US09485443B2
An image pickup circuit including a plurality of circuit blocks. Each of the plurality of circuit blocks includes a plurality of comparing elements, a single counter, and a plurality of storage units. Each of the comparing elements compares a pixel signal supplied through a vertical signal line connected to vertically aligned pixels in a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix, and a slope signal whose voltage is changed from an initial voltage at a constant slope. The counter counts an elapsed time since a voltage of the slope signal starts to change from the initial voltage. Each of the storage units stores a count value obtained by the counter in accordance with a comparison result of the comparator, the count value corresponding to an elapsed time until the voltage of the slope signal is changed from the initial voltage to a voltage coinciding with the pixel signal.
US09485441B2
Disclosed are an image sensor and a camera apparatus having the same. The image sensor includes first to fourth color pixel patterns. Each of the first and fourth color pixel patterns includes a plurality of color pixels, and each of the second and third color pixel patterns includes one of a red pixel and a blue pixel. The camera apparatus not only reproduces 3D image data, but also realize high resolution.
US09485438B2
An image detection unit extracts image feature values from images of each camera. An image conversion unit computes a blend rate according to the image feature values and composites an image of a superposition area wherein a plurality of camera images overlap. An assessment is made of a correspondence of the image feature values of each image in the superposition area, and a determination is made that a solid object is present if the correlation is weak. Furthermore, a determination is made that the solid object is present in the superposition area if the image feature values in each image have locationally overlapping portions. In such a circumstance, the image is composited with the blend rate of the image with a greater image feature value set large.
US09485431B2
An image capturing apparatus includes an image capturing unit configured to capture an image of a subject to generate image data; a detachable display unit configured to display the image data generated by the image capturing unit; a wireless communication unit configured to connect with a second device including the display unit via wireless communication; a detection unit configured to detect attachment/detachment of the display unit; and a control unit configured to control the wireless communication unit in order that connection to one of the display unit and the second device is given priority depending on the attachment/detachment of the display unit detected by the detection unit.
US09485426B2
A moving picture processing device detects a predetermined feature point existing in a frame of a moving picture, identifies a position of the frame, in which a changing state of the detected feature point in the moving picture shows a predetermined changing state, and causes the predetermined changing state, as a condition to identify the position of the frame, to be common to other moving pictures.
US09485421B2
A method and an apparatus for operating a camera function in a portable terminal are provided. State information representing at least one of a direction and a rotation state of the portable terminal is obtained, and at least one of a sequence of reading an image from a camera sensor and an appropriate user interface is determined depending on the state information. Thus, the camera function is performed depending on the determined sequence or user interface.
US09485420B2
An image capture system and method wherein an image capture device has a plurality of virtual image capture devices and is configured to capture images according to a selected virtual image capture device. The selection of virtual image capture devices may vary with time, the number of images taken, or the occurrence of certain events. Images may be communicated over a data link to one or more processors, which may display the images to users. Users may add, edit or delete profiles, causing corresponding changes to virtual imaging devices. Virtual image capture devices may communicate with each other and may be configured to capture images based on analysis of images taken by other virtual capture devices.
US09485419B2
An image capture accelerator performs accelerated processing of image data. In one embodiment, the image capture accelerator includes accelerator circuitry including a pre-processing engine and a compression engine. The pre-processing engine is configured to perform accelerated processing on received image data, and the compression engine is configured to compress processed image data received from the pre-processing engine. In one embodiment, the image capture accelerator further includes a demultiplexer configured to receive image data captured by an image sensor array implemented within, for example, an image sensor chip. The demultiplexer may output the received image data to an image signal processor when the image data is captured by the image sensor array in a standard capture mode, and may output the received image data to the accelerator circuitry when the image data is captured by the image sensor array in an accelerated capture mode.
US09485412B2
A device uses a pressure-sensing touch screen to detect the pressure from a touch input on the touch screen. Based on whether the pressure is greater than a predetermined pressure value or not, and the type of the touch input, various picture-taking operations are performed.
US09485411B2
Processing for pressing a shortcut key to close a menu and processing for pressing the same shortcut key to enter a specific menu are made compatible. A specific menu among hierarchical menus including a plurality of menus for making a setting or an operation instruction about a display control apparatus is assigned to a specific operation unit. If the specific operation unit is operated when the specific menu is displayed, display of the menu is cleared. If the specific operation unit is operated when a menu different from the specific menu and a menu one level above the specific menu is displayed, the specific menu is displayed.
US09485407B2
A method of capturing images includes the following steps of: providing a camera module including an image capture unit, a liquid lens unit, and an image process unit; capturing a clear image through the camera module; enlarging the camera's relative aperture to create a shallow depth-of-field; adjusting the focal plane of the liquid lens unit to analyze object depth information in the clear image; and adding or storing the depth information of the object to the clear image.
US09485403B2
A system and method is disclosed for enabling user friendly interaction with a camera system. Specifically, the inventive system and method has several aspects to improve the interaction with a camera system, including voice recognition, gaze tracking, touch sensitive inputs and others. The voice recognition unit is operable for, among other things, receiving multiple different voice commands, recognizing the vocal commands, associating the different voice commands to one camera command and controlling at least some aspect of the digital camera operation in response to these voice commands. The gaze tracking unit is operable for, among other things, determining the location on the viewfinder image that the user is gazing upon. One aspect of the touch sensitive inputs provides that the touch sensitive pad is mouse-like and is operable for, among other things, receiving user touch inputs to control at least some aspect of the camera operation. Another aspect of the disclosed invention provides for gesture recognition to be used to interface with and control the camera system.
US09485400B2
A camera module including an objective lens housing with an optical system, an image sensor chip with wire bonding connections, and a printed circuit board for contacting the image sensor chip. The printed circuit board is designed with wire bonding areas to which the wire bonding connections of the image sensor chip are connected, and the assembly made up of the image sensor chip and the printed circuit board is designed in such a manner that the image sensor chip is focus-adjusted to the optical system by changing its position relative to the printed circuit board taking advantage of the flexibility of the wire bonding connections of the image sensor chip. The invention further relates to a method of manufacturing the camera module.
US09485387B2
An arrangement drawing creation system includes: a portable apparatus carried by an arrangement drawing creator; and a server. The portable apparatus includes: a first communication processing portion communicates with the server and a target apparatus; an acquisition processing portion acquires a device ID from the target apparatus; a generation processing portion generates a device icon; a display processing portion displays the generated device icon and a layout drawing; an operation input processing portion accepts an instruction of moving a position of the device icon; and a registration processing portion registers the changed position of the device icon in the server. The server includes: a second communication processing portion communicates with the portable apparatus; and a storage portion stores the layout drawing and the arrangement drawing.
US09485384B2
A mobile terminal and controlling method thereof are disclosed. The present invention discloses that an audio of an audio file linked to an image is outputted in a manner of being amplified centering on a subject in the image, whereby a user can be provided with a further emotionally visual/auditory image viewer environment.
US09485379B2
Provided is an image forming apparatus that speeds up starting. The image forming apparatus is provided with a main storage part and an auxiliary storage part. A boot loader that is stored in the auxiliary storage part is expanded to the main storage part. The boot loader that has been expanded is executed to generate a defective area table for the auxiliary storage part. When a kernel of an OS that is stored in the auxiliary storage part is expanded, the kernel is caused to be referred the defective area table that has been generated. When the kernel is executed, the defective area table is not generated. Thereby, the defective area table generated by the boot loader can be used by the OS, which allows the boot time to be shortened.
US09485374B2
An image forming apparatus reducing number of control signals in detecting nth connection stage of a paper feed cassette unit piled up, and increases noise resistance. It includes a main body part and a paper feed cassette unit that can be piled up in plural stages under main body part. Main body part has a start control line transmitting a start signal; a ready control line transmitting a ready signal; and a main body side control part generating start signal and detects nth connection stage of paper feed cassette unit on number of times of ready signal. Paper feed cassette unit has a cassette side control part delaying start signal inputted from an upper stage through start control line to output it to a lower stage, and while delaying start signal, generating a ready signal to output it toward ready control line to upper stage.
US09485372B2
An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit that forms an image on a recording sheet, an image formation control unit that controls an operation of the image forming unit, a visible image forming unit that forms a visible image in air, a display control unit that controls an operation of the visible image forming unit, to cause the visible image forming unit to form a visible image representing a display screen containing a preview of an image to be formed, and a reception unit that receives an operation of a user performed in the air on the display screen formed as visible image by the visible image forming unit. The display control unit eliminates, when the reception unit receives a predetermined operation of the user, an image in an area designated by the predetermined operation of the user from the preview of the image to be formed.
US09485366B2
Methods and systems for communicating sensor data on a mobile device are described. An example method involves receiving, by a processor and from an inertial measurement unit (IMU), sensor data corresponding to a first timeframe, and storing the sensor data using a data buffer. The processor may also receive image data and sensor data corresponding to a second timeframe. The processor may then generate a digital image that includes at least the image data corresponding to the second timeframe and the sensor data corresponding to the first timeframe and the second timeframe. The processor may embed the stored sensor data corresponding to the first timeframe and the second timeframe in pixels of the digital image. And the processor may provide the digital image to an application processor of the mobile device.
US09485364B2
Method of displaying icons according to service usage states and mobile terminal supporting the same
A method and apparatus for displaying icons according to data communication service usage states are provided. The method includes collecting information on the remaining service amount for at least one service having a service usage limit; and displaying a color adjusted icon based on the remaining service amount.
US09485363B1
In testing a computerized analysis of communication data, a uniform random time interval is generated to provide an incremental value of time for each communication, between a plurality of communication devices via one or more intermediate transmission devices. For each communication, the identifier for the communication device originating that communication, the identifier for the communication device receiving that communication, and the identifiers for the intermediate transmission devices associated with the originating communication device and the receiving communication device are determined. A communication data set including the time value, the determined communication devices, and the determined intermediate transmission devices of each communication is produced and applied to the computerized analysis of communication data. One or more errors are determined in the computerized analysis based on processing of the communication data set.
US09485358B2
An information acquisition method includes establishing a data channel with a telephone agent system when a voice call is conducted with the telephone agent system, displaying an information acquisition page provided by the telephone agent system through the data channel, receiving feedback information via the information acquisition page, and sending the feedback information to the telephone agent system through the data channel.
US09485356B1
A method and apparatus of applying user profile information to a customized application are disclosed. One example method of operation may include receiving an inquiry from a user device at a customer call center server and identifying and authorizing the user from the received inquiry. The method may also provide retrieving a user profile from memory that includes history information based on previous interactions between the user device and the customer call center server and calculating a prediction as to a purpose for the inquiry. The prediction may be based on user profile history, social networking profile information, recent transactions, etc. The method may also provide transmitting a response to the inquiry based on the calculated prediction.
US09485349B2
A communication terminal includes: a display, an input device for accepting a first operation instruction; a communication device for connection with a server and another terminal; and a control unit for receiving first contents from the server via the communication device according to the first operation instruction, determining whether connection with another terminal is established or not, transmitting the first contents to another terminal via the communication device when a determination is made that connection with another terminal is established, and causing the display to show the first contents.
US09485342B2
According to the presently disclosed subject matter there is provided a wireless device system-architecture and a wireless device including a plurality of functional layers each of the functional layers comprising one or more respective layer elements where the plurality of functional layers being operatively connected and ordered as a cascade of functional layers for data-transfer from one layer to its one or more adjacent functional layers. The architecture further includes one or more matrix-switches, each matrix-switch operatively connected between each two functional layers in the cascade of functional layers. A matrix-switch controller is operable to determine at least two processing routes for data-transfer from at least one layer element in one functional layer, to at least one layer element in a second functional layer, wherein each of the at least two processing routes is associated with a different application processor layer element and wherein data is being transmitted via the at least two processing routes, in the same direction, substantially at the same time.
US09485340B2
A telephone station apparatus that is arranged to operate on two, or more, communication lines, receives an instruction to access a voicemail server. The telephone station apparatus switches from a first communication line to a second communication line and initiates a call to the voicemail server. At the voicemail server, calling line identification allows the voicemail server to present an interface to the voicemail box associated with the second communication line.
US09485339B2
A method for operating a mobile device includes, in response to receiving a swipe gesture via a user interface of the mobile device, displaying a balance of a prepaid wireless service account on a display of the mobile device. The balance may be displayed in a currency such as monetary currency or a proprietary currency such as minutes or credits provided by a wireless service provider. The method may also include displaying an expiration time to identity a time remaining until the balance expires. The method may also include generating a balance request including a request for the balance of the prepaid wireless service account from a prepaid billing system in response to receiving the swipe gesture, transmitting the balance request to the prepaid billing system, and receiving the balance in response to the balance request.
US09485337B2
A mobile terminal device in which a speaker sound hole is arranged sufficiently apart from a receiver sound hole is provided. A mobile terminal device according to one exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a housing; a first display means that is arranged on a side of a first principal surface in the housing ; a second display means that is arranged on a side of a second principal surface opposite to the first principal surface in the housing; a receiver sound hole that is formed on the first principal surface of the housing; a receiver that is fixed in the housing; and a speaker sound hole that is formed on a side surface of the housing opposite to the receiver sound hole with the first display means interposed therebetween; and a speaker that is fixed in the housing.
US09485336B2
A waterproof structure includes a body member, a lid member that includes a waterproof member that inhibits water from entering through the opening, a guide member and in which a shaft hole including a circular hole portion and a long hole portion communicating with the circular hole portion is formed, a shaft section that is provided in the lid member, is supported in the shaft hole, is rotated inside the circular hole portion, is regulated in the rotation thereof inside the long hole portion, and is guided to the body member side, a first biasing section that biases the shaft section in a removing direction away from the body member, a second biasing section that biases the shaft section in a rotation direction, and a locking member that locks the lid member to the body member in a state where the waterproof member inhibits water from entering through the opening.
US09485325B2
A utility company may schedule when and how endpoints report resource consumption data based on relative priorities of endpoints or the customers associated therewith. By associating endpoints with one of multiple different quality of service (QoS) levels, and sending each endpoint a reporting schedule based on its respective QoS level, the utility company may configure prioritized reporting of resource consumption data by endpoints of an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) with automatic meter reading (AMR).
US09485320B1
One embodiment provides a system for monitoring and controlling an online profile of a user. In response to receiving a data request from the user to access a first web site, the system forwards the data request and desired persona scores to an intelligence service system, receives a list of other web sites from the intelligence service system, and counteracts the user's access to the first web site by spawning multiple threads in accordance with the list received. The multiple threads spawned are transparent to the user. Further, the system alters an original data post submission from the user based on a desired translation option, maps the altered data post submission to a first key, and posts the altered data post submission to a target web site. The original data post submission is viewable only by the user and other users with the first key.
US09485316B2
Various user behaviors are passively monitored and recorded when a user/viewer interacts with a network video player, e.g. a web video player, while watching an online video clip. For one embodiment, a data collection agent (DCA) is loaded to the player and/or to a web page that displays the video clip. The DCA passively collects detailed viewing and behavior information without requiring any specific input or actions on the part of the user. Indications of user preferences are inferred by user actions leading up to viewing the video, while viewing the video, and just after and still related to viewing the video. The DCA periodically sends this information to a central server where it is stored in a central database and where it is used to determine preference similarities among different users. Recorded user preference information may also be used to rate a video itself.
US09485314B2
An improved system and method for defining an event based upon an object location and a user-defined zone and managing the conveyance of object location event information among computing devices where object location events are defined in terms of a condition based upon a relationship between user-defined zone information and object location information. One or more location information sources are associated with an object to provide the object location information. One or more user-defined zones are defined on a map and one or more object location events are defined. The occurrence of an object location event produces object location event information that is conveyed to users based on user identification codes. Accessibility to object location information, zone information, and object location event information is based upon an object location information access code, a zone information access code, and an object location event information access code, respectively.
US09485310B1
A multi-core processor of a network attached storage system processes requests from host computers for services of a file system service. Each core maintains endpoints of respective connection-layer connections to the hosts to affine respective streams of network traffic with the core, and dynamically and preferentially assigns execution threads of the core to process file system service requests of the streams affined with the core. Each core also co-operates with the other cores to dynamically and non-preferentially (a) assign execution threads of the core to process file system service requests of the streams affined with the other cores, and (b) assign execution threads of the other cores to process file system service requests of the streams affined with the core, promoting efficient use of the cores for the processing workload of the file system service.
US09485304B2
Streaming assets to an asset streaming client is described. An asset streaming system is configured to generate a request to retrieve at least a portion of an asset. The asset streaming system is part of an asset streaming client and integrated in an operating system abstraction level with the operating system or in an abstraction level beneath the operating system abstraction level. An asset provider system can receive the request that is generated by the asset streaming system and provide the portion of the asset to the asset streaming system. The asset streaming client can then exploit the portion of the asset.
US09485302B2
A user information management method for a hub server connected to a terminal and service provider server, the method including registering user information for the terminal or the service provider server, receiving history information including data created by a user from the registered terminal or the registered service provider server, storing integrated history information obtained by sorting the received history information based on the user information, and transmitting the integrated history information in response to an integrated history information request message received from the registered terminal. Thus, the user can check the functions executed by the terminals owned by the user in an integrated manner and the data generated by multiple diverse terminals and service provider servers are managed in an efficient and integrated manner.
US09485288B2
There is provided a peer-to-peer communication method in a content centric network environment. In embodiments, the peer-to-peer communication method in a content centric network (hereinafter referred to as a “CCN”) environment includes, receiving, by a CCN router, a join message including a desired service name of a user node from the user node, transmitting, by the CCN router, the join message to a rendezvous point mapped to the service name and forming a share tree, receiving, by the CCN router, a content request message including a name of content that is provided through the service from the user node, and transmitting, by the CCN router, the content request message through an interface connected to the share tree.
US09485287B2
A method of indicating bit stream subsets in a video bit stream (210) is provided. The method comprises receiving the bit stream, dividing the bit stream into video packets (211-216), wherein each packet comprises either one of video data or supplemental information, and marking each packet with a single subset identifier (stream_id). Each subset identifier is associated with a corresponding bit stream subset (221-223). Further, a method of extracting video packets from a video bit stream is provided. The method comprises providing relevant subset identifiers, receiving video packets from the bit stream, and, for each received packet, inspecting the subset identifier of the packet. The packet is extracted if the subset identifier matches one of the relevant subset identifiers. This allows condensing properties of a bit stream subset into a single identifier, thereby simplifying the processing of video packets in the network and on the client side. Further, devices corresponding to the aforementioned methods are provided.
US09485283B2
A method and device are provided for creating and utilizing a database which enables ascribing a plurality of communication addresses to each of a plurality of users' entries comprised therein, and wherein each of the plurality of communication addresses is associated with a different communication application, allowing a user who wishes to communicate with another user while applying a certain communication application, to communicate with that other user who uses a different communication application.
US09485279B2
An access control rule authorizing communication between a plurality of managed servers within an administrative domain is determined. Communication information describing past communication between the plurality of managed servers is obtained. A subset of managed servers from the plurality of managed servers is identified by grouping the plurality of managed servers based on the obtained communication information. A group-level label set is determined to associate with the subset of managed servers. Role labels are determined for managed servers in the subset of managed servers. A managed server is associated with one role label. Based on the group-level label set and the role labels, an access control rule is generated authorizing communication between a first managed server of the subset of managed servers and a second managed server. The access control rule is stored as part of an administrative domain-wide management policy.
US09485271B1
A computer-implemented method for anomaly-based detection of compromised information technology (IT) administration accounts may (1) include establishing a set of permissible IT administration tasks for an IT administration account, (2) monitoring the IT administration account for activities outside the set of permissible IT administration tasks, (3) detecting a suspicious activity by identifying an activity that is outside the set of permissible IT administration tasks and therefore indicative of the IT administration account being compromised, and (4) in response to detecting the suspicious activity, performing a security action with respect to the potentially compromised IT administration account. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US09485270B2
A security device may receive, from a server device, a response to a request. The request may be provided by an attacker device and may include a plurality of input values. The security device may determine the plurality of input values, included in the request, based on receiving the response. The security device may modify the response to form a modified response. The response may be modified to include information associated with the plurality of input values. The response may be modified in an attempt to prevent the attacker device from identifying a vulnerability, associated with the server device, based on the plurality of input values being included in the response. The security device may provide the modified response to the attacker device.
US09485261B2
A method, device and system for network security protection comprise: according to a received scan task, a network security device performs a security bug scan of the scan task appointed web site, and when a scan result is obtained, transmits the scan result to a network application firewall, so that the network application firewall can configure a individuality security strategy for the web site according to the received scan result. The problem that it can not he implemented complete individuality security configuration of the web site can be solved in this way.
US09485256B1
Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method, computer program product, and system for authenticating a user. The application server receives a user log in request and determines if a unique identification accompanies the received user log in request. The application server uses the unique identification to authenticate the identity of the user. The application server determines if the unique identification has been previously received by searching a first database to see if the unique identification was already stored in the first database. If the unique identification is not in the first database then the application server stores the unique identification and grants the user access to the one or more applications hosted on the application server.
US09485248B2
Credentials sent over a back channel during the authentication of a user to a RESTful service can elevate the trust the recipient system can place in the user's identity. The addition of an identity credential of higher strength can increase confidence in user identities electronically presented with a lower strength credential. Attributes from either credential can be used to determine authorization to a protected resource.
US09485240B2
The present invention discloses a multi-account login method and apparatus. Herein, the multi-account login method comprises: opening a temporary webpage window in a browser according to a multi-account login instruction; creating a Cookie for the temporary webpage window, wherein the Cookie is independent of a global Cookie of the browser; and performing multi-account login by using the temporary webpage window. By means of this application, it is convenient for a multi-account user to use a browser, thereby improving the use experience of the multi-account user in using the browser.
US09485238B2
Methods and apparatus for preventing unauthorized access to online content, including in particular streaming video and other media, are provided. In various embodiments, techniques are provided to authorize users and to authenticate clients (e.g., client media players) to a content delivery system. The content delivery system may comprise a content delivery network with one or more content or “edge” servers therein. The requesting client is sent a program at the time of content delivery. The program may be embedded in the content stream, or sent outside of the stream. The program contains instructions that are executed by the client and cause it to return identifying information to the content delivery system, which can then determine whether the client player is recognized and, if so, authorized to view the content. Unrecognized and/or altered players may be prevented from viewing the content.
US09485232B2
A user equipment in a communications system, the user equipment comprising: a memory arranged to store at least one identifier associated with the user equipment; a transceiver arranged to communicate with a node in the communication system, wherein the transceiver is arranged to receive the at least one identifier from the node in the communications system, wherein the at least one identifier is used by the user equipment to authenticate the user equipment to at least one further node in the communications system.
US09485231B1
A secure connection between a user mobile device and a “Internet-of-Things” network-connected device (e.g., a home appliance or a vehicle) may be provided using an internet gateway residing in the public internet and a local gateway residing in a private network behind a firewall. The user device may receive an input through a software application and may generate an electronic instruction based on the input. The user device may then encrypt the electronic instruction and send the encrypted electronic instruction to the internet gateway over a secure connection (e.g., SSH, TLS). The internet gateway then sends the encrypted electronic instruction to the local gateway, which decrypts the encrypted electronic instruction, interprets it, and generates and transmits a device instruction to communicate with the network-connected device, either directly or through an intermediary device such as a third-party bridge or hub. Only the user device and local gateway have encryption/decryption keys.
US09485223B2
Trust between entities participating in an upgrade or enablement/disablement process is established and, to facilitate this remotely and securely, a highly tamper resistant point of trust in the system that is being produced is used. This point of trust enables a more efficient distribution system to be used. Through either a provisioning process or at later stages, i.e. subsequent to installation, manufacture, assembly, sale, etc.; the point of trust embodied as a feature controller on the device or system being modified is given a feature set (or updated feature set) that, when validated, is used to enable or disable entire features or to activate portions of the feature.
US09485220B2
In particular embodiments, a method includes determining a data flow rate of the active connections at a proxy, comparing the data flow rate to a first pre-determined threshold value, and, when the data flow rate exceeds the first pre-determined threshold value, creating one or more new processing threads associated with the proxy.
US09485217B2
A method for configuring network nodes of a telecommunications network includes configuring a remote network node of a plurality of remote network nodes based on a first set of configuration parameters; authenticating the remote network node based on an encryption information obtained from an encryption information infrastructure; configuring a firewall entity of a plurality of firewall entities based on a second set of configuration parameters, wherein the configuration of the firewall entity is initiated by the remote network node based on an initial configuration message being sent directly or indirectly from the remote network node to the firewall entity; and authenticating the configuration of the firewall entity based on the encryption information of the remote network node, the encryption information being obtained by the firewall entity directly or indirectly from the remote network node with the initial configuration message.
US09485216B1
An intrusion detection system is described that is capable of applying a plurality of stacked (layered) application-layer decoders to extract encapsulated application-layer data from a tunneled packet flow produced by multiple applications operating at the application layer, or layer seven (L7), of a network stack. In this was, the IDS is capable of performing application identification and decoding even when one or more software applications utilize other software applications as for data transport to produce packet flow from a network device. The protocol decoders may be dynamically swapped, reused and stacked (layered) when applied to a given packet or packet flow.
US09485213B2
What is described is a system and method providing an improved customer experience for the registrant. The registrant is able to use a single interface and a single set of user inputs to bring about changes for multiple domain names. The single interaction with the single interface works out just as well and just as conveniently regardless of whether a single registrar happens to be handling all of the domain names, or whether each domain name is handled by a different registrar.
US09485210B2
A parent social network based on relationship of children, including of activities, needs, interests or combinations thereof, is described. The parent social network can identify at least two minors with a common activity, need, interest or combination thereof, identify an adult responsible for the identified minors; and propose to link the identified adults. The parent social network can also provide post and other data to a parent based on interests and activities of a child. The parent social network can also identify and subscribe the parent to relevant children related calendars. The parent social network can allow effective communication between relevant parents using messaging and other means.
US09485192B2
In one example, a method includes receiving, by a service node, a request from an access node to establish a pseudowire to be used for sending subscriber traffic to the service node for application of services to the subscriber traffic at the service node, and, in response to receiving the request, sending a request message from the service node to a central server requesting both subscriber authentication and assignment of a forwarding component of the service node to which to anchor the pseudowire. The method also includes receiving, by the service node and from the central server, an authentication message in response to the request message, wherein the authentication message confirms subscriber authentication and indicates a forwarding component of the service node to which the service node should anchor the pseudowire.
US09485191B2
A high-performance, scalable and drop-free data center switch fabric and infrastructure is described. The data center switch fabric may leverage low cost, off-the-shelf packet-based switching components (e.g., IP over Ethernet (IPoE)) and overlay forwarding technologies rather than proprietary switch fabric. In one example, host network accelerators (HNAs) are positioned between servers (e.g., virtual machines or dedicated servers) of the data center and an IPoE core network that provides point-to-point connectivity between the servers. The HNAs are hardware devices that embed virtual routers on one or more integrated circuits, where the virtual router are configured to extend the one or more virtual networks to the virtual machines and to seamlessly transport packets over the switch fabric using an overlay network. In other words, the HNAs provide hardware-based, seamless access interfaces to overlay technologies used for communicating packet flows through the core switching network of the data center.
US09485189B2
A transfer device allocates, within the range of the maximum communication band of a network that a plurality of groups of applications use in common, a communication band equal to or larger than the minimum band for each of the groups. Furthermore, the transfer device converts, within a communication band allocated to each group, TCP data received from a transmission source of data to UDP data, transfers the UDP data to a transmission destination, and retransmits retransmission data in response to a retransmission request of the UDP data.
US09485183B2
A packet distribution scheme for forwarding incoming packets to servers in a network. Depending on a hash value of the incoming flow's identification parameters, a hash flow table or database is queried to determine the server to which the packet is to be forwarded. If multiple flows have the same hash index and are associated with different servers, a secondary flow table or database is queried for determining the server. In an example implementation, only the secondary flow table is configured to store fully qualified flow identification parameters whereas the hash flow table is operative to store reduced or compressed state information.
US09485179B2
A network switch comprises a packet processing pipeline including a plurality of packet processing clusters configured to process a received packet through multiple packet processing stages based on table search/lookup results. The network switch further includes a plurality of search logic units each corresponding one of the plurality of packet processing clusters, wherein each of the search logic units is configured to convert a unified search request of a table from its corresponding packet processing cluster to a plurality table search commands specific to one or more memory clusters that maintain the table, provide the plurality table search commands specific to the memory clusters in parallel and collect and provide the table search results from the memory clusters to the corresponding packet processing cluster. The network switch further includes said one or more memory clusters configured to maintain the table to be searched, search the table in parallel according to the plurality table search commands from the search logic unit, and process and provide the table search results to the search logic unit.
US09485176B2
Data is transferred. A data packet associated with an application flow is received. A Pseudowire label is determined based at least in part on an application header associated with the data packet. The data packet is encapsulated with the Pseudowire label. The data packet is transferred over a Pseudowire using the Pseudowire label.
US09485175B2
A Continuity Check (CC) protocol optimization method in a switch includes operating a plurality of CC sessions with a peer switch, wherein, for CC intervals, N sessions of the plurality CC sessions are set to a short interval and M sessions of the plurality of CC sessions are set to a long interval, wherein N and M are integers; switching a first session of the N sessions with a second session of the M sessions based on one of a fault and user provisioning; and exchanging the CC intervals between the first session and the second session subsequent to the switching.
US09485174B2
In one embodiment, an intermediate node of a computer network can receive a message intended for a destination. The message can include a header indicating a source route. The intermediate node can determine a routing entry for a routing entry for the destination associated with a next hop based on the source route and cache the routing entry. The intermediate node can further receive a second message intended for the destination that does not indicate the next hop, and transmit the second message according to the cached routing entry.
US09485173B2
A method and system implemented by a network device, where the network device is in a network having a plurality of nodes. The method computes a loop free alternative (LFA) next hop as a backup for a primary path next hop for intermediate system-intermediate system (IS-IS). The method improves LFA computation efficiency by minimizing expansion of prefixes. The method includes expanding all prefixes of the next LFA shortest path first (SPF) destination node and inheriting a next candidate next hop as a current LFA next hop where the next candidate next hop provides link or node protection and better protection than the current LFA next hop.
US09485171B2
Methods and apparatus for optimizing fault synchronization in a bidirectional data network are provided. In an example, a downstream endpoint of the data network receives a first Alarm Indication Signal (AIS). The first AIS indicates a first FLI of an upstream interface having an interface fault. The downstream endpoint transmits, to an upstream endpoint of the data network, a second AIS including a Remote Defect Indication (RDI) and a second FLI identifying the downstream endpoint. An upstream endpoint of the data network receives the second AIS and determines that the AIS is an AIS-RDI (AIS-RDI) from the presence of the second FLI. The presence of the AIS-RDI triggers the upstream endpoint to initiate tunnel failure synchronization with the downstream endpoint.
US09485170B2
Systems and methods for fractional routing are described. An exemplary method may include receiving, by a first router, data information regarding routing by a first portion of a third router, receiving, by a second router, data information regarding routing by a second portion of a third router, wherein the data information regarding routing by the first portion and data information regarding routing by the second portion is not the same, routing, by the first router, data associated with the routing by the first portion of the third router, and routing by the second router, data associated with the routing by the second portion of the third router.
