US09905963B1

A backshell assembly with a strain relief member. The backshell assembly includes an enclosure member for positioning over a connector. The enclosure member has a wire receiving portion which extends from a surface of the enclosure member. A strain relief mounting member extends from the enclosure. The strain relief member is movably mounted to the strain relief mounting member. The strain relief member is movable between 0 degrees and 90 degrees as measured between a center axis a wire mounting opening of the wire receiving portion to a center axis of a wire receiving opening of the strain relief member.
US09905959B2

A coaxial connector includes a body, a post, a coupling nut, and a sealing member. The sealing member is axially compressed between a rear end facing surface of the coupling nut and a front end facing surface of the hollow body in order to facilitate improved grounding and RF shielding characteristics.
US09905958B2

An insulating housing of an electrical terminal device includes a latching pin arranged on a front side of the housing and that protrudes therefrom in a direction perpendicular to a plane of the front side of the housing, the latching pin engaging in a latching hole arranged on a rear side of the housing in a direction perpendicular to a plane of the rear side of the housing, and a latching hook that protrudes from the front side of the housing and that engages in and latches behind a catch arranged on the rear side of the housing. The latching pin and the latching hole are in the shape of a truncated cone. A plurality of the insulating housings is capable of being plugged on top of one another to form an electrical terminal block.
US09905957B1

An electrical plug connector including a body having a cavity, an electrical connection portion on the body, a wire locking mechanism in the cavity, and a current transmitter electrically connecting the electrical connection portion and the wire locking mechanism. The body may include a cover pivotable from an open position to a closed position.
US09905945B2

Disclosed is a novel connector module structure, to be installed in a system to form connection between at least two functional modules. The connector module provides jumper connection capabilities, i.e., allowing one of its connection terminals to form electrical connection with a connection terminal of one or more particular non-adjacent connector modules.
US09905944B2

A receptacle connection assembly includes a printed circuit board defining two spaced slots in a front edge portion with a mating tongue formed therebetween, a plurality of pads formed on two opposite surfaces of the mating tongue in a diagonally symmetrical manner for a flippable usage and a metallic shield including a tubular capsular portion assembled to the PCB to enclose the mating tongue.
US09905939B2

An antenna device includes: a first antenna element configured to radiate first radio waves having a first plane of polarization; and a second antenna element configured to radiate second radio waves having a second plane of polarization orthogonal to the first plane of polarization, wherein ends of the first antenna element and the second antenna element located at mutually approaching sides are disposed in a positional relationship, and a phase deviation caused by an electromagnetic coupling based on the positional relationship is compensated and an electrical power is fed to the first antenna element and the second antenna element with a phase difference that causes a composite wave of the first radio waves and the second radio waves to form a circularly polarized wave.
US09905937B1

A MIMO antenna device includes an antenna array, a grounding member, and several supporting pillars hanging the antenna array over the grounding member. The antenna array defining a first and a second longitudinal direction perpendicular to each other includes a square buffering sheet arranged at a center thereof, four square low-frequency antennas respectively arranged at four corners thereof, two square high-frequency antennas arranged at two opposite sides of the buffering sheet in the first longitudinal direction, and a first and a second feeding segment respectively connecting the two diagonal low-frequency antennas to the adjacent two high-frequency antennas. The antenna array can be provided to approximately construct into an inverted S-shaped circuit. Each side of the buffering sheet is different from an edge of each high-frequency antenna, and the edge of each high-frequency antenna is shorter than a side of each low-frequency antenna.
US09905930B2

The present invention provides an omni-directional ceiling antenna, including: a cone cylinder-shaped radiation oscillator, a cone cylinder-shaped reflector, a disc cylinder-shaped base plate, and a dielectric ring; where the reflector includes a first hollow cone and a first cylindrical ring, a flared end of the first hollow cone is connected to the first cylindrical ring, and an outer diameter of the first cylindrical ring is smaller than that of the flared end of the first hollow cone; a second cylindrical ring is provided on the base plate, and the second cylindrical ring sockets to the first cylindrical ring to form a spatially separated coupling structure; the dielectric ring is provided between the second cylindrical ring and the first cylindrical ring so as to realize separation and fixed support between the reflector and the base plate.
US09905929B2

