layer and functions in the conventional manner to produce markings therein in response to heat. The adhesive layer is water-dissolvable and is positioned below the lower surface of the base layer. The barrier layer, which is positioned directly below the lower surface of the base layer and directly over the adhesive layer, serves to prevent migration of the adhesive layer through the base layer and into contact with the thermal direct layer.
US09418571B2
This invention is directed to an apparatus and method for training a user, such as an athlete, a performer and/or any other suitable person, how to avoid injuries to the body, particularly so that there is no need for rehabilitation of an injured body part. At least two parameters of performance are compared to each other and/or to given data or other information, for example information taken from a database. For example, the at least two parameters can include two different distances that are measured and compared with respect to each other. A computer or other processor can run algorithms and/or any other suitable functions to calculate how the user should make a next movement in an accident avoidance training session. One or more next movements can be communicated in a wired manner, a wireless manner and/or any other suitable communication manner. The next movement can be displayed on a graphical user interface device and/or on any other suitable display.
US09418567B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including compute program products, for selecting a question for a challenge-response test. One of the methods includes obtaining question response pairs, wherein each question response pair includes a question about a first entity and a response to the question. Respective difficulty values for each question response pair are determined from a count of a number of times the question in the question response pair has been submitted as a search query to a search engine by users of the search engine. A request for a challenge-response test is received, wherein the request includes a context for the challenge-response test. Difficulty criteria for the challenge-response test are determined from the context. A first question response pair is selected that has a difficulty value that satisfies the difficulty criteria for the challenge-response test, the question from the first question response pair is provided in response to the request.
US09418554B2
A system and method for determining adverse/dangerous road conditions based on sensor data received from a vehicle and generating alerts for other vehicles which may encounter the same condition. The system receives sensor data from a vehicle and evaluates the data to determine if the vehicle encountered a potentially dangerous road condition. The system may apply one or more thresholds to the data, where the thresholds are designed to detect various sudden movements of the vehicle. The system may monitor the location associated with the potentially dangerous road condition and evaluate sensor data from one or more other vehicles that drive near the same location to determine whether they encounter a similar condition. The system may generate one or more alerts and transmit those alerts to vehicles that are approaching the location of the dangerous condition using location data provided by the approaching vehicles.
US09418552B2
An Automatic-vacant-parking-place locator (AVPPL) system and method in which a community member may get (manually or automatically) information on a vacant parking place in an area he/she is searching for a parking place. Further an AVPPL community member may provide information on vacant parking place in different areas, he/she is driving through, to other AVPPL community members and/or to an AVPPL mutual database.
US09418547B2
A driver assistance system for a vehicle includes a plurality of lights linearly arranged substantially around an interior perimeter of the vehicle. A controller is controllably coupled to the plurality of lights, such that the controller is operable to control the plurality of lights. A hazard detection system is communicatively coupled to the controller. The controller includes a non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions for causing the controller to illuminate at least one of the plurality of lights corresponding to a location of a hazard detected by the hazard detection system.
US09418544B2
In an exemplary method, a mobile device provides mobile device attribute data to a traffic monitoring subsystem, receives traffic condition data generated by the traffic monitoring subsystem based at least in part on the mobile device attribute data, presents, by way of a user interface, the traffic condition data for consideration by a user of the mobile device, and provides an interface tool configured to be used by the user to report a traffic condition to the traffic monitoring subsystem. In certain embodiments, the mobile device receives, by way of the interface tool, user input indicating a user observance of the traffic condition and provides, in response to the receiving of the user input, a notification of the user observance of the traffic condition to the traffic monitoring subsystem.
US09418535B1
A method and apparatus for monitoring hand-washing compliance can include: detecting sensor readings; calculating movement estimations based on differences between the sensor readings; counting a number of crosses based on how often the movement estimations: are calculated above an upper threshold and are calculated below a lower threshold in consecutive movement calculations, are calculated below the lower threshold and are calculated above the upper threshold in the consecutive movement calculations, or a combination thereof; decrementing a countdown timer based on the number of crosses being above a cross-threshold; and pausing the countdown timer based on the number of crosses being below the cross-threshold.
US09418529B2
Generally, smart sensors, logic to process messages from smart sensors, and smart sensor systems are described herein. Embodiments may comprise logic such as hardware and/or code to communicate events as messages via a messaging system to post the messages to a messaging account. The messaging system may be a texting service like Twitter™ that captures the messages and then re-broadcasts the messages, e.g., immediately as a tweet or a cellular text message. In some embodiments, the smart sensor comprises a communications module with a Twitter™ application program interface (API) on a communications platform with a software/hardware framework to interconnect with one or more pluggable monitors with sensors. In other embodiments, the communications module may be integrated with one or more monitors. Further embodiments comprise a smart-device, which can provide status updates and event notifications to a user.
US09418523B1
An intelligent wireless doorbell alarm system driven and set by a wireless communication protocol includes at least one doorbell switch, plural lamps and an electronic device. The doorbell switch has a wireless signal module for generating a startup signal after the being triggered. The lamps are electrically coupled to one another. Each lamp has a wireless transmission module and a driving module and is electrically coupled to the doorbell switch for receiving the startup signal. The electronic device is electrically coupled to the lamps and has a setup module for setting the lamps.
US09418514B2
A method for controlling contributions to a progressive prize pool includes randomly determining whether a progressive pool growth event is triggered for the given play input in a wagering game. Where it is determined that a progressive pool growth event is triggered, the contribution amount is determined and the progressive pool is increased by this contribution amount. Where multiple progressive pools are maintained in a system, additional steps are taken to identify which pool or pools are to be increased when a progressive pool growth event is triggered.
US09418512B2
Disclosed are a game device and method for providing a predetermined prize to a player of an apparent skill game. The player perception is that his skill in playing the device affects the outcome even though the win amount is predetermined. Even if the player does not play with optimum skill, the player will still win the predetermined amount. The perceived skill game may be played as part of a game including wagering or as part of an amusement-only game.
US09418500B2
The present invention provides a media processing device having improved ease of use. An automatic teller machine has: a housing having predetermined space at interior thereof, and at which opening portion is formed in at least one side surface; a unit housing that houses plural storage containers storing bank notes, and that can be accommodated within the housing, and that is provided so as to be able to be pulled out along a pull out direction to exterior of the housing via the opening portion; and a reject container housing case that is structured so as to be able to be attached to and removed from the unit housing at a front side of a unit housing front surface plate that is at a distal end side in the pull out direction of the unit housing, and that houses a reject container that stores bank notes.
US09418489B2
A method and a system for providing vehicle data services to communication devices located at a remote vehicle. The method includes the steps of: establishing data communication between a telematics backend system and one of a plurality of communication devices located at the remote vehicle; determining at the telematics backend system an access point name (APN) for at least one of the plurality of communication devices, a type of vehicle services data for the at least one of the plurality of communication devices, or both; and based on the determined APN, the type of vehicle services data, or both, transmitting from or receiving at the telematics backend the vehicle services data according to a network traffic shaping scheme.
US09418488B1
A system for determining productivity coaching information comprises an input interface and a processor. The input interface is configured to receive vehicle event recorder data. The processor is configured to determine a first state based at least in part on a first set of vehicle event recorder data, and determine a second state based at least in part on a second set of vehicle event recorder data. The second set of vehicle event recorder data is different from the first set of vehicle event recorder data. The processor is configured to determine whether the second state following the first state indicates a productivity characterization mode, and indicate to acquire a third set of vehicle event recorder data for a productivity coaching determination.
US09418484B2
A learning system with augmented reality is provided. The learning system includes a cloud server recording an operation history of a learner and providing feedback messages, and a mobile device having an image-capturing module capturing an image of a substantial object. Also, the learning system comprises an object database storing a simulated object corresponding to the substantial object, an identification module identifying the image and generating image information, and a processing module which receives and analyzes the image information, obtains the simulated object from the object database according to analyzing results, and displays the simulated object on a display interface of the mobile device. The learning system allows learner to operate simulated object operation instructions on the display interface or directly operate the substantial object to control a display status of the simulated object, and the operation history of learner is transmitted to the cloud server. Learner conducts simulation scientific experiments and substantial operational trainings by operating the simulated object or the substantial object, thereby facilitating learning abstract concepts without being limited by the time and space constraints in a conventional learning system.
US09418483B2
A method and apparatus adapted to input a position and orientation of a viewpoint in an image in MR space obtained by superimposing a first virtual object to be displayed on a display of a real space; to input a position and orientation of the real object; to calculate an amount of change in a relative orientation between the orientation of the viewpoint and the orientation of the real object; to switch a first virtual object to be displayed to a second virtual object to be displayed which is different from the first virtual object to be displayed when the amount of change exceeds a predetermined threshold; and to output an image in the MR space obtained by superimposing the second virtual object to be displayed on the display of the real space in accordance with the position and orientation of the viewpoint and the position of the real object.
US09418477B2
Method and computer system for rendering damaged-enhanced images in a computer simulation comprising a computer generated environment. During the computer simulation, determining coordinates of a virtual impact having an effective radius on 3D polygon mesh(es) of the computer generated environment, identifying rendering faces of the 3D polygon mesh(es) affected by the virtual impact, clipping at runtime the affected rendering faces to a mathematically-defined subtraction shape computed considering the effective radius, computing newly formed 3D polygon mesh(es) and rendering at least one damaged-enhanced image for display comprising a subset of rendering faces of the newly formed 3D polygon mesh(es) using a visual texture, the subset being determined from a field of view of the computer simulation.
US09418475B2
The present disclosure describes systems and techniques relating to generating three dimensional (3D) models from range sensor data. According to an aspect, multiple 3D point clouds, which are captured using one or more 3D cameras, are obtained. At least two of the 3D point clouds correspond to different positions of a body relative to at least a single one of the one or more 3D cameras. Two or more of the 3D point clouds are identified as corresponding to two or more predefined poses, and a segmented representation of the body is generated, in accordance with a 3D part-based volumetric model including cylindrical representations, based on the two 3D point clouds identified as corresponding to the two predefined pose.
US09418469B1
Improved techniques for generating video content are disclosed. In some embodiments, a frame is first rendered using a first rendering option. It is then determined whether the frame is an independent frame (I-frame) or a predictive frame (P-frame). In the event that the frame is an I-frame, the frame is rendered using a second rendering option. In the event that the frame is a P-frame, the frame as rendered by the first rendering option and a previous frame as rendered by the first rendering option are used to determine prediction error. The first rendering option comprises a lower computational complexity than the second rendering option.
US09418468B2
A method and device for elastic registration of a two-dimensional source digital image of an object of interest with a slice of a three dimensional target volume of the object of interest is provided which defines a Markov Random Field framework having at least one undirected pairwise graph superimposed a two-dimensional image domain having at least a set of regular vertices and at least a set of edges, and defines a grid of control points, each control point corresponding to a vertex of the set of regular vertices, and a neighborhood system of edges associated with vertices. The method also defines a set of multi-dimensional labels of a discrete space to apply a displacement to each control point, the control point displacement defining a transformation adapted to obtain a plane slice of the target volume and an in-plane deformation transformation of the source digital image.
US09418462B2
Aspects are disclosed for enhancing digital media. In an aspect, a target object in a primary image is identified, and reference images that include the target object are located. The target object is then modified within the primary image according to data derived from analyzing the reference image. In another aspect, a primary file is received, and at least one reference file is referenced to generate enhancement data that facilitates enhancing the primary file from an extrapolation of the reference file. In yet another aspect, media files corresponding to a common event are aggregated, and a desired enhancement of a primary file is identified. Here, the desired enhancement corresponds to a modification of an obstruction included in the primary file. A reference file which includes data associated with the desired enhancement is then referenced, and the obstructed data is modified based on replacement data extrapolated from the reference file.
US09418459B2
A method for filling closed regions in a drawing using a region filling tool that may appear as a paint bucket. Rather than independently selecting regions to fill or filling based on style-by-layer techniques, the user selects a seed region such that other regions of the drawing are filled if parameters of the other regions match the parameters of the seed region. Matching criteria parameters may include an exact match parameter, a shape matching parameter, a layer matching parameter, and a line weight matching parameter. The parameters may be used alone or in conjunction with other parameters. In this manner, multiple regions in the drawing that are similar to the seed region may be filled using one interaction with the region filling tool. This approach allows the user to more efficiently and intuitively fill regions in the drawing.
US09418453B2
An image reconstruction method for reconstructing an image fmin representing a region of investigation within an object includes providing detector data (yi) having Poisson random values from an X-ray transmission measurement using an X-ray source and a detector device, the detector data (yi) being measured at an i-th of a plurality of different pixel positions of the detector device relative to the object, and reconstructing the image fmin based on the detector data (yi), the reconstructing step including a procedure of minimizing a functional F ( f _ ) = 1 k ∑ i = 1 k ( μ i - y i log μ i ) + a T - 1 f _ p where f is a current test image used for minimizing the functional F(f). The image fmin represents the global minimum of F(f).
US09418450B2
A texture compression method is described. The method comprises splitting an original texture having a plurality of pixels into original blocks of pixels. Then, for each of the original blocks of pixels, a partition is identified that has one or more disjoint subsets of pixels whose union is the original block of pixels. The original block of pixels is further subdivided into one or more subsets according to the identified partition. Finally, each subset is independently compressed to form a compressed texture block.
US09418449B2
According to the invention, a method for detecting and measuring local shape deviations in flat, curved, or domed surfaces of a test object, wherein three-dimensional measurement data (D) of the surfaces are evaluated by means of an evaluating apparatus, is designed and further developed, with regard to nondestructive testing of test objects with objective and easy-to-interpret assessment results, in such a way that the evaluating apparatus uses at least one virtual filter element as a concave filter for detecting concave sub-areas in flat or convex surfaces and/or as a convex filter for detecting convex sub-areas in flat or concave surfaces, that the filter element determines magnitudes of the shape deviations, and that said magnitudes are output by means of an outputting apparatus as measured values. The invention specifies a device for performing a corresponding method.
US09418445B2
A method and system for real time processing of a sequence of video frames. A current frame in the sequence and at least one frame in the sequence occurring prior to the current frame is analyzed. The sequence of video frames is received in synchronization with a recording of the video frames in real time. The analyzing includes performing a background subtraction on the at least one frame, which determines a background image and a static region mask associated with a static region consisting of a contiguous distribution of pixels in the current frame, which includes executing a mixture of 3 to 5 Gaussians algorithm coupled together in a linear combination by Gaussian weight coefficients to generate the background model, a foreground image, and the static region. The static region mask identifies each pixel in the static region upon the static region mask being superimposed on the current frame.
US09418434B2
Three-dimensional (3D) geometric boundaries are detected in images of a scene that undergoes varying lighting conditions caused by light sources in different positions, from a set of input images of the scene illuminated by at least two different lighting conditions. The images are aligned, e.g., acquired by a stationary camera, so that pixels at the same location in all of the input images correspond to the same point in the scene. For each location, a patch of corresponding pixels centered at the location is extracted from each input image. For each location, a confidence value that there is a 3D geometric boundary at the location is determined.
US09418430B2
A scene correlation-based target system and related methods are provided. A reference image depicts a remotely-positioned object having identifiable characteristics, wherein a reference directional vector is established relative to the reference image. A target image of a general vicinity of the remotely-positioned object has an unknown directional vector, the target image having at least a portion of the identifiable characteristics. An inertial measuring unit has a scene correlation system, wherein the scene correlation system matches the portion of the identifiable characteristics of the target image with the identifiable characteristics of the reference image, wherein a slew angle between the reference image and the target image is calculated. A target image directional vector is derived from the calculated slew angle and the reference directional vector.
US09418429B2
Disclosed are object recognizing method and apparatus. The method may comprise extracting a feature point of an object to be recognized in an input image; generating a plurality of feature images by extracting orientation information of a region adjacent to the feature point and normalizing the region based in the orientation information; deriving a covariance descriptor based on the feature images; and recognizing the object in the input image by comparing the covariance descriptor with a reference covariance descriptor stored in advance. Thus, the object can be recognized fast and robustly to changes on the size of the input image, rotations of the input image, and illumination, whereby the recognition performance can be enhanced.
US09418417B2
An image processing apparatus of the present invention performs reconstruction processing on a projected image of an object obtained by using a radiation source and a detector in order to obtain a tomographic image in which noise has been reduced regardless of the type of reconstruction filter that is used. The image processing apparatus includes a selection unit that selects a reconstruction filter in accordance with an imaging technique; a setting unit that sets an image processing parameter for noise reduction according to the type of the selected reconstruction filter; an image processing unit that performs image processing on the projected image using the image processing parameter; and a reconstruction unit that uses the selected reconstruction filter to perform reconstruction processing on the projected image resulting from the image processing and obtain a tomographic image of the object.
US09418414B2
An image measurement apparatus includes: an image acquiring unit that acquires a sample image that is an image obtained by capturing an image of a sample; a standard color space converting unit that converts the sample image into a standard sample image that is an image in a standard color space; a color distribution normalizing unit that converts the standard sample image into a normalized sample image by converting pixel values of pixels in the standard sample image to cause a color distribution vector indicating a color distribution of the standard sample image to match a predetermined standard color distribution vector indicating a standard color distribution; and a positive rate acquiring unit that detects positive pixels by performing threshold processing on pixel values of pixels in the normalized sample image, and acquires a positive rate indicating a proportion of the detected positive pixels.
US09418413B1
A system, a non-transitory computer program product and a method for selecting an inspection recipe, the method includes: (i) obtaining an image of a structural element of the semiconductor device; (ii) calculating multiple types of distances between the image of the structural element and each of a plurality of reference images obtained by applying a plurality of inspection recipes; and (iii) automatically selecting at least one selected inspection recipe out of the plurality of inspection recipes based on values of the multiple types of distances.
US09418408B1
A dynamic range optimization display system includes at least one processor coupled with a non-transitory processor-readable medium storing processor-executable code for causing the at least one processor to receive the input image data, generate a histogram of the input image based on the input pixel intensity values, modify the histogram to adjust the brightness and contrast of an output image, integrate the histogram to create a cumulative histogram, select a sequence of knots for an intensity transfer function, determine an input intensity for each knot, determine an output intensity for each knot, determine an output pixel intensity value for each pixel of the plurality of pixels by linearly interpolating the output pixel intensity value between output intensities of two bounding knots using an interpolant, and provide output image data to a display where the output image data is indicative of an output image having the determined output pixel intensity values.
US09418406B2
An information processing method includes calculating a second spatial filter having a size of the number of elements larger than a blur size of an image using a finite first spatial filter having an anisotropy in resolution of the image and a finite filter in which a value of a total sum of elements is zero and at least two elements have a non-zero value, and generating a plurality of spatial filters having a predetermined number of elements or less from the second spatial filter.
US09418405B2
A method of reducing motion blurring in digital radiography includes capturing at least one temporally coded blurred image of an object generated by using a coded pattern, and generating a de-blurred image from the at least one temporally coded blurred image by using the coded pattern and an estimate of a motion vector of the object. The at least one temporally coded blurred image is captured by using a total amount of generated light corresponding to at least a portion of radiation transmitted by the object. A digital radiography system is also provided.
US09418400B2
Systems and methods for rendering depth-of-field visual effect on images with high computing efficiency and performance. A diffusion blurring process and a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT)-based convolution are combined to achieve high-fidelity depth-of-field visual effect with Bokeh spots in real-time applications. The brightest regions in the background of an original image are enhanced with Bokeh effect by virtue of FFT convolution with a convolution kernel. A diffusion solver can be used to blur the background of the original image. By blending the Bokeh spots with the image with gradually blurred background, a resultant image can present an enhanced depth-of-field visual effect. The FFT-based convolution can be computed with multi-threaded parallelism.
US09418387B1
Various embodiments are related to apparatuses and methods related to payroll processing. An employee can designate a customized payroll pay period, and each employee can designate a different payroll pay period. For example, the employee can designate to receive payroll payments on any frequency supported by the employer, including receiving a daily payroll payment on each day that the employee works. The employee's employer can make payroll payments according to the employee's designation. Further, when the employer is a merchant that makes sales each day using, for example, a point of sale system, the employer can electronically pay the employee using funds from the day's sales. For example, the employee can work on a selected day, and can receive an electronic payroll payment at the end of the shift. The employee can immediately use the just received electronic payment funds to purchase a good from a second merchant.
US09418381B2
A standalone notification system, including a notification server which generates electronic messages to registered customers upon their request or upon a host business request. The customer provides the system with his/her messaging identification (“ID”), e.g. e-mail address, GSM (global system for mobile communications) or other mobile phone numbers that are able to accept, e.g., short message service (“SMS”) messages, facsimile number, and/or telephone number. Customers can register with the host notification server without having any relationship, banking or otherwise, with the host. Customers can choose between different notification channels such as e-mail, SMS message, fax or pager.
US09418362B2
The present disclosure is directed to a system and method for amplifying Radio Frequency (RF) signals. In some implementations, a system includes a first interface, a second interface, secure memory, a user-interface module, a processing module, and am amplification module. The first interface connects to a microSD slot of a mobile host device. The second interface includes an internal antenna for wirelessly communicating with retail terminals. The secure memory stores user credentials and a payment application used to execute financial transactions with the retail terminals. The processing module executes the payment application using the user credentials in response to at least a transaction request received by the RF module and transmits at least one transaction response to the retail terminal based, at least in part, on the executed payment application. The amplification module connected to a lead of the antenna and is configured to amplify at least received RF signals.
US09418359B2
A settlement terminal device of this disclosure includes a settlement processing unit that performs a settlement process and a power supply unit that supplies power stored in a battery to the settlement processing unit. The settlement processing unit detects in advance a state where a battery residual capacity is equal to or less than a predetermined value when performing the settlement process, and sets a first detection threshold value for a first settlement mode requiring a first power consumption level which is greater than a second detection threshold value for a second settlement mode requiring a second power consumption level which is lower than the first power consumption level.
US09418341B1
A method for determining quality signals for offer campaigns comprises an offer system that receives information submitted by users, and analyzes it to learn features of each user and detect patterns. The offer system clusters the users, and transmits an offer to a limited number of users in each user cluster. It receives notification that a user interacted with the offer and determines a conversion rate for each cluster. If the conversion rate exceeds a pre-defined threshold, the offer system transmits the offer to the remaining users in the cluster. Alternatively, the features of the users are rendered into a multi-dimensional graph that plots the distribution of the users. The offer system marks a representation of each user that interacts with the offer on the graph to determine groupings of users. The offer system transmits the offer to the remaining users in each group.
US09418333B2
A synapse array based on a static random access memory (SRAM), a pulse shaper circuit, and a neuromorphic system are provided. The synapse array includes a plurality of synapse circuits. At least one synapse circuit among the plurality of synapse circuits includes at least one bias transistor and at least two cut-off transistors, and the at least one synapse circuit is configured to charge a membrane node of a neuron circuit connected with the at least one synapse circuit using a sub-threshold leakage current that passed through the at least one bias transistor.
US09418330B2
A system and method to enhance user accessibility in a virtual universe and, in particular, to enhance user accessibility by providing information and/or actions to users participating in the virtual universe. The system comprises an assignment engine configured to assign an accessibility unit to an item within a virtual universe and a detection engine configured to detect a triggering event, which triggers the accessibility unit. The system also comprises an accessibility action engine configured to provide at least one of information and an action to a user when the accessibility unit is triggered.
US09418326B1
A method for validating a quick response code includes steps or acts of: receiving a captured enhanced quick response code that included a static component and a dynamic component; validating the quick response code in the static component using the auxiliary data in the dynamic component; and returning a token when the quick response code is validated.
US09418324B2
A control device functions as a print data acquisition unit which acquires print data including first page data, second page data, and third page data, and a print control unit which executes a print control using the print data to control a print execution section. The print control unit cancels the printing in response to a user instruction while the printing is performed. The print control includes a period control of controlling a first period from a start of printing using the first page data to a start of printing using the second page data and a second period from the start of printing using the second page data to a start of printing using the third page data, wherein the first period is determined by using a first delay period and longer than the second period.
US09418318B2
A computer-implemented method of detecting a foreground data in an image sequence using a dual sparse model framework includes creating an image matrix based on a continuous image sequence and initializing three matrices: a background matrix, a foreground matrix, and a coefficient matrix. Next, a subspace recovery process is performed over multiple iterations. This process includes updating the background matrix based on the image matrix and the foreground matrix; minimizing an L−1 norm of the coefficient matrix using a first linearized soft-thresholding process; and minimizing an L−1 norm of the foreground matrix using a second linearized soft-thresholding process. Then, background images and foreground images are generated based on the background and foreground matrices, respectively.
