US09813763B2
A method for performing in-field discovery, diagnosis and/or repair of a set-top device includes the steps of: determining whether at least a first set-top device is non-responsive to a head-end via a communication channel established between the head-end and the first set-top device; executing a search and rescue (SAR) module on the first set-top device when it is determined that the first set-top device is non-responsive to the head-end; and re-establishing communications between the first set-top device and the head-end by the SAR module executing on the first set-top device.
US09813761B2
One or more circuits for use in a transceiver that is collocated with a satellite dish, may receive a satellite signal carrying media content, and remove content protection from the received media content. After removing the first content protection, the one or more circuits may apply second content protection to the media content. The content protection applied by the one or more circuits may adhere to a different protocol, utilize different keys, and/or otherwise be distinguishable from the content protection that was removed. After applying the content protection, the one or more circuits may transmit the media content onto one or more links between the satellite dish and one or more client devices. The removal of the content protection may comprise descrambling and/or decrypting the media content. The application of the content protection may comprise scrambling and/or encrypting the media content.
US09813754B2
Transmitting and receiving 3D video content via an Internet protocol (IP) stream are described. 3D video content may be transmitted in a single IP stream and adjusted by a device associated with a display for rendering the 3D video content in a desired manner. 3D content also may be transmitted in a plurality of IP streams and a device associated with a display for rendering the 3D content may determine which of the plurality of IP streams to decode based upon a mode of operation of the device. A device receiving 3D video content may be configured to adjust the appearance of the content displayed on a display associated with the device. Such adjusting of the appearance may include moving the position of the rendered 3D video content within the display, positioning in band and/or out of band content in front of, behind, or within the rendered 3D video content.
US09813740B2
A method and apparatus for streaming multimedia data over a network is provided. A playlist file for a selected multimedia presentation is downloaded by a client device over the network from a streaming server using a transfer protocol. The playlist file provides a list of URIs for media files each providing compressed video data corresponding to a segment of the multimedia presentation. The compressed video data includes reference frames used for video compression. A data file that is associated with the playlist file is also downloaded by the client device over the network from the streaming server using a transfer protocol and provides information identifying a location, a size, and a time stamp for each the reference frames contained in the media files listed by the playlist file. This information can be used by the client device to perform trick plays and to switch and stitch between variant streams.
US09813737B2
Methods and devices for video coding are described. If an intra-prediction mode to be used in encoding a block of residual data is in a specific predetermined class, e.g., the horizontal class, then at least a portion of a quantized transformed block of residual data is transposed during encoding. Likewise, if an intra-prediction mode that was used to generate an encoded block of residual data is in such a class, then at least a portion of an entropy-decoded block of residual data is transposed during decoding.
US09813734B2
A device and method for decoding, from a bitstream including encoded data, intra prediction modes indicated for decoding an image. Context adaptive binary arithmetic decoding is performed using a variable probability to generate decoded luma context-dependent segments. Context adaptive binary arithmetic decoding is performed using a variable probability to generate a decoded chroma context-dependent segment. Bypass decoding using a fixed probability is performed to generate decoded luma context-independent segments. Luma intra prediction modes are derived from one of the decoded luma context-dependent segments and a corresponding one of the decoded luma context-independent segments. A chroma intra prediction mode is derived from the decoded chroma context-dependent segment.
US09813732B2
Systems and methods are provided for encoding raw image content encoded using one or more virtual intra-frames. In an exemplary method, a stream of video content may be encoded to generate compressed video data that includes an intra-frame and a plurality of corresponding inter-frames. The compressed video data may be stored within a buffer, and when the amount of data in the buffer exceeds a threshold value, a virtual intra-frame may be computed based on decoded inter-frame data. The virtual intra-frame may be output for storage in the buffer.
US09813724B2
A process for determining the selection of filters and input samples is provided for scalable video coding. The process provides for re-sampling using video data obtained from an encoder or decoder process of a base layer (BL) in a multi-layer system to improve quality in Scalable High Efficiency Video Coding (SHVC). In order to accommodate other applications such as interlace/progressive scalability and to increase the resolution of the alignment between layers, it is proposed that the phase offset adjustment parameters be signaled.
US09813717B2
An image coding method includes: generating a predicted block; calculating a residual block; calculating quantized coefficients by performing transform and quantization on the residual block; calculating a coded residual block by performing inverse quantization and inverse transform on the quantized coefficients; generating a temporary coded block; determining whether or not an offset process is required, to generate first flag information indicating a result of the determination; executing the offset process on the temporary coded block when it is determined that the offset process is required; and performing variable-length coding on the quantized coefficients and the first flag information.
US09813714B2
An image processing device and method that enable suppression of a reduction in coding efficiency. The image processing device encodes an image to generate encoded data, and set, as syntax of the generated encoded data, syntax whose semantics is set so that a default quantization matrix having the same size as a block size that is a unit of processing in which quantization is performed is referred to when in a copy mode in which a quantization matrix is copied, quantization matrix reference data identifying a reference destination of the quantization matrix matches quantization matrix identification data identifying the quantization matrix. The device and method can be applied to an image processing device.
US09813712B2
An apparatus for generating a residual block according to an embodiment includes an entropy decoding unit configured to decode residual signals to generate quantized coefficient components; an inverse scanning unit configured to determine an inverse scan pattern and generate a quantized block using the inverse scan pattern; an inverse quantization unit configured to derive a quantization parameter and inversely quantize the quantized block using the quantization parameter to generate a transformed block; and an inverse transform unit configured to inversely transform the transformed block to generate a residual block.
US09813710B2
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for encoding/decoding a video using a split layer. The video encoding/decoding method generates an encoded image data by encoding a current block partitioned into a plurality of subblocks, generates an encoded partition information data by encoding partition information of the current block, generates a bitstream including the encoded image data and the encoded partition information data, and then reconstructs the video image from the generated bitstream. According to the present disclosure, when encoding a high resolution video with variable sized blocks, various block shapes may be used for the encoding, and efficient encoding and decoding of the block partition information can improve the compression efficiency.
US09813699B2
A marker generating method is provided for facilitating the finding of positions which correspond to one another among a plurality of images associated with a video signal. A position within an image (800) associated with a video signal is selected, with a cursor (802, 804) to display a marker (812, 822-826) at a position corresponding to the selected position, in a different image (810, 820) associated with the video signal.
US09813687B1
An image-capturing device includes: an image-capturing element in which a plurality of pixels, which have different spectral sensitivities, are arrayed in a two-dimensional matrix manner, and phase-difference detection pixels are arranged as some of the pixels; a phase-difference pixel discriminating unit that classifies the phase-difference detection pixels arranged in the image-capturing element as first pixels, which have a spectral sensitivity at which degradation of image quality is more difficult to discern for human eyes than the other spectral sensitivities, and second pixels which are the phase-difference detection pixels other than the first pixels; and a phase-difference pixel value correcting unit that subjects the first pixels classified by the phase-difference pixel discriminating unit to correction processing of a lower precision than that for the second pixels.
US09813684B2
Some embodiments include an underwater projection system having a water feature that includes a first underwater light niche. A user interface is configured to upload an image from a user to a controller. A projector is disposed in the first underwater light niche and is configured to project the image onto an underwater surface of the water feature. The controller is in communication with the user interface and the projector and the controller operates the projector.
US09813683B2
There is provided a light source control apparatus including an image change determination unit that determines presence or absence of at least one of a change of an image signal and the image signal, and a light source controller that reduces luminous output of a light source at a predetermined decreasing rate when the image change determination unit determines at least one of no change of the image signal and absence of the image signal.
US09813672B2
Described are systems and methods for helping a participant, who is represented in a remote space by a remote device, to understand the physical state of the remote device in the remote space. This is done through physical and virtual changes in their local space that reflect their own remote physical representation. For example, if their action in the local space causes the remote telepresence robot to rotate 90 degrees, their local display through which the control the robot might rotate 9 degrees. The described methods will help participants have a greater sense of presence in a remote space.
US09813669B2
According to at least one embodiment, a computer-implemented method to manage incoming communications is described. An incoming call may be received on a landline. One or more devices may be located within a predetermined area based at least in part on the receipt of the incoming call. The incoming call may be forwarded to the one or more devices based at least in part on the locating.
US09813658B2
A method for switching an electronic device's input interface is provides, as well as a computer program product for performing the method. The method includes acquiring information from an input device through at least one input interface of the electronic device in response to receiving an input selection request from a user, and displaying the information to the user in association with a corresponding input interface. An electronic device is also provided, the electronic device including at least one input interface, a processor configured to acquire information from an input device through the at least one input interface in response to receiving an input selection request from a user, and a display operable to display the information to the user in association with a corresponding input interface.
US09813654B2
Various aspects of a system and a method for transmitting data are disclosed herein. The method is included in a first electronic device. The first electronic device splits each frame of the video data into a plurality of partial resolution layers. The plurality of partial resolution layers comprises a base frame layer and one or more additional frame layers. The base frame layer and the one or more additional frame layers of frame of the video data are transmitted to a second electronic device.
US09813646B2
A solid-state imaging apparatus includes a first light-shielded pixel region including two or more rows of pixels each including a photoelectric converter which is shielded from light, an aperture pixel region including pixels each including a photoelectric converter which is not shielded from light, and a control unit configured to perform control such that a charge accumulation period for the pixels in the first light-shielded pixel region is longer than a charge accumulation period for the pixels in the aperture pixel region and time to read signals from the pixels in a first row of the first light-shielded pixel region is different from time to read signals from the pixels in a second row different from the first row of the first light-shielded pixel region.
US09813638B2
Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for a light painting live view. A method includes, in a device comprising at least a processor, a memory, a display and a camera device having an on-screen viewfinder, accessing the camera, capturing individual frames of footage, each of the captured frames being displayed through the on-screen viewfinder in cumulative succession, rendering the captured frames on a graphical processing unit (GPU), sending the captured frames through a shader program, generating at least two images, a first image saved to the memory and a second image displayed on the display, and rendering the first image into the second image to generate a final image.
US09813628B2
An imaging module includes an image stabilizing movable portion which has a lens group and a magnetic member, an imaging element which images a subject through the lens group, an elastic support portion which supports the image stabilizing movable portion so as to be movable in a direction perpendicular to an optical axis of the lens group and to be inclinable around an axis perpendicular to the optical axis, and a suppression portion which mechanically prevents inclination of the image stabilizing movable portion, in which the suppression portion has an extension portion which is provided in the image stabilizing movable portion and extends in an outer circumferential direction of the image stabilizing movable portion, and a guide portion which overlaps the extension portion when viewed from the direction of the optical axis, and prevents inclination of the image stabilizing movable portion by abutting the extension portion.
US09813627B2
An image shake correcting apparatus includes a shake detecting unit to detect shake of an apparatus containing an imaging optical system. A calculating unit calculates an image shake correction amount by acquiring a shake detection signal output from the shake detecting unit. A shake correcting unit corrects an image shake in accordance with the image shake correction amount calculated by the calculating unit. The calculating unit calculates an imaging magnification of the imaging optical system, and calculates the image shake correction amount by calculating a first correction amount before change of a frequency range of a correction filter and calculates the image shake correction amount by a second correction amount after change of a frequency range, in accordance with a size of the imaging magnification.
US09813622B2
A high resolution imaging system includes an imaging camera array creating a sets or frames of array images of a scene and a reference camera creating reference images of the same scene. A synchronization controller coordinates imaging of the scene by the imaging camera array and the reference camera. An image processor merges the sets of array images into high resolution images and apply a color correction to the high resolution images based on reference images. Color correction can be performed on the merged high resolution image or on individual array images prior to merger into the high resolution image.
US09813618B2
The present invention provides a new and useful paradigm in wide area imaging, in which wide area imaging is provided by a step/dwell/image capture process and system to capture images and produce from the captured images a wide area image. The image capture is by a sensor that has a predetermined image field and provides image capture at a predetermined frame capture rate, and by a motorized step and dwell sequence of the sensor, where image capture is during a dwell, and the step and dwell sequence of the sensor is synchronized with the image capture rate of the sensor.
US09813610B2
The present invention relates a method of obtaining motion picture footage of a moving object within an environment, being a surveyed environment or an environment of known dimensions. The method including the steps of: creating a computer generated virtual map of the environment within a control apparatus. At least one bias zone overlays the virtual map, the at least one bias zone being a predetermined or variable pattern, capturing a dynamic primary image of said object using a first motion picture camera, and capturing a dynamic halo image that extends around the primary image using a second motion picture camera. The said first and second motion picture cameras being controlled by the control apparatus such that a position or size of the halo image relative to the primary image is regulated by the at least one bias zone.
US09813609B2
A system for automatic focusing with a lens and methods for making and use the same are provided. When performing a focusing operation, a controller calculates a focus measure value for each lens position of a plurality of lens positions. The focus measure values are calculated based on each of the window evaluation values and a respective weight for image focusing windows within a set of image focusing windows. The controller then compares the calculated focus measure values of the plurality of lens positions in order to select an optimal lens position. The set of image focusing windows can be selected based on one or more sets of image focusing window selection rules derived from statistical data. In addition, the respective weights for image focusing windows can also be calculated based on the statistical data.
US09813604B2
A log is recorded when an event occurs in an image forming apparatus, a video file recorded by a network camera is tagged at the point in time that the event occurred, and video tag information tagged to the recorded video file is registered in relation to a device serial ID of the image forming apparatus and an ID for uniquely identifying the log in the image forming apparatus.
US09813596B2
The present invention provides a vibration-type actuator that makes it possible to improve and stabilize yields.A vibration-type actuator includes a vibrator including an elastic body with a protrusion having a contact portion, and an electromechanical transducer attached to a surface of the elastic body; and a flexible printed circuit board having an electrode portion and attached to the electromechanical transducer. There is a space between the contact portion and the electromechanical transducer. No end portion of the electrode portion of the flexible printed circuit board is overlapped with the space in a direction perpendicular to the surface of the elastic body.
US09813594B2
A photon-drive fingerprint identification module configured to detect a fingerprint of a finger is provided, and the photon-drive fingerprint identification module includes at least a light emitting unit and a light detecting semiconductor array. The light emitting unit is configured to emit a detecting light to the finger, and the finger and the fingerprint reflect the detecting light and turn it into a signal light. The light detecting semiconductor array includes a plurality of light detecting semiconductor units arranged in an array, and the light detecting semiconductor units are configured to receive the signal light reflected by the finger and generate a plurality of electrical signals. Each of the light detecting semiconductor units sequentially includes an antireflection structure, a first type doped semiconductor layer and a second type doped semiconductor layer. The first type doped semiconductor layer is stacked between the antireflection structure and the second type doped semiconductor layer.
US09813593B2
It is possible to consider an image as a composite wave that is the result of layering waves having differing periods and amplitudes. An image captured via a lens having a water droplet attached thereto has a higher occurrence of changes such as image blur than an image that does not have a water droplet attached thereto, which means that this type of change in an image results in changes in the composite wave thereof as well. Provided is a lens dirtiness detection device that suitably determines whether a lens is dirty without being affected by a background image by: focusing on the occurrence of large changes in the composite wave of an image that accompany an increase in the dirtiness of a camera lens; extracting each of the image frequency components that constitute the composite wave; and analyzing changes in the magnitude relation between the frequency components.
US09813588B2
An image processing apparatus serving as a master device and a plurality of local image processing apparatus serving as local devices are connected to one another via a network, and each of the devices includes an authentication information storage unit and an authentication unit. The master device stores, as master authentication information, authentication information necessary for an authentication on each of users who are able to use each of the devices, for each of the devices, and allows editing of the master authentication information. When the authentication information on the local device in the master authentication information is edited, the edited authentication information is transmitted to the local device, and the authentication information stored in local device is updated. When a user login operation is performed on the local device, an authentication is performed by using the authentication information in the local device.
US09813586B2
A printing apparatus includes a storage unit for storing information indicating an orientation of a sheet stacked in a sheet stacking unit, a determination unit that determines whether to print an image in a first orientation corresponding to a case where the sheet is conveyed with a short side thereof as a leading edge from the sheet stacking unit, or to print the image in a second orientation corresponding to a case where the sheet is conveyed with a long side thereof as the leading edge from the sheet stacking unit, according to a setting value based on an operation of a user in a case where the information indicating the orientation of the sheet stacked in the sheet stacking unit is not stored in the storage unit.
US09813584B2
An image processing apparatus includes a switch section, a power supply section, an operation display section, an initialization control section, an image processing section, and a condition receiving section. The initialization control section causes the operation display section to start a first initialization processing when supply of a power supply voltage is started, and subsequently causes the image processing section to start a second initialization processing. The condition receiving section accepts an input of an execution condition. The operation display section includes a display part, a storage part, a display control part, and a condition setting part. The display control part causes the display part to display a screen after completion of the first initialization processing. The condition setting part stores an execution condition inputted via the screen in the storage part, and outputs the execution condition to the condition receiving section after completion of the second initialization processing.
US09813573B2
A reading device includes a conveyance control section for controlling document conveyance. In a case of double-sided reading of a document and with a cutout document mode applied, the conveyance control section stops a pair of reverse-rotation rollers at a time point when the document has been conveyed by a distance resulting from adding an additional distance, which is predetermined or determined based on a recognized cutout width in the document conveyance direction, to a reference distance since a time point of passage of a rear end of a document-detecting detection part, and thereafter start reverse rotation of the pair of reverse-rotation rollers.
US09813564B1
In a method of payment for service of a portable communication unit, a customer prepays a dealer for said service, the dealer forwards transaction order information about the pre-payment to a prepaid management center (PMC); and the PMC provides a bank the transaction order information. The bank, upon receipt of the transaction order information from the PMC, determines whether there are sufficient funds in the dealer account to cover the transaction. If there is insufficient cash on hand, the dealer is notified and is provided an opportunity to replenish the account so that the transaction may proceed. If there are adequate funds in the dealer account, the bank automatically transfers the amount of the purchase transaction in the SPS account, less the dealer's fee for the purchase. After funds are transferred from the dealer account, the PMC is notified of the transfer, at which time the PMC generates codes and issues the codes to the dealer. The dealer transfers the codes to the user and the user enters the codes into the unit. On a regular basis the bank electronically transfers funds from the SPS account into accounts held by parties entitled to receive the funds.
US09813561B2
Measures for transferring an established communication session in a telecommunications network, the communication session being established between one of a plurality of communication clients associated with a user and a remote device associated with a remote party. At a call control system located in the signaling path for the established communication session, a communication session transfer request is received from a device associated with the user, the communication session transfer request having been generated by and transmitted from the device. Transfer of the established communication session from the one communication client in the plurality of communication clients to another communication client in the plurality of communication clients is initiated at the call control system. The transfer is conducted on the basis of a preconfigured data set, specific to the user, identifying one or more of the plurality of communication clients associated with the user.
US09813560B2
Systems and methods are disclosed for managing a multimedia conference call. According to certain embodiments, a server establishes a multimedia conference call between a plurality of multimedia conference devices. The multimedia conference call includes the communication of multimedia conference contents via one or more of the plurality of multimedia conference devices. The server also records at least a portion of the multimedia conference contents; and detects one or more interrupting events. The interrupting events occur during the multimedia conference call. The server further provides substitute contents to the other multimedia conference devices of the plurality of multimedia conference devices. The substitute contents are generated based on a recorded portion of the multimedia conference call associated with a time to the interrupting events.
US09813558B1
Systems and methods described herein may describe how enterprise system devices (e.g., servers) may be used to consolidate multiple disparate data sources (e.g., databases) into a single data source (i.e., “Datamart”). The Datamart may be a database or cluster of aggregated data from disparate data sources, which the Datamart may convert into a compatible format using various application programmable interfaces (APIs). In some cases, a software product may query the Datamart and then generate reports for understanding the data pulled from disparate sources. The reporting software application may enable enhanced analytics by humans or additional software applications, to build a more sophisticated understand around a member's call experience, reasons for call transfers, effectiveness of sales by a member service representative (MSR), and how to better train or equip MSRs to optimize their efforts.
US09813549B2
A voice service evaluation processing method and apparatus may include acquiring record data related to a to-be-evaluated voice service; using a voice service evaluation model that is acquired according to record data related to a voice service to evaluate the record data related to the to-be-evaluated voice service, so as to acquire an evaluation value of the record data related to the to-be-evaluated voice service; and performing, according to the evaluation value, evaluation processing on a voice service corresponding to the record data related to the to-be-evaluated voice service. The embodiments of the present disclosure provide a more reliable basis for improvement and optimization of a voice service. In addition, an actual status of a network may further be reflected according to evaluation performed on record data related to the voice service, and adjustment on a network indicator may further be performed according to the reflected network status.
US09813548B2
The present invention discloses a mobile terminal control method, including: receiving a communication request sent by a communication request initiating party, and calculating a time interval between a time when the communication request is received and a time when a previous communication request from the communication request initiating party is received; and if the time interval is greater than a preset threshold, skipping generating a vibrating and/or ringtone alert for the communication request, and detecting an online status of a communications software account associated with the communication request initiating party and sending prompt information to an online communications software account, where the prompt information is used to indicate that a mobile terminal is in a Do Not Disturb mode.
US09813545B2
A communication device is configured to switch from a normal mode of operation to an inconspicuous mode of operation in which a reduced set of information is presented on a home screen of a display of the device in comparison to a set of information presented on the home screen in the normal mode of operation. In addition, other display properties such as contrast and brightness may be adjusted to make them less conspicuous. The home screen in the inconspicuous mode of operation is less obtrusive or conspicuous to individuals than in the normal mode of operation. The device may enter the inconspicuous mode upon user request or by detecting at least one environmental condition using a sensor available to the mobile communication device. The environmental condition may be anything that the device can detect or sense in its surrounding environment such as ambient light or sound. The device may return to the normal mode of operation by user request or when the environmental condition is no longer present.
US09813543B2
A system for use in issuing commands to a plurality of appliances each of a specific one of a plurality of different appliance types includes a smart device adapted to transmit command communications and a plurality of low-energy consuming controllers each adapted to transmit a command to a one of the plurality of appliances of a specific one of the plurality of different appliance types in response to receipt of a command communication originating from the smart device.
US09813540B2
A method of creating statistical operation data using a mobile terminal in an audio video navigation (AVN) system of a vehicle includes wirelessly connecting the mobile terminal to the AVN system, receiving a signal set from at least one controller of the vehicle, and transmitting the received signal set to the wirelessly connected mobile terminal such that the mobile terminal creates the statistical operation data. In this instance, it is preferable that an application in which a computational logic for creation of the statistical operation data is defined be installed in the mobile terminal.
US09813536B2
Described herein is a system for testing wireless interaction of a system for reproduction of audio signals, in particular a user-interface device of a motor vehicle configured for reproducing audio signals, with a mobile phone, said reproduction system and said mobile phone being configured for communicating over a wireless communication channel for short-range communications.According to the invention, the above system comprises a module for simulation of a mobile phone, comprising processing means configured for simulating operation of a mobile phone, said module for simulation of a mobile phone being associated in a signal-exchange relationship to a short-range wireless transceiver module configured for communicating via said wireless communication channel with the system for reproduction of audio signals.
US09813530B2
Some demonstrative embodiments include apparatuses, systems and/or methods of controlling data flow over a communication network. For example, an apparatus may include a communication unit to communicate between first and second devices a transfer response, the transfer response in response to a transfer request, the transfer response including a transfer pending status indicating data is pending to be received at the second device, the communication unit is to communicate the transfer response regardless of whether a retry indicator of the transfer request represents a first request for transfer or a retried request.
US09813526B2
A solution for reducing transmission pathway lengths within a distributed network, as embodied in various systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media, may include migrating a TCP socket from a request server to a data server. The solution may further include reprogramming one or more routers to recognize a new packet route based on the migrated socket. The solution may include the one or more routers subsequently communicating directly with the data server while bypassing the request server.
US09813525B2
In-vehicle communication and, more particularly, a signal conversion method in a vehicle having Ethernet and controller area network (CAN) communication coexisting therein and an apparatus to perform the same are provided. The signal conversion method includes determining, by a processor, a start bit of at least one CAN signal disposed in a CAN message and generating an Ethernet signal having the CAN signal and the start bit that corresponds to the CAN signal in different fields.
US09813524B2
A terminal comprising a memory and a controller is disclosed. The controller is configured to receive a selection of at least one field, analyze said at least one selected field, generate a rendering template for said at least one selected field, share said rendering template with a visitor terminal via a server, receive data being associated with said rendering template from said visitor terminal, match said received data to said at least one selected field, and input said received data into said at least one selected field.
US09813521B2
A computer-implemented method and system for pre-fetching place page data from a from a remote mapping system for display on a client computing device is disclosed. User preference data collected from various data sources including applications executing on the client device, online or local user profiles, and other sources may be analyzed to generate a request for place page data from the remote mapping system. The user preference data may indicate a map feature such as a place of business, park, or historic landmark having the characteristics of both a user's preferred geographic location and the user's personal interests. For example, where the user indicates a geographic preference for “Boston” and a personal interest for “home brewing” the system and method may request place page data for all home brewing or craft beer-related map features near Boston.
US09813516B2
Embodiments regard transparent sharding of traffic across messaging brokers. An embodiment of a method of sharding message traffic across messaging brokers includes providing a message sharding service for message sharding among a plurality of registered message brokers, wherein providing the message sharding service includes applying a current message sharding strategy; and sharding messages among the registered message brokers according to the current message sharding strategy, including registering the message brokers and assigning message queues to registered message brokers according to the current message sharding strategy; wherein the current message sharding strategy is one of a plurality of message sharding strategies.
US09813514B2
An information repository system comprises a wireless device configured to receive a first version of information from a server. The first version of information has a first unique identifier associated therewith. The information repository is configured to store the first version of information having the first unique identifier and is configured to store a second version of the information having the first unique identifier. The second version of information overwrites the first version of information.
US09813508B2
An approach for providing service workflows through devices includes a service server determining that a service is available for a particular device. In response to determining that the service is available for the particular device, the service server obtains, from the particular device, service information that specifies, for the service, at least one or more processes that implement the service on the particular device, one or more parameters for the one or more processes and one or more user interfaces for the one or more processes. The service server generates, based upon the service information, a service application that implements the service. The service server receives, from a client device, a request to use the service for the particular device and in response, the service server provides to the client device the service application that implements the service.
US09813502B1
A computer-implemented method includes receiving a request to transmit column group data to a target node, the column group data comprising C columns within a column-oriented data table and determining a transmission row count R for transmitting the column group data to the target node. The method may also include transmitting a transmission packet comprising R sequentially-ordered data elements for each of the C columns to the target node. The R data elements for each column may be sequentially retrieved from memory. A corresponding method includes receiving, at a target node, a request to receive the column group data, determining the transmission row count R for receiving the column group data, and receiving a transmission packet comprising R sequentially-ordered data elements for each of the C columns and storing the sequentially-ordered data elements within memory. A corresponding computer system and corresponding computer program products are also disclosed herein.
US09813495B1
Systems and methods are provided for facilitating a chat session. The systems and methods may include receiving chat data, and predicting a likelihood of interest of the user in the chat data, the prediction being based on a model of the user's behavior and information reflecting an attribute and an availability associated with a user. The systems and methods may further include providing a notification to a device associated with the user based on the determined likelihood of interest.
US09813491B2
Techniques are provided for exporting one or more file systems through multiple nodes of a cluster. One or more of the exported file systems may be simultaneously exported through a single node of the cluster. A bundle, or mapping between a node in the cluster and a file system, is created. The bundle represents an amount of work assigned to the node. A bundle is reassigned from one node to another node in the cluster in response to a failover, an addition of a new node to the cluster, or in response to a load balancing determination.
US09813488B2
According to some aspects described herein, a system may determine whether a network actor appears to be using an intermediary such as a VPN and/or proxy server. This may be accomplished by directing the network actor to request and/or access a network-segment identification resource which may, in some embodiments, be stored in another region of the global network. The system may include links and/or other identifiers pointing the network actor to one or more network-segment identification resources. The network actor may access the network-segment identification resources using the links or identifiers, and the system may use information about the request for the network-segment identification resource to determine whether the network actor is associated with multiple source addresses.
US09813487B2
In accordance with the teachings of the present disclosure, a method of assessment of service level agreement compliance is disclosed. The method may include defining, in a synthetic application definition, a plurality of resource consumptions, wherein the plurality of resource consumptions are equivalent to consumptions by a candidate application, and distributing the synthetic application definition to a synthetic application in a node of a computing system. The method may further include consuming, with the synthetic application and based on the synthetic application definition, a plurality of quantities of resources of a plurality of nodes of the computing system. The method may additionally include recording a performance of the synthetic application, and comparing the recorded performance to a requirement of a service level agreement (SLA). The present disclosure additionally includes associated systems and apparatuses.
US09813485B2
At least one of a method, a client computing device, and a server computing device for communicating data associated with a virtual machine are described. In one example, a client computing device is communicatively coupled to a network. A first set of data representative of at least a portion of a virtual machine disk image accessible on the network is determined, the first set of data comprising data arranged in a first sequence. From this first set of data, a second set of data is determined for communication to the client computing device over the network, the second set of data comprising at least a portion of the first set of data arranged in a second sequence, the second sequence being different from the first sequence.
US09813473B2
A method, computer program product and client electronic device for storing, in a memory of a client electronic device, a location of at least one remote media data file available to stream from a server device. A location of at least one local media data file available on the client electronic device is stored in the memory of the client electronic device. A playlist is compiled that defines the location of the at least one remote media data file and the location of the at least one local media data file. The at least one local media data file and the at least one remote media data file in the playlist are rendered and metadata concerning the at least one local media data file rendered is transmitted to the server device.
US09813472B2
A system and method are provided of minimizing network bandwidth used from an external network by client peers in a local network. The method can include the operation of organizing a plurality of clients each having media streamlets and a client parent in a structure within the local network. Mapping information propagates through the structure. The mapping information represents local streamlet locations as stored by the plurality of clients. Another operation is retrieving a local streamlet from a client identified in the mapping information as having the local streamlet for the requesting client.
US09813471B2
In response to a request, one of primary content data as a copyrighted work and incidental content data is received from a server. With a music editing and sharing application, the content data is used in a secondary usage fashion for editing in order to produce new incidental content data. The incidental content data is not the one that is produced by arranging directly the primary content data as an editing material but play control information for giving an instruction defining a play mode. The incidental content data is uploaded to an incidental content server.
US09813468B2
The disclosed subject matter includes techniques for wireless control. A system includes a processor. The system also includes a computer-readable memory storage device storing executable instructions that can be executed by the processor to cause the processor to receive a connection request from a wireless controller. The processor can also send a request for a media stream and a request for a wireless monitoring acknowledgement to a host device. The processor can also receive a response from the host device with the wireless monitoring acknowledgment. The processor can also further receive a message from the host device acknowledging a reception with the wireless controller. The processor can stop monitoring for control data from the wireless controller in response to the host device acknowledging the reception with the wireless controller. The processor can further receive the media stream from the host device.
US09813466B2
A wireless computer that pairs with a remote audio-video presentation device, such as a television. As a result of the pairing, a communication channel is established for the computer to transmit audio-video content for presentation through that device. Additionally, as part of the pairing, the computer and remote device select a side channel for communication of user commands. The wireless computer may display a user interface through which a user may input commands that control the manner in which the remote audio-video device presents the content. As a result, a user may use the wireless computer as a remote control for the audio-video device, controlling both the content presented and the manner in which it is presented. The side channel may use different frequencies than the channel used to communicate audio-video content, and may use very low power at frequencies in the digital TV spectrum.
