US09821740B2

A bumper assembly includes a bumper beam, an inner extension, an outer extension, and a reinforcing element. The bumper beam extends longitudinally from a first end to a second end. The inner extension is welded to the first end of the bumper beam, and the outer extension is welded to the inner extension. The inner extension and the outer extension are elongated from the bumper beam and define an elongated cavity therebetween. The reinforcing element is fastened to the inner extension and disposed in and elongated along the cavity.
US09821737B2

A battery combiner may be used to electrically isolate first and second batteries during conditions in which a first battery required for a mechanical drive system may experience excessive power draw. The second battery may be used to provide a switched and/or continuous power source to a control system and/or other electrical devices for reliable operation, and the combiner may join the first and second batteries together such that both are electrically charged by a single alternator during conditions when it is safe.
US09821726B2

A steering wheel assembly includes a panel and a projector assembly. The panel is connected to a steering wheel body and has a first surface disposed opposite a second surface. The projector is connected to the steering wheel body and displays a virtual input device on at least one of the first surface and the second surface, while the steering wheel is in a non-rotational condition.
US09821721B2

A carrier system for a vehicle having a pair of vacuum devices shaped and sized to mate and secure to a recreational article. Each vacuum device includes a pad shaped and sized to detachably seat with a vehicle to form a vacuum cavity. The vacuum device includes a plunger attached to the pad and in fluid communication with the vacuum cavity, and an indicator positioned on the plunger to indicate the level of vacuum pressure within the vacuum cavity.
US09821717B1

A step assembly of a vehicle is provided herein. The step assembly includes a box step having a release button that luminesces in response to excitation light and continues to luminesce for a period of time after the excitation light cease to be provided. A drive mechanism is configured to move the step pad from a stowed position to a deployed position when the release button is pressed.
US09821715B2

A retractable catwalk and railing device facilitates movement of a catwalk and rail between a storage position to a use position. The device includes a first and second mounting brackets in a spaced horizontally aligned relationship on a vertical surface. A catwalk is pivotable between a stored position and a deployed position between the first and second mounting brackets. A lip extends upwardly from the first mounting bracket. A flange is movably coupled to the catwalk to abut the lip when the catwalk is in the stored position retaining the catwalk in the stored position. The flange is movable relative to the catwalk to disengage from the lip allowing the catwalk to be pivoted into the deployed position. A rail is pivotally coupled to the catwalk.
US09821710B1

A vehicle notification system is disclosed. The system comprises a light generating layer conforming to a surface of a decklid configured to enclose a storage compartment. The light generating layer comprises a plurality of LEDs in a semiconductor ink operable to emit a first emission. The system further comprises a controller configured to selectively activate the plurality of LEDs in response to a first signal from a decklid ajar indicator and a second signal from an emergency lighting module.
US09821705B2

A lighting device for an automotive vehicle comprising means for controlling the supply of power to a plurality of light sources, the plurality of sources being divided into at least two groups of sources. The device according to the invention is remarkable in that each of the light source groups fulfills a specific lighting function of the device and is distinguished by a requirement for electric current of a specific intensity. Additionally, the control means are capable of selectively supplying power to each of the light source groups exclusively of the other groups. A power supply method implementing the device according to the invention is also proposed.
US09821703B2

The present invention is directed to a steering apparatus for a vehicle having a including a light element providing indication and warning light signals to the user of the vehicle. The light element can be associated with a PCB mounted to the steering wheel grip for controlling the operation of the light element.
US09821702B2

A warning light for attachment to a vehicle comprising a thermally conductive longitudinally extending base, a plurality of light head mount assemblies, a plurality of LED warning light assemblies, and a plurality of electronic control circuits. Said base has a pair of generally parallel longitudinal edges and a pair of ribs projecting perpendicularly from said base. Said light head mount assemblies comprise a bracket and a light head retention shoe. Said bracket has a generally planar bracket first portion and a generally planar bracket second portion oriented perpendicular to said first portion. Said light head shoe has a sole configured to engage said bracket first portion, a rib engaging portion, and a brace extending angularly therebetween. Said LED assemblies are mounted on said bracket second portion. Said dome has a main body portion, sidewalls configured to engage said edges, and end walls.
US09821699B2

A lift deck assembly has a base frame mounted in the cargo box of a truck and a load supporting platform movable relative to the base frame by a linkage between a loading position substantially at ground level and a transport position above the cargo box in which the side edges of the platform are aligned with the sidewalls of the cargo box and the rear edge of the platform is aligned with the tailgate to provide the general appearance of a tonneau cover. The platform includes a main defining the side edges and an extendable portion that can be extended rearward from the main portion to assist in supporting a load thereon. The extendible portion can be retracted so that the rear edge thereof aligns with the rear edge of the main portion and the tailgate.
US09821698B2

A dump both for a working machine includes two main plates for creating a load receiving surface. The two main plates are joined to each other by a weld joint. The dump body includes a backing plate arranged on the two main plates at the inside of the dump body. The backing plate covers the weld joint and is joined to the two main plates by the weld joint.
US09821697B2

A vehicle includes a floor, a rear seat, and a front seat rotatable relative to the rear seat from a first position facing the rear seat to a second position facing away from the rear seat. An inflatable cushion is supported by the floor and is disposed between the front seat and the rear seat. A pressure control device is in communication with the inflatable cushion. The inflatable cushion may be used by an occupant of the vehicle as a footrest and/or a bed.
US09821696B1

A door assembly includes a door frame, which generally defines a door opening. An assist handle is movably attached to the door frame. The assist handle is movable between a retracted position, proximal to the door frame, and a deployed position, distal from the door frame.
US09821688B2

A vehicle seat assembly includes a fixed mounting plate and a support bar coupled with the mounting plate and slidable with respect thereto along an arcuate path. A cushion support is coupled with the support bar, and a drive mechanism is operably coupled with the cushion support to rotate the cushion support about a center of the arcuate path positioned opposite the rail by sliding of the support bar along the path.
US09821681B2

A vehicle system includes a base, a seat rotatably disposed on the base, a magnet generating a magnetic field, and a sensor. The sensor is programmed to measure an angular displacement of the seat relative to the base based at least in part on an orientation of the magnetic field generated by the magnet.
US09821680B2

A method and a system for adjusting a vehicle seat for a user of a vehicle, in particular for a motor vehicle, are proposed, wherein the vehicle seat is configured for electrical adjustment in accordance with at least one adjustment direction, wherein the vehicle seat and/or the vehicle have/has a control unit, wherein the control unit is assigned at least one antenna unit for wirelessly receiving information relating to the adjustment of the vehicle seat for the user, wherein the method for adjusting the vehicle seat comprises the following method steps: in a first method step, the vehicle seat is assigned a telecommunications appliance, in a second method step, information is input at the telecommunications appliance or information is stored in a memory device of the telecommunications appliance, in a third method step following the second method step, the information is wirelessly transmitted from the telecommunications appliance to the control unit of the vehicle seat or of the vehicle by means of radio transmission, in a fourth method step following the third method step, the vehicle seat is adjusted electrically.
US09821671B2

An electric vehicle charging system in described that includes an electrical energy source that includes a base with a plurality of electrical signal connectors to receive a first electrical signal, a second electrical signal and a ground signal, an adapter having a plurality of outlet connectors configured to electrically connect to at least some of the plurality of electrical signal connectors, wherein the adapter can be placed in a plurality of positions on the base to correctly orient the base to any of plurality of outlet connector orientations, and a locking ring adapted to engage the base to removable fix the adapter to the base in one of the four positions. The system can include a thermistor assembly to sense thermal energy in the source and if thermal energy exceeds a threshold to output a signal. The system can include a charging cord for an electric vehicle having a proper orientation when engaging the source, wherein the adapter is in a correct orientation with the base being in the proper orientation when connected to the socket-outlet.
US09821669B2

The electric vehicular connector includes: a connection terminal block including a primary power transmission terminal to be electrically connected to a first power terminal of a power converter; a plug including a secondary power transmission terminal to be electrically connected to a second power terminal of an inlet of an electric vehicle; a breaker which is connected between the primary power transmission terminal and the secondary power transmission terminal and has a closed state of electrically interconnecting the primary power transmission terminal and the secondary power transmission terminal and an open state of electrically separating the primary power transmission terminal and the secondary power transmission terminal from each other; and a breaker controller configured to set the connector-side breaker in the closed state during a normal state and to set the connector-side breaker in the open state during an abnormal state in which abnormality occurs in the electric vehicle.
US09821666B2

When the amount of charge of a temporary battery exceeds a predetermined amount of charge, a solar ECU31 constitutes a charge controller pumps up and boosts power stored in the battery collaborating with a solar charger of a power supply portion, and carries out pumping charge in a main electric storage. While the solar ECU31 carries out the pumping charge, the power supply portion solar charger supplies the generated power from an in-vehicle solar cell to solar ECU31 when the power generated by the in-vehicle solar cell is a predetermined power or less, and supplies the generated power from an in-vehicle solar cell to solar ECU31 and main battery when the power generated by the in-vehicle solar cell is larger than the predetermined power. Even where the pumping charge is being carried out, the power which the in-vehicle solar cell is continuously generating can be used without being discarded futilely.
US09821649B2

A gear shaft of an output gear in a speed reducer of an in-wheel motor driving device is supported at a first end thereof and a second end thereof with respect to a housing. The gear shaft of the output gear is formed with a spline hole. The spline hole provides a spline-connection with an output shaft of a wheel hub.
US09821641B2

A bodywork or chassis component for a vehicle includes a first sheet having a first connection flange and a second sheet having a second connection flange, the first and second sheets being joined in correspondence of the respective first and second connection flanges. The first connection flange is a flange folded back towards the first sheet so as to define a valley with the first sheet. The second connection flange is overlapped to said first connection flange for an overlap length and it is at least in part joined to said first connection flange by a welding at that joins a perimeter edge of the second connection flange to a side of the first connection flange external with respect to said valley. The first and second connection flanges are parallel to one another in correspondence of the overlap length. The invention further includes a method for manufacturing of the aforementioned component.
US09821640B2

A door structure includes (i) a door panel including a first wall provided with a hinge member, a second wall, and a first bent part provided between the first wall and the second wall, (ii) a first reinforcing plate including a first part joined to the first wall, a second part joined to the second wall, and a corner part provided between the first part and the second part, and (iii) a second reinforcing plate including a third part joined to the first part, a fourth part joined to the second part, and an intermediate part provided between the third part and the fourth part. The first reinforcing plate and the second reinforcing plate are configured such that a closed space is provided between the first reinforcing plate and the second reinforcing plate.
US09821627B2

An air conditioning system for conditioning the air of a passenger compartment of a motor vehicle comprises a housing with a first and a second flow conduit for conducting air and a coolant circuit with at least two heat exchangers, wherein a first heat exchanger is arranged in the first flow conduit and a second heat exchanger is arranged in the second flow conduit. The first heat exchanger can be operated independently of the operating mode as an evaporator and the second heat exchanger can be operated independently of the operating mode as a condenser. The housing comprises at least one air conduction device with which an air mass flow conditioned in the air conditioning system can be discharged into the environment. The coolant circuit is constructed with a heat exchanger which is arranged outside of the housing and can be operated as an evaporator or as a condenser.
US09821621B2

An adjustable length spring divider on a coil over shock absorber for a vehicle such as a car, truck or motorcycle. The effective length of the spring divider can be changed with the flip of a switch. The switch activates a piston on the spring divider alternating the piston between a collapse position and an extended position. When in the extended position, the spring divider is effectively longer therefore reducing the force and distance required to compress the springs to a point where the piston contacts the secondary stop on the shock body and reduces the number of springs being used by the shock absorber. The reduction in the number of active springs causes a switch from a lower, primary, spring rate to a higher, secondary, spring rate, where the spring rate can be defined as the amount of weight required to compress the shock absorber one inch.
US09821620B2

A method of operating a tilting running gear for a non-rail-borne vehicle having at least one actuator is disclosed. The method includes calculating an angle of tilt of the vehicle around an axis of rotation based on prevailing values of centrifugal acceleration and gravitational acceleration as the vehicle enters a curve. Based on a comparison between an actual lateral acceleration of the vehicle and a desired lateral acceleration of the vehicle, the vehicle is accelerated or decelerated to achieve the calculated angle of tilt. When the calculated angle of tilt has been achieved, the actuator is deactivated. The actuator provides acceleration of the vehicle and a braking device provides deceleration of the vehicle.
US09821615B2

A system is disclosed. The system includes a processing station for processing at least one of a tire and a wheel prior to joining the tire and the wheel for forming a tire-wheel assembly. The processing station includes one of a tire lubricating sub-station and a wheel lubricating sub-station. A lubrication conditioning system is fluidly-coupled to the processing station. The lubrication conditioning system includes: a lubricant reservoir, a lubricant temperature modifier arranged at least proximate to the lubricant reservoir, a lubricant temperature sensor arranged within a cavity formed by the lubricant reservoir and a controller communicatively-coupled to both of the lubricant temperature modifier and the lubricant temperature sensor.
US09821614B1

A tire pressure sensor mounting system for mounting a tire pressure sensor directly to a wheel rim. A mounting base is disposed on the wheel rim. A linear rim strap groove is disposed across a top surface of the mounting base. A plurality of side strap through-slots is transversely disposed through the side surfaces of the mounting base. A portion of a rim strap is disposed in the rim strap groove. A first locking mechanism tightly encloses the rim strap around the wheel rim to secure the mounting base on the wheel rim. A portion of a side strap is disposed through the side strap through-slot. A second locking mechanism locks the side strap around the tire pressure sensor to secure the tire pressure sensor on the mounting base.
US09821607B2

A pneumatic tire comprises a carcass layer, a belt layer disposed on an outer side of the carcass layer in a tire radial direction, and a tread rubber disposed on the outer side of the belt layer in the tire radial direction. The belt layer formed by laminating an angle belt having a belt angle≧45° and ≦70° in absolute values, a pair of cross belts, having belt angles of ≧10° and ≦45° in absolute values and having belt angles of mutually opposite signs, and a circumferential reinforcing layer having a belt angle within a range of ±5° with respect to a tire circumferential direction. A tread width TW and a total tire width SW such that 0.79≦TW/SW≦0.89. A width Ws of the circumferential reinforcing layer and a cross-sectional width Wca of the carcass layer such that 0.60≦Ws/Wca≦0.70.
US09821604B1

A quick-release connector includes an axle, a spring, a lever and a pin. The axle includes a slit in an end, an axial bore in communication with the slit, and a transverse channel in communication with the slit. The spring is inserted in the axial bore. The lever includes a slot with a longitudinal section and a transverse section. The pin is inserted in the transverse channel and the slot to pivotally connect the lever to the axle.
US09821598B2

Aspects of the present disclosure involve a wheel cover configured to streamline a wheel of a motor vehicle. In one implementation, the wheel cover includes a unit that mounts and dismounts to the hub of a wheel of a vehicle without brackets, bolts, and assembly kits. The wheel cover system may include a circular cover that covers the center of the wheel hub. An engaging structure may include one or more hooks opposed from each other with small access ports to facilitate mounting and dismounting of the wheel cover on the wheel hub. To cover the wheel hub, the wheel cover system is placed over the wheel hub and the four hooks are engaged to latch onto a back edge of the wheel hub. Through the simple activation of the hooks, the wheel cover system may be easily mounted and dismounted on the wheel hub.
US09821589B2

The present invention provides coating composition for forming a toner receptive coating on a substrate containing a polymer comprising: (a) a N-vinyl amide monomer, (b) a vinyl acetate monomer, (c) a substituted or unsubstituted monomer comprising a cyclic ether, and (d) a solvent. The coating compositions may further comprise a (e) non-reactive hydrophobic monomer. The invention also provides substrates coated with the toner receptive coatings.
US09821588B2

The present disclosure provides recording media and related methods. A recording media for printing can comprise a base paper and a backside extruded polyethylene layer on a side of the base paper. The backside extruded polyethylene layer can include a filler and an organic reagent admixed in the extruded polyethylene layer, wherein the filler and organic reagent are present in the backside extruded polyethylene layer in an amount of 20% by weight to 50% by weight based on the total weight of the backside extruded polyethylene layer.
US09821587B2

A thermal sensitive media for use with labeling or identification methods is disclosed. The thermal sensitive media comprises a media layer and a thermally sensitive record layer formed upon at least one surface of the media layer. The thermally sensitive record layer forms a visually discernable colored image in response to heat. However, the colored image is subject to degradation as a result of exposure to ultraviolet radiation within a known photodegradative wavelength range. An ultraviolet protective coating layer may then disposed over the thermally sensitive record layer. A lamination layer is positioned internal to the media layer and comprises a matrix of micro heating elements driven by radio frequency (RF) power. The matrix of micro heating elements are arranged in a pin array to energize the micro heating elements within the laminated media structure to create a simple numeric image.
US09821573B2

A thermal printing device with a thermal print head, a platen roller opposite the print head and a protective film that is movable in a closed loop, wherein the thermal print head is arranged inside the closed loop formed by the film, so as to protect the thermal paper from damage caused by mechanical scraping by the print head; a use of the printing device is also disclosed for dispensing a printed ticket in real time, the ticket being at least partly covered by an opaque patina that is removable by scraping after printing to enable what has been printed to be viewed.
US09821572B2

A printer according to an embodiment includes: a printer body including a supplying part that rotatably holds a roll-shaped sheet member; an opening and closing cover configured to open and close with respect to the printer body; a thermal head disposed on the printer body, the thermal head configured to print on the sheet member; a platen roller disposed on the opening and closing cover, the platen roller positioned at a location opposite to the thermal head and feeding the sheet member in a closed configuration; and a platen roller holding mechanism configured to attachably and detachably secure the platen roller to the opening and closing cover. The platen roller holding mechanism includes a label roll supporter that rotatably guides the roll-shaped sheet member in the supplying part. The label roll supporter includes a cross-sectional arc-shaped surface.
US09821570B2

A medium heating device includes a heater that heats a medium, and a medium support member that supports a target heating portion, which is a portion that is heated by the heater in the medium, in which the medium support member has a first component portion that is formed so that a space is provided between the medium and the first component portion when the medium is supported, and a second component portion that is in contact with the medium when the medium is supported.
US09821568B2

A nonaqueous inkjet printing method that can provide prints with both high printing density and good gradation is provided. The nonaqueous inkjet printing method comprises printing an image by an inkjet recording system using a first nonaqueous ink comprising at least a coloring pigment, a water-soluble resin having an amino group, and a nonaqueous solvent, and then printing an image so as to overlap with the preceding image by an inkjet recording system using a second nonaqueous ink, wherein the second nonaqueous ink comprises at least a coloring pigment, inorganic particles, and a nonaqueous solvent, and the content of the coloring pigment in the second nonaqueous ink is lower than the content of the coloring pigment in the first nonaqueous ink. The first nonaqueous ink is preferably printed at a higher resolution of printing than the second nonaqueous ink.
US09821566B2

In accordance with an embodiment, an ink supply device comprises an ink storage section, a float and a floating position detection device. The ink storage section is connected with an inkjet head, and stores ink to be supplied to the inkjet head. The float is arranged in the ink storage section in a floatable manner in response to a height of a liquid surface of the ink. The floating position detection device comprises a detection target arranged on the float, and a target detection section which is arranged in the ink storage section and detects that the detection target approaches. The target detection section is arranged on a wall substantially orthogonal to an axial direction of a rotating shaft of the ink storage section. An inkjet recording device of the embodiment comprises an inkjet head configured to jet ink to an image receiving medium, and the ink supply device.
US09821563B2

There is provided a liquid consuming apparatus including: a tank having a liquid storing chamber, an erected wall through which the liquid inside the liquid storage chamber is visible from outside of the tank, and an inlet which is formed to penetrate through the erected wall and via which the liquid is poured into the liquid storage chamber; a liquid consuming section which consumes the liquid stored in the liquid storing chamber; and a cover. A transmitting section and a checking section are formed in an upper surface, of the cover, under a condition that the cover is in the exposure position, the transmitting section configured to transmit information optically to a user of the liquid consuming apparatus and the checking section configured to prevent the liquid moving on a particular surface of the cover from arriving at the transmitting section.
US09821560B2

Provided is an ink supply set configured to detach from a liquid supply apparatus and includes an ink containing portion, an ink guiding unit including an engaging portion, a flow path unit that guides the ink in the ink containing portion to the ink guiding portion, a circuit board, and a substrate installation portion that is independent from the ink guiding unit. The liquid supply apparatus includes a liquid introduction portion and a movable support portion. In a state in which the engaging portion and the substrate installation portion are respectively engaged with a first engaged portion and a second engaged portion formed in the movable support portion, the circuit board comes into contact with an electrical connection portion provided in the liquid supply apparatus, and in the removed position, the circuit board is separated from the electrical connection portion.
US09821549B2

A flow path member includes a first flow path-forming member made of a material capable of absorbing a laser light and a second flow path-forming member made of a material that has a lower absorbance with respect to the laser light than the first flow path-forming member and having in a portion of an inner surface that at least partially forms a flow path at least one welded portion that is welded to the first flow path-forming member. An outer surface side of the second flow path-forming member that is an opposite side to the inner surface is provided with at least one light blocking portion capable of blocking the laser light and at least one transmitting portion that is capable of transmitting the laser light and that is positioned on an opposite side to the at least one welded portion and the at least one light blocking portion and the at least one transmitting portion are in contact on at least one boundary with each other. At least one external edge of the at least one welded portion is at a position that is shifted by a shift from the at least one boundary to a side toward which the laser light incident on the at least one boundary at an incident angle less than 90 degrees travels.
US09821540B2

A break seal is provided which comprises a foam sheet and a film layer. The foam sheet comprises a center hole. The film layer is partially scored through the thickness.
US09821536B2

This invention relates to a process for the preparation of an antiballistic article, the method comprising: a) Providing a transparent uniaxially stretched polymeric film with at least one layer I comprising a semi-crystalline thermoplastic polymer A and at least one layer II comprising an amorphous or semi-crystalline thermoplastic polymer B, of which polymer B has a glass transition temperature less than the melting temperature of polymer A if polymer B is amorphous or of which polymer B has a melting temperature less than the melting temperature of polymer A if polymer B is semi-crystalline; b) Stacking at least two of the uniaxially stretched polymeric films of a) at an angle a of between 45° and 135°, such that the films are in contact with each subsequent film through at least one layer II, to form an assembly; c) Compressing the thus formed assembly at a temperature above the glass transition temperature of polymer B if polymer B is amorphous, or above the melting temperature of polymer B if polymer B is semi-crystalline, and below the melting temperature of polymer A, to obtain an haze of at most 50% and having an energy absorption for 17 grain FSP according to the STANAG 2920 standard of at least 12 J/(kg/m2). The invention also relates to antiballistic articles.
US09821534B2

A galvannealed steel sheet includes a zinc coating layer containing 7 to 15% Fe on the surface of steel sheet including, C: 0.02% to 0.30%, Si: 0.01% to 2.5%, Mn: 0.1% to 3.0%, P: 0.003% to 0.08%, S: not more than 0.01%, Al: 0.001% to 0.20%, one or more selected from Ti: 0.03% to 0.40%, Nb: 0.001% to 0.2%, V: 0.001% to 0.2%, Mo: 0.01% to 0.5% and W: 0.001% to 0.2%. In the zinc coating layer, carbides with average particle size of 1 nm to 20 nm including one or more selected from titanium, niobium, vanadium, molybdenum and tungsten are present with a density of five or more particles per segment that is defined by the thickness of the coating layer and also by dividing a cross section of the coating layer at intervals of 1 μm in a direction perpendicular to the thickness of the coating layer.
US09821527B2

The invention concerns an apparatus for manufacturing of containers from blanks of a cardboard based material, said apparatus comprising: a container body forming unit configured to form a cylindrical container body from a substantially plane blank of a multilayer material comprising at least a supporting cardboard layer and a weldable layer; a welding unit configured to fasten an end closure to the container body, said welding unit comprising an inductive welding energy generator for melting of the weldable layer; and transporting means configured to transport a flow of body blanks to the container body forming unit, to transport a flow of container bodies from the container body forming unit to the welding unit, and to transport a flow of container bodies provided with end closures from the welding unit. The invention is characterized in that the transporting means comprises: a first movable gripping arrangement configured to grip at least two container bodies and move these container bodies simultaneously to the welding unit; and a transferring and positioning arrangement configured to transfer container bodies from the container body forming unit to the first movable gripping arrangement and to position the container bodies in a controlled manner to ensure that the first movable gripping arrangement can grip the at least two container bodies properly, wherein the welding unit is configured to simultaneously fasten an end closure to each of the at least two container bodies. The invention also concerns a method for operating an apparatus of the above type.
US09821522B2

A method of making an axicon includes providing a structure having an axicon-shape cavity, the cavity having a first end and a second end, the first end of the cavity having a cross sectional dimension that is smaller than the second end, placing a polymeric substance into the axicon-shape cavity, and forming an axicon using the polymeric substance.
US09821520B2

A method for making a composite-metal hybrid shaft for a rotorcraft includes providing a tubular metal member that has an internal surface defining a space therein, preparing a composite member using a curing tool, curing the composite member, creating a cured composite member, expanding the metal member with heat, placing the cured composite member into the space defined by the internal surface of the expanded metal member, and allowing the expanded metal member to cool.
US09821519B2

Methods and systems for weight-based identification of three dimensional (3D) printed parts. Various embodiments disclosed herein may permit reliable processing of 3D printed parts to effectively scale a 3D printing service to large volumes of orders for 3D printed parts.
US09821517B2

Embodiments relate to an operating system configured to enable arbitrary applications to output 3D models to be physically formed by arbitrary 3D manufacturing devices. The operating system manages the 3D manufacturing devices, including installation of related software, device drivers, device properties, and so forth. The operating system also provides a path through which the arbitrary applications pass arbitrary print jobs (or documents) of 3D models, in a standard format, to the 3D manufacturing devices. The operating system handles queuing and spooling on behalf of the applications and the 3D manufacturing devices. Drivers of the 3D manufacturing devices may translate the 3D models outputted by the applications (in the standard format) to instructions or device language content that is specific to the respective 3D manufacturing devices.
US09821509B2

A device and method for producing an interior covering part with a carrier component of a fiber molding material and a decorative film. The method may be carried out using the device and includes the steps of: in a first press tool with two tool halves, carrying out a first pressing together and forming of a semi-finished product provided for forming the substrate and of a semi-finished product provided for forming the decorative layer subject to forming a texture of a first surface of the decorative layer and because of this forming an intermediate product with a first forming state; cooling down a decorative layer portion of the intermediate product; and in a second press tool, forming a method end product with a second forming state.
US09821506B2

A transforming device for transforming plastic preforms into plastic containers, comprising a blow-molding device which forms a cavity inside which the plastic preforms can be transformed into the plastic containers through the application of a flowable medium, wherein the blow-molding device has at least two side parts which are arranged at least indirectly on blow-mold carriers, wherein the side parts are arranged on the blow-mold carriers by an attachment device is provided. The attachment device also has a return which, at least temporarily during a working mode, pushes at least one side part towards the blow-mold carrier on which the side part is arranged.
US09821502B2

An additive manufacturing extrusion head includes a nozzle for accepting and depositing a heated material onto a work surface and/or part. The nozzle includes a valve body and an internal poppet body moveable between positions to permit deposition of at least two bead sizes of heated material onto a work surface and/or part.
US09821496B2

A method of and apparatus for forming one or more flanges or formations, which may conveniently be inwardly facing, on or in a hollow continuously wound structural member, such as a hollow pole, the method including the steps of providing a tapered mandrel on which to continuously wind a loop of filament or filaments to form a hollow structural member, providing an end-forming plate at at least one end of the mandrel, placing one or more formers on the outside of the mandrel adjacent to and spaced from the or each end plate by a required amount to form one or more flanges when the member has been fully wound and set within a resin, and subsequently removing the continuously wound structural member from the mandrel.
US09821488B2

A separating device for separating a continuous single piece of material into individual work pieces includes an supporting block, a moving assembly, a separating assembly and an controller. The supporting block defines a feeding portion for the single material to pass through. The moving assembly is connected to the feeding portion and blows into the feeding portion to push individual work pieces to move along the feeding portion. The separating assembly is positioned on the supporting block. The controller is positioned on either side of the supporting block for recording and signaling the creation of an individual work piece. When the controller signals another work piece, the first separating element presses a following work piece.
US09821487B1

A double duty hole punch that punches holes in paper and supports a hand-held electronic device thereon. The double duty hole punch includes a base, a handle, a pair of punch dies, and a supporting apparatus. The base rests on a horizontal surface. The handle is pivotally attached to the base. The pair of punch dies are operatively connected to the handle, and punch the holes in the paper. The supporting apparatus supports the hand-held electronic device thereon.
US09821479B2

A shaver comprises a skin engaging portion and a cutting element, wherein the skin engaging portion comprises a force-generating member that can be selectively activated during use to increase or decrease a force of attraction to the skin of a user. The force-generating members may be electro-adhesive elements. A controller may be provided to selectively activate these elements.
US09821470B2

Computerized appliances may be operated by users remotely. In one exemplary implementation, a learning controller apparatus may be operated to determine association between a user indication and an action by the appliance. The user indications, e.g., gestures, posture changes, audio signals may trigger an event associated with the controller. The event may be linked to a plurality of instructions configured to communicate a command to the appliance. The learning apparatus may receive sensory input conveying information about robot's state and environment (context). The sensory input may be used to determine the user indications. During operation, upon determine the indication using sensory input, the controller may cause execution of the respective instructions in order to trigger action by the appliance. Device animation methodology may enable users to operate computerized appliances using gestures, voice commands, posture changes, and/or other customized control elements.
US09821468B2

A system, method, and device may include software and hardware which simplify and quicken configuration of the system for testing a device, enhance testing procedures which may be performed, and provide data via which to easily discern a cause and nature of an error which may result during testing. A camera may capture still images of a display screen of a tested device and another camera may capture video images of the tested device and a partner device. A wizard may be used to generate a configuration file based on one previously generated for a similar device. A mount for a tested device may be structured so that: it is suitable for mounting thereon a plurality of differently structured devices; and adjustments in a vertical direction and a horizontal direction in a plane and adjustments of an angle of the device relative to the plane may be easily made.
US09821457B1

Apparatus and methods for training of robotic devices. A robot may be trained by a user guiding the robot along target trajectory using a control signal. A robot may comprise an adaptive controller. The controller may be configured to generate control commands based on the user guidance, sensory input and a performance measure. A user may interface to the robot via an adaptively configured remote controller. The remote controller may comprise a mobile device, configured by the user in accordance with phenotype and/or operational configuration of the robot. The remote controller may detect changes in the robot phenotype and/or operational configuration. User interface of the remote controller may be reconfigured based on the detected phenotype and/or operational changes.
US09821456B2

An industrial robot and method for manipulating objects using at least two industrial robots. Each robot includes a manipulator arm having multiple links arranged one after another in series and connected by adjustable joints that are adjustable under the control of at least one control device. A first manipulator arm has a first end link, and at least one second manipulator arm has a second end link. The method includes gripping the object using the first manipulator arm such that the object is connected to the first end link, and coupling a link of the at least one second manipulator arm to a link of the first manipulator arm.
US09821453B2

A line scribing method of a line scriber includes the steps of providing an electronic map; planning a line scribing path on the electronic map; converting the planned line scribing path into a plurality of planned geographical coordinates; transmitting the planned geographical coordinates to a line scriber; positioning a location to be scribed by the line scriber via a satellite connection to generate a positioning coordinate; comparing the positioning coordinate with an starting geographical coordinate of the planned geographical coordinates, and correcting the planned geographical coordinates according to the difference between the positioning coordinate and the starting geographical coordinate if the positioning coordinate is unequal to the starting coordinate, or moving the line scriber according to the planned geographical coordinates sequentially to perform a line scribing operation if the positioning coordinate is equal to the starting coordinate, so that the line scriber can perform a line scribing operation accurately.
US09821449B2