A microstrip antenna transceiver with switchable polarizations includes a substrate, a first switch element, a second switch element and an antenna module. The first switch element and the second switch element are disposed on a first surface of the substrate; the antenna module is disposed on a second surface of the substrate and includes a radiation patch including a first pattern slot, a vertical polarization feed-in point and a horizontal polarization feed-in point. The vertical polarization feed-in point and the horizontal polarization feed-in point are symmetric with respect to a symmetrical axis. Size and displacement of the first pattern slot are related to reflection phase of the first switch element and the second switch element in order to generate a right-handed polarized signal or a left-handed polarized signal.
US09905922B2

Techniques for improving coverage of an antenna system are disclosed. In an aspect, a wireless device includes a 3-D antenna system to improve coverage and enhance performance. The 3-D antenna system includes antenna elements formed on multiple planes pointing in different spatial directions. Antenna elements formed on the multiple planes are associated with different antenna beams, which can provide a larger line-of-sight (LOS) coverage for the wireless device. Beamforming may be performed for the antennas on a given plane to further improve LOS coverage. Non-LOS (NLOS) coverage may also improve since antenna beams pointing in different spatial directions may result in reflected signals of higher power levels due to better signal reflection for some antenna beams.
US09905907B2

The housing includes a base and an antenna coating layer. The base includes a first surface. The base is made of one of glass and ceramic. The antenna coating layer is formed on the first surface. The antenna coating layer is made of metal power. The metal power is selected from one of copper power, copper alloy power, or copper and nickel mixed power.
US09905904B2

An embodiment of an artificial dielectric resonator that can enhance a relative dielectric constant in a basic mode is provided. The artificial dielectric resonator has a first group of a series of metal strips including a plurality of metal strips each in a thin sheet shape arranged with microscopic gaps provided in a longitudinal direction, and a second group of a series of metal strips including a plurality of metal strips each in a thin sheet shape arranged with gaps provided in a longitudinal direction, the first group of a series of metal strips and the second group of a series of metal strips are disposed close to each other in a thickness direction of the metal strips, and the metal strip of one metal strip group is disposed to face oppositely disposed gaps and cross vertically adjacent gaps of the other metal strip group.
US09905896B2

A low passive intermodulation (PIM) RF rotary switch comprises a plurality of center conductors connected to stationary pads, at least two rotatable pads being connected by a rotatable pad bridge. Depending on the switching state of the switch, at least two stationary pads are in close proximity to at least two rotatable pads, at a distance sufficient to generate/form a RF signal connection between the center conductors via the stationary and rotatable pads.
US09905893B2

An electric vehicle may include a battery system with a plurality of battery packs electrically connected together. Each battery pack of the plurality of battery packs may include a plurality of battery cells. The electric vehicle may also include a cooling system configured to cool the plurality of battery packs. The electric vehicle may further include a control system configured to selectively operate the cooling system such that at least one battery pack of the plurality of battery packs is maintained at a temperature different from another battery pack of the plurality of battery packs.
US09905891B2

Disclosed herein is a battery cell including an electrode assembly including a positive electrode, a negative electrode, and a separator disposed between the positive electrode and the negative electrode, and a case in which the electrode assembly is mounted, wherein a body of the electrode assembly and a body of the case are provided with cut portions.
US09905890B2

The present invention relates to a rechargeable battery with a label film, a method for manufacturing a rechargeable battery, and a method for manufacturing a label film for a rechargeable battery. Regarding a rechargeable battery with a label film attached to a case, the label film includes a film base, an antenna pattern formed on a first side of the film base, and an information layer formed on a second side of the film base and on which a character including information on the rechargeable battery is written.
US09905881B2

An electrode assembly and a rechargeable battery that can prevent an active material from separating and prevent a short circuit and damage due to a tab that is attached to a current collector are provided. The electrode assembly includes a positive electrode, a negative electrode, and a separator that is disposed between the positive electrode and the negative electrode. The positive electrode has a positive electrode coating portion in which a positive electrode active material layer is formed and a positive electrode uncoated region in which a positive electrode active material layer is not formed, and a positive electrode tab is attached to the positive electrode uncoated region. A first positive electrode protection tape is attached to the positive electrode uncoated region, and the first positive electrode protection tape includes a first cover that covers the side end of the positive electrode coating portion and a second cover that is extended from the first cover and that covers both the positive electrode tab and the positive electrode uncoated region.
US09905873B2

The invention provides a permeable metal substrate and its manufacturing method. The permeable metal substrate includes a substrate body and a permeable powder layer. The permeable powder layer is located on the top of the substrate body. The substrate body can be a thick substrate or formed of a thick substrate and a thin substrate that are welded together. Both the thick and thin substrates have a plurality of permeable straight gas channels. In addition, a metal-supported solid oxide fuel cell and its manufacturing method are also provided.
US09905871B2

