US09877098B1

Features of the present application provide an audio earphone having an adjustable cable system interconnecting a first speaker unit (e.g., left speaker) and a second speaker unit (e.g., right speaker). The adjustable cable system may include a plurality of pods connected to different parts of the adjustable cable system such that the relative movement of the pods may adjust an effective length of the adjustable cable system. The audio earphone of the present disclosure may also include a plurality of operating modes for operating the audio earphone where each of the plurality of operating modes may correspond to one of a plurality of relative distances between a first pod and a second pod.
US09877097B2

A housing having a port for reducing wind-induced noise in a communication device. The housing includes a first channel, a second channel, and a ridge between the first and second channels. The housing further includes a tunnel extending through the ridge, which tunnel connects the first and second channels. The housing further includes a microphone port beneath the ridge, which microphone port is connected to the tunnel and connects the tunnel to a microphone cavity in the housing.
US09877087B2

A telephony equipment migration arrangement is provided. The telephony equipment migration arrangement includes legacy telephony equipment located in one or more equipment bays, at least one transport cable, with one or more connectors, to provide external carrier connectivity, replacement telephony equipment located in one or more equipment bays remote from the legacy telephony equipment, and at least one remote coupling cable, with one or more connectors, connected to the replacement telephony equipment. The connector(s) of the remote coupling cable are mounted in a location having a predetermined locational relationship with the equipment bay in which the legacy telephony equipment is located, and the transport cable is communicatively coupled to the remote coupling cable.
US09877085B2

A method includes receiving broadcast fingerprints indicative of broadcast frames of broadcast media streams being streamed to a plurality of channels by a broadcaster and receiving television (TV) fingerprints indicative of an ordered sequence of TV frames of a TV media stream at a corresponding media device. The method further includes matching the TV fingerprints with the broadcast fingerprints by determining a difference between respective broadcast fingerprints and corresponding TV fingerprints of the ordered sequence of TV frames. The matching includes populating a binary tree structure with respective differences. The method also includes detecting a channel change of the media device from a first channel to a second channel in response to locating a value indicative of the channel change in the binary tree structure within a threshold number of children nodes from a root node upon traversing down the binary tree structure.
US09877084B2

A system may receive tag information, associated with media content, that includes a tag and a tag time. The system may generate, based on the tag information, clip information that includes a start time and an end time for a media content clip associated with the media content. The system may determine, based on the tag information, advertisement information that identifies an advertisement to be displayed with the media content clip, and indicates how the advertisement is to be displayed. The system may provide the tag information for display via a social media application, and may receive, via the social media application, an indication that the media content clip is to be provided for display to a user. The system may provide the advertisement information and the clip information such that the advertisement and the media content clip are provided for display to the user based on the advertisement information.
US09877072B2

Methods and apparatus relating to determining and using a normalized in progress program indicator that can be used for resuming content playback are described. In some embodiments the normalized in progress program indicator, also referred to as a normalized in progress program time, indicates a portion, e.g., fraction, of a program which has been viewed. The normalized in progress time is generated by determining an in progress program point after excluding the time of advertisements that may have been included in a content stream with the program. A user may begin watching a program on one device and resume playback of a different version of the same program on another playback device with the normalization process allowing for the playback starting point to be easily determined whether the same or a different version, with a different duration, of the program is played back.
US09877069B2

Various arrangements are presented for reducing channel change times. A first tuner of a television receiver may tune to a decryption key transponder stream. The decryption key transponder stream may include a plurality of decryption keys for a plurality of television channels that are transmitted to the television receiver via a plurality of transponder streams. A second tuner of the television receiver may be tuned to a media transponder stream to receive a television channel. Data obtained from the decryption key transponder stream may be used for decoding the television channel.
US09877068B2

An HDMI transmitter inserts an additional video line in the video frame to be transmitted via the HDMI interface and inserts auxiliary data related to the video frame in the additional video line. The auxiliary data is related to the video frame and as the auxiliary data is stored in the video frame itself it is transported in a synchronous fashion with the video frame. As the additional video line is in excess to the number of video lines defined by a standard video frame format they are ignored by existing receivers yet available to receivers according to the invention and can be transmitted using the existing HDMI standard.
US09877067B2

Systems and methods configured to facilitate broadcast-mediated coordination of interactive experiences are presented herein. The systems and/or methods may be configured to extend the experiences of audience members at a live event to users not be physically present at the live event. A user may view a broadcast and/or recording of a live event via a presentation device, such as a television, computer, and/or other devices. Interactive user experiences may be facilitate by one or more other user devices. Interactive user experiences may include one or more of interactive content being presented on mobile computing platforms associated with the users, one or more display devices being controlled to provide an entertaining output (e.g., visual, audible, tactile, and/or other output), and/or other types of experiences.
US09877060B2

A method for programming a remote control for a device in which the device detects partially identifying metadata, filters the metadata and uses the metadata to search for matching code sets in a database. The code sets are presented in ordered sequence by probability weighting which is established depending on frequency of confirmation signal in response to the request using the filtered data, and as a function of the time difference between a current request and earlier matching requests.
US09877052B1

In a video delivery context, collection and analysis of viewing data can provide insight into viewer interaction with video and the Internet. The viewing data can be transmitted in a controlled manner to a data repository. The system can selectively target specific viewers/households to obtain viewing data, which can be combined with demographics, anonymized, and encrypted. Embodiments enable precision selection of media opportunities, by determining detailed characteristics associated with broadcasts including movement of audiences and specific viewer behavior, such as visits to websites on the Internet. The effective yield of broadcasts, including promotional spots and advertisements, can be determined and predicted based on concrete data at a level of detail down to individual viewers. Accordingly, embodiments enable improvement of the effectiveness and return on investment for programming, promotional spots, and advertisements.
US09877051B2

A method and an apparatus for synchronizing media data and auxiliary data received by a service through a broadcast network or a communication network in a multimedia broadcast service are provided. The method includes receiving regular media data provided for a broadcast service, receiving and storing control information regarding adjunct media data comprising auxiliary data regarding the regular media data, determining location information of the adjunct media data included in the control information, and receiving and storing the adjunct media data according to the location information. If an identifier of the adjunct media data is included in a header of the regular media data, reading the stored adjunct media data corresponding to the identifier of the adjunct media data, and executing the adjunct media data in synchronization with the regular media data according to synchronization information included in the header.
US09877050B2

In a method for detecting leakage in a digital cable system, at least one first signal is inserted on the cable system. The at least one first signal has an amplitude multiple tens of dB below the digital channel power of the digital channels carried on the cable system. A second signal containing the first signal is received. The second signal is converted to an intermediate frequency (IF) signal. The IF signal is digitized and samples of the digitized IF signal are obtained. Digitized samples of a third signal at the nominal frequency of the first signal at maximum amplitude converted to the IF are provided. The digitized IF signal and the digitized samples of a third signal at the nominal frequency of the first signal at maximum amplitude converted to the IF are correlated. The presence of the inserted first signal is detected based upon the result of the correlation. In another method, a pair of first signals are inserted on the cable system. The pair of first signals are spaced apart a fixed frequency and with amplitudes multiple tens of dB below the digital channel power of the digital channels carried on the cable system. A second signal containing the first signal is received and converted to an intermediate frequency (IF) signal. The IF signal is digitized, samples of the digitized IF signal are obtained, and a large scale Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is applied to the samples to generate an FFT output. The FFT output is examined for generally equally sized signals separated from each other by the fixed frequency in the FFT output. If generally equally sized signals separated from each other by the fixed frequency are detected in the FFT output, a decision is made that the second signal represents detected leakage from the digital cable system.
US09877048B2

Entropy coding techniques for display stream compression (DSC) are disclosed. In one aspect, a method of entropy coding video data includes partitioning a block of the video data into a plurality of groups of samples based at least in part on a coding mode of the block. The method further includes entropy coding the block via performing a group-wise skip on at least one of the groups in response to all of the samples in the at least one group being equal to a predetermined value.
US09877043B2

Systems and methods are described for encoding and decoding video using derived block vectors as predictors in intra block copy mode. In an exemplary encoding method, an encoder identifies at least a first candidate block vector for the prediction of an input video block, where the first candidate block vector points to a first candidate block. The encoder then identifies a first predictive vector (e.g. a block vector or a motion vector) that was used to encode the first candidate block. From the first candidate block vector and the first predictive vector, the encoder generates a derived predictive vector from the first candidate block vector and the first predictive vector. The encoder then encodes the video block in the bit stream using the derived predictive vector for the prediction of the input video block.
US09877042B1

A position encoder system (e.g., including a linear encoder) is configured to rapidly provide encoder position data in response to position trigger signals that are received from a host motion control system at predictable times (e.g., according to a preset frequency, etc.) A pre-trigger lead time is determined that is a fraction of a duration of a defined encoder position sample period. A current instance of the encoder position sample period is then initiated at the pre-trigger lead time before a next predictable time of the position trigger signal. A current position trigger signal is then received (e.g., near the middle of the current instance of the encoder position sample period) from the host motion control system. The average effective sample time of the current instance of the encoder position sample period coincides with the actual timing of the current position trigger signal within an allowed tolerance window.
US09877037B2

There is disclosed apparatuses, methods and computer programs for utilizing motion prediction in video coding. A block of pixels of a video representation encoded in a bitstream is read, and a type of the block is determined. If the determining indicates that the block is a block predicted by using two or more reference blocks, a first reference pixel location in a first reference block is determined and a second reference pixel location in a second reference block is determined. The first reference pixel location is used to obtain a first prediction. Said first prediction has a second precision, which is higher than the first precision. The second reference pixel location is used to obtain a second prediction, which also has the second precision. The first prediction and the second prediction are combined to obtain a combined prediction; and the precision of the combined prediction is reduced to the first precision.
US09877034B2

Efficient decoding of video content that may involve intra block copy operations, such as copying pixel data from one region of a frame to another region of the same frame is described. For example, a method to decode the video content may involve identifying the video frame in which intra block copy operation is to be performed, prior to the intra block copy operation being initiated. A video decoder may prefetch the pixel data from the source region to a local buffer with low memory latency such that the source pixel data to be copied into the destination blocks in the video frame is readily available. Thus, costly, and time consuming memory access may be avoided, and in turn a video decoding pipeline may operate smoothly without any stalling.
US09877033B2

This disclosure describes techniques in which the decoding order of video blocks is modified relative to the display order of video blocks. The decoding order may be modified temporally such that video blocks of different video frames (or other coded units) are decoded in an alternating manner. In this case, the decoding order of video blocks may alternate between video blocks of two or more different frames. Furthermore, the decoding order may also be modified spatially within a given video block such that the video blocks are decoded in an order that does not correspond to the raster scan order of the video blocks. The techniques may improve the use of memory by improving the likelihood of cache hits, thereby reducing the number of memory loads from an external memory to an internal cache associated with the decoder.
US09877031B2

An improved method and system are provided for constructing square multi-resolution tiles for use with spatial multi-resolution raster data. This improvement permits more efficient storage, processing and display of raster tiles at different resolutions. A base level cell size is defined for a highest required resolution. Lower resolution cell sizes are defined for lower resolution tiles. The lower resolution cell sizes are integer multiples of the base level cell size. A base level tile size is defined such that the integer multiples, as used in the step of defining lower resolution cell sizes, are all integer factors of a number of cells on a side of the base level tile. Using this technique, the boundaries for the base level tile and the multi-resolution tiles are coextensive.
US09877026B2

The image transmission system, which transmits image data from a transmission side and performs image processing at a reception side, is provided with: an image transmission device that encodes an input image and outputs and a bitstream; an image reception device that receives and decodes the bitstream and performs image processing; a bit precision information generation unit that generates bit precision information for each region in the image; a quantization control unit that controls the quantization step width in a quantization process performed in the image transmission device in accordance with the bit precision information generated by the bit precision information generation unit; and an image processing unit that performs image processing using the decoded image that has been decoded by the image reception device. The bit precision information generation unit switches the method for generating bit precision information in accordance with the processing mode of the image processing unit.
US09877005B2

An original image is subjected to reduction processing while minimizing cutting of intrinsically-reproducible frequency bands. A solid-state image-capturing device is provided with: a photoelectric conversion unit that is formed by arraying pixels of a plurality of colors having predetermined color-array periodicity in two-dimensionally, vertically and horizontally; a pixel mixing and reading unit that mixes pixel signals obtained by the photoelectric conversion unit, in each of pixels of the same colors in an n×n (n denotes a desired integer of 2 or more) block, and that outputs multi-channel reduced image signals with a reduction ratio 1/n; and an inter-channel displacement correcting unit that corrects inter-channel displacements of the reduced image signals output by the pixel mixing and reading unit and that outputs corrected reduced image signals.
US09877004B2

When a color-filter-array of a color-imaging-element is a Bayer-array, outputs of pixels prior to color-mixture correction are acquired from the color imaging element when red light is incident onto the color-imaging-element through a photography optical system, the outputs of the green pixels adjacent to the red pixels, among the acquired outputs of each pixel, are regarded as components of color mixture caused by the red pixels, and ratios of color mixture are calculated. In a central portion of an imaging surface of the color-imaging-element, ratios of color mixture, which do not depend on directions of the color mixture caused by the red pixels, are calculated. In end portions of the imaging surface of the color-imaging-element, separate ratios of color mixture according to the directions of the color mixture caused by the red pixels are respectively calculated. The calculated ratios of color mixture are subjected to interpolation calculation.
US09876986B2

The claimed subject matter provides systems and/or methods that facilitate describing, communicating, utilizing, etc. a frame dependency structure in connection with real time video communication. For example, a protocol can be employed to communicate the dependency structure from a sender to a receiver. Moreover, a mechanism on a receiver side can detect frame(s) that will be rendered with artifacts if displayed due to previous frame loss; this mechanism can leverage receiver side knowledge concerning the dependency structure of the of the frames.
US09876982B2

Techniques of detecting text in video are disclosed. In some embodiments, a portion of video content can be identified as having text. Text within the identified portion of the video content can be identified. A category for the identified text can be determined. In some embodiments, a determination is made as to whether the video content satisfies at least one predetermined condition, and the portion of video content is identified as having text in response to a determination that the video content satisfies the predetermined condition(s). In some embodiments, the predetermined condition(s) comprises at least one of a minimum level of clarity, a minimum level of contrast, and a minimum level of content stability across multiple frames. In some embodiments, additional information corresponding to the video content is determined based on the identified text and the determined category.
US09876979B1

An example current generator may include a low dropout regulator (LDO) coupled to receive a reference voltage and provide a reference current in response, where the LDO adjusts a current level of the current reference in response to a calibration signal. A current controlled oscillator coupled to receive a reference current copy from the LDO and generate an oscillating signal in response, where a period of the oscillating signal is based at least in part on a level of the reference current copy. A pulse generator coupled to provide an adjustable pulse signal. A counter coupled to determine a number of periods of the oscillating signal occurring during a duration of the pulse signal, and provide a control signal indicative of such, and a digital calibration circuit coupled to receive the control signal and provide the calibration signal to the LDO in response.
US09876975B2

A sensor has an image sensing unit including pixel blocks, and a readout unit for reading out a signal from the image sensing unit. The pixel block includes a photoelectric converter, first and second transistors, and a current source. First main electrodes of the first and second transistors are connected to a common node, and the current source is provided between the common node and a predetermined voltage. A signal readout operation includes an operation in which a voltage corresponding to charges in the photoelectric converter is supplied to a control electrode of the first transistor, and a temporally changing reference voltage is supplied to a control electrode of the second transistor. The readout unit reads out a signal from the image sensing unit via a second main electrode of the first transistor.
US09876964B2

Techniques for coding video data estimate depths of different elements within video content and identify regions within the video content based on the estimated depths. One of the regions may be assigned as an area of interest. Thereafter, video content of a region that is not an area of interest may be masked out and the resultant video content obtained from the masking may be coded. The coded video content may be transmitted to a channel. These techniques permit a coding terminal to mask out captured video content prior to coding in order to support coding policies that account for privacy interests or video composition features during a video coding session.
US09876945B2

A system for a teleprompter is disclosed herein. The teleprompter system comprises a handheld camera. The teleprompter system also comprises a lens, coupled to the handheld camera. The teleprompter system further comprises a teleprompter, removably coupled to the lens. The teleprompter system further comprises a mobile device, removably coupled to the teleprompter.
US09876941B2

In one embodiment, an image forming apparatus forms an image on a recording medium using a plurality of decolorable coloring materials having different decoloring conditions. Further, the image forming apparatus forms a mark relating to authority information indicating authority capable of decoloring one of the plurality of decolorable coloring materials for each of the decolorable coloring materials on the recording medium. Further, in another embodiment, a decoloring apparatus grasps the authority information, and decolors the image of the decolorable coloring material, in accordance with the grasped authority information.
US09876936B2

An imposition device includes an imposing unit that imposes images of plural document pages in a same page order as a pamphlet; a rotation selecting unit that selects whether or not to rotate, by 180 degrees, one of the images that corresponds to a back cover of a pamphlet obtained from a printed material on which the images have been imposed by the imposing unit; and a rotation processing unit that rotates the image that corresponds to the back cover by 180 degrees in a case where rotation of the image that corresponds to the back cover is selected by the rotation selecting unit.
US09876935B2

A printing device includes a printing device side wireless communication unit configured to execute wireless communication with a mobile terminal, an operation acquisition unit configured to acquire user operation thereof, and a processor. The processor is configured to acquire operation data which is generated as the operation acquisition unit acquires a user operation, acquire establishment data which is generated as the printing device side wireless communication unit establishes a wireless communication with the mobile terminal, and issue a request control to control the printing device side wireless communication unit to transmit request data requesting the mobile terminal to transmit print data necessary for printing, via the wireless communication, when the establishment data is acquired, the request control being issued in accordance with the operation data as acquired.
US09876932B2

A transmission destination of image data is set, and image data obtained by scanning a document image is stored. When a received scan job request is that from the set transmission destination, the stored image data is converted according to parameters included in the scan job request, and the converted image data is transmitted to the transmission destination as a transmission source of the scan job request.
US09876928B2

An image processing device includes an association unit, a generation unit, an output unit, a reception unit, and a print unit. The association unit associates a first document image with a second image, the second image being an image of a reverse side of the first document image. The generation unit generates multiple images in accordance with a result of the association. The output unit outputs the multiple images generated by the generation unit. The reception unit receives a selection of an image output by the output unit, the selection being made by a user operation. The print unit prints the selected image.
US09876920B2

An information processing apparatus remotely controls an image forming apparatus having an operating state changeable. The information processing apparatus includes a remote operation accepting portion to accept a user operation, and a remote control portion to remotely control the image forming apparatus on the basis of a remote operation accepted by the remote operation accepting portion. The remote control portion includes a motion detecting portion to detect a motion of the user, and a state maintaining portion to control the image forming apparatus not to change the operating state while a remote-operation motion for inputting a remote operation is detected by the motion detecting portion after a communication with the image forming apparatus has been established.
US09876915B2

Disclosed is a voice message exchange system and method for improving communication between an inmate and a third party by enabling the inmate to leave a message when a call is not answered and further allowing the third party who receives the message to reply with a message to the inmate. Additionally, outside parties that meet the institution's requirements can leave messages for inmates at any time. The present invention can be used as an add-on to legacy inmate call management systems or incorporated internally into an inmate call management system. The system also provides monitoring, controlling, recording, and billing means.
US09876911B2

A method for delivery of a voice mail message to a recipient. The method includes determining content of the voice mail message, identifying a recipient of the voice mail message based on the determining step, converting the voice mail message to a format for delivery based on the identifying step, and delivering the converted voice mail message to the recipient. The method further includes identifying a voice mail box of the recipient and caching voice mail box information at a voice mail server.
US09876908B2

A messaging platform includes a text messaging subsystem that includes a suite of enhancements that facilitate implementation of a multi-channel communications strategy with high level and fine-grained control over outbound message creation or inbound message handling.
US09876905B2

A communication appliance has a processor, a data store, a display screen, an interface to a wireless network, a microphone, and software executable from a machine-readable physical medium, wherein the software provides a function for comparing incoming audio signals with signals stored in the data store as trigger signals, and a function for initiating an action or sequence of actions in response to recognizing an incoming signal as a trigger signal.
US09876902B1

Methods and systems described in this disclosure allow customers to quickly be authenticated. In some embodiments, a device and a user verifier are associated with a user profile. When a call is received from the device, the user may be requested to input the user verifier. After verifying that the device is unique to the user and that the user verifier matches the user verifier associated with the user profile, the user may be authenticated to the call or activity.
US09876900B2

The present invention discloses a centralized, digital, computer-based telephone call management system for authenticating users of a telephone system in an institutional facility. The system includes the capacity to allow an institution to control, record, monitor, and bill and report usage and access to a telephone network. The telephone call management system further includes both accounting and management software for use in controlling, monitoring, billing, recording, and reporting usage and access. Also, it can operate over both a Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN) and a Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) infrastructure.
US09876894B2

A system for managing event streams is provided that includes a volatile memory, a non-volatile memory, and a processor. The volatile memory is configured to store, for each of a plurality of event streams associated with the client device, metadata indicative of events not yet delivered to a client device and the content associated with only a most recent event of the event stream. The non-volatile memory is configured to store the content associated with each of undelivered events. The processor is configured to, upon receiving a request from the client device, retrieve from the volatile memory, without accessing the non-volatile memory, data indicative of a current state of an event stream associated with the client device. The processor is further configured to deliver the retrieved data indicative of the current state of the event stream.
US09876887B2

A method including: transmitting, by a control device, a first portion of content comprising a first portion of a signal corresponding to a multimedia presentation characteristic of a peripheral device; receiving, when an adjustment of the signal is below an adjustment threshold, a first instance of an input indicating a request to change the multimedia presentation characteristic; in response to receiving the first instance of the input, adjusting a second portion of the signal and transmitting a second portion of the content comprising the adjusted second portion of the signal; receiving, when the adjustment of the signal is at or above the adjustment threshold, a second instance of the input; and transmitting, in response to receiving the second instance of the input, a communication signal to the peripheral device to adjust a peripheral device control of an output of the multimedia presentation characteristic.
US09876875B2

Optimizing computing device application profiles. Receiving, from power-user computing devices, a set of user-based application profiles, each application profile including one or more device parameter settings associated with an application operable to run on the devices. Evaluating the set on an optimization server computer with an electronic processor operable to: calculate if a count of the profiles of the set exceeds a predefined minimum threshold count; calculate a variance for one of the device parameter settings of the set, if the count exceeds the minimum threshold count; calculate if the variance is below a predefined maximum threshold variance; calculate an optimal value for the one of the device parameter settings, if the variance is below the maximum threshold variance; and storing, in computer-readable storage media of the optimization server computer, the optimal value in a recommended set. Publishing the recommended set towards end-user computing devices configured to run the application.
US09876860B2

A first communication session is created with a first application written in first language. A change is detected in first variables in the first application. The first variables are retrieved from the first application in response to detecting a change in the first variables. The first communication session is transferred to a second application written in a second language. A change is detected in a second variable in the second application. The second variable is retrieved from the second application in response to detecting the change in the second variable. A common pair of variables are matched between the first variables and the second variable. The first communication session and the transferred first communication session are associated as a common communication session in response to matching the common pair of variables. One or more of the first plurality of variables is then used by the second application.
US09876854B2

Data is routed within a network of content with specific service constraints to mobile devices. A mobile network management component receives an identifier (ID) of a base station that serves a mobile device that originates a request for data, and relays the ID to a network platform that administers content. A mapping that associates one or more base stations with a deployed content node and the received ID are utilized to identify a content node to serve the request for data via the base station. The received request for data is directed to the identified content node. A service constraint configuration can be allocated for exchange of payload data between the mobile device and the network platform. For a request to consume data and a request to supply data, identified content node delivers data and receives data, respectively, in accordance with the service constraint allocation.
US09876849B2

Systems and methods are disclosed herein for opening local applications from browsers. A request to open a document associated with a cloud computing system is received from a user. A determination is made that the local device has a copy of the document, and a local application is selected to open the local copy. A message is transmitted to open the local copy with the selected local application.
US09876848B1

Images of key phrases or hashtags appear on televised feeds. Image processing techniques, such as feature locating algorithms or character recognition algorithms, can be used to locate the images of key phrases in the images. Then, character recognition algorithms can be used to generate a list of candidate key phrases for the key phrase in image format. However, identification of the key phrase in image format is not completely accurate with conventional methods. Social media content items associated with the televised feed are used to filter the list of candidate key phrases. Using known information about the televised feed as well as about key phrases in text format in the social media content items, candidate key phrases in the list of candidate key phrases can be scored and, thus, a final candidate key phrase selected based on the scores.
US09876843B2

A method for operating a graphical user interface of a computer terminal running multiple asynchronous simultaneous tasks. The progress of the tasks is shown in a list in an information window. The content and visibility of the list determines the type of user interaction defined by the terminal when one of the tasks reaches a predetermined stage of completion.
US09876840B2

Dynamically generating media sequence files on demand for HTTP live streaming is described. The operations may include receiving a request for a media sequence file, over a network utilizing HTTP live streaming, based on a forward or backward seek operation of a remote media player; in response to the request, determining a position of a media source file that corresponds to the media sequence file to enable seeking to the position of the media source file to generate the media sequence file from the media source file; and facilitating provision of a notification that the media sequence file is generated. The media sequence file represents one of sequential portions of the media source file. The format of the media sequence file is different from a format of the media source file. The format of the media sequence file is compatible with the remote media player.
US09876832B2

The present invention relates to a technology for providing a place/time-based local interactive service, which provides multi-formatted content information to a user moving while carrying a smart terminal having a dedicated application installed therein. In particular, when moving into a place were a specific wired/wireless AP is installed, a user who carries a smart terminal with a dedicated application activated therein can receive multi-formatted content information previously mapped with the place using a place/time, without a separate manipulation of the smart terminal. According to the present invention, time periods during which the user carrying the smart terminal stays at the place where the specific wired/wireless AP is installed are accumulated and managed using time coins, and the user is then given a benefit according to the accumulated time periods.
US09876827B2

A method, at a client device associated with a first subscriber of a multiplicity of subscribers to a social network, includes presenting a social network page associated with a second subscriber of the multiplicity of subscribers to the social network, the social network page including a link to an online collaboration space associated with the second subscriber; receiving a user input activating the link, the user input made by the first subscriber of the multiplicity of subscribers; and in response to the user input activating the link, presenting the online collaboration space and adding the first subscriber as a participant to the online collaboration space.
US09876820B2

An infrastructure delivery platform provides a RSA proxy service as an enhancement to the TLS/SSL protocol to off-load, from an edge server to an external cryptographic server, the decryption of an encrypted pre-master secret. The technique provides forward secrecy in the event that the edge server is compromised, preferably through the use of a cryptographically strong hash function that is implemented separately at both the edge server and the cryptographic server. To provide the forward secrecy for this particular leg, the edge server selects an ephemeral value, and applies a cryptographic hash the value to compute a server random value, which is then transmitted back to the requesting client. That server random value is later re-generated at the cryptographic server to enable the cryptographic server to compute a master secret. The forward secrecy is enabled by ensuring that the ephemeral value does not travel on the wire.
US09876815B2

A graph of a plurality of resources in a computing environment is generated, with the graph associating a first resource of the plurality with a second resource of the plurality. Based at least in part on measurements obtained at a point in a test computing environment that corresponds to a point in the computing environment, an expected value or expected range of values is determined. An assessment of a security state of the computing environment is generated based at least in part on a comparison between a measurement obtained at the point in the computing environment and the expected value or expected range of values, and responsive to a determination that the assessment indicates a rule violation in the computing environment, a security action is performed.
US09876809B2

A standard metadata model for analyzing events with fraud, attack or other malicious background is disclosed. Log data for two or more computing systems is stored, and mapped to standardized attributes based on metadata entities defined for each computing system. A standard metadata model is defined for the computing systems, in which one or more standardized attributes of a first set of computing systems is associated with one or more standardized attributes of a second set of computing systems to define connected metadata that connects attributes of the associated metadata entities.
US09876807B2

It is described a network attack detection method. A topology analysis on network is conducted to obtain a probing path set containing at least one probing path. A first probing path contained in the probing path set is probed by using a probing pattern to obtain a performance metric of the first probing path. It is determined whether the first probing path is subjected to network attack according to the performance metric and a control performance metric.
US09876804B2

Methods and systems are disclosed for detecting unauthorized actions associated with network resources, the actions including access to the resource and activity associated with the resource. The unauthorized actions are detected by analyzing action data of a client action associated with the network resource against credential retrieval data including records of authorized actions and/or procedures for performing an action associated with the network resource.
US09876799B2

A Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) access control application on a client device is configured with a certificate that identifies a user, and with configuration information for one or more SaaS applications to access, and including an IDP identifier for the SaaS application. The SaaS access control application includes software to be inserted into a network software stack of the client device and software configured to serve as an identity provider for assertions. A request, made by an application on the client device to a SaaS service provider identified by a Universal Resource Locator (URL) provided during configuration of the SaaS access control application, is intercepted within the network software stack of the client device. The SaaS access control application generates an assertion based on the certificate and configuration information. The requesting application is caused to make a request to the SaaS service provider with the assertion embedded in the request.
US09876797B2

Method for utilizing digital content is provided. The method includes controlling a throughput rate for utilizing the digital content by an accessing system, where the throughput rate is associated with information related to the digital content and is stored as a file. The throughput rate is controlled by a storage system that is operationally coupled to the accessing system.
US09876795B2

A method for authorizing an electronic device to perform an action includes detecting interaction data from an interaction between a hardware sensor and an identity-augmented tangible object; wherein data of the first set of interaction data is intrinsically dependent on physical characteristics of the identity-augmented tangible device; computing parametric descriptors from the interaction data; transmitting the parametric descriptors and supplementary data to a remote database system; generating, on the remote database system, identity data from a comparison of parametric descriptors with a known set of parametric descriptors; and authorizing, in response to both of the identity data and the supplementary data, the electronic device to perform a first action.
US09876793B2

A method for providing authentication of a user of a recipient unit when the recipient unit is off-line includes storing one or a plurality of one-time challenge-reply sets based on an on-line communication with a sender unit. In one example, each of the one-time challenge-reply sets includes at least a one-time challenge-reply pair for use in off-line authentication of the user for a particular resource available through the recipient unit. When the user is offline, the method includes selecting at least one of the plurality of stored one-time challenge-reply sets for off-line authentication of the user for the particular resource available through the recipient unit. The one-time challenge-reply sets may be associated with an article.
US09876790B2

A secret data matching device includes a memory unit for storing a first secret vector obtained by concealing a first data set and a key data using a determination matrix; an obtaining unit for obtaining a second secret vector by concealing a second data set using the determination matrix; a calculating unit for calculating a residue vector which is a residue when the determination matrix is a modulus, from a difference between the first and second secret vectors; a determination unit for determining whether the first and second data sets are approximate based on the residue vector; an extracting unit for extracting the key data from the residue vector when the first data set and the second data set are approximate; a creating unit for generating a third secret vector by combining the key data and the second secret vector; and a storing unit for storing the third secret vector.
US09876788B1

In some implementations, a system may control an environment in which biometric data is entered when a user enrolls data for a user account or authenticates after having enrolled user data. Enrollment and/or authentication may be required to occur under one or more conditions. In some implementations, data from an electronic device associated with a user may be used to determine whether conditions on enrollment and/or authentication have been satisfied.
US09876787B2