A file handle has a body, a ferrule, a clamping assembly, and a cap. The body has a first end and a second end opposite to the first end. The ferrule is assembled at the first assembling end of the body. The clamping assembly is movably mounted in the body and has two clamping portions and a threaded hole. The two clamping portions extend through the ferrule. The two clamping portions are subjected to an elastic force and oppositely separated from each other. The threaded hole is adjacent to the second assembling end of the body. The cap is rotatably assembled at the second assembling end of the body and has a screwing stick screwed in the threaded hole. Because the space between the two clamping portions can be adjusted by turning the cap, a user can clamp a tang of a file blade by the file handle.
US09821442B2

Methods and apparatus for an enhanced driving bit according to various aspects of the present technology include a bit comprising a plurality of driving surfaces having a limited length and a shoulder portion positioned between the driving surfaces and a mid-body portion of the bit. The length of the driving surfaces is selected to allow complete insertion into a recessed socket area of a fastener such that the entire driving surface is positioned within the recessed socket area. The shoulder surface is configured to distribute localized stresses away from the driving surfaces to the mid-body portion more efficiently to reduce a potential for breakage of the driving surfaces during use.
US09821441B2

A ratchet wrench includes a wrench body, a ratchet gear, a pawl and a switch assembly. The pawl has a central tooth, multiple first sub teeth and multiple second sub teeth in a concave surface thereof. Each of the first sub teeth and the second sub teeth has an inner side face abutting against opposing tooth face of the ratchet gear and an outer side face spaced apart from opposing tooth face of the ratchet gear. The first sub teeth and the second sub teeth are located symmetrical relative to the central tooth. The center of the concave surface of the pawl and the center of the ratchet gear are located on a common line that passes through the center of the central tooth of the pawl. The switch assembly is movably disposed in the head of the ratchet wrench for driving the pawl to engage with the ratchet gear.
US09821440B1

A automatic truss jig setting system is disclosed that includes a table including a plurality of segments with a side edge of adjacent segments defining a slot. At least one pin assembly, and optionally a pair of pin assemblies, is movable independently of each other along the slot. Movement apparatus is provided for independently moving the pin assemblies along the slot. Each of the side edges of the segments associated with the slot defines a substantially vertical plane with a zone being defined between the substantially vertical planes of the side edges, and the movement apparatus is located substantially outside of the zone of the slot. The invention may optionally include a system for handling the obstruction of pin assembly movement, and a system for keeping track of the position of the pin assembly when the pin assembly has encountered an obstruction.
US09821438B2

Self-adjusting pliers include a first body having a handle on one end and a jaw on another end and a second body having a handle on one end and a jaw on another end. A piston is pivotally attached at a first end to the first body and pivotally attached at a second end to the second body and compressible about an axis extending between the first end and the second end.
US09821430B2

The disclosure relates to a power tool with a quick-operated locking mechanism. The power tool comprises a housing, an output shaft configured to mount and drive a working head and provided with a carrier extending out of the housing, a fixer configured to fix the working head at the carrier of the output shaft, a locking mechanism configured to lock or release the fixer and a driving mechanism configured to move the locking mechanism between a locking position and a releasing position. While in the locking position, the fixer is clamped fixedly on the output shaft, and while in the releasing position, the fixer is released from the output shaft. The distance between the locking mechanism and the carrier of the output shaft keeps the fixer constant in the locking position to prevent slippage of the fixer and to ensure the working head is firmly fixed.
US09821427B2

A grinding method for grinding a plurality of platelike workpieces at a time is provided. The workpieces are attached to a support member and held on a chuck table. A grinding wheel is brought into contact with the workpieces to grind the workpieces at a time. The grinding wheel includes a disk-shaped wheel base having a first surface, a plurality of first abrasive members arranged annularly on the first surface of the wheel base, and a plurality of second abrasive members arranged annularly on the first surface of the wheel base radially inside the first abrasive members in a concentric relationship with the first abrasive members. The radial spacing between the first abrasive members and the second abrasive members is set larger than the minimum spacing between any adjacent ones of the workpieces.
US09821423B2

A clamping unit, in particular for use in a machining center, or a turning or milling center, wherein the clamping unit comprises an external housing (12), preferably having a cylindrical basic design, an internal housing (15) accommodated in the external housing (12), and an internal cylinder (11) that is retained in the internal housing (15) such that it can be displaced in a vertical adjustment direction A when in the operating state, which is designed for transferring a pressure or tensile force for clamping purposes, wherein the internal housing (15) is supported in the external housing (12) by means of springs (13, 14), and is supported with respect to the external housing (12) such that it can be displaced in the adjustment direction A, and thus forms a spring force storage unit (21), and wherein an electric motor (16) is disposed inside the clamping unit, integrated therein, preferably encompassed by the external housing (12), furthermore, preferably accommodated inside the internal housing (15), in order to apply a force in the adjustment direction A to the internal cylinder (11) via drive means (17-20) disposed therein.
US09821422B2

A drill bit for a down-the-hole drill hammer is provided that includes a head and a shank extending from the head. The head includes a plurality of non-concentrically or spirally arranged cutting members about its working face. The non-concentric or spiral arrangement of the cutting members in the drill bit and their overlapping cutting paths during rotation of the drill bit reduces the presence of concentric grooves or valleys being cut into the earthen terrain impacted by the bit thereby resulting in more complete cutting coverage.
US09821420B2

A method of forming a refrigeration heat exchanger comprising a suction line and a capillary line includes juxtaposing at least a portion of the suction and capillary lines to form a juxtaposed portion, at least partially enveloping the juxtaposed portion with a metal material, and encapsulating the capillary line to the suction line along at least a portion of the juxtaposed portion.
US09821413B2

A multi-operational welding-type system including a user interface supported by a support structure and including a first user interface device moveable between a welding position, a gouging position, and an off position, and a second user interface device configured to alter operation parameters of the multi-operational welding-type system. A controller is supported by the support structure and monitors the position of the first user interface device and utilizes the operational parameters supplied via the second user interface device. The multi-operational welding-type system may perform only one of a gouging-type process and a welding-type process at a given time depending on the position of the first user interface device.
US09821412B2

A reverse-acting pressure relief device (10) is provided comprising buckling-control structures, namely pocket regions (20, 22) and belt regions (24) having differing material thicknesses. The pocket regions (20, 22) generally comprise areas of reduced material thicknesses and serve to weaken the structural integrity of the bulged section (12) of device (10) so that reversal can be initiated at lower pressures. Belt regions (24) generally comprise areas of enhanced mechanical properties that assist with reversal control and opening of bulged section (12) thereby ensuring complete opening of the device (10).
US09821411B2

The present disclosure provides three-dimensional (3D) objects, 3D printing processes, as well as methods, apparatuses and systems for the production of a 3D object. Methods, apparatuses and systems of the present disclosure may reduce or eliminate the need for auxiliary supports. The present disclosure provides three dimensional (3D) objects printed utilizing the printing processes, methods, apparatuses and systems described herein.
US09821404B2

In a resistance spot welding method, test welding and actual welding in which a current pattern is divided into two or more steps are performed. In the test welding, a constant current of a different value is passed in each step, and a time variation of an instantaneous amount of heat generated per unit volume and a cumulative amount of heat generated per unit volume are stored as a target value. In the subsequent actual welding, when a time variation amount of an instantaneous amount of heat generated per unit volume deviates during any step from the results of the test welding, a current passage amount is controlled to compensate for the difference during a remaining welding time in the step. In the test welding, 0.3×Ix≦Ia
US09821401B2

Weld metals and methods for welding ferritic steels are provided. The weld metals have high strength and high ductile tearing resistance and are suitable for use in strain based pipelines. The weld metal contains retained austenite and has a cellular microstructure with cell walls containing lath martensite and cell interiors containing degenerate upper bainite. The weld metals are comprised of between 0.02 and 0.12 wt % carbon, between 7.50 and 14.50 wt % nickel, not greater than about 1.00 wt % manganese, not greater than about 0.30 wt % silicon, not greater than about 150 ppm oxygen, not greater than about 100 ppm sulfur, not greater than about 75 ppm phosphorus, and the balance essentially iron. Other elements may be added to enhance the properties of the weld metal. The weld metals are applied using a power source with current waveform control which produces a smooth, controlled welding arc and weld pool in the absence of CO2 or oxygen in the shielding gas.
US09821398B2

A welding system includes an engine-driven welder generator that produces welding power. A welding torch receives the welding power and applies it to a stick electrode to initiate and maintain a welding arc. A parameter of the welding power, such as voltage, is monitored, such as to determine whether spikes occur during a short time after arc initiation. Based upon the monitored parameter, the engine speed is controlled. The engine speed may be increased or maintained at an elevated level if the monitored parameter indicates that particular types of electrode are being used, such as XX10 or cellulose electrodes.
US09821394B2

In wire-electrical discharge machine and a numerical control apparatus thereof and a numerical control apparatus for controlling a machine tool, optional minute blocks are automatically created in front of and behind a connecting point, i.e., a joint of a block to which an offset command is instructed, and an offset value is exchanged between the minute blocks so that a correct offset value is set in a desired block.
US09821387B2

Machine for cracking a connecting rod having a small end and a big end, into a rod part and a cap part, the machine including positioning elements for positioning the connecting rod in a position for cracking, and an expandable element arranged to be inserted into a bore in said big end of the connecting rod so as to allow for splitting of the connecting rod into a rod part and a cap part by expanding the expandable element, where the machine further includes an electro press with a servomotor for actuating the expandable element.
US09821379B2

A drill bit which is rotatable about a drilling axis is disclosed. The drill bit has a cutting section having one or more cutting segments and a first plug-connecting element and a drill shaft section having a second plug-connecting element. The first plug-connecting element and the second plug-connecting element form a plug connection and the first plug-connecting element and the second plug-connecting element are connectable by a pin connection.
US09821371B2

A refractory material contains: 40 mass % or more of MgO; 4 to 30 mass % of a free carbon component; and one or more of B2O3, P2O5, SiO2 and TiO2, in a total amount of 0.3 to 3 mass %, with the remainder being at least one other type of additional refractory component. A void layer exists in an interface between a carbon-containing matrix microstructure residing at least on opposite sides of a maximum-size one of a plurality of MgO-containing particles in the refractory material, and the maximum-size MgO-containing particle. A sum of respective thicknesses of the void layer at two positions on the opposite sides is 0.2 to 3.0% of a ratio with respect to particle size of the maximum-size MgO-containing particle. An inorganic compound of MgO and the one or more of B2O3, P2O5, SiO2 and TiO2 exists entirety or partially in a surface of each of the MgO-containing particles.
US09821367B2

The invention relates to a four-die press tool (1), comprising a lower die assembly (4) and an upper die assembly (6) displaceable relative thereto, comprising four rams (10, 11, 12, 13) spaced apart and supported on the lower die assembly (4) or the upper die assembly (6) and carrying forging dies (29), and a ring (20) on which are mounted the four rams (10, 11, 12, 13) concentrically around the central press axis (28) of the four-die press tool (1) in such a way that they can be displaced relative to the central press axis (28) whenever the upper die assembly (6) is moved relative to the lower die assembly (4), wherein protecting means (35) are mounted on the ring (20) to secure a workpiece in a centered position on a central predetermined position of the workpiece relative to the central press axis (28) independently of a workpiece manipulator.
US09821361B2

A die set for crimping operations includes first and second die members having raised areas including a plurality of knurls and character areas. The die set combining knurls and character areas on the operative areas of the die members allows a single die set to be used to condition a surface for crimping operations as well as crimping connectors and marking them with relevant indicia without having to change die sets.
US09821358B2

According to a method for forming an elliptical hollow cylinder, part of the elliptical hollow cylinder is formed into a circular hollow cylindrical shape by spinning. The forming method includes a first forming process for forming the part of the elliptical hollow cylinder into a circular hollow cylindrical shape by using an inside roller, and a second forming process for reducing a diameter of the part formed into the circular hollow cylindrical shape in the first forming process by using an outside roller. According to the forming method, it becomes possible to shorten time required for forming the part of the elliptical hollow cylinder into a circular hollow cylindrical shape by spinning.
US09821352B2

An engine wash system with a collector includes a collection pan with a base angled toward a centerline and first and second panels rotatably connecting to first and second sides of the collection pan; a plurality of wheels connecting to the base; a first support connecting on a lower end to the collection pan and extending vertically upward from the collection pan; a first funnel connecting to the first support; and a first hose connecting the first funnel to the collection pan.
US09821349B2

Wands are used as parts of cleaning systems to conduct cleaning agents into gas turbine engine cores. Wands according to the present disclosure include inlet assemblies adapted to connect to cleaning agents, dispensers adapted to discharge cleaners into gas turbine engines, and conduits that extend from the inlet assemblies to the dispensers.
US09821346B1

Embodiments of the present invention provide a camera cleaning apparatus. According to one embodiment, a first disc coupled to a first rod, a camera mounted to a portion of the first disc; a second disc coupled to a second rod, wherein a first portion of the first rod is situated inside the second rod and the first rod rotates independently of the second rod; a first and a second directional sensor operatively coupled to the first disc; a first motor mechanically connected to a first rod; a protective cover mounted between the first and the second disc; and a cleaning mechanism mechanically coupled to the second disc and an attachment point disposed on a portion of the protective cover is provided. Embodiments of the present invention can be utilized to clean a protective cover that encapsulates the camera without obscuring the camera's field of view.
US09821345B2

A sorting apparatus and method are for sorting objects based on the objects' rebound from a surface. An automatic sorting apparatus based on objects' rebound from a surface, comprising: a cylinder disposed on top of the apparatus to hold and drop an object vertically downside with a force of gravity; a rebound impact surface disposed vertically downside of the cylinder; a rebound height sorting sensor configured to measure an apex of the rebounded object; a light source; a projection screen; and a sorter configured to sort the object based on the apex of the rebounded object, wherein the light source projects the object on the projection screen, and the rebound height sorting sensor detects the apex of the rebounded object based on positions of a shadow of the object on the projection screen.
US09821344B2

The present invention is related to methods and systems for collected item information for stored items. In one embodiment, a networked food storage system comprises a first sensor configured to read information from item tags coupled to items, wherein the items are stored or intended to be stored in a storage unit. A data store is configured to store food preferences for at least a first user. Instructions, stored in computer readable memory, are configured to: cause a first user interface to be displayed to the first user via which the first user can request a meal suggestion; retrieve preference information for the first user from computer readable memory; retrieve information read from at least a first item tag; and provide a meal suggestion based at least in part on preference information for the first user and item tag information.
US09821340B2

In some examples, a transducer apparatus includes a spring structure that enables a large, reliable amount of displacement of a transducer plate. For instance, an individual cell of the transducer apparatus may include a substrate having a first electrode portion, with at least one spring anchor extending from a first side of the substrate. At least one spring member may be supported by the at least one anchor, and may be connected to a plate that includes a second electrode portion. Accordingly, the spring member may support the plate, at least in part, for enabling the plate to move in a resilient manner toward and away from the substrate. In some cases, the spring member may be a bar-shaped spring that is cantilevered to an anchor or supported by two or more anchors. Additionally, a cavity between the plate and the substrate may be sealed by a sealing material.
US09821335B2

In accordance with one aspect, a faucet-supplied irrigation system is provided having a container, coiled tubing in the container, a plurality of pop-up sprinklers in the container, and a plurality of connectors in the container for attachment to the tubing and sprinklers. The irrigation system includes an irrigation controller in the container and a pressure regulator in the container to regulate water pressure of the supply of water to the sprinklers from the faucet. The container is configured to maintain a plurality of the coiled tubing, pop-up sprinklers, connectors, controller and regulator in a predetermined arrangement within the container.
US09821331B2

An automatic control element has a sprinkler, a fluidic element connected to the sprinkler, and an outlet cover plate secured onto an outlet of the fluidic element. The fluid element further has a water inlet and a first air supply pore are symmetrically arranged on it. A second air supply pore is on the water inlet. A water distributor is formed on the sprinkler, a water tank is provided on the outer side of the sprinkler, and the water distributor is in communication with an inner cavity of the water tank. A signal nozzle is provided on the wall of the water tank, and the signal nozzle is connected to the water inlet via a conduit.
US09821326B2

A pulse shower device including a water dispersion plate and an impeller is provided. The water dispersion plate includes an inner surface and an outer surface, and a plurality of shower holes that are provided from the water surface to the outer surface. The impeller includes shower hole blocking portions that are formed over a predetermined circumferential length along the inner surface in a downstream portion of the inner surface of the water dispersion plate, and or the plurality of shower holes; shower hole opening portions that open toward the inner surface; a plurality of vanes; an inner peripheral portion; and an outer peripheral portion. The impeller is provided on an upstream portion of the inner surface of the water dispersion plate, and rotates around an axis due to a water stream hitting the vanes.
US09821325B2

An injector apparatus and methods for use, where the injector apparatus comprises: (a) hydraulic stage having first and second ends and including a housing defining a cavity, a primary plunger disposed in the cavity and a secondary plunger, (b) a pressurization system coupled to the hydraulic stage's first end, where the primary plunger is in fluid communication with the pressurization system and is in mechanical communication with the secondary plunger, (c) a reservoir bore defined in the hydraulic stage housing and configured to receive the primary plunger's second end, where the secondary plunger is disposed within the reservoir bore and (d) a nozzle assembly including a housing, a gas tube and a nozzle capillary, where the nozzle capillary is partially disposed in and is substantially coaxial with the gas tube, where the nozzle capillary's first end is in fluid communication with the reservoir bore's second end.
US09821321B2

Example apparatus, systems and methods to desalt a sample are disclosed. An example method includes introducing a sample into an apparatus, in which the apparatus includes a sensor coupled to a substrate and an electrode. The example method also includes applying, via the electrode, an electric potential to the sample to redistribute ions in the sample relative to the sensor.
US09821316B2

A recycling appliance is for processing non-organic recyclable materials and organic materials. The recycling appliance includes a non-organic processing assembly configured to receive, process and store the non-organic recyclable materials. An organic processing assembly is spaced apart from the non-organic processing assembly. The organic processing assembly is configured to receive, process and store the organic materials. A housing assembly is configured to house the non-organic processing assembly and the organic processing assembly.
US09821300B2

The invention relates to a process for producing a particulate, Si-bonded fluidized-bed catalyst having improved abrasion resistance, which comprises the steps I. provision of an aqueous suspension comprising zeolite particles, II. addition of a silicone resin mixture comprising one or more hydrolyzable silicone resin precondensates and mixing of the aqueous suspension and the silicone resin mixture, III. spray drying of the mixture obtained from step II, with the mixture being homogenized before spray drying, and IV. calcination of the spray-dried fluidized-bed catalyst obtained from step III, and an Si-bonded fluidized-bed catalyst which can be produced by this process and also its use for the nonoxidative dehydroaromatization of C1-C4-aliphatics.
US09821296B2

A photocatalytic composition is disclosed that includes a silver halide in combination with one or more rare earth elements. The composition may be used for the photocatalytic degradation of pollutants.
US09821291B2

Compositions that can be used to adsorb low concentration, of unwanted or target substances from a dynamic fluid stream or from an enclosed static vapor phase. Such adsorbency can be obtained with thermoplastic materials used in the form of bulk polymer or a film, fiber, web, woven fabric, non-woven fabric, sheet, packaging and other such structures including or surrounding the enclosed volume. The concentration should be reduced to non-offensive sensed limits or a limit that does not produce a biological response.
US09821284B2

A mixing assembly includes a bag of appropriate size, configuration, shape and material and a closable spout that may have extensions of various lengths, shapes and configurations to provide enhanced mixing of a component contained in the bag upon the addition of a second component. Once the closure of the spout is removed, the second component, typically a liquid such as water, milk, juice, chemical, oil substrate, or the like, can be added to the container for mixing. After the closure is refitted, the two components are mixed then consumed or dispensed, either by removing the closure or from a separate spout or nozzle fitted to the closure.
US09821273B2

The invention concerns a reverse osmosis system (1) with at least one membrane unit (2) comprising an inlet (3), a permeate outlet (4) and a concentrate outlet (5), a high-pressure pump (8) that is connected to the inlet (3), a pressure exchanger (11) comprising at least one high-pressure concentrate connection (HPC), and a booster pump. It is endeavored to achieve the lowest possible energy consumption. For this purpose, the booster pump is made as a displacement pump (16) that is arranged between the concentrate outlet (5) and the high-pressure concentrate connection (HPC) of the pressure exchanger (11).
US09821272B2

A device and a method for reducing carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides and soot particles present in the exhaust gases of diesel engines are provided. The device includes 1) a diesel oxidation catalyst for the oxidation of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and nitrogen monoxide; 2) a first unit by means of which ammonia and/or a compound that breaks down to form ammonia can be metered into the exhaust gas that is to be purified; 3) a catalytically activated particulate filter, containing a wall-flow filter substrate comprising a catalytically active material that promotes the selective catalytic reduction of nitrogen oxides to form nitrogen; 4) a second unit by means of which ammonia and/or a compound that breaks down to form ammonia can be metered into the exhaust gas that is to be purified; as well as 5) a catalyst for the selective catalytic reduction of nitrogen oxides to form nitrogen.
US09821267B2

Elemental sulfur carrying capacity of a hydrocarbonaceous solvent is improved by first loading the solvent with sulfur and subsequent hydrotreatment under conditions that convert at least some of the elemental sulfur in the sulfur loaded solvent to hydrogen sulfide while preserving at least 95% of the monoaromatic and polyaromatic components in the solvent.
US09821265B2

An air separation unit includes an air inlet with a reversible blower downstream therefrom and an adsorption bed filled with adsorption media downstream of the reversible blower. The adsorption bed contains an adsorption media which preferentially adsorbs nitrogen over oxygen. An oxygen and argon output is located downstream of the absorption bed. At least a portion of the mixed gas of oxygen and argon is routed to a modular argon separator which separates out at least a portion of the argon to provide high purity oxygen to a high purity oxygen outlet. The argon separator can be configured as a molecular sieve filter to separate the argon from the oxygen or the argon separator can be in the form of a gas cooler and condenser which condenses liquid oxygen for storage and discharge as substantially pure oxygen.
US09821259B2

An air cleaner is provided that may include a first air cleaning module having a first fan that generates air flow from a first suction inlet toward a first discharge outlet; a second air cleaning module having a second fan that generates air flow from a second suction inlet toward a second discharge outlet; a dividing plate provided between the first air cleaning module and the second air cleaning module; and a display provided at inside of the dividing plate and in which a light source is provided.
US09821257B2

A dynamic particle separator is described for cyclone separation of sand from a gas stream in connection with petroleum related production of oil and gas, where the separator comprises a housing (14) containing as cyclone tank (4) that is equipped with an upper inlet opening (1) for the gas stream and an upper and a lower outlet opening (2,12) for export of gas and particles, respectively, from the tank (4). The cyclone tank (4) is formed, at least in an internal area around the inlet opening (1), with an upper and downwardly directed conical shape (4a) that increases in diameter, and where the upper conical shape (4a) thereafter has a transition into an inverse, lower conical shape (4b) that converges towards the lower outlet opening (12).
US09821253B2

A fuel filter, including: a housing, an inlet port, and an outlet port. The housing includes: a first axially disposed side wall forming a radially outermost portion of a circumference for the housing; a second axially disposed side wall located radially inward of the first axially disposed wall; a first radially disposed end wall connected to a first axial edge of the first axially disposed wall; and a second radially disposed end wall connected to a first axial edge of the second axially disposed side wall. The outlet port extends from the second radially disposed end wall and is radially aligned with the second axially disposed side wall. The inlet port extends from the first radially disposed end wall.
US09821248B2

A method for obtaining a liquid from a porous solid phase is described. The method comprises forming a liquid seal at a first end of a porous solid phase to which a liquid is bound, wherein liquid of the liquid seal is immiscible with the liquid bound to the solid phase, and applying a pressure differential across the porous solid phase to cause the immiscible liquid to move through the porous solid phase towards a second end of the porous solid phase, thereby displacing the liquid bound to the porous solid phase towards the second end and releasing this liquid from the second end. Recovery of liquid from the solid phase using such methods is increased compared with corresponding methods in which no liquid seal is formed. In preferred embodiments, the liquid used to form the liquid seal is a mineral oil. The methods have particular application in nucleic acid extractions which utilize capture of nucleic acid to a solid phase. Kits and apparatus for performing the methods are also described.
US09821247B1

A book having a plurality of pages bound together to form the book. At least one page of a spread of the book has a flap movable with respect to the page. The flap has a flap recess. The page has a page recess. In a closed position, the flap is positioned within the page recess. A structural element, such as a pop-up element, is housed within the flap recess and/or the page recess. As the flap moves from the closed position to an open position, the structural element moves or raises above the page surface to move the structural element into an activated position. In the closed position, the structural element is hidden from view when looking at the page.
US09821246B2

A play center including a number of frames secured to each other to at least partially define substantially vertical walls of the outdoor play center, each frame having two or more openings, and a number of panels, each panel having a body thereof, the panels being receivable in selected ones of the openings. Each of the openings is partially defined by one or more elongate side walls of each frame. Each panel includes one or more flanges extending from the body over at least a receiving portion of the side wall. The play center also includes a number of fasteners for fastening the flanges to the receiving portions.
US09821239B2

A pitching arrangement for a model helicopter includes a securing base, a plurality of servers supported by the securing base, a main connecting shaft linked to the servers, a supporting ring, a control device operatively provided between the servers and axially mounted to the main connecting shaft, and a plurality of connecting rods connecting the servers and the control device through the main connecting shaft, wherein the supporting ring is mounted on the main connecting shaft, wherein the connecting rods are connected to the supporting ring of the main connecting shaft.
US09821233B2

A system and method are provided for updating game participants. In some embodiments, the participants receive game control information via a one-way broadcast. The method selects a set of sampling participants from the set of all participants of a game. In some embodiments, the selection occurs prior to the start of the game. The method of some embodiments establishes a two-way connection between a server and each of the sampling participants. For some embodiments, the two-way connection is realtime. The method continuously maintains the two-way connection throughout the game. During each discrete game period, the method receives from a sampling participant, data for the sampling participant's game period performance. Based on the received data, the method determines the performance for the game period and broadcasts this information to a non-sampling participant. A non-sampling participant is a participant who was not selected for the set of sampling participants. In some embodiments, the non-sampling participant determines a standing relative to the other participants in the game event. Some embodiments provide a method and system for detecting unusual performance in a game. The game has a participant. The method calculates for the participant an average performance level. Based on the average performance level, the method tracks for the participant a participant improvement factor and stores the participant improvement factor. The method compares the participant improvement factor to a threshold value.
US09821223B2

A system has a server coupled to a data repository and software executing from a non-transitory medium on the processor, the software providing a site serving games to players connected to the server, and providing discovering instances of interaction with the server by first-time players, serving links to a first percentage of the first-time players for games having known high retention value, defined as a characteristic that first-time players who play the game return to the site within a specified period of time, serving links to a remaining percentage of the first-time players for games having no well-developed retention value, marking selection by first-time players of games having no well-developed retention value, monitoring the site for return time of players having selected games having no well-developed retention value, providing a return time period, and using the return time period, assigning or amending a retention value for the game.
US09821220B2

Disclosed herein are sport and game simulation systems, and methods of use thereof. One exemplary method is performed at an electronic device and includes: identifying a current topography of a putting green and a current position of a first user's ball on the putting green. The method also includes: determining, based on the current topography, a best path from the current position of the first user's ball to a target on the putting green. The method additionally includes: sending, to a projecting device that is distinct from the electronic device, instructions to render a representation of the best path on the putting green. In some embodiments, the method further includes: determining a backswing distance and/or speed and a corresponding follow-through distance and/or speed that allows the first user to hit the ball along the best path and providing instructions to render the backswing and follow-through distances on the putting green.
US09821215B2

An undercarriage of a person powered wheeled vehicle and, more particularly, to a cantilevered spring for absorbing shock and vibration is disclosed.
US09821213B2

A race start assistance method for a boat participating in a regatta including a pre-race having a duration before the crossing of the start line, the method including a first step intended to permit the creation and storage of the start line in virtual form, and the determination of the instantaneous speed of the boat and its position with respect to the start line, in order to provide at least one indication on how to proceed in the pre-race.
US09821210B2

A portable electronic device is disclosed. The portable electronic device comprises memory for storing instructions that are executed by a processor to perform the operations of analyzing data with the portable electronic device related to the position and motion of a putter at least one of before, during and after at least one putting stroke performed with the putter. The portable electronic device analyzes the data by utilizing a plurality of sensors within the portable electronic device including accelerometers configured to measure accelerations and gyroscopes to identify an angle of the putter during the at least one putting stroke. The portable electronic device is attached to the putter. A putting stroke characteristic can be determined based on the data generated from the sensors of the portable electronic device.
US09821209B2

A golf swing analysis apparatus capable of estimating the strike point of the ball on the face in a simple manner when a golf club is swung is provided. The apparatus is provided with a derivation unit, a calculation unit, and an estimation unit to analyze a swing using a golf club having a grip, a shaft and a head. The derivation unit derives analytical data including at least one of time-series angular velocity data and time-series acceleration data in an analysis time interval near impact, from sensor data output from at least one of an angular velocity sensor and an acceleration sensor attached to at least one of the grip and the shaft. The calculation unit calculates a feature amount of a waveform of the analytical data. The estimation unit estimates an impact position of a ball on a face of the head, according to the feature amount.
US09821203B2

A golf club head has a main body and a front recess that includes a flange. A rear portion of the main body includes a perimeter-weighting element. A striking face insert is secured within the front recess. A face center is located on the front surface of the striking face insert. A rear cavity is at least partially delimited by the perimeter-weighting element and a rear surface of the striking face insert. A rear insert is secured to the rear surface of the striking face insert. In an imaginary horizontal plane passing through a portion of the rear insert, proximate a heel portion of the club head, a heelwardmost point of the rear insert is spaced further from a vertical center plane than a minimum distance between the flange and the center plane. The club head comprises an auxiliary recess that extends outward from the rear cavity.
US09821202B2

A wedge type golf club head is disclosed herein where the wedge type golf club head has enhanced performance characteristics such as improved backspin, ball speed, and launch angle. More specifically, the present invention relates to a wedge type golf club head having an adjustable center of gravity, where the center of gravity may be adjusted based on different backing profiles that comprises at least one hollow chamber. The wedge type golf club head disclosed above may also have a thickened topline, wherein the thickness of the topline progressively changes as a function of the loft angle of the wedge type golf club head.
US09821197B2

The present invention provides a game racquet including an integrated circuit capable of supporting a low-voltage energy current. An embodiment of the invention provides a game racquet including one or more enhancements attached or integrated on the racquet frame. These enhancements may include but are not limited to: one or more LEDs, a sound amplification device, and an electromagnetic vibration emitter. In a further embodiment, the game racquet responds electronically to ball impact on at least one of the strings, and subsequently performs and action or actions including but not limited to making a sound or sounds, triggering lights, triggering LEDs, triggering another type of automation on the racquet such as a vibration emitter within the handle. The game racquet frame comprising at least one string channel in the frame head, bridge, or other area, which houses an actuator responds mechanically to a string movement triggering electronic connection.
US09821188B2

