US09554616B2
A dual-density insole (or sock liner) for a shoe is disclosed. The insole includes a carrier with two cavities. Two inserts with a density or hardness level that is different from that of the carrier are positioned in the cavities for increased performance. The disclosed insole further exhibits a molded geometry marked with shaped protrusions.
US09554594B2
A filter element incorporating an adsorbent material is provided. The filter element may comprise a first section of filter material and a second section of filter material spaced apart to form a compartment therebetween. The compartment may be filled with one or more adsorbents or the compartment may be divided into two regions, wherein one compartment region is filled with an adsorbent and the other compartment region is either filled with an ion-exchange resin or remains empty. The section of filter material adjacent to the tobacco rod may include one or more channels therethrough for passaging smoke directly from the tobacco rod into the adsorbent-filled compartment. The mouth end section of filter material may contain a breakable capsule, wherein the breakable capsule is filled with a flavoring agent capable of altering the taste characteristics of mainstream smoke.
US09554593B2
The present invention relates to a food-forming-apparatus with: a rotating drum (5) which comprises product cavities in which a food product is formed from a food mass and a food mass feed member (23), which comprises a housing with an infeed channel (24) and at least one upstream sealing area (25) and/or a downstream sealing area (26) and a flexible pressure plate (7) which is pressed against the outer surface of the drum and thereby provides a seal between the food mass member and the drum. The drum has at its outer surface a multitude of rows of cavities.
US09554589B2
The present disclosure relates to methods and systems for calculating a food additive. A first method includes identifying chemical compounds of an averse food ingredient, identifying chemical compounds of a flavorful food ingredient and calculating a set of chemical compounds for the food additive such that an olfactory perception of a mixture of the averse food ingredient, the flavorful food ingredient and the food additive is the same as an olfactory perception of only the flavorful food ingredient. A first device includes a database storing information identifying chemical compounds of an averse food ingredient and identifying chemical compounds of a flavorful food ingredient, and a processor for calculating a food additive such that an olfactory perception of flavors of a mixture of the averse food ingredient, the flavorful food ingredient and the food additive is the same as an olfactory perception of only the flavorful food ingredient.
US09554570B2
Systems and methods for providing modular bird control deterrent devices with spikes for use with overhead electrical wire are provided. A modular bird control segment base provides locking support for one or more bird control spikes by including locking flanges in a spike support cavity of the segment base that engages and locks a spike by engaging a groove in the bottom portion of the respective spike. The bird control segment base provides attachment support for fasteners that secure the bird control segment base to the electrical wire in use by providing opposing slot openings in a groove on the top of the segment base to engage a fastener. The bird control segment base also has opposing fastening mechanisms for connecting multiple segments together.
US09554563B2
A mouse with a humanization of the mIL-3 gene and the mGM-CSF gene, a knockout of a mRAG gene, and a knockout of a mIl2rg subunit gene; and optionally a humanization of the TPO gene is described. A RAG/Il2rg KO/hTPO knock-in mouse is described. A mouse engrafted with human hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) that maintains a human immune cell (HIC) population derived from the HSCs and that is infectable by a human pathogen, e.g., S. typhi or M. tuberculosis is described. A mouse that models a human pathogen infection that is poorly modeled in mice is described, e.g., a mouse that models a human mycobacterial infection, wherein the mouse develops one or more granulomas comprising human immune cells. A mouse that comprises a human hematopoietic malignancy that originates from an early human hematopoietic cells is described, e.g., a myeloid leukemia or a myeloproliferative neoplasia.
US09554551B2
A cleaning unit for cleaning at least one head section of a teat cup including a chamber that has a substantially circular cross-section, is delimited by a wall and has an opening delimited by a scaling element. The chamber has at least one inlet and is characterized in that at least one section of the sealing element or at least one section of the wall adjoining the opening and a section of the sealing element is or are flexible around the circumference of the chamber.
US09554537B2
The invention relates to the soybean variety designated XB07A14R2. Provided by the invention are the seeds, plants and derivatives of the soybean variety XB07A14R2. Also provided by the invention are tissue cultures of the soybean variety XB07A14R2 and the plants regenerated therefrom. Still further provided by the invention are methods for producing soybean plants by crossing the soybean variety XB07A14R2 with itself or another soybean variety and plants produced by such methods.
US09554535B2
A soybean cultivar designated S130074 is disclosed. The invention relates to the seeds of soybean cultivar S130074, to the plants of soybean cultivar S130074, to the plant parts of soybean cultivar S130074, and to methods for producing progeny of soybean cultivar S130074. The invention also relates to methods for producing a soybean plant containing in its genetic material one or more transgenes and to the transgenic soybean plants and plant parts produced by those methods. The invention also relates to soybean cultivars or breeding cultivars, and plant parts derived from soybean cultivar S130074. The invention also relates to methods for producing other soybean cultivars, lines, or plant parts derived from soybean cultivar S130074, and to the soybean plants, varieties, and their parts derived from use of those methods. The invention further relates to hybrid soybean seeds, plants, and plant parts produced by crossing cultivar S130074 with another soybean cultivar.
US09554534B1
The present invention relates to a new and distinctive canola, designated CL1992625A/B. Also included are seeds of canola CL1992625A/B, to the plants, or plant parts, of canola CL1992625A/B and to methods for producing a canola plant produced by crossing the canola CL1992625A/B with itself or another canola genotype, and the creation of variants by mutagenesis or transformation of canola CL1992625A/B.
US09554532B1
A novel maize variety designated PH253T and seed, plants and plant parts thereof. Methods for producing a maize plant that comprise crossing maize variety PH253T with another maize plant. Methods for producing a maize plant containing in its genetic material one or more traits introgressed into PH253T through backcross conversion and/or transformation, and to the maize seed, plant and plant part produced thereby. Hybrid maize seed, plant or plant part produced by crossing the variety PH253T or a locus conversion of PH253T with another maize variety.
US09554531B2
The invention relates to the soybean variety designated 01051034. Provided by the invention are the seeds, plants and derivatives of the soybean variety 01051034. Also provided by the invention are tissue cultures of the soybean variety 01051034 and the plants regenerated therefrom. Still further provided by the invention are methods for producing soybean plants by crossing the soybean variety 01051034 with itself or another soybean variety and plants produced by such methods.
US09554530B2
The invention relates to the soybean variety designated 01057523. Provided by the invention are the seeds, plants and derivatives of the soybean variety 01057523. Also provided by the invention are tissue cultures of the soybean variety 01057523 and the plants regenerated therefrom. Still further provided by the invention are methods for producing soybean plants by crossing the soybean variety 01057523 with itself or another soybean variety and plants produced by such methods.
US09554528B2
The invention relates to the soybean variety designated 01045954. Provided by the invention are the seeds, plants and derivatives of the soybean variety 01045954. Also provided by the invention are tissue cultures of the soybean variety 01045954 and the plants regenerated therefrom. Still further provided by the invention are methods for producing soybean plants by crossing the soybean variety 01045954 with itself or another soybean variety and plants produced by such methods.
US09554524B2
A timber-working head is configured to hold a felled tree and to feed the felled tree. The timber-working head comprises a frame and a delimb knife module mounted to the frame and configured to delimb the felled tree when the felled tree is fed past the delimb knife module. The delimb knife module has a central blade, a pivotable first side blade, and a pivotable second side blade.
US09554522B2
For hand-operated garden shears, in particular tree-pruning shears, with a ratchet mechanism, a ratchet lever may be disposed between a hand lever and a scissor lever and the ratchet lever may engage in different latching positions according to the ratchet mechanism. A rotatable abutment surface may be provided on the hand lever and a mating bearing surface on the lever extension, or vice versa, which, at the end of an initial closing operation with the ratchet lever in a first ratchet position, may allow a continuation of the cutting operation as a direct cut without further use of the ratchet mechanism.
US09554513B2
A system including a picking apparatus including a plurality of grippers each spaced apart and extending radially from a central axis of the picking apparatus, and each configured to pick a different individual crop of crops of plants. The picking apparatus can be configured to use a first one of the plurality of grippers to pick a first individual crop of the crops at a first time. During a second time period that starts with a second one of the plurality of grippers picking a second individual crop of the crops and ends with a third one of the plurality of grippers picking a third individual crop of the crops, the picking apparatus can be configured to offload the first individual crop from the first one of the plurality of grippers. The second time period can start after the first time. The second and third ones of the plurality of grippers can be configured to hold the second and third individual crops, respectively, at the end of the second time period. Other embodiments are provided.
US09554508B2
A robot lawnmower includes a robot body, a drive system, a localizing system, a teach monitor, and a controller in communication with one another. The drive system is configured to maneuver the robot lawnmower over a lawn. The teach monitor determines whether the robot lawnmower is in a teachable state. The controller includes a data processing device and non-transitory memory in communication with the data processing device. The data processing device executes a teach routine when the controller is in a teach mode for tracing a confinement perimeter around the lawn as a human operator pilots the robot lawn mower, when the robot lawnmower is in the teachable state, the teach routine stores global positions determined by the localizing system in the non-transitory memory, and when the robot lawnmower is in the unteachable state, the teach routine issues an indication of the unteachable state.
US09554507B2
A mowing boundary area recognizing apparatus of a mowing robot includes a ground state measurer configured to acquire environment data of a ground based on a grass length on the ground, a determiner configured to determine the grass length on the ground on a basis of the ground environment data to recognize a mowing boundary area, and a controller configured to adjust running of the mowing robot to a mowing area for which mowing is needed.
US09554505B2
A pneumatic manifold is provided for a folding toolbar for use with seed planters having pneumatic seed metering devices. The manifold is formed within the tubular center section and opposite folding wings of the toolbar. A flexible coupler is provided at each wing hinge juncture to provide air flow through the toolbar wings and the center section, while allowing the toolbar to fold and unfold between the transport and field positions.
US09554500B2
The present application discloses an improvement to hydraulically operated wing lift wheels used in tillage equipment. According to embodiments of the present invention, a hydraulic lockout mechanism is provided that uses gravity to rotate a weighted latch into a position that prevents full retraction of a hydraulic cylinder when in a certain orientation. When in other orientations, the weighted latch is in a position that allows the hydraulic cylinder to fully retract.
US09560792B2
A heat sink assembly uses a pin and a spring arrangement to bias a heat sink against an underlying support with an electrical component in between. A lock cap, mounted on a head of the pin, selectively engages a retainer formed beneath an upper end of a heat dissipating element or fin of the heat sink to precompress the spring. When the lock cap is engaged and the spring is precompressed, the pin may be attached to the underlying support without opposing the force of the spring. When the attachment is complete and the lock cap is disengaged, the spring is allowed to act against the head of the pin and the base of the heat sink to operatively bias the heat sink against the underlying support.
US09560786B2
A slide rail assembly comprising: a first slide rail (10, 10′) comprising a first, elongated web plate (11, 11′), a front surface facing toward a carried item (80) in use and a back surface facing away from the carried item in use; a second slide rail (20, 20′) nested within the first slide rail and being movable relative to the first slide rail in length direction. The upper edge of the first web plate is provided with a first, L-shaped upper folded panel (12, 12′) extending at an angle of 90 degrees with regard to the back surface of the first web plate, the lower edge thereof is provided with a horizontal supporting panel (13, 13′) for supporting the item which is bended at an angle of 90 degrees with regard to the front surface of the first web plate, and the first web plate is also provided with at least one first, L-shaped lower folded panel (14, 14′) opposite to the first upper folded panel and extending at an angle of 90 degrees with regard to the back surface of the first web plate, with the first upper folded panel and the at least one first lower folded panel collectively constituting a slide chute for supporting and guiding the second slide rail sliding therein.
US09560783B2
An electronic device is provided. The electronic device includes a body configured to house the electronic device and including a space for accommodating a battery on one surface of the body and a cover configured to cover at least the space and being detachably attached to the body. The cover includes a first sealing member located between the one surface of the body and an inner surface of the cover and formed to surround the space.
US09560780B2
A memory module has a memory mounted thereon. A support plate supports a circuit board. The circuit board is located facing and separated from the support plate. The circuit board has a first contact. A holder has a recessed housing portion and a first engagement portion. The housing portion is formed to internally house the memory module. The first engagement portion is provided to be inserted into an opening and engage with the opening. The holder is configured to be fixed to the support plate in an attitude in which the housing portion is open toward the circuit board, by the first engagement portion engaging with the opening. A lid is mounted on the holder by being inserted into the housing portion. A conductive portion is provided on the lid. The conductive portion is configured to electrically connect the memory module to the first contact of the circuit board.
US09560779B2
An enclosure for thermally stabilizing a temperature sensitive component on a circuit board is provided. The enclosure comprises a first cover section configured to be mounted over a portion of a first side of the circuit board where at least one temperature sensitive component is mounted. The first cover section includes a first lid, and at least one sidewall that extends from a perimeter of the first lid. The enclosure also comprises a second cover section configured to be mounted over a portion of a second side of the circuit board opposite from the first cover section. The second cover section includes a second lid, and at least one sidewall that extends from a perimeter of the second lid. The first and second cover sections are configured to releasably connect with the circuit board.
US09560775B2
A display apparatus is provided. The display apparatus includes a display which is curved such that opposite lateral ends thereof protrude forward relative to a central portion thereof. A support frame having a lower end supported on a horizontal surface and allowing the display to be disposed inside thereof is provided; wherein the support frame is curved such that opposite lateral ends thereof protrude forward relative to the central portion thereof.
US09560772B2
An electric circuit configuration having an MID circuit carrier and a connecting interface, the connecting interface being situated on a surface of the MID circuit carrier. The electric circuit configuration further includes at least one electrical contact pair having at least one connecting interface contact element and at least one MID contact element that is provided on the surface and is situated on the connecting interface contact element. The exemplary embodiments and/or exemplary methods of the present invention further relates to a contact element group having at least one electrical contact element for the electrical contacting of an MID circuit carrier, which is developed on a surface of an MID circuit carrier, is electrically connected to it, and extends away from the surface. The at least one contact element is connected to a line element of the MID circuit carrier.
US09560755B2
A bonding body includes: an aluminum member composed of aluminum; and a metal member composed of any one of copper, nickel, and silver, wherein the aluminum member and the metal member are bonded together. In a bonding interface between the aluminum member and the metal member, a Ti layer and an Al—Ti—Si layer are formed, the Ti layer being disposed at the metal member side in the bonding interface, and the Al—Ti—Si layer being disposed between the Ti layer and the aluminum member and containing Si which is solid-solubilized into Al3Ti. The Al—Ti—Si layer includes: a first Al—Ti—Si layer formed at the Ti layer side; and a second Al—Ti—Si layer formed at the aluminum member side and a Si concentration of which is lower than a Si concentration of the first Al—Ti—Si layer.
US09560754B2
An electro-optic device includes a substructure, a layer of nanowires deposited on the substructure so as to form a network of nanowires having electrically connected junctions at overlapping nanowire portions and defining spaces void of the nanowires, and a plurality of electrically conducting and optically transparent nanoparticles disposed to at least partially fill a plurality of the spaces to provide additional electrically conducting pathways for the network of nanowires across the spaces. The network of nanowires and the plurality of electrically conducting and optically transparent nanoparticles form at least a portion of an optically transparent electrode of the electro-optic device.
US09560751B2
A dynamically flexible article or device, such as an armband, includes a flexible electronic component, such as a flexible electronic display, and a flexible support structure coupled to the flexible electronic component, wherein the flexible support and the flexible electronic component are flexible along two dimensions to thereby be able to conform to a complex curved surface. The flexible support includes bending limiting structure that constrains bending of the flexible electronic component to prevent undesirable bending.
US09560750B2
A display device includes a first housing, a second housing separable from the first housing, a display panel in the first housing and connected to the second housing, the display panel being pulled out from the first housing when the second housing moves away from the first housing, and a support member in the second housing and connected to the first housing, the support member supporting the display panel and being pulled out from the second housing when the first housing moves away from the second housing.
US09560745B2
A device includes a stress relief region between at least two stress domains of a substrate (e.g., of a semiconductor die or other integrated circuit). The stress relief region includes a conductive structure electrically coupling circuitries of the stress domains between which the conductive structure is disposed.
US09560743B2
A multilayer circuit substrate obtained by alternately stacking conductor layers and insulator layers. The conductor layers include a core layer having a greater thickness than any of the other conductor layers and located in an inner layer of the multilayer circuit substrate. A first conductor layer facing the core layer through an insulator layer has first signal wires that transmit high frequency signals, and through-holes are formed in the core layer along the first signal wires in a location facing the first signal wires.
US09560742B2
Disclosed is a printed circuit board (PCB) having backdrill reliability anchors comprising nonfunctional pads to provide mechanical reinforcement for signal pads on backdrilled plated through hole (PTH) vias, as well as associated method and machine readable storage medium.
US09560741B2
A circuit board comprises a plurality of layers, first and second reference conductive vias extending in a vertical direction through at least a portion of the plurality of layers, first and second signal conductive vias extending in the vertical direction between and spaced apart in a horizontal direction from the first and second reference conductive vias through at least a portion of the plurality of layers, and a dielectric region extending in the vertical direction between the first and second signal conductive vias. An air via extends in the vertical direction through the dielectric region between the first and second signal conductive vias. An anti-pad extends in the horizontal direction between the first and second reference conductive vias and surrounding in the horizontal direction the first and second signal conductive vias, the air via, and the dielectric region.
US09560739B2
To provide a wiring substrate which can prevent short circuit between connection terminals, and which realizes reduction of the pitch between the connection terminals. The wiring substrate of the present invention includes a layered structure including one or more insulation layers and one or more conductor layers, and the wiring substrate is characterized in that a plurality of connection terminals are formed on the layered structure so as to be separated from one another; a filling member is filled between the connection terminals; and each of the connection terminals has a side surface composed of a contact surface which is in contact with the filling member, and a spaced surface which is not in contact with the filling member and which is located above the contact surface and below the top surface of the filling member.
US09560737B2
Electronic packages are provided with enhanced heat dissipation capabilities. The electronic package includes a plurality of electronic components, and an enclosure in which the electronic components reside. The enclosure includes a thermally conductive cover overlying the electronic components. At least one heat transfer element is coupled to, or integrated with, the thermally conductive cover and resides between a main surface of the cover and at least one respective electronic component of the plurality of electronic components. A thermal interface material is disposed between the heat transfer element(s) and the respective electronic component(s), and facilitates conductive transfer of heat from the electronic component(s) to the thermally conductive cover through the heat transfer element(s). The thermally conductive cover facilitates spreading and dissipating of the transferred heat outwards, for instance, through a surrounding tamper-respondent sensor and/or a surrounding encapsulant.
US09560727B2
An apparatus for creating functional lighting groups, including a plurality of wireless devices and a gateway. The plurality of wireless devices is configured to enter a grouping mode responsive to commands sent over a wireless network, and is configured to send messages over the wireless network indicating that they have been power cycled. The gateway, coupled to the plurality of wireless devices over the wireless network, is configured to send the commands, and is configured to receive the messages, and is configured to create a functional lighting group comprising the plurality of wireless devices.
US09560713B2
LED-based light source modules can incorporate color tunability and brightness control, allowing a user to select a desired color temperature and/or brightness and to change either or both dynamically. An emitter can include multiple independently addressable groups of LEDs, each emitting light of a different color. By controlling the relative operating current provided to each group, a desired color temperature can be achieved, and by controlling the absolute operating currents, the brightness of the output light can be controlled. Pulse width modulation (PWM) can be used to control the relative and absolute operating currents. Smooth, gradual transitions between brightness and/or color temperature settings in response to changes can be provided.
US09560711B2
A system and method of thermal management for an LED are provided. A method provided by the system includes (a) providing a forward drive current to power the LED, the forward drive current having a first LED operating current component; (b) detecting the first LED operating current component; (c) sensing a first thermal operating point of the LED; and (d) generating a temperature signal indicative of the first thermal operating point. The method also includes (e) determining a thermal operating range of the LED; (f) determining that the first thermal operating point of the LED is outside the thermal operating range of the LED; and (g) generating a first control setting configured to cause the LED to be driven at a second operating point, the second thermal operating point within the thermal operating range.
US09560709B2
An LED driver can include: a rectifying bridge configured to receive an AC current from an electrical ballast, and to generate a DC current; a rectifying and filtering circuit coupled to the rectifying bridge, and configured to rectify and filter the DC current, and to drive an LED load; a power switch coupled between an input of the rectifying and filtering circuit and ground, and configured to be controlled by a switching control signal; a first detecting circuit configured to sample a current that flows through the LED load, and to generate a first detection signal; a second detecting circuit configured to sample an output current of the rectifying bridge, and to generate a second detection signal; and a control circuit configured to generate the switching control signal according to the first and second detection signals.
US09560695B2
An increase in communication load in a network due to increasing messages for requesting information is suppressed. When a message for requesting information and a response message thereto are sent and received between a communication device (N1-Nn) that is an information requester and an information provider (Nx) on a network (NW) via a communication device (1), the communication device (1) stores the information acquired from the response message in a response information storage section (4), and when any communication device requests at least part of the same information, a control section (5) creates a response message including the requested information and responds.
US09560690B2
A proposed 3GPP LTE protocol enhancement disclosed herein realizes the full benefit of proposed dynamic frequency sharing systems by enhancing current handoff signaling in a 3GPP LTE standard for optimized UE reconnection during interrupted handoff from Licensed Shared Access (LSA) frequency bands to Primary Long Term Evolution (LTE) frequency bands during loss of LSA spectrum resources. A User Equipment (UE) comprises a transceiver configured to determine a connection state during a loss of LSA frequency spectrum, transmit a reconnection request message when the UE is in a state of established connection or a connection request message when the UE is in an idle state, the request message carrying a loss of LSA frequency band cause, optimally connect according to the loss of LSA frequency band cause, to a primary LTE frequency band, and transmit a connection or reconnection complete message.
US09560684B2
Technology for mitigating traffic congestion is disclosed. A master evolved node B (MeNB) can identify service data unit (SDU) packets that are dropped in a retransmission buffer of a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer of the MeNB. The MeNB can create a list of packet data unit (PDU) packets that are dropped at the PDCP layer of the MeNB, wherein the PDU packets that are dropped are associated with the SDU packets. The MeNB can send the list of dropped PDU packets, from the PDCP layer of the MeNB to the PDCP layer of a user equipment (UE), to enable the UE to distinguish between delayed PDU packets and the dropped PDU packets.
US09560676B2
A wireless feeder network comprises feeder base stations coupled to the communications network and feeder terminals coupled to associated access base stations of the access network. A group of wireless network components form elements of a feeder cluster and the elements of the feeder cluster are connected by an additional communications resource configured to be operated in parallel with the wireless resource of the wireless feeder network. Both a primary and secondary element of the feeder cluster seek to decode at least one resource block allocated to the primary element for reception of data. Information derived from the secondary decoded data is transmitted from the secondary element to the primary element via the additional communications resource. The primary element then performs a revised decoding process additionally using the information received from said secondary element to improve its own decode probability.
US09560675B2
In a heterogeneous network based on LTE, the random access, RA, procedure triggered in a macrocell produces transmissions from a UE (20) on the physical random access channel, PRACH, which a picocell eNB (12) can attempt to make measurements of for interference coordination purposes over the X2 interface between the macro eNB (10) and the pico eNB (12). By reconfiguring the UE's behavior during principally the contention-free RA procedure, its transmissions on PRACH are made different to the default such as to be suitable for heterogeneous network interference measurements. This is done by assigning new meanings to certain of the characteristic parameters provided by the macro eNB (10) to the UE (20), such as the RA preamble it uses and the C-RNTI it is assigned during the procedure. Interpreting these new meanings allows the UE (20) to temporarily re-configure its PRACH transmissions so as to be useful to the pico eNB's (12) interference measurement needs without disrupting the UE's existing configuration within the macrocell, and without the UE needing to know the purpose of its transmissions.
US09560674B2
System and method embodiments are provided for a virtual busy-tone for full-duplex wireless networks. Embodiments provide a mechanism for efficiently eliminating the hidden node problem. In an embodiment, a method in a full-duplex enabled wireless network component for avoiding collisions includes receiving, at the network component, a data transmission from a first station; and transmitting a busy indicator from the network component, the busy indicator including a time duration determined in accordance with an expected time duration of the data transmission to instruct any non-transmitting station to not transmit data during the included time duration.
US09560667B2
A transceiver adapted to emulate devices using one or more of a plurality of different radio access protocols. The transceiver comprises a timing module, the timing module being adapted to maintain a record of the current timing state which would apply to each of the different radio access protocols the transceiver is able to use, if that radio access protocol was being used. When the transceiver changes a radio access protocol being used to emulate a device from a first radio access protocol used to emulate a first device to a second radio access protocol used to emulate a second device, the transceiver is adapted to use the record of the current timing state which would apply to the second radio access protocol to set the timing of the second radio access protocol.
US09560665B2
A communication system, a user equipment and a base station are disclosed. The communication system includes a user equipment and a base station, wherein the user equipment is configured in a first communication system and having a co-existence working mode in which the user equipment performs a first communication with a base station in the first communication system and performs a second communication with an apparatus of a second communication system, which is different from the first communication system in a time-division multiplexing manner or a frequency-division multiplexing manner.
US09560662B2
A method and a network node (110, 120, 140) for enabling configuration of at least two patterns for a cell (C0) are provided. The patterns are transmission patterns or measurement patterns. The network node (110, 120, 140) obtains (402) the at least two patterns. Each of the at least two patterns is associated with information about a respective restricted area (A1, A2) such that each pattern is used when a user equipment (130) served by the cell (C0) is located in the respective restricted area. Each respective restricted area (A1, A2) is smaller than an entire area of the cell (C0). Moreover, a method and a user equipment (130) for configuring measurements are provided. The user equipment (130) is served by a cell (C0, C1, C2) of a radio base station (110, 120, 140). The user equipment (130) receives at feast two measurement patterns from the radio base station. Each measurement pattern is associated with a respective restricted area. Each respective restricted area is smaller than an entire area of the cell. The user equipment (130) obtains information about the respective restricted area.
US09560657B2
A method and apparatus for radio resource management in a wireless device is provided. A type of data connection to be established between the wireless device and a network is determined. A radio resource capability mode for the data connection based on resource requirements of the determined type of data connection is dynamically determined wherein the radio resource capability mode is selected from a plurality of radio resource capability modes operable by the wireless device within wireless technologies supported by the network. The determined radio resource capability mode is conveyed to the network during connection establishment between the wireless device and the network, wherein the radio resource capability mode is used by the network to determine radio resources to be allocated to the wireless device for the connection.
US09560656B2
Aspects of the present disclosure relate to joint support for UEs capable of communicating data of a same bearer on first and second RATs simultaneously and UEs not capable of communicating data of a same bearer on the first and second RATs simultaneously. An eNB of a first RAT may configure radio bearers of different types for communication with a UE scapable of communicating via a first RAT and a second RAT. The eNB may select one or more of the radio bearers for routing packets to the UE via at least one of the first or second RAT, wherein the selecting is based at least in part on whether the UE is capable of communicating data of a same bearer on the first and second RATs simultaneously. The eNB may communicate with the UE using the selected radio bearers.
US09560654B1
A Long Term Evolution (LTE) Serving Gateway (S-GW) to indicate mode transitions of a wireless communication device comprises a communication transceiver and a processing system. The communication transceiver is configured to establish a default bearer between the LTE S-GW and an LTE Packet Data Network Gateway (P-GW) for the wireless communication device, establish a bearer channel between an LTE access node and the LTE S-GW, and exchange data over the bearer channel responsive to the wireless communication device entering an active mode. The processing system is configured to release the bearer channel between the LTE access node and the LTE S-GW responsive to the wireless communication device entering an idle mode, generate mode transition records indicating idle-to-active mode transitions and indicating active-to-idle mode transitions of the wireless communication device, and direct the communication transceiver to transfer the mode transition records.
US09560650B2
Disclosed is a data transmission method in a mobile communication system. The data transmission method through a code sequence in a mobile communication system includes grouping input data streams into a plurality of blocks consisting of at least one bit so as to map each block to a corresponding signature sequence, multiplying a signature sequence stream, to which the plurality of blocks are mapped, by a specific code sequence, and transmitting the signature sequence stream multiplied by the specific code sequence to a receiver.
US09560641B2
A wireless user equipment (UE) may include a reservation setup protocol (RSVP) message generator. The RSVP message generator may be configured to generate a RSVP message to a communication peer via a network that includes at least one router for reserving resources along a path. The RSVP PATH message may include a bi-directional direction indicator, an address of at least one router, and at least one of an indication of a peak data rate, token bucket rate, or maximum packet size. The message may provide an indication for reservation of bi-directional communication resources, wherein the bi-directional communication resources include resources in a direction from the device and in a direction toward the device. The UE may also include an RSVP message receiver configured to receive a refresh message, wherein the resources along the path are maintained upon receipt of the refresh message. The refresh message may be received periodically.
US09560632B2
Methods and systems for reducing overhead paging are described. One example of such a method includes generating a compressed traffic indication map (TIM) element, the compressed TIM element comprising a partial virtual bitmap field constructed from at least one encoded block field that includes an encoded block information field identifying at least one encoding mode for encoded block information, and sending the compressed TIM element to an at least one station (STA) associated with the access point that supports at least one multiple basic service set identifier (BSSID). The method may also include, in response to the at least one encoding mode comprising an offset, length, bitmap (OLB) mode, encoding the encoded block information field to include a length subfield followed by contiguous subblock subfields, each subblock subfield including a corresponding subblock of a partial virtual map.
US09560625B2
A method and apparatus for mobile relay node tracking area configuration and location update. The method includes: configuring a dedicated tracking area for a Donor eNodeB (DeNB); configuring a dedicated tracking area for a mobile Relay Node (RN) accessing the DeNB; when a terminal (UE) accessing the mobile RN registers or tracking area updates, allocating a tracking area identifier list containing the dedicated tracking area to the UE; the dedicated tracking area is a tracking area code dedicated to a mobile relay. The method and apparatus try the best to guarantee that a paging area list allocated to the UE contains the tracking area configured for the mobile relay serving the UE, thereby avoiding that numerous UEs served by the RN trigger location update simultaneously in the process of the RN moving.
US09560623B2
A mobile terminal, and a locating method and device are provided, wherein the mobile terminal includes a first antenna, configured to transmit a first signal to an anchor node, wherein the first signal is used by the anchor node to detect the signal strength of the first antenna; a second antenna, arranged with the first antenna according to a preset angle and configured to transmit a second signal to the anchor node, wherein the second signal is used by the anchor node to detect the signal strength of the second antenna. The preset angle enables the coverage of the first antenna and the second antenna to be overlapped to some extent. The signal strength of the first antenna and the signal strength of the second antenna are used for determining a location of the mobile terminal.
US09560613B1
A method of synchronization validation in a wireless network. The method includes receiving, at a computing processor, a network measurement from at least one wireless terminal in the wireless network. The network measurement is made with respect to at least one base station in the wireless network. The method also includes determining, at the computing processor, a synchronization state of at least one base station based on the received network measurement.
US09560611B1
Methods, media, and systems are provided for characterizing the synchronization behavior of a slave clock. A sequence of sync packets, usable to synchronize with a grandmaster clock, is transmitted from the grandmaster clock to a slave clock. The sequence of sync packets is modified by dropping one or more sync packets from the sequence, providing a pattern of dropped sync packets. A synchronization output of the slave clock is monitored and, based on the synchronization output, a determination is made as to whether the slave clock is synchronized while the sequence of sync packets is modified. A characterization of the synchronization behavior of the slave clock is stored with respect to the pattern of dropped sync packets. The process may be repeated for various patterns of dropped sync packets.
US09560608B2
A method in a user equipment (140) for assisting a first radio network node (110) in selection of one or more mobility parameters, a method in the first radio network node (110) for selecting one or more mobility parameters and a user equipment (140) and a first radio network node (110) configured to perform the methods are provided. The user equipment (140) sends (C001) an indication of a second part of a first operating frequency band to the first radio network node (110). The first radio network node (110) selects (C004) said one or more mobility parameters based on the received indication of the second part of the first operating frequency band. The user equipment (140) receives (C005) and applies (C006) said one or more mobility parameters from the first radio network node (110).
US09560589B2
The present invention relates to a wireless communication system, and more specifically, to a method and apparatus for accessing channels in a wireless LAN system. The method for accessing channels in a station (STA) of the wireless communication system according to one embodiment of the present invention comprises the steps of transmitting a first frame of a channel access request to an access point (AP); and receiving, from the AP, a second frame related to whether access to the channel is allowed in response to the first frame, wherein the second frame can include a value for a channel access start offset with respect to the STA.