The present invention provides solid oxide cells such as fuel cells, electrolyzers, and sensors comprising an electrolyte having an interface between an yttria-stabilized zirconia material and a glass material, in some embodiments. Other embodiments add an interface between a platinum oxide material and the yttria-stabilized zirconia material in the electrolyte. Further embodiments of solid oxide cells have an ion-conducting species such as an ionic liquid or inorganic salt in contact with at least one electrode of the cell. Certain embodiments provide room temperature operation of solid oxide cells.
US09905868B2

A method of controlling humidification of a fuel cell includes the steps of measuring impedance of the fuel cell, and adjusting humidification quantity of the fuel cell based on an imaginary axis value Xi and a real axis value Xr on a complex number plane of the measured impedance after the measurement step. In the measurement step, impedance is measured based on supply of alternating current having one frequency of 10 Hz or less during power generation of the fuel cell.
US09905865B2

An air compressor as a fluid compressor includes: a suction port and a delivery port provided at upper and lower portions, respectively, of a pump chamber; a suction passage in communication with the inside of the pump chamber via the suction port; a delivery passage in communication with the inside of the pump chamber via the delivery port; and a driving rotor and a driven rotor provided in the pump chamber. At least a part of the suction passage is located below the suction port.
US09905862B2

A fuel cell includes a resin-framed membrane electrode assembly, first and second separators, and a resin frame member. The resin frame member is provided to surround an outer periphery of a solid polymer electrolyte membrane. The first and second separators sandwich the resin-framed membrane electrode assembly therebetween in a stacking direction to define a reactant gas flow channel between each of the first and second separators and the resin-framed membrane electrode assembly. The first and second separators include a reactant gas manifold hole which passes through the first and second separators in the stacking direction. The resin frame member includes a bridge portion having connecting flow channels connecting the reactant gas flow channel and the reactant gas manifold hole. At least one of the connecting flow channels has a sloped surface.
US09905849B2

Disclosed are an electrode assembly including a cathode, an anode, and a separator disposed between the cathode and the anode wherein the anode includes lithium titanium oxide (LTO) as an anode active material and the separator is a non-woven separator, and a lithium secondary battery including the same.
US09905845B2

A method for manufacturing silicon flakes includes steps as follows. A silicon material is contacted with a machining tool which includes at least one abrasive particle fixedly disposed thereon. The silicon material is scraped along a displacement path with respect to the machining tool to generate the silicon flakes having various particle sizes.
US09905837B2

An imaging element has a laminated structure including a first electrode, a light-receiving layer formed on the first electrode, and a second electrode formed on the light-receiving layer. The second electrode is made of a transparent amorphous oxide having a conductive property.
US09905836B2

A high energy density rechargeable (HEDR) battery employs a combined current limiter/current interrupter to prevent thermal runaway in the event of internal discharge or other disruption of the separator. The combined current limiter/current interrupter is interior to the battery.
US09905828B2

This battery module is provided with: a cell having a connection terminal; and a bus bar that is connected to the connection terminal and has an upright standing part that extends in the direction in which the connection terminal protrudes. The bus bar is connected, via a conductive wire, to an object to be connected, which is provided at a position separate from the connection terminal in the extending direction of the upright standing part. The cell is configured so as to be charged and discharged through the bus bar and the conductive wire.
US09905826B2

The electric storage device is provided with a case body and an electrode assembly accommodated in the case body. The electrode assembly includes positive and negative electrode sheets each having an active material layer. The case body includes at least one primary inner wall surface, at least one secondary inner wall surface, and corner surfaces. A plane that includes the boundary line between a primary inner wall surface and the corresponding corner surface and faces the corresponding secondary inner wall surface is defined as an imaginary boundary plane. An edge of the active material layer of a positive electrode sheet facing the corresponding secondary inner wall surface is positioned on the surface of the imaginary boundary plane, or is positioned in a region spaced further apart from the secondary inner wall surface facing the edge than the position of the imaginary boundary plane.
US09905824B2