A pulley system of an exercise device for suspended weight training includes a first block with a first pulley, a second pulley, and a first attachment point. A second block is removably coupled to a weight and includes a third pulley and a second attachment point. A grip is configured to be held by a user while exercising and has a third attachment point. A line having a first line end is fixedly coupled to the grip and a second line end fixedly is coupled to a connection element. The connection element is configured to be selectively coupled to each of the first attachment point, the second attachment point, and the third attachment point, permits a user to reduce an effective amount of the weight lifted by the user with movement of the grip to a pre-selected fraction of the weight.
US09821184B1

A low friction rehabilitation board having an integral band retaining feature is described. The rehabilitation board may have a coefficient of static friction of no more than about 0.5 and in some embodiments no more than about 0.06. The rehabilitation board has a plurality of band retaining feature configured along one or both ends and may be an integral band retaining features being formed in the board. Additionally, the rehabilitation may include one or more band retaining features on one or both sides of the board. The unique configuration of the band retaining features enables rehabilitation method heretofore not possible with a single board. Resistance bands may be retained in the band retaining features and coupled to a user's limb, such as a foot or ankle, to resist motion, such as sliding or extending the foot along the low friction surface of the rehabilitation board.
US09821172B2

A thermotherapy device for treatment of neonates has a bordered lying surface (5) for receiving a neonate, a vertical support column (8) arranged adjacent to the head end of the lying surface (5) and radiant heaters (3, 4), supported by the column, directed at the lying surface (5). A control unit controls the heating output of each of the radiant heaters (3, 4). At least one first radiant heater (4) is directed at a head end half of the lying surface (5). At least one second radiant heater (3) is directed at the other half of the lying surface. The control unit (9) adjusts the heating output of the first radiant heater and the second radiant heater in such that, with the lying surface (5) arranged horizontally, the heating output of the second radiant heater (3) is greater by a predefined factor than that of the first radiant heater (4).
US09821170B2

Configurations are described for utilizing light-activated proteins within cell membranes and subcellular regions to assist with medical treatment paradigms, such as hypertension treatment via anatomically specific and temporally precise modulation of renal plexus activity. The invention provides for proteins, nucleic acids, vectors and methods for genetically targeted expression of light-sensitive proteins to specific cells or defined cell populations. In particular the invention provides systems, devices, and methods for millisecond-timescale temporal control of certain cell activities using moderate light intensities, such as the generation or inhibition of electrical spikes in nerve cells and other excitable cells.
US09821163B2

Systems and methods are provided for treating a sexual disorder such as erectile dysfunction (ED) or female sexual arousal disorder (FSAD). An electrical stimulation system may include an implantable stimulation unit, an external patient controller, and an external physician controller. The implantable stimulation unit has an array of electrodes disposed on one or more flexible substrates configured to conform to a patient's anatomy at the pelvic plexus. Post-implantation, the physician controller may direct the stimulation unit to stimulate with select electrode(s) of the array to determine which electrode configuration provides optimal sexual arousal. The patient controller may be used to cause the stimulation unit to stimulate using the optimal electrode configuration at desired times.
US09821159B2

Described here are stimulation systems and methods for stimulating one or more anatomical targets in a patient for treatment conditions such as dry eye. The stimulation system may include a controller and a microstimulator. The components of the controller and microstimulator may be implemented in a single unit or in separate devices. When implemented separately, the controller and microstimulator may communicate wirelessly or via a wired connection. The microstimulator may generate pulses from a signal received from the controller and apply the signal via one or more electrodes to an anatomical target. In some variations, the microstimulator may include a passive generation circuit configured to generate a pulse based on a signal received from the controller.
US09821149B2

The present invention is directed to methods for reducing systemic absorption of therapeutic compounds or agents while enhancing efficiency of delivery and targeting of intranasal administration of such compounds or agents to the central nervous system. More specifically, use of ultrasound technology in conjunction with intranasal delivery of a therapeutic compound, or pharmaceutical composition, wherein the intranasal delivery is preferably to the upper one third of a patient's nasal cavity, thereby reducing therapeutic compound or agent absorption into the blood. At the same time, the present invention results in reducing the delivery of therapeutic compounds and/or agents to the peripheral tissues, increases therapeutic delivery of the compounds and/or agents to the central nervous system generally, and increases targeting of the therapeutics and/or agents to specific target regions within the central nervous system.
US09821146B2

A guidewire for backloading and inserting a percutaneous pump affixed to a cannula includes a proximal section made of a first material, with a first diameter, a rounded proximal end, and a distal end. The guidewire also includes a distal section made of a second material, with a second diameter which is greater than the first diameter, a distal end, and a proximal end abutting the distal end of the proximal section. The first material of the proximal section is selected to be softer than a material of the percutaneous pump to reduce damage to the pump during backloading. The distal section of the guidewire is configured to be stiffer than the proximal section to insert the percutaneous pump in a desired location without damaging the guidewire.
US09821133B2

A patient interface device includes a support structure, a pivot arm pivotably coupled to the support structure and structured to pivot about an axis, a patient coupling member, such as a mask or a forehead support, coupled to the pivot arm, and a cam wheel rotateably coupled to the support structure and engaging the pivot arm, wherein rotation of the cam wheel relative to the support structure and the pivot arm causes the pivot arm to pivot about the axis and the patient coupling member to move either forward or backward along a path of movement. Also, an alternative patient interface device includes a cam wheel rotatable about a cushion member that changes a position of a main body portion of the cushion member relative to a headgear frame member of the patient interface device.
US09821129B2

Ventilator management systems are provided. In one aspect, a ventilator management system includes a memory that includes an initial configuration profile configured to designate operating parameters for a ventilation device, and a processor. The processor is configured to receive ventilator data from the ventilation device, the ventilator data includes at least one of operating parameters of the ventilation device or physiological statistics of a patient associated with the ventilation device, and determine, based on the ventilator data, a modification to the initial configuration profile for the ventilation device. The processor is also configured to generate a modified configuration profile for the ventilation device based on the determined modification. Methods and machine-readable media are also provided.
US09821128B2

Nebulization of a medicament for delivery to a subject is monitored. In one embodiment, whether there is any medicament to be nebulized, a rate of nebulization, and/or other aspects of the nebulization of the medicament are monitored. Information related to the one or more monitored aspects of the nebulization may be provided to a subject. For example, by monitoring whether there is any medicament to be nebulized, whether the nebulization of the medicament is complete may be determined.
US09821124B2

A sharp extractor has a ram that is actuatable to move from a disengaged position to an engaged position to dislodge a sharp from a medical device, and then return back to the disengaged position. With the medical device secured in axial alignment with the ram, the actuator is actuated to move to its engaged position, whereupon the sharp is detached from the medical device. The dislodged sharp is channeled directly into a medical waste container. Upon removing the sharp from the medical device, the medical device can be treated as standard medical waste, thereby reducing the cost associated with disposal of the medical device. With the volume of the sharp being greatly reduced as a result of removal from the relatively bulky medical device, the frequency of having to dispose the sharps can be greatly reduced, thereby further reducing cost associated with the disposal of the sharps.
US09821119B2

The invention provides a syringe assembly comprising a syringe barrel having an inside surface defining a chamber, an open proximal end, and a distal end having an opening therethrough. An elongated plunger rod extends between a first end and a second end, with a cap or guard disposed on the first end of the plunger rod. A plunger head extends within the chamber of the syringe barrel, and is adapted for slidable movement within the syringe barrel between the proximal end and the distal end, with the second end of the plunger rod connected with the plunger head through a pivotable connection. The plunger rod is adapted to pivot with respect to the plunger head between a first position in which the guard is adjacent the distal end of the syringe barrel and a second position in which the plunger rod is in general axial alignment with the syringe barrel, and is further adapted for axial movement so as to cause sliding movement of the plunger head through the syringe barrel to expel contents thereof.
US09821114B2

Provided herein is a method of delivering nucleic acid molecules to a compartmentalized tissue or organ of a subject. Also provided herein are uses and processes for delivering a nucleic acid molecule to the parenchyma of a compartmentalized tissue or organ. The methods and uses can be used in the treatment of diseases and conditions and in industrial, agricultural and veterinary applications. Also provided herein are compositions containing an adenovirus or adeno-associated virus or other recombinant virus formulated for administration to the parenchyma of a tissue or organ.
US09821105B2

Dialysis is enhanced by using nanoclay sorbents to better absorb body wastes in a flow-through system. The nanoclay sorbents, using montmorillonite, bentonite, and other clays, absorb significantly more ammonium, phosphate, and creatinine, and the like, than conventional sorbents. The montmorillonite, the bentonite, and the other clays may be used in wearable systems, such as a wearable peritoneal dialysis system, in which a dialysis fluid is circulated through a filter with the nanoclay sorbents. Waste products are absorbed by the montmorillonite, the bentonite, and the other clays and the dialysis fluid is recycled to a patient's peritoneum. Using an ion-exchange capability of the montmorillonite, the bentonite, and the other clays, waste ions in the dialysis fluid are replaced with desirable ions, such as calcium, magnesium, and bicarbonate. The nanoclay sorbents are also useful for refreshing a dialysis fluid used in hemodialysis and thus reducing a quantity of the dialysis fluid needed for the hemodialysis.
US09821102B2

The present invention concerns a dialysis acid precursor composition for use during preparation of a dialysis acid concentrate solution and for mixing with water, a sodium containing concentrate, and a bicarbonate containing concentrate into a ready-for-use dialysis solution. Said dialysis acid precursor composition consists of powder components comprising glucose, at least one dry acid and at least one calcium salt, and optionally potassium salt, and magnesium salt. According to the invention said glucose and said at least one calcium salt, are present as anhydrous components in said dialysis acid precursor composition.
US09821097B2

A body cavity drainage device includes a drainage tube with a distal end configured for insertion into the body cavity of a patient, a fluid outlet at a proximal end of the drainage tube; and an activation apparatus coupled to the drainage tube between the proximal end of the drainage tube and the distal end of the drainage tube. The activation apparatus may be configured to alter a position of the distal end of the drainage tube in response to an input at a control device of the activation apparatus, and a first portion of the drainage tube extending from the activation apparatus toward the distal end may be at least substantially coaxial with a second portion of the drainage tube extending from the activation apparatus toward the proximal end. Methods relate to forming a body cavity drainage devices.
US09821093B2

A medical device for implantation into vessels or luminal structures within the body is provided, which stimulates positive blood vessel remodeling. The medical device, such as a stent and a synthetic graft, is coated with a pharmaceutical composition consisting of a controlled-release matrix and one or more pharmaceutical substances for direct delivery of drugs to surrounding tissues. The coating on the medical device further comprises a ligand such as a peptide, an antibody or a small molecule for capturing progenitor endothelial cells in the blood contacting surface of the device for restoring an endothelium at the site of injury. In particular, the drug-coated stents are for use, for example, in balloon angioplasty procedures for preventing or inhibiting restenosis.
US09821078B2

Provided is a polymeric micelle pharmaceutical preparation that can increase the ratio of contrast at tumor site to background contrast in a short period of time after administration of a lactosome and can suppress the ABC phenomenon so that the lactosome can be administered more than once within a short span. A branched-type amphiphilic block polymer comprising: a multi-branched hydrophilic block comprising sarcosine; and a hydrophobic block comprising polylactic acid. The branched-type amphiphilic block polymer, wherein the number of branches of the hydrophilic block is 3. A molecular assembly comprising the branched-type amphiphilic block polymer. The molecular assembly further comprising a linear type amphiphilic block polymer.
US09821066B2

An antiseptic solution including, a cationic antiseptic agent, a film forming polymer, an anionic tinting agent, and a solvent, wherein the cationic antiseptic agent, the film forming polymer and the anionic tinting agent each remain solubilized within the solution for greater than about 1 hour at 25° C. and 60% relative humidity. The antiseptic agent is preferably octenidine dihydrochloride or chlorhexadine gluconate. The film forming polymer is preferably an acrylate polymer. The solvent is preferably ethanol, isopropanol, and n-propanol. When a drape is adhered to a dried surgical film via the antiseptic solution, the force required to peel the drape from the surgical film is at least about 105 g/25 mm.
US09821056B2

The invention is directed to a method for the production of a pertussis vaccine and, in particular, a detoxified pertussis vaccine comprising detoxified pertussis toxin (PT), detoxified pertussis lipopolysaccharide (P-LPS), and detoxified pertussis adenylate cyclase toxin (P-ACT). The invention is also directed to the manufacture of a vaccine or the invention and methods for the administration of a detoxified vaccine to patients.
US09821055B2

The present invention provides a new adjuvant for administering vaccines.
US09821052B2

The invention provides various reverse genetics systems for producing segmented RNA viruses, wherein the systems do not require bacteria for propagation of all of their expression constructs.
US09821050B2

The present invention provides compositions and methods of use comprising a chimeric dengue virus E glycoprotein comprising a dengue virus E glycoprotein backbone, which comprises amino acid substitutions that introduce a dengue virus E glycoprotein domain I and domain II hinge region from a dengue virus serotype that is different from the dengue virus serotype of the dengue virus E glycoprotein backbone.
US09821041B2

Oxalate decarboxylase crystals, including stabilized crystals, such as cross-linked crystals of oxalate decarboxylase, are disclosed. Methods to treat a disorder associated with elevated oxalate concentration using oxalate decarboxylase crystals are also disclosed. Additionally disclosed are methods of producing protein crystals.
US09821029B2

Described herein are methods of reducing Salmonella in the intestines of poultry in need thereof by administering to a poultry bird an effective amount of an interleukin-10 peptide or an isolated antibody that specifically binds an interleukin-10 peptide. Administering may be performed within 1 to 4 weeks of harvest of the poultry in order to reduce Salmonella transmission to human consumers. Also included herein are finishing feeds that include an interleukin-10 peptide or an isolated antibody that specifically binds an interleukin-10 peptide.
US09821024B2

Immunomodulator formulations for use in the treatment of disease of the GI tract. The formulations comprise a hydroxylase inhibitor and/or an immunosuppressant. Exemplary formulations comprise hydralazine as a hydroxylase inhibitor and/or cyclosporin A as an immunosuppressant.
US09821022B2

Meshes for use to control the movement of bodily fluids, such as blood, are described herein. The mesh can be partially or completely biodegradable or non-biodegradable. In one embodiment, the mesh is formed from one or more self-assembling peptides. The peptides can be in the form of fibers, such as nanofibers. The peptides can be assembled prior to formation of the mesh or after the mesh has been formed but before it is applied. Alternatively, the mesh can be prepared from unassembled peptides, which assemble at the time of application. The peptides can assemble upon contact with bodily fluids (e.g., blood) or can be contacted with an ionic solution to initiate assembly.
US09821021B2

The present invention relates to a topical composition and method of use, specifically an oil-in-water emulsion, comprised of sweet almond oil, lavender oil, rose oil, cinnamon bark oil, and coriander seed oil in a physiologically acceptable topical carrier. The composition is applied to a circumcised human penis to enhance sensitivity, preferably twice daily for a time period of at least about two weeks. Thereafter a maintenance dose can be applied once a day to maintain a desired level of sensitivity.
US09821012B2

The present disclosure provides a heterodimeric, conditionally active chimeric antigen receptor (CAR), and a nucleic acid comprising a nucleotide sequence encoding the CAR. The present disclosure provides cells genetically modified to produce the CAR. A CAR of the present disclosure can be used in various methods, which are also provided.
US09821006B2

A composition and method of providing nitric oxide and nitrite therapy to patients whereby a therapeutic amount is bioavailable within approximately 30 minutes of administration. In embodiments of the invention, nitric oxide is produced in the oral cavity.
US09821005B2

The present invention relates to stable polymer matrix compositions comprising high concentrations (from about 1.5% w/w to about 3.5% w/w) sodium hyaluronate obtained from a Streptococcus zooepidemicus source and a non-ionic polymer. The polymer matrix composition further comprises polyethylene glycol and methylparaben, and utilizes ingredients that are of pharmaceutical or compendial grade. The polymer matrix compositions may optionally comprise an active ingredient. The present polymer matrix compositions may be used in the treatment of wounds, burns, certain dermatological conditions, vaginal dryness, and in topical, transdermal delivery and sustained release of active ingredients.
US09821004B2

This disclosure relates to the field of cancer, particularly the field of melanoma. It was found that a particular long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) is specifically up-regulated in melanoma (but not other tumor) cells as compared to melanocytes. Inhibition of this lncRNA in melanoma cells leads to induction of apoptosis and is a novel therapeutic strategy in the treatment of melanoma.
US09821002B2

Disclosed herein is a method for alleviating radiation injury, which includes administering to a subject in need thereof a composition containing isorhamnetin-3-O-β-D-glucoside.
US09820993B2

Described herein are compositions comprising a prostaglandin FP receptor agonist (PFPRA) compound and a fatty acid, e.g., oleic acid, that, when topically applied to the skin, locally delivers a therapeutically effective amount of the PFPRA compound or active metabolite thereof to subcutaneous fat under the skin. The therapeutic effect is, for example, reduction of the subcutaneous fat under the skin. Further provided are methods of reducing body fat in a subject comprising topically administering the composition to the subject. The present invention also provides kits comprising the composition and instructions for use.
US09820986B2

The invention include glycopeptides having a glycoside and a peptide covalently bound through an amide bond. The glycopeptides may also include a diagnostic or therapeutic agent bound to the glycopeptide. A metal, such as a radionuclide, may also be chelated to the glycopeptide. Specific embodiments of the invention relate to glycopeptides made of chitosan covalently bound to a poly(amino acid) such as poly(glutamic acid) or poly(aspartic acid). Diagnostic agents conjugated to the glycopeptide may facilitate imaging. Specific therapeutic agents that may be conjugated to the glycopeptide include anticancer drugs, rheumatoid arthritis drugs, anticoagulants, anti-angiogenesis drugs, apoptosis drugs, osteoporosis drugs, steroids, and anti-inflammatory drugs. Some agents, such as radionuclides, may have both diagnostic and therapeutic effects. The glycopeptides may be made by combining a glycoside and a peptide in the presence of a carbodiimide and an acid group activator to form an amide bond between the glycoside and the peptide.
US09820976B2

The present invention pertains generally to the field of therapeutic compounds, and more specifically to certain compounds of the following formula (for convenience, collectively referred to herein as “IP compounds”), which, inter alia, are useful in the treatment of cancer, e.g., cancer characterized by (e.g., driven by) mutant RAS (“mutant RAS cancer”). The present invention also pertains to pharmaceutical compositions comprising such compounds, and the use of such compounds and compositions in the treatment of cancer, e.g., mutant RAS cancer.
US09820973B2

The invention is a pharmaceutical tablet formulation comprising between about 12.5 mg and 100 mg losartan potassium, between about 6.25 mg and about 50 mg chlorthalidone, and sodium bicarbonate in an amount between about 1.0% and about 10.0% by weight.
US09820972B2

Provided are compounds antiviral compounds represented by formula Ia and Ib: that are highly potent as HCV NS5A inhibitors, where the structural variables are as defined herein. These compounds are useful in, for example, inhibiting Hepatitis C virus and treating Hepatitis C virus infections.
US09820954B2

The present invention is directed methods of lowering intraocular pressure in a patient suffering from elevated intraocular pressure or glaucoma and treating ocular disease by administering a drug to the periorbital skin of the patient.
US09820946B2

A pharmaceutical soft gelatin capsule dosage form that includes (a) a shell that includes gelatin; and (b) a fill that includes at least one active ingredient, one or more polyethylene glycol, and a modified guar gum. The pharmaceutical soft gelatin capsule dosage form maintains its shell integrity (hardness) and fill viscosity after storage.
US09820944B1

Methods of making and resultant acidulent/carbohydrate agglomerates. The acidulent may be citric acid having particle sizes ranging from about 1 micron to 20 microns agglomerated with a soluble carbohydrate co-agglomerate to formulate the various acidulent/carbohydrate agglomerates. In certain embodiments, the carbohydrate co-agglomerate may be maltodextrin to formulate citric acid/maltodextrin agglomerates. These citric acid/maltodextrin agglomerates are shelf stable when dry, have improved flowability, compressibility, mixability; dissolve easily and quickly in water; and provide an easy ready-to-use formulation that is suitable for use in compounding various food and pharmaceutical products.
US09820933B2

The present invention relates to a composition for stimulating hair growth or preventing hair loss, which contains a conditioned medium or extract of neural stem cells (NSCs) isolated from the ventricular zone of the human brain, and to a preparation method thereof. The conditioned medium or extract of neural stem cells according to the present invention contains various growth factors and cytokines, and thus has an excellent effect on the stimulation of hair growth. Thus, it is useful for hair growth stimulation and hair loss prevention.
US09820931B2

Provided are nail compositions comprising at least one photo-curable polymer dispersed in water (latex), at least one acrylic non-photo-curable polymer dispersed in water (latex), at least one photo-initiator, optionally at least one plasticizer, optionally a colorant, and water. Also provided are nail composition systems and kits comprising the nail compositions of the invention together with a base coat composition and/or a top coat composition.
US09820930B2

The invention describes aqueous, surfactant-containing and/or transparent cleansing preparations containing novel associative thickeners, the A-MA polymers. Solid particles, bubbles and/or droplets can be present as a stable suspension in the preparations.
US09820922B1

The present disclosure relates to methods for improving the quality and durability of color in artificially colored hair. The methods employ alkaline earth metal salts that act as a mordant (a fixing agent) with the dye and hydroxy-polycarboxylic acids, which act as chelators. The artificially colored hair is treated with a post-color treatment composition comprising one or more alkaline earth metal salts and one or more hydroxy-polycarboxylic acids. Also, the one or more alkaline earth metal salts may be incorporated into a coloring composition for coloring the hair (in-color treatment composition) and a subsequent post-color treatment composition comprising one or more hydroxy-polycarboxylic acids can be applied to the hair.
US09820914B2

There is disclosed a drinking receptacle comprising: a container for containing a fluid for drinking; and an outlet member having an outlet through which the fluid is delivered under a pressure supplied by a user of the receptacle and a collar portion that attaches to an opening of the container such that an undersurface of the collar portion abuts with an upper surface of the opening of the container to form a substantially sealed engagement between the outlet member and the container; wherein either the undersurface of the collar portion or the upper surface of the opening of the container has at least one vent formed therein, the at least one vent being configured such that when said pressure is applied to the outlet member the at least one vent member permits the controlled ingress of air into the container to facilitate flow of fluid from the outlet, and when said pressure is removed the at least one vent member substantially prevents the ingress of air into the container to facilitate a controlled vacuum pressure within the container.
US09820912B2

A blood bag system (10) includes a blood bag (14) to which centrifugal force is provided in a state where whole blood or a blood component is stored, and a first tube (22) that circulates a fluid centrifugally separated from the blood bag (14). The first tube (22) includes an extending portion (112) extending in an approximately perpendicular direction to a centrifugal direction into which the centrifugal force is applied. Further, a branch tube (114) that can store blood existing in the extending portion (112) is provided at a side of the centrifugal direction of the extending portion (112).
US09820911B2

A device (100) for the treatment of depression, anxiety and pain, the device comprising: a plurality of adjacent dots (11) or other shapes, each comprising means for providing a signal being sensible by a touch sense, the signal comprising mechanical signal and/or electrical signal and/or temperature signal and/or magnetic signal; and a controller (32) for executing each of the means independently, for providing pre-programmed shapes (30, 40, 40A, 40B, 42, 46, 48, 50, 52, 54) being sensible by the touch sense, thereby allowing treating the depression, anxiety and pain by generating to the brain, signals resembling the pre-programmed shapes (30, 40, 40A, 40B, 42, 46, 48, 50, 52, 54) through the signals being sensible by the touch sense.
US09820909B2

An apparatus, system and method are disclosed for manipulating a user's erogenous zone. The apparatus includes a chamber, a plurality of baffling elements, and a concentration member. The chamber has a first end opposing a second end. The first end of the chamber is communicable in water receiving communication with a water source. The plurality of baffling elements are positioned within the chamber and are configured to interrupt a flow of water received from the first end of the chamber. The concentration member defines a channel having a water receiving end and a water dispensing end. The channel has a converging cross-sectional area in a direction from the water receiving end to the water dispensing end with the water receiving end communicable in water receiving communication with water flowing past the baffling elements.
US09820901B2

A patient assistance and rehabilitation device or more specifically a patient mechanical lift device that can be utilized as patient walker, a seat, a seated transporter, a toilet, a table and a rehabilitation device. The patient assistance and rehabilitation device including a power band or tension motor to help a patient move from a sitting to a standing position and to supplement an exercise or rehabilitation program.
US09820899B1

A method is disclosed for deploying a ramp assembly. The ramp assembly includes a ramp portion rotatable between a stowed position and a deployed position. The ramp assembly further includes a panel rotatable about a first end, wherein the ramp portion supportingly engages a second end of the panel to elevate the second end of the panel as the ramp portion moves toward the deployed position. The method includes the step of rotating the ramp portion until the ramp portion contacts an alighting surface. The method further includes the step of rotating the ramp portion until one of a first condition and second condition occurs. The first condition is that the ramp portion has reached a maximum slope. The second condition is that the second end of the panel has reached a predetermined elevation.
US09820894B2

An absorbent article comprising a first and second plurality of elastics. The first plurality of elastics may be disposed in a front and a crotch region. The second plurality of elastics may be disposed in a back region and the crotch region. The first and second plurality of elastics may be linear and parallel with a transverse axis of the article.
US09820890B2

Provided is a tampon applicator having one or more insertion indicators to gauge and/or control the insertion depth of a tampon. The one or more insertion indicators may be located on the tampon applicator barrel, plunger, tampon, removal string, or any combinations thereof. As a result of the one or more insertion indicators, a woman can adjust the insertion depth of the tampon to her body's requirements ensuring leakage protection, comfort, or both.
US09820886B2

Laser assisted cataract surgery methods and devices utilizing one or more treatment laser beams to create a shaped opening in the anterior lens capsule of the eye when performing a capsulorrhexis procedure. A light absorbing agent may optionally be added onto or into the lens capsule tissue, and the treatment laser wavelength selected to be strongly absorbed by the light absorbing agent. Alternatively, the treatment laser wavelength may be selected to be absorbed or strongly absorbed by the tissue itself, in which case no additional light absorbing agent need be used. Visualization patterns produced with one or more target laser beams may be projected onto the lens capsule tissue to aid in the procedure. The devices may be attached to or integrated with microscopes.
US09820877B2

A vascular intervention device delivery system, such as for implanting a self expanding stent, includes a thumbwheel rotatably mounted in a handle. The thumbwheel includes a radially outward thumb surface. A catheter has a proximal end attached to the handle, and a distal carrier segment for mounting a vascular intervention device thereon. A retractable sheath is movable from a first position covering the distal carrier segment to a second position retracted proximally uncovering the distal carrier segment. A pull extends between the thumbwheel and the retractable sheath. A holding mechanism is operably positioned between the handle and the thumbwheel, and includes a wedge pin trapped to move in a wedge shaped cavity between a wedged position that prevents the thumb wheel from rotating, and an unwedged position that permits the thumbwheel to rotate to facilitate deployment of a self-expanding stent.
US09820869B2

An instrumented distractor includes a force sensor for measuring a force exerted by opposing surfaces of adjacent vertebrae pressing against fixed and adjustable arms on the distractor. The force on the distractor may be measured by a data acquisition system (DAS). An instrumented cage including at least one force sensor may be inserted into the same intervertebral space as the distractor and a measurement of force on the cage made by the DAS. A size and shape of the instrumented cage are preferably selected such that the magnitude of force on the cage is less than or equal to the magnitude of force measured with the distractor. In some embodiments, a first DAS is included in the instrumented distractor and a second DAS is included in the insertion handle, and the two data acquisition systems may communicate measured force values with one another.
US09820868B2

An acetabular guide system for placing a guide pin near an acetabulum, includes a patient specific acetabular guide including an interior surface and an exterior surface, the exterior surface being configured to have a geometry to register within the acetabulum of a specific patient, a first drill insert configured to be received by the guide at a first location, the first drill insert having a first longitudinal bore configured to be received concentrically in a guide bore of the guide, the guide bore extending exterior to the interior surface, a second drill insert configured to be fixed to a boney portion exterior to the acetabulum at a second location a predetermined distance from the first location, the second drill insert forming a second longitudinal bore, and a selectively removable alignment pin configured to be received by at least one of the first longitudinal bore and the second longitudinal bore.
US09820862B2

A device is provided including a distal nail portion and a proximal nail portion that can be connected to each other to attain a rigid configuration. The device is to be placed internally within the medullary cavities of bones. The device is placed intramedullarily in order to minimize incision size, excessive bone resection and post-operative tendon damage and tenderness. Additionally, one particular method for using the device is provided that includes placing and affixing the distal nail in bone, placing the proximal nail in bone, connecting the distal nail to the proximal nail, doing the desired geometrical adjustments, affixing the proximal nail to the distal nail by tightening the connection and affixing the proximal nail to attain a rigid configuration.
US09820857B2

A surgical instrument for use in an orthopaedic arthroplasty procedure includes a shaft having a first end and a second end and an impactor head disposed at the second end of the shaft. The impactor head includes first and second spaced ends, two spaced impaction surfaces disposed at the second end, and a cavity disposed between the impaction surfaces. The cavity is adapted to accommodate posterior-stabilizing spines of at least a first tibial implant component and a second tibial implant component having a size different than a size of the first tibial implant component. Each of the impaction surfaces includes a first section with a contour that conforms to a contour of a bearing surface of the first tibial implant component and a second section with a contour that conforms to a contour of a bearing surface of the second tibial implant component.
US09820855B2

The present invention provides a femoral prosthesis for a femur which can enable or allow deep knee flexion without creating excessive tension in the ligamentous structure of the knee. The femoral prosthesis includes an internal non-articulating surface, an external articulating surface, a medial condyle and a lateral condyle. The height of the medial condyle is less than the height of the lateral condyle. A proximal-posterior tip of the medial condyle is rounded and is shifted inwards relative to the native level of the proximal-posterior region of the femur bone to facilitate knee flexion. A method of mounting a femoral prosthesis on a femur is also described.
US09820854B2

The invention relates to an acetabular cup (4) and a cup insert (3) for a hip joint prosthesis (12), wherein the cup insert (3) is coupled to the acetabular cup by means of a clamping cone (5) of a conical clamping device in the equatorial region (7) of the two components (3, 4) and, in the unloaded state of the cup insert (3), a gap (8) is provided between the two components (3, 4) below the clamping cone (5) to the pole (6), said gap being delimited by the radial contours of the two components (3, 4). In order to reduce the tensile stresses in the cup insert, the radial contours of the two components (3, 4) have identical geometric elements in the same order, starling front the lower cone end (9) to the pole (6), and tangential or substantially tangential transitions exist between the geometric elements.
US09820853B2

A system for replacing a hip joint can include a first acetabular cup formed of a first material and having a first inner diameter and a first thickness. A second acetabular cup can be formed of a second material and having a second inner diameter and a second thickness. A first femoral hip prosthesis can include a first femoral head that is alternately accommodated by either of the first or second acetabular cups. A bearing can be adapted to be interposed between the first femoral head and one of the first or second acetabular cups. The first and second inner diameters can be the same. The first thickness can be less than the second thickness. The first material can be distinct from the second material.
US09820841B2

A medical device including a mesh prosthesis having a first mesh layer affixed to a second mesh layer along a perimeter area. An enclosure is defined between the first and second layers and extends inwardly from the perimeter area. An opening in the first layer passes through the first layer to the enclosure. A fixation guide template defines a guide pocket within the enclosure. A resilient deployment structure is removably disposed within the enclosure and extending toward the perimeter area. The resilient deployment structure has an elasticity that generates a resilient deployment force for urging the mesh prosthesis to a deployed configuration from a non-deployed configuration. A shield projection extends outwardly from a perimeter of the resilient deployment structure and is engaged within the guide pocket to prevent relative rotational movement between the resilient deployment structure and the mesh prosthesis. A method of using a medical device is also included.
US09820832B2