US09560588B2
An apparatus, system, and method for performing PDCCH preparation in RF circuitry are described. In one embodiment, power may be provided to a crystal oscillator to exit a first sleep state. One or more clocking signals may be provided to RF circuitry based on output from the crystal oscillator. Calibration and state restoration of the RF circuitry may be performed independent of baseband circuitry. A plurality of algorithms to prepare for receiving data form a wireless communication network may be performed independent of the baseband circuitry. After initiating the plurality of algorithms, state restoration of the baseband circuitry may be performed. Data may be received from a wireless communication network using the RF circuitry. The data may be processed using the baseband circuitry. State retention for the RF circuitry and the baseband circuitry may be performed. Finally, the crystal oscillator may be powered down to enter a second sleep state.
US09560579B2
Methods, systems, and devices are described for wireless communications. More particularly, the described features relate to techniques for adaptively or dynamically setting a roaming threshold for a wireless communication link over a first RAT based at least in part on an aspect of a coexisting wireless communication link over a second RAT. In one example, a mobile device may have coexisting wireless communication links over WLAN and BT. In such case, a WLAN roaming threshold may be set based at least in part on a type of BT device employed.
US09560576B2
A method and device for performing channel access in a wireless LAN are disclosed. An initial channel access method of a station STA in a wireless LAN may include: receiving, from an access point (AP) by the station STA, a frame including information on a channel state, information on a channel access protection section and information on a station STA capable of performing channel access in the channel access protection section; determining a channel access priority by a station STA when the information on the channel state indicates that a wireless link is in a congestion state; and performing initial channel access in the channel access protection section based on the channel access priority determined by the station STA and the information on the station STA capable of performing channel access in the channel access protection section.
US09560563B2
The present application discloses a method for receiving a service by means of a user equipment connected to a first network in a wireless communication system. More particularly, the method comprises: a step of transmitting, to a first network, a first message for radio access technology (RAT) change to a second network; a step of accessing the second network; and a step of receiving the service from the second network, wherein the service is provided only in the second network.
US09560557B2
A processor-implemented method, apparatus, and/or computer program product move Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) layer 4 connections between wirelessly-connected user equipment to a series of cell-towers, wherein an OSI layer 4 connection is extracted out of the underlying cellular protocols at the series of cell-towers. A detection is made that user equipment, which has a broken-out layer 4 connection, has moved from a first cell-tower to a second cell-tower. Traffic for an existing layer 4 connection from the user equipment is tunnelled between the first cell-tower and the second cell-tower. In response to a predetermined trigger event occurring, an ongoing bidirectional flow of data packets is migrated from the user equipment over to layer 4 connections maintained at the second cell-tower. Furthermore, OSI layer 4 connections for all server ports other than the proxied active layer 4 connections that are proxied in the web cache are byte cached.
US09560556B2
A method of handling handover for a network of a wireless communication system, wherein a user equipment (UE) is connected to at least one first cell of a master base station and at least one second cell of a secondary base station of the network, includes when the master base station decides to hand over the UE to a target master base station of the network, transmitting, by the master base station, a first message to the secondary base station to instruct the secondary base station to release the at least one second cell.
US09560547B2
Provided are a system for implementing multiple Radio Access Networks (RANs) convergence and a method thereof in the present invention. The method includes: an anchor RAN establishes a connection with a User Equipment (UE); the anchor receives a RAB establishment request from a Core Network (CN); the anchor RAN selects an auxiliary RAN; the anchor RAN sends quality of service (QoS) parameters to the auxiliary RAN, so that the auxiliary RAN establishes a connection with the UE according to the QoS parameters, while the anchor RAN keep the connection with the UE. With the methods provided in embodiments for the present invention, multiple RANs convergence is implemented, and the UE establishes connections with the anchor RAN and the auxiliary RAN at the same time, so as to improve the peak rate of the UE.
US09560545B1
Systems and methods are described for managing communications of an access node and a relay node. Data may be communicated between an access node and a plurality of wireless devices over a first frequency band. Data may also be communicated between the access node and a relay node over the first frequency band, where the relay node may communicate with wireless devices over a second frequency band. It may be determined that a utilization of the second frequency band meets a criteria. Data may then be communicated between the access node and at least one of the plurality of wireless device over the second frequency band based on the determination that the utilization of the second frequency band meets the criteria.
US09560544B2
A method of handling signaling and data transmission for machine-type communication (MTC) for a core network in a wireless communication system is disclosed. The core network includes at least one of a network control node, a data base and a network gateway node. The method includes the network gateway node selectively performing trigger suppression operation on at least a trigger request from a MTC server according to whether the core network is congested or overloaded, wherein each of the at least a trigger request is used to trigger at least an MTC application on a MTC device, wherein the trigger suppression operation is performed according to a trigger suppression setting received from the network control node.
US09560542B2
A radio station (1) includes a first part (1A) and a second part (1B). The second part (1B) can be arranged so as to be physically separated from the first part (1A) and is connected to the first part (1A) via a transmission line (40) so as to be able to communicate with the first part. The first part (1A) includes a first scheduling unit (20A) capable of performing dynamic scheduling to allocate a plurality of radio resources to a plurality of mobile stations or user data. The second part (1B) includes a second scheduling unit (20B) capable of performing, instead of the first scheduling unit (20A), at least a part of dynamic scheduling for a first mobile station connected to the second part (1B) among the plurality of mobile stations.
US09560541B2
A wireless transmission device (100) of the invention includes a VSWR measuring means (101) which measures VSWR; and a VSWR determining means (102) which determines reliability of a measurement value of the VSWR measured by the VSWR measuring means (101). The VSWR determining means (102) includes a baseband signal analyzing means (90) which analyzes a baseband signal by detecting a difference between the baseband signal, and a delay signal of the baseband signal; a baseband signal density determining means (19) which determines a density of the baseband signal, based on the difference between the baseband signal and the delay signal analyzed by the baseband signal analyzing means (90), and a VSWR output switching means (13) which restrains output of the VSWR measuring means, when the baseband signal density determining means (19) determines that the density of the baseband signal is low.
US09560537B1
A method of estimating a location of an interference signal source includes using a first antenna configured to receive a signal from the interference signal source and using a second antenna arranged proximate to the first antenna and configured to receive global positioning system (GPS) signals. An initial trend in variation in power of a received signal from the interference signal source is determined relative to a position of the second antenna, wherein upon determining the initial trend, the initial trend is a current trend. In an iterative manner, the second antenna is directed to be repositioned and a current trend in the peak measurement in power is observed until an estimate of the location of the interference signal source is determined.
US09560527B2
Provided is a version protection method for a mobile terminal, which includes: monitoring a local event of the mobile terminal and judging whether the mobile phone enters a loss protection state or not; and after the mobile phone is determined to enter the loss protection state, recording a loss state event, switching a current working state to the loss protection state, and limiting a corresponding function. A version protection apparatus for a mobile terminal is also provided. Accordingly, a beneficial effect of performing specific version protection on the mobile terminal entering the protection state is achieved, reliability of the mobile terminal is improved, and a user experience is improved by monitoring the local event of the mobile terminal, recording the loss state event after the mobile terminal is determined to enter the loss protection state, switching the current working state to the loss protection state and limiting the corresponding function.
US09560516B2
A method and system to use existing Non-access stratum (NAS) signaling connection for pending uplink signaling/data after Tracking Area Update Procedure (TAU) complete is disclosed. The proposed method handles the EPS Session Management (ESM), Short Message Service (SMS) or voice call or data when a User Equipment (UE) is waiting for TAU accept. The method allows UE to inform the network with specific Information Element (IE) in TAU complete message, so that the network will take the next action. This will help to provide quick services to the user. Using the “CONN REQ TYPE” IE, in TAU complete, to handle all abnormal Cases for Circuit Switches (CS) services/data services in E-UTRAN (Evolved UTRAN) network.
US09560509B2
A method and apparatus for handling emergency signalling in an IP Multimedia Subsystem network. A Proxy-Call Session Control Function receives a message requesting set up of a session. The message is associated with an IP Multimedia Private Identity. The P-CSCF determines that the message relates to an emergency call. If an emergency override tag associated with the IMPI is provisioned or set at the P-CSCF, then the message is forwarding the SIP message to a Serving-Call Session Control Function (S-CSCF) for further handling. However, if an emergency override tag associated with the IMPI is not provisioned or set at the P-CSCF, the message is forwarded to an Emergency-Call Session Control Function (E-CSCF). The invention allows the P-CSCF to exercise control over the handling of emergency signalling.
US09560496B2
A method and apparatus for implementing an end-of-call short message based on click to dial are disclosed. The method includes: receiving a click to dial request of a network customer service, and establishing a call from a calling party to a called party; and judging whether a condition of triggering the end-of-call short message is satisfied, and if it is determined that the condition of triggering the end-of-call short message is satisfied, sending the end-of-call short message to a preset receiver of the end-of-call short message. The apparatus includes: a click to dial unit and a judgment unit. In the present document, by organically combining the CTD service and the end-of-call short message in websites of specific enterprises and stores, the enterprises and stores are better advertised.
US09560492B2
A method for allocating an identification using an access network grouping scheme, and a method and apparatus for paging group are described. The ID allocating method comprises: receiving a group ID of a group of group-paged objects allocated by a core network device for a terminal device, wherein the group of group-paged objects comprises one or more subgroups; allocating a device ID or a user ID to the terminal device, wherein the device ID or the user ID comprises information of a subgroup ID of a subgroup to which the terminal device belongs; and sending the allocated device ID or user ID to the terminal device. The number of terminals in the subgroup is appropriate, and the resources are allocated more flexibly and reasonably.
US09560491B2
The present invention provides for a mobile radio communications device, and related method of operation, arranged for closed subscriber group selection and for the storage of closed subscriber group information in the device, the stored information including information configured as a whitelist of closed subscriber group identities delivered between non-access-stratum layer and access-stratum layer within the device, and the device being further arranged to remove a previous user-selected closed subscriber group identity from the whitelist responsive to the device connecting to a cell is different from that identified by the previous user-selected closed subscriber group identity, and which different cell can comprise for example a non-CSG cell.
US09560477B2
A wireless communication device (WCD) establishes an ad-hoc communication link with a second WCD within operating range. A replica of at least a portion of a display of the first WCD may be shared with the second WCD utilizing wireless broadband signals that are communicated via the established one or more ad-hoc communication links. The first WCD and the second WCD are operable to communicate the wireless broadband signals at a power level that is below a spurious emissions mask. The transmitted wireless broadband signals are spread so they occupy a designated frequency spectrum band. The shared replica of at least a portion of the display of the first WCD includes one or more applications, text, video and/or data content. A user of the first WCD may interact with content that is displayed on a display of the second WCD and vice-versa.
US09560475B2
A mobile terminal includes: a display; a short-range communication module; and a controller configured to establish a communication link with at least one first terminal located within a predetermined distance by using the short-range communication module, obtain second information associated with first information when the first information is obtained through the established communication link, and display the same on the display. Based on information obtained through a short-range communication link, information associated with the obtained information is obtained, thereby providing various services by using short-range communication.
US09560467B2
Provided are methods and systems for delivering three-dimensional, immersive spatial audio to a user over a headphone, where the headphone includes one or more virtual speaker conditions. The methods and systems recreate a naturally sounding sound field at the user's ears, including cues for elevation and depth perception. Among numerous other potential uses and applications, the methods and systems of the present disclosure may be implemented for virtual reality applications.
US09560465B2
Various exemplary embodiments relate to a method and apparatus for processing audio signals to influence the reproduction of the audio signals. The apparatus may include a speaker, a headphone (over-the-ear, on-ear, or in-ear), a microphone, a computer, a mobile device, a home theater receiver, a television, a Blu-ray (BD) player, a compact disc (CD) player, a digital media player, or the like. The apparatus may be configured to receive a virtualization profile including a digital audio filter with a design sample rate, resample the virtualization profile to a different sample rate, filter the audio signal with the resampled virtualization profile, and reproduce the filtered audio signal as sound.
US09560462B2
The present invention relates to a microphone test stand comprising a slide assembly with a microphone holder surrounded by a first acoustic sealing member. The slide assembly is movable in a first direction between a first position outside an acoustical chamber with an exposed state of the microphone holder and a second position inside the acoustical chamber in a shielded state of the microphone holder. An electrical connector comprises a set of electrical connector terminals which is connectable to a set of microphone terminals for receipt of a microphone response signal from a microphone assembly arranged in the microphone holder in response to a test sound pressure in the acoustical chamber.
US09560460B2
Systems and methods for calibrating a loudspeaker with a connection to a microphone located at a listening area in a room. The loudspeaker includes self-calibration functions to adjust speaker characteristics according to effects generated by operating the loudspeaker in the room. In one example, the microphone picks up a test signal generated by the loudspeaker and the loudspeaker uses the test signal to determine the loudspeaker frequency response. The frequency response is analyzed below a selected low frequency value for a room mode. The loudspeaker generates parameters for a digital filter to compensate for the room modes. In another example, the loudspeaker may be networked with other speakers to perform calibration functions on all of the loudspeakers in the network.
US09560454B2
A silicon substrate has a chamber that penetrates vertically. A diaphragm is formed on the upper surface of the silicon substrate so as to cover the upper portion of the chamber. Also, a back plate is provided above the silicon substrate so as to cover the diaphragm, and a fixed electrode plate is provided on the lower surface of the back plate in opposition to the diaphragm. Multiple acoustic holes, which penetrate vertically and are for allowing the passage of acoustic vibration, are formed in the back plate (28) and the fixed electrode plate. Multiple through-holes that have a smaller opening area than the acoustic holes are formed in a large displacement region of the diaphragm.
US09560449B2
A user is guided through various setup routines to optimize speaker parameters and/or positions and/or frequency assignations for the particular space in which the speaker system is located and intended to be used. This can be done using an application downloaded from a cloud server to a smart phone or tablet computer, which is then employed by the user to optimize speaker configurations for various speaker locations in the room.
US09560445B2
Technologies pertaining to provision of customized audio to each listener in a plurality of listeners are described herein. A sensor outputs data that is indicative of locations of multiple listeners in an environment. The data is processed to determine locations and orientations of the respective heads of the multiple listener in the environment. Based on the locations and orientations of heads of the listeners in the environment, for each listener, respective customized audio signals are generated. The customized audio signals are transmitted to respective beamforming transducers. The beamforming transducers directionally output customized beams for the first listener and the second listener based upon the customized audio signals and locations of the heads of the listeners.
US09560442B2
A system for enhancing sound includes a support structure and one or more panels forming a panel structure. The panel structure defines a first and second portion of an oblong enclosure, both forming an approximated double ellipse profile, comprising a material having a sound reflective surface, and held by the support structure. The first portion extends between a first area proximate a first speaker driver and a second area proximate the listener. The second portion extends between a third area proximate a second speaker driver and a fourth area proximate the listener. The two portions are shaped such that sound waves emitted laterally from the first and second speaker drivers are reflected and focused toward the listener as spatially localized three-dimensional surround sound without electronically manipulating the sound signals and while reflectively reducing the effect of crosstalk.
US09560437B2
A time heuristic audio control system, comprises a receiver for receiving time-based data from a personal computing device and a memory storing one or more sets processing parameters comprising instructions for processing the ambient sound based upon the time-based data. The system further includes a processor coupled to the memory and the receiver configured to adjust the ambient sound as directed by a selected set of processing parameters retrieved from the memory to create adjusted audio, the selected set of processing parameters retrieved based upon the time-based data and at least one speaker for outputting the adjusted audio.
US09560428B2
An apparatus comprising a first tunable transmitter array comprising a first tunable transmitter and a second tunable transmitter and a cyclic array waveguide grating (AWG) wavelength router coupled to the first tunable transmitter array, wherein the cyclic AWG wavelength router comprises a plurality of input ports and a plurality of output ports, wherein the cyclic AWG wavelength router is configured to receive a first optical signal emitted from a first tunable transmitter via a first input port of the plurality of input ports, receive a second optical signal emitted from a second tunable transmitter via the first input port of the plurality of input ports, and route the first optical signal and the second optical signal to the output ports dependent on one or more wavelengths used to encode the first optical signal and the second optical signal.
US09560424B1
Disclosed herein are systems and methods for causing a stunt switcher to run a bug-overlay digital video effect (DVE). In one aspect, a method involves (i) selecting a first log-entry from a traffic log, wherein the first log-entry corresponds to a bug-overlay DVE stored in the stunt switcher, and to a start time; (ii) selecting a second log-entry from the traffic log, wherein the second log-entry corresponds to a video component (VC) and the start time; (iii) causing the VC to start being channeled through the stunt switcher proximate the start time; (iv) making a determination that a threshold time-period has passed since the start time; and (v) responsive to making the determination that the threshold time-period has passed since the start time, causing the stunt switcher to run the stored bug-overlay DVE, thereby overlaying a bug on the VC as the VC is being channeled through the stunt switcher.
US09560415B2
A computer-implemented method comprises displaying a video episode via a display screen, identifying, via a processor, the video episode with a unique play identifier, tracking, via the processor, an image of a shopable item in the displaying video, and linking a display screen coordinate location of an interactive tap zone with the image of the shopable item during the video episode. The interactive tap zone is selected to indicate selection of the tracked shopable item and the processor associates the selection with the unique play identifier.
US09560412B2
A method and system for troubleshooting a media processor is disclosed and can include receiving a trouble ticket from a media processor and initiating a self-test at the media processor. The method and system can include receiving test results from the media processor and analyzing the test results to isolate a problem.
US09560411B2
A method of providing content includes receiving emotional information in relation to the content; generating information about a representative type of emotion associated with the emotional information received from the client; updating an Electronic Program Guide associated with the content or a header of the content using the information about the representative type of emotion; and providing the content with the updated Electronic Program Guide or the updated header to the user.
US09560409B2
An exemplary media service personalization system maintains profiles for multiple media service access devices associated with an end-user account with a media service, generates a merged profile based on the profiles for the media service access devices, and directs a communal media service access device associated with the end-user account to personalize the media service based on the merged profile.
US09560408B2
A media content processing system includes a first tuner programmed to receive a first media content signal and a second tuner programmed to receive a second media content signal. A processing device is programmed to receive a popularity signal representing a popularity of a media content instance. The processing device is further programmed to command the second tuner to tune to the media content instance identified by the popularity signal.
US09560392B2
Systems and methods for performing bit rate encoding are described. One of the methods includes receiving data indicating a change in a first connection speed that is associated with a first network. The change generates a second connection speed. The method further includes determining whether a media file is being downloaded. The method also includes determining that a current segment of the media file is being downloaded. The current segment is downloaded at a first bit rate and the first bit rate is associated with the first connection speed. The method includes determining whether the media file includes a remaining segment to be downloaded. The current segment precedes the remaining segment. The method includes identifying a second bit rate based on the second connection speed, receiving the remaining segment at the second bit rate, and stitching the remaining segment with the current segment.
US09560390B2
A server generates a combination of symbols requested by a set of users in response to the symbols requested by each user in the set being cached by the other users in the set. A transmitter in the server multicasts the combination of symbols to the set of users based on a transmission deadline associated with the set of users.
US09560387B2
An interface for data transmission in a motor vehicle between a mobile data device (6) having a computation unit and an information display (4) in the motor vehicle is provided. The mobile data device (6) and the central information display (4) can be connected to one another by wireless communication, and the screen content of the mobile data device (6) can be presented on the information display (4). Provision is made for the computation unit of the mobile data device (6) to be set up to use the wireless communication to actuate the information display (4) in the motor vehicle by video signals, and for the computation unit of the information display (4) to be set up to present the video signals received from the mobile data device (6).
US09560386B2
An apparatus and corresponding method are provided for pyramid vector quantization of video data, including receiving the video data in the frequency domain; and pyramid vector quantizing at least one group of pictures (GOP) from the received video data in accordance with a potentially varying bandwidth, the GOP comprising key frames and predicted frames.
US09560381B2
An encoding system includes: a plurality of encoding devices that each include an encoding processing unit configured to, at a timing in accordance with a vertical synchronization signal included in a moving picture signal, encode divided image data, wherein one encoding device acts as a single master and the remaining one or more encoding devices act as slave. A main synchronization processing unit configured to be provided in the master, in accordance with the vertical synchronization signal, to transmit a setting signal to the slave to perform setting on the encoding processing unit, so that a start timing of encoding processing by each of the encoding processing units is synchronized in frame image units, and to monitor a synchronization state of the encoding devices based on a state signal representing a state of the encoding processing unit of the ancillary encoding device received from the slave.
US09560375B2
The present technique relates to an image processing device and method capable of suppressing a decrease in encoding efficiency. The image processing device includes: a predictive vector generating unit that generates a predictive vector of a current parallax vector of a current block used in prediction using correlation in a parallax direction using a reference parallax vector referred when generating a predictive motion vector, when encoding the current parallax vector; and a difference vector generating unit that generates a difference vector between the current parallax vector and the predictive vector generated by the predictive vector generating unit. The present disclosure can be applied to an image processing device.
US09560369B2
Disclosed is a video decoding method that decodes a bitstream, the method including receiving a picture parameter set (PPS) comprising at least one of first information indicating whether the same reference picture list is applied to slices comprised in a picture and second information indicating whether additional information on modification of the reference picture list is present, and deriving a construction of the reference picture list based on the PPS. Accordingly, there are provided a method and an apparatus for signaling by a picture whether the construction of the reference picture list is modified when constructing the reference picture list.
US09560363B2
An image encoding device includes a degree of importance calculating unit that calculates a degree of importance on each of a plurality of input images which are consecutively input, a degree of importance period calculating unit that calculates a degree of importance period which is a period of the degree of importance, an average degree of importance calculating unit that calculates an average degree of importance which is an average of degrees of importance of times corresponding to a current in each of a plurality of previous degree of importance periods, an image quality control parameter calculating unit that calculates an image quality control parameter based on the average degree of importance, and an image encoding unit that encodes the input image using the image quality control parameter and generates video data.
US09560352B2
An image coding method of coding a current block to be coded using a first reference index indicating a first reference picture and a first motion vector, includes: calculating, using a second reference index and a second motion vector used to code a corresponding block, a third reference index and a third motion vector as respective candidates for the first reference index and the first motion vector; determining a value of a flag that indicates whether or not to code the current block using the third reference index and the third motion vector as the first reference index and the first motion vector; and coding the current block using the first reference index and the first motion vector according to the value of the flag, and adding the value of the flag to a bitstream generated by the coding.
US09560344B2
A device 120 for processing three-dimensional [3D] image data 122 for display on a 3D display 160, the 3D display being arranged for adjacently emitting, in a viewing cone 180, a series of views 100 of the 3D image data, the series of views enabling autostereoscopic viewing of the 3D image data at multiple viewing positions 182, 184 in the viewing cone by a viewer perceiving two different ones of the series of views, and the device comprising an indicator generator 140 arranged for establishing a graphical shape in the 3D image data for, when being displayed on the 3D display, providing to the viewer a position indicator graphically representing a relative position of the two different ones of the series of views within the series of views.
US09560339B2
A 3D landscape real-time imager, and method for operating such an imager, where the imager includes: at least one illuminating part which is designed to scan at least a portion of the landscape at a given range and having an ultra-short laser pulse source emitting at least one wavelength, and an optical rotating block, with a vertical axis of rotation, and controlled such that given packets of pulses are shaped in a pattern of rotating beams sent toward the at least partial landscape; and at least one receiving part which includes a set of SPAD detector arrays, each arranged along a vertical direction and rotating at a given speed in synchronism with the optical rotating block of the illuminating part, the detection data of the SPAD detector arrays being combined to acquire 3D imaging data of the at least partial landscape in a central controller.
US09560337B2
The present application relates to a device and method for processing digital broadcast signals comprising three-dimensional images. According to one embodiment of the present invention, the digital broadcast signal processing method comprises the steps of: encoding a video stream of a two dimensional reference image; encoding a video stream of an additional image, for generating a binocular-disparity three-dimensional image together with the encoded two dimensional reference image; generating signaling information such that the video stream of the encoded additional image is processed only in a three-dimensional image signal receiver; generating a first broadcast signal comprising the video stream of the encoded reference image; generating a second broadcast signal comprising the video stream of the encoded additional image and the signaling information; and respectively sending the first broadcast signal and the second broadcast signal over different channels.
US09560336B2
A video processing device (100) for processing 3D video is coupled to a 3D display device (120). The device receives the 3D video data according to a high resolution interlaced 3D format. A video processor (106) generates a 3D display signal according to a display format. 3D display capability data indicates at least one interlaced 3D display format accepted by the 3D display device, the interlaced 3D display format having a lower resolution than the high resolution interlaced 3D format. The device has a storage unit (21, 31) for storing the 3D display capability data and 3D conversion capability data. The 3D conversion capability data indicates a capability of the video processing device for interlaced down conversion for enabling a selection mechanism to control the processing of the 3D video information by selecting the interlaced 3D display format and the interlaced down conversion. Advantageously the user is provided with the best possible 3D view.
US09560329B2
The performance and the functionality of a projection-type video display device are improved to expand an application range of the projection-type video display device. The projection-type display device has two optical engines, increases the luminance of a display image, achieves a pseudo high resolution, or displays a three-dimensional image and a wide screen. The two optical engines have an adjusting mechanism to adjust a position on which an image is displayed. The adjusting mechanism has a plurality of mechanisms which adjust relative three-dimensional axis-direction positions between the two optical engines and inclinations of the optical engines with respect to axes. For example, in consideration of cross actions between adjustments, the plurality of adjusting mechanisms are allocated to the optical engines. As a result, the adjustments can be easily performed.
US09560324B2
A system comprising at least a wearable control unit, a camera apparatus and a wearable vision apparatus. The wearable control unit may receive information from the camera apparatus and may process the received camera information. For example, the received camera information may be thermal information or infrared information. The wearable control unit may process the received camera information to video information that may be transmitted to the wearable vision apparatus. The wearable vision apparatus may then display the received video information.
US09560321B2
Each camera comprises an image generation unit for generating an image by capturing the image, a moving object detection unit for detecting a moving object from the image and transmitting information on the position of the moving object to the server, and an image transmission unit for, when the camera is selected by the server, transmitting an image. The server comprises an image delivery camera selection unit for selecting some cameras as image delivery cameras from among the cameras based on the information on the position of the moving object transmitted from each of the cameras, an image delivery camera notification unit for notifying the selection result to the cameras, and an image input unit for inputting the images transmitted from the image delivery cameras.
US09560315B1
Systems and techniques to reduce bandwidth usage of video frames in a videoconferencing system are described. A computing device may receive a first frame of a first video stream from an imaging device and decompose the frame into a plurality of portions. The computing device may select a first portion of the plurality of portions, determine that the first portion matches a sent portion in a sent catalog, determine a first identifier associated with the first portion, and send the first identifier to a server. The computing device may select a second portion of the plurality of portions, determine that the second portion fails to match any of the sent portions in the sent catalog, create and associate a second identifier with the second portion, store the second portion with the second identifier in the sent catalog, and send the second portion to the server.
US09560306B2
A display apparatus includes a measuring unit that measures an effective image area of an input analog video signal, and a determining unit that determines whether or not a candidate format is a format of the input analog video signal based on information relating to the measured effective image area and information relating to an effective image area of the candidate format.
US09560305B2
A method includes receiving search criteria from a media device associated with a user account. The method includes performing a first search of media content information. The method includes in response to identifying particular media content that satisfies the search criteria, sending a first notification identifying a first occurrence of the particular media content to a device associated with the user account. The method includes, at a time indicated by the search criteria, performing a second search of updated media content information. The method includes in response to the second search identifying a second occurrence of the particular media content, determining whether the second occurrence matches the first occurrence. The method also includes sending a second notification when the second occurrence does not match the first occurrence and refraining from sending the second notification when the second occurrence matches the first occurrence.
US09560301B2
A circuit includes a signal line and a pixel unit cell. The pixel unit cell includes one or more light sensing elements, a conversion circuit, and a selection switch between the conversion circuit and the signal line. In the pixel unit cell, the conversion circuit is configured to convert charge carriers from the one or more light sensing elements to a voltage signal at an output node of the conversion circuit.
US09560298B2
This document describes curved image sensors capable of sensing light from a monocentric lens. This curved image sensor receives light focused at a curved focal surface and then provides electric signals from this curved image sensor to a planar computing chip, such as a CMOS chip. By so doing, the higher image quality, smaller size, and often smaller weight of monocentric lenses can be gained while using generally high-quality, low-cost planar chips.
US09560293B2
An exemplary display device is a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), the on-screen imager is referred to as an LCD imager. Without affecting the display functions of an LCD device, an image sensing module is provided behind or within an LCD unit in the LCD device. By controlling the liquid crystals in the LCD unit, the reflected light from an object placed against the LCD device to be imaged is allowed to pass through the LCD unit and projected onto an image sensor in the image sensing module to generate an image of the object. The imager includes an optical assembly having at least one wedge shaped light guide to collect and focus the reflected light from the object onto an image sensor, where the image sensor is disposed at an end of the wedge shaped light guide.
US09560281B2
In some examples, a projection capture system comprises a controller, a camera operatively connected to the controller for capturing images of an object on a work surface of a workspace, a projector operatively connected to the controller, and a mirror above the projector to reflect light from the projector onto the work surface. The camera is located higher than the projector, and the controller is to control the camera to capture an image of a real object on the work surface, and control the projector to project the image of the real object onto the work surface.
US09560270B2
In the present invention, in interval photographing, a CPU performs still image photographing based on a capture interval and a capture length set for each scene in advance. Then, for each captured still image, the CPU calculates a difference between images, writes a judgment flag indicating whether the difference is exceeding a capture threshold in EXIF information, and stores all captured images. When the interval photographing is ended, the CPU reads out the captured images, performs time-lapse moving image generation processing by using images having a positive judgment flag in the EXIF information, and stores the result.
US09560268B2
A method is dedicated to the obtaining of video recordings related to a user who has a communication device (EC) capable of connecting to a wireless communications network (RC) and whose position is determinable. This method comprises the following steps: (i) determining the position of the spot where the communication device (EC) is located, (ii) determining whether there is at least one camera (C1) capable of providing video recordings, of a part of an observation area that may include that determined spot, accessible via the communications network (RC), and (iii) in the event that such a camera (C1) is determined, transmitting to the communication device (EC), via the communications network (RC), at least a portion of a video recording made by that camera (C1) while the communication device (EC) is in its observation zone.
US09560267B2
Methods and apparatus to capture images are disclosed. An example apparatus includes an image capturing device to operate in a first illumination mode or a second illumination mode; and a logic circuit to determine whether a head detected in a first frame captured at a first time is oriented such that a facial recognition process on a second frame has greater than a threshold likelihood to succeed; place the image capturing device in the first illumination mode at the second time when the head detected in the first frame is oriented such that the facial recognition process has greater than the threshold likelihood to succeed; and place the image capturing device in the second illumination mode at the second time when the head detected in the first is not oriented such that the facial recognition process has greater than the threshold likelihood to succeed.
US09560266B2
An information processing apparatus includes an image pickup unit, an extracting unit, an estimating unit, a categorizing unit, and a recording control unit. The image pickup unit captures an image of a subject. The extracting unit extracts a human figure from the captured image of the subject captured by the image pickup unit. The estimating unit estimates a posture of the human figure extracted by the extracting unit. The categorizing unit categorizes the posture of the human figure estimated by the estimating unit into a previously prepared pose. The recording control unit controls recording of the captured image on the basis of the pose that the posture of the human figure is categorized into by the categorizing unit.
US09560265B2
Image processing apparatus, image processing method, image processing program, and imaging apparatus
An image processing apparatus, which processes a plurality of image data obtained by picking up images of an object in different photographing conditions, combines the plurality of image data and generate combined image data, and switches between execution of determination processing for determining the object included in the image on at least one of the plurality of image data and execution of the determination processing on the combined image data.
US09560262B2
An image photographing method includes: displaying a live view; receiving a user input for selecting an area of the live view; and in response to a capturing input, applying different capturing option values to the selected area of the live view and an other area of the live view to generate an image.