Disclosed is a separator for an electrochemical device including a porous polymer film, and a porous coating layer including at least one type of particles of inorganic particles and organic particles and binder polymer, the porous coating layer formed on one surface or both surfaces of the porous polymer film, wherein the porous polymer film has a structure in which multiple fibrils arranged parallel to the surface of the film are stacked in layers, and the fibrils are bound to each other to form a lamellar structure with a size from 130 to 200 nm and tortuosity of the porous polymer film is from 1.60 to 1.90, and an electrochemical device comprising the same.
US09905823B2

A second battery module is stacked on a first battery module. A control device is mounted on a mounting plate of the first battery module. The control device is arranged between the first battery module and the second battery module. A control device of the first battery module is arranged between inner surfaces of first bolt insertion portions and inner surfaces of second bolt insertion portions of second battery holders.
US09905816B2

A rechargeable battery that may be manufactured and used in various shapes is disclosed. An embodiment of the rechargeable battery includes: an electrode assembly including a pair of electrodes on respective surfaces of a separator and a pair of lead tabs extending from the pair of electrodes; and a pouch receiving the electrode assembly and having the lead tabs protruding out to one side, each of the electrodes including a first bending part including a molded plate including active material particles and a metal fiber yarn of a current collector, and the pouch including a second bending part superimposed on the electrodes in parallel and including a molded sheet having a shape corresponding to that of the first bending part.
US09905815B2

When inserting film armored battery into space between movable plates, tab-shaped terminal projecting from side edge of outer packaging body is reliably guided into space. Guide member disposed at an upper position of movable plates is provided with guide surface portion tapered toward counter-insertion direction. In guide surface portion, relative to side edge of terminal on the side of insertion direction, a portion corresponding to terminal base portion close to outer packaging body is relatively projected toward counter-insertion direction in comparison with a portion corresponding to terminal tip portion far from outer packaging body. Terminal is thereby contacted to guide surface portion in a sliding manner from terminal base portion having a small deformation and is corrected to the shape before the deformation.
US09905810B2

An electroluminescent device described herein, in one aspect, comprises a first electrode and second electrode and a light emitting layer positioned between the first and second electrodes. A current injection gate is positioned between the first electrode and the light emitting layer or the second electrode and the light emitting layer. In some embodiments, the current injection gate comprises a semiconductor layer of electronic structure restricting injected current flow from the first or second electrode through the semiconductor layer as a function of alternating current voltage frequency applied to the first and second electrodes.
US09905809B2

It is an object of the invention to provide a light emitting device which can display a superior image in which luminescent color from each light emitting layer is beautifully displayed and power consumption is lowered in a light emitting element in which light emitting layers are stacked. One feature of the invention is that, in a light emitting element which comprises light emitting layers stacked between electrodes, each distance between each light emitting layer and an electrode is approximately oddly multiplied ¼ wavelength by controlling a thickness of a layer provided therebetween to enhance luminous output efficiency. Another feature of the invention is that a drive voltage is lowered using a high conductive material for the layer compared with a conventional element.
US09905790B2

Provided are optoelectronic devices including quantum dots. An optoelectronic device may include an active layer including a quantum dot and at least one molecular interlayer adjacent to the active layer. The active layer may be provided between two electrodes, and a charge transfer layer may be provided adjacent to the active layer. The molecular interlayer may be provided between the active layer and the charge transfer layer. The molecular interlayer may have a smaller amount of surface charge than the charge transfer layer. The molecular interlayer may include a nonionic material or a hydrophobic material. The charge transfer layer may include an electron transport layer, and the electron transport layer may include an inorganic semiconductor.
US09905779B2

An organic electroluminescence device includes: an anode; an emitting layer; and a cathode, the emitting layer containing a first material, a second material and a third material, the first material being a fluorescent material, the second material being a delayed fluorescent material, the third material having a singlet energy larger than a singlet energy of the second material.
US09905772B2

The present invention discloses an organic material is represented by the following formula (1) or formula (2), the organic EL device employing the material as light emitting host or dopant of emitting layer, hole blocking layer (HBL), electron blocking layer (EBL), electron transport layer (ETL) and hole transport layer (HTL) can display good performance. wherein B represents a fused ring hydrocarbon units with two to three rings, m represents an integer of 0 to 10, R1, G, Rs, X and Y are the same definition as described in the present invention.
US09905770B2

An organic compound having a substituted acridan ring structure with characteristics excelling in hole-injecting/transporting performance and having an electron blocking ability, a highly stable thin-film state, and excellent heat resistance is provided as a material for an organic electroluminescent device of high efficiency and high durability, and the organic electroluminescent device of high efficiency and high durability is provided using this compound. The compound is used as a constituent material of at least one organic layer in the organic electroluminescent device that includes a pair of electrodes and one or more organic layers sandwiched between the pair of electrodes.
US09905762B2