US09485169B2
Systems and methods for performing routing are described. For each of a plurality of messages transmitted over a primary route, a message transmission indication is received by an application. The application further receives, for at least one of the messages, a conversion indication that is based on the transmitted message. The quality of the primary route is determined based on a subset or all of the transmission indications and a subset or all of the conversion indications. Based on this determination, an alternate route is selected to replace the primary route.
US09485159B1
Techniques are described for managing network services deployed in a network using a rules engine with on-demand dependency insertion. A network service manager may use a rules engine to monitor a network service at network devices in order to detect a device-level event, and determine a service-level impact of the detected event based on network service rules and dependencies. The dependencies define links between the device-level event and actions triggered by the device-level event. According to the techniques, a rules engine is configured to detect a device-level event and, in response, insert only those dependencies associated with the detected device-level event into a working memory. Once the device-level event has been cleared, the dependencies related to the device-level event are removed from the working memory. The working memory, therefore, will include only the dependencies needed to determine service-level impacts of currently detected device-level events.
US09485151B2
A method is described for performing system management operations on at least one target endpoint data processing apparatus of a distributed data processing system including a system management server adapted to the centralized system management of the endpoints of the distributed data processing system. The method comprises: at the system management server, receiving a system management activities plan including at least one system management activity to be performed on the at least one target endpoint; having the system management server executing the system management activities plan, wherein the executing the plan includes performing the at least one system management activity. Prior to executing the corresponding system management activity, having the system management server cause the execution, on the at least one target endpoint, of a simulated system management activity corresponding to and adapted to simulate the at least one system management activity in the plan so as to ascertain a capability of the at least one target endpoint of successfully executing the system management activity on the at least one target endpoint; and having the system management server execute the system management activity conditionally to a result of the execution of the simulated system management activity. Preferably, a selected corrective activity may be performed to remove the cause of the negative result of the simulated system management activity.
US09485150B2
An apparatus and method are disclosed for fast reroute (FRR) for native segment routing (SR) traffic. In one embodiment, a node receives a packet that includes a segment routing (SR) segment identifier (ID) stack. The node determines what type of segment is designated as the active segment in the segment ID stack. Based, at least in part on the type of active segment, the node selects an update routine out of several possible update routines and performs the selected update routine. The update routine modifies the segment ID stack.
US09485140B2
The proxy settings for a browser are modified to route public Internet traffic through a local client assistant, while keeping previous proxy policies intact. The process compares the previous proxy results for a known, public Internet address to the previous proxy results for the desired Internet address. If the two proxy results are equivalent, then the request is directed to the local client assistant, otherwise the request is directed according to the previous proxy results. If the testing of the public Internet address had resulted in the use of a proxy, then the local client assistant will route its requests to the proxy so indicated.
US09485139B2
A communication node includes a transmission and receipt setting part configured to perform a transmission setting or a receipt setting for each information based on a transmission request or a receipt request included in a transmission and receipt request information corresponding to a second communication node detected by a communication node detector among the transmission and receipt request information stored in a memory part, a communication part configured to transmit information representing the transmission setting or the receipt setting set by the transmission and receipt setting part and to receive information representing the transmission setting or the receipt setting from another first communication node, and a consistency determining part configured to determine consistency of the transmission setting or the receipt setting set by the transmission and receipt setting part and the transmission setting or the receipt setting received by the communication part from another first communication node.
US09485125B2
Embodiments are directed to a channelizer architecture configured to provide fully configurable frequency spectrum shaping by: establishing a plurality of parameters of the architecture, receiving an input signal, processing, by the architecture, the input signal in accordance with the plurality of parameters to obtain an output signal, analyzing the output signal to detect an object, and modifying the plurality of parameters to account for at least one dynamic condition associated with the object.
US09485122B1
The present invention is directed to data communication systems and methods. In various embodiments, the present invention provides a CML device that changes output frequency response by varying resistance values of its load resistance and source resistance. A bias control voltage is used to adjust the tail current of the CML device, and the tail current adjusts the output gain of the CML device. There are other embodiments as well.
US09485113B2
A method of providing current operation data for a plurality of data generating components connected to a data communications network. The network may include input units that generate data and subscribing units that require the generated data to function. The generated data may be formatted or processed in a manner so that it can be used by the subscribing units. The formatted and processed data may then be supplied to the subscribing units.
US09485108B2
Embodiments provide bandwidth efficient mechanisms for delivering data to a receiver device via a wireless broadcast network such that data may be assembled in the receiver device for use by a local application. In the various embodiments, data files may be broadcast as content elements via the broadcast network using the FLUTE protocol during a FLUTE session. In an embodiment, the content elements may be broadcast according to a broadcast schedule that may identify a time at which the content elements will be broadcast and the broadcast schedule may be communicated in a file delivery table (FDT) transmitted during a FLUTE session.
US09485090B2
An authoritative computer network (10) comprising: at least one manager user (12); a plurality of subordinate users (14); and access control means adapted to allow the manager user to control access of one or more subordinate users to the authoritative computer network, wherein the authoritative computer network is provided as an overlay network on or within a distributed network (100).
US09485077B2
System and method for energy efficient Ethernet with asymmetric traffic profiles. A low power mode such as a low power idle mode is typically leveraged when both direction of a link do not have data traffic to transmit. Where only one direction of a link has data traffic to transmit, a physical layer device can transition from a full duplex mode to a simplex mode to produce energy savings (e.g., disabling cancellation circuitry).
US09485075B2
A base station (e.g., an evolved Node B) determines whether the physical broadcast channel (PBCH), reference signals (SCH) and common reference signals (CRS) are transmitted (or awaiting transmission) on a secondary component carrier (Scell) with the cell. The determination information is transmitted to a user equipment (UE) to inform the UE that the Scell transmissions do not include PBCH/SCH/CRS. As a result, the resource elements (REs) normally used to carry system information in the PBCH/SCH/CRS can be dynamically assigned (or reassigned) to the data channel. In this manner, the physical downlink shared channel (PBSCH) bandwidth can be increased by utilizing those resource elements that are normally reserved/assigned to the PBCH/SCH/CRS.
US09485073B2
A method and apparatus are provided for transmitting symbols in wireless communication system. A method includes determining a channel quality indicator (CQI) and one or more acknowledgements; generating a first symbol based on the CQI; generating a second symbol based on the one or more acknowledgements; and transmitting the first symbol and the second symbol in a slot. One of a first code and a second code is applied for generating the second symbol, if the one or more acknowledgements is one bit. One of the first code, the second code, a third code, and a fourth code is applied for generating the second symbol, if the one or more acknowledgements are two bits.
US09485072B2
Disclosed is a method for transmitting an ACK/NACK signal for an HARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest) in a CA (Carrier Aggregation) system, the method including obtaining at least one transmission resource among first and second transmission resources; configuring a first table showing a relationship in which a combination of at least one of the first and second transmission resources and modulation symbols is mapped to an ACK/NACK signal, and transmitting modulation symbols corresponding to a transmission target ACK/NACK signal in the first table by using transmission resource corresponding to the transmission target ACK/NACK signal in the first table.
US09485060B2
Methods and systems for transmitting uplink control information and feedback are disclosed for carrier aggregation systems. A user equipment device may be configured to transmit uplink control information and other feedback for several downlink component carriers using one or more uplink component carriers. The user equipment device may be configured to transmit such data using a physical uplink control channel rather than a physical uplink shared channel. The user equipment device may be configured to determine the uplink control information and feedback data that is to be transmitted, the physical uplink control channel resources to be used to transmit the uplink control information and feedback data, and how the uplink control information and feedback data may be transmitted over the physical uplink control channel.
US09485059B2
A method and apparatus according to the present invention addresses and/or prevents lost protocol synchronization in HARQ systems caused by ACK/NACK errors. One embodiment detects lost synchronization errors for NDI-based retransmission protocols and restores synchronization by sending an explicit RESET message. In response to the RESET message, the transmitter aborts the transmission of a current PDU and transmits a new PDU and corresponding NDI. Another embodiment prevents protocol synchronization errors by sending scheduling grants on a packet by packet basis. The receiver sends a subsequent explicit scheduling grant to the transmitter based on an error evaluation of a received PDU. The transmitter will not send the next PDU unless it receives the subsequent explicit scheduling grant.
US09485052B2
A method for detecting control information in a wireless communication system is provided. The method includes checking a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) error by monitoring control channels, determining whether a value of an error check field is equal to a specific value, and, if the value of the error check field is equal to a specific value, detecting the control information on the control channel.
US09485044B2
An electronic service guide (ESG) is provided by transmitting announcements describing multimedia sessions, such as video streams. Sessions are organized into a session directory (28) which is split into two parts: a full session directory (291) and an updated session directory (292). A first kind of announcement describes all sessions in the full session directory. A second kind of announcement describes sessions in the updated session directory. Once a client has received a description of the full session directory, it need only listen to announcements of the second type so as to learn of any updates to sessions.
US09485041B1
An antenna device includes an antenna for receiving an RF signal and generating an antenna signal associated with the RF signal, and a measuring device. The measuring device includes a measurement unit, a processing unit and a display unit. The measurement unit receives the antenna signal, and outputs a voltage signal associated with the antenna signal. The processing unit obtains a strength signal according to the voltage signal. The display unit has a plurality of lighting elements configured to light with different colors, and displays an indication of signal strength of the RF signal according to the strength signal by a number of the lighting elements that emit light and by color of the light.
US09485039B1
Techniques for calibrating interleaved analog-to-digital converter (ADC) arrays are presented. A transceiver comprises an ADC component comprising an array of interleaved sub-ADCs, and an auxiliary path associated with an auxiliary sub-ADC used to facilitate calibrating a sampling array by comparing the auxiliary path signal to signals of the sub-ADCs in the array. A calibration component employs a phase-interpolator and analog delay lines to adjust the auxiliary sub-ADC to enable the auxiliary sub-ADC to be lined up to any one of the sampling instants of the sampling array. The calibration component compares the auxiliary signal to sub-ADC signals, determines path differences between the sub-ADC paths based on the comparison results, and calibrates the sub-ADCs and sub-ADC paths to reduce the path differences to mitigate distortion in a digital stream produced from combining the digital substreams produced by the sub-ADCs in the array.
US09485031B2
The present invention is directed to data communication system and methods. More specifically, various embodiments of the present invention provide a communication interface that is configured to transfer data at high bandwidth using PAM format(s) over optical communication networks. In various embodiments, amplitude and phase of the optical wave are modulated. There are other embodiments as well.
US09485026B2
A scheme is described for remote control of the wavelength of a tunable transmitter in a smart small form-factor pluggable (SFP) transceiver, a smart SFP plus (SFP+) transceiver, a smart 10 gigabit small form-factor pluggable (XFP) transceiver, a smart duplex transceiver, a smart bidirectional (BiDi) transceiver, or a smart single wavelength single fiber (SWSF) BiDi-transceiver in a communication system using an operating system with Operation, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) and Proprietary Protocol (PP) functions; an OAM, PP & Payload Processor; a transceiver; an optical spectrum analyzer; a bit error rate test (BERT); and an optical link in the field.
US09485024B2
An optic distributed system includes a head end unit (HE) comprising a head end radio frequency unit (HRFU), at least one remote unit (RU), a corresponding optic cable connected between the HRFU and the at least one RU, and a controller configured to detect a forward radio frequency (RF) signal received from a base transceiver station (BTS), to perform a system wide commissioning function on the HRFU corresponding to the detection, to perform the system wide commissioning function on the at least one RU in accordance with a signal intensity of the forward RF signal from the HRFU, and to perform the system wide commissioning function on the optic cable to compensate for losses in the optic cable during signal transmissions between the HRFU and the at least one RU.
US09485016B2
A method for testing the operation of an optical fiber cable in a communication network using an optical loss test set (OLTS) instrument includes receiving a range of identifiers of fibers to be tested. Identifiers of a first fiber set to be tested are displayed. The first fiber set comprises one or more fibers. The first fiber pair is included in the range. The first fiber pair is a next fiber pair to be tested. A determination is made whether the first fiber set is connected to the OLTS instrument. In response to determining that the first fiber set is connected to the OLTS instrument, a test of the first fiber set operation is performed using the OLTS instrument. Identifiers of a second fiber set are displayed. The second fiber set is included in the range and constitutes a next fiber set to be tested.
US09485013B2
A method for optical dark section conditioning includes determining a section in an optical network is a dark section that includes connected fiber spans that are functional with no traffic carrying channels present thereon; and causing generation of at least one of broadband noise and a signal at a head end of the dark section. An apparatus configured to perform optical dark section conditioning includes logic configured to determine a section in an optical network is a dark section that includes connected fiber spans that are functional with no traffic carrying channels present thereon; and logic configured to cause generation of at least one of broadband noise and a signal at a head end of the dark section.
US09485006B2
A relay communications system is described in which a base station is able to dynamically vary or semi-statically vary the number of resource blocks used to carry relay control data within a transmitted sub-frame. Default resource blocks are used to include a first part of the control data and if additional control data is provided, then the first part of the control data identifies that there is additional control data and provides information to allow the additional data to be located within the sub-frame.
US09485004B2
An exemplary method comprises positioning a first antenna to receive a first signal from a second antenna, the second antenna comprising energy absorbing material that functions to expand beamwidth, receiving the first signal from the second antenna, detecting a plurality of gains based on the first signal, repositioning the first antenna relative to the second antenna to a position associated with an acceptable gain based on the first signal, removing at least some of the energy absorbing material from the second antenna to narrow the beamwidth of the second antenna, receiving, by the first antenna, a second signal from the second antenna, detecting a plurality of gains based on the second signal, and repositioning the first antenna relative to the second antenna to a position associated with an increased gain of the plurality of gains based on the second signal, the increased gain being greater than the acceptable gain.
US09485002B2
The present invention relates to an equalizing method in a receiver node of a cellular wireless communication system, the method comprising: receiving at least one radio signal comprising a plurality of resource elements; obtaining interference information associated with the plurality of resource elements; extracting resource elements from the plurality of resource elements carrying data into a first set based on the interference information; dividing the resource elements in the first set into one or more sub-sets each comprising T number of resource elements; filtering the resource elements in said one or more sub-sets by applying a balanced whitening and energy focusing filter W so as to obtain filtered resource elements y; and equalizing the filtered resource elements y. The invention also relates to a receive device, a computer program, and a computer program product.
US09485001B2
Diversity receiver front end system with switching network. A receiving system can include a plurality of amplifiers, each one of the plurality of amplifiers disposed along a corresponding one of a plurality of paths between an input of the receiving system and an output of the receiving system and configured to amplify a signal received at the amplifier. The receiving system can further include a switching network including one or more single-pole/single-throw switches, each one of the switches coupling two of the plurality of paths. The receiving system can further include a controller configured to receive a band select signal and, based on the band select signal, enable one of the plurality of amplifiers and control the switching network.
US09484999B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and device for transmitting signal. The method includes: obtaining a downlink beamforming matrix; and using a conjugate transposed matrix of the downlink beamforming matrix as an uplink beamforming matrix for processing uplink signal. In the embodiments of the present invention, the conjugate transposed matrix of the downlink beamforming matrix may be used as the uplink beamforming matrix for processing uplink signal, which can simplify design of the uplink beamforming matrix and thereby reduce complexity of the system.
US09484995B2
The present application relates to the technical field of radio communications, and relates specifically to a method, system, and device for transmitting coding instruction information and for determining a pre-coding matrix, for use in solving the problem that direct application of current codebooks to a three-dimensional beamforming/pre-coding technology causes performance degradation. The method of embodiments of the present application comprises: a user equipment determines and transmits first pre-coding instruction information, second pre-coding instruction information, and third pre-coding instruction information, where the first pre-coding instruction information, the second pre-coding instruction information, and the third pre-coding instruction information correspond to a pre-coding matrix, a first component pre-coding matrix is a block diagonal matrix, a third component pre-coding matrix is constituted by a weighted column selection vector, and, with the exception of a P-number of nonzero elements, the remainder of the weighted column selection vector is all zeros. Employment of the solution of the embodiments of the present application increases the performance of the three-dimensional beamforming/pre-coding technology.
US09484993B2
A broadcast signal transmitter according to one embodiment of the present invention comprises: an input signal generating unit which generates a first input signal and a second input signal; a MIMO encoder which performs MIMO processing of the first input signal and the second input signal to output a first transmission signal and a second transmission signal; and a first OFDM generator and a second OFDM generator which performs OFDM modulation of the first transmission signal and OFDM modulation of the second transmission signal. The MIMO processing applies a MIMO matrix to the first input signal and the second input signal. The MIMO matrix changes phases using a phase rotation matrix, and adjusts power of the first input signal and second input signal using parameter a, wherein the parameter is set to different values in accordance with the modulation types of the first input signal and second input signal.
US09484989B2
A user agent capable of carrying out autonomous combining. The user agent can be implemented as a processor configured to promote receiving a first signal from an access node and a second signal from a relay node. The processor may be further configured to combine the first and second signals.
US09484983B2
An impedance adjustment method for a communication device, wherein the communication device has a plurality of impedance paths for selection, includes: selecting an initial impedance path; and utilizing a predetermined algorithm to examine a portion of the plurality of impedance paths by starting from the initial impedance path for selecting an optimized impedance path for the communication device. A delay capacitance adjustment method for a communication device, wherein the communication device has a plurality of delay capacitance paths for selection, includes: selecting an initial delay capacitance path; and utilizing a predetermined algorithm to examine a portion of the plurality of delay capacitance paths by starting from the initial delay capacitance path for selecting an optimized delay capacitance path of the communication device.
US09484981B2
Synchronous CDMA/spread spectrum methods, devices, and systems are used to suppress crosstalk in clock-forwarded on-chip interconnects. Transmitting a spread spectrum signal across on-chip interconnects for recovery at the terminus permit integrated chip designers to overcome the effects of capacitive cross-talk between adjacent data bus lines. The methods, devices, and systems provided herein improve cross-talk immunity between adjacent high speed signal lines by applying synchronous CDMA spread spectrum techniques to some or all of the high speed signal lines. Other methods, devices, and systems provided herein apply synchronous CDMA spread spectrum techniques to the concept of sending phantom signals to reduce the number of signal lines used to carry data.
US09484971B2
An adaptive phased-array processing solution, referred to as the Wideband Beamformer System (WBS), demonstrates an improvement in the range and quality of air link surveillance downlink wireless cell radio signals. The WBS applies wideband frequency-domain adaptive beamforming to preprocess the dense RF signal environment, minimizing co-channel interference (CCI) from each signal, and then reconstructing a “clean” version of the signal for input to the existing surveillance receiver(s).
US09484963B2
A multi-mode and multi-band front-end device comprises at least one amplifier unit, at least one switching unit, at least one control unit, a plurality of transmission paths, and a plurality of frequency matching networks. The switching unit comprises at least input end and a plurality of connecting ends. Wherein the input end is electrically connected to the amplifier unit, and each of connecting ends is connected to each of transmission paths, respectively. Each of frequency matching networks is configured on each of transmission paths, and achieves impedance matching at different frequency bands, respectively. The multi-mode and multi-band front-end device is able to select one of transmission paths to transmit RF signal according to the frequency band of RF signal to be transmitted so as to improve the output power of the multi-mode and multi-band front-end device.
US09484961B2
A wireless electronic device may include antennas formed at different locations on the device. The wireless electronic device may include transceivers that are used to wirelessly communicate in different frequency bands by transmitting and receiving radio-frequency signals in the frequency bands. The transceivers may include Wi-Fi® transceivers and cellular transceivers such as Long Term Evolution transceivers. The wireless electronic device may include antenna switching circuitry interposed between the transceivers and the antennas. The wireless electronic device may include control circuitry that controls the antenna switching circuitry to ensure that radio-frequency transmissions in adjacent frequency bands are routed to different antennas. By routing radio-frequency transmissions in adjacent frequency bands to different antennas, self-interference between communications in the adjacent frequency bands may be reduced. Self-interference may also be reduced by performing time division multiplexing to isolate radio-frequency signals that are transmitted in adjacent frequency bands.
US09484955B2
A semiconductor memory apparatus may include a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) circuit block electrically coupled with a first pad, and configured to generate internal CRC information from data received from the first pad. The semiconductor memory apparatus may also include a comparison unit configured to compare external CRC information received from outside the semiconductor memory apparatus with the internal CRC information, and generate a read training result signal.
US09484952B2
In one example, an apparatus for context adaptive entropy coding may include a coder configured to determine one or more initialization parameters for a context adaptive entropy coding process based on one or more initialization parameter index values. The coder may be further configured to determine one or more initial context states for initializing one or more contexts of the context adaptive entropy coding process based on the initialization parameters. The coder may be still further configured to initialize the contexts based on the initial context states. In some examples, the initialization parameters may be included in one or more tables, wherein, to determine the initialization parameters, the coder may be configured to map the initialization parameter index values to the initialization parameters in the tables. Alternatively, the coder may be configured to calculate the initialization parameters using the initialization parameter index values and one or more formulas.
US09484945B1
A correcting asynchronous Successive-Approximation Register (SAR) analog-to-digital converter (ADC) detects and corrects metastability errors. An analog signal is synchronously sampled by a system clock, but data bits are converted asynchronously. A valid detector compares true and complement outputs of a comparator that compares the sampled voltage to a DAC voltage generated from digital test value from the SAR. Once the true and complement outputs diverge past logic thresholds, the valid detector activates a VALID signal indicating that comparison is completed. The compare result is then latched in as a data bit and the SAR advances to the next test value. Once all bits have been converted, an End-of-Conversion (EOC) is signaled. If the EOC does not occur by the end of the system clock, a metastability error is detected. The current bit that never finished comparison is forced high and all other unconverted bits are forced low.
US09484941B2
A negative-capacitance circuit comprises a first node coupled to a drain of a first transistor and a gate of a second transistor; a second node coupled to a drain of the second transistor and a gate of the first transistor; a capacitor coupled between a source of the first transistor and a source of the second transistor; a first current mirror coupled between a supply voltage and the source of the first transistor; and a second current mirror coupled between the supply voltage and the source of the second transistor. The circuit can be configured to drive the differential capacitive load between the first and second nodes in a shorter time period, thereby increasing the transfer bandwidth of the differential signal.
US09484936B2
An integrated circuit comprises a dual port modulator and a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO). The dual port modulator has a first input for receiving a transmitter modulation signal, a first output for providing a fractional portion of a high port modulation signal, a second output for providing a integer portion of the high port modulation signal, and a third output for providing a low port modulation signal. The VCO is coupled to the dual port modulator and has a first input for receiving the fractional portion of the high port modulation signal, a second input for receiving the integer portion of the high port modulation signal, a third input for receiving a tuning signal based on the low port modulation signal, and a first output for outputting an RF signal. The dual port modulator provides a signed single bit signal for generating the fractional portion of the high port modulation signal.
US09484932B2
A signal generation circuit includes a phase difference detector configured to detect a phase difference between a certain oscillation signal of a plurality of oscillation signals and a predetermined reference signal; an oscillator to which a plurality of delay elements are connected annularly, the oscillator being configured to generate the plurality of oscillation signals depending on the detected phase difference; a low-speed signal generation circuit configured to generate a low-speed signal having a lower frequency than the oscillation signal; a detection circuit configured to detect a difference between a predetermined reference timing and a timing at which the low-speed signal has changed; a selection unit configured to select the oscillation signal so that the phase difference with respect to the reference signal is close to the detected difference; and an output unit configured to output the generated low-speed signal in synchronization with the selected oscillation signal.
US09484925B2
A technique includes controlling a modulus of a programmable divider, including selectively activating and deactivating cells of the divider. The activation for at least one of the cells includes configuring an output signal of the cell to exhibit a predetermined signal state when the cell transitions from a deactivated state to an activated state.
US09484915B2
A non-contact proximity switch having a first part and a second part which do not need to be in physical contact to detect proximity of the first and second parts. The first part is arranged to be connected to a reset circuit including an indicator light and a reset switch having a reset button. The first part includes a reset mechanism for machine safety, and the reset mechanism includes a signal generator and a signal detector. The reset mechanism is arranged to, upon indication that a reset is required, generate a signal so as to switch-on said indicator light, and the reset mechanism is further arranged to detect when the state of a connected reset switch corresponds to a state where the reset button is being pressed.
US09484912B2
A resistance element generator includes a reference current generation unit suitable for receiving a source reference current to generate first and second reference currents, a first resistance generation unit suitable for generating a first resistance value by using a first reference voltage and the first reference current, and outputting a first voltage corresponding to the formed first resistance value, and a second resistance generation unit suitable for generating a second resistance value by using a third reference voltage and the second reference current, and outputting a second voltage corresponding to the formed second resistance value.
US09484911B2
A back-power prevention circuit is provided that protects a buffer transistor from back-power during a back-power condition by charging a signal lead coupled to a gate of the buffer transistor to a pad voltage and by charging a body of the buffer transistor to the pad voltage.
US09484908B1
A driver circuit has a gate drive terminal that produces a gate drive signal to control paralleled power semiconductor switches, such as GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) devices. One of the switches is closest to the gate drive terminal such that its gate drive loop inductance is smaller than the remaining switches that are farther away having a larger loop inductance. An additional resistor or gate-source capacitor is provided in the gate drive circuit of the closest switch which increases the total gate resistance of the closest switch compared to the remaining switches, which delays the turn off time of the closest switch. The delay permits zero voltage switching turn-off of the remaining switches to reduce noise. The closest switch is hard switched off but has the smallest loop inductance, which allows optimized turn off.
US09484895B2
A duty cycle tuner measures high and low periods of a signal, calculates an actual duty cycle, generates duty control signals based on the actual duty cycle and a desired duty cycle, and adjusts the duty cycle responsive to the duty control signals. The high and low periods are measured using high-speed counters to provide a high count for the high period and a low count for the low period. The actual duty cycle value is then computed from the high and low counts, and compared to the desired duty cycle value to generate increment and decrement signals which may be positive or zero, to increase, decrease or maintain the actual duty cycle. In this manner, even if the high and low counts are subject to variations due to process, temperature or power supply voltage, their ratio is independent of such variations, so the tuner is immune to those effects.
US09484894B2
A duty cycle tuner measures high and low periods of a signal, calculates an actual duty cycle, generates duty control signals based on the actual duty cycle and a desired duty cycle, and adjusts the duty cycle responsive to the duty control signals. The high and low periods are measured using high-speed counters to provide a high count for the high period and a low count for the low period. The actual duty cycle value is then computed from the high and low counts, and compared to the desired duty cycle value to generate increment and decrement signals which may be positive or zero, to increase, decrease or maintain the actual duty cycle. In this manner, even if the high and low counts are subject to variations due to process, temperature or power supply voltage, their ratio is independent of such variations, so the tuner is immune to those effects.
US09484893B1
A clock generation circuit operates in a STANDBY mode as well as conventional OFF and ON modes. In STANDBY mode, a small pre-bias current is applied to amplifiers in the clock generation circuit, which bias voltages on internal nodes to very near their operating voltage values. This reduces transient perturbations on signals as the clock generation circuit is returned to ON mode. The smaller transients settle faster, and allow the clock generation circuit to achieve very fast startup times from STANDBY to ON. The very fast startup times allow the clock generation circuit to be placed in STANDBY mode more often, such as when a system must monitor and rapidly respond to activity on an external bus or interface (such as an RF modem).
US09484890B1
Various embodiments of the invention provide for improved performance by reducing a quadrature error signal. In certain embodiments, this is accomplished by using a mixed-signal architecture comprising analog and digital circuit components in a closed-loop configuration that generates from a detected quadrature error signal a calibration quadrature signal that is then compensated at a virtual ground of an analog front end circuit. Some embodiments allow for pre-calibration for quadrature error and/or adaptive compensation of unwanted drift effects of the quadrature error, including temperature drifts.
US09484888B2
Described is an apparatus which comprises: a first voltage follower; a second voltage follower; and a pass-gate including a p-type transistor in parallel to an n-type transistor, wherein gate terminal of the p-type transistor is controlled by an output of the first voltage follower, and wherein gate terminal of the n-type transistor is controlled by an output of the second voltage follower.
US09484881B2
In an impedance matching device between a power transmission circuit and a power transmission antenna, a storage unit stores tables associated with a load value, each storing control values of a coupling coefficient between the power transmission and reception antennae. A selection unit selects a table corresponding to the load value estimated by the load value estimation unit. An adjustment direction determination unit determines the direction of a position for reading out one of the control values from the selected table. A readout position determination unit determines the position for reading out the control value from the selected table based on the direction and a predetermined step width for shifting the position for reading out the control value. A circuit selection unit electrically connects a matching circuit or the through circuit. A control value output unit outputs the control value at the determined position to the selected circuit.
US09484878B2
Systems, devices, and methods for determining and establishing frequency-dependent gain compensation in wide bandwidth communication systems are disclosed. Variable frequency-dependent gain compensation circuits, or variable equalizers, have settings that configure them to establish discrete frequency-dependent gain compensation. The frequency-dependent gain compensation can include various types and levels of gain slope and/or ripple. The settings of the variable equalizers can be set by control signals established a control circuit in response to signals from an external computer. The variable equalizers are coupled to other circuits or devices and the frequency-dependent gain of the combined circuit are measured. The settings of the variable equalizer are then changed to establish an optimal frequency-dependent gain profile or frequency-dependent gain that is closest to a predetermined frequency-dependent target gain profile. The settings can then be saved in a memory or register.
US09484876B2
An audio device and an output method thereof are provided. The audio device includes: an envelope detector configured to detect an envelope of an input audio signal; a power supply which includes a linear power supply (LPS) and a switching-mode power supply (SMPS); an amplifier configured to amplify the input audio signal; an output unit configured to output the audio signal amplified by the amplifier; and a controller configured to compare a voltage level of the detected envelope with a preset level, select one of the LPS and the SMPS based on a result of the comparison, and control the power supply to supply power from the selected one of the LPS and the SMPS to the amplifier.
US09484874B2
An amplifier system is disclosed, configured to apply a signal component separator algorithm such that the first phase modulated signal and the second phase modulated signal are allowed to take on several continuous amplitude levels in order to achieve a maximum efficiency at each desired output signal power level, without restricting the input signal power fed to the power amplifiers to a constant level, wherein for each desired output signal power level, the digital signal component separator assigns an amplitude and phases of input signals that result in a maximum instantaneous power efficiency at the amplified output signal combined with an unmatched/non-isolating combiner (e.g. Chireix combiner).
US09484869B2
An amplifier stage module circuit has a tube connected with an anode section, a grid section, a cathode section, and an attenuator section. The amplifier stage module circuit is configurable to provide any one of a plurality of selectable voices, each voice provided by a corresponding combination of selectively combinable voice components of the sections.