US09560258B2
An image sensing apparatus including: an image sensor including a plurality of focus detection pixel pairs that perform photoelectric conversion on each pair of light beams that have passed through different regions of a photographing lens and output an image signal pair; a flash memory that stores shift information on relative shift between an optical axis of the photographing lens and a central axis of the focus detection pixel pairs; a correction unit that corrects a signal level of the image signal pair based on the shift information and exit pupil information of the photographing lens so as to compensate for an unbalanced amount of light that enters each of the focus detection pixel pairs; and a focus detection unit that detects a focus of the photographing lens using the image signal pair corrected by the correction unit.
US09560255B2
The present invention relates to a camera module, the module including: a PCB; an image sensor mounted on the PCB and formed with an image pickup device; a base mounted on the PCB and including a plated portion formed at a lower center with an opening mounted with an IR filter; a lower spring plate formed with a conductive material; a spacer arranged on an upper surface of the lower spring plate and forming a staircase structure by a rib wrapping a periphery of the lower spring plate to supportively apply a pressure to the lower spring plate; a lens actuator including a bobbin, and a yoke; an upper spring plate coupled to an upper surface of the lens actuator; and a cover arranged on an upper surface of the upper spring plate.
US09560254B2
A method and apparatus for activating a hardware feature of an electronic device includes the electronic device detecting 302 a predetermined motion of the electronic device and measuring 304, in response to detecting the predetermined motion, an orientation of the electronic device. The method further includes the electronic device activating 306, based on the orientation, a hardware feature from a plurality of selectable hardware features of the electronic device, wherein each selectable hardware feature can be activated based on different orientations of the electronic device.
US09560248B2
A camera module can include a lens housing, an imaging unit and a driving motor. The lens housing can include a first lens module, a second lens module and a lens holder holding the first lens module and the second lens module. The imaging unit is located between the first lens module and the second lens module. The imaging unit is in optical alignment with the first lens module and the second lens module. The driving motor is coupled to the lens housing and configured to drive the lens housing to move relative to the imaging unit. When the driving motor drives the first lens module and the second lens module to move relative to the imaging unit, distance between the imaging unit and the first lens module is changed, or a distance between the imaging unit and the second lens module is changed.
US09560247B2
Some embodiments include an optical image stabilization system. The optical image stabilization system includes a sensor. The sensor is configured for measuring movements of a camera module stabilized by the optical image stabilization system. Some embodiments further include an optical image stabilization control system for calculating from the movements a calculated position of a moving body. In some embodiments, the moving body is part of a camera module. Some embodiments further include an actuator control for generating electrical signals to move at least two actuators to achieve a calculated position of the moving body. In some embodiments, the actuator control system receives measurements from positions sensors that assess the position of the moving body.
US09560240B2
An image forming apparatus includes an operating panel, a user determination part, an attribute setting part, a selection button forming part and a processing operation executing part. The setting part sets, to each process, a first-attribute permitting execution without a password, a second-attribute permitting execution with the password or a third-attribute not permitting execution. The forming part forms each button of each process, if a first-authorized user, and forms each button of each process with the first- or second-attribute and no button of the process with the third-attribute, if a second-authorized user. The executing part executes, when the first-authorized user selects the button or the second-authorized user selects the button of the process with the first-attribute, the process about the selected button, and executes, when the second-authorized user selects the button of the process with the second-attribute, the process about the selected button when a valid password is inputted.
US09560236B2
An image reading apparatus having a front surface reading unit for reading a front surface of a document and a back surface reading unit for reading a back surface of the document performs adjustment processing in such a manner that start positions of the obtained image data of the front surface and the back surface are each at a position corresponding to an integer multiple of a coding block, and encodes front-and-back combined image data that is based on the adjusted image data of the front surface and the back surface. The image reading apparatus then transmits the encoded front-and-back combined image data, first position information indicating an end edge of the image data of the front surface in the front-and-back combined image data, and second position information indicating an end edge of the image data of the back surface in the front-and-back combined image data.
US09560211B2
Systems and methods that provide error handling for CDR transport. One embodiment comprises a CGF of an offline charging system. The CGF receives an initial CDR transfer request from a CDF, identifies a data record value inserted in the initial CDR transfer request by the CDF to indicate a number of CDRs in the initial CDR transfer request, and counts the CDRs contained in the initial CDR transfer request. The CGF compares the count of CDRs contained in the initial CDR transfer request with the number of CDRs indicated by the CDF, and rejects the initial CDR transfer request if the count of CDRs does not match the number of CDRs indicated by the CDF. The CGF then assembles a CDR transfer response that includes a cause value indicating a count mismatch, and sends the CDR transfer response to the CDF.
US09560209B1
Techniques are disclosed for troubleshooting an IP telecommunications network. A network server sends a notification message to a plurality of IP addresses each associated with a customer endpoint. The server receives a notification response from each of the customer endpoint IP addresses and determines a response time for each of the customer endpoint IP addresses. The response times are compared to an expected notification response time and those that exceeded an expected response time are geo-located. Traceroutes are performed to customer endpoint IP addresses in the same geo-located area that exceeded the expected response time. All hops between the server and the customer endpoint IP addresses for each traceroute performed are geo-coded to determine impacted and non-impacted routes between the server and each customer endpoint IP address. IP traffic between the server and a customer endpoint IP address may then be re-routed from an impacted route to a non-impacted route.
US09560207B2
Conference call alerting is provided. A first device of a plurality of telecommunications devices initiates a telecommunications link between the first device and a second device of the plurality of telecommunications devices. The first device receives an interaction that includes a communications address of a third device of the plurality of telecommunications devices. The telecommunications link is modified to include the third device. In response to the third device joining the telecommunications link, the first device issues an alert to the second device and the third device, wherein the alert indicates that the third device has joined the telecommunications link.
US09560204B1
A computer-implemented method and system for authenticating identification of a customer during interaction with a company representative. Data is received and stored relating to the customer at a computer. The data includes one or more identification attributes associated with the customer and one or more authentication data attributes associated with the customer. An interaction is commenced between the customer and the company representative. Captured is one or more identification attributes and authentication data attributes relating to customer from the interaction between the customer and the company representative. The customer is identified by matching a captured identification attribute with a stored identification attribute. The customer is authenticated by matching a captured authentication data attribute with a like stored authentication data attribute associated with the identified customer.
US09560199B2
A method for transmitting choices to a caller has steps of (a) interacting by voice with a caller using a communication device; (b) encountering a point in the interaction that a choice between two or more options is to be provided to the caller; (c) determining if the caller's communication device is capable of receiving a text message; (d) selecting a compatible text message comprising the options; (e) associating with the text message a text message destination address to the caller's device; and (f) transmitting the text message to the caller's device. The interaction may be by IVR or by a live agent.
US09560195B2
A method of accessing a dedicated phone or Internet service at a remote location includes providing a system having a terminal, a phone, and a USB stick that is adapted to be used with a data-only communication device. The terminal has a phone jack that is coupled to a dedicated phone service line for use with the phone, a data jack that is coupled to a dedicated Internet service, and a connector that is adapted to receive a cable that is connected to a satellite dish for uplink and downlink communication with an orbiting satellite. Each of the phone and the USB stick are provided with an identification footprint that is unique to the terminal. The terminal is positioned at a first location. When the phone and/or the USB stick are moved to a remote location, voice and data signals corresponding to the dedicated phone service line and the dedicated Internet service can be communicated from the terminal to the phone and/or USB stick at the remote location via an antenna and the orbiting satellite.
US09560190B2
A mobile phone is disclosed. The mobile phone includes a touch panel, a correspondence execution determination part, and a correspondence selection part. The correspondence execution determination part determines whether or not to correspond with respect to an incoming call from other telephone, in response to an input from the touch panel. The correspondence selection part, when the correspondence execution determination part determines to correspond with respect to the incoming call from the other telephone, in response to the input from the touch panel, selects to at least answer the incoming call or ignore the incoming call.
US09560188B2
An electronic device and method for displaying phone call content are provided. The electronic device includes a communication unit configured to transmit and receive voice data during a phone call connection, an audio unit configured to input and output voice data, an input unit configured to receive a user input, a controller configured to determine whether a connected phone call corresponds to an automatic response system (ARS) phone call, and convert received voice data into text data when the connected phone call corresponds to the ARS phone call, and a display unit configured to display the converted text data.
US09560187B2
A system for prevention of texting while driving is comprised of an always-on mobile application which is installed in the user's smartphone or other mobile electronic device, and a proximity sensor and transmitter which is preferably mounted on the steering column of the user's vehicle. The sensor detects any electronic device with the mobile application installed within a specific short distance, consistent with the user being seated in the driver's seat with the electronic device activated. The sensor transmits a periodic SMS text message which is received by the electronic device. The electronic device receives the text message, and the mobile application covers the visual display with a prohibitive message. Optionally, the mobile application may also disable the keys of the electronic device.
US09560186B2
The apparatus has a transformable substrate having a flat state, a deformed state, a partially deformed state, and the like, and thus provides a function and a user interface that change according to the deformed state when a user wears the apparatus on his or her wrist and the flat extended state when the user detaches the apparatus from his or her wrist. When the method suggested in the present invention is used, the user can conveniently carry the apparatus on his or her wrist and use the apparatus on or off the wrist as necessary, thereby resolving inconveniences of carrying and using an existing mobile apparatus.
US09560185B2
A mobile device having capabilities to access connections to cellular and Wi-Fi portions of a hybrid telecommunications network is configured to display a variety of different icons that graphically indicate a current connection status for both data usage and voice calling on a graphical user interface (GUI). A user can put the GUI into an expanded state to show additional information about the connection status including textual descriptions of icons to instruct the user as to the specific meaning of a given icon. The textual descriptions enable an association between the iconography and the connection state to be established for the user. The icons can then quickly and effectively convey connection state to the user in a comprehensive manner while efficiently using the available display space on the device.
US09560184B2
A method of rejecting a Bluetooth communications request is disclosed. A portable device receives a Bluetooth communications request from a computing device. The communications request includes a device identification of the computing device. A list of trusted device identifications stored in a memory resource of the portable device is automatically accessed. The Bluetooth communications request is rejected in response to determining that the device identification is not in the list of trusted device identifications.
US09560183B2
An apparatus including a processor configured to cause detecting a second apparatus including a wireless charging unit being attached to the apparatus; determining a parameter concerning the second apparatus; and automatically adjusting at least one functionality of the apparatus in accordance with the parameter.
US09560180B2
An Internet protocol (IP) telephony system terminates calls to certain groups of telephone numbers via multiple different telephony carriers. The IP telephony system will discontinue using a telephony carrier to terminate calls if the quality provided by the carrier falls below a threshold level. The IP telephony system includes a quality monitoring unit that determines when a particular group of telephone numbers are intrinsically impaired, such that no carrier could provide high quality when terminating calls to those numbers. In these circumstances, the IP telephony system adjusts the quality threshold to which a carrier's quality is compared when completing calls to the impaired numbers to account for the intrinsic impairment of the telephone numbers.
US09560179B2
A mobile communication device which comprises a first member with first surface having a first curvature and a second surface having a second curvature; a second member having first surface with a third curvature and a second surface with a fourth curvature. A hinge pivotally connects the first and second members with one another such that they are movable between opened and closed configurations. The first and the second curvatures of the first member combine with one another and form a combined average curvature for the first member and the third and the fourth curvatures of the second member combine with one another and form a combined average curvature for the second member. The combined average curvature for the first member and the combined average curvature for the second member combine with one another to form a combined average curvature for the communication device which is 8 feet or less.
US09560178B1
Embodiments are provided for a support housing for an electronic device configured to removably secure a set of hardware modules. According to certain aspects, the support housing may be defined by a set of front slots, a set of rear slots, and a center plate. The support housing may include an opening that extends through the center plate from one of the front slots to one of the rear slots. When a front module is secured to the front slot and a rear module is secured to the rear slot, the opening in the center plate enables the front module to physically interface with the rear module.
US09560175B2
The present invention discloses a method for obtaining an Internet protocol header replacement mapping, which belong to the field of communications technologies. The method includes: obtaining, by a network node, fixed IP header information which is bound to a UE, where the network node is an MME or an eNB or a PGW or an SGW; establishing an IP header replacement mapping according to the fixed IP header information, where the IP header replacement mapping is correspondence between the fixed IP header information and an index or a bearer; and performing data transmission with the UE according to the IP header replacement mapping. In the present invention, the network node establishes the IP header replacement mapping according to the obtained fixed IP header information which is bound to the UE, the method is more flexible.
US09560171B2
A method and an apparatus for transmitting a multimedia data packet are provided. The method includes generating Media Abstraction Layer (MAL) information for abstracting information on the multimedia data to be transmitted, generating a multimedia data packet including said MAL information, and transmitting the generated multimedia data packet to a network entity.
US09560165B2
A BT offline data download system and method, and a computer storage medium with instructions to perform BT offline data download are provided. The system may include an offline download task management server that may receive a download task. The system may also include an offline download scheduling server that may perform arrangement and combination processing on the download task. An offline download server may then download data according to the download task. The data may correspond to a subset of files after the arrangement and combination processing, and store the downloaded data in a storage server. A download client device may download, from the storage server, the downloaded data of the subset of files corresponding to the download task. The subset of files may be selected by a user to be obtained at the download client device.
US09560161B2
A resource management system may use information regarding the bandwidth status of a downstream communication path to determine what portion of queued content should be sent in the current available bandwidth timeslot. In some embodiments, multiple versions of the same requested content may be available, and the system may select a lower-quality version to send if needed to meet a time deadline included in the original content request.
US09560157B1
Methods are presented for managing shareable content articles in a social network. One of the methods includes receiving a plurality of articles from a publisher for access to selected users in the social network. In one example, the received articles are identified as having premium content. Each of the received articles is assigned a sharing parameter that includes a sharing threshold. The method further includes receiving a request from a first user, who is identified from the selected users of the social network, to share an article identified from the plurality of received articles with a second user in the social network, and providing the second user with access to the article when the sharing threshold is satisfied. The article is presented to the second user with supplemental content.
US09560156B1
Methods and systems for coaching an end user are disclosed. Information related to a user profile and/or user activity of an end user is collected in a memory. An analysis engine analyzes information against a metric. A metric may represent or include one or more characteristics of a (typical) successful end user. Said metric may be statistically determined in various ways. A rules engine generates a coaching message for output to the end user if the information does not meet the metric, wherein the one or more coaching messages provokes (or suggests) the end user to change the user profile and/or the user activity of the end user to meet the metric.
US09560149B2
Methods and apparatus to create a panel of media device users are disclosed. An example method includes identifying a master frame of media devices that have executed an instrumented application. A media device is selected from the master frame. A first instrumented application on the selected media device is instructed to display a recruitment interface to a user associated with the selected media device requesting the user to join the panel.
US09560147B2
A method and apparatus are described for performing Internet Protocol (IP) Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) operation. A wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) registers an IMS service priority with an IMS network. The IMS service priority indicates the WTRU's priority in receiving IMS services. The WTRU may receive an IMS service from the IMS network based on the WTRU's IMS service priority. The IMS service priority may be indicated using a priority value and the WTRU may use Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) messaging to signal with the IMS network. The WTRU may register the service priority value using a q-value parameter in an SIP Contact field header. The WTRU may also register a public user identity with the IMS network and the public user identity may be shared with other IMS-capable WTRUs.
US09560136B2
The present disclosure involves systems, software, and computer implemented methods for providing high speed communication between a sending system and a receiving system. One computer-implemented method includes determining, by a computer, that data is available for serialization using a pointer transfer; getting a data block of the data from a memory; getting metadata corresponding to the data block; writing an original address of the data block to a transport layer; writing the data block to the transport layer; determining that the data corresponding to the data block contains pointers; and adding a referenced data block to one or more data blocks to be transferred to a receiving system.
US09560132B1
A method and system transfers the hosting of financial services to a virtual asset computing environment from a hardware asset computing environment, according to one embodiment. The method and system transfers a secondary copy of application data to a storage device, and delivers the storage device to a second computing system from the first computing system using a parcel courier, according to one embodiment. The method and system receives, with the second computing system, the secondary copy of the application data from the storage device, and configures virtual assets to execute a second instance of the financial services application to enable the second computing system to provide the financial services to the multiple users, according to one embodiment. The method and system configures the second computing system as a primary service provider, according to one embodiment.
US09560130B2
The objects of an on object set may be synchronized across many clients (e.g., various devices may synchronize files of a mirrored filesystem). However, the synchronization of an object may be complicated, and an object may not yet be synchronized in the object set of a client for many reasons, such as an incomplete reception of the object, an unavailability of the object from currently reachable hosts, and a versioning conflict with a different version of the same object in the object set. In order to inform a user of the availability of an object in the object set, an analysis of the availability status of the object may be performed (e.g., by tracking metadata stored in object descriptors of respective objects of the object set, and later examining the metadata of respective objects), and a selected availability status may be presented to the user.
US09560129B2
Disclosed are peer-to-peer group re-formation techniques. The techniques enable automatic reformation of a peer-to-peer group when the Group Owner (“GO”) device is lost. To do so, the techniques enable selection of a one of the peer devices in the peer-to-peer group as a next GO device responsive to detecting the loss of the original GO device. Then, the peer device selected as the next GO device automatically activates as the GO device, while the other peer devices scan for and connect to the next GO device.
US09560120B1
A deploy service is provided to determine a set of software artifacts that needs to be transmitted to a target machine upon receiving an application deployment request from a user of a client device. For instance, the deploy service may compare versions of software artifacts on the target machine with the software artifacts of the application that the user desires to deploy to determine the set of software artifacts that needs to be transmitted. Instead of having to transmit the entire application, some embodiments transmit only a small portion that is reflective of what has been changed between the old version of the application and the new version of the application. This enables the transfer of large files across the Internet to be more efficient.
US09560115B2
Methods for file transfer and corresponding systems and computer-readable mediums. A method includes sending a file download request, receiving a command instruction file, and downloading a file corresponding to the file download request according to the command instruction file.
US09560113B2
Optimization constraints are used to select an appropriate content item from an available group of content items which are ordered in a specific manner to facilitate the proper selection of the content item, even if the exact item desired is not present. The server is then able to insert the selected content item into the outgoing content page requested by the client. The optimization constraints can be, but are not limited to, anyone of the following: communication channel performance (bandwidth), client operating system, client processor, client display capabilities, client installed software (video or audio codecs for example), and/or user preferences. A software product and method enable selective delivery of content to client devices of varying performance characteristics, including varying bandwidth, by selective filtering and inclusion of markup language content using tags demarcating optional content. An optimization constraint is used to select one of the items.
US09560109B2
A message management facility is described herein that is hosted by a networked node, in a process control network environment, that is separate from a control processor. The message management facility routes a stream of messages received from the control processor to a set of destinations on a supervisory network. By interposing the message management facility on a node that is interposed, in a message steam, between alarm message sources (control processors) and alarm message sinks (workstations, printers, historians), a number of additional functions can be implemented to carry out a number of advanced functions. Examples of such functions include: table-based routing of a single alarm to a number of destinations on an application network, suppressing alarm showers by applying a criterion to received messages when shower conditions have been sensed, invoking commands based upon a configured category assigned to particular identified messages prior to delivery of the message to its final destination, and invoking actions in response to event/mode status changes (including re-prioritizing alarms).
US09560107B2
An apparatus and a system are provided to proxy one or more media signals between at least one local client device and at least one remote client device. For instance, the apparatus can include a first network interface, a rate controller and media transcoder, and a second network interface. The first network interface receives a plurality of media signals over a first communication network, where the plurality of media signals is encoded into at least one codec format. The rate controller and media transcoder transcodes one or more of the plurality of media signals into a different codec format based on channel and processing capabilities associated with one or more local client devices and one or more control messages. The second network interface transmits the one or more of the transcoded plurality of media signals to a respective plurality of remote client devices over a second communication network.
US09560105B2
There is provided a server device including a streaming processing unit configured to generate a frame image in real time, encode the frame image to generate encoded data, and transmit the encoded data to a client device over a network, the client device being configured to decode the encoded data and output the frame image, and a controller configured to receive information related to an output timing of the frame image in the client device from the client device and control a process timing of the frame image in the streaming processing unit so that a predetermined relationship is maintained between the output timing and the process timing.
US09560102B2
A server machine and a first device (e.g., a television) are configured to access a stream of media (e.g., a broadcast channel) from a media source (e.g., a broadcaster). The server machine generates a representation (e.g., a fingerprint) of the stream of media and stores the representation. The first device plays the stream of media (e.g., for a user) and generates an analog signal based on the stream of media. A second device (e.g., a mobile device of the user) is configured to receive the analog signal and generate a representation of the analog signal. The second device provides the representation of the analog signal to the server machine, which may compare the representation of the stream of media to the representation of the analog signal. Based on the comparison, the server machine may provide an identifier of the media source to the second device.
US09560099B2
Methods and systems of communication using a mobile device include detecting the voice of a user of the mobile device, and sending a request to a server for control of the floor in a group communication in response to the detected voice. Further methods of controlling floor access for a plurality of mobile devices include receiving voice commands of a user from the plurality of mobile devices, scheduling floor access for the mobile devices in response to the received voice commands, and sending messages to the mobile devices indicating the status of floor control in a group communication session. Further methods of group communication include detecting a motion of a mobile device corresponding to a user action, in response to the detected motion, initiating a half-duplex group communication application, and displaying visual feedback associated with the half-duplex group communication application on a display screen of the mobile device.
US09560098B1
A system, method and computer program product having instructions stored thereon for automatically data streaming a multiparty conference session comprises receiving an Internet-based interface at a session moderator, said Internet-based interface configured for said session moderator to enter a request for data streaming a multiparty conference session, automatically establishing a data stream of said conferencing session, without any human intervention, wherein establishing said automated data stream includes: recording the multiparty conference session, and data streaming the multiparty conference session to listen-only participants thereby enabling listen-only participants to connect to the multiparty conference session without using additional conference ports and/or conference resources.
US09560094B2
A method and system for identifying personal context of a user having a portable mobile communication device at a particular location for deriving social interaction information of the user, wherein the user within a predefined range is identified using personal context of the user at the particular location and the identified personal context of the user is assigned with the confidence value. Further the current location information of the user within the particular location is obtained by fusing assigned confidence value. Further the proximity of the user in the current location is estimated by finding the accurate straight line distance between users. Further the two users having similar current location information at the particular location are grouped together with the predefined density criteria. Finally the social interaction information of the user is derived by multimodal sensor data fusion at the fusion engine and represented using a human network graph.
US09560092B2
A crowdsourced search and locate platform, comprising an application server and a client interface application. The application server: receives connections from crowdsourcing participants; navigates a first crowdsourcing participant to a specific geospatial location; sends an image corresponding to the geospatial location to the first crowdsourcing participant; receives tagging data from the first crowdsourcing participant, the tagging data corresponding to a plurality of objects and locations identified by the first crowdsourcing participant. The client interface application: displays an image of a location; displays icons corresponding to objects that may be tagged; displays a navigation minimap adapted to allow a user to navigate; and upon the user's selecting a cursor location at which to place a new tag corresponding to a specific object type, displays a shape surrounding the cursor location, the effective radius of which is configurable and is adapted to define a region about the cursor location within which other tags by other users are considered to be in agreement with the new tag.
US09560086B2
In an embodiment, techniques for sustaining session connections are provided. The techniques send heartbeat messages when not sending a message may cause the session connection to close because of a timeout condition. Heartbeat messages are valid transport layer messages that will be ignored by protocols at higher levels of a data communications stack. As an example, the techniques may send a TCP message containing only a carriage return and line feed (“CRLF”) in its payload. Because the TCP layer considers a message containing only a CRLF to be a valid TCP message, intermediary computing devices such as proxy servers may not interpret heartbeat messages as “keep alive” messages, and may sustain session connections.
US09560082B2
The present invention relates to networks, in particular to communication networks. Moreover, the present invention relates to a method, to network devices, to a computer program product and to a computer-readable medium for establishing a binding for separate sessions. According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention there is provided a method for establishing a binding between a plurality of separate sessions, the method comprises storing a first identity of a first level, storing a second identity of a second level, providing a correspondence between the first identity and the second identity, extracting the second identity from a first message, retrieving the stored first identity on the basis of the extracted second identity and establishing a binding between a first session of the first level and a second session of the second level on the basis of the retrieved first identity.
US09560076B2
A device may receive a request for a collaboration session. The device may authenticate a user for the collaboration session. The device may generate a trust-score associated with the collaboration session based on authenticating the user. The trust-score may be associated with a security level for the collaboration session. The security level may be associated with one or more capabilities of the collaboration session. The device may assign the user to a session role associated with the collaboration session. The session role may be associated with the one or more capabilities of the collaboration session. The device may provide information associated with the collaboration session based on the security level for the collaboration session and/or the session role assigned to the user.
US09560072B1
Techniques for discovering and selecting candidates for sinkholing of network domains are provided. In some embodiments, a process for discovering and selecting candidates for sinkholing of network domains includes collecting passive DNS data from a plurality of security devices to discover candidates for sinkholing of domain names; selecting one or more domain names that are most commonly queried by distinct client devices based on the passive DNS data, wherein each of the one or more domain names is not yet registered; and automatically registering each of the one or more domain names with a domain registry to a sinkholed IP address in order to sinkhole each of the one or more domain names.
US09560070B1
Systems and methods for generating rules in a networking environment having one or more sensor computers logically connected to compromised computers are provided. The rules comprise detection data used by a sensor computer to detect a potential security threat and a specified remediation measure that is caused to be performed when the security threat is detected. A security control computer generates the rules from record of series of actions created by the sensor computer, generates a rule, and distributes the rule to the sensor computers. The sensor computers periodically poll a central database for new rules and store a copy of each rule locally. Using the locally stored rules, the sensor computers can more efficiently and accurately respond to security threats.
US09560056B2
Some embodiments of cloud-based gateway security scanning have been presented. In one embodiment, some data packets are received sequentially at a gateway device. The data packets constitute at least a part of a file being addressed to a client machine coupled to the gateway device. The gateway device forwards an identification of the file to a remote datacenter in parallel with forwarding the data packets to the client machine. The datacenter performs signature matching on the identification and returns a result of the signature matching to the gateway device. The gateway device determining whether to block the file from the client machine based on the result of the signature matching from the datacenter.
US09560055B2
Systems and methods for providing client-side integration of apps and services is provided. An integration framework execution upon a computing device provides integration of various apps, applications, services, sensors and the like. Upon receiving a request for a service, the integration framework accesses a registry of a plurality of services of a respective plurality of providers registered with the integration framework. Each of the services is registered with the integration framework is associated with a trust level of a hierarchy of trust levels. The integration framework iteratively searches the registry for a provider of the requested service according to the hierarchy of trust levels, beginning with the most trusted level of the trust levels to the less trusted trust level until a provider of the requested service is found or until all levels of the hierarchy are searched without finding a provider of the requested service.
US09560049B2
A method and system for optimizing network access control are disclosed. For example, the method includes receiving an access request to a network from a device. Then, the method determines if each one of one or more critical updates of said device is current and if each one of one or more non-critical updates of the device is current. The method concludes by granting the access request to the network if each one of the one or more critical updates of the device is current, even if at least one non-critical update of the one or more non-critical updates of the device is not current.
US09560047B1
In a wireless communication system, a first wireless device transfers an authorization request to an authorization server, and the authorization server authorizes the first wireless device to access a wireless communication network under a user service account. The first wireless device and the server store data indicating the first device identifier and an event time for a communication event that occurs for the first wireless device. The wireless device transfers data indicating a first device identifier and the event time to a second wireless device. The second wireless device transfers an authorization request to the authorization server that indicates a second device identifier, the first device identifier, and the event time. The authorization server determines that the event times match, and in response, authorizes the second wireless device to access the wireless communication network under the user service account.
US09560044B2
Embodiments of the invention are generally directed to systems, methods, devices, and machine-readable mediums for implementing gesture-based signature authentication. In one embodiment, a method may involve recording a first gesture-based signature and storing the recorded first gesture-based signature. Then the method compares the first gesture-based signature with a second gesture-based signature. Then the method verifies the first gesture-based signature as authentic when the first gesture-based signature is substantially similar to the second gesture-based signature.
US09560040B1
Technology is disclosed for mitigating account enumeration and thus enhances network security. The technology can receive from a client computing device a sequence of characters corresponding to a portion of an email address input by a user. The technology retrieves a set of email addresses that have a common first portion identical to the received sequence of characters and generates hashed data. The hashed data is sent to the client computing device. A result value is then generated by hashing the input email address by using the same hashing function as the hashed data. If the result value is in the hashed data, the technology displays a text region for collecting from the user a password.
US09560037B2
User interface integration across multiple clouds is achieved by hosting UI extensions for different services in the same browser window. The UI extensions are initialized by a shell with any necessary security context for the corresponding cloud. The shell provides versioning so that the newest version of the UI is presented to users for all versions of a service. A connector in a local cloud provides translation between APIs across different clouds.
US09560032B2
An apparatus and method for preventing illegitimate outflow of an electronic document. The apparatus includes a taking-out control unit, a taking-out management server unit, and a self-response agent unit. The taking-out control unit generates a virtual disk for storing an electronic document to be controlled, and controls the taking-out of the electronic document. The taking-out management server unit authenticates whether the taking-out of the electronic document is legitimate taking-out. The self-response agent unit performs self-extinction when a result indicating illegitimate outflow is received from the taking-out management server unit.
US09560028B1
The disclosed computer-implemented method for filtering interprocess communications may include (1) identifying a service process that provides a service on the computing device, (2) authenticating the service process, (3) identifying a request by a client process to use the service provided by the service process, (4) authenticating the client process, (5) receiving an interprocess communication from the client process directed toward the service process, (6) determining that the interprocess communication is malicious, and (7) in response to determining that the interprocess communication is malicious, blocking the interprocess communication from being communicated to the service process. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US09560026B1
In some implementations, a computing device includes an identifier that is embedded into a firmware of the computing device. The identifier uniquely identifies the computing device from other computing devices. The computing device may send a request to a server to provide credentials to enable the computing device to access a secured resource, such as secured data or a secured system. The computing device may provide the server with the identifier to enable the server to determine whether the computing device is authorized to access the secured resource. If the server determines that the computing device is authorized, the server may provide the credentials to the computing device. If the server determines that the computing device is unauthorized, the server may cause the computing device to perform one or more actions to render the computing device inoperable and/or render the resource inaccessible.
US09560018B2
A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes configuring a local network element as an autonomic registrar for a designated network domain; establishing an autonomic control plane (“ACP”) between the local network element and one or more remote network elements identified by local network element as a remote neighbor; designating a locally-defined subnet at the local network element to be extended to each of the one or more remote network elements; and executing an ACP command at the local network element, wherein the executing triggers a message to each of the one or more remote network elements, the message including information regarding the designated local subnet. The information included in the message is used by each of the remote network elements to auto-resolve its Locator/Identifier Separation Protocol (“LISP”) configuration, enabling the designated local subnet to be extended to each of the one or more remote network elements.
US09560014B2
A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes receiving a traffic flow at a tamper resistant environment from an application, where the tamper resistant environment is separated from a host operating system. The method also includes applying a security token to the traffic flow and sending the traffic flow to a server. In specific embodiments, a security module may add information about the application to traffic flow. A trapping module may monitor for a memory condition and identify the memory condition. The trapping module may also, responsive to identifying the memory condition, initiate a virtual environment for the application, and check the integrity of the traffic flow.
US09559999B1
Techniques for reducing and discouraging sending large scale emails are described herein. According to one embodiment, in response to a first email received from a sender to be sent to a list of recipients, a distribution cost of the first email is determined based on content of the first email and the recipients. An email client application is to present a first graphical user interface (GUI) page to the sender prompting a confirmation from the sender, where the first GUI page includes information indicating a size of the first email and a number of recipients, if the distribution cost of the first email is above a first predetermined threshold. In response to a positive confirmation from the sender, the first email is sent to the intended recipient.
US09559994B2
A system and method allows a user to view communications exchanged between other participants within an online chat room without the user becoming a participant within the online chat room. The online chat room enables ongoing exchanges of electronic communications between two or more participants whose participation within the chat room are mutually revealed to each other. A user is enabled to perceive the existence of the online chat room without the user becoming a participant within the online chat room. Selection of the online chat room by the user is received. Responsive to user selection of the online chat room and without the user becoming a participant within the online chat room, at least some of the communications exchanged between the participants within the online chat room are made perceivable to the user as the communications are exchanged.