A display substrate and a fabricating method thereof, and a system for fabricating a display substrate and a display device are disclosed. The display substrate includes a plurality of pixels, each of which includes a first sub-pixel, a second sub-pixel, a third sub-pixel and a fourth sub-pixel arranged in a first direction. The fourth sub-pixel in a first pixel is adjacent to the first sub-pixel in a second pixel, and that the second pixel is adjacent to the first pixel and at a side of the first pixel in the first direction. The fourth sub-pixel in the first pixel is adjacent to the second sub-pixel in a third pixel, and the third pixel is adjacent to the first pixel and at a side of the first pixel in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction.
US09905756B2

In a semiconductor storage device that is formed on a semiconductor substrate, flows a current to a recording material formed between electrodes to change a resistance value of the recording material and store information, and flows currents of different magnitudes in a high resistance change operation and a low resistance change operation, electrodes of a plurality of memory cells are electrically connected directly or via transistors to form large electrodes, the large electrodes are connected to a feeding terminal from a power source circuit, and the large electrodes are connected to large electrodes connected to a feeding terminal from a power source connected between a plurality of memory cells different from the plurality of memory cells via inter-large electrode connection transistors. By using the semiconductor storage device, a connection pattern of a feeding electrode for the memory cells can be configured according to the magnitude of a consumption current, power consumption by a voltage drop by a parasitic resistance of the feeding electrode and power consumption by charge/discharge of a parasitic capacitance around the feeding electrode can be suppressed, and performance per consumption power in read/set/reset operations can be improved.
US09905752B2

A magneto-resistance element includes a resistance variable layer and a trap layer. The resistance variable layer includes the alloy having B. A resistance of the resistance variable layer changes according to a magnetic field. The trap layer is for trapping the B diffused from the resistance variable layer. With this structure, the B in the resistance variable layer becomes easily trapped in the trap layer and becomes difficult to be diffused to an outside of the magneto-resistance element. A difficulty associated with B diffusion to the outside of the magneto-resistance element can be prevented from occurring.
US09905749B2

The present invention aims to provide a piezoelectric composition which is free of lead based compounds and is represented by the following formula (1), (Bi0.5xNa0.5xBa0.7y+zCa0.3y)a(Tix+y+0.8zHf0.2z)O3 (1), wherein, x, y, z and a in formula (1) meets the following conditions, 0.70x0.90, 0.02y0.28, 0.02z0.28, 0.90a1.10 and x+y+z=1. The present invention also provides a piezoelectric device having the piezoelectric composition mentioned above.
US09905746B2

A method for producing a thermoelectric component includes coating at least one fiber with thermoelectric material. The thermoelectric component has an annular configuration and the coated fiber extends in a circumferential direction over an angular range of at least 120°. A thermoelectric component and a motor vehicle having a thermoelectric component are also provided.
US09905744B2

A thermoelectric composition comprising tin (Sn), tellurium (Te) and at least one dopant that comprises a peak dimensionless figure of merit (ZT) of 1.1 and a Seebeck coefficient of at least 50 μV/K and a method of manufacturing the thermoelectric composition. A plurality of components are disposed in a ball-milling vessel, wherein the plurality of components comprise tin (Sn), tellurium (Te), and at least one dopant such as indium (In). The components are subsequently mechanically and thermally processed, for example, by hot-pressing. In response to the mechanical-thermally processing, a thermoelectric composition is formed, wherein the thermoelectric composition comprises a dimensionless figure of merit (ZT) of the thermoelectric composition is at least 0.8, and wherein a Seebeck coefficient of the thermoelectric composition is at least 50 μV/K at any temperature.
US09905735B1

A semiconductor light emitting device includes an LED and a recipient luminophoric medium that includes a first narrow-spectrum luminescent material that down-converts a first portion of the radiation emitted by the LED to radiation having a first peak wavelength in the green-yellow color range and a second narrow-spectrum luminescent material that down-converts a second portion of the radiation emitted by the LED to radiation having a second peak wavelength in an orange-red color range. The first and second luminescent materials and any additional narrow-spectrum luminescent materials that are included in the recipient luminophoric medium generate at least 80% of the light emitted by the recipient luminophoric medium. A CRI value of the combined light emitted by the semiconductor light emitting device is at least 60 and less than 80.
US09905730B2