US09418311B2
Methods, devices and computer readable instructions to generate multi-scale tone curves are disclosed. One method includes finding, for a given input image, a global tone curve that exhibits monotonic behavior. The input image may then be partitioned into a first number of sub-regions. For each sub-region, a local tone curve may be determined that has an output level that is constrained to the global tone curve at one or more first luminance levels so that each sub-region's local tone curve's output follows the global tone curve's monotonic behavior. If the resulting local tone curves provide sufficient control of shadow-boost, highlight-suppression, and contrast optimization the first number of local tone curves may be applied directly to the input image. If additional control is needed, each sub-region may again be partitioned and local tone curves determined for each of the new sub-regions.
US09418306B2
An iris recognition device, a mobile device having the same, and a method of biometric authentication using the same are provided. The iris recognition device includes: a light source unit configured to transmit a light signal to an iris; and a light source receiver configured to receive a reflected light signal of an image of the iris from the iris, and remove an offset of the reflected light signal, corresponding to noise in the iris image, using a plurality of reference signals having different phases.
US09418305B1
A segmentation free method and system for automatic license plate recognition. An OCR classifier can be swept across an image of a license plate. Characters and their locations can be inferred with respect to the image of the license plate using probabilistic inference based on a Hidden Markov Model (HMM). A language model can be combined with a license plate candidate from the HMM to infer the optimal or best license plate code. The language model can be configured by employing a corpus of license plate codes, wherein the corpus includes a distribution representative of training sets and tests sets.
US09418303B2
A traffic sign recognition method analyzes and classifies image data of a sensor in an information processing unit. The image data is analyzed to select an image portion judged to contain a traffic sign of a particular sign class. A class-specific feature is identified in the image portion. A modified image portion is created, in which the class-specific feature has been shifted to a center of the modified image portion. Then the modified image portion is evaluated by a learning-based algorithm to recognize the traffic sign of the particular sign class.
US09418302B2
A method and an apparatus are provided to recognize a shape of a road on which a vehicle is traveling. Road edge shapes on a left side and a right side of the vehicle are recognized, from positions of roadside objects detected based on detection information from an on-board radar. Lane shapes that are shapes of lane boundary lines on the left side and the right side of the vehicle are recognized, from positions of lane boundary lines detected based on an image captured by an on-board camera. For each of the left side and the right side, such that the recognized road edge shape and the recognized lane shape are compared with each other, and the road shape is identified based on the comparison results.
US09418300B2
For operators of public or commercial buildings, such as supermarkets, it is interesting to determine how many persons, in particular potential buyers, enter the building each day. In other areas, as well, entering and exiting moving objects are counted: it is typical, for example, that cars driving into and out of a parking garage are counted. The invention relates to a device 1 for counting objects in a monitoring area, having a counting module 9, wherein the counting module comprises an object counter increasing by one counting value when one of the objects completely passes through a counting section 6 in a counting direction 4 as a counting object, having at least one monitoring camera 2 for capturing the monitoring area, wherein the monitoring camera 2 is designed for outputting an image data stream of the monitoring area, and having an extraction module 10 designed for extracting moving image areas in a current image of the image data flow, wherein the moving image areas can represent the objects or partial segments thereof, wherein the counting module 9 is designed for increasing the object counter 9 by a partial value for each current image for one of the moving image areas 3, the direction of motion thereof corresponding to the counting direction 4 and thus representing a potential counting object or a partial segment thereof, said partial value being less than the counting value.
US09418297B2
A computer-implemented method for detecting a copy of a reference video, comprises segmenting respective ones of multiple frames of the reference video into multiple regions, determining sets of image features appearing in respective ones of the multiple frames, determining a measure for the relative number of image features for a given region across the multiple frames, generating a spatio-temporal signature for the reference video using the determined measures, and comparing the signature for the reference video against a spatio-temporal signature of a query video to determine a likelihood of a match.
US09418296B1
In an embodiment, a data store storing a first video and a second video that is associated with the first video; a computer processor coupled to the data store and programmed to: generate a first model fingerprint of the first video, based on pixels in a first model frame in a first model segment of the first video stored in the data store; generate a first test fingerprint of the second video based on pixels in a first test frame in the second video stored in the data store; determine a first closeness value between the first model fingerprint and the first test fingerprint; determine, based on the first closeness value, whether the first test frame is a first boundary of a first segment in the second video, wherein the first segment in the second video is similar to the first model segment in the first video.
US09418288B2
A selection support apparatus acquires a plurality of types of characteristic data representing a swing characteristic of a testing golfer based on a test shot result of a golf club. The apparatus determines a swing type of the testing golfer out of swing types classified in advance based on at least one of the plurality of types of characteristic data. The apparatus calculates a recommended value for the testing golfer in association with a characteristic value that characterizes a component of a golf club based on at least one of the plurality of types of characteristic data. The apparatus selects, based on the swing type of the testing golfer, the recommended value, and component information representing a correspondence between components, the swing types, and the characteristic value, a recommended component from the components listed in the component information.
US09418285B2
An information processing apparatus includes an image capturing section to capture an image of a hand; an extracting section to extract a hand area from the captured image; a reference line determining section to determine a reference pushdown line in the image on the hand area; a determining section to determine a pushdown move if the bottom part of the hand area comes below the reference pushdown line; a first position determining section to determine a depth position based on an aspect ratio of the hand area if the pushdown move is determined; a second position determining section to determine a lateral position based on a position of the bottom part of the hand area if the pushdown move is determined; and an input key determining section to determine an input key from the determined depth position and lateral position.
US09418282B2
A method for checking the genuineness of a security feature on a security document. The security feature exhibits an alteration in the visible range when excited by a flash of light. The method comprises taking at least one first image of the unexcited security feature using a mobile telephone camera with an integrated flash function. Then, exciting at least one second image of the security feature using the flash function of the same mobile telephone. Optionally, setting up a wireless link using the telephone function or an Internet function on the mobile telephone, and at least one or both of the images or an authentication function derived from the difference between the two images is/are transmitted to a receiver having a database, the authentication is evaluated and/or the authentication is logged with the receiver.
US09418276B2
A client terminal acquires an image that includes at least a part of a fingerprint, and detects an orientation of a ridge that forms the fingerprint from the image, and detects a singular point of the fingerprint from the image, and calculates an angle formed, on a circumference of a reference circle whose center is the singular point, by the orientation of the ridge and the direction of a tangent line that comes into contact with the reference circle, and creates narrow down data that is used to narrow down matching data that is used to match the fingerprint by associating the angle with a position on the circumference of the reference circle.
US09418265B2
An RFID reader for tracking a plurality of RFID tags, the RFID reader comprising an array of multilayer antennas each multilayer antenna comprising a first coil and a second coil, the first coil being superimposed above the second coil; and an electronics unit configured to transmit a signal to and receive and process information from each multilayer antenna.
US09418262B1
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags will be embedded into materials used to make various items (e.g., garments). Embedded RFID tags will be used to track the manufacturing process, inventory management and verify the authenticity of manufactured goods. RFID tags utilize a standard language (e.g., EPC Gen2 v2, etc.) that distinctly identifies the objects and manufacturers of the items the tags are embedded in. RFID tags also contain memory fields that can be written to from an RFID Interrogator. Containing electronic circuitry and an antenna, RFID tags will activate metal detectors, creating false alarms and neutralizing their usefulness. Techniques are provided for combining a metal detector and a RFID Reader in a single device to enable a security function for differentiating garments and/or accessories with an embedded RFID tag or standalone metal object. This invention applies to all metal detectors, x-ray, and millimeter scanners to include handheld, portable and standalone systems.
US09418257B2
Methods and systems for forwarding tag transmission reports are provided. A mobile device may receive a wireless transmission from a tag and store data received from the tag, a location of the mobile communication terminal and a timestamp of the wireless transmission. The storing may be performed while the mobile device is in an application offline mode with respect to communication with a server that receives the data, location and timestamp. Tag data, the location and the timestamp may be sent in a tag transmission report to another computing device responsive to a determination by the mobile device that the other computing device is in an application online mode capable of presently communication with the server. The online computing device may send the tag transmission report from the offline mobile device to the server.
US09418256B2
The present invention provides an automated system for asset tracking and management and utilizes near field Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) technology. RFID tags are attached to the assets via a flexible mounting system, and RFID antennas (and corresponding readers) are strategically located in close proximity to read the tags. As applied to a rack or cabinet, near-field antennas are mounted along one of the mounting posts at each rack unit location such that when a piece of equipment (rack mounted or rail mounted) is installed at a particular rack unit space, the tag will be read and registered in an RFID management system. A magnetic field shaping arrangement ensures that crosstalk between adjacent rack positions is prevented. Ferrite elements are used to control the magnetic field.
US09418249B2
Transponder (180) having stored a fixed identification number, which expands said identification number with a random number, encrypts said expanded number with a key, and sends it to a reader (160) on its request. Reader (160), which on request receives an encrypted number from a transponder (180), decrypts a received encrypted number with a key, which was also used by the transponder (180), and extracts a fixed identification number associated with the transponder (180).
US09418233B2
An information processing device for handling privacy information includes: a similar user extraction means for extracting a set of other user's identifiers that is similar to a user identifier inputted by a user when a conflict takes place between a policy inputted by a user, who is a privacy information holder, and a policy of services that is already set for each of service providers, who is a privacy information user; and a policy recommendation means for acquiring a set of policies based on the set of extracted user identifiers and a service identifier inputted by the user and outputting thereof.
US09418223B2
An information handling system includes a processor operable to provide a branch trace message, and an embedded controller coupled to the processor via a primary interface and via a management interface. The embedded controller receives a management transaction from the processor via the primary interface. In response to receiving the management transaction, the embedded controller requests the branch trace message via the management interface and determines if the processor is operating in a system management mode based upon the branch trace message.
US09418221B2
Devices, systems, and methods of detecting user identity, differentiating between users of a computerized service, and detecting a cyber-attacker. An end-user device (a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a smartphone, a tablet, or the like) interacts and communicates with a server of a computerized server (a banking website, an electronic commerce website, or the like). The interactions are monitored, tracked and logged. User Interface (UI) interferences or irregularities are intentionally introduced to the communication session; and the server tracks the response or the reaction of the end-user to such communication interferences. The system determines whether the user is a legitimate human user, or a cyber-attacker or automated script posing as the legitimate human user. The system further detects click-fraud, and prevents or mitigates Application Distributed Denial-of-Service attacks.
US09418219B2
An inter-process messaging security management may be provided. A message comprising an operation to be performed may be sent from a process operating in a process chamber to a second process operating in another chamber. Before the message is allowed to be delivered, the validity of the operation contained in the message may be verified and a security policy may be examined to determine whether the message is permitted to be sent from the first process to the second process. If the security policy permits the second process to execute the operation requested by the first process, the message may be delivered to the second process. If the operation is not permitted, the message may not be delivered and an error message may be returned to the first process.
US09418215B2
An optical security device can be used to view sensitive information provided in an obscured format via a potentially untrusted and/or compromised computer. The techniques described herein enable use of untrusted computers for access to sensitive information. The optical security device employs one or more forms of visual cryptography such as spatial cryptography and/or temporal cryptography in some instances via a programmable mask and/or a programmable color filter to reveal sensitive information that is provided in an obscured form by a potentially untrusted computer.
US09418196B2
A method includes receiving a target pattern that is defined by a main pattern, a first cut pattern, and a second cut pattern, with a computing system, checking the target pattern for compliance with a first constraint, the first constraint associated with the first cut pattern, with the computing system, checking the target pattern for compliance with a second constraint, the second constraint associated with the second cut pattern, and with the computing system, modifying the pattern in response to determining that a violation of either the first constraint or the second constraint is found during the checking.
US09418191B2
A method for writing a design to a material using an electron beam includes assigning a first dosage to a first polygonal shape. The first polygonal shape occupies a first virtual layer and includes a first set of pixels. The method also includes simulating a first write operation using the first polygonal shape to create the design, discerning an error in the simulated first write operation, and assigning a second dosage to a second polygonal shape to reduce the error. The second polygonal shape occupies a second virtual layer. The method further includes creating a data structure that includes the first and second polygonal shapes and saving the data structure to a non-transitory computer-readable medium.
US09418188B1
A method, executed by one or more processors, for optimizing placement of a logic network, includes partitioning a logic network into a set of logic partitions, launching a set of placement optimization threads that correspond to the logic partitions, and allocating memory that is accessible to the placement optimization threads to provide a globally accessible placement memory for reserving placement locations on the integrated circuit. Each placement optimization thread may be configured to conduct the operations of determining a desired location for a logic element, reserving a set of potential locations for the logic element, determining a best location from the set of potential locations, and placing the logic element to the best location. Each placement optimization thread may also be configured to release each of the potential locations that are not the best location. A corresponding computer program product and computer system are also disclosed herein.
US09418187B2
As described herein, a tool records a log (or trace) of all sources of non-determinism in the system. In most of the cases, it's enough to log all transitions and the exact timestamps at all the entry and exit points of the system. By using this information it is possible to recreate a cycle accurate execution of the hardware system in simulation. Unlike CHIPSCOPE and SIGNALTAP which let you monitor a small number of signals in the design, the tool provides visibility into the whole system.
US09418184B2
Determining flow through a fracture junction in a complex fracture network. A flow of a fracturing fluid through a fracture junction of a complex fracture network is modeled using a fluid flow model that models flow based, in part, on mass balance and momentum balance. The fracture junction includes a first outlet to flow a first portion of the fracturing fluid and a second outlet to flow a second portion of the fracturing fluid. A ratio of a first volumetric flow rate of the first portion and a second volumetric flow rate of the second portion, and the pressure drop across the junction are determined in response to modeling the flow of the fracturing fluid through the fracture junction according to the fluid flow model. The determined ratio of flow rates and/or the determined pressure drop is provided.
US09418181B2
In one or more embodiments, methods and apparatus are provided for simulating device communications such as those of the Universal Serial Bus (“USB”) or the like. The methods and apparatus involve receiving host requests that represent commands in a communication protocol and are associated with communication endpoints, distributing the host requests across the communication endpoints in the order that they are received, to their associated endpoints to generate a distribution of requests, generating a reordered plurality of host requests by selecting the host requests from the communication endpoints in an order based upon the order in which the requests are received and one or more simulation factors, receiving device requests from a simulated device in accordance with the communication protocol, merging the reordered host requests and the plurality of device requests to form a merged sequence of requests, and performing commands from the merged sequence of requests in the order.
US09418169B2
A method operable on a mobile communication device, comprising opening a browser session and issuing an HTTP request for document data, wherein the request includes an XML descriptor added to headers of the HTTP request for identifying the request and the document data being requested, and receiving an HTTP response including the XML descriptor along with document binary data representing respective chunks of the document data for display on the mobile communication device.
US09418159B2
Code is injected into a web page loaded by an Internet browsing application. A search control to accept Internet search input is presented within an Internet browsing application. The search control visually covers at least a portion of a content display area of the Internet browsing application. A slider search control may be presented by automatically sliding the slider search control into the content display area. The presentation of a lightbox search control may include shading, darkening, dimming, blurring, or opaquing the content display area outside of the lightbox search control. The presentation of the search control may occur in response to a period of user inactivity, an amount of page scrolling, or a percentage of page scrolling. The search control receives input corresponding to a search query, a tracking code is combined with the received input, and the combination is communicated to a search engine.
US09418157B2
A keyword estimation process and tool provides data for on-line visits to websites within a secure search environment. Blocks having probability mass functions are created to build a base using data from sources. The blocks include categories for keywords. Using an algorithm, the keywords for a target number of visits and other metrics may be estimated.
US09418155B2
Methods, systems, algorithms, and media are provided for disambiguating entities present in a received search query. Lists of categories from semi-structured data from external sites as well as internal sources are used to detect if ambiguity exists in an entity within the search query. Multiple senses or categories of the ambiguous entity are determined by ascertaining the primary intent of an entity extracted from a main term of a document. The probability of each sense is calculated by computing a total amount of traffic received for each of the senses of the ambiguous entity. The sense with the highest amount of computed traffic is the most probable determined sense.
US09418148B2
An embodiment of the invention provides a technique for permitting a machine to discover classes and topics that data contains and to annotate data objects with those identified classes. The technique enables machines to group and annotate data objects in ways that are meaningful and intuitive for a user of the data objects. An interactive method uses clustering, along with feedback from a user on the clustering output, to discover a set of classes. The feedback from the user is used to guide the clustering process in the later stages, which results in better and better discovery of classes and annotations with more and more human feedback. A method can be used to produce labeled data that involves discovering classes and annotating a given dataset with the discovered class labels. This is advantageous for building a classifier that has wide applications, such as call routing and intent discovery.
US09418141B2
A multi-function search box on a word page is provided to enable a user to enter a word. The multi-function search box includes a text input control to provide text input functionality. The text input control is capable of suggesting a complete word based on a partially entered word. A dropdown display area is provided in the multi-function search box to display a list of words, every word therein contextually related to the fully entered or partially entered word. Another dropdown display area is provided to display contextually related options for a selected word in the list of contextually related words.
US09418140B2
A method of updating an inverted index from at least one electronic document in which each electronic document is constituted by at least one ordered set of objects comprises is described. The method includes, for each object, identifying a descriptor of the object where the descriptor is represented in the form of a tree and then determining a terminal leaf of the tree. Subsequently, a packet of information pointed to by the leaf is updated where the packet of information includes at least a list of documents that include the object.
US09418138B2
Various embodiments of a method and system for determining sets of variant items are described. Various embodiments may include a system configured to generate multiple item pairs each corresponding to a particular item and another item determined to be similar to the particular item. For the particular item and the other item, each item pair may include a respective sequence of text strings (e.g., a title). For each item pair, the system may perform a corresponding text alignment and determine one or more misalignments of the item pair. The system may also assign a similarity score to each item pair; the similarity score may be dependent on the misalignment(s) determined for the particular item pair. Based on each aligned item pair and the similarity score assigned to that aligned item pair, the system may generate an indication specifying that each of a set of items are variants of each other.
US09418131B1
In one aspect, a method to synchronize volumes includes comparing a first root hash of a root hash node in a first hash tree of a first volume with a second root hash of a second root hash node in a second hash tree of a second volume, for each child node of the first root hash node, comparing a hash of the child node with a hash of a corresponding node in the second hash tree if the first root hash and the second hash are not the same, for each hash in the first hash tree that does not match the corresponding hash in the second hash tree, determining if its node is a leaf node and copying the corresponding data block of the first volume to the corresponding data block of the second volume if a node is determined to be a leaf node.
US09418127B2
Method and system for designing a business domain model, a Data Warehouse (DW) model and a mapping therebetween synchronously are provided. The method includes: designing a business domain model based on business logic; designing a DW model based on a structure of a data cube in a DW and designing a mapping between the business domain model and the DW model synchronously; analyzing the business domain model, the DW model and the mapping therebetween based on a predetermined syntax rule; and generating a transactional database corresponding to the business domain model, a DW database corresponding to the DW model, and a mapping between data in the transactional database and in the DW database automatically and synchronously. The system includes a business domain model design unit, a DW model design unit, a mapping design unit, an analysis unit and an automatic generation unit. Mappings are designed more easily, efficiently and accurately.
US09418120B2
In a data visualization system, a method of analysing and representing spatial data sets to optimize the arrangement of spatial elements, the method including the steps of: retrieving data from a data storage module that is in communication with the data visualization system, determining lift values for a plurality of predefined spatial areas from the retrieved data based on a set of fuzzy association rules applied to the predefined spatial areas, determining spatial performance values for the predefined spatial areas, and calculating a weighted spatial relationship between the determined lift values and spatial performance values.
US09418118B2
A method of producing search results is disclosed. The method comprises, at a computerized search engine system distinct from a client system: receiving a search request associated with a user from the client system, the search request having one or more search terms; obtaining a user profile corresponding to the user, where the user profile is generated based in part on the user's prior computing activities, comprising one or more of browsing, searching, and messaging; obtaining search results for the search request; generating a personalized snippet for at least one of the search results in accordance with the obtained user profile, the snippet comprising a text portion of the search result chosen based on at least one or more search terms and one or more terms of the obtained user profile; and transmitting the search results and personalized snippet to the client system for display.
US09418116B2
The present disclosure teaches capturing a resource memorandum as triggers happen in a workflow. A workflow manager detects the triggers and instructs a chronicle processor to update the resource memorandum. The workflow manager instructs a version generator to capture the updated resource memorandum by storing a resource request identifier, a version identifier, a likeness of the resource memorandum, and/or data from the resource memorandum. The workflow manager also forwards a new version of the resource memorandum to institute agents for further review and/or processing according to the workflow.
US09418112B1
The system and method of analyzing record uniqueness allows for the optimized delivery of patient data to researchers while maintaining the requirements of HIPAA regulations and other privacy policies. The system and method analyze the data set for redundant data and then tests the data for uniqueness from single factors through a defined multiple of factors. The system further enables a threshold of uniqueness to be set enabling additional privacy protection by identifying records that are nearly unique.
US09418110B1
Techniques disclosed herein describe a data retrieval process for storing management data from a network environment using an efficient polling-based approach without sacrificing the real-time aspect of data retrieval that a push model provides. The process is highly scalable and reliable, and is useful in Network Address Translation (NAT) environments because the number of holes in a NAT firewall is minimized. The data retrieval component uses intelligent polling to retrieve data and store the data in a central database without overloading the system. A data retrieval component polls a data collection agent for a dataset. The data collection agent transfers the data set and a poll indication of when a subsequent data set will be ready for transfer. Subsequent polling is based on a processor load at a data retrieval component.
US09418109B2
A method, article of manufacture, and apparatus for processing queries, comprising analyzing a query tree, determining at least one operator based on the query tree analysis, assigning a memory allocation for each of the at least one operator, and storing the assignment in a storage device. In some embodiments, a memory classification for each of the at least one operator is determined. In some embodiments, assigning a memory allocation for each of the at least one operator includes assigning a memory allocation based on the memory classification.
US09418100B1
A method, computer program product, and computing system for defining a transactional log file for a data storage system including a data array. A first plurality of IO requests for the data storage system is processed. The transactional log file is updated to include information concerning the first plurality of IO requests. An IO pointer is defined to locate a specific IO request of the first plurality of IO requests within the transactional log file. File system metadata is defined on the data array for the data storage system.
US09418098B2
A method and system are described for verifying database entries against corresponding source data collected at a plurality of geographically remote field locations. The invention provides for verification of field data in a manner that is quicker, less labor-intensive and less error-prone as compared with existing methods. The invention is particularly useful in the conduct of adaptive clinical trials of pharmaceutical products.
US09418094B2
One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates performing multi-stage table updates. During operation, the system receives a query at a query processor, wherein executing the query causes an update to an entire table in a database. Next, the system estimates an amount of transaction log space required to execute the query. If the amount of transaction log space is greater than a pre-determined threshold, the system splits the query into a set of sub-queries, wherein an amount of transaction log space required by each sub-query in the set of sub-queries is less than the pre-determined threshold. For each sub-query in the set of sub-queries, the system executes the sub-query, and performs a mini-commit operation for the sub-query, wherein updates which comprise the mini-commit operation are not exposed to a user. Finally, when mini-commit operations have been performed for all of the sub-queries, the system performs a commit operation for the query.
US09418092B2
A system includes a multi-system database management system having a plurality of database systems. An index selection subsystem combines sets of query information from respective ones of the plurality of database systems into a workload. The index selection subsystem then generates candidate indexes from the workload, and selects recommended indexes from the candidate indexes based on one or more criteria.
US09418089B2
The formulation of a merged sorted list from multiple input sorted lists in multiple phases using an array pair. Initially, the first array is contiguously populated with the input sorted lists. In the first phase, the first and second input sorted lists are merged into a first intermediary merged list within the second array. Each subsequent phase merges a prior intermediary merged list resulting from the prior phase and, a next input sorted list in the first array to generate a next intermediary merged list, or a merged sorted list if there or no further input in the first array. The intermediary merged lists alternate between the first array and the second array from one phase to the next phase.
US09418088B1
The invention relates to a digital storage system, wherein the digital storage system includes one or more digital storage system elements. The digital storage system elements comprise a plurality of digital storage devices, and one or more network components to connect the digital storage elements. Execution of the machine executable instructions causes a processor to repeatedly record performance metric data descriptive of the performance of the storage system elements in the database, locate outliers in the performance metric data using a statistical algorithm, and to calculate a problem contribution probability value for at least a portion of the outliers. The problem contribution probability value is weighted using an instantiated configuration dependency tree and an instantiated performance metric dependency tree. The processor uses the problem contribution probability value to determine a sequential list of outliers. The order in the sequential list is determined using the problem contribution probability value.