US09813464B2
A computer-implemented method, system and computer program product for a conference call moderator to conduct a conference call between a plurality of participants. At least some of the conference call participants are grouped by location. A participant within each group is identified to act as a domestic focus for that group and is notified of its assigned role. For each group, the conference call moderator disconnects from all participants in the group except for the participant that has been assigned the role of domestic focus. For each group, the conference call is then routed through the assigned domestic focus. Such a grouping may, for example, occur as a result of a degradation in call quality or may be based on the number of call participants. This solution preferably off-loads some of the conference call processing to the domestic focus, thereby alleviating the workload faced by the overall conference call moderator.
US09813452B2
In a digital rights management system, a rights management server sends event notifications to certain users when other users perform certain actions (read, print, copy, etc.) on documents managed by the system. For each document, a notification rule defines which users will receive what event notifications for that document. The notification rule is determined based on document access permissions possessed by the users, so that only users who have permission to perform an action on the document will receive notifications when other users perform that action on the document, while users with no permission to perform an action will not receive notifications when other users perform that action. The server also allows the users who have permission to perform an action to opt out of the notifications. The server monitors events that occur on the documents, and sends event notifications to appropriate users according to the notification rules.
US09813449B1
A Distributed Security Information and Event Management System (DSIEMS) is a scalable, intelligent, security and fraud management platform that proactively collects information from a network's computer systems, applications, users, and external intelligence data feeds, and aggregates the information into a centralized repository where the information can then be analyzed and quickly acted upon when necessary. Further, according to one aspect, a DSIEMS analyzes aggregated information to discern patterns of potential attack, inappropriate data movement, and fraud from normal and legitimate network activity, account activity, user activity, and data access. According to one embodiment, aspects of the present disclosure are implemented in a distributed architecture. In particular, aspects of the present DSIEMS utilize an agent-based architecture in which intelligent software agents are deployed on each node (e.g., endpoint computing device) within the system.
US09813437B2
The disclosed computer-implemented method for determining malicious-download risk based on user behavior may include (1) identifying a set of users that are at high risk for malicious downloads and a set of users that are at low risk for malicious downloads, (2) determining a high-risk pattern of download behavior that is shared by the set of high-risk users and that is not shared by the set of low-risk users, (3) analyzing download behavior of an uncategorized user over a predefined time period in order to categorize the download behavior as high-risk or low-risk, and (4) categorizing the uncategorized user as a high-risk user in response to determining that the download behavior of the uncategorized user falls within a predefined similarity threshold of the high-risk pattern of download behavior. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US09813400B2
Systems and computer-implemented methods for authorizing respective access by each of a plurality of Internet users to a respective one or more Internet services provided by each of a plurality of Internet service providers. A system includes a processor, and non-transient computer readable storage media, at a single identity provider. The storage media is encoded with program code executable by the processor for requiring an identity provider application residing on each of a plurality of devices to create a respective authentication token that is specific to a respective identifier and user credential of a respective Internet user, a respective device identifier, and the respective identity provider application, and for authorizing respective access by the plurality of Internet users to a respective requested one of the Internet services provided by each Internet service provider using the respective created authentication tokens and respective identifiers for each of the respective requested Internet services.
US09813394B2
The present disclosure generally relates to managing encrypted network traffic using Domain Name System (DNS) responses. One example method includes requesting an address associated with the a domain name included in a predetermined set of domain names for which secure requests are to be identified; receiving a response from the resolution server including one or more addresses associated with the domain name; associating with the domain name a particular address selected from the received addresses; receiving a request to resolve the domain name; sending a response to the request to resolve the domain name including the particular address associated with the domain name; receiving a secure request for a resource, the secure request directed to the particular address associated with the domain name; and determining that the secure request is directed to the domain name based on the association between the particular address and the domain name.
US09813387B2
A vehicle communication network security system) includes one or more processors configured to be disposed onboard a vehicle system traveling together along a route. The processors examine one or more characteristics of an incoming data signal received by the processors from a communication device disposed onboard the vehicle system. The processors determine whether the incoming data signal is a secure data signal or an insecure data signal based on the one or more characteristics, communicate the incoming data signal to one or more onboard systems of the vehicle system for use by the one or more onboard systems in controlling operation of the vehicle system responsive to determining that the incoming data signal is the secure data signal, and prevent the incoming data from being communicated to the one or more onboard systems responsive to determining that the incoming data signal is the insecure data signal.
US09813383B2
Systems and methods for preparing and re-commissioning a controlled device in a home area network are described. A utility meter is communicated with. An authentication key and encryption data for communicating with the utility meter may be determined. The authentication key and encryption data are sent to a controlled device. A set of translation rules for a message are determined. The translation rules are sent to the controlled device. The controlled device establishes a secure communication link with the utility meter using the authentication key and the encryption data. The controlled device receives a request to change power usage from the utility meter over the secure communication link. The controlled device translates the request to change power usage into control instructions using the translation rules.
US09813378B2
Disclosed herein are technologies for implementing a web application firewall specific to tenants, and providing different security rules that are particular to the tenants. In accordance with one implementation, authentication instructions as to one or more tenants may be received and the one or more tenants may be registered. Rules associated to and specific to each of the one or more tenants may further be identified and implemented.
US09813371B2
Embodiments of the present application relate to a method for classifying emails, a sending terminal for classifying emails, a receiving terminal for classifying emails, and a computer program product for classifying emails. A method for classifying emails is provided. The method includes acquiring an email composed by a user, a classification tag corresponding to the email, and an identification code corresponding to the email, including the classification tag corresponding to the email and an identification code corresponding to the email in the email, and sending the email to receiving terminals.
US09813369B2
Tracking messages in a mentoring environment includes presenting to a reviewer a computer-based activity tracking form that is populated with data from an underlying relational database. The underlying relational database includes a content of e-mail messages addressed to an adult mentor and a content of e-mail messages addressed to a juvenile protégé. The underlying relational database also includes a status of e-mail messages between the adult mentor and juvenile protégé as determined by an e-mail interceptor. A status of an e-mail, between the adult mentor and the juvenile protégé, which has been intercepted by the e-mail monitor is displayed. In response to a displayed status indicating that the e-mail has not been reviewed, transmission of the e-mail to an intended recipient is blocked. In response to the displayed status indicating that the e-mail has been reviewed, transmission of the e-mail to the intended recipient is enabled.
US09813357B2
Ternary content-addressable memory (TCAM) of an ingress appliance in a visibility fabric may include rules for filtering traffic received by the ingress appliance. But the TCAM has limited space for rules and can become easily exhausted. By migrating rules to other visibility nodes in the visibility fabric, the techniques introduced here allow the TCAM to be virtually extended across multiple visibility nodes. More specifically, upon receiving a data packet at an ingress port, the ingress visibility node can tag the data packet with an identifier based on which ingress port received the data packet. The ingress visibility node can then determine, based on the identifier, whether the data packet should be filtered using a rule stored in the TCAM of the ingress visibility node or a rule stored in the TCAM of some visibility node in the visibility fabric.
US09813354B2
A network management module includes a network interface module, memory, and a processing module. The network interface module is operable for coupling the network management module to a vehicle communication network. The processing module is operable to manage a global vehicle network communication protocol that includes instituting a content-based network packet processing protocol and managing the vehicle communication network to support the network packet processing protocol. The content-based network packet processing protocol includes determining content type of a packet, determining a processing requirement of the packet, and prioritizing execution of the processing requirement based on the content type.
US09813350B2
There is provided a transmitter by which a reception side easily detects packet loss of a transport packet. The transmitter (1) includes a content dividing unit (13) that divides a set composed of a plurality of units into a plurality of subsets, a transport sequence assigning unit (15) that assigns, to the packet, the transport sequence of the unit within a component and the transport sequence of the unit within the subset, and a header generating unit (14) that generates a packet including the transport sequences.
US09813347B2
Methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture for advertising network layer reachability information specifying a quality of service for an identified network flow are disclosed. Example methods disclosed herein to specify quality of service for network flows include receiving network layer reachability information including a first quality of service class specified for a first network flow, the network layer reachability information having been advertised by a first network element that is to receive the first network flow. Such example methods can also include updating an incoming packet determined to belong to the first network flow to indicate that the incoming packet belongs to the first quality of service class, the incoming packet being received from a second network element. Such example methods can further include, after updating the incoming packet, routing the incoming packet towards the first network element.
US09813346B2
A system for allocating a different class of service to each network connection in a plurality of network connections, where each network connection corresponds to one or more virtual channels. The system can include a plurality of virtual channels that connect a first computer and a second computer. Each virtual channel can service at least a portion of the network traffic generated using a remote-display protocol. The system can also include a plurality of network connections, where each network connection corresponds to at least one of the virtual channels. Each network connection of the system can have an assigned port number and an assigned class of service that corresponds to a transmission priority level. The class of service assigned to each network connection can be unique from the classes of service assigned to other network connections.
US09813344B2
In one embodiment, a method for load balancing in a software-define networking (SDN) system includes, upon receiving a packet, determining whether a matching entry for the packet in a server distribution table contains both a current and new server selection. If the matching entry contains both, it is determined whether there is a matching entry for the packet in a transient flow table, where the transient flow table maintains server selections when at least one of the plurality of servers is reconfigured. Upon determining that there is no matching entry for the packet in the transient flow table, the method determines whether the packet is a first packet of a traffic flow. If the packet is the first packet of a traffic flow, the packet is forwarded according to the new server selection of the matching entry in the server distribution table, and the transient flow table is updated.
US09813343B2
A mechanism to facilitate a private network (VPN)-as-a-service, preferably within the context of an overlay IP routing mechanism implemented within an overlay network. The overlay provides delivery of packets end-to-end between overlay network appliances positioned at the endpoints. During such delivery, the appliances are configured such that the data portion of each packet has a distinct encryption context from the encryption context of the TCP/IP portion of the packet. By establishing and maintaining these distinct encryption contexts, the overlay network can decrypt and access the TCP/IP flow. This enables the overlay network provider to apply one or more TCP optimizations. At the same time, the separate encryption contexts ensure the data portion of each packet is never available in the clear at any point during transport. According to another feature, data flows within the overlay directed to a particular edge region may be load-balanced while still preserving IPsec replay protection.
US09813335B2
A system, method, and computer program product are provided for augmenting a physical network system utilizing a network function virtualization orchestrator (NFV-O). In use, data traffic is monitored utilizing a Network Function Virtualization Orchestrator (NFV-O) module associated with at least a portion of a physical network system, the NFV-O module being operable to manage data flow associated with one or more Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) and one or more physical elements of the physical network system. Additionally, it is determined whether flow of the data traffic should be modified based on at least one of a traffic load or a traffic type utilizing the NFV-O module integrated in the physical network system. Further, at least a portion of the data traffic is directed from at least one of the physical elements to at least one of the VNFs when it is determined that the flow of the data traffic should be modified.
US09813333B2
Embodiments relate generally to systems and methods for transitioning a system from a tradition network to a Software Defined Network (SDN) enabled network. In some embodiments, the systems and methods may comprise the use of a Path Computation Element (PCE) as a central controller. Smooth transition between traditional network and the new SDN enabled network, especially from a cost impact assessment perspective, may be accomplished using the existing PCE components from the current network to function as the central controller of the SDN network is one choice, which not only achieves the goal of having a centralized controller to provide the functionalities needed for the central controller, but also leverages the existing PCE network components.
US09813330B2
A process and apparatus to facilitate communication between callers and callees in a system comprising a plurality of nodes with which callers and callees are associated is disclosed. In response to initiation of a call by a calling subscriber, a caller identifier and a callee identifier are received. Call classification criteria associated with the caller identifier are used to classify the call as a public network call or a private network call. A routing message identifying an address, on the private network, associated with the callee is produced when the call is classified as a private network call and a routing message identifying a gateway to the public network is produced when the call is classified as a public network call.
US09813328B2
Selected ones of multiple groups of network entities are assigned to corresponding routing structures, where each of the routing structures defines a set of paths through a network among network entities of a corresponding one of the groups. The assigning considers available multicast resources in communication nodes in the network, and a criterion relating to reducing overall cost in the assignment of the selected groups to the corresponding routing structures.
US09813327B2
A multicast rule is represented in a hierarchical linked list with N tiers. Each tier or level in the hierarchical linked list corresponds to a network layer of a network stack that requires replication. Redundant groups in each tier are eliminated such that the groups in each tier are stored exactly once in a replication table. A multicast replication engine traverses the hierarchical linked list and replicates a packet according to each node in the hierarchical linked list.
US09813325B2
Aspects of the disclosure relate to management of information streams. The information streams can be delivered according to adaptive streaming mechanisms. In one aspect, a method of data stream management can comprise receiving a plurality of data streams having a specific bit rate and a segmentation signaling structure, comprising at least one segmentation signaling marker. The method may also comprise monitoring the segmentation signaling structure of at least one data stream and supplying, based on the monitoring, a metric indicative of compliance with a predetermined segmentation signaling structure.
US09813319B1
Systems and methods for detecting packet loss in a communication network are provided. A first network element can determine that a first group of packets meets an observation threshold. The observation threshold can comprise a predetermined number of packets in a sequence. A first timer can be initiated when the first group of packets meets the observation threshold. A first packet can be detected at the first network element after the first timer is initiated. The first timer can be re-initiated when the first packet is detected at the first network element before the first timer expires and the first packet comprises a packet in the sequence greater than a last detected packet. A first packet loss can be determined when the first packet is not a next packet in the sequence.
US09813317B2
To adaptively self-localize distributed data processing and data distribution and reduce data transfer costs in a network monitoring system, data has a corresponding ownership association. For each data access, an ownership association value for the accessed data may be modified based on whether the access originated with a current owner processing node or a second most-frequently accessing processing node. The ownership association value indicates a strength of the ownership association between the data and the owner and is based on at least a recent history of accesses of the data by the current owner and the second most-frequently accessing node. When the ownership association value traverses a selected cutoff, ownership association of the data is transferred from the current owner to the second most-frequently accessing node. The ownership association transfer contributes to self-localizing data processing based on a source of input regarding the data.
US09813316B1
A method includes receiving a polling time period and determining a respective polling time for each network device in a plurality of network devices, wherein each respective polling time is distributed evenly across the polling time period. The method further includes determining a time-out time span. The time-out time span includes a start time equivalent to a polling time period end time and an end time. The method additionally includes polling each network device in the plurality of network devices at each respective polling time. The polling includes sending a first message to a first particular network device, and, in response to sending the first message, listening for a response to the first message until the end time of the time-out time span. The polling further includes flagging the first particular network device for review after the end time of the time-out time span.
US09813315B2
System and techniques are described for time correlated playback of traffic patterns between nodes in a network. Node statistics of data transfers between nodes are received in a control point, wherein the node statistics include a time stamp (tn) according to time at the control point of when a request statistics message was sent to each node, a node timestamp (ta) according to time at each node of when the message was received in the node, and a first delta between tn and ta that is used to determine a second delta which adjusts the node statistics. The node statistics adjusted according to the second delta are stored in a statistics database at the control point. A time stepping mechanism is used to repeatedly access the node statistics from the statistics database at a predetermined rate for playback presentation beginning from a specified start time to a specified end time.
US09813314B2
In one embodiment, a network device routes traffic along a network path and receives a performance threshold crossing alert regarding performance of the network path. The network device detects that the performance threshold crossing alert is part of a potential network attack by analyzing, by the device, the performance threshold crossing alert. The network device also provides a notification of the detected network attack.
US09813310B1
A system and method are provided for discriminating the nature of traffic flowing through a computer network. Various types of traffic are distinguished. For example, traffic sourced by a software application that generates them may be distinguished. The problem of detecting malicious traffic either originating outside a target network, or inside a target network from a compromised computer is addressed, as is the problem of distinguishing malicious traffic from legitimate web surfing or other applications activity. Traffic distinctions are made based on signal envelope characteristics in such manner as to preserve robust performance even when the subject traffic is encrypted.
US09813306B1
A response rate limiting device is provided in order to reduce a volume of data which may correspond to amplification attack. The rate liming device may receive a set of packets and determine identification information corresponding to the packets. The rate limiting device may then update a score associated with the determined identification information, the score may be maintained in a buffer. If the score information is above a threshold, the rate limiting device determine to delay a response associated with the identification information.
US09813297B2
A method for identifying an application scenario of a terminal device, where the method includes analyzing an application program running on a terminal device by means of compilation to obtain characteristic data of the application program; and determining, from a scenario characteristic data set according to the characteristic data of the application program, application scenario information corresponding to the characteristic data of the application program, where the scenario characteristic data set includes a correspondence between multiple types of application scenario information and characteristic data of multiple application programs. Because characteristic data of an application program is more likely to be unique in describing a corresponding application scenario, application scenario information corresponding to the characteristic data of the application program is relatively accurate. Therefore, an application scenario of a terminal device can be relatively accurately identified according to the embodiments of the present disclosure.
US09813296B2
Methods and apparatus are provided for wireless network optimization. Wireless network traffic is optimized by receiving redirected traffic based on one or more configuration rules; and applying the redirected traffic to a protocol optimizer that optimizes the wireless network traffic based on one or more optimization rules. A management interface is optionally provided to manage the network optimization appliance. A process monitor is optionally provided to monitor one or more process threads to determine if the process threads have stalled. The process monitor can monitor other components and can be monitored by at least one other component.
US09813289B2
A technique for configuring a Software-Defined Network (SDN) is provided. A first control message is issued by a Software-Defined Network controller. The first control message is received at a first network device of the SDN. The first control message includes a SDN configuration command. Two or more second network devices of the SDN are determined as recipients of the SDN configuration command or as intermediate nodes towards recipients of the SDN configuration command. The first network device sends second control messages to the determined two or more second network devices.
US09813283B2
Methods and apparatus are provided for transferring data between servers and a remote entity having multiple peripherals. Multiple servers are connected to a remote entity over an Remote Direct Memory Access capable network. The remote entity includes peripherals such as network interface cards (NICs) and host bus adapters (HBAs). Server descriptor rings and descriptors are provided to allow efficient and effective communication between the servers and the remote entity.
US09813281B2
Apparatus and methods for signal generation, reception, and calibration involving quadrature modulation and frequency conversion. Embodiments of the present invention provide extremely wide bandwidth, high spectral purity, versatility and adaptability in configuration, and ease of calibration, and are particularly well-adapted for use in integrated circuitry.
US09813280B2
A likelihood generation apparatus for acquiring a likelihood of a 16QAM signal includes a first likelihood generation unit configured to generate a likelihood of each of two bits of a 16QAM signal point of the 16QAM signal from a relationship of each of an I-axis component and a Q-axis component with a likelihood when the 16QAM signal point is mapped on a constellation diagram, and a second likelihood generation unit configured to generate a likelihood of each of remaining two bits other than the two bits of the 16QAM signal point of the 16QAM signal based on a position of the 16QAM signal point in a lookup table, which is configured to input the I-axis component and the Q-axis component of the 16QAM signal point as arguments, and includes regions acquired by dividing the constellation diagram based on a possible value of each of the bits.
US09813277B2
A method for processing a multiple carrier signal provided with subcarriers distributed in a band. The method includes calculating a subcarrier noise of an edge of the band, calculating a subcarrier noise of a center of the band, calculating a ratio of the subcarrier noise of the edge of the band to the subcarrier noise of the center of the band, determining whether the ratio is greater than a threshold, and acknowledging that the edge of the band suffers from interference when the ratio is greater than the threshold.
US09813268B2
A digital frequency modulation receiver includes a phase capturer, an adder, a digital filter and a phase estimator. The phase estimator is used to generate a first phase value according to an input signal. The adder is coupled to the phase estimator for subtracting a second phase value from the first phase value to generate a phase difference. The digital filter is coupled to the adder for performing a filtering calculation with the phase difference so as to generate a frequency variation signal. The phase estimator is coupled to the digital filter and the adder so as to update the second phase value according to the frequency variation signal.
US09813267B1
A communication unit comprises a modem configured to generate a first and second test digital quadrature signal. The modem is configured to: estimate a first sampling error performance associated with a first quadrature path from the first received test digital quadrature signal; estimate a second sampling error performance associated with a second quadrature path from the second received test digital quadrature signal; and generate at least one sampling error compensation signal based on the first estimated sampling error performance and second estimated sampling error performance to be applied to at least one of the receiver and transmitter.
US09813260B1
A method for using an in-message application. The method includes: receiving a broadcast message; identifying, in the broadcast message, a reference to an external data provider; obtaining an identifier of the in-message application from the external data provider; using the identifier to identify a set of components of the in-message application, where placement of the set of components is defined by a visual structure of the in-message application, and where each of the set of components is a user interface (UI) element; associating data obtained from the external data provider with a component of the set of components; and serving the broadcast message and the data to a consumer client, where the consumer client renders the in-message application based on the visual structure.
US09813245B2
Embodiments of the invention introduce efficient methods for securely generating a cryptogram by a user device, and validating the cryptogram by a server computer. In some embodiments, a secure communication can be conducted whereby a user device provides a cryptogram without requiring the user device to persistently store an encryption key or other sensitive data used to generate the cryptogram. For example, the user device and server computer can mutually authenticate and establish a shared secret. Using the shared secret, the server computer can derive a session key and transmit key derivation parameters encrypted using the session key to the user device. The user device can also derive the session key using the shared secret, decrypt the encrypted key derivation parameters, and store the key derivation parameters. Key derivation parameters and the shared secret can be used to generate a single use cryptogram key. The cryptogram key can be used to generate a cryptogram for conducting secure communications.
US09813242B2
An integrated circuit (IC) package includes a storage element and a protection component coupled to the storage element. The protection component includes a breach detection component configured to detect an attempted breach of the IC package. The protection component further includes a time detection component configured to determine a breach timestamp associated with a time of occurrence of the attempted breach and configured to store a representation of the breach timestamp in the storage element. The storage element may be configured to store a sensitive datum, and the time detection component may be configured to store the representation of the breach timestamp by overwriting the sensitive datum in the storage element with the representation of the breach timestamp.
US09813238B2
Examples of methods, systems, products, devices, and/or apparatus generally related to mobile security are described. An example method may include capturing a context pattern of a user device. The context pattern may be based, at least in part, on data from one or more sensors of the user device. The data may be acquired at multiple different times. The example method may further include generating at least one public-private key pair based, at least in part, on the context pattern.
US09813235B2
Technology is generally described for improving resistance to cache timing attacks made on block cipher encryption implementations. In some examples, the technology can include identifying one or more tunable parameters of the block cipher encryption algorithm; creating multiple encryption algorithm implementations by varying one or more of the parameter values; causing a computing system to encrypt data using the implementations; measuring average execution times at the computing system for the implementations subjecting the implementations to a cache timing attack; measuring average execution times at the computing system for the implementations subjected to a cache timing attack; computing a time difference between the average execution times for the implementations when not subjected and when subjected to a cache timing attack; selecting an implementation having a lower time difference; and using the selected implementation for a subsequent encryption operation.
US09813232B2
A device and method for resisting, non-invasive attacks are disclosed herein. The device includes a random number generator that generates a random number, and a multiplier that multiplies first data and second data in a unit of a bit length determined based on the random number.
US09813226B2
Methods, systems, and computer readable media for modeling a clock are disclosed. According to one exemplary method, the method occurs at a monitoring module associated with a first node. The method includes receiving packets from a second node, extracting timestamps from at least two of the packets, and generating, using the timestamps, clock related information for generating a local clock model indicative of a precision of a local clock at the first node relative to a clock at the second node.
US09813221B2
A method for controlling a low-power state of a pair of serial interfaces using a pair of flow-control signal lines may include enabling a first of the flow-control lines by a first one of the interfaces for signaling a transmission request to the second interface. The method may also include, in response to the transmission request, waking up to a live state from a low-power state and enabling a second flow-control line for signaling a transmission authorization to the first interface. In response to the transmission authorization, the method may include initiating a transmission of a message to the second interface, and upon reaching an offset before the end of the message transmission, disabling the first flow-control line by the first interface. The method may also include, at the end of the message transmission, disabling the second flow-control line and going back into the low-power state.
US09813220B2
A femtocell telecommunication system equipment comprising: a base apparatus structured to provide a first information signal and control signals; an electrical conductor based transmission line connected to said base apparatus; a bidirectional conversion apparatus adapted to receive/transmit from/on the transmission line the first signal and the control signals; the bidirectional apparatus comprising: a processing module structured to process the first signal to generate a second information signal and vice-versa; the second signal being adapted to be transmitted/received by an antenna device connectable to the bidirectional apparatus.
US09813214B2
A method, apparatus and system for feeding back early stop decoding are provided. The method includes: a terminal side adjusting encoded TFCI bits, and sending the adjusted TFCI bits to a NodeB side via a TFCI domain of an uplink DPCCH (S302); after sending the adjusted TFCI bits to the NodeB side, the terminal side performing a decoding operation on a downlink DPCH, and feeding back, via an idle TFCI domain of the uplink DPCCH, a decoding result to the NodeB side (304). By applying the technical solution, at least one of the problems in the related art that a NodeB cannot obtain a TFCI in time and a terminal side cannot feed back a downlink decoding result in time during early stop decoding can be solved.
US09813211B2
A radio base station, user equipment (UE), and method of control signaling in wireless communication systems. Control information is transferred from a base station to at least one UE, via a plurality of common pilot channels. A set of unique pilot sequences is predefined, and the base station assigns specific pilot sequences from the set of pilot sequences to specific common pilot channels, forming a pilot sequence assignment pattern representing specific control information. The UE, having knowledge of the relations between pilot sequence assignment patterns and control information, interprets the received pilot sequence assignment pattern as specific control information. The method is particularly well suited for broadcast type control information.
US09813200B2
A method and apparatus is provided for transmitting an orthogonal frequency domain multiple access (OFDMA) signal including a synchronization channel signal transmitted including a plurality of sequence elements interleaved in time and frequency. The synchronization channel signal sequence elements enable an initial acquisition and cell search method with low computational load by providing predetermined time domain symmetry for common sequence elements in OFDMA symbol periods for OFDMA symbol timing detection and frequency error detection in an OFDMA system supporting multiple system bandwidths, both synchronized and un-synchronized systems, a large cell index and an OFDMA symbol structure with both short and long cyclic prefix length.
US09813192B2
An optical frame is received over an optical link within an optical network. The optical frame contains a payload of aggregated data, an alignment value, and a bit interleaved parity value. The content of the optical frame is aligned based on the alignment value. The bit interleaved parity value is monitored. In response to the monitoring, a transmission quality of the transmission link is determined.
US09813191B2
A transmitting apparatus is disclosed. The transmitting apparatus includes an encoder to perform channel encoding with respect to bits and generate a codeword, an interleaver to interleave the codeword, and a modulator to map the interleaved codeword onto a non-uniform constellation according to a modulation scheme, and the constellation may include constellation points defined based on various tables according to the modulation scheme.
US09813177B2
Methods, systems, and devices are described for mitigating an unwanted increase in a coding rate of a wireless communication signal. A plurality of symbols including a transmitted codeword is received. The plurality of symbols including a first group of data symbols with a first modulation and coding scheme and a second group of data modulated pilot symbols with a second modulation and coding scheme. Applicable demodulation schemes are adaptively switched for each group of the plurality of symbols. The second group of data modulated pilot symbols are used in lieu of pilot symbols. The second modulation and coding scheme is a more reliable modulation and coding scheme than the first modulation and coding scheme.
US09813168B2
The present invention discloses a self-interference signal cancellation device. The device includes a first self-interference cancellation unit, configured to: obtain a first analog signal by coupling a transmit signal output by an analog transmit processing module; perform analog-to-digital conversion on the first analog signal, to obtain a first digital signal; perform interference reconstruction according to the first digital signal, to obtain a first digital interference cancellation signal; and cancel, according to the first digital interference cancellation signal, a self-interference signal included in a digital signal output by a first analog-to-digital conversion module, to obtain a first output signal, and output the first output signal to a digital receive processing module. In the present invention, after interference cancellation is performed by using the first digital interference cancellation signal and the digital signal output by the first analog-to-digital conversion module, a self-interference signal introduced during transmission can be canceled.
US09813159B2
The present invention relates to a method for setting a maintenance association (MA), an apparatus, and a system. A correspondence between an MA and a maintenance association end point (MEP) and a correspondence between the MEP and an optical network unit (ONU) are set on an optical line terminal (OLT), where the MA includes an MA virtual local area network VLAN, the MEP includes an MEP VLAN; and the method for setting an MA includes: sending, by the OLT, a configuration message to the ONU to which an MEP belongs, where the configuration message carries an MEP whose MEP VLAN has a valid value and an MA whose MA VLAN has an invalid value.
US09813148B2
A wireless network includes a channel allocation manager and multiple wireless access points. The wireless channel allocation manager receives a request from a first wireless access point amongst multiple wireless access points for allocation of a wireless channel. In response to receiving the request for allocation of a wireless channel, the channel allocation manager selects a particular wireless channel for allocation to the first wireless access point in the network environment. The channel allocation manager notifies the multiple wireless access points of a particular wireless channel that has been allocated for use by the first wireless access point (or its subordinates) in a specified timeframe. The first wireless access point either uses the allocated channel to communicate data downstream to a respective mobile communication device or notifies the mobile communication device that the particular wireless channel has been allocated to communicate upstream to the first wireless access point.
US09813138B1
Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communication are described. A wireless communication device may receive multiple data streams from one or more users, associate the multiple data streams with different user groups, and identify modulation symbols for the users after reducing signal contribution from modulation symbols associated with different user groups. For example, the device may receive a signal including multiple spatial streams, partition the data streams into different user groups, and determine a set of sequences from channel characteristics associated with the respective user groups. The wireless communication device may then apply the sequences to the received signal and to values associated with the channel characteristics. Subsets of values may be selected following the application of the sequences, and from the subsets of values, the wireless communication device may identify the sets of modulation symbols associated with one or more of the user groups.
US09813132B2
The present invention relates to a wireless communication system. According to one embodiment of the present invention, a method for transmitting, by a terminal, channel state information (CSI) in a wireless communication system comprises the steps of: subsampling a code book for four antenna ports; and feeding back the CSI on the basis of the subsampled code book, wherein the CSI includes a rank indicator (RI) reported together with a precoding type indicator (PTI), and if the RI is greater than 2, the PTI is set to one.
US09813129B2
An apparatus substantially updates all the phase shifter values of a phased array antenna by using “global write” to update these parameters to all phased-array transformation circuits simultaneously via a serial bus. Antenna elements, each controlled by a phased-array transformation circuit, are individually configured to transform phase and gain according to a register array. The register array has a local register group and a central register group, the local registers physically placed close in proximity to RF chains which each correspond to an element of array antenna, whereby each set of local registers control an individual antenna element and a central register controlling overall beam steering function. The apparatus is configured to efficiently elaborate phase shift weights into a submodule of a phase array antenna system with low noise and bandwidth.
US09813119B1
A switch pack for a vehicle and systems comprising the same. One system includes the switch pack and a control unit mechanically coupled to the vehicle. The control unit includes a first antenna coil electrically coupled to an electrical system of the vehicle. The first antenna coil receives a current from the electrical system and produces a magnetic field. The switch pack includes a second antenna coil, at least one user-actuated device, and a wireless transmitter electrically coupled to the second antenna coil. The second antenna coil is positioned within the magnetic field and receives an induced current from the magnetic field. The wireless transmitter receives the induced electrical current from the second antenna, uses the induced electrical current to determine a state of the at least one user-actuated device, and uses the induced electrical current to wirelessly transmit the state of the at least one user-actuated device.
US09813118B2
A method of configuring a network of a power transmitting unit (PTU) includes determining whether a neighboring PTU is operating in a master mode; determining an operation mode of a PTU based on a result of the determining; and setting a network between the PTU and the neighboring PTU based on the operation mode of the PTU.