Techniques provided herein may facilitate registering audio content services with an audio system. An example technique involves a computing device receiving via a control interface for controlling an audio system, an input to register an audio content service with the audio system, where an audio content service application corresponding to the audio content service is installed on the computing device. The computing device identifies authentication information used by the audio content service application to access the audio content service and registers the audio system with the audio content service based at least in part on authentication information used by the audio content service application to access the audio content service. After registering the audio system with the audio content service, the computing device causes at least one playback device of the audio system to stream music from the audio content service.
US09876773B1

Systems and methods provide logic for distributing cryptographic keys in a physical network comprising a plurality of physical nodes. In one implementation, a computer-implemented method is provided for distributing cryptographic keys in a physical network. The method includes receiving information mapping a virtual network address of a virtual node to a physical network address of a physical node. The virtual node may be associated with a virtual network hosted by the physical node, and the received mapping information identifies a virtual network address of the node and the physical network address of the node. The mapping service transmits a current version of a cryptographic key and an identifier of the current version to the physical node.
US09876770B1

A system for enabling group permission based file transfer via Light Fidelity (Li-Fi). A first Li-Fi device is configured to transmit encrypted data by illuminating a target location with a first light source. A second Li-Fi device is configured to transmit a key for decrypting the encrypted data by illuminating the target object with a second light source to define a group permission enabled data transfer zone including a merger of the encrypted data and the key. A third Li-Fi device is configured to download the merger of the encrypted data and the key from the group-permission enabled data transfer zone.
US09876769B2

The present invention provides a system and method for providing certified voice and/or multimedia mail messages in a broadband signed communication system which uses packetized digital information. Cryptography is used to authenticate a message that has been compiled from streaming voice or multimedia packets. A certificate of the originator's identity and electronic signature authenticates the message. A broadband communication system user may be provisioned for certified voice and/or multimedia mail by registering with a certified mail service provider and thereby receiving certification. The called system user's CPE electronically signs the bits in received communication packets and returns the message with an electronic signature of the called system user to the calling party, along with the system user's certificate obtained from the service provider/certifying authority during registration. The electronic signature is a cryptographic key of the called party.
US09876765B2

A first communication element is received on a communicating device. A defined mapping is identified based on an identification of a recipient device. The first communication element is mapped to a second communication element based on the defined mapping. The mapped communication element is provided to the recipient device.
US09876757B2

The invention presented herein permits split-routing to occur without any changes, modifications, or configuration of the requesting host, network stacks, network architectures and routing and forwarding behavior. The invention is carried out by way of a Module that intercepts the normal and standard DHCP communication between a requesting device and a DHCP server, and substitutes the elements within the server response with the Module's own predefined elements. These substitute elements leverage the behavior of standard protocols to gain desired device network behavior.
US09876747B2

Utilizing multiple network interfaces when sending data and acknowledgement packages comprises, in a low power and lossy network (LLN) or other network, a sender device comprises two or more network interfaces for communicating with one or more recipient devices. The sender device assesses the transmission capabilities of the network interfaces to determine data rates available for each interface. The sender device specifies which network interface will be used to transfer data and which network interface will be used to receive an acknowledgement from the recipient device. The sender device selects the network interface with the larger data capacity for transmitting a data packet and the network interface with the smaller data capacity for receiving an acknowledgement. The data transmission and the acknowledgement transmission may be transmitted simultaneously. The recipient device uses transmission parameters received from the sender device to determine the data rate with which to transmit the acknowledgement.
US09876735B2

A performance and power optimized computer system architecture and method leveraging power optimized tree fabric interconnect are disclosed. One embodiment builds low power server clusters leveraging the fabric with tiled building blocks while another embodiment implements storage solutions or cooling solutions. Yet another embodiment uses the fabric to switch non-Ethernet packets, switch multiple protocols for network processors and other devices.
US09876727B2

A method for communication includes transmitting a sequence of outgoing data blocks from a network node over a communication link to a peer node, and receiving incoming data blocks from the peer node. A control field is added in a predefined location in each of the outgoing data blocks in the sequence by the network node. In at least a first subset of the outgoing data blocks in the sequence, the control field contains error control information, which is capable of causing the peer node to retransmit one or more of the incoming data blocks to the network node, while in at least a second subset of the outgoing data blocks in the sequence, disjoint from the first subset, the control field contains a flow control instruction, configured to cause the peer node to alter a rate of transmission of the incoming data blocks over the link.
US09876722B2

A data multi-stream transmission method and device are provided. The method includes that: a sending terminal determines an offloading way of offloading the Protocol Data Unit (PDU) data in a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer according to an offloading strategy; the sending terminal offloads all or part of the PDU data as offloading data from a first connection to a second connection in the offloading way, wherein the first connection and the second connection are both connections between the sending terminal and a receiving terminal; the sending terminal implements a data multi-stream processing on the offloading data in the PDCP layer, forwards the processed offloading data to a low-level layer for processing, sends the other PDU data except for the offloading data to the receiving terminal through the first connection and the processed offloading data to the receiving terminal through the second connection.
US09876713B2

Embodiments relate to cross-domain service request placement in a software defined environment (SDE). An aspect includes receiving a service request corresponding to a job to be completed in the SDE. Another aspect includes determining a first computer device in a first domain, and a second computer device in a second domain, that are capable of performing the service request. Another aspect includes determining, for the first and second computer devices, first and second pluralities of available service classes. Another aspect includes determining, for the first and second computer devices, a first and second plurality of costs of performing the service request, wherein each of the first and second plurality of costs corresponds to a single respective service class. Yet another aspect includes selecting one of the first computer device and the second computer device to perform the service request based on the first and second plurality of costs.
US09876710B2

An RB includes a grouping unit that groups VLANs in a TRILL network into patterns by using the low 3 bit sequence of a VLANID; a calculating unit that calculates the number of redundant paths with equal costs among physical paths in the TRILL network; and a sorting unit that sorts the patterns of VLANs, which are to be assigned to the physical paths, into the groups that are equivalent to the number of redundant paths according to a predetermined order. The RB includes an assignment table for managing, with respect to each of the groups, an assignable output destination path among the physical paths. The RB includes a control unit that refers to the assignment table, determines the output destination path for each of the groups, and collectively assigns all the VLANs of all the patterns of an appropriate group to the output destination path of the group.
US09876705B1

A system and method are provided for updating a network including at least one optical circuit switch (OCS) to transition from an existing network topology to a new network topology. One or more intermediate topologies between the existing topology and the new topology are created. Creating the intermediate topologies includes selecting first links to be added to the existing topology without removing links, selecting additional links to be added to the existing topology upon removal of one or more existing links, and adding one or more of the selected first and additional links to the existing topology to create a first intermediate topology. It is determined whether any of the selected first and additional links are still to be added, and if no selected first and additional links are to be added, remaining links are removed. The transition from the existing topology to the first intermediate topology is then effected.
US09876697B2

A jitter measuring setup (10) comprises a signal generator (14), a sample-and-hold circuit (15), and the inventive all stochastic jitter measuring device (1) comprising signal acquisition means (2) and calculation means (3). The input signal of the sample-and-hold circuit (15) is generated by the signal generator (14). Furthermore, the output signal of the sample-and-hold circuit (15), respectively the input signal of the measuring device (1), is comprised of a superposition of the sampled input signal of the sample-and-hold circuit (15) and a cyclostationary random process.
US09876692B2

A cloud-based monitoring apparatus includes a cloud-based network system, a cloud-based database connected with the cloud-based network system, at least one gateway control unit connected with the cloud-based network system, at least one mobile apparatus connected signally with the cloud-based database, at least one basic detection module connected signally with the gateway control unit, at least one serial bus module connected signally with the gateway control unit, at least one analog I/O module connected signally with the gateway control unit, at least one digital I/O module connected signally with the gateway control unit, and an ISP connected signally with the cloud-based database. The gateway control unit, the basic detection module, the serial bus module, the analog I/O module, and the digital I/O module are all mounted in a monitored environment and have at least individual monitor parameters.
US09876691B2

Methods, systems, and computer readable media may be operable to facilitate client device band steering based upon deep packet inspection information. An access point may be configured to steer one or more client devices from a low frequency band to a high frequency band, and vice versa, based on the status of the low frequency band and/or high frequency band and the client devices associated with the bands. The access point may perform a deep packet inspection of data packet traffic associated with each associated client device, and may classify each client device as either a device associated with a media session or a device that is not associated with a media session based upon information retrieved from the deep packet inspection. The access point may choose one or more client devices to disassociate from a frequency band based upon the media session classification of the client devices.
US09876683B2

A network management agent, device or module determine the network topology of a communication network based on at least one neighbor network or end device identity and corresponding network link communication delay collected from, determined by, and stored in a Management Information Base of, at least one first network device of the communication network. Neighbor identities and communication delays are determined according to the IEEE 1588 standard.
US09876679B2

A wireless mesh access point receives a first notification of firmware download availability. In response to the first notification, the wireless mesh access point downloads a firmware file from a peer from which the first notification was received. The wireless mesh access point loads the downloaded firmware file into a firmware memory associated with operation of a processor. The wireless mesh access point then transmits a second notification of firmware download availability to one or more other peers.
US09876672B2

Systems and methods for managing a network are described. A view of current state of the network is maintained where the current state of the network characterizes network topology and network constituents, including network entities and network elements residing in or on the network. Events are announced that correspond to changes in the state of the network and one or more network elements can be configured accordingly. Methods for managing network traffic are described that ensure forwarding and other actions taken by network elements implement globally declared network policy and refer to high-level names, independently of network topology and the location of network constituents. Methods for discovering network constituents are described, whereby are automatically configured. Routing may be performed using ACL and packets can be intercepted to permit host to continue in sleep mode. The methods are applicable to virtual environments.
US09876670B2

A communication system comprising a local network node (LNN) is described for connecting with a user terminal in a 3G network. The LNN provides a local user-controlled access point for the network that may be installed in the home or office by-passing connection through network Node Bs. If the User passes outside the coverage area provided by the LNN, then a handover between the LNN and an appropriate Node B preferably takes place so that the User's connection to the 3G network is substantially unaffected. The LNN is arranged to provide protocol conversion between the 3G control messages received from the UE to the equivalent SIP/SDP messages required for maintenance of connections in Internet Protocol based networks, such as the Release 5 architecture.
US09876669B2

A high-performance handheld mobile computing resource need not be provided a display or any peripheral devices to augment the performance of a client device. The mobile computing resource may include a motherboard, a central processing unit (CPU), a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a basic input/output system (BIOS), and an operating system (OS). A wireless module may be provided to enable wireless services. A power module may be provided to allow the mobile computing resource to serve as a power source. The mobile computing resource may serve as local cloud computation and storage resources to the client device, or as a remote desktop computer.
US09876667B2

A four-level pulse amplitude modulation transmitter and corresponding method are provided. The transmitter includes a most significant bit processing section and a least significant bit processing section. The transmitter further includes at least one termination resistor connected to respective outputs of the processing sections to provide a transmitter output. Each of the processing sections include a set of retiming latches arranged in a parallel for aligning input parallel data and providing parallel aligned latched outputs responsive to one phase of a quarter-rate four-phase quadrature clock. Each of the processing sections further includes a serializer for serializing the parallel aligned latched outputs to provide a serialized output using quarter-rates of the quarter-rate four-phase quadrature clock. Each of the processing sections also include an output driver for driving the serialized output.
US09876656B1

A differential feedback equalizer is described. A differential feedback equalizer comprises a summer circuit configured to receive a differential input signal and a summer tap circuit output and to generate a summer circuit differential output; a first latch configured to receive the summer circuit differential output from the summer circuit and to generate a first differential latch output comprising a first state of the differential feedback equalizer; and a feedback circuit having a NAND gate coupled to an output of the first latch and configured to generate a differential tap feedback signal; wherein the feedback circuit comprises a NAND gate buffer that maintains the differential tap feedback signal at a predetermined voltage during a reset phase of the first latch. A method of implementing a differential feedback equalizer is also described.
US09876651B2

A home network system has a home appliance, a portable terminal to receive a control command associated with the home appliance, and an access point to allow the home appliance or the portable terminal to be connected to a wide area network (WAN), wherein the access point notifies the home appliance of the connection of the portable terminal if the portable terminal connects to the access point, so that the home application detects that a user returns home and performs a certain operation as a user connects to the access point when returning home.
US09876649B2

Consistent with embodiments of the present disclosure, systems and methods are disclosed for providing per-group ECMP for multidestination traffic in a DCE/TRILL network. Embodiments enable per-group load balancing of multidestination traffic in DCE/L2MP networks by creating a new IS-IS PDU to convey the affinity of the parent node for a given multicast group. For broadcast and unknown unicast flooded traffic, the load balancing may be done on a per-vlan basis.
US09876645B1

A manufacturer of computing equipment may generate a signature for computing equipment by measuring various attributes of the computing equipment, such as the impedance across circuits included in the computing equipment. Verification equipment may be provided to a recipient of the computing equipment. The verification equipment may be configured to generate a signature of the computing equipment over a physical connection between the verification equipment and the computing equipment. A determination may be made whether the computing equipment has been tamper with based at least in part on the signature generated by the manufacturer and the signature generated by the recipient.
US09876642B2

A method is provided for securely transmitting a digital message that is transmitted by means of an electronic letter service. A user of the service has a computer with a functioning browser and an Internet connection, and the electronic letter service makes use of a TrustCenter. The user creates a password using his/her browser. A user password verifier is cryptographically derived from the password. The user password verifier is transmitted to the electronic letter service and stored on a storage medium. A user secret is generated from the password by means of a cryptographic derivation. The user secret constitutes the symmetrical key for the encryption of a user-specific user master secret. The user secret is encrypted using the public key of the TrustCenter and the encrypted user secret is transmitted to the electronic letter service, from where it is then forwarded to the TrustCenter.
US09876640B2

In an embodiment, an information processing apparatus is connected to external apparatuses. The information processing apparatus includes: a device key storage unit configured to store a device key; a shared key storage unit configured to store one or more shared keys shared by the external apparatuses; a key generating unit configured to generate a media key from the device key and media key blocks; and an updating unit configured to generate the shared keys as generated shared keys, which is updated, based upon the media key and the shared keys stored in the shared key storage unit, and to store the generated shared keys into the shared key storage unit.
US09876639B2

A method performed by a processor of a receiver of generating a secret key using a quantum communication, the processor execute the method comprising: performing a quantum key distribution (QKD) protocol to generate a sifted key; performing a post-processing protocol based on the sifted key to generate a final key; counting the number of double click events when quantum signals are detected; and performing privacy amplification of the final key based on the counted number of the double click events.
US09876631B2

A digital synchronizer is disclosed with a phase locked loop and a carrier generator. The phase locked loop is configured to produce an output signal having the same frequency as an input signal by selecting a divider ratio of a frequency divider with a control signal, the frequency divider divides the frequency of a high frequency signal by the divider ratio to provide the output signal; carrier generator is configured to generate an oversampled carrier signal by using the control signal to produce a carrier signal with a period corresponding with a contemporaneous period of the output signal.
US09876623B2

Methods and apparatus are provided for a user equipment (UE) to transmit uplink control information (UCI) and for a base station to receive UCI when the UE is configured a number of cells for operation with carrier aggregation (CA). The base station configures the UE a code rate and the UE determines a UCI payload to transmit in a subframe to be the maximum one that results a transmission code rate that is not larger than the configured code rate. For transmission of aperiodic channel state information (A-CSI), a number of triggering states depends on the number of cells.
US09876618B2

A system and method for transmitting uplink channels for a plurality of uplink component carriers(UL CCs). Based upon a total transmit power exceeding a maximum allowed power, a transmit power is reduced for uplink channel transmissions that comprise Uplink Channel Information (UCI); and transmit power is not reduced for one or more other uplink channels that do not include comprise Uplink Channel Information (UCI). The uplink channel transmissions and the one or more other uplink channels are simultaneously transmitted in multiple uplink (UL) component carriers (CCs).
US09876613B2

A method, an apparatus, and a computer program product for transport protocol communications processing are provided. The apparatus may be an electronic device. The electronic device receives a transport protocol communications from a sender device. The electronic device generates a plurality of acknowledgments in response to the received transport protocol traffic and stores the plurality of acknowledgments at a first memory. A modem load for a modem of the electronic device is determined. The electronic device identifies the plurality of acknowledgments to identify a subset of the plurality of acknowledgments in response to the determined modem load satisfying a modem load threshold condition. The electronic device moves the subset of acknowledgments from the first memory to a second memory. The electronic device transmits the subset of acknowledgments to the sender device.
US09876611B2

A method for transmitting packets by a transmitter in a wireless communication network and retransmitting the packets not received correctly by receivers is discussed. The method includes transmitting the packets to at least two receivers, receiving reception acknowledgement response signals including ACK or NACK signals for the packets transmitted to the receivers, analyzing patterns of the received reception acknowledgement response signals in accordance with a number of the ACK or NACK signals, differently index coding the packets which are not received correctly by each receiver, and retransmitting the index-coded packets.
US09876609B2

According to one aspect of the invention, a method is provided in which a control channel used for transmitting control information is partitioned into a plurality of subchannels each of which is operated at a specific data rate. For each of one or more user terminals, one of the subchannels is selected based on one or more selection criteria for transmitting control information from an access point to the respective user terminal. Control information is transmitted from the access point to a user terminal on a particular subchannel selected for the respective user terminal. At the user terminal, one or more subchannels are decoded to obtain control information designated for the user terminal.
US09876604B2

In certain aspects of the present disclosure, an apparatus for wireless communications comprises a processing system configured to generate a frame comprising first information indicating a plurality of channels to be used by the apparatus for a transmission and second information indicating a time duration of the transmission. The apparatus also comprises an interface configured to output the frame for wireless transmission on at least one of the plurality of channels. In certain aspects of the present disclosure, another apparatus receiving the frame may determine the plurality of channels based on the first information, compute a time duration based on the second information, and avoid transmitting on the plurality of channels for at least the computed time duration (e.g., to avoid collision).
US09876579B2

A single chip dual-channel driver for two independent traveling wave modulators. The driver includes two differential pairs inputs per channel respectively configured to receive two digital differential pair signals. The driver further includes a two-bit DAC per channel coupled to the two differential pairs inputs to produce a single analog differential pair PAM signal at a differential pair output for driving a traveling wave modulator. Additionally, the driver includes a control block having internal voltage/current signal generators respective coupled to each input and the 2-bit DAC for providing a bias voltage, a tail current, a dither signal to assist modulation control per channel. Furthermore, the driver includes an internal I2C communication block coupled to a high-speed clock generator to generate control signals to the control block and coupled to host via an I2C digital communication interface.
US09876569B2

A method and system for simultaneous mitigation of optical impairment from both equalizer-phase noise interaction (EPNI) and fiber nonlinear effects (FNE) is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method is directed to simultaneous mitigation of optical impairment from both equalizer-phase noise interaction (EPNI) and fiber nonlinear effects (FNE) using a fast-adaptive multi-tap digital filter.
US09876566B1

One or more operational parameters associated with pluggable optical transceivers are estimated to mitigate impairments to an optical signal caused by imperfections in the optical transceivers. A monitoring algorithm within a receiver signal processor may further use the estimated operational parameters associated with the pluggable optical transceivers to determine whether the transceivers are performing correctly. If the monitoring algorithm determines that either the transmitting or receiving optical transceiver is not functioning correctly, it may generate an alarm signal to notify a system administrator about the damaged device.
US09876564B1

Embodiments include a system, method, and a computer program product for identifying a cause of return system degradation. Embodiments include monitoring a network to identify a distressed node impacted by return system degradation, polling a plurality of cable modem devices serviced by the distressed node for transmission parameter values, scoring the transmission parameter values for each of the plurality of cable modem devices, identifying a cable modem device from among the plurality of cable modem devices causing the return system degradation based on the scores of each of the plurality of cable modem devices, and initiating a work order to repair the cable modem device from among the plurality of cable modem devices causing the return system degradation.
US09876560B1

Systems, methods, and software described herein provide enhancements for allocating Long Term Evolution (LTE) resources to a wireless relay node. In one implementation, a method of operating a LTE access node includes receiving device summary reports from a wireless relay node that indicate at least the quantity of wireless communication devices connected to the wireless relay node. Based on the received summaries, the LTE access node may determine scheduling weights for the wireless relay node, wherein the scheduling weights indicate a probability of scheduling resources in comparison to other wireless communication devices communicating using the same quality of service class identifier as the wireless relay node.
US09876558B2

According to one embodiment, a relay device that relays communication between an information request device which requests information and an information providing device which provides requested information. The relay device includes an interface to receive a signal transmitted by the information request device. The relay device includes a first circuitry to perform, using the signal, at least one of connection management of a network, authentication of the information request device, and authentication of a user of the information request device. The relay device includes a second circuitry to control allocation of storage areas included in a storage device, or an available range within which information saved in the storage area is able to be provided, when the first circuitry detects establishment of a connection to the network, disconnection of the connection, an authentication result, or a lapse of a valid connection time period.
US09876552B2

A method of adjusting single-stream transmissions by a wireless device based on channel state information (CSI). The wireless device generates a sounding packet formatted for transmission via multiple spatial streams, and transmits the sounding packet to a receiving device via a single one of the multiple spatial streams. For example, the wireless device may be a single-antenna device. The wireless device further receives channel state information (CSI) from the receiving device based at least in part on the sounding packet. The wireless device then adjusts one or more characteristics of single-stream transmissions to the receiving device based at least in part on the received CSI.
US09876551B2

A mobile station reports, based on a known signal transmitted from a base station, channel state information to the base station and performs wireless communication with the base station by spatial multiplexing. The mobile station includes: a calculating unit that calculates first precoding information corresponding to first channel state information and used in horizontal direction beam formation in the base station, second precoding information corresponding to second channel state information, and third precoding information corresponding to both of the first channel state information and the second channel state information and used in vertical direction beam formation in the base station; and a report control unit that reports the first precoding information and the third precoding information in reporting the first channel state information, and reports the second precoding information without reporting the third precoding information in reporting the second channel state information.
US09876550B2

A mobile station is connected to a multi-carrier cellular communication system having a plurality of sub-carriers. The sub-carriers are classified into K frequency sub-bands, channel state information (CSI) of the frequency sub-bands is represented by matrices Wi (i=0 . . . K−1), where K is an integer grater than 1. The mobile station determines a first sub-index k1 for the K matrices Wi (i=0 . . . K−1), and a second sub-index k2 for each one of the K matrices Wi (i=0 . . . K−1). The first sub-index k1 is common for all frequency sub-bands, and the second sub-index k2 is specific for the indexed matrix that corresponds to one frequency sub-band. The mobile station reports to a base station of the multi-carrier cellular communication system the first sub-index k1 and at least one second sub-index k2.
US09876545B2

Some demonstrative embodiments include apparatuses, devices, systems and methods of wireless communication via polarized antennas. For example, an apparatus may include circuitry configured to cause a wireless station to generate an information element including a plurality of antenna identifiers of a plurality of directional antennas of the wireless station, and a plurality of polarization indicators corresponding to the plurality of antenna identifiers, a polarization indicator corresponding to an antenna identifier to indicate a polarization setting of a directional antenna identified by the antenna identifier; and to transmit a frame including the information element.
US09876535B2

This disclosure provides systems, methods and apparatus for connecting and operating an AC source to a load. In one aspect a power supply topology is provided which may be of particular use in the area of wireless power transfer. The topology allows for multiple sources to be operatively connected to a single conductive structure configured to generate a field, maintaining overall system power while lowering the power output of each source.
US09876531B2

A system and method for signal processing in a cable modem termination system (CMTS) is provided. A CMTS receiver in communication with a plurality of cable modems at a upstream signal or a cable modem receiver in communication with the CMTS at a downstream signal. A plurality of Advanced Time Division Multiple Access (“ATDMA”) channel processors include a filter for recovering an ATDMA signal and a Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (“OFDM”) channel processor includes a filter for processing a combined OFDM and ATDMA signal. A summation module subtracts the ATDMA signal from the combined ATDMA and OFDM signal to obtain a clean OFDM signal.
US09876530B2

“Tiered” groups of devices (tiered service radios) and/or licenses associated with the devices or users so as to provide a hieratical set of interference protection mechanisms for members of each tier of service are disclosed. Point-to-point and point-to-multipoint data links for any communication application, including wireless backhaul applications, are also disclosed. Exemplary systems, devices, and methods disclosed herein allow for the efficient operation of such a tiered service. Interference protection among tiered service devices belonging to one or more tiers of the service, from other devices within the same tier of service, or devices of other tiers of service, is disclosed. Identification of other devices of the same or differing tiers of service, and interference mitigation between other tiered service devices based upon intercommunication between the devices, and/or via a central registry database, are also disclosed.
US09876525B1

A portable millimeter-wave wireless communications device relies on millimeter-wave spectrum for wireless communications. The millimeter-wave device may be a smart-phone, a laptop computer or a tablet computer. The millimeter-wave device may be a module that is added to an existing portable device such as a smart-phone, a laptop computer or a tablet computer to provide millimeter-wave communications capability. The module may be incorporated into a protective encapsulating case of such portable devices.
US09876521B2

A sliding stand assembly comprises a back cover, a sliding engaging member, a spring, a first stand and a second stand. The sliding engaging member is located at a first surface of the back cover. The sliding engaging member comprises first and second protruding portions. The first stand is slidably pivoted to the back cover. The first stand comprises first to third concave portions. The first concave portion has first and second sub-portions. The second stand is pivoted to the first stand and the back cover. When the first stand slides to a positioning location, the first protruding portion is engaged with the first sub-portion and the second protruding portion is located in the second concave portion. When the first protruding portion moves from the first sub-portion to the second sub-portion, the second protruding portion moves to the third concave portion to be positioned.
US09876518B2

Systems, methods, and articles of manufacture, including computer program products, are provided for capacitive passive mixer baseband receivers with broadband harmonic rejection. In some embodiments, an apparatus is provided. The apparatus includes a receiver configured to receive an input signal and generate, based on the input signal, an in-phase portion and a quadrature phase portion. The apparatus further includes a harmonic rejection mixer comprising a plurality of capacitors, the plurality of capacitors encoded with a plurality of capacitance values, the harmonic rejection mixer configured to reduce harmonics in the input signal based on applying a quantity of the plurality of capacitance values to the input signal. The apparatus further includes a plurality of switches configured to activate the plurality of capacitors, the quantity of the plurality of predetermined capacitance values applied to the input signal based on a quantity of the plurality of capacitors that are active.
US09876515B2

In one aspect there is provided a method. The method may include sampling an output of a power amplifier, wherein the sampled power amplifier output represents a modulated carrier being transmitted; processing to baseband the sampled power amplifier output; and determining one or more adjustments to the power amplifier, wherein the determined one or more power adjustments are determined based on at least one or more measurements performed on the baseband. Related apparatus, systems, methods, and articles are also described.
US09876507B2

Systems and methods for the semantic compression of structured data include identifying attributes of elements in a collection structure, such as a table. The attributes may be grouped and the grouping used to consolidate attribute values used in the elements. An index of repeated attribute values may also be generated and used to replace the attribute values in elements of the structured data.
US09876491B2

Described herein are apparatus, method, and system for re-synthesizing a clock signal. The apparatus comprises: a first logic unit to detect a rising edge of an input clock signal and for generating a rising edge of an output clock signal based on the detected rising edge of the input clock signal, the input clock signal having a non-50% duty cycle and a first period; and a second logic unit to compute a falling edge of the output clock signal according to the detected rising edge of the input clock signal, the falling edge of the output clock signal being near half of the first period.
US09876487B2

A contactless readable programmable transponder to monitor chip join and method of use are disclosed. The method includes reading a frequency of an oscillator associated with a chip module. The method further includes correlating the frequency with a bond quality of the chip module.
US09876483B2

An microelectronic device includes a substrate, a piezoelectric component formed over the substrate, at least one trench formed in the substrate. The piezoelectric component has a corresponding resonance frequency. The at least one trench is configured to reduce mechanical stress on the piezoelectric component, in response to force applied to the substrate, for stabilizing the resonance frequency.
US09876469B1

An apparatus includes a substrate, a capacitance die and an exciter die. The capacitance die is generally mounted on the substrate and may be configured to vary a frequency of a signal in an inductor. The exciter die is generally mounted on the substrate and may be configured to excite the signal. A particular one of the capacitance die and the exciter die may be fabricated with a die mask that has a plurality of available designs. The available designs generally customize the particular die to a plurality of configurations respectively. The capacitance die, the exciter die and the inductor may form a voltage-controlled oscillator.
US09876468B2

A method, a system and a program product for use when monitoring degradation of a photovoltaic cell each use a plurality of current-voltage curves for the photovoltaic cell obtained at a plurality of predetermined times, where the plurality of current-voltage curves is obtained when the photovoltaic cell (or related module, string or array) is in operational service. The use of such a plurality of current-voltage curves provides for extraction of a plurality of degradation characteristics or parameters for the photovoltaic cell.
US09876459B2

A motor driving circuit has a supply line connected to a DC power source, an inverter whose input side is connected to the supply line and whose output side is connected to a motor, a power switch inserted in the supply line for switching the supply line between conducting and cut-off states, a voltage detector for detecting a voltage between the direct-current power source and the power switch, and an insulation resistance detector for first detecting, based on a result of detection by the voltage detector with the power switch in the cut-off state, an insulation resistance on the preceding-stage side of the power switch and subsequently detecting, based on a result of detection by the voltage detector with the power switch in the conducting state, an insulation resistance on the succeeding-stage side of the power switch.
US09876456B2

A bridge converter for a multi-phase electrical machine has a number of bridge cells connected in series. Each bridge cell has a controller. The bridge converter includes a sensor operative to provide a commutation signal to at least one controller. A multi-phase electrical machine has a plurality of stator windings and a bridge converter having a number of bridge cells connected in series. Each bridge cell has a controller. The bridge converter includes a sensor operative to provide a commutation signal to at least one controller.
US09876454B2

Automatic voltage regulation is shown involving full wave rectifying a power signal and generating a reference corresponding to an operating voltage level, line sampling the power signal and comparing it to the reference to generate a line sync signal synchronized to the power signal. Producing 90° out of phase signals synchronized to the line sync signal with a PLL locked onto the line sync signal that outputs a phase error signal. Generating a quadrature signal from the phase signals. Sampling the peaks of the rectified power signal using the quadrature signal to produce a control signal. Subtracting the error signal and damping signal from the reference to produce a duty cycle modulation signal. The duty cycle modulation signal controls a duty cycle of a field voltage control signal that oscillates at a predetermined frequency. The field voltage control signal is low-pass filtered to produce the damping signal. The control signal is utilized to detect a short circuit condition and engage a circuit protection device. The reference voltage may also be obtained from another generator so that the output voltage is controlled to operate in sync with the other generator.
US09876447B2

A motor system includes a stator magnetic pole, a driving unit and a stop control unit. The stator magnetic pole is adapted to couple with a rotor for the rotor to rotate relative to the stator magnetic pole. The stator magnetic pole has first and second ends. The driving unit is electrically connected with the stator magnetic pole and drives the rotor to rotate by changing the polarity of the stator magnetic pole. The stop control unit is electrically connected to the stator magnetic pole and the driving unit. If the rotor rotates when the motor system is not electrically powered, the stator magnetic pole generates electricity that changes the path of the electric current flowing through the stop control unit, and the stator magnetic pole outputs an electric current from the first end to the second end or from the second end to the first end thereof. In addition, a fan module is also disclosed to solve the problem.
US09876446B2

A plate, a transducer, a method for making a transducer, and a method for operating a transducer are disclosed. An embodiment comprises a plate comprising a first material layer comprising a first stress, a second material layer arranged beneath the first material layer, the second material layer comprising a second stress, an opening arranged in the first material layer and the second material layer, and an extension extending into opening, wherein the extension comprises a portion of the first material layer and a portion of the second material layer, and wherein the extension is curved away from a top surface of the plate based on a difference in the first stress and the second stress.
US09876444B2

