US09843936B2

A method for allocating communication channels to access points in a communications network comprising: identifying, amongst the access points, one or more interference-prone pairs of access points, wherein each interference-prone pair comprises a first access point and a second access point that are currently using the same or overlapping communication channels to communicate with their respective client user devices, determining the number N of non-overlapping channels that are available for allocating to the access points; allocating the N non-overlapping channels between the access points in such a way as minimize the number of interference-prone pairs of access points; and where an access point cannot be allocated any one of the N channels without it comprising part of an interference-prone pair, selecting a particular one of the N channels to allocate to the access point based on a selection criterion.
US09843934B1

A computer-implemented method for detecting public networks may include (1) calculating, based on packet information collected from a set of client devices, a count of unique client devices communicating with a local area wireless network over a period of time, (2) determining that the count of unique client devices exceeds a predefined security threshold number of unique client devices, (3) estimating, based on determining that the count of unique client devices exceeds the predefined security threshold number, that the local area wireless network corresponds to a public wireless network, (4) receiving a request for information indicating whether the local area wireless network corresponds to a public wireless network, and (5) transmitting, in response to the request, a network packet indicating that the local area wireless network has been flagged as the public wireless network. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US09843929B2

A method and system for connecting an Internet of Things (IoT) hub to a wireless network. One embodiment of the method includes establishing a secure communication channel between an IoT hub and an IoT service through a client device using a first secret; generating a second secret on the client device and transmitting it to the IoT hub; encrypting a wireless key using the second secret to generate a first-encrypted key and transmitting it to the IoT service; encrypting the first-encrypted key using the first secret to generate a twice-encrypted key and transmitting it to the IoT hub over the secure communication channel; decrypting the twice-encrypted key at the IoT hub using the first secret to generate the first-encrypted key and decrypting it using the second secret to generate the wireless key usable to establish a secure wireless connection between the IoT hub and the local wireless network.
US09843928B2

A method and apparatus is provided for connecting a communication device to a deployable system. The deployable system obtains at least one deployable key derived on a fixed system for the deployable system based on an existing key stored on a database of the fixed system, wherein the existing key is used to authenticate a communication device. The deployable system stores the derived key. Subsequent to the storing, the deployable system is activated to provide communication resources to communication devices disconnected from the fixed system. The activated deployable system is not connected to the fixed system. The activated deployable system receives an authentication request from the communication device requesting connection to the deployable system; generates authentication vectors using the at least one derived deployable key; and authenticates an authentication response received from the communication device using the authentication vectors.
US09843927B2

Variable subscriber identifiers (V-SubIds) for protecting subscriber privacy are generated and managed. In one aspect, an Anonymous Customer Reference Services (ACRS) component generates a V-SubId, which is a short-lived subscriber identifier that is inserted in a request received from a user equipment during request enrichment. Moreover, a different V-SubId can be inserted in subsequent request from the user equipment and thus, cross-site behavior tracking can be mitigated. In one aspect, the V-SubId can be exchanged for a subscriber identifier (SubId) associated with the user equipment, upon query by trusted systems/applications. Further, the V-SubId can be exchanged for a site-specific Anonymous Customer Reference (ACR) upon query by untrusted systems/applications, if user authorization is received. Moreover, the life cycle of the ACR is managed by the ACRS component, based on subscriber input.
US09843925B2

A method and apparatus reports packet data control protocol (PDCP) status and PDCP resets in a wireless communication, using control PDUs that may have security protection applied by ciphering of the control PDUs. Reliability of the PDCP status and reset messages may be assured by acknowledgment according to an acknowledged mode or to an unacknowledged mode.
US09843921B2

Handling of UE capability information in a mobile telecommunications network wherein an eNodeB receives information regarding the UE capability information from the UE and stores the information. The eNodeB sends the UE capability information to the EPC, i.e., to an MME, which receives and stores the UE capability information. When the UE transits from idle to active state, does an initial attach, or when a part of the UE capabilities have changed, it sends a message to the eNodeB regarding the update. The eNodeB forwards the message to the MME, which sends a response associated with the previously stored UE capability information to the eNodeB. The eNodeB decides whether the UE capabilities stored in the MME is up-to-date based on the message from the UE and the response from the MME. If the UE holds updated UE capabilities the eNodeB can request updated UE capability information from the UE.
US09843919B2

A user terminal includes a transmitter configured to transmit a Device-to-Device (D2D) indication to a serving cell in response to the user terminal being interested in D2D proximity service, while the user terminal is in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connected mode in the serving cell.
US09843915B2

A method for communicating among responders from a plurality of responder agencies includes determining that responders from two responder agencies are located at an event or location. Each of the responders from the two responder agencies has a computing device that is configured to communicate with the other computing device of the responders. Authorization is received from the two responder agencies to permit direct communication between responders from the two responder agencies. A communication link is established between the computing devices of the responders of the two responder agencies in response to determining that the responders from the two responder agencies are located at the event or location and in response to receiving the authorization. The communication link permits direct communication between the responders of the two responder agencies.
US09843910B2

A method and system for reporting short message (SM) capability over an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) using a session initiation protocol (SIP) are disclosed. A short message Internet Protocol gateway (SM-IP-GW) receives a registration request via session initiation protocol (SIP). The registration request may indicate a capability of a WTRU to receive Short Message Service (SMS) messages via an Internet Protocol multimedia subsystem (IMS). The SM-IP-GW transmits a successful registration message to a home location register (HLR) to indicate that a WTRU has successfully registered with the SM-IP-GW. Once the HLR is informed that a WTRU is successfully registered with the SM-IP-GW, SMS messages may be received and transmitted via the IMS using SIP.
US09843904B2

Embodiments of the present invention relate to a method and an apparatus for establishing an indoor location feature library. A sever selects, by using identification information of first user equipments (UEs) that is included in received first measurement data, multiple pieces of the first measurement data that have identification information of a same first UE; when the first UE is located indoors, obtaining location information of multiple of first access nodes according to feature attribute information of the multiple of the first access nodes; determining, according to the location information of the multiple of the first access nodes and the feature attribute information of the multiple of the first access nodes, indoor location information of the first UE; and establishing an indoor location feature library by using cell identification information and signal power values of multiple cells and indoor location information of the first UE.
US09843903B2

Because GPS does not work indoors, mobile electronics devices that use GPS for activities do not work inside a building. An embodiment of the present invention uses ultrasonic tone generators in each room. The ultrasonic tone generators can be built into cameras or separate devices. Each device may emit a unique tone that has a high enough frequency that most people cannot hear the frequency or combination of frequencies. Using a built-in microphone on a mobile device, the incoming audio may be analyzed in the frequency domain to determine the loudest tone above the human hearing threshold. This tone may be mapped to a specific room that can then be sent to the mobile electronics device to perform any location-aware actions.
US09843902B1

A base location associated with a user of a communication device can be determined. A location identifier component can determine the base location, such as a home location, of the user based on activity data and/or other data, wherein the activity data can be obtained from base stations with which the user's communication device communicates during a defined time period. The location identifier component can designate a defined area as the base location, wherein the defined area can be associated with the base station with which the communication device most frequently communicates during the defined time period or can be an area that is determined based on the activity data and the other data, in accordance with a defined location algorithm. To facilitate maintaining the privacy of users, the activity data can be anonymized and/or the granularity of defining the base location can be adjusted.
US09843896B1

Method, systems, and computer-readable media for receiving, from an application instance operating on a client device, education information that indicates a client device identifier, a wireless proximity beacon identifier, and a proximity of the identified client device to the identified wireless proximity beacon. From the received education information, a determination is made whether the proximity of the identified client device to the identified wireless proximity beacon satisfies a threshold proximity. Based at least on the determination, an action is determined that the application instance operating on the identified client device is permitted to perform while the proximity of the identified client device to the identified wireless proximity beacon satisfies the threshold proximity. Education information is transmitted to the identified client device that enables the application instance operating on the identified client device to perform the action.
US09843894B2

Systems, methods, and program products for providing services to a user by a mobile device based on the user's daily routine of movement. The mobile device determines whether a location cluster indicates a significant location for the user based on one or more hints that indicate an interest of the user in locations in the cluster. The mobile device can perform adaptive clustering to determine a size of area of the significant location based on how multiple locations converge in the location cluster. The mobile device can provide location-based services for calendar items, including predicting a time of arrival at an estimated location of a calendar item. The mobile device can provide various services related to a location of the mobile device or a significant location of the user through an application programming interface (API).
US09843892B2

A method for providing cell selection for emergency calls may include receiving position information indicative of a location of a mobile terminal relative to a geographic border, and causing modification of a candidate list of cells or public land mobile networks for cell selection or public land mobile network selection based on the position information and a position of the cells relative to the geographic border. A corresponding computer program product and apparatus are also provided.
US09843877B2

Methods, systems, and apparatus for monitoring a sound are described. An audio signal is obtained and the audio signal is analyzed to generate an audio signature. An object type is identified based on the audio signature and an action corresponding to the object type is identified.
US09843872B2

A sound collection equipment includes a speaker, a microphone and a processing unit. The speaker is used for generating a test sound. The microphone is used for receiving the test sound. The processing unit is electrically connected to the microphone and the processing unit. The processing unit is used for determining if the energy of the test sound exceeds a predetermined energy value and judging that the sound collection equipment is in a usage state when the test sound does not exceed the predetermined energy value.
US09843860B2

An electronic system denoising device, includes: a power source, a first signal processing unit, a second signal processing unit and an isolating transformer. The power source is coupled to the first signal processing unit, and to the second signal processing unit via the isolating transformer, and supplies power to the first signal processing unit and the second signal processing unit. The first signal processing unit includes a first signal output end and a first grounded end, and the first signal output end outputs data signals to the second signal processing unit. The first grounded end is coupled to a first ground wire; the second signal processing unit includes a second grounded end coupled to a second ground wire. The electronic system denoising device, via the isolating transformer, avoids impact to the second signal processing unit from ground noise caused by the return current of the first signal processing unit.
US09843858B1

Provided is a Direction Finding Acoustic Sensor comprising a first sound sensor and a second sound sensor, where the first and second sound sensors are generally maintained in a reflectional symmetry around an axis of symmetry. A digital device in data communication both sound sensors receives a signal PL from the first sensor a signal PR from the second sensor based on displacement respective sensors. The digital device evaluates a difference between an α1PL and an α2PR relative to a sum of the α1PL and the α2PR, and provides an angle θS corresponding to the result. Typically, the Direction Finding Acoustic Sensor communicates the θs determined using some appropriate reference frame, such as the axis of symmetry. The Direction Finding Acoustic Sensor is capable of providing an unambiguous direction within an angle of ±(90°−θoff) of the axis of symmetry.
US09843857B2

A speaker box includes a housing which has a receiving space and a side wall having a sound hole, and a sound generator received in the receiving space and including a diaphragm including a dome and a periphery connected to the dome. The dome includes a near-end which is near the sounding hole and a far-end which is farther the sounding hole. A compliance of the near-end is less than a compliance of the far-end.
US09843851B2

A portable audio input/output device may include one or more openings that extend through a cover of the device and allow acoustic signals outside a housing of the device to reach a microphone disposed within the housing. The opening(s) may be illuminated by a light guide disposed within the housing, which scatters light emitted from lights disposed within the housing. In some instances, a hole may pass through a printed circuit board to allow acoustic signals to be received by the microphone disposed below the printed circuit board. An input/output (I/O) interface module with multiple buttons and inputs may be installed in the hole. The multiple buttons and I/O ports of the I/O interface module may be aligned along an axis vertical relative to the housing and centered with respect to each other.
US09843849B1

Provided is a speaker mounting comprising a) a disc with a central opening and a solid portion around the central opening; b) at least one retainer opening on the solid portion of the disc; c) a retainer attached to the solid portion on one side of the disc around the retainer opening; d) at least one fastener opening for attaching the speaker to a support structure; wherein the speaker is attached to the speaker mounting by having a fastener that is attached to the speaker be secured by the retainer.
US09843847B2

A system is described for monitoring an environmental parameter in a closed server cabinet. The monitoring system includes a cabinet sensor probe (CSP) that includes a sensor assembly and a vertical linear actuator. The sensor assembly includes at least three environmental parameter sensors, wherein each one of the environmental parameter sensors is configured to at least render a signal representative of a sensed temperature. The sensor assembly also includes a sensor carriage configured to hold the at least three environmental parameter sensors at particular horizontally distinct positions such that each one of the at least three environmental parameter sensors occupies a position horizontally displaced from each of the other ones of the at least three environmental parameter sensors. The CSP further includes a vertical linear actuator that is configured to move the sensor assembly along a linear vertical path between a top and bottom of a door of the closed server cabinet.
US09843845B2

A new television broadcast model called a Broadcast Market Exchange (BMX) eliminates the inefficiency in spectrum usage, providing maximum flexibility in delivering content through either VHF (for fixed location receiving devices) or UHF (optimized for mobile receiving devices) transmission/propagation. In conjunction with the BMX, a wireless communications system architecture is provided to enable a broadcast augmentation channel. The augmentation channel provides supplementation of the Quality of Service (QoS) of a one way User Datagram Protocol (UDP) delivery environment. The augmentation channel may be comprised of one or more physical delivery mechanisms (wired or wireless), but can be effectively unified for increasing QoS and or scalable levels of service (additional essence) to improve the user experience.
US09843838B2

An information processing apparatus receives a user selection of content to be reproduced by an external device connected to the information processing apparatus. A request to reproduce the user selected content is sent to the external device. Information indicating whether the external device has started reproducing the selected content is received from the external device. In response to the external device having started reproduction of the selected content, a thumbnail image is reproduced that corresponds to the content being reproduced by the external device.
US09843834B2

A method of controlling access to a content item in a domain comprising a set of mutually authenticated devices, the method comprising deriving one or more domain-specific rights from a right associated with the content item, the one or more domain-specific rights being bound to the domain and allowing the devices in the domain access to the content item. Also system comprising a set of mutually authenticated devices, said set making up a domain, the system comprising a central rights manager arranged for executing said method.
US09843829B2

For the negotiation of an operator of a media-on-demand platform with its content providers a method and system for efficiently compiling media content items for the media-on-demand platform is provided. The method makes use of a combination of a recommender system to select a suitable set of media content items to be offered for a next period of service and a number-of-rentals predictor for estimating how many videos individual users will rent the following period of service. Furthermore, the method and system can be executed for estimating profit or loss from rentals over the following period of service as well as estimate customer satisfaction.
US09843826B2

The present invention relates to a data processor and data processing method that facilitate properly processing a stream. An input stream is formed by a plurality of packets. Each of the packets of the input stream is distributed to one of a plurality of channels and null packets (NP) are distributed to the other channels. This divides the input stream into divided streams on a plurality of channels including the packets of the input stream at a predetermined density. The present invention can be used, for example, for a channel bonding (CB) technique in which an input stream is divided into a plurality of channels and transmitted.
US09843810B2

A method of processing camera data of a mobile mapping system is disclosed. In at least one embodiment, the method includes a) obtaining camera data from at least one camera of the mobile mapping system, b) detecting at least one region in the camera data, c) applying a compression technique on the camera data in a first region, and d) obtaining range sensor data from at least a first range sensor. The range sensor data may at least partially correspond to the camera data. Also, in at least one embodiment, b) includes using the range sensor data to identify the at least one region in the camera data.
US09843791B2

An electro-optic device includes: an electro-optic panel displaying a display image with illumination light emitted from an illumination device; a display control circuit controlling the electro-optic panel to display a right-eye image during a right display period and display a left-eye image during a left display period; a glasses control circuit controlling a right-eye shutter of stereoscopic vision glasses so as to maintain an open state during the right display period, controlling a left-eye shutter of stereoscopic vision glasses so as to maintain an open state during the left display period, and controlling both the right-eye shutter and the left-eye shutter so as to maintain a close state during a blocking period; and an illumination control circuit controlling the illumination device to vary an intensity of the illumination light in a pulsed shape during the blocking period.
US09843785B2

Stereoscopic images are subsampled and placed in a “checkerboard” pattern in an image. The image is encoded in a monoscopic video format. The monoscopic video is transmitted to a device where the “checkerboard” is decoded. Portions of the checkerboard (e.g., “black” portions) are used to reconstruct one of the stereoscopic images and the other portion of the checkerboard (e.g., “white” portions) are used to reconstruct the other image. The subsamples are, for example, taken from the image in a location coincident to the checkerboard position in which the subsamples are encoded.
US09843784B2

A method of combining 2D images into a 3D image includes providing a coordinate measurement device and a triangulation scanner having an integral camera associated therewith, the scanner being separate from the coordinate measurement device. In a first instance, the coordinate measurement device determines the position and orientation of the scanner and the integral camera captures a first 2D image. In a second instance, the scanner is moved, the coordinate measurement device determines the position and orientation of the scanner, and the integral camera captures a second 2D image. A cardinal point common to the first and second images is found and is used, together with the first and second images and the positions and orientations of the scanner in the first and second instances, to create the 3D image.
US09843774B2

In a method and system for creating an extensible media player, a multimedia player application is instantiated on a client system. A presentation data file is transmitted to the client system from a server. The presentation data file includes a playlist of timelines, with at least one multimedia file being played or at least one application being executed for each timeline. The presentation data file is parsed to activate an advertising manager module. The activated advertising manager module instantiates an advertising plug-in. The advertising plug-in connects to an advertising network and downloads select advertising policies and dynamically schedules advertisements for the timelines. Upon the occurrence of an event generated by a timeline, the advertising manager module inserts a blocking module to block execution of the timeline. An advertisement is dynamically retrieved and rendered in an advertising display overlaying a multimedia player application display. When the advertisement has concluded, execution of the timeline is resumed.
US09843770B2

An automatic process for producing professional, directed, production crew quality, video for videoconferencing is described. Rule based logic is integrated into an automatic process for producing director quality video for videoconferencing. An automatic process can include a method for composing a display for use in a video system having an active talker video stream and a panoramic view video stream having more than one person in video. The method can include determining a region of interest in a panoramic view video using motion detection and presence sensors, and preparing the panoramic view video by centering the region of interest and by zooming towards the region of interest, based upon the location of persons in the panoramic view video. The method includes determining placement of panoramic view video on a composite display to prevent the panoramic view video overlaying display of an active talker on the active talker video stream.
US09843764B1

A component for controlling playback of digital media objects using a single control input receives, from a server, a plurality of feature vectors, each feature vector representing one of a plurality of media objects, and receives one or more skip requests from the single control input. In response to a first skip request, the component selects a feature vector from among the plurality of feature vectors and instructs a media object playback device to playback a media object represented by the selected feature vector. In response to a second or successive skip request, the component selects another feature vector from among the plurality of feature vectors that is a distance away from the previously selected feature vector and instructs the media object playback device to playback another media object represented by the selected other feature vector.
US09843763B2

An apparatus for transmitting wireless power is provided. The apparatus comprising a television system and a transmitter coupled to the television system. The transmitter is configured to emit a plurality of wireless power waves and define a pocket of energy thereby so that a receiver is able to interface with the pocket of energy and charge a device thereby, wherein the device is coupled to the receiver.
US09843758B2

Disclosed herein is a display apparatus that uses a display module by selectively setting the display module to a flat surface form and a curved surface form. The display apparatus includes a display module that is bendable and is configured to display an image, and a bending structure configured to deform the display module by moving at least one of a center and both ends of the display module relative to each other to form one of a flat surface form and a curved surface form of the display module.
US09843757B2

An optical electronic device may include a plurality of different optical sources, and a global shutter sensor including an array of global shutter pixels, with each global shutter pixel including a plurality of storage elements. A controller may be coupled to the plurality of optical sources and the global shutter sensor and configured to cause a first optical source to illuminate and a first storage element in each global shutter pixel to store optical data during a first integration period, cause a second optical source to illuminate and a second storage element in each global shutter pixel to store optical data during a second integration period, and output the stored optical data from the first and second storage elements of the global shutter pixels after the first and second integration periods.
US09843756B2

In some embodiments, an imaging device includes a pixel array. At least one of the pixels includes a photodiode that can generate charges, and a select transistor that receives the charges in its bulk. When the select transistor is selected, a pixel current through it may depend on a number of the received charges, thus evidencing how much light it detected. A reset transistor may reset the voltage of the bulk.
US09843746B2

Various technologies described herein pertain to combining high dynamic range techniques to enable rendering higher dynamic range scenes with an image sensor. The image sensor can implement a combination of spatial exposure multiplexing and temporal exposure multiplexing, for example. By way of another example, the image sensor can implement a combination of spatial exposure multiplexing and dual gain operation. Pursuant to another example, the image sensor can implement a combination of temporal exposure multiplexing and dual gain operation. In accordance with yet another example, the image sensor can implement a combination of spatial exposure multiplexing, temporal exposure multiplexing, and dual gain operation.
US09843738B2

An imaging system may include an image sensor having an array of dual gain pixels. Each pixel may be operated using a two read method such that all signals are read in a high gain configuration in order to improve the speed or to reduce the power consumption of imaging operations. Each pixel may be operated using a two read, two analog-to-digital conversion method in which two sets of calibration data are stored. A high dynamic range (HDR) image signal may be produced for each pixel based on signals read from the pixel and on light conditions. The HDR image may be produced based on a combination of high and low gain signals and one or both of the two sets of calibration data. A system of equations may be used for generating the HDR image. The system of equations may include functions of light intensity.
US09843735B2

An image processing apparatus performs image processing on image data obtained by using an imaging element comprising a plurality of pixels which comprise a first pixel and a second pixel, wherein two different types of exposure times are applied between the first pixel and the second pixel. A blur amount estimation unit estimates an image blur amount. An exposure time difference calculation unit calculates an exposure time difference. A mixing ratio calculation unit determines a first ratio using a light amount detected by the first pixel to be a target and a second ratio using a light amount detected by the second pixel positioned around the first pixel based on the exposure time difference and the image blur amount. A correction unit corrects the image data based on the image blur amount, the exposure time difference, the first ratio, and the second ratio.
US09843731B2

An imaging apparatus capable of performing image display that allows a user to more effectively check images of a group composed of a plurality of images generated in response to a single shooting instruction, includes a control unit configured to perform control to cause an imaging unit to generate a plurality of images in response to a single shooting instruction, and a display control unit configured to, as automatically performed review display after shooting in response to the shooting instruction, perform control to sequentially display the plurality of generated images one by one on a display unit, and then display the plurality of images in a multi-display form on the same screen.
US09843729B2

Embodiments of the present invention include methods and apparatus for the rotational stabilization of images and video. Rotational stabilization of images includes determining an amount of degrees of cant or tilt of an image capturing device, and capturing an image. The captured image is rotated an angular distance equal to the amount of degrees of tilt of the image capturing device. The rotated image is then cropped. The determining, rotating, and cropping are generally performed automatically by the image capturing device without user action at the time of capturing the image.
US09843721B2

An imaging apparatus includes: an image comparing unit that compares a shot image shot by a photographer with a sample image selected by the photographer; an operation comparing unit that compares an operation performed when the shot image was shot with an operation performed when the sample image was shot; and an advising unit that gives the photographer advice on an image shooting method to make the shot image close to the sample image according to comparison results provided by the image comparing unit and the operation comparing unit.
US09843719B2

The present application discloses a confocal microscope including a light generator configured to simultaneously generate reflection light, which is reflected from a sample, and transmission light, which passes through the sample; a scanner configured to optically scan the sample and define a direction of a first optical path, along which the reflection light propagates; an adjuster configured to angularly adjust a direction of a second optical path, along which the transmission light propagates; a first signal generator configured to generate a first signal based on the reflection light; a second signal generator configured to generate a second signal based on the transmission light; and an image generator configured to generate a synthetic image in which a reflection image represented by the reflection light and a transmission image represented by the transmission light are synthesized in response to the first and second signals.
US09843718B2

A device for establishing one or several recording regions from an image region is provided. The device includes a neighborhood determining unit for determining whether two objects of the image region are neighboring. Additionally, the device includes a graph set determining unit for determining a graph set such that the graph set includes one or several complete graphs, each element of the complete graph being neighboring to every other element of this complete graph. Furthermore, the device includes a selection set determining unit configured to add a complete graph to the selection set when one of the elements of an object set is included by precisely this one of the complete graphs of the graph set. In addition, the device includes a recording region determining unit for determining the one or several recording regions based on the complete graphs of the selection set.
US09843717B2

Methods and apparatus to capture images are disclosed. An example method includes determining whether a face detected in a first frame captured at a first time with an image capturing device in a first illumination mode is in a first orientation with respect to the image capturing device, operating the image capturing device in a second illumination mode at a second time when the face detected in the first frame is in the first orientation, wherein an illumination source emits light while in the second illumination mode and does not emit light while in the first illumination mode, operating the image capturing device in the first illumination mode at the second time when the face detected in the first frame is not in the first orientation, and performing a facial recognition process on image data captured under the second illumination mode, but not on image data captured under the first illumination mode.
US09843715B2

A display device includes an image pickup device, a stroboscope, and a stroboscopic image prediction creation unit. The stroboscope applies stroboscopic light to a subject together with the photography by the image pickup device. The stroboscopic image prediction creation unit acquires distance distribution information showing the distribution of distance information relative to the subject of the photography of the subject together with the application of stroboscopic light, and predict in advance, on the basis of the distance distribution information, a stroboscopic image for the photography of the subject together with the application of the stroboscopic light.
US09843705B2

A projection device includes a shell, a motherboard, a projection module and a image capturing module. The motherboard, the projection module and the image capturing module are all fixed in the shell. The motherboard transmits image data of a project. The projection module receives the image data and projects images to a projection medium. The image capturing module captures playing images on the projection medium and transmits the playing image to the motherboard. The motherboard further determines next image according to the playing image and transmits the next image to the projection module.
US09843700B2

An image forming apparatus detects that the paper sheet cassette has been drawn out and that the paper sheet cassette has been housed, and upon detecting either that the paper sheet cassette has been drawn out or that the paper sheet cassette has been housed, detects that a reference operation has been performed. When the reference operation has been performed in a time period other than while a printing job is being executed, the control portion performs control so that the screen related to paper sheet setting is displayed, and when the reference operation has been performed while the printing job is being executed, the control portion performs control so that the screen related to paper sheet setting is not displayed.
US09843697B2

An image reading apparatus includes a light-guide member that moves in a direction crossing a longitudinal direction of the light-guide member and that emits light, which has entered from an incident surface of the light-guide member, as light that is linearly distributed in the longitudinal direction, a light source that emits the light, and an optical fiber that guides the light emitted by the light source to the incident surface.
US09843694B2

In a preferred aspect of the present invention, manuscript image data is analyzed, and a feature amount to be used for specifying a positional relationship between the manuscript image data and read image data of a printed material read by a reading unit that performs reading of the printed material on which an image is printed on the basis of the manuscript image data, is detected. At least one or more areas including the feature amount in the manuscript image data is set as a reading area. A setting position of the printed material with respect to the reading unit is displayed on the basis of a result of the setting of the reading area. Reading of the printed material set in the reading unit is performed after the setting position is displayed by a display unit.
US09843676B1

A method to transcribe communications is provided. The method may include obtaining first communication data during a communication session between a first communication device and a second communication device and transmitting the first communication data to the second communication device by way of a mobile device that is locally coupled with the first communication device. The method may also include receiving, at the first communication device, second communication data from the second communication device through the mobile device and transmitting the second communication data to a remote transcription system. The method may further include receiving, at the first communication device, transcription data from the remote transcription system, the transcription data corresponding to a transcription of the second communication data, the transcription generated by the remote transcription system and presenting, by the first communication device, the transcription of the second communication data.
US09843673B1

Different call managing techniques are described for both voice calls and video calls. A call management system detects that a user is on an active call. The call management system detects that the user has continued to speak when the call was disconnected, as by another user terminating the call or poor network conditions. When the call management system detects a disconnected call, it records the spoken speech into a buffer and determines which portion of the user's speech was not processed and communicated to the other user. The user whose call was terminated is provided with an option to provide the un-communicated speech to the other user. Options can include sending a text version of the un-communicated speech to the other user or sending a voice file to the other user.
US09843672B1

Different call managing techniques are described for both voice calls and video calls. A call management system detects that a user is on an active call. The call management system detects that the user has continued to speak when the call was disconnected, as by another user terminating the call or poor network conditions. When the call management system detects a disconnected call, it records the spoken speech into a buffer and determines which portion of the user's speech was not processed and communicated to the other user. The user whose call was terminated is provided with an option to provide the un-communicated speech to the other user. Options can include sending a text version of the un-communicated speech to the other user or sending a voice file to the other user.
US09843666B2

An improved handheld electronic device and an associated method provide an improved call log that presents information relating to logged phone calls in a collapsed manner, meaning that for each phone number having a call stored in the memory of the device, only the most recent in time call is listed on the call log. An improved handheld electronic device and an associated method also provide a call history for any phone call from the improved call log that is selected by the user. The call history includes a listing of all of the calls stored by the device that are associated with the selected call log call.
US09843656B2

A system and method for a live streaming platform that can redundantly process input streams in parallel ingestion pipelines is disclosed herein. Ingested input streams in the parallel pipelines can be segmented using a segmentation function that creates identical segments in each of the streams in the pipelines. If errors occur, or there are disruptions in one or more of the input streams or pipelines, the live streaming platform can ensure that segments are identifiable and different parts of the pipelines can join a main stream at different points in time without disruption.
US09843648B2

Caching or discarding geographic data received at a client computing device may be based on a caching policy for the geographic data. A caching policy may define conditions to process the geographic data at the client device based on several factors. For example, a current position of the client device or a position of a portion of a map displayed within a viewport of the device may cause the device to cache or discard the received geographic data. The device may determine a relationship between the viewport and the received geographic data, compare the determined relationship to the caching policy and cache or discard at least a portion of the received geographic data based on the comparison.
US09843647B2

An approach is provided for processing and transmitting sensor data in a bandwidth efficient manner. The approach involves causing, at least in part, a specification of one or more prioritization attributes for one or more sensors associated with at least one transmitting entity. The approach further involves processing and/or facilitating a processing of the one or more prioritization attributes to determine whether to cause, at least in part, (a) a transmission of sensor data associated with the one or more sensors to at least one receiving entity, (b) a caching of the sensor data prior to a batch transmission of the sensor data to the at least one receiving entity, or (c) a combination thereof.
US09843645B2

An alert notification is received and evaluated by a processor. An identifier of a subscriber who is registered to receive the first alert notification is identified. The subscriber identifier is used to select assessment rules corresponding to the first alert notification. The assessment rules are applied to the alert notification to determine whether the receipt of the alert notification satisfies a condition for taking one or more actions. If the condition is met, one or more commands are issued to effectuate the one or more actions.
US09843633B2

In a network system without a server, a network device and a system that can share information in all devices efficiently and surely are provided.CPUs of a plurality of devices connected to a network determine a host device based on device numbers and network strengths of each of the devices. When transmitting share information stored in a memory to the host device, the CPUs of the client devices merge share information transmitted from the other client devices with the share information stored in the memories so as to transmit the merged information to the host device. The CPU of the host device generates share information about all the devices so as to distribute the information to all the client devices. When the share information is changed, the CPU of the host device generates finite difference information with respect to previous share information so as to distribute the information to all the client devices. When the share information is successively changed, the CPU of the host device merges the respective pieces of finite difference information so as to distribute the information to the client devices.
US09843632B2

The present invention relates to a wireless communication system, and a method for peer to peer (P2P) group formation is disclosed. To this end, the method for P2P group formation may include transmitting, from a first wireless device to a second wireless device, a provision discovery request frame including connection capabilities of the first wireless device, and receiving, at the first wireless device, from the second wireless device, a provision discovery response frame including connection capabilities of the second wireless device. Here, the connection capabilities may include indicating at least one of: New in order to initiate a new group, Group Owner in order to become a group owner, and Client in order to become a client; and the first wireless device determines the group owner of a P2P group on the basis of the first connection capability and the second connection capability.
US09843631B2