US09813115B2
An RF system using PR-ASK with orthogonal offset is disclosed. In some embodiments, the system includes a PR-ASK signal generator and an orthogonal offset generator. The PR-ASK signal generator can produce a signal representing a sequence of symbols, for example, RFID symbols. The orthogonal offset generator can shift the PR-ASK signal trajectory away from the origin while maintaining the time domain requirements for an RFID signal, such as waveform edge rise and fall times. In some embodiments stored waveforms incorporating the controlled orthogonal offset are used to synthesize a sequence of symbols. The stored waveforms may also include nonlinear and/or linear predistortion to reduce computational complexity. The waveforms can be represented in Cartesian coordinates for use in a direct conversion transmitter or polar coordinates for use in a polar modulation transmitter. An RFID system can also include a receiver to receive incoming RFID signals.
US09813108B2
A method of generating a BOC correlation function based on partial correlation functions, an apparatus for tracking a BOC signal, and a spread spectrum signal receiver system using the same are disclosed herein. The apparatus includes a frequency offset compensation unit, a local code generation unit, a mixer, a delay lock loop (DLL), a phase lock loop (PLL), and a data extraction unit. The frequency offset compensation unit outputs a compensated received signal with respect to a received signal. The local code generation unit generates a delay-compensated local code based on a code delay value. The mixer mixes the delay-compensated local code with the frequency offset-compensated received signal. The DLL repeatedly tracks and calculates a code delay value. The PLL repeatedly calculates a carrier frequency compensation value. The data extraction unit extracts spreading data from a mixture of the delay-compensated local code and the compensated received signal.
US09813107B2
A radio-frequency identification (RFID) reader having fast-adaptive echo cancellation for backscatter-modulated signals is described. The echo cancellation includes subtracting an RF-level cancel signal from the received signal, where the cancel signal is generated based upon an error measured in the receive signal after down-conversion to baseband and low-pass filtering. The cancel signal is based upon a cumulative sum or integral of error signals and an estimated complex-valued transfer function of the scaling circuit. Methods of quick calibration of the reader are described, including accounting for circuit offsets and determining the estimated complex-valued transfer function.
US09813106B2
A signal conditioning device for conditioning bi-directional radiofrequency (RF) signals in a telecommunications network are provided. The signal conditioning device can allow for the separate conditioning of both downstream and upstream signals in a telecommunication system using a single signal conditioning device disposed at a single location. The signal conditioning device can include first and second line connections and can divide a bi-directional communication signal into downstream and upstream signals. The signal conditioning device can independently condition the downstream and upstream signals using plug-in signal conditioning circuits received into external plug-in sockets.
US09813105B2
Certain aspects and aspects of the present invention are directed to a distributed antenna system having a downlink communication path, an uplink communication path, and a non-duplexer isolator sub-system. The downlink communication path can communicatively couple a transmit antenna to a base station. The uplink communication path can communicatively couple a receive antenna to the base station. In one aspect, the non-duplexer isolator sub-system can be electronically configured for isolating uplink signals traversing the uplink communication path from downlink signals. In another aspect, a non-duplexer isolator sub-system can be configurable in one or more mechanical steps selecting a frequency response. In another aspect, a non-duplexer isolator sub-system can include an active mitigation sub-system.
US09813103B2
In one example, a multi-band multi-feed antenna comprises a first conductive end portion having a first antenna feed point located in a substantially middle area of the first conductive end portion; a second conductive end portion having a second antenna feed point located in a substantially middle area of the second conductive end portion; a conductive middle portion configured between the first and second conductive end portions; a first lower ground member at a first corner area of the first conductive end portion, configured to interconnect the first conductive end portion and a ground plane of the conductive middle portion; and a second upper ground member at a second corner area of the second conductive end portion, configured to interconnect the second conductive end portion and the ground plane. The first lower ground member and the second upper ground member are configured at substantially diagonally opposite positions.
US09813102B2
A communication device includes at least one radio that comprises signal processing circuitry, and at least one antenna coupled to the signal processing circuitry to send and receive radio signals. A component of the communication device requires user visibility and includes an isolator for isolating the at least one antenna, the isolator comprising at least one film that includes a transparent conductor. The component that requires user visibility may be a display screen or part of the chassis of a transparent communication device. The transparent conductor comprises a transparent conducting oxide such as indium tin oxide, indium tin oxide ink, graphite material, carbon nanotubes, or a conductive polymer.
US09813101B1
An apparatus for enveloping a portable communication or storage device includes a plurality of walls configured to at least partially enclose the portable communication or storage device. The apparatus also includes a processor, and a first shutter that is associated with one or more of the walls. The first shutter is operatively coupled to the processor, and is disposed so as to overlie a first camera lens of the portable communication or storage device. The first shutter has a first condition in which the taking of digital impressions with the first camera lens is unobstructed, and a second condition in which the taking of digital impressions with the first camera lens is hindered. The processor is configured to verify that a plurality of conditions is met before allowing the first shutter to toggle between the first and second conditions of that first shutter.
US09813097B2
A phone case made of durable, high grade plastic, aluminum, or similar material in the form of a base and door is disclosed. The door is attached to the base with either an elongate hinge or first and second pins mounted in the base and about which the door pivots from an open to a closed position and back again. The base is designed to receive and seat the phone snugly therein, and is preferably shaped to enclose the phone in a substantially rigid and compact housing that conforms with the shape of the phone. The door preferably pivots from the lower portion of the base about the hinge, and a latching mechanism is positioned at the top of the base's opening to capture and secure the door when closed. The tolerances of the fit between the door and the base are such that moisture will not seep into the case when the door is closed.
US09813092B2
A signal processing method and apparatus are disclosed. The signal processing method includes: receiving, by a first signal processing apparatus, a mixed signal; acquiring, by the first signal processing apparatus, an energy strength ratio of the mixed signal, where the energy strength ratio includes a ratio of energy strength of a signal sent by a first signal source and received by the first signal processing apparatus to energy strength of a signal sent by a second signal source and received by the first signal processing apparatus; and if the energy strength ratio is less than a first preset threshold, using, by the first signal processing apparatus, the signal sent by the second signal source in the mixed signal as an interference signal and separating the interference signal, and determining that a mixed signal obtained after the separation processing is the desired signal sent by the first signal source.
US09813090B2
In order to realize a power-saving power amplifier compatible with Carrier Aggregation technology using a plurality of bands, with a small size and low cost, while improving the amplitude accuracy and power efficiency, a transmission device of the present invention comprises: a modulation means that generates, from a baseband signal corresponding to each of the plurality of bands, a first and a second constant-envelope signals having different phases; a power amplification means that amplifies respective ones of the first and second constant-envelope signals generated by the modulation means; and a combining means that combines together the first and second constant-envelope signals amplified by the power amplification means and thereby generating an RF signal in which amplitude information contained in each of the baseband signals corresponding to respective ones of the plurality of bands is restored.
US09813087B2
A digital signal processing apparatus and method is described for a transmitter of a communication link. The digital signal processing apparatus comprises a pre-compensation filter for boosting power of a signal to be transmitted within two predetermined frequency bands. One of the predetermined frequency bands is centered around a clock tone frequency of fbaud/2, and the other one of the predetermined frequency bands is centered around a clock tone frequency of −fbaud/2, fbaud being a baud rate of the transmitted signal.
US09813079B2
A mechanism is provided for high-throughput compression of data. Responsive to receiving an indication of a match of a current 4-byte sequence from an incoming data stream to stored hash values in a set of hash tables, numerous variables are set to initial values. Responsive to receiving a subsequent 4-byte sequence from the incoming data stream and determining that an active match variable is set to one, the subsequent 4-byte sequence is compared to data in a copy of the incoming data stream in memory at an active position with a predefined length offset. A constraint variable is set to a number of bytes for which the match is to be extended. Responsive to the constraint variable being below a predetermined number, a length, distance pair is output indicating a match to a previous pattern in the incoming data stream.
US09813078B2
The present disclosure relates generally to automating the task of assignment of labels to identify electrical elements (e.g., electrode contacts, electrodes including a plurality of electrode contacts, and/or non-addressable electrical elements, like wires). A system that can automate the task of assignment of labels can include an electrical element, a microelectronic circuit associated with the electrical element, and an acquisition system. The microelectronic circuit can transmit a sequence comprising a label corresponding to the electrical element. The acquisition system can assign the label corresponding to the electrical element to a recording channel after decoding the sequence.
US09813074B2
Methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture (e.g., physical storage media) to calibrate interpolating string digital-to-analog converters are disclosed. Example methods disclosed herein to calibrate a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) include determining a first calibration codeword based on a first nonlinearity error value measured at an output of the DAC when a most-significant-bit (MSB) portion of an input codeword is applied to an input of the DAC. Such disclosed example methods also include determining a second calibration codeword based on a second measured nonlinearity error value measured at the output of the DAC when a least-significant-bit (LSB) portion of the input codeword is applied to the input of the DAC. Such disclosed example methods further include combining the first calibration codeword and the second calibration codeword to determine a third calibration codeword to be accessed by the DAC to calibrate the output of the DAC when the input codeword is applied to the DAC.
US09813066B2
Disclosed herein are a PLC high speed counter and an operating method thereof. The PLC high speed counter includes: an input circuit configured to convert and output a high-speed pulse train input from an encoder into a CMOS level; a micro processor unit configured to receive the pulse train from the input circuit, generate a count value by counting the pulse train in a linear count manner and calculate a current ring count value based on the count value; and a buffer configured to receive the count value from the micro processor unit and store the same as a current linear count value, wherein, when a current value request is received from an external device, the micro processor unit determines an operation mode and transmits, if the operation mode is a ring counter mode, the current ring count value.
US09813064B2
Described is an apparatus which comprises: a first power supply; a second power supply lower than the first power supply; first and second transistors coupled in series and to be biased, the first and second transistors coupled to a pad; a first pull-up transistor coupled to the first power supply and to one of the first or second transistors; a pull-down transistor coupled to one of the first or second transistors; and a second pull-up transistor coupled to the second power supply, the pull-down transistor, and to one of the first or second transistors.
US09813062B2
Disclosed herein is a driver circuit including a first group of transistors provided between first and second nodes and including n of the transistor(s) where n is equal to or greater than one, and a second group of transistors provided in parallel with the first group of transistors and including m of the transistor(s) where m is equal to or greater than one and not equal to n, the m transistors being connected together in series. The n-channel transistor in the first group and at least one of the two n-channel transistors in the second group have their gate connected to an input node.
US09813058B2
A control unit for controlling electrical apparatus. The control unit has (i) a control device which may be wall-mounted; (ii) an actuation plate which may be secured to the control device and comprises a cover surface which is at least partially transparent; (iii) a sensor member for detecting when a user's finger or another body comes into contact with a touch zone; and (iv) a control designed to control the electrical apparatus according to a specific function following detection of the contact action. The control device comprises a switching device associated with the touch zone through the control in such a way that the actuation of the switching device controls the electrical apparatus according to the same function associated with the touch zone.
US09813057B2
A sampling circuit for sampling an input voltage and generating an output voltage, comprising six switches, a capacitor and a voltage buffer. The first switch has a control terminal and makes the output voltage equal to the input voltage when switching on. The second switch is coupled to a first terminal of the capacitor and a first level. The third switch is coupled to a second terminal of the capacitor and a second level. The fourth switch is coupled to the first terminal of the capacitor and the control terminal. The fifth switch is coupled to the control terminal and the second level. The voltage buffer has large input impedance, and has an input receiving the input voltage, an output providing a voltage equal or close to the input voltage. The sixth switch is coupled to the second terminal of the capacitor and the output of the voltage buffer.
US09813050B1
A comparator circuit's signal range can be enhanced using an input signal attenuation circuit. In an example, a comparator circuit receives an input signal and a reference signal. The input signal can be conditioned by one or both of the attenuation circuit and a conditioning circuit, and a resulting conditioned signal can be presented to a compare element. Under first operating conditions where the input signal is approximately equal to the reference signal, the attenuation circuit can be substantially bypassed and a first resulting conditioned signal can be presented to the compare element. Under second operating conditions where the input signal is substantially greater than the reference signal, the attenuation circuit receives a portion of the input signal and a different second resulting conditioned signal can be presented to the compare element.
US09813039B2
A multiband ducker is configured to duck a specific range of frequencies within a music signal in proportion to a corresponding range of frequencies within a speech signal, and then combine the ducked music signal with the speech signal for output to a user. In doing so, the multiband ducker separates the music signal into different frequency ranges, which may include low, middle, and high-range frequencies. The multiband ducker then reduces the amplitude of the specific range of frequencies found in the speech signal, typically the mid-range frequencies. When the ducked music signal and the speech signal are combined, the resultant signal includes important frequencies of the original music signal, including low-range and high-range, thereby allowing perception of the music signal to continue in relatively uninterrupted fashion. Additionally, the combined signal also includes the speech signal, allowing for the perception of intelligible speech concordant with the perception of music.
US09813038B2
The embodiments disclose a method and apparatus for automatic gain control. The apparatus comprises a first gain controlled element, a second gain controlled element, a first gain control device, a second gain control device and a first simulator. The first gain controlled element and the second gain controlled element each has a signal input, a gain control input and a signal output. The first gain controlled element and the second gain controlled element are coupled in series and one or more power elements coupled between the first gain controlled element and the second gain controlled element. The signal input of the first gain controlled element constitutes an input of the automatic gain control apparatus. The first gain control device has a pre-detection input which is coupled to the signal input of the first gain controlled element and an output which drives the gain control input of the first gain controlled element. The second gain control device has a pre-detection input and an output which drives the gain control input of the second gain controlled element. The first simulator is coupled between the signal input of the first gain controlled element and the pre-detection input of the second gain control device, which is used to simulate frequency response of the one or more power elements between the first gain controlled element and the second gain controlled element, such that a signal received by the pre-detection input of the second gain control device is matched with a signal received by the signal input of the second gain controlled element.
US09813036B2
Radio frequency (RF) amplification devices and methods of amplifying RF signals are disclosed. In one embodiment, an RF amplification device includes a control circuit and a Doherty amplifier configured to amplify an RF signal. The Doherty amplifier includes a main RF amplification circuit and a peaking RF amplification circuit. The control circuit is configured to activate the peaking RF amplification circuit in response to the RF signal reaching a threshold level. In this manner, the activation of the peaking RF amplification circuit can be precisely controlled.
US09813035B2
Systems and methods disclosed herein provide for enhancing the low frequency (DC) gain of an operational amplifier with multiple correlated level shifting capacitors. In an embodiment, the operational amplifier is level shifted with a first correlated level shifting capacitor in a first phase and, then, is level shifted again with at least a second correlated level shifting capacitor in at least a second, non-overlapping, consecutive phase. In an embodiment, the multiple correlated level capacitors are controlled by a switching circuit network.
US09813029B2
A linearization circuit reduces intermodulation distortion in a differential amplifier that includes a first stage and a second stage. The linearization circuit receives a first signal that includes a first frequency and a second frequency and generates a difference signal having a frequency approximately equal to the difference of the first frequency and the second frequency, generates an envelope signal based at least in part on a power level of the first signal, and adjusts a magnitude of the difference signal based on the envelope signal. When the differential amplifier receives the first signal at an input terminal, the first stage receives the adjusted signal, and the second stage does not receive the adjusted signal, intermodulation between the adjusted signal and the first signal cancels at least a portion of the intermodulation between the first frequency and the second frequency from the output of the differential amplifier.
US09813028B2
an amplifier amplifies electrical power of signals. A calculating unit calculates a cumulative value for each of first samples and second samples, between which a difference in electrical power or phase is within a first range, in a first sample group and a second sample group corresponding to a first signal that is a signal before amplification in the amplifier and a second signal that is a signal after amplification in the amplifier. Then, the calculating unit calculates, by using the calculated cumulative value, a phase difference between the first signal and the second signal. The correction unit corrects the phase difference by using a correction amount calculated from the phase difference. The updating unit updates, by using the first signal and the second signal of which the phase difference is corrected, a distortion compensation coefficient that is used to compensate nonlinear distortion generated in the amplifier.
US09813027B2
Devices and methods related to embedded sensors for dynamic error vector magnitude corrections. In some embodiments, a power amplifier (PA) can include a PA die and an amplification stage implemented on the PA die. The amplification stage can include an array of amplification transistors, with the array being configured to receive and amplify a radio-frequency (RF) signal. The PA can further include a sensor implemented on the PA die. The sensor can be positioned relative to the array of amplification transistors to allow sensing of an operating condition representative of at least some of the amplification transistors. The sensor can be substantially isolated from the RF signal.
US09813023B2
A low-complexity differential inductor and common-mode impedance network for reducing effects of flicker noise in an oscillator output signal have been disclosed. An oscillator includes a planar conductive loop comprising a first terminal, a second terminal, and a center tap. The planar conductive loop is formed from a first conductive layer above an integrated circuit substrate. The center tap is coupled to a first power supply node. The oscillator includes a planar conductive structure extending from a first point proximate to the center tap. The planar conductive structure extends along a line of symmetry of the planar conductive loop to a second point proximate to the first terminal and the second terminal. The planar conductive structure may be formed from the first conductive layer and may be directly coupled to the center tap.
US09813019B2
A photovoltaic connection box is disclosed. The photovoltaic connection box has a box, a conductive terminal received in the box and having a first lateral wall perpendicular to a bottom of the box, and a diode connected to the first lateral wall.
US09813009B1
An inverter for an electric vehicle comprises a phase leg having series-connected upper and lower transistors between a positive bus and a ground bus. Upper and lower gate drive circuits supply gate drive signals to the upper and lower transistors. Each gate drive circuit includes an active clamp for deactivating the upper and lower transistors. The transistors are comprised of semiconductor devices, each having respective gate, collector, and emitter terminals. Each pair of gate and emitter terminals is adapted to provide an enhanced common source inductance therebetween. Each gate terminal is adapted to be tied to a ground voltage of the drive circuits. Each respective active clamp is comprised of a p-channel MOSFET having a source terminal connected to the gate terminal of a respective transistor and having a drain terminal connected to the emitter terminal of the respective transistor bypassing the respective enhanced common source inductance.
US09813008B2
One example includes a half-bridge switching circuit system. The system includes a first plurality of switches arranged between a first rail voltage and an output on which an output voltage is provided and a second plurality of switches arranged between a second rail voltage and the output, the first and second pluralities of switches being controlled via a plurality of switching signals. The system also includes a plurality of flying capacitors arranged to interconnect the first and second pluralities of switches, and further includes a plurality of snubber circuits that are each arranged in parallel with a respective one of the plurality of flying capacitors, the first plurality of switches, and the second plurality of switches.
US09813007B2
A control system for an electric motor, the control system comprising a first control device arranged to control an operation of a first component of the electric motor; a second control device arranged to control an operation of a second component of the electric motor, wherein the first control device is arranged to transmit to the second control device a first signal for indicating the transmission of data over a first communication link to the second control device, wherein the second control device is arranged to use the timing of the first signal to synchronize the operation of the second component with the operation of the first component.
US09813006B2
A system and method for reliable control of a high rotor pole switched reluctance machine (HRSRM) utilizing a sensorless reliable control system. The method comprising: energizing at least one of the plurality of stator phases; measuring a first current value and time taken by the first current value to reach a first peak value or preset threshold value of current; determining a self-inductance value; storing the self-inductance value and the first current value for each of the stator phases; measuring a second current value and time taken by an adjacent un-energized stator phase to reach a second peak value of current; determining a mutual inductance value; storing the mutual inductance value and the second current value for each of the stator phases; estimating a rotor position utilizing the self-inductance and mutual inductance values; and controlling the HRSRM based on the estimated rotor position.
US09813002B2
A motor controller comprises: a rotation angle estimation unit for estimating and computing a rotation angle of a motor repeatedly based on the current and voltage of the motor without using a motor rotation angle detector; a speed calculation unit for calculating the period of the signal waveform of the rotation angle that is repeatedly estimated and calculated by the rotation angle estimation unit and for calculating an actual rotational speed of the motor based on the period; a drive signal generating unit for generating a drive signal to drive and control the motor based on at least a deviation between the actual rotational speed and a target rotational speed and the rotation angle; and a switching circuit that is switched based on the drive signal to provide drive power to the motor.
US09813001B2
A control device capable of suppressing electromagnetic force applied to a motor has a harmonic current calculation section and an operation section. The harmonic current calculation section calculates amplitude and phase of each of harmonic currents to be superimposed over a fundamental current which flows in phase windings of a stator of the motor based on conditions relating to load change of the motor. The operation section generates and transmits instruction signals to an inverter so that the calculated superimposed harmonic currents flow in the phase windings of the stator.
US09812995B2
A piezoelectric power generator using wind power is provided. To elaborate, the piezoelectric power generator has a central axis unit with a charger, a piezoelectric film supporting frame engaged onto an outer circumference surface of the central axis unit, and a piezoelectric film having a pre-set area and at least one side engaged to at least one of one side part of the piezoelectric supporting frame and the central axis unit. In addition, the piezoelectric film supporting frame has a shape corresponding to a shape of an edge of the piezoelectric film to surround the edge of the piezoelectric film.
US09812994B2
An ultrasonic motor includes a vibrator configured to generate a vibration, a relatively movable member configured to be movable by the vibrator, wherein the relatively movable member is movable relatively according to the vibration of the vibrator, a holding unit configured to hold the vibrator, wherein the holding unit includes a first holding member configured to hold the vibrator and a second holding member; and a damping member provided between the vibrator and the second holding member and configured to reduce a vibration transmitted to the second holding member, a pressure unit configured to press the vibrator against the relatively movable member, wherein the second holding member is configured to press the vibrator against the relatively movable member, and wherein the first holding member is made of a material having a higher damping capability against the vibrator than a material of the second holding member.
US09812983B2
A first variable voltage source VS1 generates a first threshold voltage VZC1 which is variable. A first zero current detection comparator ZC_CMP1 compares a first voltage VAC1 at a first input node AC1 with the first threshold voltage VZC1, and generates a ZC_DET1 signal which indicates a comparison result. A first adjustment comparator ADJ_CMP1 compares the first voltage VAC1 with a first reference voltage VTH1. A first adjustment unit adjusts the first threshold voltage VZC1 generated by the first variable voltage source VS1, based on the output VF_DET1 of the first adjustment comparator ADJ_CMP1. A control logic switches the state of a bridge circuit according to at least the first detection signal ZC_DET1.
US09812963B1
A power supply includes a half-bridge circuit. The power supply further includes an output inductor connected to a switch node that is common to a high side switch and a low side switch of the half-bridge. During a turn ON time of the low side switch, a current detection circuit of the power supply samples and holds in a capacitor a valley of an inductor current flowing through the output inductor. Also during the turn ON time of the low side switch, the current detection circuit samples and holds in another capacitor a peak of the inductor current. During a turn OFF time of the low side switch, a sense inductor current that is representative of the inductor current is generated by combining the charges stored in the capacitors.
US09812961B2
A DC conversion device including a first DC converter and a second DC converter connected in series, a voltage difference adjusting unit, and a first and a second control unit is provided. The first and the second DC converter respectively receive a first and a second input current to generate a first output current and a first output voltage, a second output current and a second output voltage at a first and a second output end connected to a first and a second energy-storing element, respectively. The voltage difference adjusting unit generates a voltage difference adjusting signal. The first control unit generates a first control signal to control the first converter. The second control unit generates a second control signal according to the voltage difference adjusting signal to control the second converter to balance the first and the second input and output voltages.
US09812958B2
A voltage regulator includes an error amplifier; an output transistor; and a first transistor including a gate for inputting a reference voltage and a source for inputting an output voltage. The first transistor is configured to cause a current to flow when the output voltage becomes an irregular voltage, and a current of the output transistor is controlled based on the current flowing through the first transistor. The voltage regulator capable of improving the overshoot or undershoot of the output voltage in a wide temperature range and to reduce a delay in detection of the overshoot or undershoot.
US09812953B2
A controller of a power converter and related method pre-determine a range of suitable compensators across an end user's design space and permit the end user to configure the compensator such that the most suitable compensator is selected.
US09812951B2
A power factor correction voltage controller is disclosed. In one embodiment, the controller has a linear PI compensator, a moving average filter, a non-linear error circuit, a hysteretic peak control, and an output power feedforward. The power factor correction voltage controller provides regulation of maximum and minimum voltage values but without allowing large periodic fluctuations in the input power/current.
US09812949B2
A converter system and inverter system are disclosed with individual real and reactive power control for each phase of a poly-phase system. The converter system includes a controller, bidirectional single-phase inverters with AC sides coupled to an AC line filter and DC sides connected in parallel to a link capacitor coupled to DC/DC converters. Each inverter handles a separate AC phase. The controller controls the inverters and DC/DC converters so the current amplitude of each AC phase is independent, and the phase difference of each AC phase is independent. The inverters can be galvanically isolated between the DC and AC sides. The inverters can be non-isolated inverters having line and neutral connectors coupled to an isolated transformer winding, and the output windings of the transformer can be wired in a Wye configuration. The inverters can have local controllers.
US09812945B2
The present disclosure relates to a circuit structure for enhancing EFT immunity of primary side converter, including a power ground and a feedback voltage detecting block, a feedback current detecting block, a controller, a PWM driving block, a high voltage starting block, a starting unit, a circuit for enhancing EFT immunity of primary side converter, a power MOS transistor, and an OR gate configured to perform a logical OR of an off-time calculated theoretically and an off-time output by an off-time control block. The present disclosure enhances EFT immunity effectively and improves the dynamic characteristics of the primary side converter.
US09812940B2
In an embodiment, an offset voltage generator includes a first limiter configured to compare a first phase-voltage signal with a maximum limit value and a minimum limit value to output a first limit-voltage signal; a second limiter configured to compare a second phase-voltage signal with the maximum limit value and the minimum limit value to output a second limit-voltage signal; a third limiter configured to compare a third phase-voltage signal with the maximum limit value and the minimum limit value to output a third limit-voltage signal; and a summer configured to add a difference between the first phase-voltage signal and the first limit-voltage signal, a difference between the second phase-voltage signal and the second limit-voltage signal, and a difference between the third phase-voltage signal and the third limit-voltage signal, to output an offset voltage.
US09812932B2
A motor includes a rotating portion including a shaft and a rotor, and a stationary portion including a stator and a magnetic sensor. The magnetic sensor is located above the rotor to detect the rotational position of the rotor. The rotor includes a tubular rotor core defined by laminated steel sheets; a rotor magnet including an upper end surface at an axial level higher than an axial level of an upper end surface of the rotor core; and a rotor holder including a ferromagnetic body, and above the rotor core and radially inside of the rotor magnet. Each of the rotor core and an outer cylindrical portion of the rotor holder is in contact with the rotor magnet or opposite to the rotor magnet with a gap intervening therebetween.
US09812928B2
The invention is an apparatus for generating power using inertia of a load in a moving vehicle. The apparatus includes a vessel having a volume that is capable of an expansion and a contraction, and containing a fluid under a pressure. The fluid is released from the vessel as a force is exerted by the load of the vehicle against the vessel. The apparatus includes a reservoir, operably connected to the vessel by fluid conduit. The reservoir contains the fluid under pressure until an optimum pressure is reached at which point the reservoir releases the fluid to a power generator. The power generator then generates electrical power. Excess fluid released from the power generator then returns to the vessel.
US09812925B2
Processing units and electrical power generation are integrated with a botanical environment to form a closed loop system whereby the outputs of one component serve as the inputs of another. Additionally, humans can be added to the system while maintaining the closed loop nature. Heat generated by the electrical power generation and processing units aids in the growth of botanicals and in the conversion of waste organic materials into both fertilizer and fuel for the electrical power generation. Additionally, carbon dioxide output by the electrical power generation is consumed by the botanicals, which, in turn, output oxygen consumed by the electrical power generation. Water is obtained by passing the exhaust of the electrical power generation across condenser coils, and is utilized for adiabatic cooling, as well as a heat transfer medium. Water is also consumed by the botanicals, aiding their growth.
US09812921B2
It is known to mount an electric motor (1), in particular a blower motor, with oscillation decoupling. The electric motor (1) has a motor housing (4), in particular a pole housing, which has at least one connecting lug (10), which protrudes radially from the motor housing (4) and on which a decoupling element (20) is fitted, via which decoupling element the motor housing (4) is supported on an outer housing (5, 6). In order to rule out the risk of a collision between the connecting lug (10) and the outer housing (5, 6), the invention proposes an apparatus for oscillation-decoupled mounting, in which the decoupling element (20) surrounds the connecting lug (10; 11, 12) in the form of a sleeve with a casing part (21), wherein the casing part (21) is supported, via at least one web (30, 31; 40, 41; 50, 51; 55, 56), on an outer part (26), which surrounds the casing part (21) in the form of a frame and is accommodated in the outer housing (5, 6), which is preferably formed in two parts. The apparatus for oscillation-decoupled mounting of an electric motor is intended in particular for blower motors of motor vehicle air conditioning systems.
US09812918B2
The present disclosure relates to an electrical connection system and assembly for a brushless electromagnetic motor including a coiled stator assembly with P electric phases and X coils per phase, each coil exhibiting in proximity a body furnished with two connection slots, a first sub-assembly formed of W tracks cut in a conducting sheet, the tracks forming W coplanar output tracks, W being an integer number lying between P and P+1, each of the W tracks terminating in at least one end folded back perpendicularly to the plane of the tracks, the shape of the folded back end being complementary to the shape of the connection slot, the tracks being joined by an insulating plastic material.
US09812916B2
Provided is a motor bobbin around which a winding wire is wound, said motor bobbin comprising insulating paper and a resin molded body. The insulating paper and the resin molded body are coupled and fixed together without using an adhesive agent. Surfaces of the insulating paper which are in contact with the resin molded body are configured using aramid paper comprising an aramid fibrid and aramid short fibers. Resin is melt extruded and thermal-fusion bonded upon the aramid paper comprising the aramid fibrid and the aramid short fibers, and the surfaces configured from the aramid paper are surface treated to obtain the insulating paper. The motor bobbin is obtained by bringing melted portions of the resin molded body into contact with the top of the aramid paper.
US09812911B2
A DC motor includes a core, two bifurcated branching portions, an inner coil, and an outer coil. The core includes teeth. Each tooth includes a distal end and a basal end. The branching portions are located at the distal end. The inner coil is wound around the basal end. The outer coil is wound around each of the branching portions of the tooth and a branching portion of an adjacent one of the teeth. The inner coil and the outer coil each have a number of turns that is adjusted so that an inductance of the inner coil conforms to an inductance of the outer coil.
US09812906B2
A signal generator generates an electrical signal that is sent to an amplifier, which increases the power of the signal using power from a power source. The amplified signal is fed to a sender transducer to generate ultrasonic waves that can be focused and sent to a receiver. The receiver transducer converts the ultrasonic waves back into electrical energy and stores it in an energy storage device, such as a battery, or uses the electrical energy to power a device. In this way, a device can be remotely charged or powered without having to be tethered to an electrical outlet.
US09812903B2
A system and method of wireless power transfer using a two half-bridge to one full-bridge switchover includes a wireless power transfer system. The wireless power transfer system includes a controller, first and second transmitters coupled to the controller, the first and second transmitters being coupled to one another by an electrical connection, and a switch coupled between the electrical connection and a voltage rail. When the switch is closed, the controller operates the first and second transmitters in a two half-bridge mode. When the switch is open, the controller operates the first and second transmitters in a one full-bridge mode.
US09812902B2
A system and a device for wirelessly transferring power without a cable are provided. A wireless electromagnetic receiver includes a first device configured to be magnetized based on an electromagnetic field. The wireless electromagnetic receiver further includes a second device configured to transform the magnetization of the first device into a power, the second device being not in contact with the first device.
US09812901B2
An emergency lighting power supply includes a rechargeable battery; ballast circuitry configured to supply power to an external light, battery charging circuitry configured to charge the battery, and a controller. The controller determines an amount of time the rechargeable battery has discharged to supply power, via the ballast circuitry, to the external light. If the amount of time is less than a threshold, the controller causes the battery charging circuitry to supply a first current to charge the battery for a first charging period that is proportional to the amount of time, and causes the battery charging circuitry to supply a second current to charge the battery subsequent to the end of the first charging period.