An wobble motor with an actuator extending in a Z direction between opposite mount and tool ends and comprising two sections offset in that Z direction. Each section comprises a structure of electrodes interleaved in a piezoelectric material in such a way that a Y-region can cause deflection in a Y-direction perpendicular to the Z-direction upon energizing of associated electrodes and such that a X-region can cause deflection in an X-direction perpendicular to the Y and Z directions upon energizing of associated electrodes.
US09876437B2

An interleaved transformer or a transformer and integrated set of inductors formed via a magnetic structure comprising a set of E cores and an I core inserted between the set of E cores is provided in order to address issues that occur when a structured transformer is coupled together with inductor flux. Actual inductance exhibited by the transformers is controlled by a preselected precise gap between the I core and each of the E cores. The advantage of such a structured transformer cancels out the magnetic flux in certain legs of the magnetic structure requiring less magnetic material and thus, less core losses while improving the overall efficiency of a power supply.
US09876436B2

A switching power supply apparatus of a current-resonance type, including a first switching element and a second switching element connected in series, a series circuit of a resonant reactor and a resonant capacitor connected in parallel to the first switching element or the second switching element, a control circuit configured to alternately turn on and off the first switching element and the second switching element, and a load detection circuit. The load detection circuit includes a shunt circuit which shunts a resonant current flowing through the resonant reactor and resonant capacitor connected in series to obtain a shunted current, converts the shunted current to a first voltage signal, and outputs the first voltage signal, a switching circuit which switches between the first voltage signal and a second voltage signal of a ground level to generate a third voltage signal, and an averaging circuit which averages the third voltage signal.
US09876423B2

A DC-to-DC converter includes an input terminal connected to a DC power source. An output terminal is connected to a load. A reactor is disposed between the input terminal and the output terminal. A blocking diode is connected in series to the reactor. A switching element has one end connected between the reactor and the blocking diode. A boost chopper circuit boosts an input voltage to generate an output voltage. A first reactor is disposed between the input terminal and the one end. A first capacitor is disposed between the first reactor and the switching element and connected in series to the first reactor. A first diode includes an anode terminal and a cathode terminal. The anode terminal is connected to a connection portion of the first reactor and the first capacitor. The cathode terminal is connected to the output terminal.
US09876422B2

A switching mode power supply generating reduced high frequency noise. The power supply includes a solid state switch, a modulator for driving the solid state switch with a periodic pulse drive signal, an output filter at the output of the solid state switch, where the output filter includes an inductor and a catch diode. A damping element is included for damping current spikes through the catch diode when said solid state switch turns on and thus reduce noise pulses that would otherwise be introduced by the current spikes.
US09876417B2

The invention relates to an arrangement (20) for determining the angular position of a shaft (11) of an electric motor (10), in particular of a shaft (11) of a windscreen wiper motor (100), with a magnet element arrangement, connected with the shaft (11), and several magnetic field sensors (26, 27, 28), wherein the angular position of the shaft (11) is inferred from the different signals of the magnetic field sensors (26, 27, 28). Provision is made, according to the invention, for the magnet element arrangement to comprise at least one magnet element, preferably several separate magnet elements (21, 22, 23), which are arranged one behind the other in the longitudinal direction of the shaft (11), and for the magnetic field sensors (26, 27, 28) to be arranged on a printed circuit board (30) which is arranged at a slight distance from the shaft (11), such that the magnetic fields of the magnet elements (21, 22, 23) are able to be determined by the magnetic field sensors (26, 27, 28).
US09876414B2

A method of molding a resin casing covering a stator of a motor may include preparing first and second molds; disposing the stator in the first mold; combining the molds; pouring a resin into the cavity; curing the resin; separating the molds; and taking the stator and resin casing from the mold. The stator may include a core, an insulator, and a coil. The core may include a core back surrounding and teeth that extend inward from the core back. The insulator may include wall portions inside the coil. The wall portions may be provided around the teeth and extend toward one side in an axial direction. One of the molds may include cylindrical surfaces contacting inner end faces of the teeth. The first mold may include wall supporting surfaces contacting or facing the inner surfaces of the wall portions. The wall supporting surfaces may be outside the cylindrical surfaces.
US09876408B2

An electric machine includes an electric machine having a housing defining a cavity in the housing. The housing has an internal wall of the housing defining an aperture extending from an exterior of the housing to the cavity. The machine also includes a stator secured to the housing and a rotor. The rotor is rotatably secured to the housing. The machine also includes a component positionable in the aperture and a sealing member. The sealing member is operably associated with the component. At least a portion of the sealing member is made of a conformable material and adapted for engagement with the housing. The internal wall of the housing is adapted to radially engage the conformable portion of the sealing member.
US09876407B2

A motor includes two magnetically coupled, coaxially-nested Halbach cylinder rotors, one of which passes through a toroidal series of at least two stator coils while the other is attached to an axle or other means of transferring mechanical power. An embodiment is described comprising an additional third Halbach cylinder rotor in which a circumferential arrangement of permanent magnets is mounted rotatably and proximally outside the stator coils, coaxial with the stator coils. Adjacent stator coils are configured so as to produce opposing magnetic fields upon energizing of the motor. Alternating the current to the stator coils induces movement in the rotor. Commutation can occur brushlessly, or the motor can be configured to function without commutation by varying the frequency of the alternating current, and can be configured to operate by either DC or AC current. Alternatively, the rotor may be driven to generate an electric current in the stator.
US09876402B2

An interior permanent magnet motor includes a stator and a rotor. The rotor includes a rotor core formed by laminating a plurality of plate members. The rotor core has a plurality of magnet insertion holes formed therein, into which corresponding permanent magnets are respectively inserted. At least one slit and at least one caulked portion are formed between a rotor outer peripheral surface of the rotor and a radially-outer insertion hole contour surface of the magnet insertion hole. At least a part of the caulked portion is positioned between a pair of width extended lines of the slit.
US09876398B2

A stator core for a rotating electric machine includes a plurality of split cores. Each of the plurality of split cores includes a back yoke, a tooth, and a single caulking portion. When each of the plurality of split cores is seen in an axial direction, two inner circumferential-side intersections and two outer circumferential-side intersections are defined, both circumferential-end surfaces of the tooth intersect an inner circumferential surface of the back yoke at the two inner circumferential-side intersections, virtual lines drawn by extending both the circumferential-end surfaces of the tooth intersect an outer circumferential surface of the back yoke at the two outer circumferential-side intersections, a central position of the caulking portion is disposed in an opposing angular region on a radially outer side out of four opposing angular regions defined by lines diagonally connecting the two inner circumferential-side intersections to the respective two outer circumferential-side intersections.
US09876379B1

Configurations and methods of wireless power transmission for charging or powering one or more electronic devices inside a vehicle are disclosed. A transmitter capable of single or multiple pocket-forming may be connected to a car lighter, where this transmitter may include a circuitry module and an antenna array integrated within the transmitter, or operatively connected through a cable. This cable may allow the positioning of the antenna array in different locations inside the vehicle suitable for directing RF waves or pockets of energy towards one or more electronic devices. Transmitter's configuration can be accessed by one or more electronic devices through Bluetooth communication in order to set up charging or powering priorities.
US09876376B2

A multiple battery charger is provided. The multiple battery charger includes an input unit configured to receive or block power from a power supply unit, an output unit including a plurality of output terminals, wherein the plurality of output terminals are commonly connected to the input unit and charge a plurality of batteries, and wherein each of the plurality of output terminals includes at least one of a plurality of second switches for a selective receipt of the power from the input unit and the plurality of output terminals are controlled in a time division multiple control manner, and a switching control unit configured to transmit a pulse width modulation signal to the input unit and the output unit so as to independently control the power applied to the plurality of batteries. Accordingly, a plurality of different kinds of batteries and the same kind of batteries in which charge states are different can be simultaneously charged.
US09876363B2

A non-contact type power transmitting apparatus may include a rectifying unit rectifying alternating current (AC) power, a power converting unit converting the power rectified by the rectifying unit into direct current (DC) power through a single power converting operation and switching and transmitting the DC power, and a power transmitting coil transmitting transmission power transmitted from the power converting unit externally in a non-contact scheme.
US09876362B2

A capacitance (Cp) is a capacitance formed between a transmitting-device-side passive electrode and a receiving-device-side passive electrode. A capacitance (Ca) is a capacitance formed between a transmitting-device-side active electrode and a receiving-device-side active electrode. A bridge circuit formed by Z1 to Z4 is connected to a secondary side of a step-up transformer, where Z1 represents an impedance of a first element, Z2 represents an impedance of a second element, Z3 represents an impedance of a series circuit formed by the capacitance (Ca) and a load, and Z4 represents an impedance of the capacitance (Cp). By determining the impedances Z1 to Z4 such that this bridge circuit is balanced, a potential at a receiving-device-side reference potential point is made equal to a ground potential. This reduces variation in receiving-device-side reference potential, reduces noise, and stabilizes the operation of a load circuit on the receiving device side.
US09876359B2

Disclosed is a high-voltage AC capacitor for reactive power compensation of 10 kV-35 kV power grid, and in particular to a high-voltage AC capacitor with a high-voltage switching switch provided therein, as well as a structure for prolonging the service life of a thin film metalized high-voltage capacitor and a control method for prolonging the service life of the thin film metalized high-voltage capacitor. The AC capacitor is formed by multiple intelligent switch capacitor units connected in series, and each capacitor unit is formed by a switch contact (K11-Kn1) and a capacitor (C1-Cn) connected in series. If there are N capacitor units, when each switch contact is disconnected, the endurable voltage of each switch contact, the endurable voltage between the switch contact and a coil and the voltage each capacitor withstands are 1/Nth of the total voltage; when the switch operates, all the contacts operate at the same instant.
US09876357B2

A method and system for reducing demand on a power grid through demand side management includes receiving assigned priorities from a customer for smart appliances and for appliances plugged into sockets of one or more smart plugs of the customer, the assigned priorities indicative of a customer-preferred sequence for disconnection of, or adjustment of power to, the appliances from the power grid. The system determines whether to disconnect or adjust power to at least one of the appliances of the customer; and selects at least one of the appliances according to the assigned priorities to reduce demand on the power grid. The system sends one or more commands, the one or more commands indicative to the one or more smart plugs to disconnect or adjust power to the selected at least one of the appliances based on selecting at least one of the appliances.
US09876351B2

In accordance with an embodiment, an electric apparatus is provided with a connection device configured to connect with an external power supply, a battery and a plurality of power load sections, and a controller programmed to select a supply destination of power of the external power supply from a plurality of the power load sections, and supply power of the battery to another power load section except the supply destination according to supply capacity of the external power supply connected with the connection device.
US09876340B2

A utility enclosure assembly includes a box and a lid. The box has a plurality of side walls each having an upper ledge, a hollow center opening and at least one receiving latching mechanism associated with a ledge in at least one of the side walls. The lid rests on the ledges of the side walls and has at least one attached latching mechanism. The at least one attached latching mechanism is provided to operatively engage a respective one of the at least one receiving latching mechanism.
US09876338B2

The invention concerns a device for stripping electric cables, comprising at least one stripping beam (10, 11; 110, 111; 209) emitted by a LASER source (1; 101; 201) and focused by an optical assembly (2-4; 102, 103; 203-208) into a focusing point (12, 13), called cutting point, and at least one track (6; 106) for receiving a portion of cable to be stripped, characterised in that each LASER source comprises a LASER diode (1; 101; 201) emitting a stripping beam of which the wavelength is between 400 nm and 460 nm, and preferably of the order of 445 nm.
US09876335B2

Systems, devices and methods for racking circuit breakers in a switchgear cabinet include a drive mechanism that is flexibly linked to a racking mechanism associated with each circuit breaker. The drive mechanism can be connected for racking multiple circuit breakers without requiring re-positioning of the drive mechanism.
US09876326B1

A socket having a quick release to removably and reliably receive a light bulb. A flat circular base has a top surface and an outer periphery. A plurality of flexible elongated plastic prongs extend outward from the top surface about the outer periphery of the base. The prongs are threaded and can flex outward to permit the light bulb to be pulled straight out of or pushed straight into the socket without turning the light bulb. A first elongated metal socket contact is positioned along at least one of the flexible elongated plastic prongs. A second metal socket contact is positioned at the top surface of the base.
US09876325B2

Embodiments of a multi-function power strip are shown, said strip including a first endcap and a second endcap; at least one rail, said rail being adapted to engage with at least one outlet module; the rail also being engaged with a transformer module, said transformer module in electrical connection with the at least one outlet module, and adapted to receive electrical power therefrom, said transformer module further comprising a transformer adapted to transform electrical power into a plurality of voltages suitable for powering a plurality of different models of electronic accessories, and a connector forming a circuit to provide a suitable one of the plurality of voltages to an electronic accessory; and wherein the at least one outlet module and the transformer module are releasably joined together.
US09876324B2

A retractable electrical plug for mounting in a hollow wall structure of a building and for charging the batteries of portable communication devices, including a face plate for mounting to hollow wall structures defining on its exterior surface a plug recess, a plug shaped to nest in the plug recess, a cord opening in the face plate extending from the plug recess to the interior surface of the face plate, and an electrical conductor cord that extends from the plug and through the cord opening into the hollow wall.
US09876322B2

The present invention provides a communication jack for connecting to one of a first plug and a second plug. The jack includes a housing, plug interface contacts, and coupling circuitry. The plug interface contacts are at least partially within said housing and include a plurality of contact pairs having at least a first contact pair and a second contact pair. The coupling circuitry is configured for engaging said first contact pair and said second contact pair when said first plug is inserted into said housing. The coupling circuitry is configured for disengaging from said first contact pair and said second contact pair when said second plug is inserted into said housing.
US09876317B2

An energy transfer system includes an adapter having a power terminal port with a plurality of power terminals and an intermediate adapter terminal port with a plurality of intermediate adapter terminals. Each of the plurality of intermediate adapter terminals is in direct electrical communication with one of the plurality of adapter terminals. The energy transfer system also includes an intermediate complementary port that is configured to mate with the intermediate adapter terminal port to establish electrical communication between the plurality of intermediate adapter terminals and a plurality of complementary intermediate terminals. The adapter terminal port is configured not to mate with the intermediate terminal port and not to mate with the intermediate complementary terminal port.
US09876315B2

A coupling unit has an electrical-connector for push-fit electrical connection in the coupling unit axial direction to a mating electrical-connector of a unit. The electrical-connector and mating electrical-connector have engagement formations permitting push-fit connection only when the electrical-connector is in predetermined rotational alignment about axial direction with the mating electrical-connector. The coupling unit has a backshell in fixed rotational relationship with the electrical-connector and extending rearwardly therefrom to house, in use, one or more leads extending rearwardly from the electrical-connector. The coupling unit has coaxial actuation sleeve surrounding the backshell. The actuation sleeve axially moves to effect push-fit connection. The backshell and actuation sleeve are operatively connected so: actuation sleeve movement in forward axial direction towards the unit is resisted by electrical-connector contact with the mating electrical-connector to produce backshell rotation, thereby aligning the electrical-connector with the mating electrical-connector and allowing push-fit connection of the electrical-connector to the mating electrical-connector.
US09876312B1

A double locking mechanism between plate end and cable end of Ethernet vehicle connector. The double locking mechanism includes a plate end connector body, a cable end connector body and a locking plate, in which the connector bodies are pluggable with each other. The plate end connector body includes a fastening plate located at its top end, at the near pluggable end, the fastening plate is provided with an inward hook, which is provided with a sliding slope at the near pluggable end. The cable end connector body includes a fastening bar located at the top of itself, the fastening bar includes a long incline and a short incline respectively located at its near and distal pluggable ends. The locking plate includes a longitudinal resilient fastener and two transverse resilient fasteners respectively located in the middle and at the two sides of the locking plate.
US09876311B2

A device may comprise a housing having a straight rounded edge. A self-aligning connector at the straight rounded edge may comprise a cylindrical magnet oriented with its axis substantially parallel to the straight rounded edge. The cylindrical magnet is for magnetically engaging a magnet of another connector so as to align and connect the self-aligning connector with the other connector. The self-aligning connector may comprise mounting structure configured to mount the cylindrical magnet at the straight rounded edge of the housing with the axis of the cylindrical magnet being substantially parallel to the straight rounded edge of the housing. The device may include two such self-aligning connectors, spaced apart from one another, along a single straight rounded edge of the device housing.
US09876309B2

A clip-on bracket for a cable outlet of a plug-in connector, wherein the clip-on bracket has a first end that can be brought into touching contact with a cable outlet of the plug-in connector, and wherein the clip-on bracket, has a second end that can be brought into touching contact with the cable outlet or with a cable sheath of the cable connected to the plug-in connector. The first end is connected to the second end via two webs, so that the cable outlet and/or the connected cable is only partially covered by the webs of the clip-on bracket.
US09876296B2

A board-to-board connectory assembly, intended to connect two PCBs using a receptacle connector mounted on a first PCB and a plug connector mounted on a second PCB, is formed with the plug insertion space on the header of the receptacle connector open to the front, and the fastener part inserted removably in the plug insertion space of the header of the plug connector formed on the front part, while each header is mounted in a way so as to pass vertically through the respective PCB, so as to reduce the vertical width of the product. Accordingly, a locking part for locking the fastening part within the plug insertion space is furnished in the fastening part, and the locking part is configured so as to operate elastically in the vertical direction, operating in such a way as to pass through the second PCB.
US09876293B2

A semiconductor device having a tubular part is able to prevent the solder from spattering when soldering the tubular part. The semiconductor device has a insulated substrate that has a circuit layer on a front surface thereof, a tubular part that is soldered to the circuit layer, and an external terminal that is inserted into the tubular part and connected electrically to the tubular part. The tubular part has a cylinder portion and a flange portion that is connected to one longitudinal end of the cylinder portion. The flange portion has a first projection, a second projection and a third projection that face the circuit layer. The distance between the first projection and the second projection, the distance between the second projection and the third projection, and the distance between the third projection and the first projection each are greater than the inner diameter of the cylinder portion.
US09876289B2

A terminal metal fitting, includes: a first terminal extended in a first direction on a first plane; a second terminal extended in a second direction on the first plane; a first flat plate part of a flat plate type, the first flat plate part being contacted with the first terminal, and having a first broad width face parallel to the first plane; a second flat plate part of a flat plate type, the second flat plate part being contacted with the second terminal, and having a second broad width face parallel to the first plane; a first articulated part of a flat plate type, the first articulated part being contacted with the first flat plate part in the first direction, and having a third broad width face parallel to a second plane including a third direction perpendicular to the first plane, and the first direction; a second articulated part of a flat plate type, the second articulated part being contacted with the second flat plate part in the second direction, and having a fourth broad width face parallel to a third plane including the second direction and the third direction; and a connecting portion connecting the first articulated part and the second articulated part, wherein the connection portion can be bent around the third direction to form an angle difference between the first direction and the second direction.
US09876285B2

An electrical contact terminal includes a base portion for positioning and retaining the electrical contact terminal within a connector housing, an insulation displacement connecting portion extending upwardly from the base portion and comprising a pair of spaced apart arms defining an opening therebetween for receiving and making electrical contact with an electrical conductor, and a contact portion extending downwardly from the base portion and configured to float when the electrical contact terminal is retained and positioned within a connector housing. The contact portion includes a first arm, a second arm, and an arcuate base portion. The first arm extends downwardly and includes a first end attached to the base portion and an opposite second end. The second arm extends downwardly and includes a free first end closer to the base portion and an opposite second end farther from the base portion. The second arm is configured to deflect when making electrical contact with a mating contact pin. The arcuate base portion connects the second ends of the first and second arms.
US09876282B1

The present application discloses a dual open-ended waveguide (DOEWG) antenna apparatus. The apparatus may include a plurality of radiating elements configured to radiate electromagnetic energy. Each radiating element may have an associated amplitude and phase. The apparatus may further include a waveguide configured to propagate an electromagnetic signal from a waveguide feed to the radiating elements. The radiating elements are arranged in a plurality of doublets. Each doublet includes at least two radiating elements and is coupled to the waveguide via a respective doublet neck. At least one doublet in the plurality of doublets is coupled to the waveguide via a doublet neck that has a first height proximate a first radiating element in the at least one doublet and a second height proximate a second radiating element in the at least one doublet in which the first height is different from the second height.
US09876273B2

An electronic device may be provided with a housing in which electrical components are mounted. The housing may include a metal portion that serves as ground. An antenna for the electronic device may be formed from metal traces on an antenna support such as a flexible printed circuit. The flexible printed circuit may be mounted to a speaker box. The speaker box may have one or more walls formed from metal plates. A metal plate in a speaker box may be coupled to a metal clip. The metal clip may be shorted to a metal stiffener that overlaps a tail portion of the flexible printed circuit. The metal stiffener may have an opening that is aligned with an opening in the metal clip. A metal fastener such as a screw may pass through the openings to short the metal clip, stiffener, and metal plate to ground.
US09876272B2

An electronic device may have wireless circuitry with antennas. An antenna resonating element arm for an antenna may be formed from peripheral conductive structures running along the edges of a device housing. The peripheral conductive structures may form housing sidewalls. A slot may be machined into a metal housing that separates the housing sidewalls from a planar rear housing portion that forms a ground for an antenna. The slot may be filled with plastic filler. A parasitic antenna resonating element arm that supports an antenna resonance at high band frequencies may be embedded within the plastic filler. The parasitic antenna resonating element may be formed from a portion of the planar rear housing portion.
US09876270B2

An antenna structure includes a carrier and an antenna coupled to the carrier. The carrier has at least one end, at least one fixing hole formed on the end of the carrier, and at least one groove formed in the middle of the carrier. A manufacture method of the antenna structure and an electronic device using the antenna structure are also provided.
US09876268B2

An IHS chassis houses a wireless communications device with an antenna. A IHS chassis wall includes aesthetic fiber layers that are free of a carbon fiber material and that provide both an inner and outer surface of the chassis wall. A plurality of composite fiber layers are located between the aesthetic fiber layers, with each composite fiber layer including a first fiber layer section with a carbon fiber material, and one or more second fiber layer sections that are free of a carbon fiber material and include a non-carbon fiber material that extends between the carbon fiber material in the first fiber layer section. The one or more second fiber layer sections align to provide one or more wireless transmission windows adjacent the antenna. The carbon fiber material and the non-carbon fiber material may have the same tow size to prevent the appearance of seams.
US09876266B2

A contactless connector includes a housing having a mating interface configured to be coupled to a connector interface of an electronic device. A connector communication module is held at least partially within the housing and is operable in a transmit mode and/or a receive mode of operation. The connector communication module is configured to wirelessly communicate with a device communication module of the electronic device to wirelessly transfer at least one of data or power between the connector communication module of the contactless connector and the device communication module of the electronic device. An optical contacting element is held by the housing. The optical contacting element is configured to optically contact an optical contacting element of the electronic device such that the housing is mechanically connected to the electronic device with the connector communication module configured to wirelessly communicate with the device communication module.
US09876262B2

A coupling is provided for coupling non-adjacent resonators of a radio frequency filter. The coupling joins together non-adjacent resonators with a metal strip. The metal strip is physically connected to but electrically isolated from resonators located between the connected non-adjacent resonators. The metal strips include tabs the length of which may be varied. The coupling works with different resonator configurations including horizontally aligned resonators. The coupling allows for the jumping of an even number of resonators can produce zeros at high and low bands. A single coupling of this configuration enables two negative couplings.
US09876260B2

A battery module having a minimized size is provided. The battery module includes a secondary battery unit including a plurality of secondary batteries arranged with a predetermined interval in horizontal and vertical directions, a compression plate wrapping an exterior portion of the secondary battery unit and compressing the secondary battery unit with a predetermined pressure, and a housing accommodating the secondary battery unit combined with the compression plate, the housing including one or more bolt fastening units corresponding to portions between the plurality of secondary batteries arranged in the horizontal direction and protruding from a bottom surface of the housing and one or more bolts fastened with the one or more bolt fastening units by way of the portions between the plurality of secondary batteries arranged in the horizontal direction while passing through the compression plate.
US09876255B2

A method for stabilizing electrodes against dissolution and/or hydrolysis including use of cosolvents in liquid electrolyte batteries for three purposes: the extension of the calendar and cycle life time of electrodes that are partially soluble in liquid electrolytes, the purpose of limiting the rate of electrolysis of water into hydrogen and oxygen as a side reaction during battery operation, and for the purpose of cost reduction.
US09876253B2

An additive that is added to the NaAlX4 electrolyte for use in a ZEBRA battery (or other similar battery). This additive has a moiety with a partial positive charge (δ+) that attracts the negative charge of the [AlX4]− moiety and weakens the ionic bond between the Na+ and [AlX4]− moieties, thereby freeing some Na+ ions to transport (move). By using a suitable NaAlX4 electrolyte additive, the battery may be operated at much lower temperatures than are typical of ZEBRA batteries (such as, for example, at temperatures between 150 and 200° C.). Additionally, the additive also lowers the viscosity of the electrolyte solution and improves sodium conductivity. Non-limiting examples of the additive SOCl2, SO2, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO, CH3SOCH3), CH3S(O)Cl, SO2Cl2. A further advantage of using this additive is that it allows the use of a NaSICON membrane in a ZEBRA-type battery at lower temperatures compared to a typical ZEBRA battery.
US09876250B2

In at least one sealing member (16) disposed between at least two neighboring cells of a plurality of cells (3) in this cell stack device, the angle θ is 45° or less, where the angle θ is defined by an angle between a vertical line drawn from a leading end portion (18) of a meniscus structure toward a manifold (7) and a straight line connecting the leading end part (18) and a point (19) located on a profile line of a concave of the meniscus structure, and at a midpoint of a height of the leading end part (18) from the bottom part (17) of the concave, which makes it possible to obtain a cell stack device in which the occurrence of cracking at bonded parts between the fuel cells (3) and the sealing member (16) is suppressed and reliability is improved.
US09876239B2

A fuel cell system and a method for controlling the fuel cell system are provided. The fuel cell system includes a compressor that is configured to supply air and a humidifier that includes a supply portion connected to the compressor and an air supply pipe to supply moisture to the supplied air and supply the humidified air to a fuel cell stack. An exhaust portion is configured to receive air exhausted from the fuel cell stack, discharge moisture from the received air to the supply portion, and discharge moisture-deprived air to an exhaust pipe. A valve installed in the air supply pipe is disposed between the compressor and the humidifier and a bypass pipe which branches off at the valve is connected to the exhaust pipe.
US09876236B2

The invention relates to separator plates (108) for fuel cells, and in particular to separator plates having particular geometries for improved edge sealing properties. Exemplary embodiments of the invention include a fuel cell separator plate (308) having first and second opposing faces (304, 305), the separator plate having a series of corrugations (301) extending, and providing air flow paths (302), between first and second opposing edges of the plate, wherein crests of corrugations along the first face (304) proximate the first edge (303) of the plate are depressed to be coplanar with adjacent crests of corrugations along the second face such that a greater contact surface on the second face (305) is provided compared with the first face (304).
US09876226B2

Aluminum dry-coated and heat treated cathode material precursors. A particulate precursor compound for manufacturing an aluminum coatedlithium transition metal (M)-oxide powder usable as an active positive electrode material in lithium-ion batteries includes a transition metal (M)-oxide core and a non-amorphous aluminum oxide coating layercovering the core. By providing a heat treatment process for mixed metal precursors that may be combined with an aluminum dry-coating process, novel aluminum containing precursors that may be used to form high quality nickel based cathode materials are obtained. The aluminum dry-coated and heat treated precursors include particles have, compared to prior art precursors, relatively low impurity levels of carbonate and/or sulfide, and can be produced at lower cost.
US09876208B2

A method for producing a porous polyimide film comprises: forming a first un-burned composite film wherein the first film is formed on a substrate using a first varnish that contains (A1) a polyamide acid or a polyimide and (B1) fine particles at a volume ratio (A1):(B1) of from 19:81 to 45:65; forming a second un-burned composite film wherein the second film is formed on the first film using a second varnish that contains (A2) a polyamide acid or a polyimide and (B2) fine particles at a volume ratio (A2):(B2) of from 20:80 to 50:50 and has a lower fine particle content ratio than the first varnish; burning wherein an un-burned composite film composed of the first film and the second film is burned, thereby obtaining a polyimide-fine particle composite film; and a fine particle removal step wherein the fine particles are removed from the polyimide-fine particle composite film.
US09876203B2

Disclosed herein is a battery module assembly including two or more battery modules, each of which includes two or more plate-shaped battery cells vertically stacked such that electrode leads of the battery cells are arranged in one direction, each of the battery modules having terminal parts connected to an outside, a base plate including module receiving parts, on tops of which the battery modules are loaded in a state in which electrode terminals of the battery modules are arranged in one direction, the base plate being provided at an outer edge thereof with upwardly bent side walls, an upper cover plate including downwardly bent side walls formed at opposite sides thereof on the basis of the electrode terminals of the battery modules, the upper cover plate being fixed on the base plate to form a top of the battery module assembly, a plate-shaped assembly cover loaded on tops of the battery modules and coupled to the battery modules in a fastening fashion, the assembly cover fixing a cable, and an electrically insulative module cover mounted on the electrode leads of the battery cells and fixed to the base plate and an assembly cover in a fastening fashion.
US09876202B2

Provided is an electric storage module including an electric storage device and an outer package member that covers the electric storage device. The outer package member has a main body that covers the electric storage device and a cable fixing portion provided on an outer surface of the main body of the outer package member. The cable fixing portion has a plurality of insertion holes through which a binding member or a cable can be inserted.
US09876195B2

The present disclosure provides a method of packaging an OLED apparatus, an OLED packaging apparatus and a display device, and relates to the field of the OLED. The method includes steps: forming a first inorganic thin film layer on an OLED to be packaged; forming a groove on a surface of the first inorganic thin film layer; forming a second organic thin film layer within the groove; and forming a third inorganic thin film layer covering the first inorganic thin film layer and the second organic thin film layer.
US09876188B2

A second electrode (130) is superimposed on a first electrode (110). An organic layer (120) is positioned between the first electrode (110) and the second electrode (130). Furthermore, the organic layer (120) includes a light emitting layer (123). Furthermore, the organic layer (120) includes an alkali-containing layer (which is an electron transporting layer (125) in an example in the present drawing, and is hereinafter described as the electron transporting layer (125)) between the light emitting layer (123) and the second electrode (130). The electron transporting layer (125) includes an alkali metal. In the electron transporting layer (125), a content of the alkali metal as an elemental substance is greater than the content of a compound of the alkali metal.
US09876185B2

A light-emitting element at least includes a first electrode, a first light-emitting layer over the first electrode, a second light-emitting layer over and in contact with the first light-emitting layer, a third light-emitting layer over and in contact with the first light-emitting layer, and a second electrode over the third light-emitting layer. Each of the first light-emitting layer and the second light-emitting layer contains a phosphorescent compound. The third light-emitting layer contains a fluorescent compound. Each of the first light-emitting layer, the second light-emitting layer, and the third light-emitting layer includes an organic compound.
US09876184B2

The present disclosure provides a photosensitive device. The photosensitive device includes a donor-intermix-acceptor (PIN) structure. The PIN structure includes an organic hole transport layer; an organic electron transport layer; and an intermix layer sandwiched between the hole transport organic material layer and the electron transport organic material layer. The intermix layer includes a mixture of an n-type organic material and a p-type organic material.
US09876182B2

Disclosed herein are embodiments of thieno-containing compounds suitable for use in electrical devices and/or electrooptical device. Also disclosed herein are methods of making the disclosed compounds, with particular embodiments of the method concerning a novel dione intermediate that may be used to make particular embodiments of the thieno-containing compounds.
US09876176B2