US09484863B2
First and second amplifiers are respectively coupled to first and second lines, each having first and second portions. An auxiliary amplifier has an output coupled to an auxiliary line network which comprises: a first auxiliary line coupled between an auxiliary junction and a first intersection between the first and second portions of the first line; a second auxiliary line coupled between the auxiliary junction and a second intersection between the first and second portions of the second line; and a third auxiliary line for coupling the output of the auxiliary amplifier to the auxiliary junction. Each of the first and second lines have a higher-impedance portion and a lower-impedance portion whose lengths are substantially equal. Lengths of the respective first portions of the first and second lines sum to half a wavelength, and lengths of the respective second portions of the first and second lines sum to half a wavelength.
US09484862B2
A circuit and technique are provided to control bias setting to an FET based common source RF amplifier that can operate with large signals present. The circuit and technique described herein use a second FET in an identical circuit having the gate circuits connected in parallel and being sourced by the same drain voltage that serves as a reference to a first circuit bias setting. The drain current in a first FET will include both the bias and RF amplification current, whereas the second FET only carries the bias current. Because the devices and circuits are matched, the gate voltage variations will appear in both FETs thereby providing regulation of the drain current.
US09484861B1
The method for system level oriented load-pull-based envelope tracking power amplifiers includes steps of performing a multi-dimensional load-pull and selecting the reflection coefficients to be presented to the transistor while taking into account the system level architecture of the power amplifier. It is shown that adopting the proposed load reflection coefficient selection algorithm leads to an additional efficiency enhancement. This extra performance is achieved without additional circuitry or cost.
US09484859B2
A modulation circuit includes a phase locked loop (PLL) circuit, a scalar circuit and a sigma-delta modulator. The PLL circuit is for generating an output oscillating signal in response to a reference signal, a first control signal and a second control signal. The scalar circuit is for generating the first control signal in response to modulating data to control frequency deviation of the output oscillating signal, wherein the first control signal is in a digital form. The sigma-delta modulator is for generating the second control signal according to the modulating data to modulate a divider value of a frequency divider of the PLL circuit.
US09484857B2
A semiconductor circuit device includes: a semiconductor substrate; and a first circuit block including an analog circuit as a component, a second circuit block including a digital circuit as a component, a connection pad, and a connection wire electrically connecting the connection pad with the first circuit block, all of which are arranged on the semiconductor substrate. The connection wire is provided so as not to overlap the second circuit block in a plan view.
US09484847B2
A method for controlling a motor propulsion unit including a motor including a permanent magnet rotor and a stator, the method including regulating currents of the stator so that they attain their setpoints by virtue of control signals, the currents to be regulated and the control signals being expressed in a rotating reference frame including a plurality of axes. The regulating includes for each of the axes of the plurality of axes applying, to the current to be regulated on the respective axis, a linear operator differing as a function of a value of the current to be regulated with respect to its setpoint, the result of the application of the linear operator being a control signal on the respective axis.
US09484844B1
A method and circuit for starting a three-phase motor in a manner that reduces inrush current normally associated with starting an AC motor. The method uses the circuit to start the three phase motor gradually with three phase alternating current having relatively low frequency and gradually increasing the frequency up to or above the motor operating frequency over a period of time and then switching in a single phase alternating current supply to power the three phase motor.
US09484828B2
A power frequency converter and an associated method are provided to convert an AC input signal at a first frequency, such as a first frequency that is permitted to vary within a range, to an AC output signal at a second frequency that is different than the first frequency and that may be fixed. The power frequency converter includes a plurality of power rectification modules. Each power rectification module includes a plurality of power rectification components for receiving different phases of an input signal at a first frequency. Each power rectification module is configured to provide an output signal to a load, such as an induction motor, at a second frequency. The power frequency converter also includes a controller configured to provide control signals to selectively enable the power rectification modules. The controller is configured to provide the control signals without synchronization to the first frequency.
US09484826B2
A multiport DC-DC autotransformer for interconnecting three or more DC systems. The autotransformer includes 2N−1 converters sequentially connected in series at a DC side, and connected to an AC transmission line via an AC link at an AC side, and a positive terminal of the ith converter of the 2N−1 sequentially connected converters and a negative terminal of the (2N−i)th converter are respectively connected to a positive terminal of the ith DC system and a negative terminal thereof, where N represents the number of DC systems, and i represents the serial number of converters. Also disclosed are a method for determining power rating of each converter of the multiport DC-DC autotransformer, and a method for controlling the autotransformer. Most power can be transferred between different DC systems via a direct electrical connection without DC-AC-DC conversion.
US09484818B2
A DC-DC converter includes first and second switching devices electrically connected in series between an input terminal and a ground terminal, third and fourth switching devices electrically connected in series between an output terminal and the ground terminal, an inductor, a drive circuit that drives the first switching device to turn on and off, a bootstrap capacitor circuit connected electrically to the drive circuit, and a control circuit. The control circuit is operable to turn on and off the switching devices serially connected with each other after a simultaneous-off duration for which both of the switching devices are continuously turned off. The control circuit is operable to charge the bootstrap capacitor by continuously turning on keeping the second switching device for a charging duration while continuously turning off the first switching device for a sustaining duration determined by the simultaneous-off duration and the charging duration. This DC-DC converter can reduce a current ripple even when the bootstrap capacitor is charged.
US09484817B2
In a DC/DC converter, each channel operates under digital control using nonlinear control. The time interval between the time of turning ON of the switching element 1 and the time of turning ON of each of other switching elements j (j=2, 3, . . . , N) is measured. If the measured interval is within a specified range, operation is continued without changing the ON time of the switching element j used last time. Meanwhile, if the measured interval is out of the range, the ON time of the switching element j is increased or decreased within a predetermined range to be shifted from a basic frequency. Thus, the interval between the time of turning ON of the switching element 1 and the time of turning ON of the switching element j is brought back to the specified range.
US09484815B2
A system and method are provided for controlling a switching voltage regulator circuit. An energy difference between a stored energy of a switching voltage regulator and a target energy is determined. A control variable of the switching voltage regulator is computed based on the energy difference and the control variable is applied to a current control mechanism of the switching voltage regulator. In one embodiment, the control variable is pulse width of a control signal.
US09484814B2
A bleeder controller for controlling a magnitude of a variable current conducted by bleeder circuitry between input terminals of a device is disclosed. The magnitude of the variable current is controllable in response to a control signal. The bleeder controller includes a dimming detector to classify a half line cycle as leading-edge-dimmed or a trailing-edge-dimmed in response to at least one of an input current sense signal and an input voltage sense signal.
US09484805B2
A power conversion circuit includes a voltage boost circuit including a boost inductor configured to generate an output voltage in response to an input voltage, and a boost controller configured to control operation of the voltage boost circuit. The boost controller is configured to control operation of the voltage boost circuit in response to a level of current in the boost inductor.
US09484803B2
A method for regulating an output voltage of a converter is provided in which a switching frequency of a switching device is limited in response to a signal that is representative of a magnitude of a current from an input of the converter and to a sense signal generated in response to an input voltage signal.
US09484796B2
An induction generator (100) for a remote switch which comprises a U-shaped magnetic diverter (102) with first and second limbs as well as a coil core (104) with an induction coil (106) arranged between the limbs. A movable magnetic element (110) is provided for switching the induction generator (100). When the magnetic element (110) is in its first position, the magnetic element (110) is connected with the first limb and the coil core (104) and, when the magnetic element (110) is in its second position, the magnetic element (110) is connected with the coil core (104) and the second limb.
US09484793B2
An electrical rotating machine system that can be easily maintained and can provide improved power generation efficiency. The electrical rotating machine system includes: a first electrical rotating machine having a first stator that has first stator windings, and a first rotor that has first rotor windings and is disposed on the internal diameter side of the first stator so as to have a gap between the internal diameter side of the first stator and the first rotor itself; a second electrical rotating machine having a second stator that has second stator windings, and a second rotor that has second rotor windings and is disposed on the internal diameter side of the second stator so as to have a gap between the internal diameter side of the second stator and the second rotor itself; and at least one power converter that is electrically connected to the first rotor windings and the second rotor windings, and configured to rotate when the first rotor rotates.
US09484792B2
A rotor has a rotor core arranged to radially face a stator. The rotor core has an accommodation hole extending axially from an axial end face of the rotor core. A magnet is received in the accommodation hole. A recess, which is dented in a direction separating from the magnet, is formed in an end surface of the accommodation hole. The recess has an opening facing the magnet. A pair of open distal portions are arranged at opposite sides of the opening and pressed against the magnet.
US09484790B2
A rotor for an electric rotating machine includes a hollow cylindrical rotor core and a plurality of magnets. The rotor core has a plurality of magnet-receiving holes formed therein. Each of the magnet-receiving holes has a plurality of wall surfaces including a radially innermost wall surface which is positioned radially innermost among the plurality of wall surfaces. Each of the magnets is received in a corresponding one of the magnet-receiving holes of the rotor core. Further, each of the magnets is arranged in the corresponding magnet-receiving hole so that among the thermal resistances between the magnet and the plurality of wall surfaces of the corresponding magnet-receiving hole, the thermal resistance between the magnet and the radially innermost wall surface of the corresponding magnet-receiving hole is lowest.
US09484777B2
Provided is a rotor core of a motor, the rotor core, the rotor core including: a thin disk-shaped rotor core member; a shaft hole penetratively formed at a center of the rotor core member; a shaft press-fitted into the shaft hole; a plurality of magnet insertion holes penetratively formed at a position near to a periphery of the rotor core member for inserted coupling by a magnet; and a magnet support rotor core member in which a magnet support member tightly contacting a magnet inserted into the magnet insertion hole to a radial direction of the rotor core member is protrusively formed at the magnet insertion hole, wherein the rotor core members are stacked each at a predetermined height, and the magnet support rotor core members are arranged at an upper surface and a bottom surface of the plurality of stacked rotor core members, and the shaft is press-fitted into the shaft hole.
US09484765B2
An electronic device having a charging function is provided. The electronic device includes a conversion unit for converting an Alternating Current (AC) voltage to a Direct Current (DC), a first charging unit for generating a first charging voltage or current using the DC voltage, and an output unit for providing the DC voltage and the first charging voltage or current to an external device. Various other implementations are possible.
US09484763B2
A battery pack and a method of controlling the same. The battery pack includes: a first battery module that includes at least one battery cell; a second battery module that includes at least one battery cell electrically connected to the first battery module; a charge/discharge control unit that breaks or connects a charge/discharge path of each of the first battery module and the second battery module; a first battery management unit that controls the first battery module; and a second battery management unit that generates a signal for controlling switches included in the charge/discharge control unit by referring to a state of the second battery module, wherein the first battery management unit and the second battery management unit are connected in parallel to the charge/discharge control unit.
US09484739B2
A protection device is provided that exhibits a turn on time of order of one nanosecond or less. Such a device provides enhanced protection for integrated circuits against electrostatic discharge events. This in turn reduces the risk of device failure in use. The protection device can include a bipolar transistor structure connected between a node to be protected and a discharge path.
US09484735B2
The present invention is directed to an electrical wiring device that includes a circuit interrupter assembly coupled to a solenoid actuator and configured to move along an assembly axis in a direction normal to a major surface of the electrical isolation member to provide electrical continuity between the plurality of line terminals, the plurality of load terminals and the plurality of receptacle contact structures in a reset state and to interrupt the electrical continuity to effect a tripped state. The circuit interrupter assembly including at least one portion configured to pivot relative to the assembly axis to effect the reset state or the tripped state.
US09484725B2
An electrical assembly, such as a lighting assembly, includes a housing adapted for mounting to a wall or ceiling. The housing has an outer wall for attaching to the wall or ceiling and an opening for wire connections between the housing and the power source. An access plate adapter is removably coupled to the opening in the housing to define a channel between the housing and the wall or ceiling. The adapter has a bottom wall and a side wall forming a well and an outwardly extending top wall at a top end of the side wall. The bottom wall has as plurality of tabs forming hooks for coupling with the opening in the housing wall. The top wall of the adapter has a dimension to contact the surface of the wall or ceiling and form a seal to define a closed channel between the housing and the wall or ceiling.
US09484718B2
A spark plug includes an insulator having an axial hole, a center electrode inserted into a forward portion of the axial hole, a terminal electrode inserted into a rear portion of the axial hole, and an interelectrode insert which contains glass and electrically conductive carbon and is disposed in the axial hole between the center electrode and the terminal electrode. The interelectrode insert has a resistance of 1.0 kΩ to 3.0 kΩ, and the interelectrode insert has a carbon content of 1.5% by mass to 4.0% by mass at a forward portion located forward of a center point between the rear end of the center electrode and the forward end of the terminal electrode. Furthermore, the forward portion is lower in resistance than a rear portion of the interelectrode insert located rearward of the center point.
US09484716B2
A surface emitting laser includes: a substrate; and a laminated body disposed over the substrate, wherein the laminated body includes a first mirror layer disposed over the substrate, an active layer disposed over the first mirror layer, and a second mirror layer disposed over the active layer, and surface roughness Ra of an uppermost layer of the first mirror layer is greater than or equal to 0.45 nm and less than or equal to 1.0 nm.
US09484712B2
A combined Gain-SOA (Semiconductor Optical Amplifier) Chip is provided for forming a hybrid laser by a combination with an external reflector, the Gain-SOA Chip comprising a gain section and an SOA section, wherein an optical grating is arranged between the gain section and the SOA section.
US09484705B2
An optically end-pumped amplifier with a plate-shaped optical gain medium has a plurality of pump laser units for optically pumping the gain medium through at least one of the narrow side surfaces thereof. The pump laser units are designed such that the pump laser radiation, upon passing through the gain medium, has an elongated beam cross section having a short axis and a long axis running parallel to the main surfaces of the gain medium and propagates freely through the gain medium with respect to the short axis. They are arranged such that in each case the principal axes of the beam bundles of the pump laser units impinge on one of the pumped side surfaces in a plane perpendicular to the short axis at an angle to one another, wherein the beam cross sections of the beam bundles are superimposed on one another.
US09484695B2
A smart plug system includes, in an embodiment, a smart plug that may be securable to an electrical outlet by way of an anti-theft device. The anti-theft device may include in an embodiment: a body securable to the electrical outlet; and a protrusion that extends from the body and which may extend into an aperture of the smart plug to secure the smart plug to the electrical outlet when the smart plug is plugged into an electrical outlet. In an embodiment, the smart plug may be configured to be customizable in appearance by including a plurality of different covers that may be secured to a face of the smart plug.
US09484692B2
Systems and apparatuses are provided in which outlets are coupled to a power distribution unit (PDU) or PDU module in various configurations. The outlets may be coupled to a recessed surface within a PDU housing. The outlets may be coupled to a printed circuit board that is at least partially disposed within the PDU housing. The outlets may extend away from the recessed surface or printed circuit board towards or beyond a front face of the PDU housing.
US09484683B1
The present invention discloses a conductive terminal including two conductive members or further comprising a hot melt fixing member. Each conductive member is provided with a groove which is concaved in from an edge of the host conductive member. The grooves on the two conductive members are opposite to each other and a gap is maintained between the two conductive members by an elastic force between the conductive members. The hot melt fixing member is put into the grooves of the two conductive members and is combined on the conductive members to overcome the elastic force, enabling the two conductive member to form contact limit, the hot melt fixing member to be damaged when overheat, and the two conductive members to be opened by the elastic force to form open circuit. The conductive member can be applied to overheat protection of a plug and a socket.
US09484681B2
A plug connector for use with a complementary receptacle connector, includes an insulative housing defining a receiving cavity therein and a plurality of passageways on opposite of the mating cavity, a pair of terminal modules stacked on each other and a metallic shell. Each terminal module includes an insulator and a plurality of contacts loaded on insulator, the contacts includes contacting sections extending out of the insulator and tail extending out of the insulator. The insulators of the stacked terminal modules are located behind the insulative housing and the contacting sections of the contacts are disposed in the corresponding passageways. The terminal modules and the insulative housing are commonly enclosed in the metallic shell.
US09484677B2
An electrical receptacle connector includes a terminal module assembly and a grounding collar thereon. The terminal module assembly includes the front mating tongue, the rear body, and the step structure therebetween, and the corresponding contacts. The contacts are secured to the body with contacting sections exposed upon the mating tongue. The grounding collar includes the grounding regions located on two opposite upper and lower surfaces of the step structure. The front edge area of the grounding region adjacent to the front edge area, forms a notch so as to leave a space to allow the spring finger of the corresponding interior grounding plate of the plug connector to first slide upon the step structure and successively contact the grounding region of the grounding collar of the receptacle connector.
US09484675B2
A connector includes a shielding case, an insulating main body and a terminal group. The shielding case has an opening for allowing a docking plug to insert therein. The insulating main body is covered by the shielding case. The terminal group is accommodated in the insulating main body. The terminal group has terminals. Each of the terminals has a contact portion and a connecting portion. The contact portion is arranged in two rows in the opening of the shielding case. The connecting portions are fixed to the insulating main body. The connecting portions of a portion of the terminals extend outwards from the insulating main body to form welding legs arranged in the same row.
US09484674B2
An improved electrical connector is provided by compensating for skew in signal conductors of a differential pair while ensuring a uniform impedance along the differential pair. Skew is equalized by regions of lower dielectric constant preferentially positioned adjacent the longer conductor of each pair. Impedance along the length of the signal conductor is equalized by a compensation portion in the first conductor that offsets for a change in impedance associated with the change in dielectric constant adjacent the longer conductor. The compensation portion may be a widening in the first conductive element relative to a nominal width of the conductive element. The skew compensation portion may be along a longer edge of the longer conductor and the impedance compensation portion may be along the shorter edge of the longer conductor.
US09484660B2
An electrical connector includes a housing including a front housing and a rear housing matable to define the housing. The front housing and the rear housing are molded as a single piece with a hinge member connecting the front housing and the rear housing. The rear housing is rotatable about the hinge member from an open position to a closed position. The front housing has front terminal channels configured to receive terminals and the rear housing has rear terminal channels aligned with the front terminal channels when the rear housing is rotated to the closed position but not aligned with the front terminal channels when the rear housing is in the open position. The rear terminal channels are configured to allow the terminals to at least partially pass therethrough into the front terminal channels during loading of the terminals into the housing.
US09484654B2
An electrical connector comprises an insulative housing with a plurality of ports, a plurality of contacts received in the insulative housing, a rear seat assembled to a rear side of the insulative housing and a metal shell covering the insulative housing. The insulative housing has a plurality of slots recessed from a rear surface thereof for retaining the contacts. The contact has a linking portion positioned in the rear sear and a mating portion bent from the linking portion and exposed in the port. The mating portions of the contacts in a same port are located in different heights, and at least one of the mating potions is inclined, so as to provide an inclined force to an inserted mating connector thereby reducing a pressing force to the inserted plug during engaging.
US09484651B2
A pane having a connection element, having; a substrate having an electrically conductive structure on at least a subregion of the substrate, the electrical connection element on at least a subregion of the electrically conductive structure, and a lead-free soldering compound which connects the electrical connection element to the electrically conductive structure in at least a subregion, wherein the lead-free soldering compound contains 58 to 62% by weight indium, 35 to 38% by weight tin, 1 to 3.5% by weight silver and 0.5 to 2% by weight copper.
US09484637B2
A horn that radiates a radioelectric wave coming from an input waveguide, comprises a grating placed over the aperture of the horn. The waveguide comprises a horn-shaped segment, an entrance, an aperture, and a grating placed next to the aperture. It makes it possible for at least one linearly polarised electromagnetic wave to propagate between the entrance and the aperture along a first axis. The grating comprises a frame and a set of plates extending longitudinally and continuously from a first short side of the frame to a second short side of the frame, so as to form a linear polarising filter for any electromagnetic wave the electric field of which is not polarised along a second axis orthogonal to the first axis. The grating of the waveguide comprises corrugations to reinforce the filtering of the electromagnetic wave the electric field of which is not polarised along the second axis.
US09484617B2
An antenna device includes: a radio device for radio wave transmission; a primary radiator that has a function to radiates radio waves generated by the radio device; a parabolic reflector that reflects the radio waves radiated from the primary radiator; a shroud that shields against unnecessary radiation radio waves among the radio waves radiated from the primary radiator and reflected by the parabolic reflector; and an antenna mounting mechanism that fits the parabolic reflector to an antenna attachment pole. The shroud is arranged so as to cover at least a right and left of the parabolic reflector, the radio device and the primary radiator are arranged inside the shroud, and the antenna mounting mechanism fits the parabolic reflector to the antenna attachment pole so that the antenna attachment pole is located at a lateral center position of the parabolic reflector.
US09484610B2
Processes for forming waveguides (200) using multiple co-planar layers of LTCC substrates (212, 212a, 212b) are described. Registration holes (222) on the substrates help align layering of the substrates. Arrays of circuit patterns are printed on each substrate, with each circuit being made up of conductor pattern (213) and/or via holes (224). Cavity alignment holes (226) formed around a periphery of each circuit allow alignment marks to be printed on the substrates for vision inspection. Similarly, circuit orientation holes (227) associated with each circuit allow orientation marks to be printed on the substrates to identify orientation of circuits in each finally formed waveguide. Substrate orientation holes (225) allow marks to be printed on one side of each substrate for alignment during screen printing. These in-process vision inspections and quality assurance tests allow product quality and process yields to improve.
US09484608B2
A switch module includes a plurality of mounting electrodes for external connection provided on a peripheral portion of one main surface of a wiring substrate. The plurality of mounting electrodes includes a common electrode, a plurality of RF signal electrodes, a control electrode, and a power supply electrode. At least one of the power supply electrode and the control electrode is arranged between the RF signal electrodes.
US09484607B2
A battery module includes a first battery cell, a first barrier, and a second barrier, the first battery cell being between the first barrier and the second barrier, wherein a first opening is in flow communication with a first space defined between a first side of the first battery cell and a first side portion formed by at least one of the first and second barriers, the first space being in flow communication with a second space defined between a second side of the first battery cell and a second side portion formed by at least one of the first and second barriers.
US09484604B2
A battery module system includes at least one cell and a battery module processor. The battery module processor may be configured to receive at least one cell signal associated with the at least one cell, wherein the at least one cell signal includes at least one of a temperature signal, a voltage signal, or a current signal. The battery module processor may be also configured to determine a status of the at least one cell based on the at least one cell signal. The battery module system may be configured to removably connect to a master/module interface, and to deliver power from the at least one cell to the master/module interface. The battery module system may be also configured to communicate, from the battery module processor, the status of the at least one cell to the master/module interface.
US09484598B2
Disclosed are an electrolyte for a lithium secondary battery which includes a non-aqueous solvent and a lithium salt, wherein the non-aqueous solvent includes a cyclic carbonate and a linear solvent, wherein an amount of the cyclic carbonate in the non-aqueous solvent is in the range of 1 wt % to 30 wt % based on a total weight of the non-aqueous solvent and a lithium secondary battery including the same.
US09484591B2
Disclosed herein is a voltage sensing member for sensing the voltage of battery cells constituting a battery module, the voltage sensing member comprising: (a) a pair of supporting parts mounted to the bottom of the battery module at regions (the front and rear parts of the battery module) corresponding to electrode terminal connections of the battery cells; (b) connection parts for electrically connecting the supporting parts to a connector; (c) a plurality of conductive sensing parts protruding upward while one end of each is connected to the corresponding support part and the other end of each is elastically connected to electrode terminals of the battery cells; and (d) the connector mounted on the front part or the rear part of the battery module for transmitting the sensed voltage of the battery cells to a battery management system (BMS).
US09484588B2
A compound including a cage-type structure of silsesquioxane wherein a group represented by Formula 1 or a salt thereof is directly linked to at least one silicon atom of the silsesquioxane, a composition including the compound, a composite formed therefrom, electrodes and an electrolyte membrane that include the composite, a method of preparing the compound, and a fuel cell including the electrodes and the electrolyte membrane. wherein in Formula 1, n is 1 or 2.
US09484582B2
According to an embodiment, a method of preparing a catalyst for a fuel cell component includes soaking catalyst particles in citric acid. The catalyst particles are then rinsed after having been soaked in the citric acid. Catalyst particles are dried after they have been rinsed. When desired, the pre-treated catalyst particles may be incorporated into a catalyst ink used for making a fuel cell component.
US09484580B2
An example fuel cell electrode forming method includes covering at least a portion of a copper monolayer with a liquid platinum and replacing the copper monolayer to form a platinum monolayer from the liquid platinum.
US09484573B2
The present invention provides a composite anode for a battery comprising a copper current collector working electrode, at least one anode material comprising at least one of a carbon, a silicon, a conductive agent, and combinations thereof, wherein at least one anode material is deposited on a surface of the copper current collector working electrode to form the composite anode for a battery. An electrophoretic method for making this anode is provided. A lithium-ion battery having the composite anode is disclosed.
US09484571B2
The invention relates to a cathode that is usable in a cell of a lithium-ion battery comprising an electrolyte based on a lithium salt and on a non-aqueous solvent, to a process for manufacturing this cathode and to a lithium-ion battery having one or more cells incorporating this cathode. This cathode is based on a polymer composition, obtained by melt processing and without solvent evaporation, that is the product of a hot compounding reaction between an active material and additives including a polymer binder and an electrically conductive filler. According to the invention, the binder is based on at least one crosslinked elastomer and the additives furthermore comprise at least one non-volatile organic compound usable in the electrolyte solvent, the composition advantageously includes the active material in a mass fraction greater than or equal to 90%.
US09484568B2
The present invention provides a method of manufacturing and an apparatus for manufacturing a layered structure comprising a solid electrolyte layer, a positive electrode active material layer, and a negative electrode active material layer, which together constitute an all-solid-state battery. The layered structure has concavities and convexities formed on the surface and is manufactured by the method comprising the steps of: forming a green sheet S111, where the green sheet for a solid electrolyte layer 11 is formed; forming concavities and convexities S112, where the green sheet for a solid electrolyte layer 11 and the sheet member 50 that is made from material that is caused to disappear when heated, and that has concavities and convexities, are formed in one piece, and the concavities and convexities are formed on the surface of the green sheet for a solid electrolyte layer 11; heating S113, where the sheet member 50 is caused to disappear by heating the green sheet for a solid electrolyte layer 11 and the sheet member 50 that are formed in one piece, and where the green sheet for a solid electrolyte layer 11 is sintered.
US09484556B2
A method of repairing an organic light-emitting display apparatus, the organic light-emitting display apparatus including a substrate, an organic light-emitting device formed on the substrate, a thin film transistor (TFT) formed on the substrate, an organic insulating layer formed on the TFT, and a conductive pattern formed on the organic insulating layer, the conductive pattern including a shorted part between two conductive elements in the conductive pattern, the method including: removing the short by using a focused ion beam (FIB).
US09484553B2
The embodiment of the present invention relates to an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) device, which comprises a pixel define layer (PDL) and a light-emitting structure. Metal nanoparticles are doped in the PDL. The OLED device improves the luminous efficiency. The embodiment of the present invention further provides a method for manufacturing the OLED device.
US09484542B2
A thin film transistor panel includes a gate electrode on a substrate, a gate insulating layer on the gate electrode, an organic semiconductor overlapping with the gate electrode, a source electrode and a drain electrode electrically connected to the organic semiconductor, a fluorine-containing organic insulation layer covering the organic semiconductor, and a photosensitive organic insulation layer covering the fluorine-containing organic insulation layer.
US09484538B2
A manufacturing method of an organic semiconductor film according to the invention includes applying a liquid composition in which an organic semiconductor material is dissolved or dispersed in a first solvent onto a base material in a predetermined pattern, applying a second solvent in which solubility of the organic semiconductor material is lower than that in the first solvent onto a region of the base material having the liquid composition applied thereto, and removing the second solvent.
US09484526B2
Provided are a magnetic memory device and a method of forming the same. The magnetic memory device includes a magnetic tunnel junction pattern located on a substrate and including magnetic patterns and a tunnel barrier pattern located between the magnetic patterns, and a first crystallinity conserving pattern located on the magnetic tunnel junction pattern and having a higher crystallization temperature than the magnetic patterns. The first crystallinity conserving pattern is amorphous.
US09484516B2
There are provided a method for producing an electroconductive polymer which can be operated at a low temperature such as the human body temperature, is safe to the human body, and is flexible and useful as a thermoelectric material, and a thermoelectric element including a thin film of an electroconductive polymer produced by the production method.
US09484514B2
A light-emitting device including: a base; light-emitting elements arranged on the base at intervals in an array along a predetermined direction of the base; and conductive-wiring parts formed on first and second sides of the array of the light-emitting elements on the base. The conductive-wiring parts are discretely formed along the predetermined direction of the base, each of the conductive-wiring parts relaying electrical connection between the light-emitting elements, and the number of the conductive-wiring parts arranged per light-emitting element on each of the first and second sides of the array of the light-emitting elements is two or more.
US09484510B2
An exemplary embodiment of the present invention discloses a light-emitting module including a circuit board, a light-emitting device disposed on the circuit board, and a lens disposed on the circuit board and configured to distribute light emitted from the light emitting device. The lens includes a concave portion having an incidence surface configured to receive incident light emitted from the light-emitting device, and the light emitting device is disposed within the concave portion of the lens.
US09484500B2
A semiconductor light emitting device and method of manufacturing the semiconductor light emitting device are provided. The semiconductor light emitting device includes a light emitting structure including a first conductivity type semiconductor layer, an active layer, and a second conductivity type semiconductor layer. The device may also includes a first electrode connected to the first conductivity type semiconductor layer, and a second electrode connected to the second conductivity type semiconductor layer and having a pad region and a finger region extended from the pad region in one direction. The second electrode may include a transparent electrode part positioned on the second conductivity type semiconductor layer and including at least one opening therein, at least one reflective part spaced apart from the transparent electrode part within the opening and disposed in the pad region and the finger region, and a bonding part positioned on at least one portion of the reflective part and including a plurality of bonding finger parts spaced apart from each other in the finger region and a bonding pad part disposed in the pad region.
US09484495B2
A semiconductor light-emitting element includes: a double-mesa structure of semiconductor formed to have a cylindrical cross section; an insulating member formed to fill a space surrounding the double-mesa structure, with the insulating member comprising a lower insulating member and an upper insulting member covering the lower insulating member; and a first electrode formed on the upper insulating member to come into contact with part of a top surface of the double-mesa structure. The lower insulating member has multiple lower air pillars that are formed in an area aligning with the first electrode, and the upper insulating member has multiple upper air pillars that are formed around the first electrode. It has low dielectric constant and reduced electrical parasitics especially parasitic capacitances, thereby improving high frequency performance and improving modulation speed of light-emitting device finally.
US09484494B2
Provided are a semiconductor light emitting device. The semiconductor light emitting device comprises a first semiconductor layer; a second semiconductor layer disposed on the first semiconductor layer; an active layer disposed between the first semiconductor layer and the second semiconductor layer; a third semiconductor layer disposed on the second semiconductor layer; and a fourth semiconductor layer disposed on the third semiconductor layer. The second semiconductor layer is formed of an InAlGaN semiconductor layer, the third semiconductor layer is formed of an AlGaN semiconductor layer, and the fourth semiconductor layer is formed of a GaN semiconductor layer.
US09484492B2
LED structures are disclosed to reduce non-radiative sidewall recombination along sidewalls of vertical LEDs including p-n diode sidewalls that span a top current spreading layer, bottom current spreading layer, and active layer between the top current spreading layer and bottom current spreading layer.