US09812898B2
A capacitive-based system that provides an electrical backup power source to an electric actuator for fail-safe actuation. The capacitive-based system includes an input power supply, a plurality of supercapacitors, and an output power supply. The input power supply converts an AC or DC primary power to a regulated DC output. The plurality of supercapacitors are connected in series to form a bank of supercapacitors. The bank of supercapacitors are operatively connected to the input power supply, are charged to a bank voltage set by the regulated DC output of the input power supply, and are used to store the electrical backup power source. The output power supply is operatively connected to the bank of supercapacitors, and boosts the bank voltage of the bank of supercapacitors to a higher DC output voltage, i.e., the electrical backup power source, that supplies the electric actuator.
US09812896B2
A portable solar power station is disclosed herein. The power station is contained and configured with sufficient power to support a plurality of industrial devices and appliances. The devices and appliances can be utilized for a variety of professional and recreational activities. The power station is easily transported because it can fit, e.g., into a truck's bed or a van's cargo area and is not so heavy, e.g., that a person of mild to average strength would have difficulty pushing, lifting or otherwise moving the power station.
US09812890B1
The present disclosure provides a method and apparatus for improved wireless charging pads for charging and/or powering electronic devices. Such pads may not require a power chord for connecting to a main power supply, for example a wall outlet. In contrast, power may be delivered wireless to the foregoing pads through pocket-forming. A transmitter connected to a power source may deliver pockets of energy to the pads which through at least one embedded receiver may convert such pockets of energy to power. Lastly, the pads may power and/or charge electronic devices through suitable wireless power transmission techniques such as magnetic induction, electrodynamics induction or pocket-forming.
US09812889B2
There is provided a planar inductive battery charging system designed to enable electronic devices to be recharged. The system includes a planar charging module having a charging surface on which a device to be recharged is placed. Within the charging module and parallel to the charging surface is at least one and preferably an array of primary windings that couple energy inductively to a secondary winding formed in the device to be recharged. The invention also provides secondary modules that allow the system to be used with conventional electronic devices not formed with secondary windings.
US09812888B2
The invention disclosed is a method for decreasing the internal resistance or impedance of a battery or electrochemical cell is described which comprises the step of discharging the battery or cell until it reaches an overdischarge condition and maintaining the battery or cell in the overdischarge condition for a period of time sufficient to effect a diminution of the internal resistance or impedance of a battery or electrochemical cell; and a battery or electrochemical cell having a reduced impedance.
US09812884B2
The present application describes power management devices, systems and methods. In an embodiment, a power management controller is configured to: determine that a secondary electronic device requires an amount of power that exceeds a default power threshold defined in a default power scheme; monitor internal power requirements associated with on-board functions of an electronic device and determine that internal power requirements satisfy predetermined criteria; and in response to determining that the secondary electronic device requires an amount of power that exceeds the default power threshold and that the internal power requirements satisfy the predetermined criteria, adjust a power scheme associated with the port and implemented by the power limiter to provide, to the secondary electronic device, an amount of power that exceeds the default power threshold.
US09812866B2
Systems and methods for controlling power flow to and from an energy storage system are provided. One energy storage system includes an energy storage device and a bidirectional inverter configured to control a flow of power into or out of the energy storage device. The energy storage system further includes a controller configured to control the bidirectional inverter based on one or more signals received from the generator set coupled to the inverter via an AC bus. The controller is configured to, based on the one or more signals, control the bidirectional inverter to store power generated by the generator set in the energy storage device and transmit power from the energy storage device to a load driven by the generator set to maintain the generator set within a range of one or more operating conditions.
US09812863B2
An electrical power source includes a power converter and either an electrical generator or an electrical energy storage device. Power flow is controlled through control of the power converter based on a voltage source and resistance model of the electrical power source. A power converter for an electrical generator is controlled to synthesize a constant voltage of the voltage source and a variable value of the resistance. The resistance value is controlled to deliver a maximum available output power to the electrical microgrid over a range of microgrid voltages up to a voltage below a maximum allowable voltage of the electrical microgrid. For an electrical energy storage device, the power converter is controlled to synthesize a resistance value of the resistance that is dependent upon a phase angle between the voltage at the microgrid side of the electrical power source and current of the electrical energy storage device.
US09812860B2
An electrical network of an aircraft comprises: several main generators, several high voltage direct current networks powered by one of the generators in normal operation, several low voltage direct current networks powered by one of the high voltage direct current networks, several converters to transfer energy from one of the high voltage direct current networks to one of the low voltage direct current networks, the different converters being independent and isolated from each other, each converter being dedicated to one of the high voltage networks and to the low voltage direct current network, a load designed to be powered in normal operation by the main generators and in backup operation by one of the low voltage direct current networks, the backup operation being put into place when at least one of the high voltage networks is no longer powered by the associated main generator in normal operation.
US09812851B2
A raceway system for electrical conductors in a wall includes an elongated raceway for passing electrical conductors therethrough. The elongated raceway has an upper portion configured to mechanically cooperate with a mounting junction box and a lower portion configured to mechanically cooperate with an outlet junction box. At least one clip is configured to receive the elongated raceway and secure the elongated raceway to a stud within the wall. The clip may be configured to flexibly receive the elongated raceway. An outlet junction box may be coupled to the lower portion of the elongated raceway, the outlet junction box configured for attachment to an inside surface of the wall to provide therethrough access to the electrical conductors. A mounting junction box may be coupled to the upper portion of the elongated raceway, the mounting junction box configured for attachment to an upper support member within the wall.
US09812845B1
An optical transmitter includes: a set of reflective semiconductor optical amplifiers (RSOAs) or other reflective gain media, a set of ring filters, a set of intermediate waveguides, a shared waveguide, a shared loop mirror, and an output waveguide. Each intermediate waveguide channels light from an RSOA in proximity to an associated ring filter to cause optically coupled light to circulate in the associated ring filter. The shared waveguide is coupled to the shared loop mirror, and is located in proximity to the set of ring filters, so that light circulating in each ring filter causes optically coupled light to flow in the shared waveguide. Each RSOA forms a lasing cavity with the shared loop reflector, wherein each lasing cavity has a different wavelength associated with a resonance of its associated ring filter. The output waveguide is optically coupled to the shared loop mirror and includes an electro-optical modulator.
US09812830B1
An extendible electrical socket includes: a mother socket connected to a power supply source; and a plurality of daughter sockets which are connectable with one another to be an extendible electrical socket adapted for simultaneously connecting a plurality of electrical devices; each daughter socket including a locking device to be safely engaged with the mother socket or engaged with another or neighboring daughter socket to prevent from their disconnection when coupled and locked by each locking device.
US09812828B1
A power station includes a wedge-shaped body including first and second surfaces extending between respective first and second ends. The respective first ends meet with the respective second ends being spaced apart in a rest position. The first and second surfaces are biased apart from each other such that an outward force is generated thereby when urged together from the rest position. At least one power socket is located on the wedge-shaped body and configured for connection to an electrical power source.
US09812824B1
Disclosed is a stereo audio jack assembly that reduces or eliminates signal loss with an audio plug. The jack assembly employs a support housing having a passageway sized to receive the audio plug with an insulated first connector having first and second terminal strips, each formed integral to a first disk base and positioned to engage the grooved tip of an audio plug when engaged. A second isolated connector includes a terminal strip positioned to engage one side of an audio plug sleeve when engaged. And a third isolated connector includes a terminal strip positioned to engage another side of an audio plug sleeve when engaged to allow for a stereo connection by having distinct contacts.
US09812820B2
A connector includes: a locking lever; a switching mechanism that includes a switch configured to generate a signal capable of establishing conduction between the connector and an inlet when operated by the locking lever and is arranged so as to be movable between a first position and a second position; an outer shell configured to accommodate the locking lever and the switch therein; a cover including a cover-side protrusion and being arranged on the outer shell so that at least a part of the cover is exposed to an outside of the outer shell; and a movable-plate-side protrusion arranged in the switching mechanism and configured to retain the switching mechanism at the first position through contact with the cover-side protrusion. The locking lever includes an operating portion capable of operating the switch.
US09812815B2
A connector having enhanced protection against arcing during live or “hot” connection of a plug assembly to a receptacle assembly. The terminals of the connector, including the connection point of exposed wiring, are electrically isolated from each other with dielectric barriers built in to the connector, such as polymer partitions. Accordingly, protection against arcing is provided in a connector that is assembled fast and inexpensively, without need for a time consuming installation of wire and terminal coatings or sleeves (e.g., “shrink tube”), and with greater reliability. The connector can be used in a modular system for decorative lighting and having a controller module that is not hard wired to a light string. Use of the controller module independent of any of the light strings enables the controller to be used with any light string or with a replacement light string, in the event that the immediately connected light string fails.
US09812814B1
An electrical plug is provided including a plug housing having a hollow interior surrounded by an outer wall, a first plurality of electrical connectors positioned within the hollow interior that are adapted to mate with a second plurality of electrical connectors positioned on a plug housing, a first aperture extending through the outer wall, a locking member extending from within the hollow interior through the first aperture in the outer wall, wherein the locking member includes a retainer that abuts a surface of the outer wall, wherein the locking member includes one a more holes positioned outside of an outer surface of the outer wall, a locking element secured through the one or more holes on the locking member, and wherein the locking member prevents the plug receptacle from being fully engaged with the plug housing.
US09812805B2
A butting surface (21) of a first butting terminal fitting (20) held by a first terminal accommodating member (40) is formed in a curved-surface configuration protruding toward a second butting terminal fitting (30) side held by a second terminal accommodating member (50). A plurality of contact spring pieces (33a and 33b) of the second butting terminal fitting (30) which are butted against the butting surface (21) and resiliently deformed are flat plate type leaf springs arranged on the same plane.
US09812793B2
An electrical connector for electrically contacting an electrical conductor includes a sheath clamp configured for insertion of the electrical conductor, a plug contact pin for fitting onto a socket, and a contact bridge on which the sheath clamp and the plug contact pin are secured. A connection device includes an electrical connector and a contact support. The electrical connector includes a sheath clamp and a plug contact pin. The contact support is configured to receive the electrical connector and includes a sheath clamp aperture and a plug aperture.
US09812782B2
A transponder chip module (TCM) comprises an RFID chip (CM, IC), optionally contact pads (CP), a module antenna (MA), and a coupling frame (CF), all on a common substrate or module tape (MT). The coupling frame (CF) may be in the form of a conductive layer having an outer edge (OE) and a slit (S) or non-conductive stripe (NCS) extending from the outer edge to an inner position thereof which may be a central opening (OP). The coupling frame (CF) may be arranged so that the slit (S) or non-conductive strips (NCS) overlaps at least a portion of the module antenna (MA). Methods and apparatus are disclosed.
US09812780B2
The present invention generally relates to small antennas suitable for mobile devices operating in the high frequency and radio frequency bands in the range 100 MHz to 5 GHz. The antennas may be coupled to a DVC such as a MEMS DVC. The antenna may be coupled to a printed circuit board disposed inside of the mobile device, such as a mobile phone or smart phone.
US09812772B2
The antenna device comprises: a magnetic core; one or more windings (W1) wound around the magnetic core; an electrically insulating base (1), on which the magnetic core wound with the one or more windings (W1) is arranged, and which comprises electrically conductive elements (11, 12, 13), which are electrically connected to the one or more one windings (W1); and an adaptor (A) is arranged over the magnetic core and comprising an electrically insulating piece (140) having an upper surface comprising electrically conductive platings (121, 122, 123) following a specific PCB layout and at least part of which are connected to the electrically conductive elements (11, 12, 13) of the electrically insulating base (1). The adaptor is suitable for its use as the adaptor of the antenna device of the present invention.
US09812770B2
One aspect provides an antenna. The antenna, in this aspect, includes a grounded segment extending from a metal chassis of an electronic device, and a feed portion coplanar with the grounded segment, the grounded segment and feed portion jointly tuned to cause the antenna to communicate in selected bands of frequencies.
US09812768B2
An example antenna device may includes a base member, an antenna that is attached to the base member, and a cover member that is attached to surround at least a part of the base member and at least a part of the antenna. A first part of the base member that is attached to the cover member has a melting temperature equal to or lower than that of the cover member. A second part of the base member to which the antenna is attached has a higher melting temperature than the cover member.
US09812764B2
An RFID tag includes an antenna element and a feed device. The antenna element includes a base sheet and a coil conductor on the upper surface thereof. The feed device includes a feed element and an RFIC. The feed element includes a base sheet and a first coil conductor and a second coil conductor on the upper surface of the base sheet. The first coil conductor and the second coil conductor are arranged on the base sheet such that magnetic flux generated in the first coil conductor and the second coil conductor constitutes a closed magnetic circuit. The feed device is adhered to a coupling portion of the antenna element. As a result, the RFIC is strongly coupled to the antenna element.
US09812763B2
Mounting systems and apparatus are provided for attaching a mast to a structure at a desired orientation. The mounting apparatus includes a base support and a ball mount. The base support can be rigidly attached to a portion of the structure. The ball mount receives a ball associated with the mast to thereby allow the mast to be positioned and maintained at the desired orientation. The mounting apparatus may be used, for example, for attaching a digital broadcast satellite (DBS) antenna to a fascia or other portion of a home or other structure.
US09812757B2
Aspects of this disclosure relate to a radio frequency coupler with a multi-section coupled line. In an embodiment, an apparatus includes a radio frequency coupler that includes a power input port, a power output port, a coupled port, a multi-section coupled line, and a switch configured to adjust an effective length of the multi-section coupled line electrically connected to the coupled port.
US09812750B2
A high frequency band pass filter with a coupled surface mount transition is provided, including a filter substrate, circuit connection elements defining input and an output elements provided on a surface of the filter substrate, electronic filter components provided on the first surface of the filter substrate, and impedance matching structures provided on the first surface of the filter substrate between the electronic filter components and the respective input and output elements. Signal connection structures are provided on an opposed surface of the filter substrate, in locations that positionally correspond to respective positions of the input and output elements. The respective signal connection elements are capacitively coupled, through a thickness direction of the filter substrate, to a respective one of the input and output elements on the opposed surface of the filter substrate without the presence of any vertical conductive structures within the filter substrate at the input and the output elements.
US09812749B2
A radio frequency rotary coupler with its power dividers/couplers separated among multiple circuit layers that are axially stacked and interconnected using coaxial feeds. This architecture allows for multiple layers of circuits with minimal outside diameter and while minimizing increase in axial length. The coupler includes a stator, rotor, and dynamic capacitive ring. The stator includes at least a first stator circuit layer with a primary stator power divider (SPD), a second stator circuit layer with at least one secondary SPD, and stator coaxial feeds coupling the primary SPD and the secondary SPD(s). The rotor includes a first rotor circuit layer with a primary rotor power divider (RPD), a second rotor circuit layer with at least one secondary RPD, and rotor coaxial feeds coupling the primary RPD and the secondary RPD(s). The dynamic capacitive ring couples the stator and the rotor via the secondary SPD(s) and RPD(s).
US09812741B2
An object is to provide a method of charging and maintaining a lithium ion secondary battery which method is capable of preventing a decrease in the capacity of the battery. Another object is to provide a battery system capable of preventing a decrease in battery capacity, and a vehicle and a battery-mounted device which have such a battery system mounted therein. A method of charging and maintaining lithium ion secondary batteries 101 using positive active material particles 135 made from a two-phase coexistence type positive active material PM in a positive electrode plate 130 includes an overcharge step S7 for charging the lithium ion secondary batteries to bring their SOC (State of Charge) SC into an overcharge SOC not higher than 100% but higher than a target SOC, a return discharge step S8 for discharging, after the overcharge step, the lithium ion secondary batteries to make their SOC equal to the target SOC, and a maintaining step S10.
US09812740B2
The battery unit (1) includes a flat battery (2) having a cylindrical positive electrode can (10) with a bottom and a cylindrical negative electrode can (20) with a bottom that covers an opening side of the positive electrode can and having a side wall of the positive electrode can on the opening side fitted to an outer circumferential surface of a side wall of the negative electrode can and a substrate (61) provided on a flat surface of one of the negative electrode can and the positive electrode can and mounted with circuit components (62) thereon. The other of the negative electrode can and the positive electrode can that has a flat surface on an opposite side to the substrate in a thickness-wise direction of the flat battery serves as an external terminal for one of a positive electrode and a negative electrode.
US09812734B2
Provided is a solid electrolyte with which charge/discharge efficiency and cycle characteristics can be increased by reducing the electron conductivity of a compound which has a cubic crystal structure belonging to a space group F-43m, and is represented by Compositional Formula: Li7-xPS6-xHax (Ha is Cl or Br). Proposed is a sulfide-based solid electrolyte for a lithium ion battery, which includes a compound having a cubic crystal structure belonging to a space group F-43m, and being represented by Compositional Formula: Li7-xPS6-xHax (Ha is Cl or Br), in which x in the above Compositional Formula is 0.2 to 1.8, and the value of the lightness L* thereof in the L*a*b* color system is 60.0 or more.
US09812732B2
A battery system may include a plurality of battery cell assemblies electrically coupled in series. A first battery cell assembly of the plurality of battery cell assemblies includes a first lithium ion battery cell and a first lead acid battery cell electrically coupled in parallel with the first lithium ion battery cell such that the first lead acid battery cell is configured to resist overcharging and overdischarging of the first lithium ion battery cell.
US09812727B2
Disclosed are systems for the electrocatalytic reduction of oxygen, having redox mediator/redox catalyst pairs and an electrolyte solution in contact with an electrode. The redox mediator is included in the electrolyte solution, and the redox catalyst may be included in the electrolyte solution, or alternatively, may be in contact with the electrolyte solution. In one form a cobalt redox catalyst is used with a quinone redox mediator. In another form a nitrogen oxide redox catalyst is used with a nitroxyl type redox mediator. The systems can be used in electrochemical cells wherein neither the anode nor the cathode comprise an expensive metal such as platinum.
US09812717B2
A fuel cell cassette for forming a fuel cell stack along a fuel cell axis includes a cell retainer, a plate positioned axially to the cell retainer and defining a space axially with the cell retainer, and a fuel cell having an anode layer and a cathode layer separated by an electrolyte layer. The outer perimeter of the fuel cell is positioned in the space between the plate and the cell retainer, thereby retaining the fuel cell and defining a cavity between the cell retainer, the fuel cell, and the plate. The fuel cell cassette also includes a seal disposed within the cavity for sealing the edge of the fuel cell. The seal is compliant at operational temperatures of the fuel cell, thereby allowing lateral expansion and contraction of the fuel cell within the cavity while maintaining sealing at the edge of the fuel cell.
US09812712B2
In order to prepare highly conductive and highly dispersible graphene and obtain an electrode for a lithium ion battery with good output characteristics and cycle characteristics, there is provided a graphene composition containing thiourea, the element ratio of sulfur to carbon being 0.04 or more and 0.12 or less in X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurement.
US09812710B2
The present invention related to an electrochemical cell comprising an anode of a Group IA metal and a cathode of a composite material prepared from a combination of vanadium oxide and either a copper or a silver oxide and the other of a copper or a silver nitrate. The cathode material of the present invention provides an increased gravimetric energy density over the cathode active materials of the prior art along with an increased pulse voltage delivery capacity. This makes the cathode material of the present invention particularly useful for implantable medical applications.
US09812693B2
The present disclosure relates to a lithium-ion battery module including a housing having a base, a battery cell in the housing, and a battery module terminal coupled to the battery cell via an electrical pathway, wherein the battery module terminal provides an electrical output when coupled to an electrical load, and wherein the electrical pathway is defined by a first portion, a second portion, and an interconnecting portion connecting the first and second portions. The first portion has a plurality of first conductive components coupled to one another within first connection planes using a first conductive material, and the first connection planes are substantially parallel to the base. The second portion has a plurality of second conductive components coupled to one another within second connection planes using a second conductive material, different from the first conductive material, and the second connection planes are crosswise to the first connection planes.
US09812690B2
A sealed battery includes a current-collecting terminal member; a gasket that electrically insulates a lid member and the current-collecting terminal member from each other; and a connection member that connects the current-collecting terminal member and an external terminal member. The connection member and the current-collecting terminal member are connected by swaging the second end of the current-collecting terminal member to an insertion hole of the connection member. The lid member has a lid-side protruded portion that compresses the gasket. The current-collecting terminal member has a terminal-side protruded portion that compresses the gasket. A gasket-side area of the lid-side protruded portion, a gasket-side area of the terminal-side protruded portion, and an area of a surface of the current-collecting terminal member which faces and contacts the gasket, except the terminal-side protruded portion, are different in size from each other.
US09812682B2
A battery pack includes a battery module including a plurality of rechargeable batteries, an electronic component that contributes to charging and discharging of the rechargeable batteries, and an installation body including an extending portion, which extends vertically. The installation body includes a placing portion, which projects from the extending portion in a direction crossing the vertical direction. At least one of the battery module and the electronic component is installed in the extending portion while being placed on the placing portion.
US09812672B2
This disclosure provides techniques for assessing quality of a deposited film layer of an organic light emitting diode (“OLED”) device. An image is captured and filtered to identify a deposited layer that is to be analyzed. Image data representing this layer can be optionally converted to brightness (grayscale) data. A gradient function is then applied to emphasize discontinuities in the deposited layer. Discontinuities are then compared to one or more thresholds and used to ascertain quality of the deposited layer, with optional remedial measures then being applied. The disclosed techniques can be applied in situ, to quickly identify potential defects such as delamination before ensuing manufacturing steps are applied. In optional embodiments, remedial measures can be taken dependent on whether defects are determined to exist.
US09812669B2
According to one embodiment, an organic semiconductor device includes a supporting substrate, a plurality of organic EL light emitting elements, a first barrier layer, a flattening layer, and a second barrier layer. The flattening layer exists sporadically and makes gentle in inclination steep elevation change present in the surface of the first barrier layer. The first barrier layer and the second barrier layer are made of moisture penetration preventive material.
US09812666B2
An organic light-emitting display device includes an organic light-emitting element on a substrate, a metal substrate, and an encapsulation unit configured to seal the organic light-emitting element, and a structure in which a driving film is connected so as not to be protruded further than the substrate. A portion of the encapsulation unit is between the metal substrate and the driving film, and the portion of the encapsulation unit is configured to reduce damage to the driving film caused by the metal substrate. Thus, the organic light-emitting display device may realize a narrow bezel and also reduce a driving defect caused by damage to the driving film.
US09812664B2
A transformable device is provided. The transformable device includes an electro-active layer. A first electrode is disposed at a lower portion inside the electro-active layer. A second electrode is disposed at an upper portion inside the electro-active layer. In the transformable device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, performance of the electrodes is suppressed from decreasing in spite of repeated operating and a life of the transformable device can be increased as compared with a case of forming electrodes outside an electro-active layer.
US09812660B2
Systems and methods for perovskite single crystal growth include using a low temperature solution process that employs a temperature gradient in a perovskite solution in a container, also including at least one small perovskite single crystal, and a substrate in the solution upon which substrate a perovskite crystal nucleates and grows, in part due to the temperature gradient in the solution and in part due to a temperature gradient in the substrate. For example, a top portion of the substrate external to the solution may be cooled.
US09812651B2
A condensed cyclic compound is represented by Formula 1 below: wherein X3 is a carbon atom that is one of X7 and X8 in Formula A below, X4 is a carbon atom that is the other of X7 and X8 in Formula A, or ii) X5 is a carbon atom that is one of X7 and X8 in Formula A, X6 is a carbon atom that is the other of X7 and X8 in Formula A,
US09812646B2
A novel organic compound having high stability is provided. The organic compound is represented by Formula (1) described in claim 1: In Formula (1), R1 and R2 each independently selected from a hydrogen atom, Substituent group A, and Substituent group B shown in claim 1, wherein at least one of R1 and R2 is selected from Substituent group A or Substituent group B; and R11 and R12 of a substituent belonging to Substituent group A are each independently selected from Substituent group B.
US09812638B2
A device has a M8XY6 layer in between a first conductive layer on the top and a second conductive layer on the bottom, wherein (i) M includes at least one element selected from the following: Cu, Ag, Li, and Zn, (ii) X includes at least one Group XIV element, and (iii) Y includes at least one Group XVI element. Another device has MaXbYc material contacted on opposite sides by respective layers of conductive material, wherein: (i) M includes at least one element selected from the following: Cu, Ag, Li, and Zn, (ii) X includes at least one Group XIV element, and (iii) Y includes at least one Group XVI element, and a is in the range of 48-60 atomic percent, b is in the range of 4-10 atomic percent, c is in the range of 30-45 atomic percent, and a+b+c is at least 90 atomic percent.
US09812634B2
This disclosure provides methods of fabricating a transducer array. The methods can included creating a lens shaped depression in a backing material, printing an electrode, printing a thick layer of lead zirconate titanate material, printing a ground electrode, and placing a plurality of equally spaced cuts into the depression.
US09812628B2
A light emitting device package is disclosed. The light emitting device package includes a package body, a heat radiating member disposed in the package body, a light emitting device disposed on the heat radiating member, a bonding member disposed between the light emitting device and the heat radiating member, and a bonding member fixing layer disposed around the bonding member, wherein the bonding member fixing layer has at least one through region.
US09812623B2
A light emitting device improves light extraction efficiency and may be individually driven in a light emitting device package and/or a light unit. The light emitting device may include first and second light emitting structures. The light emitting structure may include a first conductive first semiconductor layer, a first active layer under the first conductive first semiconductor layer, and a second conductive second semiconductor under the first active layer. The second light emitting structure may include a first conductive third semiconductor layer, a second active layer under the first conductive third semiconductor layer, and a second conductive fourth semiconductor layer under the second active layer.
US09812622B2
A light-emitting element includes: a light transmissive substrate having a first main surface, a second main surfaces, a first lateral surface, a second lateral surface, a third lateral surface, and a fourth lateral surface; a semiconductor layered body; a first light reflection member; and a second light reflection member. A cross-sectional plane of the light transmissive substrate perpendicular to the first main surface and intersecting with the third lateral surface and the fourth lateral surface has a first concave figure having a first recess. The deepest portion of the first recess is arranged on an inner side of an outer periphery of the semiconductor layered body. The third lateral surface includes one or more surfaces defining the first recess.
US09812621B2
A semiconductor device includes an electrical insulating layer with superior heat resistance, heat dissipation, and durability, and which is manufactured through a process with good cost performance and process performance. In a semiconductor device including a first substrate to which a semiconductor chip is mounted directly or indirectly, and a white insulating layer formed on a surface of the first substrate and functioning as a reflecting material, the semiconductor chip is an LED, at least the surface of the first substrate is made of a metal, and a stacked structure of the white insulating layer and a metal layer is formed by coating a liquid material, which contains SiO2 in the form of nanoparticles and a white inorganic pigment, over the surface of the first substrate and baking the coated liquid material.
US09812602B2
A light detection device includes a substrate, a buffer layer disposed on the substrate, a first band gap change layer disposed on a portion of the buffer layer, a light absorption layer disposed on the first band gap change layer, a Schottky layer disposed on a portion of the light absorption layer, and a first electrode layer disposed on a portion of the Schottky layer.
US09812601B2
A device, system, and method for a multi junction solar cell are described herein. An exemplary multi-solar cell structure can have a substrate having a first surface having a (111) crystalline etched surface. A dielectric layer can be deposited on the first surface of the substrate. A graded buffer layer can be grown on a second surface of the substrate with the second surface having a (100) crystalline surface. A first solar subcell within or on top of the graded buffer layer and a second solar subcell grown on top of the first solar subcell.
US09812595B1
A method for fabricating an optically transparent conductor including depositing a plurality of metal nanowires on a substrate, annealing or illuminating the plurality of metal nanowires to thermally or optically fuse nanowire junctions between metal nanowires to form a metal nanowire network, disposing a graphene layer over the metal nanowire network to form a nanohybrid layer comprising the graphene layer and the metal nanowire network, depositing a dielectric passivation layer over the nanohybrid layer, patterning the dielectric passivation layer using lithography, printing, or any other method of patterning to define an area for the optically transparent conductor, and etching the patterned dielectric passivation layer to define the optically transparent conductor.
US09812593B2
Disclosed are a solar cell and preparing method of the same. The solar cell includes a back electrode layer on a support substrate, a molybdenum oxide layer on the back electrode layer, a light absorbing layer on the molybdenum oxide layer, and a front electrode layer on the light absorbing layer.
US09812585B2
In a semiconductor device including an oxide semiconductor film, defects in the oxide semiconductor film are reduced. In addition, the electrical characteristics of a semiconductor device including an oxide semiconductor film are improved. Furthermore, the reliability of a semiconductor device including an oxide semiconductor film is improved. A semiconductor device including an oxide semiconductor layer and a pair of electrodes in contact with the oxide semiconductor layer and containing copper, aluminum, gold, or silver is provided. The oxide semiconductor layer has a stacked-layer structure including a first oxide semiconductor layer, a second oxide semiconductor layer, and a third oxide semiconductor layer between the first oxide semiconductor layer and the second oxide semiconductor layer; the second oxide semiconductor layer includes a plurality of crystal parts having c-axis alignment; and c-axes of the plurality of crystal parts are aligned in a direction parallel to a normal vector of a top surface of the second oxide semiconductor layer.
US09812584B2
An object is to provide a semiconductor device including an oxide semiconductor, which has stable electric characteristics and high reliability. In a transistor including an oxide semiconductor film, the oxide semiconductor film is subjected to dehydration or dehydrogenation performed by heat treatment. In addition, as a gate insulating film in contact with the oxide semiconductor film, an insulating film containing oxygen, preferably, a gate insulating film including a region containing oxygen with a higher proportion than the stoichiometric composition is used. Thus, oxygen is supplied from the gate insulating film to the oxide semiconductor film. Further, a metal oxide film is used as part of the gate insulating film, whereby reincorporation of an impurity such as hydrogen or water into the oxide semiconductor is suppressed.
US09812575B1
FinFET structures include a stacked fin architecture formed on a semiconductor substrate. The stacked fin architecture includes a template semiconductor layer disposed on the substrate beneath the semiconductor fins that is used as an etch stop during fin formation and to form a laterally-extending epitaxial layer for contacting the bottom tier of fins within the stack.
US09812572B2
A semiconductor device and a method for fabricating a semiconductor device involve a semiconductor layer that includes a first material and a second material. The first and second materials can be silicon and germanium. A contact of the device has a portion proximal to the semiconductor layer and a portion distal to the semiconductor layer. The distal portion includes the first material and the second material. A metal layer formed adjacent to the relaxed semiconductor layer and adjacent to the distal portion of the contact is simultaneously reacted with the relaxed semiconductor layer and with the distal portion of the contact to provide metallic contact material.
US09812570B2
A semiconductor device includes a substrate, a liner, and an epitaxy structure. The substrate has a recess. The liner is disposed in the recess. The liner is denser than the substrate. The epitaxy structure is disposed in the recess. The liner is disposed between the epitaxy structure and the substrate.
US09812562B1
A semiconductor structure includes: a channel layer; an active layer over the channel layer, wherein the active layer is configured to form a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) to be formed in the channel layer along an interface between the channel layer and the active layer; a gate electrode over a top surface of the active layer; and a source/drain electrode over the top surface of the active layer; wherein the active layer includes a first layer and a second layer sequentially disposed therein from the top surface to a bottom surface of the active layer, and the first layer possesses a higher aluminum (Al) atom concentration compared to the second layer. An HEMT structure and an associated method are also disclosed.