Processes and systems are disclosed for selecting a producer system from a number of producer systems to lease to a consumer system. A leasing agent, in response to a request from the consumer system for access to a service at a producer system, can identify a producer system to lease to the lease requestor based, at least in part, on a selection weight associated with each producer system that the leasing agent is assigned. The selection weights can be modified based on status information associated with each of the producer systems. This status information may be obtain from the producer systems and/or from a consumer system that has previously accessed the producer system. The consumer system may provide the status information to the leasing agent as part of the consumer system's lease request.
US09843624B1

The Distributed Software Defined Network (dSDN) disclosed herein is an end-to-end architecture that enables secure and flexible programmability across a network with full lifecycle management of services and infrastructure applications (fxDeviceApp). The dSDN also harmonizes application deployment across the network independent of the hardware vendor. As a result, the dSDN simplifies the network deployment lifecycle from concept to design to implementation to decommissioning.
US09843621B2

A method is provided in one embodiment and includes establishing a communication session involving a first endpoint and a second endpoint that are associated with a session, the first endpoint being associated with a first identifier and the second endpoint being associated with a second identifier. The method also includes evaluating first data for the first endpoint; evaluating second data for the second point; and determining whether to initiate a calendaring activity based, at least in part, on the first data and the second data. In more specific embodiments, the method includes evaluating a first availability associated with the first endpoint; evaluating a second availability associated with the second endpoint; and suggesting a future meeting based, at least in part, on the first availability and the second availability.
US09843618B2

A method and apparatus for displaying a User Interface (UI) in a portable electronic device through a sub device is provided. The method includes sensing, by the portable electronic device, an input corresponding to displaying of a popup menu, which is provided by an application, on the sub device, transmitting UI configuration information corresponding to the popup menu to the sub device, receiving, from the sub device, user input data corresponding to a user input sensed on the popup menu that is displayed on the sub device, and controlling execution of the application in response to the received user input data.
US09843604B2

Various implementations are described herein for detecting and modifying security settings on a computing device to run a web application using a web browser. A loader application detects security settings on the computing device, determines if the security settings will allow the web application to run and function correctly on the computing device, and if necessary, modifies the security settings to allow the web application to run and operate successfully. Further, described herein are techniques for facilitating communication between components corresponding to a web application running in a web browser and external resources.
US09843590B1

A method and apparatus for causing a delay in processing requests for Internet resources received from client devices is described. A server receives from a client device a request for a resource. The server transmits a response to the first client device indicating that access to the resource is temporarily denied. The response includes a cryptographic token associated with the first request and a predetermined period of time during which the first client device is to wait prior to transmitting another request to access the resource. The server receives a second request for the resource, upon determining that the second request includes a valid cryptographic token, the server causes the second request to be processed. The server receives a third request for the resource, and upon determining that the third request does not include a valid cryptographic token, the server blocks the third request.
US09843588B2

The present disclosure includes a system, method, and article of manufacture for lossless compression of data and high speed manipulation of the data. The method may comprise associating a customer with a plurality of levels, and counting, in near real time, a number of transactions at each level in the plurality of levels based on a transaction history of the customer at each of a plurality of merchants. The method may further comprise counting the number of transactions during a time period. Similarly, the method may comprise determining an opportunity comprising an offer based upon the counting, determining an opportunity based upon a count indicating a transaction by the customer with a merchant, and/or determining an opportunity with a first merchant based upon a count indicating a transaction by the customer with a second merchant.
US09843581B2

A Software-Defined Network (SDN) determines hardware trust for SDN communications. A probe system transfers probe packets having an originating address, destination address, and Hardware Root-of-Trust (HRoT) reporting parameter. SDN flow controllers receive the probe packets through input interfaces and route the packets from the input interfaces to output interfaces based on the destination address. Responsive to the HRoT reporting parameter, the SDN flow controllers encode SDN flow controller Hardware Identifiers (HW IDs) and transfer response packets that indicate the encoded SDN flow controller HW IDs, the SDN input interfaces, and the SDN output interfaces. The probe system processes the response packets to identify an end-to-end communication path for the originating address and the destination address based on the input interfaces and the output interfaces. The probe system determines hardware trust status for the end-to-end communication path based on the encoded SDN flow controller HW IDs.
US09843578B2

A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving, from a primary factor authentication device by one or more computer systems, a request to enroll a mobile device as a secondary factor authentication device; and enrolling by the one or more computer systems the mobile device as a first, secondary factor authentication device.
US09843574B1

Static and dynamic embodiments are presented for generating chaff passwords for use in a password-hardening system. Chaff passwords are generated by obtaining a source set of passwords comprising at least one valid password for each of a plurality of users; and generating a chaff set of passwords for a given user, wherein the chaff set comprises at least one valid password for the given user and a plurality of chaff passwords for the given user, wherein the plurality of chaff passwords for the given user are obtained from the source set of passwords. Chaff passwords can also be generated by modifying portions of base passwords based on a distribution with which particular strings of digits and symbols appear in user passwords. Location oblivious chaff passwords are generated from a chaff set of passwords obtained from a chaff generation method by applying a random permutation over the elements of the obtained chaff set of passwords.
US09843573B2

Methods of the present inventions allow for determining website secure certificate status via a partner browser plugin. An exemplary method may comprise storing, on a server communicatively coupled to a network, a plugin configured to determine the secure certificate status of a website browsed in the browser. A request for the plugin, from a partner having a unique identifier, may be received at the server. The plugin may be coded with the partner's unique identifier and transmitted to the partner. The server subsequently may receive, from the plugin, the website's uniform resource locator and secure certificate status along with the partner's unique identifier, which may be used to identify the source of the data.
US09843570B2

The present disclosure describes systems and methods for processing security sensor data that enhances the ability of a user to quickly and efficiently review portions of the sensor data streams.
US09843558B2

A method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving a frame supporting a short MAC header in a wireless LAN (WLAN) system are disclosed. A method for managing a sequence number in a wireless LAN (WLAN) system includes: transmitting, by a first station (STA), a frame including a short MAC header to a second STA. One of a receiver address (RA) field and a transmitter address (TA) field contained in the short MAC header includes an associated identifier (AID) value according to whether a transmission direction of the frame is an uplink (UL) or downlink (DL) direction, and if the RA field includes the AID value, the sequence number for the frame is assigned based on a station (STA) MAC address identified by the AID value.
US09843556B2

Provided are an address book information service system, and a method and a device for an address book information service therein, whereby: a terminal device in the address book information service system sets groups in an address book according to category information and transmits group information on the set groups and preset user information to a service device; the service device searches new address book information corresponding to the group information on the basis of the location of a user by using the group information and the user information and transmits the searched new address book information to the terminal device; and the terminal device automatically registers the received new address book information in the address book, thereby enabling the user to easily look up new address book information.
US09843547B2

A system includes at least one service device. Each service device has one or more processors, a service email application, and at least one service. The service email application, when executed at the one or more processors of the service device, is configured to retrieve a command email containing at least one command and having an email identifier associated with the service, extract the command from the command email, and send the extracted command to the service such that the service performs a corresponding function based on the extracted first command.
US09843541B2

The present invention relates to a method of operating a recommender system arranged for being coupled to a computer implemented social network (200). The present invention furthermore relates to a corresponding computer program and to a corresponding recommender system (100) arranged for being coupled to a computer implemented social network (200). In particular, the present invention relates to a recommender system (100) being configured to provide a recommendation (172) relating to a content item being highly discussed in the social network (200), without the recommendation being necessarily based on some kind of a correlation between characteristics of a recipient (10) of the recommendation on the one side and characteristics of content items to be recommended and/or characteristics of contacts/friends of the recipient (10) on the other side.
US09843531B2

A system includes an infrastructure as a service (IaaS) layer to provide a set of infrastructure services to manage computing resources in a cloud computing environment. The system includes a service framework layer, separate from the IaaS layer, the service framework layer comprising an asynchronous interface to communicate with the IaaS layer and to create a framework service to extend the IaaS layer in response to a command from an upper tier service, the framework service to employ the asynchronous interface to utilize an infrastructure service from the set of infrastructure services.
US09843519B2

Local breakout mechanisms can be performed by a femto access point (FAP) to facilitate efficient utilization of backhaul and/or macro networks. In particular, a slave Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) can be integrated within the FAP to directly route the incoming traffic from a user equipment (UE) at the FAP. In one example, Internet bound traffic can be directly routed to the Internet, without employing macro network resources. Further, the system can avoid hairpinning by routing traffic between the UE and a home Local Area Network (LAN) by a anchoring a call or a session in the slave GGSN and facilitate integration of UEs with home applications by employing a UE Digital Home Agent. In addition, the FAP can perform UE-to-UE CS media breakout to facilitate communication between UEs attached to the FAP, without routing the traffic through the core macro network.
US09843517B2

A method, operational at a network device, for conveying congestion information across different strata of a multi-strata network is provided. An indication is obtained that a congestion level for at least one of a radio access network node and a core network node of a network has changed. Consequently, a one or more service parameters for a plurality of services, operating at a service stratum, are updated or adjusted on a per service basis based on the congestion level indication. The one or more service parameters are provided or sent to, at least one of, a node operating at a service stratum or a user device that obtains services over the network.
US09843515B2

Techniques for enabling peer-to-peer transmission of stateful packet flows in a network environment are provided. In certain embodiments, a computer system receives a packet belonging to a stateful flow, accesses flow associating information (e.g., network address) from the packet, determines a computer system comprising a state analysis owner for the stateful flow, using the flow associating information, and transmits the first packet to the second computer system.
US09843514B2

A packet processing method and a background server are provided. The packet processing method includes: receiving, by a bearer system of a background server, an IPIP packet sent by an access server via an IP tunnel; and removing a reverse proxy IP address and a windows server IP address that are in an outer layer of the IPIP packet, and changing a destination IP address in the IPIP packet, of which the reverse proxy IP address and the windows server IP address are removed, into the windows server IP address, to obtain an IP packet.
US09843509B2

Transferring data over a network includes identifying an application flow and mapping the application flow to a network bound connection.
US09843502B2

A multi-domain network (5) has a Hierarchical Path Computation Element, H-PCE, architecture comprising a Parent Path Computation Element, P-PCE (31) and a Child Path Computation Element, C-PCE, (21-25) at each of the domains (11-15). A C-PCE (21-25) determines summarised domain topology information about the domain (11-15). The summarized domain topology information comprises at least one of: an indication of whether the domain (11-15) is capable of supporting Point-to-Multi-Point services; an indication of whether a node of the summarised domain topology is capable of supporting a branch point for Point-to-Multi-Point services. The summarised domain topology information is sent to a P-PCE (31) via a communication interface (35). The P-PCE (31) computes an end-to-end Point-to-Multi-Point tree using a topology based on summarised domain topology information (32) received from the Child Path Computation Elements. The P-PCE (31) requests each C-PCE (21-25) of a domain in the computed end-to-end Point-to-Multi-Point tree to compute an intra-domain path.
US09843497B2

A method and device for long-term storage of cross-domain path information are provided. The method is applied on a stateless PCE. In the method, a first PCE computes a path; a path head node sends, to the first PCE, query information for querying intra-domain path information of the first domain corresponding to a first PATH-KEY, generates, on the basis of a query result returned by the first PCE, a third PATH-KEY having a unique identifier and corresponding to the intra-domain path information of the first domain and stores the third PATH-KEY; the path head node sends, to a head node in a second domain, an inter-domain path establishment signalling comprising the third PATH-KEY and a second PATH-KEY, to make the head node in the second domain send, to a second PCE, query information for querying intra-domain path information of the second domain corresponding to the second PATH-KEY, generate, on the basis of a query result returned by the second PCE, a fourth PATH-KEY having a unique identifier and corresponding to the intra-domain path information of the second domain, and store the fourth PATH-KEY; and, the path head node modifies information of the path from the path head node to the path tail node on the basis of a reverse signalling returned by the path tail node and comprising the third PATH-KEY and the fourth PATH-KEY.
US09843483B2

Aspects of the present disclosure are directed toward a distributed computing system in which host computing devices host computing services that are only accessible by client computing devices and other computing services associated with a particular computing channel for a line-of-business and in which host computing devices host computing services that are accessible by client computing devices and other computing services across lines of business. The computing services are configured according to a common application interface (API) that provides a modular configuration allowing the computing services to be deployed across multiple computing channels for multiple lines-of-business respectively. Aspects of the present disclosure are also directed toward an automated deployment system that is configured to automatically deploy computing services at a computing platform based on a computing platform template and one or more computing service templates.
US09843482B1

A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes calculating a packet metric for a first one of a plurality of links connected to a network element, wherein the packet metric is equal to a packet count over a period of time T divided by a maximum throughput of the first one of the links; and determining based on the packet metric whether traffic on the one of the links should be switched to another one of the plurality of links to optimize power usage. If a determination is made that the traffic on the first one of the links should be switched to another one of the plurality of links, the method further includes selecting a second link from a subset of the plurality of links; assigning the traffic to the selected second link; and applying a cost saving measure at an interface of the network element to which the first link is connected.
US09843478B2

A system for creating or modifying a template is disclosed that includes a plurality of application controls configured to allow a user to modify one or more application parameters for an application associated with each application control. A plurality of virtual machine controls are configured to allow a user to modify one or virtual machine parameters for a virtual machine associated with each virtual machine control and to allow a user to associate each virtual machine control with one or more application control. The application controls are configured to allow a user to associate each application control with one or more virtual machine control.
US09843474B2

Methods, systems, and storage media for telemetry adaptation are disclosed herein. In an embodiment, a networking device may include a data collector agent module to receive measurement data from measurement sources according to an initial telemetry policy and to provide the measurement data to the one or more servers of the monitoring system. The networking device may include an anomaly detection module to receive measurement data from the data collector agent module, to detect an anomaly in the measurement data, and to provide an indication of the anomaly to the data collector agent module for the data collector agent module to provide a first modified telemetry policy for the measurement sources.
US09843469B2

A process including retrieving a list of one or more candidate objects with which an origin object can communicate using a standard command language, wherein at least one of the one or more candidate objects uses a command language different than the standard command language. The process queries the schema of one or more target objects selected from among the one or more candidate objects and uses the standard command language to transmit to the one or more target objects commands and/or data consistent with the schemas of the target objects.
US09843465B2

A device implementing a distributed dynamic configuration of a scalable radio frequency communication system includes a primary radio frequency (RF) integrated circuit (RFIC) and at least one secondary RFIC. The primary RFIC includes at least one phase shifter, and the primary RFIC may be configured to apply a first phase shift to an RF signal using the at least one first phase shifter, and to transmit the RF signal to at least one secondary RFIC. The at least one secondary RFIC includes at least one second phase shifter, and the at least one secondary RFIC may be configured to apply a second phase shift to the RF signal using the at least one second phase shifter, and to transmit the RF signal via at least one antenna element. The first and second phase shifts may be received by the primary RFIC from a baseband processor.
US09843462B2

An improved receiver design implements a method for modeling users in SIC turbo loop multiuser detection architectures that reduces the number of implementation cycles, and thereby reduces the computational overhead associated with computing the inverse of the received signal covariance matrix, by efficiently reusing components of a QR decomposition. By reusing some of the computational results from the previous turbo loop's equalizer calculation, the disclosed receiver significantly reduces the computational burden of updating the linear equalizer on each turbo loop. Depending on the embodiment, this reduction can be accomplished in at least two different ways, depending on the dimensionality and other aspects of the implementation.
US09843442B2

An operation apparatus includes a message expansion unit, a state data initiation unit, a state data generation unit, and a chain variable update unit. The message expansion unit generates a plurality of expanded messages using a message. The state data initiation unit generates the initial value of state data using chain variable data. The state data generation unit generates the final value of the state data by iterating a combination function and a step function using the state data and the plurality of expanded messages. The chain variable update unit updates the chain variable data using the state data of the final value.
US09843432B2

In the present disclosure, even if different UL-DL configurations are set for a plurality of unit bands, notification timing of error detection results for SCell is not dispersed complicatedly, and the processing relating to the error detection results can be simplified. At the reference notification timing of a response signal with respect to downlink data of a second unit band, if a sub-frame of the second unit band is an uplink communication sub-frame and a sub-frame of a first unit band is a downlink communication sub-frame, a control unit (208) transmits the response signal with respect to the downlink data in a specific uplink communication sub-frame (for example, #2 or #7) set in the first unit band.
US09843412B2

A method begins by a first computing device determining a routing plan to route a set of encoded data slices from the first computing device to a second computing device via a plurality of network paths of a communications network. The method continues with the second computing device receiving encoded data slices via one or more network paths. When the second computing device receives a decode threshold number of encoded data slices, the method continues with the second computing device sending a message to the communications network indicating receipt of the decode threshold number of encoded data slices. The method continues with a relay unit determining whether the relay unit is in possession of a not-yet delivered encoded data slice. When the relay unit is in possession of the not-yet delivered encoded data slice, the method continues with the relay unit ceasing forwarding of the not-yet delivered encoded data slice.
US09843405B2

This invention relates to methods and devices for clock synchronization. The invention has particular application in the alignment of slave clocks to a master clock and in dealing with transmission delay asymmetries where the forward and reverse communication paths between the master and slave clocks have asymmetric transmission rates. Such methods and devices have particular application in small cell backhaul solutions for 4G/LTE deployments. In embodiments of the invention, the slave clock uses link rate information to estimate the transmission delay asymmetry and thus estimate the offset and skew of the slave clock. Embodiments provide a simple linear approximation technique and a Kalman filter-based technique for estimating offset and skew of the slave clock.
US09843403B2

A radio relay station is arranged on a moving conveyance. The radio relay station receives downlink radio signals from a stationary base station fixed outside the conveyance, and transmits to destination user equipments in the conveyance downlink radio signals resulting from the downlink radio signals transmitted from the stationary base station. In addition, the radio relay station receives uplink radio signals from multiple user equipments in the conveyance, and transmits to the stationary base station uplink radio signals resulting from the uplink radio signals transmitted from the multiple user equipments. The radio relay station receives from the multiple user equipments auxiliary radio signals indicating a downlink radio signal which the stationary base station has transmitted, detects, within a result of reception of the auxiliary radio signals, a downlink radio signal addressed to a user equipment in the conveyance, and transmits the downlink radio signal to the user equipment.
US09843397B2

An optical network unit (ONU) comprising a media access controller (MAC) configured to support biasing a laser transmitter to compensate for temperature related wavelength drift receiving a transmission timing instruction from an optical network control node, obtaining transmission power information for the laser transmitter, estimating a burst mode time period for the laser transmitter according to the transmission timing instruction, and calculating a laser phase fine tuning compensation value for the laser transmitter according to the burst mode time period and the transmission power information, and forwarding the laser phase fine tuning compensation value toward a bias controller to support biasing a phase of the laser transmitter.
US09843395B2

An electrical component assembly includes a substrate and first and second electrical components attached to the substrate and operably connected with each other via the substrate. In use the first electrical component generates a first amount of heat and the second component generates a second amount of heat. The first component is thermally connected with a heat sink along a first heat path and the second component is connected with the heat sink along a second, different, heat path, such that the thermal conductivity between the first and second components is lower than the thermal conductivity of the first heat path and of the second heat path.
US09843390B2

An apparatus comprising a digital signal processor (DSP) unit configured to perform fiber dispersion pre-compensation on a digital signal sequence based on a dispersion value to produce a pre-compensated signal, wherein the dispersion value is associated with a remote optical receiver, a plurality of digital-to-analog converters (DACs) coupled to the DSP unit and configured to convert the pre-compensated signal into analog electrical signals, and a frontend coupled to the DACs and configured to convert the analog electrical signals into a first optical signal, adding a constant optical electric (E)-field to the first optical signal to produce a second optical signal, and transmit the second optical signal to the remote optical receiver.
US09843388B1

Technology for laser communications is provided. In one example, a method may include generating a communication for transmission from a first terrestrial computing device to a second terrestrial computing device and encoding the communication as an optical transmission from a first laser array in communication with the first terrestrial computing device. The optical transmission may be transmitted, using the first laser array, to a first satellite and relayed from the first satellite to a second satellite using a second laser array at the first satellite. The optical transmission may be further relayed from the second satellite to the second terrestrial computing device using a third laser array at the second satellite. The lasers in the first, second and third laser arrays may be low power laser diodes configured for a power level less than 1 kW.
US09843385B2

A system includes one or more optical emitters, a transceiver, and a body mountable device. The optical emitters emit light and are configured to be used in luminaires. The transceiver is coupled to receive input data from a data network and coupled to selectively modulate the optical emitters to transmit the optical data. Selectively modulating the optical emitters is in response to the input data. The body mountable device includes a photodetector coupled to receive the optical data and processing circuitry configured to initiate an action in response to receiving the optical data from the photodetector.
US09843383B2

A multifunctional laser driving circuit, and an optical module and method of using the same, are disclosed. The circuit combines first and second optical signals having different functions to form a compound signal, and switches among the first optical signal, second optical signal and compound signal by enabling or disabling first and second laser drivers corresponding to the first and second optical signals. The circuit can provide functions to optical modules, including converting an electrical data signal into an optical data signal; converting an electrical line monitoring signal into an optical line monitoring signal; combining the optical data and line monitoring signals and synchronously transmitting them to a fiber; and providing an OTDR function. Relative to using external OTDR tools to detect line faults, the present circuit and method enables simple line connection, timely detection of lines faults, and low costs of implementation.
US09843380B1

Methods for controlling directional antennas (and systems for performing same) may include one or more operations including, but not limited to: determining a location of an aircraft using a Kalman filter; selecting at least one communication tower for air-to-ground communication; computing a vector between the location of the aircraft and at least one selected communication tower; and configuring a directional antenna of an aircraft to correspond to the vector.
US09843376B2

A base station used in a wireless communications system with multiple transmission ranks is disclosed. The base station comprises a memory to store a codebook for a transmission rank, a beamforming controller to precode data with a precoding matrix selected from the codebook, and a transmitter to transmit the precoded data to a user equipment, wherein the precoding matrix is selected according to a first description and a second description, which are unique to the precoding matrix, and wherein the second description provides a finer description of the codebook than the first description. Other methods, systems, and apparatuses also are disclosed.
US09843372B2

It is presented a method for controlling uplink multiple-input-multiple-output, MIMO. The method is performed in a network node and comprises the steps of: determining an inter-stream interference between two uplink streams in MIMO, Multiple Inputs Multiple Outputs, transmission; and controlling a selection of E-TFC, Enhanced dedicated transport channel Transport Format Combination, in response to the determined interference.
US09843365B2

Disclosed herein are system and method embodiments for selection of transmission parameters for transmit diversity terminals. According to an aspect, a method for controlling wireless receive/transmit unit transmission parameters may include configuring a WRTU to transmit dual stream when a first stream is using a predetermined transport format (TF) or subset of the TF. The method may also include applying the configuration to the WRTU.
US09843364B2

A rate-adaptive method of communicating over a multipath wireless communication system uses multiple links such that each end of a link uses multiple transmit and receive antennas. A number of independent streams that are to be transmitted for each link is determined based on an overall system performance measure. In addition, the system may also jointly determine the best modulation, coding, power control, and frequency assignment for each link, based on an overall system performance measure. In OFDM systems, the number of independent streams, as well as the modulation, coding, and power control, may be determined on a tone-by-tone basis based on an overall system performance measure.
US09843363B2

This invention relates to a covered wire coupling type information communication network, an electromagnetic field coupling communication method and an electromagnetic field coupler, which makes it possible to solve the problem with the mechanical contact system and the structure where wires are exposed in a connector. A first covered wire and a second covered wire are placed in close proximity to each other in a coupling unit, and electromagnetic coupling in the coupling unit creates a data connection between the first and second covered wire.
US09843360B2

Some embodiments provide a method of configuring a near field wireless network are provided, comprising: identifying a plurality of near field antenna systems including a first, second and third antenna systems, wherein the first antenna system is cooperated with a first consumer electronic (CE) device and the second antenna system is cooperated with a second CE device, wherein each of the plurality of antenna systems comprises a power transfer antenna and one or more communications antennas; receiving wireless coupling parameters corresponding to the antenna systems; determining wireless coupling configurations configured to dictate which of the antenna systems each of the first, second and third antenna systems is to directly communicate with; and initiating a communication of one or more configuration instructions directing each of the plurality of antenna systems to be configured in accordance with the determined wireless coupling configurations.
US09843358B2

A device, system, and method for communicating with a power inverter of an array of inverters includes transmitting a relay message from an inverter array controller to a relay inverter in response to failing to receive a response from at least one power inverter of the array. The relay inverter is configured to retransmit a message from the inverter array controller to a non-responsive power inverter of the array of inverters in response to receiving the relay message. The relay inverter may subsequently retransmit a reply received from the non-responsive power inverter to the inverter array controller or to another power inverter of the array of inverters.
US09843355B2

An improved venting and sealing assembly for a portable communication device is provided. The venting and sealing assembly is formed of a housing enclosure having a walled aperture with a bottom surface and an offset through-hole passing therethrough. A flexible substrate having a vent hole is coupled to the housing enclosure across the walled aperture such that the vent hole is offset from the offset through-hole. A breathable membrane is coupled across the vent hole of the flexible substrate. A rigid plate having an opening is coupled to the breathable membrane, the opening of the rigid plate being aligned with the vent hole of the flexible substrate. A closed-loop sealing rib is formed around the vent hole of the flexible substrate and/or upon the bottom surface of the walled aperture of the housing enclosure. The assembly provides a vent path and a self-sealing enclosure.
US09843353B1

A system of mobile devices that reduces the transmission strength of outgoing signals originating from a handheld device, and sends such signals to a second device, situated near or on a lower-body location, where the signals may be amplified to the current permitted maximum transmission strength vis-a-vis the brain (SAR), or above that level to the greater maximum strength permitted in the areas of, e.g., the feet and ankles, where the signal is then sent outward. The devices divert radio frequency (RF) radiation exposure downward toward the lower extremities. The intelligence and power of the devices may be split between two or more devices, resulting in longer use time, deeper and more complex computing capability, and fewer disruptions due to power. In addition, a benefit in one or more embodiments is better, more reliable reception, due to the use of two or more coordinated receiving antennas.
US09843338B1

A configuration circuit for obtaining a digital code includes a controller circuit that generates a plurality of multibit control words. A digitally controlled current source circuit receives a multibit control word generated by the controller circuit. The digitally controlled current source circuit generates an output current that corresponds to the multibit control word in accordance with a predetermined output curve. A test voltage node receives the output current, and a test voltage develops in response to the output current. A reference voltage node develops a reference voltage, the level of which is independent of the multibit control word. A voltage comparison circuit (i) receives the test voltage and the reference voltage, (ii) compares the two voltages to produce a comparison result and (iii) sends the comparison result to the controller circuit. The digital code is obtained by the configuration circuit using the comparison result and the multibit control word.
US09843333B2

A phase locked loop may be operable to generate, utilizing a frequency doubler, a reference clock signal whose frequency is twice a frequency of a crystal clock signal and is keyed on both rising and falling edges of the crystal clock signal. A sampled loop filter (SLPF) in the phase locked loop may capture charge from a charge pump (CHP) in the phase locked loop and the charge is captured at a frequency corresponding to the frequency of the reference clock signal. Opening a switch of the SLPF may hold the captured charge during a phase comparison and closing the switch may release the captured charge. The switch is controlled utilizing a control signal. By utilizing the SLPF in the phase locked loop, the phase locked loop may eliminate, at an output of the CHP, disturbance which is associated with duty cycle errors of the crystal clock signal.
US09843331B2

The invention relates to a method for operating a mechanical resonator in an electronic oscillator, comprising determining a state space description of the resonator, in which state variables are the mass, the stiffness or dimensions of components used in the crystal resonator; providing a table with frequency correction factors as a function of a state space of a resonator; finding a frequency correction factor corresponding to the determined state space; and multiplying the output frequency of the resonator with the correction factor, and to an electronic oscillator, comprising a mechanical resonator, wherein an output frequency of the oscillator is multiplied by a frequency correction factor, the frequency correction factor being obtained from determination of the state variables of the resonator, in particular dominant mechanical state variables.
US09843330B1

An apparatus is disclosed, including a driver circuit, a comparator circuit, and a counter circuit. The driver circuit may be configured to source a current to a load circuit. The comparator circuit may be configured to perform a comparison of a reference voltage to a voltage across the load circuit. The counter circuit may be configured to modify a digital count value based on the comparison. The driver circuit may be further configured to adjust a value of the current using the digital count value.
US09843326B1

Device and a method of configuring a voltage level shifter is disclosed. The device includes a traditional level shifter circuit (TLSC), a first control circuit (FCC) cross-coupled to a second control circuit (SCC). The FCC is coupled to receive an inverse of an input at a first input node and provide a first output at a first output node. The SCC is coupled to receive the input at a second input node and provide a second output at a second output node and the TLSC is configured to provide an output at an output node in response to the first output received at the first output node and the second output received at the second output node. A first power source is configured to provide a first power supply voltage to the TLSC, the FCC and the SCC. The output is latched to track the input. The TLSC, the FCC and the SCC are coupled to a ground reference node.
US09843313B2

The present invention provides a high voltage pulse modulating power source based on alternate group triggering, which comprises: a DC stabilized voltage source for supplying power to the high voltage pulse modulating power source; a plurality of solid-state switches; a plurality of triggers corresponding to said plurality of solid-state switches, wherein each trigger provides a trigger signal to its corresponding solid-state switch to turn on said corresponding solid-state switch, wherein said plurality of triggers are divided into at least two groups of triggers; a time sequence control module, which, at time t1, controls said plurality of triggers to generate trigger signals so as to turn on said plurality of solid-state switches simultaneously, and at time t2, controls one group of said at least two groups of triggers to generate trigger signals to turn on solid-state switches corresponding to this group of triggers, wherein time t1 and time t2 appear alternately.
US09843306B2

A tuner circuit includes a DC (Direct Current) cut-off unit configured to cut off a DC component in a signal received from an antenna, a switching unit configured to transmit the signal by being turned on when a bias voltage is applied, a high pass filter unit configured to pass only a high frequency component in a signal having passed the switching unit, and a low noise amplifier configured to output a signal having passed a high frequency filter by amplifying the signal.
US09843305B2

An elastic wave includes a piezoelectric substrate having a polarization direction denoted by an arrow Px, and first and second IDT electrodes arranged on the substrate in an elastic wave propagation direction with a shared reflector therebetween. A first bus bar of the first IDT electrode and a first end portion bus bar of a second reflector are connected to a wiring electrode to define a first terminal. A second bus bar of the first IDT electrode and a second end portion bus bar of the shared reflector are connected to each other to define a second terminal. A first end portion bus bar and a first bus bar are electrically connected to each other. A second bus bar and a second end portion bus bar are electrically connected to each other, and the first and second IDT electrodes and are connected in parallel between the first and second terminals.
US09843301B1

A transformer balun fabricated in silicon and including a series of alternating metal layers and dielectric layers that define first and second outer conductors that are part of a coaxial structure. Each dielectric layer includes a plurality of conductive vias extending through the dielectric layer to provide electrical contact between opposing metal layers, where a top metal layer forms a top wall of each outer conductor and a bottom metal layer forms a bottom wall of each outer conductor and the other metal layers and the dielectric layers define sidewalls of the outer conductors. Inner conductors extends down both of the first and second outer conductors and a first output line is electrically coupled to a sidewall of the first outer conductor and a second output line is electrically coupled to a sidewall of the second outer conductor.
US09843298B2