US09484489B2
An optoelectronic device as well as its methods of use and manufacture are disclosed. In one embodiment, an optoelectronic device includes first and second semiconducting atomically thin layers with corresponding first and second lattice directions. The first and second semiconducting atomically thin layers are located proximate to each other, and an angular difference between the first lattice direction and the second lattice direction is between about 0.000001° and 0.5°, or about 0.000001° and 0.5° deviant from of a Vicnal angle of the first and second semiconducting atomically thin layers. Alternatively, or in addition to the above, the first and second semiconducting atomically thin layers may form a Moiré superlattice of exciton funnels with a period between about 50 nm to 3 cm. The optoelectronic device may also include charge carrier conductors in electrical communication with the semiconducting atomically thin layers to either inject or extract charge carriers.
US09484488B1
Provided is a CIGSSe thin film for a solar cell, a method for preparing the same, and a solar cell using the same. More particularly, the CIGSSe thin film for a solar cell shows a decrease in peak intensity of sulfur from the surface of the thin film to the local minimum value point of sulfur content in the depth direction, after the analysis based on the Auger electron spectroscopy, and thus controls the band-gap in the thin film. Therefore, the solar cell including the CIGSSe thin film shows an excellent effect in improving photoelectric conversion efficiency.
US09484487B2
A method for fabricating thin crystalline photovoltaic cells is disclosed. In one aspect, the method includes: forming a weakening layer in a surface portion of a semiconductor substrate; epitaxially growing a stack of semiconductor layers on the substrate for forming an active layer of the photovoltaic cell, the stack having a first thermal coefficient of expansion; providing on the stack patterned contact layer for forming electrical contacts of the photovoltaic cell, the patterned contact layer having a second thermal coefficient of expansion different from the first thermal coefficient of expansion. The process of providing a patterned contact layer simultaneously induces a tensile stress in the weakening layer, resulting in a lift-off from the substrate of a structure including the stack of semiconductor layers and the patterned contact layer.
US09484484B2
A high efficiency configuration for a solar cell module comprises solar cells arranged in a shingled manner to form super cells, which may be arranged to efficiently use the area of the solar module, reduce series resistance, and increase module efficiency.
US09484480B2
High performance, high bandgap, lattice-mismatched, photovoltaic cells (10), both transparent and non-transparent to sub-bandgap light, are provided as devices for use alone or in combination with other cells in split spectrum apparatus or other applications.
US09484475B2
Disclosed herein are ferroelectric perovskites characterized as having a band gap, Egap, of less than 2.5 eV. Also disclosed are compounds comprising a solid solution of KNbO3 and BaNi1/2Nb1/2O3-delta, wherein delta is in the range of from 0 to about 1. The specification also discloses photovoltaic devices comprising one or more solar absorbing layers, wherein at least one of the solar absorbing layers comprises a semiconducting ferroelectric layer. Finally, this patent application provides solar cell, comprising: a heterojunction of n- and p-type semiconductors characterized as comprising an interface layer disposed between the n- and p-type semiconductors, the interface layer comprising a semiconducting ferroelectric absorber layer capable of enhancing light absorption and carrier separation.
US09484473B2
A glass substrate of which at least one surface multiple concave and convex portions. Rp representing the size of the convex portion is 37 nm to 200 nm; a tilt angle θp indicating a maximum frequency in the frequency distribution of a tilt angle θ of the convex portion is 20° to 75°; and an absolute value of a difference between θp and θ50 (θp−θ50) is 30° or less, where θ50 indicates a value showing 50% of a cumulative frequency distribution of the tilt angle θ. The concave and convex portion is such that the surface roughness (Ra) is 2 nm to 100 nm, the maximum height difference (P−V) is 35 nm to 400 nm, and the area ratio (S-ratio) is 1.1 to 3.0.
US09484468B2
The present invention provides a thin film transistor and a manufacturing method thereof, an array substrate, and a display apparatus. The thin film transistor of the present invention comprises a gate, a gate insulation layer, a semiconductor active region, and a source and a drain connected with the semiconductor active region, and further comprises a surface charge transfer layer in contact with the semiconductor active region, the surface charge transfer layer is located above or below the semiconductor active region, and is used for causing the semiconductor active region to generate a large number of holes or electrons therein without changing the lattice structure of the semiconductor active region. In the thin film transistor, charge transfer occurs between the semiconductor active region and the surface charge transfer layer so that the doped semiconductor active region is formed, thus the performance of the thin film transistor is significantly improved.
US09484466B2
A thin film transistor includes: a gate electrode; a source electrode; a drain electrode facing the source electrode; an oxide semiconductor layer disposed between the gate electrode and the source electrode or between the gate electrode and the drain electrode; and a gate insulating layer disposed between the gate electrode and the source electrode or between the gate electrode and the drain electrode, wherein when a signal applied to the gate electrode is a turnoff signal, a voltage applied to the gate electrode has a negative value.
US09484465B2
A array substrate is disclosed. The array substrate includes: a substrate (10); and a first gate metal layer (111), a first gate insulating layer (121), a semiconductor layer (13) and a source-drain electrode layer (14) disposed in this order on the substrate from bottom to top. The array substrate (10) further includes a second gate insulating layer (122) disposed on the source-drain electrode layer (14); and a second gate metal layer (112) disposed on the second gate insulating layer (122). A method of manufacturing an array substrate is also disclosed.
US09484463B2
A method for fabricating a multigate device includes forming a fin on a substrate of the multigate device, the fin being formed of a semiconductor material, growing a first conformal epitaxial layer directly on the fin and substrate, wherein the first conformal epitaxial layer is highly doped, growing a second conformal epitaxial layer directly on the first conformal epitaxial layer, wherein the second conformal epitaxial layer is highly doped, selectively removing a portion of second epitaxial layer to expose a portion of the first conformal epitaxial layer, selectively removing a portion of the first conformal epitaxial layer to expose a portion of the fin and thereby form a trench, and forming a gate within the trench.
US09484461B2
The present disclosure provides a semiconductor structure. The semiconductor structure includes a fin structure formed on a substrate; a gate stack formed over the fin structure; source/drain regions over the substrate and disposed on opposing sides of the gate stack; a channel region defined in the fin structure and underlying the gate stack, wherein the channel region is un-doped; and a buried isolation layer disposed vertically between the channel region and the substrate, wherein the buried isolation layer includes a compound semiconductor oxide.
US09484459B2
A semiconductor device includes drain and source regions positioned in an active region of a transistor and a channel region positioned laterally between the drain and source regions that includes a semiconductor base material and a threshold voltage adjusting semiconductor material positioned on the semiconductor base material. A gate electrode structure is positioned on the threshold voltage adjusting semiconductor material, and a strain-inducing semiconductor alloy including a first semiconductor material and a second semiconductor material positioned above the first semiconductor material is embedded in the semiconductor base material of the active region. A crystalline buffer layer of a third semiconductor material surrounds the embedded strain-inducing semiconductor alloy, wherein an upper portion of the crystalline buffer layer laterally confines the channel region including the sidewalls of the threshold voltage adjusting semiconductor material and is positioned between the second semiconductor material and the threshold voltage adjusting semiconductor material.
US09484456B2
A semiconductor device is manufactured by using an SOI substrate having an insulating layer on a substrate and a semiconductor layer on the insulating layer. The semiconductor device is provided with a gate electrode formed on the semiconductor layer via a gate insulating film, a sidewall spacer formed on a sidewall of the gate electrode, a semiconductor layer for source/drain that is epitaxially grown on the semiconductor layer, and a sidewall spacer formed on a sidewall of the semiconductor layer.
US09484453B2
Aspects of the present disclosure describe a high density trench-based power. The active devices may have a two-step gate oxide. A lower portion may have a thickness that is larger than the thickness of an upper portion of the gate oxide. A lightly doped sub-body layer may be formed below a body region between two or more adjacent active device structures of the plurality. The sub-body layer extends from a depth of the upper portion of the gate oxide to a depth of the lower portion of the gate oxide It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with rules requiring an abstract that will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.
US09484450B2
A semiconductor device includes a vertical drift region over a drain contact region, abutted on opposite sides by RESURF trenches. A split gate is disposed over the vertical drift region. A first portion of the split gate is a gate of an MOS transistor and is located over a body of the MOS transistor over a first side of the vertical drift region. A second portion of the split gate is a gate of a channel diode and is located over a body of the channel diode over a second, opposite, side of the vertical drift region. A source electrode is electrically coupled to a source region of the channel diode and a source region of the MOS transistor.
US09484444B2
A semiconductor device has a semiconductor substrate, an insulating film, a semiconductor element and a resistance element. The semiconductor substrate has a first trench. The insulating film covers an inner surface of the first trench. The semiconductor element has an electrode. The resistance element is electrically connected to the electrode to form a resistance to a current flowing through the electrode, and is arranged in the first trench with the insulating film therebetween. Thereby, the semiconductor device can have a resistance element that has a small footprint and can pass a large current with high reliability.
US09484426B2
Techniques for reducing the specific contact resistance of metal-semiconductor (group IV) junctions by interposing a monolayer of group V or group III atoms at the interface between the metal and the semiconductor, or interposing a bi-layer made of one monolayer of each, or interposing multiple such bi-layers. The resulting low specific resistance metal—group IV semiconductor junctions find application as a low resistance electrode in semiconductor devices including electronic devices (e.g., transistors, diodes, etc.) and optoelectronic devices (e.g., lasers, solar cells, photodetectors, etc.) and/or as a metal source and/or drain region (or a portion thereof) in a field effect transistor (FET). The monolayers of group III and group V atoms are predominantly ordered layers of atoms formed on the surface of the group IV semiconductor and chemically bonded to the surface atoms of the group IV semiconductor.
US09484420B2
A display apparatus includes a thin film transistor substrate, a substrate facing the thin film transistor substrate, and a liquid crystal layer. The thin film transistor substrate includes an insulating substrate, a gate electrode disposed on a surface of the insulating substrate, a gate insulating layer covering the gate electrode, a semiconductor layer disposed on the gate insulating layer, a source electrode disposed on the semiconductor layer, and a drain electrode disposed on the semiconductor layer and spaced apart from the source electrode. One of the source electrode and the drain electrode is spaced apart from the gate electrode in a plan view. The gate electrode includes a side surface inclined with respect to the surface of the insulating substrate and is partially overlapped with a portion of the source electrode or the drain electrode in a direction perpendicular to the side surface of the gate electrode.
US09484417B1
Methods of forming doped transition regions of transistor structures are provided herein. The methods include, for instance: providing a first semiconductor material including a dopant over a source/drain region of the transistor structure; providing a second semiconductor material including the dopant over the first semiconductor material, where the second semiconductor material is different from the first semiconductor material; and, where providing the second semiconductor material is performed at a temperature sufficient to diffuse the dopant from the first semiconductor material through the source/drain region into a portion of a channel region of the transistor structure. The portion of the channel region into which the dopant from the first semiconductor material diffuses forms the doped transition region.
US09484407B2
A semiconductor device is provided including a semiconductor substrate and a nanowire formed over the semiconductor substrate and wherein the nanowire includes a first layer exhibiting tensile stress and a second layer exhibiting compressive stress.
US09484399B2
A charge-compensation semiconductor device includes a semiconductor body having a first surface, a lateral edge delimiting the semiconductor body in a horizontal direction substantially parallel to the first surface, an active area, and a peripheral area arranged between the active area and the lateral edge. A source metallization is arranged on the first surface. A drain metallization is arranged opposite to the source metallization. The semiconductor body further includes a drift region in Ohmic contact with the drain metallization, and a plurality of compensation regions forming respective pn-junctions with the drift region, which are arranged in the active area and in the peripheral area, and are in Ohmic contact with the source metallization via respective body regions arranged in the active area and having a higher doping concentration than the compensation regions. In a horizontal cross-section substantially parallel to the first surface the compensation regions are at least in a respective portion shaped as a strip oriented in a direction which is tilted with respect to the lateral edge by a tilt angle.
US09484397B2
A component-embedded substrate having a multilayer substrate formed by laminating a plurality of thermoplastic sheets in a predetermined direction, an internal component provided in the multilayer substrate, and a surface-mount component mounted on a surface of the multilayer substrate using bumps. The surface-mount component, when viewed in a plan view in the predetermined direction, is positioned so as to cross an outline of the internal component, with the bumps on the surface-mount component located 50 μm or more from the outline of the internal component.
US09484392B2
A flat panel display having a low reflective black matrix and a method for manufacturing the same are provided. The flat panel display includes a substrate having an open area and a non-open area; a hazy layer disposed in the non-open area on the inner surface of the substrate; a black matrix stacked on the hazy layer; a driving element disposed in the non-opening area; and a display element disposed in the open area and driven by the driving element.
US09484385B2
An image sensor package and method for fabricating the same is provided. The image sensor package includes a first substrate comprising a via hole therein, a driving circuit and a first conductive pad thereon. A second substrate comprising a photosensitive device and a second conductive pad thereon is bonded to the first substrate, so that the driving circuit, formed on the first substrate, can electrically connect to and further control the photosensitive device, formed on the second substrate. A solder ball is formed on a backside of the first substrate and electrically connects to the via hole for transmitting a signal from the driving circuit. Because the photosensitive device and the driving circuit are fabricated individually on the different substrates, fabrication and design thereof is more flexible. Moreover, the image sensor package is relatively less thick, thus, the dimensions thereof are reduced.
US09484380B1
A back side illumination image sensor includes a substrate including a front side and a back side opposite to the front side, a plurality of sensing elements formed in the substrate, a plurality of isolation structures isolating each element, and a plurality of cambered surfaces formed on the back side of the substrate. The cambered surfaces are formed correspondingly to the sensing elements, respectively.
US09484378B2
Semiconductor devices may include a semiconductor substrate comprising at least one of transistors and capacitors may be located at an active surface of the semiconductor substrate. An imperforate dielectric material may be located on the active surface, the imperforate dielectric material covering the at least one of transistors and the capacitors. Electrically conductive material in contact openings may be electrically connected to the at least one of transistors and capacitors and extend to a back side surface of the semiconductor substrate. Laterally extending conductive elements may extend over the back side surface of the semiconductor substrate and may be electrically connected to the conductive material in the contact openings. At least one laterally extending conductive element may be electrically connected to a first transistor or capacitor and may extend laterally underneath a second, different transistor or capacitor to which the laterally extending conductive element is not electrically connected.
US09484369B2
A solid-state imaging device includes a photoelectric conversion section which is disposed on a semiconductor substrate and which photoelectrically converts incident light into signal charges, a pixel transistor section which is disposed on the semiconductor substrate and which converts signal charges read out from the photoelectric conversion section into a voltage, and an element isolation region which is disposed on the semiconductor substrate and which isolates the photoelectric conversion section from an active region in which the pixel transistor section is disposed. The pixel transistor section includes a plurality of transistors. Among the plurality of transistors, in at least one transistor in which the gate width direction of its gate electrode is oriented toward the photoelectric conversion section, at least a photoelectric conversion section side portion of the gate electrode is disposed within and on the active region with a gate insulating film therebetween.
US09484360B2
The present disclosure provides a method for manufacturing an oxide thin film transistor (TFT) array substrate. Specifically the step of forming the thin film transistors may include: forming a pattern of an oxide semiconductor layer on the substrate with photoresist is reserved on the channel regions in the pattern of the oxide semiconductor layer; and forming a source-drain metal layer on the pattern of the oxide semiconductor layer, forming patterns that include source electrodes and drain electrodes by an etching process, and removing the photoresist reserved on the channel regions in the pattern of the oxide semiconductor layer.
US09484358B2
Monolithic, three dimensional NAND strings include a semiconductor channel, at least one end portion of the semiconductor channel extending substantially perpendicular to a major surface of a substrate, a plurality of control gate electrodes having a strip shape extending substantially parallel to the major surface of the substrate, the blocking dielectric comprising a plurality of blocking dielectric segments, a plurality of discrete charge storage segments, and a tunnel dielectric located between each one of the plurality of the discrete charge storage segments and the semiconductor channel.
US09484351B2
The present disclosure relates to a split gate memory device which requires less number of processing steps than traditional baseline processes and methods of making the same. Word gate/select gate (SG) pairs are formed around a sacrificial spacer. The resulting SG structure has a distinguishable non-planar top surface. The spacer layer that covers the select gate also follows the shape of the SG top surface. A dielectric disposed above the inter-gate dielectric layer and arranged between the neighboring sidewalls of the each memory gate and select gate provides isolation between them.
US09484350B2
A three dimensional semiconductor device includes a first memory device, a second memory device and a via. The via connects the first memory device to the second memory device.
US09484342B2
A semiconductor apparatus includes a substrate; a nitride semiconductor layer formed on the substrate; a transistor formed on the nitride semiconductor layer, and including a source electrode, a gate electrode, and a drain electrode disposed in this order; and a diode formed on the nitride semiconductor layer, and including an anode electrode and a cathode electrode disposed in this order. The semiconductor apparatus has a transistor/diode pair in which the source electrode, the gate electrode, the drain electrode, the anode electrode, and the cathode electrode are sequentially disposed in this order, and the drain electrode of the transistor and the anode electrode of the diode are connected by a drain/anode common electrode wiring and serve as a common electrode.
US09484324B2
A semiconductor device includes a first semiconductor chip including a first surface, a second surface and a first terminal arranged on the first surface, a second semiconductor chip including a first surface, a second surface and a second terminal arranged on the first surface of the second semiconductor chip, a support substrate including a first surface bonded to the second surfaces of the first semiconductor chip and the second semiconductor chip, and an isolation groove formed on the first surface of the support substrate. The isolation includes a pair of side surfaces continuously extending from opposing side surfaces of the first semiconductor chip and the second semiconductor chip, respectively, and the isolation groove is formed into the support substrate to extend from the first surface of the support substrate. The isolation groove has a depth less than a thickness of the support substrate.
US09484319B2
A semiconductor device has a semiconductor wafer with a plurality of semiconductor die. Contact pads are formed on a surface of the semiconductor die. The semiconductor die are separated to form a peripheral region around the semiconductor die. An encapsulant or insulating material is deposited in the peripheral region around the semiconductor die. An interconnect structure is formed over the semiconductor die and insulating material. The interconnect structure has an I/O density less than an I/O density of the contact pads on the semiconductor die. A substrate has an I/O density consistent with the I/O density of the interconnect structure. The semiconductor die is mounted to the substrate with the interconnect structure electrically connecting the contact pads of the semiconductor die to the first conductive layer of the substrate. A plurality of semiconductor die each with the interconnect structure can be mounted over the substrate.
US09484314B2
A method of forming a semiconductor device includes forming a plurality of word lines separated by air gaps with contact pad structures connected to the word lines, and forming a dummy structure directly opposite an air gap between neighboring word lines. Subsequently, the contact pad structures are cut into individual contact pads by a contact pad cut that intersects the dummy structure.
US09484311B2
A chip package and a packaging method are provided, which relates to the field of communications technologies, and is invented to implement high-frequency electromagnetic interference shielding and effectively improve chip performance. The package includes a package substrate and a metal cap covering the package substrate, where a silicon chip placement area is arranged on an upper surface of the package substrate, multiple first conductive parts are arranged in a peripheral area of the silicon chip placement area, and an edge of the metal cap is in contact with the package substrate and electrically connected to the multiple first conductive parts, where at least a portion of first conductive parts in the multiple first conductive parts are electrically connected to a grounding part by using the metal cap, and the grounding part is arranged on the package substrate, and configured to ground the package substrate.
US09484310B2
A plurality of first miniature elements of an overlay mark is formed in a first layer. A plurality of second miniature elements of the overlay mark is formed in a second layer different from the first layer. A plurality of dummy features is formed around the overlay mark. The dummy features are formed such that they each have a dimension below a resolution of an alignment detection tool configured to optically scan the overlay mark in an alignment process.
US09484296B2
At least one via level dielectric layer and at least one line level dielectric layer are sequentially formed over an array of device structures. Conductive line structures are formed within the at least one line level dielectric layer. A mask layer is applied over the conductive line structures, and is lithographically patterned to form opening therein. Portions of the conductive line structures are removed from underneath the openings in the patterned mask layer to form via cavities. The via cavities are vertically extended through the at least one via level dielectric layer employing a combination of the mask layer and the at least one line level dielectric layer as an etch mask. At least one conductive material can be deposited in the via cavities to form conductive via structures, which, in conjunction with the conductive line structures, constitute integrated line and via structures.
US09484291B1
Methods and systems for a robust pillar structure for a semiconductor device contacts are disclosed, and may include processing a semiconductor wafer comprising one or more metal pads, wherein the processing may comprise: forming a second metal contact on the one or more metal pads; forming a pillar on the second metal contact, and forming a solder bump on the second metal contact and the pillar, wherein the pillar extends into the solder bump. The second metal contact may comprise a stepped mushroom shaped bump, a sloped mushroom shaped bump, a cylindrical post, and/or a redistribution layer. The semiconductor wafer may comprise silicon. A solder brace layer may be formed around the second metal contact. The second metal contact may be tapered down to a smaller area at the one or more metal pads on the semiconductor wafer. A seed layer may be formed between the second metal contact and the one or more metal pads on the semiconductor wafer. The pillar may comprise copper.
US09484288B2
The semiconductor device includes a tab including a chip supporting surface, and a back surface opposite to the chip supporting surface; a plurality of suspension leads supporting the tab; a plurality of leads arranged between the suspension leads; a semiconductor chip mounted on the chip supporting surface of the tab, the semiconductor chip including a main surface, a plurality of pads formed on the main surface, and a rear surface opposite to the main surface; a seal portion sealing the semiconductor chip such that a part of each of the leads is exposed from the seal portion; and a Pb-free solder formed on the part of each of the leads. A part of the rear surface of the semiconductor chip is contacted with the seal portion.
US09484284B1
A MMIC power amplifier circuit assembly comprised of a SiC substrate having a plurality of microchannels formed therein, where a diamond layer is provided within each of the microchannels. A plurality of GaN HEMT devices are provided on the substrate where each HEMT device is positioned directly opposite to a microchannel. A silicon manifold is coupled to the substrate and includes a plurality of micro-machined channels formed therein that include a jet impingement channel positioned directly adjacent each microchannel, a return channel directly positioned adjacent to each microchannel, a supply channel supplying a cooling fluid to the impingement channels and a return channel collecting heated cooling fluid from the supply channels so that an impingement jet is directed on to the diamond layer for removing heat generated by the HEMT devices.
US09484275B2
A semiconductor module comprising a plurality of electrically conductive top plates, an electrically conductive base plate, a plurality of semiconductor chips installed on the base plate, a first power supply connected to the plates, a second power supply connected to the plates and an electrically insulating outer casing component. The semiconductor chips are individually in contact with the top plates. Each semiconductor chip comprises a first electrode electrically coupled with the base plate, and a second electrical pole electrically coupled with the corresponding top plate. The first power supply connecting plate is equipped with protruding parts that are individually in electrical contact with the top plates. The second power supply connecting plate is electrically connected to the base plate. The outer casing component is used to integrate the first power supply connecting plate and the second power supply connecting plate. The outer casing component comprises at least one opening.
US09484263B1
A method of removing a hard mask on a gate includes forming a first gate structure and a second gate structure. The first gate structure includes a first gate, a first hard mask disposed on the first gate and a first spacer surrounding the first gate and the first hard mask, wherein the second gate structure includes a second gate, a second hard mask disposed on the second gate and a second spacer surrounding the second gate and the second hard mask. Later, the first spacer surrounding the first hard mask and the second spacer surrounding the second hard mask are removed. After that, a dielectric layer is formed to cover the first hard mask and the second hard mask. Finally, the second dielectric layer, the first mask layer and the second mask layer are removed.
US09484257B2
Semiconductor devices and methods of manufacture thereof are disclosed. In some embodiments, a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes forming an insulating material layer over a workpiece, patterning an upper portion of the insulating material layer with a conductive line pattern, and forming a stop layer comprising a metal oxide or a metal nitride over the patterned insulating material layer. A masking material is formed over the stop layer, and the masking material is patterned with a via pattern. The via pattern of the masking material is transferred to a lower portion of the insulating material layer.
US09484256B1
A semiconductor device includes a gate disposed over a substrate; a source region and a drain region on opposing sides of the gate; and a pair of trench contacts over and abutting an interfacial layer portion of at least one of the source region and the drain region; wherein the interfacial layer includes boron in an amount in a range from about 5×1021 to about 5×1022 atoms/cm2.
US09484248B2
A method of fabricating an interconnect structure in which a patternable low-k material replaces the need for utilizing a separate photoresist and a dielectric material. Specifically, a method is provided that includes providing at least one patternable low-k material on a surface of an inorganic antireflective coating. The inorganic antireflective coating is vapor deposited and contains atoms of M, C and H wherein M is at least one of Si, Ge, B, Sn, Fe, Ta, Ti, Ni, Hf and La. At least one interconnect pattern is then formed within the at least one patternable low-k material. Next, the at least one patternable low-k material containing the at least one interconnect pattern is cured.
US09484237B2
Micro pick up arrays for transferring micro devices from a carrier substrate are disclosed. In an embodiment, a micro pick up array includes a compliant contact for delivering an operating voltage from a voltage source to an array of electrostatic transfer heads. In an embodiment, the compliant contact is moveable relative to a base substrate of the micro pick up array.
US09484233B2
A reactor for processing a plurality of substrates includes P processing station assemblies arranged symmetrically around an axis, where P is an integer greater than one. A pedestal carousel assembly includes P pedestal assemblies arranged symmetrically around the axis, each of the P pedestal assemblies including a pedestal. A rotational actuator rotates the pedestal carousel assembly relative to the axis to selectively index the P pedestal assemblies with the P processing station assemblies. Each of the P processing station assemblies processes substrates arranged on corresponding ones of the P pedestal assemblies at the same time.
US09484230B2
A substrate liquid processing apparatus of the present invention includes a process-liquid supply unit selectively supplying a plurality of types of process-liquids to the substrate held by a substrate holding table, first and second guide cups which are disposed in this order from the top and are configured to respectively guide downward the process-liquid scattering from the rotating substrate while being held by the substrate holding table; and a position adjustment mechanism adjusting a positional relationship between the first and second guide cups and the substrate holding table. A first process-liquid recovery tank is provided at a lower area of the first and second guide cups and recovers the process-liquid guided by the first guide cup. A second process-liquid recovery tank is provided at the inner peripheral side of the first process-liquid recovery tank and recovers the process-liquid guided by the second guide cup.
US09484223B2
A coreless packaging substrate includes: a circuit buildup structure having at least a dielectric layer, a wiring layer and a plurality of conductive elements, a plurality of electrical pads embedded in the dielectric layer of the circuit buildup structure, a plurality of metal bumps formed on the wiring layer of the circuit buildup structure, and a dielectric passivation layer formed on the surface of the circuit buildup structure and the metal bumps with the metal bumps exposed from the dielectric passivation layer. The metal bumps each have a metal column portion and a wing portion integrally connected to the metal column portion, such that the bonding force between the metal bumps and a semiconductor chip can be enhanced by the entire top surface of the wing portions of the metal bumps being completely exposed.
US09484217B2
A method for making contact openings for connecting a transistor from a stack of layers comprising an active layer made of a semi-conductor material, a silicide layer on the top of the active layer, a nitride-based layer on the top of the silicide layer, and an electrically insulating layer on the top of the nitride-based layer, includes opening for forming, in the insulating layer, an exposing opening on the nitride-based layer and delimited by flanks of the insulating layer, and removing the nitride-based layer by modifying the nitride-based layer at the opening using plasma wherein CxHy is introduced where x is the proportion of carbon and y is the proportion of hydrogen ions and comprising ions heavier than hydrogen. The conditions of plasma being so chosen as to modify a portion of the nitride-based layer and to form a protective carbon film on the flanks of the insulating layer.
US09484208B2
The present invention discloses a preparation method of a germanium-based Schottky junction, comprising, cleaning a surface of N-type germanium-based substrate, then depositing a layer of CeO2 on the surface, and further depositing a layer of metal. The stability Ce—O—Ge bonds can be formed at the interface after rare earth oxides CeO2 are in contact with the germanium substrate, and this is beneficial to reduce the interface state density, improve the quality of the interface, and reduce the MIGS and suppress Fermi-level pinning. Meanwhile, the tunneling resistance introduced by CeO2 between the metal and the germanium substrate is smaller relative to the case of Si3N4, Al2O3, Ge3N4 or the like. In view of the excellent surface characteristics and small conduction band offset relative to the germanium substrate, interposing of the CeO2 dielectric layer is applicable to the preparation the germanium-based Schottky junction having a low resistivity.
US09484206B2
According to one embodiment, a semiconductor device is disclosed. The device includes a foundation layer including first and second layers being different from each other in material, and the foundation layer including a surface on which a boundary of the first and second layers is presented, a catalyst layer on the surface of the foundation layer, and the catalyst layer including a protruding area. The device further includes a graphene layer being in contact with the protruding area.
US09484203B2
In a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, a gate structure is formed on a substrate. An ion implantation process is performed at an upper portion of the substrate exposed by the gate structure, so that an ion implantation region is formed to have an expanded volume. The ion implantation process uses ions that are identical to a material of the substrate.
US09484201B2
A method of forming semiconductor fins includes forming a plurality of sacrificial template fins from a first semiconductor material; epitaxially growing fins of a second semiconductor material on exposed sidewall surfaces of the sacrificial template fins; and removing the plurality of sacrificial template fins.
US09484195B2
The invention generally relates to systems and methods for transferring ions for analysis. In certain embodiments, the invention provides a system for analyzing a sample including an ionizing source for converting molecules of a sample into gas phase ions in a region at about atmospheric pressure, an ion analysis device, and an ion transfer member operably coupled to a gas flow generating device, in which the gas flow generating device produces a laminar gas flow that transfers the gas phase ions through the ion transfer member to an inlet of the ion analysis device.
US09484194B2
A mass spectrometer is disclosed comprising a liquid chromatography device for separating ions. A gas phase ion-neutral reaction device is arranged downstream to perform a gas phase ion-neutral reaction such as Hydrogen-Deuterium exchange. A control system is arranged to automatically and repeatedly switch the reaction device back and forth between a first mode of operation and a second mode of operation, wherein in the first mode of operation at least some parent or precursor ions are caused to react within the reaction device and wherein in the second mode of operation substantially fewer or no parent or precursor ions are caused to react.
US09484192B2
A method of ion imaging is disclosed comprising scanning a sample and acquiring first mass spectral data related to a first pixel location at a first spatial resolution and determining whether or not the first mass spectral data satisfies a condition. If it is determined that the first mass spectral data does satisfy the condition then the first mass spectral data is stored, recorded or prioritized. If it is determined that the first mass spectral data does not satisfy the condition then the first mass spectral data is discarded or downgraded. Scanning of the sample then continues at the first spatial resolution and further mass spectral data related to further pixel locations is acquired.