A condensed compound is represented by Formula 1 below: An organic light-emitting diode includes a substrate, a first electrode on the substrate, a second electrode disposed opposite to the first electrode, and an organic layer interposed between the first electrode and the second electrode. The organic layer includes at least one layer including a compound of Formula 1.
US09876173B2

Novel oligocarbazole compounds containing a triphenylene and an oligocarbazole are provided. The compounds are useful in devices including organic light emitting devices (OLEDs).
US09876170B2

Provided is a mask assembly, an apparatus, and a method of manufacturing a display apparatus using such mask assembly and apparatus. The mask assembly deposits a deposition material on a first pixel among a plurality of pixels disposed on a device substrate and including the first pixel and a second pixel includes a mask substrate, a molding layer stacked on the mask substrate and including a hole corresponding to a position of the second pixel, a blocking plate detachably mounted in the hole and configured to block the second pixel from the deposition material by covering the second pixel when the blocking plate is detached from the hole.
US09876157B2

A surface mount type quartz crystal device according to a first aspect of the disclosure includes a ceramic package, a pedestal blank, a quartz-crystal vibrating piece. The pedestal blank is placed within the ceramic package via a conductive adhesive. The quartz-crystal vibrating piece is placed on the pedestal blank. The conductive adhesive is formed along an outer peripheral side of the pedestal blank so as to avoid overlap with the excitation electrode viewed in a normal direction of the excitation electrode. The pedestal blank is formed to avoid a region where a distance from the quartz-crystal vibrating piece is equal to or smaller than a size of a clearance between the pedestal blank and the quartz-crystal vibrating piece at the outer peripheral side, in a region where the excitation electrode faces at the pedestal blank side viewed in the normal direction.
US09876154B2

An optoelectronic component includes a housing that includes a rectangular basic shape with four sides. The sides each merge into one another at a corner point. At least two carrier arms of two contact elements of a lead frame are guided to an edge of the housing. The two carrier arms are arranged on different sides of the housing. The two carrier arms are each at different spacings from the two corner points of the side on which the carrier arms are arranged. The spacings differ at least in the width of a carrier arm.
US09876152B2

This disclosure discloses a light-emitting device. The light-emitting device includes: a heat-dissipating structure having a first part and a second part separated from the first part; a light-emitting unit including a light-emitting element with a first pad formed on the first part; and a first transparent enclosing the light-emitting element and having a sidewall; and an adhesive material covering a portion of the sidewall.
US09876150B2

A method is provided for making optical semiconductor devices collectively. LED chips are arranged on a material substrate, and the substrate is sandwiched by a common mold and a first cooperating mold formed with a cavity. A light-transmitting resin is injected into the cavity and solidified to form a light-transmitting resin member including body portions for sealing the LED chips and connecting portions each connecting adjacent body portions. Then, the substrate is sandwiched by the common mold and a second cooperating mold formed with another cavity. A light-shielding resin is injected into the cavity and solidified to form a light-shielding resin member filling the gaps between the body portions. The body portions are separated from each other by making cuts in the material substrate and the light-shielding resin member.
US09876136B2

Disclosed herein is a method of separating a GaN substrate by wet etching. The method employs chemical lift-off, and includes forming oxide layers separated from each other and a GaN column in each space between the oxide layers on a substrate, forming an n-GaN layer covering an upper space on the oxide layers and the n-GaN columns, sequentially forming an active layer, a p-GaN layer, and a p-type electrode on the n-GaN layer, and removing the oxide layers and wet etching the n-GaN columns to separate the substrate. The method can achieve improvement in epitaxial growth of GaN and reduction in fabrication costs through a simple process. In addition, the method can increase a luminous area and light extraction efficiency.
US09876134B2

A dual-band infrared detector is provided. The dual-band infrared detector includes a first absorption layer sensitive to radiation in only a short wavelength infrared spectral band, and a barrier layer coupled to the first absorption layer. The barrier layer is fabricated from an alloy including aluminum and antimony, and at least one of gallium or arsenic. The dual-band infrared detector also includes a second absorption layer coupled to the barrier layer opposite the first absorption layer. The second absorption layer is sensitive to radiation in only a medium wavelength infrared spectral band. The composition of the alloy used to fabricate the barrier layer is selected such that valence bands of the barrier layer and the first and second absorption layers substantially align.
US09876130B1

After forming a layer of a Cu-deficient kesterite compound having the formula Cu2-xZn1+xSn(SySe1-y)4, wherein 0
US09876128B2

A method for preparing a monocrystalline silicon substrate surface for a subsequent texturing step, the method comprising: removing contaminants from the surface by contacting the surface with a cleaning solution; etching the pre-cleaned surface with an aqueous solution comprising from 12 to 19% by weight, of KOH and/or NaOH; rinsing the etched surface with an aqueous medium at pH from 7 to 10; and contacting the rinsed etched surface with ozonated deionized water at pH from 2 to 4.5, thereby converting the rinsed etched surface into a prepared surface. A method for texturing the prepared surface is also provided.
US09876119B2

An oxide semiconductor film is formed over a substrate, a film of a semiconductor other than an oxide semiconductor is formed over the oxide semiconductor film, and then an oxygen atom in the oxide semiconductor film and an atom in the film of a semiconductor are bonded to each other at an interface between the oxide semiconductor film and the film of a semiconductor. Accordingly, the interface can be made continuous. Further, oxygen released from the oxide semiconductor film is diffused into the film of a semiconductor, so that the film of a semiconductor can be oxidized to form an insulating film. The use of the gate insulating film thus formed leads to a reduction in interface scattering of electrons at the interface between the oxide semiconductor film and the gate insulating film; so that a transistor with excellent electric characteristics can be manufactured.
US09876118B2

Provided is a semiconductor device including a transistor having excellent electrical characteristics (e.g., on-state current, field-effect mobility, or frequency characteristics) or a semiconductor device including a transistor with high reliability. In the channel width direction of a channel-etched transistor in which an oxide semiconductor film is between first and second gate electrodes, the first and second gate electrodes are connected to each other through an opening portion in first and second gate insulating films. In addition, the first and second gate electrodes surround the oxide semiconductor film in a cross-section in the channel width direction, with the first gate insulating film provided between the first gate electrode and the oxide semiconductor film and the second gate insulating film provided between the second gate electrode and the oxide semiconductor film. Furthermore, the channel length of the transistor is 0.5 μm or longer and 6.5 μm or shorter.
US09876112B2

A fin-like field-effect transistor (FinFET) device is disclosed. The device includes a semiconductor substrate having a source/drain region, a plurality of isolation regions over the semiconductor substrate and a source/drain feature in the source/drain region. The source/drain feature includes a multiple plug-type portions over the substrate and each of plug-type portion is isolated each other by a respective isolation region. The source/drain feature also includes a single upper portion over the isolation regions. Here the single upper portion is merged from the multiple plug-type portions. The single upper portion has a flat top surface facing away from a top surface of the isolation region.
US09876111B2

A method of forming a semiconductor device structure is disclosed including providing a first active region and a second active region in an upper surface portion of a substrate, the first and second active regions being laterally separated by at least one isolation structure, forming a first gate structure comprising a first gate dielectric and a first gate electrode material over the first active region, and a second gate structure comprising a second gate dielectric and a second gate electrode material over the second active region, wherein a thickness of the second gate dielectric is greater than the thickness of the first gate dielectric, and forming a first sidewall spacer structure to the first gate structure and a second sidewall spacer structure to the second gate structure, wherein a lateral thickness of the second sidewall spacer structure is greater than a lateral thickness of the first sidewall spacer structure.
US09876106B2

A trench power transistor and a manufacturing method thereof are provided. The trench power transistor includes a substrate, an epitaxial layer, a trench gate structure, a body region, and a source region. The epitaxial layer disposed on the substrate has a trench formed therein. The trench gate structure disposed in the trench includes a bottom dielectric structure, a gate dielectric layer, and a gate. The bottom dielectric structure formed in a lower portion of the trench includes an insulating layer formed along a first inner wall of the lower portion of the trench defining a groove, and a non-conductive structure formed in the groove. The gate dielectric layer is formed along a second inner wall of an upper portion of the trench, and the gate is formed in the trench and connects the gate dielectric layer. The body region and the source region are formed in the epitaxial layer.
US09876104B2

A multi-cell MOSFET device including a MOSFET cell with an integrated Schottky diode is provided. The MOSFET includes n-type source regions formed in p-type well regions which are formed in an n-type drift layer. A p-type body contact region is formed on the periphery of the MOSFET. The source metallization of the device forms a Schottky contact with an n-type semiconductor region adjacent the p-type body contact region of the device. Vias can be formed through a dielectric material covering the source ohmic contacts and/or Schottky region of the device and the source metallization can be formed in the vias. The n-type semiconductor region forming the Schottky contact and/or the n-type source regions can be a single continuous region or a plurality of discontinuous regions alternating with discontinuous p-type body contact regions. The device can be a SiC device. Methods of making the device are also provided.
US09876100B2

A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor mesa having source zones separated from each other along a longitudinal axis of the semiconductor mesa and at least one body zone forming first pn junctions with the source zones and a second pn junction with a drift zone. Electrode structures are on opposite sides of the semiconductor mesa, at least one of which includes a gate electrode configured to control a charge carrier flow through the at least one body zone. First portions of the at least one body zone are formed between the source zones and separation regions. In the separation regions, at least one of (i) a capacitive coupling between the gate electrode and the semiconductor mesa and (ii) a conductivity of majority charge carriers of the drift zone is lower than outside of the separation region.
US09876097B2

A method for forming a semiconductor device comprises forming a fin on a substrate and forming a sacrificial gate over a channel region of the fin. A hydrogen terminated surface is formed on sidewalls of the sacrificial gate, and a spacer is deposited on the hydrogen terminated surface of the sacrificial gate. An insulator layer is formed over portions of the fin. The sacrificial gate is removed to expose the channel region of the fin, and a gate stack is formed over the channel region of the fin.
US09876095B2

An isolation area (10) is provided over a drift region (12) with a spacing (d) to a contact area (4) provided for a drain connection (D). The isolation area is used as an implantation mask, in order to produce a dopant profile of the drift region in which the dopant concentration increases toward the drain. The implantation of the dopant can be performed instead before the production of the isolation area, and the later production of the isolation area (10) changes the dopant profile also in a way that the dopant concentration increases toward the drain.
US09876093B2

A semiconductor structure includes a first III-V compound layer. A second III-V compound layer is disposed on the first III-V compound layer and is different from the first III-V compound layer in composition. A dielectric passivation layer is disposed on the second III-V compound layer. A source feature and a drain feature are disposed on the second III-V compound layer, and extend through the dielectric passivation layer. A gate electrode is disposed over the second III-V compound layer between the source feature and the drain feature. The gate electrode has an exterior surface. An oxygen containing region is embedded at least in the second III-V compound layer under the gate electrode. A gate dielectric layer has a first portion and a second portion. The first portion is under the gate electrode and on the oxygen containing region. The second portion is on a portion of the exterior surface of the gate electrode.
US09876084B2

The present disclosure relates to semiconductor structures and, more particularly, to a symmetric tunnel field effect transistor and methods of manufacture. The structure includes a gate structure including a source region and a drain region both of which comprise a doped VO2 region.
US09876077B1

One illustrative method disclosed herein includes, among other things, forming a plurality of trenches in a semiconductor substrate so as to define a plurality of fins, forming a recessed layer of insulating material comprising a first insulating material in the trenches, wherein a portion of each of the plurality of fins is exposed above an upper surface of the recessed layer of insulating material, and masking a first portion of a first fin and performing at least one first etching process to remove at least a portion of an unmasked second fin. In this example, the method further includes forming a device isolation region for the FinFET device that comprises a second insulating material and forming an isolation protection layer above the device isolation region.
US09876071B2

A semiconductor device contains an LDNMOS transistor with a lateral n-type drain drift region and a p-type RESURF region over the drain drift region. The RESURF region extends to a top surface of a substrate of the semiconductor device. The semiconductor device includes a shunt which is electrically coupled between the RESURF region and a low voltage node of the LDNMOS transistor. The shunt may be a p-type implanted layer in the substrate between the RESURF layer and a body of the LDNMOS transistor, and may be implanted concurrently with the RESURF layer. The shunt may be through an opening in the drain drift region from the RESURF layer to the substrate under the drain drift region. The shunt may be include metal interconnect elements including contacts and metal interconnect lines.
US09876070B2

A semiconductor device (100) comprises: a semiconductor substrate (1); a drift region (2) of a first conductivity type having a trench in part of an upper portion thereof and arranged on a first main surface of the semiconductor substrate (100); an electric field reducing region (4) of a second conductivity type arranged, in a bottom portion of the trench, only around a corner portion and not in a center portion; an anode electrode (9) embedded in the trench; and a cathode electrode (10) arranged on a second main surface of the semiconductor substrate (100) which is opposite to the first main surface.
US09876068B1

A metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor includes, in cross-sectional view, a first metal plate, a second metal plate, a third metal plate, and high-k material contacting the first metal plate, the second metal plate, and the third metal plate, in a manner achieved by using a single etching/mask pattern for an etching and deposition process to form the second metal plate, the third metal plate, the high-k material layer, and contact with the first metal plate.
US09876064B2

Provided is a flexible organic electroluminescent device and a method for fabricating the same. In the flexible electroluminescent device, line hole patterns are formed on surfaces of a plurality of inorganic layers positioned in a pad region in which a flexible printed circuit board is connected to prevent a path of cracks caused by repeated bending and spreading of the organic electroluminescent device from spreading to the interior of the device.
US09876062B2

By controlling the luminance of light emitting element not by means of a voltage to be impressed to the TFT but by means of controlling a current that flows to the TFT in a signal line drive circuit, the current that flows to the light emitting element is held to a desired value without depending on the characteristics of the TFT. Further, a voltage of inverted bias is impressed to the light emitting element every predetermined period. Since a multiplier effect is given by the two configurations described above, it is possible to prevent the luminance from deteriorating due to a deterioration of the organic luminescent layer, and further, it is possible to maintain the current that flows to the light emitting element to a desired value without depending on the characteristics of the TFT.
US09876060B2

A bank repair method in a manufacturing process of an organic EL display device including first and second banks forming a matrix over a substrate. When a defect portion of a first bank is detected, in each of adjacent concave spaces between which the first bank having the defect portion is located, a candidate forming position is set and a dam portion partitioning the concave space into a first space in a vicinity of the defect portion and a second space outside the vicinity of the defect portion is formed. When denoting sub-pixel region surface area as H and denoting a surface area of a region of a candidate first space overlapping with a sub-pixel region as I, the dam portion is formed at the candidate forming position according to a first forming method when I<α×H is fulfilled, where 0.05<α<0.9.
US09876058B2

A highly reliable display device or electronic appliance is provided. The display device or a light-emitting device includes a substrate; a light-emitting element including a first electrode, an EL layer, and a second electrode; an organic resin film in contact with the light-emitting element; and an oxide semiconductor film in contact with the light-emitting element and the organic resin film. The oxide semiconductor film is in contact with the first electrode or the second electrode included in the light-emitting element. The oxide semiconductor film is in contact with an exposed portion of the organic resin film, typically, a side surface of the organic resin film. The light-emitting element and the organic resin film are positioned between the substrate and the oxide semiconductor film.
US09876055B1

A three-dimensional semiconductor device includes a multi-layered stack structure with memory layers parallel to each other and separated by interlayer insulation layers; and memory cell structures formed at each memory layer by arranging in a multi-row and multi-column array. One memory cell structure includes a memory material layer; a selector layer formed at an outer surface of the memory material layer and connected to the memory material layer; a first electrode layer formed at an outer surface of the selector layer and electrically connected to the selector layer; and a second electrode layer formed at an inner surface of the memory material layer and connected to the memory material layer, wherein the second electrode layer penetrates the multi-layered stack structure. Each memory layer includes a conductive layer electrically connecting the first electrode layer and the conductive layer electrically connects the adjacent memory cell structures.
US09876053B2

A magnetic cell core includes a seed region with a plurality of magnetic regions and a plurality of nonmagnetic regions thereover. The seed region provides a template that enables formation of an overlying nonmagnetic region with a microstructure that enables formation of an overlying free region with a desired crystal structure. The free region is disposed between two nonmagnetic regions, which may both be configured to induce surface/interface magnetic anisotropy. The structure is therefore configured to have a high magnetic anisotropy strength, a high energy barrier ratio, high tunnel magnetoresistance, a low programming current, low cell-to-cell electrical resistance variation, and low cell-to-cell variation in magnetic properties. Methods of fabrication, memory arrays, memory systems, and electronic systems are also disclosed.
US09876038B2

A manufacturing method of an array substrate comprises: forming a source and a drain of a thin film transistor on a base; forming a first insulation layer; forming an active layer of the thin film transistor; forming a second insulation layer; forming a first via hole and a second via hole in the first insulation layer and the second insulation layer above the source and the drain, by etching, and forming a third via hole and a fourth via hole in the second insulation layer above the active layer, by etching; forming a first connection line connecting the source with the active layer through the first via hole and the third via hole, a second connection line connecting the drain with the active layer and the pixel electrode through the second via hole and the fourth via hole and a pixel electrode.
US09876035B2

A TFT substrate and a manufacturing method thereof are provided. The TFT substrate includes a plurality of vias formed in a second insulation layer that is formed on a second metal layer that forms peripheral signal wiring traces of the TFT substrate so as to line up in an extension direction of each of the peripheral signal wiring traces and a third metal layer that is formed on the second insulation layer at a location corresponding to each of the peripheral signal wiring traces such that the third metal layer is connected, through the vias, with each of the peripheral signal wiring traces to thereby reduce the electrical resistance of each of the peripheral signal wiring traces and thus lowering down power consumption of control ICs and improving capability of the TFT substrate for resisting electrostatic discharge.
US09876032B2

A device includes both low-voltage (LV) and high-voltage (HV) metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistors of opposite types. Gate stacks for the transistors are formed over a semiconductor layer. First spacers made of a first insulator are provided on the gate stacks of the LV and HV MOS transistors. Second spacers made of a second insulator are provided on the gate stacks of the HV MOS transistors only. The insulators are selectively removed to expose the semiconductor layer. Epitaxial growth of semiconductor material is made from the exposed semiconductor layer to form raised source-drain structures that are separated from the gate stacks by the first spacers for the LV MOS transistors and the second spacers for the HV MOS transistors.
US09876028B2

The memory string comprises: a plurality of control gate electrodes stacked on the substrate and extending in a first direction and a second direction parallel to the substrate; a semiconductor layer that has one end thereof connected to the substrate, has as its longitudinal direction a third direction perpendicular to the substrate, and faces the plurality of control gate electrodes; and a charge accumulation layer positioned between the control gate electrode and the semiconductor layer. The contact includes, in the third direction, a first portion, a second portion which is more to a substrate side than is the first portion, and a third portion which is more to the substrate side than is the second portion. A width of the second portion is larger than a width of the first portion, and larger than a width of the third portion.
US09876020B1

Memory cells including embedded SONOS based non-volatile memory (NVM) and MOS transistors are described. The memory cell includes a substrate having a non-volatile memory (NVM) region and a plurality of metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) regions. A NVM transistor in the NVM region includes a tunnel dielectric on the substrate, a charge-trapping layer on the tunnel dielectric, and a blocking dielectric comprising a high-k dielectric material over the charge-trapping layer. The plurality of MOS regions include a number of MOS transistors. At least one of the MOS transistors includes a gate dielectric comprising a high-k dielectric material over a surface of the substrate. Generally, the blocking dielectric and the gate dielectric comprise the same high-k dielectric material. Other embodiments are also described.
US09876019B1

Methods of producing integrated circuits and integrated circuits produced by those methods are provided. In an exemplary embodiment, a method of producing an integrated circuit includes forming first and second shallow trench isolations within a substrate, where the first and second shallow trench isolations have an initial shallow trench height. A base well is formed in the substrate, where the base well is positioned between the first and second shallow trench isolations. A gate dielectric is formed overlying the base well, and a floating gate is formed overlying the gate dielectric. An initial shallow trench height is reduced to a reduced shallow trench height shorter than the initial shallow trench height after the floating gate is formed.
US09876015B1

CMOS inverters including gate-all-around vertical transistors are fabricated without requiring center gate contacts, thereby allowing close positioning of the transistors. The gate contact and the drain contact of the transistors are shared. Wiring of inverter input, output and power supply lines is simplified.
US09876014B2

A quantum well transistor has a germanium quantum well channel region. A silicon-containing etch stop layer provides easy placement of a gate dielectric close to the channel. A group III-V barrier layer adds strain to the channel. Graded silicon germanium layers above and below the channel region improve performance. Multiple gate dielectric materials allow use of a high-k value gate dielectric.
US09876009B2

A semiconductor device includes dummy gate structures formed on a dielectric layer over a substrate and forming a gap therebetween. A trench silicide structure is formed in the gap on the dielectric layer and extends longitudinally beyond the gap on end portions. The trench silicide structure forms a resistive element. Self-aligned contacts are formed through an interlevel dielectric layer and land on the trench silicide structure beyond the gap on the end portions.
US09876007B1

A metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor design methodology and system substantially maximizes the benefits of including MIM capacitors in an integrated circuit design while substantially minimizing the negative impacts resulting from increased capacitance. A process analysis is performed on an integrated circuit design to determine a metal layer that is likely to be most adversely affected by the presence of MIM capacitor cells. The MIM capacitor cells are then designed to have specific sizes and orientations based on results of the process analysis, taking the most affected metal layer into consideration. Finally, the MIM capacitor cells are placed at selected locations on the die in an algorithmic fashion in order to satisfy a design target of maximizing coverage area while avoiding interference with signal paths and critical or sensitive components.
US09875990B2

A semiconductor package may be provided. A semiconductor package may include a substrate. The semiconductor package may include a first semiconductor chip and a second semiconductor chip which are disposed adjacent to each other over a first surface of the substrate. The semiconductor package may include first bonding wires which electrically couple the first semiconductor chip and the substrate. The semiconductor package may include an insulation adhesive which is interposed between the second semiconductor chip and the substrate. The first bonding wires may be disposed to pass through the insulation adhesive and electrically couple the first semiconductor chip and the substrate.
US09875985B2

A method and apparatus for flip chip bonding using conductive and inductive heating to heat a plurality of solder bumps located between a chip carrier and a chip.
US09875979B2

External electrical connectors and methods of forming such external electrical connectors are discussed. A method includes forming an external electrical connector structure on a substrate. The forming the external electrical connector structure includes plating a pillar on the substrate at a first agitation level affected at the substrate in a first solution. The method further includes plating solder on the external electrical connector structure at a second agitation level affected at the substrate in a second solution. The second agitation level affected at the substrate is greater than the first agitation level affected at the substrate. The plating the solder further forms a shell on a sidewall of the external electrical connector structure.
US09875977B2

A packaging process of an electronic component includes the following steps. Firstly, a semi-package unit is provided. The semi-package unit includes a first insulation layer and an electronic component. The electronic component is partially embedded within the first insulation layer. The electronic component includes at least one conducting terminal. Then, a metal layer is formed over the surface of the semi-package unit and a part of the metal layer is removed, so that a metal mask is formed on the surface of the semi-package unit and the at least one conducting terminals is exposed. Then, a metal re-distribution layer is formed on the metal mask and the at least one conducting terminal. Then, a part of the metal re-distribution layer and a part of the metal mask are removed, so that at least one contact pad corresponding to the at least one conducting terminal is produced.
US09875971B2

Magnetic random access memory (MRAM) packages with magnetic shield protections and methods of forming thereof are presented. Package contact traces are formed on the first major surface of the package substrate and package balls are formed on the second major surface of the package substrate. A die having active and inactive surfaces is provided on the first major surface of the package substrate. The die includes a magnetic storage element, such as an array of magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs), formed in the die, die microbumps formed on the active surface. The package includes a top magnetic shield layer formed on the inactive surface of the die. The package may also include a first bottom magnetic shield in the form of magnetic shield traces disposed below the package contact traces. The package may further include a second bottom magnetic shield in the form of magnetic permeable underfill dielectric material. The package may also include a third bottom magnetic shield sandwiched between two thin package substrate layers of the package substrate.
US09875964B2

Semiconductor device components and methods are disclosed. In one embodiment, a semiconductor device component includes a conductive segment having a first surface, a second surface opposite the first surface, a first end, and a second end opposite the first end. A first via is coupled to the second surface of the conductive segment at the first end. A second via is coupled to the first surface of the conductive segment at the second end, and a third via is coupled to the second surface of the conductive segment at the second end.
US09875960B1

Some embodiments include memory arrays having rows of fins. Each fin includes a first pedestal, a second pedestal and a trench between the first and second pedestals. A first source/drain region is within the first pedestal, a second source/drain region is within the second pedestal, and a channel region is along the trench between the first and second pedestals. The rows are subdivided amongst deep-type (D) rows and shallow-type (S) rows, with the deep-type rows having deeper channel regions than the shallow-type rows. Some embodiments include rows of fins in which the channel regions along individual rows are subdivided amongst deep-type (D) channel regions and shallow-type (S) channel regions, with the deep-type channel regions being below the shallow-type channel regions.
US09875956B1

The present disclosure relates to interface structures and, more particularly, to integrated interface structures with both parallel and serial interfaces and methods of manufacture. The integrated interface structure includes: a substrate; a plurality of serial interface connections integrated on the substrate; and a plurality of parallel interface connections on the integrated substrate and within spaces between sets of the plurality of serial interface connections.
US09875955B2

A microelectronic assembly includes a substrate, a first and second microelectronic elements, a lead finger, electrical connections extending between contacts of the second microelectronic element and the lead fingers, and an encapsulant overlying at least portions of the first and second microelectronic elements, lead finger and electrical connections. The substrate has contacts at a first surface and terminals at an opposed second surface that are electrically connected with the substrate contacts. The first microelectronic element has contacts exposed at its front face. The front face of the first microelectronic element is joined to the substrate contacts. The second microelectronic element overlies the first microelectronic element and has contacts at a front face facing away from the substrate. The lead frame has lead fingers, wherein the second surface of the substrate and the lead fingers define a common interface for electrical interconnection to a component external to the microelectronic assembly.
US09875953B2

An integrated circuit (IC) can be cooled by using a structure that includes two elements, such as integrated circuits (ICs) or electronic packages, in a stacked arrangement, with the elements having surfaces that face each other. The structure also includes a pair of fluidic channel boundaries, between the facing surfaces, where each fluidic channel boundary is formed by an arrangement of adjacent discrete connecting structures. The primary and secondary fluidic channel boundaries and the facing surfaces define a fluidic channel that is useful for promoting boiling of and directing the flow of a refrigerant between the two surfaces.
US09875951B2

A heat sink comprises a first thermally conductive base having a first face to thermally engage a heat-generating electronic component and a second thermally conductive base with a plurality of fins on a first face and a second face to engage the first base. The fins on the second base are positionable in either of two orientations relative to the heat-generating electronic component to which the heat sink is coupled. The fins are selectively placed in the orientation that best utilizes the direction of air flow available to the heat sink. The orientable fins of the heat sink afford flexibility in arranging the heat-generating electronic component on a circuit board or in arranging a circuit board within a computer chassis.
US09875947B2

A method for correcting a surface profile on a substrate is described. In particular, the method includes receiving a substrate having a heterogeneous layer composed of a first material and a second material, wherein the heterogeneous layer has an initial upper surface exposing the first material and the second material, and defining a first surface profile across the substrate. The method further includes setting a target surface profile for the heterogeneous layer, selectively removing at least a portion of the first material using a gas cluster ion beam (GCIB) etching process, and recessing the first material beneath the second material, and thereafter, selectively removing at least a portion of the second material to achieve a final upper surface exposing the first material and the second material, and defining a second surface profile, wherein the second surface profile is within a pre-determined tolerance of the target surface profile.
US09875942B2

A method includes forming a gate stack over a semiconductor fin, wherein the semiconductor fin forms a ring, and etching a portion of the semiconductor fin not covered by the gate stack to form a recess. The method further includes performing an epitaxy to grow an epitaxy semiconductor region from the recess, forming a first contact plug overlying and electrically coupled to the epitaxy semiconductor region, and forming a second contact plug, wherein the second contact plug is overlying and electrically coupled to the gate stack.
US09875940B2

A method includes forming first and second gate cavities so as to expose first and second portions of a semiconductor material. A gate insulation layer is formed in the first and second gate cavities. A first work function material layer is formed in the first gate cavity. A second work function material layer is formed in the second gate cavity. A first barrier layer is selectively formed above the first work function material layer and the gate insulation layer in the first gate cavity. A second barrier layer is formed above the first barrier layer in the first gate cavity and above the second work function material layer and the gate insulation layer in the second gate cavity. A conductive material is formed above the second barrier layer in the first and second gate cavities in the presence of a treatment species to define first and second gate electrode structures.
US09875939B1

Methods of fabricating integrated circuit devices for forming uniform and well controlled fin recesses are disclosed. One method includes, for instance: obtaining an intermediate semiconductor structure having a substrate, at least one fin disposed on the substrate, at least one gate structure positioned over the at least one fin, and at least one oxide layer disposed on the substrate and about the at least one fin and the at least one gate structure; implanting germanium (Ge) in a first region of the at least one fin; and removing the first region of the at least one fin implanted with Ge.
US09875937B2

The present invention provides a method for forming a semiconductor structure. Firstly, a substrate is provided, the substrate comprises an insulating layer and at least one first nano channel structure disposed thereon, a first region and a second region being defined on the substrate, next, a hard mask is formed within the first region, afterwards, an etching process is performed, to remove parts of the insulating layer within the second region, an epitaxial process is then performed, to form an epitaxial layer on the first nano channel structure, and an anneal process is performed, to transform the first nano channel structure and the epitaxial layer into a first nanowire structure, wherein the diameter of the first nanowire structure within the first region is different from the diameter of the first nanowire structure within the second region.
US09875926B2

A method for fabricating a semiconductor device includes forming an opening in a first epitaxial lateral overgrowth region to expose a surface of the semiconductor substrate within the opening. The method further includes forming an insulation region at the exposed surface of the semiconductor substrate within the opening and filling the opening with a second semiconductor material to form a second epitaxial lateral overgrowth region using a lateral epitaxial growth process.
US09875921B2

The subject matter of this invention is a device for flexible purge management, comprising a FOUP transport system, a purging gas distribution system, one or more FOUP nests for holding FOUPs and an electronic control system. The overhead FOUP transport system, the gas distribution system and the electrical system run together for the most part. Adapter plates that serve to hold the FOUPs are arranged in the FOUP nests. A computer-supported multi-tier control system controls the device and makes it possible to individually address each FOUP nest and to also operate the remaining FOUP nests when there is partial removal.
US09875917B2

A semiconductor structure bonding apparatus is disclosed. The apparatus may include a leveling adjustment system configured to provide leveling adjustment of upper and lower block assemblies of the apparatus. In some cases, the leveling adjustment system may include a plurality of threaded posts, differentially threaded adjustment collars, and leveling sleeves. In some instances, the leveling adjustment system further may include a plurality of preload springs configured to provide a given preload capacity and range of adjustment. In some instances, the leveling adjustment system further may include a load cell through which one of the threaded posts may be inserted. In some embodiments, the upper block assembly further may include a reaction plate configured to reduce deformation of the upper block assembly. In some embodiments, the upper block assembly further may include a thermal isolation plate configured to provide compliance deflection and being of monolithic or polylithic construction, as desired.
US09875913B2