In some embodiments of the invention, a transparent substrate AlInGaP device includes an etch stop layer that may be less absorbing than a conventional etch stop layer. In some embodiments of the invention, a transparent substrate AlInGaP device includes a bonded interface that may be configured to give a lower forward voltage than a conventional bonded interface. Reducing the absorption and/or the forward voltage in a device may improve the efficiency of the device.
US09905719B2

A multi-junction solar cell that is lattice-matched with a base, and that includes a sub-cell having a desirable band gap is provided. A plurality of sub-cells are laminated, each including first and second compound semiconductor layers. At least one predetermined sub-cell is configured of first layers and a second layer. In each of the first layers, a 1-A layer and a 1-B layer are laminated. In the second layer, a 2-A layer and a 2-B layer are laminated. A composition A of the 1-A layer and the 2-A layer is determined based on a value of a band gap of the predetermined sub-cell. A composition B of the 1-B layer and the 2-B layer is determined based on a difference between a base lattice constant of the base and a lattice constant of the composition A. Thicknesses of 1-B layer and 2-B layer are determined based on difference between base lattice constant and a lattice constant of composition B, and on thickness of the 1-A layer and thickness of 2-A layer.
US09905718B2

A low cost concentrating photovoltaic system includes a condenser system having refractive or reflective optics and a photovoltaic module having one or more thin film solar cells. The thin film solar cells may be a-Si, CdTe, Cu(InGa)Se2, organic solar cell or dye sensitized solar cells. The condenser system may be a flat, cylindrical or hemispherical Fresnel lens, a parabolic reflector, a compound parabolic concentrator, a reflective V-trough, or a combination thereof. The condenser system has a concentration ratio of about 10 to 100 or higher. No tracking system is needed in many examples, or a simple one-axis tracking may be used. In one example, the condenser system uses a hemispherical Fresnel lens which focuses sunlight onto a hemispherical focal surface, and one thin film solar cell (mounted on a tracking unit) or multiple cells (without tracking) are disposed on the hemispherical focal surface of the Fresnel lens.
US09905717B2

In an example, the present invention provides a solar tracker apparatus. In an example, the apparatus comprises a center of mass with an adjustable hanger assembly configured with a clam shell clamp assembly on the adjustable hanger assembly and a cylindrical torque tube comprising a plurality of torque tubes configured together in a continuous length from a first end to a second end such that the center of mass is aligned with a center of rotation of the cylindrical torque tubes to reduce a load of a drive motor operably coupled to the cylindrical torque tube. Further details of the present example, among others, can be found throughout the present specification and more particularly below.
US09905715B2

Embodiments related to controlling of photo-generated charge carriers are described and depicted. At least one embodiment provides a semiconductor substrate comprising a photo-conversion region to convert light into photo-generated charge carriers; a region to accumulate the photo-generated charge carriers; a control electrode structure including a plurality of control electrodes to generate a potential distribution such that the photo-generated carriers are guided towards the region to accumulate the photo-generated charge carriers based on signals applied to the control electrode structure; a non-uniform doping profile in the semiconductor substrate to generate an electric field with vertical field vector components in at least a part of the photo-conversion region.
US09905712B2

A method of spray deposition for inorganic nanocrystal solar cells comprising subjecting a first solution of CdTe or CdSe nanocrystals to ligand exchange with a small coordinating molecule, diluting the first solution in solvent to form a second solution, applying the second solution to a substrate, drying the substrate, dipping the substrate in a solution in MeOH of a compound that promotes sintering, washing the substrate with iPrOH, drying the substrate with N2, and heating and forming a film on the substrate. An inorganic nanocrystal solar cell comprising a substrate, a layer of metal, a layer of CdTe, a layer of CdSe, and a layer of transparent conductor. An inorganic nanocrystal solar cell comprising a transparent conductive substrate, a layer of CdSe, a layer of CdTe, and a Au contact.
US09905703B2

To improve electric characteristics of a semiconductor device including an oxide semiconductor. Alternatively, to improve reliability of a semiconductor device including an oxide semiconductor. In a transistor including a first oxide film, an oxide semiconductor film, a pair of electrodes in contact with the oxide semiconductor film, and a second oxide film in contact with the oxide semiconductor film and the pair of electrodes, oxygen is added to the first oxide film and the second oxide film in contact with the oxide semiconductor film and the pair of electrodes, so that oxygen vacancies are reduced. The oxygen is diffused to the oxide semiconductor film by heat treatment or the like; thus, oxygen vacancies in the oxide semiconductor film are reduced.
US09905690B1