US09484186B2
Processes and apparatuses are described for modeling and correcting electron-beam (e-beam) proximity effects during e-beam lithography. An uncalibrated e-beam model, which includes a long-range component and a short-range component, can be calibrated based on one or more test layouts. During correction, a first resist intensity map can be computed based on the long-range component of the calibrated e-beam model and a mask layout. Next, a target pattern in the mask layout can be corrected by, iteratively: (1) computing a second resist intensity map based on the short-range component of the calibrated e-beam model and the target pattern; (2) obtaining a combined resist intensity map by combining the first resist intensity map and the second resist intensity map; and (3) adjusting the target pattern based on the combined resist intensity map and the design intent.
US09484177B2
An X-ray tube for accelerating electrons under a high voltage potential, said X-ray tube includes an evacuated elongated housing that is sealed, a through transmission target anode deposited on an inner surface of said elongated housing, said through transmission target anode configured having a cross-sectional center, a cathode structure disposed in said elongated housing, said cathode structure configured to emit the electrons toward said through transmission target anode, two or more filaments disposed linearly in said elongated housing, said two or more filaments linearly positioned end-to-end proximate said cross-sectional center, said evacuated housing configured to vacuum seal therein said two or more filaments, and, thus, such X-ray tube functions to provide a lengthened, elongated, symmetrical radiation field.
US09484176B2
This disclosure provides systems, methods, and apparatus for ion generation. In one aspect, an apparatus includes an anode, a first cathode, a second cathode, and a plurality of cusp magnets. The anode has a first open end and a second open end. The first cathode is associated with the first open end of the anode. The second cathode is associated with the second open end of the anode. The anode, the first cathode, and the second cathode define a chamber. The second cathode has an open region configured for the passage of ions from the chamber. Each cusp magnet of the plurality of cusp magnets is disposed along a length of the anode.
US09484172B2
An electrical contactor has a first terminal having a first fixed contact; a second terminal having a second fixed contact; a first electrically-conductive movable arm in electrical communication with the first terminal and having a first movable contact thereon; a second electrically-conductive movable arm in electrical communication with the second terminal and having a second movable contact thereon, counter-opposed to the first moveable arm; and an actuator for moving the first and second moveable arms in opposing directions. The first moveable contact and the second fixed contact form a primary contact set, and the second moveable contact and the first fixed contact form a secondary contact set, first and second moveable arms thereby forming a current-sharing arm pair between first and second terminals.
US09484170B2
Provided are: a plug body including a main body housing, a fuse having a pair of terminals protruding outside the main body housing with the fuse being accommodated in the main body housing, and a cover attached to the main body housing; a circuit accommodating body configured to accommodate a pair of terminals on a mating side connected to the pair of terminals of the fuse; a rotatable lever connected to the plug body and the circuit accommodating body and configured to connect and disconnect between the pair of terminals of the fuse and the pair of terminals on the mating side; and a fuse biasing portion configured to bias the fuse accommodated in the main body housing toward the cover.
US09484167B2
Disclosed is a coupling device for a circuit breaker. A third coupler formed as a curved surface is provided between a first coupler coupled to an outer handle assembly, and a second coupler coupled to an inner handle. Under such configuration, even if the inner handle and the outer handle assembly are not concentric with each other, the third coupler may transmit a rotational force applied to the first coupler to the second coupler in a direction perpendicular to a shaft direction of the second coupler, in a state where the third coupler is inclined from an upper surface of the circuit breaker body. As a result, a user's force to rotate the outer handle can be transmitted to the inner handle. This can prevent a malfunction of the circuit breaker, and thus can enhance reliability of the circuit breaker.
US09484165B2
An illumination display switching device includes a board, a push button-type switch mounted on the board, a light source mounted on the board, and a switch knob that is supported to a frame member to be slidable in an operation direction of the push button-type switch. The switch knob includes a display design part that is molded with a light-transmitting resin, a non-display design part except for the display design part that is molded with an opaque resin and a light guide member that is integrally molded with the light-transmitting resin of the display design part. The light guide member includes a base part and an arm part, and the base part is integrally molded with the display design part and the arm part extends from the base part and is connected to a switch part of the push button-type switch.
US09484162B2
A switchable socket assembly (36) permits a power source to be changed. The switchable socket assembly (36) includes a switch guide (38) that communicates with a linear array of terminal fittings that include an output terminal fitting (12) and first and second input terminal fittings (14, 16) on opposite respective sides of the output terminal fitting (12). A switch (40) is slidable in the switch guide (38) and can be moved between first and second positions. In the first position, the switch (40) permits a fuse (30) to connect to the output terminal fitting (12) and the first input terminal fitting (14). In the second position, the switch (40) permits the fuse (30) to connect to the output terminal fitting (12) and the second input terminal fitting (16).
US09484156B2
An improved capacitor and method of making an improved capacitor is set forth. The capacitor has planer anodes with each anode comprising a fusion end and a separated end and the anodes are in parallel arrangement with each anode in direct electrical contact with all adjacent anodes at the fusion end. A dielectric is on the said separated end of each anode wherein the dielectric covers at least an active area of the capacitor. Spacers separate adjacent dielectrics and the interstitial space between the adjacent dielectrics and spacers has a conductive material in therein.
US09484152B2
A substrate-type terminal includes a first major surface with a first mounting electrode and a second mounting electrode. The substrate-type terminal includes a second major surface with a first connecting electrode and a second connecting electrode. The substrate-type terminal includes a first slit located between the first mounting electrode and the first connecting electrode, as seen in a plane, and penetrating the terminal from the first major surface to the second major surface, and a second slit located between the second mounting electrode and the second connecting electrode, as seen in a plane, and penetrating the terminal from the first major surface to the second major surface.
US09484151B2
A method for producing a sintered R-T-B based magnet includes providing at least one sintered R-T-B based magnet material (where R is a rare-earth element and T is Fe or Fe and Co); providing RH diffusion sources that include a heavy rare-earth element RH (which is Dy and/or Tb) and 30 to 80 mass % of Fe and that have a particle size between 53 μm and 5600 μm; arranging the magnet material and the RH diffusion sources in a process vessel so that some of the RH diffusion sources are in contact with the magnet material; performing an RH diffusion process by heat treating in an inert ambient at a pressure of 5000 Pa or less and at a temperature of 800° C. to 1000° C.; and separating the RH diffusion sources from the magnet material.
US09484146B2
The invention relates to a high voltage transformer (6) having a sensor system (30) for monitoring physical characteristic variables. In particular, said sensor system has at least one sensor (1) that comprises a glass fiber (3) with a sensor head (2). Said sensor head supports a plurality of Bragg gratings (7, 8, 9). An evaluation unit (10) is associated with the sensor system and is connected to the at least one sensor head via said glass fiber. The invention is based on the general inventive concept of arranging the sensors of the sensor system between successive windings (4, 5) of the high voltage transformer using spacers. In addition, the use of a plurality of Bragg gratings in the sensor head ensures that at least one of the Bragg gratings determines the actual physical characteristic variables such as temperature or contact force (A).
US09484145B2
A converter includes a transformer module, a primary side circuit module, and a secondary side circuit module. The transformer module includes a magnetic core group and a winding. The winding includes a primary winding and a secondary winding, and is further installed on the magnetic core group. The primary side circuit module is coupled to the primary winding. The secondary side circuit module is coupled to the secondary winding. The primary side circuit modules or the secondary side circuit module has overlapping vertical projection area on a first plane with the winding, and the first plane is a plane in a horizontal direction of the winding.
US09484141B2
A three-phase stacked triangular transformer core is provided. The transformer has three legs and six yoke parts therebetween, wherein the legs include stacked laminations. In a cross-sectional plane perpendicular to a central transformer core axis, the stacked laminations are oriented in substantially radial direction, and each leg has two leg halves, wherein each leg half has a plurality of outer corners facing a corresponding leg half of a neighboring leg. For each of the leg halves the plurality of outer corners lie on a respective straight line within a lateral tolerance, and for each leg half the straight line defined by this leg half and the straight line defined by the corresponding leg half of the neighboring leg are parallel.
US09484124B2
An insulated electric wire includes a conductor and an insulating coating provided around a perimeter of the conductor. The insulating coating includes a first insulating coating film around the perimeter of the conductor, the first insulating coating film being formed of a resin containing an imide structure in its molecule, and a second insulating coating film around a perimeter of the first insulating coating film, the second insulating coating film being formed of a polyimide resin comprising a repeat unit represented by Formula 1, and having an imide concentration of not less than 15% and not more than 36%, wherein R1 is a tetravalent group derived from decarboxylation of an aromatic tetracarboxylic acid, and R2 is a divalent group derived from deamination of an aromatic diamine.
US09484117B2
A semiconductor memory device having a compression test mode is provided. The semiconductor memory device comprises a memory unit, i test pads, a timing circuit, a compression circuit, and a signal distribution circuit. The memory unit comprises m memory banks divided into n activating groups, wherein each bank comprises a plurality of sensing amplifiers for sensing and amplifying data in bit lines. The timing circuit sequentially generates n control signals each for activating a plurality of sensing amplifiers in one of the n activating groups. The compression circuit compresses data sensed and amplified by the plurality of sensing amplifiers in each bank in a compression test mode. The signal distribution circuit distributes signals output from the compression circuit among the i data pads in rotation. The integer n and the integer i are adjustable.
US09484113B2
A memory read operation is directed at a group of semiconductor devices from which a first semiconductor device has been removed. An error in data for the memory read operation is detected based on error-correction coding (ECC). The error is caused at least in part by the first semiconductor device having been removed. ECC is used to determine corrected data for the memory read operation.
US09484112B2
The present invention provides a liquid crystal display and a shift register thereof. Each shift register unit of the shift register comprises a storage circuit, receiving and temporarily storing a former stage signal, a voltage level control circuit and an inverter circuit, charging and discharging scan lines of a liquid crystal display panel, and a first node exists between the voltage level control circuit and the inverter circuit, and a second node exists between the storage circuit and the voltage level control circuit, and the storage circuit is employed to selectively invert and output received level signals to the second node under control of a first sequence signal, and the voltage level control circuit is employed to provide a low level signal to the first node, and the inverter circuit is employed to selectively invert and output the low level signal provided by the voltage level control circuit under control of a second sequence signal. With the aforementioned arrangement, the present is beneficial to the narrow frame or non frame design of the liquid crystal display panel and promote the process yield.
US09484111B2
A GOA circuit for use in LCD applications is disclosed, and the GOA circuit includes multiple cascaded GOA units, each of which includes a pull-up control circuit, a pull-up circuit, a pull down circuit, a pull-down holding circuit, a reset circuit, and a bootstrap capacitor. By using the GOA circuit, scanning directions of the LCD display panel are controlled by introducing scanning control signals to the pull-up control circuit for determining to output gate signals of the GOA circuit in sequence of up-to-down stages or in sequence of down-to-up stages. Furthermore, a novel scheme of three-segment voltage division achieves the optimization and the stability of the GOA circuit.
US09484110B2
A mask-programmed read-only memory (MROM) has a plurality of column line pairs, each having a bit line and a complement bit line. The MROM includes a plurality of memory cells corresponding to a plurality of intersections between the column line pairs and a plurality of word lines. Each memory cell includes a high Vt transistor and a low Vt transistor.
US09484106B2
A nonvolatile semiconductor memory can reduce variations in an amount of current during data writing operation. This allows for the writing of data to memory cells with high precision. The nonvolatile semiconductor memory includes a plurality of memory cells, word lines connected to the memory cells, and bit lines connected to each of the memory cells. At least two of the bit lines are selected, and a current is simultaneously supplied from a power supply line to those memory cells which are connected to the selected bit lines in order to write data thereto. The nonvolatile semiconductor memory also includes charge amount measurement units for measuring respective amounts of charge stored in the memory cells. The nonvolatile semiconductor memory also includes current path switching circuits connected to the respective bit lines. Those current path switching circuits which are connected to the selected bit lines supply a current from the power supply line to the memory cells or a predetermined terminal depending on a measured value of the amount of charge measured by the charge amount measurement section.
US09484102B2
A method of operating the semiconductor device includes performing an erase operation on a plurality of memory cells, performing a back-tunneling operation by injecting electrons into a storage node from a gate electrode of a memory cell, selected among the plurality of memory cells, and performing a program operation by injecting electrons into the storage node from a channel layer of the selected memory cell.
US09484095B2
An embodiment of the invention includes a Ternary Content Addressable Memory (TCAM) that includes a group of TCAM block. Each TCAM block stores a number of match entries. Each TCAM block is ranked in priority order. The TCAM also includes a group of TCAM headpointers. There is a TCAM headpointer coupled to each TCAM block. The TCAM headpointer indicates the highest priority match in the group of match entries in a TCAM block. The match entries within a TCAM block are prioritized in circular priority order starting from the highest priority match.
US09484091B2
According to one embodiment, a resistance change memory includes a memory cell, a sense amplifier and a global bit line. The memory cell is disposed at a location where a local bit line and a word line intersect each other. The memory cell is connected to both the local bit line and the word line. The sense amplifier reads data stored on the memory cell by supplying a read current to the memory cell. The global bit line is connected between the local bit line and the sense amplifier. The global bit line feeds the read current supplied by the sense amplifier to the local bit line. The sense amplifier charges the global bit line, before the local bit line and the global bit line are connected to each other.
US09484087B2
In one embodiment, the memory element may include a first electrode, a second electrode spaced apart from the first electrode, a memory layer between the first electrode and the second electrode, and an auxiliary layer between the memory layer and the second electrode. The auxiliary layer provides a multi-bit memory characteristic to the memory layer.
US09484079B2
A memory device may include a temperature sensor suitable for generating temperature information and a smart refresh circuit suitable for activating a smart refresh signal when an internal refresh signal is activated a set number of times, and controlling the set number based on the temperature information.
US09484076B1
Systems and methods relating to memory and/or memory latching are disclosed. In one exemplary implementation, an illustrative memory device may include self-timed pulse generator circuitry, first input latch circuitry, read/write control circuitry, and second input latch circuitry. According to further implementations herein, fast address access for read and write may be provided in the same cycle via a self-timed pulse in the input latch circuit and/or via associated control/scheme from the control circuit.
US09484073B1
The invention relates to a current sense amplifier. The current sense amplifier comprises: a first NAND gate comprising an output terminal being connected to a first output terminal, a second NAND gate comprising an output terminal being connected to a second output terminal, a first cross coupled inverter, and a second cross coupled inverter, the first inverter comprising a first n-FET and the second inverter comprising a second n-FET, a transmission gate comprising a first and a second transmission terminal and a transmission control terminal, the transmission control terminal being connected to a sense control line input terminal, a third n-FET having a source connected to a sense current input terminal and a drain connected to a source of the first n-FET, a fourth n-FET having a source connected to a reference current input terminal and a drain connected to a source of the second n-FET.
US09484066B2
The present disclosure relates to an image display device including a display unit for playing video and a control method thereof, and the method may include selecting at least one of characters contained in video, searching at least one region containing the selected character within the entire region of a frame using at least one frame provided in the video, extracting a major playback section containing the selected character based on at least one of the size and location of the retrieved at least one region, and playing the extracted major playback section.
US09484063B2
A method of joint generation of a mosaic of scenes. The method comprises selecting by each of a plurality of users one of a plurality of characters which are imaged in a plurality of media content items, alternately selecting by the plurality of users a plurality of expression indications, each the expression indication is selected during another of a plurality of user interactions which are held alternately with the plurality of users using a plurality of client terminals, sequentially selecting a plurality of scenes which are extracted from the plurality of media content items, each the scene is selected in another of the plurality of user interactions according to a respective the expression indication and images a respective character from the plurality of characters, and automatically generating a scene mosaic which comprises the plurality of scenes.
US09484062B1
A method of cleaning a recording medium, such as a disc. The method includes contacting a surface of the recording medium with a cleaning tape comprising a flexible backing and a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) coating. The cleaning tape may include an abrasive coating, with the SAM on the abrasive coating.
US09484061B2
Systems, methods, and computer program products are provided for editing digital audio data. In some implementations a method is provided that includes receiving digital audio data, identifying a modification to a portion of the digital audio data, and automatically correcting audio data surrounding one or more edit boundaries resulting from the identified modification including interpolating audio data from a region associated with the one or more edit boundaries.
US09484041B1
A communication system with a base station configured to determine a codec to use with end units, such that, in response to a determination that a first end unit uses a first set of access information, the base station registers the first end unit to the base station, setting the first codec to be used for communications with the first end unit, and, in response to a determination that a second unit uses a second set of access information, the base station registers the second end unit to the base station, setting the second codec to be used for communications with the second end unit. The communication system also comprises an end unit configured to determine the codec used by the base station and set the determined codec as the codec to use for communications with the base station.
US09484032B2
The disclosed embodiments illustrate methods and systems for processing multimedia content. The method includes extracting one or more words from an audio stream associated with multimedia content. Each word has associated one or more timestamps indicative of temporal occurrences of said word in said multimedia content. The method further includes creating a word cloud of said one or more words in said multimedia content based on a measure of emphasis laid on each word in said multimedia content and said one or more timestamps associated with said one or more words. The method further includes presenting one or more multimedia snippets, of said multimedia content, associated with a word selected by a user from said word cloud. Each of said one or more multimedia snippets corresponds to said one or more timestamps associated with occurrences of said word in said multimedia content.
US09484031B2
The present invention relates to voice processing and provides a method and system for correcting a text. The method comprising: determining a target text unit to be corrected in a text; receiving a reference voice segment input by the user for the target text unit; determining a reference text unit whose pronunciation is similar to a word in the target text unit based on the reference voice segment; and correcting the word in the target text unit in the text by the reference text unit. The present invention enables the user to easily correct errors in the text vocally.
US09484030B1
A system is configured to execute audio-initiated commands. The system detects audio and determines if a first sound is included in the audio. The system then processes further incoming audio to detect a second sound. If the second sound is not detected within a time threshold, the system executes a command. The command may include delivering a message, outputting audio corresponding to synthesized speech, or some other executable command.
US09484026B2
A facility and method for analyzing and classifying calls without transcription via keyword spotting is disclosed. The facility uses a group of calls having known outcomes to generate one or more domain- or entity-specific grammars containing keywords and related information that are indicative of particular outcome. The facility monitors telephone calls by determining the domain or entity associated with the call, loading the appropriate grammar or grammars associated with the determined domain or entity, and tracking keywords contained in the loaded grammar or grammars that are spoken during the monitored call, along with additional information. The facility performs a statistical analysis on the tracked keywords and additional information to determine a classification for the monitored telephone call.
US09484021B1
Automatic speech recognition (ASR) processing including a two-stage configuration. After ASR processing of an incoming utterance where the ASR outputs an N-best list including multiple hypotheses, a first stage determines whether to execute a command associated with one of the hypotheses or whether to output some of the hypotheses of the N-best list for disambiguation. A second stage determines what hypotheses should be included in the disambiguation choices. A first machine learning model is used at the first stage and a second machine learning model is used at the second stage. The multi-stage configuration allows for reduced speech processing errors as well as a reduced number of utterances sent for disambiguation, which thus improves the user experience.
US09484005B2
Systems and methods are provided for trimming content for projection within the bounds of a projection target. The systems and methods trim the content for projection based on one or more characteristics of the projection target, including a shape, outline, and distance to the projection target. Moreover, the systems and methods designate void areas where no content will be projected based on the one or more characteristics, and the void areas will be generated or otherwise projected along with the content so that the content is projected onto the projection target and the void areas are projected outside of the projection target such that the projected content does not significantly spill onto surfaces or objects outside of the projection target.
US09484001B2
A trigger event causes a portable electronic device to capture an image of an object in which a user has expressed interest. The trigger event can be an express command or an implied, or inferred, indication of the user's interest in the object. With an image of the object captured, the portable electronic device determines a predominant color, and controls one or more diffuse light sources associated with the portable electronic device to emit light that approximates the determined color. The one or more diffused light sources controlled in this manner can include multi-color light emitting elements located at a housing of the portable electronic device, multi-color light emitting elements located at a case accessory of the portable electronic device (e.g., a case cover, holster, etc.), or a combination thereof.
US09483997B2
A candidate companion screen device is located by a primary display device as being in the same room as the primary device using IRDA, and in response ancillary content related to content being shown on the primary display device is provided to the companion screen device. The ancillary content may be provided from the Internet based on information in the content being presented on the primary display device by, e.g., providing a link to a website to the companion device.
US09483991B2
Disclosed is an organic light emitting display device which includes: a liquid crystal display panel configured to include at least one common electrode bar and a plurality of divisional areas defined along a length direction of the at least one common electrode bar; a common voltage controller configured to divide a single frame into a plurality of intervals corresponding to the plurality of divisional areas and generate a common voltage control signal in each interval; and a common voltage compensator configured to generate a compensated common voltage on the basis of the common voltage control signal in each interval and apply the compensated common voltage to the at least one common electrode bar of the liquid crystal display panel.
US09483988B2
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display and more particularly to a driving method and driving device for a liquid crystal panel, and to a liquid crystal display device comprising a liquid crystal panel. The driving method comprises: receiving an original input signal; judging whether or not a current time is within a signal conversion phase; and when the judgment result indicates that the current time is within the signal conversion phase, generating a target driving signal based on the original input signal, and outputting the target driving signal to a data line of a liquid crystal panel or generating an original driving signal based on the original input signal and outputting the original driving signal to the data line. The polarity of the target driving signal is opposite to that of the original driving signal. An amplitude of the target driving signal corresponding to a first frame within the signal conversion phase is less than an amplitude of the original driving signal.
US09483987B2
Provided is an embedded touch screen, including: a first substrate; a second substrate including: scanning signal lines extending in a first direction; video signal lines extending in a second direction; a plurality of pixels each including a pixel electrode connected to corresponding one of the video signal lines via a switching element connected to corresponding one of the scanning signal lines; and a common electrode; a liquid crystal layer; an application circuit for applying an alternating signal to a plurality of excitation electrodes; a detection circuit for detecting a signal excited on a plurality of detection electrodes each arranged adjacent to each of the plurality of excitation electrodes; and a scanning circuit for scanning at least one of each of the plurality of excitation electrodes and each of the plurality of detection electrodes at least in the second direction.
US09483980B2
A pixel circuit includes a switching transistor whose conduction is controlled by a drive signal supplied to the control terminal, a drive wiring adapted to propagate the drive signal, and a data wiring adapted to propagate a data signal. A multi-layered wiring structure is used so that a second wiring layer is formed on a layer different from that on which a first wiring layer is formed.
US09483978B2
A display device includes a display unit having display elements arrayed in rows and columns. The display elements each include a current-driven light emitting unit and a drive circuit for driving the light emitting unit. A power supply unit supplies a drive voltage for driving the display elements to power supply lines corresponding to the rows of display elements. A signal output unit supplies video signal voltages to data lines corresponding to the columns of the display elements. A control unit detects maximum grayscale values of input signals corresponding to the display elements arranged in the rows, and accordingly controls duty ratios of the drive voltage supplied to the power supply lines corresponding to the rows of the display elements. The control unit also controls values of video signals corresponding to the display elements in each row.
US09483977B2
A method of driving an organic light emitting display device includes: receiving an image signal by sub-field with respect to a single frame comprising the N number of sub-fields (N is a natural number greater than 2) from the exterior; dividing a single sub-field into an address period and a display period and selectively calling a data signal of a single sub-field from the M number of sub-field memories (M is a natural number greater than 2); and applying the called data signal of the single sub-field to a sub-pixel.
US09483967B2
An advertisement element (2) having an underside adapted for positioning on a flat surface and an upper side comprising an advertisement surface with advertisement information, wherein the advertisement surface comprises a plurality of protrusions (12), wherein each protrusion (12) comprises a first display surface (14) with graphics (18′) applied to the surface, said surface (14) and graphics (18′) being oriented towards a first predefined viewpoint (4) and a second display surface (16) with graphics (18″) applied to the surface, said surface (16) and graphics (18″) being oriented towards a second predefined viewpoint (6), and wherein the advertisement information comprises a first image (8) composed of the combined graphics (18′) on the first display surfaces (14) and a second image (10) composed of the combined graphics (18″) on the second display surfaces (16). A method of creating said advertisement element (2) and a method of capturing advertisement images.
US09483957B1
The subject matter described herein includes methods, systems, and computer readable media for promoting behavioral intervention via evidence-based recommendations and game mechanics. According to one aspect, a method for promoting behavioral intervention via evidence-based recommendations is provided. The method occurs at a computing platform including a processor and memory. The method includes receiving information regarding characteristics and/or activities of a user, wherein the user is associated with a medical condition or an age group. The method further includes determining, using the received information and predetermined health information associated with the medical condition or the age group, an action for promoting behavioral intervention. The method also includes providing the action or information associated with the action to the user.
US09483947B2
A passing assistance system and method is provided for one's vehicle having an electronic control device for at least receiving messages from car-to-car communication systems of other vehicles. The messages include information about the presence or absence of a vehicle that trails the vehicle transmitting the message. The control device evaluates these messages as follows: the control device has a filter for identifying the first oncoming vehicle and its message and activates a warning system in the ego-vehicle to prevent a passing process if this message includes the information about the presence of a trailing vehicle.
US09483937B2
There are provided systems and methods for wireless beacon devices providing crosswalk management through communication device connections. A user may travel with a device, such as a communication device, that includes a communication module that may utilize specialized hardware features to establish short range wireless communications with nearby wireless beacons. The wireless beacons may be established at or nearby crosswalk locations. The beacon may provide the aforementioned communication services with the communication device and be utilized to triangulate a position, path of travel, and speed of travel of the user. Calendar, travel route, and other information for the user may also be determined using the beacons. Thus, a crosswalk signal may be changed in anticipation of the user crossing. Further, if the user requires additional time to cross based on triangulating the user's location in the crosswalk, the signal may be further changed based on the user's location.
US09483930B1
A device, system, and method for evaluating compliance with a hand hygiene standard using acceleration measurements of the hand or wrist. The method is based on the scalar quantities vigor and/or rocking angle.
US09483928B2
Systems and methods are provided for aligning status indicators on a terminal block of an I/O device by locating the status indicators directly adjacent to or integrated directly within their respective terminals on the terminal block. The status indicators are illuminated by LEDs or other light emitters disposed within a housing of the I/O device. Light from the LEDs are directed to the status indicators by light pipes disposed within the housing of the I/O device. LED activation circuitry disposed within the housing determines a manner in which to activate the LEDs to illuminate the status indicators based on inputs and outputs between the I/O device and a controlled process. In certain embodiments, the status indicators are disposed on a raised section of the I/O device, which may be part of a removable LED indication assembly including the LEDs, light pipes, and LED activation circuitry.
US09483913B2
Electronic card game devices and methods incorporate progressive jackpot operations controlled by a central server computer. If a system game device is selected by the central server computer to win a progressive jackpot award, the system game device is programmed to display secondary game outcome symbols on playing cards being displayed during game play to indicate winning of the award.
US09483893B2
A securable banknote carrier comprising an enclosure of flexible material attached to an articulated bi-fold frame delimiting a banknote aperture, wherein the frame comprises a pair of hingedly coupled opposing jaw members, and wherein the frame is configured such that when moving from a banknote aperture open position to a banknote aperture closed position the opposing jaw members rotate inwardly towards one another from a position in which the jaw members are substantially coplanar to a position m which the members are substantial adjacent and parallel to each other.
US09483892B2
A smart key apparatus and a method of processing a signal from the smart key apparatus is provided and the smart key apparatus includes a plurality of antennas that receive a Low Frequency (LF) signal from a vehicle via a plurality of reception axes. In addition, an LF reception controller receives the LF signal via a reception antenna which is determined by sequentially verifying a reception level according to a set order of the plurality of antennas when receiving the LF signal and determines an antenna having a highest reception level as a reception antenna by comparing a reception level that corresponds to a plurality of antennas respectively. A signal processing unit processes the LF signal received via the reception antenna.
US09483889B2
A method for controlling an electronically secured device by means of a transponder has the following procedural steps: a) Access authorization information is sent from an electrical access management system to the transponder via a mobile communications link, b) The access authorization information is received by the transponder, c) The access authorization information is transmitted from the transponder to the device, and d) A function of the device is activated if the received access authorization information matches reference information belonging to the device.
US09483883B2
Mobile device for communicating a current location and a current destination, to a coordination server, receiving a set of tasks (statically assigned or dynamically assigned) for the user (for example, from the server or from another user or adhoc tasks specified by a customer), displaying the set of tasks to the user, receiving a completion response (successful or unsuccessful) from the user, and proceeding to the next waypoint along a route/trip plan. A coordination server facilitates communication of a list of tasks dynamically and opportunistically assigned to a user to be performed at a specified location.
US09483878B2
A method for editing content including at least one three-dimensional object. The method includes determining by a processing element one or more constraints, rendering by the processing element a shell defining an offset distance to the three-dimensional object corresponding to the one or more constraints, receiving a user input to a point related or connected to the three-dimensional object, and moving the point in a direction corresponding to the user input. In the method, the movement of the point is limited in at least one direction by the shell.
US09483875B2
An augmented reality system with encoding light emitting beacons placed in a scene. Beacons placed at desired locations in a scene emit light modulated with multiple access encoding that conveys an identifier for its emitting beacon. The emitted light signals are also blanked for longer than a time between image capturing by an image augmenting device. Beacons viewed in captured images are identified by correlating an absence of a beacon in an image with an absence of a received identifier in received light signals. In a view of the scene presented to a user, augmenting images are obtained based upon the determined beacon identifier and are displayed at locations in the scene based upon the determined location of that beacon. Beacons that emit pulsed light signals encoded with the multiple access coding are also provided.
US09483874B2
An example non-limiting game apparatus as an information processing apparatus includes a CPU which causes the game apparatus to function as a guide apparatus. A map image of a place or area to be guided is displayed on a lower LCD. When a predetermined position on the map image is designated, a photograph image of a part of a panoramic image produced from a panoramic photograph taken at a real position in a real space that corresponds to the predetermined position is displayed on a stereoscopic LCD. Therefore, not only a planar map image but also an actual photograph at the predetermined position are presented. Furthermore, if the map image is turned, the photograph image of a part of the panoramic image is changed such that the photograph image corresponds to a turned direction.
US09483867B2
A system for performing object identification combines pose determination, EO/IR sensor data, and novel computer graphics rendering techniques. A first module extracts the orientation and distance of a target in a truth chip given that the target type is known. A second is a module identifies the vehicle within a truth chip given the known distance and elevation angle from camera to target. Image matching is based on synthetic image and truth chip image comparison, where the synthetic image is rotated and moved through a 3-Dimensional space. To limit the search space, it is assumed that the object is positioned on relatively flat ground and that the camera roll angle stays near zero. This leaves three dimensions of motion (distance, heading, and pitch angle) to define the space in which the synthetic target is moved. A graphical user interface (GUI) front end allows the user to manually adjust the orientation of the target within the synthetic images. The system also includes the generation of shadows and allows the user to manipulate the sun angle to approximate the lighting conditions of the test range in the provided video.
US09483866B2
The present invention is an OCT imaging system user interface for efficiently providing relevant image displays to the user. These displays are used during image acquisition to align patients and verify acquisition image quality. During image analysis, these displays indicate positional relationships between displayed data images, automatically display suspicious analysis, automatically display diagnostic data, simultaneously display similar data from multiple visits, improve access to archived data, and provide other improvements for efficient data presentation of relevant information.