A vertically adjustable rotational stabilizer (10) for a disposable articulator is provided. The articulator comprises a hinged pair of support arms, each support arm having a proximal end and a distal end, with the proximal ends of the support arms being hingedly fitted together. Each arm defines an opening or cavity between its distal and proximal ends. The vertically adjustable rotational stabilizer (10), in broad terms, comprises at least one body (30, 66) secured or securable to the support arms (14, 16) and positioned substantially within the opening defined by the support arm, and an elongate member (56) being adjustable relative to the at least one body so as to adjust and fix the distance between the distal ends of the support arms (14, 16).
US09820829B2

Embodiments are provided for utilizing metallic portions in dental positioning appliances. One embodiment includes a removable dental positioning appliance having a shell having one or more cavities shaped to receive and reposition one or more teeth from a first orientation to a successive orientation and where at least a portion of the shell is formed from a metallic mesh material.
US09820826B2

The invention provides an ultrasonic tip in titanium for ultrasonic instrument, and further provides a method of dental treatment of peri-implantitis using an ultrasonic tip operable to cooperate with an ultrasonic instrument to transmit ultrasonic vibrations to a surface of a dental implant to be treated, said implant and said ultrasonic tip being made of titanium. The present invention guarantees a safe and complete debridement of most implants for the dental treatment of peri-implantitis, and for the maintenance of the implant surface after such a treatment. Designed in pure titanium, like most dental implant in the market, the tip of the present invention advantageously avoids the transfer of material on the implant and the alteration of the surface, thereby preventing the risk of bacterial recontamination.
US09820819B2

A robotic catheter system includes an arch-shaped suspension system comprising a first and second vertical span, a horizontal span between the pair of vertical spans, and at least one robotic catheter head coupled to the horizontal span. The arch-shaped suspension system can include a pair of linear guide blocks that can be attached to a patient bed and in some embodiments the linear guide blocks can be configured to slidably move along a rail. The arch-shaped suspension system can be moved to allow for proper placement of the arch-shaped suspension system for use on a patient or for placing the system away from a patient or for storage. In some embodiments the robotic catheter system can include a suspension system cart for storing and moving the arch-shaped suspension system.
US09820818B2

System and method for controlling a surgical manipulator to apply an energy applicator to a patient. The surgical manipulator cooperates with a navigation system to position the energy applicator with respect to a boundary so that the energy applicator is constrained from moving outside the boundary. The boundary is generated based on implant parameters measured after manufacture of the implant.
US09820815B2

A skin treatment device having a treatment window for treating skin through the treatment window and a user guide to deliver a tactile feedback signal during movement in stepwise increments of the treatment window along the skin.
US09820811B2

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for locating and identifying nerves innervating the wall of arteries such as the renal artery. The present invention identifies areas on vessel walls that are innervated with nerves; provides indication on whether energy is delivered accurately to a targeted nerve; and provides immediate post-procedural assessment of the effect of energy delivered to the nerve. The methods includes evaluating a change in physiological parameters after energy is delivered to an arterial wall; and determining the type of nerve that the energy was directed to (sympathetic or parasympathetic or none) based on the evaluated results. The system includes at least a device for delivering energy to the wall of blood vessel; sensors for detecting physiological signals from a subject; and indicators to display results obtained using said method. Also provided are catheters for performing the mapping and ablating functions.
US09820807B2

A cutting device includes an elongated shaft extending between a proximal end and a distal end. A lower portion extends from the distal end of the elongated shaft and includes an outer surface and an inner surface spaced apart from the outer surface which together form a blunt end configured as a stop so as to protect adjacent tissue. An upper portion extends from the distal end of the elongated shaft and including an inner surface. The upper portion is configured so as to be disposed opposite the lower portion. A cutting element is disposed between the lower portion and the upper portion and is configured for retractable extension beyond the distal end of the elongated shaft so as to contact tissue.
US09820804B2

A surgical instrument for bonding body tissue includes a shank and first and second tool elements which are movable relative to each other and include a respective electrode. The electrodes define a minimum distance from each other, are opposed to each other and face each other in an approximating position of the tool elements. The first tool element is arranged or formed at the distal end of the shank, so that a mechanical load of anastomoses of body tissue parts produced by current flow is minimized when removing the surgical instrument. The second tool element is adapted to be brought from an operating position, in which it can be brought into the approximating position, into a removing position, in which a peripheral withdrawing line defined by the electrode of the second tool element is shorter than a peripheral approximating line defined by the electrode in the approximating position.
US09820802B1

A method and system for increasing safety of cardiac ablation procedures comprises a computer based system that monitors the esophageal temperature, and a fluoroscopy (medical images) based cardiac mapping system for cryoballoon or radiofrequency (RF) ablations. The esophageal temperature is monitored utilizing an esophageal probe which may have any number of temperature sensing members. The esophageal probe may also have pre-formed shape. During atrial fibrillation ablations, based on a pre-determined increase in esophageal temperature (from any thermistor), the computer based system activates different levels of alarm(s), and/or initiates ablation energy interrupt based on pre-defined programmed values. The method and system is also used for guiding placement of cryoballoon and performing cryoablations. The placement of cryoballoon catheter or a circular catheter is based on superimposing a high resolution (dye injected) image and a live fluoroscopy image and adjusting transparency between the two images.
US09820801B2

A method for removing hair by thermolysis is provided. The method steps include oscillating a direct current to create an alternating current (“AC”) micro-pulse, pulsing the AC micro-pulse on and off continuously, delivering the AC micro-pulse to a probe, applying the probe to a hair follicle, and inverting the direction of the AC micro-pulse on the hair follicle. When the probe is applied to the hair follicle, the AC micro-pulse travels from the top of the dermis of the hair follicle to a dermal papilla of the hair follicle. The AC micro-pulse reverses direction at the dermal papilla and travels to the top of the dermis of the hair follicle. The AC micro-pulse produces heat that destroys the tissues controlling the growth of the hair follicle.
US09820800B2

A multi-pole synchronous pulmonary artery radiofrequency ablation catheter may comprise a control handle, a catheter body and an annular ring. One end of the catheter body may be flexible, and the flexible end of the catheter body may be connected to the annular ring. The other end of the catheter body may be connected to the control handle. A shape memory wire may be arranged in the annular ring. One end of the shape memory wire may extend to an end of the annular ring and the other end of the shape memory wire may pass through a root of the annular ring and be fixed on the flexible end of the catheter body. The annular ring may be provided with an electrode group. The device possesses advantages of simple operation, short operation time and controllable precise ablation. The device can be used to treat pulmonary hypertension with pulmonary denervation.
US09820795B2

Cryocatheter including an elongated flexible catheter member having a short rigid catheter tip for introduction into a therapy site and a heat exchange arrangement for freezing the catheter tip to a cryo-temperature from between about −15° C. to about −30° C. for freezing human tissue at the therapy site. Cerebral medical procedures include inter alia employing a local ice ball for sealing a bleeding rupture in an arterial wall in the case of a stroke hemorrhage, employing a local ice ball for mapping electrical disorder foci in a brain, for example, epileptic foci, and the like.
US09820784B2

In some embodiments, a method comprises forming a lumen in a first bone portion and forming a lumen in a second bone portion. The method further includes inserting a portion of a flexible fastening band through the lumen in the first bone portion and through the lumen in the second bone portion, and inserting the portion of the flexible fastening band into a fastener mechanism monolithically formed with the flexible fastening band. The method further includes advancing the portion of the flexible fastening band through the fastener mechanism until the first bone portion and the second bone portion are stabilized.
US09820780B2

An angled offset tulip has an angled offset tulip with a rod receiving portion and a bone screw receiving portion. The bone screw receiving portion has a distal opening on a distal end. The rod receiving portion is positioned offset a distance from a center of the distal opening and elevated above the distal opening to form an angle θ. The angle θ is defined as a line passing through the center of the distal opening and a slotted end center. The rod receiving portion has a slotted opening defined by a pair of sides, each side having a proximal end with threads for engaging a set screw to secure a rod. The angled offset tulip can be an angled offset tulip assembly having a collet for receiving, holding and fixing the head of a bone screw.
US09820768B2

Various embodiments are directed to surgical instruments for use in handheld applications or with robotic surgical systems. The surgical instruments may comprise an end effector to treat tissue and a shaft extending proximally from the end effector along a longitudinal axis. Some embodiments may be usable with an instrument mounting portion of a robotic surgical instrument. For example, the shaft may extend proximally to the instrument mounting portion.
US09820762B2

Devices and methods for removal of calculus (including for example, kidney stones) are disclosed. In an embodiment, a device for removal of kidney stones includes a substantially sealable pouch that can be inserted into the kidney for capturing a kidney stone. The pouch is also designed to permit fragmentation of the kidney stone inside the pouch, while preventing kidney stone fragments from escaping from the pouch. As a result, the likelihood of dispersing stone fragments during fragmentation of a large stone is greatly lessened.
US09820756B2

A cutting burr that includes a pair of axially spaced diamond-shaped portions designed to be keyed into a spindle of a locking mechanism of a high speed surgical drilling instrument and adapted to fit into a single pawl thereof to lock said cutting burr in place so as to prevent axial movement thereof and provide concentric rotation of said cutting burr without any wobbling. The orientation of both portions may be identical with respect to a center plan and diamond shape in the portion at the proximal end of the shank of the cutting tool may be larger than the intermediately located diamond shape of the other portion. The apexes of the facets of the six-sided diamond shape may be disposed below the surface of the shank of the cutting burr.
US09820755B2

A system including a bone punch tool and a needle guide. The bone punch tool can include a support arm having a support arm proximal portion and a support arm distal portion, a pivot arm having a pivot arm proximal portion and a pivot arm distal portion, and an arcuate punch configured to punch through bone. The pivot arm distal portion can be pivotably coupled to the support arm distal portion, such that the pivot arm proximal portion is configured to be moved away from the support arm proximal portion to extend the arcuate punch into a punch position to punch an arcuate hole through bone. The needle guide can be configured to guide a needle through the arcuate hole.
US09820751B2

A medical drape (100) includes an upper portion (101) and a lower portion (102). The upper portion (101) can be pellucid, while the lower portion (102) can be opaque. To facilitate central catheter insertion, the upper portion (101) can define one or more apertures (104,105) through which a central line may be inserted. A tourniquet (401) may be integrated with the drape, as can one or more tool-less removal features (108,109).
US09820750B2

This invention relates to a method that comprises the introduction of a catheter via left subclavian vein, advancing into the right atrium and then positioning it in the inferior vena cava, just at the cava-diaphragm junction, where it is anchored at its extreme; and thereafter an external inflation of a balloon positioned in said catheter takes place through a physiological solution to reach a diameter corresponding to half the diameter of the inferior vena cava, resulting in hemi-occlusion in the expiration phase (breath-out) and total occlusion for a short period during the inspiration phase (breath-in), regulating (normalizing) the venous return and decreasing the cardiac volume overload, as a treatment for heart failure. The invention also comprises hydromechanics devices to normalize the venous return in the circulatory system. Said venous return is increased in 90% of patients with heart failure. In particular, it refers to a combined catheter with an inflatable balloon, producing said balloon a cyclical occlusion of the inferior vena cava, proximal to the right atrium (RA), which comprises of means for its fixation within said vein, as well as the capacity of modifying the volume in response to the requirements of the patient. This device is implanted for an extended period of more than three months. The final objective is to treat and stop the progression of heart failure.
US09820734B2

The present disclosure provides a cutting assembly for cutting an object, such as a suture, within the body of a patient. The cutting assembly includes a housing, a proximal cutting element, a distal cutting element, and an actuating member. Both the proximal and distal cutting elements have a cutting surface or blade. The blades face each other within the housing and actuate towards each other to cut the suture. The housing further includes a plurality of slots that house the blades and maintain them in the orientation desired for cutting. The housing further includes openings to guide the suture through the cutting assembly. The cutting assembly provides sufficient flexibility to be oriented at the suture location, but maintains its rigidity to effectuate a sufficient, clean cut.
US09820731B2

An apparatus including a flexible member with two terminal ends configured to form a single closable loop and at least two fixation members. The first fixation member and the second fixation member are slidably received on the single closable loop formed by the flexible member.
US09820728B2

A sealant for sealing a puncture through tissue includes a first section, e.g., formed from freeze-dried hydrogel, and a second section extending from the distal end. The second section may be formed from PEG-precursors including PEG-ester and PEG-amine, e.g., in an equivalent ratio of active group sites of PEG-ester/PEG-amine greater than one-to-one, e.g., such that excess esters may provide faster activation upon contact with physiological fluids and enhance adhesion of the sealant within a puncture. At least some of the precursors remain in an unreactive state until exposed to an aqueous physiological environment, e.g., within a puncture, whereupon the precursors undergo in-situ cross-linking to provide adhesion to tissue adjacent the puncture. For example, the PEG-amine precursors may include the free amine form and the salt form. The free amine form at least partially cross-links with the PEG-ester and the salt form remains in the unreactive state in the sealant before introduction into the puncture.
US09820727B2

A tissue puncture closure device includes a carrier tube and a sealing plug. The carrier tube includes a distal end configured for insertion into the tissue puncture. The sealing plug is positioned in the carrier tube and arranged for ejection from the distal end of the carrier tube into the tissue puncture. The sealing plug includes a first collagen portion having a first cross-linked chemical structure, and a second collagen portion positioned proximal of the first collagen portion in the carrier tube. The second collagen portion has a second cross-linked chemical structure that is different from the first cross-linked chemical structure.
US09820726B2

A tissue puncture locator device that includes an expandable member, a deformable membrane, and an actuator. The expandable member is movable between an unexpanded position and an expanded position. The deformable membrane extends around at least a portion of the expandable member. The membrane has a stress relief portion. The actuator is operable to move the expandable member between the unexpanded and expanded positions.
US09820725B2

A mucous membrane lifting instrument for an endoscope includes a first support portion which has an outer circumference surface and a longitudinal axis; a second support portion which is provided at a position spaced from the outer circumference surface of the first support portion, and has an outer circumference surface and a longitudinal axis; a pressing portion which has a proximal end and a distal end connected to the proximal end thereof and positioned more distally than the distal end portion of the endoscope; a lifting portion which is connected to the distal end of the pressing portion, extended from the distal end of the pressing portion, and passes through the space between the first support portion and the second support portion; and an attachment member configured to attach both of the first pressing portion and the second pressing portion to the endoscope.
US09820718B2

The present invention relates to fetal monitoring and, more particularly, to an electronic external fetal monitoring system that includes a self adhering single use dermal patch including embedded sensors that can be attached to the skin of an expectant maternal patient and is configured to record fetal heart rate, uterine activity, and uterine integrity.
US09820703B2

A digital radiographic detector having a radiolucent cover and housing at one or more edges of the detector allows radiographic imaging using multiple detector arrangements with overlapping edges that do not obstruct radiographic images captured thereby.
US09820700B2

An apparatus comprising a radiation source, coincident positron emission detectors configured to detect coincident positron annihilation emissions originating within a coordinate system, and a controller coupled to the radiation source and the coincident positron emission detectors, the controller configured to identify coincident positron annihilation emission paths intersecting one or more volumes in the coordinate system and align the radiation source along an identified coincident positron annihilation emission path.
US09820698B2

An actigraphy method includes receiving a physiological parameter signal as a function of time for a physiological parameter other than body motion (such as electrocardiography or a respiration monitor), computing a body motion artifact (BMA) signal as a function of time from the physiological parameter signal (for example, using a local signal power signal, a local variance signal, a short-time Fourier transform, or a wavelet transform over epochs of duration on order a few minutes or less), and computing an actigraphy signal as a function of time from the BMA signal, for example by applying a linear transform to the BMA signal and optionally applying filtering such as median removal and/or high-pass filtering.
US09820696B1

A method and system for determining blood pressure are disclosed. The method comprises determining a plurality of heart sounds using a microphone of a handheld device and determining a pulse wave using a camera of the handheld device, wherein the plurality of heart sounds and the pulse wave are utilized to determine the blood pressure. The system includes a processor, a memory device coupled to the processor, and an application coupled to the memory device. The system further comprises a microphone coupled to the processor, wherein the microphone is utilized to determine a plurality of heart sounds and a camera coupled to the processor, wherein the camera is utilized to determine a pulse wave, further wherein the application, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to determine the blood pressure using the plurality of heart sounds and the pulse wave.
US09820693B2

An information processing apparatus includes a retaining unit, an image acquisition unit, an image processor, a comparator, and an image generator. The retaining unit is configured to retain a defined attachment position being an attachment position of a biological detection sensor with respect to a body site of a user, the defined attachment position being defined in advance. The image acquisition unit is configured to acquire a capture image captured by an imaging unit. The image processor is configured to extract, from the capture image, a body shape of the user. The comparator is configured to compare the body shape with the defined attachment position. The image generator is configured to generate, based on a comparison result by the comparator, a display image to be displayed on a display unit.
US09820690B1

A wearable device includes a mount to mount the wearable device on a living body and a detector to detect an analyte response signal transmitted from tissue in the living body. The tissue contains a biologically active agent in an inactive state and functionalized particles. The biologically active agent can be converted to an active state that can affect a biological state of the living body. The functionalized particles are configured to bind with a target analyte, the presence or absence or concentration or abundance of which is correlated with the biological state. The analyte response signal is related to interaction of the target analyte with the functionalized particles. A source can apply directed energy into the tissue that is sufficient to convert the biologically active agent from the inactive state to the active state. A processor can determine a presence or absence or concentration or abundance of the analyte based on the analyte response signal.
US09820688B2

An illuminating wire medical device may include an elongate flexible housing and an illuminating fiber and a core wire extending through at least part of the housing, the core wire providing desired pushability and torquability. The illuminating device may further include a connector assembly cooperating with the illuminating fiber to accommodate changes in length and to absorb forces applied during use of the device.
US09820685B2

The invention concerns a measurement device to capture at least one vital parameter of a person in a motor vehicle with a steering wheel. The measurement device includes a finger sensor device with an optical sensor device, where the finger sensor device is attached to the steering wheel in the transition zone between a steering wheel spoke and the hub of the steering wheel.
US09820681B2

Embodiments disclosed herein may describe systems and methods for reducing nuisance alarms using probability and/or accuracy of a measured physiological parameter, such as the pulse rate or SpO2 measurement generated by a pulse oximeter. Embodiments may include methods for adjusting a predetermined alarm threshold based on the probability distribution of the estimated pulse rate and/or oxygen saturation of a patient's blood.
US09820672B2

A method for colon screening and collecting data by using Magnetic Particle Imaging wherein an imaging magnetic field is generated with a spatial distribution of the magnetic field strength such that the area of examination in the colon consists of a first sub-area with lower magnetic field strength, where the magnetization of a magnetic particle which was pre-delivered to the colon is not saturated, and a second sub-area with a higher magnetic field strength, where the magnetization of said magnetic particle is saturated. The spatial location of both sub-areas in the area of examination is modified so that the magnetization of said particles changes locally. Signals are acquired and are evaluated to obtain information about the spatial distribution of the signals in the area of examination. The method may be carried out during an entire peristaltic cycle in a colon portion or segment.
US09820664B2

A catheter adapted or high density mapping and/or ablation of tissue surface has a distal electrode matrix having a plurality of spines arranged in parallel configuration on which a multitude of electrodes are carried in a grid formation for providing uniformity and predictability in electrode placement on the tissue surface. The matrix can be dragged against the tissue surface upon deflection (and/or release of the deflection) of the catheter. The spines generally maintain their parallel configuration and the multitude of electrodes generally maintain their predetermined relative spacing in the grid formation as the matrix is dragged across the tissue surface in providing very high density mapping signals. The spines may have free distal ends, or distal ends that are joined to form loops for maintaining the spines in parallel configuration.
US09820661B2

A biological information detection apparatus includes a detection unit which has a light receiving unit receiving light from a subject, a light transmitting member which is provided on a housing surface side in contact with the subject of the biological information detection apparatus, transmits light from the subject, and has a convex portion in contact with the subject to give a pressing force when measuring biological information of the subject, and a pressing force suppression unit which is disposed in periphery of the convex portion on or above the housing surface and suppresses the pressing force given to the subject by the convex portion. A groove portion is provided between the convex portion of the light transmitting member and the pressing force suppression unit.
US09820660B2

Embodiments of the present disclosure are configured to assess the severity of a blockage in a vessel and, in particular, a stenosis in a blood vessel. In some particular embodiments, the devices, systems, and methods of the present disclosure are configured to assess the severity of a stenosis in the coronary arteries without the administration of a hyperemic agent. In some embodiments, the devices, systems, and methods of the present disclosure are configured to optimize proximal and distal pressure measurements utilized to assess the vessel.
US09820654B2

An observation device includes a light source unit capable of adjusting a quantity of 390-490 nm illuminating light according to a B1 range and a B2 range having a longer wavelength than the B1 range, and an imaging element that images reflected light from a subject irradiated with illuminating light. The light source unit changes the light quantity ratio of the B1 range to the B2 range depending on whether white light imaging is conducted or narrow band imaging is conducted. The imaging element includes RGB color filters arranged according to pixels and the R color filter transmits more light in an R range and the B1 range than light in the second B range and has a spectral characteristic that satisfies a predetermined conditional formulae.
US09820651B2

Devices, such as computer readable media, and methods, such as automated methods, for labeling and/or matching. Some of the devices and methods are particularly useful for anatomical labeling of human airway trees. Some of the devices and methods are particularly useful for matching branch-points of human airway trees from represented in two or more graphs.
US09820646B2

An image processing apparatus converts an intensity distribution of at least one of a plurality of regions of a tomographic image of an eye by using an amount of conversion which is greater than an amount of conversion used to convert an intensity distribution of another one of the plurality of regions, the tomographic image being obtained by performing tomographic imaging on the eye by using optical interference.
US09820638B2

Embodiments of the invention are directed medical devices for illuminating and viewing a patient's internal body portion. The device may include an elongated flexible tube including a distal end and a proximal end. The tube defines a channel extending from the proximal end to an aperture at the distal end. An illumination device is housed within the channel and configured to emit a distally directed path of light. A light source is provided at the distal end of the flexible tube and configured to emit a laterally directed path of light. In one embodiment the light source is a organic light emitting diode.
US09820632B2

An elongated optical guidewire assembly, such as for optically imaging a patient from within another catheter, can have a lead portion and a probe portion. A connector between the lead and probe portions can include a bore including first and second bore ends. The first bore end can include a substantially circular cross-sectional profile. The second bore end can include a substantially non-circular cross-sectional profile. The bore can be configured to receive the optical guidewire assembly at the first bore end and configured to deform the optical guidewire assembly at the second bore end such that probe and lead ends of the optical guidewire assembly are deformed into a substantially non-circular profile and located between the first and second bore ends.
US09820624B2

A vacuum cleaner head with a housing having a front end, a back end, a lower surface extending from the front end to the back end, and a suction opening through the lower surface. An agitator chamber is the suction opening, and a suction passage extends from the agitator chamber towards the back end. An agitator having a spindle and agitating devices is rotatably mounted to the housing. A cleaning member is movably mounted to the housing to move between a first position in which it does not engage the agitator, and a second position in which it engages the agitator to remove debris from the agitator during rotation of the agitator. A pedal extends from the back end of the housing and moves between a first pedal and a second pedal position to place the cleaning member in the second cleaning member position.
US09820617B1

A method and device for hanging a storage bag having a re-sealable mechanical seal having a clip with a generally elongate enclosure of the storage bag proximate the re-sealable mechanical seal. The clip arms are flexibly connected to a living hinge for enclosure of a storage bag which may be slid into and out of the rack via the interiorly positioned opposing parallel rails by contact between the lower side of the clip arms and the upper surface of the opposing rails. The clip arms and opposing parallel rails of the rack may be configured with recesses or ridges to lock the position of the clips within the rack during use. A top carrier aperture allows insertion of a carrier rod allowing multiple racks to be adjacently positioned. The rack may be configured with a fastener aperture to allow attachment of the rack to other structures.
US09820607B2

Apparatus and methods are provided for brewing a beverage from precursor particulates. The apparatus comprises a liquid delivery system for delivering liquid into a brewing basket. The liquid delivery system comprises a showerhead disposed above at least a portion of the brewing basket. The showerhead has a plurality of outlet openings through which liquid flows outward from the showerhead into the brew basket. At least two of the outlet openings are oriented to direct the flow of liquid out of the showerhead at least in part transversely of the brew basket.
US09820605B2

A coffee machine for producing and dispensing coffee-based beverages is disclosed, including a hydraulic pump and at least one dispensing device comprising a filter unit apt to contain ground coffee. A hydraulic circuit brings the hydraulic pump into fluid communication with a supply unit of the dispensing device. The hydraulic circuit includes a supply duct which supplies hot water under pressure to the supply unit. A system for controlling the dispensing pressure includes a control unit, a pressure sensor, and a hydraulic variable-flow valve. The variable-flow valve is actuated by an electronic drive controlled electronically by the control unit in order to regulate the flow rate of water output as a function of a detected dispensing pressure value.
US09820600B2

An applicator for dispensing seaming adhesive onto the edges of pieces of adjacent floor-covering material is provided. The applicator tip can include, from top to bottom, a leg portion, a relatively narrow ankle portion and a foot portion. The body can connect with a seaming adhesive dispensing device to allow seaming adhesive to flow into a passageway in the body. The ankle portion includes an orifice extending through the applicator tip from side-to-side and intersects with the passageway so that seaming adhesive can flow through the orifice. The foot portion includes a pair of opposing wedges extending sideways from the body. The applicator tip can be drawn along a line of abutment between adjacent pieces of floor-covering material. The ankle portion can further include a glue channel that directs the edges of the floor-covering material towards the orifice so that seaming adhesive can be dispensed along the edges and along the bottom surfaces of the edges.
US09820596B2

An apparatus allowing an individual to feed himself or herself without the use of their hands and without requiring assistance. An eating utensil is held by a utensil holder mounted on the top of a rotating shaft. The rotating shaft is fixedly attached to a rotary disk. The rotary disk is rotatably connected to a fixed shaft, which in turn is fixedly mounted to a base. The user removes the utensil from the mount using his or mouth, obtains a portion of food using the utensil, places the utensil back on the mount, and rotates the mount 180 degrees so the portion of food can thereby be consumed.
US09820590B2

Disclosed is a fine art stretcher bar framing and canvas fastening system. The system consists of variable length side bars, fixed ninety degree corners, internal connecting segments, and an adjustable cross brace for quick and easy assembling, dismantling, storing, and transporting. The side bars, corners, and connecting segments features a mechanism utilizing a male plug and female socket to connect side bars, corners, and connecting segments in an array of stretcher bar configurations. The segments are secured using interlocking pins after side bars or corners female sockets engaged with connecting segment plugs. The cross brace segments features an adjustable mechanism conforming to the stretcher bar configuration. The side bars, corners, connecting, and cross brace segments can be dismantled by removing interlocking mechanism on the segments. The back side of the stretcher bar system features a wooden surface to mount or dismount canvases using staples or other fasteners.
US09820587B1

A merchandise security hook, comprising a base, a backboard, an upper iron wire, a lower iron wire, a lock sleeve, a key, a rotary core and an example merchandise, wherein a short hook is arranged between the lower iron wire and the backboard, the base is arranged between the upper iron wire and the backboard and is connected with the upper iron wire through a pressing piece and a pressing screw, a base spring is sleeved on the lower iron wire, a lock sleeve is arranged at an end of the lower iron wire, a plastic stop block is arranged between the lock sleeve and the upper iron wire, a label and a return spring are arranged at an end of the upper iron wire. The merchandise security hook is designed reasonable and easy to use.
US09820584B2

A merchandise display system can include a front rail, at least one divider configured to engage the front rail, the at least one divider including a barrier. The at least one divider may also include a divider wall, and a roller carriage extending along the divider wall. The roller carriage can be provided with a plurality of rollers, and the roller carriage can be configured to advance the product. Additionally a cam can be coupled to the divider. Additionally, the roller carriage can be tilted such that the product is configured to move toward the barrier. The roller carriage can be formed of a first portion and a second portion, and the roller carriage can provided with a plurality of axles that are configured to receive the plurality of rollers such that the plurality of rollers are configured to rotate on the roller carriage. A method for forming a merchandise display system is also contemplated.
US09820583B1

A bed with canopy, including a canopy, a bed, a solar energy converter, a power storage device, a controller, and a power consumer device is described herein. The bed is disposed below the canopy. The solar energy converter is disposed on the canopy. The power storage device, the contoller are electrically connected with the solar energy converter The power consumer device is electrically connected with the power storage device. The bed with canopy of the present invention not only remains the shielding function of the canopy and the lying or sitting function of the bed, but also a charging device utilizing solar energy is added for powering a power consumer device, the power consumer device is used cooperatively with electronic products to realize diversified functions of the electronic products such that more functions is expanded to meet the needs of users on diversified products.
US09820577B2

A foldable chair includes front and rear legs, a seat frame, and a stabilizing mechanism. The front and rear legs are crossingly and pivotally connected to each other. The seat frame is supported by the front and rear legs and tilted when the foldable chair is unfolded. The stabilizing mechanism restrains the front and rear legs from moving relative to each other when the foldable chair is unfolded or in use, and prevents an undesired or inadvertent folding of the foldable chair. The stabilizing mechanism includes a positioner and a fastening device. The positioner is connected to the front and rear legs, and has a length adjustable to facilitate folding and unfolding of the foldable chair. The fastening device is disposed at the positioner, and configured to prevent the positioner from inadvertently adjusting its length when the foldable chair is unfolded.
US09820576B2

A system of modular components to assemble a desired article of furniture provides a plurality of tool-less fasteners and a collection of a plurality of furniture components selectively connectable to each other with one or more of the plurality of tool-less fasteners to assemble a desired article of furniture.
US09820566B2

Embodiments include an apparatus for positioning an electronic display. The apparatus can be combined with an existing work surface to provide a multi-position workstation. In some cases the apparatus includes a mounting portion configured to support an electronic display and a keyboard. The mounting portion may be movable with respect to the work surface between multiple positions, including for example, a sitting position and a standing position. Methods for positioning an electronic display and a keyboard are also included.
US09820564B2

A worktop (1) comprising a leaf (3) hingedly coupled to a wall (6) about a hinge axis (7) by a pair of support mechanisms (91) between a usable state and a folded state. Each support mechanism (91) comprises a first mounting member (93) and a second mounting member (92) which are pivotally connected by a main pivot pin (94) which defines the hinge axis (7). A strut (15) extends between the first and second mounting members (93,92). A first pivot pin (19) at a first end (17) of the strut (15) is slideable and pivotal in an elongated first guide track (96) in the first mounting member (93) between first and second positions (73,74). A second pivot pin (20) at a second end (18) of the strut (15) is pivotal in a slideable element (25), which in turn is slideable in a second guide track (14) of the second mounting member (92) between first and second positions (26,27). A plunger (40) in the slideable element (25) engages a receiving opening (43) in the second guide track (14) for retaining the slideable element (25) in the first position (23) for retaining the leaf (3) in the usable state. On disengagement of the plunger (40) from the recess opening (43), the leaf (3) is pivoted downwardly in the direction of the arrow (A) from the usable state to the folded state, and the slideable element (25) slides to a second position (24) in the second guide track (14) while the first pivot pin (19) slides from the first position (73) to the second position (74) in the first guide track (96).
US09820557B2

A fluid containment system that comprises a fluid container with a top, with an orifice and a wall extending from the bottom, a junction cap that can be mechanically attached to the extended wall, a tube leading from the junction cap, and a mouth piece attached distal to the junction on the tube suitable for an end user to draw fluid from the fluid container.
US09820553B2