A field effect transistor is manufactured by firstly forming an epitaxial layer on a substrate. Then, a trench having an oxide layer is formed on the epitaxial layer. The oxide layer has a first electrode portion having a first width and a first height and a second electrode portion having a second width and a second height. A gate oxide layer covering the oxide layer and the second electrode portion has a gate portion having a third width. The epitaxial layer has a body region and a source region, where these two regions are adjacent to the gate portion and covered by an interlayer dielectric. A source electrode covering the body region and the interlayer dielectric contacts the source region. The first height is no less than the second height, the first width is smaller than the second width, and the second width is smaller than the third width.
US09905684B2

A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate that is made of a semiconductor material with a wider band gap than silicon, a field effect transistor, including a front surface element structure, provided on a front surface of the substrate, and a drain electrode having surface contact with the substrate so as to form a Schottky junction between the semiconductor substrate and the drain electrode.
US09905683B2

A semiconductor power device includes a substrate, an active region having a recess and disposed on the substrate, a first conductivity type semiconductor layer disposed on the recess and devoid of overlapping with the recess, a gate electrode disposed on the active region wherein a portion of the gate electrode is disposed in the recess, a dielectric layer between the active region and the gate electrode, and a two dimension electron gas formed in the active region.
US09905670B2

A method includes performing a first sputtering to form a first metal film on a surface of a semiconductor region. The first sputtering is performed using a first ion energy. The method further includes performing a second sputtering to form a second metal film over and contacting the first metal film, wherein the first and the second metal films includes a same metal. The second sputtering is performed using a second ion energy lower than the first ion energy. An annealing is performed to react the first and the second metal films with the semiconductor region to form a metal silicide.
US09905664B2

A semiconductor device includes a substrate, a tunnel insulation pattern on the substrate, a charge storage pattern on the tunnel insulation pattern, a dielectric pattern having a width smaller than a width of the charge storage pattern on the charge storage pattern, a control gate having a width greater than the width of the dielectric pattern on the dielectric pattern, and a metal-containing gate on the control gate.
US09905663B2

A method of forming a vertical fin field effect transistor (vertical finFET) with an increased surface area between a source/drain contact and a doped region, including forming a doped region on a substrate, forming one or more interfacial features on the doped region, and forming a source/drain contact on at least a portion of the doped region, wherein the one or more interfacial features increases the surface area of the interface between the source/drain contact and the doped region compared to a flat source/drain contact-doped region interface.
US09905648B2

Transistors having partially recessed gates are constructed on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) semiconductor wafers provided with a buried oxide layer (BOX), for example, FD-SOI and UTBB devices. An epitaxially grown channel region relaxes constraints on the design of doped source and drain profiles. Formation of a partially recessed gate and raised epitaxial source and drain regions allow further improvements in transistor performance and reduction of short channel effects such as drain induced barrier lowering (DIBL) and control of a characteristic subthreshold slope. Gate recess can be varied to place the channel at different depths relative to the dopant profile, assisted by advanced process control. The partially recessed gate has an associated high-k gate dielectric that is initially formed in contact with three sides of the gate. Subsequent removal of the high-k sidewalls and substitution of a lower-k silicon nitride encapsulant lowers capacitance between the gate and the source and drain regions.
US09905642B2

The threshold voltage of parasitic transistors formed at corners of shallow trench isolation regions is increased and mobility decreased by employing a high-K dielectric material. Embodiments include STI regions comprising a liner of a high-K dielectric material extending proximate trench corners. Embodiments also include STI regions having a recess formed in the trench, wherein the recess contains a high-K dielectric material, in the form of a layer or spacer, extending proximate trench corners.
US09905640B2

An isolation structure formed in a semiconductor substrate of a first conductivity type includes a floor isolation region of a second conductivity type opposite to the first conductivity type submerged in the substrate. A first trench extends downward from a surface of the substrate and overlaps onto the floor isolation region. The first trench includes walls lined with a dielectric material and contains a conductive material. The first trench and the floor isolation region electrically isolate a pocket of the first conductivity type from the substrate.
US09905636B2