US09812560B2
Provided is a novel structure of a field effect transistor using a metal-semiconductor junction. The field effect transistor includes a wiring which is provided over a substrate and also functions as a gate electrode; an insulating film which is provided over the wiring, has substantially the same shape as the wiring, and also functions as a gate insulating film; a semiconductor layer which is provided over the insulating film and includes an oxide semiconductor and the like; an oxide insulating layer which is provided over the semiconductor layer and whose thickness is 5 times or more as large as the sum of the thickness of the insulating film and the thickness of the semiconductor layer or 100 nm or more; and wirings which are connected to the semiconductor layer through openings provided in the oxide insulating layer.
US09812557B2
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes forming an active fin extending longitudinally in a first direction along a surface of a substrate, forming a field insulating layer on the substrate, the field insulating layer covering a part of the active fin, forming a dummy gate electrode on the field insulating layer and the active fin, the dummy gate electrode extending in a second direction different from the first direction, forming a spacer on the sides of the dummy gate electrode, and removing the dummy gate electrode by a wet etching process that includes rinsing the dummy gate electrode intermittently during an etching away of the dummy gate electrode.
US09812552B2
Methods of forming a semiconductor device are provided. The methods may include forming a gate structure on a substrate, forming a first sacrificial pattern and a second sacrificial pattern on opposing sides of the gate structure respectively and partially replacing the first sacrificial pattern with a first insulating pattern such that a portion of the first sacrificial pattern remains in the first insulating pattern and replacing the second sacrificial pattern with a second insulating pattern. The methods may also include replacing at least some of the portion of the first sacrificial pattern that remains in the first insulating pattern with a conductive pattern.
US09812551B2
This description relates to a method of forming the gate electrode of a semiconductor device, the method including providing a substrate comprising a dummy gate electrode (DGE), a source/drain (S/D) region, a spacer on a dummy gate sidewall, and an isolation feature, depositing a contact etch stop layer (CESL) over the DGE, the S/D region and the spacer, depositing an interlayer dielectric (ILD) layer over the CESL, performing a first chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) to expose the CESL over the DGE, performing a second CMP to expose the DGE, removing an upper portion of the CESL and the spacer, and performing a third CMP to expose the CESL over the S/D region to produce a structure in which an entire top surface of the CESL over the S/D region and isolation feature is substantially co-planar with a top surface of the DGE.
US09812549B2
One or more formation methods of a semiconductor device structure are provided. The method includes forming a dummy gate stack over a semiconductor substrate and forming spacer elements over sidewalls of the dummy gate stack. The method also includes removing the dummy gate stack to form a recess between the spacer elements. The method further includes partially removing the spacer elements such that an upper portion of the recess becomes wider. In addition, the method includes forming a metal gate stack in the recess and forming a protection element over the metal gate stack to fill the recess.
US09812548B2
In one embodiment, a power MOSFET vertically conducts current. A bottom electrode may be connected to a positive voltage, and a top electrode may be connected to a low voltage, such as a load connected to ground. A gate and/or a field plate, such as polysilicon, is within a trench. The trench has a tapered oxide layer insulating the polysilicon from the silicon walls. The oxide is much thicker near the bottom of the trench than near the top to increase the breakdown voltage. The tapered oxide is formed by implanting nitrogen into the trench walls to form a tapered nitrogen dopant concentration. This forms a tapered silicon nitride layer after an anneal. The tapered silicon nitride variably inhibits oxide growth in a subsequent oxidation step.
US09812547B2
An SGT production method includes a first step of forming a fin-shaped semiconductor layer on a semiconductor substrate and forming a first insulating film; a second step of forming a pillar-shaped semiconductor layer, a first dummy gate, and a first hard mask formed from a third insulating film; a third step of forming a second hard mask on a side wall of the first hard mask, and forming a second dummy gate; a fourth step of forming a sidewall and forming a second diffusion layer; a fifth step of depositing an interlayer insulating film, exposing upper portions of the second dummy gate and the first dummy gate, removing the second dummy gate and the first dummy gate, forming a first gate insulating film, and forming a gate electrode and a gate line; and a sixth step of forming a first contact and a second contact.
US09812542B2
An electrical device in which an interface layer is disposed in between and in contact with a conductor and a semiconductor.
US09812541B2
A method for fabricating an array substrate is disclosed, the array substrate includes a first TFT and a pixel electrode. The method includes: forming a buffer layer (322) on the substrate (321); depositing an active layer film (323, 324) and a transparent electrode layer (326) on the substrate (321) having the buffer layer (322) formed thereon, and forming patterns of an active layer (171), a source/drain electrode (151, 152) and a pixel electrode of the first TFT through a single patterning process. An array substrate and a display device fabricated by the above method are also disclosed. By means of the fabrication method, it significantly reduces the fabrication cycle of the TFT, improves the stability of the TFT, such that threshold voltage of the TFT will not drift severely. Meanwhile, the product yield is improved and the lifetime of the device is extended.
US09812533B2
One object of one embodiment of the present invention is to provide a highly reliable semiconductor device including an oxide semiconductor, which has stable electrical characteristics. In a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device, a first insulating film is formed; source and drain electrodes and an oxide semiconductor film electrically connected to the source and drain electrodes are formed over the first insulating film; heat treatment is performed on the oxide semiconductor film so that a hydrogen atom in the oxide semiconductor film is removed; oxygen doping treatment is performed on the oxide semiconductor film, so that an oxygen atom is supplied into the oxide semiconductor film; a second insulating film is formed over the oxide semiconductor film; and a gate electrode is formed over the second insulating film so as to overlap with the oxide semiconductor film.
US09812524B2
Techniques are disclosed for customization of nanowire transistor devices to provide a diverse range of channel configurations and/or material systems within the same integrated circuit die. In accordance with one example embodiment, sacrificial fins are removed and replaced with custom material stacks of arbitrary composition and strain suitable for a given application. In one such case, each of a first set of the sacrificial fins is recessed or otherwise removed and replaced with a p-type layer stack, and each of a second set of the sacrificial fins is recessed or otherwise removed and replaced with an n-type layer stack. The p-type layer stack can be completely independent of the process for the n-type layer stack, and vice-versa. Numerous other circuit configurations and device variations are enabled using the techniques provided herein.
US09812517B2
A method for manufacturing a display device, which does not easily damage an electrode, is provided. In the first step, a terminal electrode, a wiring, and a functional layer are provided over a first substrate; the terminal electrode, the wiring, and the functional layer are electrically connected to one another; an insulating layer is provided over the terminal electrode; a first layer is provided over the terminal electrode and the insulating layer; an adhesive layer is sandwiched between the first substrate and a second substrate; the second substrate and the adhesive layer include a first opening overlapping with part of the first layer; and the insulating layer includes a second opening inside the first opening in a top view. In the second step, part of the first layer is removed by emitting particles having a high sublimation property to the first layer, so that the terminal electrode is exposed.
US09812512B2
The pixel structure includes a plurality of pixel units each including a first sub-pixel with a first color, having a first adjoining edge of a first length and a second adjoining edge of a second length; a second sub-pixel with a second color, having a first adjoining edge of the first length and a second adjoining edge of a third length; and a third sub-pixel with a third color, having a first adjoining edge of the second length and a second adjoining edge of the third length. In each pixel unit, the first adjoining edge of the first sub-pixel is adjoined to the first adjoining edge of the second sub-pixel, the second adjoining edge of the first sub-pixel is adjoined to the first adjoining edge of the third sub-pixel, and the second adjoining edge of the second sub-pixel is adjoined to the second adjoining edge of the third sub-pixel.
US09812509B2
According to one embodiment, a sensor includes a light emitter and a light sensor. The light emitter includes a first electrode, a second electrode, and a first light emitting layer. The second electrode is light-transmissive. The first light emitting layer is provided between the first electrode and the second electrode. The light sensor includes a third electrode, a fourth electrode, a fifth electrode, a first photoelectric conversion layer, and a second photoelectric conversion layer. the fourth electrode is light-transmissive. The fifth electrode is provided between the third electrode and the fourth electrode. The fifth electrode is light-transmissive. The first photoelectric conversion layer is provided between the third electrode and the fifth electrode. The second photoelectric conversion layer is provided between the fourth electrode and the fifth electrode.
US09812508B2
Bipolar junction transistors including inorganic channels and organic emitter junctions are used in some applications for forming high resolution active matrix displays. Arrays of such bipolar junction transistors are electrically connected to thin film switching transistors and provide high drive currents for passive devices such as organic light emitting diodes.
US09812504B2
This technology provides an electronic device. An electronic device in accordance with an implementation of this document includes a semiconductor memory, and the semiconductor memory includes a variable resistance structure including a material having a resistance that is changed by formation or dissipation of conductive filaments; and a Magnetic Tunnel Junction (MTJ) structure inserted in the variable resistance structure and comprising a first magnetic layer having a pinned magnetization direction, a second magnetic layer having a variable magnetization direction, and a tunnel dielectric layer interposed between the first magnetic layer and the second magnetic layer.
US09812494B2
A μLED device comprising: a substrate and an epitaxial layer grown on the substrate and comprising a semiconductor material, wherein at least a portion of the substrate and the epitaxial layer define a mesa; an active layer within the mesa and configured, on application of an electrical current, to generate light for emission through a light emitting surface of the substrate opposite the mesa, wherein the crystal lattice structure of the substrate and the epitaxial layer is arranged such that a c-plane of the crystal lattice structure is misaligned with respect to the light emitting surface.
US09812490B2
A semiconductor device, which is configured as a backside illuminated solid-state imaging device, includes a stacked semiconductor chip which is formed by bonding two or more semiconductor chip units to each other and in which, at least, a pixel array and a multi-layer wiring layer are formed in a first semiconductor chip unit and a logic circuit and a multi-layer wiring layer are formed in a second semiconductor chip unit; a semiconductor-removed region in which a semiconductor section of a part of the first semiconductor chip unit is completely removed; and a plurality of connection wirings which is formed in the semiconductor-removed region and connects the first and second semiconductor chip units to each other.
US09812488B2
A backside illuminated (BSI) image sensor comprises a semiconductor substrate having a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface; a photosensitive element in the semiconductor substrate; a gate structure partially over the first surface of the semiconductor substrate; and a temporary carrier depository in proximity to the first surface of the semiconductor substrate, wherein the gate structure has a plug portion extending from the first surface toward the second surface. The plug portion of the gate structure helps to increase the charge transfer efficiency so as to improve quantum efficiency of the BSI image sensor.
US09812480B2
A solid-state imaging device includes pixels each having a photoelectric conversion element for converting incident light to an electric signal, color filters associated with the pixels and having a plurality of color filter components, microlenses converging the incident light through the color filters to the photoelectric conversion elements, a light shielding film disposed between the color filter components of the color filters, and a nonplanarized adhesive film provided between the color filters and the light shielding film.
US09812478B2
An aerogel-encapsulated image sensor includes a device die with an image sensor fabricated thereon and an aerogel layer that encapsulates the image sensor. A method for encapsulating image sensor pixel arrays of respective bare image sensors formed on a sensor array sheet may include injecting an uncured aerogel portion on each image sensor pixel array, and curing each uncured aerogel portion. The step of curing may include at least one of (a) super-critical drying, (b) surface-modification drying, and (c) pinhole drying an uncured aerogel portion. The method may further include singulating the sensor array sheet into a plurality of aerogel-encapsulated image sensors. A method for encapsulating image sensor pixel arrays of respective bare image sensors on a device wafer may include forming an aerogel layer on each bare image sensor. The step of forming may include at least one of spin-coating, dip-coating, and spray-coating the aerogel layer.
US09812469B2
An array substrate and a display device are disclosed. The array substrate includes a peripheral area in which a plurality of gate electrode material lines, a plurality of source-drain electrode material lines and a plurality of first metal lines are disposed. Overlapping areas are provided between or among the gate electrode material lines, the source-drain material lines and the first metal lines; a number of the overlapping areas of the source-drain material lines and the first metal lines is less than a number of the overlapping areas of the source-drain material lines and the gate electrode material lines; the gate electrode material lines, the source-drain material lines and the first metal lines are configured as connecting lines of circuits in the peripheral area.
US09812463B2
A memory opening can be formed through an alternating stack of insulating layers and sacrificial material layers provided over a substrate. Annular etch stop material portions are provided at each level of the sacrificial material layers around the memory opening. The annular etch stop material portions can be formed by conversion of surface portions of the sacrificial material layers into dielectric material portion, or by recessing the sacrificial material layers around the memory opening and filling indentations around the memory opening. After formation of a memory stack structure, the sacrificial material layers are removed from the backside. The annular etch stop material portions are at least partially converted to form charge trapping material portions. Vertical isolation of the charge trapping material portions among one another around the memory stack structure minimizes leakage between the charge trapping material portions located at different word line levels.
US09812460B1
The present disclosure relates to an integrated circuit (IC) that includes a HKMG hybrid non-volatile memory (NVM) device and that provides small scale and high performance, and a method of formation. In some embodiments, the integrated circuit includes a memory region having a NVM device with a pair of control gate electrodes separated from a substrate by corresponding floating gates. A pair of select gate electrodes are disposed at opposite sides of the pair of control gate electrodes comprise polysilicon. A logic region is disposed adjacent to the memory region and has a logic device with a metal gate electrode disposed over a logic gate dielectric and having bottom and sidewall surfaces covered by a high-k gate dielectric layer.
US09812456B2
Multi-port semiconductor memory cells including a common floating body region configured to be charged to a level indicative of a memory state of the memory cell. The multi-port semiconductor memory cells include a plurality of gates and conductive regions interfacing with said floating body region. Arrays of memory cells and method of operating said memory arrays are disclosed for making a memory device.
US09812455B2
A method of forming conductive vias comprises forming at least three parallel line constructions elevationally over a substrate. The line constructions individually comprise a dielectric top and dielectric sidewalls. A conductive line is formed elevationally over and angles relative to the line constructions. The conductive line comprises a longitudinally continuous portion and a plurality of conductive material extensions that individually extend elevationally inward between immediately adjacent of the line constructions. Etching is conducted elevationally through the longitudinally continuous portion and partially elevationally into the extensions at spaced locations along the conductive line to break-up the longitudinally continuous portion to form individual conductive vias extending elevationally between immediately adjacent of the line constructions. Methods of forming a memory array are also disclosed. Arrays of conductive vias independent of method of manufacture are also disclosed.
US09812452B2
An integrated circuit with an MOS transistor abutting field oxide and a gate structure on the field oxide adjacent to the MOS transistor and a gap between an epitaxial source/drain and the field oxide is formed with a silicon dioxide-based gap filler in the gap. Metal silicide is formed on the exposed epitaxial source/drain region. A CESL is formed over the integrated circuit and a PMD layer is formed over the CESL. A contact is formed through the PMD layer and CESL to make an electrical connection to the metal silicide on the epitaxial source/drain region.
US09812449B2
A nanosheet field effect transistor design in which the threshold voltage is adjustable by adjusting the composition of the gate. The channel of the nanosheet field effect transistor may be composed of a III-V semiconductor material, and the gate, which may be separated from the channel by a high dielectric constant dielectric layer, may also be composed of a III-V semiconductor material. Adjusting the composition of the gate may result in a change in the affinity of the gate, in turn resulting in a change in the threshold voltage. In some embodiments the channel is composed, for example, of InxGa1-xAs, with x between 0.23 and 0.53, and the gate is composed of InAs1-yNy with y between 0.0 and 0.4, and the values of x and y may be adjusted to adjust the threshold voltage.
US09812448B2
Provided are a semiconductor device configured to block a physical diffusion path by forming an oxide layer between barrier layers to prevent impurities from being diffused through the physical diffusion path between the barrier layers, and a method for fabricating the semiconductor device. The semiconductor device includes a gate insulation layer formed on a substrate, a first barrier layer formed on the gate insulation layer, an oxide layer formed on the first barrier layer, the oxide layer including an oxide formed by oxidizing a material included in the first barrier layer, a second barrier layer formed on the oxide layer, a gate electrode formed on the second barrier layer, and source/drains disposed at opposite sides of the gate electrode in the substrate.
US09812436B2
An Electro-Static Discharge (ESD) protection circuit includes a plurality of groups of p-type heavily doped semiconductor strips (p+ strips) and a plurality of groups of n-type heavily doped semiconductor strips (n+ strips) forming an array having a plurality of rows and columns. In each of the rows and the columns, the plurality of groups of p+ strips and the plurality of groups of n+ strips are allocated in an alternating layout. The ESD protection circuit further includes a plurality of gate stacks, each including a first edge aligned to an edge of a group in the plurality of groups of p+ strips, and a second edge aligned to an edge of a group in the plurality of groups of n+ strips.
US09812432B2
An LED chip package includes a substrate having a metal terminal (gold finger structure). A LED chip set is composed of a plurality of LED chips formed in one piece, and has a plurality of light-emitting areas which are separated from each other. The LED chip set is disposed on the substrate and electrically connected to the metal terminal.
US09812431B2
A power semiconductor module is equipped with: a metal base; semiconductor chips electrically connected with and fixed to the metal base; and an insulating substrate fixed to the metal base and having a circuit plate on one surface. Additionally, the power semiconductor module is further equipped with a circuit board that is provided so as to face the semiconductor chips and the insulating substrate and that electrically connects electrodes of the semiconductor chips and the circuit plate of the insulating substrate. Further, the power semiconductor module is equipped with a conductive post that is electrically connected to at least one of either the electrodes of the semiconductor chips or the circuit plate of the insulating substrate while being electrically connected to the metal film of the circuit board.
US09812426B1
A semiconductor device including an integrated circuit, a protection layer, and a conductive via is provided. The integrated circuit includes at least one conductive pad. The protection layer covers the integrated circuit. The protection layer includes a contact opening, and the conductive pad is exposed by the contact opening of the protection layer. The conductive via is embedded in the contact opening of the protection layer, and the conductive via is electrically connected to the conductive pad through the contact opening. A method of fabricating the above-mentioned semiconductor device and an integrated fan-out package including the above-mentioned semiconductor device are also provided.
US09812411B2
A semiconductor device of an embodiment includes a first electrode, a second electrode facing the first electrode, an alternating-current electrode, a first switching element provided between the first electrode and the alternating-current electrode, and a second switching element provided between the second electrode and the alternating-current electrode. The first switching element and the second switching element are electrically connected in series between the first electrode and the second electrode, and the alternating-current electrode is electrically connected between the first switching element and the second switching element.
US09812402B2
Apparatuses relating generally to a microelectronic package having protection from interference are disclosed. In an apparatus thereof, a substrate has an upper surface and a lower surface opposite the upper surface and has a ground plane. A first microelectronic device is coupled to the upper surface of the substrate. Wire bond wires are coupled to the ground plane for conducting the interference thereto and extending away from the upper surface of the substrate. A first portion of the wire bond wires is positioned to provide a shielding region for the first microelectronic device with respect to the interference. A second portion of the wire bond wires is not positioned to provide the shielding region. A second microelectronic device is coupled to the substrate and located outside of the shielding region. A conductive surface is over the first portion of the wire bond wires for covering the shielding region.
US09812399B2
A non-porous dielectric barrier is provided between a porous portion of a dielectric region and an electrically conductive element of an interconnect portion of an integrated circuit. This non-porous dielectric barrier protects the integrated circuit from breakdown of the least one dielectric region caused by electrical conduction assisted by the presence of defects located in the at least one dielectric region.
US09812393B2
Programmable via devices and fabrication methods thereof are presented. The programmable via devices include, for instance, a first metal layer and a second metal layer electrically connected by a via link. The via link includes a semiconductor portion and a metal portion, where the via link facilitates programming of the programmable via device by applying a programming current through the via link to migrate materials between the semiconductor portion and the metal portion to facilitate a change of an electrical resistance of the via link. In one embodiment, the programming current facilitates formation of at least one gap region within the via link, the at least one gap region facilitating the change of the electrical resistance of the via link.
US09812391B2
An electrical contact structure for an integrated circuit device is described. A first patterned dielectric layer comprising at least one contact hole, the contact hole including a bottom surface, and sidewalls extending from the bottom surface to a top surface is provided. The bottom surface of the dielectric layer is in contact with a lower layer of the integrated circuit device. A tungsten via is disposed within the at least one contact hole, the tungsten via having a bottom surface in contact with the lower layer and a top surface. A tungsten nitride layer is disposed on the top surface of the tungsten via to repair etch damage done to the tungsten via.
US09812385B2
An electronic component package according to one aspect of the present disclosure includes a metal pattern layer having a first principal surface and a second principal surface, an electronic component disposed on the first principal surface and electrically connected to the metal pattern layer, at least one metal member disposed on the first principal surface and electrically connected to the metal pattern layer, a sealing resin layer disposed on the first principal surface, the electronic component and the at least one metal member, and an insulating layer disposed on the second principal surface. The at least one metal member is thicker than the electronic component. In plan view, the at least one metal member is disposed on an area of the first principal surface, the area including an end of the first principal surface. The at least a part of the metal pattern layer is exposed from the insulating layer.
US09812383B2
A dual power converter package is disclosed. The package includes a leadframe having a first control FET paddle configured to support a drain of a first control FET, and a second control FET paddle configured to support a drain of a second control FET. The leadframe further includes a sync FET paddle configured to support a source of a first sync FET and a source of a second sync FET, and a first plurality of contacts configured to receive control signals for each of the control FETs and each of the sync FETs from a driver integrated circuit (IC) external to the leadframe. The leadframe may additionally include first and second switched nodes, configured for electrical connection to the first control FET and the first sync FET via a first clip, and to the second control FET and the second sync FET via a second clip, respectively.
US09812382B2
A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor chip and a plurality of leads. The leads include a first lead including a supporting portion for mounting the semiconductor chip, and a projecting portion which projects in a first direction from the supporting portion. A second lead extends in a second direction non-parallel with the first direction, and one or more third leads extends in the second direction, such that a line extending in a third direction perpendicular to the first direction passes through the second lead and the one or more third leads. The second lead includes a first portion and a second portion, the first portion having a width larger than the second portion, the first portion having one side parallel to the first direction, and the first portion located between the second portion and the first lead.
US09812358B1
FinFET structures and methods of forming the same are disclosed. In a method, a recess is formed exposing a plurality of semiconductor fins on a wafer. A dummy contact material is formed in the recess. The dummy contact material contains carbon. The dummy contact material is cured with one or more baking steps. The one or more baking steps harden the dummy contact material. A first portion of the dummy contact material is replaced with an inter-layer dielectric. A second portion of the dummy contact material is replaced with a plurality of contacts. The plurality of contacts are electrically coupled to source/drain regions of the plurality of semiconductor fins.
US09812354B2
An electronic device can include one or more trenches that include a material that defines one or more voids. In an embodiment, the substrate defines a first trench having a first portion and a second portion laterally adjacent to the first portion, wherein the first portion has with a first width, the second portion has a second width, and the first width is wider than the second width. The material defines a first void at a predetermined location within the first portion of the first trench and has a seam within the second portion of the first trench. In another embodiment, the substrate defining a trench, and the material that defines spaced-apart voids at predetermined locations within the trench. A process of forming the electronic device can include patterning a substrate to define a trench, and depositing a material within the trench, wherein the deposited material defines a void.
US09812338B2
Embodiments of a multi-layer environmental barrier for a semiconductor device and methods of manufacturing the same are disclosed. In one embodiment, a semiconductor device is formed on a semiconductor die. The semiconductor die includes a semiconductor body and a passivation structure on the semiconductor body. A multi-level environmental barrier is provided on the passivation structure. The multi-layer environmental barrier is a low-defect multi-layer dielectric film that hermetically seals the semiconductor device from the environment. In one embodiment, the multi-layer environmental barrier has a defect density of less than 10 defects per square centimeter (cm2). By having a low defect density, the multi-layer environmental barrier serves as a robust barrier to the environment.
US09812336B2
The invention provides a method of forming a semiconductor structure, which include: providing an intermediate semiconductor structure having semiconductor substrate, a fin having an EG oxide layer in contact with at least a portion of the fin, and a gate stack disposed over a portion of the fin; forming a silicon nitride layer over portions of the fin that are not located under the gate stack; and after forming the silicon nitride layer, performing one or more ion implantation steps on the intermediate semiconductor structure. The invention also provides a method of forming a semiconductor structure including: providing an intermediate semiconductor structure having a semiconductor substrate, a fin having an EG oxide layer in contact with at least a portion of the fin, and a gate material disposed over the fin; forming, over the fin and gate material of the intermediate semiconductor structure, a gate stack hardmask including an oxide layer; forming a silicon nitride barrier layer on the oxide layer of the gate stack hardmask; performing one or more gate stack hardmask patterning steps; removing the EG oxide layer from portions of the fin that are not located under the gate; and subsequent to removing the EG oxide layer from portions of the fin that are not located under the gate, performing one or more ion implantation steps.
US09812332B2
An etching method is disclosed. The etching method comprises providing on a substrate a structure comprising a recess region formed therein. The recess region includes an inner part and a mouth part whose width is less than that of the inner part. The etching method further comprises performing a clean-then-etch process to remove at least a portion of etching object formed outside the recess region. The performing a clean-then-etch process comprises performing a cleaning process to fill at least a portion of the recess region with a cleaning solution, and performing a wet etch process to the substrate in a state that the cleaning solution remains in the recess region.
US09812328B2
Embodiments described herein generally relate to methods for forming silicide materials. Silicide materials formed according to the embodiments described herein may be utilized as contact and/or interconnect structures and may provide advantages over conventional silicide formation methods. In one embodiment, a one or more transition metal and aluminum layers may be deposited on a silicon containing substrate and a transition metal layer may be deposited on the one or more transition metal and aluminum layers. An annealing process may be performed to form a metal silicide material.
US09812325B2
Techniques herein provide a process to reform or flatten asymmetric spacers to form a square profile which creates symmetric spacers for accurate pattern transfer. Initial spacer formation typically results in spacer profiles with a curved or sloped top surfaces. This asymmetric top surface is isolated while protecting a remaining lower portion of the spacer. The top surface is removed using a plasma processing step resulting in spacers having a squared profile that enables further patterning and/or accurate pattern transfer.
US09812317B2
In an LCD driver, in a high voltage resistant MISFET, end portions of a gate electrode run onto electric field relaxing insulation regions. Wires to become source wires or drain wires are formed on an interlayer insulation film of the first layer over the high voltage resistant MISFET. At this moment, when a distance from an interface between a semiconductor substrate and a gate insulation film to an upper portion of the gate electrode is defined as “a”, and a distance from the upper portion of the gate electrode to an upper portion of the interlayer insulation film on which the wires are formed is defined as “b”, a relation of a>b is established. In such a high voltage resistant MISFET structured in this manner, the wires are arranged so as not to be overlapped planarly with the gate electrode of the high voltage resistant MISFET.
US09812314B2
The invention relates to a lamp (1) comprising a light source (2) that can be excited by microwaves to provide illumination and a housing (4) surrounding the light source, said housing having at least one light exit opening (5). The light exit opening (5) has associated therewith a grille structure (6) or a labyrinth structure (7) acting as a microwave shield.
US09812307B2
A mass spectrometer comprises: an ion source that generates ions having an initial range of mass-to-charge ratios; an auxiliary ion detector, downstream from the ion source that receives a plurality of first ion samples derived from the ions generated by the ion source and determines a respective ion current measurement for each of the plurality of first ion samples; a mass analyzer, downstream from the ion source that receives a second ion sample derived from the ions generated by the ion source and to generate mass spectral data by mass analysis of the second ion sample; and an output stage that establishes an abundance measurement associated with at least some of the ions generated by the ion source based on the ion current measurements determined by the auxiliary ion detector.
US09812305B2
A pulsed direct current sputtering system and method are disclosed. The system has a plasma chamber with two targets, two magnetrons and one anode, a first power source, and a second power source. The first power source is coupled to the first magnetron and the anode, and provides a cyclic first-power-source voltage with a positive potential and a negative potential during each cycle between the anode and the first magnetron. The second power source is coupled to the second magnetron and the anode, and provides a cyclic second-power-source voltage. The controller phase-synchronizes and controls the first-power-source voltage and second-power-source voltage to apply a combined anode voltage, and phase-synchronizes a first magnetron voltage with a second magnetron voltage, wherein the combined anode voltage applied to the anode has a magnitude of at least 80 percent of a magnitude of a sum of the first magnetron voltage and the second magnetron voltage.
US09812302B2
In a magnetron sputtering apparatus configured such that a magnetic field pattern on a target surface moves with time by means of a rotary magnet group, it is to solve a problem that the failure rate of substrates to be processed becomes high upon plasma ignition or extinction, thereby providing a magnetron sputtering apparatus in which the failure rate of the substrates is smaller than conventional. In a magnetron sputtering apparatus, a plasma shielding member having a slit is disposed on an opposite side of a target with respect to a rotary magnet group. The distance between the plasma shielding member and the substrate is set shorter than the electron mean free path or the sheath width. Further, the width and the length of the slit are controlled to prevent impingement of plasma on the processing substrate. This makes it possible to reduce the failure rate of the substrates.
US09812298B2
The invention concerns a device and a process, the device being a cleaning device utilizing a dry chemical means assisted by plasma from a reactor (10) containing an unwanted deposit on its walls and at least one other polarizable surface (12), characterized in that it comprises means (13, 14) for positively polarizing one or each of the polarizable surfaces relative to the reactor walls maintained at a reference potential.
US09812295B1
Methods and systems include supplying pulsed microwave radiation through a waveguide, where the microwave radiation propagates in a direction along the waveguide. A pressure within the waveguide is at least 0.1 atmosphere. A supply gas is provided at a first location along a length of the waveguide, a majority of the supply gas flowing in the direction of the microwave radiation propagation. A plasma is generated in the supply gas, and a process gas is added into the waveguide at a second location downstream from the first location. A majority of the process gas flows in the direction of the microwave propagation at a rate greater than 5 slm. An average energy of the plasma is controlled to convert the process gas into separated components, by controlling at least one of a pulsing frequency of the pulsed microwave radiation, and a duty cycle of the pulsed microwave radiation.
US09812293B2
A plasma process apparatus including a process chamber defined by an outer wall and a dielectric window, the dielectric window including a first dielectric material and covering an upper portion of the outer wall, the dielectric window including a top surface facing outside of the process chamber and a bottom surface facing insider of the process chamber, the dielectric window further including at least one magnetic-field control groove at the top surface of the dielectric window, and a coil antenna over the dielectric window and configured to receive RF power, the coil antenna including an inner coil and an outer coil, the inner coil over a center of the dielectric window, the outer coil over an edge of the dielectric window and surrounding the inner coil may be provided.
US09812289B2
In one embodiment, a charged particle beam drawing apparatus performs drawing by deflecting a charged particle beam with a deflector. A method for evaluating the apparatus includes making a shot of a first pattern, controlling a deflection amount by the deflector to move an applied position of the beam from the first pattern along a first direction to make a shot of a second pattern, controlling the deflection amount to move the applied position from the second pattern along the first direction to make a shot of a third pattern, controlling the deflection amount to move the applied position from the third pattern along a second direction opposite to the first direction to make a shot of a fourth pattern between the second pattern and the third pattern, calculating an interval between the second pattern and the fourth pattern, and comparing the calculated interval to a reference interval.
US09812288B2
The objective of the present invention is to simply perform image observation through transmitted charged particles. A sample irradiated by a charged particle beam is disposed directly or via a predetermined member on a light-emitting element (23) whereinto charged particles that have traversed or scattered inside the sample enter, causing a light to be emitted therefrom, which is collected and detected efficiently using a light transmission means (203) to generate a transmission charged particle image of the sample.