US09483851B2
A method is provided including acquiring imaging data of an object to be imaged from a computed tomography (CT) detector. The method also includes reconstructing the acquired imaging data into an initial reconstruction image, and performing material characterization of an image volume of the initial reconstruction image to provide a re-mapped image volume. Further, the method includes performing forward projection on the re-mapped image volume to provide forward projection data, and providing an error projection based on the forward projection data. Also, the method includes filtering at least one of the initial reconstruction image, the re-mapped image volume, the forward projection data, or the error projection. The method also includes using the error projection to update the initial reconstruction image to provide an updated reconstruction image.
US09483845B2
A video frame compression system includes a rendering engine that provides a current video frame and current additional rendering information. Additionally, the video frame compression system includes a warping engine that generates a warped video frame, wherein the warped video frame is a transformation of a previous video frame that is based on the current additional rendering information. Further, the video frame compression system includes a video encoder that compresses the current video frame by using the warped video frame as a reference frame and separately compresses the current additional rendering information. Still further, the video frame compression system includes a packetizer that provides main and auxiliary data streams corresponding to the compressed current video frame and the compressed current additional rendering information, respectively. A video frame decompression system and methods of video frame compression and decompression are also provided.
US09483844B2
An interactive image analysis system includes an image visualization subsystem (1) for visualizing an image (8). An indicated position determiner (2) is arranged for determining an indicated position of a pointing device with respect to the image(8). A result determiner (3) is arranged for determining a result of a local image processing of the image (8) at the indicated position. A display subsystem (4) displays either at least part of the result of the local image processing (406) or a visible mark (407), based on the image processing result. The result of the local image processing is indicative of the presence or absence of an object (403) at or near the indicated position (404, 405), and the display subsystem (4) is arranged for displaying the visible mark (407) in the absence of such an object (403) at or near the indicated position (405).
US09483843B2
The present document describes a method and system for expediting bilinear filtering of textures, by reducing the number of data load operations. The method expands the original data layout with additional borders containing replicated texels. The replicated texels correspond either to wrapped-around texels for two-dimensional textures or neighboring faces in cube textures. Therefore, a 2×2 filter kernel for bilinear filtering is built which requires only one texel address to be computed, with all texel data readable with two load operations which are a predetermined stride apart. Different addressing modes are implemented by adjusting the sampling locus.
US09483840B1
A method of generating a super-resolution image from a single frame of image data includes using a processor to retrieve query patches of image data from a memory, determining a search range for each patch, and generating super-resolution image data corresponding to each patch based upon the search range.
US09483836B2
Various aspects of a method and apparatus for video processing may include a computing device communicably coupled to an external device. The computing device may be operable to determine an average vertical velocity and an average horizontal velocity of a subset of pixels in an image frame and determine a depth value for each pixel of the subset of pixels based on calculated motion vectors of the pixel of the subset of pixels, the average vertical velocity of the subset of pixels and the average horizontal velocity of the subset of pixels.
US09483832B2
A surgery assistance apparatus includes an organ region extraction unit that extracts a tubular organ region from a three-dimensional image obtained by imaging a tubular organ and a blood vessel dominating the tubular organ, a region-of-interest setting unit that sets a region of interest in the tubular organ region, a blood vessel region extraction unit that extracts a blood vessel region dominating the tubular organ from the three-dimensional image, a branching structure extraction unit that extracts a branching structure of the blood vessel from the blood vessel region, and a dominating blood vessel identification unit that identifies a dominating blood vessel region in the blood vessel region that dominates the region of interest by using a positional relationship between a terminal end point of the extracted branching structure and the set region of interest.
US09483821B2
Provided is an ultrasound image display method. The ultrasound image display method includes displaying an ultrasound image of an object, selecting at least one region of interest (ROI) in the ultrasound image based on a user input, converting image pixel information corresponding to the at least one ROI into height values, and three-dimensionally displaying a partial ultrasound image corresponding to the at least one ROI by using the height values.
US09483816B2
A method for mapping a target image to a reference image includes receiving a target image; receiving a reference image that overlaps the target image; preprocessing the target image, wherein the preprocessing includes: rejecting a target image with a shadow region above a shadow threshold while keeping a target image with a shadow region below a shadow threshold; providing an uncertainty in a location of the kept target image relative to the reference image; transforming the kept target image to an atlas projection to match the reference image; partitioning the transformed kept target image into a sub-region; and determining a matching statistic for each sub-region to determine a location for each sub-region relative to the reference image.
US09483815B2
A device for creating a digital image is described. The device that may receive two or more input images. The input images may have a common viewpoint with unique lighting configurations. The device may utilize basis light functions and modifiers to create a final composite image. The device may include a computing device configured to provide user a graphical user interface enabling a user to create a final composite image. Devices described herein may be useful for computational light workflows in photography.
US09483814B1
A single still input image is converted into a decomposition video that, when played, appears to be a close facsimile of the input image. Each frame of the decomposition video has a subset of the pixels of the input image that is disjoint from the subset of pixels selected for any other frame. A union of the subsets, represented by each decomposition video frame, contains all the pixels of the input image. To preserve sufficient brightness, a decomposition video generally needs to contain a relatively small number of frames. To achieve effective and efficient blocking, of the content of the input image as it appears in each frame of a decomposition video, the present invention focuses upon a spatial filtering strategy and, preferably, a two-tiered strategy. A first tier focuses upon the obscuring of relatively high frequency spatial frequencies, while a second tier focuses upon the obscuring of relatively low frequency spatial frequencies.
US09483811B2
A method includes acts for rendering, on a data processing system, a result derived from a set of data by performing data processing across a first data processing system and a second data processing system. The amount of processing performed by the second data processing system can be dynamically adjusted depending on factors affecting the second data processing system. The first data processing system receives information defining how the result will be rendered at the second data processing system. The first data processing system receives information indicating factors affecting the second data processing system. The first data processing system dynamically allocates the needed data processing between the first data processing system and the second data processing system, based on factors affecting the second data processing system.
US09483810B2
Methods and apparatuses to reduce the number of IO requests to memory when executing a program that iteratively processes contiguous data are provided. A first set of data elements may be loaded in a first register and a second set of data elements may be loaded in a second register. The first set of data elements and the second set of data elements can be used during the execution of a program to iteratively process the data elements. For each of a plurality of iterations, a corresponding set of data elements to be used during the execution of an operation for the iteration may be selected from the first set of data elements stored in the first register and the second set of data elements stored in the second register. In this way, the same data elements are not re-loaded from memory during each iteration.
US09483805B1
A method of limiting tokens for use by a student within an education application displays numerous membership options. For a price, a certain number of tokens are allowed per month. At the end of each month, tokens do not roll over; the account is reset with the monthly allotment of tokens. If the number of tokens in the account reaches zero, access is blocked. A method limits account sharing by using a limited time viewing window for videos and documents. A stated time limit displayed to the student is greater than the length of the video. An actual time limit not displayed to the student is greater than the stated time limit. Requests to restart the video within the actual time limit are granted. A request to restart the video after the actual time limit is denied unless the student again pays the number of tokens equal to the value of the video.
US09483801B1
Automatically fading online user content may include receiving digital content from a first user, the digital content associated with a first user-defined fading time indication; posting the digital content at a first time; associating, using the one or more computing devices, the first user-defined fading time indication with the digital content; receiving, at a second time, from a second user, a request to view the digital content, the second time being after the first time and the second user being distinct from the first user; determining the availability of the digital content based at least in part on the difference between the second time and the first time and the first user-defined fading time indication; and when the determined availability includes availability of one or more aspects of the digital content to the second user, providing for display to the second user the available one or more aspects.
US09483799B2
Embodiments include a method of aggregating data from a plurality of QuickBooks (QB) files that may be in physically separate locations, and having at least one account name in common. In one embodiment, the method includes, assigning a different parent account identification (ID) number to each differently named parent account. The method includes creating an entry in a hash table for each parent account ID, the contents of the entry being a collection of rows including a row for each different sub account of the parent account, wherein data for multiple instances of like named parent accounts are aggregated, the key of the entry in the hash table being the parent account ID.
US09483791B2
A method, system, and network for interfacing the work-flow monitoring and reporting of a host computer, a local network of information technology devices, a community of network users, and third party vendors is provided. This includes processes and systems for initiating an inventory, including software, of a plurality of information technology devices associated with a local network of information technology devices from a host computer and determining the operational status of the information technology devices associated with the local network. The operational status of the information technology devices associated with the local network is monitored and presented to a host computer. Needs relating to the local network are identified and determined and a purchasing platform for purchasing product solutions from third party vendors is provided.
US09483788B2
A system and method allows a user to define a search request by selecting and weighting graphical icons provided on a search creation interface. The graphical icons may be selected by using an icon selection feature provided on the search creation interface. The graphical icons may further be assigned relative search weights using an icon weighting feature provided on the search creation interface. The system and method generates search results based on metadata associated with the selected ones of the graphical icons and the search weights assigned to each of the selected ones of the graphical icons. The search results may comprise a ranked list of items, such as products listed for sale on an e-commerce server.
US09483786B2
A personalized gift card creation system and method includes providing an application to be executed on a computing device in which the application includes a peripheral application program interface (API) for interfacing with one or more peripheral devices of the computing device. A server in communication with the application generates a graphical user interface (GUI) on the computing device using the application, receives at least one of user-supplied textual, audio, or video content from the one or more peripheral devices using the application, and generates a gift card holder from the received user-supplied content. The server also receives information associated with a merchant of a gift card and a monetary amount to be associated with the gift card, and transmits the gift card holder and the gift card to a recipient.
US09483778B2
An example method for generating a user profile for a user based on a static profile and a dynamic profile of the user includes compressing dynamic rules into aggregated rules for validation. The dynamic rules associated with a particular user are matched to one or more validated aggregated rules to generate the dynamic profile for that user. The static profile for the user is generated for the user based on factual user information and historical transactional data for the user. The static and dynamic profile are then combined to form the user profile.
US09483775B1
A deal manager executing on computer hardware receives a discount offer proposal from a first consumer. The deal manager forwards the discount offer proposal to one or more retail suppliers. The discount offer can include proposed terms such as a conditional modification to an original retail price of a respective retail item offered for sale by the supplier. In response to receiving, from the supplier, acceptance of terms as specified by the discount offer proposal, the deal manager or other suitable resource initiates distribution of terms associated with the approved discount offer to the first consumer and/or a second consumer. The second consumer can be one of multiple consumers to which the approved discount offer is distributed. Accordingly, consumers can propose deals that are, in turn, used by other consumers.
US09483772B2
Embodiments of the instant invention are directed to a method and apparatus for presenting unsolicited data to users without interrupting the user's activities, wherein the presentation of the unsolicited data is monitored and is available for review by the user at the user's convenience. Embodiments of the invention comprise a content and display manager, wherein the content and display manager include a display monitor, a content delivery system and a content controller. The display monitor selects the display of content to the users, in part, by reviewing a marker which defines the last time that content was displayed to the user and the type of content displayed. The content delivery system transmits a content window to a user computer via the controller.
US09483758B2
A mobile device is provided. The mobile device includes a display unit, a sensor configured to sense user's touch done on a surface of the display unit in a disabled state of the display unit, a storage unit configured to store preset gesture information, a controller configured to enable the display unit when a user's touch operation matched with the gesture information is sensed, execute a wallet application, and display an execution screen, and a communication unit configured to transmit information for a selected payment option to an external apparatus when the payment option is selected on the execution screen and perform a payment. The payment is simply done.
US09483754B2
A method for generating an interactive stacking plan of a building is disclosed. A building data file with one or more external tenant records in a first format is received on a server computer system. Data values of one or more of the external tenant record fields are imported into master tenant records, each of which is defined by a plurality of master tenant record attributes. Stacking plan graphical elements are generated for each of the master tenant records with a size proportional to a leased space. A user-activatable link that generates an independent display of at least one of the master tenant record attributes is included in the stacking plan graphical element. The stacking plan graphical elements are arranged in the interactive stacking plan according to the floor identifier attributes of the corresponding master tenant records. The interactive stacking plan is then transmitted to the client computer system.
US09483750B2
Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to virtual worlds and provide a method, system and computer program product for deploying and managing an avatar silhouette in a location in a virtual world. In one embodiment of the invention, a method for deploying and managing an avatar silhouette in a location in a virtual world can include creating and inserting a silhouette avatar into one location of a virtual world in correspondence with a primary avatar in a different location in the virtual world, rendering the silhouette avatar recognizable by an avatar in the one location and prohibiting independent movements by the silhouette avatar, and passing a communication directed from the avatar in the one location to the silhouette avatar in the one location along to the primary avatar in the different location.
US09483749B2
Aspects of the present invention are directed to a system for next day reconciliation of transportation records. The system having a transportation record storage provider (TRSP) that receives and stores storage medium transportation requests; an outside service provider (OSP) inventory manager that receives and maintains records of transported storage mediums scanned at the OSP; and a reconciliation provider that receives a first list from the TRSP and a second list from the OSP inventory manger, for reconciliation. The reconciliation provider includes receivers for receiving the first and second list; a processing engine that reconciles the first list and the second list; and a reporting unit that reports the results of the reconciliation. The processing engine matches inbound and outbound records of the first list and second list, and processes invalid records; and analyzes and accounts for un-matched records.
US09483738B2
In one embodiment, a method defines information for a set of genomes where the set of genomes describe characteristics of media programs. The method also defines which genomes in the set of genomes correspond to which topics in a set of topics. Textual information for a plurality of media programs and the information are input into a model and the model is trained to determine a probability distribution of terms for the set of topics based on analyzing the textual information and the genome information. The method then outputs the trained model. The probability distribution of terms is usable to determine genomes for each of the plurality of media programs where a genome corresponds to a topic and is associated with a media program based on terms found in the textual information for the media program and the probability distribution of terms for the topic correspond to the genome.
US09483719B2
The invention relates to improvements in substrates and in particular to new substrates having magnetic and visual security features, which provide security against imitation. A security substrate comprising a transparent polymer carrier layer bearing indicia formed from a plurality of opaque and non-opaque regions and a transparent magnetic layer supported by the carrier layer containing a distribution of particles of a hard magnetic material of a size and distributed in a concentration at which the magnetic layer remains transparent.
US09483717B2
A method and apparatus are provided for stocking and/or restocking an item. During operation, an RFID reader will determine items to be stocked/restocked. This determination may be made by performing a first scan and determining all items within range. Once determined, the RFID reader will continuously scan items that are within range. When the RIFD reader encounters an additional item that is similar to an item to be stocked/restocked, a notification is provided to a user.
US09483714B2
In a case where generating a training image of an object to be used to generate a dictionary to be referred to in image recognition processing of detecting the object from an input image, model information of an object to be detected is set, and a luminance image of the object and a range image are input. The luminance distribution of the surface of the object is estimated based on the luminance image and the range image, and the training image of the object is generated based on the model information and the luminance distribution.
US09483708B2
A method for recognizing an object reflection in at least one image generated by a camera of a motor vehicle includes: recognizing at least one first object candidate in the image; identifying at least one first reflection indicator as a function of the first object candidate; evaluating the first reflection indicator to analyze whether the first object candidate is an object reflection; and outputting an evaluation signal as a function of the evaluation, the evaluation signal characterizing the first object candidate as at least one of an object reflection and an object.
US09483706B2
One of the challenges in bringing computational imaging to a mass market is that computational imaging is inherently computationally expensive. The computational challenges associated with computational imaging are apparent with the computation of a histogram of gradient descriptors. Oftentimes, generating a histogram of gradient descriptors involves computing gradients of an image, binning the gradients according to their orientation, and, optionally, normalizing the bins using a non-linear function. Because each of these operations is expensive, the histogram of gradient descriptor computations is generally computationally expensive and is difficult to implement in a power efficient manner for mobile applications. The present application discloses a computing device that can provide a low-power, highly capable computing platform for computing a histogram of gradient descriptors.
US09483705B2
Based on a long diameter of a set specific region, a first region estimated as the specific region and a second region estimated as a background region are set within an input image. Based on a density histogram of each pixel in the first region and a density histogram of each pixel in the second region, a first evaluation value which indicates a likelihood that a density value represents the specific region is calculated for each density value. For each pair of two adjacent pixels within the input image, based on the first evaluation values, a second evaluation value which indicates a likelihood that the two adjacent pixels represent a contour is calculated. Based on the second evaluation value, connection costs between a plurality of nodes respectively representing each pair of the two adjacent pixels are set. The plurality of nodes are connected based on the connection costs.
US09483696B2
A system and method for generating compact iris representations based on a database of iris images includes providing full-length iris codes for iris images in a database, where the full-length iris code includes a plurality of portions corresponding to circumferential rings in an associated iris image. Genuine and imposter score distributions are computed for the full-length iris codes, and code portions are identified that have a contribution that provides separation between imposter and genuine distributions relative to a threshold. A correlation between remaining code portions is measured. A subset of code portions having low correlations within the subset is generated to produce a compact iris representation.
US09483691B2
A system and method for computer vision based tracking of a human form may include detecting a shape of an object in an image of a space and determining the probability of object having a human form shape based on movement of the object. If the probability of the object of being of a human form is above a predetermined threshold the object is tracked and if the probability is below the threshold then the tracking is terminated. Occupancy in the space may be determined based on the tracking of the object.
US09483688B2
Provided are a system and method for evaluating the face recognition performance of a service robot using an ultra high definition (UHD) facial video database. The system includes a video output unit configured to output a registration-purpose or test-purpose UHD facial video, a robot test controller configured to control transmitting identification (ID) information on a video currently being output to a service robot having a face recognition function when the video currently being output is a registration-purpose video, and control performing evaluation of the face recognition function of the service robot using a recognition result received from the service robot when the video currently being output is a test-purpose video, and a wired/wireless communication unit configured to transmit the ID information and usage information indicating whether the video currently being output is a registration-purpose video or a test-purpose video to the service robot.
US09483678B2
A described system includes a feature matching circuit that determines a correspondence between a present-location landmark subsurface feature of a body part of an individual patient and a candidate reference landmark subsurface feature of the individual patient body part. The present-location landmark subsurface feature has a first spatial relationship to a distal end portion of a body-insertable device deployed in the individual patient. The candidate reference landmark subsurface feature has a second spatial relationship to a particular selected target region of interest of at least two selected target regions of interest. An event data circuit generates data indicative of a proximity event that includes the distal end portion of a body-insertable device being proximate to the particular target region of interest. A list management circuit adds the proximity event to a proximity event list. A computer-readable media maintains informational data corresponding to the proximity event list.
US09483677B2
A variety of forms of machine-readable symbols are disclosed, as well as methods and systems of constructing machine-readable symbols, methods and systems of acquiring machine-readable symbols, and methods and systems of decoding machine-readable symbols.
US09483674B1
The present invention provides an RFID-based torque sensor that can be used to quickly monitor off the shelf fasteners including fasteners that are used in expensive satellites or other uses where fastener failure can be very costly. In one embodiment, an antenna, RFID ring and spring comprise a sensor tag that can be interrogated with an interrogation signal produced by an interrogator device. When sufficient torque is applied to the fastener, an RFID circuit is connected, and produces a radio frequency (RF) signal that can be read by the interrogator. In one embodiment, the RFID circuit does not transmit when the spring member is not compressed, thereby indicating insufficient tensioning of the fastener. The present invention offers the ability to remotely, quickly, and inexpensively verify that any number of fasteners are torqued properly upon initial installation. Where applicable, the present invention allows low cost monitoring over the life of the fastener.
US09483672B2
A conveyor system for identifying an object (16) on which an identification tag (26) is affixed, comprising a conveyor frame (12) for supporting between its two opposite sides (12A, 12B) a plurality of transverse conveyor rollers (14) each having a roller shaft (14A) and an RFID interrogator exciting a radiant antenna for reading information from the identification tag, the radiant antenna being a first magnetic loop (22) formed by the conveyor frame and two adjacent roller shafts and excited by an excitation circuit (18) connected to, but distinct from, said RFID interrogator.
US09483666B1
The logarithmic and exponential function generator for analog signal processing is implemented with CMOS circuits operating in current mode and includes current mirrors connected to a square root function circuit and two current amplifiers. A third current amplifier utilizes a constant current input. The outputs of the current amplifiers are combined to provide the logarithmic and exponential functions.
US09483663B2
A method of read or write access by an electronic component of data, including generating a first secret key for a first data of an ordered list of data to access, and for each data of the list, following the first data, generating a distinct secret key by means of a deterministic function applied to a secret key generated for a previous data of the list, and the application of a cryptographic operation to each data to be read or to be written of the list, carried out by using the secret key generated for the data.
US09483662B2
A virtual security coprocessor is created in a first processing system. The virtual security coprocessor is then transferred to a second processing system, for use by the second processing system. For instance, the second processing system may use the virtual security coprocessor to provide attestation for the second processing system. In an alternative embodiment, a virtual security coprocessor from a first processing system is received at a second processing system. After receiving the virtual security coprocessor from the first processing system, the second processing system uses the virtual security coprocessor. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09483658B2
A method of operating a display device, such as a tablet device, comprises displaying a plurality of covers corresponding to respective different data items, such as financial information, and selecting at least one cover and displaying the corresponding data item or data items.
US09483657B2
The data vaporizer provides secure online distributed data storage services that securely store and retrieve data in a public distributed storage substrate such as public cloud. The data vaporizer vaporizes (e.g., fragmented into tiny chunks of configurable sizes) data and distributes the fragments to multiple storage nodes so that the data is not vulnerable to local disk failures, secures data so that even if some of the storage nodes are compromised, the data is undecipherable to the attacker, stores data across multiple cloud storage providers and/or parties using keys (e.g., tokens) provided by multiple parties (including the owners of the data) and maintains data confidentiality and integrity even where one or more data storage provider is compromised. The data vaporizer is configurable for different domain requirements including data privacy and anonymization requirements, encryption mechanisms, regulatory compliance of storage locations, and backup and recovery constraints.
US09483649B2
There is provided an image processing device including a photographic subject position acquisition unit that acquires position information of a photographic subject corresponding to a person image included in a photographic image, a transmission unit that transmits the position information of the photographic subject to an information processing device that compares the position information of the photographic subject with position information of a communication terminal transmitted from the communication terminal, and a determination unit that determines whether a process of protecting the person image is performed based on information according to a result of the comparison received from the information processing device.
US09483646B2
Technology is disclosed for preventing an exfiltration of a data associated with an application executing on a mobile device. The technology can migrate the application from a computing platform of the mobile device to a secure computing platform, where the secure computing platform is independent of the computing platform of the mobile device. The technology can further receive a request to access the application through the mobile device, execute the requested application on the secure computing platform, and provide an access to the requested application executing on the secure computing platform through the mobile device. The access provided through the mobile device includes displaying information on the mobile device, where the displayed information includes data generated by the execution of requested application on the secure platform.
US09483641B2
A method for the performance of a function by a microcircuit, includes:at least one step of determining (205) whether an anomaly is detected or whether the operation of the microcircuit is normal;when it is determined that an anomaly is detected, a step of performing (210) a protection function;when it is determined that the operation of the microcircuit is normal, a step of performing (215) a decoy function simulating the protection function by being perceptible, from the outside of the microcircuit, in a manner more or less identical to the protection function;the method being characterized in that it includes an interruption (250) of the performance of the decoy function by a timer.
US09483640B2
A system and method for deterring malicious network attacks. The system and method is configured to execute instructions on at least one of the processors to generate a plurality of random blocks of data; generate a first XOR result by using the XOR function with the plurality of random blocks of data as the XOR function inputs; generate a tail value by using the XOR function with the first XOR result and a random encryption key as the XOR function inputs; encrypt a designated file using the random encryption key; write the plurality of random blocks and tail value to at least one storage medium; and write the encrypted designated file to at least one storage medium.
US09483636B2
Systems, methods, apparatuses, and computer program products are described for checking the integrity of applications installed on a computing device and preventing the launch of applications that appear to have been tampered with or modified. In accordance with embodiments, the content of an application is validated at the time the application is to be launched, but before the launch has actually occurred. In accordance with additional embodiments, integrity protection can also be extended to content that is generated by an application (e.g., documents or other files generated by the application), thereby enabling applications to write their own files and data with the same degree of integrity protection.
US09483630B2
An information processing apparatus, a method of controlling the same, and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. The information processing apparatus comprises management unit configured to manage a login application at least having both a login screen display function and a user authentication function. The apparatus, in a case where a plug-in module, having one function out of the login screen display function and the user authentication function, is added to the information processing apparatus, enables the function of the plug-in module, and enables the function of the login application other than the function of the plug-in module.
US09483621B2
A medication dispenser. The dispenser comprises a sensor for receiving biometric information from a user, a memory for storing a minimum dosing interval, a controller for determining whether the user is an authorized user, a belt having medication-carrying slots, a dose opening defined in an exterior surface of the dispenser, and a signaling device. The controller activates the signaling device and the sensor only when the minimum dosing interval has elapsed as measured from a last successful user authentication. The sensor is responsive to user biometric information provided any time after activation of the signaling device and the sensor, but not before activation of the signaling device and the sensor. After determining the use is an authorized user, a medication-carrying slot is aligned with the dose opening.
US09483617B2
Provided is a system and method for evaluating laser treatment, for converting the attribute of a laser beam and numerically evaluating proficiency of a laser treatment operator by processing data obtained by photographing the converted laser beam so as to use the evaluated data as training data. The laser treatment evaluating system includes an attenuation unit for attenuating intensity of a laser beam transmitted through a transmissive plate, a camera for photographing the laser beam transmitted through the attenuation unit, and an image data processing apparatus connected to the camera, for processing an image captured by the camera, tracking a trajectory of a laser beam on the transmissive plate, and calculating a distribution state of spots on which the laser beam on the transmissive plate is emitted.
US09483613B2
A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer program product of determining mechanisms of action for therapies. A first set of brain scans for each subject in a plurality of subjects generated at a first time period and a second set of brain scans for each subject generated at a second time period are received. Each subject is diagnosed with a given condition and received a given therapy. A set of changes in the set of brain scans is identified for the each subject based on a comparison of a first set of regions of interest in the first set of scans for each subject with a second set of regions of interest in the second set of scans for each subject. A set of typical changes attributable to the given therapy is identified. A mechanism of action for the given therapy is generated based on the set of typical changes.
US09483612B2
Embodiments of the invention are directed to methods, systems and computer programs that provide improved risk stratification for people having elevated large HDL-P using at least one defined HDL risk interaction parameter.
US09483602B2
A method and system to estimate failure rates in designs. N Monte Carlo samples are drawn from the random distribution that describes process variation in the design. A subset of these samples is selected, and that subset of Ninit samples are simulated (with a circuit simulator) to measure a performance value for each sample. A model is constructed, using the values of the Ninit process points as training inputs, and the corresponding Ninit performance values as training outputs. The candidate Monte Carlo samples are from the N Monte Carlo samples that have not yet been simulated. Each candidate is simulated on the model to get predicted performance values, and the samples are ordered in ascending (or descending) order of the predicted performance values. Simulation of candidates samples is then begun, in that order. The sampling and simulation will stops once there is sufficient confidence that all failures are found.
US09483601B2
A method, executed by a computer, for routing a circuit includes partitioning a netlist for a circuit into a plurality of nets, determining, for each net of the plurality of nets, a corresponding net cone to provide a corresponding plurality of net cones, computing a total negative timing slack for each net cone of the corresponding plurality of net cones, assigning routing constraints for the plurality of nets according to the total negative timing slack for the corresponding plurality of net cones, and routing the netlist according to the routing constraints. Examples of routing constraints include a routing priority, a routing weight, a scenic ratio, a wire code assignment, and a layer assignment. A corresponding computer program product and computer system are also disclosed herein.
US09483600B2
A MOS device includes a number of standard cells configured to reduce routing congestions while providing area savings on the MOS device. The standard cells may be single height standard cells that share an n-type well isolated from other nearby n-type wells. The input and output signal pins of the single height standard cells may be configured in a lowest possible metal layer (e.g., M1), while the secondary power pins of the single height standard cells may be configured in a higher metal layer (e.g., M2). Interconnects supplying power to secondary power pins may be configured along vertical tracks and shared among different sets of standard cells, which may reduce the number of vertical tracks used in the MOS device. The number of available horizontal routing tracks in the MOS device may remain unaffected, since the horizontal tracks already used by the primary power/ground mesh are used for power connection.
US09483595B2
Liveness verification of a logic design is performed using various shadow abstraction refinement techniques. An initial subset of state elements are included in the shadow abstraction, and verification is performed (liveness-to-safety conversion) using this initial subset. If a liveness counterexample is detected, the shadow abstraction is refined by designating a second subset of the state elements different from the initial subset for inclusion in a refined abstraction. The initial subset can be designated by choosing all registers in a combinational fan-in of a liveness property of the design. High-performance algorithms for abstract liveness-to-safety conversion can be based upon simulation and counterexample refinement, bounded model checking and counterexample refinement, bounded model checking and proof-based refinement, proofs obtained during bounded model checking of a precise liveness checking problem, a hybrid of counterexample-based refinement and proof analysis, and proofs obtained.
US09483591B1
A computer-implemented method may include retrieving a design netlist with a processor, identifying, via the processor, a logic structure in the design netlist, generating, via the processor, a driver based on the logic structure, applying, via the processor, a simulation and a formal model based on the driver, and testing, via the processor, an output of the simulation and the formal model.
US09483587B2
Master BOM creation may include extracting BOM data from first and second BOMs, and determining which BOM extracted data is greater. If the first or second BOM is a CAD BOM and the other BOM is a non-CAD BOM, the CAD BOM and non-CAD BOMs may be respectively used as a first and a second source BOM data for a master BOM table. If the first and second BOMs are non-CAD BOMs, or both of the first and second BOMs are CAD BOMs, the greater and lesser of the first and second BOM extracted data may be respectively used as the first and as the second source BOM data. A master BOM may be created based on mapping of the master BOM table to the second source BOM data.
US09483586B2
A method and apparatus associated with the production of hydrocarbons is disclosed. The method, which relates to modeling of drilling equipment, includes constructing one or more design configurations for at least a portion of a bottom hole assembly (BHA) and calculating results from each of the one or more design configurations. The calculated results of the modeling may include one or more performance indices that characterize the BHA vibration performance of the design configurations for operating parameters and boundary conditions that are substantially the same or may be different. These results are then simultaneously displayed for a user to facilitate design selection. The selected BHA design configuration may then be utilized in a well construction operation and thus associated with the production of hydrocarbons.
US09483585B2
It is proposed a computer-implemented method for designing a staggered pattern of objects in a computer-aided design system, the method comprising the steps of: providing a reference object to be multi-instantiated; instantiating objects from the reference object for forming a grid with a number of rows and a number of columns, the grid being formed so that the rows are spaced from each other with a first distance in a first direction and each column being spaced from each other with a second distance in a second direction; shifting, in one of every two rows of the grid, the instantiated objects of all the columns of said one of every two rows of the grid with a third distance in the second direction.