US09418084B1
Embodiments of the present invention utilize context subsystems to logically group resources according to context. Such context subsystems can be nested (i.e. hierarchical), and thus further simplify the complex configuration relationships encountered with complex systems. Higher level (i.e. parent) context subsystems contain at least one resource that is utilized by a lower level (i.e. child) component, subsystem, or context subsystem. Context subsystems can be hierarchically arranged in single- and multi-parent arrangements and single- and multi-child arrangements. The number of context subsystem hierarchical levels is virtually unlimited and is generally dictated by the complexity of the system and the corresponding simplification needs of the configuration technology being utilized to configure the system. Context subsystems are applicable and useful in a configuration environment for virtually any configurable system amenable to contextual groupings of resources.
US09418077B2
Methods and systems are provided for retrieving, from a database containing a list of records, a subset of the list of records located within a user defined distance from a target point, each record in the list of records having a compound geo-location data type including a first data field and a second data field. The method involves generating a circle around the target point; identifying records having a geo-location within the circle; including the identified records in a result set; and presenting the result set to a user on a display screen. The method further includes treating the first data field and the second data field as a single data element.
US09418074B2
The present invention is directed towards systems and methods for updating a search results page in response to user interaction with a map resource. The method of the present invention comprises receiving a first search results page in response to a search query comprising at least a first map resource. The method monitors a change in position of a map resource in response to a user interaction and calculates a location corresponding to a map position. The method then re-executes at least one search query based upon said calculated location and displays a second search results page comprising a plurality of updated search results.
US09418069B2
A data mashup system having information extraction capabilities for receiving multiple streams of textual data, at least one of which contains unstructured textual data. A repository stores annotators that describe how to analyze the streams of textual data for specified unstructured data components. The annotators are applied to the data streams to identify and extract the specified data components according to the annotators. The extracted data components are tagged to generate structured data components and the specified unstructured data components in the input data streams are replaced with the tagged data components. The system then combines the tagged data from the multiple streams to form a mashup output data stream.
US09418047B2
A plurality of three bit units (called triplets) are permuted by a shuffler to shuffle the positions of the triplets into different patterns which are used to specific the read/write operation of a memory. For example, the least significant triplet in a conventional counter can be placed in the most significant position of a permuted three triplet pattern. The count of this permuted counter triplet generates addresses that jump 64 positions each clock cycle. These permutations can then be used to generate read and write control information to read from/write to memory banks conducive for efficient Radix-8 Butterfly operation. In addition, one or more triplets can also determine if a barrel shifter or right circular shift is required to shift data from one data lane to a second data lane. The triplets allow efficient FFT operation in a pipelined structure.
US09418042B2
A data and signal interface for controlling the transfer of data and signals between a memory array and macro function such as that of a digital signal processor (DSP) core. In one embodiment, the interface comprises a plurality of memory ports which interface with X/Y memory banks, a plurality of function ports, each with a function controller, which interface with DSP functions, a crossbar connecting the memory and function ports, and an arbitration unit for arbitrating memory access by the function ports. The memory interface advantageously allows multiple simultaneous accesses of memory banks via a plurality of macro functions, each access under the control of a parent processor instruction. A standardized protocol used for memory read/write operations is also disclosed.
US09418038B2
A method and a system for accessing data are provided. A management module is used for receiving multiple transmission data and multiple identification codes from application programs respectively and storing the transmission data to a queue according to a receiving order. One of the transmission data from the queue is obtained by the management module according to a delivering order, and the obtained transmission data is transferred to a corresponding device through an inter-integrated circuit (I2C) driving module. The management module is used for receiving response data from the device through the I2C driving module and then transferring the received response data to the corresponding application program.
US09418037B2
In accordance with an aspect of the invention, there is provided an SPI interface including a plurality of synchronizers configured to receive a plurality of SPI signals and an internal clock signal and synchronize the received SPI signals using the internal clock signal. The SPI interface also includes an SPI protocol handler configured to receive the synchronized SPI signals and the internal clock signal, and detect and evaluate signal transitions of at least one of the synchronized SPI signals according to an SPI protocol.
US09418025B2
An information processing device includes a storage device that stores information, and a controller that adjusts a consumption of read time of reading information to be read per unit data amount according to the priority of the information to be read from the storage device and a permitted read time during which read of information from the storage device is permitted. The permitted read time varies according to the processing time of another control different from the control of the read.
US09418024B2
An apparatus and method for efficient handling of critical chunks. For example, one embodiment of an apparatus comprises a plurality of agents to perform a respective plurality of data processing functions, at least one of the data processing functions comprising transmitting and receiving chunks of data to and from a memory controller, respectively; a system agent to coordinate requests for transmitting and receiving the chunks of data to and from the memory controller, the system agent comprising: a memory for temporarily storing the chunks of data during transmission between the agents and the memory controller; and scheduling logic to prioritize critical chunks over non-critical chunks across multiple outstanding requests while ensuring that the non-critical chunks do not result in starvation.
US09418021B2
Compressed data is maintained in a plurality of strides of a redundant array of independent disks, wherein a stride is configurable to store a plurality of tracks. A request is received to write one or more tracks. The one or more tracks are written to a selected stride of the plurality of strides, based on comparing the number of operations required to destage selected tracks from the selected stride to the number of operations required to defragment the compressed data in the selected stride.
US09418013B2
A memory subsystem includes memory hierarchy that performs selective prefetching based on prefetch hints. A lower level memory detects a cache miss for a requested cache line that is part of a superline. The lower level memory generates a request vector for the cache line that triggered the cache miss, including a field for each cache line of the superline. The request vector includes a demand request for the cache line that caused the cache miss, and the lower level memory modifies the request vector with prefetch hint information. The prefetch hint information can indicate a prefetch request for one or more other cache lines in the superline. The lower level memory sends the request vector to the higher level memory with the prefetch hint information, and the higher level memory services the demand request and selectively either services a prefetch hint or drops the prefetch hint.
US09418008B2
An electronic device includes a semiconductor memory unit. The semiconductor memory unit includes a plurality of first lines extending in a first direction, a plurality of second lines extending in a second direction intersecting the first direction, and a plurality of variable resistance patterns that is positioned at intersections of the first lines and the second lines and disposed between the first lines and the second lines in a vertical direction. Each of the variable resistance patterns has an elongated shape in a plan view and a portion of each of the variable resistance patterns is disposed outside a region in which a corresponding first line and a corresponding second line overlap with each other.
US09418002B1
An apparatus and method for processing unit reclaiming requests in a solid state memory device. The present invention provides a method of managing a memory which includes a set of units. The method includes selecting a unit from the set of units having plurality of subunits. The method further includes determining a number of valid subunits m to be relocated from the units selected for a batch operation where m is at least 2. The selecting is carried out by a unit reclaiming process.
US09417994B2
The present disclosure provides methods, systems, and apparatuses for testing software. The method may comprise associating a plurality of controls on a software application screen with testing actions to be performed on the controls, thereby creating a plurality of test steps, and then generating a test component comprised of the plurality of test steps. The method may then comprise comparing the generated test component to a second test component that is associated with a previous version of the software application screen, and displaying, on a user interface, a graphical representation of one or more differences between the generated test component and the second test component.
US09417993B2
Real time analysis of tracing data may identify functions for which tracing may be enhanced or reduced. A tracer that generates function-level data may have an aggregator that summarizes the data. Potential changes to tracing configuration may be identified by analyzing the summarized data to determine whether or not each function is being traced at a level commensurate with that function's impact to the summarized data. Those functions with little significant contribution may have their tracing reduced, while those functions with more significant contribution may have their tracing enhanced. The analysis of the summarized data may be performed in real time in some instances, causing a tracer to change the data collected while an application executes.
US09417991B2
Embodiments of translation verification testing are provided. An aspect includes reading a symbol table and a syntax tree to which source code corresponds. Widget objects and widget object methods are obtained in the symbol table. The widget objects and widget object methods are organized into a widget structure tree according to a code calling order in the syntax tree. An index file corresponding to the source code is generated by using the symbol table, the widget structure tree and resource files, where the index file records relationships between the widget objects.
US09417987B2
A load store advisory program sets a breakpoint within a load-store sequence of a program, determines if the breakpoint will cause unexpected behavior, and generates a warning if it is determined that the breakpoint will cause unexpected behavior. The unexpected behavior may be the result of setting a breakpoint within a load-store sequence that, because of the breakpoint, will repeatedly fail.
US09417982B2
A controller area network (CAN) includes a plurality of CAN elements comprising a communication bus and a plurality of controllers. A method for monitoring includes periodically determining vectors wherein each vector includes inactive ones of the controllers detected during a filtering window. Contents of the periodically determined vectors are time-filtered to determine a fault record vector. A fault on the CAN is isolated by comparing the fault record vector and a fault signature vector determined based upon a network topology for the CAN.
US09417981B2
A data processing system for storing observation data including an observation value corresponding to a point in a storage area and calculating a comparison value to be compared with a future observation value, the data processing system comprising: an observation data collection unit for specifying first observation data and second observation data which are observation data before the first point; a past similar data selection unit for selecting parts for the same duration as the first predetermined time, the observation values of which are identical to the observation values of the first observation data, from the second observation data as past similar data; a parameter data selection unit for selecting the observation values for a predetermined time from the latest time of the parts selected as the past similar data as parameter data; and a comparison value calculation unit for calculating the comparison value based on the parameter data.
US09417976B2
A storage migration engine and a recovery manager are provided that enable failover operations to be performed in situations where storage migration and array-based replication are involved. The storage migration engine stores information related to storage migrations directly into a source datastore and a destination datastore, which are then replicated over to a recovery site. The recovery manager uses the information stored in the recovered datastores to select which instance of virtual machine data is to be used to fail over to a virtual machine at the recovery site.
US09417974B2
Performing a transaction in the context of a computing system that has one or more persistent systems coupled to one or more processors over a bus. As an example, the persistent system may serve as at least part of the main memory of the computing system. The transaction might implement multi-versioning in which a record is not updated in place. Rather, each record is represented as a sequence of one or more record versions, each version having a valid interval during which the record version is considered to properly represent the record. As part of the transaction, post-commit processing information is generated to allow the computing system to recover in the event of a system failure.
US09417972B2
A method of handling multiple served backup processes comprising creating a cascade of target storage volumes from a plurality of target storage volumes by inserting each most recent target storage volumes between a last added target storage volume and a source storage volume, the most recent target storage volumes each having a copy rate faster than the last added target storage volume, such that each added target storage volume has a faster copy rate than an immediately prior added target storage volume, and a most recent target storage volume added to the cascade of target storage volumes has a fastest copy rate; and receiving one or more instructions initiating a plurality of served backup processes from the source storage volume to a plurality of target storage volumes.
US09417964B2
Methods, apparatus and computer program products implement embodiments of the present invention that enable digital information devices having respective storage devices and memories to distributedly store, for a logical volume, data and first and second parity values across corresponding regions of the storage devices. Freezers having a one-to-one correspondence with the storage devices are distributedly stored in the memories. Upon detecting, in a cache, updated data for one or more first regions on the storage devices, existing data from the one or more first regions, and additional data for parity calculations are retrieved from one or more corresponding second regions on the storage devices, and first and the second parity values are calculated using the updated data, the existing data and the additional data, and the updated data and the calculated first and second parity values are stored to the freezers.
US09417960B2
Mis-programming of MSB data in flash memory is prevented by using ECC decoding logic on the flash die that error corrects the LSB values prior to the LSB values being used in conjunction with the MSB values to determine the proper reference voltage ranges. Error correcting the LSB page data prior to using it in combination with the MSB page data to determine the reference voltage ranges ensures that the reference voltage ranges will be properly determined and programmed into the flash cells.
US09417958B2
A memory control method is used for controlling a flash memory. The flash memory includes a first memory element and a second memory element. The second memory element includes multiple blocks and each block includes multiple pages. In this method, original data are written to the first memory element. Input data are obtained by reading the original data from the first memory element. The input data includes multiple input data rows. The input data rows are divided into data groups. Each input data row corresponding to each data row is written to a corresponding data page on the second memory element. A parity row corresponding to each data group is written to a data page on the second memory element. The number of data rows for each data group is smaller than the number of each block in the second memory element.
US09417957B2
A method of detecting bit errors in a data storage device is provided, which includes comparing a first bit sequence accessed during a read out operation of the data storage device with a second bit sequence that corresponds to an expected memory state of the data storage device.
US09417953B2
A data decoding apparatus includes a first decision unit suitable for determining whether or not an error is present in a read data based on a first decoding method and identifying an error occurrence position, wherein the read data is read by a first read voltage, a second decision unit suitable for determining a low reliability position that belongs to the error occurrence position by checking reliability of the error occurrence position based on a second read voltage changed from the first read voltage within a set range, and an error correction unit suitable for generating an error correction data by correcting an error of the low reliability position.
US09417951B2
What is disclosed is an embodiment of a method for ciphering data. Data is provided for ciphering thereof. The data is ciphered in a plurality of steps. For each step, an encoding for error detection of the data for being processed within the step is determined. An output error detection encoding for the step is determined. The data for being processed within the round is processed to provide output error detection encoding which is then verified against the determined output error detection encoding. When the output error detection encoding is other than same as the determined error detection encoding, providing a signal indicative of an error within the cipher process.
US09417942B1
A method of registering a host bus port (HBP) of a host computer (host) at a storage bus port (SBP) of a data storage array over a storage network includes (a) acquiring a configuration instruction directing the host to process registration messages from an event processing engine, (b) receiving a registration message from the event processing engine indicating that the HBP needs to be registered with the SBP, the registration message having been generated by the event processing engine in response to receiving an event notification message indicating that a data path across the storage network between the HBP and the SBP is available, and (c) in response to receiving the registration message, processing the registration message by registering the HBP with the SBP by sending a registration command from the HBP to the SBP across the storage network, the registration command including registration information associated with the HBP.
US09417940B2
An operations management system includes a correlation model storing unit, an analysis order storing unit, an analysis unit, and an order control unit. The correlation model storing unit stores a correlation model which indicates a correlation among plural types of performance values, for each of plural systems. The analysis order storing unit stores a detection order in the plural systems for carrying out detection of correlation destruction. The analysis unit carries out, in each of plural time periods, detection of whether the correlation destruction of the correlation included in the correlation model of each of the plural systems is caused or not by use of performance values inputted for the each of plural time periods, on the basis of the detection order. The order control unit updates the detection order in the each of plural time periods.
US09417919B2
A computer cluster with objectives-based resource sharing. The cluster includes cloud nodes each with one or more resources, a terminal, data storage, and an allocation node to monitor cloud node resources, provide information descriptive of the cloud node resources to a customer through the terminal, receive a reservation for cloud node resources from the customer, store the reservation in the data storage, determine assignments of the cloud node resources for the reservation and any other pending reservations according to one or more objectives, and allocate the cloud node resources to customers according to the resource assignments.
US09417915B2
A method dynamically adjusts the resources available to a processing unit of a distributed computer process executing on a multi-node computer system. The resources for the processing unit are adjusted based on the data other processing units handle or the execution path of code in an upstream or downstream processing unit in the distributed process or application.
US09417911B2
Systems and methods are described for a distributed data processing method, including, but not limited to: receiving, by a backend device, source data; partitioning, by the backend device, the source data into a plurality of data threads; sending, by the backend device, at least one of the plurality of data threads to each of a plurality of user devices; and determining, by the backend device, a job outcome for the source data based on a plurality of data thread results, each of the plurality of data thread results is determined by one of the plurality of user devices based on the at least one of the plurality of data threads.
US09417910B2
The systems and methods described herein may implement probabilistic counters and/or update mechanisms for those counters such that they are dependent on the value of a configurable accuracy parameter. The accuracy parameter value may be adjusted to provide fine-grained control over the tradeoff between the accuracy of the counters and the performance of applications that access them. The counters may be implemented as data structures that include a mantissa portion and an exponent portion that collectively represent an update probability value. When updating the counters, the value of the configurable accuracy parameter may affect whether, when, how often, or by what amount the mantissa portion and/or the exponent portion are updated. Updating a probabilistic counter may include multiplying its value by a constant that is dependent on the value of a configurable accuracy parameter. The counters may be accessible within transactions. The counters may have deterministic update policies.
US09417904B2
A cyber-physical system and a method of monitoring a virtual machine thereof are provided. The cyber-physical system includes a plurality of target controllers that includes middleware operating based on different operating systems and that control different targets, and a system monitor that includes integrated middleware of analyzing and synthesizing information collected from the middleware. First virtual machines corresponding to virtualization of the target controllers and a second virtual machine corresponding to virtualization of the system monitor are independently formed through a virtual machine monitor.
US09417898B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide hints for page stealing by prioritizing pages based on the number of residences. Receiving a plurality of pages to be hinted to a hypervisor for page stealing. Determining at least two page types of the plurality of pages. Determining whether any of the at least two page types has a total number of residences less than a total number of potential residences in the virtual environment for all page types and have a total number of residences less than a threshold. Responsive to determining a first page type of the at least two page types has a total number of residences less than a total number of potential residences for all page types and has a total number of residences less than a threshold, notifying the hypervisor of at least one page from the plurality of pages that is the determined first page type.
US09417894B1
A portable housing includes a sensing device, a set of memory modules, and a reconfigurable circuit module. The reconfigurable circuit module can be configured to receive sensed data associated with a sensing device. In response to receiving the sensed data, the reconfigurable circuit module can be configured to transition from a first configuration to a second configuration. While in the second configuration, the reconfigurable circuit module can be configured to retrieve data from at least one memory module from the set of memory modules. The reconfigurable circuit module can be configured to compare the retrieved data to the sensed data, and as a result, produce matched data. The reconfigurable circuit module can be configured to define and/or send a search result based on the matched data.
US09417887B2
The present invention discloses a method and an apparatus for bootstrapping a gateway in a device management system, where the method includes: acquiring, from a terminal device by a gateway, server information saved by the terminal device; determining, by the gateway, a target server according to the acquired server information, and initiating a bootstrap request; and performing, by the gateway, a bootstrap according to bootstrap information received from the target server. The present invention enables the gateway to accomplish a bootstrap process in a use process.
US09417880B2
A processor is described having a functional unit within an instruction execution pipeline. The functional unit having circuitry to determine whether substantive data from a larger source data size will fit within a smaller data size that the substantive data is to flow to.
US09417862B2
An information processing apparatus provided with an extension unit for performing control to download and install an extension program for extending functionality, the extension unit comprises: a first control unit that performs control to download from an external server an introduction program that provides information about the extension program which can be downloaded, and installs the introduction program; an obtaining unit that obtains, from the installed introduction program, information about the extension program; a provision unit that provides a screen for displaying the obtained information about the extension program and for receiving an instruction to install the extension program; and a second control unit that, in response to the instruction by a user via the screen, performs control to use key information included in the obtained information to download and install the extension program.
US09417859B2
Memoizable functions may be identified by analyzing a function's side effects. The side effects may be evaluated using a white list, black list, or other definition. The side effects may also be classified into conditions which may or may not permit memoization. Side effects that may have de minimus or trivial effects may be ignored in some cases where the accuracy of a function may not be significantly affected when the function may be memoized.
US09417851B2
A runtime environment can access code data defining an application comprising a persistent component comprising code for a user interface element and referencing a navigation action, a location loader, and a plurality of location components. Each location component can comprise executable code for child contents for providing a respective view of the application. A first view of the application can be provided by loading code of a first location component into memory via the location loader and executing code of the child contents of the first location component via the runtime environment. In response to receiving a navigation command via the user interface element, a second view of the application can be provided by loading code of a second location component into memory and executing code of the child contents of the second location component via the runtime environment. The code of the first location component may be removed from memory after the navigation command is received.
US09417848B2
A serial multiply accumulator (MAC) for operation of two multiplications and one addition over Galois field is disclosed. The MAC includes a first element feeding circuit, a second element feeding circuit, a number of first calculating circuits and a second calculating circuit. By re-arranging the circuit design, many elements used in the conventional MAC, such as XOR gates and registers, can be saved. The present invention has an advantage of lower area cost.
US09417829B2
An inkjet printer is placed in communications with a print production planning and scheduling system to allow planning, monitoring, and adjusting of an automatic digital (ink jet) printing production line. In one embodiment, the order of the print jobs is defined by the print shop owner or by the associated supervisor. Each job becomes a paper based (printed) job ticket and the order in which the jobs arrive at the print operator side defines the print order. The same is true for the order at the RIP side. Any change in regards to this order requires a direct communication of the print shop owner or supervisor with the printer or RIP operator.
US09417818B2
A memory block area in a semiconductor memory includes program segments. Each program segment includes a group of memory cells arranged at positions where word lines and bit lines intersect and connected to a common source line. The word lines are shared by the program segments. At program operation time source line switches are used for supplying first voltage to a source line in a program segment, of the program segments, including a memory cell to be programmed and supplying second voltage to a source line in a program segment, of the program segments, not including the memory cell to be programmed.
US09417817B2
Computer system providing to a host computer a virtual logical volume that is associated with a logical pool configured from storage areas respectively provided by first and second storage apparatuses, and dynamically assigns a storage area from the logical volume to the virtual logical volume, a host computer and the first storage apparatus are connected via a first path configuring an access path, and, when a ratio of an access volume used by a second path connecting the first and second storage apparatuses exceeds a predetermined ratio, it is determined that a problem with the access path from the host computer to virtual logical volume, a third path connecting the host computer and the second storage apparatus is identified as a change destination of the access path, and the identified third path is changed to a part of the access path from the host computer to the virtual logical volume.
US09417812B1
Methods and apparatus for migrating data with minimal disruption in a storage virtualization system. In one embodiment, a method includes collecting information on a backend logical unit (LUN) having a direct path from a host, presenting the backend LUN to the host through a virtual target via the storage virtualization application, disconnecting the direct path from the host to the backend LUN so that the backend LUN is accessed by the host via the storage virtualization application transparently to the host, and migrating data from the backend LUN to a destination storage transparently to the host.
US09417807B2
A data buffer with a strobe-based primary interface and a strobe-less secondary interface used on a memory module is described. One memory module includes an address buffer, the data buffer and multiple dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) devices. The address buffer provides a timing reference to the data buffer and to the DRAM devices for one or more transactions between the data buffer and the DRAM devices via the strobe-less secondary interface.
US09417804B2
A system and method for memory block pool wear leveling in a nonvolatile memory device. An improved bit error rate for the nonvolatile memory system is attained by identifying a plurality of memory block pools of the nonvolatile memory system, identifying a relaxation time delay for each of the plurality of memory block pools and executing a predetermined number of program/erase cycles for each of the plurality of memory block pools based upon the relaxation time delay of the memory block pools.
US09417796B2
The invention relates to a method for copying data from a source server to a target server, wherein the data is associated with a metadata. The method comprises mapping the metadata of the data to the metadata structure of the target server, where the mapping comprises determining common names for properties being comprised in the metadata; determining if the determined common names exist in the metadata structure of the target server; and if so, copying—together with the data—such properties of the metadata that have matching common names in the metadata structure of the target server. The invention also relates to a hybrid content management system.
US09417790B2
A mobile terminal is provided. According to the mobile terminal, when a handwriting input, while being applied to a page displayed on a touch screen, enters a predetermined region of the page and a predetermined input with respect to the touch screen is received, the previously applied handwriting input is resized to secure an additional handwriting input region.
US09417786B1
The method includes identifying, by one or more computer processors, a first location and a second location of input on a touch-sensitive surface. The method further includes calculating, by one or more computer processors, a distance between the first location and the second location. The method further includes identifying, by one or more computer processors, a first elapsed time between creation of the identified first location of input and the identified second location of input. The method further includes calculating, by one or more computer processors, a first size of an eraser based upon the identified first elapsed time. The method further includes generating, by one or more computer processors, an eraser path based upon the identified first location and the identified second location of input on a touch-sensitive surface, and the calculated first size of an eraser.
US09417785B1
A graphical user interface is provided for navigating and/or manipulating content simply via touch of a touch-sensitive surface. The content may include discrete content items (e.g., songs, video clips, documents, web pages) and/or actions (e.g., place a call, read a message, play a game), and may or may not be hierarchical in nature. The interface may be presented on a touch-screen display, such that a user may navigate to a content item or action via a single touch on the display (e.g., with a finger or other tool), followed by gliding through any number of levels or clusters of nodes (representing content items, content compilations/categories and/or actions). The desired content item or action may be initiated automatically (e.g., opened, performed) simply by touching it, by lifting the gliding finger or by performing some other input (e.g., tapping a node, speaking a command, touching with a second finger).