Implementations of an apparatus and method for applying cosmetic eyebrows are provided. In some implementations, the eyebrow applicator may be used to apply a cosmetic eyebrow on each brow ridge of a user. In some implementations, the eyebrow applicator may comprise a left brow applicator and a right brow applicator separated by a core ply having a window therethrough. In some implementations, a cosmetic formula in the shape of an eyebrow may be deposited on each of the brow applicators. In some implementations, the right brow and the left brow applicators may be positioned on the assembled eyebrow applicator so that the side of each brow applicator having the cosmetic formula thereon is secured to the core ply and the cosmetic formula is thereby positioned within the window. In this way, the brow applicators are kept separated thereby preventing smudging and/or smearing of the cosmetic formula thereon.
US09820536B2

Provided are a fastening member and a fastening piece for which an unpleasant texture and an incongruous appearance are significantly reduced, and that bring about an integrated feeling with the main body of a disposable article for wearing. A fastening segment includes a hook fastener and a base sheet. A hook height H1 of a hook is set to 45 μm to 150 μm, and a hook sheet thickness T2 is set to 45 μm to 75 μm. When in an L*a*b* color coordinate system, a color difference of L* is ΔL*, a color difference of a* is Δa*, and a color difference of b* is Δb*, a color difference ΔE between the hook fastener and the base sheet calculated using the ΔL*, the Δa* and the Δb*, is less than 5.5.
US09820530B2

Method for producing a customized midsole and a customized cleat representation for an article of footwear comprising a knit outsole. The method includes obtaining information relating to a customized cleat arrangement in a knit outsole and other information relating to a midsole customized to the user's foot and having cleat reinforcements arranged to match the cleat arrangement on the knit outsole. The information is used to form an article of footwear including the customized knit outsole and the customized midsole.
US09820527B2

A rapid-entry and rebounding fit shoe having one or both of a rapid-entry heel element and a rapid-entry tongue element and both snap back for fit. The rapid-entry shoe directs a user's foot into or otherwise accommodates a user's foot with respect to, a shoe opening, and thereafter secures a rear portion of rapid-entry shoe about a user's heel as well as forefoot.
US09820525B2

An embodiment of a safety helmet for protecting the human head against repetitive impacts, moderate impacts and severe impacts so as to significantly reduce the likelihood of both translational and rotational brain injury and concussions includes an outer shell, an outer liner disposed within and coupled to the outer shell, and an inner liner disposed within and coupled in spaced opposition to the outer liner by a plurality of isolation dampers for omnidirectional movement of the inner liner relative to the outer liner and the outer shell.
US09820523B2

An adjustment device of the position of a first part with respect to a second part, comprising an adjustment button mounted movable in translation inside a groove provided in the second part, and a blocking part having a locked position in which the blocking part prevents the first part from translating along the groove, and a locked position in which the blocking part enables the first part to translate along the groove, the adjustment button translating along the groove to move the blocking part to the unlocked position and to translate the first part along the groove.
US09820516B2

The invention is an open-palm sun protective glove that covers the back of the hand protecting it from solar ultraviolet radiation. It allows the palm to maintain mobility, dexterity, tactility, sensitivity, and to release heat and maintain coolness. This open-palm glove has three sheaths that anchor it on the hand: thumb, 5th digit, and wrist. This allows the glove to fit comfortably and slip on and off easily. It is made from textile industry tested ultraviolet protective factor fabric made of knit, woven, or other textile fabric allowing the glove to fit snuggly on the hand. This invention protects the back of the hands, of the wearer, from chronic and intense sun exposure that can cause pre-cancers, skin cancers and sun damage while allowing natural sense of touch and palm-side heat dissipation.
US09820500B2

The purpose of the present invention is to continuously and inexpensively provide an amino acid containing glycosylation composition from rice. The method for producing an amino acid containing glycosylation composition derived from rice according to the present invention is characterized by comprising: a step for compressing and kneading rice powder or rice grains within a cylinder by using an extruder to break an α-1,4 bond in starch, and, a step for breaking the α-1,4 bond in starch and/or an α-1,6 bond in starch by adding an enzyme into the cylinder. Furthermore, in a preferable embodiment of the method for producing an amino acid containing glycosylation composition derived from rice according to the present invention, a step for adding water to the rice powder (or rice grains) is further carried out as preparation.
US09820482B2

Compositions and methods for the disinfection of surfaces are provided. The compositions include at least about 40 weight percent of a C1-6 alcohol, and a primary enhancer selected from protein denaturants. The disinfectant composition is characterized by a pH of less than about 3. Broad spectrum efficacy is achieved, and synergistic activity is exhibited against C. difficile spores.
US09820480B2

A thermal system for preserving tissue is disclosed. The cooling system comprises a base member, a temperature control sleeve constructed of a thermally conductive material, and a selectively removable lid member. The base member defines a reservoir and receives the temperature control sleeve. The temperature control sleeve at least partially defines a tissue collector chamber that is configured to receive a tissue collector. The temperature control sleeve is in communication with the reservoir. The reservoir is configured to receive a cooling medium. A slit formed within the tissue collection chamber that is sized to receive a tubing connected to the tissue collector therethrough. The lid member is configured to be selectively attached to the base member, and permit access to a tube mount for the tissue collector when the lid is attached to the base member.
US09820477B2

A method for pest control in a confined space using flue gas from a biomass power plant. The method includes: treating flue gas from a biomass power plant to yield treated flue gas having a volume concentration of carbon dioxide exceeding 85 volume %, and conducting pest control in a confined space according to the following steps: continuously aerating the confined space with the treated flue gas during a fallow period to allow a gas pressure in the confined space to reach between 0.110 and 0.140 megapascal of absolute pressure and the volume concentration of carbon dioxide in the confined space to reach between 50 and 90 volume %.
US09820475B2

The disclosure relates to genetically modified swine wherein at least one allele of a SIGLEC1 gene has been inactivated and/or at least one allele of a CD163 gene has been inactivated. Genetically modified swine having both alleles of the SIGLEC1 gene and/or both alleles CD 163 gene inactivated are resistant to porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV). Methods for producing such transgenic swine are also provided.
US09820472B2

A poultry cage comprises a resting surface in a horizontal plane having a plurality of openings, a manure collecting surface arranged underneath the resting surface, and a drying air channel comprising a first side wall having a set of first openings for directing drying air towards the manure collecting surface and a set of second openings for directing drying air towards the manure collecting surface. Each first opening directs the drying air at a first angle against a vertical direction towards the manure collecting surface and each second opening directs the drying air at a second angle against a vertical direction towards the manure collecting surface, wherein the first angle being different than the second angle.
US09820471B2

The invention relates to a quick release chest harness with an elastic chest strap, developed for four-legged mammals, comprising a back strap, a leash ring fixed on it for attaching a leash, a belly strap equipped with a quick release buckle, and a chest strap running between the chest bone and the throat area. An element implemented for the chest strap of the chest harness, capable of limited stretching over a given section, is suitable for significantly reducing the risk of injury caused by sudden loads on the chest of the animal during use. Due to the low load-bearing capacity of the elastic portion, the extent of stretching of the chest strap is limited by a separate element, an element limiting the stretching of the elastic portion.
US09820470B1

An animal guard comprising a sleeve with a guard section, intermediate section, and neck section, the guard section comprising a deformable mesh with a pair of snaps and the neck section comprising preferably cloth material terminating in a hem containing a drawstring to tighten the neck section around an animal's head, with the guard section overlapping the neck section in the intermediate section of the animal guard. The animal guard is designed to prevent bites from the animal while keeping the animal comfortable. The animal is able to be fed and watered while in the animal guard.
US09820466B1

A novel maize variety designated PH2TVM and seed, plants and plant parts thereof are provided. Methods for producing a maize plant comprise crossing maize variety PH2TVM with another maize plant are provided. Methods for producing a maize plant containing in its genetic material one or more traits introgressed into PH2TVM through backcross conversion and/or transformation, and to the maize seed, plant and plant part produced thereby are provided. Hybrid maize seed, plants or plant parts are produced by crossing the variety PH2TVM or a locus conversion of PH2TVM with another maize variety.
US09820465B1

A novel maize variety designated PH2TSK and seed, plants and plant parts thereof are provided. Methods for producing a maize plant comprise crossing maize variety PH2TSK with another maize plant are provided. Methods for producing a maize plant containing in its genetic material one or more traits introgressed into PH2TSK through backcross conversion and/or transformation, and to the maize seed, plant and plant part produced thereby are provided. Hybrid maize seed, plants or plant parts are produced by crossing the variety PH2TSK or a locus conversion of PH2TSK with another maize variety.
US09820447B2

A grow light includes a plurality of cool white LEDs, a plurality of warm white LEDs, and a driver electrically coupled to the cool white LEDs and the warm white LEDs. An intensity level and spectral composition of the radiant energy emitted by the grow light may be tuned or configured by varying a ratio of the quantity of cool white LEDs to the quantity of warm white LEDs, by varying a spatial arrangement among the cool white LEDs and the warm white LEDs, or by varying a level of current provided to some or all of the cool white LEDs and the warm white LEDs.
US09820442B2

A rotor and cage assembly includes a skeleton of curved spaced-apart side members affixed to laterally extending upper and lower spaced-apart members therebetween and surrounding the rotor. One of the curved spaced-apartside members is terminated with curved fingers. Three concave inserts insert laterally into the skeleton spanning 270° around the rotor. One of the concave inserts carries straight fingers that interlace between the skeleton side member curved fingers. A control assembly of plates having arcuate slots placed at 3 of the pivots of the skeleton assembly, control bars connected to the skeleton pivots, and an actuator connect to the control bars at one end effect arcuate rotation of the control bars resulting in the synchronized rotation of the arcuate slotted plates so that the interlaced straight fingers move closer together or farther apart with the fixed skeleton assembly curved fingers for different types of grain.
US09820441B2

A vehicle 10 includes a prime mover engine 15, a drive wheel 16, and a hydrostatic transmission 20. The prime mover engine 15 has a substantially vertical prime mover output shaft 18. The hydrostatic transmission 20 has a hydraulic pump 24 with a substantially vertical pump input shaft 28. A drive link 31 drivingly connects the pump input shaft 28 to the prime mover output shaft 18. The hydraulic motor 25 has a substantially vertical output shaft 30. An interface connector 32 establishes fluid pressure communication between the hydraulic pump and the hydraulic motor. A gear set is intermediate the hydrostatic transmission 20 and drive wheel 16. The gear set includes a vertically disposed bevel gear 41 drivingly connected to the motor output shaft 30 and a horizontally disposed bevel gear 42 drivingly connected to the drive wheel 16.
US09820434B2

The stripper is a flange member supported on the upright backboard of a crop harvesting header to span a gap between the backboard and a cross auger. The cross auger is supported above a draper on the header to assist in guiding the cut crop being conveyed by the draper to a central rear discharge of the header. The stripper flange member extends forwardly towards the cross auger at an upward inclination so as to be oriented at an angle of greater than 90 relative to a portion of the backboard of the header immediately below the stripper flange member. The stripper flange member is thus better oriented to guide cut crop which rises up the backboard to be deflected forwardly into the cross auger, instead of acting as a stop to accumulate cut crop thereon when the flange member is oriented perpendicularly to the backboard.
US09820433B2

A robotic mowing system that includes a station and a robotic mower. The robotic mower has a controller and a memorizer, the memorizer stores a working procedure, and after receiving a start command input by a user, the controller executes the working procedure, so as to control the robotic mower to automatically and repeatedly mow and return to the station to be charged until the controller receives a stop command. In this way, the user does not need to input working parameters, and costs are relatively low.
US09820430B2

A spread control assembly is provided that includes a spread control mechanism and a shut-off adjustment plate attached to a particulate dispersing apparatus. The shut-off adjustment plate includes multiple exit openings that facilitate the dispersing of particulate material. The spread control mechanism pivotally attaches to the shut-off adjustment plate and includes multiple paddles configured to cover at least one of the exit openings in the shut-off adjustment plate when the spread control mechanism is in an activated position.
US09820428B2

An inductor box for an agricultural implement includes an inlet configured to receive agricultural product from a tank. The inductor box also includes a housing having a cavity therein. The cavity is configured to receive the agricultural product from the inlet. The inductor box includes a gate configured to be removably inserted between the inlet and the cavity, to block the agricultural product from entering the cavity while disposed between the inlet and the cavity, and to enable the agricultural product to enter the cavity while removed from being disposed between the inlet and the cavity. The inductor box includes a first guide coupled to the housing and configured to direct the gate away from the inlet. The first guide is disposed between the gate and the inlet while the gate is disposed between the inlet and the cavity.
US09826670B2

A vehicle includes a power receiving portion that is mounted below a floor panel and that receives electric power in a contactless manner from a power transmitting portion provided outside the vehicle, an electromagnetic shield that prevents an electromagnetic field from passing through, a power receiving portion cover that allows the electromagnetic field to pass through and covers the power receiving portion, and an undercover that allows the electromagnetic field to pass through and covers the power receiving portion cover.
US09826663B2

A heat dissipation system for cabinet servers supported on a raised floor includes a condenser, airflow adjusting apparatus, a controller, and a temperature sensor located at an air outlet of each cabinet server. The raised floor defines air outlets adjacent to each cabinet server. The adjusting apparatus are mounted to the raised floor and aligning with the air outlets. Each of the airflow adjusting apparatus includes a number of shielding members rotatable relative to the raised floor and aligning with the air outlets, and a motor electrically coupled to the controller. The temperature sensors are electrically coupled to the controller. The condenser generates cool air entering the raised floor through the air inlet, to enter the cabinet servers through the airflow adjusting apparatus and the air outlets. The controller controls the shielding members to rotate, to change the opening size of the air outlets of the raised floor.
US09826662B2

A reusable phase-change thermal interface structure having a metal based foam and a fusible metal based alloy is provided. In a solid phase of the fusible metal based alloy the fusible metal based alloy is disposed at least in a portion of the metal based foam. Further, in a liquid phase of the fusible metal based alloy the fusible metal based alloy is disposed at least on a portion of one or more outer surfaces of the metal based foam.
US09826656B2

The present disclosure describes embodiments of apparatuses and methods related to a moveable server rack in a data center. The server rack may include a chassis with a plurality of servers and a receptacle to couple with a mobile robot. The mobile robot may move the server rack from a first location to a second location in a data center. The server rack may include indices of alignment to provide an indication of docking alignment of the server rack to at least the second docking location, a power connector system to connect a main power source to the plurality of servers at the second location, and an input/output connector to connect a data center network to the plurality of servers at the second location. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.
US09826649B2

A removable door for an electronic device. The door may include a spring plate having a first second surface, and a plurality of springs attached to a perimeter of the spring plate. The plurality of springs may engage a portion of an enclosure of the electronic device to retain at least the spring plate within an access opening formed in the enclosure. The door may also include a door cap covering the access opening formed in the enclosure. The door cap may include an interior surface connected to the first surface of the spring plate, and an exterior surface forming a portion of an outer surface of the enclosure. Additionally, the door may include a cover connected to the second surface of the spring plate. The cover may face an interior of the enclosure and separated from the door cap by the spring plate.
US09826648B2

Provided is a display device equipped with a frame assembly that can prevent malfunction or failure of a control substrate attributable to internal heating and which has a simplified structure enabling easy production of a compact display device. The frame assembly includes: a first frame combined with a display panel; a second frame spaced from and combined with a rear surface of the first frame; and a third frame and a fourth frame that are combined with a rear surface of the second frame in a state in which the display panel is mounted. The first and second frames have respective openings, the third frame has a width larger than that of the fourth frame in a front-and-rear direction, and an upper portion of the display panel is inclined forward when the display device is installed such that the control substrate is vertically arranged.
US09826645B2

The present application provides a circuit substrate and a method of managing the placement of one or more groupings of a plurality of capacitors coupled to a circuit substrate. Each capacitor has a pair of terminals, as well as a component shape which changes as a voltage difference is selectively applied across the pair of terminals. When a voltage difference is applied across the pair of terminals, the component shape of the capacitor will contract in a first direction and expand in a second direction, where the second direction is substantially orthogonal to the first direction. When the voltage difference is removed from the pair of terminals, the component shape of the capacitor will return to an uncontracted state in the first direction and an unexpanded state in the second direction. Each of the plurality of capacitors in a particular grouping is driven by a complementary signal. The method includes arranging each of the plurality of capacitors in the particular grouping, which are positioned within a relative distance of one another that is less than or equal to a quarter wavelength of a predetermined frequency, where at least some of the plurality of capacitors in the particular grouping are positioned to exert opposite influences on the circuit substrate relative to other capacitors in the particular group, in response to the plurality of capacitors in the particular grouping being driven by the complementary signal.
US09826624B2

A display device includes: a panel substrate configured to display an image; a control printed circuit board to receive an image signal from an external source, to generate data and a control signal based on the image signal, and to provide the data and the control signal to the panel substrate; and a flexible printed circuit board (FPCB) electrically connected to the panel substrate and electrically connected to the control printed circuit board. A first align mark is disposed on the FPCB and a second align mark is disposed on the control printed circuit board.
US09826621B1

Systems and methods are provided for redirecting electromagnetic radiation around an object. A first assembly, including a first interior wall and a first exterior wall enclosing a propellant gas, substantially encloses the object. A first control system is configured to energize the propellant gas to provide a first volume of plasma and control an electron number density of the first volume of plasma. The electron number density of the first volume of plasma is selected to minimize reflection of the electromagnetic radiation from the first exterior wall. A second assembly includes a second interior wall and a second exterior wall enclosing a propellant gas and is substantially concentric with the first assembly and substantially encloses the object. A second control system is configured to energize the propellant gas to provide a second volume of plasma and control an electron number density of the second volume of plasma.
US09826620B2

A high frequency generating device used in a plasma ignition apparatus according to an embodiment includes a high frequency output unit, an output control unit, a current detecting unit, and an abnormality detecting unit. The high frequency output unit outputs a high frequency. The output control unit shifts a state of the high frequency output unit from a non-output state to an output-ready state of the high frequency. The current detecting unit detects a current that flows through a power-supply path to the high frequency output unit. The abnormality detecting unit detects output abnormality of the high frequency in the non-output state when a value of a current detected by the current detecting unit in the non-output state exceeds a non-output threshold.
US09826611B2

An ESD protection device includes: a first insulating layer (2a); a second insulating layer (2b) stacked on the first insulating layer (2a); a first via conductor (6a) extending through the first insulating layer (2a) in a thickness direction; a discharge gap portion (10) provided so as to be in contact with the first via conductor (6a), between the first insulating layer (2a) and the second insulating layer (2b); a first wiring line (7a) that is arranged on a surface of the first insulating layer (2a) opposite to the discharge gap portion (10) and that is electrically connected to the first via conductor (6a); and a second wiring line (7b) that is arranged on one surface of the second insulating layer (2b) and that includes a portion facing the first via conductor (6a) with at least the discharge gap portion (10) interposed therebetween.
US09826608B2

Provided is a standby current supplier including a bleeding circuit electrically connected to a dimmer and through which a first current flowing to the dimmer flows when the dimmer is in an off state, and a first controller configured to detect a first voltage corresponding to an input voltage generated by the dimmer and control the bleeding circuit based on the first voltage when the first voltage is lower than a predetermined first level.
US09826605B2

A system and method of controlling lighting schedules in a lighting control application on a computer system is disclosed. A graphical user interface is displayed to a user on a display in signal-communication with the computer system. The graphical user interface has a plurality of lighting control schedule areas. Each lighting control schedule area has an in-schedule portion and a corresponding out-of-schedule portion. One or more interface objects, corresponding to one or more lighting control devices, are associated with the in-schedule lighting control schedule of a first lighting control schedule area of the plurality of lighting control schedule areas without instructing the corresponding one or more lighting control devices to operate on said in-schedule lighting control schedule, in response to a user moving the one or more interface objects to the out-of-schedule portion of the first lighting control schedule area.
US09826596B2

Devices and methods for controlling brightness of a display backlight are provided. A display backlight controller may control the brightness of the display backlight by changing a duty cycle of a PWM signal that drives the LED current. However, because of LED efficacy and response time, the final output brightness (NITS) may not be linear between 0% to 100%. The disclosed methods may be used to correct the brightness using a predetermined correction factor. Further, the minimum and maximum duty cycle of the output dimming duty cycle may be limited or corrected. In one example, a backlight controller receives an input duty cycle and determines a product of the input duty cycle and a maximum duty cycle to produce a reduced duty cycle. Moreover, the backlight driver may determine a corrected duty cycle using the correction factor. The final output duty cycle and LED current may then be determined.
US09826583B1

An adjustable auxiliary power supply for a light emitting diode (LED) driver for adjusting an auxiliary power output includes a voltage regulator configured to receive a regulator input voltage and to output an auxiliary power supply voltage selected from a first output voltage and a second output voltage according to a voltage selection signal used to control an LED lighting setting. The adjustable auxiliary power supply includes a first and second input voltage circuits configured to selectively output respective first and second input voltages to the voltage regulator. The adjustable auxiliary power supply includes an adjustable resistance circuit coupled to the voltage regulator. The adjustable resistance circuit controls the auxiliary power supply voltage based upon an adjustable resistance setting of the adjustable resistance circuit. The adjustable resistance setting is configured to correspond to at least one of the first output voltage and the second output voltage.
US09826580B2

A backlight unit includes a light source; and a light-source driving unit configured to drive the light source and that includes a transformer. The transformer includes a core comprising a plurality of metal powders; and a plurality of coils embedded in the core. At least one coil has a diameter different from a diameter of another coil.
US09826575B2

An electrical raft assembly for a gas turbine engine is provided. The raft assembly comprises a rigid electrical raft formed of a rigid material that includes an electrical system comprising electrical conductors embedded in the rigid material. The raft assembly further comprises an engine component that is mounted to the electrical raft. The electrical raft includes one or more integral cooling passages which guide a coolant fluid through the raft to cool the engine component.
US09826568B2

A method for reducing data transmission delay is provided. The method includes: detecting whether a terminal has data sending or receiving, and determining whether a current network is idle; determining, if detecting that the terminal has no data sending or receiving, that the current network is idle, connecting and communicating with a server at a preset time interval, and maintaining the communication channel with the server. By the method, whether the network is idle is detected; when it is detected that the network is idle, connect and communicate with the server at a preset time interval, and maintain the communication channel with the server. This avoids the release of the channel due to idle network, and consequently avoids the need of re-establishing the channel when data transmission is enabled again, thereby reducing data transmission delay. Furthermore, a system for monitoring operation platform is also disclosed.
US09826556B2

An apparatus and a method are provided for data transmission and reception of a mobile terminal, which seamlessly provide data transmission and reception between the mobile terminal and a multipoint communication device. The method includes requesting, by the mobile terminal, data sharing from another mobile terminal, for sharing of data transmitted and received to and from the another mobile terminal; receiving approval of the request for the data sharing from the another mobile terminal; establishing a channel connection between the mobile terminal and a sharing device for the sharing of the data; and transmitting and receiving the data to and from the sharing device through the channel.
US09826551B2

A method and apparatus for coordinating access to a shared transmission medium in a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN). The method includes initiating transmission of data from a first device to a second device in a first basic service set (BSS); and providing access opportunity to the first device on the shared transmission medium in one or more time slots, which time slots are assigned dependent on bandwidth of the data to be transmitted.
US09826550B2

A data communication method implemented by a sensor node of a telecommunications network including a plurality of sensor nodes and a concentrator node, which share a communication channel. The method includes: selecting a time interval in a contention window including a plurality of time intervals and preceding a transmission period including a plurality of transmission intervals; emitting a request signal during the selected time interval to the concentrator node; receiving a response signal carrying encoded information representing an ordered combination of the intervals marked during which the signals were received by the concentrator node; determining a transmission rank according to a number of intervals marked by the concentrator node; and deciding to emit data to the concentrator node in the transmission period when the transmission rank is lower than or equal to the number of intervals of the transmission period.
US09826549B2

A method for transmitting Machine to Machine (M2M) ranging information in a wireless communication system is disclosed. The method includes transmitting an Uplink Channel Descriptor (UCD) including an M2M ranging region Type/Length/Value (TLV). When the UCD is transmitted, a ranging region TLV identifying the same region as the M2M ranging region TLV is included in the UCD.
US09826548B2

Embodiments herein relate to a first station (STA1) and a method performed by a first station (STA1) for handling Request-to-Send/Clear-to-Send, RTS/CTS, transmissions in a wireless communications network (100). The first station (STA1) is served by a first access point (AP1) in a first Basic Service Set (BSS1). The first station (STA1) receives a RTS/CTS transmission relating to a second Basic Service Set (BSS2). Then, the first station (STA1) determine whether or not to set a Network Allocation Vector, NAV, according to the RTS/CTS transmission based on whether the RTS/CTS transmission was sent from a second station (STA2) or from a second access point (AP2) in the second Basic Service Set (BSS2).Embodiments herein also relate to a first access point (AP1) and a method performed by a first access point (AP1) for handling RTS/CTS transmissions in a wireless communications network (100).
US09826544B2

The present disclosure relates to a method for use in a wireless communication device reporting ACK or NACK in dynamic TDD configurations. In the method, an indication of a reference UL TDD configuration and a reference DL TDD configuration is indicated. Then, ACK or NACK bits with a fixed number of the ACK or NACK bits based on the reference DL TDD configuration are reported at a timing based on the reference DL TDD configuration. The present disclosure also relates to a wireless communication device for reporting ACK/NACK in dynamic TDD configurations.
US09826539B2

Embodiments of user equipment (UE), an enhanced node B (eNB), and methods of signaling for proximity services and device-to-device (D2D) discovery in an LTE network are generally described herein. In some embodiments, the UE receives configuration information for a D2D discovery resource pool of a cell. The configuration information includes an indication that the D2D discovery resource pool has been logically divided into a plurality of sub-discovery resource pools. The UE performs an initial transmission of a discovery signal in a discovery period using a single D2D discovery resource from a first sub-discovery resource pool of the plurality of sub-discovery resource pools. The UE performs a number of additional transmissions of the discovery signal in the discovery period using additional D2D discovery resources from sub-discovery resource pools of the plurality of sub-discovery resource pools other than the first sub-discovery resource pool. Other apparatuses and methods are also described.
US09826537B2

A system and method are described for adjusting communication with a first distributed-input-distributed-output (DIDO) client as the first DIDO client moves from a first DIDO cluster to a second DIDO cluster: For example, in one embodiment of the system and method, different signal strength thresholds are specified and either conventional DIDO precoding and/or DIDO precoding with inter-DIDO-cluster interference (IDCI) cancellation to avoid RF interference at the DIDO client are employed based on measured signal strengths from a main DIDO cluster and an interfering DIDO cluster.
US09826532B1

A method for transmitting a resource request for an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) transmission is described. A resource request field that indicates buffer information corresponding to queued media access control (MAC) protocol data units (MPDUs) that are queued for transmission by a first communication device is generated. The resource request field includes i) a scale factor subfield that indicates a scale value, and ii) a resource subfield that indicates a base resource value. A resource request MPDU including the resource request field is generated. The resource request MPDU is transmitted to a second communication device via a wireless communication channel to request an allocation of radio resources for the OFDMA transmission. The buffer information is i) a number of bytes indicated by the scale value multiplied by the base resource value, or ii) a transmission opportunity duration indicated by the scale value multiplied by the base resource value.
US09826528B2

Methods, systems, and devices are described for reconfiguring a user equipment (UE) to operate in a reconfigured TDD UL-DL configuration. An initial uplink-downlink (UL-DL) configuration for TDD communication may be provided for communication between an e Node B and a UE. One or more subframes within each frame transmitted using the initial UL-DL configuration may be identified as flexible subframes. The identification of flexible subframes may permit the identification of timing for HARQ transmissions that does not change when a reconfiguration takes place. A different UL-DL configuration may be transmitted to the UE, in which at least one flexible subframe is to be changed from an uplink subframe to a downlink subframe. The different UL-DL configuration may be transmitted by, for example, a pseudo-uplink grant to the UE, which indicates that the UE is to reconfigure one or more flexible subframes from uplink to downlink transmission.
US09826505B2

Multicasting in Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) nodes and the respective nodes. The method in a node configured as an MBMS gateway includes, in response to receipt of a session start request message for a multicast session, allocating a transport network IPv4 multicast address and a transport network IPv6 multicast address for the session, and generating another session start request message and transmitting it to a node configured as a Mobility Management Element (MME). The session start request message includes a first pair of the allocated transport network IPv4 multicast address and an IPv4 multicast source address, and a second pair of the allocated transport network IPv6 multicast address and an IPv6 multicast source address. In response to receipt of MBMS data from a node configured as a Broadcast-Multicast Service Center (BM-SC), the MBMS data is sent using at least one of the first and second pair of addresses.
US09826500B1

Driving condition data is determined. The driving condition data identifies one or more driving actions that require more driver attention and one or more driving actions that require less driver attention. An indication is received that a user has a mobile device and is driving a vehicle. The surrounding environment of the vehicle is monitored. An incoming notification on the mobile device is received. A distraction value is determined. The distraction value is based on the one or more driving actions and the surrounding environment. The incoming notification is modified based on the distraction value.
US09826498B2

In a non-limiting and exemplary embodiment, a method is provided for arranging wireless communications, comprising: establishing, by an apparatus, a connection with an access point, detecting location of the access point, detecting accuracy of the detected location of the access point, and in response to detecting the detected location of the access point to be more accurate than an earlier stored location of the access point, updating the detected location to a location database of the apparatus.
US09826494B2

Disclosed are a method and an apparatus for transmitting D2D signals, wherein the method comprises: detecting a synchronization signal and/or a D2D signal, and determining a synchronization reference for sending or receiving other D2D signals based on the synchronization signal and/or the D2D signal; based on information carried in the detected synchronization signal and/or the D2D signal, determining a D2D resource configuration; and based on the determined synchronization reference for sending or receiving the other D2D signals and the determined D2D resource configuration, determining a resource position used for transmitting D2D signals, and sending or receiving the other D2D signals in the resource position. By enabling a UE to learn the D2D resource configuration based on the synchronization signal and/or the D2D signal, the present application prevents the UE from always using fixed resources when transmitting D2D signals, thus reducing mutual interference and improving transmission efficiency and quality.
US09826491B2

A method, apparatus, and computer program product are provided to enable the provision of a mechanism by which a device participating in a collaborative application may synchronize with other participating devices. A method may include providing for operation of a collaboration application, providing for transmission of a multicast reference time request to a wireless access point, receiving a multicast reference time message, establishing a reference time in response to receiving the reference time message, and synchronizing the collaboration application using the reference time. The synchronization of the collaboration application may be performed in response to receiving an acknowledgement message from collaborating devices. The method may further include providing for transmission of a second multicast reference time request in response to not receiving an acknowledgement message from the collaborating devices. The multicast reference time message may be received from the wireless access point.
US09826475B1

A mobile terminal device can be used in a network system including a first network and a second network. Plural access points are connected to the first network. A common identification name is set to the plural access points. An access point having a coverage area overlapping with a part of a coverage area of the first network is connected to the second network. The mobile terminal device includes a detector, an execution unit, an acquiring unit, a connection controller, and a setting unit. The detector detects connectable access points. The execution unit executes an application which uses a network device connected to the first or second network. The acquiring unit acquires, from a history information memory, history information including (i) device identification information unique to the network device used when the application is executed in past, and (ii) device identification information unique to an access point.
US09826474B2