A power amplifier may include a first amplifying circuit configured to amplify an input RF signal; a second amplifying circuit connected to the first amplifying circuit in parallel configured to amplify the input RF signal; and a controller connected to at least one of the first amplifying circuit and the second amplifying circuit and configured to output a control signal in order to control an on-off state of at least one of the first amplifying circuit and the second amplifying circuit. Such an approach provides high efficiency without adding significant complexity to the power amplifier.
US09843296B2

A linearizer comprises a delay compensation circuit, an envelope reshaping circuit and a phase shift unit. The delay compensation circuit is configured to delay an input signal and to output a delayed input signal to a power amplifier. The envelope reshaping circuit is configured to detect an envelope of the input signal and to generate a reshaped envelope signal. The phase shift unit configured to provide an envelope reshaped capacitance based on the reshaped envelope signal to the delayed input signal to reshape the delayed input signal.
US09843295B2

Disclosed is a transimpedance amplifier. The transimpedance amplifier includes an inverter configured to have a feedback resistor and amplify a signal provided to an input side, and a common gate amplifier configured to be connected to the inverter in cascade and amplify an output of the inverter, wherein the signal provided to the input side is fed forward to a gate of the common gate amplifier through a gate resistor.
US09843290B2

A mixer includes a trans conductance unit, a gain boost unit, a mixing module and a buffer. The trans conductance unit, the gain boost unit and the mixing module cooperatively mix a differential input voltage signal pair with a differential oscillatory voltage signal pair to generate a differential mixed voltage signal pair. The buffer performs buffering on the differential mixed voltage signal pair, and has inductance that cooperates with parasitic capacitance at output terminals thereof to form an LC tank circuit that reaches resonance at a frequency of the differential mixed voltage signal pair to behave as an open circuit.
US09843274B2

A three-level photovoltaic inverter pulse width modulation method and a three-level photovoltaic inverter pulse width modulator. The method includes: when it is detected that potential safety hazards exist in a three-level photovoltaic inverter, switching the pulse width modulation mode of the three-level photovoltaic inverter into a 13-vector space vector pulse width modulation mode, to solve the fault or abnormal problems in the three-level photovoltaic inverter such as midpoint potential offset or excessively large common mode leakage current formed when the ground stray capacitance of a photovoltaic assembly is large, wherein according to the 13-vector SVPWM mode, 12 short vectors in 27 on-off state vectors of the three-level photovoltaic inverter are abandoned, and only six long vectors, six middle vectors and three zero vectors are reserved.
US09843272B2

A power converter includes 2n charge storage elements connected in series in this order, n being a natural number of 2 or more, a first switch element and a first diode connected in series in this order between terminals of a first charge storage element, a second diode and a second switch element connected in series in this order between terminals of a 2nth charge storage element, a third diode and a fourth diode connected in series in this order between terminals of each of the second charge storage element to a 2n−1th charge storage element, 2n leads each connected to a node between the first switch element and the first diode, a node between the third diode and the fourth diode, and a node between the second diode and the second switch element, and 2n−1 switch circuits for selecting one of outputs output to the 2n leads.
US09843269B2

When power consumption of a load is smaller than a first threshold, a switch element of each of one or more circuits is made nonconductive to supply power from all of the one or more circuits to the load. When the power consumption of the load is larger than the first threshold, the switch element of at least one of the one or more circuits is made intermittently conductive to supply power from all of the one or more circuits to the load.
US09843266B2

The present disclosure describes a method and arrangement for damping a resonant component of a common-mode current of a multi-phase power converter comprising an output filter with a virtual ground connection to the power converter. In the method and arrangement, the common-mode current is determined, a feedback signal is formed on the basis of the common-mode current, and the feedback signal is injected into a common mode current reference in order to dampen the resonance frequency component. A delay is added to the feedback signal so that the feedback signal has a sufficient phase margin with respect to a subsequent cycle of the resonance frequency component of the common-mode current.
US09843260B1

A supply modulator including a first switched-mode power supplier configured to transmit a modulated voltage to an output node in response to an envelope signal, the first switched mode power supplier including: a switching circuit configured to transmit a pulse signal in response to the amplitude of the envelope signal; and a low pass filter configured to generate the modulated voltage by filtering certain frequency band of the pulse signal, the low pass filter comprising a plurality of stages; and a second switched-mode power supplier configured to selectively transmit a compensation current to the output node in response to the current transmitted from the first switched-mode power supplier, wherein each of the plurality of stages of the low pass filter comprises at least one variable impedances.
US09843254B2

A switching power converter is provided that switches between low-bandwidth PI control and a high-speed control of an output voltage responsive to comparing the output voltage to an upper output voltage limit and to a lower output voltage limit. The switching power converter adapts the upper and lower voltage limits responsive to a load demand.
US09843246B2

A method and device for forming corona shielding on a winding bar for high-voltage machines has end corona shielding in a first section and outer corona shielding in a second section that adjoins the first section. The method includes providing a first composition, including a carrier material and a first filler therein and a first electrical resistance; providing a second composition, including the same carrier material and a second filler therein and a second electrical resistance, wherein the first and second fillers contain an identical dopable semiconductor material, doping of which determines electrical resistance of the first and second fillers, and wherein the second resistance differs from the first resistance; applying the first composition in the first section to form the end corona shielding; and applying the second composition in the second section to form the outer corona shielding.
US09843244B2

Downhole tools for earth-boring applications may include a component of a steel material and including a bore. An inner surface defining the bore may be treated with a surface treatment. The surface treatment may include a nitrided region having nitrogen diffused into the steel material and a ceramic material adjacent to the nitrided region; the ceramic material defining the inner surface. Methods of making downhole tools for earth-boring applications may involve exposing a component of the downhole tool to an elevated temperature to heat the component in a nitrogen-rich environment. Nitrogen may be diffused into a steel material of the component and a nitrided region may be formed at one or more surfaces of the component. A ceramic material may be coated on the nitrided region of the component.
US09843242B2

Disclosed is an anti-separating structure of a sensing magnet for EPS motor, the structure being a coupling structure between the sensing magnet and a plate of the EPS motor, the structure including a disk-shaped plate formed with a magnet accommodation unit protrusively formed near at a rotation shaft, a ring-shaped sensing magnet centrally formed with a through hole having a diameter corresponding to the magnet accommodation unit, and magnet grip units each formed at a predetermined gap along a circumferential surface of the magnet accommodation unit.
US09843233B2

An insulated electric wire includes a rectangular conductor and an insulation film disposed on the periphery of the rectangular conductor. The insulation film is characterized by: the provision of a resin containing an imide structure within a molecule; and a peak value of less than 1.0 for the loss tangent tan δ, which is represented by the ratio between the loss elastic modulus and the storage elastic modulus, as measured in the 50 DEG C. to 400 DEG C. range.
US09843232B2

A rotary electric machine includes a three-phase coil including a first phase coil, a second phase coil, and a third phase coil for magnetic flux generation. A bridge conductor connecting an ath end and a bth end of the first phase coil, and a bridge conductor connecting the ath end and the bth end of the third phase coil are provided in a protruding shape on one side of a stator in a radial direction when viewed in a axial direction of the stator. A bridge conductor connecting the ath end and the bth end of the second phase coil is provided in a protruding shape on the other side of the stator in the radial direction when viewed in the axial direction of the stator. The bridge conductor of each coil in the three-phase coil is arranged at the same height position in the axial direction.
US09843230B2

A wireless power transmission system, according to some implementations, includes: an antenna configured to transmit radio frequency signals for both data transmission and power transmission; and a wireless device coupled with the antenna, the wireless device configured to cause the antenna to transmit the radio frequency signals for the data transmission and the power transmission; wherein the wireless device includes a communication module configured to perform data transmission operations with respect to power transmission operations according to a temporal schedule; and wherein the temporal schedule specifies occurrence of the data transmission operations and the power transmission operations at different intervals.
US09843224B2

A cloud control power socket device includes a housing, a power plug, a first switch device, a second switch device, a socket and a cloud control circuit. The power plug has first and second conductive wires. The first switch device is arranged on the housing. The second switch device is arranged in the housing and has a first end, a second end, and a control end. The socket is connected to the second end of the second switch device and the second conductive wire. The cloud control circuit is connected to the control end of second switch device. The first switch device includes an AC switch; a first indicator having two ends connected to the AC switch and the second conductive wire; and a second indicator having two ends connected to the second conductive wire and the second switch device.
US09843221B1

Aspects of the disclosure relate generally to uninterruptible power supply units for systems requiring back up power. Each unit may include UPS circuitry for controlling charging and allowing discharging of a battery. The UPS circuitry may includes a controller and a plurality of metal-oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (“MOSFET”) switches. The MOSFETs may include charging and discharging MOSFETs arranged in series with the battery all driven by a single gate driver, such as a controller. In this regard, the controller may limit the charging current though all of the MOSFETs and charge the battery. The MOSFETs may be arranged such that if the charging MOSFET fails, the redundant charging MOSFET may continue to limit the charging current to the battery. Similarly, a redundant discharging MOSFET may be arranged in series with a discharging MOSFET in order to continue to provide discharging current if the discharging MOSFET fails.
US09843219B2

The embodiments described herein provide a power transmitter for wireless charging of an electronic device and methods of its operation. The power transmitter uses an inverter configured to generate a square wave from a potentially wide ranging DC input voltage. The inverter is configured to generate the square wave with a duty cycle that results in a desired equivalent voltage output, effectively independent of the DC input voltage that is provided. Thus, by generating a square wave with a selectable duty cycle the inverter provides the ability to facilitate wireless power transfer with a wide range of DC input voltages. Furthermore, in some embodiments the power transmitter may provide improved power transfer efficiency using a quasi-resonant phase shift control strategy with adjustable dead time and a matching network that is dynamically selectable to more effectively couple with the transmitter coil combination being used to transmit power to the electronic device.
US09843211B2

Multiple power chargers for mobile terminals are disclosed. In particularly contemplated aspects, a mobile terminal may include two charging circuits arranged serially, such that only one charging circuit charges a battery of the mobile terminal at a time. The serial arrangement allows consolidation of fuel gauge circuitry within one of the charging circuits. In a particularly contemplated aspect, a second charger is tied to a first charger at a system power node. The system power node is further tied to a top port of the second charger. A bottom port of the second charger is tied to a top port of the first charger. A bottom port of the first charger is tied to the battery of the mobile terminal. The fuel gauge circuitry may sense battery current using a known ON resistance of a field effect transistor (FET) of the first charger.
US09843206B2

A transformer less battery charger system. In one embodiment, the battery charger system includes input terminals for receiving an AC voltage, output terminals for receiving terminals of a rechargeable battery pack, and a non-isolated DC-DC converter coupled between the input terminals and the output terminals. A device is also coupled somewhere between the input terminals and the output terminals. The device is configured to selectively and indirectly couple the input terminals to the output terminals. More particularly, the device indirectly couples the input terminals to the output terminals when the rechargeable battery pack terminals are received by the output terminals, and the device indirectly decouples the input terminals from the output terminals when the rechargeable battery pack terminals are separated from the output terminals.
US09843202B2

An inductive power transfer system and methods for controlling efficient operational wireless power transfer to an electrical device. The system includes an inductive power outlet, an inductive power receiver and a signal transfer system communicating power transfer instruction from receiver to outlet, while transferring power from the outlet to the receiver. The present invention relates to wireless power transfer systems and methods incorporating a current limiter activation mechanism to allow power transfer at an extended operational range, providing a technical solution when an inductive power outlet and an inductive power receiver are laterally misaligned.
US09843201B1

The present disclosure describes a plurality of antenna arrangements that may be suitable for wireless power transmission based on single or multiple pocket-forming. Single or multiple pocket-forming may include one transmitter and at least one or more receivers, being the transmitter the source of energy and the receiver the device that is desired to charge or power. ‘The antenna arrangements may vary in size and geometry, and may operate as a single array, pair array, quad arrays or any other suitable arrangement, which may be designed in accordance with the desired application.
US09843198B2

Aspects of the present disclosure are directed to methods, apparatuses and systems involving voltage control using rectifying circuitry. According to an example embodiment, an apparatus includes an antenna, a capacitor, and voltage control circuitry. The voltage control circuitry includes a first rectifying circuit to rectify a wireless signal and provide the rectified signal to an output load, a second rectifying circuit to rectify the wireless signal and provide the rectified signal to the capacitor, and a control logic circuit to regulate an output voltage provided to the output load relative to a threshold value. For each rectifying cycle, the control logic circuit determines whether the output voltage is above the threshold value, enables, in response to determining that the output voltage is below the threshold value, the first rectifying circuit, and enables, in response to determining that the output voltage is above the threshold value, the second rectifying circuit.
US09843188B2

A multiple uninterruptible power supply system includes at least two uninterruptible power supply modules. Each uninterruptible power supply module has a control unit with the control unit coupled to a synchronization bus. The uninterruptible power supply module are synchronized to each other with one of the uninterruptible power supply modules being operated as a sync master UPS and its control unit sending synchronization signals on the synchronization bus that are received on the synchronization bus by control units of each of the other uninterruptible power supply module which are each operated as a slave UPS synchronized to the sync master UPS. When a bypass power source for the uninterruptible power supply module that is being operated as the sync master becomes unqualified, another one of the UPS modules is operated as the sync master and its control unit then sends out the synchronization signals.
US09843172B2

The present invention employs a separate rotation-adjusting member, which allows a position of a circuit breaker or a transformer to be recognized from outside without an error.
US09843164B2

In various embodiments, laser apparatuses include thermal bonding layers between various components and sealing materials for preventing or retarding movement of thermal bonding material out of the thermal bonding layers.
US09843163B2

An ultraviolet light emitting element includes a light emitting layer, a cap layer, an electron barrier layer. The light emitting layer has a multi-quantum well structure including barrier layers each including a first AlGaN layer and well layers each including a second AlGaN layer. The electron barrier layer includes at least one first p-type AlGaN layer and at least one second p-type AlGaN layer. The cap layer is located between the first p-type AlGaN layer and one of the well layers closest to the first p-type AlGaN layer. The cap layer is a third AlGaN layer having an Al composition ratio greater than an Al composition ratio of each of the well layers and less than an Al composition ratio of the first p-type AlGaN layer. The cap layer has a thickness of greater than or equal to 1 nm and less than or equal to 7 nm.
US09843154B2

A system and method for stabilizing and combining multiple emitted beams into a single system using both WBC and WDM techniques.
US09843153B2

A beam reverser module for an optical power amplifier of a laser arrangement comprises at least one reflecting surface for receiving an incoming laser beam propagating in a first direction and reflecting the incoming laser beam into a second direction different from the first direction, wherein the at least one reflecting surface is a highly reflecting surface of at least one mirror.
US09843152B2

A method and system for a dynamic keying system is disclosed. The method and system can include a male connector device having a first plurality of settings for one or more key features, and a female connector device having a second plurality of settings for one or more key features. The female connector device can be configured to operate in an initial mode in which it is configured to, in response to the introduction of the male connector device, correspond a first setting of the first plurality of settings to a second setting of the second plurality of settings. The female connector device can also be configured to operate in a subsequent mode, in which it can permit coupling with at least one male connector device having the first setting and consistently deny access to at least one male connector device having a third setting different than the first setting.
US09843151B2

A production method for a terminal includes: a first pressing step for pressing a parent material plate made of a conductive metal and punching out a prescribed shape; a second pressing step following the first pressing step, for bending the plate of prescribed shape, and forming a terminal provided with a box part onto the front surface of which opens a terminal insertion port into which a partner terminal is inserted, and a spring contact part arranged inside the box part; and a plating step following the second pressing step, for plating at least the spring contact part with a conductive metal.
US09843150B2

There is provided an adapter for adapting an electronic device to a modular electronic device system. The adapter generally has a housing having two lateral edges, a cavity between the lateral edges and being adapted to receive the electronic device, each of the two lateral edges of the housing having at least one magnetic coupler electrically connectable with at least one magnetic coupler of the modular electronic device system by magnetically engaging the at least one magnetic coupler of the adapter with the at least one magnetic coupler of the modular electronic device system, and an internal electric conductor network electrically connected to the magnetic couplers of the adapter and electrically connected to an internal connector which is electrically connectable to the electronic device when received in the cavity of the housing.
US09843147B2

A power transfer system to facilitate the transfer of electrical power between tree trunk sections of an artificial tree is disclosed. The power transfer system can advantageously enable neighboring tree trunk sections to be electrically connected without the need to rotationally align the tree trunk sections. Power distribution subsystems can be disposed within the trunk sections. The power distribution subsystems can comprise a male end, a female end, or both. The male ends can have prongs and the female ends can have voids. The prongs can be inserted into the voids to electrically connect the power distribution subsystems of neighboring tree trunk sections. In some embodiments, the prongs and voids are designed so that the prongs of one power distribution subsystem can engage the voids of another power distribution subsystem without the need to rotationally align the tree trunk sections.
US09843146B1

A lighted outlet system has a circuit mounted on a printed circuit board. The circuit includes a light source that emits light. An outlet is mounted on the printed circuit board over the circuit. The outlet includes an outlet core composed of transparent or clear material. The outlet core serves as a light pipe for light emitted from the light source. Housing houses the outlet core.
US09843145B2

A thermal detection plug for use with an electrical apparatus is provided. The thermal detection plug includes: a housing, a thermal cut-off, contact prongs, and supporting structures to effectively interrupt the flow of electrical power at the point of interface of between the power cord of an appliance and power receptacle. The thermal detection plug interrupts power based on a temperature detected at the interface point.
US09843144B2

An electrical wiring device has a longitudinal axis extending between a top surface and a bottom surface. The electrical wiring device includes at least one line phase wiring terminal, at least one neutral wiring terminal, at least one line phase electrical conductor entry extending along the longitudinal axis of the electrical wiring device and extending between the line phase wiring terminal and the top surface or the bottom surface of the electrical wiring device and at least one neutral electrical conductor entry extending along the longitudinal axis of the electrical wiring device and extending between the neutral wiring terminal and the top surface or the bottom surface of the electrical wiring device.
US09843140B1

A backshell includes upper and lower shells defining a cavity. The upper shell includes a top wall and a side wall and the lower shell includes a bottom wall and a side wall. An actuator is coupled to the shells to change the relative positions of the shells between an open position and a closed position. A top of the lower shell engages a bottom of the upper shell in the closed position. The actuator is operable to move at least one of the upper shell and the lower shell such that the top of the lower shell is spaced-apart from the bottom of the upper shell in the open position, thereby increasing a size of the cavity to allow insertion and removal of the electrical connector into or out of the cavity in the open position.
US09843138B2

A plug connector for connecting to a complementarily formed counter plug connector, having an inner conductor which is supplied with high current, and an outer conductor that surrounds the inner conductor and has an outer contact element on a front side of the plug connector for the purposes of shield transfer where the outer contact element is designed for shield transfer, being in the form of a rigid ring element having a mating surface, surrounding same in a peripheral direction, for surface mating with a complementarily formed counter mating surface of the counter plug connector, which mating surface runs transversely in relation to an insertion direction (S) of the plug connector.
US09843137B2

An electronic connector includes a base, an extension protruding from the base, and a nose forming a terminal end of the extension. The extension includes first and second connection faces and ground electrical contacts located along the first and second connection faces.
US09843128B2

An electrical connector is provided, which includes: a first housing having a discontinuous portion, an insulating main body received in the first housing, a shielding piece disposed in the insulating main body, two conductive terminal sets disposed on the insulating main body, a capping body covering the discontinuous portion, and a sealing body coupled with the first housing. By the design of the capping body, water vapor or moisture cannot seep through the discontinuous portion to enter the first housing.
US09843127B2

This disclosure presents a connector assembly for providing a waterproof connection to a case for an electronic device. The connector assembly includes a connector body, an electrical cable, and an electrical conductor. The electrical conductor is electrically connected to the electrical cable and electrically engages the installed electronic device to convey at least one of data and power between the installed electronic device and the electrical cable. The connector assembly also includes an outer sleeve configured to freely rotate around the connector body and further configured to removably connect the connector assembly to the case. The outer sleeve includes a securing region to removably secure the connector assembly to the case, an inner gasket to seal an inner sealing interface of the outer sleeve with the connector body, and an outer gasket positioned to seal an outer sealing interface of the outer sleeve with the case.
US09843122B2

A fixing element may include a pin connecting surface configured to conductively contact a pin of a busbar, and a detent configured to latch with the pin. The detent may be disposed above the pin connecting surface and bent in a first direction perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of the fixing element. The fixing element may also include a tab separated from the detent along the longitudinal axis of the fixing element, and a board connecting surface joined to the tab. The board connecting surface may be bent in a second direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the fixing element. The second direction may be opposite to the first direction.
US09843119B1

A high speed connector assembly is disclosed in this invention, which includes a receptacle connector and a plug connector. The receptacle connector at least includes an insulating cover and multiple terminal modules being arranged in parallel and retained in the insulating cover. Each differential signal terminal has an L-type base, a front mating portion and a bottom mounting portion. The front mating portion includes a finger-shaped spring and an L-type contact piece. When the receptacle connector and the plug connector are engaged, the finger-shaped spring and the L-type contact piece can respectively and electrically contact with two different surfaces of one plug terminal to form double contacts. The double contacts can suppress the short pile effect and reduce signal crosstalk and signal loss during transmitting the high speed signal.
US09843117B2

A connector is configured such that, while a socket housing (31) is engaged with a header housing (21), a socket-side signal terminal (32) contacts a header-side signal terminal (22), and a socket-side power source terminal (33) contacts a header-side power source terminal (23). A socket-side holder bracket (34) is disposed in the socket housing (31). The socket-side holder bracket (34) includes a mounting terminal (34d) configured to be soldered to a circuit pattern formed on a circuit board (60). The socket-side power source terminal (33) includes a base part (33a) configured to be soldered to the circuit pattern formed on the circuit board (60). The mounting terminal (34d) and the base part (33a) are soldered to a common circuit pattern.
US09843116B2

An electrical connector includes: a conductive terminal including: a connector-side connecting part; a substrate-side connecting part; and an L-shaped bent part therebetween; a housing including: a terminal-holding hole holding the conductive terminal between the connector-side connecting part and the bent part; and an opening capable of exposing the substrate-side connecting part. The opening is used for connecting a circuit substrate. An alignment member is attached toward the substrate-side connecting part of the conductive terminal so as to close the opening. The alignment member is engaged with the housing in a state where the substrate-side connecting part projects from a through hole for inserting the conductive terminal therein. The engaging unit preventing the substrate-side connecting part of the conductive terminal from moving to the bent part, is provided between the conductive terminal and the through hole.
US09843108B2

Disclosed herein is a dual-feed dual-polarized antenna element and a method for manufacturing the same. An embodiment dual-polarization antenna element includes four radiating elements and eight feed ports. The four radiating elements are arranged in a co-planar diamond pattern. The neighboring elements of the four radiating elements form four shared-element dipole antenna elements. Each of the four radiating elements is shared between two cross-polarized dipole antenna elements of the four shared-element dipole antenna elements. The eight feed ports are arranged in four cross-polarized dual-feed pairs respectively disposed on the four radiating elements. Each feed port of the four cross-polarized dual-feed pairs is operable to respectively excite one of the four radiating elements for a cross-polarized one of the four shared-element dipole antenna elements.
US09843103B2

An array of scattering and/or reflector antennas are configured to produce a series of beam patterns, where in some embodiments the scattering antenna and/or the reflector antenna includes complementary metamaterial elements. In some embodiments circuitry may be configured to set a series of conditions corresponding to the array to produce the series of beam patterns, and to produce an image of an object that is illuminated by the series of beam patterns.
US09843099B2

A radiating element is provided, for example for array antenna, having stacked resonant cavities of Pérot-Fabry type, of compact structure, a lower cavity being fed by excitation means, the radiating element being characterized in that corrugations are formed substantially below a first earth plane delimiting in its lower part the upper resonant cavity. A radiating element structure of improved compactness is also proposed, whose upper cavity is surmounted by a polarizing radome.
US09843097B1

In a method for beamforming in a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) communication system, a data unit from a second communication device is received at a first communication device via a MIMO communication channel. Training signals in the data unit are buffered in a memory of the first communication device, wherein buffering assumes that the data unit spans a bandwidth greater than a maximum bandwidth of a legacy first communication protocol. The first communication device determines whether the data unit is formatted according to a duplication mode in which a bandwidth portion of the data unit conforms to the legacy first communication protocol. If it is determined that the data unit is formatted according to the duplication mode, the first communication device utilizes a transmit beamforming matrix generated using the training signals buffered assuming that the data unit spans the bandwidth greater than the maximum bandwidth of the legacy first communication protocol.
US09843096B2

Compact lacunated lenses having a lens body with a plurality of input ports, (which may correspond to a predetermined steering angle), a plurality of output ports, and a plurality of holes/openings in the lens body, wherein the openings are arranged through the lens body so that an electromagnetic signal entering the lens body from any one of the input ports will exit from each of the output ports at a time delay corresponding to the predetermined steering angle of the input port from which the electromagnetic signal entered the lens body. The lenses may be used for RF signals between 2 GHz and 30 GHz for beamforming, and may have a diameter of less than 10 cm. The lenses may also be used for amplification. Methods of using these lenses and phase array antennas including these lenses are also described.
US09843087B2

Sealing portions of an orthomode transducer or another antenna component is accomplished by forming first and second receptacles or channels in one half or portion of the transducer and inserting first and second type of compressible sealing components into the receptacles. Upon attaching additional portions of the transducer the compressible sealing components may be compressed, but the compression is limited to an amount within a compression range to maintain a seal.
US09843082B2

A microstrip line filter comprising a coupling mechanism arranged to couple a first resonator and a second resonator, wherein the coupling mechanism includes a shared metallic coupling member arranged to have a predetermined dimension associated with an operation characteristics of the first and second resonators.
US09843079B2

Disclosed is a metal-air fuel cell based on a solid oxide electrolyte employing metal nanoparticles as fuel. The metal-air fuel cell includes an anode, a cathode, a solid oxide electrolyte and a metal fuel, wherein the metal fuel comprises metal nanoparticles having an average particle diameter ranging from 1 nm to 100 nm. The metal nanoparticles have a low melting point and provide high reactivity. Thus, the metal-air fuel cell forms a metal molten phase at a relatively low temperature thereby improving contactability and has improved reactivity to promote oxidation, thereby enabling highly efficient power generation.
US09843070B2

A metal-ion battery includes: (1) an anode including aluminum; (2) a cathode including a layered, active material; and (3) an electrolyte disposed between the anode and the cathode to support reversible deposition and dissolution of aluminum at the anode and reversible intercalation and de-intercalation of anions at the cathode.
US09843065B2

The present invention concerns a battery including an anode case, an anode situated inside the anode case, a cathode case fixed to the anode case, a seal sealing the cathode case to the anode case, a cathode situated inside the cathode case between the anode and the cathode case, and a membrane between the anode and the cathode, said battery being characterized in that one outer surface of said accumulator includes at least one marking created by local heating of material, said marking being electrically conductive.
US09843061B2

A hydrogen generator includes: a reformer configured to generate a hydrogen-containing gas by a reforming reaction of a material gas; a combustor configured to heat the reformer by diffusion combustion of the material gas and combustion air; a supplementary air flow rate adjuster configured to adjust the flow rate of supplementary air added to the material gas; and a controller configured to control the supplementary air flow rate adjuster such that the flow rate of a mixture gas of the material gas and the supplementary air becomes a predetermined value.
US09843060B2

A system and method for operating a fuel-cell system, which is attached to at least one further component via a cooling and/or lubricating circuit. A water-based, oil-free coolant and lubricant is used, and a flushing procedure for the fuel cell is initiated when a contamination of the fuel cell by the water-based, oil-free coolant and lubricant is detected.
US09843052B2

This invention is directed to electrolysis-based devices and methods for recycling of electrolyte solutions. Specifically, the invention is related to regeneration of spent electrolyte solutions comprising metal ions such as electrolyte solutions used in metal/air batteries.
US09843041B2

High specific capacity lithium rich lithium metal oxide materials are coated with inorganic compositions, such as metal fluorides, to improve the performance of the materials as a positive electrode active material. The resulting coated material can exhibit an increased specific capacity, and the material can also exhibit improved cycling. The materials can be formed while maintaining a desired relatively high average voltage such that the materials are suitable for the formation of commercial batteries. Suitable processes are described for the synthesis of the desired coated compositions that can be adapted for commercial production.
US09843040B2

A negative electrode active material for an electric device includes an alloy containing Si in a range from 23% to 64% exclusive, Sn in a range from 4% to 58% inclusive, Zn in a range from 0% to 65% exclusive, and inevitable impurities as a residue. The negative electrode active material can be obtained with a multi DC magnetron sputtering apparatus by use of, for example, silicon, tin and zinc as targets. An electric device such as a lithium ion secondary battery employing the negative electrode active material can improve cycle life of the battery and ensure a high capacity and high cycle durability.
US09843037B2

A method for manufacturing composites in which the nanosize of a carbon material and a metal compound can be maintained as the final product is realized to provide a superior electrode material. A treatment of increasing the functional groups possessed by a carbon material is performed in advance. Then, a metal compound precursor is supported on a carbon material by separately performing a treatment of adsorbing one of source materials of the metal compound to the functional groups of the carbon material having increased functional groups and a treatment of reacting the adsorbed source material of the metal compound with the rest of the source materials on the carbon material to produce a metal compound precursor on the carbon material. Finally, a lithium source is introduced and calcined.
US09843034B2

Provided are a porous silicon-based anode active material including crystalline silicon (Si) particles, and a plurality of pores on surfaces, or the surfaces and inside of the crystalline silicon particles, wherein at least one plane of crystal planes of at least a portion of the plurality of pores includes a (100) plane, and a method of preparing the porous silicon-based anode active material. Since a porous silicon-based anode active material of the present invention may allow volume expansion, which is occurred during charge and discharge of a lithium secondary battery, to be concentrated on pores instead of the outside of the anode active material, the porous silicon-based anode active material may improve life characteristics of the lithium secondary battery by efficiently controlling the volume expansion.
US09843033B2

[Object] Provided is a means which is capable, with respect to a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery, of suppressing a decrease in capacity when the battery is used for a long period of time, and improving cycle characteristics.[Solving Means] Disclosed is a positive electrode active substance for a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery comprising a composite oxide containing lithium and nickel, in which the positive electrode active substance has a structure of secondary particles formed by aggregation of primary particles, the average particle diameter of the primary particles (D1) is 0.9 μm or less, and the ratio value (D2/D1)) of the average particle diameter of the secondary particles (D2) to the average particle diameter of the primary particles (D1) is 11 or more.[Representative Drawing] None
US09843031B2

A rechargeable battery including an electrode assembly having first and second electrodes at respective surfaces of a separator; a case that houses the electrode assembly; a cap plate that closes and seals an opening of the case and that is electrically connected to the second electrode; a first electrode terminal that is electrically connected to the first electrode and that is provided at an outer side of the cap plate through a terminal hole in the cap plate; and a second electrode terminal that is directly connected to an outer surface of the cap plate, wherein the second electrode terminal includes a separation portion that is spaced apart from the cap plate; and a support that is connected to the separation portion, the support being supported on the cap plate and including a coupling portion, and wherein the coupling portion is coupled with a corresponding portion of the cap plate.
US09843028B2

A secondary battery typified by a lithium-ion secondary battery includes a battery outer container in which a gas release valve and positive and negative electrode external terminals are provided, an electrode group in which positive and negative plates are stacked with a separator interposed therebetween and current collection portions are provided at both ends, and positive and negative electrode current collectors forming a current path from the current collection portions of the electrode group to the positive and negative electrode external terminals, and the cross-sectional area of a gas exhaust flow channel through which gas generated inside the electrode group is discharged from the gas release valve is set so as to increase in a downstream direction.
US09843024B2