US09417784B2
A multi display apparatus and an associated multi display controlling method include a first body having a first display, a second body comprising a second display, a hinge which connects and rotatably supports the first body and the second body, a storage unit configured to store one or more contents, and a controller configured to display a first screen on the first display and displays a second screen corresponding to implemented contents on the second display when one of the contents is implemented, in which the controller modifies the displayed contents on the second screen according to a user manipulation, when the user manipulation is performed on the first screen.
US09417783B2
The invention relates to method for providing an input to a device characterized in that the input is based on a combination of at least one touch based interaction and at least one non-touch based interaction with the device, wherein the one type of input influences the action instructed to the device in response to the other type of input. The invention also relates to a corresponding device. To further improve the interaction between a user and a device, feedback providing means can be provided.
US09417776B2
A media reproducing apparatus may include a main body; a touch wheel button unit disposed in a region of the main body; and a control unit configured to perform a first function in response to receiving a first drag operation in a circumferential direction while a first start point disposed in the touch wheel button unit is touched, and perform a second function in response to receiving a second drag operation in the circumferential direction while a second start point, which is different from the first start point, is touched. The media reproducing apparatus may also include the region of the main body configured as a touch panel.
US09417770B2
A setting control may be mapped to an edge of a user interface to facilitate control of various settings and access thereto. The mapping may be implemented based on a number of setting values associated with the setting control and a size of a specified edge of the user interface. Additionally, multiple edges of a user interface may be mapped to a variety of setting controls. The edge-mapped setting controls may also be automatically reconfigured according to user preferences and interaction with the interface. Indicators are also generated to provide visual indications about the setting controls and/or a current setting. The appearance of indicators may be altered to convey a variety of information such as the current setting of a control or the type of setting control.
US09417767B2
Analyzing an application executing on a target device. An application may be executed on a target device. Low cost measurement may be gathered regarding the application executing on the target device. In response to a trigger, high cost measurement data may be gathered regarding the application executing on the target device. The high cost measurement data may include graphics commands provided by the application. The graphics commands and related information may be stored and provided to a host. The host may modify the graphics commands to perform experiments to determine performance issues of the application executing on the target device. The host may determine whether the performance is limited by the CPU or the GPU and may determine specific operations that are causing performance issues. The host may provide suggestions for overcoming the performance issues.
US09417757B1
Described are techniques for displaying data. A first set of data is received that includes a first plurality of objects at a first level in a hierarchy. At least some of the first plurality of objects are displayed on a user interface display. A first object is selected from the at least some of the first plurality of objects displayed on the user interface display. Responsive to selecting the first object, a second set of data is received that includes a second plurality of objects at a second level in the hierarchy. At least some of the second plurality of objects are displayed on the user interface display. The user interface display provides infinite scrolling of the first plurality of objects in a first portion of the user interface display and infinite scrolling of the second plurality of objects in a second portion of the user interface display.
US09417753B2
A method includes providing data and associated contextual information, to a first operating system environment by a second operating system environment, both operating system environments utilizing a common kernel. The data is utilized by the first operating system environment, based on the contextual information. The method may include installing the data as an application file, using the contextual information to understand that the data is an application file. An apparatus that performs the method includes a programmable processor, and memory containing executable instructions. The processor runs multiple operating system environments utilizing a common kernel. The second operating system environment is operative to provide data and contextual information for the data, to the first operating system environment, and the first operating system environment is operative to utilize the data based on the contextual information.
US09417733B2
A touch method and a touch system using the same are disclosed. The touch system comprises a display panel and an image sensing module. The touch method comprises the following steps: detecting and acquiring a coordinate position of a touch object entering a sensing region of the display panel; determining whether the touch object is moving or situated at a fixed point according to the coordinate position; sensing a first reflective luminance generated by the touch object at a point via the image sensing module; sensing a second reflective luminance generated by the touch object at the point via the image sensing module after a time period; comparing the first and the second reflective luminance; if the first reflective luminance is different from the second reflective luminance, then determining that the touch object is performing a fixed point rotation; executing a corresponding instruction according to the fixed point rotation.
US09417731B2
The invention relates to a tactile or contactless user interface device (50), comprising organic semiconductor components (52) made by depositing organic conducting and semiconducting material in liquid form on a dielectric support (54).
US09417727B2
There are provided a touchscreen device and a method of driving the same. The touchscreen device includes: a panel unit including a plurality of first electrodes extending in a first direction and a plurality of second electrodes extending in a second direction; and a control unit applying predetermined driving signals to at least one first electrode among first electrodes arranged sequentially from a first thereof and to at least one first electrode among first electrodes arranged sequentially from a last thereof, and detecting a change in capacitance from at least one of the first electrodes among electrodes disposed in a central portion, to thereby determine a touch.
US09417724B2
An electronic apparatus includes a detection module configured to detect an operation for the electronic apparatus, and a process execution module configured to execute a process corresponding to an operation detected by the detection module. When the detection module detects a first operation, the process execution module executes a predetermined process corresponding to the first operation. The first operation comprises an operation in which a contact module moves in a state of touching a display surface of the electronic apparatus. When the detection module detects a second operation after detecting the first operation, the process execution module re-executes the predetermined process. The second operation comprises an operation of a contact module for the electronic apparatus without being accompanied by a movement of the contact module along a display surface.
US09417721B2
A TFT touch display device includes a plurality of mutually vertical control lines and sensor lines and a plurality of TFTs. Each TFT is disposed at an intersection of one of the plurality of control line and one of the plurality of sensor line. The TFT is connected to a corresponding control line, a corresponding sensor line, and a power source. When there is an object approaching to the TFT, the TFT is turned on and a back-channel current is generated. A control unit is connected to the plurality of control lines to respectively provide a control signal to the plurality of control lines. A current sensing unit is connected to the plurality of sensor lines to respectively sense a current generated by the TFTs.
US09417719B2
When the first electrical conductor overlaps one of the three or more detection electrodes, the one detection electrode and the first electrical conductor are capacitively coupled. When the position of the first electrical conductor has changed in accordance with movement of the operation member, it is determined, based on the capacitance of each of the three or more detection electrodes after the change, that the first electrical conductor has moved in a direction from a first detection electrode judged to have decreased the capacitance to a second detection electrode judged to have increased the capacitance.
US09417715B2
A smart mouse device having an optical sensor and a pressure sensor is provided. The smart mouse device includes the optical sensor for outputting position data by using light emitted from and reflected off a light-emitting element, and the pressure sensor for outputting a pressure signal according to a pressing of the sensor. The smart mouse device also includes a controller for transmitting the position data and the pressure signal to a user terminal, and a user terminal connection unit which connects to the user terminal, and which transmits and receives data.
US09417714B2
A method includes steps of: receiving a first energy and a second energy emitted from within close proximity to a computer; powering a portable unit using the first energy; determining a position and status of the portable unit using the second energy; and transmitting a user identifier from the portable unit to the computer for verification.
US09417712B2
In the present invention, an image is projected so as to form an acute angle between an axis of projection from a projection device and a screen; the projected image and an image of a perimeter thereof are captured; and a process corresponding to an operation about to be performed by a user is executed based on a shadow area of a finger of the user included in the captured image.
US09417710B2
A system for implementing the sliding input of a text based upon an on-screen soft keyboard on an electronic equipment is provided. The system comprises a feature lexicon module, a feature lexicon establishment module, a user interface module, a sliding trajectory feature extraction module, a rough classifying and filtering module, a rough matching and filtering module and an accurate matching and sorting module. A method for implementing the sliding input using the system is also provided. The system and the method can input a word according to the preorder trajectory of the input portion, and cleverly use a forecasting-between-slidings input, decrease a sliding distance, effectively improve the input speed and accuracy of words, and simplify the operation for the users.
US09417707B2
Personal computer (PC) and online gaming are gaining popularity around the world. Typically players use PC input devices such as keyboards and mice for playing PC games. Many of the modern PC games use a control scheme commonly known as the “WASD/Mouse”, which is a combination of the “WASD” keys of the keyboard and the mouse as means for interacting with the PC games. Additionally, to further expand on game control functions, modifier keys are used in conjunction with other keyboard keys to serve as shortcut keys for activating such game control functions. However, due to the non-ergonomic positioning of the shortcut keys, players often suffer from wrist discomfort after PC game playing sessions due to increased strain placed on their wrists when using the shortcut keys frequently. An embodiment of the invention describes a system and method for switching processes selectable by keys on human interface devices.
US09417706B2
A method, including receiving, by a computer executing a non-tactile three dimensional (3D) user interface, a set of multiple 3D coordinates representing a gesture by a hand positioned within a field of view of a sensing device coupled to the computer, the gesture including a first motion in a first direction along a selected axis in space, followed by a second motion in a second direction, opposite to the first direction, along the selected axis. Upon detecting completion of the gesture, the non-tactile 3D user interface is transitioned from a first state to a second state.
US09417701B2
A system and method for determining whether a flick gesture has occurred is described. A flick gesture is a simple gesture that may be easily detected and is characterized by minimal interference with other applications or gestures.
US09417690B2
Provided herein is a technique by which a user may interact with an apparatus configured to provide for display of an image, such as with augmented reality glasses. An example embodiment may provide a method including receiving an indication of a first motion event initiated on a first side of a device from a motion sensor, determining a first motion event pattern based on one or more directional components of the first motion event, distinguishing the first motion event from a motion event initiated on a second side of the device, correlating a first operation with the first motion event pattern, and causing the first operation to be performed. The first operation may include causing the opacity of an image presented on a substantially transparent display to be increased.
US09417689B1
Systems and approaches are provided for robustly determining the motion of a computing device. Multiple cameras on the device can each capture a sequence of images, and the images can be analyzed to determine motion of the device with respect to a user, an object, or scenery captured in the images. The estimated motion may be complemented with measurements from an inertial sensor such as a gyroscope or an accelerometer to provide more accurate estimations of device motion than can be provided by image data or inertial sensor data alone. A computing device can then be configured to detect device motion as user input such as to navigate a user interface or to remotely control movement of another electronic device.
US09417686B2
A method for controlling power in a computer system having a network device and a wakeup function is disclosed. A determination is made whether or not the network device is in an associated state at the time when the computer system moves into a power saving mode. In response to a determination that the network device is not in the associated state, power supply is turned off from a power source to the network device. In response to a determination that the network device is in the associated state, power supply is continually provided from the power source to the network device.
US09417682B2
A driving device for driving a display unit which can reduce power consumption regardless of the type of video data is provided which, based on the type of application software which is the provider of a video data signal, performs either one of a first power saving mode in which to stop power delivery to a data driver and a second power saving mode in which the data driver stops importing of the pixel data sequence signal when the 1-H line data's respectively corresponding to neighboring ones of horizontal scan lines of the display unit coincide with each other.
US09417680B2
A computer-implemented computer shut-down method includes identifying that a computing device has been moved from an open configuration in which input and output mechanisms on the computing device are accessible to a user, to a closed configuration in which at least some of the input and output mechanisms are inaccessible to a user; starting a shut-down timer in response to identifying that the computing device has been moved from the open configuration to the closed configuration; waiting a predefined time period, as established by the shut-down timer, and determining from the shut-down timer that the computing device can be transitioned from an active state into a sleep state in which power consuming components of the computing device are powered down; and transitioning the computing device from the active state to the sleep state upon determining that the computing device can be transitioned.
US09417675B2
A system and method for improved power sequencing within an embedded flash memory device is disclosed.
US09417673B2
A method of controlling power to a device which consumes energy from an energy network. The network has a renewable energy generator and a mains supply connected thereto to supply energy to the network. The method includes determining energy requirements of the device, and determining a renewable energy component of the supplied energy generated by the renewable energy generator. The method compares the energy requirements of the device with the renewable energy component of the supplied energy, and controls the energy to the device in accordance with the comparison between the energy requirements of the device with the renewable energy component of the supplied energy.
US09417672B2
An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for providing customized thermal control data structures. The default thermal control data structure is typically stored in a first storage device of the IOS module of the information processing system. A custom thermal control data structure is stored on a second storage device that is separately updatable from the first storage device. The thermal cooling module that provides cooling for the information processing system is directed to use the custom thermal control data structure for cooling components of the information processing system.
US09417670B2
Some embodiments are directed to cooling frames for mezzanine cards, mezzanine card assemblies and circuit card assemblies. A recessed cooling frame may be used to dissipate heat generated by components of a mezzanine card. The cooling frame may be directly coupled to a host card or host card cooling frame, thereby reducing the number of interfaces and reducing the thermal resistance of the heat dissipation pathway. The cooling frames of some embodiments may provide more efficient heat dissipation and thereby allow higher performance mezzanine cards to be used. Some embodiments provide a mezzanine card assembly that conforms to the mechanical envelope dimensions of the VITA 20, VITA 42 or VITA 61 specifications.
US09417650B2
A signal balance system, a light control system, and a signal balance method thereof are disclosed. The signal balance system includes a signal sensing module and a processing module. The signal sensing module is used for detecting an external signal source to generate a sensing signal. The processing module is used for generating an adjusting signal based on the sensing signal, wherein the processing module determines whether the sensing signal exceeds a first threshold; if yes, the processing module decreases the sensing signal to generate the adjusting signal so as to control a controlled device.
US09417643B2
A method includes receiving, at a voltage regulator, an activity adjustment signal from a digital circuit. The method also includes controlling one or more variable impedance elements of the voltage regulator to modify an output voltage provided to the digital circuit. The output voltage is based at least in part on the activity adjustment signal.
US09417640B2
An integrated circuit device includes a pad adapted to receive a signal from an external driver. A state register is programmed with a state that indicates a voltage level to set for the pad during initialization of circuitry on the integrated circuit device responsive to the state for the pad. The voltage level may correspond to a logic low level or a logic high level. A voltage holding circuit is coupled to the pad and the state register, and is configured to force the pad to the voltage level in response to an event that causes the initialization.
US09417633B2
In a system for compensating dynamic and thermal deformity errors of a linear motion single-plane gantry stage in real time, a stage apparatus using the system, and manufacturing, measuring, and inspecting apparatuses using the system, the system includes: a first two-dimensional position measuring unit arranged in each of two linear edge beams respectively positioned in both sides of the linear motion single-plane gantry stage for measuring the position of an X-axially movable gantry beam to provide a feedback of an X-axial motion thereof; a second two-dimensional position measuring unit for measuring the position of a Y-axially movable slider movable on the X-axially movable gantry beam to provide a feedback of a Y-axial motion thereof; a thermal fixing point provided as a thermal reference for measuring a thermal expansion of the X-axially movable gantry beam; and a compensation control unit for controlling an error motion of the linear motion single-plane gantry stage in real time by measuring dynamic and thermal deformity errors based on the data received from the first and the second two-dimensional position measuring unit.
US09417628B2
A production failure analysis system including a factory quality control unit configured to transmit a trigger signal when a production failure is detected, and an analytics unit. The analytics unit is configured to determine a root cause of the production failure by at least receiving the trigger signal from a factory quality control unit, extracting production data from a database when the trigger signal is received, wherein the production data includes process input variables, and identifying one or more potential root causes of the production failure based in part on an analysis of the process input variables.
US09417627B2
A method of three-dimensional fabrication of an object is disclosed. The method comprises: forming a plurality of layers in a configured pattern corresponding to the shape of the three-dimensional object, at least one layer of the plurality of layers being formed at a predetermined and different thickness selected so as to compensate for post-formation shrinkage of the layer along a vertical direction. In various exemplary embodiments of the invention spread of building material of one or more layers is diluted at least locally such as to maintain a predetermined thickness and a predetermined planar resolution for the layer.
US09417625B2
A system for calibrating a multi-robot system includes a robot simulation device having a processor disposed therein for creating a simulation work cell of an operation of a real robot work cell, the robot simulation device configured to communicate with a robot control system controlling the robots of the real robot work cell. The simulation work cell is created based upon a predetermined layout of the real robot work cell. The system further includes a software program executed by at least one of the robot simulation device and the robot control system for calculating a part tracking offset between the simulation work cell and the real robot work cell for controlling the robots.
US09417621B2
A medical robotic system includes an entry guide with articulatable instruments extending out of its distal end, an entry guide manipulator providing controllable four degrees-of-freedom movement of the entry guide relative to a remote center, and a controller configured to manage operation of the entry guide manipulator in response to operator manipulation of one or more input devices. As the entry guide manipulator approaches a yaw/roll singularity, the controller modifies its operation to allow continued movement of the entry guide manipulator without commanding excessive joint velocities while maintaining proper orientation of the entry guide.
US09417620B2
A numerical control device controls a machine tool having an X axis for moving a turret to which tools are attached, a Z axis for moving work, and a B axis for rotating the turret and having at least one of an H axis for rotating the turret around a center line perpendicular to the center line of rotation of the B axis and a C axis for rotating the work around a center line parallel to the Z axis. The numerical control device includes a unit that performs, during an virtual Y-axis inclined surface machining mode, virtual Y inclined surface machining for moving the tool along the Y axis relatively to the inclined surface in a state in which the tool is inclined such that a center axis is perpendicular to an inclined surface inclined from the X axis and the Z axis.
US09417618B2
A method of cutting one or more kinds of quadrangular unit pieces having a relatively small size from a quadrangular base material having a relatively large size uses a cutter frame including a plurality of cutters to manufacture the quadrangular unit pieces. The method includes (a) scanning a quadrangular base material in a longitudinal direction and in a lateral direction to check positions of defects on the quadrangular base material, (b) calculating a yield when cutting the quadrangular base material using two or more kinds of cutting frames, (c) selecting one of the cutting frames in which the yield calculated at the calculation step (b) is within a range of upper 30%, and (d) cutting the quadrangular base material using the cutting frame selected at the selection step (c) to manufacture quadrangular unit pieces.
US09417613B2
A portable object is provided including a case closed by a back cover and by a display, an electronic module arranged inside the case providing at least a first piece of information and a second piece of information, and a controller controlling the electronic module, the portable object being configured to operate in a first operating mode and in a second operating mode.
US09417609B2
An apparatus for producing a hologram of an object includes a light source that emits an incoherent electromagnetic wave toward the object, and a masking device configured to display a mask, receive the incoherent electromagnetic wave emitted toward the object, mask the received incoherent electromagnetic wave according to the displayed mask, and produce a masked electromagnetic wave. The apparatus also includes an image recording device configured to capture an image of the masked electromagnetic wave, and a processing device configured to convert the image of the masked electromagnetic wave into the hologram of the object. A method for producing a hologram of an object is also described.
US09417593B2
An image forming apparatus includes a first power supply unit to output first output power, a first device to which the first output power is supplied, a second power supply unit to output second output power, a second device to which the second output power is supplied, a detection unit to detect an overcurrent of the second power supply unit, a power source control unit to which the first output power is supplied and to switch between supplying and shutting-off of the second output power to the second device, and a control unit to which the first output power is supplied and to control an operation of the power source control unit. When the detection unit detects an overcurrent of the second output power, the power source control unit shuts off the second output power to the second device, and the control unit executes finish processing for the first device.
US09417585B2
Provided is an image forming apparatus including plural image forming portions that form an image on a recording medium, and a transport unit that transports the recording medium to at least one image forming portion selected among the plural image forming portions, wherein the transport unit includes plural transport paths that are different at least in an image forming portion, to which the recording medium is transported, among the plural image forming portions, and in an order of the recording medium transported to each image forming portion constituting the image forming portion to which the recording medium is transported.
US09417584B2
A printer that reverses a direction of movement of a medium, includes a detection member that detects a slant in the medium relative to the direction of movement of the medium, based on at least two contact points between the detection member and the medium.
US09417577B2
A fixing device includes a heat source, a heat transfer member, a pressure-contacting member, a housing, and a shutter. The heat transfer member is heated by the heat source. The pressure-contacting member abuts on the heat transfer member. The housing stores the heat transfer member and the pressure-contacting member and is formed with a detection hole for detecting inner property from outside. The fixing device heats recording paper passing through between the heat transfer member and the pressure-contacting member to fix a toner image on the recording paper. The shutter opens and closes the detection hole in accordance with supply of the recording paper to a nip part by the heat transfer member and the pressure-contacting member.
US09417574B2
A heater includes a heater unit and a holder. The heater unit includes a flat and smooth substrate, a linear heat generator provided on a first surface of the substrate, a plurality of electrodes that supply power to the heat generator, and a protective layer disposed to cover a part of each of the electrodes and the heat generator. A second surface of the substrate is bonded to the holder. The substrate is formed of a transparent material. A plurality of positioning marks for determining the relative positions of the heater unit and the holder are disposed on the first surface of the substrate. The holder has through-holes formed at positions opposite to the positioning marks.
US09417573B2
Disclosed is a cylindrical rotary member including a conductive layer; a coil disposed inside the rotary member, the coil including a helical portion having a helical axis that is substantially parallel to a generatrix direction of the rotary member, the coil forming an alternating magnetic field to generate heat in the conductive layer by electromagnetic induction; a core disposed inside the helical portion, the core inducing a line of magnetic force of the alternating magnetic field; a roller coming in contact with an outer surface of the rotary member to form a fixing nip portion; and a metal stay disposed inside the rotary member, in which an image on a recording material is fixed to the recording material by being heated at the fixing nip portion and the stay is disposed outside the coil and has a shape that does not form an electrical loop around the coil.
US09417570B2
To appropriately adjust the fixing temperature corresponding to the amount of applied toner, an image forming apparatus controls the temperature of a fixing unit configured to fix a recording material on a sheet. The apparatus acquires the amount of the recording material of each page in image data of a plurality of pages generated by dividing image data of one page, determines one fixing temperature using the acquired plurality of amounts of the recording material if a setting of dividing the image data of one page and printing the image data on a plurality of sheets is performed, and controls the temperature of the fixing unit using the determined fixing temperature.
US09417569B2
A fuser for thermally fixing a toner image on a recording medium includes: an endless fusing belt configured to transfer heat to the toner image; a heat source configured to heat the fusing belt; a detection unit configured to detect peripheral inward deformation of the fusing belt; and a power cut-off unit configured to cut off power supplied to the heat source upon detection of the peripheral inward deformation of the fusing belt by the detection unit.
US09417564B2
An image forming apparatus includes: a plurality of rollers including a first roller rotated by receiving rotation from a drive unit and a second roller rotated with the rotation of the first roller; a belt stretched around the plurality of rollers, the belt having an inner surface; and a tension applying unit that applies tension to the belt. The inner surface of the belt has an uneven shape. Each of at least one roller of the plurality of rollers satisfies conditions expressed by μkmax≦0.73 and Δμk=(μkmax−μkmin)≦0.51, where μkmax is a maximum dynamic friction coefficient between the inner surface of the belt and the roller, and μkmin is a minimum dynamic friction coefficient between the inner surface of the belt and the roller.
US09417558B2
A development cartridge including a housing, a developer carrying body rotating around a first axis along a first direction, a supply member rotating around a second axis along the first direction, a first gear connected with the developer carrying body, a second gear connected with the supply member, and a gear cover covering the first gear and the second gear, the gear cover including a first cover portion extending in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, a second cover portion connected with the first cover portion, the second cover portion extending in the first direction, the second cover portion having an opening through which a part of the second gear protrudes from the second cover portion and is exposed.
US09417551B2
An image forming apparatus includes the following. An image forming unit forms an image. An image magnification changing unit changes a rotating speed of a polygon motor to change magnification of the image. A reference position detecting unit detects a reference position of a predetermined target component in a vertical scanning direction. A target component position calculating unit calculates a position of the target component based on a detecting result and a signal of a predetermined cycle according to the rotating speed of the polygon motor. A storage unit stores a correction table to correct density unevenness. An image data correcting unit obtains correction data based on the position of the target component and corrects the image data. A parameter correcting unit corrects a parameter according to a timing that the rotating speed of the polygon motor is changed.
US09417547B2
An image forming apparatus includes development sections having development rollers, photosensitive drums, primary transfer rollers disposed opposite to the photosensitive drums in one-to-one correspondence, an intermediate transfer belt, and a voltage application section. The voltage application section includes a first voltage application section and a second voltage application section. In forced toner discharge from the development sections, the first voltage application section applies opposite polarity voltage between each of three upstream primary transfer rollers among the primary transfer rollers and the corresponding one of the photosensitive drums. The second voltage application section applies positive polarity voltage between a most downstream primary transfer roller and the corresponding one of the photosensitive drums.