US09812287B2
An improved spectroscopic analysis apparatus and method are disclosed, comprising directing a beam of radiation onto a measurement location on a specimen, thereby causing a flux of X-rays to emanate from this location; examining the X-ray flux using a detector arrangement, thus acquiring a spectrum; choosing a set of different measurement directions originating from the location; recording outputs from the detector arrangement for different measurement directions; adopting a spectral model that is a convoluted mix of terms B and Lp, where B is the Bremsstrahlung background spectrum and Lp comprises spectral lines corresponding to the specimen composition at the measurement location; and then automatically deconvolving the set of measurements on the basis of the spectral model to calculate Lp to determine the chemical composition of the specimen at the measurement location. The method includes corrections for differential X-ray absorption within the specimen along the different measurement directions.
US09812285B2
Presented is a holder assembly for cooperating with a nanoreactor and an electron microscope. The holder assembly has a distal end for holding the nanoreactor. The volume has a fluid inlet and outlet. The holder assembly has fluid supply and outlet tubes which in working are connected to the fluid inlet and outlet of the nanoreactor. In working, the connection between the fluid inlet and outlet and the respective supply and outlet tubes are sealed by sealing elements. The holder assembly has a recess which, when the nanoreactor is attached and the holder is inserted into the evacuated portion of an electron microscope, forms a sealed pre-vacuum volume between the holder and the nanoreactor, with the pre-vacuum volume being evacuated via a pre-vacuum channel such that any fluid leakage is pumped away and does not enter the evacuated part of the electron microscope.
US09812276B2
A molded-case circuit breaker includes a handle, a contact system and an actuating device. In an embodiment, the handle is movable between an “ON” position and an “OFF” position, the contact system includes at least one stationary contact and a movable contact and the actuating device is operatively connected to the handle and the contact system such that, when the handle is actuated, it is possible to open and close the contact system. Furthermore, in the event of a fault state, the handle can be brought into a “TRIP” position arranged between the “ON” position and the “OFF” position by the actuating device.
US09812273B2
A command selector includes a scroll wheel mounted in a support and free to rotate about a main axis, a fixed printed circuit board, a detection wheel rotating about a secondary axis, a means of transmission rotationally connecting the scroll wheel to the detection wheel of which the rotations are detected by a rotation sensor arranged on the printed circuit board. The main axis and the secondary axis are non-parallel, the means of transmission defines an angle, and the detection wheel rotating in a plane parallel to the printed circuit board, the secondary axis being perpendicular to the printed circuit board, so as to minimize the circumscribed volume of the selector.
US09812270B2
An interlock switch is turned on to close a power supply line when a cover is closed, and turned off to open the power supply line when the cover is opened. A time constant circuit is connected to a node side of the interlock switch in the power supply line. A switch control unit determines that a user is intentionally turning on and off the interlock switch and turns off a switch Q1 when a smoothed voltage obtained by smoothing a voltage difference between voltage dividing nodes becomes larger than a threshold value.
US09812250B2
While the whole weight of magnetic shields provided in a tank of a transformer is reduced, eddy current loss by magnetic flux leaked from a winding is reduced. A transformer is configured using an iron core having an iron core leg and an iron core yoke, windings wound around the iron core leg, a tank having the iron core and the windings therein, and a first magnetic shield and second magnetic shields formed by laminating silicon steel sheets inside the tank. The first magnetic shield is arranged opposite to the windings, the second magnetic shields are arranged between the first magnetic shield and the tank, and the first magnetic shield and the second magnetic shields are fixed to the tank by different support members.
US09812245B2
In a laminated coil component, first coil conductor patterns define a coil opening that generates a magnetic flux in a first direction, second coil conductor patterns define a first coil opening that generates a magnetic flux in the first direction, and a second coil opening that generates a magnetic flux in a second direction. A difference in area between the first coil opening and the second coil opening determines a degree of coupling of the coil defined by the first coil conductor pattern and the coil defined by the second coil conductor pattern. This provides a close proximal arrangement of a plurality of coils proximally while significantly reducing or preventing unnecessary coupling between the coils.
US09812234B2
A penetrator device has an outer housing of non-conductive, insulating material having a through bore, at least one conductive pin formed in one or two parts extending through the housing and having a first end portion and a second end portion extending out of the respective first and second ends of the housing, a first cladding layer bonded over the first end portion of the pin to form a first bonded assembly, a second cladding layer bonded over the second end portion of the pin to form a second bonded assembly, and the material of the first and second cladding layer comprising a corrosion resistant conductive material different from the pin material.
US09812232B2
An electric wire includes a conductor having a cross-sectional area of not less than 180 mm2 and not more than 220 mm2, an insulation provided so as to cover the outer periphery of the conductor, and a wire sheath provided so as to cover the outer periphery of the insulation. The amount of deflection is not less than 180 mm when, at 23° C., one end of the electric wire is fixed to a fixture table so that another end horizontally protrudes 400 mm from the fixture table and a weight of 2 kg is attached to the other end, and cracks and breaks do not occur when wound with a bending diameter of three times the diameter at −40° C.
US09812229B2
A vacuum assembled along a centerline axis used to collect fissile material. The vacuum includes a housing having internal chamber, a top end having a top opening, a bottom end having a bottom opening, and a radial intake port opening. The vacuum includes a suction apparatus having an intake disposed at the intake opening and having a hose connection means for mating with a vacuum hose assembly. The suction apparatus also includes a flow-through fan disposed in the top opening. The fan intakes and exhausts the airflow in a direction parallel with the centerline axis. The suction apparatus also includes a container connection means disposed at the bottom opening for connecting an external container to bottom end of the housing. There is also provided a first cylindrical free space having a center point disposed along the centerline axis and a diameter passing through the center point. The diameter of the first cylindrical free space is less than or equal to the safe diameter for the fissile material of interest. The vacuum cleaner apparatus is sized to fit entirely within the diameter of the first free space. Therefore, the vacuum apparatus constitutes a single fissile unit that is safe by passive geometry control to prevent the potential for a nuclear criticality in the vacuum.
US09812218B2
A pulse is inputted to TFTs 101 and 104 so that the TFTs would turn ON and then potential of a node α rises. When the potential of the node α reaches (VDD−VthN), the node α became in a floating state. Accordingly, a TFT 105 then turns ON, and potential of an output node rises as a clock signal reaches the level H. On the other hand, potential of a gate electrode of the TFT 105 further rises due to an operation of capacitance 107 as the potential of the output node rises, so that the potential of the output node would be higher than (VDD+VthN). Thus, the potential of the output node rises to VDD without voltage drop caused by a threshold of the TFT 105.
US09812212B2
A memory cell includes a program select transistor, a program element, a read select transistor, a read element, and an erase element. The program select transistor is coupled to a program source line, a program select line, and a program control line. The program element is coupled to the second terminal of the program select transistor, a program bit line, and the program control line. The read select transistor is coupled to a read source line, a read select line, and a bias control line. The read element is coupled to the second terminal of the read select transistor, a read bit line, and the bias control line. The erase element is coupled to an erase control line. A floating gate is coupled to the erase element, the program element and the read element.
US09812211B2
A semiconductor device includes a plurality of nonvolatile memory cells (1). Each of the nonvolatile memory cells comprises a MOS type first transistor section (3) used for information storage, and a MOS type second transistor section (4) which selects the first transistor section. The second transistor section has a bit line electrode (16) connected to a bit line, and a control gate electrode (18) connected to a control gate control line. The first transistor section has a source line electrode (10) connected to a source line, a memory gate electrode (14) connected to a memory gate control line, and a charge storage region (11) disposed directly below the memory gate electrode. A gate withstand voltage of the second transistor section is lower than that of the first transistor section. Assuming that the thickness of a gate insulating film of the second transistor section is defined as tc and the thickness of a gate insulating film of the first transistor section is defined as tm, they have a relationship of tc
US09812208B2
A write-protection system and method for use with a gaming machine. The system having a non-volatile data storage device, an interface device and an electrically conductive connector. The storage device having electronic data storage and a write-protection controller providing a write-protected state and a write-permitting state, the electronic data storage being blocked from receiving electronic write commands in the write-protected state and being able to receive write commands in the write-permitting state. The interface device electrically connecting the data storage device to a power supply and control circuitry of the gaming machine. The interface device connected to the electronic data storage through the controller and the connector.
US09812204B1
A ferroelectric static random access memory (FeSRAM) cell includes (a) first and second cross-coupled inverters connected between a power supply voltage signal and a ground reference voltage signal and holding a data signal represented in a complementary manner in first and second common data terminals; (b) first and second select transistors coupled respectively to the first and second common data terminals of the cross-coupled inverters; and (c) first, second, third and fourth ferroelectric capacitors, wherein the first and second ferroelectric capacitors couple the first common data terminal to the power supply voltage signal and the ground reference voltage signal, respectively, and wherein the third and the fourth ferroelectric capacitors couple the second common data terminal to the power supply voltage signal and the ground reference voltage signal, respectively.
US09812200B2
A method of controlling an NVM device can include: (i) receiving, by an interface, a write command from a host; (ii) beginning execution of a write operation on a first array plane of a memory array in response to the write command, where the memory array includes a plurality of NVM cells arranged in a plurality of array planes; (iii) receiving, by the interface, a read command from the host; (iv) suspending the write operation in response to detection of the read command during execution of the write operation; (v) beginning execution of a read operation on a second array plane in response to the read command; and (vi) resuming the write operation after the read operation has at least partially been executed.
US09812196B2
In one example, a system includes a multi-plane memory array with shared crossbars and memory elements accessed through the shared crossbars and support circuitry. The support circuitry includes a bias multiplexer to determine an orientation of a target memory element in the multi-plane memory array and output voltage biases with a polarity based on the orientation of the target memory element. Methods for generating and applying geometry dependent voltage biases are also provided.
US09812176B2
A memory structure includes N array regions and N page buffers coupled to the N array regions, respectively. N is an integer≧2. Each of the N array regions includes a 3D array of a plurality of memory cells. The memory cells have a lateral distance d between two adjacent memory cells on a horizontal cell plane of the 3D array. Each of the N array regions further includes a plurality of conductive lines. The conductive lines are disposed over and coupled to the 3D array. The conductive lines have a pitch p, and p/d=⅕ to ½. The N array regions and the N page buffers are arranged on one line along an extension direction of the conductive lines. M array regions of the N array regions are configured to operate simultaneously. M is an integer. M/N=½ or 1.
US09812163B2
A motor includes a bearing mechanism including a shaft disposed along a center axis extending in a lengthwise direction, a sealing member disposed on a lower side of the bearing mechanism, a stationary portion including a base constituting a part of the housing, and a rotary portion rotating relative to the stationary portion about the center axis via the bearing mechanism. The base has a through hole defined therein so as to have a center aligned with the center axis and pass through the base in an axial direction. The bearing mechanism is fixed to the base in a first fixing region defined between an inner circumferential portion of the base and an outer circumferential portion of the bearing mechanism. The sealing member is fixed to the base in a second fixing region defined between the inner circumferential portion of the base and an outer circumferential portion of the sealing member. At least one of the first fixing region and the second fixing region includes a sealing region.
US09812161B2
A sensor supported by a head transducer has a temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) and a sensor resistance. The sensor operates at a temperature above ambient and is responsive to changes in sensor-medium spacing. Conductive contacts connected to the sensor have a contact resistance and a cross-sectional area adjacent to the sensor larger than that of the sensor, such that the contact resistance is small relative to the sensor resistance and negligibly contributes to a signal generated by the sensor. A multiplicity of head transducers each support a TCR sensor and a power source can supply bias power to each sensor of each head to maintain each sensor at a fixed temperature above an ambient temperature in the presence of heat transfer changes impacting the sensors. A TCR sensor of a head transducer can include a track-oriented TCR sensor wire for sensing one or both of asperities of the medium.
US09812154B2
A method and a system for detecting sentiment of a human based on an analysis of human speech are disclosed. In an embodiment, one or more time instances of glottal closure are determined from a speech signal of the human. A voice source signal based on the determined one or more time instances of glottal closure is generated. A set of relative harmonic strengths is determined based on one or more harmonic contours of the voice source signal. The RHS is indicative of a deviation of the one or more harmonics of the voice source signal from a fundamental frequency of the voice source signal. A set of feature vectors is determined based on the RHS. The set of feature vectors are utilizable to detect the sentiment of the human.
US09812149B2
Methods and systems for providing consistency in noise reduction during speech and non-speech periods are provided. First and second signals are received. The first signal includes at least a voice component. The second signal includes at least the voice component modified by human tissue of a user. First and second weights may be assigned per subband to the first and second signals, respectively. The first and second signals are processed to obtain respective first and second full-band power estimates. During periods when the user's speech is not present, the first weight and the second weight are adjusted based at least partially on the first full-band power estimate and the second full-band power estimate. The first and second signals are blended based on the adjusted weights to generate an enhanced voice signal. The second signal may be aligned with the first signal prior to the blending.
US09812146B1
An echo cancellation system that synchronizes output audio data with input audio data in a heterogeneous system. The system may increment a counter as outgoing audio frames are sent to a digital-to-analog converter in a speaker. As incoming audio frames are received by an analog-to-digital converter in a microphone, the system may copy contents of the counter into the incoming audio frames. Based on the contents of the counter, the incoming audio frames may be associated with corresponding outgoing audio frames. After synchronizing the incoming audio frames and the outgoing audio frames, the system may perform Acoustic Echo Cancellation by removing the outgoing audio frames from the incoming audio frames.
US09812145B1
A Mobile Voice Self Service (MVSS) mobile device and method thereof. A VoiceXML browser that is implemented directly on the MVSS mobile device may request a VoiceXML application and process it. A call data manager may also be implemented on the MVSS mobile device and may provide call data that may authorize access to advanced Media Resource Control Protocol (MRCP) services, such as Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) or Text-To-Speech (TTS). A media resource gateway may then provide the advanced MRCP services to the VoiceXML application processed by the VoiceXML application browser. Hotkey navigations and bookmarked application points to VoiceXML applications may be created and applied through application analysis and state tracking. Therein, VoiceXML document transitions and user input are stored to maintain application state changes until the user requests creation of an application bookmark.
US09812144B2
Speech transcoding in packet networks may be useful when both incoming and outgoing speech streams of the transcoding entity are packet based. This can be any transcoding entity having packet interfaces. A method can include omitting jitter buffering before decoding in a transcoder and omitting bad frame handling in a decoding stage of a transcoder. The method can also include freezing a decoder and the encoder when a packet is not received. The method can also include sending packet loss information from the decoder to the encoder as side information when the packet is not received. The method can further include setting an outgoing packet stream to permit detection of missing packets by a downstream decoder upon receiving a valid packet after the packet is not received.
US09812142B2
A method performed in an audio decoder for reconstructing an original audio signal having a lowband portion and a highband portion is disclosed. The method includes receiving an encoded audio signal and extracting reconstruction parameters from the encoded audio signal. The method further includes decoding the encoded audio signal with a core audio decoder to obtain a decoded lowband portion and regenerating the highband portion based at least in part on a cross over frequency and the decoded lowband portion to obtain a regenerated highband portion. The method also includes creating a synthetic sinusoid with a level based at least in part on a spectral envelope value for the particular subband and a noise floor value for the particular subband and adding the synthetic sinusoid to the regenerated highband portion in the particular frequency band specified by the location information. Finally, the method includes combining the lowband portion and the regenerated highband portion to obtain a full bandwidth audio signal.
US09812140B2
A method of performing quadrature mirror filter (QMF) synthesis filtering includes recording new samples corresponding to a current time slot at positions of samples to be discarded in a first array that includes modulated QMF sub-band samples. The method further includes extracting samples from the first array to remove aliasing between adjacent sub-bands, determining filter coefficients corresponding to the extracted samples by using modulo operation, and synthesizing a time domain sample where aliasing is removed by using the extracted samples and the filter coefficients.
US09812133B2
Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and tangible computer readable-media for detecting synthetic speaker verification. The method comprises receiving a plurality of speech samples of the same word or phrase for verification, comparing each of the plurality of speech samples to each other, denying verification if the plurality of speech samples demonstrate little variance over time or are the same, and verifying the plurality of speech samples if the plurality of speech samples demonstrates sufficient variance over time. One embodiment further adds that each of the plurality of speech samples is collected at different times or in different contexts. In other embodiments, variance is based on a pre-determined threshold or the threshold for variance is adjusted based on a need for authentication certainty. In another embodiment, if the initial comparison is inconclusive, additional speech samples are received.
US09812126B2
An electronic device in a topology of interconnected electronic devices can listen for a wake phrase and voice commands. The device can control when and how it responds so that a single device responds to voice commands. Per-task device preferences can be stored for a user. If a preferred device is not available, the task can still be performed on a device that has appropriate capabilities. Machine learning can determine a user's preferences. Power conservation and effective user interaction can result.
US09812125B2
A speech recognition device is configured to increase usability by retrying speech recognition without returning to a previous operation or a re-input of speech when a user's speech is misrecognized. The speech recognition device is further configured increase accuracy of recognition by changing a search environment when the user's speech is misrecognized or when re-recognition is performed since the recognized speech is rejected due to a low confidence. A vehicle includes a speech input device configured to receive speech; and a speech recognition device configured to recognize the received speech and output a recognition result of the received speech. The speech recognition device resets a recognition environment applied to speech recognition and re-recognizes the received speech when a re-recognition instruction is input by a user, and resets the reset recognition environment to an initial value when the re-recognition is completed.
US09812121B2
A method and system for outputting a text content of text data to a voice, including using a transmitting terminal of a sender to transmit text data to a receiving terminal via a communications network, converting text content of the text data to speech and outputting the speech in the sender's voice characteristics using a voice database.
US09812120B2
A speech synthesis apparatus includes a content selection unit that selects a text content item to be converted into speech; a related information selection unit that selects related information which can be at least converted into text and which is related to the text content item selected by the content selection unit; a data addition unit that converts the related information selected by the related information selection unit into text and adds text data of the text to text data of the text content item selected by the content selection unit; a text-to-speech conversion unit that converts the text data supplied from the data addition unit into a speech signal; and a speech output unit that outputs the speech signal supplied from the text-to-speech conversion unit.
US09812114B2
A method may include adaptively generating an anti-noise signal for countering the effects of ambient audio sounds at an acoustic output of the transducer by adapting a response of an adaptive filter that filters a reference microphone signal in conformity with an error microphone signal and the reference microphone signal to minimize the ambient audio sounds in the error microphone, generating a scaled anti-noise signal by applying a scaling factor to the anti-noise signal, further adjusting the response of the adaptive filter independent of a source audio signal by altering an input to the coefficient control block of the adaptive filter to compensate for the scaling factor, and combining the scaled anti-noise signal with the source audio signal to generate an audio signal provided to the transducer.
US09812111B1
A multiple layer panel having improved sound insulation is disclosed. The multiple layer panel comprises a first rigid substrate having a first thickness H3, a second rigid substrate having a second thickness H1, wherein H3≦H1, and a multiple layer acoustic interlayer having a thickness H2 between the first and second rigid substrates.
US09812110B2
A new and improved Digital Musical Instrument includes a hardware segment that electronically detects the physical inputs of a musicians musical playing style or articulated intent; a Software segment that interprets and formulates the data output from the hardware segment, to be applied to any digitally modulated synthesizer or recording sampler; and an optional expanded method of sampling or digitally recording articulated sounds of acoustic instruments.
US09812109B2
System, apparatus and method for determining semantic information from audio, where incoming audio is sampled and processed to extract audio features, including temporal, spectral, harmonic and rhythmic features. The extracted audio features are compared to stored audio templates that include ranges and/or values for certain features and are tagged for specific ranges and/or values. Extracted audio features that are most similar to one or more templates from the comparison are identified according to the tagged information. The tags are used to determine the semantic audio data that includes genre, instrumentation, style, acoustical dynamics, and emotive descriptor for the audio signal.
US09812102B2
A specialized harness supports the weight of a violin or a viola, eliminating the need for the player to engage the neck or chin to support the instrument while playing. The harness transfers the weight of the instrument to larger muscles in the player's back or shoulder, thus providing ergonomic assistance to the player, and encouraging beneficial posture while playing. Such an ergonomic apparatus may be further equipped with a counterweight. Use of the violin harness permits playing freely, without a need for customary accessories. The violin harness may allow those with upper torso or neck injuries, who might otherwise be prevented from playing the violin, to do so comfortably and painlessly.
US09812097B1
A foot pedal actuator is secured to legs of a portable musical instrument using a first elongate member having an aperture for a leg to pass through on one end, and an aperture for securing to a foot pedal actuator fastener aperture on the opposite end. A second elongate member has an aperture which is secured to the foot pedal actuator aperture on one end, and a rotatable attachment to the first elongate member along the span of the first elongate member. A third member similar to the first member and fourth member similar to the second member secure the four corners of the foot pedal actuator to two feet of the portable musical instrument, which pass through the leg apertures of the elongate members.
US09812095B2
An image processing method of a video device includes storing a plurality of pictures into a buffer, parsing header information of a current image of the plurality of pictures and managing a reference picture list of the current image while the current image is processed by a video engine based on the parsed header information.
US09812091B2
According to an aspect, an information display device includes a display unit, a visual line detector, and a control unit. The display unit displays information in a scroll region, which is provided in at least a part of a screen of the display unit, while scrolling the information. The visual line detector detects a visual line position of an operator with respect to the scroll region. The control unit controls a scroll speed, at which the information is scrolled in the scroll region, based on the visual line position detected by the visual line detector.
US09812086B2
A method for displaying a result of area extraction processing of dividing a target image into a foreground area and a background area includes a result acquisition step of acquiring a result of the area extraction processing on the target image, an extraction result image generation step of acquiring an extraction result image representing an estimated foreground area or an estimated background area estimated by the area extraction processing or a boundary between the estimated foreground area and the estimated background area, based on the acquired result, and a display step of generating a composite image by combining the extraction result image with the target image, and displaying the composite image on a display device. The extraction result image generation step includes a color extraction step and a color determination step.
US09812083B2
A display device includes a substrate, display units, and a plurality of integrated circuits (ICs). The substrate includes an active area and a non-active area. The non-active area is located around the active area. The display units are disposed in the active area of the substrate, and arranged in a matrix. The ICs are disposed in the active area of the substrate, arranged in a matrix, and are electrically coupled to the display units. Each of the ICs includes a shift register unit. Each of the shift register units of the ICs is configured to receive a previous-stage scan signal, and generate a current-stage scan signal according to the previous-stage scan signal. The ICs drive the display units according to the current-stage scan signals.
US09812082B2
The application provides a pixel circuit, a driving method, a display panel and a display device. The pixel circuit includes a first transistor, a second transistor, a third transistor, a fourth transistor, a fifth transistor, a sixth transistor, a driving transistor, a storage capacitor and a light emitting element, and by cooperative driving of the respective transistors and the storage capacitor, the driving current of the driving transistor can be independent of the gate-source voltage and the threshold voltage of the driving transistor.
US09812081B2
Based on a REF/NREF signal coming from a REF/NREF determination circuit, a polarity bias calculation circuit updates a polarity bias count value Nb indicating a degree of a polarity bias of an applied voltage to a liquid crystal layer, and based on this polarity bias count value Nb, a bias movement determination circuit determines a moving direction of the polarity bias. Upon receiving an OFF signal Soff instructing OFF of the power supply, a balance control circuit controls a drive unit based on a result of the determination of the polarity bias moving direction and on the polarity bias count value Nb at a point of time when the OFF signal Soff is inputted so that the polarity bias can be resolved before a power supply is turned off.
US09812066B2
An organic light emitting display includes a plurality of pixel row groups, a scan driver, a data driver, and a data distributor. Each pixel group includes the same number of pixel rows, and the pixel row groups are sequentially driven. The data distributor demultiplexes data signals for input into the pixels. The data signals are input to the pixels after threshold voltage compensation is performed at substantially a same time for pixels in each of the pixel row groups. Data signals are to be input to pixels in one pixel row group while threshold voltage compensation is performed for pixels in another pixel row group adjacent to the one pixel row group.
US09812056B2
In a projected architecture system, a mobile device may be responsible for providing the video that is displayed on a vehicle's infotainment system's display. The resolution and/or aspect ratio of the remote display may not be supported by the mobile device. An encoder, based on the display resolution, may render one or more video frames that a decoder coupled to the infotainment system can scale to a resolution compatible with the remote display.
US09812050B2
A display driving device includes a data driver having a plurality of output drivers configured to output display driving signals. The display driving device also includes an offset adjusting circuit configured to subtract offset voltages generated in the output drivers from an input image signal to generate a corrected image signal. The offset adjusting circuit transmits the corrected image signal to the data driver, so that the data driver outputs the driving signals based on the corrected image signal.
US09812035B2
Surgical systems and methods of demonstrating planned autonomous manipulation of an anatomy by a tool of a robotic surgical system include generating manipulation parameters representing planned constraints on autonomous manipulation of a volume of the anatomy by the tool in a first mode and generating demonstrative parameters relating to the manipulation parameters and defined in relation to a surface of the anatomy. The demonstrative parameters are less invasive to the anatomy than the manipulation parameters. The tool is moved in accordance with the demonstrative parameters in a second mode thereby demonstrating planned constraints on autonomous manipulation of the anatomy in relation to the surface of the anatomy.
US09812031B1
A system for tracking position of one or more moving transmission sources is disclosed. The transmission source can transmit a signal while moving from a first position to a first expected position and a receiver can receive the signal. The transmission source can include an antenna. An audio source can transmit an audio signal at a predetermined frequency and a controller can determine a second position of the transmission source, calculate an offset between the second position with the first expected position, and compare the offset with a predetermined threshold. A first rate of movement can be calculated based on a distance traveled between the first position and the second position with respect to the predetermined frequency. A first indication can be transmitted to at least one user device including the first location offset with the predetermined threshold and the first rate of movement.
US09812025B2
A system for interactive online instruction includes an instructional subscription website and video management system configured to process video recordings. The video recordings may include (i) student videos uploaded by a student and (ii) instructor videos providing feedback to said student videos. A method of interactive online instruction is also disclosed. The method includes the steps of providing prerecorded course materials on an instructional subscription website including video lessons accessible by subscribing students, and providing a video management system configured to process video recordings including (i) student videos submitted by a student and (ii) instructor videos providing feedback to said student videos.
US09812023B2
This disclosure describes systems and methods for audibly presenting metadata. Audibly presentable metadata is referred to as audible metadata. Audible metadata may be associated with one or more media objects. In one embodiment, audible metadata is pre-recorded requiring little or no processing before it can be rendered. In another embodiment, audible metadata is text, and a text-to-speech conversion device may be used to convert the text into renderable audible metadata. Audible metadata may be rendered at any point before or after rendering of a media object, or may be rendered during rendering of a media object via a dynamic user request.
US09812021B2
This disclosure describes an automated aerial vehicle that includes one or more object detection elements configured to detect the presence of objects and an avoidance determining element configured to cause the automated aerial vehicle to automatically determine and execute an avoidance maneuver to avoid the objects. For example, an object may be detected and an avoidance maneuver determined based on a position of the object and an object vector representative of a direction and a magnitude of velocity of the object.
US09812020B2
An electronic device including a processing unit and a storage device receives digital images of a flight area of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) captured by an image capturing device. Then, the processing unit determines a flight position of the UAV in the flight area based on the digital images, and controls the UAV to move from the flight position to a predetermined position. The processing unit receives a vehicle direction of the UAV from an electronic compass unit of the UAV, and adjusts the vehicle direction of the UAV based on a predetermined direction. The processing unit controls the UAV to perform a predetermined operation when the UAV reaches the predetermined position and the vehicle direction is the same as the predetermined direction.
US09812014B2
A system for assisting vehicle driving includes a processor executing a process of assisting vehicle driving; and a memory. The process includes communicating with vehicles to obtain the travel information, storing the travel information in the memory; estimating a target stop position where the vehicle should stop based on the travel information; transmitting the target stop position to the vehicles-obtaining an index indicating at least one of repeatability of driving behavior of a driver, proximity of the behavior to an average value of others, and fuel consumption, determining a first driver corresponding to the index indicating a value less than a value determined based on the travel information of others; and eliminating a stop position information form the travel information stored in the memory, the stop position information indicating a stop position based on the travel information of the vehicle driven by the first driver.
US09812012B2
The present disclosure provides a message processing method, an in-vehicle terminal, and a base station. The method executed by a first in-vehicle terminal includes: first, generating a safety message, where the safety message includes message content and a message type; then, determining, according to the message content and the message type, a priority value corresponding to the safety message; finally, sending, according to the priority value corresponding to the safety message, the safety message by using a vehicle direct communication physical VDC PHY layer or separately by using a cellular physical cellular PHY layer and a VDC PHY layer, so that a base station and/or a second in-vehicle terminal receive/receives the safety message, and the first in-vehicle terminal can send, under a preset delay requirement, the safety message to another in-vehicle terminal in a distance range that needs to be covered by the safety message.
US09812010B1
From a first patrol unit, the first data are received for identifying a location of the first patrol unit. From the first patrol unit, second data are received for identifying a subject. The subject includes at least one of: a subject vehicle; and a subject person. A database is queried about the subject and, in response to the querying, a determination is made bout whether the subject is a likely threat. In response to determining that the subject is a likely threat, and in response to the first data, a predetermined number of second patrol units are identified that are most geographically proximate to the location of the first patrol unit, and a message is output to the predetermined number of second patrol units about: the subject; the likely threat; and the first patrol unit.
US09812008B2
A system and method are provided for detecting remote vehicles relative to a host vehicle using wheel detection. The system and method include tracking wheel candidates based on wheel detection data received from a plurality of object detection devices, comparing select parameters relating to the wheel detection data for each of the tracked wheel candidates, and identifying a remote vehicle by determining if a threshold correlation exists between any of the tracked wheel candidates based on the comparison of select parameters.
US09811998B2
A portable device including a gesture recognizer module for automatically detecting a specific sequence of gestures is described. The portable device may be used to detect a health, safety, or security related event. The portable device may further include an emergency event module for automatically determining whether the sequence of gestures corresponds to an emergency event. The portable device may further include a proximity detection module for automatically determining whether a mobile device corresponding to a user listed as an emergency contact is in a state of proximity to the portable device. The portable device may further include a notification module for automatically transmitting a message, indicating the emergency event, to the user of the mobile device determined to be in the state of proximity.
US09811990B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on storage devices, for monitoring, security, and surveillance of a property. In one aspect, a system includes a virtual reality headset, a plurality of cameras, a plurality of sensors that includes a first sensor, a control unit, wherein the control unit includes a network interface, a processor, a storage device that includes instructions to perform operations that comprise receiving data from the first sensor that is indicative of an alarm event, determining a location of the first sensor, identifying a set of one or more cameras from the plurality of cameras that are associated with the first sensor, selecting a particular camera from the identified set of one or more cameras; and transmitting one or more instructions to the particular camera that command the particular camera to stream a live video feed to a user interface of the virtual reality headset.
US09811989B2
A method and apparatus for detecting an occurrence of an event of interest. The apparatus comprises a surveillance system, a detector, and an analyzer. The surveillance system monitors subjects within an environment to generate monitoring data. The detector detects a number of indicator instances exhibited by at least a portion of the subjects using the monitoring data. Each of the number of indicator instances is an instance of a corresponding event indicator in a set of pre-selected event indicators. The analyzer evaluates the number of indicator instances and additional information to determine whether at least a portion of the number of indicator instances meets an event detection threshold, thereby indicating a detection of an occurrence of an event of interest.
US09811986B2
A method for determining the unauthorized intrusion through a door, including: a) determining a movement path of the door as a function of time in all three spatial axes using a movement sensor in an active mode; b) determining parameters in all three spatial axes based on the movement path of the door, an unauthorized intrusion at the door exists when the actual value of the particular parameter is within an assigned parameter range for the unauthorized intrusion; c) determining an opening angle of the door using an angle measuring sensor when an unauthorized intrusion has been determined; and d) comparing the opening angle of the door with a threshold value for a closed door; e) determining that the door has been opened when the opening angle exceeds the threshold value, and outputting an alarm signal if the door has been opened. A device is also described.