Methods, apparatus and program products are disclosed for allowing wireless devices in two wireless access networks whose coverage areas overlap to communicate with their respective access nodes. Groups may be assigned to wireless devices in the access networks and the groups may be used by wireless devices in the access networks to determine whether to access a communication medium or not. Received powers may also be used by wireless devices in the access networks to determine whether or not to access a communication medium. A wireless device in a first access network can determine whether to access (e.g., compete for access to) the communication medium by comparing a measured power of transmission from a second access node with an indication of a minimum received power above which wireless devices in a second access network formed by a second access node are allowed to contend for access to the communication medium.
US09826465B2

The application relates to the integration of WLAN access networks into cellular communication networks, often referred to as “Non-3GPP Access” in 3GPP standardization, in particular TS 23.402. Location information, such as SSID, WLAN access point name, WLAN access point identifier, WLAN access point MAC address is currently not available for GTP based S2a nor GTP based S2b, and neither for the Gn interface nor for PMIPv6 based S2a. However, Location information is needed in the PGW/GGSN for multiple purposes, e.g. for policy enforcement, charging and lawful interception. This problem is solved by the application in that the missing information is included in a protocol message of the cellular communications system, in particular a GTPv1, GTPv2 or PMIPv6 signalling message, and communicated (S2) to the cellular communications system. Furthermore, an event trigger, similar to event triggers on the Gx interface which may be set by the PCRF, may be set by the PCRF/OCS in the WLAN (S4, S5) to request up-to-date location information (S6, S7, S8).
US09826464B2

The subject matter described herein includes managing access conditions and determining which access point to use by a wireless device based on terms and conditions (TCs) for allowing access (TCsAA) and terms and conditions for utilizing access (TCsUA) provided and updated by various parties in a system for alternative network access provision (ANAPS) comprising of a cloud based server system and a wireless device and its connection manager software system. The TCs may depend on a number of variables including one or more of the following: price, availability, relative signal strengths and communication speeds of different cellular base pay and or access points and connections through the stations or access points to the Internet or other backend systems, the location and possible motion of the device, the time of day, week, month or year as well as the cost of communication alternatives.
US09826456B2

The present invention relates to a method and a device for effectively controlling a handover of a user equipment (UE) in a long connected mode. A method for controlling a handover by an eNB, according to one embodiment of the present invention, comprises the steps of: checking whether a UE is in a long connected mode; and transmitting, to the UE, channel measurement configuration information of which a channel measurement report trigger condition is alleviated compared with a normal connected mode.
US09826453B2

A system and method manages call connections between mobile subscribers and an EP-based wireless telecommunications network through a wireless access point. Communications between the mobile subscribers and the IP-based wireless telecommunications network are initiated by a registration request. During the registration request various identifiers (IMSI, MAC address, IP Address, etc.) are communicated to the system. The system is arranged to log the identifiers and associate those identifiers with the entry point (e.g., the wireless access point) into the IP based wireless network. Call connections from the mobile subscribers are monitored for various throughput and call quality based metrics. Call handoffs between the IP-based wireless communications network and the cellular telephony network are managed by the system based on the monitored call quality and throughput metrics on a per-access point basis using the registered identifiers.
US09826450B2

The present application discloses a method for supporting a selected IP traffic offload (SIPTO) by a mobility management entity (MME) when a user equipment (UE) handovers from a source base station to a target base station in a mobile communication system. The method includes acquiring a local home network identifier (ID) of the source base station, acquiring a local home network ID of the target base station from the target base station, and determining whether the UE has moved out of the local home network of the source base station according to the local home network ID of the source base station and the local home network ID of the target base station.
US09826439B2

Structures and protocols are presented for using or otherwise relating to a first mobile device (a smartphone or tablet computer or wearable device, e.g.) configured to be shared by two or more parties such that a subset of the parties may be addressed selectively (in content directed to such parties, e.g.) in a cost-effective manner.
US09826437B2

The invention relates to a method for relocating a first function for processing data packets of a flow associated with a device, from a source to a target instance. The method is triggered by an initiated relocation of a second function for processing data packets of the flow. The method comprises initiating (710) a first phase of a relocation method for relocating the first function, before the relocation of the second function is finalized. The method also comprises determining (720) whether to initiate a second phase of the relocation method based on information related to a progress of the relocation of the second function. When it is determined (720) to initiate the second phase, the method further comprises initiating (730) the second phase of the relocation method comprising the resumption of the processing of the data packets of the flow at the target instance of the first function.
US09826425B2

The present invention relates to a method for transmitting channel state information of a terminal in a multi-carrier system, and to a terminal using the method. The method comprises the steps of: receiving reference signals from a base station via a plurality of downlink component carriers; measuring a channel state for each of the plurality of downlink component carriers using the reference signals included in the plurality of downlink component carriers; generating channel state information on a portion of the plurality of downlink component carriers; and transmitting to the base station the channel state information on a portion of the plurality of downlink component carriers and/or an index which indicates the portion of the plurality of downlink component carriers.
US09826421B2

In order to set optimal wireless parameters, a wireless base station includes: a wireless parameter control unit (402) configured to determine whether it is necessary to perform wireless parameter optimization in an own wireless base station; and a determination unit (404) configured to determine whether another wireless base station performs wireless parameter optimization in the another wireless base station when the wireless parameter control unit determines that it is necessary to perform the wireless parameter optimization. The wireless parameter control unit (402) performs wireless parameter optimization in the own wireless base station when the determination unit determines that the another wireless base station does not perform wireless parameter optimization in the another wireless base station. The wireless parameter control unit cancels to perform wireless parameter optimization in the own wireless base station when the determination unit determines that the another wireless base station performs wireless parameter optimization in the another wireless base station.
US09826420B2

Optimizing a plurality of cell sites or sectors in a wireless network including receiving network data regarding a plurality of cell sites or sectors; determining a critical zone in which communication is degraded; determining best neighbor cell sites or sectors among the neighbor cell sites or sectors associated with the critical cell sites or sectors; determining if the critical cell sites or sectors in the critical zone have available resources for achieving a desired improvement in communications; determining if the best neighbor cell sites or sectors have available resources for achieving the desired improvement in communications; and altering wireless network parameters of the critical cell sites or sectors, or the best neighbor cell sites or sectors for achieving the desired improvement in communications. Altering wireless network parameters of the critical cell sites or sectors, or the best neighbor cell sites or sectors is performed continuously until the desired improvement in communications in the wireless network is achieved.
US09826418B2

Some demonstrative embodiments include apparatuses, systems and/or methods of performing a Time of Flight (ToF) measurement. For example, a first wireless device may include a controller to perform a Time of Flight (ToF) measurement procedure with a second wireless device; and a radio to communicate with the second wireless device a ToF frame including a first time value of a Time Synchronization Function (TSF) of a sender of the frame to indicate a beginning time of a ToF measurement period, and a second time value of the TSF at transmission of the ToF frame.
US09826408B2

A method is provided in one example embodiment and may include determining for each of one or more macro cell radios, a corresponding set of one or more small cell radios that are under a coverage area of each of the one or more macro cell radios, wherein each corresponding set is associated with a corresponding macro cell radio; calculating interference coordination parameters for each small cell radio belonging to each corresponding set, wherein the interference coordination parameters for each small cell radio belonging to each corresponding set comprises an uplink interference budget for each small cell radio; and communicating the interference coordination parameters to each small cell radio belonging to each corresponding set.
US09826407B2

Methods and systems disclosed herein relate to determining a projected change in bandwidth demand in a specified area during a specified future time period, repositioning one or more balloons in a high-altitude balloon network based on the projected change in bandwidth demand, and providing, using the one or more balloons, at least a portion of the bandwidth demanded in the specified area during the specified future time period.
US09826403B2

A device receives a request from a user to manage a Mobile Network Operator (MNO) profile stored in a smart card within the device, wherein the MNO profile includes one or more network access credentials for accessing a wireless network. The device performs a Completely Automated Public Turing Test to tell Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHA), wherein the CAPTCHA includes receiving input from the user, and authenticates the user as a human, and not a bot or other automated activity, based on the CAPTCHA and the input from the user. The device receives, from a network node external to the device responsive to the authenticating, a MNO profile management code, and manages the MNO profile based on the received MNO profile management code.
US09826393B2

A mobile data network supports making subscriber data addressable as devices in a mobile data network. Each data chunk is assigned a device address in the mobile data network. The data chunk can then be addressed as a device in the mobile data network. Data chunks corresponding to a subscriber are distributed across multiple devices in the mobile data network, which may include subscriber devices, network components in the mobile data network, and specialized devices provided by storage providers. The mobile data network is queried to determine related devices. An ad-hoc network of the related devices is formed. A data query by one of the related devices is sent to the related devices in the ad-hoc network to determine whether the data query can be satisfied by one of the related devices. If not, the data query is sent via normal channels in the mobile data network.
US09826392B2

Management of subscriber identity modules is disclosed. A server apparatus manages, in addition to or instead of mobile network operators, by a service provider, subscriptions to wireless communication networks. The server apparatus maintains subscriber identity module-specific usage records. Each usage record comprises a quantity quantifying amount of data transferred with each subscriber identity module and a limit setting the maximum allowed amount of data transfer for each subscriber identity module. The server apparatus compares periodically the quantity in each usage record with the limit in the same usage record, and if the quantity in the usage record is within a predetermined margin of the limit in the same usage record, transmits, with the data communication interface, to the mobile apparatus, a command to limit data transfer speed of the subscriber identity module defined by the usage record.
US09826391B2

In embodiments, apparatuses, methods, and storage media may be described for allocating radio resources to a user equipment (UE) for device to device (D2D) transmission. Specifically, the UE may be configured to predict cellular interference to one or more cellular transmissions in a cell that may be caused by the transmission of a D2D signal. Based on that predicted interference, the UE may identify one or more radio resources in for the D2D transmission.
US09826381B2

Systems, methods, and apparatuses for inter-device communication in wireless communication systems are provided. A user equipment (UE) may initiate a direct inter-device communication link between UEs located in proximity. The UEs participating in the inter-device communications may perform a device handshake procedure or a device discovery procedure to set up appropriate transmission parameters for the communication over the inter-device communication link. A device-to-device radio network temporary identification (DD-RNTI) may be used for the inter-device communication link. Long term evolution (LTE) downlink or uplink radio resources may be used for communications over the inter-device communication link.
US09826380B1

The techniques for metering Video over LTE (ViLTE) data usage may ensure data consumption by subscribers are in line with their recurring service plans. A request to establish a video bearer between a mobile telecommunication network and a user device for a multimedia call may be received at a policy engine of a mobile telecommunication network. Subsequently, information that indicates a connection type used by the user device to connect to the mobile telecommunication network may be retrieved from a gateway of the network. The video bearer for a video over wireless local area network call of the user device may be established without ViLTE data usage metering in response to the user device having a WLAN connection type. However, the video bearer for a ViLTE call may be established with ViLTE data usage metering in response to the user device having a LTE connection type.
US09826367B2

The application relates to a wireless rotating instrumentation package for collecting data from a spinning rotor head of a rotary wing aircraft. The application also relates to a method of wirelessly collecting data from a spinning rotor head of a rotary wing aircraft.
US09826361B2

A RF based mobile positioning system determines mobile device positioning by count stamped packets communicated between the mobile device and access points according to a standard wifi protocol. Ad-hoc groups of wifi network nodes are formed and then broken with a mobile device as that mobile devices moves relative to fixed nodes, such as access points. Within an ad-hoc group, the nodes count stamp packets by latching a local counter within each node. Count-stamps are collected and used to generate ranges for a mobile device relative to nodes in an ad hoc group. A positioning services determines the position of the mobile device from the ranges.
US09826357B2

A mobile device having location services stores information pertaining to a geo-fence assigned to a building and stores a geo-fence log including one or more mobile device parameters and one or more geo-fence crossing events. The mobile device may determine the location of the mobile device via the location services and may determine when a geo-fence crossing event has occurred. Each of the geo-fence crossing events may be recorded in the geo-fence log, which may be uploaded to a remote server from time to time.
US09826349B1

A method and device may estimate the accuracy of position data using kernel density estimator. The method may include receiving, from a plurality of user devices, network requests having embedded position data representing locations of the plurality of user devices. The method further includes extracting, from the network requests over a time period, the embedded position data of a user device associated with the plurality of user devices; and receiving baseline position data representing the locations of the user device over the time period. The method included generating a probability density estimate of the locations of the user device based on a kernel density estimator using the baseline position data, determining accuracy scores for the embedded position data using the probability density estimate of the locations, and filtering the embedded position data to remove outliers from the embedded position data.
US09826345B2

An approach is provided for detecting points of interest or events based on geotagged data and geolocation seeds. A maps platform processes and/or facilitates a processing of location information associated with one or more devices to determine one or more geolocation seeds. The maps platform causes, at least in part, a querying for content information based, at least in part, on the one or more geolocation seeds. The maps platform then processes and/or facilitates a processing of the content information to determine one or more points of interest, one or more location-based events, or a combination thereof.
US09826344B2

Systems and methods for determining whether a mobile device was within a specified area and for providing a location history of a mobile device are disclosed. A request may be received from a device which inquires about the location history of a mobile device. The request may include a time period and/or a location. The relevant location history of the device may be determined and provided in response. A request may also be received which inquires whether a mobile device was within a known alert area. The location history of the device may be correlated to the alert area and a response provided.
US09826343B2

The present invention is related to a method and an apparatus for transmitting and receiving activity data of a user through Bluetooth LE (Low Energy) in a wireless communication system. A method according to the present invention comprises transmitting an advertising message indicating support of a measurement service for a user's activity to a second device; receiving a first request message requesting measurement of a specific activity of the user from the second device; transmitting a first response message to the second device in response to the first request message, when the specific activity is supported by the first device; and measuring the specific activity, wherein the first request message includes activity type indicating type of the specific activity.
US09826340B2

A method for transmitting data in an electronic device is disclosed. The electronic device includes a short-range communication unit, and a controller The controller may implement the method including controlling a priority scheme of two or more other electronic devices which are paired with the electronic device, and when an event occurs, transmitting data regarding the event to at least one of the other electronic devices based on the priority scheme.
US09826339B2

In one embodiment, a system includes a first tracked device and a second tracked device. The first tracked device includes first known device data, describing one or more previous connections known to the first tracked device. The second tracked device includes second known device data, describing one or more previous connections known to the second tracked device. The first tracked device is configured to connect to the second tracked device, transfer to the second tracked device at least a portion of the first known device data, and receive from the second tracked device at least a portion of the second known device data. The first tracked device is further configured to modify the first known device data to incorporate the second known device data. The second known device data includes data related to a previous connection involving a third tracked device outside a signal range of the first tracked device.
US09826338B2

Disclosed is an IoT-based system for overseeing process control and predictive maintenance of a machine or a network of machines by employing machine wearable sensors. The system comprises a plurality of IR temperature sensors, each of which secured to the exterior of the machine; each IR sensor capable of transmitting captured temperature data wirelessly over a communications network, an algorithm engine capable of receiving data from the IR sensors, the algorithm engine for further processing the received data to recognize real-time temperature patterns, deviations, etc., and based on the same issuing control commands pertaining to the machine, and one or more control modules disposed in operative communication with the control panel of the machine, the control module capable of receiving, over a communications network, the control commands and executing the same resulting in accomplishing process control or predictive maintenance of the machine or both.
US09826337B2

A method and system for transmitting information which is obtained from a peripheral object when an interactive service between devices is performed, and a device, are provided. The information transmission method includes: obtaining first information which is stored in a peripheral object of an electronic device via short distance communication with the peripheral object when an interactive service is performed between the electronic device and the at least one external device; generating second information that is to be transmitted to the at least one external device based on the obtained first information; and transmitting the second information to the at least one external device via the interactive service.
US09826332B2

A centralized master device receives audio, down-mixes the audio to stereo if it is not already in stereo, and then up-mixes (renders) the stereo into as many channels as there speakers in the network. The up-mixing can be based on the number and locations of the speakers, which may be determined automatically using a real time location system such as ultra wide band (UWB) location determination techniques. The master device sends each speaker its respective channel.
US09826322B2

Securing mechanisms for space access devices, such as an audio signal transmitting device, include a plurality of outwardly projecting members that are configured to transition from a relaxed state to a securing state when the space access device is inserted into an internal space or opening that has an inside diameter smaller than an outside diameter of the outwardly projecting members in the relaxed state. The outwardly projecting members securely engage a surface of the internals space, conform to the shape and size of the internal space, and modulate at least one of the attenuation and frequency of audio signals and/or differentially acoustically impede audio signals transmitted through the securing mechanism and/or internal space and the space access device, without fully occluding the internal space.
US09826320B2

A method for receiving wireless audio streams in a hearing device includes: receiving audio packages of a primary audio stream from a primary transmitter unit having a primary transmitter unit address; evaluating a first parameter of the primary audio stream; and if the first parameter fulfills a search criterion: searching for pilot packages from available transmitter units; determining an optimum transmitter unit based on one or more pilot package parameters of the pilot packages from the available transmitter units; and receiving audio packages of an audio stream from the optimum transmitter unit.
US09826315B2

There are provided an acoustic generator, an acoustic generation device, and an electronic apparatus capable of enhancing sound pressure and sound quality. An acoustic generator includes a piezoelectric element having a surface electrode; a vibration body to which the piezoelectric element is attached; and a wiring member extending in one direction, having a flat shape, wherein one end portion in the one direction of the wiring member is connected to the surface electrode, and the wiring member is provided with a slit formed in a side of the wiring member which extends in the one direction from the one end portion of the wiring member.
US09826314B2

An electronic apparatus comprises a cover panel, a piezoelectric vibration element located on a rear surface being opposite to an exposed surface of the cover panel, and a drive module driving the piezoelectric vibration element based on a sound signal. The rear surface comprises a first region where the piezoelectric vibration element is disposed. The first region is located closer to a side of the exposed surface than a second region in the rear surface.
US09826308B2

A common plate is formed in a moveable element of a device, the device having an actuator coupled to drive the moveable element. A first plate and the common plate together form a first capacitance, while a second plate and the common plate together form a second capacitance, both of which varies as a function of displacement of the moveable element. A measurement circuit has an input coupled to the first plate, while an excitation voltage source has an output coupled to the second plate. A guard voltage source has an output coupled to a conductive portion of the device. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
US09826300B2

An earphone device includes a housing having a driver unit, and a sound guide tube mounted on a front surface of the housing to protrude from the front surface, in which the sound guide tube is disposed at a position deviated from a center position of the housing.
US09826294B2

A loudspeaker controller (1) for controlling a loudspeaker (2), configured to determine time-varying impedance information of the loudspeaker (2) based on a loudspeaker voltage and a measure of a loudspeaker current and provide for control of the loudspeaker (2) in accordance with said time-varying impedance information.
US09826289B2

A wireless sensor system includes a telemeter and at least one sensor. The sensor and the telemeter switch between a digital communication mode and an analog sensing mode, where the digital communication mode is used for finding and activating a target sensor on basis of whether or not a target address coding matches with a preset address coding, the analog sensing mode is used for transmitting an analog sensing signal of the target sensor to extract a to-be-extracted sensitive variable, remaining sensors are in a standby state and do not reflect a sensing signal, and only an address coding used for a chip select of sensors.
US09826281B2

A media processing method, device, and system where one or more media receiving clients that have a media processing capability of one or more media playback devices are separately constructed for multiple communications protocols, to-be-played media data that is sent by a media source device and that is to be played by a media receiving client specified by the media source device is received, and the to-be-played media data is sent to a media playback device that is corresponding to the specified media receiving client, for the media playback device to play. Therefore multiple media playback devices may be connected flexibly and simultaneously and a media playback device may be switched as desired during media playback.
US09826270B2

Systems and methods utilize a content receiver to provide supplemental content, such as news content, personal content and advertising content, to a user. Received data is formatted as supplemental content by the content receiver based on user preference information stored therein, and the formatted supplemental content is transmitted to a content display device. The supplemental content is provided to the user in addition or as an alternative to video content, and may replace or supplement closed captioning content. The supplemental content may be translated into another language and/or converted into audio signals utilizing the content receiver. Systems and methods also utilize a content receiver to translate data such as text data into another language. Text data may, in addition or alternatively, be converted into audio signals utilizing the content receiver.
US09826253B2

Provided are entropy encoding and entropy decoding for video encoding and decoding.The video entropy decoding method includes: determining a bin string and a bin index for a maximum coding unit that is obtained from a bitstream; determining a value of a syntax element by comparing the determined bin string with bin strings that is assignable to the syntax element in the bin index; storing context variables for the maximum coding unit when the syntax element is a last syntax element in the maximum coding unit, a dependent slice segment is includable in a picture in which the maximum coding unit is included, and the maximum coding unit is a last maximum coding unit in a slice segment; and restoring symbols of the maximum coding unit by using the determined value of the syntax element.
US09826245B2

An image encoding format includes a profile indicating a combination of processes which an image decoding apparatus is capable of decoding and a level indicating a range of a parameter which the image decoding apparatus is capable of decoding. The image decoding apparatus includes a decoding unit that decodes the image encoding format on the basis of a code that indicates whether parallel processing of the decoding processes in each tile is enabled depending on the profile.
US09826242B2

In an example, a method of coding video data includes determining, by a video coder and for a block of video data, a palette having a plurality of entries indicating a plurality of respective color values, wherein a first line of the block of video data includes a pixel located adjacent to an edge of the block of video data, and wherein a second line of the block of video data includes a pixel located adjacent to the edge of the block and adjacent to the pixel of the first line. In this example, the method also includes coding, in a scan order, index values that map pixels of the block to entries in the palette, wherein the pixel of the second line immediately follows the pixel of the first line in the scan order.
US09826232B2

An apparatus configured to decode video information includes a memory and a processor in communication with the memory. The memory is configured to store video information associated with a bitstream. The apparatus further includes a processor in communication with the memory, the processor configured to determine that a reference layer is not included in the bitstream. The processor is further configured to receive, from an external source, a decoded base layer picture associated with an access unit, to store the decoded base layer picture in a memory. The processor is further configured to decode pictures associated with the access unit based on the stored decoded base layer picture, and subsequent to decoding the pictures associated with the access unit, empty the decoded base layer picture from the memory.
US09826231B2

A video coding or decoding method in which luminance and chrominance samples are predicted from other respective reference samples according to a prediction direction associated with a current sample to be predicted, the chrominance samples having a lower horizontal and/or vertical sampling rate than the luminance samples so that the ratio of luminance horizontal resolution to chrominance horizontal resolution is different than the ratio of luminance vertical resolution to chrominance vertical resolution, so that a block of luminance samples has a different aspect ratio to a corresponding block of chrominance samples, the method including: detecting a first prediction direction defined in relation to a first grid of a first aspect ratio in respect of a set of current samples to be predicted; and applying a direction mapping to the prediction direction to generate a second prediction direction defined in relation to a second grid of a different aspect ratio.
US09826226B2

An image sensor of a camera configured with a diffraction grating is used to capture a diffraction image of an image rendering surface of a display device, for example, while a target image is being rendered on the image rendering surface of the display device. The diffraction image of the image rendering surface of the display device is analyzed to obtain measurements of native display capabilities of the display device. Display capability data is transmitted to a display management module for the display device. At least a portion of the display capability data is generated from the measurements of native display capabilities of the display device that are obtained from analyzing the diffraction image of the image rendering surface of the display device.
US09826209B2

A medical system includes a first storage that stores image information on an image that is obtained by an imaging device capturing an image of a reference subject and on which image processing is performed by a first processing device, a second storage that stores image information on an image that is obtained by the imaging device capturing an image of the reference subject and on which image processing is performed by a second processing device, a comparison unit that compares the image information stored in the first storage with the image information stored in the second storage, and a setting changing unit that changes an image processing setting of the second processing device on the basis of a result of the comparison, such that the image information stored in the second storage is identical or substantially identical to the image information stored in the first storage.
US09826208B2

Embodiments of the present invention are operable to generate a set of weights derived through crowdsourcing procedures for use in automatically performing white balancing operations on images captured by a digital camera system. Embodiments of the present invention are operable to generate a set of images which are illuminated with known and different illuminants. Using crowdsourcing procedures, embodiments of the present invention gather user feedback concerning which images from the set of images adjusted by the known illuminants are considered to be the most aesthetically pleasing. Images selected by the users are then stored within a database of selected images. Using a learning engine, embodiments of the present invention may then produce a set of weights based on the user selected images for use in determining a likely illuminant when performing automatic white balancing operations performed on the camera system.
US09826203B2

The present invention concerns a method for controlling a laser-based lighting system comprising a scanning mirror arrangement, arranged to be rotatable around two substantially orthogonal axes. The method comprises: (a) a sensor capturing a first image; (b) the sensor sending data representing at least part of the first image to an image generation unit; (c) the image generation unit generating a second image based on the data representing at least part of the first image, wherein the generated second image comprises information representing a feature region in the first image; (d) the image generation unit sending the second image to a projection system controller; and (e) the projection system controller, based on the received second image, controlling the operation of a projection system comprising a laser light source; and a scanning mirror arrangement for receiving the light radiated by the laser light source, and for reflecting the received light to a wavelength conversion element to project the second image. In the method the second image is streamed to the projection controller as an image pixel stream without first saving it in a memory.
US09826199B2

Various driver assistance systems mountable in a host vehicle and computerized methods for detecting a vertical deviation of a road surface. The driver assistance system includes a camera operatively connectible to a processor. Multiple consecutive image frames are captured from the camera including a first image of the road and a second image of the road. Based on the host vehicle motion, the second image is warped toward the first image to produce thereby a warped second image. Image points of the road in the first image and corresponding image points of the road in the warped second image are tracked. Optical flow is computed between the warped second image to the first image. The optical flow is compared with an optical flow based on a road surface model to produce a residual optical flow. The vertical deviation is computed from the residual optical flow.
US09826198B2

A biological imaging device comprising: an irradiation unit which emits parallel light onto a first part in a living body; and an imaging unit which takes images of the first part and a second part that is connected to the first site.
US09826197B2

A client device receives a broadcast content signal containing an interactive identifier over a managed network at a client device. The interactive identifier may be a trigger that is included in a header or embedded within the digital video data. The trigger may have a temporal component, wherein the trigger can expire after a certain period of time. In response to identification of the trigger, the client device sends a user request for interactive content over an unmanaged network. For example, the managed network may be a one-way satellite television network, IP-television network or cable television network and the unmanaged network may be the Internet. The client device switches between receiving data from the managed network to receiving data from the unmanaged network.
US09826195B1

A method to extend the downstream and upstream data carrying capability of an HFC CATV system. At the neighborhood level, the CATV cable (the primary channel) is divided into different segments connected by electrically active junctions. At the junctions, each segment is also connected to a secondary data channel, such as an optical fiber or ultrahigh RF frequency (1 GHz+) secondary channel, which can carry supplemental downstream narrowcast channels and upstream channels between a plurality of such CATV cable segments. At the junctions, some CATV primary channel RF signals such as broadcast channels are passed without interference, while certain primary channel downstream narrowcast RF channels and upstream narrowcast RF channels are precisely suppressed using adaptive cancelling methods. Such adaptive cancellation methods are superior to prior art lowpass, highpass, and bandpass filtering methods because they allow for more efficient use of limited CATV primary channel RF spectrum.
US09826182B2

Techniques for controlling a stability of response of a semi-conductor matrix imager composed of pixels, including a first phase of characterizing the stability of the pixels and a second phase of correcting the signals arising from the pixels during the measurements. The pixels are classed into stable pixels and unstable pixels according to a predetermined criterion, the unstable pixels being associated individually with a stable pixel whose characteristics serve as base for correcting signals arising from the unstable pixels.
US09826175B2

Provided is an image pickup apparatus capable of reading out and outputting pixel data of a partial area of a rolling shutter type image sensor. The image pickup apparatus includes: a readout condition setter setting a readout condition for pixel data readout control from the image sensor; a charge time setter setting charge time of the image sensor; a skip setter setting, based on the readout condition, areas in which processing concerning one of readout and charge in an image pickup area of the image sensor is skipped; a controller controlling a charge of the image sensor and readout from the image sensor so as to achieve constant charge time of the image sensor within one frame based on the charge time and the areas set by the skip setter; and an image signal output unit outputting a pixel signal read out by the controller.
US09826162B2

A method and an apparatus for restoring a motion blurred image are disclosed. The method of restoring a motion blurred image comprises calculating a motion trajectory and a project trajectory of a camera using an embedded sensor; estimating a point spread function according to camera motion by using the motion trajectory and the project trajectory; and restoring the motion blurred image using the estimated point spread function and a spatially variant activity map.
US09826157B2

A camera for capturing video images in a series of frames includes an image sensor having an array of pixels. Each pixel receives an image and accumulates an electrical charge representative of the image during a frame. The camera also includes a pixel processor to sample a pixel output for each of the pixels of the image sensor during an intermediate portion of the frame to produce a signal representative of the image.
US09826153B2

An optical system that images a scene at two different fields of view, with switching between fields of view enabled by switchable mirrored surface is disclosed. A voltage change across the switchable mirror element generates a change in the reflection and transmission properties of the element, such that the element switches between a mirror state and a lens state. When nested in an annular reflective optic system of a given field of view, the switching element enables the opening of an additional optical path through the center of the reflective optics where a set of refractive optics are assembled into an imaging system for a second field of view. This dual field-of-view system changes field of view with no mechanical movement.
US09826142B2

An image pickup apparatus, including: a compression unit configured to perform compression processing on image data; an expansion unit configured to perform expansion processing on the image data that has been subjected to the compression processing based on a coding parameter used for the compression processing on the image data; and a processing unit configured to perform autofocus processing based on the image data that has been subjected to the expansion processing, the autofocus processing being adaptively performed based on the coding parameter.
US09826141B2

An imaging apparatus includes a shooting lens having a focus lens for adjusting a degree of focus on an imaging plane; an image sensor converting an optical image of a photographic subject to an electric image signal and outputting it; a confirmation image creator creating a focus state confirmation image in which a part, or a whole of an image expressed by the image signal is enlarged; a display displaying the focus state confirmation image; and a focus evaluation value calculator calculating a focus evaluation value based on the image signal; wherein when a state of an inclination of change in a focus evaluation value calculated at a plurality of positions of the focus lens while moving the focus lens is different from a state of an inclination of change in a focus evaluation value calculated immediately before, the focus state confirmation image is displayed on the display.
US09826138B1

Multiple cameras may be controlled over a wide area network in a routine that includes aggregating video processing capabilities of the cameras into a first graphics processing unit resource pool. The first graphics processing unit resource pool is operated on raw video feeds of the cameras to combine and transform the raw video feeds into a virtual video feed, wherein at least one camera of the cameras processes a raw video feed output by a different camera of the cameras. The virtual video feed is communicated over the wide area network to a master video processor, which is operated in a feedback loop to analyze the virtual video feed and control the first graphics processing unit resource pool to improve one of a quality or a content of the virtual video feed.
US09826137B2

An imaging apparatus which communicates with an external apparatus via a network, includes an imaging unit; a first image processing unit configured to change, by image processing, a brightness of a captured image output from the imaging unit; a second image processing unit configured to change, by image processing that is different from the image processing by the first image processing unit, a brightness of a captured image output from the imaging unit; a receiving unit configured to receive, from the external apparatus, a single command in which first image processing information for controlling an operation of the first image processing unit and second image processing information for controlling an operation of the second image processing unit may be described; and a control unit configured to control the first image processing unit and the second image processing unit in accordance with the command received by the receiving unit.
US09826135B2

[Object] To provide an information processing method, a control device, a recording device, an information processing system and a program which enable automatic control of a response sound of a recording device, with respect to an operation ordered by the control device.[Solution] Provided is an information processing method and an information processing system including establishing a connection, by a recording device, to a control device via communication, and determining a control mode of a response sound in the recording device with respect to an operation ordered by the control device depending on whether a plurality of recording devices are connected to the control device.
US09826132B2