US09417539B2
In an organic photoreceptor that has a protective layer formed on an organic photosensitive layer, the protective layer contains; a cured resin constituent obtained by polymerizing a polymerizable compound in the presence of a radical scavenger represented by the general formula (2); metal oxide microparticles; and a compound represented by the general formula (1) as a charge transport substance, and the relational expression (1): 80/A≦B≦160/A and the relational expression (2): 12≦A≦25 are satisfied when the volume ratio (volume %) of the metal oxide microparticles in the protective layer and the volume ratio (volume %) of the compound represented by the general formula (1) in the protective layer are respectively denoted by A and B.
US09417532B2
A coating agent for forming a fine pattern capable of simultaneously achieving slimming and roughness reduction of a positive-type resist pattern without deteriorating the cross-sectional shape of the slimmed positive type resist pattern and a method of slimming treatment of a positive-type resist pattern using the above coating agent for forming a fine pattern. A coating agent comprising a nitrogen-containing compound with a specific structure and an organic solvent is used as the coating agent for forming fine pattern used for a positive-type resist pattern. The coating agent may include a basic nitrogen-containing compound and/or a water-soluble polymer or an alkali-soluble polymer.
US09417529B2
In one embodiment, a coating and developing apparatus includes a processing block having two early-stage coating unit blocks, two later-stage coating unit blocks and two developing unit blocks, each unit blocks being vertically stacked on each other, The apparatus has at least two operation modes M1 and M2 adapted for abnormality. In mode M1 the processing module that processed the abnormal substrate in the developing unit blocks is identified, and subsequent substrates are transported to the processing module or modules, of the same type as the identified processing module, other than the identified processing module. In mode M2, the developing unit block that processed the abnormal substrate is identified, and subsequent substrates are transported to the developing unit block other than the identified developing unit block.
US09417528B2
A pattern forming method contains: (i) a step of forming a first film on a substrate by using a first resin composition (I), (ii) a step of forming a second film on the first film by using a second resin composition (II) different from the resin composition (I), (iii) a step of exposing a multi-layered film having the first film and the second film, and (iv) a step of developing the first film and the second film in the exposed multi-layered film by using an organic solvent-containing developer to form a negative pattern.
US09417527B2
A resist pattern-forming method is provided, including: providing a resist film using a photoresist composition; exposing the resist film; and developing the resist film exposed, the photoresist composition containing a polymer having a weight average molecular weight of no less than 1,000 and no greater than 7,500 and having a structural unit that includes an acid-labile group that is dissociated by an action of an acid, a radiation-sensitive acid generator and a solvent composition, and the photoresist composition having a content of solids of no less than 20% by mass and no greater than 60% by mass. The photoresist composition preferably has a viscosity of no less than 50 mPa·s and no greater than 150 mPa·s at 25° C.
US09417519B2
A lithographic apparatus includes a mask correction system configured to controllably and locally alter a property of a mask, for example transmissivity, transmissivity to a particular polarization state, birefringence and/or geometry. The mask correction system, in an embodiment, directs a beam of radiation onto a spot of the mask, the mask being scanned relative to the mask correction system. The mask correction system may include an arrangement to irradiate multiple
US09417517B2
A photo mask includes a plurality of dark patterns disposed on a transparent substrate, a first region, a shield region, and a second region. The first region includes the dark patterns that are disposed with a wider space than a first distance. The shield region is adjacent to the first region on the transparent substrate and is filled with the dark pattern. The second region is faced to the first region across the shield region and includes the dark patterns that are disposed with a narrower space than a second distance. The second distance is narrower than ninety percent of the first distance.
US09417514B2
Projection 3D systems and polarization preserving 3D screens are described that substantially increase polarization contrast ratio and viewing angle. The screen comprises a structured surface having a certain slope distribution, formed by a plurality of beads 120 with a layer 115 disposed thereon, which is coated by a reflective layer 110.
US09417509B2
The present disclosure describes a multi-functional device for mounting a camera or video camera and methods of using the same. The device comprises a base unit and one or more accessories. In preferred embodiments, the base unit may comprise mounting channels and an attachment accessory may be secured to the base unit using a quick-release attachment. In preferred embodiments, the accessories may comprise one or more accessories from the group consisting of a main handle assembly, adjustable feet, a tripod mount, a gimbal stabilization assembly, a dolly assembly, interlocking articulating feet, and a shoulder support assembly.
US09417508B2
An inversely foldable camera tripod being rapidly assembled, comprising legs assemblies being rapidly assembled and being refracted by a first switch, a main body assembly capable of controlling the legs assemblies to rotate 180° around a shaft by a second switch, a central shaft assembly supporting a tripod head or a camera, and a tripod head assembly assembled with the tripod; the tripod is provided with legs being rapidly assembled; and the assembly and refraction of the legs are controlled by a simple-to-operate switch. The tripod can be inversely folded by 180° under the control of the switch, thus reducing the length of the tripod. When the tripod is positioned non-horizontally due to the factor of environment, an adjustable tripod head sphere can stay level during turning, so that the camera installed on the turntable is ensured to be horizontal and can rotate 360° horizontally via operating a locking device.
US09417507B2
An electronic apparatus includes a base member, a switch, an operation member, a movable member, and a pressing member, wherein the pressing member has a pressing portion configured to press the switch and a sliding portion which slides on the movable member being formed on the pressing member, wherein in a case where the operation member is linearly operated in a first or second direction, the pressing member moves in a third direction orthogonal to the first and second directions by sliding of the sliding portion of the pressing member on the movable member, and the pressing portion presses the switch.
US09417503B2
A light source emits first incident light to a first polarization-reversed structure. The first polarization-reversed structure then converts the wavelength of the first incident light to emit a higher harmonic wave. A fiber coupler divides the higher harmonic wave output from the first polarization-reversed structure into output light emitted from the light source device and feedback light. The feedback light enters a second polarization-reversed structure. The second polarization-reversed structure then converts the wavelength of the feedback light to emit second incident light. The second incident light has the same wavelength as the first incident light. The second incident light enters a first wavelength converter.
US09417501B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide an electrically controlled optical fuse. The optical fuse is activated electronically instead of by the light source itself. An applied voltage causes the fuse temperature to rise, which induces a transformation of a phase changing material from transparent to opaque. A gettering layer absorbs excess atoms released during the transformation.
US09417498B2
A liquid crystal display includes: gate and data lines; a thin film transistor connected to the gate and data lines; a pixel electrode connected to the thin film transistor, including first and second sub-pixel electrodes; a shielding electrode member on the data line, including first and second shielding electrodes respectively at opposing sides of the pixel electrode, each shielding electrode including: an expanded part between the first and second sub-pixel electrodes, and a vertical part elongated from the expanded part in a first direction parallel to the data line; and a light blocking member elongated in a second direction crossing the first direction, overlapping the thin film transistor A second direction width of the expanded part is larger than that of the vertical part, and opposing edges of the expanded part overlap the elongated light blocking member overlapping the thin film transistor.
US09417491B2
A display device may include an insulating layer. The display device may further include a first field-generating electrode that overlaps the insulating layer. The display device may further include a second field-generating electrode that overlaps the first field-generating electrode and has a cutout. An exposed portion of the insulating layer may be exposed through the cutout and may be exposed between an edge (or boundary) of the first field-generating electrode and an end portion of the second field-generating electrode in a layout view of the display device.
US09417486B2
Provided is a liquid crystal display device having excellent display characteristics in a display mode that uses a vertical electric field and a horizontal electric field. This liquid crystal display device is provided with a first substrate and a second substrate provided facing each other and a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between the first and second substrates. The liquid crystal layer includes liquid crystal molecules having negative dielectric anisotropy. The first substrate is provided with a plate shaped first common electrode, an insulating film, and pixel electrodes, which are provided in a layer different from the first common electrode via the insulating film, and the pixel electrodes have a comb shaped structure. The second substrate is provided with a plate shaped second common electrode and a film formed by having an alignment treatment applied to a vertical alignment film that aligns the initial orientation of the liquid crystal molecules vertically. During the highest gradation, the difference in electric potential between the first common electrode and second common electrode is set to be larger than the difference in potential between the first common electrode and the pixel electrodes.
US09417481B2
A liquid crystal display, including: a first insulation substrate; a gate line and a data line positioned on the first insulation substrate and crossing each other; a first passivation layer positioned on the gate line and the data line; a pixel electrode positioned on the first passivation layer; an alignment layer positioned on the pixel electrode; a second insulation substrate facing the first insulation substrate; and a liquid crystal positioned between the first insulation substrate and the second insulation substrate. A thickness of the alignment layer is larger than a thickness of the pixel electrode.
US09417478B2
A lighting device comprising first and second groups of solid state light emitters, which emit light having peak wavelength in ranges of from 430 nm to 480 nm and from 600 nm to 630 nm, respectively, and a first group of lumiphors which emit light having dominant wavelength in the range of from 555 nm to 585 nm. In some embodiments, if current is supplied to a power line, a combination of (1) light exiting the lighting device which was emitted by the first group of emitters, and (2) light exiting the lighting device which was emitted by the first group of lumiphors would, in an absence of any additional light, produce a sub-mixture of light having x, y color coordinates within an area on a 1931 CIE Chromaticity Diagram defined by points having coordinates (0.32, 0.40), (0.36, 0.48), (0.43, 0.45), (0.42, 0.42), (0.36, 0.38). Also provided is a method of lighting.
US09417469B2
A waveguide structure comprising: a core comprising a layer of electro-optic dielectric material, a first layer of semiconductor material provided below the electro-optic material and a second layer of the semiconductor material provided above the electro-optic material, and electrodes, configured for applying voltages. The electro-optic dielectric material has a Pockels tensor containing at least one non-vanishing element rij where i≠j, and the electrodes comprise a first set of electrodes provided substantially in direct contact with the electro-optic dielectric material, and a second set of electrodes comprising at least an electrode provided substantially in direct contact with the first layer and at least an electrode substantially in direct contact with the second layer, wherein the sets of electrodes are configurable to apply in the electro-optic material, at least a substantially horizontal electrical field and at least a substantially vertical electrical field that are orientated substantially perpendicular relative to each other.
US09417452B2
One embodiment is directed to a user display device comprising a housing frame mountable on the head of the user, a lens mountable on the housing frame and a projection sub system coupled to the housing frame to determine a location of appearance of a display object in a field of view of the user based at least in part on at least one of a detection of a head movement of the user and a prediction of a head movement of the user, and to project the display object to the user based on the determined location of appearance of the display object.
US09417437B2
The imaging lens consists essentially of a negative first lens having a meniscus shape with a convex surface toward the object side; a negative second lens, a positive third lens; and a positive lens. When the focal length of the entire system is f, a half angle of view is ω, and the distance from the object-side surface of the first lens to the imaging plane along the optical axis is L, conditional formula (1) below is satisfied: 0.78<2*f*tan(ω/2)/L+0.005*ω<1.00 (1).
US09417428B2
A method for calibrating a focus point for a camera lens may include capturing a reflection of a focus point measuring device that is affixed to the camera. The method may include evaluating a captured image of the reflection to measure a calibration amount for a focus point, and adjusting a focus point of a lens of the camera by the calibration amount. The focus point measuring device may include a substantially planar target surface defining a plane, and a ruled target surface inclined at substantially 45° to the substantially planar target and extending through the plane thereof, marked to indicate respective distances in front of and behind the plane. The device may further include a fixture for holding the substantially planar target surface and the ruled target surface in a defined orientation to the camera, enabling performance of the method.
US09417424B2
A vibration actuator includes an elastic member and a relative movement member. The elastic member generates oscillatory waves by oscillation of an electromechanical conversion element. The relative movement member with which the elastic member is in pressure contact is driven by the oscillatory waves to rotationally move with respect to the elastic member. Of the elastic member and the relative movement member, at least one member has a plurality of spaces at one contacting face opposite to the other contacting face of the other member. The spaces are filled with friction coefficient adjusting substances so that a coefficient of friction of the one contacting face of the one member changes in a radial direction.
US09417421B2
Methods for manufacturing cables and cables assemblies include providing particulate matter within a tube extruded about optical fiber. The particles may be accelerated so that as they strike the tube they mechanically attach to the tube.
US09417403B2
An optical connector includes a first sub-assembly that is factory-installed to a first end of an optical fiber and a second sub-assembly that is field-installed to the first end of the optical fiber. The optical fiber and first sub-assembly can be routed through a structure (e.g., a building) prior to installation of the second sub-assembly. The second sub-assembly interlocks with the first sub-assembly to inhibit relative axial movement therebetween. Example first sub-assemblies include a ferrule, a hub, and a strain-relief sleeve that mount to an optical fiber. Example second sub-assemblies include a mounting block; and an outer connector housing forming a plug portion.
US09417396B2
An optoelectronic switch comprising: N switch modules, where N is an integer; and an optical full-mesh interconnect; each switch module comprising: M client facing input ports, and M output facing ports, M being an integer which is either equal to or not equal to N; a pre-mesh AWG, the pre-mesh AWG having M inputs and N outputs, each of the N outputs connected to a respective input on the optical full-mesh interconnect; a post-mesh AWG, the post-mesh AWG having N inputs and M outputs, each of the N inputs connected to a respective output of the optical full-mesh interconnect and each of the M outputs for communicating a signal to one or more of the M outputs of the switch module; and a first array of Detector Remodulators (DRMs) located before the pre-mesh AWG, each DRM of the first array configured to receive a signal from an input of the switch module and to regenerate and/or change the wavelength of the received signal to produce a DRM output, the DRM output forming an input at a respective port of the pre-mesh AWG.
US09417393B2
An optical waveguide device includes a wiring board, an optical waveguide, an optical path conversion mirror, a hole, and a lens component. The optical waveguide is disposed on the wiring board and includes first and second cladding layers and a core layer. The optical path conversion mirror is formed in the optical waveguide. The hole is formed in the first and second cladding layers and outside an optical waveguide formation region. The lens component is optically coupled to the optical path conversion mirror. The lens component includes a lens main body, a bump, and protrusion portions. The lens main body has a lens function. The bump is fixed to a structure including the wiring board and the optical waveguide, in the hole by a joining material. A diameter of a tip end of the bump of the lens component is smaller than a minimum diameter of the hole.
US09417392B2
An optical waveguide component includes: an optical fiber mounting substrate provided with optical fiber alignment grooves having either, for alignment of optical fibers, V-grooves or inverted trapezoidal grooves in which inverted top sections of the V-grooves are truncated; an optical waveguide substrate in which optical waveguides are formed; a resin layer that is aligned and fixed in a state in which the optical fiber mounting substrate and the optical waveguide substrate are flush or have a predetermined amount of offset; and a transparent resin that is filled in a gap in which the optical fiber mounting substrate and the optical waveguide substrate face each other.
US09417391B2
An optical combiner includes a plurality of input optical fibers, an output optical fiber, and a bridge fiber optically coupled to the plurality of input optical fibers and the output optical fiber. The bridge fiber includes a tapered portion whose outer diameter is reduced toward the emission end, and the outer diameter of the emission end face of the bridge fiber is smaller than the cladding outer diameter of the incident end face of the output optical fiber.
US09417384B2
An opto-electric hybrid module is provided, which is excellent in bending resistance and optical element mountability. In the opto-electric hybrid module, a light-path core of an optical waveguide is provided on a surface of an under-cladding layer, and non-light-path dummy cores are provided on opposite sides of the light-path core in spaced relation to the light-path core as projecting from the surface of the under-cladding layer. An electric circuit having mounting pads is provided on top surfaces of the dummy cores. An over-cladding layer is provided on side surfaces and a top surface of the light-path core, and projects to cover the core. The non-light-path dummy cores each have an elastic modulus that is set higher than the elastic modulus of the under-cladding layer and the elastic modulus of the over-cladding layer. The optical element is mounted on the mounting pads, and positioned above the projecting over-cladding layer.
US09417376B2
Dual-sided optical films have extended prisms formed in one major surface, and extended lenslets formed in an opposite major surface. Some or all of the prisms are compound prisms, in which the two inclined surfaces of each compound prism each include a tip portion, a base portion, and an intermediate portion disposed between the tip portion and the base portion, the intermediate and tip portions forming a concave shape and the intermediate and base portions forming a convex shape, or vice versa. When obliquely incident light, e.g. from a light guide, is incident on the prism side of the film, an output beam emerges from the lenslet side of the film. The output beam has an intensity distribution with a sharp left beam edge and a sharp right beam edge, these beam edges having 10%-to-90% transition angles of no more than 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, or 2 degrees.
US09417373B2
A display device includes a light guide unit, a light source, a display panel and a protective member. The light guide unit includes a first surface, a second surface facing the first surface, and a plurality of connecting surfaces connecting the first surface and the second surface to each other, and guides a light which is incident to a connecting surface to the first surface. The light source provides light to the connecting surface. The display panel displays an image using the light provided from the first surface of the light guide unit. The protective member includes a plurality of reflective patterns facing another connecting surface among the plurality connecting surfaces, provides the light leaked from the light guide unit to the another connecting surface, and accommodates the light guide unit, the light source and the display panel therein.
US09417368B2
The present invention relates to a pressure sensitive adhesive film for an orientating treatment of a photo-orientable layer, a laminated film, a method for preparing an optical filter or a stereoscopic image display device. In the present invention, the pressure sensitive adhesive film for an orientating treatment in a photo-orientable layer which can minimize the generation of the un-orientated regions, and can form the orientated pattern having high degrees of accuracy, and the preparation method for an optical filter using the pressure sensitive adhesive film are provided. Further, the present invention can provide the optical filter and the stereoscopic image display device having excellent performance.
US09417364B2
There is provided a light diffusing element of a thin film, which has high light diffusibility and a small depolarization factor. A light diffusing element according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: a first region having a first refractive index; a refractive index modulation region having a substantially spherical shell shape, which surrounds the first region; and a second region having a second refractive index, which is positioned on a side of the refractive index modulation region opposite to the first region. The light diffusing element has a haze of 90% to 99.9% and a depolarization factor of 0.2% or less.
US09417362B2
According to example embodiments, a reflective film includes a plurality of first concave-convex elements having a curved surface and a plurality of second concave-convex elements on the curved surface. The second concave-convex elements may be a smaller scale than a scale of the plurality of first concave-convex elements. The reflective structure may further include a color purity control element configured to reduce degradation of a color purity expressed by the reflective film. The color purity control element may be configured such that at least a complementary light with respect to a color light reflected by the reflective film travels in the same direction as the reflected color light.
US09417348B2
Systems, methods and software can be used for analyzing microseismic data collected from a fracturing treatment of a subterranean zone. In some aspects, a plurality of basic planes are each defined from a subset of the microseismic data and each have an orientation relative to a common axis. Clusters of orientations of the basic planes previously identified adaptively based on the extent of variation in the orientations can be updated with new data. The number of orientations associated with each of the clusters is then identified.
US09417346B2
A seismic land vibrator, comprising a baseplate comprising a substantially flat, rigid member; at least one driven member that is connected with the baseplate and extends in a direction that is substantially perpendicular to baseplate; a rotation sensor that is coupled to the baseplate and adapted to provide a signal that is indicative of rotational movement of at least a portion of the baseplate.
US09417343B1
A neutron detector and a method for fabricating a neutron detector. The neutron detector includes a photodetector, and a solid-state scintillator operatively coupled to the photodetector. In one aspect, the method for fabricating a neutron detector includes providing a photodetector, and depositing a solid-state scintillator on the photodetector to form a detector structure.
US09417341B2
The present invention relates to a method and device for determining the energetic composition of electromagnetic waves. It is the object of the present invention to provide a method and device for X-ray spectroscopy that allows simultaneous detection of the individual energies at a comparatively higher resolution and/or across a comparatively wider energy range. According to the invention, at least one reflective zone plate (12) is used that comprises a multitude of predefined wavelength-selective regions (14) arranged next to one another, wherein the wavelength-selective regions (14) each include a multitude of reflecting arched portions (20), which extend exclusively and continuously across the respective wavelength-selective region (14).
US09417330B2
A receiver of satellite signals serving for location (GNSS) adapted to be fixed on a support having at least one antenna able to receive the satellite signals serving for location. The antenna includes at least two mobile phase centers for determining a location on the basis of the satellite signals received, and a displacement device adapted for displacing the phase centers, for selecting one of the phase centers and for determining a position of the selected phase center with respect to the support.
US09417327B2
A selection method of satellites for RTK positioning calculation includes initializing a mask threshold of the elevation angle mask and/or the signal strength mask, setting the mask threshold as a first mask threshold other than a mask threshold which carried out an initial setting, performing a first RTK positioning calculation based on a signal from the satellite, performing a first quality check about a positioning solution in the first RTK positioning calculation, and when the first quality check is under the threshold of the ratio test, performing a second RTK positioning calculation based on the signal from the satellite newly chosen via the first mask threshold and performing a second quality check about a second positioning solution in the second RTK positioning calculation.
US09417326B2
An optical rangefinder based on time-of-flight measurement, radiates pulsed light toward an object (70), and receives reflected light from the object, the receiver operating in a photon counting mode, so as to generate a pulse for a detected photon. There is a variable probability of a photon detection on the receiver, and a controller (370, 380, 390; 365, 470, 475, 380, 390; 570, 580, 590, 390) controls the photon detection probability of the receiver, based on a light level. By controlling the detection probability according to a light level, the receiver can have an increased dynamic range, and without the expense of using optical components. This can apply even while detecting very weak signals since the receiver can still be in a photon counting mode while the detection probability is controlled. The light level can be indicated by an output of the receiver itself, or by another detector external to the receiver.
US09417325B1
A process is described that includes the generation and transmission of collision avoidance data and/or collision avoidance instructions based on data from 3-D radar scans of an airspace. The transmitted data and/or instructions could facilitate collision avoidance by aerial vehicles operating in the airspace. The transmitted data could be limited to protect the security, privacy, and/or safety of other aerial vehicles, airborne objects, and/or individuals within the airspace. The transmitted data could be limited such that only information pertaining to a region of the airspace proximate to a particular aerial vehicle was transmitted. The transmitted data could be limited such that it included instructions that could be executed by a particular aerial vehicle to avoid collisions and such that the transmitted data did not include location or other data associated with other aerial vehicles or airborne objects in the airspace.
US09417324B2
Embodiments are directed to generating a plurality of sub-images associated with a target via a synthetic aperture radar, processing, by a processor, the sub-images using a sub-aperture algorithm to generate an intermediate image, and applying, by the processor, a phase shift to the intermediate image to generate an output image.
US09417316B2
In a device for optically scanning and measuring an environment, which device is designed as a laser scanner, with a light emitter, which, by means of a rotary mirror, emits an emission light beam, with a light receiver which receives a reception light beam which is reflected from an object in the environment of the laser scanner, and with a control and evaluation unit which, for a multitude of measuring points, determines at least the distance to the object, the rotary mirror is part of a rotor, which is configured as a hybrid structure.
US09417314B2
A server management system disposes two wave generators on a rack and disposes a wave sensor on a server, wherein each of the wave generators is capable of emitting an omni-directional wave and a directional wave. When the wave sensor senses the omni-directional wave and the directional wave at different time points, one of the server and a host device is capable of determining two angles of the wave sensor relative to the two wave generators according to time differences and then calculating a position of the server located in the rack according to the two angles.
US09417312B2
System and method for providing automatic location-based imaging using mobile and stationary cameras
An approach is provided for automatic location-based imaging. User positional information is determined based on a mobile device associated with a user. The user positional information is correlated with camera positional information of a camera configured to capture one or more images of the user. The one or more images are retrieved from the camera based on the correlation.
US09417306B2
Apparatus, methods, and other embodiments associated with magnetic resonance (MR) trajectory correcting using GRAPPA operator gridding (GROG) are described. One example method includes identifying an on angle or regular portion of a projection in an MR trajectory and then computing base GROG weights for that portion. The example method includes identifying a shift direction and a shift amount for the projection. The shift direction is configured to shift the projection towards a desired point in k-space and the shift amount is configured to shift the projection by a desired amount in the shift direction. With a shift direction and amount available, the example method corrects for a gradient delay by manipulating the MR source signal data using the shift direction and the shift amount. In one embodiment, a gradient delay can be determined and used to calibrate an MRI apparatus.