US09483584B2
In a method, system, apparatus, and computer-readable device having instructions for collaboration within a visualization application, a visualization application is used to display a visualization for at least a portion of an object, wherein the object comprises a plurality of parts, a request is received to display collaboration data for a part of the object using the input device, information is received about a part, wherein the information comprises details about the part, an association between collaboration data and visualization data for a part of an object is retrieved and the collaboration data comprises data input by one or more to be associated with the part of the object, and information is displayed about a part and collaboration data associated with the visualization for the part of the object.
US09483583B2
A computerized method performed in a computer operatively connected to storage. Parsing rules are determined for parsing logs output as text and/or symbols from multiple devices in a computer network. The logs are stored in the storage. Multiple log samples are sampled from the logs. The log samples are input into an application running on the computer. The log samples are each sectioned into multiple sections which include variable information separated by static structural text. Each of the log samples is processed by: comparing the sections to a list of regular expressions. The list is maintained in the storage, and upon matching a matched section of the sections to a matched regular expression from the list of the regular expressions, the matched section is tagged with a tag associated with the matched regular expression. The tag associated to the matched regular expression is stored and combined with any unmatched sections and with the static structural text to create a log pattern. The log pattern is stored in a table only if the log pattern is distinct from all log patterns previously stored in the table.
US09483580B2
Embodiments relate to estimating closeness of topics based on graph analytics. A graph that includes a plurality of nodes and edges is accessed. Each node in the graph represents a topic and each edge represents a known association between two topics. A statistical traversal experiment is performed on the graph. A strength of relations between any two topics represented by nodes in the graph is inferred based on statistics extracted from the statistical traversal experiment.
US09483579B2
There is described a system for adding content to a data container, the data container comprising one or more segments arranged in a sequence, each segment containing payload data and wherein at least one of the one or more segments is compressed. The system comprises parsing through at least a portion of the data container so as to determine at least one of a beginning and an end of the sequence of segments; and adding content to the data container at the at least one of the beginning and the end of the sequence of segments, while the at least one of the segments remains compressed.
US09483547B1
Recipes are hierarchically clustered into groups based on features of the recipes. Candidate clusters with a threshold number of clustered recipes having at least one feature in common are found by traversing the hierarchy. A plurality of clusters is selected for display to a user from among the candidates based on an objective function that considers the relevancy of the cluster as well as diversity of the clusters. A plurality of recipes within each selected cluster is selected for display to a user from among the recipes within the cluster based on an objective function that considers the quality of the recipe as well as the diversity of the recipes within the cluster. At least one feature that all of the recipes in a respective cluster have in common is used to generate a name for the cluster.
US09483546B2
Computer implemented systems and methods are disclosed for associating records across lists, wherein the lists include a plurality of records and the plurality of records is associated with a respective entity. In accordance with some embodiments, the systems and methods further comprise grouping one or more records from a first list into a first group based on fields of the records in the first list, grouping one or more records from a second list into a second group based on fields of the records in the second list, pairing a record from the first group with a record from the second group, assessing each pair of records based on an evaluation of the respective pair according to fields of the pair, and associating records from the first group and records of the second group with an entity based on the assessment.
US09483545B2
According to embodiments of the present invention, two or more attributes that are included in a plurality of attributes are aggregated into a group defined by a first data definition language syntax. The first data definition language syntax defines the group as having a groupID and one or more of an attribute definition defined in a comma-separated list and a group definition. The attribute definition is defined by a second data definition syntax. The first data definition language syntax includes the second data definition language syntax. The first data definition language syntax is structured in a manner to allow a database operation associated with the group to be applied to all attributes and/or groups included therein.
US09483544B2
Systems and methods are provided for classifying text based on language using one or more computer servers and storage devices. A computer-implemented method includes receiving a training set of elements, each element in the training set being assigned to one of a plurality of categories and having one of a plurality of content profiles associated therewith; receiving a population set of elements, each element in the population set having one of the plurality of content profiles associated therewith; and calculating using at least one of a stacked regression algorithm, a bias formula algorithm, a noise elimination algorithm, and an ensemble method consisting of a plurality of algorithmic methods the results of which are averaged, based on the content profiles associated with and the categories assigned to elements in the training set and the content profiles associated with the elements of the population set, a distribution of elements of the population set over the categories.
US09483541B2
Techniques for initializing a connection in a peer-to-peer database replication environment. A message is received from an initiator node, indicating that the initiator node will begin replicating changes made to a particular data entity. One or more replicated changes relating to the database entity are received from the initiator node. If an updated instance of the data entity does not currently exist on a target node then one or more load operations are performed to create the updated instance. The stored replicated changes may then be processed against the updated instance of the database entity.
US09483527B2
A method for decision reasoning, the method comprising using at least one hardware processor to: provide a database comprising decisions, questions and reasons; receive, from a user, a selection of a decision being part of said decisions; retrieve, from said database, relevant questions out of said questions, wherein said relevant questions are associated, within said database, with said decision received from the user; receive, from the user, answers to at least some of said relevant questions; process said answers so as to retrieve, from said database, one or more relevant reasons out of said reasons; and display said one or more relevant reasons to the user.
US09483523B2
An information processing apparatus includes a receiving unit that receives an access request for data from one of a plurality of information processing apparatuses in a distributed processing system in which the information processing apparatuses execute a process in a distributed manner, a query issuing unit that issues, when the access request for the data is received by the receiving unit, a query to each of the information processing apparatuses as to whether the data is stored in a page cache managed by an operating system on each of the information processing apparatuses, and a responding unit that makes a response to the access request, the response specifying, as an access destination, an information processing apparatus that has responded to the query issued by the query issuing unit.
US09483513B2
A method, computer program product and system are provided. The method, computer program product and system execute a process for determining a size of an object, the object having raw data that is operable upon by one or more physical operators. If the object is smaller than a threshold size, the object is stored in main memory of an in-memory database system. If the object is equal to or larger than the threshold size, the object is stored in a persistency of a disk storage, where storing the object in a disk storage further includes generating a global container identifier (ID) for the object, the global container ID referencing raw data of the object stored in the persistency of the disk storage.
US09483511B2
Stubbing systems and methods are provided for intelligent data management in a replication environment, such as by reducing the space occupied by replication data on a destination system. In certain examples, stub files or like objects replace migrated, de-duplicated or otherwise copied data that has been moved from the destination system to secondary storage. Access is further provided to the replication data in a manner that is transparent to the user and/or without substantially impacting the base replication process. In order to distinguish stub files representing migrated replication data from replicated stub files, priority tags or like identifiers can be used. Thus, when accessing a stub file on the destination system, such as to modify replication data or perform a restore process, the tagged stub files can be used to recall archived data prior to performing the requested operation so that an accurate copy of the source data is generated.
US09483505B2
Arrangements described herein relate to versioning configurations of reusable artifacts. An artifact baseline corresponding to the present version of a first artifact can be created. Responsive to creating that artifact baseline, the present version of the first artifact, and present versions of children artifacts of the present version of the first artifact, are made immutable. Responsive to identifying a change to the present version of the first artifact, a new version of the first artifact can be automatically created, wherein the new version of the first artifact is mutable.
US09483504B2
System and method for application aware de-duplication of data blocks in a virtualized storage array
A system and method for application aware de-duplication of data blocks in a virtualized storage array is disclosed. In one embodiment, in a method of de-duplication of data, a master list of metadata is created based on a number of occurrences of data blocks within a storage array. A first sublist of metadata is created from the master list of metadata. The first sublist of metadata is provided to a first component of a networked storage system. It is determined whether the data block being written has a corresponding entry in the master list of metadata based on a determination that a data block being written does not have any corresponding entry in the first sublist of metadata. The data block being written is replaced with a pointer based on a determination that the data block being written has a corresponding entry in the master list of metadata.
US09483498B2
Provided is a process of profiling a user of a mobile computing device, the process including: obtaining a location history of a user, the location history being based on signals from a mobile computing device of the user; obtaining a location-attribute score of a location identified in, or inferred from, the location history; determining, with a computer, a user-attribute score based on the location-attribute score; and storing the user-attribute score in a user-profile datastore.
US09483495B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for computerized travel services. One of the methods includes identifying photographs using an index of photographs, the photographs being identified from the index as photographs geographically related to a point of interest or destination and having a creation timestamp corresponding to a time of the year; determining for each of the photographs, a relevancy score based at least in part on: selection success data of the photograph for image queries referring to the point of interest or destination, and references to the point of interest or destination in documents associated with the photograph; and selecting a selected photograph from the photographs based at least in part on a respective visual quality score and the respective relevancy scores, the visual quality score representing a degree of visual quality of the respective photographs.
US09483493B2
A method and system for accessing an HDFS is disclosed. In some embodiments, a method of providing access to an HDFS includes: at an interface server having one or more processors and memory: maintaining a respective connection pool comprising a respective plurality of persistent connections to the HDFS; receiving respective access requests from a plurality of accessing devices to access the HDFS; creating a corresponding Hadoop operation for each of the respective access requests received from the plurality of accessing devices; and executing the corresponding Hadoop operation created for each of the respective access requests through a respective set of persistent connections selected from the respective connection pool maintained by the interface server.
US09483492B2
A method for providing application-related data includes connecting a mobile terminal and a device, determining an object displayed on the mobile terminal, determining a data file associated with the object, and controlling the data file associated with the object to be accessible by the connected device and controlling information of the data file to be displayed on a display of the connected device according to the determination of the object. A terminal that provides application-related data includes a connection unit connecting the terminal and another device to each other; and a synchronization unit, when the connection unit is connected to the another device, synchronizing related data of an application that is in the middle of execution in the terminal or an application selected by a user after the connection with the another device.
US09483486B1
Various embodiments of a system and method for backing up a plurality of copies of a file are described. A first copy of the file may be owned by a first user, and a second copy of the file may be owned by a second user. The file is split into a plurality of segments, and each segment is encrypted with a respective segment key. Each encrypted segment is transmitted to and stored on a server computer system. De-duplication techniques are used to ensure that only a single instance of each encrypted segment is stored. The segment keys used to encrypt the file segments are also stored on the server computer system in an encrypted form. De-duplication techniques may be utilized so that only a single instance of the encrypted segment keys is stored.
US09483484B1
Techniques for data access statistics management are disclosed. In one particular embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method for data access statistics management comprising determining that a portion of data has been deduplicated, and modifying access statistics of the portion of data for each reference to the portion of data.
US09483479B2
A conceptual framework is built including a conceptual hierarchy, a containment hierarchy, and concept relationships. The concepts created in the conceptual framework are associated with resources located on the local file system. The resources are stored in the conceptual framework that is stored in the main memory of the system. Thus, search capabilities based on complex multivariate queries involving relationships and multiple conditions between concepts are provided. The conceptual framework is based on an in-memory engine that enables superfast resource access, reduced file storage redundancy, reduced updating errors, increased consistency, greater data integrity and independence from application level programs, query based concept and file access.
US09483478B2
A data storage system allows a user to search a secondary copy such as a back up, archive, or snapshot and receive an abbreviated version of the secondary copy of the file system as a result of the search. The abbreviated version of the secondary copy of the file system may include metadata such as a listing of secondary copy data that correspond with a search term or other filtering criteria provided by the user. An operating system of the user's computing device may mount the abbreviated version so that it can be displayed within a view of the file system of the computing device. Once a user selects one or more desired data objects listed in the abbreviated version, the selected actual one or more data objects are retrieved from secondary storage.
US09483466B2
In accordance with a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a method comprising receiving an input as part of a translation request from a requestor, performing a first translation of the input; wherein the first translation is a machine translation, returning the first translation to the requestor; and based on feedback on the first translation from the requestor performing the following (a) fragmenting the input into multiple translation jobs, (b) distributing the multiple translation jobs to a plurality of human translators; (c) generating a second translation of the input based on translations of the multiple jobs by the human translators; and (d) returning the second translation to the requestor.
US09483462B2
A method for generating training data for disambiguation of an entity comprising a word or word string related to a topic to be analyzed includes acquiring sent messages by a user, each including at least one entity in a set of entities; organizing the messages and acquiring sets, each containing messages sent by each user; identifying a set of messages including different entities, greater than or equal to a first threshold value, and identifying a user corresponding to the identified set as a hot user; receiving an instruction indicating an object entity to be disambiguated; determining a likelihood of co-occurrence of each keyword and the object entity in sets of messages sent by hot users; and determining training data for the object entity on the basis of the likelihood of co-occurrence of each keyword and the object entity in the sets of messages sent by the hot users.
US09483460B2
A document analysis system analyzes a corpus of documents and automatically generates a dictionary of specialized phrases not already in conventional dictionaries. The dictionary generation process involves a series of operations on the phrases to identify the phrases most suitable for inclusion in a dictionary, such as phrase scoring and phrase clustering. The dictionary generation process also comprises the identification of one or more corresponding definitions for the various phrases identified for inclusion in the specialized dictionary.
US09483457B2
According to one embodiment of the present invention, methods, systems and computer-readable media of accessing data within a spreadsheet are provided. A set of attributes is assigned to each worksheet of a plurality of worksheets within the spreadsheet. One or more worksheets may be identified by comparing the set of attributes for each worksheet to one or more attributes specified within a request for data, and the identified worksheets may be displayed.
US09483456B2
Systems and methods are provided for managing data in a grid. In one example approach, a method comprises importing data from a data source to a range of cells in a grid, where the range of cells is specified by a notation input associated with the grid, and where the notation input includes a key specifying the data source and security information associated with the data source.
US09483442B2
According to an embodiment, a matrix operation apparatus executing a matrix operation includes multiple nodes, the nodes including: a multiplier configured to perform a first operation for a first input, which is column data and a second input which is row data for the matrix operation and output element components of an operation result of the matrix operation; and an accumulator configured to perform cumulative addition of operation results of the multiplier.
US09483441B2
In a clinical laboratory, the degree of contamination of an automatic analyzer may constantly change due, for instance, to the operation of the automatic analyzer and newly added examinations, and there is a risk of failure to adequately maintain the performance of the automatic analyzer by performing calibration at conventional intervals. Meanwhile, the result of quality control varies depending on the performance of an unsealed reagent. Hence, performing calibration at predetermined intervals may fail to flexibly calibrate the reagent when the performance of the reagent is changed by reagent replenishment or by contamination. Provided is a quality control method for issuing a warning to indicate an optimum calibration method and calibration intervals in accordance with the contents of a quality control screen and with the pattern of variation in the result of calibration.
US09483440B2
A method for determining a size or shape related parameter of an effective observation volume for an observation technique for particles undergoing at least partially stochastic motion in a dispersion is based on a time-series of observations. The method involves determining one or more time-dependent characteristics of the dispersion or its particles based on the time-series of observations, determining at least one stochastic motion-related parameter representative for the at least partially stochastic motion of at least one particle in the dispersion, and determining a size or shape related parameter of the effective observation volume by modeling of the at least partially stochastic motion of the particle movement in the dispersion, the modeling taking into account the at least one stochastic motion-related parameter and the determined one or more characteristics.
US09483439B2
A general purpose PicoEngine Multi-Processor (PEMP) includes a hierarchically organized pool of small specialized picoengine processors and associated memories. A stream of data input values is received onto the PEMP. Each input data value is characterized, and from the characterization a task is determined. Picoengines are selected in a sequence. When the next picoengine in the sequence is available, it is then given the input data value along with an associated task assignment. The picoengine then performs the task. An output picoengine selector selects picoengines in the same sequence. If the next picoengine indicates that it has completed its assigned task, then the output value from the selected picoengine is output from the PEMP. By changing the sequence used, more or less of the processing power and memory resources of the pool is brought to bear on the incoming data stream. The PEMP automatically disables unused picoengines and memories.
US09483438B2
A data processing apparatus and method for performing speculative vector access operations are provided. The data processing apparatus has a reconfigurable buffer accessible to vector data access circuitry and comprising a storage array for storing up to M vectors of N vectors elements. The vector data access circuitry performs speculative data write operations in order to cause vector elements from selected vector operands in a vector register bank to be stored into the reconfigurable buffer. On occurrence of a commit condition, the vector elements currently stored in the reconfigurable buffer are then written to a data store. Speculation control circuitry maintains a speculation width indication indicating the number of vector elements of each selected vector operand stored in the reconfigurable buffer. The speculation width indication is initialized to an initial value, but on detection of an overflow condition within the reconfigurable buffer the speculation width indication is modified to reduce the number of vector elements of each selected vector operand stored in the reconfigurable buffer. The reconfigurable buffer then responds to a change in the speculation width indication by reconfiguring the storage array to increase the number of vectors M and reduce the number of vector elements N per vector. This provides an efficient mechanism for supporting performance of speculative data write operations.
US09483425B2
A memory includes a buffer which retains data, a band conversion unit converts a band of an internal data bus that is used for data transfer between the band conversion unit and the buffer which retains data into a band wider than that of an external data bus that is used for data transfer between the band conversion unit and a memory controller, and an access control unit controls access to a memory cell using the buffer, during a wait time occurring in the internal data bus due to a difference between the band of the internal data bus and the band of the external data bus.
US09483423B2
One embodiment sets forth a method for guiding the order in which a parallel processing subsystem executes memory copies. A driver creates semaphores for all but the lowest priority included in a plurality of priorities and associates one priority with each copy hardware channel included in the parallel processing subsystem. The driver then aliases prioritized streams to the copy hardware channels based on the priorities. Upon receiving a request to execute a memory copy within one of the streams, the driver inserts commands into the aliased copy hardware channel. These commands use the semaphores to direct the parallel processing subsystem to execute the memory copy based on the priority of the copy hardware channel. Advantageously, by assigning priorities to streams and, subsequently, strategically requesting memory copies within the prioritized streams, an application developer may fine-tune their software application to increase the overall processing efficiency of the software application.
US09483414B2
Systems and methods for virtual machine live migration. An example method may comprise: identifying, by a first computer system executing a virtual machine undergoing live migration to a second computer system, a plurality of stable memory pages comprised by an execution state of the virtual machine, wherein the plurality of stable memory pages comprises memory pages that have not been modified within a defined period of time; transmitting the plurality of stable memory pages to the second computer system; determining that an amount of memory comprised by a plurality of unstable memory pages is below a threshold value, wherein the plurality of unstable memory pages comprises memory pages that have been modified within the defined period of time; and transmitting the plurality of unstable memory pages to the second computer system.
US09483412B2
A device for and method of storing page table entries in a first cache. A first page table entry is received having a fragment field that contains address information for a requested first page and at least a second page logically adjacent to the first page. A second page table entry is generated from the first page table entry to be stored with the first page table entry. The second page table entry provides address information for the second page. The second page table entry has a configuration that is compatible with the first cache.
US09483410B1
Provided are techniques for utilization based multi-buffer dynamic adjustment management. A sub-buffer is assigned to each entity of multiple entities. A percentage utilization is determined for each entity. Based on the percentage utilization, for each sub-buffer assigned to each entity, one of one of allocating at least one random data segment from a free list of data segments and removing at least one data segment to change a size of the sub-buffer is performed.
US09483393B1
Technologies are described herein for performing experiments on a software application and identifying optimized experience configurations for the software application. An application experiment system receives an experiment configuration from a developer of the software application. Based on the experiment configuration, the application experiment system determines an experiment strategy and generates a set of experience configurations for testing. Users available to participate in the experiment are identified, and the set of experience configurations are allocated to user computing devices associated with the available users to configure instances of the software application executing on the user computing devices. Experiment data related to the execution of the instances of the software application are collected and analyzed by the application experiment system to identify the optimized experience configuration for the software application.
US09483388B2
Some aspects of the disclosure provide a method comprising obtaining machine executable code of an application, the application operable to achieve a set of application states, pre-processing the machine executable code to generate reviewable code, identifying, from the reviewable code, a set of state access instructions configured to invoke or assist in invoking one of the set of application states of the application, the set of state access instructions indicating a first state access instruction configured to invoke a first state of the set of application states and a second state access instruction configured to invoke a second state of the set of application states that is different from the first state, each of the set of state access instructions including an application resource identifier referencing an application and indicating an operation for the application to perform, and storing the set of state access instructions.
US09483385B2
To provide a technique for generating, at a high speed, a smaller-sized set that satisfies an intended property such as, for example, being pair-wise, and includes many test cases that match a set of existing test cases given as an input, candidates to be used from a set of existing input test cases are determined in the following manner: for some parameters, values to be held by test case candidates are determined; test cases having the determined values, among those included in the set of input test cases, are selected as the candidates. A test case having the highest score among one or more test case candidates generated with the method of the related art and one or more test case candidates selected from the set of input test cases is added to a set of output test cases.
US09483384B2
A method may include detecting a change in a user repository that includes product code and test code. The product code and the test code may correspond to a software program. The change in the user repository may include a change in the product code with a corresponding changed portion of the product code. The method may also include generating, by a test tool, a test code update for the test code. The test code update may be generated based on detecting the change in the user repository and based on the changed portion of the product code. The method may further include communicating a pull request that requests that the user repository add the test code update to the user-managed repository.
US09483383B2
Methods, systems, and articles of manufacture for injecting faults at select execution points of distributed applications are provided herein. A method includes monitoring a run-time state of each of multiple components of a distributed application to determine one or more sequence of events that triggers a fault injection point at one of the multiple components; defining a fault injection scenario in a specification based on said monitoring, wherein said fault injection scenario comprises a description of one or more sequence of events during which an intended fault is to be injected to a target component of the multiple components at one selected event; and executing the fault injection defined in the specification to perform injection of the intended fault during run-time of the distributed application.
US09483381B2
An information handling system, method, and computer-readable media for obfuscating debugging filenames during a software build are described. The system comprises one or more processors, a memory, and one or more program modules stored on the memory and executable by the one or more processors. The one or more program modules compile a source code file of a plurality of source code files into a program, generate a debugging file including debugging information for the program, utilize a one-way deterministic function to generate an obfuscated filename for the debugging file, and include a link to the debugging file in the program, the link including the obfuscated filename.
US09483380B2
Methods and systems for symbolic execution of software under test include the use of parametric states to losslessly represent a group of concrete execution states. Mathematical abstractions may represent differences between execution states and may define a parametric constraint for a parametric state. The parametric states may be usable for symbolic execution to reduce an amount of memory resources consumed and/or reduce a computational load during symbolic execution. Using parametric states, a larger state space and more program behaviors may be testable using symbolic execution.
US09483367B1
Various systems and methods for determining whether a distributed storage cluster is operating with a last failure domain are disclosed. The last failure domain is the only node with access to a latest copy of configuration data and an up-to-date copy of application data. In response to a determination that the distributed storage cluster is operating with the last failure domain, the method causes the last failure domain to copy one or more changed blocks of the up-to-date copy of the application data from one or more mirrored volumes to a recovery server for storage.
US09483365B2
Methods and apparatus that restore a resource from a first source and a second source to a device are described. Availability of the resource from a second source may be dynamically determined after a portion of the resource has been restored to the device from the first source. If the second source is determined to be more efficiently connected with the device than the first source, a remaining portion of the resource may be restored from the second source to the device after the portion of the resource has been restored to the device.
US09483360B1
A system and methods are disclosed for performing virtual machine (VM) backups. In accordance with one embodiment, a hypervisor executed by a processing device suspends execution of a VM and initiates a backup procedure to save a current state of the VM. The hypervisor reads a value of a flag that is written to by the VM and is stored in a portion of memory accessible by the VM and the hypervisor. In response to determining that the value read by the hypervisor equals a first value, the hypervisor resumes execution of the VM prior to receiving a status message regarding the backup procedure. In response to determining that the value read by the hypervisor equals a second value, the hypervisor waits to resume execution of the VM until the hypervisor has received a status message indicating that the backup procedure was successful.
US09483359B2
Systems and methods are disclosed for rapidly restoring client data set for a computer by storing the client data and one or more pat sets required to revert to one or more version of the client data on a remote server; storing a local copy of the replicated client data on a local data storage device coupled to the computer; receiving a request to revert to a predetermined version of the client data; using the local copy as a seed, receiving a patch set corresponding to a predetermined version; and updating the local copy using the patch set to generated the predetermined version.
US09483356B2
Example apparatus and methods reserve space in a journal using an observation based approach instead of a fixed sized approach or a worst case scenario approach. One example method receives a request to allocate space in a journal to support a file system transaction. The example method reserves an amount of space in the journal based on a pre-existing reservation size estimate. Unlike conventional systems, the estimate is not based on a worst-case scenario. The example method observes the actual amount of storage used in the journal by the file system transaction and then selectively automatically adjusts the pre-existing reservation size estimate. The estimate may slowly shrink if no overflows are encountered but may quickly grow if an overflow is detected.
US09483355B1
Maintaining a set of extents corresponding to a portion of an initial logical volume that is to be copied includes initializing a table having entries corresponding to different portions of the initial logical volume, where each of the entries is initialized with a first value, following initializing the table, providing a second value different from the first value to an entry in the table corresponding to a portion of the initial logical volume to which a write operation is performed and establishing the set of extents, where the first value is provided to entries in the table that correspond to portions of the initial logical device indicated by the extents. Data of the initial logical volume corresponding to the set of extents may be copied to at least one other logical volume.
US09483353B2
Provided in one embodiment of the present invention is a computer system including a database server and a terminal device for communicating with the database server; the said database server retaining a database; and the terminal device including: an interface for receiving data, which is stored in the database retained in the database server, via a communication network; a buffer for storing the data received by the interface in order to display the data in a window which is to be displayed on a display device; and a controller for starting saving the data, which is stored into the buffer, in a file at a time interval, with the window being displayed on the display device being as a trigger.
US09483352B2
Process control system and methods are disclosed. An example method includes operating a first cluster including first virtual machines and first servers and operating a second cluster including second virtual machines and second servers. The example method also includes storing first data from the first virtual machines at a first data store of the first cluster and storing a replica of the first data at a second data store of the second cluster. The example method also includes storing second data from the second virtual machines at the second data store and storing a replica of the second data at the first data store and identifying a failure of the first cluster. The method also includes, in response to the failure, restarting the first virtual machines using the second servers and the replica of the first data at the second data store.
US09483344B2
System, method, apparatus, and computer program product for providing mobile device support services
A method is provided for providing mobile device support services. The method may include monitoring a mobile device status. The method may additionally include performing device diagnostics based at least in part on captured deice status data to identify potential faults that may affect mobile device functionality. A corresponding system, apparatus, and computer program product are also provided.
US09483337B2
A method begins by creating a vault as a virtual memory block within memory of a dispersed storage network (DSN). A segment of data is encoded into a set of encoded data slices and stored in the vault. The method continues by dividing the virtual memory block into a set of vault regions. The method continues by determining, for each vault region of the set of vault regions, vault parameters to produce a set of vault parameters. Vault parameters include a decode threshold number of encoded data slices and a total number of encoded data slices for encoding the segment of data. The method continues by facilitating data access to the vault in accordance with the set of vault parameters.
US09483336B2
A method for correcting a memory error of an application program are provided, which includes: when an error occurs in a memory occupied by an application program, suspending a process of the application program; waking up an error correction program that corresponds to the application program, where the error correction program is created when the application program is started; performing, by the error correction program, correction processing on the memory in which the error occurs; if the correction processing performed on the memory in which the error occurs fails, closing, by the error correction program, the application program after saving key data of the application program; and if the correction processing performed on the memory in which the error occurs succeeds, restoring, by the error correction program, the process of the application program that is suspended. Thus reliability and security can be improved when the application program is applied.
US09483321B2
A method and an apparatus for determining a to-be-migrated task based on cache awareness in a computing system having multiple processor cores is disclosed. In the method, the computing system determines a source processor core and a destination processor core according to a load of each processor core. Through respectively monitoring the number of cache misses of each task and the number of executed instructions of each task in the source processor core and the destination processor core, the computing system obtain an average cache miss per kilo instructions of the source processor core and an average cache miss per kilo instructions of the destination processor core. Then, the computing system determines, according to the obtained average cache miss per kilo instructions of the source processor core and the destination processor core, a task to be migrated from the source processor core to the destination processor core.
US09483320B2
A computing apparatus for optimizing process wait time, including a plurality of computing units, is disclosed. When there is any process having a maximum wait time, among processes that have been queued, which has the wait time exceeding a predetermined value, and when processes in a particular process type among different process types, are being executed or have been queued in all of the computing units, all processes in that particular process type, are executed on at least one of the computing units, based on a list of all of processes. A method of controlling a computing apparatus and a computer-readable storage medium are also disclosed.
US09483319B2
A plurality of compute nodes are divided into a plurality of groups. A maximum available resource amount determining unit determines, for each of the plurality of groups, the available resource amount of the compute node having the greatest available resource amount among the compute nodes belonging to the group as the maximum available resource amount of the group. An excluding unit compares the resource consumption of a job with the maximum available resource amount of each of the plurality of groups, and excludes a group whose maximum available resource amount is less than the resource consumption from search objects. A searching unit searches for a compute node whose available resource amount is greater than or equal to the resource consumption, from the compute nodes belonging to a group that is not excluded from the search objects.
US09483313B2
Various aspects for scaling an availability of information are disclosed. In one aspect, a response performance associated with responding to data consumption requests is monitored. A characterization of the response performance is ascertained, and a scaling of resources is facilitated based on the characterization. In another aspect, a data consumption status indicative of data consumed is ascertained. Here, a scalability interface is provided, which displays aspects of the status, and receives an input from a content provider. An allocation of resources is then modified in response to the input. In yet another aspect, a response performance associated with responding to data consumption requests is monitored. An application programming interface (API) call is generated based on a characterization of the response performance, and transmitted to a content provider. An API response is then received from the content provider indicating whether a scaling of resources for hosting the data was performed.
US09483312B2
A system and computer program product, operable by a service registry in a service orientated architecture system, for providing a service within the system. A service request is received from a service requester in the system. The status of the service is checked as registered in the service registry. In response to the service not having a registered service endpoint or a property of the service falling below a defined threshold, a request is sent to service providers or subsequent service registries to provide a new service and according to the defined threshold. In response to a service provider providing the new service according to the defined standard, the service registry is updated with the new service and responding to the service requester that the service is available. The embodiments allow both direct interaction between the requester and provider or indirect interaction via a service management layer.
US09483308B2
Embodiments of techniques and systems for performance of predicted actions are described. In embodiments, a predicted action performance engine (“PAE”) may receive one or probabilities of potential actions that may be performed on a computing device. The PAE may also receive a system context for the computing device describing available resources on the computing device, workload, etc. Based on these probabilities and the system context, the PAE may determine one or more predicted actions and/or resource utilizations which are likely to occur and which may be performed ahead of time. The PAE may then facilitate performance of these actions and/or resource utilizations. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.
US09483302B2
The present disclosure includes methods and systems for providing virtual machine services. A number of embodiments can include a user VM with a virtual workstation, a number of service modules that can provide a number of services without communicating with the user VM and/or the virtual workstation, a communication channel that allows the number of service modules to communicate with each other, a computing device, and a manager. A number of embodiments can also include a virtual machine monitor to enforce an isolation policy within the system.