An array imaging module includes a molded photosensitive assembly which includes a supporting member, at least a circuit board, at least two photosensitive units, at least two lead wires, and a mold sealer. The photosensitive units are coupled at the chip coupling area of the circuit board. The lead wires are electrically connected the photosensitive units at the chip coupling area of the circuit board. The mold sealer includes a main mold body and has two optical windows. When the main mold body is formed, the lead wires, the circuit board and the photosensitive units are sealed and molded by the main mold body of the mold sealer, such that after the main mold body is formed, the main mold body and at least a portion of the circuit board are integrally formed together at a position that the photosensitive units are aligned with the optical windows respectively.
US09826126B2

The invention relates to a reproduction device (21), with a device (20) acting as a source of digital services. It also relates to a method of synchronizing two parts of a digital service in a system including a source device according to the invention and at least one reproduction device according to the invention.According to the invention, the reproduction device (21) includes means for receiving the data forming at least a part of a digital service originating from a digital service source device (20), means for processing (210) at least some of the data received, means (211) for reproducing an output of at least a part of the digital service, the time for processing and reproducing the data introducing a delay in the output of the reproduced data. This device also includes communication means (213) for informing the source device of the delay introduced.
US09826123B2

An information processing system includes a plurality of data processing apparatuses and an information processing apparatus. The information processing apparatus includes a first generation unit configured to generate first identification information, a first storage processing unit configured to store the first identification information, a first reception unit configured to receive second identification information, a first transmission unit configured to add the second identification information, thereby transmitting the first data, and a second storage processing unit configured to store an execution information item. The data processing apparatus includes a second reception unit configured to receive the first data, a second generation unit configured to generate the second identification information, an execution unit configured to perform the process on the first data, and a second transmission unit configured to transmit the first identification information with the execution information item to the information processing apparatus.
US09826112B2

Systems and methods for identifying the health status of one or more printing devices are provided. An example method can involve determining one or more printing-device error parameters. The method may also involve determining one or more error intervals based on the one or more printing-device error parameters. The method may also involve generating an error frequency code based on the determined error intervals. Still further, the method may involve determining a health value based on the error frequency code. The method yet further includes performing a managing action based on the determined health value.
US09826109B2

A method and system for distributing documents comprises submitting a print job via a print client to a server. The document creator can submit a list of recipients to whom a hard copy document should be made available. This limits the distribution of the document to those persons included on the list. The method and system further comprises storing the print job in a queue associated with the server, transmitting the print job to a specified printer when one of at least one recipient requests rendering of the print job, and rendering the print job at the specified printer for one of the at least one recipients.
US09826092B2

A method for providing messages to a user during a call includes receiving a call from a user. The method may further include retrieving, based on the call, a unique identifier of the user, and placing the user in a call queue in an order defined by when the call is received. While the user is in the call queue, user data matching the unique identifier of the user is retrieved, the user data is analyzed to identify, based on the prior interaction, a problem of the user with the software application. The method may further include generating, in response to identifying the problem of the user, user data messages, and initiating presentation of the user data messages to the user while the user is in the call queue.
US09826084B2

A portable device control apparatus including a communication unit configured to detect at least a first portable device in a passenger compartment of a vehicle; and a processor configured to select at least one function of the first portable device to be deactivated based on the first portable device being located within a predetermined limit region including at least part of the driving seat of the vehicle, and transmit a command for deactivating an execution of at least one function to the first portable device through the communication unit.
US09826081B2

Devices, systems, and methods are disclosed for automated multi-device, multi-persona, and wireless SIM management. A virtual SIM database associated with a user is maintained on the mobile service provider's network. Such a virtual SIM database contains multiple personas for that user. The user is furnished with one “stub” SIM to be installed on the user device for each of the user devices the user wishes to use on the mobile service network. One of the personas maintained by the virtual SIM database may be loaded onto the “stub” SIM. In particular, upon occurrence of an event, a selected user device downloads a selected persona from the network and loads it onto its “stub” SIM, so that the selected user device is now registered on the network with that persona.
US09826076B2

An apparatus and method for processing call services in a mobile terminal are provided. The method for processing call services in a mobile terminal includes entering into, when a call is generated, a call handling mode, recognizing and analyzing voice signals sent and received in the call to produce speech analysis information, detecting a state change of the mobile terminal using a sensing unit to produce user behavior information, and predicting, when a state change of the mobile terminal is detected, an application corresponding to the speech analysis information, and activating the application as a follow-up service.
US09826066B2

A system for optimizing network traffic is described. The system includes a packet engine configured to acquire data regarding a flow of a plurality of data packets over a link and to determine transport communication protocol (TCP) characteristics for the flow, and a TCP flavor selector configured to dynamically select a TCP flavor based on the TCP characteristics, where the TCP flavor can be used to modify the flow of data packets over the link. The TCP characteristics dynamically change with time. The TCP flavor selector is further configured to modify the flow using the TCP flavor.
US09826060B1

A digital content provider is configured to identify, based at least in part on various customer user profiles, digital content that is to be pre-loaded onto one or more customer computing devices in advance of the digital content being available for at least one mode of consumption by the one or more computing devices. The digital content provider may use these user profiles, as well as other external information, to identify one or more customers that are to receive the digital content. Subsequently, the digital content provider may download the digital content onto each identified customer's one or more computing devices in advance of the at least one mode of consumption becoming available to the customers. Once the mode of consumption is made available, the digital content provider may enable the use of the pre-loaded digital content.
US09826051B2

Systems, methods, and computer program products for interconnecting content requesting clients with a content provider platforms offering content. A client interface may be configured for transaction-oriented message exchange with the content requesting clients. A runtime module may be configured to map content-provider-specific data formats and content-provider-specific message flows to data formats and message flows utilized by the client interface. Content-provider-protocol-specific plug-ins may be provided. Each content-provider-protocol-specific plug-in defines rules for a mapping between the content-provider-specific data formats and the content-provider-specific message flows of at least one of the content provider platforms and the data formats and the message flows utilized by the client interface.
US09826049B2

QR codes or the like are used in hardlink applications, by which different users may receive different information in response to a user's interaction with a touchpoint. The content delivered to a particular user in response to a hardlink code or a presented hyperlink may be dependent on the time of the scan, the geographic location of the user, a weather condition at the geographical location, personal information associated with the user, a number of previous scans of the code by prior individuals, and any combination of the these or other variables, which may be determined by an originator of the QR code or other party. User devices may be re-directed to alternate content or network addresses based on one or more programmed conditions.
US09826047B2

The present information processing apparatus sets a transmission standby time in accordance with a user instruction, detects a link-up, transmits an SLP packet, times an elapsed time from detection of the link-up, and in accordance with the elapsed time reaching the transmission standby time, controls so as to transmit an SLP packet.
US09826042B2

A session-specific policy may be used to define specific configuration and operational characteristics of different types of sessions. One type of session may have one set of characteristics while a second type of session may have a different set of characteristics. The policy may be applied by a server or client, and may be propagated through an enterprise by a policy distribution management system to establish policies across multiple devices. Different session types include sessions from a local console, a remote user, a device-initiated session, a service-initiated session, and other types. Within each session type, policies may be defined for specific instances of each type. For example, different policies may be defined for different devices in a device-initiated policy.
US09826026B2

One or more exemplary embodiments provide a content transmission method and system, a device and a computer-readable recording medium thereof, configured to map user cloud account information with content. The content transmission method includes determining attribute information regarding content or uploading of the content; mapping user cloud account information, which corresponds to the determined attribute information, with the content; and transmitting the content to a cloud which is determined based on the mapped user cloud account information.
US09826022B2

Content can be shared between devices by transmitting an encoded signal that indicates, to each capable device within range, instructions for accessing the content. For example, a first device can emit an encoded audio signal that can be received by any capable device within audio range of the device. Any device receiving the signal can decode the information included in the signal and obtain a location to access the content from that information. Using such an approach, a first user can quickly and easily share content with several users at the same time without any of the receiving users having to determine or navigate to the content being shared. Further, using signals, such as audio signals, provides the ability for most existing devices to easily share content without significant hardware modification or additional expense.
US09826021B2

A method for controlling a communication apparatus includes transmitting, before establishing a communication with an external apparatus, an advertisement signal for providing notification of an existence of the communication apparatus, and establishing a communication between the communication apparatus and a partner apparatus which has responded to the advertisement signal. The advertisement signal includes control information indicating whether to transmit a content in response to an operation on the communication apparatus or to transmit the content in response to an operation on the partner apparatus. After establishment of the communication between the communication apparatus and the partner apparatus, based on the control information included in the advertisement signal, processing for transmitting the content to the partner apparatus is controlled.
US09826018B1

Systems and methods described herein are directed to a browser mode that provides a secure type of browsing window or a public type of browsing window. Within the secure type of browsing window, systems and methods may enforce all connections as being over Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS). Within the public type of browsing window, connections that require login, text entry, or HTTPS are prevented since session cookies and browsing activity from the public type of window may be eavesdropped by a third party. The browser provides separate cookie jars (which store the browser cookies) for the secure type window and the public type window.
US09825999B2

A playback control device includes an identification part configured to identify one of communication terminals based on identification data associated with a request to play session data including at least one of image data and sound data; a first acquisition part configured to acquire session data which has been communicated in a session in which the communication terminals have joined; a second acquisition part configured to acquire, in response to the identification data, time data representing at least a time period in which the identified communication terminal had joined the session; and a control part configured to, in response to the time data, allow playing of the session data for the time period in which the identified communication terminal had joined the session and disallow playing of the session data for the time period in which the identified communication terminal had not joined the session.
US09825989B1

An early warning system and method for generating an alert regarding a potential attack on a client device is provided for based on real-time analysis. The early warning system and method generally comprise receiving data associated with an attack alert, wherein the attack alert corresponds to an electrical signal that indicates detection of a malware attack from a remote source. The received data is analyzed using an attack-specific engine that is configured to generate an attack-specific result. An attack value is computed based on the attack-specific result and a consideration of potential attack targets, wherein the attack value is compared to a threshold value so as to determine whether or not to generate an early warning alert. An early warning alert is generated when the attack value matches or exceeds the threshold value.
US09825982B1

A method for managing network vulnerabilities may include obtaining image data regarding a software container located on a network element. The image data may describe a software image used to generate the software container. The method may further include determining, using the image data, a software vulnerability of the software image. The method may further include assigning the software vulnerability to a filesystem key. The method may further include generating, using the software vulnerability and the filesystem key, a vulnerability map of a network. The vulnerability map may describe various software vulnerabilities arranged according to various filesystem keys used on the network. The filesystem key may identify data of the software container within a filesystem on the network element.
US09825978B2

Lateral movement detection may be performed by employing different detection models to score logon sessions. The different detection models may be implemented by and/or utilize counts computed from historical security event data. The different detection models may include probabilistic intrusion detection models for detecting compromised behavior based on logon behavior, a sequence of security events observed during a logon session, inter-event time between security events observed during a logon session, and/or an attempt to logon using explicit credentials. Scores for each logon session that are output by the different detection models may be combined to generate a ranking score for each logon session. A list of ranked alerts may be generated based on the ranking score for each logon session to identify compromised authorized accounts and/or compromised machines. An attack graph may be automatically generated based on compromised account-machine pairs to visually display probable paths of an attacker.
US09825965B2

In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for publicly providing web content of a tenant using a multi-tenant on-demand database service. These mechanisms and methods for publicly providing web content of a tenant using a multi-tenant on-demand database service can allow the web content to be published by a tenant using the multi-tenant on-demand database service for use by non-tenants of the multi-tenant on-demand database service.
US09825957B2

A container that manages access to protected resources using rules to intelligently manage them includes an environment having a set of software and configurations that are to be managed. A rule engine, which executes the rules, may be called reactively when software accesses protected resources. The engine uses a combination of embedded and configurable rules. It may be desirable to assign and manage rules per process, per resource (e.g. file, registry, etc.), and per user. Access rules may be altitude-specific access rules.
US09825955B2

Exchanging information includes receiving an authorization request provided by a data request terminal, generating an authorization information updating instruction based on the authorization request, updating, based on the authorization information updating instruction, authorization information of the data request terminal that is stored on the request processing server, the authorization information indicating that the data request terminal has authorization request processing authority, and causing the data request terminal to acquire a data request result corresponding to data request information.
US09825953B2

Embodiments of the invention are directed to systems, methods, and computer program products for presenting authorized data to a target system. The system is configured to receive an indication from one or more target systems to retrieve data from an authorized data source; receive one or more regulatory parameters associated with the one or more target systems; determine one or more domains associated with the data, wherein the one or more domains comprise at least a transaction domain, a reference and master data domain, a derived domain, and a discovery domain; determine one or more data types associated with each of the one or more domains; transform the data based on at least the one or more regulatory parameters, the one or more data management controls, the one or more domains, and the one or more data types; and transmit the transformed data to the one or more target systems.
US09825952B2

An embodiment of the invention allows a network access server to control network access for individual applications that run on a device. The device may be included in a machine-to-machine environment. The embodiment may provide a secure channel between the network access server and the device access layer and another secure channel between the device access layer and the device application layer. Thus, before applications are allowed to access the network those applications may be required to authenticate themselves via a secure channel. Other embodiments are described herein.
US09825950B2

A method, an apparatus, and a system for controlling access of a user terminal, where the method includes receiving, by a controller, an authentication packet sent by an access switching node through an established data tunnel; obtaining, by the controller, a source media access control (MAC) address of the authentication packet; after access authentication implemented on a user terminal, determining, from a maintained correspondence between MAC addresses of user terminals and interface identifiers, an interface identifier corresponding to the MAC address of the successfully-authenticated user terminal, where the interface identifier identifies an interface connected to the user terminal; and sending, by the controller, the determined interface identifier to the access switching node through an established control tunnel, and instructing the access switching node to enable the interface corresponding to the interface identifier.
US09825948B2

To make a trusted web service call, a client application sends a series of messages to obtain tokens that allow service requests to pass through a service relay. The user obtains a first security token by providing the user's credentials. A second token is obtained from a trust broker that validates the first token. Both tokens are then sent with a service request to a service relay. The service relay validates the second token and then passes the first token and the service request to a connector service. The connector service validates the first token and passes the service request to a target back end service. The connector service acts as the user when communicating with the back end service. Service responses are routed back to the user through the connector service and the service relay.
US09825944B2

A computing device described herein utilizes a secure cryptoprocessor of the computing device to compute a response to a request for authorization received from another local or remote device. The secure cryptoprocessor computes the response based on protected authorization credentials stored by the secure cryptoprocessor for one or more devices. The computing device then provides the computed response to the other device to cause the other device to grant or deny authorization. The computing device may also display information associated with the request for authorization, receive input indicating approval of the request, and utilize the secure cryptoprocessor in response to the received input.
US09825942B2

A method of authenticating a video streaming transmission comprising generating a secure token at an application server, providing the secure token to a user device, receiving the secure token at a media server with a publish request from the user device, transmitting the secure token to the application server for authentication, and authenticating the secure token. The publish request from the user device is enabled if the secure token is authenticated by the application server. The connection between the media server and the user device is terminated if the secure token fails to authenticate.
US09825939B2

An identity federation and security token translation module and method for operable engagement with a web application or an internet information service (IIS). A first server includes computer-executable instructions defining the identity federation and security token translation module for managing and facilitating a creation of a custom security principal object for a user requesting access to the web application. A data cache stores the custom security principal object in a non-transitory computer readable media. The identity federation and security token translation module may be changed without making changes to the web application or the IIS.
US09825936B2

Provided is a system and method for providing a certificate, and more specifically a certificate for network access upon a second system. The method includes, identifying a first system having at least one processor and a plurality of users, each user having at least one attribute; receiving from a third party at least one required attribute for certificate based network access; receiving from a user known to the first system a request for certificate based network layer network access to a second system having at least one processor, the request having at least one identifier; querying the first system with the at least one identifier for attributes associated with the user requesting the certificate based network layer network access to a second system; evaluating the attributes associated with the user requesting the certificate to the at least one predefined attribute; and in response to at least one attribute associated with the user requesting the certificate correlating to the at least one predefined attribute, providing from a system other than the first system, as requested by the user a certificate with at least one characteristic for certificate based network layer network access on the second system, the second system distinct from the first system. An associated system for providing a Certificate is also provided.
US09825930B2

An approach is provided for authorizing one or more services from service providers in a communications network. The approach includes receiving a request from a first service provider, the request having an associated primary token and a secondary token identifier, the secondary token identifier relating to resources of a second service provider. Based, at least in part, on the secondary token identifier, a secondary token is identified; and then the secondary token is sent to the first service provider, wherein the first service provider and the second service provider belong to different trust domains and the first service provider can use the secondary token to access resources of the second service provider.
US09825929B2

A computer system, serves as a first platform, provides a user with a first user account on the first platform. The user has a second user account on a second platform; the second user account includes a second contact identification associated with a contact of the user on the second platform; and the contact has a first contact account on the first platform associated with a first contact identification. The computer system also acquires the second contact identification from the second platform; acquires account information of the first contact account based on the second contact identification; and provides the account information of the first contact account to the user.
US09825926B2

A method for delegating a computational burden from a computationally limited party to a computationally superior party is disclosed. Computations that can be delegated include inversion and exponentiation modulo any number m. This can be then used for sending encrypted messages by a computationally limited party in a standard cryptographic framework, such as RSA. Security of delegating computation is not based on any computational hardness assumptions, but instead on the presence of numerous decoys of the actual secrets.
US09825922B2

A streaming one time pad cipher using rotating ports for data encryption uses a One Time Pad (OTP) to establish multiple secure point-to-point connections. This can be used to implement a streaming OTP point-to-point firewall, virtual private network or other communications facility for communicating secure information across one or more insecure networks.
US09825897B2

Embodiments of the present invention relate to systems and methods for enabling entities, such as issuers, merchants, payment processing networks, and mobile-network operators, to send account-related messages and marketing messages to a user's mobile device in response to a message request sent from the user's mobile device. According to some embodiments, the account-related messages and the marketing messages are sent to the user's mobile device in accordance with message parameters that are defined by the user and that are embedded in the message request.
US09825893B2

Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for broadcasting audio tweets. A system broadcasting audio tweets receives tweets via telephone devices, wherein each listener hears a telephone call of a broadcast on the telephone devices. Each received tweet is associated with one or more tags specifying tweet content, which is used to analyze received tweets. The system presents a display of analyzed tweets for selection to a host. The host selects one or more tweets and broadcasts the selected tweets as part of the broadcast to the telephone devices. Automatic speech recognition can be used to automatically convert received audio tweets to text to enable tagging and analyzing the tweets.
US09825886B2

Graceful restart in routers having redundant routing facilities may be accomplished by replicating network (state/topology) information.
US09825883B2

The present disclosure provides a structured, pipelined large time-space switch and method of operation resolving interconnect complexity. The time-space switch results in an interconnect complexity that does not grow as the spatial dimension is increased and results in a reduction of long high fan-out nets, a quicker layout, and improved clock speed. With respect to time-space switch fabric implementation, the present invention improves the maximum clock frequency of the switch fabric, and improves integrated circuit layout time by eliminating long high fan-out nets. Certain high-speed large switch fabrics may not be realizable without this implementation, and it significantly reduces implementation time (and cost). The present invention may include link encoding of switch frames by mapping 8B10B control characters into an 64B65B format (similar to Generic Framing Protocol-Transparent (GFP-T)), wrapping 32 65B encoded words with an 11-bit error correcting code, and scrambling the frame with a frame synchronous scrambler.
US09825877B2

A system and method for managing dynamically allocated resources assigned to a service includes providing a service to be used by a plurality of sites in a federation. Usage information associated with the service is communicated to each of the plurality of sites. A disposition of the service is determined based on local policies and the usage information received from other sites by a service owner. The disposition of the service is updated across a plurality of sites in accordance with messages sent by the service owner to reduce resource usage.
US09825874B2

The dynamic proportioning of a maximum queue size of a data transport device queue based on throughput parameters may decrease routing latency of a data transport device. A maximum queue size parameter for a data queue may be calculated based on at least a plurality of throughput parameters during routing of data traffic from a data source device to a data recipient device. Subsequently, a maximum queue size of the data queue may be decreased according to the maximum queue size parameter to prevent enqueuing of incoming service frames into the data queue. The lack of enqueueing of the incoming service frames may cause the data source device to retransmit the one or more incoming service frames to the data transport device, instead of allowing the one or more incoming service frames to be enqueued and trapped in the data queue by additional incoming service frames.
US09825860B2

A flow-driven forwarding strategy includes receiving an Interest packet, where the interest packet includes a flow state indicator. The content associated with the Interest packet is checked to determine whether that content is locally stored. Another check is performed to determine whether any previously received Interest packet has requested the content. In response to the content not being locally stored and no related Interest packet has been previously received, the flow state indicator is checked in the Interest packet. In response to the flow state indicator indicating that the Interest packet is associated with an active flow, forwarding information is extracted from a flow state table if a hop count has a value of zero or from the Interest packet if the hop count has a value greater than zero. The Interest packet is then forwarded to a next hop in accordance with the forwarding information.
US09825854B2

A method for a host machine that hosts at least one tenant virtual machine (VM) of a particular tenant logical network that accesses service VMs of a particular service logical network. The method, prior to a packet being received at a PFE on the host, intercepts the packet that sent by the tenant VM to one of the service VMs based on a set of forwarding rules. The packet includes a source IP address and a source port number of the tenant VM. The method, prior to the packet leaving the PFE in the host, replaces the source IP address and source port number with a replacement IP address and port number pair from a set of replacement IP address and port number pairs allocated to the host for accessing service VMs. The method sends the modified packet to the PFE to forward the modified packet to the service VM.
US09825847B2

A system and method for chaining one or more services in a service provider network. A service chaining policy and associated Service Path Identifier (SPID) are determined at an ingress node with respect to a particular data packet flow. If the service chaining policy involves one or more service nodes to be traversed by the data packet flow, each service node's EIDs and RLOCs are determined. A sequential data exchange process with the service nodes is effectuated using encapsulation of data packets based on the EIDs and RLOCs for obtaining services in accordance with the order of services set forth in the chaining policy.
US09825839B2

Edge analytics and other processes for assessing performance of network elements operating at an edge or other remote access point of a service provider network is contemplated. The edge analytics may be facilitated with edge devices connected, embedded or otherwise associated with the network elements collecting data, metrics or other information reflective of the performance thereof.
US09825836B2

A connected computer may be operated as node by inspecting communications from other nodes that pass through that node. From the communications, two or more pointers may be determined for the given node. These pointers may include a first pointer identified by a default designation that links the given node to a first node in the network, and a second pointer to another node. The second pointer may be identified by a determination that a designated criteria has been satisfied after the given node is placed on the network.
US09825833B2

A method and associated systems for using a software-defined network (SDN) controller to automatically test cloud performance. A bandwidth measuring and optimizing system associated with the SDN controller detects a triggering condition and, in response, directs a network-management tool to measure a bandwidth of a segment of a physical infrastructure of a network and directs the SDN controller to provision a virtual machine that then measures a bandwidth of a corresponding segment of virtual infrastructure that is overlaid upon the physical segment. In some embodiments, these two tests are synchronized so as to concurrently measure physical and virtual bandwidths while the same test data passes through the virtual infrastructure segment. The measured bandwidth of the virtual segment is then compared to the measured bandwidth of the physical segment in order to determine an efficiency of the virtual network.
US09825828B2

Described herein is a network device configured to determine and provide alerts of communication link failures across layers of a communication stack of the network device. The network device determines at a radio link layer of the communication stack that a communication link between the network device and a network has failed. The network device then alerts one or more components associated with another layer of the communication stack of the determination that the communication link has failed.
US09825827B2

A method for managing a network queue memory includes receiving sensor information about the network queue memory, predicting a memory failure in the network queue memory based on the sensor information, and outputting a notification through a plurality of nodes forming a network and using the network queue memory, the notification configuring communications between the nodes.
US09825825B2

A system for associating a data collector with a network account includes a first computing device to collect data associated with the use of a number of object devices on a network. The first computing device creates a network account associated with a second computing device, and the first computing device assigns a filename to a data collector data packet. The filename includes information related to the network account associated with the second computing device. The information related to the network account is embedded within binary code of the data collector data packet.
US09825823B2

A technique includes providing at least one service blueprint to orchestrate application programming interfaces to manage the lifecycle of at least one cloud service.
US09825817B2

According to an example of the present disclosure, a service template providing a service may be found according to type of the service. A resource zone matching the service template may be found from a resource pool. A network resource matching a service unit in the service template may be found from the resource zone. A network parameter configured for the service unit may be sent to the network resource.
US09825816B2

Resource-aware dynamic bandwidth control uses information about current network state and receiver performance to avoid, minimize and/or recover from the effects of network spikes and data processing spikes. Linear models may be used to estimate a time required to process data packets in a data processing queue, and are thus useful to determine whether a data processing spike is occurring. When a data processing spike occurs, an alarm may be sent from a client to a server notifying the server that the client must drop packets. In response, the server can encode and transmit an independent packet suitable for replacing the queued data packets which can then be dropped by the client and the independent packet present to the processor instead.
US09825809B2

Aspects of the present disclosure relates to methods, computer readable mediums, and NoC architectures/systems/constructions that can automatically mark and configure some channel of a NoC as store-and-forward channels, and other channels of the NoC as cut-through channels, and can further resize the buffers/channels based on the given NoC specification and associated traffic profile. An aspect of the present disclosure relates to a method for configuring a first set of plurality of channels of a NoC as store-and-forward channels, and configuring a second set of plurality of channels of the NoC as cut-through channels based on the determination of idle cycles in a given NoC specification and associated traffic profile.
US09825807B2

In an embodiment, a method comprises: detecting a change in a multiple-switch configuration in a data communications network comprising a plurality of packet data switches configured as roots of multicast trees. In response to detecting that the multiple-switch configuration has changed, a first value, a second value and a third value representing limits on a number of multicast trees supported in the network and prioritization of the switches are retrieved. The method further comprises determining a type of the multiple-switch configuration change. In response to determining that the type indicates that a first switch was added to the multiple-switch configuration, using at least the first, second and third values, it is determined whether to configure the first switch as a first root in the multiple-switch configuration. The method is performed by one or more computing devices.
US09825794B2

Disclosed is a method for the detection of more than one signals contained in a receive signal, the method comprising: down-converting the receive signal, thereby providing a down-converted signal in a complex IQ base band; at least partially cancelling the strongest user in the down-converted signal, thereby allowing for the detection of a possible secondary user.
US09825793B2

Methods and systems are provided that enable an OFDM transmitter to be used for transmitting conventional OFDM or a form of transformed OFDM. A technique is provided for transforming a coded and modulated sequence of samples prior to an IFFT that enables the transformed sequence of samples to be transmitted using conventional OFDM or transformed OFDM. The selection of a transform function for transforming the coded and modulated sequence of samples may be based on optimizing the transform function for particular operating conditions between the transmitter and receiver. In some embodiments of the invention OFDM and time transformed OFDM are multiplexed in time and/or frequency in a transmission frame. In some embodiments of the invention a pilot pattern is provided in which the pilot are sent using OFDM and data is sent using OFDM and/or transformed OFDM.
US09825791B2

Disclosed are a method and device for receiving a frequency-shift keying signal. The device for receiving a frequency-shift keying signal includes a front-end circuit, complex differential discriminators, and a recovery circuit. The front-end circuit receives a signal transmitted via a frequency-shift keying channel, and generates the baseband signal of the received signal. The complex differential discriminators have a plurality of orders and use the complex conjugate of the baseband signal of the received signal. The recovery circuit recovers symbols by applying a maximum likelihood sequence estimation (MLSE) technique to the output values of the complex differential discriminators having the plurality of orders.
US09825790B1

An electronic toll collection receiver, comprising: an enveloping module configured to envelope an amplitude modulation (AM) signal; an averaging module connected to the enveloping module, configured to obtain an average value of the enveloped AM signal; a direct current blocking module connected to the enveloping module and the averaging module, configured to eliminate the average value from the enveloped AM signal; a comparing module connected to the direct current blocking module, configured to compare the average value and each of amplitude values of the enveloped AM signal; a correcting module connected to the comparing module and the directing current blocking module, configured to correct output values from the comparing module; and a decoder module connected to the correcting module, configured to decode the corrected output values from the correcting module.
US09825777B2

A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes configuring on a network element a first tunnel from the network element to a first network, wherein the configuring comprises mapping a nexthop address of the local network element to a transport address of the tunnel on the network to create a first nexthop-to-transport mapping for the network element; and advertising the first nexthop-to-transport mapping along with routing information for the network element to remote network elements.
US09825775B2

A LIN communication system includes a master controller, and at least one slave controller connected to the master controller via local interconnect network (LIN) communication. The master controller allows the at least one slave controller to enter a sleep mode in a normal situation through a sleep mode message of an unconditional frame provided via the LIN communication and checks a failure state of the at least one slave controller in an abnormal situation.
US09825753B2

Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for enabling improved cancellation of self-interference in full-duplex communications, or the transmitting and receiving of communications in a single frequency band without requiring time, frequency, or code divisions. The system estimates the signal strength and phase of a self-interference signal, generates a cancellation signal based on this estimate, then uses the cancellation signal to suppress the self-interference before sampling received analog signal. After applying the cancellation signal, the system samples and digitizes the remaining analog signal. The digitized signal is then subjected to additional digital cancellation, allowing for extraction of the desired signal.
US09825752B2

In some aspects, the disclosure is directed to methods and systems for in-band full-duplex operation. A first device transmits a frame to a second device wirelessly within a first frequency band, in one or more embodiments. In one or more embodiments, the first device detects, while the transmission of the frame is ongoing, feedback from the second device within the first frequency band. In one or more embodiments, the feedback is in response to the ongoing transmission of the frame. In one or more embodiments, the first device determines, responsive to the feedback, whether to stop the ongoing transmission of the frame or to update a transmission parameter for the ongoing transmission within the first frequency band.
US09825744B2

A method of transmitting a signal using a plurality of modulation and coding schemes by a transmitter in a wireless communication system is provided. The method includes when a position of an active tone hits a position of a pilot tone of an adjacent cell, the active tone corresponding to a tone boosted through an application of a hybrid Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) and Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) Modulation (FQAM) scheme among tones included in an FQAM symbol based on the FQAM scheme in which a QAM scheme and a FSK scheme are combined, detecting two or more tones, which do not hit the position of the pilot tone among the tones included in the FQAM symbol, and transmitting signals by using the detected two or more tones.
US09825740B2

A carrier aggregation transmission method and apparatus are provided. The method includes: bearing N carriers in a preset band, where N is a positive integer greater than 1, and a nominal bandwidth values of the carriers are less than or equal to 5 MHz; aggregating the N carriers, to make nominal channel spacing between adjacent carriers among the N carriers is integral multiples of 0.2 MHz; and transmitting the N aggregated carriers. Besides, by further appropriately setting the chip rate corresponding to the carriers with different nominal bandwidths, the performance of small-bandwidth and narrow-bandwidth aggregation systems is efficiently improved, and existing hardware and algorithms can be reused.
US09825730B1

A serial communication link includes a receiver and a transmitter coupled to the receiver by a first serial communication lane operating at a first speed, and a second serial communication lane operating at a second speed. The second speed is slower than the first speed. The transmitter can include bit steering logic that receives a data stream, provides a first number of bits of the data stream to the first serial communication lane, and provides a second number of bits to the second serial communication lane. The proportion of the first number of bits to the second number of bits is the same as a proportion of the first speed to the second speed.
US09825728B2