A method of packaging an integrated circuit includes forming a first integrated circuit and a second integrated circuit on a wafer, the first and second integrated circuit separated by a singulation region. The method includes covering the first and second integrated circuits with a molding compound, and sawing through a top portion of the molding compound using a first beveled saw blade, while leaving a bottom portion of the molding compound remaining. The method further includes sawing through the bottom portion of the molding compound and the wafer using a second saw blade, the second saw blade having a thickness that is less than a thickness of the first saw blade. The resulting structure is within the scope of the present disclosure.
US09875906B2

A method for forming patterns in a semiconductor device includes providing a substrate and a patterning-target layer formed over the substrate; forming a first feature in a first hard mask layer formed over the patterning-target layer; and forming a second feature in a second hard mask layer formed over the patterning-target layer. The first hard mask layer has a different etching selectivity from the second hard mask layer. The method further includes selectively removing a portion of the first feature within a first trench to form a reshaped first feature. In an embodiment, the first trench exposes a portion of the second feature, and the selectively removing of the first portion of the first feature does not etch the portion of the second feature.
US09875903B2

A computer vision system (100) operates to monitor an environment (e.g., such as a restaurant, store or other retail establishment) including a resource located therein (e.g., such as a restroom, a dining table, a drink, condiment or supply dispenser, a trash receptacle or a tray collection rack). The system includes: an image source or camera (104) that supplies image data (130) representative of at least a portion of the environment monitored by the system, the portion including the resource therein; and an event detection device (102) including a data processor (112) and operative to detect an event involving the resource. Suitably, the event detection device is arranged to: (i) be selectively configurable by a user to define the event involving the resource; (ii) receive the image data supplied by the image source; (iii) analyze the received image data to detect the defined event; and (iv) output a notification in response to detecting the defined event.
US09875902B2

A semiconductor device includes a fin structure disposed over a substrate, a gate structure and a source. The fin structure includes an upper layer being exposed from an isolation insulating layer. The gate structure disposed over part of the upper layer of the fin structure. The source includes the upper layer of the fin structure not covered by the gate structure. The upper layer of the fin structure of the source is covered by a crystal semiconductor layer. The crystal semiconductor layer is covered by a silicide layer formed by Si and a first metal element. The silicide layer is covered by a first metal layer. A second metal layer made of the first metal element is disposed between the first metal layer and the isolation insulating layer.
US09875888B2

Processes for depositing SiO2 films on a wafer surface utilizing an aminosilane compound as a silicon precursor are described.
US09875881B2

At a first timing after mounting a semiconductor wafer W on an electrostatic chuck 38, a susceptor 12 is switched from an electrically grounded state into a floated state. From a second timing after the first timing, a second high frequency power HF for plasma generation is applied to the susceptor 12, and a processing gas is excited into plasma in a chamber 10. From a third timing after the second timing, a first high frequency power LF for ion attraction is applied to the susceptor 12, and a self-bias (−Vdc) is generated. From a fourth timing close to the third timing, a negative second DC voltage −BDC corresponding to the self-bias (−Vdc) is applied to the susceptor 12. From the fifth timing after the fourth timing, a positive first DC voltage ADC is applied to an inner electrode 42 of the electrostatic chuck 38.
US09875875B2

An ionic liquid ion source can include a microfabricated body including a base and a tip. The body can be formed of a porous material compatible with at least one of an ionic liquid or room-temperature molten salt. The body can have a pore size gradient that decreases from the base of the body to the tip of the body, such that the at least one of an ionic liquid or room-temperature molten salt is capable of being transported through capillarity from the base to the tip.
US09875872B2

Circuit breakers with handles having at least one handle bearing pin that contacts an upper end portion of a moving arm and allows the arm to rotate to “OFF”, “ON” and “TRIP” positions, typically about 90 degrees of rotation.
US09875868B2

The device is used for locking an access for actuating two switching devices of high-voltage switchgear with the aid of a drive shaft transmitting drive force onto the two switching devices. In order to increase the operational safety of the high-voltage switchgear with little outlay, the locking device comprises a closing disk which is fastened on the drive shaft, a rocker bar arrangement containing at least four rocker bars, and a slider. The slider can be moved, on-site, into two positions, the first of which releases an access for the actuation on-site and blocks an access for the actuation from a remote location, and the second of which blocks the access for the on-site actuation and releases the access for the remote actuation.
US09875866B2

A keyswitch structure includes a keycap layer having a keycap region and a peripheral region adjacent to the keycap region, a circuit layer disposed under the keycap layer, a haptic actuator electrically connected to the circuit layer, a supporting structure layer being disposed under the circuit layer and having an accommodation space for accommodating the haptic actuator, and an adhesive layer disposed between the keycap layer and the circuit layer corresponding to only the peripheral region.
US09875858B2

A lockout device for preventing an electrical switch from being turned either ON or OFF while the lockout device is attached to the switch. The present lockout device can be capable of quick and easy attachment to the switch and can be secured to the switch with a padlock or similar locking device. The present lockout device can also comprise a peg for attaching a lockout tag, which prevents the tag from being removed while the lockout device is connected to a switch.
US09875855B2

A wet tantalum capacitor of either a single anode design or of multiple anode configurations having cathode active material supported on the casing and sealed in its own separator material is described. The separator “covers’ the cathode active material and is adhered directly to the casing. For a multiple anode design, an inner cathode foil positioned between opposed anode pellets is sealed in its own separator bag. Preferably, a polymeric restraining device prevents the anode from contacting the casing. The completed anode/cathode electrode assembly is sealed in the casing, which is filled with electrolyte thru a port. The fill port is hermetically sealed to complete the capacitor.
US09875838B2

A surface mountable, toroid magnetic device is provided, the device having a potting filling the central hole of the toroid. The potting extends axially beyond the base of the toroid to form a contact surface which, in use, contacts a mounting body for the device. Heat generated by the device flows by conduction through walls of the toroid defining the central hole into the potting and then through the contact surface into the mounting body.
US09875837B2

A coil electronic component includes a first coil disposed on a first surface of an insulating substrate; a second coil disposed on a second surface of the insulating substrate opposing the first surface; a via connecting the first and second coils through the insulating substrate; a first via pad formed as one end of the first coil extending and disposed on the first surface of the insulating substrate to cover the via; and a second via pad formed as one end of the second coil extending and disposed on the second surface of the insulating substrate to cover the via. Upper surfaces of the first and second via pads have rounded corners.
US09875828B2

A grommet includes a grommet body having a cylindrical shape for passing through a wire therein and configured to be inserted and locked to a through hole formed in a sheet member and a cylindrical body provided on the grommet body and configured to branch the wire passed through the grommet body in at least two directions. The cylindrical body is provided with an easily bendable part at an inside of a bent part thereof, the easily bendable part suppressing swell of the inside of the bent part, when the cylindrical body is bent in a direction of bending a cylinder axis of the cylindrical body.
US09875818B2

The present invention relates generally to the field of compensation methods for nuclear reactors and, in particular to a method for fail-safe reactivity compensation in solution-type nuclear reactors. In one embodiment, the fail-safe reactivity compensation method of the present invention augments other control methods for a nuclear reactor. In still another embodiment, the fail-safe reactivity compensation method of the present invention permits one to control a nuclear reaction in a nuclear reactor through a method that does not rely on moving components into or out of a reactor core, nor does the method of the present invention rely on the constant repositioning of control rods within a nuclear reactor in order to maintain a critical state.
US09875815B1

An integrated circuit is provided for self-repair of a memory array. The circuit includes first word lines coupled to first memory rows of the memory array, one first word line for each bit of a line address word, second word lines coupled to one or more spare memory rows of the memory array. Repair configuration data is stored in memory cells within the integrated circuit to direct memory accesses to spare memory rows rather than dysfunctional first memory rows. A memory cell may be based on a correlated electron switch (CES). A built-in self-test circuit is provided to facilitate setting of repair configuration data. The repair data may be reconfigurable, enabling operating margins to be improved by testing under various operating conditions.
US09875810B2

A memory region can durably self-identify as being faulty when read. Information that would have been assigned to the faulty memory region can be assigned to another of that sized region in memory using a replacement encoding technique. For phase change memory, at least two fault states can be provided for durably self-identifying a faulty memory region; one state at a highest resistance range and the other state at a lowest resistance range. Replacement cells can be used to shift or assign data when a self-identifying memory fault is present. A memory controller and memory module, alone or in combination may manage replacement cell use and facilitate driving a newly discovered faulty cell to a fault state if the faulty cell is not already at the fault state.
US09875807B2

A semiconductor memory apparatus may include a data conversion control block configured to control the number of pipe input control signals and the number of pipe output control signals which are enabled, in response to a training control signal. The semiconductor memory apparatus may also include a data conversion block configured to receive parallel data and output serial data, in response to the pipe input control signals and the pipe output control signals.
US09875797B1

A photon memory system. The photon memory system includes a first memory cell having a first memory cell output and a second memory cell output. The first memory cell also includes an LED (Light Emitting Diode) and a photo dot region that includes phosphorescent material. The first memory cell can be charged to first, second, and third initial values for a first memory cell output voltage across the first and second memory cell outputs. The first memory cell output voltage changes from the first, second, and third initial value towards zero. The first memory cell includes a read circuit electrically connected to the first and second memory cell outputs. The read circuit can distinguish first, second, and third voltage ranges of the first memory cell output voltage. The first, second, and third voltage ranges do not overlap with one another.
US09875796B2

A resistive memory device and a method may be provided. The resistive memory device may include a reset voltage-detecting circuit, a set voltage-detecting circuit, a control circuit and a read voltage-generating circuit. The reset voltage-detecting circuit may receive a variable preliminary reset current to detect reference reset voltage information. The set voltage-detecting circuit may receive a variable preliminary set current to detect reference set voltage information. The control circuit may receive the reference reset voltage information and the reference set voltage information to determine middle voltage information of the reference reset voltage information and the reference set voltage information. The read voltage-generating circuit may receive the middle voltage information to generate a read voltage.
US09875767B2

An apparatus comprises a slider having an air-bearing surface (ABS), a write pole at or near the ABS, and a reader at or near the ABS and connected to a pair of reader bond pads of the slider. A near-field transducer (NFT) is formed on the slider at or near the ABS, and an optical waveguide is formed in the slider and configured to receive light from a laser source. A sensor is situated proximal of the write pole at a location within the slider that receives at least some of the light communicated along the waveguide. The sensor may be electrically coupled to the reader bond pads in parallel with the reader, and configured to generate a signal indicative of output optical power of the laser source.
US09875764B1

A slider is configured for heat-assisted magnetic recording to a magnetic recording medium. A low- or non-modulation interface is defined between the slider and the medium. A contaminant is present on the slider and between the slider and the medium. A controller is configured to control the slider to dislodge the contaminant from the slider by performing modulation-based contact detection at a location of the medium where modulation-based contact detection can accurately detect head-medium contact. The controller is also configured to perform friction-based contact detection using the slider devoid of the contaminant.
US09875763B1

Method and apparatus for recovering user data from a rotatable data recording medium. In some embodiments, a moveable read element detects at least one uncorrectable read error in user data stored in a data sector arranged along a concentric track. A read retry operation is carried out to recover the user data by radially advancing the moveable read element from a first offset value to a different second offset value with respect to the track in accordance with a trajectory profile while transducing the user data from the data sector. This allows data that are variably overwritten (encroached upon) by different radial amounts from an adjacent track to be recovered.
US09875762B2

A storage device includes read circuitry having a read head having a detector that outputs signals representing data from a first track and an adjacent track. The read head is subject to off-track excursions during which the read head detects signals from both the first track and an adjacent track. Data on each track includes a preamble including a repeating pattern. The repeating pattern in any first track is orthogonal to the repeating pattern in any track adjacent to the first track. The read circuitry also includes respective Discrete Fourier Transform circuits to identify components in the signals corresponding to respective frequencies characteristic of the repeating pattern on the first track and the repeating pattern on the second track, and computation circuitry to determine from the components a ratio by which the read head is off-track. Corresponding methods are provided for operating such a storage device and for reading data.
US09875758B1

A slider includes an array of two or more transducer sets offset from one another in a cross-track direction. Each transducer set includes at least one writer and at least one reader. All of the transducer sets are configured to operate simultaneously to perform any combination of reading and writing on two or more tracks of a recording medium. At least one actuator is included between two the transducer sets. The actuator is configured to adjust a cross-track spacing between the two transducer sets in response to a control current.
US09875754B2

An audio system processes a speech signal to maintain a target value of the speech intelligibility index (SII) while minimizing the overall speech level so that speech intelligibility is preserved across different environmental sound levels while possible distortions and overall loudness are mitigated. In one embodiment, a hearing aid processes a speech signal received from another device to maintain a target value of the SII while minimizing the overall speech level before mixing the speech signal with a microphone signal.
US09875749B2

A method for predicting a bandwidth extension frequency band signal includes demultiplexing a received bitstream to obtain a frequency domain signal; determining whether a highest frequency bin, to which a bit is allocated, of the frequency domain signal is less than a preset start frequency bin of a bandwidth extension frequency band; predicting an excitation signal of the bandwidth extension frequency band according to the determination; and predicting the bandwidth extension frequency band signal according to the predicted excitation signal of the bandwidth extension frequency band and a frequency envelope of the bandwidth extension frequency band.
US09875748B2

A noise attenuation apparatus receives an audio signal comprising a desired and a noise signal component. Two codebooks (109, 111) comprise respectively desired signal candidates representing a possible desired signal component and noise signal contribution candidates representing possible noise contributions. A segmenter (103) segments the audio signal into time segments and for each time segment a noise attenuator (105) generates estimated signal candidates by for each of the desired signal candidates generating an estimated signal candidate as a combination of a scaled version of the desired signal candidate and a weighted combination of the noise signal contribution candidates. The noise attenuator (105) minimizes a cost function indicative of a difference between the estimated signal candidate and the audio signal in the time segment. A signal candidate is then determined for the time segment from the estimated signal candidates and the audio signal is noise compensated based on this signal candidate.
US09875737B2

A pre-training apparatus and method for recognition speech, which initialize, by layers, a deep neural network to correct a node connection weight. The pre-training apparatus for speech recognition includes an input unit configured to receive speech data, a model generation unit configured to initialize a connection weight of a deep neural network, based on the speech data, and an output unit configured to output information about the connection weight. In order for a state of a phoneme unit corresponding to the speech data to be output, the model generation unit trains the connection weight by piling a plurality of hidden layers according to a determined structure of the deep neural network, applies an output layer to a certain layer between the plurality of hidden layers to correct the trained connection weight in each of the plurality of hidden layers, thereby initializing the connection weight.
US09875736B2

Systems and methods for pre-training a sequence tagger with unlabeled data, such as a hidden layered conditional random field model are provided. Additionally, systems and methods for transfer learning are provided. Accordingly, the systems and methods build more accurate, more reliable, and/or more efficient sequence taggers than previously utilized sequence taggers that are not pre-trained with unlabeled data and/or that are not capable of transfer learning/training.
US09875735B2

Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and computer readable-media for providing an automatic synthetically generated voice describing media content, the method comprising receiving one or more pieces of metadata for a primary media content, selecting at least one piece of metadata for output, and outputting the at least one piece of metadata as synthetically generated speech with the primary media content. Other aspects of the invention involve alternative output, output speech simultaneously with the primary media content, output speech during gaps in the primary media content, translate metadata in foreign language, tailor voice, accent, and language to match the metadata and/or primary media content. A user may control output via a user interface or output may be customized based on preferences in a user profile.
US09875731B2

A musical instrument carrier includes a rod position regulating member that is attached to a rod in order to set the attachment position of a musical instrument, and can selectively be put in either a movable state with respect to the rod or a fixed state with respect to the rod in order to set the attachment position of a musical instrument.
US09875724B2

The present invention discloses a method of displaying on an electronic device and an electronic device. The method is applied in an electronic device with a display unit, which includes: acquiring a first environment light parameter of an environment around the electronic device, wherein, the first environment light parameter comprises at least a second color temperature value of the environment; determining a first display parameter of the display unit according to the first environment light parameter; and displaying on the display unit with the first display parameter.
US09875715B2

A display apparatus includes a display panel, a gate driver and a data driver. The display panel includes a plurality of gate lines, a plurality of data lines and a plurality of pixels connected to the gate lines and the data lines. The display panel displays an image. The gate driver is configured to output a gate signal to the gate line. The data driver is configured to selectively operate one of outputting a data voltage to the data line and reading the data voltage stored in the pixel through the data line.
US09875708B2

A driving circuit is provided, which includes multiple shift register units, at least one scan control unit and at least one all-gate-on unit. An operation of the driving circuit includes a driving phase and a discharging phase. During the driving phase, the at least one scan control unit controls the shift register units to output multiple driving signals successively in a first direction or in a second direction, the first direction being opposite to the second direction. During the discharging phase, the at least one all-gate-on unit controls the shift register units to output multiple driving signals simultaneously. An array substrate and a display apparatus each including the driving circuit are further provided.
US09875703B2

A liquid crystal apparatus is provided with a first electrode to which a first signal is supplied, a second electrode provided between the first electrode and sealing material and to which a second signal is supplied, and a third electrode provided between the second electrode and the sealing material and to which a third signal is supplied, in which the reference potential of the third electrode is different from the reference potential of the first electrode and the second electrode.
US09875691B2

The present invention provides a pixel circuit, a driving method thereof and a display device. The pixel circuit comprises a drive module, an energy storage module, an electroluminescent module, a data voltage writing module, a threshold compensation module and a reset module, and also comprises an operating voltage input terminal, a data voltage input terminal and a plurality of control signal input terminal. The threshold compensation module is capable of introducing the voltage on the compensation voltage input terminal so as to set the voltage on the control terminal of the drive module to be a sum of the threshold voltage of the drive module and the operating voltage, thus the driving current flowing through the electroluminescent units is not affected by the threshold voltage of corresponding drive modules, such that the problem of uneven display brightness caused by the threshold voltage drift of driving transistors can be solved.
US09875690B2

The present invention provides a pixel circuit, a display substrate and a display panel. The pixel circuit comprises a power supply terminal; a control thin film transistor; a drive thin film transistor; a storage capacitor; a light-emitting device, the pixel circuit further comprises a voltage division control module and a voltage division capacitor, the voltage division control module is used for charging the storage capacitor in the pre-charging phase of the pixel circuit, so that voltage of the gate of the drive thin film transistor becomes a reference voltage, and the voltage division control module is capable of outputting a low level to the second end of the storage capacitor in the compensation phase of the pixel circuit. A first end of the voltage division capacitor is connected to the first end of the storage capacitor, a second end thereof is connected to the cathode of the light-emitting device.
US09875681B2

A method of driving a display panel includes dividing an input image into a plurality of segments; generating flicker levels of respective ones of the segments; determining a frame rate of the display panel based on the flicker levels of the segments; and outputting a data voltage to the display panel at the frame rate.
US09875679B2

The present disclosure provides gamma curve adjusting method and device, and the method includes: substituting a preset maximum brightness value, a preset gamma value and gray-scale values into a standard gamma curve calculation formula, to obtain brightness values corresponding to the gray-scale values; selecting N gray-scale values from the gray-scale values, and actually measuring, in the condition of the selected N gray-scale values, gray-scale voltage values required to reach brightness values, respectively corresponding to the selected N gray-scale values, calculated according to the standard gamma curve calculation formula, where N is a positive integer; obtaining a function formula between gray-scale voltage value and brightness value according to brightness values respectively corresponding to the selected N gray-scale values and the actually measured gray-scale voltage values; and calculating gray-scale voltage values corresponding to brightness values smaller than or equal to the preset maximum brightness value, according to the obtained function formula.
US09875676B2

A display device according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure includes a plurality of pixels located at crossing regions of a plurality of scan lines and a plurality of data lines; a data driver coupled to ends of the plurality of data lines at a first side and configured to supply a plurality of data signals to the plurality of data lines; an inspection unit coupled to ends of the plurality of data lines at a second side and configured to supply a plurality of inspection signals to the plurality of pixels; at least one detection line electrically coupled to the inspection unit and extending from a first side of the panel to a second side of the panel; and a reset transistor coupled between the detection line and a reset power supply and configured to turn on when it receives a first control signal.
US09875674B2

A display device includes, on a TFT substrate, a driver IC having a first bump and a second bump, a first terminal and a second terminal connecting respectively to the first bump and the second bump, and wiring interconnecting the first terminal and the second terminal. The driver IC also includes a resistance detection circuit that detects resistance between the first bump and the second bump.
US09875673B2

An illuminated aerial aircraft display is disclosed. The display may be towed by an airplane with a propeller with a front facing with a plurality of illuminated indicia that includes letters and numbers and illuminated computer generated or non-computer generated moving indicia or pictorial images disposed on the front facing and a wind milling generator installed on a lead pole of the illuminated aerial aircraft display and a plurality of LED lights that illuminate the illuminated indicia. The display has illuminated indicia that may utilize a wide variety of colors and aesthetically pleasing styles and works in combination with the propeller that spins and produces electricity utilized by the LED lights once the illuminated aerial aircraft display is picked up and towed by the aircraft. One or more batteries may also be utilized to power the LED lights.
US09875668B2

The present disclosures relates to a control terminal, comprising: a data communication unit for receiving a first user voice by data communication with a first audio device and receiving a second user voice by data communication with a second audio device; a turn information generating unit for generating turn information, which is voice unit information, by using the first and second user voices; and a metalanguage processing unit for determining a conversation pattern of the first and second users by using the turn information, and outputting a reminder message corresponding to a reminder event to the first user when the conversation pattern corresponds to a preset reminder event occurrence condition.
US09875657B2

A low flying unmanned vehicle is disclosed that may be able to determine whether a collision is possible and may take evasive action in response to the possible collision. The vehicle may wirelessly communicate and may use a standard protocol such that a variety of additional objects may be taken into account when determining the possible collision risk.
US09875655B2

A parking assist system includes an electronic control unit. The electronic control unit is configured to set at least one candidate position that is a candidate for a target position of a moving path of a vehicle on the basis of at least one of a detected obstacle or a detected parking boundary, rank each of the at least one candidate position on the basis of the candidate position and a position and orientation of the host vehicle, and determine one of the ranked at least one candidate position as the target position.
US09875653B2

An electronic traffic alert system for communicating with an emergency vehicle and a centralized traffic control station includes a traffic display having a screen for displaying graphics and configured to hold a plurality of modules. The modules are of substantially uniform shape, such that individual modules are interchangeably connectable to the traffic display, and the plurality of modules are mounted below the screen so that at least one of them extends below the traffic display. The traffic display also includes a central processor in communication with the plurality of modules and the screen, with the central processor configured to display a predetermined graphic on the screen according to input from at least one of the plurality of modules, and an interface for transmitting traffic-related information to the traffic display from and a centralized traffic control station.
US09875634B2

A method and apparatus for determining presence of an object to be tidied in a washroom. A beam is supplied to a surface of the washroom at a first location. A reflected beam received from the surface of the washroom or received from an object in the path of the beam to the surface is detected. The presence of the object is determined from feedback from the beam based on a comparison of the feedback with a detection result when the beam reflects from the surface at the first location. An object to be tidied output signal is issued indicating that an object to be tidied is present based on the determination on the presence of an object.
US09875633B2

A patient support apparatus comprises a substantially rigid support deck for supporting a patient support element, a first sensing element and a second sensing element arranged on the support deck and separated from one another in a direction along the width of the patient support apparatus. Each sensing element is configured to determine, in use, the force or pressure applied to it by the patient support element and a patient on the patient support element. One or more processors, coupled to the sensing elements, are configured to determine the location of the center of gravity of a patient on the patient support element, along the width of the patient support apparatus, based upon outputs of the first and second sensing elements. An alarm may be activated when the location of the center of gravity along the width of the patient support apparatus is outside a predetermined range of values.
US09875628B2

A disposable electrically conductive band for a re-usable RFID tag having an RFID tag holder, an electrical continuity contact within a loop on an end of the band, an electrically conductive landing area on a tongue of the band, the tongue being insertable through the loop to secure the band around a body to be monitored by an RFID system, the tongue thereby engaging a portion of the landing area with the electrical continuity contact. The conductive landing area has a series of electrical continuity dimples in each of which there is an electrical contact to an electrical pathway around the electrically conductive band. The RFID tag transmits an alarm to the monitoring agency whenever the band has been tampered with, severed, or otherwise circumvented.
US09875626B2

Systems and methods of securing chattels are provided. Motion of a first container can be measured by a sensor over an interval of time and compared to motion of a second container. A relative difference between the motion of the first container and the motion of the second container over the interval of time can be calculated by a data processing circuit. A determination can be made by the data processing circuit that the relative difference in motion of the containers exceeds a predetermined threshold. An alert that the threshold has been exceeded can be transmitted by a transmitting circuit to a remote server. A SIM card and a modem can be associated with a container. Information corresponding to the location and identification of the SIM card can be received by the modem. The location and identification information can be transmitted by the modem to a remote server.
US09875623B2

A gaming system includes a plurality of gaming devices and a linked game controller in data communication with the plurality of gaming devices. The linked game controller is arranged to conduct a linked game in which eligible ones of the gaming devices participate and any award is shared between the participating gaming devices. The linked game controller is arranged to conduct the linked game by generating at least one game outcome, and evaluating each game outcome to determine any award associated with the linked game to share based on the number of participating gaming devices.
US09875616B2

The present invention provides novel method and devices for implementing progressive systems on networked gaming machines and associated network devices. Some preferred implementations of the invention allow a target progressive pool size to be selected and apply payouts such that the actual progressive pool size is not likely to exceed greatly the target progressive pool size. Some such implementations control the actual progressive pool size by applying a function to control percentages of the current progressive pool size payable to players of a wagering game on the networked gaming machines. The function may be a function of a current progressive pool size, target progressive pool size and bet size. The function may cause relatively higher percentages of the current progressive pool size to be payable to players when the current progressive pool amount is greater than a target progressive pool size and relatively lower percentages of the current progressive pool size to be payable to players when the current progressive pool size is less than or equal to a target progressive pool size.
US09875614B2

Systems and methods provided allow users to receive rewards in a videogame based on their “real world” purchases, where such purchases are those they may have made anyway, but which now provide the incentive of receiving rewards in particularly new ways. By providing a connection between a server operating the loyalty reward system and a game server or game administration server, the system can be made seamless and can closely tie the purchase to the reward. Players may receive in-game benefits based on their real world activities with loyalty programs, including rewards for purchases on credit cards, debit cards, or at particular storefronts.
US09875611B2

Electronic fund transfer (EFT) systems and methods are disclosed for managing and transferring electronic funds from a patron's financial account for use in a gaming or amusement environment. The systems comprise a secured electronic transaction terminal and a secured first computing device in communication with a financial network. The terminal is configured to communicate with the patron's financial account via the secured first computing device and the financial network to electronically transfer funds at the patron's request.
US09875608B1

A sports-wagering kiosk including at least a (i) display; (ii) identification card reader; (iii) camera; (iv) processing means; (v) printer; (vi) ticket reader; (vii) bill validator; and (viii) communication link for communicating with a central computer system. The sports-wagering kiosk facilitates a registration and wagering process by: (i) capturing an image of a prospective player; (ii) reading data from an identification card including a photograph; (iii) verifying an age of the prospective player and validity of the identification card based on reading the data therefrom; (iv) transmitting at least some of the data read from the identification card to a central computer system; (v) verifying the identification of the prospective player by comparing the captured photograph to a photograph on the identification card; (vi) once the identification is verified, prompting the prospective player to enter a password; and (vii) printing a receipt with player account information.
US09875607B2

A gaming system compatible with patron-controlled portable electronic devices, such as smart phones or tablet computers, is described. When a transaction is initiated on an EGM that requires the input of Sensitive Information data, such data can be input directly from the Player/Patrons Portable Electronic Device. Hence, such input of their Sensitive Information data is more discrete, and generally out of plain view from the other Player/Patrons.
US09875604B2

A wagering game system and its operations are described herein. In some embodiments, the operations include receiving event data from a first application available on a wagering game machine, wherein the event data is in a first data format that is natively understood by the first application and not natively understood by a second application available on the wagering game machine. In some embodiments, the operations further include converting the event data to a second data format natively understood by the second application, wherein the second data format is not natively understood by the first application. In some embodiments, the operations further include communicating the event data in the second data format to the second application.
US09875595B2

A filter disk filters coins deposited into coin machines for counting, sorting, separating or processing coins to prevent the introduction or entry of foreign objects and debris into the coin machine, thus protecting and ensuring the proper functioning of the machine.
US09875587B2

A smart key for a vehicle includes: a communication unit including a low frequency (LF) antenna which receives an LF signal; and a control unit determining a strength and a direction vector of the LF signal. The control unit estimates a first location of the smart key based on the strength of the LF signal, estimates a second location of the smart key based on the direction vector of the LF signal, and determines a presence of a relay attack by analyzing the first location and the second location and comparing the first location with the second location.
US09875577B2

It is proposed a computer-implemented method for tessellating a three-dimensional modeled object parameterized for tessellation. The method comprises the steps of providing 2D meshes associated to geometrical data of a boundary representation of the modeled object, the boundary representation comprising the geometrical data including parametric surfaces and topological data including a set of faces each defined as a portion of the 2D domain of a respective parametric surface; and determining 3D meshes by evaluating the position of vertices of the 2D meshes on the respective parametric surfaces.Such a solution improves the tessellation of a 3D modeled object.
US09875569B2

In rendering in medical imaging, the MIP and VRT modes are emulated using physically-based rendering, such as Monte Carlo ray tracing. By weighting the rendering based on user or other input, where along a continuum of MIP to VRT to render is selected. A sequence of different images may be rendered with different settings at different points on the continuum using the same window level, classification, or other parameters.
US09875564B2

A map display device stores a map image dataset with image pixels including a plurality of static-type pixels each having only one color value, and a plurality of dynamic-type pixels each having a predefined set of color values, and a function definition field which defines a function to select between said color values. A graphics processor processes one tile of map image data by, for each of the dynamic type pixels, retrieving the function identified by the function definition field, applying a current time value to the function, and selecting one of the predefined set of color values according to a result of the function. An output unit outputs the map image frame as a raster image containing one pixel color value at each of the pixels for display on a display screen.
US09875563B2

Systems and methods are provided for a creating nail polish art by providing an image, providing a hand pose stencil, including image coordinates for the fingernails of the hand pose stencil, allowing the hand pose stencil to be positioned on the image, associating the image coordinates for the fingernails to portions of the image, and displaying the portions of the image that have been associated with the image coordinates on fingernail polish stickers. Such systems and methods provide a revolutionary new way to create custom nail art by printing an image onto nail polish stickers for a gorgeous, one-of-a-kind manicure that a user can self-apply with no dry-time or waiting.
US09875559B2

An image processing apparatus includes an acquiring unit that acquires a plurality of pixel value rows aligned in a depth direction of an object to be measured based on interference light obtained by causing return light of scanned measurement light from the object to be measured and reference light corresponding to the measurement light to interfere with each other. A forming unit forms a two-dimensional image based on pixel values selected in accordance with a predetermined selection criterion from the plurality of pixel value rows, one of the pixel values being selected from one of the plurality of pixel value rows. In addition, a setting unit sets a selection range which is a range in the depth direction for selecting the pixel values in the plurality of pixel value rows, and a criterion changing unit changes the predetermined selection criterion in accordance with the set selection range.
US09875555B2

The invention is directed to a computer-implemented method for partitioning an image. The method comprises displaying an image that comprises a border; drawing a curve over the image; computing all closed areas delimited by the curve and the border of the image, each closed area being independent from the other computed closed areas and individually selectable.
US09875554B2