US09483301B2
A method performed by a physical computing system includes, with a guest, requesting execution of a virtual machine function instruction, determining that virtual machine function ability for the guest is in a disabled state, in response to the requesting execution of a virtual machine function instruction and determining that the virtual machine function ability for the guest is in a disabled state, exiting a context of the guest, after a page table that maps guest virtual addresses to guest physical addresses is validated, determining that the virtual machine function ability is enabled, and in response to determining that the virtual machine function ability for the guest is in an enabled state, executing the virtual machine function instruction.
US09483293B2
Embodiments of a system and method for triggering an event in a hardware abstraction layer (HAL) are generally described herein. In some embodiments, the HAL can include unarchitected hardware or software that can be used to, for example, facilitate instruction emulation and debug; enable protection of model specific resources, instructions, and behaviors; redirect, resteer, or substitute instructions; and provide a framework for additional capabilities and features.
US09483285B2
Methods and systems for providing an emulation session to emulate a computer product for a host device. A method and system involve providing a communication link between the host device and an emulation bridge module provided on an emulation server separate from the host device; providing a host resource library file including a list of the plurality of resources available on the host device to the emulation bridge module; operating the emulation bridge module to determine emulation session resources required to provide the emulation session; selecting at least one of the host device and the emulation server for providing each required emulation session resource in the emulation session resources required to provide the emulation session; and providing the emulation session using the required emulation session resources provided by at least one of the host device and the emulation server.
US09483276B2
Embodiments relate to management of shared transactional resources. A system includes a transactional facility configured to support transactions that effectively delay committing stores to memory or results to an architectural state until transaction completion. The system includes a processor configured to perform an allocation or arbitration of processing resources to instructions of a transaction within a thread. The processor detects that the transaction has exceeded a manageable capacity of a resource or a potential collision of a transactional instruction storage access has occurred, resulting in a transaction abort. A transaction abort reason and a current configuration are examined to determine whether the transaction abort was based on an initiating program exceeding a restricted limit on the manageable capacity of the resource or an allocation. A processor state is updated to increase a likelihood of success upon retrying the transaction.
US09483267B2
A pool of available physical registers are provided for architected registers, wherein operations are performed that activate and deactivate selected architected registers, such that the deactivated selected architected registers need not retain values, and physical registers can be deallocated to the pool, wherein deallocation of physical registers is performed after a last-use by a designated last-use instruction, wherein the last-use information is provided either by the last-use instruction or a prefix instruction, wherein reads to deallocated architecture registers return an architected default value.
US09483266B2
Fusible instructions and logic provide OR-test and AND-test functionality on multiple test sources. Some embodiments include a processor decode stage to decode a test instruction for execution, the instruction specifying first, second and third source data operands, and an operation type. Execution units, responsive to the decoded test instruction, perform one logical operation, according to the specified operation type, between data from the first and second source data operands, and perform a second logical operation between the data from the third source data operand and the result of the first logical operation to set a condition flag. Some embodiments generate the test instruction dynamically by fusing one logical instruction with a prior-art test instruction. Other embodiments generate the test instruction through a just-in-time compiler. Some embodiments also fuse the test instruction with a subsequent conditional branch instruction, and perform a branch according to how the condition flag is set.
US09483263B2
A microprocessor includes a plurality of processing cores each comprises a corresponding memory physically located inside the core and readable by the core but not readable by the other cores (“core memory”). The microprocessor also includes a memory physically located outside all of the cores and readable by all of the cores (“uncore memory”). For each core, the uncore memory and corresponding core memory collectively provide M words of storage for microcode instructions fetchable by the core as follows: the uncore memory provides J of the M words of microcode instruction storage, and the corresponding core memory provides K of the M words of microcode instruction storage. J, K and M are counting numbers, and M=J+K. The memories are non-architecturally-visible and accessed using a fetch address provided by a non-architectural program counter, and the microcode instructions are non-architectural instructions that implement architectural instructions.
US09483261B2
Automated creation of augmented documentation fragments that are augmented with usage examples. A plurality of documentation fragments is stored, where each documentation fragment documents a software element and has at least one associated property. A corresponding source code software fragment that corresponds to at least one associated property of at least one software element is identified based on an automated software analysis process of source code within a source code repository and further based on a list of properties comprising each associated property of each software element within the plurality of software elements. An augmented documentation fragment that includes a selected documentation fragment and the at least one corresponding source code software fragment corresponding to at least one associated property of the selected documentation fragment is created in response to the identifying.
US09483259B1
Access to a source code file stored at a server is provided to a plurality of user devices, via a network. The source code file may comprise software code. The source code file stored at the server is updated based on a plurality of changes received from respective user devices, substantially in real-time. A selection of an option to execute the source code file is received from one of the plurality of user devices. In response to the selection, the source code file is executed, substantially in real-time.
US09483246B2
A method, apparatus, system, and computer program product for an automated modular and secure boot firmware update. An updated boot firmware code module is received in a secure partition of a system, the updated boot firmware code module to replace one original boot firmware code module for the system. Only the one original boot firmware code module is automatically replaced with the updated boot firmware code module. The updated boot firmware code module is automatically executed with the plurality of boot firmware code modules for the system and without user intervention when the system is next booted. The updated boot firmware code module may be written to an update partition of a firmware volume, wherein the update partition of the firmware volume is read along with another partition of the firmware volume containing the plurality of boot firmware code modules when the system is booted.
US09483245B2
A package manager receives a request to install a version of an application on a host server, the version of the application having an associated database script provided by database scripts package. The package manager determines a currently installed schema in a management database associated with the host server and compares the database script associated with the application to the currently installed schema in the management database. Prior to installing the version of the application, the package manager verifies that the database script is installed and updated to match the database schema and performs the database upgrade if required.
US09483243B2
A vector data access unit includes data access ordering circuitry, for issuing data access requests indicated by elements of earlier and a later vector instructions, one being a write instruction. An element indicating the next data access for each of the instructions is determined. The next data accesses for the earlier and the later instructions may be reordered. The next data access of the earlier instruction is selected if the position of the earlier instruction's next data element is less than or equal to the position of the later instruction's next data element minus a predetermined value. The next data access of the later instruction may be selected if the position of the earlier instruction's next data element is higher than the position of the later instruction's next data element minus a predetermined value. Thus data accesses from earlier and later instructions are partially interleaved.
US09483236B2
Data is received that characterizes a score model. Thereafter, the score model is normalized by transforming it into a directed acyclic graph. The directed acyclic graph is then transformed into a structured rules language program. The structured rules language program is then transformed into a program using a concurrent, class-based, object-oriented computer programming language (e.g., JAVA, C, COBOL, etc.). Related apparatus, systems, techniques and articles are also described.
US09483231B2
The present invention relates to a signal processing device and method. The device receives, from a sensor which measures a physical quantity applied thereto and outputs an accumulated or integrated value of the physical quantity as an M-bit digital value, the digital value, and, when a difference between the physical quantities at two successive data acquisition times lies within a predetermined range and an absolute value of a digital counter increment is greater than 2M-1, calculate the digital counter increment as the physical quantity measured by the sensor.
US09483227B2
A light-emitting display system has interlocking tiles. In an implementation, each tile has a portion of a clamp that joins with another portion of the clamp on another tile. A tile is removed from the display by unlocking the clamp portions. The tile is removed without affecting the position of the other tiles in the display.
US09483225B2
A method is provided for enhancing a user interface with a mobile device by joining the displays of multiple devices together to function together with one another. In particular, example methods may provide for detecting a first touch or drag event, receiving a message indicating a second touch or drag event from a nearby device occurring during the first touch or drag event, creating a join event, and providing for transmission of the join event to the nearby device. The method may also include updating a registry of nearby devices in response to receiving a message regarding a touch or drag event from a nearby device. The method may further include providing for presentation of content on a display of a device and direction of content to be presented on a display of the nearby device, wherein the content to be presented on the display of the nearby device is related to the content on the display of the device.
US09483215B2
To provide a printing system, printing control device, and printing control program that can optimize the operating rate of a printer. An operation optimization processing part includes a comparison part and an output destination determination part, and performs a process that in order to the optimize the operating status of a printer, before an RIP process is performed, in accordance with a condition determined by the relationship between an RIP processing speed and a printing speed, for each print data, preliminarily determines a raster data output destination for temporarily storing raster data generated by performing the RIP process of the print data.
US09483206B1
A method, and system for implementing enhanced fast full synchronization for remote disk mirroring in a computer system. A source backup copy is made locally available to a target for remote disk mirroring. Sectors are identified that are different between the source and target. A hash function is used over a block to be compared, with an adaptive number of tracking sectors per block, starting with a minimum block size.
US09483195B2
A response reading method and a data transmission system are provided. The method includes, transmitting a first operation command sequence corresponding to a first temporary file to a memory storage device by a system, where the first operation command sequence instructs a smart card to execute a first operation. The method also includes, executing a first writing operation of a first dummy file to update first data in a cache memory. The method further includes, executing a response reading operation corresponding to a second temporary file by the system to read a response of the smart card corresponding to the first operation command sequence.
US09483193B1
A data storage device includes a first memory device suitable for performing an internal operation in response to a first internal operation command; and a state checking block suitable for performing a state read operation by transmitting a state read command one or more times to the first memory device during one of an initial mode and a repeat mode which is set based on a type of the internal operation.
US09483192B2
A memory system includes a nonvolatile memory including a plurality of blocks as data erase units, a measuring unit which measures an erase time at which data of each block is erased, and a block controller which writes data supplied from at least an exterior into a first block which is set in a free state and whose erase time is oldest.
US09483189B2
An I/O scheduler can manage and schedule write requests that are sent to a storage device in order to prevent the write requests from dominating a storage buffer of the storage device. The I/O scheduler can monitor the number of I/O requests in the storage buffer and maintain a balance between write requests and read requests in the storage buffer. The I/O scheduler monitor the latency of the storage device in processing write requests and manage the write requests sent to the storage device based on the latency. The I/O scheduler can utilize one or more write thresholds. The write thresholds can define thresholds of the number of write requests in the storage buffer and thresholds for the latency of the storage device in processing write requests. The write threshold can represent acceptable levels of write request in the storage buffer and acceptable latency for write requests.
US09483187B2
Methods, systems, and computer programs are presented for allocating CPU cycles in a storage system. One method includes operations for receiving requests to be processed, and for associating each request to one task. A foreground task is for processing input/output requests, and the foreground task includes one or more flows. Each flow is associated with a queue and a flow counter value, where each queue is configured to hold requests. The method further includes an operation for selecting one task for processing by the CPU based on an examination of the number of cycles processed by the CPU for each task. When the selected task is the foreground task, the flow having the lowest flow counter is selected. The CPU processes a request from the queue of the selected flow, and the flow counter of the selected flow is increased based on the data consumption of the processed task.
US09483184B2
A system and method for setting a compression ratio for utilizing a compressed memory pool (which is backed by pinned memory) by a virtual memory manager (VMM). Compression of pages of corresponding segments can be tracked as part of a VMM paging algorithm that compresses pages to store in a compressed memory pool. A segment having pages with an average compression ratio below a threshold is identified. The identified segment pages are prevented from utilizing the compressed memory pool resulting in optimizing the use of the compressed memory pool.
US09483171B1
Devices and techniques to decrease latency in rendering a line or other feature on a display device responsive to input on a touch sensor are described. A touch sensor may detect a touch input with the touch sensor. Touch coordinates indicative of the touch input on the touch sensor are determined. The touch coordinates are mapped to display coordinates associated with the display device. Based on the display coordinates, an operating system kernel may generate a feature, such as a line, for presentation on the display.
US09483167B2
A graphical user interface displays a first portion of a data file. Further, a switch indicator is displayed. In addition, a first input that has a first proximity within a range of predetermined first proximities with respect to the switch indicator is received at a processor operably connected to the graphical user interface. In addition, a second portion of the data file based on the first input is displayed at the graphical user interface. Further, a second input that has a second proximity within a range of predetermined second proximities with respect to the switch indicator is received at the processor. The range of predetermined second proximities is distinct from the range of first predetermined proximities. In addition, the graphical user interface displays a subset of the second portion of the data file based on the second input.
US09483161B2
A structure of an interactive collaboration session is generated. The structure is typically based on an activity defined by a leader of the interactive collaboration session. The structure of the interactive collaboration session comprises different levels. For example, the structure of the interactive collaboration session may contain hierarchical levels that include top level items to discuss, a secondary level for responses to top level items, and a tertiary level for responses to the secondary level items. The structure of the interactive collaboration session is displayed to the leader. The leader controls the participants' display of the structure of the interactive collaboration as the interactive collaboration session progresses. For example, the leader may click on a button that disables the participants' ability to make comments during one part of the interactive collaboration session. Later, the leader can click on a button to enable the participants to make comments.
US09483159B2
A fact checking system is able to verify the correctness of information and/or characterize information by comparing the information with one or more sources. The fact checking system automatically monitors, processes, fact checks information and indicates a status of the information. The fact checking system is able to incorporate a graphical user interface with fact checking icons to indicate fact checking results.
US09483156B2
Disclosed herein is a technique for selectively broadcasting content to a destination device. An operating system (OS) executing on a source device is configured to generate an OS user interface (UI) and execute a plurality of applications, where each application of the plurality of applications is configured to generate a respective application UI. The source device receives a selection of a broadcast profile that identifies at least one application of the plurality of applications whose respective application UI should not be displayed at the destination device. In response to receiving the selection, a configuration of the source device is updated to cause: 1) the OS UI, but not the application UI associated with the at least one application, to be broadcasted to the destination device, and 2) the OS UI, as well as the application UI associated with the at least one application, to be displayed at the source device.
US09483146B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for input classification for multi-touch systems. In one aspect, a method includes receiving data describing a first region of contact with a touch sensitive display and a second region of contact with the touch sensitive display. The method includes determining at least one characteristic of the first region of contact. The method includes based on the at least one characteristic of the first region of contact, determining that the first region of contact corresponds to intended touch input provided by a user's body part or stylus. The method includes determining at least one characteristic of the second region of contact. The method includes based on the at least one characteristic of the second region of contact, determining that the second region of contact corresponds to incidental touch input provided by a user's resting body part.
US09483142B2
A combination touch and transducer input system is provided, which facilitates user input into an electronic system with a finger and/or a transducer (e.g., a stylus). The system includes a transducer configured to generate an electric field, and a sensor including an array of electrodes and a controller. The transducer is configured to transmit digital data, such as pen pressure data and switch status data, to the sensor. For example, the transducer comprises electronic circuitry configured to encode the digital data in a signal for transmission to the sensor. The sensor controller is configured to operate both in a touch sensing mode and in a transducer sensing mode. During the touch sensing mode, the controller determines a position of a proximate object (e.g., a finger) by capacitively sensing the object with the array of electrodes. During the transducer sensing mode, the controller determines a position of the transducer based on a signal received by the array of electrodes from the transducer, and also receives and decodes the digital data encoded in the received signal. Digital data can be encoded in a signal using any suitable digital modulation techniques, such as a Frequency-Shift Keying (FSK) technique.
US09483141B2
A multi-stimulus controller for a multi-touch sensor is formed on a single integrated circuit (single-chip). The multi-stimulus controller includes a transmit oscillator, a transmit signal section that generates a plurality of drive signals based on a frequency of the transmit oscillator, a plurality of transmit channels that transmit the drive signals simultaneously to drive the multi-touch sensor, a receive channel that receives a sense signal resulting from the driving of the multi-touch sensor, a receive oscillator, and a demodulation section that demodulates the received sense signal based on a frequency of the receive oscillator to obtain sensing results, the demodulation section including a demodulator and a vector operator.
US09483129B1
In one embodiment, a method performed by an active stylus includes wirelessly receiving a synchronization signal from a touch controller. The method also includes determining a synchronization parameter of the synchronization signal, the synchronization parameter including an integer part and a fractional part, the integer part representing a positive integer multiple of an active-stylus clock period and the fractional part representing a fractional portion of the active-stylus clock period. The method further includes wirelessly transmitting information for reception by the touch controller, where the information includes a series of data portions, a successive data portion in the series being separated from a preceding data portion by a time interval. The time interval is based at least in part on the active-stylus clock period, the integer part of the synchronization parameter, and an updated fractional error value.
US09483127B2
A capacitor is provided, which allows a user to readily change or adjust its capacitance value. The capacitor includes a dielectric film, which includes first and second conductor layers disposed on opposite surfaces thereof, and which is wound into a rod shape. First and second electrodes are led out from the first and second conductor layers, respectively. At least one of the first and second conductor layers includes an area-changeable conductor pattern, which is disposed (e.g., exposed) on an outer circumference side of the capacitor wound into the rod shape to receive physical treatment (e.g., cutting, connecting) from outside to thereby change the size of a conductor area of the at least one of the first and second conductor layers. Thus, the physical treatment changes the conductor area of the conductor layers, to thereby selectively set or adjust the capacitance value of the capacitor.
US09483125B2
A position information obtaining device and a position information obtaining method are provided. Each of the position information obtaining device and the position information obtaining method captures images to which a light pointer is directed and on which a light spot is formed, in chronological order, and estimates position information of a specified position on the images specified by the light pointer using a plurality of pieces of image information obtained from the captured image.
US09483115B2
A control system for selectively operating a sound system provided in a walk-around character costume. e.g., to play audio files in an order defined by a dialog tree that can be navigated by a performer wearing the costume. The control system includes a trigger mechanism provided in the costume operable by a performer wearing the costume to generate and transmit at least one trigger signal to navigate through a dialog tree. A controller receives the trigger signal and transmits a control signal causing the sound system to playback pre-recorded dialog. The system includes a trigger processing module run by the controller for processing the trigger signal and, in response to such processing, for navigating pre-recorded audio for a show to select the set of pre-recorded dialog. The trigger mechanism includes a first and a second pressure sensor in a thumb and index finger of a glove of the costume.
US09483105B2
A communication system operating with a battery is provided. Each node of the system is operable in a sleep mode and a normal mode, outputs a transition availability notice frame indicating whether or not the node is permitted or prohibited to transition to the sleep mode. At least one node is a monitor node. Upon receipt of a transition availability notice frame indicating prohibition of transition to the sleep mode while the battery is in a low voltage state, the monitor node stores sender information in a non-volatile memory, the sender information identifying what node is a sender node sending this transition availability notice frame.
US09483084B2
A frictional hinge assembly for use with electronics devices such as computer notebooks having base and lid portions may present a higher level of frictional resistance to rotation in one direction than in the other. The hinge may comprise a base-mounted helical sleeve having loops that embrace a rotational shaft that is connected to a lid. As the lid is opened, the rotation of the shaft may cause the loops of the helical sleeve to tighten and thereby generate frictional forces, which requires a greater opening force to overcome than when the lid is being closed, in which case the loops loosen. The helical hinge may have applicability for notebook computers, electronic devices having clamshell form factors, all-in-one designs and tablets using kickstands and the like.
US09483080B2
Particular embodiments described herein provide for an electronic device, such as a notebook computer or laptop, that includes a circuit board coupled to a plurality of electronic components (which includes any type of components, elements, circuitry, etc.). One particular example implementation of the electronic device may include a first housing, a hinge, and a touchscreen, where the touchscreen is rotatably coupled to the first housing using the hinge. The first housing can include a display and the touchscreen can rotate from a front of the display when the electronic device is in a tablet configuration to a clamshell configuration. A template may visible on or through the touchscreen when the electronic device is in the clamshell configuration.
US09483078B2
There is disclosed a mobile terminal including a display unit, a first film having one surface coated with a first adhesive material, the surface coupled to a back surface of the display unit by the first adhesive material, and a front case having a second adhesive material disposed on one surface thereof, the surface coupled to the other surface of the first film by the second adhesive material, wherein an adhesive strength of the first adhesive material is smaller than an adhesive strength of the second adhesive material, such that the back surface of the mobile terminal may be attached to the case to prevent the bezel from increasing.
US09483065B2
One embodiment of the present invention includes a power regulator system. The system includes a power stage configured to provide an output voltage to a load in response to an input voltage and a control signal. The system also includes a feedback system that receives the input voltage and is configured to generate the control signal based on the output voltage. The system further includes a load detector configured to determine a state of the load and to set the power to the feedback system based on determining the state of the load.
US09483064B2
A remote controllable thermostat has an on-board power supply with batteries, a microcontroller having a timer, a temperature sensor, a temperature set point control controller and an RF receiver. The thermostat also has HVAC state control means for generating HVAC control signals in response to sensed temperatures being outside of control set point range and for periodically connecting and disconnecting the RF receiver from the power source to conserve battery power. Where the thermostat has user mode selector switches, the microcontroller is further programmed to read their state only periodically for additional battery power conversation.
US09483063B2
Described embodiments include a device, a system, and a method. A described device includes a closed-cycle heat transfer device. The device includes a thermal management system adapted for dissipating heat generated by transmission lines of a power transmission system in use to transport electric power from one place to another. The system includes a heat-dissipation device and a transmission-line temperature manager. The heat-dissipation device includes a heat-acquisition element configured to absorb heat from a portion of a live transmission line of the power transmission system. The heat-dissipation device includes an assembly of one or more controllable fins thermally coupled to the heat-acquisition element and configured to dissipate at least a portion of the heat absorbed by the heat-acquisition. The transmission-line temperature manager is configured to control an aspect of the assembly of one or more controllable fins.
US09483061B2
A bleed air control valve includes a pneumatic actuator operable to drive rotation of a closure disk, a connecting rod, a shaft, and an actuator fluid supply passage. The pneumatic actuator includes an integral filter and pressure regulator unit disposed in line with the actuator fluid supply passage. The actuator fluid supply passage provides communication between an inlet side of the flow control duct and at least one pressure chamber. The integral filter and pressure regulator unit has a cylindrical regulator cavity in selective communication with a cylindrical vent cavity. Filter media is secured to the pressure regulator unit and disposed across at least one of a regulator inlet orifice and a regulator outlet orifice. A regulator nozzle has at least one regulator port providing selective communication between a vent cavity and a regulator cavity.
US09483056B2
A vehicle control system is provided in which, if a position requiring caution for the contact with an oncoming vehicle on a track road is found also on an ex-post facto basis, the information thereof is easily fed back to the control of each vehicle. This vehicle control system has a GPS receiver 101 for detecting the position of each vehicle, an encoder 72 and an IMU 73 mounted on each vehicle, a specific spot setting unit 87 for setting a position requiring caution for the passing with an oncoming vehicle as a specific spot on the basis of a vehicle position, a slip ratio and a curvature that are computed from the values output therefrom, and a storage device for storing the positional information on a place set as a specific spot by a specific spot detecting unit.
US09483054B2
The invention is related to methods and apparatus that use a visual sensor and dead reckoning sensors to process Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). These techniques can be used in robot navigation. Advantageously, such visual techniques can be used to autonomously generate and update a map. Unlike with laser rangefinders, the visual techniques are economically practical in a wide range of applications and can be used in relatively dynamic environments, such as environments in which people move. One embodiment further advantageously uses multiple particles to maintain multiple hypotheses with respect to localization and mapping. Further advantageously, one embodiment maintains the particles in a relatively computationally-efficient manner, thereby permitting the SLAM processes to be performed in software using relatively inexpensive microprocessor-based computer systems.
US09483052B2
Systems and methods are described for dynamically generating flight departure profiles that are in compliance with aircraft emission limits. Emission limits may include noise abatement limits. Flight departure profiles may be generated on a flight by flight basis, and/or may be based on then-current conditions such as wind speed, wind direction, and ambient temperature.
US09483049B2
Provided is an anomaly detection method and system capable of constructing determination condition rules of anomaly detection from case-based anomaly detection by way of multivariate analysis of a multi-dimensional sensor signal, applying the rules to design-based anomaly detection of individual sensor signals, and also appropriately executing setting and control of threshold values for highly sensitive, early, and clearly visible detection of anomalies. Anomaly detection on the basis of a case base by way of multivariate analysis controls design-based anomaly detection. That is to say, (1) anomaly detection on the basis of a case base performs selection of sensor signals and anomaly detection according to various types of anomalies. Specifically, anomaly detection (characteristic conversion), evaluation of level of effect of each signal, construction of determination conditions (rules), and display and selection of sensor signals corresponding to the anomaly are performed. (2) Design-based anomaly detection for individual sensor signals performs anomaly detection after the above have been performed. Specifically, setting and control of thresholds, display of thresholds, and anomaly detection and display are performed.
US09483048B2
The sample transport system includes a management section which holds information on the status of a sample transport system as a whole as well as sample information in order to transport and control a plurality of carriers as a consecutive group and which generates group information on a group of carriers to be handled simultaneously based on sample attributes and request information; and units made up of a conveyer line, a connecting line, and a processing section to control received carriers at a converging point based on the group information, so as to permit group management control of the carriers. In this manner, the sample transport system processes as a single batch a plurality of samples collected for the same processing purpose.
US09483047B2
A method for operating a numerical control machine including generating monument point data having a plurality of reference points representing a plurality of monument points on a machine bed, generating part data having plurality of reference points representing a part with respect to the plurality of monument points, generating theoretical machined part data having a plurality of reference points representing a theoretical machined part, generating control data by integrating the part data and the theoretical machined part data, generating machine control data by integrating the control data and the monument point data, and executing the machine control data for controlling operation of a numerical control machine to form a machined part.
US09483043B2
A method of controlling a machine tool and other controlled devices, as well as a programmable numerical control (PNC) system, are disclosed. In at least one embodiment, the method of controlling includes receiving a first part program at a programmable logic controller (PLC), and storing the first part program in a string array library of a memory portion of the PLC. The method further includes communicating information between the PLC and an operator interface regarding the first part program, and providing a first signal from the PLC to a first port so as to cause the first machine tool to be operated in accordance with the first part program. Also, in at least some embodiments, the PNC system allows for control of multiple machine tools and/or other controlled devices, by way of one or more part programs, and/or for editing of a part program while that program is being executed.
US09483039B2
A wireless field device for use in an industrial process includes input/output terminals configured to couple to a process interface element. A discrete input/output channel is configured to receive a discrete input from the process interface element through the input/output terminals when configured as a discrete input channel. The discrete input/output channel is further configured to provide a discrete output to the process interface element through the input/output terminals when the discrete input/output channel is configured as discrete output channel. Wireless communication circuitry is configured to transmit and receive information. A controller communicates information through the wireless communication circuitry and operates in accordance with configuration information to configure the input/output channel as an input channel when the input/output terminals are connected to a discrete process variable sensor, and further configure the discrete input/output channel as a discrete output channel when the input/output terminals are coupled to a discrete control element.
US09483031B2
An electronic timepiece has a main plate 120 for a movement 110 that drives a time display unit inside an outside case 80; an annular antenna 40 housed inside the case 80 and positioned relative to the main plate 120; and aback cover 85 that engages the case 80. A circuit bridge 130 disposed below the main plate 120 has an upward pressure part 131 that pushes the main plate 120 to the time display unit side when the case 80 and back cover 85 are engaged. The main plate 120 has a movement top positioning part 122 that contacts the vertical positioning surface and positions the main plate 120 vertically to the case 80 when the main plate 120 is lifted toward the time display side by the upward pressure part 131.
US09483028B1
An analog-to-digital converter (ATC) circuit includes a current source; a first amplifier coupled to the current source through a first discharging switch; and a second amplifier coupled to the first amplifier through a second discharging switch; wherein the first amplifier is configured to receive a residue signal of an analog input signal, upon the first discharging switch being turned on, the first amplifier amplifies the residue signal to generate an output signal and simultaneously the current source discharges the residue signal, upon the second discharging switch being turned on, the second amplifier detects when the output signal equals zero so as to determine a discharging time duration of the output signal.
US09483027B2
A plug-in wall timer has a prominent single “one touch” activator which causes a countdown period or varying length according to the number of times it is pressed, so that the timer's outlet may be energized only for that selected period. The device is simple to use, requires no programming, and operates independently of the current time of the day or day of the week.
US09483012B2
An image forming apparatus main body (apparatus main body) and an automatic document feeder mounted on the apparatus main body are provided, and a cable-side connector provided at a front end of an electrical cable extending from the automatic document feeder is removably connected to a board-side connector provided on a circuit board of the apparatus main body. In this configuration, an opening portion is provided in a back face of a housing of the apparatus main body at a position opposing the board-side connector, a lid that covers this opening portion is attached to a front end portion of the electrical cable by an attachment member, and this lid is configured so as to be attachable to the opening portion by a hook and fixing by screwing by means of a screw insertion boss.
US09483011B2
A target cycle recording portion (821) records target cycle data (Tref) into a first ring buffer (824) each time a reference pulse signal (Ps) is generated, thereby recording the target cycle data (Tref) sequentially into the first ring buffer (824). A measured cycle recording portion (822) records measured cycle data (Tenc) into a second ring buffer (825) each time an encoder pulse signal (Pe) is generated, thereby recording the measured cycle data (Tenc) sequentially into the second ring buffer (825). A phase error calculating portion (823) calculates a phase error PHE by integrating a difference between the target cycle data (Tref) and the measured cycle data (Tenc) that are sequentially recorded in data buffers respectively in correspondence with each other in the two ring buffers.
US09483005B2
A medium carrying device includes an apparatus body, medium guide unit that is detachable with respect to the apparatus body, a carrying roller that is disposed in the apparatus body, and is configured to rotate to carry a print medium passing through the medium guide unit, and a driven roller that is disposed in the medium guide unit at a position corresponding to the carrying roller in a contacting manner so that the driven roller rotates in accordance with a rotation of the carrying roller.
US09482993B2
An image forming apparatus includes: an image forming portion; a transfer member; a fixing portion; and a cleaning member. The image forming apparatus includes a first toner container containing a first formulation toner rich in hydrocarbon wax and a second toner container containing a second formulation toner rich in ester wax. The image forming apparatus is capable of executing an image forming operation and an operation in a toner supplying mode for supplying the toner or the toners to an intermediary transfer member when the image forming operation is not performed. The image forming apparatus is capable of executing the operation in the toner supplying mode in which only the first formulation toner is used or a mixture of the first formulation toner and the second formulation toner is used so that the first formulation toner is used in a larger amount than the second formulation toner.
US09482992B2
A toner conveyance member includes a shaft, a first blade member, at least one paddle member, and a pressure relief path. The shaft extends in a first direction and rotates in a second direction. The first blade member winds around the shaft and continues to extend helically in the first direction. The paddle member is in the form of a plate protruding from a surface of the shaft and having a first principal face and a second principal face positioned opposite to and forward from the first principal face in the second direction. The pressure relief path has an opening. The opening is provided within a predetermined distance range from an intersection point of the shaft, the first blade member, and the second principal face of the paddle member.
US09482981B2
An image forming apparatus has: an image supporting member; a charger in proximity to the image supporting member; a power source unit configured to apply charging voltages to the charger sequentially, the charging voltages including alternating voltages having different peak-to-peak voltages, respectively; an amperometric detector configured to detect values of alternating currents flowing in the charger during application of the charging voltages; and a processor configured to carry out a first charging voltage determination process or a second charging voltage determination process requiring a shorter time than the first charging voltage determination process selectively based on a detection result of the amperometric detector. The processor carries out the first charging voltage determination process or the second charging voltage determination process selectively in accordance with a difference between an ambient temperature at a previous time of carrying out the first charging voltage determination process and a current ambient temperature.