Systems and methods for fabricating an OLED are provided, which include dispensing a substrate material onto a substrate carrier, the substrate carrier being rotated by one or more drums, curing the substrate material to form a substrate, depositing at least one OLED onto the substrate, and separating the substrate from the substrate carrier.
US09843014B2

An electronic device may have a display that is protected by a transparent cover layer. The transparent cover layer may include a laser-annealed sapphire coating on the outer surface of a glass substrate or other transparent substrate. The sapphire coating may provide the display with a hard, scratch-resistant outer surface. The sapphire coating may be formed by coating a glass substrate with a thin film of amorphous aluminum oxide. The aluminum oxide thin film may be locally heated to transform the amorphous aluminum oxide into alpha-phase aluminum oxide (sapphire). Local heating may be achieved by laser annealing the aluminum oxide coating with a carbon dioxide laser. The laser may produce laser light having a wavelength that is absorbed in the aluminum oxide coating without being absorbed by the glass substrate so that the glass substrate is not damaged during the laser annealing process.
US09843012B2

The present disclosure provides a top emitting organic electroluminescent device including a first scattering layer, and a first electrode, at least one organic material layer, a second electrode and a second scattering layer formed on the first scattering layer sequentially. The first scattering layer contains a plurality of micro-particles that are 10 to 90 wt % of the first scattering layer.
US09843007B2

A field effect transistor (FET) structure includes a substrate, an internal gate, an insulation layer, a semiconductor strip, a gate dielectric insulator, and a gate conductor. The internal gate includes a floor portion located on the substrate and a wall portion extending from the floor portion. The insulation layer is located on the floor portion of the internal gate. The semiconductor strip is located on the wall portion and a portion of the insulation layer, and the semiconductor strip includes source/drain regions and a channel region adjacent to the source/drain regions. The gate dielectric insulator is located on the channel region. The gate conductor is located on the gate dielectric insulator.
US09843002B2

A novel organometallic complex having high color purity is provided. The organometallic complex includes a structure which includes iridium and a ligand and is represented by a general formula (G1). The ligand includes a pyrido[2,3-b]indole skeleton and a pyrimidine skeleton bonded to the 3-position of the pyrido[2,3-b]indole skeleton. The 2-position of the pyrido[2,3-b]indole skeleton and the pyrimidine skeleton are each bonded to the iridium. In the general formula (G1), R1 to R9 each independently represent any of hydrogen, a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms, a substituted or unsubstituted aryl group having 6 to 13 carbon atoms, and a substituted or unsubstituted heteroaryl group having 3 to 12 carbon atoms.
US09843000B2

Provided is a novel heterocyclic compound which can be used as a host material for dispersing a light-emitting material in a light-emitting layer of a light-emitting element. Further provided is a light-emitting element which is driven at a low voltage and has high current efficiency. By including the light-emitting element, a light-emitting device, an electronic device, and a lighting device each with reduced power consumption are provided. The light-emitting element contains a compound in which a dibenzo[f,h]quinoline ring and a hole-transport skeleton are bonded through an arylene group. The light-emitting device, the electronic device, and the lighting device each including the light-emitting element are provided. The light-emitting element contains a heterocyclic compound having a structure represented by the following general formula (G1).
US09842999B2

A Benzotriazole derivative represented by the following general formula (1), wherein, Ar1 is a monovalent aromatic hydrocarbon group or aromatic heterocyclic group, Ar2 is a hydrogen atom, a deuterium atom, or a monovalent aromatic hydrocarbon group or aromatic heterocyclic group, A is a divalent aromatic hydrocarbon group or aromatic heterocyclic group, B is a divalent condensed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon group or a single bond, and C is a monovalent aromatic heterocyclic group, and wherein if A is a phenylene group, B is a divalent condensed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon group or C is a monovalent aromatic heterocyclic group other than a pyridyl group.
US09842998B2

In a novel compound, and a light emitting diode and an electronic apparatus including the same, the novel compound is represented by the following Chemical Formula 1.
US09842997B2

An organic light emitting element contains an anode and a cathode, and a light emitting layer arranged between the anode and the cathode. The organic light emitting element further contains an organic compound layer which is arranged between the cathode and the light emitting layer and touches the cathode. The organic compound layer contains a bisimidazolidene compound represented by the following general formula [1], where R1 to R12 represent substituents.
US09842992B2

A transistor includes: a piezoresistor through which carriers conduct; a source that injects the carriers into the piezoresistor; a drain that receives the carriers from the piezoresistor; a piezoelectric material that is located so as to surround the piezoresistor and applies a pressure to the piezoresistor; and a gate that applies a voltage to the piezoelectric material so that the piezoelectric material applies a pressure to the piezoresistor.
US09842989B2

A magnetic memory having a base layer with a wetting layer and seed layer is disclosed. The wetting layer and seed layer promotes FCC structure along the (111) orientation to improve PMA. The seed layer includes first and second seed layer separated by a surface smoother, such as a surfactant layer. This enhances the smoothness of the seed layer, resulting in smoother interface in the MTJ stack, which leads to improved thermal endurance.
US09842986B2

The present disclosure provides a semiconductor structure and a method for manufacturing the same. The semiconductor structure comprises a memory region. The memory region comprises a bottom via, a recap layer on the BV, a bottom electrode on the recap layer, a magnetic tunneling junction layer on the bottom electrode, and a top electrode on the MTJ layer. The material of the recap layer is different from that of the BV.
US09842984B2

Disclosed is a piezoelectric element wherein a lower electrode made of Pt, a buffer layer made of PLT, and a piezoelectric thin film to be a perovskite ferroelectric thin film are formed in this order on a substrate. The average crystal grain size of Pt forming the lower electrode is not smaller than 50 nm and not larger than 150 nm.
US09842981B1

A piezoelectric actuator includes a housing body and lid wherein the housing body defines an open-ended cylindrical interior chamber extending along a displacement axis. The lid bolts to the body transverse to the open end allowing easy access to an electrostrictive assembly disposed within the chamber. The electrostrictive assembly includes an electrostrictive element affixed at one end to the housing by a cup element with an outermost cylindrical surface, and at an opposite, and free, end, to a driver having a portion with a outermost cylindrical surface. The outermost cylindrical surfaces both include circumferential sealing elements, for example, circumferential grooves in which resilient a sealing O-ring resides, or circumferential wiper seals. The assembly is dimensioned to fit wholly within the chamber, with the circumferential sealing elements establishing a hermetic seal while allowing sliding motion of the free end of the electrostrictive element, and the driver, along the displacement axis.
US09842979B2

A thermoelectric device having a flat tube, a first thermoelectric module, and a second thermoelectric module. The thermoelectric modules each have a housing that includes at least two opposite first walls. A plurality of thermoelectric elements is arranged between the first walls of the housing. The thermoelectric elements have opposite surfaces, each of which is in thermal contact with one of the first walls of the housing of the thermoelectric module.
US09842978B1

A vehicle includes an internal combustion engine (ICE) selectable between a running state and a non-running state. A thermoelectric generator (TEG) is in thermal contact with the ICE for converting thermal energy from the ICE to output electrical energy. The vehicle has an electric pump for circulating a liquid coolant through a coolant circuit. The electric pump is selectively powerable by the electrical energy output from the TEG. The coolant circuit is in fluid communication with the ICE, a radiator, and the TEG; and the TEG is downstream of the radiator in the coolant circuit.
US09842958B2

A method of forming electrical contacts on a diamond substrate comprises producing a plasma ball using a microwave plasma source in the presence of a mixture of gases. The mixture of gases include a source of a p-type or an n-type dopant. The plasma ball is disposed at a first distance from the diamond substrate. The diamond substrate is maintained at a first temperature. The plasma ball is maintained at the first distance from the diamond substrate for a first time, and a UNCD film, which is doped with at least one of a p-type dopant and an n-type dopant, is disposed on the diamond substrate. The doped UNCD film is patterned to define UNCD electrical contacts on the diamond substrate.
US09842956B2

One embodiment of the invention can provide a system for fabricating a photovoltaic structure. During fabrication, the system can form a sacrificial layer on a first side of a Si substrate; load the Si substrate into a chemical vapor deposition tool, with the sacrificial layer in contact with a wafer carrier; and form a first doped Si layer on a second side of the Si substrate. The system subsequently can remove the sacrificial layer; load the Si substrate into a chemical vapor deposition tool, with the first doped Si layer facing a wafer carrier; and form a second doped Si layer on the first side of the Si substrate.
US09842949B2

Fabrication methods and structures relating to backplanes for back contact solar cells that provide for solar cell substrate reinforcement and electrical interconnects as well as Fabrication methods and structures for forming thin film back contact solar cells are described.
US09842948B2

An solar cell is provided comprising a photoelectric conversion layer formed on a substrate formed of a semiconductor material, and a first finger electrode formed of printed conductive paste to a main surface side of the photoelectric conversion layer, wherein an average of standard deviations of heights of uneveness on a surface of the first finger electrode is 5.0 μm or less. The first finger electrode may be formed on a back surface side of the solar cell opposite to a light-receiving surface side. The substrate may be a crystalline silicon substrate. The photoelectric conversion layer may comprise the crystalline silicon substrate, an amorphous silicon layer formed on the substrate, and a transparent conductive oxide film formed on the amorphous silicon layer. The first finger electrode may be provided on the transparent conductive oxide film.
US09842933B1

Formation of a bottom junction in vertical FET devices may include, for instance, providing an intermediate semiconductor structure comprising a semiconductor substrate, a fin disposed on the semiconductor substrate. The fin has a top surface, spaced-apart vertical sides. A mask is disposed over the top surface of the fin, and at least one is disposed over the vertical sides of the fin. Portions of the substrate are removed to define spaced-apart recesses each extending below a respective one of the spacers. Semiconductor material is grown, such as epitaxially grown, in the recesses.
US09842931B1

A method of forming a vertical fin field effect transistor (vertical finFET) with a self-aligned shallow trench isolation region, including forming a pinch-off layer on one or more vertical fin segments, wherein the pinch-off layer has a thickness on the sidewalls of the one or more vertical fin segments, forming a trench mask layer on predetermined portions of the pinch-off layer, removing portions of the pinch-off layer not covered by the trench mask layer, where the removed portions of the pinch-off layer exposes underlying portions of the substrate, and removing at least a portion of the substrate to form one or more isolation region trenches, where the distance of the sidewall of one of the one or more isolation region trenches to an adjacent vertical fin segment is determined by the thickness of the pinch-off layer.
US09842921B2

A quantum semiconductor device is provided. The quantum semiconductor device includes a quantum heterostructure, a dielectric layer, and an electrode. The quantum heterostructure includes a quantum well layer that includes a first 2DEG region, a second 2DEG region, and a third 2DEG region. A first tunnel barrier exists between the first 2DEG region and the second 2DEG region. A second tunnel barrier exists between the second 2DEG region and the third 2DEG region. A third tunnel barrier exists either between the first 2DEG region and the third 2DEG region. The dielectric layer is formed on the quantum heterostructure. The electrode is formed on the dielectric layer directly above the first tunnel barrier.
US09842918B2

A method of producing a semiconductor device is disclosed in which, after proton implantation is performed, a hydrogen-induced donor is formed by a furnace annealing process to form an n-type field stop layer. A disorder generated in a proton passage region is reduced by a laser annealing process to form an n-type disorder reduction region. As such, the n-type field stop layer and the n-type disorder reduction region are formed by the proton implantation. Therefore, it is possible to provide a stable and inexpensive semiconductor device which has low conduction resistance and can improve electrical characteristics, such as a leakage current, and a method for producing the semiconductor device.
US09842912B2

A semiconductor device with a high radiation tolerance is provided. A semiconductor device comprising a semiconductor substrate, a first body region and a second body region provided on a front surface side of the semiconductor substrate, a neck portion provided between the first body region and the second body region, a first source region formed within the first body region and a second source region formed within the second body region, a first gate electrode provided to face the first body region between the first source region and the neck portion, a second gate electrode provided to face the second body region between the second source region and the neck portion, and an insulating film continuously provided between the first gate electrode and the semiconductor substrate, between the second gate electrode and the semiconductor substrate, and on the front surface side of the neck portion, is provided.
US09842900B2

A lattice matched epitaxial oxide interlayer is disposed between each semiconductor layer of a graded buffer layer material stack. Each lattice matched epitaxial oxide interlayer inhibits propagation of threading dislocations from one semiconductor layer of the graded buffer layer material stack into an overlying semiconductor layer of the graded buffer layer material stack. This allows for decreasing the thickness of each semiconductor layer within the graded buffer layer material stack. The topmost semiconductor layer of the graded buffer layer material stack, which is a relaxed layer, contains a lower defect density than the other semiconductor layers of the graded buffer layer material stack.
US09842893B2

An organic light emitting display apparatus includes a base substrate, an active pattern disposed on the base substrate, a data line disposed on the base substrate, and a driving voltage line disposed on the base substrate. The active pattern includes a first transistor including a source area, a drain area and a channel. The active pattern also includes a first capacitor area and a second capacitor area. The data line extends in a first direction. The data line is overlapped with the first capacitor area. The driving voltage line extends in a second direction substantially perpendicular to the first direction. The driving voltage line is overlapped with the second capacitor area.
US09842892B2

A display apparatus includes: a thin-film transistor including a source electrode, a drain electrode, and a gate electrode; a data line in a layer different from the source electrode, the drain electrode, and the gate electrode, wherein the data line is configured to transmit a data signal; and a shield layer between the data line and a component of the thin-film transistor.
US09842890B2

A method of manufacturing a display device includes forming an electrode layer including a first metallic element on a substrate; sequentially forming an insulating layer including a first material and a photosensitive pattern layer including a first pattern on the electrode layer; forming a plurality of fine patterns including a first layer that includes the first material and a second layer by etching the photosensitive pattern layer and the insulating layer; and forming a plurality of scattering bumps by removing the second layer of each of the plurality of fine patterns.
US09842887B2

A display device includes a substrate having a plurality of transmissive regions aligned in a first direction and a second direction, a plurality of first wiring lines on the substrate extending in the first direction, a plurality of second wiring lines on the substrate extending in the second direction, and a plurality of light emitting sections disposed on the substrate. Each of the transmissive regions is surrounded by the first and second wiring lines. The light emitting sections include a first light emitting section and a second light emitting section. At least part of the first light emitting section is located in a region that is adjacent to the transmissive regions and overlap one of the first wiring lines. At least part of the second light emitting section is located in a region that is adjacent to the transmissive regions and overlap one of the second wiring lines.
US09842876B2

A color separation element array includes color separation elements which are two-dimensionally arranged to separate an incident light according to a wavelength such that a light of a first wavelength is directed to a first direction and a light of a second wavelength that is different from the first wavelength is directed to a second direction that is different from the first direction. Each of the color separation elements includes a first element and a second element that are sequentially arranged along a traveling direction of the incident light, and the first element and the second element of the color separation elements are symmetrically shifted with respect to a center area of the color separation element array, to be aligned to fit to the traveling direction of the incident light that is obliquely incident.
US09842861B2

To suppress fluctuation in the threshold voltage of a transistor, to reduce the number of connections of a display panel and a driver IC, to achieve reduction in power consumption of a display device, and to achieve increase in size and high definition of the display device. A gate electrode of a transistor which easily deteriorates is connected to a wiring to which a high potential is supplied through a first switching transistor and a wiring to which a low potential is supplied through a second switching transistor; a clock signal is input to a gate electrode of the first switching transistor; and an inverted clock signal is input to a gate electrode of the second switching transistor. Thus, the high potential and the low potential are alternately applied to the gate electrode of the transistor which easily deteriorates.
US09842860B2

A semiconductor device capable of maintaining data during instantaneous power reduction or interruption. The semiconductor device includes first to sixth transistors. The first and fourth transistors are p-channel transistors. The second and fifth transistors are n-channel transistors. In the third and sixth transistors, an oxide semiconductor layer includes a channel formation region. A high voltage is applied to one of a source and a drain of the first transistor and one of a source and a drain of the fourth transistor. A low voltage is applied to one of a source and a drain of the second transistor and one of a source and a drain of the fifth transistor.
US09842855B2

A method of manufacturing a memory device includes providing a semiconductor substrate including a first region and a second region. The method includes forming a lower structure including interconnect lines and an etch stop layer in the second region. The method includes forming a multilayer structure on the lower structure. The method also includes forming a slit trench in the multilayer structure of the first region, a first plug hole exposing the etch stop layer of the second region therethrough, and a second plug hole exposing a portion of the interconnect lines of the second region therethrough.
US09842845B1

The present disclosure provides a semiconductor device structure including a non-volatile memory (NVM) device structure in and above a first region of a semiconductor substrate and a logic device formed in and above a second region of the semiconductor substrate different from the first region. The NVM device structure includes a floating-gate, a first select gate and at least one control gate. The logic device includes a logic gate disposed on the second region and source/drain regions provided in the second region adjacent to the logic gate. The control gate extends over the floating-gate and the first select gate is laterally separated from the floating-gate by an insulating material layer portion. Upon forming the semiconductor device structure, the floating gate is formed before forming the control gate and the logic device.
US09842844B2

Devices and methods for forming a device are disclosed. The method includes providing a substrate having a memory array region. Front end of line (FEOL) process is performed to form components of memory cell pairs. The FEOL process forms storage gates, access gates or word lines, source/drain regions, spacers, erase gates and source line isolation dielectrics. The memory cell pair shares a common source line (SL). A SL strap opening is provided. The source line strap opening is formed between adjacent memory cell pair. The source line strap opening does not overlap the storage gate of the memory cell.
US09842841B2

A method of fabricating a semiconductor device, the method including etching a portion of a substrate including a first region and a second region to form a device isolation trench; forming a device isolation layer defining active regions by sequentially stacking a first insulating layer, a second insulating layer, and a third insulating layer on an inner surface of the device isolation trench; forming word lines buried in the substrate of the first region, the word lines extending in a first direction to intersect the active region of the first region, the word lines being spaced apart from each other; forming a first mask layer covering the word lines on the substrate of the first region, the first mask layer exposing the substrate of the second region; forming a channel layer on the substrate of the second region; and forming a gate electrode on the channel layer.
US09842837B2

Disclosed is a semiconductor device including a plurality of conductive patterns formed on a semiconductor substrate while being spaced apart from one another at a preset interval and extending in a first direction, and a plurality of junction areas formed by doping impurities in the semiconductor substrate and provided between the conductive patterns. The plurality of junction areas includes transistor junction areas and dummy junction areas. Each of the transistor junction areas is connected through a contact to a source/drain electrode, and the contact is formed at a higher level than the transistor junction areas. Each of the dummy junction areas is connected to a bias contact formed at higher level than the dummy junction areas. A well bias voltage is applied to the dummy junction areas through the bias contact.
US09842833B2

A chip includes a first die, a second die, a first and a second through-silicon vias, a first protection circuit, and a second protection circuit. The first die has a first operational voltage node and a first reference voltage node. The second die has a second operational voltage node and a second reference voltage node. The first and the second through-silicon vias are configured to couple the first die and the second die. The first protection circuit is coupled between the first operational voltage node and the first through-silicon via. The second protection circuit is coupled between the first reference voltage node and the second through-silicon via. The first through-silicon via is further coupled to the second reference voltage node or the second operational voltage node. The second through-silicon via is further coupled to the first reference voltage node or the first operational voltage node.
US09842829B2

A chip package structure is provided. The chip package structure includes a substrate. The chip package structure includes a chip package stacked over the substrate. The chip package structure includes first conductive bumps arranged between and in direct contact with the chip package and the substrate providing a clearance. The chip package structure includes a chip structure having a first face and an opposing second face arranged in the clearance between the chip package and the substrate and adjacent to the first conductive bumps. The chip structure contains at least one chip. The chip package structure includes a solder cap connecting the first face of the chip structure and the chip package. The chip package structure includes a second conductive bump connecting the second face of the chip structure and the substrate.
US09842828B1

One or more embodiments are directed to stacked packages, such as Package-on-Package (PoP) packages, that are stacked on a flexible folded substrate. The stacked packages have compliant corners. In particular, the stacked packages include an adhesive material at the corners between layers of the folded substrate. The adhesive material has a low modulus of elasticity, such as, for example, a modulus of elasticity of silicone adhesive. The low modulus of elasticity of the adhesive material produces compliant corners of the stacked package. The adhesive material fills openings between the folded substrate that are formed around a bottom semiconductor package of the stack package. In that regard, the bottom semiconductor package may have pulled back or recessed corners and the adhesive material fills the openings formed by the recessed corners. The recessed corners may be any size or shape.
US09842817B2

A wafer-level pulling method includes securing a top holder to a plurality of chips; and securing a bottom holder to a wafer, wherein the plurality of chips are bonded to the wafer by a plurality of solder bumps. The wafer-level pulling method further includes softening the plurality of solder bumps; and stretching the plurality of softened solder bumps.
US09842814B1

There is provided an integrated RF subsystem including a chip substrate, a circuit patterned on a first surface of the chip substrate, a probe electrically integrated with the circuit on a first side of the chip substrate, a frame at a second side of the chip substrate defining a first cavity underneath the circuit.
US09842813B2

In one embodiment, an integrated circuit package includes a package substrate, a printed circuit board, an interposer structure and a transmission line bridge interconnect within the interposer. The interposer structure, which includes multiple interposer layers, may be formed on a top surface of the package substrate. The printed circuit board may be coupled to the package substrate through the transmission line bridge interconnect. The transmission line may be formed on at least one of the interposer layers. The transmission line may be utilized to convey signals between the package substrate and the printed circuit board. The transmission line may be a stripline transmission line or a micro-strip transmission line. The transmission line may have a low parasitic inductance and implementation of the transmission line does not introduce large dimensional discontinuity throughout that signal pathway. The integrated circuit package may be part of a circuit system that includes external circuits.
US09842808B2

A semiconductor device has a plurality of semiconductor die or components mounted over a carrier. A leadframe is mounted over the carrier between the semiconductor die. The leadframe has a plate and bodies extending from the plate. The bodies of the leadframe are disposed around a perimeter of the semiconductor die. An encapsulant is deposited over the carrier, leadframe, and semiconductor die. A plurality of conductive vias is formed through the encapsulant and electrically connected to the bodies of the leadframe and contact pads on the semiconductor die. An interconnect structure is formed over the encapsulant and electrically connected to the conductive vias. A first channel is formed through the interconnect structure, encapsulant, leadframe, and partially through the carrier. The carrier is removed to singulate the semiconductor die. A second channel is formed through the plate of the leadframe to physically separate the bodies of the leadframe.
US09842792B2

A method of manufacturing a lead frame includes providing an electrically conductive layer having a plurality of holes at a top surface. The plurality of holes form a structure of leads and a die pad on the electrically conductive layer. The plurality of holes are filled with a non-conductive material. Next; an electrically conductive foil is attached on the top surface of the electrically conductive layer and the non-conductive epoxy material. The, the electrically conductive foil is etched to create a network of leads, die pad, bus lines, dam bars and tie lines, wherein the bus lines connect the leads to the dam bar, the dam bar is connected to the tie line and the tie line is connected to the die pad.
US09842787B2

The present disclosure relates to an electronic element package and a method of manufacturing the same. The electronic element package includes a substrate, an element disposed on the substrate, and a cap enclosing the element. One of the substrate and the cap includes a groove, the other of the substrate and the cap includes a protrusion engaging with the groove. A first metal layer and a second metal layer form a metallic bond with each other in a space between the groove and the protrusion.
US09842786B2

A semiconductor device includes a supporting plate including a first surface, a second surface opposite to the first surface, and a through hole extending from the first surface to the second surface; and a semiconductor unit fixed to the first surface. The semiconductor unit includes an insulating plate, a circuit plate fixed to a front surface of the insulating plate, a semiconductor chip fixed to the circuit plate, and a protruding metal block fixed to a rear surface of the insulating plate and penetrating through the through hole to extend to the second surface.
US09842779B2

An aspect of the present invention relates to a method of evaluating metal contamination in a semiconductor wafer that has been subjected to a heat treatment, which comprises obtaining analysis values by analyzing a plurality of analysis points on a surface of the semiconductor wafer by a first analysis method or a second analysis method, wherein in the first analysis method, analysis values employed in evaluation decrease as an amount of contamination by a metal element that is to be evaluated increases, and in the second analysis method, analysis values employed in evaluation increase as an amount of contamination by a metal element that is to be evaluated increases, and wherein determination of presence or absence of localized contamination by the metal element that is to be evaluated is made by evaluating the analysis values based on the normal value specified by a probability distribution function.
US09842776B2

Integrated circuit dies within a semiconductor wafer are separated using an approach that may facilitate mitigation of warpage, cracking and other undesirable aspects. As may be implemented in accordance with one or more embodiments, a semiconductor wafer is provided with a plurality of integrated circuit dies and first and second opposing surfaces, and with the second surface of the wafer being ground. A first mold compound is applied to the ground second surface, and the integrated circuit dies are separated along saw lanes while using the first mold compound to hold the dies in place. The integrated circuit dies are encapsulated with the mold compounds, by applying the second mold compound to the first surface and along sidewalls of the integrated circuit dies.
US09842773B2

The semiconductor device includes a semiconductor layer in which a via hole penetrating an upper surface of the semiconductor layer to a lower surface of the semiconductor layer is provided. The semiconductor device includes a first insulating film provided over the lower surface of the semiconductor layer and an inner surface of the via hole. The semiconductor device includes a second insulating film provided over the lower surface of the semiconductor layer and the inner surface of the via hole with the first insulating film interposed between the second insulating film and the semiconductor layer. The semiconductor device includes a device layer including a semiconductor element and provided on the side of the upper surface of the semiconductor layer.
US09842772B2

A method is for etching a semiconductor substrate to reveal one or more features buried in the substrate. The method includes performing a first etch step using a plasma in which a bias power is applied to the substrate to produce an electrical bias, performing a second etch step without a bias power or with a bias power which is lower than the bias power applied during the first etch step, and alternately repeating the first and second etch steps.
US09842768B2

A method for forming a semiconductor device structure is provided. The method includes forming a first dielectric layer and a first conductive structure over a substrate. The first dielectric layer surrounds the first conductive structure. The method includes forming a second dielectric layer over the first dielectric layer. The second dielectric layer has an opening exposing the first conductive structure. The method includes forming a seal layer over the first conductive structure and an inner wall of the opening. The seal layer is in direct contact with the first dielectric layer and the second dielectric layer, and the seal layer includes a dielectric material comprising an oxygen compound. The method includes removing the seal layer over the first conductive structure. The method includes filling a second conductive structure into the opening.
US09842767B2

A method of fabricating a semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) is disclosed. The method includes providing a substrate. A patterned dielectric layer with a plurality of openings is formed on the substrate. A barrier layer is deposited in the openings by a first tool and a sacrificing protection layer is deposited on the barrier layer by the first tool. The sacrificing layer is removed and a metal layer is deposited on the barrier layer by a second tool.
US09842762B1

The present disclosure provides a method of manufacturing a semiconductor wafer having a semiconductor-on-insulator (SOI) configuration, the method including providing a semiconductor starting wafer, the semiconductor starting wafer having a base substrate, a semiconductor layer formed over the base substrate and a buried insulating material layer formed between the semiconductor substrate and the base substrate, exposing the semiconductor starting wafer to a first oxidization process, wherein an oxide surface region is formed by oxidizing an upper surface region of the semiconductor layer, thinning the oxide surface region, exposing the semiconductor starting wafer to a second oxidization process, wherein a thickness of the oxide surface region is locally increased, and removing the oxide surface region, wherein the semiconductor layer is exposed.
US09842761B2

A semiconductor device is provided. The semiconductor device includes a first fin partially surrounded by a first isolation structure and a second fin partially surrounded by a second isolation structure. The second isolation structure has a dopant concentration higher than that of the first isolation structure, and a height difference is between a top surface of the first isolation structure and a top surface of the second isolation structure.
US09842758B2

A method for fabricating a package structure is provided, including the steps of: disposing on a carrier a semiconductor chip having an active surface facing the carrier; forming a patterned resist layer on the carrier; forming on the carrier an encapsulant exposing an inactive surface of the semiconductor chip and a surface of the patterned resist layer; and removing the carrier to obtain a package structure. Thereafter, redistribution layers can be formed on the opposite sides of the package structure, and a plurality of through holes can be formed in the patterned resist layer by drilling, thus allowing a plurality of conductive through holes to be formed in the through holes for electrically connecting the redistribution layers on the opposite sides of the package structure. Therefore, the invention overcomes the conventional drawback of surface roughness of the through holes caused by direct drilling the encapsulant having filler particles.
US09842754B2

In the present invention, a substrate is placed at a predetermined position on a substrate support even though the substrate is deviated on a substrate transfer unit.There is provided a substrate processing apparatus that includes a process chamber, a transfer chamber accommodating a substrate transfer unit, a substrate detecting unit, a memory unit configured to store a first reference position information, a second reference position information and a substrate reference position information and a controller configured to generate a detected position information representing a position of a substrate being transferred in the transfer chamber based on a detection result and to control the substrate transfer unit to place the substrate based on the detected position information, the first reference position information, the substrate reference position information and a difference between the first reference position information and the second reference position information.
US09842750B2

Disclosed is a plasma processing device that provides an object to be treated with plasma treatment. A wafer as an object to be treated, which is attached on the upper surface of adhesive sheet held by a holder frame, is mounted on a stage. In a vacuum chamber that covers the stage therein, plasma is generated, by which the wafer mounted on the stage undergoes plasma treatment. The plasma processing device contains a cover member made of dielectric material. During the plasma treatment on the wafer, the holder frame is covered with a cover member placed at a predetermined position above the stage, at the same time, the wafer is exposed from an opening formed in the center of the cover member.
US09842749B2

The plasma-assisted method of precise alignment and pre-bonding for microstructure of glass and quartz microchip belongs to micromachining and bonding technologies of the microchip. The steps of which are as follows: photoresist and chromium layers on glass or quartz microchip are completely removed followed by sufficient cleaning of the surface with nonionic surfactant and quantities of ultra-pure water. Then the surface treatment is proceeded for an equipping surface with high hydrophily with the usage of plasma cleaning device. Under the drying condition, the precise alignment is accomplished through moving substrate and cover plate after being washed with the help of microscope observation. Further on, to achieve precise alignment and pre-bonding of the microstructure of glass and quartz microchip, a minute quantity of ultrapure water is instilled into a limbic crevice for adhesion, and entire water is completely wiped out by vacuum drying following sufficient squeezing. Based on the steps above, it is available to achieve permanent bonding by further adopting thermal bonding method. In summary, it takes within 30 min to finish the whole operation of precise alignment and pre-bonding by this method. Besides, this method is of great promise because of its speediness, efficiency, easy maneuverability, operational safety and wide applications.
US09842748B2

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a liner assembly including a plurality of individually separated gas passages. The liner assembly enables tenability of flow parameters, such as velocity, density, direction and spatial location, across a substrate being processed. The processing gas across the substrate being processed may be specially tailored for individual processes with a liner assembly according to embodiment of the present disclosure.
US09842744B2

A method of selectively etching silicon nitride from a substrate comprising a silicon nitride layer and a silicon oxide layer includes flowing a fluorine-containing gas into a plasma generation region of a substrate processing chamber and applying energy to the fluorine-containing gas to generate a plasma in the plasma generation region. The plasma comprises fluorine radicals and fluorine ions. The method also includes filtering the plasma to provide a reactive gas having a higher concentration of fluorine radicals than fluorine ions and flowing the reactive gas into a gas reaction region of the substrate processing chamber. The method also includes exposing the substrate to the reactive gas in the gas reaction region of the substrate processing chamber. The reactive gas etches the silicon nitride layer at a higher etch rate than the reactive gas etches the silicon oxide layer.
US09842741B2