Relightable free-viewpoint rendering allows a novel view of a scene to be rendered and relit based on multiple views of the scene from multiple camera viewpoints. Image values from the multiple camera viewpoints can be separated into diffuse image components and specular image components, such that an intrinsic color component of a relightable texture can be determined for a specular scene, by using the separated diffuse image components. Furthermore, surface normals of geometry in the scene can be refined by constructing a height map based on a conservative component of an initial surface normal field and then determining the refined surface normals based on the constructed height map.
US09875545B2

Provided is a camera pose estimation apparatus that estimates an initial camera pose using one of an input depth image and an input color image, and refines the initial camera pose using the other image. When the initial camera pose is estimated using the input depth image, the radius of a first area, in which color information is matched for refinement, can be adaptively set according to the distribution of the depth value of at least one first point that is subject to matching.
US09875536B2

Methods and systems for determining if a defect detected on a specimen is a DOI (Defect of Interest) or a nuisance are provided. One system includes computer subsystem(s) configured for aligning output of an inspection subsystem for an area on a specimen to simulated output of the inspection subsystem for the area on the specimen and detecting a defect in the output for the area on the specimen. The computer subsystem(s) are also configured for determining a location of the defect in the output with respect to patterned features in the simulated output based on results of the detecting and aligning, determining a distance between the determined location of the defect and a known location of interest on the specimen, and determining if the defect is a DOI or a nuisance based on the determined distance.
US09875534B2

A reticle is inspected with an imaging system to obtain a measured image of a structure on the reticle, and the structure has an unknown critical dimension (CD). Using a model, a calculated image is generated using a design database that describes a pattern used to form the structure on the reticle. The model generates the calculated image based on: optical properties of reticle materials of the structure, a computational model of the imaging system, and an adjustable CD. A norm of a difference between the measured and calculated images is minimized by adjusting the adjustable CD and iteratively repeating the operation of generating a calculated image so as to obtain a final CD for the unknown CD of the structure. Minimizing the norm of the difference is performed simultaneously with respect to the adjustable CD and one or more uncertain parameters of the imaging system.
US09875532B2

The present invention provides an information processing device in which a degradation process of an input image is accurately estimated and a dictionary necessary for generating a desired restored image from the input image can be obtained. The information processing device is provided with: an image acquisition means that acquires a plurality of study images and an input image; and an estimation means that, on the basis of similarity between an arbitrary region of the input image and each of a plurality of degradation images in a case where regions of the study images corresponding to the arbitrary region are degraded on the basis of each of the plurality of degradation processes, outputs an estimated degradation process corresponding to the degradation process corresponding to the region of the input image.
US09875525B2

An image processing device includes a detection section adapted to detect a pointing direction of a pointing body, and a rotation section adapted to rotate an image based on the pointing direction detected by the detection section.
US09875523B2

An image processing apparatus and image processing method enlarge an input image (Din) to generate a low-resolution enlarged image (D101). Depending on a result of identification of the pattern of the input image (Din), coefficient data (D108) for conversion to a high-resolution are selected, and a feature component (D102H) of a low resolution is converted to a feature component (D103H) of a high resolution. Decision as to whether or not the pattern of a local region of the input image (Din) is flat is made. If it is flat, the coefficient data are so selected that no substantial alteration is made to pixel values in a high-resolution conversion unit (103). It is possible to reduce the circuit size and the memory capacity, and to improve the noise immunity, and achieve conversion to a high resolution suitable for implementation by hardware.
US09875521B2

An image output apparatus includes an input image acquiring unit, a target attribute value acquiring unit that acquires at least one target attribute value, which is an original attribute value of a subject contained in an input image, an attribute value acquiring unit that acquires at least one attribute value of the subject contained in an output image formed using the input image, a difference information acquiring unit that acquires at least one piece of difference information indicating a difference between the at least one target attribute value acquired by the target attribute value acquiring unit and the at least one attribute value acquired by the attribute value acquiring unit, and an image output unit that, in a case where the at least one piece of difference information does not satisfy a predetermined condition, changes an output mode of the output image formed using the input image, and performs output.
US09875513B2

Provided are equity crowdfunding platform for startup projects and methods of using thereof. An exemplary equity crowdfunding platform comprises an online service, a processor, and a database in communication with the online service and the processor. The online service is configured to receive information associated with a crowdfunding request from an owner of a startup project. The processor checks the information using a set of pre-defined rules to determine whether the startup project complies with the pre-defined rules. If the startup project related to the information complies with the pre-defined rules, the processor generates a crowdfunding request page for startup project using the information. The crowdfunding request page is provided to investors via the online service. The database is configured to store at least the information, the pre-defined rules, and the crowdfunding request page.
US09875500B2

In general, network traffic-based electronic commerce (e-commerce) techniques are described. The techniques may potentially prevent website crashes caused by traffic spikes. An example method includes determining, by a computing device, a level of network traffic associated with accessing a website that provides one or more e-commerce capabilities, and comparing the level of network traffic against a threshold traffic level. The method further includes, responsive to determining that the level of network traffic exceeds the threshold traffic level, determining whether a purchase request received via the website identifies a limited time offer (LTO) that is currently available via the website, and when the purchase request identifies the LTO, denying the purchase request with respect to the LTO at an add-to-cart stage.
US09875498B2

A system and method of global electronic trade in the Internet is provided. The method of global electronic trade for sellers and buyers via the Internet includes registering the sellers and the buyers; providing information regarding goods or services to the registered sellers and buyers; selecting of trade partners based on the provided information; holding tenders; conducting of transactions between the trade partners; conducting a post-transaction procedures; and protecting of information in the system of global electronic trade. In a basis of a method of global electronic trade are put: a method of creating of databases of structured information about offers of sellers and about requests of buyers; and a method of searching of trade partners. The method of creating of databases of structured information in the system of global electronic trade includes: filling an application form by sellers and by buyers; creation of the database of information about proposed goods and services, structured on the basis of the Global Classification of Branches of Economy, Goods and Services (GC) and on the basis of other data, included in this application form; creation of the database of information about requests of buyers, structured on the basis of the Global Classification of Branches of Economy, Goods and Services and on the basis of other data, included in this application form. The method of searching of trade partners includes a method of searching by sellers in database about requests of buyers, a method of searching by buyers in database about offers of sellers, forming a list of results of search, which has the same structure, as the specified databases; a procedure of interactive or automatic selecting of a needed data from the list of result of search.
US09875495B2

Digital media products and methods for making them are disclosed. A digital media product can effectively not have any value until purchased and activated at a point-of-sale. In one embodiment, the digital media product is content specific and provided to allow acquisition of a particular collection of digital media assets upon activation. As one example, the collection can pertain to a playlist, album or set of content.
US09875494B2

A virtual personal assistant (VPA) application analyzes intents to, among other things, enhance or personalize a user's dialog experience with the VPA application. A set of intents, or multiple sets of intents, are maintained over the course of one or more user-specific dialog sessions with the VPA. Inferences may be derived from the set or sets of intents and incorporated into a current or future dialog session between the VPA and a user of the VPA application. In some embodiments, the inferences are only made available through the systemic understanding of natural language discourse by the VPA.
US09875492B2

A network based real estate transaction system is disclosed for assisting real estate agents and their clients with determining properties for purchase.
US09875486B2

Improved systems and methods for extracting product purchase information from electronic messages transmitted between physical network nodes to convey product purchase information to designated recipients. These examples provide a product purchase information extraction service that is able to extract product purchase information from electronic messages with high precision across a wide variety of electronic message formats and thereby solve the practical problems that have arisen as a result of the proliferation of different electronic message formats used by individual merchants and across different merchants and different languages. In this regard, these examples are able to automatically learn the structures and semantics of different message formats, which accelerates the ability to support new message sources, new markets, and different languages.
US09875484B1

Methods, systems, and apparatus including computer programs encoded on computer-readable storage media are provided for evaluating attribution models and comparing estimates produced by the attribution models with causal measurements from controlled experiments. An attribution model is identified for use in determining an estimate of an effectiveness of a campaign. An experiment is identified including experiment data that reflects implementation of a change in an experiment environment including identifying a measure of effectiveness of the change within a predetermined confidence level. The estimate is evaluated as compared to the identified measure of effectiveness. A determination is made that the attribution model is an effective measure of the change for the campaign, based at least in part on the evaluating.
US09875482B1

External notifications of events that take place within a virtual space may be provided to users. External notifications may be sent, for example, via email, text message, instant message (external from the virtual space), push notification and/or through other external communication media. These external notifications may be generated based on parameters, such as user parameters, event parameters, and/or other parameters. The parameters may include one or more parameters that are dynamic and/or one or more parameters that are static. The notifications may include incentive offers. The incentive offers may include offers of virtual items within the virtual space. The incentive offers may require a response to the notification for redemption. The incentive offers may enhance engagement with the virtual space by users.
US09875472B2

There are provided systems and methods for drive through monitoring using wireless beacons. A merchant may set up a wireless beacon at a drive through location for the merchant. The beacons may provide check-in services to a user when the user arrives at the drive through in a vehicle. The user may be checked-in through a device for the user, such as a mobile phone or a vehicles dashboard console that has communication capabilities with the beacon. Once the device establishes a communication channel with the beacon, check-in information or an identifier is received and associated with an order. The order may previously have been provided to the merchant. The user can complete payment for the order through the device and when the user arrives at a pick-up window, the merchant may utilize another beacon to connect to the device and retrieve the correct order for the user.
US09875463B2

The A CLOUD-BASED DESKTOP AND SUBSCRIPTION APPLICATION PLATFORM APPARATUSES, METHODS AND SYSTEMS (“CDSA Platform”) transforms service sign up, site creation, application registration data inputs via CDSA Platform components into new site display and Subscription App Store registration confirmation outputs. In some embodiments the CDSA Platform may facilitate generation of cloud-based desktop representations within a web browser. In one implementation, the CDSA Platform may receive a first user input, including identifying user information and a web Site address. In response to the first input, the CDSA Platform may create a new web Site at the received web Site address. In one implementation, the new website may comprise a first desktop representation on a web browser at the web Site address and may present a plurality of application icons on the first desktop representation. In a further implementation, the CDSA Platform may receive a second user input which may include an action on one of the plurality of application icons. In one implementation, in response to the second input, the CDSA Platform may present a second desktop representation on the web browser at the web Site address.
US09875462B2

A docking module for use in a modular locking system includes a locking daughter board configured to selectively operate a locking mechanism into locking and unlocking positions. The docking module further includes an ID daughter board configured to interact with an identifier incorporated into a latching body of a tangible item in order to generate identification information regarding the tangible item. The ID daughter board is configured to transmit the identification information to a remote computer. The locking daughter board is configured to receive instructions from the remote computer regarding whether to selectively move the locking mechanism into the locking and unlocking positions.
US09875453B2

The proper visualization of a business process plays a key role in analyzing, changing, simulating and monitoring the business process. Most BPMS systems today, provide a modeling environment where the business user can define and visualize business processes as BPMN diagrams. Some more advanced systems (such as Sawion Business Manager) enable monitoring of the business process at run-time via a color-coded view of the process diagram. While process diagram is an important view of the process, it lacks the level of abstraction needed to provide information in an optimal way to the business users. The proposed visualization, called the 360 degree view provides an optimal view of a business process without losing important details about the process.
US09875446B2

Methods, systems, and computer program products that enable a travel agent to selectively share information related to a plurality of travel products with a traveler. In response to a search query from the travel agent, an information sharing module receives information relating to the plurality of travel products from a travel database system. The information sharing module causes the information to be displayed to a travel agent on a first display of a travel agency system. In response to the travel agent selecting a subset of the travel products, the information sharing module displays information relating to the subset of travel products to the traveler on a second display separate from the first display. The information sharing module may be configured to reformat the information so that the information is adapted to the traveler, and to cause travel products selected by the traveler to be booked.
US09875445B2

Technologies for analyzing temporal components of multimodal data to detect short-term multimodal events, determine relationships between short-term multimodal events, and recognize long-term multimodal events, using a deep learning architecture, are disclosed.
US09875444B2

A problem graph having one or more odd cycles is embedded in a quantum processor. The quantum processor includes a plurality of qubits and coupling devices, each coupling device operable to provide controllable communicative coupling between a respective pair of the plurality of qubits to form an interconnected topology. Embedding may, for example, be realized by mapping each vertex of the problem graph to a respective single qubit; mapping each edge of the problem graph to a respective single coupling device, where for pairs of qubits, each qubit of the pair is mapped to a respective pair of vertices. The problem graph may include one or more sub-graphs, one or more of the sub-graphs being a bipartite K3,3 graph.
US09875431B2

To provide a training data generating device capable of easily generating a large amount of training data used for machine-learning a dictionary of a discriminator for recognizing a crowd state. A person state determination unit 72 determines a person state of a crowd according to a people state control designation as designation information on a person state of people and an individual person state control designation as designation information on a state of an individual person in the people. A crowd state image synthesis unit 73 generates a crowd state image as an image in which a person image corresponding to the person state determined by the person state determination unit 72 is synthesized with an image at a predetermined size acquired by a background extraction unit 71, and specifies a training label for the crowd state image.
US09875429B2

Font recognition and similarity determination techniques and systems are described. In a first example, localization techniques are described to train a model using machine learning (e.g., a convolutional neural network) using training images. The model is then used to localize text in a subsequently received image, and may do so automatically and without user intervention, e.g., without specifying any of the edges of a bounding box. In a second example, a deep neural network is directly learned as an embedding function of a model that is usable to determine font similarity. In a third example, techniques are described that leverage attributes described in metadata associated with fonts as part of font recognition and similarity determinations.
US09875427B2

A method for localizing and estimating a pose of a known object in a field of view of a vision system is described, and includes developing a processor-based model of the known object, capturing a bitmap image file including an image of the field of view including the known object, extracting features from the bitmap image file, matching the extracted features with features associated with the model of the known object, localizing an object in the bitmap image file based upon the extracted features, clustering the extracted features of the localized object, merging the clustered extracted features, detecting the known object in the field of view based upon a comparison of the merged clustered extracted features and the processor-based model of the known object, and estimating a pose of the detected known object in the field of view based upon the detecting of the known object.
US09875418B2

A method of detecting a biometric region, the method including receiving an input image; setting a plurality of regions of interest (ROI) corresponding to a plurality classifiers, respectively, the plurality of classifiers corresponding to a plurality of multi-stages, respectively, the plurality of ROIs having different sizes with respect to each other, each ROI of the plurality of ROIs including a biometric region of the input image; calculating a plurality of similarity values for the plurality of classifiers, respectively, based on the ROIs corresponding to the plurality of classifiers from among the plurality of ROIs; and detecting a first biometric region for a user authentication based on at least one of the plurality of similarity values.
US09875415B2

An automated, computerized method is provided for processing an image. The method includes the steps of arranging a digital camera on a vehicle body, operating the digital camera to provide an image file depicting an image of a scene related to vehicle operation on a road, in a computer memory, receiving from the memory the image file depicting pixels of an image of the scene related to vehicle operation on a road, and using an analysis of the pixels to generate an illumination invariant image of the scene. The illumination-invariant image is converted to a grayscale image and the grayscale image is then converted to an illumination-invariant color image.
US09875414B2

A route damage prediction system includes cameras, a conversion unit, and an analysis unit. The cameras obtain image data that include a route traveled upon by vehicles. The image data includes still images and/or video of the route obtained at different times. The conversion unit includes one or more computer processors configured to at least one of create wireframe model data or modify the image data into the wireframe model data representative of the route. The analysis unit includes one or more computer processors configured to examine changes in the wireframe model data to identify a historical trend of changes in the image data. The analysis unit is configured to compare the historical trend of the changes in the image data with designated patterns of changes in the wireframe model data to determine when to request at least one of repair, inspection, or maintenance of the route.
US09875413B2

An embodiment of a vehicle monitoring apparatus has a determiner and a reader. The determiner determines whether or not a specific site of a vehicle exists at least in an area of an image, the image imaged by an imager, the area being one of multiple areas into which the image is divided by dividing line that are substantially orthogonal to a direction of travel of the vehicle. The reader reads information on a license plate mounted to the vehicle from the area in case that the determiner determines the specific site of the vehicle is determined to exist in the area.
US09875409B2

An abnormality detection apparatus, an abnormality detection method, and an abnormality detection program are provided. Each of the abnormality detection apparatus, an abnormality detection method, and an abnormality detection program extracts a target image to be monitored and a reference image, respectively, from target video to be monitored, detects an abnormality based on a difference between the target image to be monitored and the reference image, and displays an image indicating a difference between the target image to be monitored and the reference image on a monitor. Moreover, an abnormality detection system is provided including the abnormality detection apparatus, a video that captures an image of a target to be monitored, and a monitor.
US09875407B2

A system for acquiring a hyperspectral image, including: a grey level image sensor; and a diffuser and dispersive element placed on the optical path between the sensor and a scene, this element including an array of individually-controllable liquid crystal cells, where each cell can receive a control voltage selected from among a series of at least three different control voltages.
US09875406B2

This disclosure concerns an interactive head-mounted eyepiece with an integrated processor for handling content for display and an integrated image source for introducing the content to an optical assembly through which the user views a surrounding environment and the displayed content. The eyepiece includes an adjustable wrap around extendable arm comprising a shape memory material for securing the position of the eyepiece on the user's head, wherein the extendable arm extends from an end of an eyepiece arm.
US09875399B2

A method, apparatus and computer program product for improving differentiation in a gesture based security system is described. An image based feed from a camera is received by the gesture based security system. The camera has a view of a first secured area. A first gesture within the feed is recognized, producing a first recognized gesture. The first recognized gesture is determined to be an unclassified gesture for the first secured area. Non-gesture metadata is associated with the first recognized gesture. The first recognized gesture and the associated non-gesture metadata are transmitted together for classification of the first recognized gesture. The first recognized gesture is classified as one of the following: an approved gesture within the first secured area, an unapproved gesture within the first secured area or a suspicious gesture within the first secured area.
US09875398B1

A method and system in which facial image representations stored in a database are defined by facial coordinates in a plane common to other images in the database in order to facilitate comparison or likeness of the facial images by comparing the common plane facial coordinates, the common plane being determined by the locations of the eyes and mouth corners; at least one input operatively connected to the at least one processor and configured to input the corners of the eyes and mouth coordinates; the at least one processor configured to convert inputted coordinates for the corners of the eyes and mouth into estimated common plane coordinates by minimizing the error between the inputted corners of the eyes and mouth coordinates and the estimated coordinates corners of the eyes and mouth obtained from the least square estimation model of the common plane coordinates of the corners of eyes and mouth.
US09875391B2

The invention discloses an image recognition system, comprising: a robot having an image collection module configured to drive an image collection module to collect an image in a view of the robot by the image collection drive module; a light source configured to supplement light when the image collection module collecting an image; a face detection module configured to locate a face image in an image according to the image collected by the image collection module; a face recognition module configured to implement a preprocessing for the located face image, then the preprocessed face image being compared with an image feature information of a known identity in a database, to determine an identity information and a confidence probability of the present face image. The invention can identify a face based on a fixed face pose, and it can identify a face based on a local or web server database.
US09875388B2

A fingerprint sensor package and method are provided. The fingerprint sensor package comprises a fingerprint sensor along with a fingerprint sensor surface material and electrical connections from a first side of the fingerprint sensor to a second side of the fingerprint sensor. A high voltage chip is connected to the fingerprint sensor and then the fingerprint sensor package with the high voltage chip are connected to a substrate, wherein the substrate has an opening to accommodate the presence of the high voltage chip.
US09875385B1

A method for transmitting line item data from an electronic receipt comprising storing a plurality of receipt data entries affiliated with a consumer account based on a consumer identifier. The method comprises storing a plurality of merchant identifiers affiliated with one or more product data files for products sold by a merchant. The method further receives a transaction message for a payment transaction using the consumer identifier via a payment network and executes a query on the electronic receipt database from a first consumer device to identify one or more products purchased in the payment transaction. The method generates an electronic receipt displaying purchase information for the one or more products and links the purchase information on the electronic receipt to the product data file for the one or more products for transmittal.
US09875383B2

A barcode device including a barcode scanner to scan barcode labels and provide raw barcode data signals, a processor to receive and process the raw barcode data signals to provide processed barcode data signals and compare at least two of the processed barcode data signals, an indicator to notify a user of barcode data information based on the receipt of barcode data and comparison performed by the processor, and a housing to contain the barcode scanner, the processor, and the indicator, the housing comprising a first end, an opposing second end, and a body extending between the first end and the second end, the housing configured to couple to a back of a glove.
US09875377B2

A device of the Substitution-Box (S-Box) type, which is suitable for operating in a symmetric-key encryption apparatus, in particular an AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) encryption apparatus, and includes at least one module configured for carrying out a non-linear operation in a finite field (GF(28)) of an encryption method implemented by the above encryption apparatus, the module including at least one reprogrammable look-up table to, for example, implement countermeasures against side-channel attacks. When no countermeasures are employed, the tables may be set to fixed values, instead of being reprogrammable. The above module includes a plurality of composite look-up tables that implement the non-linear operation in a composite field of finite subfields (GF(24)2; GF((22)2)2) deriving from the finite field (GF(28)), each of the above composite look-up tables being smaller than a look-up table that is able to implement autonomously the non-linear operation in a finite field (GF(28)).
US09875374B2

A computer system for collecting, securing, storing, retrieving, and disposing data includes an input that receives data from one or more data capture devices, a staging server, a data storage system, and a presentation system. The data capture devices may capture data and transmit it to the staging server via the input. The staging server encrypts the data and transmits it to the data storage system. The data storage system is configured to store the data for a predetermined retention period, and if the data has a legal hold, the data storage system will safely secure the data until the hold is lifted. The presentation system is configured to communicate with the data storage system to request and access data for an authorized user.
US09875370B2

Methods, systems, apparatuses, and computer program products are provided for secure handling of queries by a data server (DS) and a database application (DA). A parameterized query is received by the DS from the DA based on a user query received from a requestor. The DS analyzes the parameterized query to attempt to determine an encryption configuration for a transformed version of the user query capable of being evaluated by the DS on encrypted data values. The DS responds to the DA with either a failure to determine the encryption configuration, or by providing the determined encryption configuration to the DA. The DA generates the transformed version of the user query, and provides the transformed version to the DS. The DS evaluates the transformed version of the user query, and provides results to the DA. The DA decrypts the results, and provides the decrypted results to the requestor.
US09875368B1

A trusted execution environment (TEE) of a computing device may receive an operation request requiring use of a protected data accessible only to the TEE. Responsive to receiving the operation request, the TEE may generate first data. The computing device may send the first data to a remote computing device. Responsive to sending the first data, the TEE may receive second data. The TEE may validate the second data to verify the remote computing device generated the second data. Responsive to validating the second data was generated by the remote computing device, the TEE may perform the requested operation using the protected data.
US09875350B2

A multi-vocal password verifying method includes the steps of: (1) displaying at least one set of candidate information units, the information units of the password being included in at least one set of candidate information units for being chosen; (2) accepting setting of relative location between a target selection region and the candidate information units such that the number of the candidate information units covered by the target selection region is two or more, the candidate information units covered by said target selection region being defined as a selection information unit set; and (3) comparing the information units of the password with the selection information unit set, and it being determined that the user has chosen correct information units from the predefined password when the selection information unit set contains the information units of the password. The password verification performed by the present multi-vocal password verifying method brings good effects such as vagueness of explicit expression and use convenience of user operation, and is therefore more reliable.
US09875342B2

A user can share digital content with another user or device using dynamically-generated barcodes. A user might request to share an electronic book (“e-book”), stored on a first device, with another user having a second device. The first device can generate a barcode that includes not only information about the identity of the e-book, but also information about the user or the first device, which can help to determine rights and/or access restrictions for the content. The second device can capture an image of the barcode generated on a display of the first device, and use information extracted from that image to attempt to obtain a copy of the e-book. Other types of barcodes can be generated based at least in part upon the context, such as where a user is attempting to locate a physical copy of a type of digital content in a retail location.
US09875338B2

A medical device system includes a first medical device, a first memory corresponding to the first medical device, a second medical device, and a second memory corresponding to the second medical device, wherein the first medical device includes a first writing unit that dynamically writes, into an area included in the first memory, definition data that defines a method for using the area and data corresponding to the definition data, and the second medical device includes a second writing unit that dynamically writes, into an area included in the second memory, definition data that defines a method for using the area and data corresponding to the definition data.
US09875333B1

The present disclosure relates to a system and method for electronic design automation. Embodiments may include receiving, using at least one processor, an electronic design and determining one or more graph based analysis (“GBA”) violating nodes associated with the electronic design. Embodiments may include identifying a non-covered violating node from the GBA violating nodes and determining a worst timing path through the non-covered violating node. Embodiments may further include invoking a path-based analysis (“PBA”) on the worst timing path and determining if the worst timing path satisfies the PBA analysis.
US09875332B2

Various implementations described herein are directed to systems and methods for mitigating contact resistance. In one implementation, a method may include analyzing operating conditions for cells of an integrated circuit. The method may include selectively marking instances of the cells having timing degradation along a critical path of the integrated circuit. The method may include reducing contact resistance for the selectively marked instances of the cells having timing degradation.
US09875331B2

One aspect includes identifying via groups that each includes a ratio of a plurality of signal vias to one ground via based on a design file defining a layout of a multi-layer circuit board. A genetic via placement solver iteratively evaluates potential placement solutions that adjust a placement of one or more of the signal vias until at least one solution is identified that meets one or more placement criteria of the signal vias. The genetic via placement solver performs a mutation and recombination of one or more solutions that do not meet the one or more placement criteria and re-evaluates the one or more solutions that do not meet the one or more placement criteria. The design file is modified to include at least one shifted signal via position based on identifying the at least one solution that meets the one or more placement criteria.
US09875330B2

Disclosed approaches for processing a circuit design include identifying duplicate instances of a module in a representation of the circuit design. A processor circuit performs folding operations for at least one pair of the duplicate instances of the module. One instance of the duplicates is removed from the circuit design, and a multiplexer is inserted. The multiplexer receives and selects one of the input signals to the duplicate instances and provides the selected input signal to the remaining instance. For each flip-flop in the remaining instance, a pipelined flip-flop is inserted. Connections to a first clock signal in the remaining instance are replaced with connections to a second clock signal having twice the frequency of the first clock signal. An alignment circuit is inserted to receive the output signal from the first instance and provide concurrent first and second output signals.
US09875329B1

A host system for transferring data to a target system is provided. The host system may include a layout database for storing mask layout data representing an integrated circuit (IC) in terms of planar geometric shapes. The hosts system may further include a processor configured to import the mask layout data from the layout database to a memory-mapped disk in the host system. The processor is further configured to translate the mask layout data into one or more cell views according to a table hierarchy in the memory-mapped disk. The processor is further configured to transmit the one or more cell views from the memory-mapped disk to a magnetic disk of the target system.
US09875328B2

An apparatus for storing data includes a latch circuit comprising a first set of transistors that propagate an input signal to an output signal and a second set of transistors that do not propagate the input signal of the latch circuit to the output signal wherein a gate pitch for the first set of transistors is substantially greater than a gate pitch for the second set of transistors. Also disclosed herein, a method for improving circuit performance includes receiving an electronic representation of a plurality of latching circuits associated with a design file and increasing transistor gate pitch for selected transistors of the plurality of latching circuits, wherein the selected transistors comprise transistors that propagate an input signal to an output signal. The method may also include fabricating a chip comprising the plurality of latching circuits. A computer program product corresponding to the method is also disclosed within.
US09875326B2

A mechanism is provided for addressing coupled noise-based violations. For each net in an integrated circuit (IC) design, a determination is made as to whether an associated delta wire delay is below a predetermined threshold. Responsive to the associated delta wire delay failing to be below the predetermined threshold, a subset of nets is formed. For each net in the subset of nets, a stage delay side model of the net is adjusted to emulate a noise impact on timing of the net and an optimization is applied using the stage delay side model of the net. A full retiming of the set of nets is then performed. For each net in the subset of nets a determination is made as to whether the net has degraded slack and, responsive to the net having degraded slack, the applied optimization is backed out.
US09875324B2

Systems and methods are provided for simulating fraction power and control in transportation systems under design conditions and/or utilizing real-time data.
US09875321B2

Apparatuses, systems, and methods for generating and utilizing custom indexes for a plurality of geo-locations are described. A plurality of indexes are generated, each corresponding to one of a plurality of geo-locations, based on spatial area subdivisions of a space including the plurality of geo-locations. A points of interest (POIs) query is received, wherein results of the query are to be limited by a distance value. One or more geo-locations are identified as POIs within the distance value from a first geo-location of the plurality of geo-locations based on the corresponding indexes of the one or more identified geo-locations.
US09875316B2

Even when it takes time to perform rendering of a web page, it is made possible to execute a process intended by a user who performs an operation of pointing at an element in the web page. When an operation of pointing at a position of an element in a web page is received before drawing of the web page is completed, an information processing apparatus acquires coordinates indicating the position and a screen shot of the web page. The information processing apparatus identifies an element indicated by an image, in the screen shot, located at a position indicated by the coordinates. When a process corresponding to an event of the operation is to be executed, the information processing apparatus causes a process that is executed when the operation is performed on the identified element to be executed.
US09875313B1

One or more server devices may simultaneously calculate first ranking scores for a group of users and second ranking scores for a group of comments authored by the group of users. The calculating may occur during a same process. The one or more server devices may further provide one of a first ranked list that includes information identifying the group of users, the information identifying the group of users being ordered based on the first ranking scores, or a second group of comments of the group of comments, the comments in the second group of comments being ordered based on the second ranking scores.
US09875307B2

Techniques for using contextual information relating to content presented by a television as part of a search query for an information search are presented. A search management component, at a given moment in time during presentation of television-related content by a communication device in or associated with a television, identifies contextual information associated with a section of the television-related content and generates a content identifier timestamp associated with the contextual information and the section of television-related content. A search component augments a search query using the contextual information to facilitate customization of a subset of search results based on the contextual information. The contextual information in the search query can facilitate disambiguating the search query or promoting a search result over another search result in the subset of search results, based on the contextual information, to facilitate customization of the subset of search results.
US09875300B2

Electronic natural language processing in a natural language processing (NLP) system, such as a Question-Answering (QA) system. A receives electronic text input, in question form, and determines a readability level indicator in the question. The readability level indicator includes at least a grammatical error, a slang term, and a misspelling type. The computer determines a readability level for the electronic text input based on the readability level indicator, and retrieves candidate answers based on the readability level.
US09875295B1

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for evaluating substitute terms. One of the methods includes receiving a query having an original term and determining one or more substitution contexts for the original term, wherein a substitution context includes one or more context terms and an indication of a position in the query of the original term and the one or more context terms. The substitution contexts are classified into a first category or a second category based on a respective score of each substitution context. The original term is associated with one or more substitution contexts in the first category.
US09875292B2

A database cluster is provided. The database cluster includes a plurality of nodes. When a change is implemented at a first given node of the database cluster, the change is communicated to other nodes of the database cluster to synchronize data between the nodes. For this purpose, the first given node generates information by applying a hash function to a database key indicative of where the change is to be implemented. Subsequently, the first given node includes the information generated by the hash function into the change, and communicates the change along with the information to a second given node of the database cluster.
US09875291B2

Techniques are disclosed for generating a visualization of differences between objects in a plurality of objects and a reference object. For each object in the plurality of objects, a widget performs the following steps. The widget retrieves a plurality of parameter values associated with the object. For each parameter value in the plurality of parameter values, the widget retrieves a reference value of the reference object corresponding to the parameter value, computes a difference between the parameter value and the reference value, and updates a difference indicator based on the computed difference. The widget selects an angle related to the difference indicator. The widget computes a location in a display screen region associated with the object based on the difference indicator and the selected angle.
US09875287B1