US09559993B2
Techniques are disclosed for implementing real-time chat systems including virtual agents as chat participants, and more specifically, to the use of a virtual agent proxy in a real-time chat service. Certain techniques are disclosed that allow for seamless chat transitions between virtual agents and live agents. A chat server may include a virtual agent (VA) proxy module. The VA proxy module intercepts messages received at the chat server from end users, forwards them to virtual agents, and posts responses from the virtual agents back to be displayed to the corresponding end users. The VA proxy module thereby loosely couples virtual agents to the chat server, allowing the virtual agents to participate in chats just as live agents do. The chat server may determine that chat escalations and de-escalations are to occur, and can provide a full transcript of the chat to new chat participants.
US09559992B2
A method is performed by a mobile device having one or more processors and memory for updating information in an instant messenger application installed on the mobile device. The method includes: receiving an instant message from a remote server, the instant message including a first user actionable item; displaying the instant message including the first user actionable item in a graphical user interface corresponding to the instant messenger application; detecting a first user input through the first user actionable item; in accordance with the first user input: generating an information update request; sending the information update request to the remote server; receiving a response to the information update request from the remote server; and updating the instant message in the graphical user interface in accordance with the response from the remote server.
US09559989B2
In a computer network comprising a stack device and a plurality of network devices, the plurality of network devices are each connected to the stack device via a respective aggregation link comprising a plurality of member links and the stack device comprises a first stack member and a second stack member connected to the first stack member via a stack link. A correspondence is formed between a first route and the first stack member. The first route is used by the first stack member for forwarding traffic from a first network device to a second network device of the plurality, and comprises a member link via which the traffic is forwarded from the first stack member. Upon detecting a link problem in the member link of the first route, the first route is found, the first stack member is identified based on the correspondence, and traffic information is sent to cause the first network device to migrate at least a proportion of the traffic to have been forwarded via the first route to a route that does not include the link having a link problem.
US09559980B2
Constraining resource provisioning by domain controllers based on resource requirements projected for remotely-originating inter-domain traffic can improve utilization efficiency and link reliability in multi-domain software defined network (SDN) architectures. A domain controller may be required to reserve a portion of inter-domain link capacity for transporting remotely-originating traffic. This may limit the inter-domain link capacity available for transporting locally-originating traffic in a manner that ensures remotely-originating traffic flows have equitable and/or adequate access to resources of inter-domain links. Alternatively, a domain controller may be required to maintain a minimum throughput rate for remotely-originating traffic, which may cause remotely-originating traffic to be prioritized over locally-originating traffic when necessary to maintain the minimum throughput rate. Provisioning constraints can be generated in a centralized or distributed fashion.
US09559970B2
A method is provided in one embodiment and includes receiving at a network element a flow offload decision for a first service node that includes a portion of a service chain for processing a flow; recording the flow offload decision against the first service node at the network element; and propagating the flow offload decision backward on a service path to which the flow belongs if the first service node is hosted at the network element. Embodiments may also include propagating the flow offload decision backward on a service path to which the flow belongs if the flow offload decision is a propagated flow offload decision and the network element hosts a second service node that immediately precedes the service node on behalf of which the propagated flow offload decision was received and a flow offload decision has already been received by the network element from the second service node.
US09559966B2
Systems and methods for forwarding data packets in a communications network, the method comprising: providing information included in a first portion of a data packet to a network policy unit, in response to a forwarding device receiving a data packet to be forwarded over one or more network routes; forwarding the data packet according to a flow policy, in response to the forwarding device receiving the flow policy from the network policy unit, wherein the flow policy applied to the data packet by the forwarding device is determined by the network policy unit based on the network policy unit performing an analysis of the information included in the first portion of the data packet in view of policy information provided to the network policy unit.
US09559955B2
A method for optimized route caching includes comparing a destination address of a network packet to a first set of prefixes in a routing cache, and comparing the destination address to a second set of prefixes in a full routing table when a longest matching prefix for the destination address is not found in the routing cache. The method further includes copying the longest matching prefix and a set of sub-prefixes of the longest matching prefix from the full routing table to the routing cache, and forwarding the network packet.
US09559951B1
In one embodiment, a method includes a method includes obtaining traffic, determining a host Media Access Control (MAC) address, and determining a host Internet Protocol (IP) address using the traffic. The method also includes generating an Ethernet virtual private network (E-VPN) MAC route advertisement that includes both the host MAC address and the host IP address and generating an IP virtual private network (IP-VPN) route advertisement that includes the host IP address.
US09559949B1
A router residing in a network comprises at least one ingress port, at least one egress port, and a processor programmed to compare at least two label switch paths, determine potential conflicts between the at least two label switch paths based on the ingress ports and egress ports utilized by the label switch paths, and determine a selected identifier to be assigned relative to each label switch path. The processor is configured to assign a common identifier if no conflict exists. A storage medium is operatively coupled to the processor for storing the selected identifiers related to the label switch paths. The processor may be configured to determine that a conflict exists between two label switch paths if they utilize the same ingress port on the router and different egress ports on the router.
US09559940B2
A first component of a computing environment receives, from a physical network adapter of the computing environment, a request that the first component take over processing of network frames directed to network frame address(es) associated with a second component of the computing environment. The first component register the network frame address(es) for processing of network frames directed to the network frame address(es). Based on the first component receiving from the physical network adapter a network frame directed to a network frame address of the network frame address(es) associated with the second component, the first component processes the received network frame, in which the network frame is provided to the second component via an inter-component link between the first component and the second component.
US09559939B2
A system for providing failover capabilities in a hybrid operations environment including a first operations environment and a second operations environment includes a first controller in a first operations environment configured to receive registration information for an agent device, and a second controller in a second operations environment configured to receive the registration information from the first controller. The first controller is a stand-by controller and the second controller is a primary controller. In response to determining that the second controller is not available for routing an inbound call, a media gateway is configured to transmit a request to the first controller in the first operations environment for routing the call to the agent device.
US09559938B2
Method, system, apparatus, and computer program and computer program product provide on-demand, scalable computational resources to application providers over a distributed network and system. Resources are made available based on demand for applications. Application providers are charged fees based on the amount of resources utilized to satisfy the needs of the application. In providing compute resources, method and apparatus is capable of rapidly activating a plurality of instances of the applications as demand increases and to halt instances as demand drops. Application providers are charged based on metered amount of computational resources utilized in processing their applications. Application providers access the network to distribute applications onto network to utilize distributed compute resources for processing of the applications. Application providers are further capable of monitoring, updating and replacing distributed applications. Apparatus and system includes plurality of computing resources distributed across a network capable of restoring and snapshotting provisioned applications based on demand.
US09559937B2
An apparatus is configured to relay communication between first and second nodes that area coupled through a plurality of relay devices. The apparatus generates control information indicating that communication from the second node to the first node is to be performed via the computer, in response to request for migration of relay processing from another apparatus to the apparatus, the relay processing including relaying communication between the first and second nodes, and sends the generated control information to the plurality of relay devices.
US09559928B1
Methods and systems for implementing test coverage measurement are disclosed. A first set of interactions among a set of production services are determined. The first set of interactions comprises a plurality of service requests between individual ones of the set of production services. A second set of interactions among a set of test services are determined. The second set of interactions comprises a plurality of service requests between individual ones of the set of test services. A test coverage metric is generated. The test coverage metric indicates an amount of the first set of interactions that are covered by the second set of interactions.
US09559926B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus for selecting frame loss measures are disclosed. In one aspect, a Synthetic Loss Measurement (SLM) report for a given interval for a network managed entity that includes at least two network nodes is received. A Loss Measurement Message (LMM) report for a given interval for the network managed entity is received. For the given interval and from the SLM and LMM reports, a reporting measurement for the network managed entity is selected based, at least in part, on a frame rate of data transmitted over the network managed entity during the given interval or an occurrence of a specified network event during the given interval. Frame loss information for the given interval for the network managed entity based on the selected reporting measurement is reported.
US09559922B2
An information processing apparatus has login information acquisition means for acquiring a plurality of pieces of login information with user IDs for identifying users related with terminal IDs for identifying terminals for use by the users; terminal ID registration means for registering the acquired login information by relating each of the user IDs with the plurality of terminal IDs; delivery information generation means for generating different pieces of delivery information to be delivered to each terminal that are identified by the plurality of terminal IDs for each of the user IDs; and delivery means for delivering the generated different pieces of delivery information to the each terminals.
US09559913B2
In a content delivery network (CDN a method includes: receiving a request for a CDN service of a particular type, wherein a CDN service of said particular type defines a fixed number of configurable layers of request processing, sequentially from a first layer to a last layer; and processing said request, starting at said first layer, said processing being based on a modifiable runtime environment, said processing continuing conditionally through each of said layers in turn until either said request is terminated by one of said layers or said last layer processes said request. A layer may cause some of the processing of a request to be handled by another service. The CDN service may be selected from: delivery services, collector services, reducer services, rendezvous services, configuration services, and control services.
US09559910B2
Methods, computer program products, and systems are presented. The methods include, for instance: locating, by one or more processor, at least one virtual machine within a virtual network, wherein gratuitous address resolution functionality of the at least one virtual machine is inactive; and providing, by the one or more processor, location information of the at least one virtual machine. In one embodiment, the locating comprises: receiving an IP address of the at least one virtual machine; and selecting a virtual machine hosting network device from a computing network node table, where the computing network node table comprises at least one network connection record of the silent virtual machine network device hosting a silent virtual machine having a known MAC address and an unknown IP address; and querying the silent virtual machine network device for a MAC address corresponding to the IP address of the at least one virtual machine.
US09559908B2
A lockout prevention system includes a management Information Handling System (IHS) that is coupled through a network to network interface on a networking device. The networking device receives a configuration instruction through the network interface from the management IHS. The networking device then determines that the application of the configuration instruction will inhibit the communication between the management IHS and the networking device through the network interface. The networking device then provide a warning message for display on the management IHS in response to determining that the application of the configuration instruction will inhibit the communication between the management IHS and the networking device through the network interface.
US09559906B2
System and method for collecting values of one or more parameters of one or more clients that are communicatively connected to a server. A model is constructed based on the collected values of the one or more parameters to thereby model as a function of time the probability that the values of the one or more parameters of the one or more clients will change by an amount that is considered significant, e.g. at the server. An update of the one or more parameters is received from one of the clients. Responsive to receiving the update, the model is used to calculate a timing for the next update of the values from the one of the clients. The calculated timing for the next update is sent to the one of the clients.
US09559903B2
Cloud-based virtual machines and offices are provided herein. Methods may include establishing a cloud-based virtual office, by providing selections, corresponding to backups of servers of a computing network, to a user interface, establishing a cloud gateway for the virtual office, virtualizing a backup for each server using a virtualization program to create the cloud-based virtual office that includes virtual server machines networked with one another via the cloud gateway, and providing a workload to the cloud-based virtual office.
US09559902B2
Systems and methods for configuring applications and resources on distributed nodes or machines are disclosed. A node exposes a synchronization resource that corresponds to a desired state on a remote resource. The node evaluates a state of the remote resource. A test function may be defined to check whether the remote resource is in the desired state. A set function may also be defined to set a state of the synchronization resource when the remote resource is in the desired state. The node configures the synchronization resource when the remote resource is in the desired state. The synchronization resource may be configured, for example, using a resource provider. The node may evaluate the states of a plurality remote resources. The synchronization resource may be configured when one or more of the remote resources are in the desired state or when all of the remote resources are in the desired state.
US09559899B2
An access point that supports downstream and upstream communication from and to a Modular Cable Modem Termination System (M-CMTS) core to and from customer premises equipment (CPE), respectively, implements an Upstream External PHY Interface (UEPI) protocol with the M-CMTS core for control of the upstream communication. The access point receives from the M-CMTS core first UEPI control messages comprising information to configure one or more pathways with the access point for data plane upstream communication and control plane communication. The access point transmits to the M-CMTS core second UEPI control messages including a spectrum management message to manage upstream spectrum between the access point and the M-CMTS core, and a range request message to request ranging information so that the CPE can transmit upstream packets within an upstream timeslot, wherein at least one second UEPI control message is forwarded from the (CPE).
US09559897B2
Techniques for assigning device identifiers in a system of devices are provided. In one embodiment, a master device of the system can maintain a first configuration that specifies a set of links between a first subset of the devices, where the first configuration includes a device identifier for each device in the first subset. The master device can further generate a second configuration that specifies a set of links between a second subset of the devices, where the second configuration is based on a physical topology of the system, and where one or more devices in the second subset are unknown devices that are not associated with a device identifier in the physical topology. The master device can then assign device identifiers to the unknown devices in the second subset by comparing the first configuration with the second configuration.
US09559892B2
Embodiments of the present invention include systems and methods for detecting failure of node, link, or both, in a network. The system for detecting failure of nodes, link, or both, in a network includes an agent that monitors status of one or more applications on a first end node, sends a status notice related to the applications on the first end node to a controller through an input-output (IO) port, receives status information of at least one application on a second end node from the controller through the IO port, and stores the status information into a memory. When the agent receives a query from an application on the first end node, it looks up the status information in the memory to check aliveness of an application on the second end node.
US09559881B2
A transceiver system with reduced latency uncertainty is described. In one implementation, the transceiver system has a word aligner latency uncertainty of zero. In another implementation, the transceiver system has a receiver-to-transmitter transfer latency uncertainty of zero. In yet another implementation, the transceiver system has a word aligner latency uncertainty of zero and a receiver-to-transmitter transfer latency uncertainty of zero. In one specific implementation, the receiver-to-transmitter transfer latency uncertainty is eliminated by using the transmitter parallel clock as a feedback signal in the transmitter phase locked loop (PLL). In one implementation, this is achieved by optionally making the transmitter divider, which generates the transmitter parallel clock, part of the feedback path of the transmitter PLL. In one implementation, the word aligner latency uncertainty is eliminated by using a bit slipper to slip bits in such a way so that the total delay due to the word alignment and bit slipping is constant for all phases of the recovered clock. This allows for having a fixed and known latency between the receipt and transmission of bits for all phases of parallelization by the deserializer. In one specific implementation, the total delay due to the bit shifting by the word aligner and the bit slipping by the bit slipper is zero since the bit slipper slips bits so as to compensate for the bit shifting that was performed by the word aligner.
US09559871B2
A method and an apparatus for using a plurality of antennas to equalize a composite propagation channel of a wideband wireless communication is provided. The method comprises adjusting a corresponding weight associated with at least two of the plurality of antennas to obtain a channel response from the plurality of antennas over a composite propagation channel. The method further comprises equalizing the channel response of the composite propagation channel over a given bandwidth based on the corresponding weights for the wireless communication over a wideband frequency range. By adjusting a complex weight associated with each of the set of transmit antennas, a wireless communication system may obtain a channel response from the plurality of antennas over the composite propagation channel. In this way, the wireless communication system may combine multiple antenna signals from the set of transmit antennas with the complex weights to provide an overall transfer function that is substantially flat over a given bandwidth.
US09559864B1
A wireless device includes a self-activation client that allows a user to activate a communication service for that wireless device and for one or more other wireless devices. The communication service may use a long-range type of wireless communication, such as 1×RTT CDMA, EV-DO, GSM, or IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX) communication. During the activation process, the wireless device communicates with a device management server using the long-range type of wireless communication but communicates with the one or more other wireless devices using a short-range type of wireless communication, such as IEEE 802.11 (WiFi), Bluetooth, or infrared communication. After the communication service has been activated, the wireless device may subsequently communicate with the device management server in order to manage the communication service for itself and/or for one or more other wireless devices (e.g., to receive updates or to make changes).
US09559861B2
A method for enabling a local area network (LAN) appliance, supporting a synchronous-invocation/broadcast-notification protocol, to control communication sessions in a wide area network (WAN), the wide area network supporting a session-control protocol, includes: a) receiving from the LAN appliance a synchronous-invocation/broadcast-notification-protocol message invoking an operation for controlling a predetermined communication session in the wide area network, the execution of the operation involving an exchange of at least two session-control-protocol messages with at least one WAN apparatus supporting the session-control-protocol; b) processing the synchronous-invocation/broadcast-notification-protocol message received in a) to generate a first of the at least two session-control-protocol messages, which is adapted to start the execution of the operation; c) sending the message generated in b) toward said wide area network to start the execution of the operation; d) suspending a response for the LAN appliance to the invoked operation waiting for a condition indicating an outcome of the operation; e) when the condition is available, generating the response for the LAN appliance, the response being indicative of the outcome of the operation; and f) sending the response generated in e) to the LAN appliance.
US09559856B2
A method and apparatus for preventing muting of ongoing services when a new multicast traffic channel, MTCH, is to be started or stopped are disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes sending a multicast control channel, MCCH, update at a start of an MCCH modification period indicating that the new MTCH is to be started during a following MCCH modification period. The method further includes sending a calculated multicast control channel service start offset, MCCH-offset, indicating when the new MTCH is to be started after an MCCH boundary.
US09559837B2
Efficient methods for assigning, revoking, and realizing access to stored data involve a cryptographic key hierarchy and a set of operations performed on cryptographic keys and performed on the data objects to be protected. In addition to providing confidentiality and integrity for data objects, the methods allow access to selected data objects to be permanently revoked for all entities without requiring all instances of the data objects to be destroyed or overwritten. The methods also support access right modifications for a data object without requiring the re-encryption of the entire data object; instead, certain keys are selectively re-encrypted and re-authenticated to implement access control changes. The key hierarchy is parameterized to enable flexible performance tuning, and to provide efficient random access, keying and other security operations are performed for individual blocks within a data object rather than only for the entire data object.
US09559834B1
Techniques to operate circuitry in an integrated circuit are provided. The circuitry may include rate detection circuitry, receiver circuitry, and configuration circuitry. The receiver circuitry may receive a data stream with an arbitrary data rate. The rate detection circuitry may receive a reference clock signal that is associated with the received data stream. The rate detection circuitry determines the frequency of the reference clock signal such that an appropriate clock signal may be generated for the receiver circuitry. The receiver clock signal may be generated by clock generation circuitry that is coupled to the rate detection circuitry. The configuration circuitry may accordingly configure the receiver circuitry based at least on the determined frequency of the reference clock signal so that the receiver circuitry may operate at the arbitrary data rate.
US09559828B2
Single user and multiuser MIMO transmission in a cellular network may be performed by a base station (eNB) transmitting either one or two transmission layers. A user equipment (UE) receives a reference symbol from the base station. The UE processes the reference symbol with one or more of a plurality of preceding matrices to form a plurality of channel quality indices (CQI). The UE provides feedback to the eNB comprising one or more feedback CQI selected from the plurality of CQI and one or more preceding matrix indicators (PMI) identifying the one or more preceding matrices used to form each of the one or more feedback CQIs, wherein at least two PMI are included in the feedback.
US09559827B2
A wireless device (105) for managing reporting of channel quality is configured to communicate with a mobile radio communication network (102). The wireless device (105) identifies (404) there being no downlink activity between the wireless device (105) and the mobile radio communication network (102). The wireless device (105) reduces (406), in response to the identification, a level of channel quality reporting when there is no downlink activity. In a multi Radio Access Bearer (RAB) scenario this supports reduction of a higher drop rate of multi-RAB, e.g. speech and data, compared to e.g. stand-alone speech RAB.
US09559820B2
In macro/RRH setups, channel state information reference signals (CSI-RS) and demodulation reference signals (DM-RS) may be used to decouple control and data transmission. Data transmission (e.g. for LTE Rel 10 and beyond) may be based on CSI-RS and DM-RS, while control may be received from a different set of cells or TxPs via CRS. Certain aspects of the present disclosure introduce a reporting framework, in which configuration of data-serving cells/TxPs may be carried out based on CSI-RS. In certain aspects, a new concept of CSI-RS groups, i.e., a set of CSI-RS ports that a UE considers as one group for precoding matrix indicator (PMI)/channel quality indicator (CQI)/rank indicator (RI) reporting, may be defined.
US09559818B2
A mobile communications network includes a core network including infrastructure equipment, and a radio network including plural base stations configured to provide a wireless access interface for communicating data to/from communications terminals. One base station can operate as a serving base station to one of the communications terminals, to establish one or more communications bearers for communicating user data to/from the communications terminal via the core network and the radio network, and co-operate with at least another of the base stations to communicate the user data to/from the communications terminal. The mobile communications network can monitor a state of a radio communications channel between the co-operating base station and the communications terminal, and upon predetermined conditions, establish a communications bearer from the core network to the co-operating base station for communicating the user data to the co-operating base station for transmitting the user data to the communications terminal.
US09559807B2
A method and an apparatus for transmitting broadcast signals thereof are disclosed. The apparatus for transmitting broadcast signals comprises an encoder for encoding service data corresponding to each of a plurality of data transmission units, an encoder for encoding physical signaling data by a shortening scheme and a puncturing scheme, a mapper for mapping the encoded service data onto constellations, a frame builder for building at least one signal frame including preamble data, a modulator for modulating the at least one signal frame by an OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex) scheme, a transmitter for transmitting the broadcast signals carrying the at least one modulated signal frame.
US09559804B2
We introduce a connected vehicles adaptive security signing and verification methodology. We also introduce an adaptive node filtering at receiver, using noise levels and received signal strength. This invention addresses two important pillars in connected vehicle technology and autonomous cars: The first one is related to the security 1609.2 format and its main two functions: signing and verification. The second one explains how the noise level and signal strength can be used to filter undesired connected nodes. In this presentation, we provide various examples and variations on these topics.
US09559799B2
A method and apparatus for multiplexing reference signals in a predetermined number of Code Division Multiplexing (CDM) groups to balance power across Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols are disclosed. In a wireless communication system, orthogonal sequences used for spreading the reference signals are allocated such that the order of orthogonal sequences allocated to a subcarrier of one CDM group has a predetermined offset with respect to the order of orthogonal sequences allocated to a subcarrier of another CDM group, adjacent to the subcarrier of the one CDM group.
US09559797B2
A method of small cell discovery and RSRP/RSRQ measurements in OFDM/OFDMA systems is proposed. A discovery reference signal (DRS) with low transmission frequency is introduced to support small cell detection within a short time, multiple small cell discovery, and accurate measurement of multiple small cells. The DRS consists of one or multiple reference signal types with the functionalities including timing and frequency synchronization, cell detection, RSRP/RSSI/RSRQ measurements, and interference mitigation. RE muting is configured for the DRS to reduce interference level from data to DRS for discovery and RSRP/RSRQ measurements for small cells.
US09559791B2
A wireless communication device for transceiving heterogeneous radio-frequency (RF) signals is provided. The wireless communication device includes a first antenna, a second antenna, a first transceiver, a second transceiver and a controller. The first transceiver controls the first antenna through a first transceiving path to transceive a first RF signal according to a first wireless communication standard. The second transceiver controls the second antenna through a second transceiving path to transceive a second RF signal according to a second wireless communication standard. In a joining process when the wireless communication device establishes connection to an end device according to the second wireless communication standard, the controller reduces transmission power for transmitting the first RF signal, or reduces sensitivity for receiving the second RF signal.
US09559790B2
Establishing a communication link may include transmitting by a first device an unmodulated first electromagnetic EHF signal and receiving by a second device the first electromagnetic EHF signal. The second device may determine whether the received first electromagnetic EHF signal indicates that a first shield portion and a second shield portion are in alignment. The transmission of a modulated second electromagnetic EHF signal may be enabled when the received first electromagnetic EHF signal indicates that both the shield portions are in alignment. The transmission of a modulated second signal may be disabled when the received first electromagnetic EHF signal indicates that the first and second shield portions are not in alignment.
US09559767B2
A satellite communications system comprising a Hub station and a plurality of terminals, the system is configured to utilize a FWD link and a RTN link in accordance with adaptation techniques for relevant transmission properties (e.g. modulation, coding, transmission power, etc.) and to use adaptive margins to ensure proper reception of transmitted information under various link conditions. Methods are presented for determining said adaptive margins in real time or substantially in real time, and for setting relevant transmission properties in accordance with the determined margins. Adaptive margins may be determined either directly or following the determining of a link state for each of the FWD link and the RTN link.
US09559759B2
A system and method of adjusting an equivalent channel for a downlink in a multiple-antenna communication system is disclosed herein. The system includes at least one user device and a base station having a plurality of analog RF chains, each analog RF chain having a plurality of antennas. The method comprises the base station obtaining equivalent channel information and adjusting the phases of the antennas in order to modify equivalent channel gains from the analog RF chains to the at least one user device, based on the equivalent channel information.
US09559748B2
A transmitter includes a synthesis filter bank to spread a data symbol to a plurality of frequencies by encoding the data symbol on each frequency, apply a common pulse-shaping filter, and apply gains to the frequencies such that a power level of each frequency is less than a noise level of other communication signals within the spectrum. Each frequency is modulated onto a different evenly spaced subcarrier. A demodulator in a receiver converts a radio frequency input to a spread-spectrum signal in a baseband. A matched filter filters the spread-spectrum signal with a common filter having characteristics matched to the synthesis filter bank in the transmitter by filtering each frequency to generate a sequence of narrow pulses. A carrier recovery unit generates control signals responsive to the sequence of narrow pulses suitable for generating a phase-locked loop between the demodulator, the matched filter, and the carrier recovery unit.
US09559747B1
Transmit/receive switches and methods for radio control include connecting a first reactive impedance in parallel with a power amplifier on a transmit path during reception to neutralize a reactive impedance of the power amplifier and to prevent received signals from entering the transmit path. The first reactive impedance is disconnected during transmission.
US09559738B1
A tablet device is provided, which includes a first member, a second member and a pivot unit. The first member pivots on the second member via the pivot unit. The pivot unit includes a shaft, a twist sheet, a washer and a twist spring. The twist sheet is telescoped on the shaft. The twist spring is telescoped on the shaft and is connected to the twist sheet. The washer is disposed between the twist sheet and the twist spring. The shaft is connected to the second member. The twist sheet is fixed to the first member.
US09559735B2
The present disclosure includes switching resonant filter circuits and methods. In one embodiment, a circuit includes a plurality of resonant switching circuits arranged in a three (3) or four (4) element PI network. In one embodiment, an undesired signal frequency is applied to two resonant switching circuits and a carrier frequency of an RF signal is applied to the other two resonant switching networks so that the network attenuates the undesired signal frequency and passes the carrier frequency. In another embodiment, the resonant switching circuits are configurable to shift a peak impedance so that undesired signals may be attenuated.
US09559734B2
Aspects of the disclosure are directed to interference cancellation. A method of performing interference cancellation in a wireless device having a receiver, a coefficient controller and an analog interference cancellation (AIC) circuit includes utilizing the receiver to receive a signal; utilizing the coefficient controller to compute a first cost function value using a first set of coefficients, to compute a second set of coefficients using a first coefficient control algorithm, to compute a second cost function value using the second set of coefficients, to compare the second cost function value with the first cost function value, and to determine whether to apply the first set or the second set of coefficients based on the comparison; and utilizing the AIC circuit to apply the first or second set of coefficients to filter a reference signal and the receiver to subtract the filtered reference signal from the received signal for interference cancellation.
US09559727B1
Row decoding is performed on row codewords in an array in order to produce a row decoded array that includes row decoded column codewords. Column decoding is performed on the row decoded column codewords in order to produce a row and column decoded array that includes row and column decoded row codewords and row and column decoded column codewords. The number of row and column decoded row codewords that are not in a row codebook is determined and the number of row and column decoded column codewords that are not in a column codebook are determined. If the number not in the row codebook equals 0 and the number not in the column codebook equals 1, at least a data portion of the row and column decoded array is output.
US09559725B1
A coding device, such as a memory device or communication system, comprising encoder circuitry configured to encode data into inner codewords and multiple-strength Reed-Solomon outer codewords, the Reed-Solomon outer codewords including weak strength, mid-strength, and strong strength. The strength of the codewords can be varied by changing at least one of the code length N, data length K, parity length R, symbol size S and code rate K/N.
US09559723B2
Provided are apparatuses and methods for generating and transmitting transmission frames of information data. A transmitting apparatus includes: a stream processor configured to generate a plurality of baseband frames; a frame generator configured to generate, from the plurality of baseband frames, a plurality of transmission frames which includes information data commonly provided to a fixed device and a mobile device, first parities to be used for signal processing at the fixed device, and second parities to be used for signal processing at the mobile device; and a transmitter configured to transmit the plurality of transmission frames.
US09559716B1
A processing speed can be improved while the accuracy of AD conversion is enhanced. An AD converter includes: a higher-order DAC that samples an analog input signal and performs DA conversion corresponding to higher-order bits of a digital output signal; an extension DAC that performs DA conversion to positive and negative polarities on an extension bit for expanding bits of the higher-order DAC; a lower-order DAC that performs DA conversion corresponding to lower-order bits of the digital output signal; a comparator that compares a comparison reference voltage with output voltages of the higher-order DAC, the extension DAC, and the lower-order DAC; and a successive approximation logic that controls successive approximation performed by the higher-order DAC, the extension DAC, and the lower-order DAC based on a comparison result of the comparator and generates the digital output signal.
US09559705B1
A clock and data recovery (CDR) circuit is provided. A phase detection circuit receives an input signal and a clock signal to output a first voltage signal. A first comparing circuit determines whether the first voltage signal is within a voltage range to output a first up signal and a first down signal. A counting circuit updates a counting value according to the input signal and the clock signal. A second comparing circuit determines whether the counting value is within a value range to output a second up signal and a second down signal. A selection circuit outputs a second voltage signal according to the first up signal, the first down signal, the second up signal, and the second down signal. A voltage controlled oscillator outputs the clock signal according to the first voltage signal and the second voltage signal.
US09559704B1
In an example, operating a PLL circuit includes generating an error signal in response to comparison of a reference clock signal having a reference frequency and a feedback clock signal having a feedback frequency, generating a plurality of clock signals having an output frequency based on the error signal, and generating the feedback clock signal from the plurality of clock signals based on a first divider value and a control value derived from a second divider value. Operating the PLL circuit further includes multiplying each of a first integer value and a first fractional value by a power of two to generate a second integer value and a second fractional value, respectively, generating the second divider value using a sigma-delta modulator (SDM) based on the second integer value and the second fractional value, and dividing the second divider value by the power of two to generate the first divider value.
US09559703B2
Provided herein are apparatus and methods for system ready in a clock distribution chip or system. In certain configurations, a communication system includes a clock generation circuit having a divider and phase control circuit to provide output clock signals. The communication system further includes a system ready circuit to provide a system ready signal indicative of whether all of the output clock signals are ready.
US09559691B1
A semiconductor system may include a first semiconductor device configured to output a test stop signal and a calibration control signal. The semiconductor system may include a second semiconductor device configured to generate a first state code from an external resistor, a second state code from an internal resistor, and a third state code from a fuse array in response to the calibration control signal, and to select one of the first to third state codes as a selection code in response to the test stop signal and the calibration control signal.
US09559688B2
A proximity switch assembly and method for detecting activation of a proximity switch assembly is provided. The assembly includes a plurality of proximity switches each having a proximity sensor providing a sense activation field and control circuitry processing the activation field of each proximity switch to sense activation. A pliable material overlays the proximity sensors. A depression is formed in a substrate between the pliable material and the sensor. A groove may extend into the substrate between adjacent proximity switches. The pliable material may further include an elevated portion.
US09559680B2
A circuit structured to drive an isolated high speed voltage metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) switch, including a first MOSFET and a second MOSFET configured to operate as a switch, a capacitor, a charging component in parallel with the capacitor, a first switch in series with the charging component, and a second switch in parallel with the charging component and the capacitor. The stored voltage in the capacitor is sent to the gates of the first MOSFET and the second MOSFET when a second switch is open and a first switch is closed.
US09559662B2
A signal processing device has a first discrete time analog signal processing section, which has an input, an output, a plurality of charge storage elements, and plurality of switch elements coupling the charge storage elements. The device has a controller coupled to the first signal processing section configured to couple different subsets of the charge elements of the first signal processing section in successive operating phases to apply a signal processing function to an analog signal presented at the input of the first signal processing section and provide a result of the applying of the signal processing function as an analog signal to the output of first signal processing section. The signal processing function of the first signal processing section comprises a combination of a filtering function operating at a first sampling rate and one or more modulation functions operating at corresponding modulation rates lower than the first sampling rate.
US09559658B2
A filter coefficient group computation device is configured from a means for performing inverse Fourier transform on a frequency characteristic inputted through an input means; a means for performing short-term Fourier transform on a numerical string obtained by the inverse Fourier transform; a means for performing windowing on a frequency domain signal, obtained by the short-term Fourier transform, using a function of which a window length shortens as frequency increases; a means for performing short-term inverse Fourier transform on the frequency domain signal after the windowing; a means for performing overlap addition on a numerical string obtained by the short-term inverse Fourier transform; and a means for determining a numerical string after the overlap addition as a filter coefficient group which forms a filter having the frequency characteristic inputted through the input means.