After semiconductor material portions and gate structures are formed on a substrate, a dielectric material layer is deposited on the semiconductor material portions and the gate structures. An anisotropic etch is performed on the dielectric material layer to form gate spacers, while a mask layer protects peripheral portions of the semiconductor material portions and the gate structures to avoid unwanted physical exposure of semiconductor surfaces. A selective epitaxy can be performed to form raised active regions on the semiconductor material portions. Formation of semiconductor growth defects during the selective epitaxy is prevented by the dielectric material layer. Alternately, a selective semiconductor deposition process can be performed after formation of dielectric gate spacers on gate structures overlying semiconductor material portions. Semiconductor growth defects can be removed by an etch while a mask layer protects raised active regions on the semiconductor material portions.
US09842740B2

When opaque films are deposited on semi-conductor wafers, underlying features may be concealed. In accordance with one implementation, such concealed features may be re-exposed via an ablation recovery process. One ablation recovery process entails aligning an energy source with a target position on a first surface of a semiconductor wafer based on position information retrieved from a second opposite surface of the semiconductor wafer, and firing a beam of the energy source to ablate opaque material at the target position and to expose a recovery feature underlying the opaque material.
US09842736B2

According to one embodiment, a semiconductor photo-receiving device includes a substrate, a light propagation layer and a semiconductor layer including a lowest layer and upper layers. The upper layers include an optical absorption layer. The light propagation layer includes a first light input layer, a first annular layer at a desired distance from the first light input layer, and a first optical waveguide connecting the first light input layer and annular layer. The lowest layer of the semiconductor layer includes a second light input layer, a second annular layer at a desired distance from the second light input layer, and a second optical waveguide connecting the second light input layer and annular layer.
US09842733B2

The present disclosure provides a method of preparing a chalcogen containing solution that is hydrazine free and hydrazinium free, wherein the method comprises: providing a predetermined amount of elemental chalcogen; providing a predetermined amount of elemental sulfur; providing an amine solvent; and combining the predetermined amount of elemental chalcogen and the predetermined amount of elemental sulfur in the amine solvent, thereby dissolving the elemental chalcogen and the elemental sulfur in the amine solvent. The chalcogen containing solution can advantageously be used as a precursor for the formation of a chalcogen containing layer on a substrate.
US09842724B2

A system for imaging a sample through a protective pellicle is disclosed. The system includes an electron beam source configured to generate an electron beam and a sample stage configured to secure a sample and a pellicle, wherein the pellicle is disposed above the sample. The system also includes an electron-optical column including a set of electron-optical elements to direct at least a portion of the electron beam through the pellicle and onto a portion of the sample. In addition, the system includes a detector assembly positioned above the pellicle and configured to detect electrons emanating from the surface of the sample.
US09842721B2

Methods and apparatus for modulating a particle pulse include a succession of Hermite-Gaussian optical modes that effectively construct a three-dimensional optical trap in the particle pulse's rest frame. Optical incidence angles between the propagation of the particle pulse and the optical pulse are tuned for improved compression. Particles pulses that can be modulated by these methods and apparatus include charged particles and particles with non-zero polarizability in the Rayleigh regime. Exact solutions to Maxwell's equations for first-order Hermite-Gaussian beams demonstrate single-electron pulse compression factors of more than 100 in both longitudinal and transverse dimensions. The methods and apparatus are useful in ultrafast electron imaging for both single- and multi-electron pulse compression, and as a means of circumventing temporal distortions in magnetic lenses when focusing ultra-short electron pulses.
US09842720B2

An x-ray tube unit includes an x-ray tube unit housing, in which a vacuum housing is disposed, which includes a high-voltage component. The vacuum housing includes an insulating medium circulating in the x-ray tube unit housing flowing around it. Further, a cathode module and an anode are disposed in the vacuum housing, the cathode module lying at high voltage and including an emitter which emits electrons when heating current is fed to it. In addition, a potential difference is present between the cathode module and the anode for accelerating the emitted electrons. In accordance with an embodiment of the invention a high-voltage feed, a heating transformer and a radiation protection component are integrated into the high-voltage component, the high-voltage component being filled at least partly with an electrically-insulating encapsulation material. This produces a compact and installation-friendly x-ray tube unit which has high operational safety.
US09842717B2

A high speed closing switch includes a case having an interior which is hermetically closed, a ground electrode installed within the case, a high voltage electrode spaced apart from the ground electrode by a predetermined interval, a movable electrode configured to move from a first position in which the ground electrode and the high voltage electrode are not connected to a second position in which the ground electrode and the high voltage electrode are connected, a coil configured to generate electromagnetic force to cause the movable electrode to be moved from the first position to the second position, a returning rod having one end fixedly connected to the movable electrode and the other end protruding to outside of the case, and a driving device configured to drive the returning rod such that the movable electrode is moved from the second position to the first position.
US09842708B1

A circuit breaker includes an electrically insulative case and a rotor assembly disposed within the electrically insulative case. The rotor assembly includes a contact arm and a rotor that is rotatable relative to the electrically insulative case. The contact arm is coupled to the rotor and movable between a first position in which a conductive path is closed and a second position in which the conductive path is open. The rotor assembly also includes a latch mechanism coupled to the rotor. The latch mechanism retains the contact arm in the second position during a short circuit event. The latch mechanism is spaced from the contact arm when the contact arm is in the first position. The latch mechanism engages the contact arm when the contact arm is in the second position.
US09842705B2

A flexible dye-sensitized solar cell includes: a fiber layer formed of nanofibers; a conductive electrode layer formed on one side of the fiber layer; a photoelectrode layer formed on the conductive electrode layer; a counter electrode layer formed on the other side of the fiber layer; a sealing member for enclosing the fiber layer, the conductive electrode layer, the counter electrode layer and the photoelectrode layer therein so as to seal said layers from the outside; and an electrolyte infiltrated into the fiber layer. A cell body in which an electrode and a photoelectrode are formed on one surface of the fiber that contains an electrolyte therein and a counter electrode is formed on the other side of the fiber is sealed with a polymer film, thus forming a flexible solar cell having an excellent sealing structure for preventing the electrolyte from leaking out of the cell even when pressure is externally applied.
US09842703B2

An aluminum electrolytic capacitor includes a capacitor element having lead terminals; an armor case housing the capacitor element; and a rubber seal having a terminal passage hole for the lead terminals drilled therein and mounted on an opening section of the armor case. A hole diameter of a lead wire passage hole is smaller than an outside diameter of an outside lead wire, and a conical guide surface of progressively smaller diameter is formed between a round bar mating hole and the lead wire passage hole within a terminal passage hole. A passage guide part of progressively smaller diameter from a lead wire body is integrally furnished at an end of the outside lead wire so as to have a smaller diameter than the hole diameter of the lead wire passage hole, forming a conical sloped surface having a predetermined angle on a peripheral surface of the passage guide part.
US09842701B2

A system is disclosed for restoring a surface field potential of an electret material. An oscillator generates an oscillating output, and a power amplifier amplifies the oscillating output. A step-up transformer generates a high voltage alternating current output from the amplified oscillating output, and a polarity controller generates one of a positive pulsating output and a negative pulsating output from the high voltage alternating current output.
US09842695B2

A ceramic-capacitor includes a first electrically-conductive-layer, a second electrically-conductive-layer arranged proximate to the first electrically-conductive-layer, and a dielectric-layer interposed between the first electrically-conductive-layer and the second electrically-conductive-layer. The dielectric-layer is formed of a lead-lanthanum-zirconium-titanate material (PLZT), wherein the PLZT is characterized by a dielectric-constant greater than 125, when measured at 25 degrees Celsius and zero Volts bias, and an excitation frequency of ten-thousand Hertz (10 kHz). A method for increasing a dielectric constant of the lead-lanthanum-zirconium-titanate material (PLZT) includes the steps of depositing PLZT to form a dielectric-layer of a ceramic-capacitor, and heating the ceramic-capacitor to a temperature not greater than 300° C.
US09842690B2

The apparatus comprises a first working unit for unwinding a coil of conductor and providing straightened conductor, and a second working unit comprising a bending device arranged to bend the straightened conductor leaving the first working unit and a rotary table on which the bent conductor leaving the bending device is laid, whereby a set of turns is formed to make the superconductive coil. The rotary table is rotatably mounted about a stationary vertical axis. The bending device is mounted so as to be translatable both in a longitudinal direction coinciding with the direction of a longitudinal axis of the straightened conductor that is fed by the first working unit to the bending device and in a transverse direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction. The first working unit is mounted so as to be translatable, along with the bending device, in the transverse direction only.
US09842682B2

A surface mount, power inductor component assembly includes only two different shapes of modular core pieces and a set of windings having the same shape that can be assembled and arranged to have any desired number of non-magnetically coupled windings to accommodate electrical power systems having different numbers of phases of electrical power. The core pieces and windings are vertically elongated to reduce the component footprint on a circuit board yet provide higher power, higher current capability.
US09842676B2

A surge absorbing element includes a varistor substrate, a pair of electrodes that are electrically connected to both end faces of the varistor substrate, respectively, to sandwich the varistor substrate, external leads that electrically connect to the paired electrodes, respectively, exterior members that cover the electrodes, and a thermal expansion body that is provided between the paired electrodes and that irreversibly expands with heat generated by the varistor substrate to separate at least one of the paired electrodes from the varistor substrate. A temperature at which the thermal expansion body starts expanding is, for example, equal to or higher than 180° C.
US09842675B2

Provided are a metal nitride material for a thermistor, which has a high heat resistance and a high reliability and can be directly deposited on a film or the like without firing, a method for producing the same, and a film type thermistor sensor. The metal nitride material for a thermistor consists of a metal nitride represented by the general formula: VxAly(N1-wOw)z (where 0.70≦y/(x+y)≦0.98, 0.45≦z≦0.55, 0
US09842667B2

In an exemplary method, a nano-architectured carbon structure is fabricated by forming a unit (e.g., a film) of a liquid carbon-containing starting material and at least one dopant. A surface of the unit is nano-molded using a durable mold that is pre-formed with a pattern of nano-concavities corresponding to a desired pattern of nano-features to be formed by the mold on the surface of the unit. After nano-molding the surface of the unit, the first unit is stabilized to render the unit and its formed nano-structures capable of surviving downstream steps. The mold is removed from the first surface to form a nano-molded surface of a carbonization precursor. The precursor is carbonized in an inert-gas atmosphere at a suitable high temperature to form a corresponding nano-architectured carbon structure. A principal use of the nano-architectured carbon structure is a carbon electrode used in, e.g., Li-ion batteries, supercapacitors, and battery-supercapacitor hybrid devices.
US09842666B2

Disclosed are amorphous carbon nanofibers including copper nanoparticles or copper alloy nanoparticles, copper composite nanoparticles prepared by grinding the amorphous carbon nanofibers and implemented as surfaces of Cu-included particles are partially or wholly coated with amorphous carbons, a dispersed solution including the copper composite nanoparticles, and preparation methods thereof and the amorphous carbon nanofibers include nanoparticles including copper, copper nanoparticles or copper alloy nanoparticles, and, the copper composite nanoparticles are implemented as surfaces of Cu-included particles are partially or wholly coated with amorphous carbons.
US09842647B1

Examples include a method of programming resistive random access memory (RRAM) array for analog computations. In some examples, a selected RRAM cell of the RRAM array may be programmed with a selected target conductance and a programmed conductance error of the selected RRAM cell may be determined. A neighboring RRAM cell may be programmed with an error corrected target conductance that is a function of a neighboring target conductance and the programmed conductance error of the selected RRAM cell. The neighboring RRAM cell may be in a same row or a same column as the selected RRAM cell. The selected RRAM cell and neighboring RRAM cell are programmed such that the RRAM array is programmed for an analog computation.
US09842640B2

A memory device may include: at least one memory bank; and a control circuit suitable for: refreshing the at least one memory bank through a first refresh operation in response to a refresh command; and refreshing the at least one memory bank through a second refresh operation when an active operation is performed between a current refresh command and a previous refresh command.
US09842636B2

Provided is a structure having a perpendicular magnetization film which is an (Mn1-xGax)4N1-y (0
US09842626B2

A drive enclosure system having an enclosure assembly, a divider positioned in the enclosure assembly, and a sled assembly movably connected to the enclosure assembly is disclosed herein. The enclosure assembly has an interior area, and the divider separates the interior area into first and second chambers. The divider has a drive opening which receives a drive. The sled assembly supports the drive and is movable relative to the divider. The sled assembly has a leading end portion and a sealing member and positioned to form a seal around the drive opening when the sled assembly is in a position with a portion of the drive in the first chamber and another portion of the drive in the second chamber.
US09842625B1

A combination device includes a base, a hinged bottom, a motherboard, and a frame. A first space for accommodating a HDD, a second space for accommodating a cable, and a compartment for accommodating the motherboard are provided in the base and the frame. The compartment includes two grooves at front and rear ends respectively, an opening, and a through hole. A lock member and a first biasing member are disposed in each groove. A pivotal arm is formed with the lock member. The base includes four first bossed holes at four corners respectively, and four second bossed holes. Second biasing members are anchored in the second bossed holes respectively. The frame includes an opening on a central portion of a top for accommodating the connector. The HDD is mounted on the connector. Tops of the second biasing members urge against an inner surface of the top of the frame.
US09842623B2

In one embodiment, a method includes writing a file into a data partition of a tape medium, writing a pointer of the written file in an index partition and creating a high resolution tape directory (HRTD) including detailed location information of data in a data partition. The method also includes storing the HRTD as part of end of data (EOD) of the index partition in response to a tape cartridge housing the tape medium being unloaded. The storing the HRTD as part of the EOD of the index partition includes requesting movement of the tape medium to the index partition in order to update an index file after changes have occurred to data in the data partition, writing an updated index file into the index partition concurrent to writing an updated HRTD into the EOD of the index partition, and requesting for the tape cartridge to be unloaded.
US09842614B2

Implementations described and claimed herein includes a storage device comprising a transducer heat including at least one pair of read/write elements and a heat shaped to thermally protrude regions of the transducer head including the read/write elements. According to one implementation, the heat element includes at least one conductive portion of locally decreased resistance proximal to and between the pair of read/write elements to direct the thermally protruded close point away from a midpoint between the read/write elements.
US09842611B2

An estimate of a pitch of a signal may be computed by using peak-to-peak distances in a frequency representation of the signal. A frequency representation of the signal may be computed, peaks in the frequency representation may be identified, for example, by identifying peaks larger than a threshold value. Peak-to-peak distances may be determined using the locations in frequency of the peaks. The pitch of the signal may be estimated by, for example, estimating cumulative distribution function of the peak-to-peak distances or computing a histogram of the peak-to-peak distances.
US09842607B2

[Object] To provide a speech intelligibility improving apparatus capable of generating highly intelligible speech in various environments without unnecessarily amplifying sound volume.[Solution] A speech intelligibility improving apparatus 250 includes: an envelope surface extracting unit 292 extracting, from a spectrum of speech signal 254 as an object of processing, a curve representing a general outline of peaks of spectral envelope in contact with or along local peaks of spectral envelope of the spectrum; a noise adapting unit 300 modifying spectrum of speech signal 254 based on the curve extracted by envelope surface extracting unit 292; and a sinusoidal wave speech synthesizing unit 305 generating a modified speech signal 260 for the speech improved in intelligibility based on the spectrum modified by noise adapting unit 300.
US09842593B2

Predetermined services are provided using preset instructions. A transcript of audible content provided over an electronic network and received at a communications device is analyzed to determine whether a trigger is present in the audible content. When the trigger is present in the audible content, preset instructions correlated with the trigger and instructing how to provide a predetermined service are identified. The predetermined service is provided by following the preset instructions.
US09842590B2

The methods, apparatus, non-transitory computer readable media, and systems described herein include recording a mono recording of a face-to-face communication between an agent and a customer using a microphone, wherein the mono recording is unseparated and includes agent voice data and customer voice data, separately recording the agent voice data in an agent recording using a second microphone; aligning the unseparated mono recording and the agent recording so they are time-synched; subtracting agent voice data from the unseparated mono recording using the agent recording to provide a separated recording including only customer voice data, wherein the agent voice data is subtracted from the unseparated mono recording based on the alignment, sound frequency analysis, or both; converting at least the customer voice data to text; and determining a personality type of the customer by applying one or more computer-implemented linguistic algorithms to the text of the customer voice data.
US09842584B1

Techniques for receiving a voice command from a user and, in response, providing audible content to the user via a first device and providing visual content for the user via a second device. In some instances, the first device includes a microphone for generating audio signals that include user speech, as well as a speaker for outputting audible content in response to identified voice commands from the speech. However, the first device might not include a display for displaying graphical content. As such, the first device may be configured to identify devices that include displays and that are proximate to the first device. The first device may then instruct one or more of these other devices to output visual content associated with a user's voice command.
US09842582B2

A system for self-organized acoustic signal cancellation over a network is disclosed. The system may transmit an acoustic sounding signal to an interfering device so that a channel measurement may be performed for a channel between the interfering device and an interferee device. The system may receive the channel measurement for the channel from the interfering device and also receive a digitized version of an audio interference signal associated with the interfering device. Based on the channel measurement and the digital version of the interference signal, the system may calculate a cancellation signal prior to the arrival of the original over-the-air audio interference signal that corresponds to the digital version of audio interference signal. The system may then apply the cancellation signal to an audio signal associated with the interferee device to remove the interference signal from the audio signal.
US09842575B1

A music box includes a box, an operation unit, multiple activation units and a comb member. A circuit board controls a coil in a desired one of the activation units to create a magnetic field with the magnetic plate so as to attract the activation plate to be matched with the match plate. The attached activation plate and the match plate are rotated by a shaft extending through the activation units. The shaft is driven by a driving member. Each activation plate includes fingers which push the keys of the comb member to generate sound.
US09842569B2

A display device is disclosed. The display device comprises a display panel whose luminance changes from a start luminance to a target luminance lower than the start luminance and which displays an image, wherein the image comprises a start frame having the start luminance and a start gamma, a target frame having the target luminance and a target gamma, and a plurality of intermediate frames sequentially placed between the start frame and the target frame, where a difference in the luminance of the display panel between adjacent frames is reduced.
US09842568B2

A color gamut controlling device and a display device including the color gamut controlling device. The color gamut controlling device includes a light sensing unit, a first calculation unit, a second calculation unit, and a color gamut calculation unit. The light sensing unit measures a luminance of external light. The first calculation unit calculates adjusted tristimulus values for each of three primary colors based on the measured luminance. The second calculation unit calculates final tristimulus values for each of the three primary colors using the adjusted tristimulus values and target tristimulus values for each of the three primary colors. The color gamut calculation unit calculates a corrected color gamut from the final tristimulus values. The light sensing unit may further measure tristimulus values of the external light for each of the three primary colors.
US09842543B2

An organic light-emitting diode (OLED) pixel compensation circuit includes a driving module, a compensation module, an OLED lighting module, and a precharging module. The compensation module is connected to the driving module and is configured to receive a voltage of an external first power for compensating a turn-on voltage of the driving module. The precharging module is connected to the OLED lighting module and is configured to receive a voltage of an external second power for precharging the OLED lighting module. The driving module is connected to the OLED lighting module and is configured to remain on under compensation by the compensation module for receiving the voltage of the external first power to obtain a driving voltage for driving the OLED lighting module to emit light, thereby driving the OLED lighting module to emit light.
US09842536B2

A display device includes a data driver, line selectors, and a controller. The data driver provides data signals to output lines. The line selectors control connections between the output lines and data lines. The controller selects a normal driving mode or a low frequency driving mode as a panel driving mode and controls a scan driver, the data driver, and the line selectors based on the panel driving mode. Each line selector respectively connects the output lines to the data lines when the panel driving mode is the normal driving mode, and progressively connects one of the output lines to some of the data lines when the panel driving mode is the low frequency driving mode.
US09842535B2

A display apparatus includes a display panel including a display area and a non-display area, a driving chip disposed in the non-display area, and a heat radiate sheet. The heat radiate sheet includes a first portion disposed on a rear surface of the display panel, a second portion disposed on the driving chip, and a connection portion connecting the first portion and the second portion.
US09842530B2

The white balance of a display device such as an LCD TV is automatically adjusted based on the color temperature of ambient light.
US09842529B2

A gate-on voltage applied to a third gate line connected to the current stage pixel is configured to be applied during any one or more of a first pre-charge period, a second pre-charge period, and a main-charge period. Data voltages are applied, in order, to a before-previous stage pixel, a previous stage pixel, and a current stage pixel, and the signal controller is configured to control the gate driver to selectively apply the gate-on voltage to the gate line connected to the current stage pixel during at least one of the first pre-charge period while the before-previous stage pixel is being charged and the second pre-charge period while the previous stage pixel is charged, so as to at least partially pre-charge the current stage pixel.
US09842524B2

A display device is disclosed. The display device includes a first display test signal inputting part, configured to input a first display test signal. The display device also includes a first display test signal controlling part, configured to control the input of the first display test signal. The display device also includes a second display test signal inputting part, configured to input a second display test signal. The display device also includes a first test bus, connected to the first display test signal inputting part. The display device also includes a second test bus, connected to the second display test signal inputting part, where the first test bus and the second test bus are connected with each other.
US09842520B2

A product display member is disclosed. The product display member includes an attachment portion, an elongated portion, a light source, and an information display portion. The attachment portion is configured to engage a portion of a shelf. The elongated portion is disposed in mechanical cooperation with the attachment portion. The elongated portion defines a lumen extending at least partially therethrough. The light source is disposed in mechanical cooperation with the lumen. The information display portion is disposed in mechanical cooperation with the elongated portion.
US09842508B2

A method, and corresponding system, for providing a fitness program to remote subscribers includes receiving first data related to a fitness program. A virtual fitness session having a set of remote subscribers is established. An online fitness coach is assigned to the set of remote subscribers in the virtual fitness session. Second data, including audio and/or video data related to the first fitness program, is transmitted to the set of remote subscribers in the virtual fitness session. Feedback is provided from each remote subscriber to the online fitness coach. The feedback enables the online fitness coach to monitor in live-time third data regarding performance of each remote subscriber in the virtual fitness session. The method further includes communicating between the online fitness coach and the set of remote subscribers. The communication enables the online fitness coach to send fourth data to one or more of the remote subscribers in live-time.
US09842503B2

An object of the present invention is to provide a technique which can enhance a possibility of giving notice of only a detected object in a dead angle area which is significant for a user. A controller causes a notification unit, in a first vehicle, to give notice of a detected object, which is determined to have an influence on a traveling of the first vehicle in a dead angle point which the first vehicle travels from among the detected object which is not detected by the first vehicle but detected by the second vehicle, as a travel influencing object based on a route information of the first vehicle, a current position information of the first vehicle, and a detected object information of the first vehicle and a second vehicle which are obtained by the information receiver.
US09842492B2

In response to a detected presence of an intended target appliance within a logical topography of controllable appliances identity information associated with the intended target appliance is used to automatically add to a graphical user interface of a controlling device an icon representative of the intended target appliance and to create at a Universal Control Engine a listing of communication methods for use in controlling corresponding functional operations of the intended target appliance. When the icon is later activated, the controlling device is placed into an operating state appropriate for controlling functional operations of the intended target appliance while the Universal Control Engine uses at least one of the communication methods to transmit at least one command to place the intended target appliance into a predetermined operating state.
US09842489B2

The disclosed subject matter provides a main device and at least one secondary device. The at least one secondary device and the main device may operate in cooperation with one another and other networked components to provide improved performance, such as improved speech and other signal recognition operations. Using the improved recognition results, a higher probability of generating the proper commands to a controllable device is provided.
US09842487B2

A device for testing smoke detectors comprises a barrel, an end-piece coupled to one end of the barrel and which is capable of covering at least a sensing area of a smoke detector, and a device body coupled to the opposite end of the barrel and which is capable of carrying a pressurized dispensing container having a smoke-simulating substance.
US09842485B2

A system is provided that includes a security system that protects a secured geographic area, a delayed alarm process executing on a processor of the security system, wherein the delayed alarm process is activated by an authorized person through a user input of the security system, a timer of the delayed alarm process that delays sending an alarm message to a predetermined destination for a predetermined time period first following activation of the delayed alarm process by the authorized person through the user input, and a cancel feature of the delayed alarm process that disables the delayed alarm process upon receipt of an instruction from the authorized person, wherein, upon expiration of the predetermined time period without receipt of a reset, the delayed alarm process sends the alarm message to the predetermined destination.
US09842473B2

After determining that a game state is a non-play state, it is determined whether or not a credit required for a play has been inputted within a predetermined time period. When the credit has not been inputted within the predetermined time period, a display mode in which a plurality of different bonus ranks are displayed on a middle image display panel in a first state in which a bonus or bonuses are likely to be obtained by a drawing and in a second state in which the bonus or bonuses are not obtained thereby is switched to a display mode in which all of the plurality of bonus ranks displayed in display areas are displayed in either of the first state or the second state.
US09842468B2

A gaming system includes a gaming device and one or more controllers. The gaming device has a surface configured to display a wagering game. The controller is configured to display on the surface a designated area including indicia indicating where an electronic device held by a player should be placed in the designated area. In response to the electronic device being placed in proximity to the surface in the designated area, an illuminating flashing pattern representing an electronic identification code is caused to occur between the surface and the electronic device in the designated area. In response to causing the flashing pattern, a session associating play of the wagering game with a player account of the player is established.
US09842465B2

A fungible object award interleaved wagering system is disclosed. The system includes an interactive controller operatively connected to an application controller by a network, the interactive controller configured to: communicate, to an application controller, application telemetry; and receive, from the application controller, an object based on the application telemetry. The system also includes a wager controller operatively connected to the application controller, the wager controller constructed to: receive a wager request; generate a wager outcome based on the wager request; communicate, to an object controller, the wager outcome. The system also includes the application controller operatively connected to the interactive controller and the wager controller, the application controller constructed to: receive; communicate, to the wager controller, the wager request based on the received application telemetry; receive an object, wherein the object is generated by the object controller based on the wager outcome; communicate, to the interactive controller, the object.
US09842464B2

In a first aspect the invention provides a storage method for a gaming machine, including allocating program code to one of at least two program categories including a first category of program code that is expected to be modified more frequently than a second category of program code and storing program code from the first and second categories in logically separate storage areas.
US09842457B2

A method for controlling contributions to progressive prize pools includes providing a progressive server which manages standalone progressive prize pools for each of multiple individual gaming machines. The progressive server may further provide group progressive prize pools, allowing a gaming machine to have standalone pools and also be a member in a group pool. Where multiple standalone progressive prize pools are maintained for a single gaming machine, additional steps are taken to identify which pool or pools are to be increased when a standalone progressive contribution is made.
US09842453B2

A banknote processing device includes: a plurality of storage units configured to store a banknote having a predetermined condition in a storage unit corresponding to the banknote among the plurality of storage units when the banknote is fed through a depositing port provided on a device main body; and a dispensing box configured to discharge the banknote through a dispensing port provided on the dispensing box by conveying the banknote, which is sent from the storage unit, to the dispensing box when a dispensing instruction is given. The dispensing box is configured to collect the banknote being stored in the storage units when a collecting instruction is given.
US09842452B2

A banknote jam determination system and method, the determination system comprising a sensor unit (101), a banknote information storage unit (102), a banknote jam threshold computing unit (103) and a banknote jam status determination unit (104). The banknote jam threshold computing unit (103) can compute a threshold (M) according to an actual space (S) between the actual length (L) of the banknote and the sensor. The banknote jam status determination unit (104) uses a threshold (M) computed in real time to determine whether a banknote jam occurs, and therefore the banknote jam determination system and method are a dynamic banknote jam determination technique based on a varied threshold (M) of a banknote and a sensor, and can improve measurement precision and ensure reliability.
US09842445B2

Method for preventing security breaches via the two-thief method of attack of passive remote keyless entry systems for vehicles. The method involves the measurement of air travel time of the RF messages between the RKE fob and the vehicle. Multiple round trips between the fob and the vehicle are employed to magnify the distance covered by the messages and thereby allow accurate measurement of the air travel time.
US09842436B2

A method, apparatus, system, and article of manufacture provide the ability to seamlessly transfer a texture. An image that has an object to be concealed is acquired. A conceal tool is activated. A source patch of a first collection of pixels within the image is defined. A target patch of a second collection of pixels within the image is defined and located over the object to be concealed. The source patch is mapped onto the target patch using a transformation (T). A contrast between the source patch and the target patch along a boundary of the source patch and the target patch is measured. A color one of the one or more pixels in the second collection is accepted/rejected based on the contrast.
US09842434B2

The present disclosure discloses a system and a method for reproducing an object in a 3D scene. The system comprises an object acquiring unit configured to simultaneously acquire at least two channels of video stream data in real time at different angles for an object to be displayed; an object recognizing unit configured to recognize a shape of the object varying in real time from the at least two channels of video stream data; an object tracking unit configured to obtain corresponding object motion trajectory according to the shape of the object varying in real time; and an object projecting unit configured to process the shape of the object varying in real time and the corresponding object motion trajectory into a 3D image and superposition-project the 3D image into the 3D scene in real time. The technical solutions of the present disclosure can reproduce the object in the 3D scene, and achieve the purpose of displaying the real object in the 3D scene.
US09842432B2

A system, a method and instructions embodied on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that solve a 3D point-in-polygon (PIP) problem is presented. This system projects polygons that comprise a set of polyhedra onto projected polygons in a reference plane. Next, the system projects a data point onto the reference plane, and performs a 2D PIP operation in the reference plane to determine which projected polygons the projected data point falls into. For each projected polygon the projected data point falls into, the system performs a 3D crossing number operation by counting intersections between a ray projected from the corresponding data point in a direction orthogonal to the reference plane and polyhedral faces corresponding to projected polygons, to identify polyhedra the data point falls into. The system then generates a visual representation of the set of polyhedra, wherein each polyhedron is affected by data points that fall into it.
US09842423B2

A method for three-dimensional face generation is described. An inverse depth map is calculated based on a depth map and an inverted first matrix. The inverted first matrix is generated from two images in which pixels are aligned vertically and differ horizontally. The inverse depth map is normalized to correct for distortions in the depth map caused by image rectification. A three-dimensional face model is generated based on the inverse depth map and one of the two images.
US09842415B2

A method for processing tomosynthesis images of an object of interest, using an imaging system, the imaging system comprising an X-ray source positioned facing a detector on which the object of interest is positioned. With the method of an embodiment of the invention, it is possible to display a three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction slice, as well as a two-dimensional (2D) image of the object of interest.
US09842405B2

A method of tracking a target includes classifying a pixel having a pixel address with one or more pixel cases. The pixel is classified based on one or more observed or synthesized values. An example of an observed value for a pixel address includes an observed depth value obtained from a depth camera. Examples of synthesized values for a pixel address include a synthesized depth value calculated by rasterizing a model of the target; one or more body-part indices estimating a body part corresponding to that pixel address; and one or more player indices estimating a target corresponding to that pixel address. One or more force vectors are calculated for the pixel based on the pixel case, and the force vector is mapped to one or more force-receiving locations of the model representing the target to adjust the model representing the target into an adjusted pose.
US09842401B2

The present invention relates a segmentation apparatus (10) for interactively segmenting blood vessels (2) in angiographic image data (3). The segmentation apparatus (10) comprises a significant location determining unit (11) for determining one or more locations of a current segmentation (4) of the blood vessels (2) in the angiographic image data (3) as significant locations (5) at which the current segmentation (4) has a predetermined influence on a value of a blood flow parameter that is calculated based on the current segmentation (4), and a display unit (12) for displaying the significant locations (5) to an operator. Thereby, the operator can be guided to focus his/her segmentation efforts to those locations of the current segmentation (4) that are most relevant for the accuracy of the calculation of the value of the blood flow parameter. This may ease the burden on the operator during the segmentation procedure.
US09842399B2