A processor executes the following processes. An obtainment process obtains a first number of lines, which represents a number of lines that are deleted after changing, among lines that pass through the same line route. An extraction process extracts a line for which a first demand, which is accommodated before and after changing, does not exist. The extraction process further extracts lines in descending order of a band of the first demand from among lines including first demands until a total number of extracted lines reaches the first number of lines when the number of the extracted lines is smaller than the first number of lines. Then, a fixation process fixes a first demand accommodated in a line that has not been extracted. A deletion process deletes the extracted lines. A determination process determines an order of changing line routes of demands.
US09825724B2

According to some embodiments, a master device sends synchronization packets to one or more slave devices, and does so periodically based on a master clock signal having a master clock frequency. At each of the slave devices, an algorithm estimates the master clock frequency based on the timing of synchronization packet arrivals the slave device. The algorithm may estimate the master clock frequency using both the currently-observed timing of synchronization packet arrivals and the history of previous synchronization packet arrivals (e.g., previously-observed timing of synchronization packet arrivals). Based on the estimated master clock frequency, each of the one or more slave devices can update the frequency of their respective slave clock signal (e.g., using a frequency offset) to match that of the estimated master clock frequency.
US09825718B2

A system for mobile device localization is provided with a primary device. The primary device is configured to transmit a first signal at a first transmission power level to a secondary device and to receive a response signal that is indicative of a signal strength indicator of the first signal as received by the secondary device. The primary device is further configured to determine a second transmission power level based on the signal strength indicator; transmit a second signal at the second transmission power level to the secondary device; and to determine a distance between the primary device and the secondary device based on a filtered transmission power level value.
US09825717B2

Method for testing a radio frequency (RF) data packet signal transceiver device under test (DUT) including detecting transitions between RF data packet signal transmission and reception by the DUT, detecting transitions between different RF data packet signal transmission operations by the DUT, and detecting transitions between different RF data packet signal reception operations by the DUT.
US09825716B2

The present disclosure provides a method in a base station of a radio network for antenna calibration of a first transceiver of the base station with respect to a second transceiver. The method comprises at least one of a first group and a second group of steps. The first group of steps comprises collecting a first group of amplitude and phase differences between a first calibration signal and each of a first and a fourth reception signals and between a second calibration signal and each of a second and a third reception signals. The first group of steps further comprises estimating, based on the first group of amplitude and phase differences, a signal response characteristic difference between a calibration reception chain of the first transceiver and a calibration reception chain of the second transceiver for reference antenna reception calibration of the first transceiver with respect to the second transceiver.
US09825709B2

A traveling wave amplifier includes: a first line to transmit an input signal; an output-side line to transmit an output signal; amplifiers each having an input node and an output node, the input nodes being connected with the first line at first intervals and receiving the input signal, each of the amplifiers amplifying a signal input to the input node and outputting the amplified signal from the output node, the output nodes being connected with the output-side line at second intervals and generating the output signal; a second line to transmit another input signal having a phase opposite to a phase of the input signal; a first resistor having a first end connected with the first line and a second end; and a second resistor having a first end connected with the second line and a second end connected with the second end of the first resistor.
US09825708B2

A compensation apparatus and method for inter-channel nonlinear damage are disclosed where the apparatus includes: an iteration parameter determining unit configured to determine an iteration step of cross-phase modulation damage compensation performed in each channel in a multichannel optical fiber transmission link; an estimating unit configured to divide an optical fiber transmission link in each iteration step of each channel into one or more optical fiber segments, and perform cross-phase modulation damage estimation at a position in each optical fiber segment where the nonlinear damage is maximal; and a first compensating unit configured to perform cross-phase modulation damage compensation according to the result of the cross-phase modulation damage estimation. By performing cross-phase modulation damage estimation at a position in each optical fiber segment where the nonlinear damage is maximal, cross-phase modulation damage compensation may be performed effectively, and performance of the communication system may be improved.
US09825706B2

A multiplexed sensor system includes a control unit in communication with a plurality of sensors. A plurality of optic fibers defines a communication path between the plurality of sensors and the control unit. A multiplexing portion communicates with a plurality of sensors along a common one of the plurality of optic fibers and a protected channel through which at least a portion of the optic fibers are routed. The protected channel at least partially surrounds the optic fibers and shields the optic fibers from an environment outside the protected channel. A cooling flow is provided through the protective channel for minimizing temperature fluctuations within the protective channel. A method is also disclosed.
US09825705B2

The system of the present invention includes a plurality of ONTs adapted to provide multiple voice and data related services to different subscribers. Each of the plurality of ONTs comprises at least one receiver adapted to receive optical signals, a de-multiplexer to de-multiplex the optical signal into component signals, at least one transmitter and at least one output port. Further, the system includes a plurality of routers operatively coupled to the each of the plurality of ONTs. Furthermore, the system includes a plurality of subscriber devices communicably coupled to each of the plurality of routers. The subscriber devices are adapted to receive the de-multiplexed component signals routed by the corresponding router and provide data and voice services to the particular subscriber. Each of the ONTs configures separate domains for each of the routers operatively coupled thereto so as to enable sharing of the ONT.
US09825704B2

A modulation device includes: a modulation ID signal generator that generates a first ID signal including first identification information; a reception terminal capable of receiving a second ID signal including second identification information; a transmission terminal capable of transmitting the first ID signal and the second ID signal out of the modulation device; a detector that detects a received state in which the second ID signal is received by the reception terminal and an unreceived state in which the second ID signal is not received by the reception terminal; and a switch circuit that outputs the first ID signal to the transmission terminal when the detector detects the unreceived state and outputs the second ID signal to the transmission terminal when the detector detects the received state.
US09825703B2

An optical communication device and a control method thereof are provided. The optical communication device includes a driving module, a data transmission module, a light emitting module, and a feedback module. The driving module generates a driving current. The data transmission module generates a data current according to a piece of data. The light emitting module is electrically connected to the driving module and the data transmission module directly and emits visible light according to an illuminating current generated by combining the driving current with the data current. The feedback module adjusts a direct current (DC) potential of one of the driving current and the data current so as to make an average intensity of the visible light equal a preset intensity.
US09825694B2

Aspects of methods and systems for transceiver array synchronization are provided. An array based communications system comprises a plurality of transceiver circuits and an array coordinator. Each transceiver circuit of the plurality of transceiver circuits comprises a plurality of wireless transmitters and a local oscillator generator. Each wireless transmitter of the plurality of wireless transmitters is able to modulate a local oscillator signal from the local oscillator generator based on a weighted sum of a plurality of digital datastreams. The array coordinator is able to adjust a phase of a first local oscillator signal based on a phase difference between the first local oscillator signal and a second local oscillator signal. The first local oscillator signal is generated by a first local oscillator generator of a first transceiver circuit. The second local oscillator signal is generated by a second local oscillator generator of a second transceiver circuit.
US09825688B2

An audio device capable of intelligently switching between multiple antennas is provided. The audio device receives a wireless signal by a default receiving antenna, determines signal quality metrics of the wireless signal received by various antennas, compares the signal quality metrics of the wireless signal received by the various antennas, and selects a receiving antenna from the various antennas to receive the wireless signal based on the comparison of the signal quality metrics of the wireless signal received by the various antennas.
US09825685B1

Systems and methods are described for performing beam forming at multiple access nodes. A first access node may receive a signal level from a wireless device that fails to meet a signal level criteria. It may be determined that beam forming is enabled at the first access node. Beam forming data may then be communicated between the first access node and a second access node. It may also be determined whether coordinated multipoint transmissions are enabled at the first access node. Beams transmitted from the first access node and the second access node may be adjusted based on whether coordinated multipoint transmissions are enabled from the first access node.
US09825664B2

A holder for a mobile telecommunications terminal, in particular a smartphone, has a receptacle for the terminal. The holder has a first locking mechanism by which the smartphone can be locked in the receptacle. There is also described a system for fastening a smartphone to a shopping trolley handle, a base station for accommodating a plurality of holders and a method for fastening a smartphone to a shopping trolley handle.
US09825661B2

An integrated multi-user satellite receiver includes: a single-chip, and the single-chip includes: a first synthesizer for generating a first oscillating signal having a first frequency; a first frequency multiplier for generating a second oscillating signal having a second frequency according to the first oscillating signal; a second synthesizer for generating a third oscillating signal having a third frequency; and a second frequency multiplier for generating a fourth oscillating signal having a fourth frequency according to the third oscillating signal; wherein the single-chip generates a first down-converted signal according to a first satellite signal and the second oscillating signal, generates a second down-converted signal according to the first satellite signal and the fourth oscillating signal, generates a third down-converted signal according to a second satellite signal and the second oscillating signal, and generates a fourth down-converted signal according to the second satellite signal and the fourth oscillating signal.
US09825660B2

Systems, devices and methods related to diversity receivers. In some embodiments, a receiving system can include a controller configured to selectively activate one or more of a plurality of paths between an input and an output, and a plurality of amplifiers, with each one of the plurality of amplifiers disposed along a corresponding one of the plurality of paths and configured to amplify a signal received at the amplifier. The receiving system can further include two or more of features including (a) variable-gain amplifiers, (b) phase-shifting components, (c) impedance matching components, (d) post-amplifier filters, (e) a switching network, and (f) flexible band routing. In some embodiments, such a receiving system can be implemented as a diversity receive (DRx) module.
US09825658B2

A distortion compensation apparatus includes a retention unit that retains a coefficient for distortion compensation for each of a plurality of time segments of a burst signal that keeps a constant power level, and a distortion compensation unit that, by using a coefficient for a time segment that corresponds to elapsed time from a head of the burst signal among the coefficients retained by the retention unit, executes distortion compensation for the time segment.
US09825653B2

The present invention provides a radio architecture that contains a main radio path and a sensing path. The parameters of the main radio path are controlled by a cognitive engine. The main radio path is tuned to a desired frequency band. The sensing path is used to monitor the spectrum around the desired frequency band. To minimize effects of undesired non-linearity on sensing, sensing path may have a lower gain setting. The cognitive engine determines the optimal setting of the main RF front-end with respect to the current state of the spectrum.
US09825651B2

An operating method of a controller includes: a first step of generating an internal codeword including an ECC unit data and an internal parity code by performing ECC decoding operation to an input data; a second step of updating an external parity code based on the ECC unit data, which is included in the internal codeword currently generated, and the ECC unit data, which is included in the internal codeword previously generated; and a third step of storing in a semiconductor memory device one or more internal codewords and the updated external parity code, which are generated through repetition of the first and second steps, by a unit of predetermined storage size.
US09825650B2

This invention provides a cyclically-coupled (CC-) quasi-cyclic (QC-) low-density parity-check (LDPC) code and its decoder architecture. The essence of the invention is to introduce the convolutional nature to a plurality of individual block codes internally so as to form a resultant block code with a prolonged code length while slightly increasing the hardware complexity in decoder realization. The CC-QC-LDPC code is formed by cyclically coupling a plurality of sub-codes each being a QC-LDPC code such that overlapping of some variable nodes between two consecutive sub-codes results. The decoder comprises plural sub-decoders each configured to decode the channel messages for one sub-code. The sub-decoders are arranged in a ring shape such that an individual sub-decoder is configured to communicate edge messages with two neighboring sub-decoders adjacent to said individual sub-decoder in the decoding of the channel messages. The sub-decoders are configured to operate concurrently for simultaneously decoding individual sub-codes.
US09825647B1

In one embodiment, an apparatus comprises a decompression engine to perform a non-speculative decode operation on a first portion of a first compressed payload comprising a first plurality of codes; and perform a speculative decode operation on a second portion of the first compressed payload, wherein the non-speculative decode operation and the speculative decode operation share at least one decode path and the non-speculative decode operation is to utilize bandwidth of the at least one decode path that is not used by the non-speculative decode operation.
US09825643B1

A digital to analog conversion, DAC, device for converting digital signals to analog signals comprises a RF output for outputting the analog signals, a thermometer segment comprising a first number of data slices and a second number calibration slices, and a calibration controller, which electrically disconnects one of the data slices from the RF output and at the same time connects one of the calibration slices to the RF output as replacement slice for the respective data slice and performs a calibration of the disconnected data slice.
US09825642B2

A subsystem configured to implement an analog to digital converter that includes a high speed comparator with an embedded reference voltage level that functions as a calibrated threshold. A calibration element applies power to a reference voltage system. The calibration element then selects a differential analog voltage and applies the differential analog voltage to the inputs of the comparator. A digitally coded signal then configures an array of switches that connect complements of integrated resistors to each input of the comparator so that the switching point of the comparator occurs coincident with the applied differential analog reference voltage, nulling out the effect of the applied differential analog voltage and comparator errors. The calibration element then removes power from the reference voltage system. As a result, the comparator is configured with an embedded threshold that equals the differential analog reference voltage.
US09825641B1

A reconfigurable sensor monitoring system includes software tunable filters, each of which is programmable to condition one type of analog signal. A processor coupled to the software tunable filters receives each type of analog signal so-conditioned.
US09825630B2

A Single-Pole-Single-Throw (SPST) switch for RF application is disclosed that can include a semiconductor MOSFET transistor T, wherein its drain terminal can be connected to a resistor R3 and capacitor C2. It can have a source terminal connected to a resistor R1 and capacitor C1, a gate terminal connected to resistor R2, a body connected by resistor R4 to GND, and the body can be connected to the anode of a diode DE The Cathode of diode D1 can be connected to a power supply Vdd through a resistor R6. The Cathode of diode D1 can also be connected to the cathode of another diode D2. The anode of D2 can be connected to GND through resistor R5. Capacitor C1 can be connected to an I/O port P1, and capacitor C2 can be connected to an I/O port P2. Inductor L1 can connect to ports P1 and P2, while inductor L2 can connect the source terminal and drain terminal of MOSPET T. This disclosure also provides a Single-Pole-Double-Throw (SPDT) switch and Single-Pole-Multiple-Throw (SPMT) switch based on the proposed SPST concept. The SPST disclosed can offer higher isolation and higher linearity to the transmit (TX) arm of the Radio-Frequency Front-End-Module (RF FEM), while maintaining relatively good performance in the receive (RX) arm of the RF FEM.
US09825628B2

An electronic device includes a transmission interface and a control circuit. The transmission interface includes a signal reference contact and a signal transmission contact. The control circuit is electrically coupled between the signal reference contact and a ground layer, in which the control circuit is configured to selectively conduct the signal reference contact and the ground layer, and when the signal reference contact and the ground layer are conducted, the signal transmission contact is configured to transmit a first signal, and when the signal reference contact the ground layer are not conducted, the signal reference contact is configured to transmit a second signal. A transmission frequency of the second signal is less than a transmission frequency of the first signal.
US09825627B2

An apparatus for performing signal driving in an electronic device may include a decoupling capacitor and at least one switching unit (e.g. one or more switching units). The decoupling capacitor may have a first terminal and a second terminal, and may be positioned in an output stage within the electronic device and coupled between a first predetermined voltage level and another predetermined voltage level, where the apparatus may perform signal driving with aid of the output stage. In addition, the aforementioned at least one switching unit may be coupled between one terminal of the first and the second terminals of the decoupling capacitor and at least one of the first predetermined voltage level and the other predetermined voltage level, and may be arranged for selectively disabling the decoupling capacitor.
US09825624B2

In the case of reducing an effect of variations in current characteristics of transistors by inputting a signal current to a transistor in a pixel, a potential of a wiring is detected by using a precharge circuit. In the case where there is a difference between a predetermined potential and the potential of the wiring, a charge is supplied to the wiring to perform a precharge by charging rapidly. When the potential of the wiring reaches the predetermined potential, the supply of charge is stopped and a signal current only is supplied. Thus, a precharge is performed only in a period until the potential of the wiring reaches the predetermined potential, therefore, a precharge can be performed for an optimal period.
US09825622B2

A cascode switch circuit includes a first transistor, a second transistor, and a protector. A first transistor receives a signal from a first terminal through a first end and transfers the signal to a second end in response to a first control signal. A second transistor delivers the signal that the first transistor transfers to a second terminal in response to a second control signal. A protector is connected between a gate of the first transistor and the second terminal. The first control signal is provided to allow the first transistor to operate in a normally-on state. The second control signal is provided to allow the second transistor to operate in a normally-off state.
US09825620B2

A method and apparats for undervoltage detection and correction is disclosed. An IC includes sensors implemented in various functional circuit blocks. The sensors are implemented using ring oscillators, and may be characterized by a polynomial. The sensors are used to monitor a supply voltage provided to a corresponding functional unit. The sensors provide information indicative of the voltage on the supply voltage node over successive clock cycles. Comparison circuitry may be used to compare the detected voltage to one or more voltage thresholds, while delta comparison circuitry may be used to determine a slope, or rate of change of the voltage. Based on comparisons performed by the comparison circuitry and the delta comparison circuitry, control circuitry may determine if one or more voltage correction actions are to be taken in order to bring the voltage on the supply node into a specified range.
US09825617B2

A circuit and method for digital controlling the slew rate of load voltage are provided. The circuit is comprised of a digital slew-rate control unit that utilizes a feedback signal to generate control signals where the feedback signal indicates the observed rate of voltage change on the load. The circuit is further comprised of a load driver circuit that is operated by the control signals and provides a slew-rate controlled output voltage used to operate a load switch, where the load switch provides power to the load. The circuit is configured to operate the load switch using a slew-rate controlling driver, depending on the state of the load switch transition, and a non-controlling driver.
US09825611B2

Multi-band filters and communications devices are disclosed. A multi-band filter has a lower pass-band and an upper pass-band separated by an intervening stop-band. The multi-band filter includes a first ladder network and a second ladder network coupled in series. The first ladder network is configured to provide transmission zeros at frequencies below a lower edge of the lower pass-band and transmission zeros at frequencies above an upper edge of the upper pass-band. The second ladder network is configured to provide transmission zeros at frequencies within the intervening stop-band.
US09825606B2

A wireless communication device and a filter are provided. The filter has an input end and an output end and includes a first energy storage element, a first series resonant circuit, a second series resonant circuit, a first parallel resonant circuit and a second parallel resonant circuit. The first and the second series resonant circuits respectively have a first capacitor and a first inductor connected in series. The first and the second parallel resonant circuits respectively have a second capacitor and a second inductor connected in parallel. The first series resonant circuit and the first parallel resonant circuit are electrically connected in cascade between a first end of the first energy storage element and a ground, and the second series resonant circuit and the second parallel resonant circuit are electrically connected in cascade between a second end of the first energy storage element and the ground.
US09825600B2

An electronic device includes a waveform generator, a comparator, and an amplifier. The waveform generator receives a voltage from a power supply to the electronic device and outputs a voltage waveform signal. The comparator compares an input signal and the voltage waveform signal to output a first pulse-width-modulated signal. The amplifier receives the first pulse-width-modulated signal and outputs a second pulse-width-modulated signal.
US09825596B2

Various embodiments of switched amplifiers are disclosed herein. In some embodiments, a switched amplifier may include a first amplifier; a second amplifier; an input matching network common to both the first and second amplifiers; and at least one switch to couple an input of the switched amplifier, via the input matching network, to one of the first amplifier or the second amplifier. In some embodiments, a switched amplifier may include a first amplifier; a second amplifier; an input matching network common to both the first and second amplifiers or an output matching network common to both the first and second amplifiers; and a bias generation circuit to selectively (1) provide a first bias current to the first amplifier or (2) provide a second bias current to the second amplifier, wherein the second bias current is less than the first bias current.
US09825594B2

A power amplification module includes: a first transistor that amplifies a first radio frequency signal and outputs a second radio frequency signal; a second transistor that amplifies the second radio frequency signal and outputs a third radio frequency signal; and first and second bias circuits that supply first and second bias currents to bases of the first and second transistors. The first bias circuit includes a third transistor that outputs the first bias current from its emitter or source, a capacitor that is input with the first radio frequency signal and connected to the base of the first transistor, a first resistor connected between the emitter or source of the third transistor and the base of the first transistor, a second resistor connected between the capacitor and the emitter or source of the third transistor, and a third resistor connected between the capacitor and the base of the first transistor.
US09825585B2

Discussed is a solar cell measuring apparatus to measure a current of a solar cell having a photoelectric converter and first and second electrodes electrically insulated from each other, both the first and second electrodes being located at one surface of the photoelectric converter. The solar cell measuring apparatus includes a measuring unit which includes a first measuring member corresponding to the first electrode and a second measuring member corresponding to the second electrode, wherein the first and second measuring members comes into close contact with the solar cell at the surface of the photoelectric converter to measure the current of the solar cell.
US09825578B2

Object of the present disclosure is to improve accuracy of over-temperature protection of an electric motor. A control device controls an inverter main circuit for driving the electric motor. An electric power conversion circuit controller acquires DC voltage input to the inverter main circuit, output voltage of the inverter main circuit, motor amperage of current flowing through the electric motor, and motor frequencies indicating rotation rate of the electric motor. Based on at least one of the DC voltage, output voltage, motor amperage and motor frequencies, a motor loss estimator calculates a stator loss and rotor loss, each including fundamental and harmonic losses of the electric motor. Based on the inverter output voltage, stator loss and rotor loss, the electric power conversion circuit controller outputs an actual control value for control of the inverter main circuit.
US09825568B2

A drive system has: a three-phase motor, having: a shaft, a first three-phase winding set, having: a three-phase stator winding for connection to a three-phase alternating voltage network and a three-phase rotor winding, which is coupled to the shaft in a mechanical, rotationally fixed manner, a second three-phase winding set, having: a three-phase stator winding for connection to the three-phase alternating voltage network in such a manner that rotary field is produced that runs in the opposite direction to a rotary field that is produced by the stator winding of the first winding set.
US09825566B2

A control circuit of a motor control apparatus includes a shift range switchover control part for rotationally driving a rotor of the motor to a target position, which corresponds to a target shift range, a wall-hitting control part for rotating the rotor until the driven body hits one of limit positions of a movable range of the driven body at a speed lower than that of the rotor controlled by the shift range switchover control part, and a speed check part for checking whether a rotation speed of the rotor is within a predetermined speed range, when the rotor is rotated by the wall-hitting control part. The wall-hitting control part limits a power supply angular interval to be smaller when the rotation speed of the rotor is within the predetermined speed range than when the rotation speed of the rotor is lower than the predetermined speed range.
US09825564B2

A motor controller includes a square wave voltage generator and adding circuitry for adding the square wave voltage to a first drive voltage that is connectable to the stator windings of a motor. A current monitor for monitoring the input current to the motor as a result of the square wave voltage. A device for determining the position of the rotor based on the input current.
US09825555B2

A semiconductor control device includes a switching element including a main element, and a sense element connected in parallel with the main element; and a control circuit configured to bias a sense electrode of the sense element by a negative voltage, and to detect a leakage current of another switching element connected in series with the main element. The control circuit biases the sense electrode by the negative voltage, for example, so as to turn on the sense element, without turning on the main element.
US09825546B2

Circuits that provide an auxiliary power supply on the secondary side of an isolated switched-mode power converter are described. Such an auxiliary supply may be used to provide power to a secondary side controller or to other circuitry in the secondary side of the power converter. During at least a start-up phase of the power converter, the secondary side auxiliary power supply is supplied power by use of a self-starting primary side driver that operates autonomously until the secondary side controller is fully operational. Circuits and methods for such a self-starting primary side driver are provided. The techniques disclosed provide for a secondary side auxiliary power supply that uses minimal additional circuitry.
US09825529B2

A voltage conversion control apparatus is a voltage conversion control apparatus which controls a voltage converter having an upper switching element and a lower switching element, and has a calculating device which calculates duty ratio such that output current of an electricity storage apparatus reaches target value and the duty ratio is within predetermined allowable range; a limit relaxing device which relaxes at least one of upper limit value and lower limit value of the allowable range on the basis of magnitude relationship between predetermined threshold value and current deviation which is obtained by subtracting the output current from the target value; and a controlling device which controls the upper switching element and the lower switching element to perform a switching control on the basis of the duty ratio which is calculated by the calculating device.
US09825523B2

A converter control arrangement (18) for regulating the output current of a dc source power converter (16) comprises a current regulator (20) for regulating the output current based on a comparison of an output current value (Iout) of the dc source power converter (16) with a desired target current value (Itgt). When the output voltage value (Vout) of the dc source power converter (16) is within a normal operating voltage range between minimum and maximum voltage values (Vmin, Vmax) defined with respect to a voltage reference value (Vref) of the dc source power converter (16), the converter control arrangement (18) controls the target current value (Itgt) so that it is equal to a desired reference current value (Iref). When the output voltage value (Vout) is outside the normal operating voltage range, which typically indicates a fault condition, the converter control arrangement (18) modulates the reference current value (Iref) to provide a target current value (Itgt) that is less than the reference current value (Iref).
US09825514B1

An induction motor or generator assembly for converting either of an electrical input or rotating work input to a mechanical or electrical output. An outer annular arrayed component is rotatable in a first direction and includes a plurality of magnets. An inner concentrically arrayed and reverse rotating component exhibits a plurality of outwardly facing and circumferentially spaced array of coil-subassemblies opposing the magnetic elements, such that a gap separates the coil-subassemblies from the magnets. The coil sub-assemblies each include a plurality of concentrically arrayed coils configured within a platform support of the inner component. A drive box including a sleeve shaped trunk and a base, a pair of rotatable wheels supported at annular offset locations of said base and receiving looped ends of a belt, said belt also channeling upper and lower pulley rings associated with said inner and outer components.
US09825512B2

A laminated core manufacturing method is linearly arranging and punching out a plurality of separate core pieces formed of a back yoke portion and a magnetic-pole teeth portion protruding from the back yoke portion and die-cut caulking. The manufacturing method includes: a first step of punching out a first region located on an opposite side to the magnetic-pole teeth portion between adjacent ends of the back yoke portions of the core pieces; a second step of punching out a second region located on a side of the magnetic-pole teeth portion between the adjacent ends of the back yoke portions of the core pieces; a third step of punching out a region that brings the first region punched out in the first step and the second region punched out in the second step into communication; and a fourth step of forming the magnetic-pole teeth portion by punching.
US09825510B2

An electrical machine system includes a stator having a conical stator surface defining a rotary axis. A rotor is operatively connected to the stator for rotation relative thereto, wherein the rotor includes a conical rotor surface. A conical gap is defined between the conical surfaces of the stator and rotor about the rotary axis. An actuator is operatively connected to at least one of the stator and rotor for relative linear motion along the rotary axis of the stator and rotor to change the conical gap, wherein the actuator provides relative linear motion between a first position for a first conical gap width and a second position for a second conical gap width different form the first conical gap width. In both the first and second positions the full axial length of one of the rotor or stator is axially within the axial length of the other.
US09825507B2

It comprises a rotor and a stator that they both may be formed of a single piece or they may be formed of a number of sectors. The generator further comprises at least one active module unit as an independent unit from both the rotor and the stator. The active module unit includes at least one permanent magnet, a magnet support structure attached thereto, a first attaching mechanism to removably attach the magnet support structure to the rotor or the stator, at least one coil module comprising at least one coil winding and a magnetic core, and a second attaching mechanism to removably attach the coil module to the other of the rotor or the stator. The coil module is spaced apart from the permanent magnet a predetermined distance.
US09825501B2

An electric motor for high speed operation use and a rotor which enables use of common parts with electric motors for low speed operation use and which thereby enables reduction of the manufacturing costs. The rotor is provided with a shaft, a rotor core which is fastened to the shaft at the outside in the radial direction and has a first end face at one end in the axial direction and a second end face at the other end in the axial direction, a plurality of conductors which are arranged at the rotor core, and a pair of end rings which are respectively arranged adjoining the first end face and the second end face and which short-circuit the plurality of conductors with each other. The shaft has an outer circumference, while the end rings have outer circumferences which are arranged concentrically with respect to the outer circumference of the shaft.
US09825500B2

A ripple spring includes a body including a central portion having a substantially sinusoidal shaped surface and a substantially planar end portion extending from each end of the central portion. A stator bar may include an armor layer including a novalac epoxy resin impregnated glass composite.
US09825499B2

An axial gap electrical machine employs unique architecture to (1) overcome critical limits in the air gap at high speeds, while maintaining high torque performance at low speeds, while synergistically providing a geometry that withstands meets critical force concentration within these machines, (2) provides arrangements for cooling said machines using either a Pelletier effect or air fins, (3) “windings” that are produced as ribbon or stampings or laminates, that may be in some cases be arranged to optimize conductor and magnetic core density within the machine. Arrangements are also proposed for mounting the machines as wheels of a vehicle, to provide ease of removing and installing said motor.
US09825487B2

An apparatus includes: a storage battery including one or more storage batteries and electrically connected to a predetermined load; a detector which detects a power outage state in which no electric power is being supplied from a power system; a first switch between the power system and the storage battery; and a controller which controls at least the first switch. When the detector detects the power outage state, the controller turns off the first switch to electrically disconnect the storage battery and the power system, and the storage battery causes the one or more storage batteries to discharge and supplies electric power to the controller and the predetermined load.
US09825486B2

Methods and systems are described for using detection coils to detect metallic or conductive foreign objects that can interfere with the wireless transfer of power from a power transmitter to a power receiver. In particular, the detection coils are targeted to foreign objects that are smaller than a power transmitter coil in the power transmitter.
US09825467B2

A building energy control system and method are provided. The building energy control system may include a user interface unit configured to display an energy control situation and an energy control guide that corresponds to the energy control situation to manage a building and a facility, and to receive an input according to the energy control guide and an energy control unit configured to control energy consumption in the building and the facility through control of the building and facility according to the input.
US09825461B2

A modular direct current power distribution network includes a first power distribution block including a first housing, a first main power storage device enclosed within the housing, a first plurality of device connection ports in the housing, and at least one first transistor controlling the connection from the first main power storage device to the first plurality of device connection ports, at least one external device, the at least one external device having a power exchange port electrically connected to a device connection port of the first plurality of device connection ports and an individual power storage device electrically connected to the power exchange port, and a first controller configured to sense a load sharing threshold event matching a load sharing threshold, and to modify the state of the at least one first transistor in response to the load sharing threshold condition.
US09825460B2

A cable drop compensation circuit includes a current detection circuit, a compensation judgment circuit, and a compensation circuit. The current detection circuit detects a load current supplied to a load by a DC output circuit, so as to generate a current detection signal. The compensation judgment circuit receives the current detection signal, and generates a judgment signal when judging the load current higher than a predetermined compensation value. When receiving the judgment signal, the compensation circuit generates a compensation signal. In response to the compensation signal, the DC output circuit raises an output voltage by a compensation voltage.
US09825458B2

A device is provided for intrinsically safe redundant current supply of field devices with a common current-limiting resistor in the mesh of the field device and with redundant current supply units. A current sensor can be provided in the mesh of the field device, the output signal of which sensor is connected to a controllable voltage source in the redundant current supply units.
US09825443B2

A power transfer unit is disclosed. In a first implementation of the disclosed power transfer unit, a tubular assembly of the power transfer unit includes an encapsulated elbow hinge design with a reduced profile that permits substantially off-center installation of the housings of the power transfer unit. In a second implementation of the disclosed power transfer unit, the tubular assembly includes an inverted, telescoping tubing design that does not come apart during installation and use, and in some implementations may act as a stop for a closable member.
US09825438B2

Switchgear includes a duct by which inside portions of a plurality of cable compartments are linked each other; and a gas flow direction restriction device by which high-pressure gas is flowed only in a predetermined direction in the duct when the high-pressure gas is generated at the inside of any of the cable compartments in the plurality of cable compartments; in which the high-pressure gas can be ejected from a predetermined portion of the switchgear to the outside without increasing outer dimensions of the switchgear in accordance with an internal fault in the cable compartments.
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