US09559656B2
A method of adjusting a loudness of an audio signal in real time may include receiving an electronic audio signal and dividing the audio signal into a plurality of frames. Processing of the frames may be performed in real time. The processing may include measuring initial loudness values for blocks of samples in a frame to produce a plurality of initial loudness values, and computing a weighted average of at least some of the initial loudness values. The weights may be selected based on one or more of the recency of the initial loudness values, variation of the initial loudness values, and estimated information content of the audio signal. The processing may further include selectively discarding at least some of the loudness values that reach an adaptive loudness threshold. Weights can be adjusted based on the variation of the loudness values of the audio signal.
US09559653B2
Systems, devices, and methods are provided to inhibit apparent amplitude modulation in non-linear processing that causes distortion in a processed signal. One aspect of the invention includes a hearing aid. The hearing aid includes a microphone to receive an input signal, a speaker to reproduce the input signal, and a processor. The processor processes the input signal using a gain. The processor includes an inhibitor, which inhibits distortions, and an adjuster, which adjusts the gain. The inhibitor acts to smooth an envelope of the input signal to inhibit undesired modulation. The adjuster adjusts the gain if the envelope is either above or below a threshold.
US09559652B1
Presently described are systems and methods for identifying a mute/sound attribute of an audio sample set having first-channel samples and second-channel samples. An embodiment takes the form of a method that includes: (i) receiving the audio sample set; (ii) for each first-channel sample, determining a first max amplitude and a first min amplitude; (iii) calculating a first span based on a first function of the first max amplitude and the first min amplitude; (iv) for each second-channel sample, determining a second max amplitude and a second min amplitude; (v) calculating a second span based on a function of the second max amplitude and the second min amplitude; and (vi) identifying the audio sample set as having a sound attribute if both the first span and the second span are greater than a min-volume threshold.
US09559651B2
An audio normalization gain value is applied to an audio signal to produce a normalized signal. The normalized signal is processed to compute dynamic range control (DRC) gain values in accordance with a selected one of several pre-defined DRC characteristics. The audio signal is encoded, and the DRC gain values are provided as metadata associated with the encoded audio signal. Several other embodiments are also described and claimed.
US09559644B2
Circuitry includes a floating-body main field-effect transistor (FET) device, a body-contacted cascode FET device, and biasing circuitry coupled to the floating-body main FET device and the body-contacted cascode FET device. The floating-body main FET device includes a gate contact, a drain contact, and a source contact. The body-contacted cascode FET device includes a gate contact, a drain contact coupled to a supply voltage, and a source contact coupled to the drain contact of the floating-body main FET device and to a body region of the body-contacted cascode FET device. The biasing circuitry is coupled to the gate contact of the floating-body main FET device and the gate contact of the body-contacted cascode FET device and configured to provide biasing signals to the floating-body main FET device and the body-contacted cascode FET device such that a majority of the supply voltage is provided across the body-contacted cascode FET device.
US09559631B2
A clamp assembly for solar panels comprising a base and a clamp. The base has a baseplate and first and second spaced-apart struts connected to the baseplate to form a channel. Surfaces of the struts define slots adjacent to the channel. Beams are connected to the struts. The clamp includes a plate with fingers extending from the plate into the channel. The clamp further includes angled surfaces and cylindrical surfaces defining holes through the clamp plate. The clamp assembly is preferably made from a nonconductive material to inhibit arcing and the risk of electrical fire from incorrect or failed wiring.
US09559630B2
A current measurement module is adapted to measure an observed current level for the inverter. A data processor or mode controller accesses a stored representation of first current level versus rotor speed output at which a total harmonic distortion level is less than threshold total harmonic distortion level. The data processor or mode controller enables the inverter to use SVPWM (space vector pulse width modulation) if the observed current level is less than the first current level for the measured or determined rotor speed. Further, the data processor or mode controller enables the inverter to use DPWM (discontinuous pulse width modulation) if the observed current level is greater than or equal to the first current level for the measured or determined rotor speed.
US09559629B2
A semiconductor device includes a control section, a first arm, and a second arm; and has an H-bridge circuit to supply an input current supplied from a power source to an output terminal as a reversible electric current on the basis of a control signal outputted from the control section and a reverse-connection-time backflow prevention circuit to prevent an electric current in a direction opposite to the direction of the input current from being supplied to the H-bridge circuit. The first arm is formed over a first island. The second arm is formed over a second island. The control section and the reverse-connection-time backflow prevention circuit are formed over a third island.
US09559626B2
Provided is a method for preventing overheating of a traction motor in an electric vehicle. The method for preventing the overheating of the traction motor in the electric vehicle includes identifying magnitude of an output load of the motor, identifying a loading time of the motor on the basis of the identified magnitude of the output load, comparing the identified loading time to a preset critical time, and controlling output torque of the motor according to the comparison result.
US09559621B2
The present disclosure relates to a method of determining an offset between a detector and a point on a motor, the movement of the point on the motor being impeded in at least one direction. In particular, this disclosure relates to a method of determining a commutation offset for an encoder that works in conjunction with a synchronous motor. The commutation offset is an offset between the detector and the north pole of a permanent magnet within the motor. The method comprises setting a test value for the offset, causing a displacement of the detector based on the test value and measuring that displacement. The method further comprises repeatedly increasing the test value, and causing and measuring a displacement for each so increased test value until it is determined that the test value has crossed a threshold.
US09559620B2
A power supply device has a first power supply capable of storing and discharging electric power, a second power supply connected in series to the first power supply and capable of storing and discharging the electric power, an isolated DC-DC converter including a primary side terminal to which the first power supply is connected, and a secondary side terminal to which the second power supply is connected, and a power supply control unit that controls a voltage of the second power supply using the isolated DC-DC converter. A direct-current voltage outputted from the first power supply and the second power supply connected in series is inputted to a first inverter, converted into an alternating-current voltage by the first inverter, and then supplied to a vehicle drive motor.
US09559614B2
A grid-connected inverter for feeding current via a transformer into an electric power grid includes an output bridge arrangement that is actuated via a pulse width modulator, wherein a periodic auxiliary signal is used to determine switching times of the output bridge arrangement. The inverter also includes a synchronization unit for phase synchronization of the auxiliary signal with the electric power grid, wherein the synchronization unit is configured to set a predetermined phase offset (ΔΦ0) of the periodic auxiliary signal with respect to a phase of the electric power grid.
US09559604B2
A DC/DC converter and a control method thereof are disclosed. The DC/DC converter comprises: an output voltage regulation circuit configured to regulate an output voltage of the DC/DC converter, so as to output a duty cycle regulation signal; a PWM generator electrically coupled to the output voltage regulation circuit and configured to generate a first duty cycle signal according to a first clock signal and the duty cycle regulation signal; a detection circuit configured to output a control signal according to a second clock signal and a feedback signal, wherein the feedback signal is configured to detect whether or not the transient change of an input voltage of the DC/DC converter occurs; and a CBC regulation circuit electrically coupled to the PWM generator and the detection circuit, and configured to receive the first duty cycle signal and the control signal and output a second duty cycle signal.
US09559603B2
A power converter including: a transformer; a primary-side full-bridge circuit including a primary-side coil of the transformer and a magnetically-coupled reactor, in which two reactors connected to both ends of the primary-side coil are magnetically coupled; a first port connected to a positive electrode bus bar of the primary-side full-bridge circuit; a second port connected to a tap of the primary-side coil; a secondary-side full-bridge circuit including a secondary-side coil of the transformer; a third port connected to a positive electrode bus bar of the secondary-side full-bridge circuit; a first search coil wound around a core of the magnetically-coupled reactor; a second search coil wound around a core of the transformer; and a detection circuit detecting voltages of the first port and the third port by measuring a variation in a sense voltage generated by combining voltages of the first search coil and the second search coil.
US09559592B2
A DC-DC converter (100) includes a switching transistor (M0) connecting an input power terminal (VIN) to an inductor (114) that is also connected to an output power terminal (VOUT), a synchronous rectification transistor (M1) connected to a junction node (113) between the inductor (114) and the switching transistor (M0), and a synchronous rectifier control circuit (200) with an integration capacitor (226) having a voltage that is charged and discharged by first and second current sources (210, 220) to track the charging and discharging of the inductor current, thereby generating a synchronous rectifier control signal (SR) that is applied to the synchronous rectification transistor to discharge the inductor current to zero.
US09559590B2
Methods and apparatus for a power supply according various aspects of the present invention operate in conjunction with a voltage converter for converting an input voltage to an output voltage. For example, the converter may comprise an output controller configured to generate a control signal, a power mode controller, and an integrated power stage. The power stage may include a multiple switch segments coupled in parallel between the input voltage and the output, and a driver circuit responsive to the output controller and the power mode controller and connected to the switch segments. The driver circuit controls the switch segments according to the control signal to activate the switch segments in the switch circuit. The driver circuit also disables one or more of the switch segments according to the power mode signal to permit reduced power delivery and demand states.
US09559586B2
A switch mode power supply having an output terminal configured to provide an output voltage, the switch mode power supply has a first switch and a control circuit. The control circuit is configured to provide a switching control signal to turn ON and turn OFF the first switch, an on-time period of the first switch is proportional to a first value when the switch mode power supply works in a power saving mode, and the on-time period of the first switch is proportional to a second value when the switch mode power supply works in a normal mode, wherein the first value is larger than the second value.
US09559585B2
The invention provides advances in the arts with useful and novel driver methods. The invention provides circuit driver and control methods for relatively high-current drivers, usable with relatively low-voltage battery power sources. Preferred embodiments include one or more high series resistance capacitors electrically connected with a power source. A low resistance driver circuit regulates power supplied from the capacitors to the load.
US09559582B2
According to an embodiment, a switching power supply circuit includes a comparison circuit and an operation control circuit. The comparison circuit operates intermittently in response to an operation control signal. The comparison circuit compares a feedback voltage based on the output voltage with a reference voltage to generate a comparison result signal representing a result of comparison. The operation control circuit generates the operation control signal based on the clock signal and the comparison result signal. The operation control circuit generates an operation control signal synchronous with the clock signal, if the comparison result signal is at the first level.
US09559570B2
An integrated starter generator device comprising a housing, a stator and a rotor contained within the housing, the device further comprising control electronics operable to configure the device as either a starter or generator and contained entirely within the housing. The device may include a high current terminal having brass and rubber bonded together. The rubber forms both a sealing and an insulating function.
US09559564B1
A torque amplifying apparatus includes a rotor, a set of rotor magnets, a set of stator magnets, and an assembly of a lever and a crank member. The rotor magnets are disposed diametrically across the rotor. The rotor is rotated by an electric motor connected to the rotor to generate a rotating magnetic field around the rotor via the rotor magnets. The stator magnets are slidably positioned at a predefined distance from the rotor on outer guides, and slide in reciprocating motion in response to the rotating magnetic field, where a first stator magnet positioned diametrically opposite to a second stator magnet reciprocates in opposing directions. The lever is connected to each stator magnet to rotate a crank member, where the first stator magnet and the second stator magnet rotates the crank member to amplify and transmit the torque from the electric motor to the crank member.
US09559557B2
This rotating electrical machine has a rotor, stator core, field windings for multiple poles, and armature windings for the multiple poles. The rotor is rotatably supported about a shaft. Convex-shaped multiple salient pole sections are formed on the outer circumference of the rotor while arranged in the circumferential direction. The stator core is provided along the outer circumference of the rotor with an air gap from the rotor. Convex-shaped multiple teeth are formed on the inner circumference of the stator core while arranged in the circumferential direction. The field windings for the multiple poles are wound around each of the multiple teeth while insulated from the field windings.
US09559552B2
A connector for a plurality of coaxial cables includes: a conductive common base with a contact surface; a plurality of conductive contact pads embedded in the common base, each of the plurality of contact pads having a contact surface; and a plurality of dielectric pads embedded in the common base, each of the dielectric pads surrounding a respective contact pad to isolate the respective contact pad from the common base.
US09559548B2
A cover member of an electronic device is provided. The cover member includes covers hingedly connected, wherein each cover includes a power receiving member configured to wirelessly receive power.
US09559545B2
An automated charging device detects a presence of a power-consuming device. The automated charging device may determine whether the power-consuming device is in need of recharging by determining a status of a power level of the power-consuming device. In response to determining that the power-consuming device is due for recharging, the automated charging device may direct a wireless power source to the power-consuming device without user intervention and/or instruction. The automated charging device may detect a location of the power-consuming device and use the detected location to appropriately direct the wireless power source to the power-consuming device.
US09559544B2
A system that incorporates teachings of the subject disclosure may include, for example, wireless chargers combined with wireless interrogators. The wireless chargers can transmit power wirelessly, while also wirelessly interrogating a nearby transponder, such as an RFID tag. The wireless chargers with wireless interrogators can also be programmable to allow user-implemented rules operable in response to an interrogation. Such rules can impose restrictions upon whether wireless charging is allowed to take place. Such rules can also be used to select a power-transmitting protocol that is particularly suited for the electronic device being charged. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09559542B2
In one embodiment, an apparatus can include: (i) a power converter having an output terminal configured to supply power for a load; (ii) a first switch coupled between the power converter and an input voltage; (iii) a second switch coupled between a battery and the output terminal of the power converter; (iv) a PWM controller configured to control a switching state of a power transistor in the power converter; (v) a mode-switching circuit configured to select a charging mode or a discharging mode based on a voltage of the battery and a charging current; and (vi) a charging-discharging circuit configured to control the second switch based on the mode selection.
US09559524B2
A feed system has a first electronic unit, a second electronic unit, and a feed unit. The first electronic unit and the feed unit are separated. The feed unit transmits power to a power reception section of the second electronic unit based upon result information of a first authentication between the first electronic unit and the second electronic unit. The feed unit performs a second authentication on the second electronic unit in conjunction with power transmission.
US09559522B2
An energy management system includes at least one distributed energy source for producing energy, the distributed energy source in electrical communication with at least one consumer device to be powered by electric power, and in electrical communication with an electric utility. The device also includes a CPU in communication with the at least one distributed energy source, the CPU operable to control the flow of energy produced by the at least one distributed energy source. The CPU manipulates the flow of energy to provide efficient usage of the energy based on information from the at least one consumer and the electric utility.
US09559521B1
A renewable energy system that includes a grid-tied renewable energy source and home power supply system is disclosed. The grid-tied renewable energy source has a first inverter and distribution panel connected thereto on a first connection path. The power supply system is connected to the renewable energy source along a second connection path in parallel with the first connection path, with the power supply system including a voltage modification circuit, at least one energy storage device, and a second inverter, such that the power supply system may output an AC power to the distribution panel via the second connection path. A bi-directional utility meter measures a net flow of AC power output from the first and second inverters and a grid power to the load based on a power requirement of the load, and a controller controls an amount of power received by and output from the power supply system.
US09559516B2
A power system includes a DC power source having a maximum output voltage, a DC/AC inverter having an input coupled via a connection to the DC power source and an output for supplying AC power to a load, and a control circuit for controlling the DC/AC inverter. The control circuit is configured to maintain a DC voltage at the input of the DC/AC inverter above a threshold voltage to inhibit arcing as a result of a break in the connection between the DC power source and the DC/AC inverter. The threshold voltage is substantially equal to the maximum output voltage of the DC power source less a minimum arcing voltage for the connection between the DC power source and the DC/AC inverter.
US09559508B2
Housing for electrical components includes a housing body, an insulating body and a bus bar. The insulating body is disposed within the housing body and is integral with the housing body. The bus bar is disposed within the within the housing body and embedded in the insulating body. The insulating body and housing body are integral with one another for fixing the bus bar within the housing body.
US09559506B2
A cable connector is provided for coupling to and mounted within the internal cavity of an electrical box for securing an electrical cable passing through an opening in the electrical box. The cable connector includes a housing having a first end positioned next to or adjacent the cable opening in the electrical box and a second end spaced from the first end and the cable opening. At least one and typically two cable retaining members are positioned in the cable opening of the housing between the front wall and the rear wall. The cable retainer has a body with a plurality of retaining arms extending into an axial passage of the body for gripping the outer surface of a cable.
US09559502B2
An electrical box assembly includes an electrical box having a removable partition plate that can be positioned between the ends of the electrical box or at the end of the electrical box when two or more of the electrical boxes are ganged together. The electrical box can include a mounting bracket having a body portion attached to a wall of the box for supporting the box during use. A support member is coupled to the mounting bracket and is extendable to a length to contact the opposing wall. The mounting and the support member are independently adjustable with respect to the box.
US09559501B2
A method of assembling a housing assembly is provided. The method includes providing a housing that includes an access panel and a cavity defined therein, wherein the housing is sized to enclose at least one electrical system within the cavity. A portion of the housing is enclosed with a cover such that the access panel remains accessible and the cover is positioned against the portion of the housing. At least one gasket is coupled between the housing and the cover such that a seal is formed on the housing assembly that substantially prevents fluid from entering the housing assembly.
US09559490B2
The invention describes a cooling device (100) for cooling a laser arrangement and a laser system comprising at least two of such cooling devices (100). The invention further describes a method of manufacturing the cooling device (100) and the laser system. The cooling device (100) comprises a mounting area for the laser arrangement, a cooling volume (140) comprising cooling channels being arranged to cool the mounting area (105), a coolant inlet and a coolant outlet (150,145) being connected to the cooling channels of the cooling volume (140), a first coolant supply through hole (110) being connected to the coolant inlet (150), a second coolant supply through hole (111) being connected to the coolant outlet (145). The cooling device (100) further comprises at least one coupling element (115, 130, 135) enabling a detachable interconnection to a second cooling device (100) such that upon interconnecting the cooling device (100) to the second cooling device (100), the first coolant supply through hole (110) of the cooling device (100) being connected to a first coolant supply through hole of the second cooling device (100) and the second coolant supply through hole (111) of the cooling device (100) being connected to a second coolant supply through hole of the second cooling device (100), wherein the cooling device (100) being arranged in a way that a coolant can be supplied to the cooling volume via the first coolant supply through hole (110) and the second coolant supply through hole (111). The cooling device (100) enables a cost effective and scalable laser system.
US09559487B2
A tunable laser that includes an array of parallel optical amplifiers is described. The laser may also include an intracavity N×M coupler that couples power between a cavity mirror and the array of parallel optical amplifiers. Phase adjusters in optical paths between the N×M coupler and the optical amplifiers can be used to adjust an amount of power output from M−1 ports of the N×M coupler. A tunable wavelength filter is incorporated in the laser cavity to select a lasing wavelength.
US09559486B2
A method and apparatus are described including a laser with a plurality of internal or external actuators for affecting an optical frequency of light output by the laser, wherein the plurality of actuators have a corresponding plurality of different frequency response bands for changing optical properties of the laser and a corresponding plurality of actuation ranges of optical frequencies affected. Also included is an optical detector, and a plurality of optical paths configured to direct light output by the laser onto the detector. A laser controller is configured to provide a plurality of inputs to the plurality of actuators based on a detector signal output from the optical detector and the corresponding frequency response bands and actuation ranges.
US09559484B2
This invention provides ultra-low noise lasers with exceptional performance through the use of ultra-low loss microresonator based filters/reflectors including multiple (≧3) microresonator rings with different ring radii. The ultra-low loss microresonators provide a long effective laser cavity length enabling very narrow linewidth laser operation, with multiple (≧3) microresonators providing extremely high selectivity of the lasing mode over a very wide wavelength range; supporting single wavelength and widely tunable wavelength laser operation. The highly selective and also low loss filter/reflector supports high output power operation of the lasers.
US09559469B2
Provided is a connector whose miniaturization is easier than before. A connector includes a signal terminal as at least one first terminal having conductivity, a housing having insulating property and holding the signal terminal, a shell having conductivity and covering the housing, and an upper ground terminal as a second terminal having conductivity and a lower ground terminal as a third terminal having conductivity which are held by the housing so as to face each other via the signal terminal with a space left therebetween. Further, the upper ground terminal has a contact portion being in contact with a contact inner surface of the shell.
US09559468B2
An electrical connector for connecting a conductor of a daughter card connector wafer with a blade in the housing of a backplane connector. The daughter card conductor has a body with two elongated beams extending outward from the body. The two elongated beams each have an outer edge and an inner edge, whereby an opening is defined between the inner edges. The backplane conductor has a body with a narrowed tab portion extending outward from said second conductor body. The narrowed tab portion having outer opposite edges and is sized so that the narrowed tab portion fits between at least a portion of the outer edges of the two elongated beams, and in some cases between at least a portion of the inner edges of the two elongated beams.
US09559461B1
A system for aligning a robotic charging connector with a mating connector includes: a robot comprising a charging connector; a self-aligning robotic charging dock comprising a floating interface assembly, the floating interface assembly comprising a floating interface plate, the floating interface assembly further comprising a mating connector, the mating connector configured to snugly mate with the charging connector, the floating interface assembly further comprising a floating interface configured to align the robotic charging connector with the mating connector, the floating interface comprising a sliding surface configured to move against the floating interface plate as the robot docks with the robotic charging dock.
US09559454B2
The present invention is a USB memory device comprising a chip-on-board (COB) package having a flash memory and a flash memory controller embedded within, a COB carrier for storing the COB package comprising a tray having a G-shaped block with a pair of side lock bumps, and a metal housing for inserting the COB carrier having a top surface, a bottom surface, a top rectangular cut out, a bottom rectangular cut out, a pair of ends, a pair of side cut outs, a pair of top rectangular openings and a pair of bottom rectangular openings. The COB package, the COB carrier and the metal housing are used to assemble the device by inserting the COB carrier from either of the pair of ends and sliding the COB carrier within the metal housing until the pair of side lock bumps interlocks with the pair of side cut outs.
US09559451B2
A press-fit terminal is made up of a wire material of predetermined length. At a first end of wire material of the press-fit terminal is formed a tip for insertion into a substrate, and at the other end is formed a connection portion for connection to a corresponding terminal. A press-fit portion for press-fitting into the substrate is formed at the tip side of the wire material of the press-fit terminal, and a shoulder portion is formed to the connecting portion side of the press-fit portion. By making use of the press-fit terminal, damage to the substrate and breakage of contacts can be minimized, consistent insertion force and retaining force can be attained.
US09559448B2
A board edge connector to which a board is inserted along an oblique direction relative to its fixed posture includes a main body, a plurality of contacts arranged in juxtaposition on the main body along a direction perpendicular to an insertion direction of the board, and a cover member covering the main body. The main body includes a base portion on which the multiple contacts are juxtaposed and a pair of arm portions extending from the base portion along opposed lateral edges of the board which assumes a fixed posture. The cover member includes an attaching portion covering the base portion and a pair of arm members covering lateral faces of the pair of arm portions, the pair of arm members being formed integral with the attaching portion.
US09559434B2
Described herein are architectures, platforms and methods for implementing a closed-loop tuner in a receiver circuitry of a portable device. For example, the closed-loop tuner is based upon a configured or an inherent local oscillator (LO) leakage power in the receiver circuitry of the portable device.
US09559427B2
A hybrid image gathering and data transmission system is provided. The system includes at least one parabolic reflector to gather, disseminate and direct electromagnetic radiation. A beam splitter using a Fresnel zone plate (FZP) is configured and arranged to receive and/or transmit the electromagnetic radiation from or to the at least one parabolic reflector and separately focus microwave radiation and visual radiation. The beam splitter provides a gain in the microwave radiation and the visual radiation. A radio frequency (RF) receiver/transmitter receives and transmits the microwave radiation from or to the beam splitter and a focal plane array (FPA) receives the visible radiation from the beam splitter. A processor is in communication with the RF receiver and the FPA. The processor processes signals received by the RF receiver and the FPA and provides processed data to be transmitted to a remote location.
US09559424B2
Various exemplary embodiments relate to an antenna feed configured to receive a signal having a wavelength. They antenna feed may include a cylindrical body and four pin groups. Each pin group may include two pins in close proximity extending across the center of the cylindrical body. One of the two pins may be rotated approximately 22.5° from the angle of the other pin. Each pin group may be spaced approximately one quarter of a wavelength away from each other, and may be rotated approximately 22.5° from the angle of the previous pin group.
US09559406B2
An electronic device has antennas formed from cavity antenna structures. The electronic device may have a metal housing. The metal housing may have an upper housing in which a component such as a display is mounted and a lower housing in which a component such as a keyboard is mounted. Hinges may be used to mount the upper housing to the lower housing for rotation about a rotational axis. Cavity antennas may be formed in a clutch barrel region located between the hinges and running along the rotational axis. A flexible printed circuit may be formed between the cavity antennas. Each cavity antenna may have a first end that is adjacent to one of the hinges and a second end that is adjacent to the flexible printed circuit. Cavity walls for the cavity antennas may be formed from metal housing structures such as metal portions of the lower housing.
US09559404B1
An antenna includes a solar panel and a signal receiver panel pivotally coupled to and in electrical communication with the solar panel. The antenna also includes a level indicator disposed on the signal receiver panel. The level indicator indicates whether a top surface of the signal receiver panel is horizontally level with respect to a direction of gravity.
US09559391B2
A method for adjusting a battery module including a plurality of connected cells is provided. Each of the connected cells is a nickel-metal hydride battery including a positive electrode containing an active material of which a main component is nickel hydroxide, a negative electrode containing a hydrogen adsorption alloy, and an electrolytic solution that is an alkali solution. The method includes over-discharging the battery module so that a state of charge reaches 0% in every one of the connected cells.
US09559389B2
A battery pack has first and second battery terminals, plural battery cells each with a battery element, a cell supervisor electrically connected to the battery element, and a communication section to communicate with the cell supervisor. The battery elements are connected serially between the first and second battery terminals. Bus interfaces are arranged in alternating fashion with the battery cells to define a daisy chain bus, each such bus interface being configured for signal communication, the interfaces respectively connecting the communication sections of two adjacent battery cells. A battery manager communicates with the battery cells via the daisy chain bus. The battery manager sends a command message to the battery cells using a through mode protocol, and each battery cell sends at least one of a confirmation message and a service request to the battery manager using a shift mode protocol.
US09559381B2
Disclosed is a sodium-ion secondary battery having excellent charge and discharge efficiencies as well as excellent charge and discharge characteristics, wherein charging and discharging can be repeated without causing problems such as deterioration in battery performance. Specifically disclosed is a sodium ion secondary battery which is provided with a positive electrode, a negative electrode having a negative electrode active material, and a nonaqueous electrolyte solution containing a nonaqueous solvent. The nonaqueous solvent is substantially composed of a saturated cyclic carbonate (excluding the use of ethylene carbonate by itself), or a mixed solvent of a saturated cyclic carbonate and a chain carbonate, and a hard carbon is used as the negative electrode active material. It is preferable that the nonaqueous solvent used for the sodium-ion secondary battery is substantially composed of propylene carbonate, a mixed solvent of ethylene carbonate and diethyl carbonate, or a mixed solvent of ethylene carbonate and propylene carbonate.
US09559380B2
A battery on a conductive metal wire and components of a battery on a conductive metal wire of circular cross section diameter of 5-500 micrometers and methods of making the battery and battery components are disclosed. In one embodiment, the battery features a porous anode or cathode layer which assist with ion exchange in batteries. Methods of forming the porous anode or cathode layer include deposition of an inert gas or hydrogen enriched carbon or silicon layer on a heated metal wire followed by annealing of the inert gas or hydrogen enriched carbon silicon layer. Energy storage devices having bundles of batteries on wires are also disclosed as are other energy storage devices.
US09559378B2
A fuel cell that includes a cell stack in which a plurality of unit cells are stacked, a case that houses the cell stack, and a pressure plate that is placed in the case at a position between an end of the cell stack in the stacking direction and the case. The case has a first opening through which a pressing member that presses the pressure plate in the stacking direction from outside the case is brought into contact with the pressure plate, and a fixing portion that fixes the pressure plate in place with the cell stack compressed in the stacking direction.
US09559377B2
The present invention provides a fuel cell stack capable of suppressing misalignment between unit cells that causes gas leakage while achieving low cost and a configuration with a small size and small mass.A fuel cell stack 10 includes: a stack body 2 in which a plurality of unit cells 20 is stacked; and an external restriction member that suppresses misalignment between the plurality of unit cells 20 in a second direction perpendicular to a first direction in which the plurality of unit cells 20 is stacked. The external restriction member includes: corner restriction members 303, 304, provided so as to extend entirely over at least two corners of the stack body 2 along the first direction; and a rotation suppressing member 305 provided so as to face one side surface of the stack body 2, the side surface being positioned so as to intersect with a direction in which the stack body 2 may rotate about the corner restriction members 303, 304 as a rotation axis when an impact force along the second direction is applied to the stack body 2 from the outside.
US09559374B2
The invention concerns flow batteries comprising: a first half-cell comprising: (i) a first aqueous electrolyte comprising a first redox active material; and a first carbon electrode in contact with the first aqueous electrolyte; (ii) a second half-cell comprising: a second aqueous electrolyte comprising a second redox active material; and a second carbon electrode in contact with the second aqueous electrolyte; and (iii) a separator disposed between the first half-cell and the second half-cell; the first half-cell having a half-cell potential equal to or more negative than about −0.3 V with respect to a reversible hydrogen electrode; and the first aqueous electrolyte having a pH in a range of from about 8 to about 13, wherein the flow battery is capable of operating or is operating at a current density at least about 25 mA/cm2.
US09559373B2
A method of forming a hydrophilic polymer is disclosed. The method can include: reacting a monomer comprising an acid group with a Bronsted base to form an ionic liquid; polymerizing the ionic liquid with at least one other monomer; and converting the ionic liquid back to the acid group after polymerization. Also disclosed are hydrophilic polymers and membrane electrode assemblies formed using the above method.
US09559371B2
To provide a fuel cell system that is advantageous for maintaining an S/C value in an appropriate region even when a rotational speed of the water pump is abnormal with respect to a target rotational speed region during a power generation operation of a fuel cell. When the rotational speed of the water pump is abnormal with respect to the target rotational speed region during the power generation operation of the fuel cell, the control unit repeats a short time increase and a short time decrease of the S/C value in a reforming reaction, by alternately repeating an increase in a short time (ΔT increase, within 10 seconds) and a decrease in a short time (ΔT decrease, within 10 seconds) of the rotational speed of the water pump with respect to an abnormal rotational speed, while continuing the power generation operation of the fuel cell, thereby averaging the S/C value.
US09559369B2
A supply system of the anode circuit of a fuel cell (1) comprising: a primary fuel tank (2) intended to supply the anode circuit during an operating phase of the fuel cell, a secondary fuel tank (4) intended to supply the anode circuit when the fuel cell is shut down, the primary and secondary tanks are installed so that the secondary tank is recharged with fuel from the primary tank during an operating phase of the fuel cell, and the system further comprises a permeable membrane (6) installed between the secondary fuel tank and the anode circuit of a fuel cell. Also disclosed is a fuel cell system comprising a fuel cell and the described supply system.
US09559364B2
A solid oxide fuel cell having a plurality of planar layered fuel cell units, an electrically conductive flow separator plate disposed between each of the fuel cell units, and a cathode contact material element disposed between each cathode electrode of the fuel cell units and each electrically conductive flow separator plate. The cathodes of the individual fuel cell units are modified such that the operating temperatures of the cathodes are matched with the temperatures they experience based upon their locations in the fuel cell stack. The modification involves adding to the cathode contact material and/or cathode at least one alloying agent which modifies the temperature of the cathode electrodes based upon the location of the cathode electrodes within the fuel cell stack. These alloying agents react with a component of the cathode electrode to form alloys.
US09559362B2
The nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery of the invention includes: a wound-type electrode group including a long positive electrode, a long negative electrode, and a separator disposed between the positive electrode and the negative electrode; a nonaqueous electrolyte; and a prismatic battery case accommodating the electrode group and the nonaqueous electrolyte. A horizontal cross-section of the electrode group has a major axis and a minor axis. The positive electrode includes a positive electrode current collector and a positive electrode active material layer disposed thereon, and the negative electrode includes a negative electrode current collector and a negative electrode active material layer disposed thereon. A tensile strength of the positive electrode when an elongation percentage in a longitudinal direction of the positive electrode is 1% is not greater than 15 N/cm.