Methods, systems, and apparatus include computer programs encoded on a computer-readable storage medium, including a method for providing content. A request for content is received from a user device. One or more candidate content items that are responsive to the request are identified from an inventory of content items. For each candidate content item, an expected performance measure associated with a respective candidate content item is determined. The expected performance measure for each respective candidate content item is compared to a predetermined threshold. When none of the candidate content items have an expected performance measure that exceeds the threshold, a notification is generated, including generating one or more queries, responsive to the request for inclusion in the notification. The notification is provided responsive to the request and for presentation to the user in lieu of a content item.
US09875278B2

Techniques are described for using stored function instantiations, together with user queries. In one example, a method includes receiving a query from a user that contains one or more parameters. The method further includes comparing one or more parameters of the query with one or more parameters of one or more stored function instantiations. The method further includes determining a pre-existing function instantiation from the one or more stored function instantiations that have one or more parameters in common with the query. The method further includes identifying one or more parameters that are not in common between the query and the pre-existing function instantiation. The method further includes modifying the pre-existing function instantiation into a repurposed function instantiation that incorporates the one or more parameters from the query that are not in common between the query and the pre-existing function instantiation. The method further includes executing the repurposed function instantiation.
US09875264B2

A method (300) of generating information for use in identifying a property of a communication device (10) includes identifying (304) one or more substrings within a character string that identifies the communication device. For each substring, an entry is added (306) to a respective one of a plurality of data structures (800), each data structure being designated for storing substrings that occur at a particular character position within the character string. Each entry is associated (310) with a profile that includes a value of at least one property of the communication device. Also disclosed is a method (1000) of identifying the properties of a communication device based on such previously-generated information.
US09875261B2

Systems and methods for data logs management in a multi-client architecture are described. According to the present subject matter, the system(s) implement the described method(s) for efficient data logs management. The method includes identifying purging parameters associated with each entity of the plurality of entities, where the purging parameters signify a mechanism of purging data logs stored in partition corresponding the entity, and where the purging parameters comprises at least criticality point associated with data logs to relinquish storage space. Further, the method includes purging of data logs stored in the partition of the entity based on the purging parameters, wherein the purging relinquishes the storage space.
US09875254B2

A method for searching for at least one term, consisting of at least one character, in at least one set of ink data is disclosed. This method advantageously includes an operation for converting ink data into intermediate data, in an intermediate format, in the form of at least one segmentation graph, each node of one of the graphs including at least one ink segment associated with at least one assumption of correspondence with a recognition unit, and an operation for searching for the term or terms, carried out on the intermediate data, the conversion operation being carried out once and for all during storage of one of the sets of data, and the search operation being capable of being carried out at any time.
US09875250B2

The present invention is applied to the technical field of solid-state storage, and provided are a solid state disk and a data management method and system. The data management method for a solid state disk comprises: saving the written data in a solid state disk after adding a timestamp to written data; receiving a mark command for marking the data to be invalid, marking an address range corresponding to the invalid data, and saving the marked information in the solid state disk after adding a timestamp to the marked information; comparing the timestamp of the marked information with the timestamp of the data in the marked address range after starting the solid state disk; if the timestamp of the data in the marked address range is earlier than the timestamp of the marked information, marking the address range as invalid, otherwise not marking the address range as invalid.
US09875249B1

Techniques to reduce database fragmentation are disclosed. In various embodiments, an indication is received to store an attribute value for an entity that has a row or other entry in a first database table, wherein the first database table does not have a column for the attribute. It is determined that the value corresponds to a mapped value that is associated with not having an entry in a separate, second database table configured to store the attribute. Entries are made in the second database table only for values of the attribute other than the mapped value. Application level software code is configured to associate absence of a row in the second database table with the mapped value for the attribute.
US09875246B2

Method of generating presentation starts by receiving user input indicating activation of presentation generator and generating and transmitting content selection display to the electronic device that includes search button, first table including list of selected cocktails, and second table including spirit type and number count. When the user input indicates selection of search button, processor generates and transmits cocktail lookup page display that includes pop-up window that includes drop-down lists or search fields including cocktail criterions and third table that includes entries matching selected cocktail criterion selected. When user input indicates activation of selection box included in the third table and subsequent user input indicates no other entries are desired, processor generates and transmits content selection display that includes updated first table that comprises the entry associated with the activated selection box. Processor then generates and transmits the presentation in a first format to the electronic device. Other embodiments are also described.
US09875245B2

User created playlists can be analyzed to create a statistical language model indicating the likelihood that a particular sequence of content attributes will be found in a playlist created by a user, as well as the likelihood of any sequence of one or more content attributes following a playlist or partial playlist created by a user. The language model can be used to generate a recommended content attribute sequence based on a partial playlist of one or more content items. A recommended content item sequence that will be pleasant to a user when added to the partial playlist can be selected based on the recommended content attribute sequence.
US09875234B2

An optimized fact checking system analyzes and determines the factual accuracy of information and/or characterizes the information by comparing the information with source information. The optimized fact checking system automatically monitors information, processes the information, fact checks the information in an optimized manner and/or provides a status of the information. In some embodiments, the optimized fact checking system generates, aggregates, and/or summarizes content.
US09875232B2

There is provided a method of performing an on-line definition of a first word, the first word received from a user of an electronic device via a communication network. The method can be executed at a server. The method comprises: obtaining a first definition set from a first source, the first definition set being based on the first word; obtaining a second definition set from a second source, the second definition set being based on the first word; parsing the first definition set to obtain individual first set words; parsing the second definition set to obtain individual second set words; organizing the individual first set words into at least one definition cluster; causing the electronic device to display to the user at least the first cluster.
US09875230B2

A method, a processing device, and a computer program product are provided. Via at least one processing device, each text file is selected from a collection of text files, wherein the collection of text files has an intensity with respect to negative sentiment toward a common issue. At least one profile algorithm is performed, each calculating a corresponding profile score for that text file. At least one corresponding profile score of the text files of the collection are combined to produce an aggregated profile score for each of at least one profile algorithm. The aggregated profile score of each of the at least one profile algorithm for the collection is stored. A signature for the collection of text files includes the aggregated profile score of each of the at least one profile algorithm for the collection.
US09875226B1

A method for obtaining server-side and client-side calculations performed on a spreadsheet includes loading, on a client computer, a spreadsheet stored on a server and receiving an input from a user on the client computer, where the input causes a calculation of one or more cell values in the spreadsheet. The client computer performs the calculation of the one or more cell values on the client computer and sends the input to the server to perform the calculation of the one or more cell values on the server. The client computer then displays in the spreadsheet a result of the calculation of the one or more cell values to the user, where the result of the calculation is taken from the quicker of the calculation performed on the client computer or the calculation performed on the server.
US09875222B2

Embodiments of the present invention enable the extraction, classification, storage, and supplementation of presentation video. A media system receives a video signal carrying presentation video. The media system processes the video signal and generates images for slides of the presentation. The media system then extracts text from the images and uses the text and other characteristics to classify the images and store them in a database. Additionally, the system enables viewers of the presentation to provide feedback on the presentation, which can be used to supplement the presentation.
US09875215B2

Systems and methods formulate problems for solving by a quantum processor using hardware graph decomposition. A decomposition of a primal graph may be built in a first stage based on a hardware specific graph, and refined in a second stage by, for example, removing vertices from the decomposition. The hardware specific graph may be a graph that is specific to a piece of hardware, for instance a quantum processor comprising a plurality of qubits and couplers operable to communicatively couple pairs of qubits.
US09875213B2

Instructions and logic provide SIMD vector packed histogram functionality. Some processor embodiments include first and second registers storing, in each of a plurality of data fields of a register lane portion, corresponding elements of a first and of a second data type, respectively. A decode stage decodes an instruction for SIMD vector packed histograms. One or more execution units, compare each element of the first data type, in the first register lane portion, with a range specified by the instruction. For any elements of the first register portion in said range, corresponding elements of the second data type, from the second register portion, are added into one of a plurality data fields of a destination register lane portion, selected according to the value of its corresponding element of the first data type, to generate packed weighted histograms for each destination register lane portion.
US09875209B2

A synchronous data-link throughput enhancement technique based on data signal duty-cycle and phase modulation demodulation is disclosed. A method includes receiving multiple bits to be transmitted, encoding the multiple bits to generate a multi-bit signal that represents the multiple bits, and transmitting, via a synchronous interface, the multi-bit signal during a time period that corresponds to one-half of a cycle of a synchronization signal.
US09875208B2

A method for accessing a device in a primary peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) domain from a secondary PCIe domain includes determining which one or more virtual functions of the device in the primary PCIe domain are to be made available to the secondary PCIe domain. A virtual function driver is installed in the primary PCIe domain associated with the one or more virtual functions. Information corresponding to the one or more virtual functions is provided to the secondary PCIe domain. A virtual function driver associated with the one or more virtual functions is installed in the secondary PCIe domain from the information. The virtual function driver in the secondary PCIe domain has same properties as the virtual function driver in the primary PCIe domain. The device in the primary PCIe domain is accessed from the virtual function driver in the secondary PCIe domain.
US09875206B2

Devices and methods for extending USB-compliant communication distances, including USB 3.0 SuperSpeed communication, are provided. In some embodiments, a host is communicatively coupled to a device that provides an upstream facing port, and a USB device is communicatively coupled to a device that provides a downstream facing port. The upstream facing port and downstream facing port are coupled via a communication channel. In some embodiments, the upstream facing port and downstream facing port generate packets to ensure that timing requirements of the USB specification are met regardless of the latency of the communication channel.
US09875201B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide automatic provisioning of a port in an information handling system, such as a router, switch, bridge, etc., according to the cable type that is inserted into the port. In embodiments, if a user has inserted a break-out cable into a port that is not configured for break-out mode, the information handling system quickly and transparently changes the port configuration to a break-out mode. Conversely, when a user inserts a non-break-out cable that cannot be fanned out into a quad-mode port, the information handling system configures that port to native mode (i.e., non-break-out mode). In embodiments, the user may override auto-configuration. In embodiments, one or more port configurations may be stored and applied to a port by a user.
US09875195B2

A system and method are disclosed for managing memory interleaving patterns in a system with multiple memory devices. The system includes a processor configured to access multiple memory devices. The method includes receiving a first plurality of data blocks, and then storing the first plurality of data blocks using an interleaving pattern in which successive blocks of the first plurality of data blocks are stored in each of the memory devices. The method also includes receiving a second plurality of data blocks, and then storing successive blocks of the second plurality of data blocks in a first memory device of the multiple memory devices.
US09875194B2

A security system for an external data storage apparatus and control method thereof are disclosed. The system utilizes a preset identification (ID) and input ID to selectively permit data to be written and/or read.
US09875191B2

An electronic device having a scratchpad memory and a management method are provided. A recording circuit records multiple counter values which correspond to entries in a Translation Lookaside Buffer (TLB). A virtual address is matched with a first entry. If a cache miss occurs, the recording circuit updates a first counter value corresponding to the first entry, and determines if the first counter value meets a threshold criterion. If the first counter value meets the threshold criterion, the recording circuit transmits an interrupts signal to a processing unit, and the processing unit moves data into the scratchpad memory. If the first counter value does not meet the threshold criterion, the data is moved into a cache.
US09875178B2

A method of controlling a cache memory includes receiving location information of one piece of data included in a data block and size information of the data block; mapping the data block onto cache memory by using the location information and the size information; and selecting at least one unit cache out of unit caches included in the cache memory based on the mapping result.
US09875169B2

A method includes receiving an expected growth rate for modeling future capacity utilization for a resource hosting a plurality of processes, each process being associated with a respective workload. The method also includes modifying, in a non-linear capacity utilization model for the resource, the respective workload for a particular process in the plurality of processes based on the expected growth rate, and, in response to modifying the respective workload, determining a change in total capacity utilization for the resource using the non-linear capacity utilization model. The method further includes determining a ratio between the change in the total capacity utilization for the resource and the modification to the respective workload. The method additionally includes modifying, based on the ratio, a configuration of the resource with respect to the particular process in anticipation of the expected growth rate.
US09875166B2

A method for operating a data processing unit of a driver assistance system, the unit including main and slave computers. The main computer ascertains surroundings data from a surroundings detection system by using a processing specification. The slave computer operates a communication interface of the data processing unit, using a communication instruction. The method includes initializing, a first testing, a carrying out, a second testing and a forwarding. In initializing, the main computer, in response to a signal, is initialized by performing an initialization instruction on the main computer. In the first testing, the slave computer, in response to the signal, is initialized by performing a self-test instruction on the slave computer. In the carrying out, the communication instruction is performed on the slave computer to send and/or receive data via the communication interface, when the slave computer is tested and while the main computer is initialized. In the second testing, the main computer is tested by performing a test instruction on the slave computer, when the main computer is initialized. In the forwarding, the surroundings data are forwarded via the communication interface by performing the communication instruction on the slave computer, when the main computer is tested.
US09875165B2

A system and method of using a baseboard management controller (BMC) to detect a fault on a communication bus. The BMC is connected to and monitors the operation of the communication bus. The BMC automatically detects a communication bus hang and reports bus hang to the host. The BMC attempts to access the communication bus. If the BMC can access the communication bus, the BMC then resets all of the devices connected to the communication bus. The BMC then attempts to contact components connected to the devices. If a component is not accessible via its communication device, the BMC blocks the channel used by the component and reports that information. Once the BMC detects that the component has been removed, the BMC attempts to recover the channel via the I2C/SM bus for use by the computer network.
US09875161B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide methods, systems, and computer program products for replicating data between redundant sources. In one embodiment, during a reverse replication process, roles of a source system and target system are altered such that the target system controls the replication process. The target system can identify objects to be transferred, build batches of objects for efficient transfer, and transmit the batches of objects to the source system. Accordingly, embodiments of the present invention can reduce inefficient communication between a source system and a target system that might otherwise occur during replication processes controlled by the source system.
US09875160B2

A computer system maintains identifiers that identify changed blocks of virtual machine (VM) storage. The computer system accesses a stable VM checkpoint comprising a restorable VM image at a time, and that stores a representation of data of at least one block as it existed at the time. The computer system converts the checkpoint to a reference point. Reference point information is transferable with the VM, such that if the VM is moved to a different computing system, any data identified by the reference point is recoverable. The conversion includes querying the storage to determine an identifier corresponding to the block of the checkpoint at the time, storing this identifier as a part of the reference point, and releasing the representation of the data of the block from the checkpoint. The computer system then uses the reference point to identify changes in the blocks of the storage since the time.
US09875155B2

Provided are a memory device and a memory module, which perform both an ECC operation and a redundancy repair operation. The memory device repairs a single-bit error due to a ‘fail’ cell by using an error correction code (ECC) operation, and also repairs the ‘fail’ cell by using a redundancy repair operation when the ‘fail’ cell is not repairable by the ECC operation. The redundancy repair operation includes a data line repair and a block repair. The ECC operation may change a codeword corresponding to data per one unit of memory cells including the ‘fail’ cell, and may also change the size of parity bits regarding the changed codeword.
US09875151B2

A controller includes a link interface that is to couple to a first link to communicate bi-directional data and a second link to transmit unidirectional error-detection information. An encoder is to dynamically add first error-detection information to at least a portion of write data. A transmitter, coupled to the link interface, is to transmit the write data. A delay element is coupled to an output from the encoder. A receiver, coupled to the link interface, is to receive second error-detection information corresponding to at least the portion of the write data. Error-detection logic is coupled to an output from the delay element and an output from the receiver. The error-detection logic is to determine errors in at least the portion of the write data by comparing the first error-detection information and the second error-detection information, and, if an error is detected, is to assert an error condition.
US09875147B2

Managing requests for acquiring resources in a computing environment. A first request to acquire resources is received. Whether the resources have been pre-acquired is determined. If the resources have not been pre-acquired, a token registering interest of a first thread in the first request is subscribed to. If the acquisition of the resources is not successful, whether a prior synchronous request has been initiated by a thread for the first request is determined. If a prior synchronous request has not been initiated, a synchronous request is initiated to acquire the resources. If the resources have not been pre-acquired for a second received request, an interest is registered of a second thread in the first request using the token. If the acquisition of the one or more resources is successful, a thread is notified of the successful acquisition, and the interest of the second thread is unregistered in the first request.
US09875139B2

A graphics processing unit controller configured to be communicatively coupled to one or more graphics processing units and one or more virtual machines, comprising: a unit collection module which is configured to store information regarding the available resources of one or more graphics processing units; and a scheduler module configured to allocate at least part of the one or more graphics processing units to the execution of a compute kernel in response to receipt of a request for the execution of the compute kernel, wherein the scheduler is configured to allocate at least part of the one or more graphics processing units based on a comparison between the available resources of the one or more graphics processing units and required resources for the execution of the compute kernel.
US09875133B2

A processor copies first and second installable binary files into first and second disk images of first and second virtual machines, respectively, before instantiating the images. The processor can copy first installation parameters and second installation parameters into the first image. The processor copies additional first installation parameters and additional second installation parameters into the second image. The processor at least partially executes a first installation process, based on the first installation parameters, to install the first installable binary files, and a second installation process, based on the additional second installation parameters, to install the second installable binary files. The processor at least partially executes the installation processes in an interleaved manner in relation to one another, based on dependencies. After instantiating the images, the processor can execute scripts based on the second installation parameters and the additional second installation parameters to complete installation.
US09875132B2

In an example embodiment, a hypervisor exposes a virtual input-output memory management unit (IOMMU) to a first virtual machine. The first virtual machine includes a first guest operating system (OS). The hypervisor exposes a first virtual device to the first virtual machine. The hypervisor exposes a shared memory device to a second virtual machine. The second virtual machine includes a second guest OS. The hypervisor detects that the first guest OS modified the virtual IOMMU to provide access to a memory page of the first virtual machine. The hypervisor receives a base address from the second virtual machine. The base address is programmed into the shared memory device by the second virtual machine. The hypervisor maps the memory page into the second virtual machine at a page address, which is determined from the base address and a bus address.
US09875124B2

A computer program product for performing a method comprising receiving, by a processor executing on a computing device, data to be processed from a scheduler configured to assign job data. The processor also storing the received data to be processed into a single queue, wherein the single queue is shared by the multiple virtual machines running on the physical machine, and in response to an idle virtual machine being among the multiple virtual machines, assigning, by the processor, data in the queue to the idle virtual machine to be processed by the idle virtual machine, wherein storing the received data to be processed into a single queue comprises parsing the received data to be processed and storing data to be processed, which is determined as specific to a predetermined application after the parsing, into the single queue.
US09875120B2

The subject disclosure is directed towards virtual components, e.g., comprising software components such as virtual components of a distributed computing system. Virtual components are available for use by distributed computing system applications, yet managed by the distributed computing system runtime transparent to the application with respect to automatic activation and deactivation on runtime-selected distributed computing system servers. Virtualization of virtual components is based upon mapping virtual components to their physical instantiations that are currently running, such as maintained in a global data store.
US09875119B2

In an example embodiment, a bundle loader is run in response to a communication from an application. The communication may indicate that the plurality of bundles of components in the application is to be executed. The plurality of bundles may include at least one bundle having a component that depends on a dependency component in another of the plurality of bundles. A configuration file indicating a set of the plurality of bundles to load in the bundle loader is received. The bundle loader is operated to load a bundle manifest for each bundle in the set of the plurality of bundles to load. Then, for each of the bundles in the set of plurality of bundles to load, the bundle is activated if no unactivated dependency component exists for any component in the bundle.
US09875110B2

Examples disclosed herein provide systems, methods, and software to provide individualized applications to remote desktop sessions. In one example, a method of operating a remote desktop server to provide individualized applications to remote desktop users includes identifying a request from a user for a remote desktop session. The method further includes, in response to the request, identifying one or more applications associated with the user that are stored in at least one hidden volume, and virtually overlaying application objects associated with the one or more applications in at least one non-hidden volume. The method also provides initiating the remote desktop session with the at least one non-hidden volume accessible to the user.
US09875097B2

Implementations disclose applying configuration alignment in build projects is disclosed. A method of an implementation of the disclosure includes retrieving a build script (BS) file configuration from a BS file. The BS configuration includes a configuration to perform a build of a project The method also includes determining whether the BS configuration aligns with a target configuration. The method further includes aligning the BS configuration with the target configuration when it is determined that the BS configuration does not align with the target configuration.
US09875095B2

A method for grouping of software components may be provided. The method may comprise relating a trigger agent to a software component, identifying the trigger agent, and triggering a trigger message of the trigger agent to potential other trigger agents. The method may also comprise monitoring a response to the trigger message from at least one other trigger agent related to at least one other software component, grouping the software components with the at least one other software component based on responses to a group of software components, and relating the group of software components to the software product based on comparisons with a software catalog.
US09875088B2

A template function is received. The template function includes one or more data types. A single abstract instantiation of the template function is created. An abstract internal descriptor for each data type is created. A map set for each abstract internal descriptor is created. The number of instantiations required and the type of instantiation required is provided. A finished object is created using each map set. The finished object is a translation of the intermediate representation into assembly code.
US09875086B1

An approach is provided in which an information handling system deploys a first microservice included in an application to a first microservice runtime environment (MRE). The information handling system receives a first set of performance metrics corresponding to a performance level of the first microservice in the first MRE, and receives a second set of performance metrics corresponding to a second MRE. Then, the information handling system determines that the first microservice will have a higher performance level in the second MRE than in the first MRE based on comparing the first set of performance metrics against the second set of performance metrics. As a result, the information handling system redeploys the first microservice from the first MRE to the second MRE.
US09875081B2

A system may use multiple speech interface devices to interact with a user by speech. All or a portion of the speech interface devices may detect a user utterance and may initiate speech processing to determine a meaning or intent of the utterance. Within the speech processing, arbitration is employed to select one of the multiple speech interface devices to respond to the user utterance. Arbitration may be based in part on metadata that directly or indirectly indicates the proximity of the user to the devices, and the device that is deemed to be nearest the user may be selected to respond to the user utterance.
US09875075B1

In one aspect, a headset includes a housing, a processor coupled to the housing, and a first, at least partially transparent display coupled to the housing and accessible to the processor. The headset also includes storage coupled to the housing and accessible to the processor. The storage bears instructions executable by the processor to identify at least a portion of content presentable on a second display that is not currently presented on the second display and present at least the portion of the content on the first display based on the identification.
US09875067B2

An information processing apparatus includes: an acquisition unit that acquires sets of apparatus type specifying information that specify types of apparatuses connected to the apparatus; an identifying unit that identifies the apparatus types of the connected apparatuses into a first apparatus type corresponding to a control program transmitted from a server and a second apparatus type different from the first apparatus type; and a specifying unit that, according to the sets of apparatus type specifying information on the apparatus types that are identified by the identifying unit and correspondence information that associates the sets of apparatus type specifying information with the types of user interface for accepting a setting relating to the process required to the apparatus, specifies a first type corresponding to the first apparatus type and a second type corresponding to the second apparatus type among the types of user interface.
US09875064B2

According to one embodiment, a storage system includes a first storage and a controller which controls the first storage. The first storage includes a first group which includes a plurality of pages which are data write units and include first nonvolatile memories, and a first counter which counts the number of data writes to the first group. The controller determines whether all the pages in the first group has been written to or not.
US09875057B2

A method of migrating of an application from a source host to a destination host, wherein the application is associated with a plurality of memory pages, the source host comprises a first instance of the application and a source memory region, and each memory page has an associated source memory block in the source memory region, the method comprising: at the destination host, reserving a destination memory region such that each memory page has an associated destination memory block in the destination memory region, a second instance of the application at the destination host; on receipt of an input to the application, processing the input in parallel at the first and second instances at respective source and destination hosts: at the source host, if the processing requires a read or a write call to a memory page, respectively reading from or writing to the associated source memory block; the destination host, if the processing requires a write call to a memory page, writing to the associated destination memory block and if the processing requires a read call to a memory page, sending the read call to the source host requesting that the source host read the memory page from the associated source memory block and provide the memory page to the destination host, and, on receipt of the memory page by the destination host, writing the memory page to the associated destination memory block.
US09875053B2

A device includes a schedule engine including a mode selection input. The schedule engine has an operating mode based on the mode selection input. The operating mode includes an opportunistic scheduling mode based on the mode selection input having a first value and a pipelined scheduling mode based on the mode selection input having a second value. The device further includes a buffer coupled to the schedule engine.
US09875050B2

A method, computer program product, and computer system are disclosed for disk management in a distributed storage system, wherein the distributed storage system comprises a plurality of disks within a main disk ring, and the disks store target data. In one embodiment, the method comprises dividing the target data into cold target data and hot target data, and grouping one or more disks within the main disk ring into a cold data disk ring and the remaining one or more disks within the main disk ring into a hot data disk ring, based on the cold target data's and the hot target data's positions on disks. The method further comprises migrating the cold target data on disks not within the cold data disk ring onto disks within the cold data disk ring while migrating the hot target data on disks not within the hot data disk ring onto disks within the hot data disk ring, and reducing a spinning rate of disks within the cold data disk ring.
US09875044B2

A method is provided for operating a data storage device capable of compensating for an initial threshold voltage shift of multiple memory cells. The method includes generating a first compression value for a first write address corresponding to a first write request input during a first time interval among different time intervals, and storing the first compression value in a first table among multiple tables.
US09875043B1

A method is used in managing data migration in storage systems. A request to migrate data of a logical object from a source storage pool to a destination storage pool is received. The data of the logical object is mapped to a mapped logical object created in the destination storage pool. The data of the logical object is relocated to storage space allocated in the destination storage pool. Mappings of the mapped logical object are updated to refer to the data relocated to the storage space allocated in the destination storage pool.
US09875039B2

Apparatus and method for performing wear leveling are disclosed. An ordered list of references to each of a set of memory blocks is stored. A set of memory blocks in the ordered list is sequentially allocating. The allocated set of memory blocks in the ordered list are erased in the sequence in which they were allocated.
US09875019B2

A system and method for indicating a transition from a gesture based input to a touch surface is provide herein. The system includes a detection monitor coupled to a detection device to detect the transition; and an alert transmitter to alert an output device based on the detection. The gesture based input is a non-contact interface associated with an electronic system, and a touch surface is a contact interface associated with the electronic system.
US09875012B2

In an embodiment, a computer memory that is not a transitory has instructions executable by a processor to present on a display of a mobile device a user interface (UI) facilitating media shifting between the mobile device and an audio video device (AVD) separate from the mobile device. The UI has a grid of thumbnails, with each thumbnail being associated with a respective media asset. Responsive to a user touching and dragging a first thumbnail of the grid, a drop region is presented outside the grid indicating that a drop of the thumbnail will cause the media asset associated with the first thumbnail to be presented on the AVD. Responsive to a user releasing the first thumbnail in the drop region, a signal is sent to the AVD to cause the AVD to present the media asset associated with the first thumbnail.
US09874994B2

According to an aspect, a device includes a touch screen display and a controller. The touch screen display displays a folder for containing therein an icon corresponding to an application. The controller changes a display mode of the folder according to the number of icons contained in the folder.
US09874991B2

A user interface (UI) is displayed on a display coupled to an electronic device. The UI includes a first area of the UI visible on the display. A non-visible UI element corresponding to a second area of the UI that may be displayed in response to a user input on the electronic device is determined. An image of the non-visible UI element is drawn into a tile in a tile layer that provides a non-visible representation of views associated with the UI, the tile layer stored in a temporary memory area. The image drawn into the tile in the tile layer is compressed. In response to a user input on the electronic device, a representation of the second area of the UI is displayed on the display including the compressed image.
US09874988B2

An electromagnetic induction panel includes a substrate including a first region, a second region, and a third region, a first induction coil arranged along an edge of the first region of the substrate and wound in a first winding direction, a second induction coil arranged along an edge of the second region and wound in a second winding direction opposite to the first winding direction, the second region surrounding the first region, and a third induction coil arranged along an edge of the third region and wound in the second winding direction, the third region surrounding the second region.
US09874987B2

Provided are a double-sided transparent conductive film which has blocking resistance and a low reflectance, and is inhibited from scattering reflected light to exhibit good visibility; a roll thereof; and a touch panel. The double-sided transparent conductive film of the present invention includes a base material film with an optical adjusting layer laminate and a transparent conductive layer formed in this order on each of both sides, the optical adjusting layer laminate including two or more optical adjusting layers, wherein the optical adjusting layers have different refractive indexes in each of the optical adjusting layer laminates, an anti-blocking layer containing particles is formed between the base material film and at least one of the optical adjusting layer laminates, the anti-blocking layer includes a flat portion, and a protrusion portion resulting from the particles, a value obtained by subtracting a value of a thickness of the flat portion of the anti-blocking layer from a value of a mode diameter of the particles is larger than a value of a thickness of the optical adjusting layer laminate, and the optical adjusting layer laminates each have a thickness of not less than 60 nm and not more than 250 nm.
US09874983B2

In a method of capacitive sensing, a first plurality of sensor electrodes of a sensor electrode pattern is coupled, in a first configuration, to input channels of a processing system. The sensor electrode pattern is associated with a sensing region. The first configuration of the first plurality sensor of electrodes is utilized to acquire a measurement of current. A noise environment is determined through analysis of the measurement of current. At least one subset of the first plurality of sensor electrodes is coupled, in a second configuration, to the input channels. The second configuration and the first configuration are different. The second configuration of the first plurality of sensor electrodes is utilized to acquire capacitive resulting signals.
US09874979B2

To provide a touch panel with reduced disturbance of display and with improved mechanical strength by suppressing variation in the space between a pair of substrates which form the touch panel even when in contact with an object to be detected. A pixel portion including a plurality of pixels is provided between a pair of substrates. Each pixel includes a photosensor portion which detects that the object to be detected is in contact with one of the pair of substrates, and a MEMS portion which generates a mechanical displacement in a direction perpendicular to the pair of substrates when a signal based on a detection result of the photosensor portion is input.
US09874973B2

A processing system, input device, and method are provided for reducing interference in a capacitive sensing system. The processing system generally includes a sensor module configured to drive a first sensor electrode of a plurality of sensor electrodes with a first sensing signal during a first time period, wherein the first sensor electrode comprises a first display electrode of a display, the first display electrode configured for updating display pixels of the display and for capacitive sensing. The input device also includes a display driver configured to drive a first display line of display elements within the display with a display update signal during a second time period. The first time period at least partially overlaps with the second time period. Further, the first display line of display elements does not overlap the first sensor electrode.
US09874972B2

The embodiments described herein provide devices and methods that facilitate improved input device resistance to the effects of errors that may be caused by the motion of detected objects on such input devices, and in particular, to the effect of blurring and/or fragmenting. The devices and methods provide improved resistance to the effects of such errors by decoupling the image generating interval from the reporting interval. Specifically, the devices and methods enable the determination of the reporting rate independently of the period over which images of sensor values are generated. The devices and methods enable independent determination of the reporting rate by facilitating the setting of a second period, where images of sensor values are generated over a first period and the reporting interval is determined to include at least the sum of the first period and the second period.
US09874971B2

A display device is configured in a display state to allow the common electrode to function as an electrode for display and a scanning electrode for a touch panel, to which a common voltage and a first scanning pulse voltage are supplied, and to allow a detection circuit to detect a touched position based on the voltage detected by the first and the second detection electrodes. In a display stop state, the first detection electrode is configured to function as a temporary scanning electrode, and the detection circuit is configured to supply a second scanning pulse voltage to the first detection electrode so as to detect existence of a swipe based on the voltage detected by the second detection electrode.
US09874969B2