A device includes a memory configured to store map point information including a first map point group indicating a three-dimensional position of an object measured by a distance sensor and a second map point group indicating a three-dimensional position of the object determined based on captured images and a processor configured to compare a first projection point group of the first map point group with a feature point group extracted from a new captured image, create pairs of a feature point in the feature point group and a first projection point that is similar to the feature point, when the number of the pairs is less than or equal to a threshold, compare a second projection point group of the second map point group with the feature point group, create other pairs of the feature point and a second projection point, and estimate a position and attitude of a camera.
US09842397B2

A system and method for the measurement of distances related to an object depicted in an image. One aspect including delivery of supplemental materials for fenestration and for constructing insulating materials for fenestration. A digital image containing a primary object dimension and a reference object dimension in substantially the same plane undergoes digital image processing to provide improved measurement capability. Information regarding a primary object is provided to an automated measurement process, design and manufacturing system to provide customized parts to end users. A digital image is obtained having an observable constraint dimension to which a customized part is to conform wherein the digital image contains a reference object having a reference dimension and a constraint dimension is calculated from the digital image based on a reference dimension. The custom part is designed and manufactured based on the calculated constraint dimension.
US09842395B2

It is possible to allow image processing on a radiation image such that the same effect of scattered radiation elimination as when imaging is actually performed using a grid is obtained. When performing processing for eliminating scattered radiation included in radiation transmitted through a subject M on a radiation image imaged by irradiating the subject M with radiation, a characteristic acquisition unit 32 acquires a virtual grid characteristic as a characteristic of a virtual grid assumed to be used to eliminate scattered radiation at the time of imaging of the radiation image. A scattered radiation elimination unit 36 performs scattered radiation elimination processing of the radiation image based on the virtual grid characteristic.
US09842394B2

A method including accessing image data representing tissue and identifying one or more features of the tissue indicated by the image data. A model is selected for the tissue based on the one or more identified features. The image data is segmented and, using the model, one or more anatomical landmarks of the tissue indicated by the segmented image data are identified.
US09842391B2

A computer implemented method is provided for determining an amount of tumor cells in a tissue sample. The method includes obtaining first image data describing an image of a tissue sample at a first resolution, obtaining second image data describing the image at a second resolution, wherein the first resolution is lower than the second resolution, selecting a candidate tumor region from the second image data based on texture data determined from the first image data, identifying a tumor structure in the candidate region of the second image data, and determining a number of cells in the tumor structure based on its area and an estimate of tumor cell area to estimate an amount of tumor cells in the tissue sample.
US09842390B2

Methods and arrangements for automatic ground truth generation of medical image collections. Aspects include receiving a plurality of imaging studies, wherein each imaging study includes one or more images and a textual report associated with the one or more images. Aspects also include selecting a key image from each of the one or more images from each of the plurality of imaging studies and extracting one or more discriminating image features from a region of interest within the key image. Aspects further include processing the textual report associated with the one or more images to detect one or more concept labels, assigning an initial label from the one or more concept labels to the one or more discriminating image features, and learning an association between each of the one or more discriminating image features and the one or more concept labels.
US09842389B2

A luminance-chrominance calibration production line system includes: a rail; multiple stations disposed along the rail and including multiple first darkroom stations; multiple image acquisition apparatuses respectively disposed in the first darkroom stations and for capturing different color images sequentially displayed by a to-be-calibrated LED display module loaded on the rail to acquire color image data; and a rail computer system for controlling a transport movement on the rail and controlling the to-be-calibrated LED display module to display the different color images, and being signally connected to the image acquisition apparatuses to obtain the color image data. By using multiple image acquisition apparatuses to collect various color image information of LED display module in pipelined manner, calibration efficiency is improved, data collection is accurate, data collection error caused by using different image acquisition apparatuses to calibrate different LED display modules is avoided and calibration manpower is reduced.
US09842382B2

The present invention provides a method for removing a haze in a single image. In the present invention, a transmission is estimated by using a dark channel prior obtained from a hazy input image. The estimated transmission includes a block artifact. In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, in order to preserve an edge and remove the block artifact, a refined transmission value is obtained by performing WLS filtering by using an estimated transmission value and a morphologically-processed input image, the image is restored based on the refined transmission value, and then multi-scale tone manipulation image processing is performed.
US09842381B2

A system accesses an image with each pixel of the image having luminance values each representative of a color component of the pixel. The system generates a first histogram for aggregate luminance values of the image, and accesses a target histogram for the image representative of a desired global image contrast. The system computes a transfer function based on the first histogram and the target histogram such that when the transfer function is applied, a histogram of the modified aggregate luminance values is within a threshold similarity of the target histogram. The system modifies the image by applying the transfer function to the luminance values of the image to produce a tone mapped image, and outputs the modified image.
US09842376B2

Techniques are described with respect to preemption in which a graphics processing unit (GPU) may execute a first set of commands in response to receiving a draw call, the draw call defining a plurality of primitives that are to be rendered by the first set of commands, receive a preemption notification during execution of the first set of commands, and preempt the execution of the first set of commands, prior to completing the execution of the first set of commands to render the plurality of primitives of the draw call, for executing a second set of commands.
US09842375B2

Disclosed herein are technologies for implementing a Flexible Fare Bus framework to reduce bus bunching Particularly, the Flexible Fare Bus framework focuses on fixing a demand of passengers from passenger's side by dynamically adjusting a pre-determined headway-threshold throughout a pre-defined bus route. This Abstract is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.
US09842372B2

A system may include a processor that may receive structured energy data associated with one or more assets in an automation system such that the structured energy data comprises a logical grouping of assets in the automation system. The processor may also determine energy properties of the one or more assets with respect to the logical grouping over a period of time, identify one or more idle periods of the one or more assets with respect to the logical grouping during the period of time based on the energy properties, and send one or more commands to the one or more assets to enter a reduced power consumption mode during the idle periods.
US09842366B2

Networks, systems and methods for recovering data messages from a market data stream and for building a book for a financial instrument are disclosed. An out-of-band data stream related to an as-of state of the market for one or more financial instruments is distributed parallel to a stream of market data for the financial instrument. The as-of data stream is referenced to the financial according to a unique identifier of the messages of the market data stream. The as-of data for a financial instrument may be provided at periodic rate that may be varied according to one or more factors.
US09842365B2

Guiding purchasing via smartphone by, determining, via smartphone input of a user, the smartphone user's intent to purchase a given product. At least one sequence of tasks to purchase each of a plurality of products is determined. The determined intent to purchase the given product is associated with a determined sequence of tasks to purchase one of the products in the plurality of products. The smartphone user's current state in the associated sequence of tasks is determined. The smartphone user is notified, via the smartphone, of the next uncompleted task from the associated sequence of tasks based on the smartphone user's current state in the associated sequence of tasks.
US09842359B2

A method for processing a consumer referral includes: storing, a plurality of location data entries, each entry including data related to a geographic location including a location identifier and location data; storing a plurality of referral data entries, each entry including data related to a referral including a referral identifier and one or more specific location identifiers; receiving a referral request, the request including a specific referral identifier encoded in a machine-readable code displayed at a specific geographic location associated with the specific referral identifier; identifying a specific referral data entry where the included referral identifier corresponds to the specific referral identifier; identifying a specific location data entry where the included location identifier corresponds to one of the one or more specific location identifiers included in the identified specific referral data entry; and transmitting the location data included in the identified specific location data entry in response to the request.
US09842353B1

In certain aspects, a media content management and deployment system is provided. A data store stores data specifying available timeslots and locations of signage devices. A front end server sends a user input interface to a remote computing device. The user input interface receives campaign parameters from a user for building a campaign. A deployment module receives the campaign parameters, and examines data in the data store to select candidate signage devices and candidate timeslots of the candidate signage devices from the available timeslots. The user input interface then obtains and displays the candidate timeslots of candidate signage devices for displaying media content, and receives an instruction from the user to claim all of the candidate timeslots for the campaign. Upon receiving a request to claim all of the candidate timeslots, the deployment module generates campaign deployment plan data including data specifying the candidate timeslots and the candidate signage devices.
US09842334B1

A technique identifies risky transactions by mapping raw user location data to a particular cell in a fixed grid. Along these lines, when a user initiates a transaction with a service provider over a mobile device, the service provider collects raw location data such as a latitude and longitude for the user and transmits the location data to an adaptive authentication server. The adaptive authentication server then accesses a fixed set of geographical areas overlaid on a map of the Earth. The adaptive authentication server finds a particular geographical area which contains the latitude and longitude for the user. The adaptive authentication server also obtains information in connection with previous transactions in the particular geographical area using the identifier of the particular geographical area to obtain the information. Based on this information, the adaptive authentication server determines the riskiness of the particular geographical area. Based on the riskiness, the adaptive authentication server assigns a risk score to the transaction.
US09842329B2

Disclosed is a method performed in a system comprising a first Body Area Network (BAN) enabled device and a second BAN enabled device, for performing secure payment at a payment counter by a user of the first and the second BAN enabled devices, the user wearing or carrying the first and the second BAN enabled devices; where the first and the second BAN enabled devices are paired for authorizing the user by the second BAN enabled device; the method comprises: establishing a connection between the payment counter and the first BAN enabled device; sending a BAN signal via BAN from the first BAN enabled device to the second BAN enabled device requiring confirmation from the second BAN enabled device that the second BAN enabled device is in contact with the user's body; receiving a confirmation BAN signal via BAN from the second BAN enabled device to the first BAN enabled device confirming that the second BAN enabled device is in contact with the user's body; receiving a request for payment from the payment counter in the first and/or second BAN enabled device; and confirming the requested payment in the first and/or second BAN enabled device.
US09842326B2

An information providing system includes: a processor that executes a process including: receiving an identifier to uniquely identify an automatic transaction apparatus in which transaction is performed, and an input of a financial institution code read from a card inserted into the automatic transaction apparatus; determining information to be output in the automatic transaction apparatus, based on a relation between the financial institution code and the identifier of the automatic transaction apparatus; and displaying the determined information on a screen of the automatic transaction apparatus or an external display device controlled by the automatic transaction apparatus.
US09842316B2

A cloud-based broker service may be provided for computing devices in a distributed computing environment. The broker service may aggregate user accounts and user account credentials utilized for accessing online services by the computing devices. The broker service may monitor a context of the computing devices associated with the user accounts. The broker service may then utilize the context, data associated with the user accounts and data associated with the user account credentials to automate tasks and/or provide alerts associated with the data.
US09842311B2

There is disclosed a method of providing resources in a collaborative input system comprising an interactive display surface, the method comprising: providing a common set of resources for a plurality of users; and selectively providing the common set of resources to individual users.
US09842293B2

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for generating a respective neural network output for each of a plurality of inputs, the method comprising, for each of the neural network layers: receiving a plurality of inputs to be processed at the neural network layer; forming one or more batches of inputs from the plurality of inputs, each batch having a number of inputs up to the respective batch size for the neural network layer; selecting a number of the one or more batches of inputs to process, where a count of the inputs in the number of the one or more batches is greater than or equal to the respective associated batch size of a subsequent layer in the sequence; and processing the number of the one or more batches of inputs to generate the respective neural network layer output.
US09842289B2

A middleware device, a driving method of a reader and a tag misrecognition determining method are provided. The middleware device operated in relation to a reader includes a storage configured to pre-store receiving sensitivity of tag information of a tag of an object recognized at different distances from the reader as a reference value, a communication interface configured to, in response to the object approaching to the reader, acquire the receiving sensitivity of tag information of the tag recognized at a preset time interval, and a tag misrecognition processor configured to compare the acquired receiving sensitivity with the pre-stored reference value to determine misrecognition of the tag.
US09842284B2

An image processing apparatus includes a subject area detector and a subject area determinator. The subject area detector is configured to perform subject detection processing to detect a subject area from an input image. The subject area determinator is configured to determine a final subject area by majority decision processing that is based on the subject areas detected in the subject detection processing performed a plurality of times.
US09842283B2

A target object detection system includes a detection unit and a machine learning unit. The detection unit obtains an image and outputs a notification signal upon determining that a portion of the image resembles a target object by performing a classification operation. The machine learning unit performs a training operation using the image to obtain new weak classifier parameters for update in the detection unit when a determination made using weak classifier parameters used in the classification operation of the detection unit differs from one made using strong classifier parameters.
US09842281B2

A method and system for segmenting text from non-text portions of a digital image using the size, solidity, and run length characteristics of connected components within the image data. For a connected component comprising a rectangular group of pixels enclosing a set of connected pixels having the same binary state, the size characteristic may be based on a ratio of height to width of the connected component and the total number of pixels within the connected component, the solidity characteristic may be based on a ratio of pixels within the connected component to a total number of pixels within a convex hull of the set of connected pixels, and the run length characteristic may be based on a number of transitions within the connected component.
US09842279B2

A data processing method includes setting a learning data set including a plurality of learning data having respective labels to an uppermost node of a decision tree, setting selection probabilities of the learning data, selecting a combination of the learning data from each of a plurality of sets of learning data assigned to nodes of the decision tree in accordance with the selection probabilities, determining a branch rule for dividing each of the sets of the learning data assigned to the nodes of the decision tree into at least two subsets using the selected combination of the learning data, and assigning the subsets divided in accordance with the branch rule to nodes in a lower level.
US09842274B2

Methods and systems for detecting an object part location based on an extended date-driven detection. A specific relevance value between configurations of parts with respect to a set of training images annotated with annotating objects can be defined. A similarity learning algorithm can be applied with respect to the parts to obtain a similarity function based on the similarity between the part configurations. The similarity learning algorithm receives a set of positive pair having similar part configuration and a negative pair having different configuration and returns the similarity function that tends to assign a high score to new positive pairs and a low score to negative pairs. A similarity between a new image and the training images can be measured utilizing the learned similarity function to obtain a neighbor image and a visible and/or non-visible part location with respect to the image can be predicted based on the neighbor image.
US09842270B2

An apparatus and method for providing additional information for region of interest. The apparatus includes a region of interest extractor configured to extract regions of interest from a first medical image and at least one second medical image, a region of interest merger configured to merge a region of interest of the at least one second medical image into the first medical image, an additional information determiner configured to determine additional information required for each region of interest, and an additional information provider configured to provide the determined additional information for the each region of interest.
US09842266B2

A system and method for detecting electronic device use by a driver of a vehicle including acquiring an image including a vehicle from an associated image capture device positioned to view oncoming traffic, locating a windshield region of the vehicle in the captured image, processing pixels of the windshield region of the image for computing a feature vector describing the windshield region of the vehicle, applying the feature vector to a classifier for classifying the image into respective classes including at least classes for candidate electronic device use and candidate electronic device non-use, and outputting the classification.
US09842260B2

A clustering processing unit sets representative data to be used in first clustering, for each of temporally continuous images, and repeats clustering of pixels based on the representative data. A representative data updating unit updates the representative data whenever clustering is repeated. As the representative data to be used in first clustering of each image, an initial value or representative data used in last clustering of an immediately preceding image is set based on predetermined input information. An example of the predetermined input information is operation information for an image capturing unit for capturing an image. If a dead cluster predictively forms due to an image change, the initial value is set as the representative data. This makes it possible to restrict accumulation of dead clusters, and suppress the decrease in segmentation accuracy.
US09842253B2

Provided is a process including: determining that a mobile computing device has crossed a geofence associated with a merchant store; sending, to a remote classifier server, a request for object-recognition classifiers for objects in the merchant store; receiving a set of object-recognition classifiers; receiving with the mobile computing device from user a request to search for offers; capturing an image with a camera of the mobile computing device; receiving one or more wireless beacon identifiers with the mobile computing device; based on the wireless beacon identifiers, selecting a subset of the object-recognition classifiers in the set of object-recognition classifiers; and recognizing an object in the captured image based on the selected subset of the object-recognition classifiers; and requesting, from a remote offer publisher server, offers corresponding to the recognized object; and receiving offers from the remote offer publisher server; and displaying the received offers to the user.
US09842247B2

An eye location method and device includes: receiving a face image; locating a position of a nose and positions of eyes in the face image; determining a facial symmetry axis according to the position of the nose; and regulating the positions of the eyes by the facial symmetry axis to obtain target positions of the eyes. By the method and the device, the problem of poorer eye location accuracy in the conventional art is solved, and the effect of improving eye location accuracy is further achieved.
US09842244B2

The invention relates to a fingerprint sensing device comprising: a sensing chip comprising an array of sensing elements being configured to be connected to readout circuitry for detecting a capacitive coupling between each of the sensing elements and a finger placed on a sensing surface of the sensing device. A surface of the sensing elements defines a sensing plane. The sensing device further comprises a plurality of interposer structures arranged on the sensing chip extending above sensing plane, wherein the plurality of interposer structures have the same height above the sensing plane. A protective plate is attached to the sensing chip by means of an adhesive, and the protective plate rests on the interposer structures such that a distance between the protective plate and the sensing plane is defined by the height of the interposer structures.
US09842243B2

The invention relates to a fingerprint sensing device comprising a sensing chip comprising an array of capacitive sensing elements. The sensing device comprises a coating material arranged in a layer on top of the array of sensing elements, the coating material comprising a plurality of cavities filled with a mold material; wherein locations of the cavities correspond to locations of the sensing elements, such that a cross-section area of a cavity covers at least a portion of an area of a corresponding sensing element; and wherein a dielectric constant of the mold material is higher than a dielectric constant of the coating material. The invention also relates to a method for manufacturing such a device.
US09842240B2

The present invention relates to a method and system for data tagging in the field of computer technologies. In this method, a user terminal acquires tag data, obtains information about services and functions associated with the tag data, then interacts with target servers to exchange service and function information, and fulfills appropriate services and functions to complete the business application. The disclosed data tagging method and system allow user terminal to interact with directly target servers that are associated with relevant services and functions, which allows functions to be realized in distributed target servers, which simplifies the implementations of tag data, reducing the cost to setting servers. The disclosed data tagging methods allow more extensive applications of data tagging, improved user experiences, simplified processes, and lower costs.
US09842238B1

A system controlled responsive at least in part to data read from data bearing records is operative to cause vehicle repair parts to be determined and furnished. Data read by a reader from a tag associated with a damaged vehicle is used to determine vehicle identifying data. A repair estimate calculation circuit (RECC) operates responsive to the read data to produce a needed parts record (NPR). The records produced by the RECC are operative to cause a vehicle repair entity (VRE) to be furnished the vehicle repair parts.
US09842223B2

A functional architecture pattern has a first software module, an operating system module, a first board support package, and a first microcomputer. The functional architecture pattern further has a second software module, a second board support package, and a second microcomputer that are logically separated from the first software module, the operating system module, the first board support package, and the first microcomputer. The first software module is developed according to quality management standards, while the operating system module, both first and second board support packages, and the third software module are developed according to safety integrity levels standards so as to make a logical split-off on three levels between the first software module software and the second software module.
US09842221B2

Particular embodiments provide a system that analyzes and optimizes roles and authorizations for users of a customer. The system determines which executables have been used by users in the system over a certain time period. Thereafter, the system analyzes and optimizes authorizations within the assigned roles for the users. The authorizations for the roles assigned to the user are then analyzed. The vendor roles typically have redundant authorizations, some of which may be used and some not used. The system can then generate a new customer role for the user with the used authorizations combined into the new role. For example, the authorizations used by the user are combined into the new customer role. This reduces the number of roles the user has assigned to him/her, and also the number of authorizations. Also, the new customer role may be added to other users with the same role at the customer.
US09842216B2

A system and method for securely recording voice communications, comprising an authentication server, further comprising at least a software components operating on a network-capable computing device, and a database, wherein an authentication server verifies the validity of voice communications and a database stores voice communication recordings.
US09842214B2

A technique for securing on-board bus transactions in a computing device is discussed. A shared key is generated and then programmed into the read-only non-volatile write-once storage of two on-board components. The shared key may be generated during the manufacturing process. Once complete, all transactions between the two on-board components are encrypted by the components using the shared key without exposing the key on any external bus.
US09842205B2

Time-varying passwords for user authentication are disclosed. Example methods disclosed herein for password generation include obtaining a base password including characters, determining a first character position of the base password at which a first time-varying data element is to be inserted to determine a time-varying password, the first time-varying data element to be computed based on a time-varying parameter, and determining a first offset to be applied to a value of the time-varying parameter to compute the first time-varying data element. Example methods disclosed herein for password evaluation include accessing a base password including characters, applying a first offset to a value of a time-varying parameter to determine a first time-varying data element to be inserted at a first character position of the base password to determine a time-varying password, and comparing the time-varying password with an input password to perform authentication based on the input password.
US09842204B2

Systems and methods for providing identification tests. In some embodiments, a system and a method are provided for generating and serving to a user an animated challenge graphic comprising a challenge character set whose appearance may change over time. In some embodiments, marketing content may be incorporated into a challenge message for use in an identification test. The marketing content may be accompanied by randomly selected content to increase a level of security of the identification test. In some embodiments, a challenge message for use in an identification test may be provided based on information regarding a transaction for which the identification test is administered. For example, the transaction information may include a user identifier such as an IP address. In some embodiments, identification test results may be tracked and analyzed to identify a pattern of behavior associated with a user identifier. A score indicative of a level of trustworthiness may be computed for the user identifier.
US09842198B2

The present application is directed to methods and systems for identifying small molecule compounds in mixtures using a library comprising calculated structures and corresponding calculated mass spectral fragmentation patterns of known and/or hypothetical small molecule compounds that may be in the mixture and screening of a mass spectrum of the mixture using the library to identify matching fragmentation patterns. If a mass spectral fragmentation pattern present in the mass spectrum of the mixture matches a calculated fragmentation pattern of one of the known or hypothetical compounds this confirms the identity of a compound in the mixture as the known or hypothetical compound. The method represents a platform method that can be used for a multitude of purposes related to the screening and identification of compounds in mixtures. Therefore the methods and systems of the present application represent an approach that is uniquely capable of navigating chemical space and providing a understanding of desired families and pharmacophores.
US09842197B2

A digital image with athletic information organized on it to be output to a computer, smartphone and/or physical, including adhesive-backed textiles that remain adhesive and retain ink when water or perspiration is present in the environment, paper, and other media.
US09842196B2

A variable dose dispensing system may include a processor and memory. The processor may receive a request for a variable dose order of a medication, such as from a user. The processor may request an amount of the medication to be administered, and receive, in response to the request, an indication of the amount to be administered. The processor may verify that the amount to be administered is within a range of the variable dose order. The processor may determine an item in a local inventory that contains at least the amount of the medication to be administered, and may dispense the item. If an amount of the dispensed item exceeds the amount to be administered, such as by a waste amount, the processor may display an indication of the waste amount to the user, and may transmit a notification of the waste amount, such as to a management server.
US09842185B2

Methods and apparatuses for configuring group constraints of features of cells for a multi-patterning process are provided. The apparatus determines features within a circuit layout, distance constraints for at least one of the features, group constraints for the features based on the distance constraints, the group constraints defining limits on groups assignable to each of the features. In addition, the apparatus receives an integrated circuit layout including a plurality of abutting cells. The apparatus then determines whether group constraints of a second cell conflict with group constraints of a first cell, the second cell abutting with the first cell, and configures a subset of the group constraints of the second cell based on the group constraints of the first cell and based on the group constraints of the second cell that conflict with the group constraints of the first cell.
US09842181B1

The present disclosure relates to an innovative method of assigning signals to general-purpose input/output pads of an integrated circuit chip. An inductance matrix for the input/output pads is obtained. A candidate assignment is made of a differential signal to a pair of the input/output pads, and a differential mutual inductance is determined for each open pad location in relation to the pair of input/output pads. Single-ended signals are assigned to open pad locations having the lowest differential mutual inductances. The jitter contribution due to each assigned single-ended signal is computed, and a total jitter is updated. In a first embodiment, said assigning, computing and updating steps are repeated until the total jitter exceeds a total jitter budget. In a second embodiment, said assigning, computing and updating steps are repeated until a number of assigned single-ended signals is equal to a target number. Other embodiments and features are also disclosed.
US09842180B2

A NoC timing power estimating method includes: estimating a plurality of transmission timing of a plurality of transmission units of at least a packet, the transmission timing indicating respective time points at which the transmission units enter/leave a plurality of passing elements of the NoC; based on the transmission timing of the transmission units, estimating respective circuit states and respective power states of the passing elements of the NoC, the circuit state indicating an operation state of the passing element and the power state being related to the circuit state; and based on the power states of the passing elements of the NoC, estimating power consumption of the NoC.
US09842178B2

Disclosed herein are systems and methods that allow a layout editor function, presented in a graphical user interface, of an EDA, to indicate certain layout instances or “cell views” as “transparent.” The instances are indicated as transparent using various layout editor commands or layout designer markers. Unlike conventional solutions, a binder within the layout editor of the EDA is not required to bind layout transparent instances to corresponding instances in a related schematic design file or records. Instead, the EDA may identify non-transparent instances at a lower-level of the layout design's hierarchy to bind, because the systems and methods described herein provide for a transparent instance container at a hierarchically higher-level.
US09842169B1

A method of encouraging a user to be active with respect to a game networking system on a particular day is disclosed. An event is detected on the game networking system. A newsworthiness of the event to the user is determined. An action that the user is likely to want to perform on the game networking system in response to receiving information pertaining to the event is determined. A notification is generated that includes the information pertaining to the event and information pertaining to the action. The notification is sent to the user.
US09842165B2

Various embodiments are described herein that generally relate to systems and methods for generating context specific terms and performing various actions based on the context specific terms. One example embodiment includes a computer-implemented method for generating context specific terms comprising obtaining a collection of terms from at least one electronic file associated with a given context; comparing the collection of terms with a collection of expected terms to generate candidate terms that are not in the collection of expected terms; determining a relevance for each of the candidate terms; and determining whether to add a given candidate term to a collection of context specific terms for the given context if the relevance for the given candidate term is above a threshold.
US09842163B2

This disclosure describes a distributed reader architecture for a mobile computing device such as cellular telephone handset. One claim recites a portable computing device including: memory for storing a library of processing components, the library including a signal detector component and an audio fingerprinting component; a microphone for capturing ambient audio; one or more processors configured for: invoking the audio fingerprinting component for processing captured audio to produce an audio fingerprint, wherein the audio fingerprinting component comprises a filtering process, in which the filtering process produces components of the captured audio that are used to produce the audio fingerprint; and invoking the signal detector component, in which the signal detector component comprises a fast detect process for analyzing the captured audio to determine the presence of an auxiliary signal within the captured audio, and when the presence of the auxiliary signal is detected, controlling the signal detector component for detecting the auxiliary signal to yield a detected auxiliary signal. The device further includes a communications output for communicating the audio fingerprint and the detected auxiliary signal to a remotely located server. Of course, other claims and combinations are provided as well.
US09842157B2

Systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable media can acquire a set of attributes for each computing device of a plurality of computing devices. The set of attributes can be associated with device performance. Each computing device of the plurality of computing devices can be classified into a device class year of a plurality of class years based at least in part on the set of attributes. The device class year can correspond to a level of device performance associated with the set of attributes. At least one feature to be provided on the computing device can be enabled based at least in part on the device class year.
US09842156B2

In accordance with some embodiments, classification of input/output requests from a database to a storage system may be performed. Each input/output request may be associated with a database class, and each database class may be mapped to a quality of service policy. Thus, quality of service may be enforced such that different data blocks within the storage system of the database may be afforded appropriate quality of service.
US09842154B2

One or more techniques and/or computing devices are provided for secure data replication. For example, a first storage controller may host first storage within which storage resources (e.g., files, logical unit numbers (LUNs), volumes, etc.) are stored. The first storage controller may establish an access policy with a001 second storage controller to which data is to be replicated from the first storage. The access policy may define an authentication mechanism for the first storage controller to authenticate the second storage controller, an authorization mechanism specifying a type of access that the second storage controller has for a storage resource, and an access control mechanism specifying how the second storage controller's access to data of the storage resource is to be controlled. In this way, data replication requests may be authenticated and authorized so that data may be provided, according to the access control mechanism, in a secure manner.
US09842150B2

The invention relates to determining a visibility component from a metadata value of an object, determining a visibility-affecting feature of a mobile device using the information management system, and retrieving the object to a display view of the mobile device, if the determined visibility-affecting feature corresponds to a value of a visibility property of the visibility component. The invention further relates to an apparatus, and a computer program product that perform the method.
US09842137B2

The present invention includes a database with a semantic layer for performing standard SQL and complex operations custom to one or more application. In one embodiment the present invention includes receiving a data request from an application in a database, the data request specifying standard SQL operations and custom application operations to be performed for said application. The data request is processed in a semantic layer of the database. The semantic layer processes the standard SQL operations and the custom application operations and generates a logical execution plan comprising the standard SQL operations and the custom application operations. The logical execution plan is converted into a physical execution plan, which is executed by the database to generate a data result. The data result may be sent back to the application.
US09842126B2

Systems and methods for checking for region consistency and table integrity problems and automatically repairing a corrupted HBase cluster. The methods and systems operate in a diagnostic mode and a diagnostic and repair mode. The methods include fixing table integrity problems, such as backwards table regions, table region holes, table region overlap, and the like to restore table integrity invariant. Once the table integrity has been restored, each row key resolves to exactly one region. The methods further include fixing region inconsistencies, such as bad region assignment, no region present in the meta table, region information not in the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS), and the like to restore region consistency invariant. The information in the HDFS is taken as ground truth and any meta table or assignment problems that are inconsistent with the HDFS is deemed wrong and removed.
US09842123B2

Embodiments are directed to providing an image in response to a request for an image and to requesting an image for a specified context. In one scenario, a computer system stores multiple image representations of a corresponding visual asset identified by an identifier. The image representations include a vectorized representation of the visual asset and/or a rasterized representation of the visual asset. The computer system receives a request that includes an identifier for one of the visual assets and usage parameters. The computer system evaluates at least one of the usage parameters to identify an image representation of the identified visual asset that substantially corresponds with the usage parameters. The computer system then obtains the identified image representation of the corresponding visual asset based on the evaluation and provides the obtained image representation in response to the request.
US09842116B2

Systems and methods for synchronizing data between a database system and its client applications are provided. After a regular synchronization, objects' records on a user computing device may be checked against a new sharing rule. Newly shared records may be synced down to the user computing device regardless of timestamps, and all records which the user no longer has access to may be removed from the user computing device. Consequently, data on the user computing device complies with the new sharing rule.
US09842114B2

A technique described herein performs peer to peer network write deduplication. A host system generates a fingerprint for data associated with a write request. The host system may then determine whether the generated fingerprint matches a local fingerprint stored in a local data structure or whether the generated fingerprint matches a global fingerprint associated with a global data structure, wherein the local fingerprint is associated with data previously written to the storage system by the host and wherein the global fingerprint is associated with data previously written to the storage system by a different host. If a match is found, the host system constructs a deduplication command utilizing a logical address corresponding to a storage location that stores the data. If a match is not found, a write command for the data of the write request is constructed and sent to the storage system.
US09842109B1

A method and system for illustrating textual content is provided. The method may include identifying textual content to be illustrated, finding at least one illustration corresponding to the context associated with the textual content, and presenting a graphical story combining the textual content with the found illustration to a user.
US09842092B1

Webpages are optimizing through the use of experiments that compare the responses of viewers that are either presented with the original webpage or a variant thereof. One or more variants are first defined through the use of a browser-based editor application that initially examines the webpage for a snippet of code. The snippet can be added to the webpage, if missing, and the webpage returned to the editor application. Changes made to the webpage to define a variant are saved in variation code. When the webpage is later requested by multiple viewers, in each instance the viewer receives the webpage with the snippet, the snippet instructs the browser to download a file, and the instructions of the file determine whether the viewer will see the variant or the original webpage. Tracking viewer responses to the webpage and the variant allow a statistical basis for comparison to be developed.
US09842088B2