US09417299B2
A radiofrequency (RF) coil assembly (18,18′) for use in a magnetic resonance system (10) includes a radiofrequency coil (42) and a plurality of memory resistive elements (46,56,62,72) which each retains a selected resistive state after a control signal is removed. A detune circuit (44), part of the radiofrequency coil assembly, includes a memory resistive element (46) which switches the radiofrequency coil between a tuned and detuned state. Connected between the radiofrequency coil and a pre-amplifier (52), a blanking circuit (54) includes a memory resistive element (56) to short circuit an input of the pre-amplifier. A multiplexing circuit (60) includes a plurality of memory resistive elements (62) to selectively couple the selected outputs of the radiofrequency coils to a receiver (26). A biasing circuit (27) generates the control signal to set the memory resistive elements (46,56) to a first resistive state during a transmit mode and to a second resistive state during a receive mode magnetic resonance system.
US09417298B2
Described here are a system and method for designing radio frequency (“RF”) pulses for parallel transmission (“pTx”) applications, and particularly pTx applications in multislice magnetic resonance imaging (“MRI”). The concept of “SAR hopping” is implemented by framing the concept between slice-selective excitations as a constrained optimization problem that attempts designing multiple pulses simultaneously subject to an overall local SAR constraint. This results in the set of RF waveforms that yield the best excitation profiles for all pulses while ensuring that the local SAR of the average of all pulses is below the regulatory limit imposed by the FDA. Pulses are designed simultaneously while constraining local SAR, global SAR, and peak power, and average power explicitly.
US09417297B2
A sensing device exhibits a tunneling magneto-resistive (TMR) effect, and changes electrical resistance in response to a magnetic field. A first current carrying conductor is positioned in proximity to the TMR sensing device, such that upon an application of a sufficient current, a magnetic field is generated. The magnetic field is sufficiently strong and properly oriented so as to cause a magnetization of a soft magnetic layer of the TMR sensing device, thereby causing a change of the TMR sensing device from one bi-stable state to another bi-stable state.
US09417293B2
A method of processing an output signal and a readout circuit for a magnetic field sensor are disclosed. The purpose of the readout circuit is to generate a digital representation of the magnetic field vector strength. It comprises an input stage for receiving an output signal of the magnetic field sensor; an output stage for outputting a digital output signal corresponding to the sensor output signal; and an analog to digital conversion circuit. The analog to digital conversion circuit receives the sensor output signal and performs, in sequence, a fast conversion process for calculating a number of most significant bits of the digital output signal corresponding to the sensor output signal and for generating a compensation signal, and a delta sigma based conversion process for calculating at least one least significant bit of the digital output signal. The compensation signal is fed back to the sensor input for linearization. The delta sigma based conversion takes advantage of oversampling and noise shaping to increase resolution.
US09417288B2
A process for performing an auto-test of a fully discharged battery (130) of an electronic appliance including a battery charger (160), said process involving the steps of: performing (210) an initialization phase; charging (220) said battery (130) with a predetermined constant current during a predefined period allowing stabilization of said current (Icurrent); detecting (230) the voltage of said battery after said predefined period, said battery being still in charge; testing (240) whether said sensed voltage is comprised within a predetermined range of threshold values (V1, V2), and reporting a battery failure when said sensed value is outside said range. The invention is particularly adapted to the auto-test of a backup battery made of Electric double layer capacitors or any fully discharged backup battery.
US09417284B2
This disclosure describes die test architectures that can be implemented in a first, middle and last die of a die stack. The die test architectures are mainly the same, but for the exceptions mentioned in this disclosure.
US09417281B1
A practical method for greatly enhancing the strength of the modulated signal from laser probing of IC's is described. An IC device under test (DUT) is scanned with two spatially separated laser beams. The output from a single laser source is split into two separate components with each focused on different areas of the DUT. The separation between the beams and their intensity is adjustable to maximize the strength of the modulated return signal. Typically a NIR laser is used with flip-chip IC devices to account for the band-gap (transmission) characteristics of the substrate material. Upon reflection from the DUT, the reflected beams are recombined to interfere with one another. The phase difference of the two beams is adjustable to gain maximum interference. This signal is then processed to obtain the waveforms that correspond to the actions of the active gates and nodes as the chip is electronically cycled through its prescribed test loop. This method significantly improves the signal to noise ratio and reduces the time it takes to acquire a useful voltage waveform.
US09417280B2
A system, instructions and a method of determining when an impending failure is likely to occur absent corrective action are disclosed. The system samples the output of a power supply which powers an electrostatic chuck, and determines when that output is outside acceptable limits. The output is sampled at a sufficiently high frequency so as to detect transient anomalies, which are not detectable at lower sampling rates. In some embodiments, the output is converted to a frequency spectrum. The empirical model is compared to known good reference models and, in some embodiments, failure reference models of known failure modes to determine whether an impending failure will occur, and which type of failure.
US09417279B2
A method of testing a cable by distributed reflectometry, comprises: injecting into the cable a first periodic signal and a second periodic signal having the same number N of periods and the same number M of samples per period as the first signal; acquiring a measurement of the reflection, from impedance discontinuities of the cable, of each of said first and second signals; taking the average of said measurements of the reflection of at least one of said first or second signals over all of its periods to produce at least one reflectogram; determining the positions of faults in the cable on the basis of at least the reflectogram; the method being wherein each period of the second signal is injected into the cable with a delay or an advance which has an increasing predetermined absolute value for each successively injected period.
US09417278B1
The present invention provides a system to ensure that distributed resources of a power distribution system remain connected to the circuitry of the power distribution system when a fault occurs at a distributed resource node to assist in identifying the location of the fault by continuing to inject current from the distributed resources into the distribution system, wherein at least one of the distributed resources is a solar panel.
US09417273B2
Accurate measurements of electrical power at various points of a power grid is becoming more important and, at the same time, is getting more difficult as the old power distribution model of a few, large power generating stations and a multitude of relatively linear loads is replaced by a newer model containing a multitude of smaller, and to some degree unpredictable power sources, as well as a multitude of not always linear and often smart (essentially also unpredictable) loads. Embodiments of the invention provide for high accuracy voltage, current and power measurements of quasi-stationary and stationary waveforms in single and multiple phase power systems. Precision AC voltage, current, phase, power and energy measurements in power networks may be measured with current ranges from 1 mA to 20 kA and voltage ranges from 1V to 1000 kV and in a frequency range from a few hertz to one hundred kilohertz.
US09417269B2
A current sensor for measuring a current flowing through a conductor includes a sensor substrate, a magnetoelectric converter formed on a surface of the sensor substrate and configured to output a signal changing with an applied magnetic field, and a magnetic shield that surrounds the sensor substrate and the conductor to magnetically shield the inside from the outside. The output signal of the magnetoelectric converter changes with a magnetic filed applied along the formation surface of the sensor substrate. The magnetic shield has at least one gap for reducing magnetic saturation in the magnetic shield. The gap and the sensor substrate are located at the same height in a z-direction orthogonal to the formation surface of the sensor substrate.
US09417267B2
In an integrated optical circuit, light from a light source is polarized and coupled to a first and second strip waveguide. A waveguide coupling element couples the two optical signals from the two strip waveguides to different polarization modes of an optical fiber line. The optical fiber line is connected to a measuring head, which reflects the optical signal and in which a phase difference between the two optical partial signals is modulated in a magnetic field. In the waveguide coupling element, the reflected signal is split into two optical partial signals having the same polarization and the phase difference between the two partial signals is determined. A phase modulator device provides for closed-loop operation. Compared to fiber-optical concepts, the number of splices is reduced.
US09417261B2
In some examples, a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) optical accelerometer includes a housing comprising an internal chamber that includes a Fabry-Perot cavity and a proof mass affixed to the housing via one or more elastic elements, a light source configured to emit radiation, a first detector configured to receive radiation transmitted through the Fabry-Perot cavity and configured to generate one or more signals that indicate a position of the proof mass. The MEMS optical accelerometer further comprises an atomic wavelength reference and a second detector configured to detect radiation transmitted through the atomic wavelength reference and configured to generate one or more signals that indicate a wavelength of the radiation emitted by the light source, and a servomechanism electrically coupled to the second photo detector and the light source, configured to adjust the light source to maintain the radiation emitted by the light source at approximately a selected wavelength.
US09417260B2
An example optical accelerometer system is provided. An optical beam is provided having a predefined center frequency and is frequency-modulated about the predefined center frequency. An optical cavity includes a first mirror at a first end and a second mirror at a second end of the optical cavity. The second mirror is movable along the axial length of the optical cavity in response to an external acceleration, and the optical cavity receives the optical beam and emits a resonated optical beam. An acceleration detection system measures an intensity of the resonated optical beam and calculates a magnitude of the external acceleration along the axial length of the optical cavity based on the intensity of the resonated optical beam resulting from motion of the second mirror. A stabilization system stabilizes the predefined center frequency of the optical beam independently of the external acceleration based on the modulation of the optical beam.
US09417257B2
A method and apparatus for producing an effect of a chemical or biochemical agent on a system responsive to such agent, are disclosed. In practicing the method, a plurality of low-frequency time-domain signals of the agent are generated, each at a different at a different noise level within a selected noise level range. The signals are analyzed by producing spectral plots of the time-domain signals, and identifying an optimized agent-specific time-domain signal based on information in the spectral plots. A chemical or biological system responsive to the agent is exposed to the optimized time-domain signal by placing the system within the magnetic field of an electromagnetic transducer, and applying the signal to the transducer at a signal amplitude and for a period sufficient to produce in the system an agent-specific effect on the system.
US09417255B2
An analyzer for use with in vitro diagnostics includes one or more containers. Each container includes a container body configured to hold one or more fluids, a closure device disposed on the container body and housing a movable cannula, and a sealing portion configured to seal off the one or more fluids in the container body from matter outside the container body when the sealing portion is closed. The system also includes one or more pick and place devices configured to move the one or more containers between different locations. The movable cannula is configured to move downward responsive to a force from the one or more pick and place devices and cause an opening in the sealing portion.
US09417247B2
In one or more embodiments, the present invention provides a novel biomarker which provides a link between a distinct clinical phenotype and a biochemical effect of an autoantibody on an enzyme implicated in disease pathogenesis. In particular, the present invention provides an isolated or purified human autoantibody to PAD3 protein. Methods of diagnosis of subjects for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) using these antibodies as well as diagnosis of the severity of RA in the subject, and methods for monitoring treatment of a subject with RA are also provided. The biomarkers provided herein are also useful in the diagnosis of connective tissue-interstitial lung disease (CT-ILD) in patients having or suspected of having RA.
US09417242B2
The invention provides a method and system for developing and using diagnoses of cancer and sepsis in canine subjects using thymidine kinase (TK), c-reactive protein (CRP), and C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP) as biomarkers. The level of each biomarker may be measured and an index may be computed using a two- or a three-biomarker method. The invention provides a predefined scale for the index where each range of the index matches a health condition. The latter allows a practitioner, through computing an index value of a patient, to determine the health status of the patient by comparing the index value to the predefined scale.
US09417238B2
A therapeutic device to release a therapeutic agent comprises a porous structure coupled to a container comprising a reservoir. The reservoir comprises a volume sized to release therapeutic amounts of the therapeutic agent for an extended time when coupled to the porous structure and implanted in the patient. The porous structure may comprise a first side coupled to the reservoir and a second side to couple to the patient to release the therapeutic agent. A plurality of interconnecting channels can extend from the first side to the second side so as to connect a first a plurality of openings on the first side with a second plurality of openings on the second side.
US09417237B2
Embodiments of the disclosure relate to a biosample plate that includes a memory component for storing information related to the biosample, biosample plate and biosample analysis data, and a wireless communication interface for transferring information to and from the biosample plate. The biosample plate may be used with an analyzing and data recording system such as an electromagnetic tape drive. The disclosed biosample plate facilitates the correlation between a large number of biosample plates and data as data remains with the corresponding biosamples both when the biosample plates are in use and when they are in storage. The wireless communication interface may comprise an antenna disposed in a biosample plate for data transmission to and from the biosample plate by radio signals.
US09417232B2
A system and method of monitoring sobriety using a hand-held breath testing device that, on receipt of a user's breath, generates a breath test signal comprising substance content data and user identification data, and wirelessly transmits the breath test signal to a breath test signal receiving station.
US09417219B2
A sample separation device for separating a sample comprises a first fluid supply path for supplying a first fluid, a second fluid supply path for supplying a second fluid, a sample separation unit adapted for separating the sample, a sensor configured for determining a value of a parameter related to the fluid, and a valve configured for selectively coupling both of the first and second fluid supply paths to the sensor and to the sample separation unit, or coupling one of the first and second fluid supply paths to the sensor.
US09417216B2
A surface acoustic wave (SAW) biofilm sensor includes a transmitting electric to acoustic wave transducer defining an upper surface and a lower surface, a receiving acoustic wave to electric transducer defining an upper surface and a lower surface, a piezoelectric film layer defining an upper surface and a lower surface, and a passivation film layer defining an upper surface and a lower surface. Portions of the lower surface of the piezoelectric film layer are disposed on the upper surface of the transmitting electric to acoustic wave transducer and on the upper surface of the receiving acoustic wave to electric transducer, and the lower surface of the passivation film layer is disposed on the upper surface of the piezoelectric film layer such that the upper surface of the passivation film layer is configured to enable contact with a biofilm.
US09417215B2
Methods and systems for monitoring vibrations introduce baseline vibrations into a fiber optic cable with one or more of a designated frequency or a designated amplitude. Changes in the baseline vibrations are monitored using the fiber optic cable. Information about environmental conditions outside of the fiber optic cable and/or moving objects can be determined based at least in part on the changes in the baseline vibrations that are monitored. The information that is determined about the objects, such as vehicles, can be modified based on the changes in the baseline vibrations.
US09417214B2
The present application relates to an apparatus for determining the texture of food material, wherein the apparatus comprises a device for generating a vibrational impact, such as a piezo actuator, a device for measuring vibrations, such as a vibrometer, a holding mechanism, comprising a container body for containing the food material therein or a string to attach the food material thereto, and an analyzer for comparing measured vibrations with at least one reference value, determined prior to the measurement.
US09417211B2
A method and apparatus are disclosed for improving ion mobility spectrometry by using a fast and spatially wide ion gate based on local RF field barrier opposed to a switching DC field. The improvement accelerates the ion mobility analysis and improves charge throughput and dynamic range of the IMS. The invention is particularly suited for rapid dual gas chromatography. In one important embodiment, the accelerated IMS is coupled to a multi-reflecting time-of-flight mass spectrometer with a fast encoded orthogonal acceleration. There are described methods of comprehensive and orthogonal separation in multiple analytical dimensions.
US09417189B2
Fluorescing gel formulations are disclosed for monitoring cleaning of a surface. The fluorescing gel formulations are stable, fluoresce under UV light, and do not leave a mark after drying and removal. The compositions include an oppositely charged complexing agent which is used in combination with an anionic or cationic optical brightener. In some embodiments, the compositions include a cationic optical brightener with no complexing agent.
US09417181B2
A method of determining a density of a roller compacted ribbon is disclosed. The method comprises compacting dry pharmaceutical powder between press rollers of a roller compactor to produce a compact ribbon. The method also comprises determining a thickness at a point on the compact ribbon in a non-invasive manner after it has rolled out from in between the press rollers. Further, the method comprises passing the compact ribbon through a gap in between the terahertz emitter and the terahertz detector. Next, the method comprises determining a refractive index at the point on the compact ribbon using a measurement value from the terahertz emitter and the terahertz detector and a measured value for the thickness at the point. Finally, the method comprises computing a density of the compact ribbon at the point using a value of the refractive index.
US09417175B2
A method of determining solid particle surface energy includes placing solid particles in a container made of a very high surface energy material and pouring a liquid into the container. The method further includes tilting the container to drain out from the container a first subset of the solid particles floating at a top surface of the liquid and tilting the container to move the liquid away from a second subset of the solid particles that are below the top surface. The method also includes tilting the container to move the liquid back toward the second subset of the solid particles such that at least a portion of the second subset of particles floats at the top surface of the liquid and tilting the container to drain out from the container the portion of the second subset of the solid particles now floating at the top surface of the liquid.
US09417161B2
Embodiments of the invention are directed to methods of use and a (trainable sight glass assembly for use with a sump pump having a pump housing and being adapted to view the condition of oil disposed, within the pump housing. In some embodiments, the drainable sight glass assembly can comprise a sight glass housing having an upper disk layer with a first diameter and a first threaded receptacle formed therein disposed on a top side of the sight glass housing, a lower disk portion with a second diameter and a second threaded receptacle formed therein and disposed on a bottom side of the sight glass housing, and a substantially transparent wall portion connecting upper disk layer to the lower disk portion so that the sight glass has a hollow, substantially frustoconically shaped interior when oil is not in the sight glass housing.
US09417159B2
A tire testing machine of the present invention performs tests on a tire in a testing station, and prints a mark based on the test result in a predetermined mark position of the tire after undergoing the tests by means of a marking device. A controller of the tire testing machine previously stores therein the contents of the tests for performing the tests, and causes the testing machine to perform the tests according to a recipe. In order to freely set the marking setting conditions for marking in the marking device, the controller of the marking device previously stores therein a first marking setting condition as the recipe, and also stores therein a second marking setting condition different from the recipe by an input device as a script. Marking is performed according to the contents of the marking setting condition described in either the recipe or script selected.
US09417156B2
A method and device for assessing damage to a rolling bearing caused by bearing currents, in particular high-frequency bearing currents, in an electric machine which is electrically connected to an inverter, in particular to an inverter having a DC voltage link circuit, is described. The rolling bearing has a lubrication gap between an inner bearing ring and a rolling body and between an outer bearing ring and the rolling body. The method includes detecting the energy of an electric discharge event in the lubrication gaps, searching for a coincident event having a frequency above one GHz indicative of a damaging bearing current event, detecting a frequency of occurrence of discharge events, and evaluating the discharge events by correlating the frequency of occurrence and the energy of the discharge events.
US09417148B2
An indicating assembly for a container in which pressurized fluid is stored comprises a valve assembly connected to the pressurized container and having a fluid passage for receiving the pressurized fluid and a piston movable within the valve assembly along a longitudinal axis in response to fluid pressure within the fluid passage. The assembly further comprises an indicating member movable in response to longitudinal movement of the piston between a first condition providing a first indicator portion representing fluid pressure below a threshold pressure and a second condition providing a second indicator portion representing fluid pressure above the threshold pressure.
US09417142B2
A low-cost, compact, high-precision axial force sensor is provided. The axial force sensor includes a pair of parallel pressing plates and a strain gauge sandwiched therebetween. The strain gauge includes a plurality of strain-sensitive resistive elements around its periphery, and is provided with a spacer that transmits a pressing force from the pressing plates to some of the strain-sensitive elements but blocks the pressing force to the rest of the strain-sensitive elements. The output signal of the strain-sensitive elements blocked from the pressing force provide an accurate baseline to compare the output signal of the strain-elements subjected to the pressing force. The spacer has a uniform pattern of open and closed portions. On the strain gauge, the strain-sensitive elements are provided at both the open and closed portions of the spacer.
US09417139B2
A temperature measurement head structure comprises a shell (14), a tube-shaped thermal conductor (13), a cap-shaped thermal conductor (12) and an infrared sensor (11). Detection holes are arranged at a front end of the shell (14) and a front end of the cap-shaped thermal conductor (12). The tube-shaped thermal conductor (13) is located inside the shell (14). A bottom surface of the infrared sensor (11) and an end portion of the tube-shaped thermal conductor (13) are closely adhered to the detection hole at the front end of the shell (14). The cap-shaped thermal conductor (12) surrounds the infrared sensor (11) and is sleeved on an external wall at the end portion of the tube-shaped thermal conductor (13). The detection hole at the front end of the cap-shaped thermal conductor (12) is located behind the detection hole at the front end of the shell (14). The temperature measurement head structure further comprises an air gap (20) formed between top and side surfaces of the infrared sensor (11) and the cap-shaped thermal conductor (12). Also provided is a clinical thermometer comprising the temperature measurement head structure. The clinical thermometer has a simple structure, and greatly improves the precision and reliability of temperature measurement.
US09417137B2
A liquid based ice protection test system for testing an aircraft part having a first heating element comprises a tub configured for retaining a low temperature bath. The system also includes a first support member for suspending the aircraft part in the tub and a first temperature sensing device for sensing temperatures from one or more locations of a skin of the aircraft part.
US09417118B2
Device for vibration compensation of weighing sensor weight signals, with a weighing signal branch having an analog/digital converter unit to which a weighing sensor analog weighing signal is fed, and that generates a digital weighing signal that contains discrete sample values of the sampled analog weighing signal of the weighing sensor. At least one compensation signal branch has an analog/digital converter unit to which an acceleration sensor analog noise quantity is fed for detecting a specified acceleration noise quantity, and that generates a digital noise quantity signal containing discrete sample values of the acceleration sensor analog noise quantity signal. The digital noise quantity signal is fed to an adaptive digital filter unit. An addition unit sums the signal values of the digital weighing signal and the signal values (carrying a negative sign) for the digital noise quantity signals fed to it.
US09417116B2
The present invention provides a weighing apparatus comprising a load cell and an inclinometer and a method of weighing with and calibrating the weighing apparatus that tilt compensates for component parts of load cell readings that vary according to different relationships with load cell inclination. The present invention further provides a weighing apparatus and method of weighing with and calibrating the weighing apparatus that compensates for residual errors in a measured weight that has been pre-compensated for load cell inclination.
US09417109B2
Disclosed is a rotary valve and rotary disk fluid dispensing system that sanitizes valve ports using UV radiation during non-use. Steam and ozinated water can also be used for stripping and disinfecting portions of the dispenser that can be accessed by the public. The system also uses detectors including hall detectors and a camera to inspect for blockage of valve ports, tampering or improper operation of the rotary valve disc.
US09417107B2
A multi-sensor control circuit used in an electronic cigarette comprises a control module, at least two inhalation sensors, and at least two unidirectional circuits corresponding to the inhalation sensors. An output terminal of each inhalation sensor is connected to an input terminal of a corresponding unidirectional circuit, and output terminals of the unidirectional circuits are all connected to a same input pin of the control module. Each inhalation sensor outputs a sensing voltage signal to the corresponding one of the unidirectional circuits upon sensing airflow. Each unidirectional circuit filters the sensing voltage signal received from a corresponding inhalation sensor to generate a unidirectional voltage signal, and outputs the unidirectional voltage signal to the input pin of the control module. The control module controls the electronic cigarette to work upon receiving the unidirectional voltage signal outputted from any unidirectional circuit.
US09417103B2
A multiple sensor fiber optic sensing system includes an optical fiber having at least first fiber optic sensors and second fiber optic sensors deployed along its length. In response to an interrogating pulse, the first fiber optic sensors generate responses in a first optical spectrum window, and the second fiber optic sensors generate responses in a second, different optical spectrum window. The responses in the first optical spectrum window are measured in a first optical spectrum channel, and the responses in the second optical spectrum window are measure in a second, different optical spectrum channel and provide simultaneous indications of one or more parameters, such as temperature and pressure, in the environment in which the sensors are deployed.
US09417098B2
A position sensor for sensing whether a rotatable element is in at least a first rotational position or a second rotational position is provided. A rotor is configured to be coupled to the rotatable element for rotation therewith, and is constructed at least partially of a magnetically permeable material and includes a first rotor pole. A stator is non-rotationally mounted, is constructed at least partially of a magnetically permeable material, is spaced apart from the rotor, and comprises a first main pole and a first stealer pole. The first main pole and the first stealer pole are spaced radially apart from each other. A magnet is non-rotationally disposed adjacent to the stator and is spaced apart from the rotor. A first magnetic sensor is non-rotationally mounted between the stator and the rotor, is disposed adjacent the first main pole, and is radially offset from the first stealer pole.
US09417095B2
A magnetic flux emission unit is mounted on a detection object and rotatable integrally with the detection object. An IC package includes a magnetism detection element, which sends a signal according to change in a magnetic flux caused when the magnetic flux emission unit rotates. A cover member includes a bottom portion and a tubular portion. The tubular portion is extended from an outer periphery of the bottom portion. The cover member surrounds the magnetic flux emission unit with the bottom portion when mounted to the housing. A support portion is projected from the bottom portion toward an opening of the tubular portion to support the IC package. A projection is projected toward the opening from the bottom portion to at least a position corresponding to the magnetism detection element.
US09417084B2
A method and navigation device for providing at least one route is described. A destination is received from a user (step 204). Locations having more than a predetermined amount of content associated therewith are determined (step 206) and locations are selected based on a profile of the user (step 208). At least one route is provided to the destination via at least one location of the determined and selected locations (step 210).