US09559357B2
A method of preparing a titanium and niobium mixed oxide including the steps of: preparing a titanium and niobium mixed oxide in amorphous form by a solvothermal treatment of at least one titanium precursor and of at least one niobium precursor, mechanically crushing the titanium and niobium mixed oxide obtained at the end of the solvothermal treatment and calcinating the mixed oxide obtained after crushing.
US09559355B2
Method for preparing a particulate material including particles of an element of group IVa, an oxide thereof or an alloy thereof, the method including: (a) dry grinding particles from an ingot of an element of group IVa, an oxide thereof or an alloy thereof to obtain micrometer size particles; and (b) wet grinding the micrometer particles dispersed in a solvent carrier to obtain nanometer size particles having a size between 10 to 100 nanometers, optionally a stabilizing agent is added during or after the wet grinding. Method can include further steps of (c) drying the nanometer size particles, (d) mixing the nanometer size particles with a carbon precursor; and (e) pyrolyzing the mixture, thereby forming a coat of conductive carbon on at least part of the surface of the particles. The particulate material can be used in fabrication of an anode in an electrochemical cell or electrochemical storage energy apparatus.
US09559354B2
A process for forming a surface-treatment layer on an electroactive material includes heating the electroactive material and exposing the electroactive material to a reducing gas to form a surface-treatment layer on the electroactive material, where the surface-treatment layer is a layer of partial reduction of the electroactive material.
US09559347B2
A negative electrode terminal for a battery in which a first metal layer and a second metal layer hardly separate from each other is provided by inhibiting an intermetallic compound from being formed between the first metal layer and the second metal layer. This negative electrode terminal (8) for a battery is composed of a clad material formed by bonding a first metal layer (80), made of Al, including a first region connected with a battery terminal connecting plate and an adjacent second region on the same surface side as the first region and a second metal layer (81), made of Ni, connected with battery negative electrodes, while the second metal layer is arranged to be stacked on the first metal layer in the second region of the first metal layer.
US09559345B2
A separator includes a non-woven fabric substrate having pores, fine thermoplastic powder located inside the pores of the non-woven fabric substrate, and a porous coating layer disposed on at least one surface of the non-woven fabric substrate. The fine thermoplastic powder has an average diameter smaller than that of the pores and a melting point lower than the melting or decomposition point of the non-woven fabric substrate. The porous coating layer includes a mixture of inorganic particles and a binder polymer whose melting point is higher than the melting or decomposition point of the fine thermoplastic powder. In the porous coating layer, the inorganic particles are fixedly connected to each other by the binder polymer and the pores are formed by interstitial volumes between the inorganic particles. Previous filling of the large pores of the non-woven fabric substrate with the fine thermoplastic powder makes the porous coating layer uniform.
US09559344B2
The present invention relates to a lithium battery and, more particularly, to a lithium battery, in which the structure of a battery module contained in the lithium battery is simplified, thus reducing the size of the entire lithium battery, and which includes a connector by which two or more lithium batteries are mechanically coupled to each other so that in response to a required amount of power, an appropriate number of lithium batteries can be easily connected to each other.
US09559343B2
A rechargeable battery including an electrode assembly, a case configured to receive the electrode assembly, a cap plate configured to be coupled to an opening of the case and comprising a fixing groove, and an insulation case between the cap plate and the electrode assembly and including a fixing protrusion configured to be inserted into the fixing groove.
US09559341B2
A rechargeable battery includes an electrode assembly including a first electrode, a second electrode, and a separator between the first electrode and the second electrode. The rechargeable battery also includes a case accommodating the electrode assembly. The rechargeable battery further includes a cap plate including a first plate and a second plate coupled to the first plate along a joint. The cap plate is coupled to an opening of the case. The rechargeable battery also includes a vent unit at the joint where the first plate of the cap plate is coupled to the second plate.
US09559337B2
The present invention provides a method for manufacturing a flexible display device, which includes the following steps: (1) providing a flexible substrate and a number of clamps; (2) securing edges of the flexible substrate with the number of clamps; and (3) subjecting the flexible substrate to operations of exposure, development, etching, thin film deposition, annealing, and film formation, wherein in each of the operations, the clamps are adjusted in order to adjust flatness and amount of contraction of the flexible substrate and also, the clamps are adjusted to adjust angle of the flexible substrate. The present invention uses the clamps to securely clamp edges of the flexible substrate so that adjustment of the clamps may be conducted in case that deformation and deflection of the flexible substrate occurs in order to reduce the deformation and deflection of the flexible substrate and achieve precise control of accuracy of the manufacturing process thereby preventing the deformation and deflection from affecting the accuracy of the manufacturing process. In different operations, the flexible substrate can be adjusted to be horizontal, inclined, or vertical and the clamps may apply different amounts of forces to control the accuracy and reduce deformation of the substrate. No operations of laminating and peeling are necessary.
US09559336B2
An apparatus facilitating luminosity uniformity across organic light emitting diode (OLED) device is provided. In one embodiment, the apparatus can include an organic light emitting diode (OLED) device including: an anode; a semiconductor material coupled to the anode; and a cathode coupled to the semiconductor material. The apparatus can also include a hollow heat sink coupled to the cathode and configured to reduce a temperature of the OLED device resulting in a first temperature of the OLED device being a first value in a first region of the OLED device and a second temperature of the OLED device being a second value in a second region of the OLED device. A temperature distribution characterized by a change in temperature from the first temperature to the second temperature to a third temperature is approximately Λ-shaped from the first region to the second region to the third region.
US09559329B2
A display device having an uneven electrode enhances display quality by improving the emission efficiency of the vertically polarized light. The method for fabricating a display device includes forming a thin film transistor on a base substrate, forming a first electrode connected to the thin film transistor, forming a block copolymer layer on the first electrode, patterning the block copolymer layer and forming a uneven first electrode having a plurality of electrode grooves by etching the first electrode exposed by the block copolymer pattern, and forming a light emitting layer on the uneven first electrode.
US09559325B2
Disclosed is a light-emitting element with a microcavity structure which is capable of amplifying a plurality of wavelengths to give emission of a desired color. The light-emitting element includes a pair of electrodes and an EL layer having a light-emitting substance interposed between the pair of electrodes. One of the pair of electrodes gives a reflective surface and the other electrode gives a semi-reflective surface. The light-emitting element is arranged so that the emission of the light-emitting substance covers at least two wavelengths λ and an optical path length L between the reflective surface and the semi-reflective surface satisfies an equation L=nλ/2 where n is an integer greater than or equal to 2.
US09559324B2
A light-emitting element which uses a plurality of kinds of light-emitting dopants emitting light in a balanced manner and has high emission efficiency is provided. Further, a light-emitting device, a display device, an electronic device, and a lighting device each having reduced power consumption by using the above light-emitting element are provided. A light-emitting element which includes a plurality of light-emitting layers including different phosphorescent materials is provided. In the light-emitting element, the light-emitting layer which includes a light-emitting material emitting light with a long wavelength includes two kinds of carrier-transport compounds having properties of transporting carriers with different polarities. Further, in the light-emitting element, the triplet excitation energy of a host material included in the light-emitting layer emitting light with a short wavelength is higher than the triplet excitation energy of at least one of the carrier-transport compounds.
US09559317B2
A first organic resin layer is formed over a first substrate; a first insulating film is formed over the first organic resin layer; a first element layer is formed over the first insulating film; a second organic resin layer is formed over a second substrate; a second insulating film is formed over the second organic resin layer; a second element layer is formed over the second insulating film; the first substrate and the second substrate are bonded; a first separation step in which adhesion between the first organic resin layer and the first substrate is reduced; the first organic resin layer and a first flexible substrate are bonded with a first bonding layer; a second separation step in which adhesion between the second organic resin layer and the second substrate is reduced; and the second organic resin layer and a second flexible substrate are bonded with a second bonding layer.
US09559314B2
Devices including multiple flexible substrates bearing organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are provided. The flexible substrates are interconnected, and the properties of the substrates and the interconnections provide the shape of the device.
US09559301B2
Memory device constructions include a first column line extending parallel to a second column line, the first column line being above the second column line; a row line above the second column line and extending perpendicular to the first column line and the second column line; memory material disposed to be selectively and reversibly configured in one of two or more different resistive states; a first diode configured to conduct a first current between the first column line and the row line via the memory material; and a second diode configured to conduct a second current between the second column line and the row line via the memory material. In some embodiments, the first diode is a Schottky diode having a semiconductor anode and a metal cathode and the second diode is a Schottky diode having a metal anode and a semiconductor cathode.
US09559294B2
A magnetoresistive random-access memory (MRAM) cell with a dual sidewall spacer structure is provided. The MRAM cell includes an anti-ferromagnetic layer, a pin layer, a free layer, a first sidewall spacer layer, and a second sidewall spacer layer. The pin layer is arranged over the anti-ferromagnetic layer and has a fixed magnetic polarity. The free layer is arranged over the pin layer and has a variable magnetic polarity. The first sidewall spacer layer extends from over the pin layer along sidewalls of the free layer. The second sidewall spacer layer extends from over the anti-ferromagnetic layer along sidewalls of the pin layer and the first sidewall spacer layer. A method for manufacturing the MRAM cell is also provided.
US09559284B2
Silicided nanowires as nanobridges in Josephson junctions. A superconducting silicided nanowire is used as a weak-link bridge in a Josephson junction, and a fabrication process is employed to produce silicided nanowires that includes patterning two junction banks and a rough nanowire from a silicon substrate, reshaping the nanowire through hydrogen annealing, and siliciding the nanowire by introduction of a metal into the nanowire structure.
US09559283B2
A semiconductor device package and method for manufacturing the same, includes a semiconductor substrate including a plurality of embedded thermoelectric couples. The embedded thermoelectric couples can be in trenches and extend partially into the substrate from the handle side of the substrate. An n-type pillar and a p-type pillar are electrically connected using a conducting contact plate to form each of the partially embedded thermoelectric couples. A series connection layer electrically connects the plurality of thermoelectric couples on the handle side. A power source provides electrical current to the series connection layer allowing current to flow through the plurality of the series connected thermoelectric couples. A heat sink is positioned adjacent to the connected thermoelectric couples for transferring heat away from the device side to the heat sink using the thermoelectric couples.
US09559281B2
A thermoelectric power module capable of withstanding a long time use in a high temperature environment where a temperature (Th) of a higher temperature portion exceeds 250° C. The thermoelectric power module includes: a thermoelectric power element; a first diffusion prevention layer consisting of molybdenum (Mo) and disposed on a surface of the thermoelectric power element; a second diffusion prevention layer consisting of an intermetallic compound of nickel-tin (Ni—Sn) and disposed on a surface of the first diffusion prevention layer opposite to the thermoelectric power element side; an electrode; a third diffusion prevention layer consisting of an intermetallic compound of nickel-tin (Ni—Sn) and disposed on a surface of the electrode; a solder layer containing lead (Pb) at not less than 85% and configured to join the second diffusion prevention layer and the third diffusion prevention layer to each other.
US09559280B2
A thermoelectric conversion device includes a Heusler alloy film having a structure of B2 or L21 in notation of A2BC and a pair of electrodes on the Heusler alloy film to output an electromotive force generated by a thermal gradient in the Heusler alloy film. The thermoelectric conversion device further includes an electrode for applying an electric field or a voltage to the Heusler alloy film to increase and control an electric conductivity and a Seebeck coefficient S of the Heusler metal film. The device can control to increase an electric conductivity and Seebeck coefficient S by applying an electric field or a voltage through an insulation film to the Heusler alloy film. The device may have a shared connection to select one of outputs of a plurality of thermoelectric conversion devices arranged in a matrix or increase an electromotive force as an output.
US09559279B1
According to one embodiment, a semiconductor light-emitting device includes a semiconductor layer including a first semiconductor layer, a second semiconductor layer, a light emitting layer, a first surface, and a second surface; an n-side electrode including a first n-side electrode and a second n-side electrode; a first contact unit; a second contact unit; an n-side interconnect unit; a p-side electrode; and an insulating film. The insulating film includes a first insulating portion, a second insulating portion, a third insulating portion, and a fourth insulating portion.
US09559267B2
A light-emitting device includes a support body having a quadrangle planar shape, a wiring pattern on the support body, a light-emitting element on the wiring pattern, a recognition target portion on a corner portion of the support body, the recognition target portion including a conductive material, an insulation layer reflecting light emitted from the light-emitting element and covering a periphery of the recognition target portion, and a light-transmissive member including a lens portion covering the light-emitting element and a flange portion on a periphery of the lens portion and covering a portion of the recognition target portion that is covered with the insulation layer. The portion of the recognition target portion covered by the flange portion is arranged in a non-point symmetry around a center of the support body, and a difference in reflectivity between the support body and the insulation layer is larger than between the support body and the recognition target portion.
US09559263B2
In a light-emitting element 1, a light-emitting layer 4, a second conductivity type semiconductor layer 5, a transparent electrode layer 6, a reflecting electrode layer 7 and an insulating layer 8 are stacked in this order on a first conductivity type semiconductor layer 3, while a first electrode layer 10 and a second electrode layer 12 are stacked on the insulating layer 8 in an isolated state. The light-emitting element 1 includes a plurality of insulating tube layers 9, discretely arranged in plan view, passing through the reflecting electrode layer 7, the transparent electrode layer 6, the second conductivity type semiconductor layer 5 and the light-emitting layer 4 continuously from the insulating layer 8 and reaching the first conductivity type semiconductor layer 3, first contacts 11, continuous from the first electrode layer 10, connected to the first conductivity type semiconductor layer 3 through the insulating layer 8 and the insulating tube layers 9, and second contacts 13, continuous from the second electrode layer 12, passing through the insulating layer 8 to be connected to the reflecting electrode layer 7.
US09559244B2
A method includes forming a first implantation mask comprising a first opening, implanting a first portion of a semiconductor substrate through the first opening to form a first doped region, forming a second implantation mask comprising a second opening, and implanting a second portion of the semiconductor substrate to form a second doped region. The first portion of the semiconductor substrate is encircled by the second portion of the semiconductor substrate. A surface layer of the semiconductor substrate is implanted to form a third doped region of an opposite conductivity type than the first and the second doped regions. The third doped region forms a diode with the first and the second doped regions.
US09559237B2
In one aspect, semiconductor structures are described herein. A semiconductor structure, in some implementations, comprises a first semiconductor layer having a first bandgap and a first lattice constant and a second semiconductor layer having a second bandgap and a second lattice constant. The second lattice constant is lower than the first lattice constant. Additionally, a transparent metamorphic buffer layer is disposed between the first semiconductor layer and the second semiconductor layer. The buffer layer has a constant or substantially constant bandgap and a varying lattice constant. The varying lattice constant is matched to the first lattice constant adjacent the first semiconductor layer and matched to the second lattice constant adjacent the second semiconductor layer. The buffer layer comprises a first portion comprising AlyGazIn(1-y-z)As and a second portion comprising GaxIn(1-x)P. The first portion is adjacent the first semiconductor layer and the second portion is adjacent the second semiconductor layer.
US09559233B2
A solar cell can include a conductive foil having a first portion with a first yield strength coupled to a semiconductor region of the solar cell. The solar cell can be interconnected with another solar cell via an interconnect structure that includes a second portion of the conductive foil, with the interconnect structure having a second yield strength greater than the first yield strength.
US09559224B2
The opto-electronic module (1) comprises —a first substrate member (P); —a third substrate member (B); —a second substrate member (O) arranged between said first and third substrate members and comprising one or more transparent portions (ta, tb) through which light can pass, said at least one transparent portion comprising at least a first optical structure (5a;5a′;5b;5b′); —a first spacer member (S1) comprised in said first substrate member (P) or comprised in said second substrate member (O) or distinct from and located between these, which comprises at least one opening (4a;4b); —a second spacer member (S2) comprised in said second substrate member (O) or comprised in said third substrate member (B) or distinct from and located between these, which comprises at least one opening (3); —a light detecting element (D) arranged on and electrically connected to said first substrate member (P); —a light emission element (E) arranged on and electrically connected to said first substrate member (P); —and a sensing element (8) comprised in or arranged at said third substrate member (B). Such modules (1) are particularly suitable as sensor modules for sensing a magnitude such as a pressure.
US09559221B2
This solar cell production method involves productively forming an antireflection film comprising silicon nitride, said antireflection film having an excellent passivation effect. In an embodiment, a remote plasma CVD is used to form a first silicon nitride film on a semiconductor substrate (102) using the plasma flow from a first plasma chamber (111), then to form a second silicon nitride film, which has a different composition than the first silicon nitride film, using the plasma flow from a second plasma chamber (112), into which ammonia gas and silane gas have been introduced at a different flow ratio than that of the first plasma chamber (111). The plasma chambers (111, 112) have excitation parts (111a, 112a) that excite the ammonia gas, and activation reaction parts (111b, 112b) and a flow controller (113).
US09559219B1
A method including providing a substrate comprising a device layer on which a plurality of device cells are defined; depositing a first dielectric layer on the device layer and metal interconnect such that the deposited interconnect is electrically connected to at least two of the device cells; depositing a second dielectric layer over the interconnect; and exposing at least one contact point on the interconnect through the second dielectric layer. An apparatus including a substrate having defined thereon a device layer including a plurality of device cells; a first dielectric layer disposed directly on the device layer; a plurality of metal interconnects, each of which is electrically connected to at least two of the device cells; and a second dielectric layer disposed over the first dielectric layer and over the interconnects, wherein the second dielectric layer is patterned in a positive or negative planar spring pattern.
US09559217B2
A silicon carbide semiconductor device includes a silicon carbide layer, an insulating layer, a Schottky electrode, and a reaction region. The silicon carbide layer includes a p type region in contact with a first main surface and an n type region in contact with the p type region and the first main surface. The insulating layer has a third main surface, a fourth main surface, and a side wall surface connecting the third main surface and the fourth main surface, and is in contact with the first main surface at the fourth main surface. The Schottky electrode is in contact with the first main surface and the side wall surface. The reaction region is in contact with the insulating layer, the Schottky electrode, and the p type region. The reaction region contains an element constituting the Schottky electrode, an element constituting the insulating layer, silicon, and carbon.
US09559211B2
A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device, which enables miniaturization and reduction of defect, is provided. It includes forming an oxide semiconductor layer, and source and drain electrodes in contact with the oxide semiconductor layer, over an insulating surface; forming insulating layers over the source electrode and the drain electrode; forming a gate insulating layer over the oxide semiconductor layer, the source and drain electrodes, and the insulating layer; forming a conductive layer over the gate insulating layer; forming an insulating film covering the conductive layer; processing the insulating film so that at least part of a region of the conductive layer, which overlaps with the source electrode or the drain electrode, is exposed; and etching the exposed region of the conductive layer to form a gate electrode overlapping with at least part of the region sandwiched between the source electrode and the drain electrode, in a self-aligned manner.
US09559203B2
In one example implementation, the present disclosure provides a modular approach to reducing flicker noise in metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) in a device. First, a circuit designer may select one or more surface channel MOSFETs in a device. Then, the one or more surface channel MOSFETs are converted to one or more buried channel MOSFETs to reduce flicker noise. One or more masks may be applied to the channel(s) of the one or more surface channel MOSFETs. The technique maybe used at the input(s) of operational amplifiers, and more particularly, rail-to-rail operational amplifiers, as well as other analog and digital circuits such a mixers, ring oscillators, current mirrors, etc.
US09559193B2
A semiconductor device having a transistor including an oxide semiconductor film is disclosed. In the semiconductor device, the oxide semiconductor film is provided along a trench formed in an insulating layer. The trench includes a lower end corner portion and an upper end corner portion having a curved shape with a curvature radius of longer than or equal to 20 nm and shorter than or equal to 60 nm, and the oxide semiconductor film is provided in contact with a bottom surface, the lower end corner portion, the upper end corner portion, and an inner wall surface of the trench. The oxide semiconductor film includes a crystal having a c-axis substantially perpendicular to a surface at least over the upper end corner portion.
US09559189B2
The present invention provides a non-planar FET which includes a substrate, a fin structure, a gate and a gate dielectric layer. The fin structure is disposed on the substrate. The fin structure includes a first portion adjacent to the substrate wherein the first portion shrinks towards a side of the substrate. The gate is disposed on the fin structure. The gate dielectric layer is disposed between the fin structure and the gate. The present invention further provides a method of manufacturing the non-planar FET.
US09559187B2
A semiconductor device includes a plurality of epitaxial layers stacked over a supportive substrate, a first buried impurity region formed to share the supportive substrate with a lowermost epitaxial layer among the multiple epitaxial layers, one or more second buried impurity regions formed to be coupled with the first buried impurity region and share an Nth epitaxial layer and an (N+1)th epitaxial layer among the multiple epitaxial layers, where N is a natural number, a body region formed in an uppermost epitaxial layer among the multiple epitaxial layers and a deep well formed in the uppermost epitaxial layer to surround the body region and to be coupled with the second buried impurity regions that share the uppermost epitaxial layer.
US09559179B2
A semiconductor device formed on a semiconductor substrate having a substrate top surface, comprising: a gate trench extending from the substrate top surface into the semiconductor substrate; a gate electrode in the gate trench; a gate top dielectric material disposed over the gate electrode; a body region adjacent to the gate trench; a source region embedded in the body region; a metal layer disposed over at least a portion of a gate trench opening and at least a portion of the source region, wherein: the source region has a curved sidewall portion that is adjacent to the gate trench, and that extends above the gate top dielectric material.
US09559178B2
A dielectric layer is formed over the substrate in the capacitor region and the memory region and a select gate layer is formed over the dielectric layer. A select gate is formed over the memory region and a plurality of lines of electrodes over the capacitor region from the select gate layer. A charge storage layer is formed over the capacitor region and the memory region including over the select gate and the plurality of lines. A control gate layer is formed over the charge storage layer over the capacitor region and over the memory region. The control gate layer is patterned to form a control gate of a memory cell over the memory region and a first electrode of a capacitor over the capacitor region. The plurality of lines are connected to the capacitor region to form a second electrode of the capacitor.
US09559175B2
The parasitic capacitance formed by a gate electrode, a contact, and a side wall is reduced.The gate electrode and the side wall are covered by an insulating layer. The contact passes through the insulating layer and is connected to a diffusion layer. Then, an air gap is located between the side wall and the contact. The air gap faces the contact at the side face on the contact side via the insulating layer.
US09559173B2
Nitride semiconductor device using insulating films having different bandgaps to enhance performance
The semiconductor device includes: a channel layer, a barrier layer, a first insulating film, and a second insulating film, each of which is formed above a substrate; a trench that penetrates the second insulating film, the first insulating film, and the barrier layer to reach the middle of the channel layer; and a gate electrode arranged in the trench and over the second insulating film via a gate insulating film. The bandgap of the second insulating film is smaller than that of the first insulating film, and the bandgap of the second insulating film is smaller than that of the gate insulating film GI. Accordingly, a charge (electron) can be accumulated in the second (upper) insulating film, thereby allowing the electric field strength at a corner of the trench to be improved. As a result, a channel is fully formed even at a corner of the trench, thereby allowing an ON-resistance to be reduced and an ON-current to be increased.
US09559169B2
A thin film transistor (TFT) array substrate and an organic light-emitting diode display employing the same are disclosed. In one aspect, the substrate includes at least one TFT, the TFT including a substrate and a semiconductor pattern comprising a source region, a channel region, and a drain region. The TFT also includes a gate insulating layer covering the semiconductor pattern, a side gate electrode electrically insulated from the semiconductor pattern and formed over at least one side of the channel region, and a top gate electrode formed over the gate insulating layer so as to partially overlap the semiconductor pattern, the side gate electrode and the top gate electrode electrically connected to each other.
US09559159B2
A method for preparing an LTPS membrane, including: forming an amorphous silicon (a-Si) layer (S3) on a substrate (S1) by a patterning process, in which the a-Si layer (S3) comprises a plurality of convex structures (S32) and etched areas (S31) which are disposed along circumference of the plurality of convex structures and partially etched; and performing excimer laser crystallization (ELC) on the a-Si layer (S3) and obtaining the LTPS membrane. A thin-film transistor (TFT) and a display device are further disclosed, which are used for overcoming poor uniformity of the polysilicon membrane prepared by the ELC technology.
US09559156B2
An organic light emitting diode display includes a substrate including a display area and a non-display area, a display unit that is formed in the display area and includes a plurality of subpixels arranged in a matrix form, a main ground line that is positioned at a first side of the non-display area and is formed using the same material as source and drain electrodes included in each subpixel, and an auxiliary ground line that is formed to surround the non-display area, overlaps at least a portion of the main ground line at the first side of the non-display area, is electrically connected to the main ground line, and is formed using the same material as a lower electrode included in each subpixel.
US09559138B2
An image sensor includes a first substrate, a photodiode array, a first wiring structure, a second wiring structure, a third wiring structure and a light blocking layer pattern. The photodiode array is disposed in the first substrate. The photodiode array includes first photodiodes in a first region, second photodiodes in a second region and third photodiodes in a third region. The first wiring structure is disposed in the first region. The first wiring structure is electrically connected to the first photodiodes. The second wiring structure is disposed in the second region. The second wiring structure includes power supply wiring. The third wiring structure is disposed in the third region. The third wiring structure is electrically connected to the third photodiodes. The light blocking layer pattern is disposed on the first substrate. The light blocking layer pattern covers the third region and the fourth region.
US09559133B2
A photodetector may have a structure including conductive patterns and an intermediate layer interposed between the conductive patterns. A length L of at least one side of the second conductive pattern that overlaps the first conductive pattern and the intermediate layer satisfies the equation L=λ/2neff, wherein the neff is an effective refractive index of a surface plasmon waveguide formed of the first conductive pattern, the intermediate layer, and the second conductive pattern during a surface plasmon resonance. Heat generated in the intermediate layer when the electromagnetic wave having the wavelength λ is incident thereon generates a current variation.
US09559127B2
A thin film transistor array panel includes an insulation substrate; a gate line and a first electrode on the insulation substrate; a gate insulating layer on the gate line and the first electrode; a data line on the gate insulating layer; a passivation layer on the gate insulating layer and the data line; and a second electrode on the passivation layer. Relative permittivity (ε) of the gate insulating layer is more than about 15, and a thickness of the gate insulating layer is about 2000 angstroms.
US09559115B2
Semiconductor memory devices and methods of forming the semiconductor devices may be provided. The semiconductor memory devices may include a channel portion of an active pillar that may be formed of a semiconductor material having a charge mobility greater than a charge mobility of silicon. The semiconductor devices may also include a non-channel portion of the active pillar including a semiconductor material having a high silicon content.
US09559100B2
A semiconductor device includes first and second Fin FET transistors and a separation plug made of an insulating material and disposed between the first and second Fin FET transistors. The first Fin FET transistor includes a first fin structure extending in a first direction, a first gate dielectric formed over the first fin structure and a first gate electrode formed over the first gate dielectric and extending a second direction perpendicular to the first direction. The second Fin FET transistor includes a second fin structure, a second gate dielectric formed over the second fin structure and a second gate electrode formed over the first gate dielectric and extending the second direction. In across section along the second direction and across the first gate electrode, the second gate electrode and the separation plug, the separation plug has a tapered shape having atop size smaller than a bottom size.
US09559096B2
A semiconductor structure includes a heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) including a collector layer located over a substrate, the collector layer including a semiconductor material, and a field effect transistor (FET) located over the substrate, the FET having a channel formed in the semiconductor material that forms the collector layer of the HBT. In some implementations, a second FET can be provided so as to be located over the substrate and configured to include a channel formed in a semiconductor material that forms an emitter of the HBT. One or more of the foregoing features can be implemented in devices such as a die, a packaged module, and a wireless device.
US09559094B2
A semiconductor device includes a first semiconductor region that has an external profile including at least one corner, and that includes a semiconductor of a first conductivity type, and a first insulation region that surrounds an outer periphery of the first semiconductor region, and that includes an insulator that, at a corner portion corresponding to the corner, has a depth deeper than a depth at a location other than the corner portion. The semiconductor device further includes a second semiconductor region that surrounds an outer periphery of the first insulation region, and that includes a semiconductor of a second conductivity type, and a second insulation region that surrounds an outer periphery of the second semiconductor region, and that includes an insulator that is deeper than the depth of the first insulation region at the location other than the corner portion.
US09559072B2
A structure comprises a first semiconductor chip with a first metal bump and a second semiconductor chip with a second metal bump. The structure further comprises a solder joint structure electrically connecting the first semiconductor chip and the second semiconductor chip, wherein the solder joint structure comprises an intermetallic compound region between the first metal bump and the second metal bump, wherein the intermetallic compound region is with a first height dimension and a surrounding portion formed along exterior walls of the first metal bump and the second metal bump, wherein the surrounding portion is with a second height dimension, and wherein the second height dimension is greater than the first height dimension.
US09559056B2
In an embodiment, an electronic component includes a dielectric core layer having a first major surface, a semiconductor die embedded in the dielectric core layer, and a first conductive layer. The semiconductor die includes a first major surface and at least two conductive fingers arranged on the first major surface which are coupled to a common potential. The first conductive layer is arranged on, and electrically coupled to, the at least two conductive fingers and extends from the at least two conductive fingers over the first major surface of the dielectric core layer.
US09559047B2
Representative implementations of devices and techniques provide improved thermal performance of a chip die disposed within a layered printed circuit board (PCB). Passive components may be strategically located on one or more surfaces of the PCB. The passive components may be arranged to conduct heat generated by the chip die away from the chip die.
US09559046B2
A semiconductor device is made by providing a first semiconductor die having a plurality of contact pads formed over a first surface of the first semiconductor die and having a plurality of through-silicon vias (TSVs) formed within the first semiconductor die. A second semiconductor die is mounted to the first surface of the first semiconductor die using a plurality of solder bumps. At least one of the solder bumps is in electrical communication with the TSVs in the first semiconductor die. The second semiconductor die is mounted to a printed circuit board (PCB) using an adhesive material. A plurality of solder bumps is formed to connect the contact pads of the first semiconductor die to the PCB. An encapsulant is deposited over the first semiconductor die and the second semiconductor die. An interconnect structure is formed over a back surface of the PCB.
US09559042B2
A semiconductor device includes an insulating substrate having an insulating plate formed of ceramic and a circuit plate fixed on a main face of the insulating plate; a semiconductor element fixed on the circuit plate; a printed circuit board disposed to face the main face of the insulating plate; a ceramic plate disposed to face the main face of the insulating plate, and arranged at a position away from the main face of the insulating plate further than the printed circuit board; a supporting member fixed to the main face of the insulating plate or to the circuit plate, to fix a position of the ceramic plate; and a resin covering the circuit plate, the semiconductor element, the printed circuit board, and the ceramic plate.
US09559040B2
Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to electronic components such as semiconductor wafers and more particularly, to a double-sided three-dimensional (3D) hierarchal architecture scheme for multiple semiconductor wafers using an arrangement of through silicon vias (TSVs) and backside wiring. In an embodiment a first word line architecture may be formed on a front side of an IC chip and connected to a second word line architecture formed on a back side of the IC chip through intra-wafer, TSVs, thereby relocating required wiring to the back side of the IC chip.
US09559039B2
A semiconductor device has a substrate including a base and a plurality of conductive posts extending from the base. The substrate can be a wafer-shape, panel, or singulated form. The conductive posts can have a circular, rectangular, tapered, or narrowing intermediate shape. A semiconductor die is disposed through an opening in the base between the conductive posts. The semiconductor die extends above the conductive posts or is disposed below the conductive posts. An encapsulant is deposited over the semiconductor die and around the conductive posts. The base and a portion of the encapsulant is removed to electrically isolate the conductive posts. An interconnect structure is formed over the semiconductor die, encapsulant, and conductive posts. An insulating layer is formed over the semiconductor die, encapsulant, and conductive posts. A semiconductor package is disposed over the semiconductor die and electrically connected to the conductive posts.
US09559018B2
Fabricating a semiconductor device includes providing a strained semiconductor material (SSM) layer disposed on a dielectric layer, forming a first plurality of fins on the SSOI structure, at least one fin of the first plurality of fins is in a nFET region and at least one fin is in a pFET region, etching portions of the dielectric layer under portions of the SSM layer of the at least one fin in the pFET region, filling areas cleared by the etching, forming a second plurality of fins from the at least one fin in the nFET region such that each fin comprises a portion of the SSM layer disposed on the dielectric layer, and forming a third plurality of fins from the at least one fin in the pFET region such that each fin comprises a portion of the SSM layer disposed on a flowable oxide.