In at least one embodiment, a system and method described herein provides a concrete and tangible solution to solve a problem of remotely and programmatically activating and manipulating a device to capture screen shots of a complete web page and, in at least one embodiment, prevent and, if necessary, recover from device crashes.
US09842078B2

A data transmission architecture includes a local system and a peripheral system. A core computing unit and the peripheral hub of the local system integrate display data and transmission data and transmit integrated data to the image transmission unit. A driving circuit of a display panel of the image transmission unit is utilized to transform the integrated data into a first electrical signal. A data transmission between the local system and the peripheral system utilizes at least one electrode of the display panel to transmit the first electrical signal to retrieve the transmission data. A transmitting device of the peripheral system transmits a second electrical signal. A receiving device of image transmission unit retrieves the second electrical signal. Then the receiving device transmits the second electrical signal to the peripheral hub. Accordingly the data transmission architecture can be utilized in data/files transmission, and cooperating with existing transmission system.
US09842076B2

A USB hub integrated circuit device, comprising USB hub logic comprising a plurality USB ports, wherein at least one port comprises a pair of bi-directional transmission channels, wherein for the at least one port two physical layers are provided in parallel, each physical layer being associated with one bidirectional transmission channel, wherein the USB hub logic is further configured to select one of said physical layers for each port depending on a logic condition.
US09842070B2

A storage apparatus includes a plurality of control devices configured to control access a plurality of storage devices, and a relay apparatus including a plurality of coupling devices, each of which is configured to couple the control devices so as to be communicable with each other. The relay apparatus includes, for each coupling device, a monitoring controller configured to perform monitoring of the relay apparatus. A first monitoring controller provided in a first coupling device from among the coupling devices notifies, when the first monitoring controller detects an abnormal state in the relay apparatus, a first control device from among the control devices of information relating to the abnormal state detected by the first monitoring controller. The first control device performs a decoupling process that decouples an abnormal part from the relay apparatus based on the information relating to the abnormal state received from the first monitoring controller.
US09842064B2

An electronic apparatus operating with a memory includes an operating module, a management module, a database and a filtering module. When the operating module needs to use the memory for performing a task, the operating module issues a memory request. The management module determines whether the memory request is to be permitted. When the memory request is permitted, the management module generates a requested data chunk according to the memory request. The filtering module receives the requested data chunk from the management module, and determines whether to store the requested data chunk into the data base according to a predetermined filtering condition.
US09842053B2

A cache log module stores an ordered log of cache storage operations sequentially within the physical address space of a non-volatile storage device. The log may be divided into segments, each comprising a set of log entries. Data admitted into the cache may be associated with respective log segments. Cache data may be associated with the log segment that corresponds to the cache storage operation in which the cache data was written into the cache. The backing store of the data may be synchronized to a particular log segment by identifying the cache data pertaining to the segment (using the associations), and writing the identified data to the backing store. Data lost from the cache may be recovered from the log by, inter alia, committing entries in the log after the last synchronization time of the backing store.
US09842033B2

Direct monitoring of a plurality of storage nodes in a primary cluster is performed based on connectivity with the storage nodes. Indirect monitoring of a first storage node is performed, in response to direct monitoring of the first storage node indicating failure of the connectivity with the first storage node, wherein a second storage node of the plurality of nodes is a backup node for the first storage node. The indirect monitor of the first storage node indicates failure of the first storage node in response to performance of storage access operations by the second storage node that were previously performed by the first storage node. A cluster-switch operation is initiated to switch to from the primary cluster to a backup cluster based on an occurrence of at least one cluster-failure condition that comprises the indirect monitor of the first storage node indicating failure of the first storage node.
US09842029B2

According to one embodiment, an electronic device includes a receiver and a processing circuit. The receiver is configured to receive first data related to operating statuses of storage from external devices connected through a network. The processing circuit is configured to control the external devices to save data stored in a first area in the storage of a first external device on the storage of each of two or more second external devices based on the first data received by the receiver.
US09842021B2

A check bit read mode enables a memory device to provide internal check bits to an associated host. A memory controller of a memory subsystem can generate one or more read commands for memory devices of the memory subsystem. The read command can include address location information. The memory devices include memory arrays with memory locations addressable with the address location information. The memory locations have associated data and internal check bits, where the check bits are generated internally by the memory for error correction. If the memory device is configured for check bit read mode, in response to the read command, it sends the internal check bits associated with the identified address location. If the memory device is not configured check bit read mode, it returns the data in response to the read command without exposing the internal check bits.
US09842014B2

A data processing device provided with an error detection unit includes a processor arranged to support execution of an operation including a first sequence of instructions and execution of a second sequence of instructions implementing the operation, the first and second sequences of instructions generating, when in use, a first result and a second result, respectively. Configurable circuitry is also provided and arranged to support a repository to receive the first result and the second result following generation thereof. The configurable circuitry is configured as a function comparator unit arranged to compare the first and second results for consistency and to control further execution of the first implementation and the second implementation in response to a result of the comparison.
US09842009B2

A method is provided for detecting a race condition of a parallel task when accessing a shared resource in a multi-core processing system. The method requires that a core requires only a read access to the data set of another core, thereby ensuring better decoupling of the tasks. In an initialisation phase, initial values of global variables are assigned, in an activation phase, each core determines if the other core has written new values to the variables and if so, detects a race condition. Initial values are restored for each variable in a deactivation phase.
US09841993B2

A problem with conventional art is that, in an environment wherein a plurality of interrupts having different priorities for processing occur in an overlapping manner from external devices, responding to high-priority interrupts while ensuring execution intervals of periodic tasks has been difficult. A partition execution control device according to the present invention comprises: a first management table which stores, for each partition, initial time slices, remaining time slices, execution priorities, execution states, and an interrupt disable level for suppressing the interrupts from the external devices; and a second management table which stores the interrupt priorities of the external devices and partitions to which the interrupts are to be output. This partition execution control device controls the execution of the partitions using the execution priorities and the time slices stored in the management tables, and controls the execution of the interrupts using the interrupt disable levels and the interrupt priorities.
US09841990B2

A method determines a schedule indicator value for each of a plurality of schedule data entries based on whether each of a set of recorded tasks has been allocated to one or more identifier data names in one or more of a set of time periods in accordance with the first schedule data to generate schedule portion data. A hard constraint indicator value is determined for each of a plurality of hard constraint data entries based on whether at least one hard constraint has been violated by the allocation of the set of recorded tasks to one or more of the identifier data names in one or more of the time periods in accordance with the schedule data to generate hard constraint portion data. The data structure is generated based on the determined schedule portion and hard constraint portion data encoding the schedule data into a data structure.
US09841986B2

A method is provided for an agent in a virtual machine (VM) and an application policy manager to implement application monitoring and remediation. The application policy manager provides a user interface for defining policies for applications running on VMs where each policy includes monitoring conditions and remediation for the monitoring conditions. The application policy manager receives a policy for an application on the VM and sends it to the agent. The agent monitors the application based on the policy. When the agent detects a monitoring condition, the agent sends an alert identifying the application and the monitoring condition directly or indirectly to an events and alarms manager that records the alert, sends a log generated by the application to an email address or to an log analyzer that analyzes the log to determine a cause of the monitoring condition, and performs a remediation for the monitoring condition.
US09841985B2

A system and method deallocates data blocks in virtual environments with high efficiency. A computer system hosting a virtual machine includes an I/O device driver in the guest operating system of the virtual machine. The I/O device driver intercepts an operation performed by the guest operating system that causes a data block to be deallocated in the virtual machine. The I/O device driver informs a hypervisor of the computer system that the data block is to be deallocated. The hypervisor then instructs the data storage to deallocate the data block for reuse.
US09841982B2

An automatic runtime dependency lookup method may load a class, while executing a computer application program. A class loader determines if the class is found at a first location specified by classpath information. If the class is not found at the first location, the class loader automatically reads repository information to determine an alternate location for the class and locates the class at the alternate location.
US09841981B2

Techniques for enforcing a compliance requirement for a software application executing in a virtualized computing environment are disclosed. An identifier identifies a resource instantiated for the application's execution. A retriever retrieves a compliance characteristic for the application. The compliance characteristic is retrieved based on the identified resource and has an associated compliance criterion based on a formal parameter. The compliance criterion defines compliant resource states. A selector selects a software component for providing an actual parameter corresponding to the formal parameter . An evaluator evaluates the compliance criterion using the actual parameter. An application modifier, responsive to the resource lacking a compliant resource state, modifies the software application to have a resource with a compliant state. The identifier, selector, and evaluator respond to resource changes. The selector selects the software component based on an identification of one or more data items that the software component can provide.
US09841979B2

A method and corresponding apparatus for processing a shuffle instruction are provided. Shuffle units are configured in a hierarchical structure, and each of the shuffle units generates a shuffled data element array by performing shuffling on an input data element array. In the hierarchical structure, which includes an upper shuffle unit and a lower shuffle unit, the shuffled data element array output from the lower shuffle unit is input to the upper shuffle unit as a portion of the input data element array for the upper shuffle unit.
US09841973B2

An information processing apparatus includes a plurality of arithmetic processing devices, a common timer unit configured to measure time in common among the plurality of arithmetic processing devices, a plurality of individual timer units to measure execution time of a program per plurality of arithmetic processing devices, a comparing unit configured to compare the program execution time of each of the plurality of arithmetic processing devices, the program execution time being measured by the plurality of individual timer units, with time measured by the common timer unit, and a control unit configured to control processing of the plurality of arithmetic processing devices on the basis of a result of the comparison made by the comparing unit.
US09841971B1

The disclosed embodiments provide a system that facilitates execution of an application that is updated after undergoing an approval process with a digital application distribution platform on an electronic device. During operation, the system obtains content for display within the application from a server. Next, the system identifies, within the content, an update to the application. The system then modifies execution of the application during runtime of the application by applying the update without reloading the application on the electronic device and without downloading the update from the digital application distribution platform.
US09841970B2

A vehicle can include methods and systems to update controls in vehicle modules. The systems and methods can include receiving a control update for a receiving vehicle module to be stored at a first memory location, installing the received controls at the first memory location, running the module using controls at a second memory location, checking the controls at the first memory location, if checking is valid, operating the vehicle module using the controls at the first memory location in place of the controls at the second memory location. The vehicle module can operate the controls at the first memory location without waiting to restart the vehicle or can delay use of the controls until a later event, e.g., restart or download to other vehicle modules on which the current module may depend.
US09841969B2

A system and method for developing and distributing software. Third-party software development kits (SDKs) are received and stored by a software development and distribution platform (SDDP), with each third-party SDK published by a third-party service provider, the plurality of third-party SDKs including a first third-party SDK. An installation request from an application developer machine is received by the SDDP and the SDDP sends the first third-party SDK in response to the installation request for installation in an application under development.
US09841964B2

Methods, systems, and techniques for assigning hotkeys to legacy tasks as part of modernizing such tasks are provided. A user can assign a hotkey to an individual task so that the user can have instant access to a legacy or a non-legacy task without needing to navigate to “sub-” tasks of the legacy task. Hotkey access may be used with role-based modernization of legacy tasks to provide navigation to and from legacy tasks without starting and stopping sessions. Example embodiments provide a Role-Based Modernization System (“RBMS”), which uses these enhanced modernization techniques to provide role-based modernization of menu-based legacy applications.
US09841955B2

In some embodiments, a real-time event is detected and context is determined based on the real-time event. An application model is fetched based on the context and meta-data associated with the real-time event, the application model referencing a micro-function and including pre-condition and post-condition descriptors. A graph is constructed based on the micro-function. The micro-function is transformed into micro-capabilities by determining a computing resource for execution of a micro-capability by matching pre-conditions and post-conditions of the micro-capability, and enabling execution and configuration of the micro-capability on the computing resource by providing access in a target environment to an API capable of calling the micro-capability to configure and execute the micro-capability. A request is received from the target environment to execute and configure the micro-capability on the computing resource. The micro-capability is executed and configured on the computing resource, and an output of the micro-capability is provided to the target environment.
US09841954B1

A method for generating production code from a block diagram in a technical computing environment on a host computer. A first block receives a first input signal that has a plurality of elements. A size of a first required signal of the external function is determined and compared to a size of the first input signal. When the size of the first required signal corresponds to the size of an element in the first input signal a production code is generated enclosing a call of the external function by a loop consecutively addressing each of the plurality of elements in the first input signal. When the size of the first required signal corresponds to the size of the first input signal a production code is generated having a call of the external function without enclosing loop over the elements in the first input signal.
US09841947B2

Some embodiments include an absolute displacement detection device configured to calculate, from a plurality of displacement detection signals provided by a plurality of displacement detection mechanisms that detect displacement amounts, an absolute periodic signal having an absolute periodic signal period larger than displacement detection signal periods of the plurality of the displacement detection signals. Other embodiments of related devices and methods are also disclosed.
US09841944B2

A method for processing information applied in an electronic apparatus is provided. The method includes: acquiring a first operation to trigger the multi-window manager; displaying the multi-window management interface corresponding to the multi-window manager in the touch-control display unit based on the first operation; displaying the at least one object identifier corresponding to the at least one application in the multi-window management interface, and displaying running status information corresponding to the at least one application. Using the technical solution of the present invention, the user is able to know the applications which may be displayed in a form of a small window and the current running status thereof conveniently and quickly by means of a multi-window management interface, and thereby the user experience is improved.
US09841939B2

Methods, systems, and media for presenting requested content on public display devices are provided. In some implementations a method for presenting content on a display device is provided, the method comprising: receiving a request from a mobile device to present content, including image data, on a display device; receiving a graphical representation associated with a user; receiving location information associated with the mobile device; receiving display device information associated with display devices, including location information associated with that display device; selecting, without user input, a first display device on which to present the content based on the location information associated with the mobile device and the location information associated with each of the plurality of display devices; and in response to selecting the first display device, causing both the graphical representation associated with the user of the mobile device and the content to be presented by the first display device.
US09841935B2

A controller for transmitting digital content to a television is herein disclosed and enabled. The controller may be included in a television or externally connectable to a television. The controller may be wirelessly managed via a Bluetooth-enabled device or by using a smart phone. To setup the controller, the controller may wirelessly obtain setup information (e.g., ID, security, or authentication information) from either the Bluetooth-enabled device or from the smart phone via wireless communication (e.g., Bluetooth or IEEE 802.11), then the controller uses the wirelessly obtained information to access a wireless local area network (LAN) for establishing services. The controller includes chips or chipsets that is compatible with at least one protocol within IEEE 802.11 standards for accessing the Wireless LAN. After connecting to the Wireless LAN, the controller may further wirelessly receive digital content from a mobile device for playing or outputting the digital content at the television.
US09841933B2

An apparatus, such as a display device, may have a processor, memory storing computer-readable instructions, and a display portion. The apparatus may obtain one or more second files in response to converting a first file into the one or more second files. The plurality of second files may be obtained one by one. The apparatus may determine whether all of one or more selected files from among the one or more second files have been obtained, prior to obtaining all of the one or more second files. The one or more selected files may be a subset of the one or more second files. The apparatus may also output the one or more selected files in response to determining that all of the one or more selected files have been obtained.
US09841930B2

A storage control apparatus includes a processor. The processor is configured to store, during a normal operation mode, first data as a first logical volume in a storage section of a first virtual storage device. The first data is transmitted and received between a first host device and a physical storage device. The physical storage device stores data in a physical volume. The first virtual storage device is connected to the physical storage device during the normal operation mode. The processor is configured to serve, during a data migration mode, as a pseudo host device connected to a second virtual storage device. The pseudo host device accesses the second virtual storage device to read out second data of a second logical volume stored in the second virtual storage device. The first virtual storage device is connected to the second virtual storage device during the data migration mode.
US09841929B1

A computer-executable method, system, and computer program product for providing data services, using a single control path, on a data storage resource selected from a plurality of heterogeneous storage resources, the computer-executable method comprising receiving a request for managing the data storage resource, analyzing the request to determine if a service for managing the data storage resource is available for satisfying the request, and based on the analyzing, providing access to the service for managing the data storage resource from the heterogeneous storage resources.
US09841926B2

According to one embodiment, a method for traffic prioritization in a memory device includes sending a memory access request including a priority value from a processing element in the memory device to a crossbar interconnect in the memory device. The memory access request is routed through the crossbar interconnect to a memory controller in the memory device associated with the memory access request. The memory access request is received at the memory controller. The priority value of the memory access request is compared to priority values of a plurality of memory access requests stored in a queue of the memory controller to determine a highest priority memory access request. A next memory access request is performed by the memory controller based on the highest priority memory access request.
US09841921B2

Migrating data in a storage array that includes a plurality of storage devices, including: detecting, by the storage array, an occurrence of a storage device evacuation event associated with one or more source storage devices; responsive to detecting the occurrence of the storage device evacuation event, identifying, by the storage array, one or more target storage devices for receiving data stored on the one or more source storage devices; reducing, by the storage array, write access to the one or more source storage devices; and migrating the data stored on the one or more source storage devices to the one or more target storage devices.
US09841919B2

An information processing apparatus, among a plurality of information processing apparatuses, to which one of pieces of local data is assigned, the pieces of local data having been obtained by dividing global data shared by the plurality of information processing apparatuses, includes: a storage unit that includes a first storage area sectioned into prescribed units, and stores local data; a processor that executes a process including: detecting a plurality of continuous sections to which the target local data is to be written in a second storage area that is sectioned into the prescribed units in the different information processing apparatus, on the basis of storage area information that identifies data to which the target local data corresponds in the global data; and extracting as many pieces of local data as specified by the number of the continuous sections and transmitting the data to the different information processing apparatus.
US09841915B1

This technology provides an electronic device. An electronic device in accordance with an implementation of this document may include a semiconductor memory for storing data, and the semiconductor memory may include a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) structure comprising a free layer having a variable magnetization direction, a pinned layer having a pinned magnetization direction, and a tunnel barrier layer interposed between the free layer and the pinned layer; and an under layer located under the MTJ structure, wherein the under layer may include: a first under layer including a silicon-based alloy; a second under layer including a metal; and a blocking layer interposed between the first under layer and the second under layer and including an amorphous material.
US09841902B2

Systems and methods presented herein provide for SSD data storage via PCIe controllers configured with NVMe interfaces. In one embodiment, a PCIe controller includes a plurality of buffers, a Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) device, and an I/O processor operable to partition the DRAM device into a plurality of logical blocks. The controller also includes virtual function logic communicatively coupled to the logical blocks of the DRAM device and to the buffers. The virtual function logic is coupled to a host system through the I/O processor to process an I/O request from the host system to a logical block of the DRAM device, to retrieve data from the logical block to at least one of the buffers, and to transfer the data from the buffer to the host system.
US09841901B1

Described are techniques for creating windows of free blocks in a file system selected in accordance with trigger conditions. A first slice is selected, in accordance with slice selection criteria, from a plurality of slices of storage provisioned for use by the file system. First processing is performed on the first slice that creates at least one window of free blocks in the first slice for use by the file system. It is determined, in accordance with termination criteria, whether to process one or more additional slices of the file system to create additional windows of free blocks for use by the file system. Such processing to create free windows may be subject to various limits of resource consumption.
US09841895B2

In one example, a method may include outputting, by a computing device and for display, a graphical keyboard comprising a plurality of keys, and receiving an indication of a gesture. The method may include determining an alignment score that is based at least in part on a word prefix and an alignment point traversed by the gesture. The method may include determining at least one alternative character that is based at least in part on a misspelling that includes at least a portion of the word prefix. The method may include determining an alternative alignment score based at least in part on the alternative character; and outputting, by the computing device and for display, based at least in part on the alternative alignment score, a candidate word based at least in part on the alternative character.
US09841894B2

Provided are an electronic device and method for recognizing a fingerprint. The fingerprint recognition method includes deactivating touch recognition using a touch panel based on first touch information on a fingerprint sensor, and performing fingerprint recognition based on second touch information on the fingerprint sensor.
US09841893B2

An apparatus comprising at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following: enable detection of one or more stroke user inputs for use in deciphering an entered character during a character entry mode; enable detection of a jolt during the character entry mode; upon detection of the jolt, associate one or more of the stroke user inputs with the jolt; and provide for a predetermined timeout period during which the one or more associated stroke user inputs are at least one of considered for removal from display and considered for removal from consideration in deciphering the entered character.
US09841888B2

An electronic device includes: a display unit that includes a display area; a storage unit; a display control unit that displays plurality of information; an operation unit that receives a scroll operation; and a determination unit that determines whether the scroll operation is a high-speed scroll operation of which a speed is higher than a predetermined speed and determines a stop position based on a scroll start position and a scroll operation speed, wherein when it is determined that the scroll operation is not the high-speed scroll operation, the display control unit displays the plurality of information to correspond to the stop position determined, and when it is determined that the scroll operation is the high-speed scroll operation, the display control unit displays the plurality of information to correspond to a corrected stop position, to which the stop position determined by the determination unit is corrected.
US09841887B2

The present disclosure relates to techniques of configuring a layout of graphical objects for display. In one example process, the device detects a scroll request and determines whether the scroll request meets predetermined criteria. If the scroll request meets the criteria, the device configures the layout of graphical objects that are to be displayed once the display is scrolled so that the graphical objects are arranged on the display differently than the arrangement in which the graphical objects would have been displayed, had the layout not been configured. If the scroll request does not meet the criteria, the device forgoes the configuration of the layout of graphical objects.
US09841884B2

A system and method for providing a single-action multi-mode interface are provided. The system includes a touch detector to detect an input to a touch device; a mode detector to detect a mode associated with the input; a displacement detector to detect a displacement associated with the detected touch and mode, wherein the displacement is defined by a first and second parameter; and a command initiator to transmit an action to a first system based on the first parameter and a second system based on the second parameter.
US09841878B1

Methods, systems, and computer program products are described comprising a device configured to: present a first window of the first application in a first application region of a presentation space of the display; detect first user input in connection with the first window of the first application; in response to the detection of the first user input in connection with the first window of the first application, present a representation of a second window of the second application in a menu, in a first particular region of the presentation space of the display, for displaying the second window of the second application, in a second application region in the presentation space of the display, the first particular region: located in a first location adjacent to a second location of the first application region, operable for being at least one of re-sized or moved in response to the first application region being at least one of re-sized or moved, and operable for being hidden in response to the first application region being maximized, and re-presented in response to the first application region being returned to a non-maximized state; detect second user input in connection with the representation of the second window of the second application in the menu; and in response to the detection of the second user input in connection with the representation of the second window of the second application in the menu, present the second window of the second application.
US09841869B2

A method of displaying a three-dimensional (3D) graphical user interface (GUI) on a mobile phone, including controlling, by a processor of the mobile phone, a display of the mobile device to display a first face of a 3D GUI, the first face comprising a GUI menu of the GUI, and a second face of the 3D GUI, the second face comprising image information of the GUI; detecting, by a sensor of the mobile phone, a physical slanting of the mobile phone; and displaying the image information of second face of the 3D GUI as being slanted to correspond to the physical slanting.
US09841867B2

Apparatus for displaying a plurality of electronic documents to a user. The apparatus comprising a desk having a plurality of proximity zones which comprise at least a first proximity zone which is close to a user of the apparatus and at least a second proximity zone which is further away from said user; at least one display device comprising a display for displaying one of said plurality of electronic documents and at least one sensing device for determining the proximity zone within which said at least one display device is located. The functionality of said display device is determined by the proximity zone within which it is located.
US09841866B1

A virtual environment may be provided to facilitate education and knowledge gathering by users. The users may include children, youth, and/or other users. The users may be enabled to form connections between themselves and/or experts, and to communicate between themselves and/or with experts. Users may be provided with a different interface than experts.
US09841865B2

User interfaces may be used by a law enforcement officer to communicate information to and obtain feedback from a person that is held in a secure holding area of a law enforcement vehicle. The user interfaces may be presented via hardware interfaces in the law enforcement vehicle and a computing device. The computing device may receive a request to present a user interface to a person in the secure holding area. Subsequently, the user interface for the person may be generated based on contextual information from one or more sources. These sources may include an input provided to the computing device by a law enforcement officer, an input received from a network operations center, or an input obtained from an analysis of images or videos from a camera in the law enforcement vehicle. The user interface is then presented to the person in the secure holding area.
US09841864B2

A method of defining a dynamically adjustable user interface (“UI”) of a device is described. The method defines multiple UI elements for the UI, where each UI element includes multiple pixels. The method defines a display adjustment tool for receiving a single display adjustment parameter and in response adjusting the appearance of the UI by differentiating display adjustments to a first set of saturated pixels from the display adjustments to a second set of non-saturated pixels.
US09841861B2

Provided is a touch panel having a display region and a non-display region surrounding the display-region. The touch panel comprises a transparent substrate, a sensing electrode layer, a conductive light-shielding layer, an insulated light-shielding layer, and a wiring layer. The conductive light-shielding layer is formed in the non-display region and between the sensing electrode layer and the wiring layer, and the whole non-display region is covered by the conductive light-shielding layer and the insulated light-shielding layer. With such all arrangement, the touch panel not only maintains the signal transmit function, but also ensures good optical performance in the display region near its interface. Accordingly, a touch screen comprising the touch panel can have good touch sensing functions and good optical performance at the same time.
US09841860B2

An input device comprising a display device having an integrated capacitive sensing device. The input device includes a plurality of sensor electrodes a plurality of display electrodes, a modulated power supply configured to provide a modulated reference signal, and a processing system. The processing system includes a sensor module configured to drive a plurality of sensor electrodes with a modulated capacitive sensing signal that is based on the modulated reference signal for capacitive sensing during a first time period. The processing system also includes a display driver module configured to drive a plurality of display electrodes of a display device with modulated signals based on the modulated reference signal during the first time period. The modulated signals cause voltage between the plurality of display electrodes and the plurality of sensor electrodes to remain substantially constant.
US09841849B2

A carrier signal detection apparatus, a touch control apparatus and detection methods thereof are provided. The carrier signal detection apparatus includes an analog to digital converting (ADC) apparatus and a filter. The ADC apparatus receives an analog input signal and converts the analog input signal to a digital signal. The filter receives the digital signal and accumulates the digital signal according to a delay time for generating a carrier signal detection result.
US09841848B2

An input device includes an irradiation component that emits scanning light relative to an input region of a projected image, a light receiver that receives reflected light of the scanning light to output detection signal, a detector that detects an input operation relative to the input region based on the detection signal from the light receiver; and a controller that sets an irradiation parameter of the scanning light from the irradiation component based on the input region.
US09841846B2

An exposure mechanism of an optical touch system, which includes a plurality of image sensors and a plurality of active light sources each irradiating corresponding to the associated image sensor, includes: capturing image frames using the image sensors with a sampling cycle to allow each of the image sensors to capture a bright image, wherein the sampling cycle includes a plurality of working modes and in each of the working modes at least one of the image sensors captures the bright image in a sampling interval; simultaneously capturing a dark image using all the image sensors in a denoising sampling interval; and calculating a differential image between the bright image and the dark image captured by each image sensor.
US09841843B2

A semiconductor device with high definition, which includes a plurality of sets each including a photosensor and a display element including a light-emitting element arranged in a matrix is provided, wherein a power supply line electrically connected to the display element also serves as a power supply line electrically connected to the photosensor. Thus, the semiconductor device with high definition can be provided without decreasing the width of each power supply line. Thus, the definition of the semiconductor device can be improved while securing the stability of the potential of the power supply line. The stability of the potential of the power supply line leads to the stability of the driving voltage of the display element and the stability of the driving voltage of the photosensor. Accordingly, the semiconductor device with high definition, high display quality, and high accuracy of imaging or detection of an object can be provided.
US09841841B2

A touch controller includes a driving signal transmitter and a sensing signal receiver. The driving signal transmitter is configured to generate a driving signal by spreading a frequency of an input signal to a first frequency and a second frequency. The first frequency is higher than a preset carrier frequency and the second frequency is less than the carrier frequency. The driving signal transmitter inputs the driving signal to a touch panel. The sensing signal receiver is configured to receive a sensing signal generated in the touch panel based on the driving signal and generate touch data based on the sensing signal.
US09841834B2

An in-cell touch liquid crystal panel and the array substrate are disclosed. The array substrate includes a glass substrate and a TFT, a common electrode layer, and a pixel electrode formed on the glass substrate. The common electrode layer includes a plurality of bar-shaped touch driving electrodes insulated from each other. Each of the touch driving electrodes includes a plurality of suspended electrodes. A second insulation layer and a metal wiring layer are arranged between the common electrode layer and the passivation layer in sequence. The metal wiring layer includes a plurality of driving electrode wirings, a plurality of suspended electrode wirings, and a plurality of touch sensing electrodes. Each of the driving electrode wirings electrically connects to one of the touch driving electrodes via the through holes on the insulation layer, and each of the suspended electrode wirings electrically connects to the suspended electrodes arranged along the second direction.
US09841833B2

A touch sensor integrated display device includes a plurality of common electrode blocks that defines a plurality of touch driving channels and a plurality of touch sensing channels. The touch driving channel is formed of a group of common electrode blocks electrically linked via a touch signal line placed under the layer of the common electrode blocks. The source/drain of the circuit TFTs provided in the non-display area is formed of the same metal layer of the touch signal line. The source/drain of the pixel TFTs provided in the display area is formed of a metal layer different from the metal layer of the touch signal line.
US09841830B2

A method and an electronic device for identifying the object are provided. The method includes sensing an object which is located within a threshold distance from a touch screen, sensing at least four or more conductive substances which are contained in the object, and identifying the sensed object base on at least one of permittivity of each of the sensed conductive substances and a distance to each of the sensed conductive substances.
US09841828B2

A handheld device includes a housing, an elongated rod movable with respect to the housing, a pyramid structure and a circuit. The elongated rod includes a tip at a first end and a compressible element at a second end. The compressible element includes conductive material configured to press against the electrodes based on a force vector applied on the tip. The pyramid structure includes at least three walls and an electrode on each of the at least three walls and is fixed or integrated with the housing. The circuit transmit signals on the compressible element or the electrodes, detect outputs from the electrodes and provide pressure related information based on the outputs.
US09841824B2

A combination computing device and input device. The computing device provides a plurality of sides. The input device providing a structural bridge, a pair of control modules, and a touch sensitive input module attached to the back side of the input device. The pair of control modules: confine the computing device on at least two opposing sides of the plurality of sides; adaptively and snugly accommodate the width of the computing device else a second computing device, the second computing device having a width greater than the width of the computing device; adaptively and snugly, accommodate the length of either the computing device, or the second computing device, the second computing device having a length greater than the length of the computing device; and a keyboard module integrated within at least one of the control modules, the keyboard module configured to provide full keyboard functionality.
US09841821B2

In some embodiments, a system and/or method may assess handedness of a user of a system in an automated manner. The method may include displaying a 3D image on a display. The 3D image may include at least one object. The method may include tracking a position and an orientation of an input device in open space in relation to the 3D image. The method may include assessing a handedness of a user based on the position and the orientation of the input device with respect to at least one of the objects. In some embodiments, the method may include configuring at least a portion of the 3D image based upon the assessed handedness. The at least a portion of the 3D image may include interactive menus. In some embodiments, the method may include configuring at least a portion of an interactive hardware associated with the system based upon the assessed handedness.
US09841814B1

Methods for intentional user experience are provided herein. Exemplary methods include: getting point of interest data, including a location of a point of interest; receiving first user data, including a first location of the user and a first direction of a gaze of the user; calculating a first position of the gaze of the user using the first location of the user and the first direction of the gaze of the user; displaying a first indicator denoting the first position of the gaze of the user; receiving second user data, including a second location of the user and a second direction of a gaze of the user; calculating a second position of the gaze of the user using the second location of the user and the second direction of the gaze of the user; and displaying a second indicator denoting the second position of the gaze of the user.
US09841806B1