US09417083B2
It is an object to provide a technique capable of searching for a route as close to a route intended by a user as possible. A route creation device includes an input unit that accepts a line drawn on a map displayed based on map data, and a link retrieval unit that retrieves corresponding road links that correspond to the line accepted by the input unit from the map data. The route creation device further includes a route searching unit that searches for a route including at least one road link satisfying a predetermined condition among the road links retrieved by the link retrieval unit.
US09417080B2
A movement trajectory generator that generates a movement trajectory of a vehicle is provided, which includes traveling environment recognition means for recognizing a traveling environment, movement strategy generation means for generating movement strategies for positioning in a road area according to the traveling environment that is recognized by the traveling environment recognition means, presenting means for presenting a passenger setting information of the movement strategies, setting means for receiving an operation for the passenger to set the movement strategies based on the setting information of the movement strategies presented by the presenting means, and movement trajectory generation means for generating the movement trajectory based on the movement strategies set by the setting means.
US09417078B1
A portable controller device having an OBD-II port interface and a microcontroller that interacts with a vehicle network through the interface, including programming for querying successively the vehicle network for parameters, for retrieving values for the parameters. The parameters are monitored by querying repeatedly a predetermined or random pattern of PIDs, and inferring a vehicle journey status by comparing the responses to the querying against a predetermined set of inferring response or parameter values, such as (1) the absence of a response to query of a monitoring parameter, (2) a zero value, and (3) a non-changing, non-zero value. A confirming parameter that satisfies the comparison is further queried successively a plurality of times within a predefined term, against the same inferring response or parameter values, and, if satisfied, the vehicle journey is identified as ‘ended’.
US09417069B2
One or more embodiments of techniques or systems for modeling familiarity for a traveler are provided herein. Familiarity evidence can be received, indicative of how familiar a traveler is with an area or road segment, and based on a number of visits the traveler has made to that area. The familiarity evidence can be used to generate one or more familiarity models indicative of a predicted familiarity of locations around the area. Familiarity models can be based on kernels, graph distances, Markov random fields (MRFs), etc. When route directions are generated from an origin location to a destination location, one or more of the directions can be provided based on one or more of the familiarity models. For example, if a familiarity model indicates that a traveler is familiar with a route, driving directions of the route can be adapted to be more succinct.
US09417064B2
A payload including a gimbal assembly and gyro assembly that includes a gyro assembly control associated with the gyro assembly and operable to trigger the gyro assembly to obtain deviation measurements and process the measurements in a first dynamic range for stabilizing the payload utilizing the gimbal assembly. The gyro assembly control is operable to trigger the gyro assembly to obtain instantaneous measurements and process the measurements in a second dynamic range having different sensitivity than the first dynamic range, for finding deviation of the payload from the magnetic north of the earth.
US09417063B2
In a surveying prism comprising a prism housing (12) for accommodating a prism element, which prism housing is pivotably mounted in a bracket about an axis that is oriented parallel to the light ingress surface of the prism element, the bracket is formed as a base comprising a base plate (16) which forms a support surface for the surveying prism (10), and two bearing flanges oriented perpendicular to said base plate, between which bearing flanges the prism housing (12) is pivotably mounted.
US09417060B1
Methods and apparatus for determining the distance to a specified point or distances between specified points on one or more objects, where the specified points are obscured behind an opaque barrier and cannot be viewed. Specified points are illuminated with penetrating radiation from two or more successive locations, and scattered radiation from the specified points is detected, and distance is calculated based on illumination angles. The apparatus has a source of penetrating radiation, a beam scanner for directing the penetrating radiation, a detector for detecting scattered radiation, and a processor for calculating the distance.
US09417045B2
Provided is a scale holding device including a scale and an attachment plate holding the scale. The scale holding device includes the attachment plate configured to have a first surface abutting on a first lateral side of the scale and a second surface facing a rear side of the scale, a first adhesive material configured to removably adhere the second surface of the attachment plate and the rear side of the scale to each other, and a second adhesive material configured to adhere the scale and the attachment plate to each other on a second lateral side of the scale.
US09417043B2
A system for thermal destruction of munitions has a rotatable kiln with a duct opening. A gate pivotally connected to the duct is arranged to open and close the duct. A loading tray is pivotally connected to the duct such that with the kiln in a first position with the gate open, the loading tray may be pivoted to load the kiln. After a thermal destruction process, rotation of the kiln to a second position facilitates emptying of the kiln via the duct.
US09417041B2
A hunting arrow for tracking target animals is disclosed and described. The arrow can include a chamber. The arrow may also include a transmitter housing that is installable into the chamber. A pair of bores extending through the transmitter housing and chamber may be configured and adapted for receiving a pair of shear pins. The shear pins may secure the housing in the chamber. The transmitter housing may comprise an animal engagement member, such as a hook. The transmitter housing is ejected from the chamber when the arrow strikes a target animal and the hook stops the forward momentum of the transmitter housing with sufficient force to shear the shear pins, thereby ejecting and embedding the transmitter housing in the hide of the animal. The transmitter within the housing may broadcast the location of the animal to the hunter to enable easy tracking of the animal, if wounded.
US09417028B2
A pulley assembly for a compound bow comprises a draw cable pulley and a power module attached to the draw cable pulley and adjustable among one or more positions and two orientations. Changing the power module orientation at a given power module position alters the bow's draw force curve and stored energy without altering the bow's draw length or draw weight.
US09417025B1
An apparatus is for use with a firearm having any one of a forestock and a barrel section and for use with an elongated stationary object. The apparatus includes a clamp device having a clamp portion. A forestock-support member is configured to make contact with any one of a forestock and a barrel section once the firearm is spatially positioned to do just so. A swivel connector is configured to extend from the clamp portion. The swivel connector is configured to rotatably couple the forestock-support member to the clamp portion. This is done in such a way that the forestock-support member, in use, pivotally swivels at will relative to the clamp portion once any one of a forestock and a barrel section (in use) contacts the swivel connector.
US09417023B2
Methods and apparatus for flash suppression according to various aspects of the present technology may comprise a body that is configured to be selectively coupled to a firearm. The body may be formed with curved and or arcing protrusions extending longitudinally along the body. Each protrusion is separated from another protrusion by a gap configured to dissipate gases and unburned materials exiting the barrel of the firearm.
US09417022B2
A system and method for a combination flash hider and muzzle brake. The flash hider is upstream of the muzzle brake. This allows the flash hider to take priority over the muzzle brake. The flash hider has slots allowing the exhausting gas to exit, causing the exhaust gases to decrease temperature and pressure to a point below the flash point. This reduces flash. The muzzle brake has at least one port.
US09417020B2
Firearms where the bolt catch, magazine, or both, can be released from either side using the same or a substantially similar motion using contact features that look, feel, or operate similarly on both sides, that are located within the firearm rather than externally, that can be used more easily or reliably, or a combination thereof. In some embodiments, a bolt catch engagement feature is similarly ambidextrous. In many embodiments, a user action on one side of the firearm is substantially similar to, but in the opposite direction from, a user action on the other side that performs the same function. In various embodiments, a left button, pad, or feature is directly opposite and in line with a right button, pad, or feature. Bolt catches can use two levers and magazine release mechanisms can use two parallel elongated members that are perpendicular to the barrel with a catch actuator located between.
US09416997B1
A method for providing positive pressure to an interior of a positive pressure facility can use an HVAC system. The method can include securing an enclosure to an exterior of the positive pressure facility, pulling fresh air from outside of the enclosure into an evaporator compartment to form conditioned air, transferring the conditioned air from the enclosure to an enclosure extension attached to the interior, and flowing the conditioned air into the interior. The method can include receiving air from the interior into the enclosure extension, determining a differential pressure between a pressure outside and a pressure of the interior, and maintaining positive pressure in the interior using the differential pressure, a process control unit, the conditioned air, and a human machine interface. The human machine interface can determine present various real-time values, control buttons, and screens for operating the HVAC system.
US09416991B2
In a solar heat collector, a bottom plate and a side plate of a case which is opened in an upper surface are formed of a vacuum thermal insulation material in which a core material is enveloped by a skin and a vacuum is created in an interior of the skin, the skin is formed by welding together circumferential edges of two metal panels which are disposed to face each other with the core material sandwiched therebetween, a plurality of line grooves are formed in the metal panels, and the two metal panels are disposed so that sides thereof from which bottoms of the line grooves protrude are oriented inwards with the core material sandwiched therebetween.
US09416977B2
A heater can be configured to operate with either a first fuel at a first pressure or a second fuel at a second pressure. In some embodiments, a pressure regulator unit is configured to regulate the pressure of either the first fuel or the second fuel and to direct either the first fuel or the second fuel towards a combustion chamber. A nozzle assembly can be configured to inject the fuel into the combustion chamber.
US09416975B2
The present application and the resultant patent provide a dual fuel combustor for a gas turbine engine. The combustor may include a primary premixer positioned within a head end plenum of the combustor, and a dual fuel injection system positioned within the head end plenum and upstream of the premixer. The injection system may be configured to inject a gas fuel about an inlet end of the premixer when the combustor operates on the gas fuel. The injection system also may be configured to vaporize and inject a liquid fuel about the inlet end of the premixer when the combustor operates on the liquid fuel. The present application and the resultant patent also provide a related method of operating a dual fuel combustor.
US09416972B2
A combustor for a gas turbine engine comprises an inner annular liner wall and an outer annular liner wall cooperating to form a combustion chamber of the combustor. A first dome wall has a circumferential array of first fuel injection bores. A second dome has a circumferential array of second fuel injection bores. An intermediate wall extends between the first dome wall and the second dome wall. A first combustion stage is defined by the inner liner wall forward end, the first dome wall and the intermediate wall. A second combustion stage is defined at least by the outer liner wall forward end, the second dome wall and the intermediate wall, the first combustion stage communicating with the first fuel injection bores, the second combustion stage communicating with the second fuel injection bores.
US09416971B2
A gas turbine engine component includes a wall having first and second wall surfaces and a cooling hole extending through the wall. The cooling hole includes an inlet located at the first wall surface, an outlet located at the second wall surface, a metering section extending downstream from the inlet, a first diffusing section extending downstream from the metering section, and a second diffusing section extending downstream from the first diffusing section to the outlet. The second diffusing section includes first and second lobes, each lobe diverging longitudinally and laterally relative to the metering section, and a trailing edge.
US09416969B2
A combustion system for a gas turbine engine including a combustor assembly comprising a combustor basket having a downstream terminal end, and a transition duct extending downstream from the combustor basket and having an upstream end located adjacent to the downstream terminal end of the combustor basket. A coupling is provided comprising an inlet ring adapter including a cylindrical sleeve extending downstream of the upstream end of the transition duct in overlapping relation to an inner surface of the transition duct. A spring clip assembly is mounted to the terminal end of the combustor basket. The spring clip assembly extends into engagement with and forms a seal on the cylindrical sleeve.
US09416963B2
A gas burner for use in cooktops including a lower body, a top cap closing said lower body on top, two coaxial flame rings having the same diameter, but extending at two different heights, a single gas injector, a single Venturi tube, and a single expansion chamber for the gas issuing from said single Venturi tube, said chamber being adapted to supply said two flame rings of the burner. The burner further including a first cylindrically-shaped hollow annular member adapted to be applied vertically upon said lower body, and a second substantially planar hollow annular member adapted to be applied upon said first annular member and support said cap. The lower flame ring is supplied with gas from said expansion chamber via a plurality of ducts arranged within said first cylindrically-shaped annular member. Said two flame rings are provided with gas outlet ports having same or similar cross-section areas.
US09416956B2
Disclosed is a housing includes a housing body and a cap assembly. The cap assembly includes an inner member, an outer member and a resilient compression gasket disposed between the inner and outer members. The inner member has a first valve aperture, the outer member has a second valve aperture and the resilient, compression gasket has a third valve aperture which together form an air valve in the cap assembly.
US09416954B2
A light fixture including an electronic housing and at least one optical chamber positioned on each side of the electronic housing. In some embodiments, the optical chambers are positioned a distance from the electronic housing so as to avoid creation of a thermal path between the optical chambers and the electronic housing. Each optical chamber includes a heat sink and a plurality of LEDs mounted on a PCB that is, in turn, mounted on the heat sink. A reflector is positioned over at least a portion of the PCB. In some embodiments, vents extend through the heat sink and a fin extends upwardly from the heat sink and angles at least partially over at least some of the vents. In use, air enters the optical chambers and exits the fixture through the top vents in the heat sink. The air circulates over the reflector, carrying heat from the reflectors during the process. Heat is also conducted to the air from the heat sink. The angled fins extending over the top vents provide additional surface area for contact with the air and thus facilitate additional heat transfer from the heat sink.
US09416951B1
A lighting apparatus includes a light source. A primary optical surface is configured to receive and redirect light from the light source. A secondary optical surface is configured to receive redirected light from the primary optical surface and further redirect the light in a primary emission direction. The apparatus includes a central opening through the apparatus, the central opening defining a convective path through the apparatus. A thermally conductive cover is placed over the central opening and is positioned in the convective path. The primary optical surface is positioned such that a direct view of the light source is obstructed when the apparatus is viewed from the primary emission direction. The primary and secondary optical surfaces are substantially symmetric about the central opening.
US09416937B2
The present disclosure relates to a thin-profile lens for shaping a beam of light from a light source, such as a light emitting diode (LED), for example in a flashlight or other lighting unit. In various embodiments, the lens may be combined with an adjustment mechanism for varying the focus of the beam of light, and may be housed in a structure supporting the lens, light source, and adjustment mechanism. In various embodiments, the structure also may include a power source, controls, interconnections, and electronics. In various embodiments, the thin profile of the lens may allow the lens to be used in any of a number of applications, ranging from narrow diameter flashlights to large diameter light sources.
US09416932B2
A projector apparatus that may include a first plurality of adjacent translucent lenses on at least one side of an inner lens, said inner lens configured to rotate and translate about an axis (A) of the inner lens; a second plurality of adjacent translucent lenses formed on at least one side of a concave outer lens; a light source configured to direct a portion of light through the rotatable and translatable inner lens and then through the concave outer lens; and a motor configured to rotatably and translatably drive the inner lens in an oscillating manner about and along the axis of the concave inner lens (A); so that the oscillating inner lens imparts a moving textured image for modification through the fixed concave outer lens for display upon a surface, such as a ceiling to simulate a moving liquid surface.
US09416925B2
An LED-based luminaire is configured to direct light from an LED source downwardly. However, a portion of the luminaire intentionally reflects part of the light upwardly toward a ceiling of a structure. A control circuit of an LED-based luminaire enables the luminaire to be dimmed by an off-the-shelf dimmer. The control circuit also determines when a temperature of the LED-based luminaire exceeds a desired temperature range, and employs a feedback circuit to reduce power delivery to the LEDs until the temperature is again within the desired temperature range.
US09416907B2
A plugging device for plugging an end of a conduit is provided. The plugging device includes a sealing plug to the end of the conduit, and a pin intended to be axially driven into the bore of the socket for ensuring a sealing contact between the socket and the end, comprises a driver able to drive the pin into the bore of the socket. The plugging device further includes a determiner configured to determine an instantaneous axial position of the pin relatively to the socket as the pin is gradually driven into the bore of the socket by the driver. A method for plugging an end of a conduit is also provided.
US09416905B2
A protective cover for a drainage tube cable tie protects a surgical patient from injury and/or infection. The protective cover includes a first fastener member having VELCRO® hooks on one side and pressure sensitive adhesive on the other side, a second fastener member having VELCRO® loops on one side and pressure sensitive adhesive on the other side, and an insert made of a flexible, relatively elastic material. An opening is formed through the first fastener member. The insert is placed over the opening and the pressure sensitive adhesive sides of the fastener members are pressed together in back-to-back relationship. The cable tie is positioned on the first fastener member over the opening and the insert, and the protective cover is wrapped around the cable tie and secured by engagement of the hooks with the loops to cover the cable tie and protect the patient's skin.
US09416902B2
The invention relates, in general, to couplings for the connection of lines, such as, in particular, flexible lines, to one another or for the coupling of flexible lines to fittings. For this purpose, a quick-action coupling (1) for coupling together fluid-conducting lines is described, which comprises a first coupling part (3) and a second coupling part (5), as well as a seal (7) for sealing the two coupling parts (3, 5) and a locking mechanism (9) in order to couple together the two coupling parts (3, 5) in a releasable manner. The two coupling parts (3, 5) are equipped with valve arrangements (11, 13). Each of the two valves (11, 13)* comprises an axially displaceable valve (15, 17), with the valve (15) of the first valve arrangement (11) having an opening (150), in which a plunger (152) is mounted so as to move axially. In the state in which the coupling parts (3, 5) are coupled together, the plunger (152) keeps the two valves (15, 17) apart from each other. The plunger (152) can be locked by means of a catch device (110). The locking mechanism (9) is operatively connected to the catch device (110), so that, when the locking mechanism (9) is actuated for decoupling the two coupling parts (3, 5) that are coupled to each other, before disconnection of the coupling parts, the catch of the plunger (152) is released and the two valves (15, 17) are brought together with the respective valve seat (19, 21).
US09416880B2
A rotary metering valve assembly includes a stationary body plate having a first contact surface. Also included is a valve plate having a second contact surface disposed in contact with the first contact surface of the stationary body plate, wherein the valve plate is configured to rotate relative to the stationary body plate. At least one of the first contact surface and the second contact surface comprises a surface flatness of less than about 2.4 μm (about 93 μin) and a surface roughness of at least about 0.2 μm (about 8 μin).
US09416869B2
A vehicle includes an engine, dual-clutch transmission (DCT), and controller. The controller executes a method to control a requested change-of-mind shift of the DCT to a second desired gear state. The requested shift is initiated after a prior-requested but not yet fully-executed shift of the DCT to a first desired gear state. The controller detects the requested shift, identifies the second desired gear state, and aborts the prior-requested shift immediately upon identifying the second desired gear state. The controller also shifts the DCT to the second desired gear state using a calibrated shift profile corresponding to the detected shift. The calibrated shift profile describes required oncoming and offgoing clutch torques needed for achieving the second desired gear state. Engine speed control may be used to synchronize engine and input shaft speeds.
US09416848B2
A chain link comprises a first plate, a second plate, a pin which connects the two plates, and a plurality of rolling elements arranged circumferentially around the pin, wherein the plurality of rolling elements are exposed to enable direct contact between them and a tooth of a sprocket when said chain link is mounted to said sprocket. The plurality of rolling elements may be arranged to roll along a surface of the pin. The plurality of rolling elements may be arranged to roll along a surface of a tooth of a sprocket when the chain link is mounted to the sprocket.
US09416846B2
Drive belt comprising different types of transverse members for a continuously variable transmission
A drive belt (3) includes an endless carrier (31) and a plurality of transverse members (32) of varying thickness, i.e. the dimension measured in the circumference direction of the belt (3). According to the invention, the design of such drive belt (3) can be improved, at least in terms of durability, by also varying the width, i.e. the dimension measured in the axial direction “W” of the drive belt (3), of the transverse members (32) in such a way that the thinner transverse members (32) of the drive belt (3) are of a larger width than the thicker transverse members (32) thereof.
US09416845B2
A damper with a torque limiter is provided in which a torque limiter is formed from an annular limiter housing formed on a mass ring, a friction plate frictionally engaging with the limiter housing a pressure-applying plate that frictionally engages with the friction plate and that is linked to the mass ring, and a limiter spring urging the pressure-applying plate toward the friction plate side, a spring holder is formed from a pair of first and second holder plates that oppose each other to define a damper housing and that are joined to each other by a rivet, and the friction plate is formed integrally with the second holder plate. Thus, a rivet providing a link between a pair of holder plates forming a spring holder does not carry the burden of torque transmission, enabling the diameter of the rivet to be smaller and thereby reducing weight and cost.
US09416844B2
The invention relates to a functional hydro-elastic element to be lodged in a hydro-elastic joint for damping load vibrations between two structural parts, in particular a wheel suspension and a vehicle body, the functional hydro-elastic element having a longitudinal axis and a circumferential direction around this longitudinal axis. The functional hydro-elastic element has at least one row of hydraulic chambers, extending circumferentially and comprising at least three hydraulic chambers and at least one throttling duct that enables a communication of liquid between each pair of respective circumferentially adjacent hydraulic chambers so that a variation of at least one working volume of the hydraulic chambers due to load vibrations can be balanced by enabling a flow of liquid into at least one of the other hydraulic chambers.
US09416843B2
Controllable hydraulic vibration-damping support comprising a main hydraulic circuit comprising a working chamber, a compensation chamber, and a first constricted passageway, and an auxiliary hydraulic chamber separated from the working chamber by a decoupling valve and communicating with the main hydraulic circuit by means of a second constricted passageway having a resonance frequency of less than 5 Hz. The auxiliary chamber is separated from a pneumatic chamber by a movable wall, and a control device is provided for selectively either connecting the pneumatic chamber to the open air, or bleeding air from the pneumatic chamber.
US09416842B2
Embodiments of an isolator are provided, as are embodiments of a spacecraft isolation system employing a number of three parameter isolators. In one embodiment, the isolator includes an externally-pressurized damper assembly and a thermal compensator, which is located external to the externally-pressurized damper assembly. The damper assembly includes, in turn, a damper assembly housing and a first hydraulic chamber configured to be filled with a damping fluid. The first hydraulic chamber is located within the damper assembly housing and is fluidly coupled to the thermal compensator. A first bellows is disposed within the damper assembly housing and bounds an inner circumference of the first hydraulic chamber such that the first bellows is externally pressurized when the first hydraulic chamber is filled with the damping fluid.
US09416832B1
Provided are half system torque brakes, aircraft utilizing these brakes, and methods of installing these brakes. A half system torque brake includes an input cam assembly slidably disposed on a compression shaft between first and second output cam assemblies. The second output cam assembly is disposed between the input cam assembly and a rotor-stator assembly. When a torque differential between the input cam assembly and either one of the output cam assemblies exceeds its threshold, the same rotor-stator assembly is engaged and prevents further rotation of any cam assembly. Specifically, when the torque differential corresponding to the first output cam assembly exceeds its threshold, this assembly advances away from the input cam assembly and pulls the compression shaft in the same direction, which in turn engages the rotor-stator assembly by advancing the pressure plate to the second output cam assembly. The second output cam engages the rotor-stator assembly directly.
US09416828B2
An overrunning clutch is provided having inner and outer members disposed about a rotational axis with the outer member radially outward of the inner member. The clutch further includes a plurality of pins projecting from one of a radially inner surface of the outer member and a radially outer surface of the inner member. The clutch further includes one or more pawls coupled to one of the inner and outer members. Each of the pawls is movable between an engagement position wherein the pawl is engaged with one of the pins to transmit torque between the inner and outer members and a disengagement position wherein the pawl is disengaged from the pin to permit relative rotation of the inner and outer members. In one embodiment, different pawls assume their respective engagement position depending on the rotational direction of the one member.
US09416827B1
A clutch assembly includes a fluid-actuated piston that allows clutch usage in both high pressure and low pressure applications. The configuration of the clutch assembly is usable with both hydraulic and pneumatic pressure actuation. Seal configurations create differently sized internal piston surface areas against which inlet pressure applied at hydraulic or pneumatic fluid inlet ports act to move the piston. The utilization of differently sized piston surface areas allows the piston to apply essentially the same clutch engaging compression force in both high pressure hydraulic actuation and lower pressure pneumatic actuation applications.
US09416826B2
An assembly includes a shell fixed against axial displacement, a clutch including first plates secured to the shell by a spline, a member fixed against axial displacement, supporting the shell and secured to the shell by the spline, a retainer for limiting axial movement of the first plates and member along the spline, and a piston for forcing the plates along the spline toward the retainer.
US09416825B2
A drive disconnect clutch assembly, including: an input component arranged to receive torque from a motor; an output gear; and a clutch including: a flexible piston plate; at least one clutch plate; at least one wedge plate; and friction material disposed between the at least one clutch plate and the at least one wedge plate. For a synchronizing mode, the flexible piston plate is arranged to displace in an axial direction to engage the at least one clutch plate with the at least one wedge plate to enable transfer of torque from the input component to the output gear. For a locked mode, a first portion of the flexible piston plate is arranged to further displace in the first axial direction to expand the at least one wedge plate radially outward and non-rotatably connect the at least one wedge plate, the input component, and the output gear.