A touch input device includes a display configured to display a character which is inputted by a user. A touch unit has a concave shape and configured to receive a command for deleting the inputted character. A controller is configured to determine a delete unit of the inputted character according to the number of touch gesture input to the touch unit.
US09874962B2

A method of fabricating a touch display apparatus is provided which includes: forming a first substrate on a first carrier; forming an assembly part on a second carrier, wherein the assembly part includes a second substrate, a third substrate and a touch sensing layer interposed therebetween, and the third substrate is relatively near a side of the second carrier; assembling the first substrate and the assembly part such that a display layer is formed between the first substrate and the assembly part; and at least removing the first carrier.
US09874961B2

A method of forming an optical structure in a continuous manufacturing process includes providing a continuous ribbon of flexible glass substrate (134) having a thickness of no more than 0.3 mm. The continuous ribbon of flexible glass substrate has a first side and a second side separated by a plane formed by the ribbon of flexible glass substrate. A liquid polarizer material (142) is applied on the ribbon of flexible glass substrate at one of the first and second sides as the continuous ribbon of flexible glass substrate moves by a polarizer material application apparatus to form a polarizing layer. A conductive material (150) is applied on the ribbon of flexible glass substrate at one of the first and second sides to form a touch layer for a touch sensitive display.
US09874960B2

The present invention has disclosed a touch screen, comprising: a substrate; at least one first electrode formed on the substrate; at least one second electrode formed on the substrate, the first electrode and the second electrode having different extending directions, and there being an intersecting area between a vertical projection of the first electrode on the substrate and a vertical projection of the second electrode on the substrate; and a first protection layer formed at least at the intersecting area between the first electrode and the second electrode; wherein, the substrate is provided with a groove at the intersecting area between the first electrode and the second electrode so as to at least receive therein a portion of the first electrode located within the intersecting area. The present invention has also disclosed a display device and a method for manufacturing the touch screen. The present invention is provided to prevent two electrodes in two different layers from electrically contacting with each other and to ensure the yield of the touch screen to some extent.
US09874959B2

The invention discloses an array substrate, a touch control display device and a touch control driving method. The array substrate comprises a common electrode layer, comprising: touch control driving electrodes and common electrodes insulated from one another and arranged in an intersecting manner, each of the touch control driving electrodes being loaded a common electrode signal and a touch control scanning signal in a time-sequence manner and comprising touch control driving sub-electrodes arranged along an extending direction of thereof at an interval and each being positioned between adjacent common electrodes; pixel units; and touch control driving lines, arranged in a same layer as data lines or gate lines, an extending direction thereof being same as that of the touch control driving electrode, and touch control driving sub-electrodes of each of the touch control driving electrodes being electrically connected by at least one of the touch control driving line.
US09874957B2

A wearable electronic device includes: a flexible display divided into a plurality of blocks, at least one block among the plurality of blocks configured to be folded, and at least one magnetic element disposed at both ends of the at least one block configured to be folded, said magnetic element configured to connect unfolded blocks to each other from among the plurality of blocks by connecting both ends of the at least one block configured to be folded when the at least one block configured to be folded is folded.
US09874952B2

According to one or more aspects, a system for vehicle user interface (UI) management includes an interface component, an operation component, a presentation logic, and a rendering component. The interface component may include a display portion located at a first position and an input portion located at a second position different than the first position. The input portion may receive one or more user inputs and include a touch sensitive portion, a first button, and a second button. The operation component may select one or more modes for a UI based on one or more of the user inputs. The presentation logic may generate one or more objects based on a selected mode and presence information associated with one or more of the user inputs. The rendering component may render one or more of the objects to form a composite image at the display portion.
US09874949B2

A signal emitting stylus for operation with a digitizer system includes a resonant circuit including a first capacitor and an inductor, the circuit operative to alternate between receiving a wirelessly transmitted first signal and generating electrical field; a controller and a power source. The controller operates the resonant circuit in a receive mode for receiving the first signal, decodes the received first signal and switches operation of the resonant circuit to a transmit mode for generating the electrical field and coupling the electrical field to a digitizer system in response to detecting the first signal. The power source powers generation of the electrical field.
US09874948B2

A mouse device with a movable signal input module includes a housing, a control module, and a signal input module. The signal input module is movably disposed in the housing and coupled to the control module. The signal input module includes a roller partially protruding from the housing. The signal input module is linearly movable relative to the housing along a travelling direction to allow the roller to in sync linearly move relative to the housing along the travelling direction.
US09874946B2

An input device includes: an operating section which is held by a user and operated in a three-dimensional free space in order to operate an information processing apparatus by remote control; a calculation section which calculates a hand shake related value for controlling selection of an image to be controlled which is displayed on the information processing apparatus, the hand shake related value being relevant to an amount of hand shake of the operating section; and an output section which outputs the hand shake related value as an operation signal for operating the information processing apparatus by remote control.
US09874940B2

A display control unit (15) in an input display control device (1) displays an image including a symbol display area in which a symbol input by a user is displayed, on the screen of a display unit (11). The display control unit (15) also displays operation buttons and symbols allocated to the operation buttons on the screen of the display unit (11) while being superimposed on the image displayed by the display control unit (15), the operation buttons being arrayed in a virtual keyboard through which a symbol to be displayed in the symbol display area is input through tapping on the display unit (11), the operation buttons being translucently displayed. The display control unit (15) also changes a display color of the symbols allocated to the operation buttons arrayed in the virtual keyboard to a display color selected from a plurality of display colors set in advance.
US09874939B2

An optical system which is designed to detect a gesture, and a processing unit that is coupled to the optical system and is designed to analyze the detected gesture, are included in a gesture evaluation system. The gesture evaluation system furthermore has a utilization unit that is designed to save an evaluation that has been detected from the gesture together with evaluated information.
US09874935B2

Systems and methods for a texture engine are disclosed. For example, one disclosed system includes: a processor configured to receive a display signal including a plurality of pixels, determine a haptic effect comprising a texture, and transmit a haptic signal associated with the haptic effect to an actuator in communication with the processor, the actuator configured to receive the haptic signal and output the haptic effect.
US09874934B1

A gaze tracking method, system, and non-transitory computer readable medium for tracking an eye gaze on a screen of a device including a fixed camera, include calculating a parametric equation of an eye gaze vector passing through a pupil of a user and an eye ball center of the user, computing a first angle of the screen with respect to a fixed plane relative to the screen based on a preset angle of the screen and an object, calculating a current plane of the screen based on the first angle and a position of the fixed camera with respect to the screen, and calculating an intersection of the eye gaze vector calculated by the calculating the parametric equation with the current plane equation calculated by the calculating the current plane.
US09874916B2

A device registration apparatus includes: a transmitting unit that transmits, to an electric device, a state shift command for shifting the electric device to a specific state; a receiving unit that receives, from a power feed tap, tap identification information, electric-power information that indicates an electric power measured at each outlet, and outlet identification information for identifying an outlet that corresponds to each piece of the electric-power information; a determining unit that, when, in the electric-power information that is received during a predetermined time period after the state shift command is transmitted, electric power information of only one outlet indicates a change in an electric power when the electric device shifts to the specific state, determines that the electric device is connected to the outlet; and an associating unit that stores device identification information in association with outlet identification information on the outlet and the tap identification information.
US09874914B2

Power management contracts for accessory devices are described. In one or more implementations, a power management contract is established for a system including a host computing device and an accessory device based at least in part upon power exchange conditions observed for the system. The power management contracts define operating constraints for power exchange between components of the system, including at least a power exchange direction and current limits. The host computing device and accessory devices are each configured to renegotiate the power management contract to dynamically change operating constraints in “real-time.” Additionally, different power management contracts may be associated with identifying data corresponding to different types of accessory devices.
US09874904B2

The present application discloses a display apparatus including a foldable display panel comprising a bendable portion, a first nonbendable flat portion and a second nonbendable flat portion on two opposite sides of the bendable portion; a first housing portion and a second housing portion coupled together by a hinge and rotatable with respect to each other between a first configuration corresponding to the foldable display panel in an unfolded configuration and a second configuration corresponding to the foldable display panel in a folded configuration; and a first movable support received in the first housing portion for supporting the first nonbendable flat portion and configured to be movable between a first position corresponding to the unfolded configuration and a second position corresponding to the folded configuration. The first movable support at the first position supporting a part of the bendable portion of the foldable display panel; and the first movable support at the second position providing a space for receiving the bendable portion bent therein.
US09874903B2

Disclosed is a foot assembly system comprising a foot member configured to attach to a base of a device through a cutout in the base. The system may further comprise a cap configured to affix the foot member to the base, wherein the foot member and cap are configured to engage from opposite sides of the base, through the cutout in the base.
US09874900B2

A tablet computing device may include a main body, a video display, and a battery cavity. The main body may include a front side and a back side. The video display may be disposed on the front side. The video display may display images. The battery cavity is disposed on the back side to receive a battery to supply power to the main body. The battery may form an adjustable angle between the battery and the battery cavity. The video display may be selectively placed in one of a plurality of viewing orientations based on an amount of the adjustable angle.
US09874899B2

A portable sanitizer dispenser for use with a cellular phone includes a hand sanitizer dispenser configured to releasably engage at least one surface of a cellular phone. The sanitizer dispenser includes a compressible cavity defined therein configured to retain a sanitizer therein. The sanitizer dispenser further includes a nozzle disposed on an outer surface thereof. The nozzle is in fluid communication with the compressible cavity such that when pressure is applied to the compressible cavity, sanitizer is expelled from the nozzle.
US09874874B2

A system includes an unmanned vehicle (UV). A compliance unit receives sensor data from one or more sensors and compares the sensor data to a predetermined payload capacity threshold and a predetermined range capability threshold to determine compliance with a predetermined payload capacity and a predetermined range capability of the UV. The compliance unit generates a command to restrict the operation of the UV if the sensor data exceeds the predetermined payload capacity threshold and the predetermined range capability threshold of the UV.
US09874845B2

An image forming apparatus is provided with a setting unit that sets a white toner amount per unit area corresponding to lightness of a recording medium that forms a white image using white toner, and an image forming unit that forms a white image using a white toner amount per unit area which is set by the setting unit and forms a color image using colored toner.
US09874844B2

An image forming system includes: an image forming apparatus configured to form an image on a paper sheet; a toner amount sensing device including a reading unit configured to read the paper sheet having the image formed thereon by the image forming apparatus; a charging device including a charging unit configured to electrically charge the paper sheet having the image formed thereon by the image forming apparatus; and a control unit configured to acquire an amount of toner adhering to the paper sheet by reading the paper sheet with the reading unit, and control the charging unit based on the amount of toner.
US09874843B2

An image forming apparatus includes a detecting portion to detect a test toner image formed on an image bearing member, and a shielding member is provided between the detecting portion and the image bearing member and reciprocates between first and second positions. A first opposing portion includes a first member opposed to the image bearing member and provided at a position opposing the image bearing member through an opening in a process of movement of the shielding member, an electrically grounded electroconductive member is disposed in a side opposite a side of the first member opposed to the image bearing member; and a second opposing portion is disposed opposed to the image bearing member and provided at position opposing the image bearing member through the opening in the process of movement of the shielding member from the second position to the first position.
US09874842B2

A protection member is arranged such that the distance from an opening plane of a reception guide to the center of the protection member is half of the distance from the opening plane of the reception guide to the surface of a reception vibration member. In other words, the arrangement position of the protection member is in the center between the opening plane of the reception guide and the surface of the reception vibration member. Accordingly, even if a protection member is arranged, a transmission coefficient is obtained that is equal to a transmission coefficient in the case where no protection member is present.
US09874838B1

An apparatus includes a fuser assembly including a heat transfer member. The heat transfer member includes a substrate, first and second resistive traces disposed on the substrate, and a temperature sensor disposed on the substrate for sensing an end portion thereof. A controller is coupled to the fuser assembly and is operative to control a fusing temperature of the heat transfer member during a fusing operation when a temperature sensed by the temperature sensor falls outside a predetermined range by gradually changing a set-point temperature for at least one of the first and second resistive traces from an initial set-point temperature to an adjusted set-point temperature such that an amount of heat generated by the at least one of the first and second resistive traces is adjusted without changing a fusing speed of the fuser assembly.
US09874816B2

A radiation-sensitive resin composition comprises: a polymer, and a radiation-sensitive acid generator. The polymer comprises a structural unit comprising: an acid-labile group; and an oxoacid group or phenolic hydroxyl group protected by the acid-labile group. The acid-labile group is represented by formula (1). R1 and R2 each independently represent a divalent organic group having 1 to 20 carbon atoms. R3 represents a monovalent group having 1 to 40 atoms and having at least one selected from the group consisting of an oxygen atom, a sulfur atom and a nitrogen atom. * denotes a binding site to the oxy group in the oxoacid group or phenolic hydroxyl group protected.
US09874814B2

A method for producing a touch input sensor includes stacking an intermediate resin layer (33) containing a photosensitive resin and an ultraviolet absorber and a transparent conductive film (32) on both surfaces of a transparent substrate (10) in that order, performing a pattern exposure with ultraviolet rays (L) applied to both surface sides, and performing developing to form a transparent electrode formed of the transparent conductive film (32) on both surfaces of the transparent substrate (10).
US09874812B2

Methods of forming a hardmask material film are provided. The methods may include preparing a substrate including a first region that includes first patterns with a first density and a second region that includes second patterns with a second density that is lower than the first density or is free of patterns, forming a first hardmask material film in gaps between the first patterns and on surfaces of the first region and the second region, performing a heat treatment on the first hardmask material film such that solvent solubility of portions of the first hardmask material film in the gaps between the first patterns becomes different from solvent solubility of portions of the first hardmask material film outside the gaps, removing the first hardmask material film formed on the surfaces of the first region and the second region such that the portions of the first hardmask material film in the gaps at least partially remain in the gaps, and forming a second hardmask material film on the surfaces of the first region and the second region.
US09874808B2

The present invention provides a mask blank used to produce a halftone phase shift mask to which ArF excimer laser exposure light is to be applied. The present invention attains the object by providing the mask blank comprising a transparent substrate, and a light semitransmissive layer formed on the transparent substrate and made only of Si and N or a light semitransmissive layer formed on the transparent substrate and made only of Si, N and O, wherein the light semitransmissive layer has an extinction coefficient of 0.2 to 0.45 at a wavelength of ArF excimer laser exposure light, a refractive index of 2.3 to 2.7 at the wavelength of ArF excimer laser exposure light, and a transmittance of 15 to 38% at the wavelength of ArF excimer laser exposure light, and further has a layer thickness of 57 to 67 nm.
US09874798B2

An electrophoretic display substrate includes an electrophoretic display layer which is interposed between a first substrate and a second substrate and includes at least one electrophoretic ink display element which is charged. The first substrate includes a thin film transistor, a sub pixel electrode, a capacitor element including a first electrode and a second electrode, capacitor element electrode lines connected to the second electrode, and common electrode lines. The second substrate has a first surface on which a common electrode is formed and a second surface on which a color filter layer is formed. The common electrode is connected to the common electrode lines of the first substrate. The color filter layer includes a transparent resin which is laminated on the second substrate and color filter pixels which are formed on the transparent resin.
US09874792B2

A display device includes an electrode layer and a liquid crystal layer. The electrode layer has a first electrode and a second electrode. The second electrode is opposed to the first electrode and having a plurality of openings extending in a same extending direction. The liquid crystal layer is disposed on the electrode layer. The liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer in a region in proximity to one side of the opening and liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer in a region in proximity to another side of the opening, the sides of the opening being opposed to each other in a width direction of the opening, are rotated in opposite directions from each other and aligned.
US09874785B2

In order to avoid generation of black unevenness caused by the water intrusion into a liquid crystal display device, there is to provide a liquid crystal display device including a display area and a terminal portion, in which a TFT substrate with an organic passivation film formed and an opposite substrate are adhered to each other by a seal portion and a liquid crystal is enclosed there, wherein in the seal portion of the TFT substrate, a groove-shaped through-hole is formed in the organic passivation film to surround the display area, a water absorption layer formed of the same material in the same process as that of the organic passivation film is formed within the groove-shaped through-hole, and the water absorption layer is not covered with the inorganic insulating film.
US09874775B2

A reflective liquid crystal display device having improved contrast is provided. A reflective liquid crystal display device having improved color reproducibility is provided. A reflective liquid crystal display device having low power consumption is provided. A cell gap is adjusted for each color by devising the positions of a conductive layer and an insulating layer under a reflective electrode. A capacitor is placed under the reflective electrode, and one of the electrodes is a common electrode while the other thereof is a conductive layer or a metal oxide layer. By leaving or removing an insulating layer over the other electrode, the cell gap can be adjusted.
US09874774B2

Methods and apparatus for testing operation of a single or multiple tunable active optical device(s) operated by one or more driving electrodes are described. Test methods and apparatus are provided for device testing without necessarily requiring direct physical contact with the driving electrodes. Testing subjects devices to incident light along an optical path and to an external electric field applied to the device producing a dipolar charge distribution within the electrodes, causing the device to operate. The effect of device operation on incident light is optically sensed. The sensed effect is analyzed to identify device defects. Test methods and apparatus are provided for testing multiple unsingulated devices during fabrication employing a strip contact structure having contact strips connected to multiple devices and extending to wafer edges, such that singulating devices leaves portions of the strip contact structure exposed on device dice edges providing electrical contacts in use.
US09874773B2

A display apparatus includes a display panel configured to display an image; a touch panel on the display panel and including a touch region configured to extract a touch coordinate when a touch is generated thereon, and a non-touch region adjacent to the touch region; a cover glass on the touch panel; a piezoelectric element on the cover glass and covering the touch region, the piezoelectric element being configured to generate an electrical change by a pressure of the touch; and a pressure calculating unit configured to calculate a magnitude of the pressure based on the generated electrical change.
US09874771B2

According to one embodiment, a display device includes first, second, and third interconnects, switch elements, pixel electrodes, a display layer, and a controller. The switch elements are arranged in a matrix configuration, and connected to the first and second interconnects. The pixel electrodes are electrically connected to the switch elements. The third interconnects oppose the pixel electrodes. The display layer is provided on the pixel electrodes. The controller is electrically connected to the first, second, and third interconnects. The second interconnects include a first color interconnect. The controller performs a first operation of sequentially selecting the first interconnects and supplying a first color image signal to the first color interconnect. The controller performs a second operation of sequentially selecting the first interconnects and supplying a second color image signal to the first color interconnect. The controller performs a third operation being different from the first and second operations.
US09874764B2

A zoom lens, in sequence from an object side to an image side along an optical axis, comprises a first lens group; a second lens group; a stop; and a rear lens group and comprising a third lens group, a fourth lens group, and a fifth lens group; the fourth lens group further comprises an image correction lens which is able to shifted in a direction transverse to the optical axis of the zoom lens to stabilize the picked-up image when the zoom lens vibrates; furthermore, the zoom lens satisfies the following condition: (1−βp)×βr>2, where βp is a lateral magnification of the image correction lens when the zoom lens is at the telephoto end, and where βr is a lateral magnification of the lenses in the rear lens group except for the lenses in front of the image correction lens when the zoom lens is at the telephoto end.
US09874760B2

The present invention relates generally to stereoscopic displays, and more particularly, but not exclusively, to stereoscopic displays with addressable focus cues. A stereoscopic display system with the addressable focus cues, comprises: a microdisplay for providing a virtual image for display to a user; a reflective active optical element configured to provide a variable optical power; a relay lens disposed along an optical path between the microdisplay and the active optical element, the relay lens positioned therebetween such that the microdisplay and the active optical element are disposed at conjugate planes of the relay lens; a beamsplitter disposed along the optical path between the microdisplay and the active optical element at an orientation to receive optical radiation from the active optical element; and a see-through eyepiece comprising a selected surface configured to receive optical radiation from the beamsplitter and reflect the received radiation to an exit pupil of the system to provide a virtual display path, the selected surface also configured to receive optical radiation from a source other than the microdisplay and to transmit such optical radiation to the exit pupil to provide a see-through optical path.
US09874759B2

A method for scaling a structured light pattern and an optical device using the method are provided. The optical device includes a structured light generation unit and a conversion lens module. The conversion lens module is arranged between the structured light generation unit and a projection surface. The structured light generation unit outputs a structured light. After plural light beams of the structured light pass through the conversion lens module, the plural light beams are projected on the projection surface, so that a structured light pattern is formed on the projection surface. By controlling the conversion lens module to change traveling directions of the light beams of the structured light, the structured light pattern on the projection surface is correspondingly enlarged or shrunken.
US09874758B2

A display device may be inserted into a video conferencing device to provide a more tailored approach to talking and viewing other conversation participants in real time. In one example, a base supports a bottom portion of a computing device at an angled position. A frame supports side portions of the computing device at the angled position so a first optical element with a reflective surface can reflect content of the computing device. Also, a second optical element that is at a higher position than the first optical element includes a beamsplitting surface to receive a reflection from the first optical element as part of a head-up display setup. A hood may be used to cover a portion of the area of all the other components to prevent a portion of ambient light from reaching the first optical element and the second optical element.
US09874757B2

A head mount display (HMD) includes: an image unit; a lens unit; and a housing including a first surface arranged on the front side, a second surface extending rearward from an upper side of the first surface, and a third surface extending rearward from a lower side of the first surface. The HMD further includes a half mirror provided on the left side of the housing and on the left side relative to the lens unit and deflecting, rearward, image light led by the lens unit; an operating member provided on the left side relative to the center in right and left directions of the housing within the first surface and rotating about an axis extending in frontward and rearward directions; and an adjustment mechanism connected to at least one of the image unit and the lens unit and moving the unit(s) according to rotation of the operating member.
US09874755B2

A head-mounted display includes a first display screen and a second display screen to display images to respective eyes of a user. The head-mounted display further includes a first member comprising a first rack and a second member comprising a second rack. The first member is coupled to the first display screen, and the second member is coupled to the second display screen. The head-mounted display includes a button and a gear train to transfer a linear sliding motion of the button to a linear motion of the first rack in a first direction and a linear motion of the second rack in a second direction opposite to the first direction. The gear train includes a first gear engaged with the first rack and a second gear concurrently engaged with the first gear and the second rack.
US09874750B2

A head mounted display (HMD) device includes a stretchable display configured to display an image, and a lens unit provided to face the stretchable display and configured to magnify the image and refract the image in a direction toward a user's eye.
US09874744B2

Systems, devices, and methods for transparent displays that are well-suited for use in wearable heads-up displays are described. Such transparent displays include one or more scanning projector(s) that is/are mounted on or proximate the lens portion(s) thereof, directly in the field of view of the user. Each scanning projector includes a respective light source that sequentially generates pixels or other discrete portions of an image and a respective dynamic optical beam-steerer that controllably steers the modulated light directly towards select regions of the eye of the user. Successive portions of the image are generated in rapid succession until the entire image is displayed to the user by projection directly onto the eye of the user from one or more point(s) within the user's field of view.
US09874741B2

A wavelength conversion element includes a substrate, a reflecting section disposed on one surface side of the substrate, a wavelength conversion layer disposed on an opposite side of the reflecting section to the substrate, and emitting fluorescence in response to irradiation with excitation light, and a reflecting surface disposed between a surface of the wavelength conversion layer on an opposite side to the reflecting section and the reflecting section, and adapted to totally reflect light having been input at an angle no smaller than a critical angle out of the fluorescence.
US09874739B2

This optical fiber scanner has an elongated optical fiber, a vibration transmission member which has a column-like shape and has a penetrating hole through which the optical fiber penetrates, and a piezoelectric element provided on an outer surface of the vibration transmission member, wherein the penetrating hole is a fitted hole which is formed from a proximal end of the vibration transmission member to a middle of the vibration transmission member and the optical fiber is fitted, and the penetrating hole is an accommodation hole which is formed from the middle to a distal end of the vibration transmission member, which has a large inner diameter than an outer diameter of the optical fiber, and which accommodates a distal end portion of the optical fiber with a gap between the optical fiber and the accommodation hole.
US09874733B2

A zoom lens includes, in order from an object side to an image side: a first lens unit having a negative refractive power; and a second lens unit having a positive refractive power, the interval between the adjacent lens units varying during zooming. The configuration of the first lens unit, the focal length f1 of the first lens unit, and the back focus Sk at the wide angle end are appropriately set.
US09874732B2

A zoom lens includes a first lens group having a negative refractive power, a second lens group having a positive refractive power, a third lens group having a negative refractive power, and an image plane in an order from object-side to image-side. The first lens group includes a first lens having a positive refractive power and a second lens having a negative refractive power in the order from object-side to image-side. The second lens group includes a third lens having a positive refractive power, a fourth lens having a negative refractive power, and a fifth lens having a positive refractive power in the order from object-side to image-side. The third lens group includes at least one sixth lens.
US09874729B2

The disclosure relates to infrared achromatic and athermalized narrow-field arrangements without any mechanical compensation mechanism realized by a single convergent front lens and a single divergent correcting lens. The long back focal length allows for cooled and uncooled detectors, different detector sizes, wavebands, and housing materials. A high resolution is achieved with fast f-numbers below f/2.0.
US09874728B1

A lens system includes a tube lens and a lens assembly, with the tube lens disposed between an optical sensor and the lens assembly. The lens assembly is disposed between the tube lens and an imaged object. In order to solve the problem of some lens systems having focal lengths that are shorter than the working distances of the lens systems, one aspect of the inventive subject matter described herein provides the lens assembly with a negative lens and plural positive lenses. A first positive lens is located between a second positive lens and an imaging plane, the second positive lens is located between the first positive lens and the negative lens, and the negative lens is located between the second positive lens and the tube lens.
US09874727B2

Present embodiments provide for a mobile device and an optical imaging lens thereof. The optical imaging lens may comprise an aperture stop and five lens elements positioned sequentially from an object side to an image side. By controlling the convex or concave shape of the surfaces of the lens elements and designing parameters satisfying at least one inequality, the optical imaging lens may exhibit better optical characteristics and the total length of the optical imaging lens is shortened.
US09874725B2

An optical image capturing system includes, along the optical axis in order from an object side to an image side, a first lens, a second lens, a third lens, a fourth lens, a fifth lens, a sixth lens, and a seventh lens. At least one lens among the first to the sixth lenses has positive refractive force. The seventh lens can have negative refractive force, wherein both surfaces thereof are aspheric, and at least one surface thereof has an inflection point. The lenses in the optical image capturing system which have refractive power include the first to the seventh lenses. The optical image capturing system can increase aperture value and improve the imaging quality for use in compact cameras.
US09874722B2

A five-piece optical lens for capturing image and a five-piece optical module for capturing image, along the optical axis in order from an object side to an image side, include a first lens with positive refractive power having a convex object-side surface; a second lens with refractive power; a third lens with refractive power; a fourth lens with refractive power; and a fifth lens with negative refractive power; and at least one of the image-side surface and object-side surface of each of the five lens elements are aspheric. The optical lens can increase aperture value and improve the imagining quality for use in compact cameras.
US09874708B2

An optical module blind mating heat relay system, comprising a linecard comprising a circuit board; a heat relay apparatus comprising a first heat pipe on the circuit board, a radiator attached to the circuit board and in thermal contact with the first heat pipe; a heat relay receiver assembly comprising a receiver housing having a slot and a contact slug connected to the receiver housing and in thermal contact with the first heat pipe; a pluggable optical module removably engaged with the linecard; and a second heat pipe having a pluggable optical module portion contacting the pluggable optical module and having a plug portion removably positioned within the slot of the receiver housing, the plug portion in thermal contact with the contact slug, the second heat pipe removable from the receiver housing while the linecard is receiving electrical power.
US09874704B2

This disclosure generally relates to high-speed fiber optic networks that use light signals to transmit data over a network. The disclosed subject matter includes devices and methods relating to ferrule assemblies and/or ferrule alignment assemblies. In some aspects, the disclosed devices and methods may relate to a ferrule assembly including: optical fibers, an upper clamp member and a lower clamp member configured to retain the optical fibers that are positioned between the upper and lower clamp members, and a ferrule body surrounding at least a portion of the upper and lower clamp members; and an alignment sleeve including a sleeve cavity configured to receive the ferrule body such that the ferrule assembly is capable of being longitudinally repositioned with respect to the alignment sleeve.
US09874703B2

A sealing enclosure for a connector on a terminated end of a cable includes an inner housing and an outer housing. In a first embodiment, the inner housing is permanently affixed and sealed to a section of the cable adjacent to the connector. The outer housing slides over the inner housing and has attachment features at a forward end of the outer housing for attaching to an enclosure surrounding a port for the connector. In a second embodiment, the outer housing has a sealing member attached to an inner circumference thereof, wherein when the outer housing is slid forward along the inner housing, the sealing member engages an outer surface of the inner housing to seal the outer housing to the inner housing.
US09874695B2

An optical fiber tip attachment comprising: a body having an opening at a first end of the body, the opening configured to receive an optical fiber; and a cavity extending from the opening through at least a portion of the body, wherein the cavity is configured to orient a cross-sectional surface of the optical fiber, from which electromagnetic radiation is delivered, at an angle to an axis of the optical fiber tip attachment at the opening.
US09874686B2

An optical fiber comprising: (i) a core comprising silica and having a maximum relative refractive index delta Δ1MAX; and LP01 effective area >100 μm2 at 1550 nm; (ii) an inner cladding surrounding the core and having a minimum relative refractive index delta Δ2MIN and ΔcoreMAX>Δ2MIN; (iii) an outer cladding surrounding the inner cladding and comprising a first outer cladding portion with a maximum refractive index Δ3A such that Δ3A>Δ2MIN; and another outer cladding portion surrounding the first outer cladding portion with a maximum refractive index delta Δ3B wherein with a maximum refractive index delta Δ3B wherein Δ3B>Δ3A, said another portion being the outermost portion of the outer cladding; and (iv) a coating layer surrounding the outer cladding, and in contact with said another outer cladding portion, the coating layer having a relative refractive index delta ΔC wherein ΔC>Δ3B.
US09874680B2

The present invention relates to a curved display device and a housing thereof. A housing according to one aspect of the present invention includes a case top for covering a front surface of a curved display device; a cover bottom coupled to the case top and including a bottom surface section for covering a rear surface of the curved display device and a sidewall section having a linear sidewall extending from a linear edge of the bottom surface section and a curved sidewall extending from a curved edge of the bottom surface section; and a plurality of guide holders fitted with the curved sidewall of the cover bottom in a predetermined interval to fix a light guide plate arranged on the bottom surface section in a curved shape.
US09874675B2

The present invention provides a quantum dot panel, including: a first substrate; a plurality of first cavities formed on the first substrate, so that adjacent ones of the cavities are separated from each other; a first roof layer covering the cavities so as to at least partially define the cavities; quantum dots contained in the first cavities; and a distribution layer in which the quantum dots are distributed and which is disposed within the first cavities. The quantum dot panel according to exemplary embodiments of the present invention includes quantum dots contained within predetermined structures formed on the substrate, thereby improving reliability of the quantum dot panel and simplifying the manufacturing process thereof.
US09874674B2

A composition useful for altering the wavelength of visible or invisible light is disclosed. The composition comprising a solid host material and quantum confined semiconductor nanoparticles, wherein the nanoparticles are included in the composition in amount in the range from about 0.001 to about 15 weight percent based on the weight of the host material. The composition can further include scatterers. An optical component including a waveguide component and quantum confined semiconductor nanoparticles is also disclosed. A device including an optical component is disclosed. A system including an optical component including a waveguide component and quantum confined semiconductor nanoparticles and a light source optically coupled to the waveguide component is also disclosed. A decal, kit, ink composition, and method are also disclosed. A TFEL including quantum confined semiconductor nanoparticles on a surface thereof is also disclosed.
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