A memory load sharing system and method therefor. This system can include a platform VRM (Voltage Regulator Module) coupled to a memory channel with the platform VRM having a platform voltage input. One or more first memory modules can coupled to the platform VRM through the memory channel. Each of the first memory modules includes one or more plane connectors and a module connector, as well as a memory module VRM coupled to a module load sharing diode that is coupled to the one or more plane connectors of that first memory module. The platform VRM is coupled to a first platform load sharing diode that is coupled the plane connectors of each of the first memory modules. This platform is configured to support load sharing between the first memory modules and to provide a predetermined amount of power to each of the memory modules.
US09841801B2

A hardware circuit (403) outputs different output signals between a case where an operation of an operating switch (402) is continued for longer than a threshold time and the other cases. An operation detecting CPU (404) outputs different output signals between a case of having detected the operation of the operating switch (402) and the other case. A signal generating section (405) feeds a control signal for switching the power supply mode to an off mode into a power control section (401): when the hardware circuit (403) outputs an output signal different from an output signal for the case where the operation is continued for longer than the threshold time and the operation detecting CPU (404) outputs an output signal for the case of having detected the operation; or when the hardware circuit (403) outputs the output signal for the case where the operation is continued for longer than the threshold time and the operation detecting CPU (404) outputs an output signal different from the output signal for the case of having detected the operation.
US09841785B2

An electronic device includes a first machine body and a second machine body adapted to be detachably assembled to the first machine body. The first machine body includes a first casing, a first hinge fixed to a side of the first casing, a second hinge pivoted to the first hinge along an axis, and a first connecting member disposed at the side and linked to the second hinge. The first and the second hinges are covered by the first casing. The second machine body includes a second casing and a second connecting member. When the first machine body is assembled to the second machine body, the first connecting member is fixed to the second connecting member, the second hinge is fixed jointly so that the first hinge is rotatable related to the second hinge. Accordingly, the first casing is rotatable related to the second casing.
US09841773B2

A cooling system controller, method, and computer program (or product) for an installation of heat generating machines having variable cooling requirements, the cooling system comprising two or more thermal components sharing a first cooling fluid circuit and first cooling fluid for cooling the installation, the cooling system controller comprising: a requirement discovery engine for recording the variable cooling requirements of the machines; a characterizing engine for measuring and recording outputs for each thermal component in response to a plurality of input control settings for generating a respective set of static set-points for each thermal component; a logic model generator for generating a logical model of the thermal components based on: relationships between the thermal components, operating fluid flow and around the thermal components, static set-points of each component; an optimizer for finding minimum energy consumption for the cooling system; and an interface for continuously adjusting control settings for each component to keep the cooling system operating at the minimum energy consumption.
US09841772B2

A thermal bridge includes a first plate stack, a second plate stack and a temperature responsive actuator. The first plate stack is placed in thermal communication with a first electrical component and has a plurality of first plates. The second plate stack is placed in thermal communication with a second electrical component and has a plurality of second plates interleaved with the first plates. The temperature responsive actuator is coupled to at least one of the first and second plate stacks. The temperature responsive actuator changes shape based on changes in temperature to change the relative positions of the first and second plates. The temperature responsive actuator causes the first and second plates to vary thermal resistance between the first and second electrical components based on the change in relative positions of the first and second plates.
US09841770B2

The pressure-type flow control device includes: a main body provided with a fluid channel communicating between a fluid inlet and a fluid outlet and an exhaust channel communicating between the fluid channel and an exhaust outlet; a pressure control valve fixed to a fluid inlet side of the main body for opening or closing the upstream side of the fluid channel; a first pressure sensor for detecting the internal pressure of the fluid channel on the downstream side of the control valve; an orifice provided in the fluid channel on the downstream side of the point of branching of the exhaust channel; an on/off valve for opening or closing the fluid channel on the downstream side of the first pressure sensor; and an exhaust valve for opening or closing the exhaust channel.
US09841760B2

The invention relates to a remote-controlled system comprising: —at least one ground interface (3), from which an operator can control a remote-controlled vehicle; —at least one mission unit (7, 8) in said vehicle; and —a data link between said interface (3) and said mission unit (7, 8). Said system is characterized in that it comprises, on the ground and in the vehicle, security monitoring systems (6, 10) suitable for approving and/or authenticating critical data and/or commands exchanged between the ground and the vehicle and also suitable for verifying the integrity of said data. It is thus possible to use, on the ground as on board the vehicle, interfaces and units with a low level of criticality at the same time as interfaces and units with the highest level of criticality.
US09841754B2

An information-linkage supporting apparatus includes: a schema-information acquiring unit acquiring schema information concerning the configuration of numerical control data stored by a numerical-control-data storing apparatus as a database, from the numerical-control-data storing apparatus; a memory-map-information acquiring unit acquiring memory map information concerning memory allocation in the data memory of the numerical control data stored by a numerical control apparatus in an inside thereof, from the numerical control apparatus; a mapping-table generating unit generating, on the basis of association instruction information inputted from the outside for instructing association between constituent elements of the schema information and constituent elements of the memory map information, a mapping table, which is information for information linkage obtained by associating and mapping the constituent elements of the schema information and the constituent elements of the memory map information; and a mapping-table transmitting unit transmitting the mapping table to the numerical control apparatus.
US09841753B2

A monitoring system of a dynamical arrangement of pieces takes part in a process related to a manufacturing executing system is presented. At least one of the pieces is spatially movable and the arrangement is free of interfacing signals for signaling a spatial position of the pieces at a control unit of the manufacturing executing system. The monitoring system contains a camera which is spatially positionable in a free selected neighborhood closed to predefined pieces and which acquires an image of a field of interest of the dynamical arrangement, a motion detection unit at an output of the camera that provides a detection of a spatial motion of one of the pieces, and an interface at the output of the camera for transmitting the acquired image to an input of a monitoring unit to extract information on a status of the arrangement which is interpretable in the control unit.
US09841748B2

The present invention relates to a vision based inspection tool for setting of an initial origin of an automation machine tool, and more particularly, to a built-in type of vision based inspection tool for setting of an initial origin capable of improving setting precision of a current automation machine tool that depends on initial setting and increasing productivity depending on individual automatic setting by automatically sensing a machining origin in order to perform initial machining and re-machining of an existing workpiece using an automation machine tool and compensating for the machining origin to eliminate a time required for setting machining origins for various shapes in a jog mode.
US09841744B2

A programmable controller includes a command execution unit that executes multiple commands in a user program in order; a database storage unit that stores therein a database that holds data used in a process performed by the command execution unit in a table format; a database-query-command generation unit that, when the commands include a command to access the database, converts the access command into a database query command described in a database query language; and a database management unit that accesses the database in the database storage unit and acquires data specified by the database query command.
US09841736B2

The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or method that facilitates employing safety within an industrial environment. An enhancing component can implement at least one of a security level, authentication, authorization, or an access right to a validated action to at least one of the controller or the controller engine instance. The enhancing component can further separate two or more entities within the industrial environment, the first entity related to process control and the second entity related to process safety. Additionally, the enhancing component can employ at least one of a backup controller or a backup controller engine instance in the event of at least one of a software error or a hardware error within the industrial environment.
US09841735B2

A smartwatch assembly may include a dial portion having a plurality of apertures extending therethrough and a circuit board having a plurality of LED modules disposed thereon. The plurality of LED modules may be oriented to emit light toward the plurality of apertures of the dial portion. The circuit board may include a control module configured to illuminate the plurality of LED modules in response to an alert and a communication module configured to interface with an electronic device wirelessly and to receive the alert. Methods of making a smartwatch assembly may include disposing a dial portion having a face plate and a plurality of hour-mark apertures extending through the face plate in a watch casing and disposing a circuit board having a plurality of LED modules disposed thereon in a watch casing, the plurality of LED modules corresponding to the plurality of hour-mark apertures.
US09841729B2

A process cartridge includes a casing, a photosensitive drum having an axis L1, and a coupling member having an axis L2. The coupling member includes a first end portion connected to the photosensitive drum and a second end portion, with the second end portion including at least one projection that is open to the axis L2 and an outer surface that faces away from the first end portion. For at least part of the outer surface, a maximum distance from the axis L2 to the outer surface along a line perpendicular to the axis L2 decreases as the distance along the axis L2 from the first end portion increases.
US09841721B2

A drum supporting member, which is usable with an image forming apparatus, includes a photosensitive drum and a mounting portion for detachably mounting a developing cartridge. The drum mounting portion also includes a contacting member contactable with the developing cartridge, with contacting member being movable between a first position and a second position. When the contacting member is in the first position, the contacting member contacts the developing cartridge with a developing roller of the developing cartridge being placed in a third position contacting the photosensitive drum. When the contacting member is in the second position, the contacting member contacts the developing cartridge with the developing cartridge being placed in a fourth position in which the developing cartridge is dismountable from the drum supporting member. The drum supporting member further includes an elastic member configured to urge the contacting member against movement of the developing cartridge in a direction from the fourth position to the third position.
US09841718B2

A lubricant applicator incorporated in a cleaning device disposed in an image forming apparatus having an image bearing member on which an image containing toner is formed, includes: a lubricant supplying unit that supplies lubricant; a brush roller that scrapes off the lubricant to apply the lubricant to a surface of the image bearing member; and a flicker member positioned on an upstream side from the lubricant supplying unit in a rotation direction of the brush roller, the flicker member coming into contact with the brush roller, wherein the flicker member is a plate-shaped member in which an opening is formed, the flicker member having elasticity to be allowed to elastically rock by coming into contact with the brush roller, and the opening is formed in a region with which the brush roller comes into contact.
US09841715B2

In an image forming apparatus, includes a sheet supplying portion, an intermediate tray, a discharge tray, a post-processing portion, a jam detecting portion, a discontinuation control portion, a dummy feed control portion, and a supplementary printing control portion. The dummy feed control portion, after the paper jam is solved, causes an image forming portion to execute a dummy feed process in which sheets as many as a predetermined dummy feed number are conveyed from the sheet supplying portion to the intermediate tray, without formation of images on the sheets. The supplementary printing control portion cause the image forming portion to execute a supplementary printing process in which images are formed on one or more sheets, the images being images of remaining pages that are obtained by excluding pages corresponding to the dummy feed number of sheets starting from a beginning page, from all pages.
US09841712B2

A fixing device includes a belt member that moves in a circulating manner, a pressure member that is disposed to be in contact with an outer circumferential surface of the belt member, and pressurizes a recording material on which an image is formed, and a heating member. The heating member includes a curved portion that is curved along an inner circumferential surface of the belt member and is in contact with the inner circumferential surface, a bent portion that is bent from an upstream side end portion of the curved portion in a moving direction of the belt member and is separated from the inner circumferential surface, and a heat generation portion that is provided in the curved portion and heats the belt member. A generated heat amount in the curved portion on the upstream side is larger than that in the curved portion on a downstream side.
US09841703B2

A developing apparatus includes a developing container containing a developer and a stirring-conveying screw configured to feed the developer. The stirring-conveying screw includes a first feeding screw portion to feed the developer in a first direction, a second feeding screw portion to feed the developer in an opposite direction, and a third feeding screw portion. A first feeding passageway accommodates parts of the feeding screw portions, and a second feeding passageway is provided in fluid communication with the first feeding passageway. A bottom surface portion is disposed proximate to the communication opening and has a first portion provided at a position higher than a bottom surface of the second feeding screw and a second portion provided at a position lower than a bottom-most portion of the communication opening. The bottom surface portion is located downstream of the second feeding screw and faces the third feeding screw.
US09841698B2

Disclosed is an optical deflector including a polygonal mirror and a drive motor each mounted on a substrate, a cover member covering the polygonal mirror and the drive motor, and an electronic component. The cover member includes: a first cover portion defining a first space in which the polygonal mirror is installed, wherein the first cover portion is formed with a first opening opened in opposed relation to an outer peripheral surface of the polygonal mirror; and a second cover portion defining a second space which is communicated with the first space and in which the drive motor is installed, wherein the second cover portion is formed with a second opening opened in opposed relation to a motor body of the drive motor. When viewed in the first direction, the electronic component is disposed such that it falls within an open region of the second opening.
US09841695B2

An image forming apparatus includes an image holding member, a first charging unit that charges a surface of the image holding member, a latent image forming unit that forms an electrostatic latent image on a charged surface of the image holding member, a second charging unit that charges a toner contained in a liquid developer, a developing unit that accommodates the liquid developer and develops the electrostatic latent image by using the liquid developer containing the toner charged by the second charging unit to form a toner image, a transfer unit that transfers the toner image to a recording medium, and a fixing unit that fixes the toner image to the recording medium. The liquid developer includes a toner in which a compound having a charge-accepting functional group has been bonded to a surface of toner particles, an ionization-controlling agent that ionizes the charge-accepting functional group, and a carrier liquid.
US09841690B2

A method for correcting an exposure pattern on a substrate includes obtaining, based on the exposure pattern, displacement adjustment parameters for adjusting displacements of a worktable supporting the substrate in each of a first direction and a second direction, a rotation angle adjustment parameter for adjusting a rotation angle of the worktable in a rotation direction, and a gap adjustment parameter for adjusting a gap between the worktable and a mask plate. The first direction and the second direction are perpendicular to each other in a horizontal plane. The rotation direction is a direction in which the worktable rotates around a central axis of a base table supporting the mask plate. The method further includes moving the worktable based on the displacement adjustment parameters, the rotation angle adjustment parameter and the gap adjustment parameter.
US09841688B2

A method for detecting an overlay error includes: forming a first overlay key including a plurality of spaced apart first target patterns having a first pitch on a first layer of a substrate; forming a second overlay key including a plurality of spaced apart second target patterns having a second pitch different than the first pitch on a second layer of the substrate below the first layer; irradiating the first layer and the second layer with incident light having a first wavelength; obtaining a phase pattern of light reflected from the first layer and the second layer; calculating a position of a peak point or a valley point of the phase pattern of the reflected light; and detecting an overlay error of the first layer and the second layer using the position of the peak point or the valley point of the phase pattern.
US09841681B2

Laser light from a light source part is guided to an irradiation plane by an irradiation optical system. In the irradiation optical system, element lenses are arrayed, and light fluxes that have passed through the element lenses respectively enter transparent elements. Irradiation regions of the light from the element lenses are superimposed on the irradiation plane. When each pair of adjacent target element lenses out of three target element lenses arrayed sequentially is regarded as a target element lens pair, the optical path lengths of three transparent elements corresponding to the three target element lenses are determined such that a peak position of light intensity on the irradiation plane resulting from the interference between the light fluxes through one target element lens pair is different from that corresponding to the other pair. This suppresses variations in light intensity caused by interference between the light fluxes on the irradiation plane.
US09841665B2

An information processing apparatus is provided that includes a playback unit to play back music data, an analysis unit to analyze a feature of a relevant image of the music data, an image correction unit to perform image correction with use of any of a plurality of correction types, a storage unit to store one or more than one image, a selection unit to select a correction type corresponding to the feature of the relevant image analyzed by the analysis unit from the plurality of correction types, a correction control unit to cause the image correction unit to perform image correction of an image stored in the storage unit with use of the correction type selected by the selection unit, and an output unit to output the image corrected by the image correction unit.
US09841661B2

A projecting system is proposed. The projecting system comprises a mini projector with at least one first building block structure, a battery pack with at least one second building block structure, and an application unit with at least one third building block structure. One of the at least one first building block structure is electrically coupled to one of the at least one second building block structure. One of the at least one first building block structure is electrically coupled to one of the at least one third building block structure.
US09841636B2

A high-definition and high-contrast liquid crystal display device having a high aperture ratio without light leakage around a columnar spacer is provided. The liquid crystal display device of a horizontal electric field type includes a TFT substrate with a pixel electrode and a common electrode, a color filter substrate with a color filter, a columnar spacer interposed between the substrates, and a liquid crystal layer arranged between the substrates. A liquid crystal alignment film formed between the substrates is a photo-alignment film. The columnar spacer, formed on the color filter substrate or the TFT substrate, has a wall-like shape and an inclined surface extending in a direction parallel to or perpendicular to a direction in which the liquid crystal is initially aligned.
US09841633B2

In the step of curing a resin for bonding a TFT substrate and a counter substrate each having an alignment film that has been optically aligned by using UV-light, damage to the alignment film due to the UV-light can be prevented without using a light shielding mask. A UV-light absorption layer is formed between each black matrix on the counter substrate. The TFT and counter substrates are sealed at their periphery by a resin that is cured by UV-light radiated from the counter substrate side. Since the absorption layer has a high absorbability to UV-light at a wavelength of 300 nm or less that degrades the alignment film, damage to the alignment film due to the UV-light for curing the resin can be prevented. Thus, provision of a light shielding mask for shielding the UV-light for the display region can be saved.
US09841629B2

A display panel and a display device are provided. The display panel includes a first substrate having a display region and a non-display region, a second substrate disposed opposite to the first substrate, at least a data line and at least a scan line disposed in the display region, a liquid crystal layer, a plurality of spacers and a seal disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate, a light shielding layer disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate, and including a light transmitting portion and a light shielding portion, and an alignment layer and a plurality of particles disposed on the light transmitting portion and the light shielding portion. A first surface roughness corresponding to the light transmitting portion of the non-display region is greater than a second surface roughness corresponding to the light shielding portion of the non-display region.
US09841624B2

A display including a screen layer for displaying a unified image to a viewer on a viewing side of the screen layer that is opposite a backside of the screen layer, and an illumination layer having an array of light sources. Each light source in the array is configured to emit a divergent projection beam having a limited angular spread. A display layer is disposed between the screen layer and the illumination layer, and includes a matrix of pixlets, a spacing region disposed between the pixlets in the matrix, wherein the array of light sources are positioned to emit the divergent projection beams having limited angular spread to project sub-images displayed by the pixlets as magnified sub-images on the backside of the screen layer, the magnified sub-images to combine to form a substantially seamless unified image, and one or more components positioned on the display layer in the spacing region.
US09841621B2

Provided herein a display apparatus including a display panel including a first surface for displaying information and a second surface disposed opposite to the first surface, and where a curvature is formed as a physical force is applied; and a curvature changing unit bonded to at least a portion of the second surface, wherein the curvature changing unit includes a first actuator unit configured to curve the display panel when a voltage is applied and a fixing unit configured to fixate the first actuator unit.
US09841615B2

A method for determining at least one optical design parameter for a progressive ophthalmic lens intended to be fitted in a frame of a wearer, depending on the wearer's visual behaviour, includes: a) placing the wearer in a situation in which he carries out a visual task at a first working distance; b) during this task, determining at least two gaze directions of the wearer at this first working distance in a frame of reference of the wearer's head; c) determining a relative position of a surface related to the frame or to an ophthalmic lens intended to be fitted in the frame; d) determining for each gaze direction at the first working distance the intersection between this gaze direction and the surface so as to establish a map of these points of intersection on this surface; and e) deducing the sought-after optical design parameter from this map.
US09841610B2

Provided is an observation optical system including: an objective lens; an image inverting unit; and an ocular lens, the objective lens including, in order from object side to observation side: a positive first lens unit; a negative second lens unit; and a positive third lens unit, wherein the first lens unit consists of a positive front unit and a positive rear unit separated by an air interval, which is largest along optical axis, wherein the second lens unit moves to have a component orthogonal to optical axis for image blur correction, and wherein a lateral magnification of second lens unit, a curvature radius of a lens surface of second lens unit closest to observation side, a curvature radius of a lens surface of third lens unit closest to object side, the air interval between front and rear units, and a focal length of first lens unit are appropriately set.
US09841604B2

A color separation device changes a light path according to the wavelengths of incident light and an image sensor has improved light utilization efficiency by using the color separation device. The color separation device may include a first element having a first refractive index that varies according to wavelengths of light along a first refractive index distribution curve, and a second element having a second refractive index that varies according to wavelengths of light along a second refractive index distribution curve, the second refractive index distribution curve being different from the first refractive index distribution curve. The color separation device may be manufactured by simply joining two elements, namely, the first and second elements, together and thus may be more easily manufactured and perform more effective color separation.
US09841603B2

An electronic eyewear viewing device including a display module having a microdisplay for viewing images. The microdisplay can have an exit window aligned along a first lateral axis L1. The display module can have a pivot joint along a second lateral axis L2 parallel to and spaced apart from the first lateral axis L1. The display module can be rotatable about the pivot joint. A lateral position adjustment screw can be mounted and rotatably secured to the display module for laterally adjusting position of the display module. A rotational position adjustment screw can be mounted along a transverse axis that is transverse to the second lateral axis L2 and rotatably secured to the display module at a location offset from the second lateral axis L2 for adjusting rotational position of the display module about the pivot joint along the second lateral axis L2.
US09841602B2

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to visual presentation techniques for indicating a location in a head-worn computer using an avatar. A method may include receiving a location indicative of a human presence at a location in an obscured environment, establishing a virtual location marker in a position that is visually available to a person wearing a head-worn computing system, wherein the virtual marker provides an indication of the location in the obscured environment, and generating an avatar as a representation of the human presence and presenting the avatar in a field of view of the head-worn computing system, wherein the presentation of the avatar is positioned in the field of view by visually associating the avatar with the location marker such that the avatar appears to remain at the location marker location, as perceived by a person wearing the head-worn computing system, independent of the head-worn computing system's viewing angle.
US09841588B2

A telescope and beam expander assembly includes a primary telescope mirror. An optical element is spaced apart from the primary mirror. The optical element includes front and rear surfaces, wherein an outward facing aspect of the rear surface is mounted opposite the primary mirror and includes a reflective portion that forms a secondary mirror to reflect gathered light from the primary mirror toward a focal point. An inward facing aspect of the front surface includes a reflective portion that forms a secondary expander mirror configured to reflect a beam onto an inward facing aspect of the rear surface for beam expansion. The optical element can include a monolithic body of optically-transmissive material on which the front and rear surfaces are located.
US09841583B2

An optical imaging lens set includes a first lens element with an image-side surface of a concave part in a vicinity of the optical axis, a second lens element with an object-side surface of a concave part in a periphery region, with an image-side surface of a concave part in a vicinity of the optical axis and of a concave part in a periphery region, a third lens element with an object-side surface of a concave part in a periphery region, a fourth lens element of positive refractive power with an object-side surface of a concave part of the optical axis, a third lens element thickness T3, an air gap G34 between the third lens element and the fourth lens element and an air gap G45 between the fourth lens element and the fifth lens element to satisfy (T3+G45)/G34≦1.20.
US09841565B2

A method for producing a ridge optical waveguide having low coupling losses between the ridge optical waveguide and an optical fiber includes forming on the surface of a dielectric substrate an optical waveguide having a first end and a second end opposite the first end; cutting out two parallel recesses spaced apart by a distance wr on the surface of the dielectric substrate to form a rigid optical waveguide with an increased width (wr) between the two recesses. The recesses are cut such that the depth of each recess changes continuously and gradually between a zero depth at the height of the first end of the optical waveguide and a maximum depth (Hm) at a pre-determined distance (Ip) from the first end.
US09841558B2

The present invention provides a two-layer structure colored optical fiber which includes a colored secondary coating layer improved in collectability and separability. The two-layer structure colored optical fiber in an embodiment of the present invention includes a glass optical fiber, a primary coating layer coating the glass optical fiber, and a colored secondary coating layer coating the primary coating layer. The secondary coating layer has such characteristics that a surface cure percentage is 99% or more at an infrared absorption peak of a wave number of 1407 cm−1 and a surface kinetic friction force in Knot Test is less than 0.075 N.
US09841541B2

The present invention discloses a light redirecting film. The light redirecting film comprises a support substrate and an optical substrate. The support substrate comprises a unitary body, wherein the unitary body has a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface. The optical substrate has a third surface and a fourth surface opposite to the third surface, wherein the fourth surface is a structured surface, and the second surface of the unitary body faces the third surface of the optical substrate. A plurality of particles are disposed in a region below the first surface of the unitary body, wherein the thickness of the region is smaller than the thickness of the unitary body.
US09841540B2

A coating material composition include a hydroxyl group-containing acrylic resin, a fluororesin, and light diffusive particles, and the hydroxyl group-containing acrylic resin has a weight-average molecular weight in a range of 10,000 to 30,000 and a hydroxyl value in a range of 14 to 70, wherein a mass ratio of the fluororesin to the hydroxyl group-containing acrylic resin (the fluororesin/the hydroxyl group-containing acrylic resin) is in a range of 5/95 to 50/50. The coating material composition can provide the light diffusing properties capable of uniformly diffusing light while effectively masking a light source image.
US09841536B2

Provided is an anti-glare/antireflection member having excellent visibility. The anti-glare/antireflection member (1) includes a base material (10) and an antireflection layer (20). The base material (10) is provided in a surface layer thereof with an anti-glare layer (10a) having a concavo-convex configuration. The antireflection layer (20) is provided on the anti-glare layer (10a).
US09841535B2

Provided is an antireflection film having excellent abrasion resistance.In the antireflection film, a hydrogenated carbon film as a first layer is formed on a surface of an optical substrate. A MgF2 film as a second layer having a lower refractive index than the first layer is formed on the first layer. Likewise, a third layer formed of the hydrogenated carbon film, a fourth layer formed of the MgF2 film, and a fifth layer formed of the hydrogenated carbon film are formed. During the formation of the hydrogenated carbon film, a mixed gas of argon and hydrogen is supplied to a vacuum chamber such that some of C—C bonds in the film are replaced with C—H bonds. Due to the C—H bonds, an antireflection film having excellent abrasion resistance and adhesiveness and having a low refractive index can be obtained.
US09841523B2

A method to generate a tube wave in a tubular system involves reciprocating a plunger in a chamber system to alternatingly increase and decrease net volume, drawing fluid from and returning the fluid to a tubular system and into and from the chamber system, to generate a tube wave, and guiding the tube wave to the tubular system. Also, a tube wave generator-sensor system has a chamber system, a plunger, a driver to reciprocate the plunger within the chamber system to generate a tube wave, a flow passage to guide the tube wave into a tubular system, and a sensor to receive the tube wave signal and/or response from the tubular system. The method and system can work with or without a firing valve and or accumulator, without adding or subtracting fluid from the tubular system.
US09841517B2

Systems and methods for utilization of a smart antenna in facilitating wireless communication between adjacent seismic data acquisition modules. The smart antenna may target an adjacent module with a radiation pattern directed toward the adjacent module. As such, the modules may employ space division multiplexing techniques to avoid interference between modules in the array. The modules may scan throughout a continuum of positions to locate adjacent modules. Once located, a spatial signal signature may be identified for the adjacent module and beamforming vectors may be calculated for targeting the radiation pattern toward the located module.
US09841514B2

The proposed technology relates to an x-ray detector arrangement having x-ray detector sub-modules arranged in two or more layers, where the separation between adjacent sub-modules in a lower layer is smaller than the corresponding separation between sub-modules in an upper layer.
US09841510B2

The invention relates to a radiation detector (100) and to a method for manufacturing such a detector. In a preferred embodiment, the radiation detector (100) comprises an array of photosensitive pillars (110) that are embedded in a conversion material (120). The photosensitive pillars may particularly be diodes connected at their ends to external circuits (130, 140). The conversion material (120) may particularly comprise a powder of scintillator particles (121) embedded in a matrix of binder.
US09841505B2

An electronic device including a signal unit configured to emit a first radiated signal to a subject; a signal receiving unit configured to detect a reflected signal of the first radiated signal from the subject; and a controller configured to determine whether a distance to the subject is calculated based on the reflected signal of the first radiated signal, change a waveform of the first radiated signal when the distance is not calculated, cause the signal output unit to emit a second radiated signal with the changed waveform, detect, via the signal receiving unit, a reflected signal of the second radiated signal from the subject, and calculate the distance to the subject based on the reflected signal of the second radiated signal.
US09841503B2

Optical ground tracking apparatus for use with buried object locators or other instruments or devices are disclosed. In one embodiment, a buried object locator includes a locator module disposed in our coupled to the housing to sense a buried object based on emitted magnetic fields, and a surface tracking module for determining motion information of the buried object locator based on light reflected from a tracking surface.
US09841500B2

The a system for measuring distance between an RFID reader and tag, including an adaptive linear combiner, which is a tapped delay line with controllable weights on each tap, and outputs that are summed and subtracted from a reference to produce an error signal. After a sufficient number of cycles, the weight distribution indicates the delay of the received signal with respect to the reference, and by extension determines the distance between the tag and receiver.
US09841491B2

The disclosure generally relates to an enhanced positioning system and method using a combination or hybrid filter. In one embodiment, Time-Of-Flight (ToF) measurements are used to determine an approximate location for a mobile device in relationship to one or more Access Points. The ToF combined with known and unknown variables are then processed through a hybrid filter system to determine location of the mobile device. The hybrid filter system may include a Kalman Filter (KF) for processing linear models and generally Gaussian noise distribution. The KF assumes that the state probability of mobile device location is Gaussian. Such variables include, for example, WiFi ToF bias. The hybrid filter system may include a Bayesian Filter (BF) for processing variables having non-Gaussian noise distribution and non-linear models. Such variables include, for example, the coordinates of the mobile device. A probability determination from each of the KF and BF is then applied to estimate the mobile device location.
US09841489B2

Method and system for radiolocation of RF transmitter in the presence of multipath interference. RF receivers are spatially separated at known locations in a moderate multipath environment in the vicinity of the transmitter. Upon detection of a received active RF signal associated with the transmitter, the receivers are directed to acquire measurements of the detected RF signal. Each receiver obtains a sequence of measurements of the RF signal at different positions along a trajectory that provides multiple measurements at relative phase differences between the direct-path and the multipath reflections of the detected RF signal. The receivers may be repositioned automatically or manually, or prearranged or selectively deployed at fixed positions along the trajectory. TDOA measurements between pairs of receivers are calculated based on the obtained measurements, and are averaged to provide a respective updated TDOA measurement value for each receiver pair, which is used to determine the transmitter location.
US09841481B2

A method for producing images of a subject with a MRI system is provided. A radio frequency (RF) excitation field in combination with a slice-select magnetic gradient field along a slice-select direction is provided. At least one readout magnetic field gradient is established along a frequency-encoding direction and at least one phase encoding magnetic field gradient along a phase-encoding direction. The RF field or magnetic field gradient is manipulated along a slice-select direction in order to impart a sequence of phase shifts to the formed echo signals such that image data corresponding to an at least one adjacent slice location is incoherently aliased across a field-of-view (FOV) of a current slice location. Image data is acquired indicative of the formed echo signals. A plurality of images of the subject is reconstructed.
US09841476B2

To enable improved adjustment of at least one shim channel for magnetic resonance imaging of an examination region of an examination object by operation of a magnetic resonance apparatus that has a shim arrangement with a first shim channel volume having at least one first shim channel and a second shim channel volume having at least one second shim channel, the examination region is divided into multiple of sections, multiple first shim parameter sets are determined for the at least one first shim channel, with one first shim parameter set among the multiple first shim parameter sets being ascertained for each of the multiple sections, a second shim parameter set is ascertained for the at least one second shim channel, taking into account the ascertained multiple first shim parameter sets, and magnetic resonance image data of the examination region are acquired, but before this acquisition, the at least one second shim channel is adjusted using the second shim parameter set and the at least one first shim channel is adjusted for acquiring the magnetic resonance image data from a specific section of the multiple sections using a first shim parameter set ascertained for that specific section.
US09841471B2

A Hall element is integrated on a single substrate and is capable of cancelling offset voltage with a spinning switch configured to switch spinning current and capable of simultaneously detecting a horizontal direction magnetic field and a vertical direction magnetic field. The Hall element has a four-fold rotational axis and includes a P-type semiconductor substrate layer formed of P-type silicon, a vertical magnetic field detection N-type doped region formed on the P-type semiconductor substrate layer, and eight horizontal magnetic field detection N-type doped regions formed so as to surround the vertical magnetic field detection N-type doped region.
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