US09416822B2
A rolling bearing component (2, 3, 4) has the following features: a nitrided surface zone (5), with a nitrogen content decreasing from the outside inwards, and a core zone (6), internal compressive stresses decreasing from the outside inwards in the surface zone (5), a surface hardness of 870 to 2000 HV 0.3 at a depth of 0.04 mm, wherein—the hardness at a depth of 0.3 mm is not more than 250 HV 0.3 less than the surface hardness.
US09416809B2
A rivet stud has a rivet body with an elongated shank, a flange, and an axial bore in which is located a tension mandrel, which has a mandrel shank with a drawing end projecting out of a head end of the rivet body that is separable from the mandrel shank at a predetermined breaking point and which has a mandrel head that is supported on a foot end of the rivet body. The mandrel shank is provided with locking means that secure it in the rivet body after setting of the rivet stud, and the predetermined breaking point is located such that the breaking point lies inside the bore of the rivet body after setting of the rivet stud. Located on the mandrel head is a mounting stud that projects from the mandrel head on the side opposite the mandrel shank.
US09416808B2
A mounting apparatus with self-sealing properties that is used for installing solar modules and other types of equipment and material by attaching it through roofing or other exterior or interior surfaces is disclosed. The mounting apparatus uses a bolt with a toggle to mount a body to the structural sheathing rather than bolting to a structural framing member. A nut is tightened on the bolt to secure the toggle on one side of the roofing or other exterior or interior surfaces while a plunger is simultaneously driven to dispose a sealant. Using the mounting apparatus eliminates the need for finding the centerline of a structural framing member and assures the quality and the integrity of the seal around the mounting apparatus.
US09416807B2
A modular, faceted-component node system for uniting adjacent ends of elongate frame elements at selectively different types of frame-element-junction nodes in a frame structure including (a) a first type faceted node component adapted for attachments to it of ends of plural, elongate frame elements, operable as a singularity to form in a frame structure a first-type frame-element-junction node, and a second type faceted node component for joining, and cooperating with, different pluralities of the first-type node component to form, selectively with such component pluralities, in a frame structure a plurality of different, second-type frame-element-junction nodes—the first and second type node components including, respectively, concave and convex, angularly faceted surface regions that are complementary to one another, and that accommodate facet-to-facet, matching-facet-coextensive, selective joinder of the two component types.
US09416803B1
A clip for holding items such as folding currency and credit cards that includes a pair of spring arms joined to a base plate with a top and a bottom integrally joined to the spring arms opposite the base plate and extending inwardly therefrom with an aperture formed in the top and a corresponding detent formed in the bottom.
US09416796B2
Disclosed is an energy-accumulation apparatus including an accumulator body assembly defining a pneumatically-pressurizable chamber. The pneumatically-pressurizable chamber is configured to communicate with a pneumatic-pressure source. The pneumatic-pressure source is positioned on a shore and being located away from a body of water. The energy-accumulation apparatus also includes an outer surface extending from the accumulator body assembly. The outer surface is configured to securely contact a sloped floor zone of a body of water at a position being spaced apart from a shore.
US09416795B2
The invention concerns a reverse osmosis system (1) with a membrane unit (2) comprising an inlet (3), a permeate outlet (4) and a concentrate outlet (5), a high-pressure pump (8) that is connected to the inlet (3), a pressure exchanger (11) connected on its concentrate side (10) to the concentrate outlet (5), and a booster pump between the pressure exchanger (11) and the inlet (3). It is endeavored to make the energy consumption as small as possible. For this purpose, the booster pump is made as a displacement pump.
US09416792B2
The invention relates to an electrical machine having a fan wheel which comprises an injection-moulded blade carrier ring with fan blades as well as an annular insertion part which is integrated into the blade carrier ring and which comprises passage openings via which the blade carrier ring is connected to the fan blades.
US09416787B2
A method and arrangement for determining the flow rate (Q) produced by a pump, when the pump is controlled with a frequency converter, which produces estimates for rotational speed and torque of the pump, and the characteristic curves of the pump are known. The method includes determining the shape of a QH curve of the pump, dividing the QH curve into two or more regions depending on the shape of the QH curve, determining on which region of the QH curve the pump is operating, and determining the flow rate (Q) of the pump using the determined operating region of the characteristic curve.
US09416778B2
A self-gettering differential pump for a molecular beam epitaxy system has a collimator with a length greater than its diameter mounted in front of a source in extended port geometry, wherein the reactant delivered by the source also serves as a gettering agent.
US09416774B2
Systems and methods for harvesting energy including a chassis with a spinning barrel shaped turbine, solar energy collection devices mounted on the chassis, and a kinetic energy harvesting device, mounted on the chassis.
US09416757B2
An air filter arrangement has a filter housing (10) for connection to a duct (80) for a combustion engine. The filter housing (10) has a cover (30) for closing a top aperture of the filter housing (10). An engine air outlet (40) is on the cover (30). A flexible pipe section (42) on the engine air outlet and for connection to the duct, the flexibility to allow the cover (30) to be removed from the top aperture and a filter unit to be introduced into or taken out from the filter housing (10).
US09416756B2
A valve element in a valve chamber is movable between an OFF position and an ON position to switch a flow quantity of fluid between a large flow quantity and a small flow quantity. The valve chamber has a fluid passage including an outer passage defined between an inner periphery of the valve chamber and an outer periphery of the valve element. The valve chamber has a throttle shape to decrease in inner diameter gradually from upstream toward downstream to decrease a minimum passage area of the fluid passage in a non-linear form. The valve chamber increases a differential pressure across the valve element in a linear form relative to a stroke of the valve element when the valve element moves from the OFF position toward the ON position.
US09416744B2
An object is to prevent excessive temperature rise in a DPF during forced regeneration so that the DPF is prevented from being damaged by heat erosion or cracking and preventing a frequency of the forced regeneration from increasing so that degradation of fuel efficiency and oil dilution are reduced, in an exhaust gas purification device which removes PM in exhaust gas. A first determination unit (67) which determines whether an exhaust gas flowrate is smaller than a first threshold and is equal to or larger than a second threshold smaller than the first threshold, during forced regeneration processing by a forced regeneration control unit (65); an exhaust gas increasing control unit (69) which controls the intake throttle valve in such a manner that the exhaust gas flowrate is increased when the first determination unit (67) determines that the exhaust gas flowrate is smaller than the first threshold and is equal to or larger than the second threshold; a second determination unit (71) which determines an operation state of the exhaust gas flowrate smaller than the second threshold; and a forced regeneration interrupting unit (73) which interrupts the forced regeneration processing when the second determination unit (71) determines that the exhaust gas flowrate is smaller than the second threshold, are provided.
US09416737B2
A boat propulsion device is configured to be attachable to a vessel body including an external tank. The boat propulsion device includes an engine, an exhaust pipe, a catalyst, an internal tank, a detection unit and a control unit. The exhaust pipe is connected to the engine. The catalyst is disposed in the exhaust pipe. The internal tank communicates with the external tank. The internal tank is configured to store a fuel to be supplied to the engine. The detection unit is configured to detect whether or not an amount of fuel remaining within the internal tank is less than or equal to a predetermined remaining amount. The control unit is configured or programmed to perform a rotation speed reduction control to reduce a rotation speed of the engine when the detection unit has detected that the amount of fuel remaining within the internal tank had become less than or equal to the predetermined remaining amount. The predetermined remaining amount is an amount of fuel necessary to drive the engine until a temperature of the catalyst becomes lower than an ignition temperature of the fuel under the rotation speed reduction control.
US09416735B2
A diagnostic routine momentarily forces an engine to an alternative operating condition, and at the same time adjust fuelling of the engine so as to be appropriate to the alternative operating condition (31). In one embodiment substantially unchanged exhaust constituents (32) indicate correct adoption of the alternative operating condition. In another embodiment a substantial change in a calculated measure is indicative of correct adoption of the alternative condition. The invention allows better control of undesired exhaust emissions during operation of the diagnostic.
US09416724B2
Embodiments for controlling boost pressure are provided. In one example, a method of controlling a turbocharger of an engine via a multi-staged wastegate comprises during a first condition, actuating a first stage of the wastegate based on boost pressure generated by the turbocharger, and actuating a second stage of the wastegate based on a temperature of a catalyst downstream of the turbocharger. In this way, catalyst heating and boost control may be provided by a common wastegate.
US09416719B2
An exhaust manifold for a combustion engine of a motor vehicle includes a two-shell construction comprised of an outer system and an inner system. A flange is positioned at a side proximal to a cylinder head of the combustion engine for installation to the combustion engine, and an insulation sleeve connects the inner system with the flange and the outer system. The insulation sleeve is sized to extend through an opening of the flange and to project beyond the flange into the cylinder head of the combustion engine.
US09416718B2
An engine equipped with a secondary air supply device includes: a fuel tank disposed over a cylinder head for storing fuel of the engine; an exhaust muffler disposed beneath the fuel tank and below the exhaust port in a region lateral of the cylinder head; an exhaust pipe connecting the exhaust port to the exhaust muffler; a secondary air introduction pipe connected to the exhaust pipe for introducing air into the exhaust muffler; and a tailpipe for discharging exhaust gas of the exhaust muffler to the outside, the exhaust muffler and the fuel tank defining therebetween a space, the tailpipe being disposed to meander in the space.
US09416714B2
Systems and methods for monitoring an exhaust gas sensor coupled in an engine exhaust are provided. In one example approach, a method comprises indicating exhaust gas sensor degradation based on a downstream exhaust gas sensor responding before the upstream exhaust gas sensor during a commanded change in air-fuel ratio.
US09416707B2
It is an object of the present invention to provide a diesel engine in which a DPF case and an SCR catalyst case can be placed compactly. The diesel engine includes an engine body, the DPF case and the SCR catalyst case, a DPF is accommodated in the DPF case, an SCR catalyst is accommodated in the SCR catalyst case, and the DPF case and the SCR catalyst case are mounted on the engine body. The SCR catalyst case is placed in a direction which extends along the DPF case. The DPF case is placed directly above a flywheel housing and right behind a cylinder head cover, and the SCR catalyst case is placed directly above the cylinder head cover.
US09416701B2
An exhaust gas purifying device is disposed in a portion of a motor section rearwardly of a vehicle body. A cylindrical mixing exhaust pipe is provided in a distal end portion of an exhaust pipe, through which exhaust gas discharged from the exhaust gas purifying device flows. The mixing exhaust pipe has a larger diameter than the exhaust pipe to overlap the exhaust pipe in a radial direction for drawing ambient air by the exhaust gas discharged from the exhaust pipe and mixing drawn air with the exhaust gas to discharge the mixed gas to the outside from a discharge opening. The mixing exhaust pipe is arranged in a lower side position of the motor section on one side of the vehicle width direction with the exhaust gas being discharged toward the front of the vehicle body.
US09416689B2
[Problems to be Solved]In the valve opening and closing timing controlled by an ECU, since the responsivity of a phase varying apparatus becomes low and the valve opening and closing timing cannot be appropriately controlled in the state of low engine rpm, desired engine characteristics cannot be obtained. Therefore, it is a problem to be solved by the present invention to provide a method and an apparatus for controlling a phase varying apparatus capable of obtaining the considerably high responsiveness of the phase varying apparatus under condition of low engine rpm.[Solution]The above problem can be solved by a phase control method for controlling a phase varying apparatus constituted so as to calculate an estimated relative angle value one step later by the Kalman filter using a relative angle calculated from rotational velocity values of the associated shafts in the current step and a command value to an electromagnetic clutch in the current step, input the estimated relative angle value to a sliding mode controller as a feedback signal, calculate a command value to the electromagnetic clutch one step later based on the value of the feedback signal and output the command signal.
US09416685B2
A combined cycle plant (10) including: a gas turbine engine (12) having a compressor (14), a combustor and a gas turbine (16); a heat recovery steam generator (20) (HRSG) configured to receive exhaust from the gas turbine engine; a steam turbine (22, 24) configured to receive steam from the HRSG; a supplemental air arrangement (40) configured to generate supplemental heated air (42) when operating and to operate independent of the gas turbine engine; and a kettle boiler (26, 28) configured to use heat from the supplemental heated air to generate steam used in the steam turbine.
US09416684B2
A structure and method are provided for preventing or at least minimizing thermally-induced structural distortions, such as may occur when a steam turbine is cooling down. The steam turbine may include an inner housing and an outer housing. An intermediate space is formed between the inner housing and the outer housing, and sealing steam may be injected into the intermediate space to avoid the formation of temperature strata in the interspace and thus prevent the outer housing from bowing.
US09416681B2
A turbo compressor includes a housing in which lubrication oil is accumulated, a gear that is housed in the housing and to which the lubrication oil is supplied, a demister that is disposed above the gear and on which an intake is provided to catch oil mist of the lubrication oil in the housing, a gear cover that is provided surrounding the gear to catch lubrication oil splashed by the gear and then drip the caught lubrication oil downward, and a demister cover that is disposed near the demister to drip the lubrication oil caught by the demister downward. Here, a narrow gap is formed between the demister cover and an inner wall surface of the housing. According to the turbo compressor, an amount of lubrication oil flowing through the demister can be reduced by the gear cover and the demister cover.
US09416675B2
Sealing device for providing seals between adjacent components, and turbomachines utilizing such sealing devices, are provided. A sealing device includes a seal plate insertable between the adjacent components, the seal plate comprising a first face and an opposing second face. The sealing device further includes a plurality of pins extending from one of the first face or the second face, the plurality of pins configured to space the one of the first face or the second face from contact surfaces of the adjacent components.
US09416656B2
A method is disclosed for assessing connectivity between sections in a hydrocarbon reservoir. Samples of hydrocarbons are collected over different depths in at least one wellbore. Fluorescence intensity determines the actual heavy end concentrations of hydrocarbons for the corresponding different depths. Estimated heavy end concentrations of hydrocarbons for corresponding different depths are determined and the actual heavy end concentrations of hydrocarbons are compared with the estimated heavy end concentrations to assess connectivity between sections of the hydrocarbon reservoir.
US09416651B2
The invention provides an apparatus and method of using the apparatus for surface confirmation of opening of downhole ports in a downhole environment. The apparatus includes a tubular region that has an inner diameter. The tubular region includes at least two production ports and at least one non-production port. The non-production port includes a housing that has at least one chemical tracer. The apparatus also includes a cutter operable for opening the production ports and non-production port. The apparatus further includes a launcher for launching the cutter and a receiver for receiving the cutter.
US09416645B2
A method of extracting hydrocarbon-containing organic matter from a hydrocarbon-containing material includes the steps of providing a first liquid comprising a turpentine liquid; contacting the hydrocarbon-containing material with the turpentine liquid to form an extraction mixture; extracting the hydrocarbon material into the turpentine liquid; and separating the extracted hydrocarbon material from a residual material not extracted.
US09416643B2
A method of fracturing a formation surrounding a wellbore comprises the steps of: (i) providing a tubular including at least two portions, each portion comprising an annulus isolation means, a selective flow path between the interior and the exterior of the tubular and a throughbore isolation means; (ii) running the tubular into the wellbore; (iii) isolating an annulus between the exterior of the tubular and the wellbore to thereby create at least two isolated zones; (iv) selecting any zone to be fractured; (v) remotely opening the flow path in the portion of tubular corresponding to the selected zone; (vi) remotely isolating the throughbore of the tubular by closing the throughbore isolation means in the portion of tubular corresponding to the selected zone; and (vii) fracturing at least part of the formation surrounding the well.
US09416629B2
The present invention relates to a downhole wireline tool for performing an operation in a well at a depth of up to 15 km downhole, the tool being powered by direct current at a predetermined voltage in a first end by a power supply unit which is configured to provide a specific steady-state voltage selected from a plurality of predetermined voltages, comprising an electrical motor being powered by alternating current, a frequency converter arranged between the first end and the motor, and a voltage peak reduction unit adapted to reduce the steady-state voltage of the selected power supplied to the frequency converter from the power supply, the voltage peak reduction unit comprising a capacitor, wherein the capacitor is a high temperature capacitor having a dielectric comprising a material capable of resisting a temperature above 150° C. Furthermore, the present invention relates to a downhole tool string and to a method of protecting a frequency converter from peaks of voltage in power supplied to the frequency converter in a downhole tool according to the present invention.
US09416626B2
A downhole tool for removing debris from a wellbore comprises a mandrel and a shroud disposed around a portion of the mandrel. The mandrel includes at least one mandrel port in fluid communication with a mandrel bore. The shroud includes a cavity and a shroud port. Debris laden fluid is pulled into the shroud cavity by flowing fluid through the mandrel bore, out the mandrel port, into the shroud cavity, and through the shroud port. The debris-laden fluid is pulled into the shroud cavity due to a pressure differential created by the flow of the fluid through the mandrel port and out of the shroud port. As the debris laden fluid flows into the shroud cavity, the debris is captured within the tool.
US09416625B2
System and method for subsea structure obstruction remediation using an exothermic chemical reaction
Systems and methods comprise structures and methods for using a plurality of chemicals which are mixed subsea, resulting in a heated fluid which can be delivered by various means to an area about a subsea structure such as a pipe or other structure which has been compromised by a plug such as a solid gas hydrate or paraffinic plug. Various embodiments allow for selective use of insulated chambers and baffled conduits and the like, or combinations thereof, to aid in the mixing of the various chemicals and achieving a desired temperature.
US09416623B2
A tool string having a pressure dependent mandrel and actuator assembly can operate at the annulus pressure within a wellbore to lock the mandrel actuator assembly and prevent further motion of the mandrel within the tool string as the tool string is moved upward or downward in the wellbore. The tool string can further include a valve connected to the actuator assembly, where the valve can be in an open configuration within the wellbore due to the annulus pressure and related motion of the mandrel, and then be locked in an open configuration regardless of the annulus pressure as the tool string is moved upward or downward in the wellbore.
US09416617B2
A downhole tool, such as a fracture plug used during a fracture operation, installs in a downhole tubular, such as casing. The tool has a mandrel with a sealing element disposed thereon between uphole and downhole ends. Slip assemblies on the mandrel can be moved to engage the downhole tubular. The uphole assembly has inserts composed of ceramic material, and the downhole assembly has inserts composed of a metallic material. When the tool is used as a bridge plug, the uphole assembly supports the sealing element compressed, and the downhole assembly supports fluid pressure downhole of the tool. In one particular embodiment, the metallic material is a powdered metal material, such as a sintered-hardened powdered metal steel having a balance of iron, an admixture of carbon, and alloy components of molybdenum, chromium, and manganese.
US09416614B2
An offshore well system for a subsea well. The system includes a floating platform, an external riser and an internal riser nested within the external riser. A external riser tension device tensions the external riser. The drilling system also includes a surface wellhead system that includes a wellhead, a collet, and a flange assembly. The wellhead, collet, and flange assembly are assembled to establish a common bore for receiving the top of the internal riser. A gasket located between the top of the internal riser and an inner shoulder of the flange assembly seals between the wellhead system and the top of the internal riser. The surface wellhead system also retains the internal riser in tension with the wellhead, the internal riser extending above the wellhead into the collet.
US09416613B2
In accordance with certain embodiments, the present invention provides a theft-deterrence device, which can be used to deter theft of oil-and-gas equipment. For example, one such embodiment provides a nut-and-bolt assembly that includes an extended bolt and a standard the hexagonal nut. To deter theft, the exemplary assembly includes an outer sleeve that is disposed about the nut and extended bolt and that is free to rotate. Resultantly, the sleeve prevents the application of torque to the nut and also protects against shearing of the extended stud. The exemplary assembly also includes a tamper-resistant screw extending through the stud and cooperating with a retaining ring disposed above the nut, to prevent removal of the outer sleeve.
US09416606B2
A system includes a valve subassembly configured to be disposed along an internal flowline exit of a first internal flowline within a downhole drilling module. The valve subassembly includes an active valve configured to regulate flow of a fluid through the internal flowline exit and a passive valve configured to be passively controlled based on a differential pressure between a first volume of the downhole drilling module and a second volume surrounding the downhole drilling module.
US09416603B2
A tubing injector has a first injector pair and a second pair of cooperating injector mechanisms. The first injector pair are positioned on a first track and the second pair are positioned on a second track. The tubing injector provides redundancy to address safety concerns. The first injector pair is movable to the engaged position, when the second injector pair is moved to the disengaged position and vice versa.
US09416598B2
To protect a hydraulic, electric and/or other conduit in an annular space around a well casing against damage from perforating and other well operations the conduit is arranged in a groove in a U- or V-shaped protective gutter, which is secured to the outer surface of the well casing and which is capable of deflecting a shaped charge.
US09416597B2
Bearing assemblies for downhole tools include a compensator member operatively associated with a slidable member and a bearing member. The slidable member is movable longitudinally relative to the bearing member. Such movement of slidable member occurs when a force acts upwardly on the downhole tool. Thus, the slidable member facilitates absorption of the upward force acting on the downhole tool. During movement of the slidable member, the compensator member is moved from its expanded position to one of its plurality of compressed positions. As a result, the compensator member becomes biased or further biased toward the expanded position. After the upward force dissipates, the compensator member releases some of its stored energy to move from a compressed position toward the expanded position. Longitudinal movement of the slidable member facilitates maintaining engagement of the downhole tool in its working position so that interruptions of operations are minimized.
US09416594B2
A system and method is provided for drilling a wellbore including a rotary drill bit with a bit body having a plurality of mechanical cutters to cut away formation material as the wellbore is formed; and a directed energy mechanism to direct energy into the formation such that energy from the directed energy mechanism causes fracturing of surrounding material to facilitate drilling in the direction of the directed energy. The energy from the directed energy mechanism is used to enhance the cutting of the mechanical cutters by fracturing surrounding material to facilitate drilling in the direction of the directed energy.
US09416593B2
A percussion drilling assembly includes a housing with a hammer bit disposed in the lower end portion thereof and configured to move longitudinally within the housing. The hammer bit includes an annular bit shank having a bit strike face and a cutting structure at a lower end portion thereof. An annular piston having a piston strike face arranged and designed to strike the bit strike face is also disposed in the housing. At least one of the bit strike face and the piston strike face has a toroidal curvature profile. A method includes one or more of lowering the percussion drilling assembly into a borehole, engaging the cutting structure with a formation, and impacting the bit strike face of the annular bit shank with the piston strike face of the annular piston.
US09416592B2
A downhole tool includes a tool body, stator, and rotor. The tool body is aligned along a tool centerline and includes an aperture therethrough operable to pass a fluid to an exterior of the body. The stator is fixed relative to the tool body and includes a fluid flow restriction operable to pass at least a portion of the fluid from an interior of the stator to the exterior of the body at an adjustable flow rate. The rotor is disposed within the tool body and rotatable relative to the stator and includes an exhaust port selectively aligned with at least one aperture through the tool body by rotation of the rotor relative to the stator. The exhaust port is operable to pass at least a portion of the fluid from an interior of the rotor to the exterior of the body when aligned with the aperture.
US09416587B2
A unitary assembly for an architectural fenestration, providing dynamic solar heat gain control, which (1) provides a track-based frame structure/blind combination in which the blind is self-correcting should the blind material fall outside of the track; (2) provides directional shading, where the assembly provides for dynamically controlling the amount of light allowed to reach the heat storage unit; (3) provides a blind motor without limiter switches and with a quick-release slip-ring; and (4) provides a heat storage unit which is a thermally efficient, transparent and translucent structure, with which gain from sunny winter days is greater than nighttime loss, so as to provide supplemental heat.
US09416585B2
The present invention relates to a door skin comprising an exterior surface having outer portions lying on a first plane, spaced grooves recessed from the plane of the outer portions, and tonal portions having a planar area and a plurality of spaced depressions recessed from the plane of said planar area. The present invention is also directed to a method of etching a plate, for use with a molded die set, for embossing a wood grain pattern in the door skin, and the etched plate formed therefrom.
US09416578B2
Disclosed is a door closer that can easily adjust the spring force of a return spring. A piston 2 moves toward a first oil chamber 15 upon a door opening operation and moves toward a second oil chamber 16 upon a door closing operation. A return spring 50 is located on the same line as the piston 2. The return spring 50 is interposed between a spring retaining seat on a fixed side close to a main shaft 3 and a spring retaining seat on a moving side distant from the main shaft 3. The return spring 50 is compressed by the spring retaining seat on the moving side moving closer to the spring retaining seat on the fixed side upon the door opening operation and then stores the closing force. The door closer includes a spring force adjustment mechanism configured to change the position of a spring retaining member 40, which has the spring retaining seat on the fixed side, in the axial direction of the piston 2 with respect to the main body housing 1, and configured to adjust the spring force of the return spring 50 by changing the position of the spring retaining member 40 through an operation from the outside of the main body housing 1.