US09811983B2
A gaming machine, system and method includes a housing having a user interface, display, preferably a lower display and an upper display, and a controller preferably mounted in the housing and in communication with the display. The controller enables standard game play mode until the occurrence of a predetermined event, such as the appearance of preferably three scatter symbols. Upon occurrence of the predetermined event, the controller enables feature game play mode where display presents a plurality of feature game symbols, and a symbol selection pointer, and optionally presents a landscape including at least some of the feature game symbols. At least one of the feature game symbols is a switchable symbol symbol having a first state and a second state, and at least one is a switching symbol that changes the state of the switchable symbol. The controller causes the symbol selection pointer to randomly select one of the feature game symbols. There are two ways to change the state of the switchable symbol. Selecting the switchable symbol changes its state. Selecting the switching symbol causes the switchable symbol to also change its state.
US09811978B2
Some embodiments may include a poker indexing service. For example, a multi dimensional vector of player performance and/or other data may be determined based on gaming related activity that is input or otherwise captured. Such a vector may be used in various forms to generate a metric or to facilitate wagering and/or other gaming activity. Other methods and apparatus are described.
US09811976B2
Methods and systems for conducting a competition within a gaming environment. Two or more players can be enabled to electronically access a gaming environment over a communication network. The players can be registered to allow access to a competition within the gaming environment. Each player can be enabled to compete against one or more other players by selecting from macro events displayed in the gaming environment one or more micro event outcomes to future micro events, the micro event outcomes randomized to prevent cheating. A selection of the micro outcomes utilizes a number of points or credits, wherein each selection of a micro outcome increases a selecting player's points or credit balance if the micro outcome occurs or decreases the points or credit balance if the micro outcome selected does not occur.
US09811967B2
A product dispensing system includes: a first product discharging device that is applied to a first product storage passage storing an input product in a vertical direction, regulates downward movement of the product stored in the first product storage passage in a standby state, and discharges a lowest product stored in the first product storage passage downward in an activated state; and a second product discharging device that is applied to a second product storage passage being adjacent to the first product storage passage and storing an input product in the vertical direction thereof, regulates downward movement of the product stored in the second product storage passage in a standby state, and discharges a lowest product stored in the second product storage passage downward in an activated state. The first product discharging device and the second product discharging device are coupled to each other back to back.
US09811964B2
Currency handling apparatus comprising: accommodating unit for accommodating various kinds of currencies; a currency discharge opening; a transfer unit for transferring the currencies from the accommodating units to the currency discharge opening; a control unit for controlling the transfer unit to transfer the currencies from the accommodating units to the currency discharge opening thereby to discharge the currencies; and a storage unit for storing various kinds of discharge patterns indicating the numbers of currencies of individual kinds. The control unit is constituted to specify at least one of the discharge patterns in response to the instruction of a user and to discharge the currencies in accordance with the specified discharge pattern. As a result, the user can discharge the desired numbers of currencies of individual kinds merely by performing the simple designating operations.
US09811963B2
A money item conveyor comprising a plurality of money item conveying members configured to convey money items around a looped path, wherein the plurality of conveying members each comprise first and second money item support surfaces configured to simultaneously support a main face of a money item on the conveying member, the support faces being separated by an articulation region to allow relative movement of the support surfaces.
US09811960B2
The present invention relates to a method and a system for the configuration of small locking systems with electronic locks, preferably electronic locking cylinders, which can preferably communicate with passive RFID cards. The present invention particularly relates to a method and a system which not only allows the easy configuration of locks/locking cylinders, but also of corresponding RFID cards, preferably by using a smartphone.
US09811957B2
Provided is a gate apparatus including a sensor that detects a pedestrian; multiple human body communication electrodes for performing human body communication; and a control unit that determines a position of the pedestrian according to information on the pedestrian detected by the sensor, performs outputting of a connection confirmation request packet through a human body communication electrode corresponding to the determined position, receives a connection confirmation response packet transmitted from a human body communication terminal and performs analysis processing on the received connection confirmation response packet, and performs opening and closing control of a gate opening and closing unit, in which the control unit stores in the connection confirmation request packet an output electrode identifier of a communication electrode that performs packet outputting, and determines whether or not the output electrode identifier and an electrode identifier of the electrode that receives the connection confirmation response packet agree with each other.
US09811956B2
A method includes transmitting polling signals from antennas at respective positions about a vehicle. Each polling signal includes identifying information. The method further includes receiving an acknowledgement signal from a remote unit. The acknowledgement signal includes information indicative of each polling signal received by the remote unit. The method further includes determining a position of the remote unit relative to the vehicle based upon the information of the acknowledgement signal.
US09811950B2
An aircraft electric taxi system diagnostics and prognostics evaluation method, including receiving, with a computer, an electronically recorded first performance parameter of a first electric taxi system of a first aircraft during a taxi operational event at an airport; and comparing the first performance parameter with a first performance factor statistical model generated in response to the first performance parameter and first comparative performance parameters; and calculating a first performance parameter difference based on the comparison.
US09811948B2
An electronic apparatus (1) includes a display generation unit (110) configured to generate a display area (210) in a user interface (200-4,200-5), the display area being configured to display a 3-D model of a patient's face and a 3-D model of a patient interface device fitted to the 3-D model of the patient's face; and a transparency adjustment unit (150) configured to generate a transparency adjustment tool (250) in the user interface, the transparency adjustment tool being operable to adjust the transparency of a subset of components of the 3-D model of the patient interface device displayed in the 3-D display area of the user interface.
US09811943B2
A label-information processing device for a multi-viewpoint image, which contains images by image signals of a subject photographed from multi-viewpoints, assigns label-information to a remarkable-portion common to the images. The device includes: a display unit for displaying a specific image by a specific image signal which depicts the remarkable-portion; and a controller for assigning the label-information to the remarkable-portion depicted in the specific image. The controller has the functions of: acquiring coordinates of the label-information in a three-dimensional space; displaying, on the display unit, the images by the image signals which depict the same remarkable-portions as that in the specific image; transforming the thus-acquired coordinates of the label-information into coordinates at which the label-information on a plane is assigned to the thus-displayed image signals having different viewpoints; and assigning the label information to the image signals having different viewpoints at the positions that are determined from the thus-transformed coordinates.
US09811938B2
Methods, systems, and computer program products for visually representing and displaying data are described. The visual representation may be a data animation. A data query may be submitted, a time measurement for processing the query may be obtained, and a sample size of the query may be adjusted based on the time measurement and a frame refresh rate of a data animation. A data animation may be generated based on one or more results of the query.
US09811927B2
Precorrelation of data applied to use cases by a module intermediate to the data and use cases provides normalized data across multiple sources for more effective analysis. For example, network sensors provide network telemetry to a precorrelation core, which extracts and normalizes the data to correlate actors to events. Universal actor correlation improves visualizations by creating a mesh of events tied to each other through a common actor.
US09811926B2
A method for drawing shapes includes receiving first input from a touch screen display indicating a first user touch continuing for a first touch time delay, then subsequent to said first touch time delay, receiving second input from the display indicating a second user touch in a pattern on the display. The method includes correlating the first input and the second input with a drawing shape. The drawing shape includes a standard geometric shape. The method includes forming an image on the display that corresponds to the drawing shape.
US09811925B2
Disclosed examples include drawing apparatus and methods of rendering lines on a display screen, in which a first angle is determined that corresponds to a hand drawn line created by a user on the display screen, and a new line is rendered on the display screen to represent the hand drawn line created by the user. The new line is selectively rendered parallel or perpendicular to an existing line on the display screen at least partially according to the first angle using the processor.
US09811917B2
A confidence map for optical flow gradients is constructed calculating a set of census texture gradients for each pixel of an image, filtering said gradients and extracting confidence values from said gradients using a plurality of decision tree classifiers. A confidence map is then generated from said confidence values.
US09811916B1
The location of a user's head, for purposes such as head tracking or motion input, can be determined using a two-step process. In a first step, at least one image is captured including a representation of at least a portion of the user, with distance information also being obtained. The distance information can be used to segment the at least one image into a foreground portion, which then can be analyzed to recognize a head and shoulder signature of a user. In a second step, a contour of the foreground portion can be determined, and a center point of that contour determined. The distances from the center point to locations along the contour can be used to locate transition points associated with the head and shoulders. A center point of the portion of the contour between the transition points gives an approximation of the relative head position.
US09811907B2
There is provided a medical image processing apparatus which includes a first extraction unit configured to extract coronary arteries depicted in images of a plurality of time phases relating to the heart, and to extract at least one stenosed part depicted in each coronary artery; a calculation unit configured to calculate a pressure gradient of each of the extracted coronary arteries, based on tissue blood flow volumes of the coronary arteries; a second extraction unit configured to extract an ischemic region depicted in the images; and a specifying unit configured to specify a responsible blood vessel of the ischemic region by referring to a dominance map, in which each of the extracted coronary arteries and a dominance territory are associated, for the extracted ischemic region, and to specify a responsible stenosis, based on the pressure gradient corresponding to a stenosed part in the specified responsible blood vessel.
US09811906B1
A method is for segmenting an object in a medical image with a plurality of iteration steps. In an embodiment of the method, each iteration step includes generating a plurality of patches, a portion of the input image and a patch location being assigned to each patch, the patch location being indicative of the location of the portion of the input image relative to the input image. For each patch of the plurality of patches, the method includes determining a vote location based on the portion of the input image assigned to that patch and determining a target location based on the vote location and the patch location assigned to that patch. Finally, in an embodiment the method includes generating a vote map, each patch of the plurality of patches contributing to a pixel value at the target location of the patch in the vote map.
US09811898B2
An image analyzing apparatus, a non-transitory computer readable medium storing a program, and a method are provided for extracting voids from a three-dimensional image of a fiber-reinforced composite material. The image analyzing apparatus includes a processor which executes image processing to the three-dimensional image. The processor binarizes the three-dimensional image and creates a binary image, transforms the binary image into a distance and creates a distance image, executes closing processing to the binary image by using the distance image, extracts voids from differences between images before and after the closing processing, among the extracted voids, classifies voids that are adjacent to a background voxel as open voids, and classifies voids that are not adjacent to a background voxel as closed voids, and executes opening processing to the open voids in order to eliminate fake voids.
US09811892B1
Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to image signal processing logic, and in particular, to separating an undecimated image signal data to create two components with lower resolution and full-resolution, generating an interpolation guidance information based on the two components created by separation, forming a difference image data representing the difference between the chroma and luma values of each pixel and its neighboring pixels, and merging the processed image data from the processing pipelines with the unprocessed image data using the interpolation guidance information generated. The generation of the interpolation guidance information is based on determining distances between pixel values from a group comprising pixels from interpolation nodes, pixels diagonally located adjacent to the interpolation nodes, pixels horizontally adjacent to the interpolation nodes, and pixels vertically adjacent to the interpolation nodes.
US09811886B2
Disclosed herein are an image processing apparatus, a medical imaging apparatus, and an image processing method, which may intuitively and easily set an image processing parameter used to process a medical image to a user-preferred optimal value. The image processing apparatus includes a display unit configured to display a plurality of sample images to which at least one image processing parameter has been variably applied; an input unit configured to receive a selection of one from among the displayed plurality of sample images from a user; and an image processing unit configured to generate a plurality of new sample images to which the at least one image processing parameter has been variably applied based on an image processing parameter to be applied to the selected sample image when the user is not satisfied with the selected sample image.
US09811883B2
An image processing method includes acquiring a feature defining a distribution of similar forms in a first image; and restoring a hole included in a second image based on the feature. The feature may include structure information on a background included in the first image. The restoring may include determining, based on the feature, candidate blocks corresponding to a restoration block and restoring the restoration block based on the candidate blocks. The restoration block may include at least a portion of the hole.
US09811870B2
A portable electronic device for presenting a recommendation message is described. The device includes display; one or more processors; and memory storing one or more programs for execution by the one or more processors. The device detects a trigger event based on a user input, the trigger event initiating a receipt of non-tactile user input; and, in response to detecting the trigger event, receives non-tactile user input. The device generates one or more character strings based on the non-tactile user input and one or more predefined string generation rules. Each character string of the one or more character strings includes multiple characters. The device generates a recommendation message that includes the one or more character strings; and displays the recommendation message on the display. A corresponding method and a computer readable storage medium storing one or more programs for execution by the portable electronic device are also described.
US09811852B2
Systems and methods for implementing point of advertising purchasing include using mass media publications configured for or containing service, product or vendor transmittable signals, such as from radio frequency identification tags. In a preferred arrangement, a consumer perceiving an advertisement of the mass media publication may activate a reader in a portable communications device, such as a smart mobile or cellular phone, to receive information from the radio frequency signal associated with the advertisement to identify a vendor, product or service associated with the radio frequency identification. The smart mobile phone or communications device of the consumer may communicate with a system of a vendor across a network to order a product or product information from a system of the vendor over the network by using the information from the radio frequency identification.
US09811844B2
Systems and methods for determining digital degrees of separation for digital program implementation
This disclosure relates generally to enterprise software management, and more particularly to systems and methods for determining digital degrees of separation for digital program implementation. In one embodiment, a digital degrees of separation determination system is disclosed, comprising a hardware processor, and a memory storing instructions executable by the processor for obtaining user credentials, and determining a user classification based on the user credentials. The processor may execute the instructions for identifying a user digital need based on the user classification, and querying a database for market-available software applications related to the user digital need. Further, the processor may execute the instructions for obtaining a list of user-accessible software applications related to the user digital need, and comparing characteristics of the market-available software applications to the user-accessible software applications. Also, the processor may execute the instructions for calculating a digital degrees of separation based on the comparison.
US09811841B2
A correction device includes a first acquisition unit configured to acquire an arrangement position of advertisement information within a predetermined page layout when the advertisement information arranged in the predetermined page layout is displayed on a display screen of a terminal and a click rate at the arrangement position. The correction device includes a second acquisition unit configured to acquire a specific position in the predetermined page layout displayed on the display screen and an attention degree index indicating a degree of attention of the specific position as compared to another position. The correction device includes a correction unit configured to correct a click rate of the advertisement information based on the attention degree index of the specific position corresponding to the arrangement position of the advertisement information.
US09811837B2
A system and a method for determining at least one of availability and price of a product includes an electronic storage device having a database of merchant transactions stored therein; an access path for allowing access to information concerning the transactions, including when a given product has been sold and the price at which the product was sold, and a processor for assembling the information concerning at least one of sales of the given product and the price at which it was sold, to provide at least one of locations where the product is available, and the price at which the product was sold at the location or locations. A computer readable non-transitory storage medium stores instructions of a computer program which, when executed by a computer system, results in performance of steps of the method for determining at least one of availability and price of a product.
US09811829B2
Systems and methods are provided for facilitating guided entry of a passcode. The exemplary guided passcode entry system provides additional security to traditional secret PIN or passcode entry systems by generating a randomized input sequence (order of entry) and prompting a user to input a passcode according to the randomized input sequence. The system also causes a test of the user's input data against a database of passcodes associated with the particular user for an exact match. The testing step can include comparing characters of the input data to a particular passcode associated with the user which is stored in a database in accordance with the randomized input sequence in regard to the order that the input data was received. Based on the comparison of the received passcode to the stored passcode, the system can advance a transaction with the user.
US09811828B2
The present invention relates to a method which aims to improve data security in mobile payment transactions. To achieve this goal, we propose a highly secure method for transactions validation through video encryption and a new view of secrecy based on the combination of encrypted video (102, 203, 305) and a transparent safe card (110, 202, 307) with unique secret pattern (111, 308). This safe card (110, 202, 307) is shown as a translucent or transparent device capable of acting as “layer” or decoding mask using visual cryptography techniques. Additionally, it is proposed in one embodiment of the present invention a method for encryption of unencrypted video (602) through a frame analysis module (601) and a frame recomposition module (612).
US09811827B2
A transaction verification process performed by a transaction network operator in communication with a client computing device and a third party provider. A computing device may be equipped with an integrity verification module for verifying the system integrity of the computing device, and a cryptographic module for digitally signing transaction requests. The transaction network operator may verify that transaction requests processed by the third party provider are properly associated with a valid computing device by verifying signatures from the cryptographic module and the integrity verification module. In response to a request from the third party provider, the transaction network operator may verify that the computing device is authorized to complete the transaction by challenging the computing device for proper credentials. The transaction network operator may verify the credentials provided by the client device and indicate to the third party provider that the transaction is valid.
US09811825B2
Systems, methods, and computer program products are provided for managing contactless transactions. A tap notification including at least a first identifier is received. A first counter in a first data set associated with the first identifier is incremented. It is determined if the first counter matches one of a plurality of thresholds. If it is determined that the first counter matches one of a plurality of thresholds, a first status level in the first data set is updated. A first set of benefits from a plurality of benefits stored in a memory based on the first status level is identified. The first set of benefits is associated with the first identifier.
US09811822B2
The invention in particular relates to the execution control of protected internal functions and applications embedded in a mobile terminal microcircuit card. The control of a protected internal function is directly carried out in the microcircuit card. After having detected (400) a command for placing the card on standby, on the basis of an item of information received from a mobile terminal into which is connected the card, at least one indication relative to the execution of the protected internal function is analyzed (415). If the protected internal function is liable to be affected by the execution of the command for placing on standby, the execution of the command for placing on standby is deferred (410).
US09811821B2
Systems and methods are provided for displaying account information. The systems and methods may include a portable smart display device in short-range communication with a mobile device. The smart display device may be configured to provide a user with quick and easy yet secure access to account information, without the need for multi-step login and verification processes. The smart display device may be sized to fit within a wallet and within quick, easy reach of a user. The smart display device may receive up-to-date account information from the mobile device, and display the account information on-demand upon detecting an activation event, thereby providing an enjoyable user experience and a useful tool for quickly informing the user of their financial situation.
US09811819B2
A provisioning system for enabling a mobile communication device to operate as a financial presentation device (FPD) presentable to providers of goods or service is provided. The provisioning system relies on a transaction processing system that normally routes authorization requests from merchants to issuers of FPDs for purposes of authorizing FPD transactions. The transaction processing system already stores security keys of all issuers to validate transaction data being sent from the merchants. The provisioning system monitors authorization requests being routed through the transaction processing system and retrieves an authorization request of a financial transaction that was initiated with a particular FPD. The provisioning system then transmits the FPD data contained in the retrieved authorization request and the security key stored in the transaction processing system to a secure memory element of the mobile communication device so as to enable the mobile communication device to operate as a FPD.
US09811816B2
To enable registration of a commodity without interrupting the flow of sales registration by an operator, a commodity identification device 2 specifically includes: a camera 27 that takes an image of an object that an operator holds over the camera; and a CPU 211 that is configured to, when the object is recognized from an image taken by the camera 27 and the object recognized is compared with reference images of each commodity in plurality of directions, and when the object is similar to a plurality of commodities, specify reference images having a noticeable difference, and guide the operator to rotate the object so that the object in the direction corresponding to the specified reference images is directed toward the camera 27.
US09811815B2
A state-driven Self-Service Terminal (SST) has its existing state table dynamically and transparently replaced. The states flow, the screens rendered during the flows, and the state transitions are handled by an enhanced module processing on the SST. The enhanced module references existing state code on the SST so that the SST continues to operate in a manner expected, but enhanced functionality and features are provided to the SST through the enhanced module and the replaced state table.
US09811801B2
A method of fuel management, including the specifics of a cost threshold. A method of fuel management, comprising setting a cost threshold for vehicle fueling, and determining if a vehicle has exceeded the cost threshold. In general a fuel management system for use by operators of temporary and/or permanent inventories of vehicles such as vehicle dealerships. Fuel vouchers are issued by authorized issuing personnel to authorized recipients if a validation procedure is passed using a database incorporating employee and vehicle inventory information. At the time of delivery, the fueling station will verify the vehicle and individual presenting the voucher. If verification occurs, the authorized quantity of fuel is dispensed. The voucher and sales receipt are returned to the dealership for future auditing and report generation.
US09811797B2
A transportation management system may include a connection cache configured to store connection-relevant transportation information for transportation objects. The connection-relevant transportation information may have been replicated from at least one of a plurality of transportation object sources including at least a first database storing schedules, a second database storing freight bookings, and a third database storing freight orders. The transportation management system may also include a connection cache access engine configured to receive transportation parameters including at least a first location and a second location, and query the connection cache to dynamically select one or more transportation objects from the connection cache related to at least one of the schedules, the freight bookings, and the freight orders, that are relevant for the first location and the second location.
US09811795B1
Embodiments are directed to managing operations. If Operations events are provided, event clusters may be associated with one or more Operations events, such that the Operations events may be associated with the event clusters based on characteristics of the Operations events. Metrics including resolution metrics, root cause analysis, notes, and other remediation information may be associated with the event clusters. Then a modeling engine may be employed to train models based on the Operations events, the event clusters, and the resolution metrics, such that the trained model may be trained to correlate and predict the resolution metrics from real-time Operations events. If real-time Operations events may be provided, the trained models may be employed to predict the resolution metrics that are associated with the real-time Operations events. If model performance degrades beyond accuracy requirements, new observations may be added to the training set and the model re-trained.
US09811790B2
A method and system is provided to manage and track changes in enterprise architectures. The invention provides a hierarchical visual management tool to manage and update relational information within an enterprise in a controlled fashion. The relationship may be maintained in a database and displayed via graphical user interface. Enterprise assets are categorized into such categories as goals, customer values or requirements, capabilities, resources, and the like. A hierarchy is constructed so that relationships between these various categories are identified and captured using the invention. Weights may be assigned to each element of the categories so that any proposed change to an enterprise architecture may be viewed so that a value can be ascertained and compared between other values of other proposed changes. In this manner, tracking and management of evolutionary changes to an architecture may be accomplished using relational information.
US09811786B2
Concepts and technologies disclosed herein are directed to reservations-based intelligent roadway traffic management. According to one aspect disclosed herein, a roadway usage management (“RUM”) system can receive, from a user device, a reservation request. The RUM system can extract, from the reservation request, a route to a destination location. The route can include a roadway segment to be used by a user vehicle for travel to the destination location. The RUM system can determine a time block during which entry to the roadway segment is available. The RUM system can generate a reservation response that includes the time block available to satisfy the reservation request and can send the reservation response to the user device. The user vehicle can be a partially autonomous vehicle or a fully autonomous vehicle.
US09811776B2
Systems and methods that determine a meaning of a knowledge item using related information are described. In one aspect, a knowledge item is received, related information associated with the knowledge item is received, at least one related meaning based on the related information is determined, and a knowledge item meaning for the knowledge item based at least in part on the related meaning is determined. Several algorithms and types of related information useful in carrying out such systems and methods are described.
US09811773B2
Systems, methods, and non-transitory computer readable media configured to select a code. An image on which the code is superimposed is selected. A block of the code is associated with a corresponding part of the image. A desired value of opacity of the block of the code is determined based on the corresponding part of the image. A personalized code is generated based on the desired value of opacity of the block of the code.
US09811769B2
A printing apparatus 100 performs print processing for a PDF file received via a communication unit 105. The printing apparatus 100 includes a CPU 101 and a HDD 104 storing the PDF file. The CPU 101 controls the HDD 104, secures a storage area corresponding to a maximum size of the PDF file that can be processed by the printing apparatus 100 each time reception of the PDF file is started, and sequentially stores PDF files received for each secured storage area. The CPU 101 updates a size of the secured storage area from the maximum size of the PDF file that can be processed by the printing apparatus 100 to an actual size of the PDF file having been received completely. The CPU 101 performs control so that the PDF files stored in the HDD 104 are processed in an order of reception start.
US09811763B2
A method of building a media clip based on at least Internet content includes extracting relevant text content from the Internet content, and relevant media content from the Internet content and/or from other sources of content, wherein the extraction of the relevant media content is based on at least the extracted text content, and/or the extraction of the relevant text content is based on at least the extracted media content, and building a media clip representing the Internet content based on at least part of the relevant text content and the relevant media content. A method of training a system for building a media clip based on at least Internet content takes into account the user input.
US09811760B2
An image processing system includes a processing device having a memory device for storing computer-executable instructions. The processing device is programmed to define a first descriptor in a first image, generate a mask from the first descriptor, and define a second descriptor in a second image. The processing device is further programmed to compare the first descriptor to the second descriptor to define a first error vector, determine a second error vector by applying a mask, and compute the total error of the second error vector to determine an error between the first descriptor and the second descriptor.
US09811751B2
An image pickup apparatus includes: an interest area setter configured to input a signal for setting multiple interest areas inside an image pickup area of an image sensor; a readout area setter configured to set a readout area from which an image signal is read out from the image sensor; a sensor readout controller configured to control readout of a pixel signal of the readout area from the image sensor; an output signal generator configured to generate an image signal to be output based on the pixel signal read out by the sensor readout controller; and a boundary identifier configured to make identifiable a boundary of each of the multiple interest areas in an image formed by the image signal to be output.
US09811748B2
The quality at which camera data (e.g., images, video, and/or audio captured by a camera device) is transmitted and/or stored may be adjusted based on the application of analytic techniques. For example, a camera processing device may receive camera data and receive information relating to conditions external to the capturing of the camera data. The camera processing device may control the resolution associated with the camera data based on the information relating to the conditions.
US09811740B2
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing an image processing device that causes a computer to execute a process includes: individually detecting, as a detection target candidate, a first portion of each of detection targets that appear in an image imaged by an imaging device, by using a first detection area corresponding to the first portion; detecting a detection target for a detection target candidate corresponding to a detection target that is not covered by another detection target and that is included in the detected detection target candidates, by using a second detection area corresponding to a second portion including the first portion; and detecting a detection target for a detection target candidate corresponding to a detection target, covered by another detection target and included in the detected detection target candidates, by using a third detection area that corresponds to a third portion including the first portion.
US09811739B2
A surveillance system including at least one image capture device and a processor, and a surveillance method are provided. The image capture device is coupled to the processor and captures surveillance images. The processor analyzes the correlation between multiple on site data corresponding to the surveillance images and event information. Each on site data includes time information and detail information. Therefore, the processor determines that the event information is more relevant to the surveillance image corresponding to the detail information having a higher occurrence frequency in the duration of the event information.
US09811727B2
Methods and apparatus provide for an Extractor that receives a collection of strings and a bounding box(es) for each string. Each bounding box describes a position of at least a portion of a corresponding string in a source document. The source document includes multiple sections for presenting portions of the collection of strings in the source document. The Extractor arranges the collection of strings according to a reading order that corresponds to a language associated with the collection of strings. Upon arranging the collection of strings according to the reading order, the Extractor collects semantic entities from a target document that has the collection of strings ordered according to the reading order. For each collected semantic entity, the Extractor tags the collected semantic entity with a tag that describes a category of content that corresponds to a logical section of the target document from which the semantic entity was extracted.
US09811725B2
An itinerary estimation device includes a classification unit and an estimation unit. The classification unit classifies multiple pieces of expense data including information related to expenses into one or more expense data groups, according to a chronological order of date information extracted from each of the multiple pieces of expense data. The estimation unit estimates an itinerary that includes at least dates on the basis of information including date information extracted from each piece of classified expense data included in the expense data group.
US09811724B2
An information processing apparatus includes a recognition unit. The recognition unit has image recognition methods of plural types. The recognition unit recognizes, in a case where image data of a first document and image data of a second document are generated by a generation unit that reads a document and generates image data of the document, the type of the first document from the image data of the first document and recognizing the type of the second document from the image data of the second document using an image recognition method corresponding to the type of the first document among the image recognition methods of the plural types, the first document and the second document being included in plural documents.
US09811723B2
A method of authenticating and/or identifying a security article including a first image includes superimposing at least partially the first image of the article with a second image. The second image may be produced by an electronic imager. The method further includes performing a relative movement between the first and second images so as to make it possible to observe an item of information relating to authentication and/or identification of the security article during the relative movement between the first and second images.
US09811721B2
In the field of Human-computer interaction (HCI), i.e., the study of the interfaces between people (i.e., users) and computers, understanding the intentions and desires of how the user wishes to interact with the computer is a very important problem. The ability to understand human gestures, and, in particular, hand gestures, as they relate to HCI, is a very important aspect in understanding the intentions and desires of the user in a wide variety of applications. In this disclosure, a novel system and method for three-dimensional hand tracking using depth sequences is described. Some of the major contributions of the hand tracking system described herein include: 1.) a robust hand detector that is invariant to scene background changes; 2.) a bi-directional tracking algorithm that prevents detected hands from always drifting closer to the front of the scene (i.e., forward along the z-axis of the scene); and 3.) various hand verification heuristics.
US09811719B2
An information processing apparatus includes a receiving unit, a detecting unit, and an associating unit. The receiving unit receives a captured moving image of a target person. The detecting unit detects a cue given by the target person. The associating unit associates the cue, given by the target person and detected by the detecting unit, with the moving image so that the cue will be used to designate the moving image used for evaluating the target person.
US09811716B2
A method for face recognition through facial expression normalization includes: fitting an input two-dimensional face image into a three-dimensional face model by using a three-dimensional face database; normalizing the three-dimensional face model into a neutral-expression three-dimensional face model by using a neutral-expression parameter learned from the three-dimensional face database; converting the neutral-expression three-dimensional face model into a neutral-expression two-dimensional face image; and recognizing the neutral-expression two-dimensional face image from a two-dimensional face database. Accordingly, face recognition may be performed with high reliability without a loss of information.
US09811712B2
Provided is a intensified sensor array for static electricity having a structure in which a static electricity preventing wiring covers an upper surface of a pixel circuit to cut off static electricity, so when static electricity of a high voltage is momentarily generated, the static electricity induced through the static electricity preventing wiring is discharged, thereby being capable of effectively protecting the pixel circuit of a lower part from the static electricity.
US09811691B2
A program execution device capable of protecting a program against unauthorized analysis and alteration is provided. The program execution device includes an execution unit, a first protection unit, and a second protection unit. The execution unit executes a first program and a second program, and is connected with an external device that is capable of controlling the execution. The first protection unit disconnects the execution unit from the external device while the execution unit is executing the first program. The second protection unit protects the first program while the execution unit is executing the second program.
US09811670B2
An information processing device including: a data processing unit that generates an encryption key of content; and a communication unit that transmits an encryption key generated by the data processing unit, wherein the data processing unit generates, as the encryption key, individual keys that are different for each new content recording processing on a recording medium in a content recording device, and transmits the individual keys through the communication unit.
US09811667B2
A system and method in one embodiment includes modules for creating a vulnerability set including one or more vulnerabilities, adding the vulnerability set to a program, and updating the program by adding a new vulnerability to the vulnerability set. More specific embodiments include a program that includes a scan, creating the vulnerability set by generating a query including one or more conditions associated with the vulnerabilities, and creating the vulnerability set by selecting one or more vulnerabilities from a plurality of vulnerabilities. Other embodiments include a program that includes a report template, adding a vulnerability set to the report template by generating a query to include a condition associated with the vulnerability set, running a scan, and generating a report including one or more results from the scan meeting the condition associated with the vulnerability set.
US09811666B2
A method and system is provided to automatically propagate dependencies from one part of a software application to another previously unrelated part. Propagation of essential code functionality and data to other parts of the program serves to augment common arithmetic functions with Mixed Boolean Arithmetic (MBA) formulae that are bound to pre-existing parts of the program. A software application is first analyzed on a compiler level to determine the program properties which hold in the program. Thereafter, conditions are constructed based on these properties and encoded in formulae that encode the condition in data and operations. Real dependencies throughout the application are therefore created such that if a dependency is broken the program will no longer function correctly.
US09811664B1
Unwanted web contents are detected in an endpoint computer. The endpoint computer receives a web page from a website. The reputation of the website is determined and the web page is scanned for malicious codes to protect the endpoint computer from web threats. To further protect the endpoint computer from web threats including mutating unwanted web contents, page structure traits of the web page are generated and compared to page structure traits of other web pages detected to contain unwanted web contents.