US09559012B1
A semiconductor device includes a substrate, a III-nitride buffer layer on the substrate, an N-channel transistor including a III-nitride N-channel layer on one portion of the buffer layer, and a III-nitride N-barrier layer for providing electrons on top of the N-channel layer, wherein the N-barrier layer has a wider bandgap than the N-channel layer, a P-channel transistor including a III-nitride P-barrier layer on another portion of the buffer layer for assisting accumulation of holes, a III-nitride P-channel layer on top of the P-barrier layer, wherein the P-barrier layer has a wider bandgap than the P-channel layer, and a III-nitride cap layer doped with P-type dopants on top of the P-channel layer.
US09559008B2
A device includes a plurality of STI regions, a plurality of semiconductor strips between the STI regions and parallel to each other, and a plurality of semiconductor fins over the semiconductor strips. A gate stack is disposed over and crossing the plurality of semiconductor fins. A drain epitaxy semiconductor region is disposed on a side of the gate stack and connected to the plurality of semiconductor fins. The drain epitaxy semiconductor region includes a first portion adjoining the semiconductor fins, wherein the first portion forms a continuous region over and aligned to the plurality of semiconductor strips. The drain epitaxy semiconductor region further includes second portions farther away from the gate stack than the first portion. Each of the second portions is over and aligned to one of the semiconductor strips. The second portions are parallel to each other, and are separated from each other by a dielectric material.
US09559005B2
Methods of packaging and dicing semiconductor devices, and packaged semiconductor devices are disclosed. In some embodiments, a method of packaging and dicing semiconductor devices includes a first cutting process performed on a wafer to form a groove passing through a passivation layer and an interconnect structure on a scribe line region and a portion of a semiconductor substrate on the scribe line region. Next, a molding compound layer is formed on a frontside of the wafer to fill the groove. After performing a grinding process on a backside of the wafer to thin down the semiconductor substrate, a second cutting process is performed on the wafer to separate the individual dies. The second cutting process cuts through the molding compound layer in the groove and the semiconductor substrate underlying the groove.
US09558999B2
The embodiments of the present invention relate generally to the fabrication of integrated circuits, and more particularly to a structure and method for fabricating a pair of ultra-thin metal wires in an opening using a selective deposition process.
US09558994B2
A semiconductor device includes a substrate including a first region and a second region, first conductive patterns disposed on the first region and spaced apart from each other by a first distance, second conductive patterns disposed on the second region and spaced apart from each other by a second distance greater than the first distance, and an interlayer insulating layer disposed between the second conductive patterns and including at least one recess region having a width corresponding to the first distance.
US09558992B2
A metal wiring for applying a voltage to a semiconductor component of a semiconductor device, the semiconductor device comprising a low voltage applying region adjacent to a high voltage applying region, is provide. The metal wiring includes: an isolator region, a first lower metal layer electrically connected to the semiconductor component, a first upper metal layer configured to be electrically connected to an external power supply, and a plurality of inter-metal dielectric layers deposited between the first lower metal layer and the first upper metal layer, each of the plurality of inter-metal dielectric layers comprising at least one contact plug for providing an electrical connection between the first lower metal layer and the first upper metal layer.
US09558990B2
A semiconductor device and a method for forming the same can block a moving path of electrons between neighbor buried gates. A semiconductor device includes a device isolation film formed to define an active region over a semiconductor substrate. The semiconductor device also includes a plurality of buried gates formed over the active region, and a barrier film formed between neighboring buried gates from the plurality of buried gates.
US09558978B2
An apparatus includes a dedicated material handling module having a dedicated automated material handling system (AMHS) defines a transport route between a first tool and a second tool selected from a plurality of tools in a fabrication facility. The dedicated AMHS is configured to transport wafer carriers between the first tool and the second tool or vice versa independent of a fabrication facility AMHS that is configured to transport wafer carriers among the plurality of tools.
US09558962B2
A method for passivating a surface of a semiconductor substrate with fluorine-based layer to protect the surface against oxidation and allow longer queue times. According to one embodiment, the method includes providing a substrate having an oxidized layer formed thereon, replacing the oxidized layer with a fluorine-based layer, exposing the fluorine-based layer to an oxidizing atmosphere, where the fluorine-based layer protects the substrate against oxidation by the oxidizing atmosphere, and removing the fluorine-based layer from the substrate using a plasma process. According to another embodiment, the method includes providing a passivated substrate in a vacuum processing tool, the passivated substrate having a fluorine-based layer thereon that is effective for protecting the passivated substrate against oxidation by an oxidizing atmosphere, removing the fluorine-based layer from the passivated substrate using a microwave plasma process in the vacuum processing tool, thereby forming a clean substrate, and processing the clean substrate under vacuum conditions.
US09558960B2
A substrate processing method includes a coating step that applies a coating liquid to a substrate having a front surface on which a pattern is formed, thereby forming a coating film on the substrate, a film removing step that heats the substrate to gasify components of the coating film thereby to reduce a thickness of the film, and a film curing step that is performed after or simultaneously with the film removing step and that heats the substrate to cure the coating film through crosslinking reaction. The film removing step is performed under conditions ensuring that an average thickness of the cured coating film is not greater than 80% of an average thickness of the coating film before being subjected to the film removing step.
US09558956B2
A method for fabricating a semiconductor device is provided, which includes forming a first mask pattern and a second mask pattern on a first layer, forming a block mask that covers the second mask pattern on the first layer, forming first spacers on side walls of the first mask pattern, exposing the second mask pattern through removal of the first mask pattern and the block mask, forming a third mask pattern and a fourth mask pattern through etching of the first layer using the first spacers and the second mask pattern as etch masks, and forming second spacers and third spacers on side walls of the third mask pattern and side walls of the fourth mask pattern, respectively.
US09558955B2
A method for forming a semiconductor device structure is provided. The method includes forming a metal gate stack over a semiconductor substrate. The method also includes performing a hydrogen-containing plasma treatment on the metal gate stack to modify a surface of the metal gate stack. The hydrogen-containing plasma treatment includes exciting a gas mixture including a first hydrogen-containing gas and a second hydrogen-containing gas to generate a hydrogen-containing plasma.
US09558943B1
A method of forming a stress relaxed buffer layer (SRB) on a textured or grooved silicon (Si) surface and the resulting device are provided. Embodiments include forming a textured surface in an upper surface of a Si wafer; epitaxially growing a low-temperature seed layer on the textured surface of the Si wafer; depositing a SRB layer over the low-temperature seed layer; and planarizing an upper surface of the SRB layer.
US09558930B2
In one aspect, a method of forming a wiring layer on a wafer is provided which includes: depositing a HSQ layer onto the wafer; cross-linking a first portion(s) of the HSQ layer using e-beam lithography; depositing a hardmask material onto the HSQ layer; patterning the hardmask using optical lithography, wherein the patterned hardmask covers a second portion(s) of the HSQ layer; patterning the HSQ layer using the patterned hardmask in a manner such that i) the first portion(s) of the HSQ layer remain and ii) the second portion(s) of the HSQ layer covered by the patterned hardmask remain, wherein by way of the patterning step trenches are formed in the HSQ layer; and filling the trenches with a conductive material to form the wiring layer on the wafer.
US09558928B2
Method and apparatus for cleaning a substrate having a plurality of high-aspect ratio openings are disclosed. A substrate can be provided in a plasma processing chamber, where the substrate includes the plurality of high-aspect ratio openings, the plurality of high-aspect ratio openings are defined by vertical structures having alternating layers of oxide and nitride or alternating layers of oxide and polysilicon. The substrate can include a silicon oxide layer over a damaged or amorphous silicon layer in the high-aspect ratio openings. To remove the silicon oxide layer, a bias power can be applied in the plasma processing chamber at a low pressure, and a fluorine-based species can be used to etch the silicon oxide layer. To remove the underlying damaged or amorphous silicon layer, a source power and a bias power can be applied in the plasma processing chamber, and a hydrogen-based species can be used to etch the damaged or amorphous silicon layer.
US09558924B2
A mass spectrometer system includes a pulsed ion source configured to generate ionized molecules and neutral molecules. The system also includes a first enclosure coupled in flow communication with the pulsed ion source. The first enclosure defines a first vacuum chamber and an ion inlet aperture. The system further includes a detector positioned within said first enclosure and a plurality of ion transmission devices positioned within the first vacuum chamber and aligned with the ion inlet aperture. The plurality of ion transmission devices is configured to channel and accelerate ionized molecules through a first transmission path such that the ionized molecules and the neutral molecules are physically separated in space and temporally separated.
US09558921B2
A magnetron sputtering apparatus includes a vacuum chamber, a cathode target that rotates on the outer side of a backing plate in the vacuum chamber, a magnetic circuit that is spaced from the outer side of the cathode target and defines an opening through which a plasma including a target material removed from the cathode target is ejected, and a yoke around the outer side of the cathode target, the yoke supporting the magnetic circuit.
US09558919B2
A method of modifying an electrostatic chuck that electrostatically attracts a processing object is provided. The method includes a gas supplying step of supplying a gas containing hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) into a chamber accommodating the electrostatic chuck having a surface that is fluorinated; and a modifying step of turning the gas supplied to the chamber into plasma using a high frequency power, exposing the electrostatic chuck to the plasma, and modifying the fluorinated surface of the electrostatic chuck.
US09558914B2
A charge monitor having a Langmuir probe is provided, wherein a positive and negative charge rectifier are operably coupled to the probe and configured to pass only a positive and negative charges therethrough, respectively. A positive current integrator is operably coupled to the positive charge rectifier, wherein the positive current integrator is biased via a positive threshold voltage, and wherein the positive current integrator is configured to output a positive dosage based, at least in part, on the positive threshold voltage. A negative current integrator is operably coupled to the negative charge rectifier, wherein the negative current integrator is biased via a negative threshold voltage, and wherein the negative current integrator is configured to output a negative dosage based, at least in part, on the negative threshold voltage. A positive charge counter and a negative charge counter are configured to respectively receive the output from the positive current integrator and negative current integrator in order to provide a respective cumulative positive charge value and cumulative negative charge value associated with the respective positive charge and negative charge.
US09558913B2
A system for detecting and counting ions comprises a source of atoms, a hot filament ion source, means for generating an electric field and a magnetic field, and means for detecting and counting the ions, and the filament comprises a portion that is concave along its longitudinal and/or transverse axis.
US09558911B2
The application relates to a method for analyzing, in particular for imaging, and/or processing of an object as well as a particle beam device for carrying out this method. In particular, the particle beam device of this application is an electron beam device and/or an ion beam device. The method in particular comprises the control unit providing a first control parameter, wherein a beam guiding unit is controlled using the first control parameter for guiding the particle beam and/or wherein a moving unit is controlled using the first control parameter for moving an object holder, correlating a position of the object holder in a second coordinate system to the object position on the surface of the object, identifying a first coordinate transformation between the first coordinate system and the second coordinate system, identifying an orientation position of a distinctive feature on the surface of the object and identifying first coordinates of the orientation position in the first coordinate system, the control unit providing a second control parameter, wherein the second control parameter is used for at least one of: controlling the beam guiding unit for guiding the particle beam, controlling the moving unit for moving the object holder or controlling a detector, identifying again the orientation position of the distinctive feature and identifying second coordinates of the orientation position in the first coordinate system, comparing the first coordinates with the second coordinates, identifying a local displacement of the first coordinates to the second coordinates, identifying a second coordinate transformation using the first coordinate transformation and the local displacement and identifying a position of an area to be analyzed and/or processed on the surface of the object.
US09558910B2
A sample holder for an electron microscope has multiple sample stands, can allow at least one sample stand to move, and enables multiple samples for a transmission electron microscope to be prepared by a focused ion beam apparatus. A holder tip opening is provided in a tip of the sample holder. A back end of the sample holder has a knob, a rolling mechanism, a coarse adjustment mechanism, and a connector. By pressing the knob, fixation of the rolling mechanism is canceled, and the back end from the rolling mechanism and the tip of the sample holder will rotate. This rolling mechanism enables arrangement of the samples to be rotated in both the observing of a sample and the preparing of a sample for a transmission electron microscope with the focused ion beam apparatus. Moreover, the sample stand is movable by the coarse adjustment mechanism and the fine adjustment mechanism.
US09558907B2
A cold cathode field emission electron source capable of emission at levels comparable to thermal sources is described. Emission in excess of 6 A/cm2 at 7.5 V/μm is demonstrated in a macroscopic emitter array. The emitter has a monolithic and rigid porous semiconductor nanostructure with uniformly distributed emission sites, and is fabricated through a room temperature process which allows for control of emission properties. These electron sources can be used in a wide range of applications, including microwave electronics and x-ray imaging for medicine and security.
US09558906B2
An electrical switch is disclosed, especially an electrical circuit breaker, including an overcurrent tripping device which, in the event of an overcurrent situation, switches off the flow of current through the switch; and a thermal tripping device which, in the event of a thermal overload, switches off the flow of current through the switch. In at least one embodiment, the overcurrent tripping device includes a first shaft which is disposed such that, in the event of an overcurrent situation, it is rotated from a first position into a second position and thereby indicates the overcurrent situation; and the thermal tripping device includes a second shaft which is disposed such that, it is rotated in the event of a thermal overload and is also rotated as well in the event of a rotation of the first shaft and when rotated initiates a switching-off of the switch.
US09558883B2
Methods and apparatus are provided for detecting a non-intended object of power reception by a power transmitter. Power transmission for communication is performed, when the load change is sensed that has a value greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold. It is determined whether a subscription request, for subscribing to a network is received within a predetermined time period. The power transmission for communication is stopped when the subscription request is not received within the predetermined time period. Power is transmitted to a power receiver that has transmitted the subscription request, when the subscription request is received within the predetermined time period. It is determined whether a leakage power value exceeds an allowable range, when the power state report is received from the power receiver. The transmission of the power to the power receiver is stopped, when the leakage power value exceeds the allowable range.
US09558882B2
A power feeding coil unit includes a power feeding coil, and an auxiliary coil. The auxiliary coil is arranged not to interlink with a magnetic flux that interlinks with a power receiving coil that is arranged to face the power feeding coil during power feeding. An axial direction of the auxiliary coil is nonparallel to an opposing direction of the power feeding coil and the power receiving coil. A direction of circulation of a magnetic flux generated by the auxiliary coil is opposite to a direction of circulation of a magnetic flux generated by the power feeding coil.
US09558864B2
An electrical bus assembly includes a frame and a plurality of bus bar carriers connected to the frame. The bus bars are supported by the bus bar carriers in parallel spaced-apart relation. A first retainer cap is secured to a first one of the plurality of bus bar carriers located adjacent a first end of the frame. A second retainer cap is secured to a second one of the plurality of bus bar carriers located adjacent a second end of the frame. The first and second retainer caps limit axial movement of the bus bars relative to the plurality of carriers sufficiently to prevent escape of the bus bars from the carriers. A bus bar connector is also disclosed for supplying power to or from the bus bars. An electrical bus system includes a first and second bus bar assemblies and a jumper connector assembly.
US09558854B2
Systems and methods for providing override control for a feedwater pump recirculation valve are provided. According to one embodiment, a system may include a controller and a processor communicatively coupled to the controller. The processor may be configured to receive one or more measurements associated with pump motor power driving feedwater pump flow. The feedwater pump recirculation valve may be configured to maintain a predetermined minimum recirculation flow through the feedwater pump by regulating recirculation pump flow through a recirculation line. The processor may be also configured to calculate, based at least in part on the one or more measurements, the recirculation pump flow, and compare the recirculation pump flow to the predetermined minimum recirculation flow. Based at least in part on the comparing, the processor may selectively provide an override control signal to the feedwater pump recirculation valve to selectively modify the recirculation pump flow.
US09558852B2
System and method of selecting defective columns in NAND memory devices for repair. After locating the defective blocks and defective columns in a NAND memory device, a weight value is calculated for each defective block by dividing a total number of defective blocks that would be inherently repaired as a result of repairing the respective defective block by a number of defective data columns in the respective defective block. A defective block with the greatest weight value is selected for repair in which the defective columns in the selected block are substituted by redundant columns. Other defective blocks with defective columns having the same column addresses with the defective columns in the selected defective block are automatically selected for repair as well. Remaining defective columns are selected for repair by iteratively updating weight values and selecting a defective block that has the greatest weight value among the remaining defective blocks.
US09558845B2
Certain aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to a sampling network of a switched-capacitor integrator and a clocking scheme associated therewith, which may be used in an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), for example. The integrator generally includes five sets of switches which allow for a decreased switching frequency (e.g., halved) at an input stage of the integrator compared to conventional double sampling networks. As a result, the input impedance of the integrator may be increased (e.g., doubled), resulting in lower power consumption and reduced strain on driving circuitry.
US09558844B2
Various embodiments comprise apparatuses to assign unique device identifier values to addressable devices in a stacked package. In one embodiment, an apparatus is disclosed including a stacked package with at least two addressable devices. Each of the addressable devices includes data input and switch path circuitry, a shift register coupled to the data input and switch path circuitry, and a single through-substrate via (TSV) through which the unique device identifier values can be assigned. The single TSV is coupled to the data input and switch path circuitry and between adjacent ones of the at least two addressable devices. Additional apparatuses, systems, and methods are described.
US09558841B2
A circuit includes a fuse cell, a sense circuit and an output control circuit. The fuse cell includes an electrical fuse. The sense circuit is electrically coupled to the fuse cell and configured for generating a sense signal indicative of a programmed condition of the electrical fuse, at an output of the sense circuit. The output control circuit is electrically coupled to the output of the sense circuit, and the output control circuit is configured for latching the sense signal indicative of the electrical fuse having been programmed, during a read operation of the fuse cell.
US09558837B2
A semiconductor memory device includes a memory cell array, a sense amplifier, a register, a controller. The memory cell array includes a memory cell. The sense amplifier connects to the bit line. The register holds write data, and a write voltage. The controller outputs a busy signal. The controller causes the register to hold the write data and the write voltage upon receiving the first command, and resumes the write operation based on the write data and the write voltage held in the register upon receiving the resumption command.
US09558828B2
A semiconductor memory device includes a first NAND string and a second NAND string are connected to a bit line. One of the first and second NAND strings is selected by first to fourth select memory cells. At the write time, data is written in a first memory cell of the first NAND string selected by of the first to fourth select memory cells, then data is written in a second memory cell of the second NAND string selected at the same time as the first memory cell, data is written in a third memory cell adjacent to the first memory cell of the first NAND string and finally data is written in a fourth memory cell of the second NAND string selected at the same time as the third memory cell.
US09558824B2
To improve information retention resistance of a resistance change memory which requires high information retention resistance. On the assumption that a special data storage memory and a general-purpose data storage memory are distinguished from each other, a forming operation small in resistance rise rate is used for an information writing operation of the special data storage memory. A switching operation is used for information writing of the general-purpose data storage memory. That is, the special data storage memory is configured so as to store information while adapting an initial resistance state to “0” whereas adapting a low resistance state to “1”. On the other hand, the general-purpose data storage memory is configured so as to store information while adapting a high resistance state to “0” whereas adapting a low resistance state to “1”.
US09558818B2
A method for managing memory includes setting a state of a first memory cell to a first state representing a first data and setting a state of a second memory cell to a second state representing the first data. If the state of the second memory cell has changed to a third state representing a second data different from the first data, the method also includes changing the state of the second memory cell back to the second state.
US09558813B2
An array of programmable non-volatile devices, such as a nominal OTP cell, is operated such that a Vt representing a particular binary logic state is changed over time. This allows for re-programming and emulating a few times or multi-time programmable device.
US09558811B1
A circuit includes a latch circuit, a buffer transistor having a control terminal coupled to a first output of the latch, a first write transistor having a conduction terminal coupled to the first output and a control terminal coupled to a first write bitline, and a second write transistor having a conduction terminal coupled to a second output of the latch and a control terminal coupled to a second write bitline. A method of operating a memory cell circuit includes providing a first value on first and second write bitlines when a read operation is performed, and when a write operation is performed, providing first and second values on the first and second write bitlines, respectively, when a first storable value is to be stored, and providing the first and second value on the second and first write bitlines, respectively, when a second storable value is to be stored.
US09558803B2
Methods for sensing ferroelectric memory devices and apparatuses using the same have been disclosed. One such apparatus includes a ferroelectric memory cell coupled to a data line, a reference capacitance, and a common node coupled between the data line and the reference capacitance. A current mirror circuit is coupled to the data line and the reference capacitance. During a sense operation, the common node is configured to be at a fixed voltage and the current mirror circuit is configured to mirror displacement current from the reference capacitance to the ferroelectric memory cell.
US09558798B2
A receiving circuit that receives differential data strobe signals between a controller and a memory, the receiving circuit includes: a first receiver that compares one of the differential data strobe signals to the other, output a high logic value when the one of the differential data strobe signals is higher than the other, and output a low logic value when the one is lower than the other; a second receiver that compares one of the differential data strobe signals to a strobe reference voltage, output a high logic value when the one of the differential data strobe signals is higher than the strobe reference voltage, and output a low logic value when the one of the differential data strobe signals is lower than the strobe reference voltage; and a determination circuit that outputs a logical OR of an output of the first receiver and an output of the second receiver.
US09558797B2
A method and an apparatus for controlling current in an array cell is disclosed. The method includes applying a supply voltage to a first access point of a transistor, precharging a second access point of the transistor to a predetermined voltage, applying a control voltage to a third access point of the transistor, and discharging the second access point of the transistor to turn on the transistor which causes a current flow through the array cell connected to the transistor.
US09558794B2
A semiconductor memory device includes a memory cell array including a plurality of pages; a peripheral circuit suitable for performing a program operation and a read operation on the memory cell array; and a control logic suitable for controlling the peripheral circuit to apply first and second pass voltages respectively to first and second word lines adjacent to a selected word line during a program verify operation or the read operation.
US09558786B2
A system, method, and computer program product for producing a show. In an embodiment, the invention is directed to a production system having a first production path, a second production path, and a control system that causes the first production path to generate a show in a first aspect ratio (4:3), and that causes the second production path to generate the same show in a second aspect ratio (16:9). In another embodiment, the invention is directed to producing a show from live material and from archived material. This aspect of the invention operates by producing a first show comprising a plurality of stories, segmenting the first show, and storing the show segments in an archive. Then, the invention produces a second show using live portions as well as show segments retrieved from the archive. The invention is also directed to a media manager that interacts with a server. In some cases, the server is integrated with the production system. The media manager automatically assigns channels/ports of the server when accessing material stored in the server.
US09558782B2
In one embodiment, a data storage system includes a write channel for writing data to a storage medium, the write channel configured to utilize a partial reverse concatenated modulation code. The write channel includes logic adapted for encoding data sets using a C2 encoding scheme, logic adapted for adding a header to each subunit of the data sets, logic adapted for encoding the headers of the data sets with a first modulation encoding scheme, logic adapted for encoding data portions of the data sets with a second modulation encoding scheme, logic adapted for encoding portions of the one or more C2-encoded data sets using a C1 encoding scheme, logic adapted for combining the C1-encoded portions with the modulation-encoded headers of the C2-encoded data sets using a multiplexer, and logic adapted for writing the one or more combined C1 - and C2-encoded data sets to data tracks.
US09558777B2
According to one embodiment, a magnetic recording medium includes: a substrate, a seed layer positioned above the substrate, and a magnetic recording layer structure positioned above the seed layer. The magnetic recording layer structure includes: a first magnetic recording layer having a plurality of FePtCu magnetic grains and a first segregant, and a second magnetic recording layer positioned above the first magnetic recording layer, the second magnetic recording layer having a plurality of FePt magnetic grains and a second segregant, where a Curie temperature of the first magnetic recording layer is lower than a Curie temperature of the second magnetic recording layer.
US09558776B1
A product such as a magnetic recording tape, according to one embodiment, includes a flexible magnetic media having a substrate, a magnetic recording layer having cobalt therein, and an at least partially polycrystalline coating above the magnetic recording layer. A product according to another embodiment includes a flexible magnetic media having a substrate, a magnetic recording layer having cobalt therein, and coating above the magnetic recording layer. The coating includes a ceramic material.
US09558767B2
The CPPGMR element of the present invention has an orientation layer 12 formed on a substrate 11 to texture a Heusler alloy into a (100) direction, an underlying layer 13 that is an electrode for magneto-resistance measurement stacked on the orientation layer 12, a lower ferromagnetic layer 14 and an upper ferromagnetic layer 16 each stacked on the underlying layer 13 and made of a Heusler alloy, a spacer layer 15 sandwiched between the lower ferromagnetic layers 14 and the upper ferromagnetic layers 16, and a cap layer 17 stacked on the upper ferromagnetic layer 16 for surface-protection. This manner makes it possible to provide, inexpensively, an element using a current-perpendicular-to-plane giant magneto-resistance effect (CPPGMR) of a thin film having a trilayered structure of a ferromagnetic metal/a nonmagnetic metal/a ferromagnetic metal, thereby showing excellent performances.
US09558762B1
A system and method are provided for distinguishing between a plurality of sources based upon unconstrained acoustic signals captured therefrom. A spectrographic transformation is applied to time-captured segments of acoustic signals to generate a spectral vector for each. A selectively executed sparse decomposition includes in a training system mode simultaneous sparse approximation upon a joint corpus of spectral vectors for a plurality of acoustic signal segments from distinct sources. At least one sparse decomposition is executed for each spectral vector in terms of a representative set of decomposition atoms. Discriminant reduction executes during the training system mode to down-select from the representative set an optimal combination of atoms for cooperatively distinguishing acoustic signals emitted by different distinct sources. Classification is subsequently executed upon the sparse decomposition of an input acoustic signal segment unit to discover a degree of correlation for the input acoustic signal segment relative to each distinct source.
US09558758B1
A speech-controlled appliance that provides a user with an indication of when a speech input will likely not be acted upon by the device due to a poor signal-to-noise conditions. The device may provide this indication even without a speech input, so that the user may be informed that a command will not be acted upon before speaking the command. The indication may be, for example, lighting a visual indicator on the device, and/or outputting an audible notification via a speaker. The visual indicator may be a same indicator the device uses to indicate when its microphone(s) are muted so that the user will intuitively recognize that a speech command will not be acted upon by the device.
US09558753B2
In some embodiments, a pitch filter for filtering a preliminary audio signal generated from an audio bitstream is disclosed. The pitch filter has an operating mode selected from one of either: (i) an active mode where the preliminary audio signal is filtered using filtering information to obtain a filtered audio signal, and (ii) an inactive mode where the pitch filter is disabled. The preliminary audio signal is generated in an audio encoder or audio decoder having a coding mode selected from at least two distinct coding modes, and the pitch filter is capable of being selectively operated in either the active mode or the inactive mode while operating in the coding mode based on control information.
US09558744B2
An audio processing apparatus and an audio processing method are described. In one embodiment, the audio processing apparatus include an audio masker separator for separating from a first audio signal an audio material comprising a sound other than stationary noise and utterance meaningful in semantics, as an audio masker candidate. The apparatus also includes a first context analyzer for obtaining statistics regarding contextual information of detected audio masker candidates, and a masker library builder for building a masker library or updating an existing masker library by adding, based on the statistics, at least one audio masker candidate as an audio masker into the masker library, wherein audio maskers in the maker library are used to be inserted into a target position in a second audio signal to conceal defects in the second audio signal.
US09558740B1
Automatic speech recognition (ASR) processing including a feedback configuration to allow for improved disambiguation between ASR hypotheses. After ASR processing of an incoming utterance where the ASR outputs an N-best list including multiple hypotheses, the multiple hypotheses are passed downstream for further processing. The downstream further processing may include natural language understanding (NLU) or other processing to determine a command result for each hypothesis. The command results are compared to determine if any hypotheses of the N-best list would yield similar command results. If so, the hypothesis(es) with similar results are removed from the N-best list so that only one hypothesis of the similar results remains in the N-best list. The remaining non-similar hypotheses are sent for disambiguation, or, if only one hypothesis remains, it is sent for execution.
US09558728B2
A storage device stores a plurality of sets of tone setting information, each of the sets of tone setting information including one or more tone setting parameters. The storage device also stores, for each of the sets of tone setting information, a link ID identifying a link set in association with the set of tone setting information. Processing is performed to cause, based on the link IDs, settings of the tone setting parameters to match between a plurality of sets of the tone setting information having a same link ID. A selected set of the tone setting information is editable in accordance with a user operation. In accordance with the editing, processing is performed to cause a setting of any one of the tone setting parameters in one or more other sets of the tone setting information, having a same link ID as the link ID associated with the edited set of the tone setting information, to match a setting of the tone setting parameter in the edited set of the tone setting information.
US09558726B2
An automatic composition apparatus includes a processing unit. The processing unit performs (i) a calculation process of calculating a matching level of each chord progression data item for a motif including a plurality of note data items, with reference to a plurality of note connection rules each of which defines a connection relation of consecutive note types, and (ii) a melody generating process of generating a melody based on the motif and the chord progression data items which matching levels are calculated.
US09558719B2
An information processing apparatus comprising first and second display units for respectively displaying first and a second composite images for the two eyes of a user, comprising: a moving unit configured to move positions of the first and second display units; a detecting unit configured to detect moving amounts of the first and second display units; first and second image capturing units configured to respectively obtain first and second captured images; an extracting unit configured to generate first and second extracted images by respectively extracting portions of the first and second captured images in extraction ranges associated with the moving amounts; and a composite image generating unit configured to generate the first and second composite images by respectively compositing first and second CG images with the first and second extracted images.
US09558718B2
In one example, a method for transmitting video data includes capturing, by a source device, a plurality of tokens of graphical commands renderable into video data along with one or more texture elements; and generating, by the source device, a plurality of command frames that each correspond to at least one token of the plurality of tokens. In this example, each respective command frame of the plurality of command frames includes: an identification of at least one graphical command corresponding to the at least one token, and one or more arguments associated with the at least one token. In this example, the method also includes outputting, by the source device and for transmission to a sink device, the plurality of command frames.
US09558712B2
A computer implemented method of determining a latent image from an observed image is disclosed. The method comprises implementing a plurality of image processing operations within a single optimization framework, wherein the single optimization framework comprises solving a linear minimization expression. The method further comprises mapping the linear minimization expression onto at least one non-linear solver. Further, the method comprises using the non-linear solver, iteratively solving the linear minimization expression in order to extract the latent image from the observed image, wherein the linear minimization expression comprises: a data term, and a regularization term, and wherein the regularization term comprises a plurality of non-linear image priors.
US09558711B2
Disclosed are a display apparatus, a mobile apparatus, a system including the same, and a connection control method thereof. The display apparatus includes: a camera configured to receive second communication interface information displayed and supported by a mobile apparatus; and a controller configured to set up a communication connection with the mobile apparatus, based on first communication interface information supported by the display apparatus and the second communication interface information displayed and supported by the mobile apparatus and received through the camera.
US09558700B2
In a display device, first and second sub pixels arranged in juxtaposition between adjacent scan lines are lined alternately in a column direction in at least one of first and third columns of sub pixels; at least one of third and fourth sub pixels is arranged between adjacent scan lines in at least one of second and fourth columns of sub pixels; the first, second, third, and fourth sub pixels are included in an identical row of pixels and the first, second, third, and fourth columns of sub pixels; and a first pixel that is in an identical row of pixels and includes sub pixels of the first and second columns includes a sub pixel not present in a second pixel that is adjacent to the first pixel in a row direction and is included in the third and fourth columns.
US09558696B2
This specification relates to an electrophoretic display device, and particularly, to an electrophoretic display device capable of reducing power consumption by blocking a leakage current generated from a Power On Reset (POR) circuit which resets each driver Integrated Circuit (IC) at an initial period, whereby a transistor as an active element connected to a POR circuit may be turned on by applying a positive voltage, other than a power supply voltage, to a gate thereof at an image update period to drive a bias block, and thereafter turned off at an image static period, thereby blocking a leakage current and accordingly reducing power consumption.
US09558695B2
An image display apparatus according this invention includes: a light-emitting unit configured to emit light; a display panel configured to display an image by transmitting the light from the light-emitting unit at a transmittance based on an input image signal; and a control unit configured to set a plurality of lighting periods respectively having different lengths on a frame-by-frame basis and control lighting and extinction of the light-emitting unit in such a manner that the light-emitting unit is lit during the lighting periods and extinguished during a period other than the lighting periods, wherein the control unit makes the number of lighting periods within one frame larger when a brightness of the image is bright than when the brightness of the image is dark.
US09558691B2
A display apparatus is disclosed. The display apparatus includes a panel unit which comprises a plurality of sub pixels having different colors; a backlight unit which provides backlight to the panel unit using a white light source and a blue light source; an image processing unit which converts image data into first color frame data and second color frame data; a panel driving unit which turns on a first color sub pixel according to the first color frame data, and which turns on a second color sub pixel according to the second color frame data; a backlight driving unit for driving the backlight unit; and a control unit which controls the backlight driving unit to consecutively turn on the white light source and the blue light source according to operations of the panel driving unit. Accordingly, brightness may be enhanced.
US09558685B2
The present invention relates to a wall mounting-type flexible display, which can be mounted on a wall, the display comprising: a display panel having a bending portion having a bent peripheral area; a support bar for supporting the display panel by being in contact with the bending portion; and a bracket coupled to the support bar and fixed to a wall surface, wherein the bending portion of the display panel comprises at least two curved surfaces having at least one inflection point, and the first and second curved surfaces, which are adjacent to each other about the inflection point, may have different curvatures. The first curved surface is directly adjacent to the end portion of the display panel, the second curved surface is adjacent to the first curved surface while being spaced from the end portion of the display panel, and the curvature of the first curved surface may be larger than the curvature of the second curved surface.
US09558679B2
An organic release agent is vacuum deposited over a substrate and surface treated with a plasma or ion-beam source in a gas rich in oxygen-based functional groups to harden a very thin layer of the surface of the deposited layer in passivating environment. Aluminum is subsequently vacuum deposited onto the hardened release layer to form a very flat and specular thin film. The film is exposed to a plasma gas containing oxygen or nitrogen to passivate its surface. The resulting product is separated from the substrate, crushed to break up the film into aluminum flakes, and mixed in a solvent to separate the still extractable release layer from the aluminum flakes. The surface treatment of the release layer greatly reduces wrinkles in the flakes, improving the optical characteristics of the flakes. The passivation of the flake material virtually eliminates subsequent corrosion from exposure to moisture.
US09558677B2
A training system senses a user action that may expose the user to a threat, such as a cybersecurity threat. The user action may be in response to a mock attack delivered via a messaging service, a wireless communication service, a fake malware application or another device, service, system or mechanism. The system selects a training action from a collection of available training actions and causes the training action to be delivered to the user.
US09558670B1
A dynamic constraint avoidance route system automatically analyzes routes of aircraft flying, or to be flown, in or near constraint regions and attempts to find more time and fuel efficient reroutes around current and predicted constraints. The dynamic constraint avoidance route system continuously analyzes all flight routes and provides reroute advisories that are dynamically updated in real time. The dynamic constraint avoidance route system includes a graphical user interface that allows users to visualize, evaluate, modify if necessary, and implement proposed reroutes.
US09558663B2
Driving condition monitoring system and method includes animal detecting components that detect presence of an animal, each located in a stationary mounting structure in a vicinity of the travel surface and apart from the travel surface, and a vehicle detecting sensor coupled to each animal detecting component and that is activated to detect the presence of a vehicle within a set distance therefrom only when the animal detecting component coupled to the vehicle detecting sensor detects the presence of an animal in the vicinity of the animal detecting component. A communication system is coupled to each animal detecting component and communicates directly to the vehicle or occupant thereof, the detected presence of an animal in the vicinity of the animal detecting component when the vehicle detecting sensor coupled to the animal detecting component detects the presence of a vehicle within the set distance from the vehicle detecting sensor.
US09558659B1
Aspects of the disclosure relate to an autonomous vehicle that may detect other nearby vehicles and designate stationary vehicles as being in one of a short-term stationary state or a long-term stationary state. This determination may be made based on various indicia, including visible indicia displayed by the detected vehicle and traffic control factors relating to the detected vehicle. For example, the autonomous vehicle may identify a detected vehicle as being in a long-term stationary state based on detection of hazard lights being displayed by the detected vehicle, as well as the absence of brake lights being displayed by the detected vehicle. The autonomous vehicle may then base its control strategy on the stationary state of the detected vehicle.
US09558651B2
Convertible wireless remote controls for controlling a variety of media devices are described. The convertible wireless remote controls function in a non-PC mode and a PC mode. The convertible wireless remote controls transition between modes offering control of a variety of devices in the different modes and are shaped with usability and power consumption in mind.
US09558643B2
An emergency alert assembly includes a base unit that may be positioned within a control room of a maritime vessel. A base control circuit is positioned within the base unit. A plurality of actuators, a base transceiver, a display, a gps and an alarm are coupled to the base unit and the base control circuit. The base transceiver may be in electromagnetic communication with an external communications network. The base transceiver selectively initiates an alarm sequence when an individual falls overboard. The gps marks the coordinates of the maritime vessel when the base transceiver initiates the alarm sequence. The alarm emits an audible alert when the base transceiver initiates the alarm sequence. A power supply is coupled to the base unit and the base control circuit. A detection network monitors a perimeter of the maritime vessel. The detection network detects when the individual falls overboard.
US09558642B2
A method for operating a security and/or automation system is described. A sensor may identify when a first person is in a sleep state. The sensor may detect a disturbance in the sleep state, and alert a second person when the detected disturbance satisfies one or more disturbance parameters.
US09558638B2
The present invention relates to a security arrangement (1) comprising: a housing (2); a sensor arrangement (3) arranged in said housing; a camera device (4) arranged in said housing; and a communication unit (5) arranged in said housing; wherein said sensor arrangement is configured to detect movement of a door (6) being monitored by said security arrangement and said security arrangement is configured to in response to detection of movement of said door activate said camera device and take a picture, and wherein said security arrangement is configured to transmit a taken picture to a contact list utilizing said communication unit.
US09558631B2
A system for awarding a progressive prize includes a bank of gaming machines accepting different bets per play as selected by a player. A random number is selected from a predetermined fixed range of numbers that does not change during play of a gaming machine. The player is allotted one or more numbers for each credit bet. The allotted numbers represent a subset of the predetermined fixed range of numbers. A feature game is triggered for the progressive prize based on a numerical comparison between the selected random number and the number(s) allotted to the player. Certain embodiments provide a trigger condition for a feature outcome based on an event having a probability related to credits bet per game at a gaming machine. A probability of success in the feature game may be higher than a probability of success in the base game.
US09558625B2
While a player is playing one game on a gaming machine, the systems and methods described herein recommend other games to the player based on the player's real time game play, if the player is anonymous. Upon the player selecting a different game, the system may automatically transfers the player's credits between games or gaming machines. Each gaming machine may carry out one or more game.
US09558621B2
A method of operating a gaming system including a plurality of gaming machines and at least one server system. The method includes providing at least a first gaming service to each gaming machine by way of one or more first software processes and providing at least one second service common to a subset of the plurality of gaming machines, the second service implemented by one or more second software processes. The method also includes enabling inter-process interaction between at least one software process of the first service and at least one software process of the second service to enable interaction between the services. A server system, gaming machine and gaming system is also disclosed.
US09558619B2
A mobile gaming device may be a player's own personal tablet, smartphone, PDA, etc., with an application program installed via the internet for carrying out a remote gaming session. All gaming functions are carried out by a stationary gaming terminal communicating with the mobile device, such as by using WiFi. The mobile device operates as a user interface. If the communications link is temporarily broken during a game, the mobile device will create the appearance that the game is continuous, such as by continuing to spin reels, until communications are re-established. The reels will stop once the mobile device receives the final outcome from the gaming terminal. The player may pause the game to temporarily suspend the minimum game frequency rules. The mobile device may switch between gaming terminals. For 3D video, the original format may be adjusted for the mobile device. The gaming terminal may be a gaming machine.
US09558612B2
Disclosed is a method for enabling an augmented reality interaction system and a mobile device to overlay a virtual 3D component over a physical 3D component with which the virtual 3D component interacts. The method includes: enabling a user to capture a live camera image of a gaming machine cabinet via a camera on the mobile device; determining if there are image tags on the gaming machine cabinet in the live camera image; producing a virtual rendering of the gaming machine cabinet; determining virtual 3D components to be displayed over an image of a virtual gaming machine cabinet; comparing a virtual depth rendering of the virtual 3D components to a virtual depth rendering of the virtual gaming machine cabinet; and overlaying virtual 3D components without the subtracted elements onto a live camera image of the virtual gaming machine cabinet on a display of the mobile device.
US09558608B2
A locker rental system includes electronic lockers centrally managed by a locker manager. The locker manager is in communication with a separate external system, which handles admissions and sales for a venue. Users are provided with a unique external identification (ID) code for purposes such as admission to the venue. Determinative sequences of the external ID codes are provided to the locker manager as validation codes. When the external ID code is scanned, the locker manager validates the external ID code using the validation codes. A valid external ID code may be used to rent and access lockers in the locker system. In some implementations, locker rights may be sold through the external system and details of the transaction provided to the locker manager. If the external ID code is valid, the locker manager generates a rental plan.
US09558601B2
A method for detecting vehicle system faults includes receiving, with a processor, a plurality of sensor signals from one or more sensors; thresholding, with the processor, the plurality of sensor signals for each respective sensor substantially in real time; and generating, with the processor, abnormal derivative frequency values for each of the plurality of thresholded sensor signals in real time and determining an operational status of at least each of the one or more sensors based on the abnormal derivative frequency values.
US09558600B2
A duty cycle recording system and method is disclosed for a vehicle with a drivetrain having a plurality of components and sensors. The duty cycle recording system may include a control unit and communication link. The control unit may receive sensor readings, compute damage estimates for drivetrain components based on the readings, and compute estimated remaining life (ERL) estimates based on the damage estimates. The communication link may transmit the computed damage and ERL estimates. The control unit may sample transmission torque and speed sensor readings, and for each sample may populate a three-dimensional histogram of transmission torque and speed the vehicle has experienced.
US09558598B2
A vehicle head unit may receive a request, from a user device and by the head unit, to establish communication with a control device of a vehicle. The control device may be in communication with the head unit via a vehicle communication network associated with the vehicle. The head unit may establish communication between the user device and the control device based on the received request. The head unit may forward a message between the user device and the control device based on the established communication. The message may be forwarded between the user device and the control device via the head unit.
US09558593B2
There is provided a terminal apparatus including: a photographing portion configured to photograph a subject which is present in a reality space; an additional information acquiring portion configured to acquire additional information which is made to correspond to an object an image of which is recognized within a photographed image; and an additional information storing portion configured to store therein the acquired additional information in relation to either user identification information or photographing apparatus identification information.
US09558589B2
A medical image display apparatus includes a three-dimensional image obtaining unit that obtains a three-dimensional image of a subject, a tubular tissue region obtaining unit that obtains a tubular tissue region representing a tubular tissue of the subject from the three-dimensional image, an endpoint identification unit that identifies, if the tubular tissue region obtained by the tubular tissue region obtaining unit is separated, each endpoint of the two tubular tissue regions connecting to the separating portion, a cross-sectional image generation unit that generates a cross-sectional image that includes the two endpoints identified by the endpoint identification unit, a display control unit that displays the cross-sectional image generated by the cross-sectional image generation unit and a three-dimensional image of the tubular tissue region, and a route receiving unit that receives input of a route connecting the two tubular tissue regions.
US09558579B2
An apparatus and a method synthesize additional information while rendering an object in a 3D-based terminal. A disparity of the additional information is determined with a value that is equal to a disparity of an object or greater than the disparity of the object by a predetermined value in a situation in which the object hidden by the additional information is to be synthesized using a depth buffer. The additional information is overlaid on an image with consideration of the determined disparity of the additional information.
US09558578B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for animation. An animation application creates an animation environment. An input device receives input from a user to the animation application. An output device displays output to the user of the animation application. The animation application is configured to have a mode of operation that includes displaying, through the output device, a 3D animation view of the animation environment overlain by a 2D edit view of the animation environment.
US09558575B2
Methods and devices for selecting objects in images are described. In one example aspect, a method includes: receiving stereoscopic image data, the stereoscopic image data includes a first image obtained from a first camera and a second image obtained from a second camera; identifying an object in the first image by analyzing the first image and the second image; displaying the first image, the identified object in the first image being selectable.
US09558570B2
Disclosed is a method for performing X-ray Computed Tomography scanning, the method including acquiring a plurality of images of an object, obtaining an initial image from the plurality of images, calculating NonLocal weight of the initial image, utilizing a current image estimation and registered prior image, performing a successive over-relaxation optimization to yield a new image estimation with an intensity of the new image estimation equal or greater than zero, performing a cycle update, generating an image of the object utilizing the new image estimation obtained from the optimization, and outputting a resultant image.
US09558564B1
A motion detector comprising a sensor apparatus and a calculator arranged for: generating first and second successive frames comprising each a 3-D cloud of points, wherein each point represents a position in space of a surface of at least an object in the field of vision of said sensor apparatus; transforming each of the first and second frames by: mapping each cloud of 3-D points into a 2-D grid of cells associated each to a sequence of predetermined volumes; and associating to each cell of the 2-D grid of cells a sequence of the lists of the points contained in corresponding volumes of the sequence of predetermined volumes; comparing the sequences of lists associated to the same cells of the 2-D grids obtained for the first and second frames; and indicating that motion occurred based on the sequence of lists being different in the first and second frames.
US09558561B2
A semiautomatic drawing tool is configured to generate an image segmentation contour that corresponds to a visible edge within a digital image. Individual contour points define the shape and location of the image segmentation contour, and the semiautomatic drawing tool determines the locations of these contour points based on both user input and on the location of a steep luminance gradient that corresponds to the visible edge. The semiautomatic drawing tool determines the location of a particular point of the image segmentation contour based on the current location of an input device pointer, e.g., a cursor, the location of the steepest luminance gradient, and the location of previously selected points of the image segmentation contour.
US09558559B2
An approach is provided for processing and/or facilitating a processing of one or more images to determine camera location information, camera pose information, or a combination thereof associated with at least one camera capturing the one or more images, wherein the camera location information, the camera pose information, or a combination thereof is represented according to a global coordinate system. The approach involves causing, at least in part, an association of the camera location information, the camera pose information, or a combination thereof with the one or more images as meta-data information.
US09558557B2
A multi-user augmented reality (AR) system operates without a previously acquired common reference by generating a reference image on the fly. The reference image is produced by capturing at least two images of a planar object and using the images to determine a pose (position and orientation) of a first mobile platform with respect to the planar object. Based on the orientation of the mobile platform, an image of the planar object, which may be one of the initial images or a subsequently captured image, is warped to produce the reference image of a front view of the planar object. The reference image may be produced by the mobile platform or by, e.g., a server. Other mobile platforms may determine their pose with respect to the planar object using the reference image to perform a multi-user augmented reality application.
US09558556B2
A three-dimensional object detection device includes an image capturing unit, a detection area setting unit, an image conversion unit, a three-dimensional object detection unit, and a relative movement speed calculation unit. The detection area setting unit sets a detection area in a lateral direction rearward of the host vehicle. The image conversion unit converts a viewpoint of the images obtained by the image capturing unit to create bird's-eye view images. The three-dimensional object detection unit detects a presence of a three-dimensional object within the detection area by vehicle width direction detection processing. The detection area setting unit widens the detection area rearward with respect to a direction of vehicle progress when the three-dimensional object is detected in the detection area and the relative movement speed of the three-dimensional object, as calculated by relative movement speed calculation unit, is at a predetermined value or greater.
US09558550B2
Method for the automatic analysis of an image of a biological sample with respect to a pathological relevance, wherein a)local features of the image are aggregated to a global feature of the image using a bag of visual word approach, b) step a) is repeated at least two times using different methods resulting in at least two bag of word feature datasets, c) computation of at least two similarity measures using the bag of word features obtained from a training image dataset and bag of word features from the image, d) the image training dataset comprising a set of visual words, classifier parameters, including kernel weights and bag of word features from the training images, e) the computation of the at least two similarity measures is subject to an adaptive computation of kernel normalization parameters and/or kernel width parameters, f) for each image one score is computed depending on the classifier parameters and kernel weights and the at least two similarity measures, the at least one score being a measure of the certainty of one pathological category compared to the image training dataset, g) for each pixel of the image a pixel-wise score is computed using the classifier parameters, the kernel weights, the at least two similarity measures, the bag of word features of the image, all the local features used in the computation of the bag of word features of the image and the pixels used in the computations of the local features, h) the pixel-wise score is stored as a heatmap dataset linking the pixels of the image to the pixel-wise scores.
US09558548B2
A system includes a memory and a processor device operatively coupled to the memory to obtain an inspected noise-indicative value representative of an analyzed pixel of an inspected image of an inspected object, and a reference noise-indicative value representative for each of multiple reference pixels of the inspected image. The processor device computes a representative noise-indicative value based on the inspected noise-indicative value and multiple reference noise-indicative values, calculates a defect-indicative value based on an inspected value representative of the analyzed pixel and determines a presence of a defect in the analyzed pixel based on the representative noise-indicative value and the defect-indicative value.
US09558541B2
Disclosed herein is a method of correcting an image overlap area. More specifically, the method includes steps of identifying an overlap area between images projected by a plurality of projectors, determining a difference in at least one of brightness and color between the overlap area and non-overlap area of images, analyzing RGB information of a projected image, and controlling brightness or color of an image projected on the overlap area or the non-overlap area in response to the RGB information.
US09558524B2
Tools, strategies, and techniques are provided for evaluating the identities of different entities to protect individual consumers, business enterprises, and other organizations from identity theft and fraud. Risks associated with various entities can be analyzed and assessed based on analysis of social network data, professional network data, or other networking connections, among other data sources. In various embodiments, the risk assessment may include calculating an authenticity score based on the collected network data.
US09558502B2
In one aspect, a system includes a transaction handler, a data warehouse to store transaction data recording transactions processed at the transaction handler and to store account data identifying an account of a user, and a portal to receive a user selection of a first portion of an advertisement announcing a reward. The portal is to track user interactions associated with the advertisement to determine whether the user is qualified for the reward. Upon a determination that the user has completed the user interactions for the reward, the transaction handler is to provide the reward to the account of the user via statement credit.
US09558497B2
Internet Domain Name Fraud Risk Assessment using a system of data element collection and computation. Data elements associated with the Internet Domain Name are acquired from internal and external data sources, captured, evaluated, and then assigned a value. Data acquisition may include use of domain information, databases, corporate and social media services, and search engine services. Using the assigned values, an Internet Domain Name category type and a Fraud Risk Score are computed and then displayed to a user along with additional information, explanations and recommendations.
US09558493B2
A registered provider device encrypts provider input related to a transaction between the provider device and one of many registered user devices to create an encrypted one-time-use provider code (the encryption is performed using an encryption key produced, in part, using a uniquely sequenced number generated by a sequencer maintained by the provider device). Similarly, a provider institution app encrypts user input to create an encrypted one-time-use user code using an encryption key produced, in part, using a uniquely sequenced number generated by a user sequencer maintained by the user device. The provider and provider institution app independently transmit their different encrypted one-time-use codes to an intermediate entity, which decrypts the encrypted codes using one-time-use encryption keys produced using sequencers maintained by the intermediate entity. This decryption generates an authorization request. The intermediate entity obtains an authorization decision regarding the authorization request from the authorization entity.
US09558487B2
An implementation of a system and method for processing transfer rides associated with at least one public transit network is provided. The system and method preprocess transactions to consolidate or eliminate unnecessary transactions with a financial institution clearing and settlement network.
US09558485B2
A two step method for transferring money from a sender to a recipient includes entering information relating to the transfer into a near field communication (NFC) enabled device of the sender. The device is then placed in contact with or close proximity to a recipient's device a first time, causing the sender's device to establish an NFC link between the two devices and to gather information relating to the recipient via the NFC link. The sender's device is then placed in contact with or close proximity to the recipient's device a second time, causing it to transmit the information relating to the transfer and the recipient to a third party service provider via another network, e.g., the Internet, thereby causing the service provider to transfer the money from an account of the sender to an account of the recipient.
US09558483B2
Systems and methods are provided for transferring value from to a payment account associated with a virtual wallet of a consumer. The value can be transferred using voucher-based transactions or cash-based transactions. One exemplary method includes receiving, at a computing device, a load request to transfer value to a payment account associated with a consumer. The load request includes the value to be transferred and a directory number for a mobile device associated with the consumer. The method also includes determining an account number for the consumer's payment account, at the computing device, based on the directory number for the consumer's mobile device and generating, by the computing device, a request indicating the value to transfer to the payment account and the account number for the consumer's payment account.
US09558480B2
A phone-on-file opt-in method is described. A phone-on-file opt-in request is received at the billing server including a msisdn and a merchant supplied unique consumer identifier. The billing server confirms the phone-on-file opt-in with a consumer device and records a phone-on-file opt-in status as active if the first phone-on-file is confirmed. A charge method includes receiving, at the billing server, a charge API call from a merchant server including at least one identifier and an amount, determining a phone-on-file opt-in status corresponding to the identifier at the billing server and transmitting a request to charge a user account to a carrier server if the phone-on-file opt-in status is active, but not if the phone-on-file opt-in status is inactive, the request including an amount corresponding to the amount received in the charge API call.
US09558465B1
A generic transaction generator framework for testing a network-based production service may work in conjunction with a product-specific transaction creator module that executes transactions on the service. The transaction creator module may include runtime-discoverable information to communicate product specific details to the framework. Runtime-discoverable information may identify initialization methods, terminate methods, transaction types, transaction methods, transaction dependencies as well as testing parameters, such as transaction rate, testing period and a desired distribution of transaction types. The framework may generate and execute various test transactions and collect performance metrics regarding how well the service performed the test transactions.
US09558464B2
A method is implemented in a computer infrastructure having computer executable code tangibly embodied on a computer readable storage medium having programming instructions. The programming instructions are operable to receive one or more risk factors, receive one or more contexts, identify one or more context relationships and associate the one or more contexts with the one or more risk factors. Additionally, the programming instructions are operable to map the one or more risk factors for an associated context to a software defect related risk consequence to determine a risk model and execute a risk-based testing based on the risk model to determine a defect related risk evaluation for a software development project.
US09558463B2
In one example, a system is provided. The system includes a portable, in-field unit including: a tag reader to acquire an ID tag identifier from a tag located in or on a physical item positioned within functional range of the in-field unit tag reader; a digital processor arranged for executing software code stored in the in-field unit responsive to the acquired ID tag identifier, the stored software code including—a customer application layer; and a database adapter component configured to provide database services to the processor; wherein the database services include accessing a stored database to acquire stored data associated with the acquired ID tag identifier.
US09558452B2
Technologies are generally provided far a hierarchical, feature teed statistical model that cm be used for personalized classification or predictions within a community of users. Personalization refers to learning about the habits and characteristics of individual users and adapting user experiences based on that learning. The model may be used in a communication application to predict user actions on incoming email messages and to help users triage email by making personalized suggestions based on the model predictions. A community of users associated together with the communication application may be incorporated together into a single model to enable for continuous fine-grain interaction between intelligence learned from the community of users as a whole and that learned from individual users. The single model may allow a seamless progression between predictions for a completely new user based on community observations and highly personalized predictions for a long-term user based on individual observations.
US09558446B2
A method for planning trips to transport passengers on the basis of a preferably statistical predictive model, in particular to plan capacities, optimize the utilization of vehicle fleets, determine the routes to be taken, etc., preferably in short-distance passenger traffic, wherein the predictive model takes into account, using parameters, characteristic passenger patterns over the course of a day, week, and/or year, is characterized in that the predictive model additionally uses weather-specific parameters.
US09558427B2
A shape similarity metric can be provided that indicates how similar two or more shapes are. A difference between a union of the shapes and an intersection of the shapes can be used to determine the similarity metric. The shape similarity metric can provide an average distance between the shapes. Different processes for determining shapes can be evaluated for accuracy based on the shape similarity metric. New or alternative shape-determining processes can be compared for accuracy against other shape-determining processes including reference shape-determining processes. Shape similarity metrics can be determined for two-dimensional shapes and three-dimensional shapes.
US09558422B2
The techniques introduced here include a system and method for transcoding multimedia content based on the results of content analysis. The determination of specific transcoding parameters, used for transcoding multimedia content, can be performed by utilizing the results of content analysis of the multimedia content. One of the results of the content analysis is the determination of image type of any images included in the multimedia content. The content analysis uses one or more of several techniques, including analyzing content metadata, examining colors of contiguous pixels in the content, using histogram analysis, using compression distortion analysis, analyzing image edges, or examining user provided inputs. Transcoding the multimedia content can include adapting the content to the constraints in delivery and display, processing and storage of user computing devices.
US09558421B2
Systems, devices, and methods disclosed herein may apply a computational spatial-temporal analysis to assess pixels between temporal and/or perspective view imagery to determine imaging details that may be used to generate image data with increased signal-to-noise ratio.
US09558418B2
A document processing device convertible between a first configuration and a second configuration includes an input receptacle, a transport mechanism, a scanner, and a convertible output area. The input receptacle is configured to receive documents including currency bills therein. The transport mechanism is configured to transport the documents along a transport path from the input receptacle. The scanner is positioned along the transport path and is configured to scan at least a portion of each of the documents transported to generate data associated therewith. The convertible output area is configured to be selectively coupled with a first output assembly and a second output assembly.
US09558416B2
Disclosed are methods and systems for generating digital fantasy sports memorabilia including: providing a digital fantasy sports memorabilia signor with a digital fantasy sports photograph, a digital fantasy sports jersey, or a combination thereof; receiving at least one of an electronic signature or an electronic written message from the fantasy sports digital memorabilia signor to be embedded in the digital fantasy sports photograph, the digital fantasy sports jersey, or the combination thereof; embedding the at least one of an electronic signature or an electronic written message from the digital fantasy sports memorabilia signor into the digital fantasy sports photograph, the digital fantasy sports jersey, or a combination thereof to form the generated digital fantasy sports memorabilia; sending the generated digital fantasy sports memorabilia including the electronic signature and the electronic written message to a verification service to verify authenticity of the electronic signature and electronic written message in the generated digital fantasy sports memorabilia; and delivering the generated fantasy sports memorabilia to a digital fantasy sports receiver.
US09558401B2
Embodiments are provided for content item classification. In some embodiments, an image for classification is received, a compact representation for the image having values indicative of pixel values within the received image is generated, a plurality of angle measurements for possible edges of at least one potential document within the received image are determined, and the image is classified using said compact representation and said plurality of angle measurements.
US09558381B2
A wireless scanner is described that performs a pairing operation with a wireless scanner base before commencing scanning operations in a wireless scanner network. Radio frequency identification (RFID) is used to achieve the pairing operation of the wireless scanner with the wireless scanner base by using an RFID tag associated with the wireless scanner base. The RFID tag in the wireless scanner base may contain pairing information such as a network address of the wireless scanner base for use in automatically establishing a wireless communication session with the wireless scanner base in accordance with another wireless protocol.
US09558375B2
A device includes one or more registers and circuitry. The circuitry subjects a key having a number of bits to a first function which takes a selection value into account, generating a result having a number of bits which is twice the number of bits of the key, and stores the result in the one or more registers. In response to a call for the key, the circuitry subjects the result stored in the one or more registers to a second function which takes the selection value into account to generate a response having a same value as the key.
US09558362B2
Data encryption using an external arguments encryption algorithm: it is an encryption system which uses symmetrical secret key algorithms but the operating arguments thereof and/or the actual encryption/decryption algorithm is/are unknown before use and is/are created at the time of encryption and then destroyed but is/are stored in an independent or non-independent computer or non-computer system (paper, human memory, other non-computer media, etc.) of the system which encrypts or decrypts the data/message for the subsequent reuse thereof at the time of decryption. It will be used as a client/server system, wherein the client uses a set of variable arguments and/or the actual algorithm which is/are stored, however, outside the actual client in the server. The operating arguments and/or the actual encryption/decryption algorithm may be generated/used both by the client and by the server but is/are stored exclusively in the server (whether this is a computer or non-computer storage system) in a manner independent of the client, which makes it possible to control and/or limit the use thereof.
US09558352B1
A computer system identifies malicious Uniform Resource Locator (URL) data items from a plurality of unscreened data items that have not been previously identified as associated with malicious URLs. The system can execute a number of pre-filters to identify a subset of URLs in the plurality of data items that are likely to be malicious. A scoring processor can score the subset of URLs based on a plurality of input vectors using a suitable machine learning model. Optionally, the system can execute one or more post-filters on the score data to identify data items of interest. Such data items can be fed back into the system to improve machine learning or can be used to provide a notification that a particular resource within a local network is infected with malicious software.
US09558343B2
To control privileges and access to resources on a per-process basis, an administrator creates a rule that may be applied to modify a token of a process. The rule may include an application-criterion set and changes to be made to the groups and/or privileges of the token. The rule may be set as a policy within a group policy object (GPO), where a GPO is associated with one or more groups of computers or users. When a GPO containing a rule is applied to a computer, a driver installed on the computer may access the rule(s) anytime a logged-on user executes a process. If the executed process satisfies the criterion set of a rule, the changes contained within the rule are made to the process token, and the user has expanded and/or contracted access and/or privileges for only that process.
US09558342B2
An arrangement for storing a data set in an ECU in a vehicle control system, wherein the arrangement includes a computer connected to the vehicle, where the computer is adapted to execute an access application, where the access application includes vehicle specific information and service action specific information, and where the information is encrypted, where the arrangement is adapted to decrypt the vehicle specific information and the service action specific information, to unlock the vehicle ECU by sending a password from the computer to the ECU, to perform a service action by storing service action specific information in the ECU, to lock the ECU by sending a lock command to the ECU from the computer, and to corrupt the access application software such that it cannot be used again.
US09558324B2
A medical general intelligence computer system and computer-implemented methods analyze morpho-physiological numbers for determining a risk of an emergent disease state, determining an emergent disease state, predicting a pre-emergent disease state, determining a pre-emergent disease state, and/or predicting a risk of a pre-emergent disease state.
US09558322B2
The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for facilitating trusted handling of genomic and/or other sensitive information. Certain embodiments may use a virtualized execution environment to execute code and/or programs that wish to access and/or otherwise use genomic and/or other sensitive information. In some embodiments, data requests from the code and/or programs may be routed through a transparent data access proxy configured to transform requests and/or associated responses to protect the integrity of the genomic and/or other sensitive information.
US09558321B2
A tool in a bioinformatics pipeline can include a smart wrapper and an executable. The smart wrapper can cause the executable to analyze the sequence data it receives and can also selectively change to the pipeline when circumstances warrant. In certain aspects, a system for genomic analysis includes a processor coupled to a non-transitory memory. The system is operable to present to a user a plurality of genomic tools organized into a pipeline. At least a first one of the tools comprises an executable and a wrapper script. The system can receive instructions from the user and sequence data—instructions that call for the sequence data to be analyzed by the pipeline—and select, using the wrapper script, a change to the pipeline.
US09558317B2
A system for limiting engine torque of a four-wheel-drive motor vehicle, including an actuator that is controlled and configured to distribute the engine torque to the drive wheels, a computer calculating at least one variable characteristic of an operation of the vehicle, and a module for limiting the engine torque. In addition, the limitation system includes a mechanism for deactivating the module for limiting the engine torque according to the variable characteristic of the operation of the engine.
US09558314B2
A method of designing a circuit layout includes calculating a typical value representing performance characteristics for the circuit layout based on a graphic database system (GDS) file. The method further includes calculating an adjustment value based on the GDS file and at least one of a CAP corner vector or a RES corner vector, wherein the CAP corner vector is based on an eigenvector of a parasitic capacitance of the circuit layout, and the RES corner vector is based on an eigenvector of a parasitic resistance of the circuit layout. The method further includes calculating a corner value based on the typical value and the adjustment value. The method further includes modifying the GDS file if performance characteristics of the corner value fail to satisfy performance requirements of the circuit layout.
US09558311B2
A method for determining an area of a region for receiving a heat sink on a surface of a chip-supporting substrate is disclosed. The method can include determining, in response to a specified voltage drop associated with substrate wiring, a first set of wiring cross-sectional areas and corresponding lengths that satisfy the specified voltage drop. The method can also include determining, by selecting, in response to a specified thermal resistance associated with substrate wiring and insulating layers, from the first set, a second set of wiring cross-sectional areas and corresponding lengths that satisfy the specified thermal resistance. The method can also include selecting, from a set of placement areas corresponding to the second set of wiring cross-sectional areas and corresponding lengths, a heat sink placement area that is greater than a lower size for a placement area and less than an upper size for a placement area.