US09811657B2
A system and method of identifying a security policy for a software part. Security information for the software part is signed with a security information digital signature to form signed security information. The security information identifies a security policy for the software part. The signed security information is associated with the software part.
US09811652B2
According to an embodiment, an image erasing apparatus includes an accessory information acquiring unit and an execution availability determining unit. The accessory information acquiring unit acquires accessory information related to security of the sheet based on attribute data of a sheet on which an erasable image is formed. The execution availability determining unit each determines execution availability of erase processing for the image on the sheet and execution availability of preservation processing for the image data generated by the readout unit, based on the accessory information.
US09811642B2
The invention relates to a calculating method for molecular volume and shape comparison of two molecules. The method includes steps of loading in three-dimensional structure information of a first molecule, the three-dimensional structure information comprising type and coordinate values of each atom contained in the first molecule; obtaining respective van der Waals radius based on the type of respective atom contained in the first molecule, converting the three-dimensional structure information into a group of Gaussian spheres representing atoms in the first molecule; calculating overlap volume for each pair of Gaussian spheres; calculating the weight of each Gaussian sphere; calculating self-overlap volume of the first molecule, the self-overlap volume being used as a volume of the first molecule. The present invention is useful mathematical expression of molecular shape, shape comparison of drug molecules, and pharmacophore comparison of drug molecules, which comparisons, in turn, useful for virtual screening of drug molecules.
US09811631B2
Example systems, methods and computer program products for cloud-based, anatomy-specific identification, processing and routing of image data in a cloud infrastructure are disclosed. An example method includes evaluating, automatically by a particularly programmed processor in a cloud infrastructure, image data to identify an anatomy in the image data. The example method includes processing, automatically by the processor, the image data based on a processing algorithm determined by the processor based on the anatomy identified in the image data. The example method also includes routing, automatically by the processor, the image data to a data consumer based on a routing strategy determined by the processor based on the anatomy identified in the image data. The example method includes generating, automatically by the processor based on the processing and routing, at least one of a push of the image data and a notification of availability of the image data.
US09811620B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including medium-encoded computer program products, for designing three dimensional lattice structures include, in one aspect, a method including: obtaining a lattice within a 3D lattice design space for a 3D model being created with a 3D modeling program; identifying junctions in the lattice that are potential sources of particle traps at an interface between the 3D lattice design space and a surface present in the 3D model; and removing the potential sources of particle traps by modifying cell space defined between the identified junctions and the surface. In addition, the surface can be a surface of a solid region defined in the 3D model, and the method can include: identifying beams in the lattice having junctions lying on the surface; and extending each of the identified beams by a length amount to cause overlap between the identified beams and the solid region.
US09811619B2
A specialized low drop-out voltage regulator (LDO) computer system stores a generalized base model of an LDO. The base model includes values representing a circuit topology and a set of analog behavior blocks associated with the generalized LDO. Values of a set of operational parameters associated with a specific model of LDO are input to the specialized LDO computer system from a data sheet associated with the specific model of LDO. The specialized LDO computer system transforms the set of operational parameters into a computer model of the specific LDO. The LDO-specific computer model is output as a netlist or as a set of instantiation control values to control external hardware such as an integrated circuit die tooling system or a computer graphical display system.
US09811612B2
A method and system for simultaneously performing takeoff of multiple building conditions in a construction project software program is disclosed. The method comprises selecting two or more building conditions and moving a pointer to a construction drawing to select an area to perform takeoff of the multiple building conditions on. Once the area has been selected, the method and system automatically creates one or more live objects on the selected area for each of the selected building conditions and simultaneously quantifies each of the selected building conditions based on the size of the selected area.
US09811609B2
A device for the patient-specific, individual anatomic placement of bore channels when attaching artificial ligaments to bones, namely for use in placing boreholes on the thigh and lower leg during anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, is provided with a probe (1) to be introduced into a joint via an arthroscopy portal and with a targeting head (2) disposed on the distal end of the probe. The targeting head (2) comprises a targeting template (3) which is produced individually using a 3-D imaging method, in particular 3-D magnetic resonance tomography (3-D-MRT) or 3-D computer tomography (3-D-CT), and which is a negative imprint of the osseous surface relief in the region where the torn ligament attaches to the bone in question, in particular where the cruciate ligament attaches to the thigh or lower leg. The targeting template (3) comprises at least one passage (4) for marking the bore channel that is to be produced on the bone, and a hand grip (7) is provided on the proximal end of the probe (1) for holding and positioning. The invention also relates to a method for producing a corresponding device.
US09811604B2
Embodiments of the invention generally provide a computer system, method implemented on a computer, and computer readable medium storing instructions for defining an extension taxonomy. The computer system comprises a processor and a memory storing instructions, the instructions being executable to configure the processor to provide a selection module operable to designate a selected portion of a source document, wherein the source document comprises a set of locations and a location map for identifying each location in the set of locations; wherein each location is configured to receive text-based content and wherein the selected portion comprises at least one location in the set of locations. The processor is also configured to provide: an extension module operable to associate a taxonomy element with a location in the selected portion; a connection module operable to define a location link between the identified taxonomy element and the location in the selected portion; and, a storage module operable to store the taxonomy element and the location link in a repository.
US09811602B2
A computing system for facilitating screen readers of online electronic documents includes a processor running computer readable program code configured to generate a structured electronic document including markup language code and scripting language code whose execution is triggered by an occurrence of an event associated with execution of the markup language code. Memory stores a configuration file that maps of functions of a screen reader program to functions performed by the scripting language code when the scripting language code is executed in response to the occurrence of the event. The processor executes computer readable program code configured to incorporate the configuration file within structured electronic document. On a client system, a given function of the scripting language code executes in response to the occurrence of the event, and, in response to the execution of the given function, the screen reader program performs each accessibility function mapped to the given function.
US09811597B2
Disclosed are methods, apparatus, systems, and computer-readable storage media for identifying topical influence in an online social network. In some implementations, an entity associated with a feed item is identified. A topic associated with the entity or with the feed item is also identified. The entity can be determined to be a topical influencer regarding the topic in the online social network based on one or more factors, such as a factor indicating dissemination of information associated with the identified topic to other entities. A display device can be configured to display information indicating the determination that the entity is a topical influencer of the identified topic.
US09811591B2
A system and method for generating search engine analytics data to be displayed on a display. A processor may send search queries to a first country search engine and to a second country search engine and receive first and second ranked result sets in response. The processor may generate search engine data for a domain based on the search queries, the first ranked result set, and the second ranked result set. The processor may further generate report data to be displayed on the display based on the search engine data. The report data may include data effective to display first analytics for the domain for the first country search engine and second analytics for the domain for the second country search engine. Analytics may represent trends of ranks over a time interval.
US09811588B1
Methods and apparatus for generating a causality matrix using vertex-centric processing framework to be used by a codebook correlation engine to determine a set of problems to explain active symptoms in a system. Methods and apparatus for calculating impacts of problems using vertex-centric processing framework.
US09811587B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for distributing content based on context are disclosed. In one aspect, a method includes identifying, in a single resource, multiple different content item slots that are available for presentation of multiple different content items. A determination is made that a first content item slot is located in a first portion of the single resource, and that a second content item slot is located in a second different portion of the resource. A first content item is selected for presentation in the first content item slot based on terms that correspond to a first topic of the first portion of the resource. A second content item is selected for presentation in the second content item slot based on terms that correspond to a second topic of the second portion of the resource.
US09811579B1
Described is technology to translate between tree-structured documents and electronic storage such as a relational data store. A document may be composed from the data store or decomposed to a data store using a document mapping command. The document mapping command includes follow commands that associate the columns in one table with columns in another table and resolve these associations during composition or decomposition. These follow commands allow for the retrieval of data from the data store and for inserting and/or modifying the data store by way of applying deltas to the data store.
US09811571B2
Data that includes a query of a temporal database is received from a remote application server. The query specifies at least one fact and a system time and an application time for the at least one fact. Thereafter, a bitemporal timeline index is accessed to identify data responsive to the query. The bitemporal timeline index includes a system time dimension and an application time dimension. Next, the identified data can be retrieved and provided to the remote application server. Related apparatus, systems, techniques and articles are also described.
US09811564B2
Provided is a technology that allows use of a trend rating acquired more objectively. A POI information providing device includes: a storage unit which stores POI data including a POI name; a posted data acquisition unit which acquires posted data through a network; a trend rating acquisition unit which obtains a matching degree between a word included in the posted data and the POI name for each piece of the posted data, and uses a predetermined calculation expression for the matching degree to calculate and acquire a trend rating indicating an attention degree of a POI; a trend rating identification unit which identifies, when a request for the trend rating is received from another device connected through the network, the trend rating corresponding to the request; and a transmission unit which transmits the trend rating identified by the trend rating identification unit to the another device.
US09811560B2
Techniques related to version control based on a dual-range validity model are disclosed. In an embodiment, an online analytical processing (OLAP) server stores a plurality of version records describing versions of a data item. A version record may describe any open transactions for a version of the data item. The version record may specify a commit timestamp for the data item at a database and a valid timestamp at least as great as the commit timestamp. The commit timestamp and the valid timestamp may specify a validity range. The version record may also specify an expiration timestamp, which along with the valid timestamp may specify an unresolved range. The OLAP server may also identify a valid version of the data item for a query timestamp that corresponds to a query for particular data in the data item and that falls within either the validity range or the unresolved range.
US09811552B1
Techniques, systems, and products for analyzing sparse indicators and generating communications based on bucketing of sparse indicators are disclosed.
US09811543B2
Systems and methods generating schemas that represent multiple data sources are provided herein. According to some embodiments, methods may include determining a schema for each of the multiple data sources via a computing device communicatively couplable with each of the multiple data sources, each of the multiple data sources including one or more data structures that define how data is stored in the data source, generating a negotiated schema by comparing the schemas of the multiple data sources to one another and interrelating data points of the multiple data sources based upon the schemas, interrelating the negotiated schema with the schema for each of the multiple data sources based upon the interrelation of the data points, and storing the negotiated schema in a storage media by way of the computing device.
US09811542B1
Methods, computer program products, computer systems, and the like, which provide for the performance of a targeted backup operation, are disclosed. Such a targeted backup operation is performed on a backup that comprises a plurality of data blocks. The data blocks, in turn, comprise an in-use data block and an unused data block. The targeted backup operation comprises performing a backup operation on the in-use data block.
US09811540B2
Systems and methods for recognizing a face are disclosed and includes receiving images of faces; generating feature vectors of the images; generating clusters of feature vectors each with a centroids or a cluster representative; for a query to search for a face, generating corresponding feature vectors for the face and comparing the feature vector with the centroids of all clusters; for clusters above a similarity threshold, comparing cluster members with the corresponding feature vector; and indicating as matching candidates for cluster members with similarity above a threshold.
US09811539B2
A computer-implemented method of organizes photographs for display on an on-line map by selecting from a plurality of photographs a candidate set of photographs based on scores of the photographs, determining clusters from the selected photographs for display on the on-line map.
US09811531B2
Techniques are disclosed for providing a file system interface for an object store intended to support simultaneous access to objects stored in the object store by multiple clients. In accordance with one method, an abstraction of a root directory to a hierarchical namespace for the object store is exposed to clients. The object store is backed by a plurality of physical storage devices housed in or directly attached to the plurality of host computers and internally tracks its stored objects using a flat namespace that maps unique identifiers to the stored objects. The creation of top-level objects appearing as subdirectories of the root directory is enabled, wherein each top-level object represents a separate abstraction of a storage device having a separate namespace that can be organized in accordance with any designated file system.
US09811530B1
Data from a group of distributed processes to a shared file is written using a parallel log-structured file system. A metadata server of a cluster file system is configured to communicate with a plurality of object storage servers of the cluster file system over a network. The metadata server further configured to implement a Parallel Log Structured File System (PLFS) library to coordinate storage on one or more of the plurality of object storage servers of a plurality of portions of a shared file generated by a plurality of applications executing on compute nodes of the cluster file system and to store metadata for the plurality of portions of the shared file. Concurrent writes to the shared file are decoupled by writing the plurality of portions of the shared file generated by each of the plurality of applications to independent write streams for each application. The metadata server communicates with a plurality of applications executing on the compute nodes over the network to process metadata requests from the applications.
US09811508B2
Method and device of presenting data stored at remote source are disclosed. The method includes: receiving first webpage data that is configured to be rendered as a first webpage, the first webpage, when rendered, provides one or more access links each directed to respective second webpage data that is stored at a respective remote source; from the first webpage data, recognizing respective reference data for each of the respective second webpage data; in accordance with the respective reference data, requesting the respective second webpage data from its respective remote source; receiving and storing at least one of the respective second webpage data before detecting the user's selection of the access link; and upon detecting the user's selection of the access link, rendering the stored at least one of the respective second webpage data as a second webpage.
US09811504B1
Methods, systems, and computer program products are hereby claimed for including and distinguishing independent variables that denote lifespan in multivariable binary regression analyses of mortality and survivorship. These methods, systems, and computer program products are demonstrated here by including and distinguishing lifespan in multivariable binary regression analyses of humans' and medflies' mortality and survivorship, revealing advantages for the description, specification, measurement, analysis, explanation, and prediction of mortality and survivorship.
US09811500B2
A writing application on a computing device can reference a tail pointer to write messages to message buffers that a peer-to-peer data link replicates in memory of another computing device. The message buffers are divided into at least two queue segments, where each segment has several buffers. Messages are read from the buffers by a reading application on one of the computing devices using an advancing head pointer by reading a message from a next message buffer when determining that the next message buffer has been newly written. The tail pointer is advanced from one message buffer to another within a same queue segment after writing messages. The tail pointer is advanced from a message buffer of a current queue segment to a message buffer of a next queue segment when determining that the head pointer does not indicate any of the buffers of the next queue segment.
US09811496B2
A method for detecting an interface connection between devices is disclosed, including setting a recommended working parameter of a first interface as a first working parameter; obtaining, by using an auto negotiation operation, a second working parameter of a second interface; determining whether the second working parameter is equal to the first working parameter, and if the second working parameter is not equal to the first working parameter, sending an alarm to indicate that a connection is unmatched; if the second working parameter is equal to the first working parameter, setting the recommended working parameter of the first interface as a third working parameter, sending, by using the auto negotiation operation, the third working parameter to the second interface, and receiving the third working parameter sent by a second device through the second interface, so that the first interface communicates with the second interface by using the third working parameter.
US09811487B2
Example embodiments may include a method for configuring an interface that includes determining information for a configuration of an interface of a first device including a plurality of SERDES slices having a plurality of connections to a second device over the interface; and configuring a back channel layer associated with the first device to form a back channel path to carry a message between a transmitter and a receiver of the first device based on the configuration of the plurality of connections to the second device. The transmitter can be in a first SERDES slice of the plurality of SERDES slices and the receiver is in a second SERDES slice of the plurality of SERDES slices.
US09811475B2
Methods and apparatus for a secure sleep state are disclosed. An example method includes, in response to an initiation of a sleep state of a computing platform, encrypting a memory of the computing platform; and decrypting the memory when resuming the computing platform from the sleep state, wherein placing the computing platform in the sleep state includes powering down a portion of the computing platform and preserving a state of the computing platform.
US09811472B2
Embodiments relate to managing memory page tables in a processing system. A request to access a desired block of memory is received. The request includes an effective address that includes an effective segment identifier (ESID) and a linear address, the linear address including a most significant portion and a byte index. An entry in a buffer that includes the ESID of the effective address is located. Based on the entry including a radix page table pointer (RPTP), performing: using the RPTP to locate a translation table of a hierarchy of translation tables, using the located translation table to translate the most significant portion of the linear address to obtain an address of a block of memory, and based on the obtained address, performing the requested access to the desired block of memory.
US09811469B2
Technologies are generally described for methods and systems effective to access data in a cache. In an example, a method to access data in a cache may include processing a first request for data at a first memory address related to first data in a memory. The method may further include retrieving the first data from the memory. The method may further include storing the first data in a first cache line in the cache. The method may further include processing a second request for data at a second memory address related to second data in the memory. The method may further include retrieving the second data from the memory. The method may further include selecting a second cache line in the cache to store the second data based on the storage of the first data. The method may further include storing the second data in the second cache line.
US09811467B2
A method and a system embodying the method for pre-fetching and processing work for processor cores in a network processor, comprising requesting pre-fetch work by a requestor; determining that the work may be pre-fetched for the requestor; searching for the work to pre-fetch; and pre-fetching the found work into one of one or more pre-fetch work-slots associated with the requestor is disclosed.
US09811466B2
In at least some embodiments, a processor core generates a store operation by executing a store instruction in an instruction sequence. The store operation is marked as a high priority store operation in response to detecting, in the instruction sequence, a barrier instruction that precedes the store instruction in program order and that includes a field set to indicate the store operation should be accorded high priority and is not so marked otherwise. The store operation is buffered in a store queue associated with a cache memory of the processor core. Handling of the store operation in the store queue is expedited in response to the store operation being marked as a high priority store operation and not expedited otherwise.
US09811463B2
An apparatus includes interface configured to receive input/output (I/O) traffic from a host computer via a dedicated I/O channel. The I/O traffic includes one or more I/O requests. The apparatus includes a network interface configured to receive network traffic from a second device via a network. The apparatus includes a cache memory configured to store data and a storage device configured to store second data. The apparatus further includes a processor coupled via a communication path to the storage device. The processor is configured to access the cache memory during processing of the I/O traffic or the network traffic. The processor is further configured to perform one or more access operations at the storage device based on the I/O traffic or the network traffic. The communication path is distinct from the I/O channel.
US09811461B1
In an embodiment of the invention, a method comprises: requesting an update or modification on a control data in at least one flash block in a storage memory; requesting a cache memory; replicating, from the storage memory to the cache memory, the control data to be updated or to be modified; moving a clean cache link list to a dirty cache link list so that the dirty cache link list is changed to reflect the update or modification on the control data; and moving the dirty cache link list to a for flush link list and writing an updated control data from the for flush link list to a free flash page in the storage memory.
US09811457B2
A method for managing flash memory is provided. The method includes determining at least one property of a data and determining to which type of a plurality of types of flash memory to write the data, based on the at least one property of the data. The plurality of types of flash memory includes at least two types of flash memory having differing numbers of bits per cell. The method includes writing the data to a flash memory of the determined type. A nonvolatile memory manager and a system are provided.
US09811455B2
A system is provided that includes a remote device and bus controller coupled to the remote device via a digital network bus. The remote device includes one or more data channels for respective one or more peripherals, and includes volatile channel-based memory for each data channel and non-volatile device-based memory for the remote device. The bus controller is and configured to send a command across the network bus to the remote device, and in response thereto, the remote device is configured to acquire data from a designated data channel or command the designated data channel to perform a conversion. The command is from a communication protocol with which the remote device is compatible, and includes a set of channel commands for accessing the channel-based memory, and a different, distinct set of device-memory commands for accessing the device-based memory. The channel commands and device-memory commands have different timing requirements.
US09811442B2
A method for adjusting a filtering mechanism within a trace logging system. The method may include receiving a plurality of messages from a software program, whereby each of the plurality of messages includes a message logging level. The method may also include storing the plurality of received messages in a buffer. The method may further include determining an error has occurred within the software program. The method may also include identifying each of the plurality of stored messages that aid in debugging the determined error. The method may further include updating an alert status configuration based on the message logging level associated with each of the plurality of identified messages.
US09811435B2
A virtual machine may allow execution of applications decoupled from physical hardware. The virtual machine may be executed by the physical hardware in a data center. A system can monitor and assess performance and reliability of the virtual machine based on device records of network components of the data center that are supporting operation of the virtual machine.
US09811426B2
Backup operations for data resources can be managed as follows. At least one data resource residing on at least one data storage device is identified. An information processing system automatically determines that the at least one data resource fails to be associated with a backup policy. In response to the at least one data resource failing to be associated with a backup policy, at least one backup policy is associated with the at least one data resource.
US09811424B2
A computer identifies a plurality of data retrieval requests that may be serviced using a plurality of unique data chunks. The computer services the data retrieval requests by utilizing at least one of the unique data chunks. At least one of the unique data chunks can be utilized for servicing two or more of the data retrieval requests. The computer determines a servicing sequence for the plurality of data retrieval requests such that the two or more of the data retrieval requests that can be serviced utilizing the at least one of the unique data chunks are serviced consecutively. The computer services the plurality of data retrieval requests according to the servicing sequence.
US09811417B2
According to one embodiment, a semiconductor memory device includes an encoder configured to generate an error correction code with respect to data, a processor configured to perform interleaving with respect to the data output from the encoder after the generation of the error correction code by the encoder, and a memory configured to store a process result from the processor.
US09811414B2
A method for managing data stored in a flash memory is provided, where the flash memory includes a plurality of blocks. The method includes: providing a program list, where the program list records information about programmed blocks of the plurality of blocks and sequence of write times of the programmed blocks; detecting quality of a first block of the plurality of blocks to generate a detecting result, where the first block is the programmed block that has an earliest write time; and determining whether to move contents of the first block to a blank block, and to delete the contents of the first block according to the detecting result.
US09811402B2
In one embodiment, a method includes extracting, by one or more processors, a class name from a uniform resource identifier (URI) of an application header of a standardized interface request that includes a command formatted in an application protocol. The application header includes meta-data that allows class declarations to function, at least in part, as a portion of interface description language. In another embodiment, a computer system for generating a RESTful interface includes a computer-readable memory and one or more processors in electrical communication with the memory. The one or more processors are configured to perform the method recited above. In yet another embodiment, a computer program product includes a computer-readable storage medium and program instructions stored on the computer-readable storage medium readable/executable by one or more processors to perform the method recited above.
US09811399B1
Filtering audible notifications to the user from a device based on an enhanced white list with a static white list set by the user and a temporary white list. The temporary white list includes expiring entries. The entries of the temporary white are based on keywords and context extracted from the applications and activities on the device that are associated with a dependency list between applications of the device and context. If a notification is present on the temporary white list or the static list, the notification from the application audibly sound to the user through the device.
US09811398B2
A system and method for providing delegated metric tools within a partially closed communication platform that includes receiving a tag identifier linked to at least a first identified platform interaction in the communication platform; associating the tag identifier with at least one logged event of an account associated with the first identified platform interaction; defining a tracking resource with at least one tag identifier; measuring platform interactions tracked by a tracking resource; and providing access to measured platform interactions through an application.
US09811394B1
The present disclosure relates to a technology for generating, executing, cloning, and managing application programming interface recipes. A software recipe comprises code including a trigger and one or more executable actions. The system implements a method for cloning software recipes by receiving a software recipe clone request from a user device and responsive to receiving the software clone request, computing requirements of the software recipe. The method involves retrieving input schema and output schema for the trigger and each of the one or more actions. The method involves saving a new instance of the software recipe with updated schema. The method further involves verifying whether the computed requirements are satisfied by the new instance of the software recipe.
US09811391B1
Embodiments in the disclosure are directed to the use of distributed computing to align reads against multiple portions of a reference dataset. Aligned portions of the reference dataset that correspond with an above-threshold alignment score can be assessed for the presence of sparse indicators that can be categorized and used to influence a determination of a state transition likelihood. Various tasks associated with the processing of reads (e.g., alignment, sparse indicator detection, and/or determination of a state transition likelihood) may be able to take advantage of parallel processing and can be distributed among the machines while considering the resource utilization of those machines. Different load-balancing mechanisms can be employed in order to achieve even resource utilization across the machines, and in some cases may involve assessing various processing characteristics that reflect a predicted resource expenditure and/or time profile for each task to be processed by a machine.
US09811389B2
A method and apparatus for assigning tasks to processor cores, based on usage history, to have tasks executed at the highest frequency with the lowest power consumption are described. In one embodiment, the apparatus comprises processor cores, an interconnect coupled to the processor cores, at least one memory module coupled to the interconnect, and a task assigning module to assign a first task, based the usage history, to one processor core for execution at maximum frequency with minimum power usage in comparison to other processor cores of the plurality, the usage history being based on monitored core temperature, frequency and power usage for a first set of tasks previously executed by the plurality of processor cores.
US09811387B2
For distributed processing using sampled clusters of location-based Internet of Things (IoT) devices, at a central device, a data source to be used for processing a workload is determined. A set is selected of devices operating within a threshold distance from the data source at a first time. A first subset including a first sample number of devices is selected from the set. A ratio is determined of a first amount of a computing resource needed to process the workload and a second amount of the computing resource available in the first subset to process the workload. From the set, to form a cluster, a second subset is selected of a size at least equal to a multiple of the ratio and the first sample number. Each device in the second subset satisfies a clustering condition. A lightweight application is configured at the first device to process the workload.
US09811385B2
An electronic device includes a processing component and a task manager. The processing component is configurable for one of a single-core processing mode and a multi-core processing mode. The task manager determines a number of tasks running on the electronic device. The processor is configured to switch between either the single-core processing mode or the multi-core processing mode as a function of the number of tasks.
US09811375B2
An enterprise management system is described for efficient operating system migration, preserving applications, data, and settings. A staging area, such as an empty folder, is created on a client device. A base layer for the new operating system and application layers for applications that will be installed on the computing device are downloaded to the staging area. After the base layer and application layers are downloaded, the layers are merged onto the computing device to instantly install the operating system and the applications. User settings, data, and other applications can be migrated to corresponding locations in the new operating system from the old operating system.
US09811374B1
A computing device may receive a data packet. The computing device may be operating a plurality of kernel-space software modules that are in a suspended state, and the computing device may also be operating a plurality of user-space software modules that are in the suspended state. It may be determined that the data packet is of a particular packet type. Data packets of the particular packet type may be consumed by any of a particular subset of the kernel-space software modules. While the user-space software modules remain in the suspended state, the computing device may further (i) transition at least some kernel-space software modules to a non-suspended state, (ii) consume, by a particular one of the non-suspended kernel-space software modules, the data packet, and (iii) transition the non-suspended kernel-space software modules to the suspended state.
US09811369B2
The present disclosure provides a physical computer virtualization method. The method includes receiving a virtualization instruction inputted by a user on a physical computer; restarting the physical computer; and loading the physical computer with a virtual machine management system mirror image file after restarting the physical computer to boot the physical computer into a virtual machine management system. The method also include obtaining physical disks of the physical computer; and creating a virtual machine through the virtual machine management system and using the physical disks of the physical computer.
US09811366B2
Techniques for dynamically using system (i.e., VM guest) memory as video memory for virtual graphics processing units (VGPUs) are provided. In one embodiment, a guest graphics driver running within a virtual machine (VM) of a host system can receive, from a guest application of the VM, a request to create a graphics resource. The guest graphics driver can then dynamically allocate, in response to the request, a memory object for the graphics resource in a guest memory space of the VM.
US09811363B1
Systems and methods are described for predictively managing calls to tasks on an on-demand code execution environment. Specifically, a task profile can be utilized to predict that a call to a first task will be followed by a call to a second task. Thereafter, a virtual machine can be loaded with executable code corresponding the second task, even before the call to the second task is received. If the call to the second task is received, the task can then be executed by utilizing the previously loaded executable code, thus increasing the speed at which the second task can be executed on the on-demand code execution environment.
US09811362B2
A system and method for tracing individual transactions on method call granularity is disclosed. The system uses instrumentation based transaction tracing mechanisms to enhance thread call stack sampling mechanisms by a) only sampling threads executing monitored transactions while execution is ongoing b) tagging sampled call stacks with a transaction identifier for correlation of sampled call stacks with instrumentation bases tracing data. The combination of instrumentation based tracing with thread call stack sampling reduces sampling generated overhead by only sampling relevant thread, and reduces instrumentation generated overhead because it allows reducing instrumentation.
US09811359B2
In various embodiments, a software load balancer is deployed to distribute incoming managed file traffic among multiple nodes running in a cluster. In one aspect, a separate instance of the software load balancer may be instantiated for each protocol that will be used (e.g., FTP, FTP-SSL & SSH-FTP). In one embodiment, the software load balancer includes a standalone java application that is configured to run outside the purview of an application server. In a further embodiment, the software load balancer is able to manage transfers to multiple nodes in (e.g., multiple managed file transfer servers) in a cluster. Therefore, in one embodiment, only one instance of the software load balance needs to be deployed.
US09811351B2
Rendering of a portal page that is displayable on a client system includes receiving a request for a portal page by a web portal engine, monitoring server-side aggregation and rendering performance by the web portal engine, and comparing a measured performance parameter value of the server-side aggregation and rendering against a pre-defined threshold value. The server-side aggregation and rendering is interrupted, based upon the comparison, once the threshold value is exceeded. Further, an intermediate result of the portal page is prepared based on the server-side aggregation and rendering for sending, such that a client-side processing completes the interrupted aggregation and rendering of the portal page.
US09811344B2
A microprocessor includes an indicator and a plurality of processing cores. Each of the plurality of processing cores is configured to generate a default core ID and to sample the indicator. When the indicator indicates a first predetermined value, the default core ID generated by a default one of the plurality of processing cores designates the default processing core to be a bootstrap processor. When the indicator indicates a second predetermined value distinct from the first predetermined value, the plurality of processing cores are configured to generate alternate core IDs that are different from the default core IDs. One of the alternate core IDs designates an alternate processing core, other than the default processing core, to be the bootstrap processor.
US09811342B2
A method for executing dual dispatch of blocks and half blocks. The method includes receiving an incoming instruction sequence using a global front end; grouping the instructions to form instruction blocks, wherein each of the instruction blocks comprise two half blocks; scheduling the instructions of the instruction block to execute in accordance with a scheduler; and performing a dual dispatch of the two half blocks for execution on an execution unit.
US09811340B2
A computer system, a processor in a computer and a computer-implemented method executable on a computer processor involve dividing a set of computer instructions arranged in a sequential program order into a plurality of instruction sequences. Instructions within each sequence are arranged according to the program order. An increment value is assigned to a preceding instruction in each sequence. The increment value is equal to a difference between a program order value of a subsequent instruction in the sequence and a program order value of the preceding instruction. The processor calculates the program order value of each subsequent instruction based on the program order value and the increment value of a corresponding preceding instruction in the same sequence.
US09811323B2
In one embodiment, a method includes: receiving an application that includes a rendering portion; receiving code implementing a plurality of functions used by the application; defining a plurality of subsets of the plurality of functions, each of the plurality of subsets including at least one of the plurality of functions; monitoring which ones of the plurality of subsets has one or more of the at least one functions included therein invoked during execution of a portion of the application that includes the rendering portion; generating information indicating which ones of the plurality of subsets had one or more of the at least one functions included therein invoked during the execution of the portion of the application; and generating a first set of one or more files that includes: (i) code implementing ones of the plurality of functions that are included in or more of the plurality of subsets that had one or more of the at least one functions included therein invoked during execution of the portion of the application.
US09811321B1
Systems and methods are described for utilizing script chunks in client-side browsing applications. A script chunking service divides scripts into smaller portions, and generates precompiled chunks of code that correspond to the portions. The service may then request compilation of only those portions of a script that do not have a corresponding precompiled chunk. Portions may be determined based on length, script keywords, or other criteria, and chunks may be identified by applying a hashing function to the portions. Scripts may be filtered to identify differing portions of source code that compile to functionally identical instructions, and the chunking service may use supplemental hashes, hashes of hashes, and complier state information to facilitate identification and compilation of precompiled chunks.
US09811317B2
Provided are a method of controlling a range of representable numbers includes receiving a floating point value represented by an exponent and a mantissa, each represented by a predetermined numbers of bits, determining a bit configuration of the exponent and the mantissa of the floating point value based on a value of a most significant bit of the exponent of the floating point value, and determining a constant required for calculation of the floating point value according to the determined bit configuration of the exponent, and an apparatus for providing such a method.