The present disclosure relates to a super-junction structure, a method for manufacturing the super-junction structure and a semiconductor device including the super-junction structure. The super-junction structure includes an epitaxy layer of a first doping type and a plurality of first pillar regions of a second doping type which are formed in the epitaxy layer and are separated from each other. Each of the first pillar regions has a doping concentration that decreases from bottom to top. A portion of the epitaxy layer between adjacent ones of the first pillar regions is a second pillar region. The first pillar regions and the second pillar region are arranged alternatively to form the super-junction structure. The first pillar regions are characterized by the doping concentration that decreases from bottom to top so that the super-junction structure has a relatively high breakdown voltage and a relatively low on resistance. Moreover, the super-junction structure changes a path of an avalanche current and thus suppresses an avalanche current so that the device is not easily damaged.
US09905634B2

A semiconductor device having a first load terminal, a second load terminal and a semiconductor body is presented. The semiconductor body comprises an active region configured to conduct a load current between the first load terminal and the second load terminal and a junction termination region surrounding the active region. The semiconductor body includes a drift layer arranged within both the active region and the junction termination region and having dopants of a first conductivity type at a drift layer dopant concentration of equal to or less than 1014 cm−3; a body zone arranged in the active region and having dopants of a second conductivity type complementary to the first conductivity type and isolating the drift layer from the first load terminal; a guard zone arranged in the junction termination region and having dopants of the second conductivity type and being configured to extend a depletion region formed by a transition between the drift layer and the body zone; a field stop zone arranged adjacent to the guard zone, the field stop zone having dopants of the first conductivity type at a field stop zone dopant concentration that is higher than the drift layer dopant concentration by a factor of at least 2; a low doped zone arranged adjacent to the field stop zone, the low doped zone having dopants of the first conductivity type at a dopant concentration that is lower than the drift layer dopant concentration by a factor of at least 1.5, wherein the body zone, the guard zone, the field stop zone and the low doped zone are arranged in the semiconductor body such that they exhibit a common depth range (DR) of at least 1 μm along a vertical extension direction (Z).
US09905632B2

The light-emitting unit includes a first light-emitting element and a second light-emitting element over an insulating surface. The first light-emitting element includes a first electrode, a second electrode, and a layer containing a light-emitting organic compound interposed between the first and second electrodes. An edge portion of the first electrode is covered with a first insulating partition wall. The second light-emitting element includes a third electrode, a fourth electrode, a light-emitting organic compound interposed between the third and fourth electrodes. The first and third electrodes are formed from the same layer having a property of transmitting light emitted from the light-emitting organic compound. The second and fourth electrodes are formed from the same layer. The second electrode intersects with the edge portion of the first electrode with the first partition wall interposed therebetween, whereby the second electrode and the third electrode are electrically connected to each other.
US09905619B2

A display device including: a substrate configured to include a first region and a second region formed at an outer periphery of the first region; an emission layer disposed on the first region and the second region of the substrate; a polarizer disposed on the emission layer; a touch panel disposed on the polarizer; a window disposed on the touch panel; and a light blocking layer covering side surfaces of the polarizer and the touch panel and a top surface of the emission layer disposed on the second region of the substrate. The polarizer and the touch panel cover the first region of the substrate and expose the second region of the substrate.
US09905606B2

A photodetecting device, a method of manufacturing the photodetecting device, an image sensor, and a method of manufacturing the image sensor are provided. The photodetecting device includes a first insulation layer, a silicon layer disposed on the first insulation layer, a metal plug disposed through the first insulation layer and the silicon layer, a silicon wire disposed on the silicon layer, and an electrode connected to the silicon wire.
US09905604B2

An imaging device having a first surface on which light is incident and a second surface on an opposite side of the first surface, includes a photoelectric conversion section including semiconductors having a same conductivity type, in which an impurity concentration on the second surface side is higher than an impurity concentration on the first surface side.
US09905602B2

A semiconductor device including a first material layer adjacent to a second material layer, a first via passing through the first material layer and extending into the second material layer, and a second via extending into the first material layer, where along a common cross section parallel to an interface between the two material layers, the first via has a cross section larger than that of the second via.
US09905601B2

Some embodiments of the present disclosure provide an image sensor. The image sensor includes a pixel sensor array including a plurality of photosensors arranged in a semiconductor substrate. Peripheral circuitry is arranged in or on the semiconductor substrate and is spaced apart from the pixel sensor array. A protection ring circumscribes an outer perimeter of the pixel sensor array and separates the pixel sensor array from the peripheral circuitry. The protection ring has an annular width of greater than 20 microns. The protection ring includes a first ring in the substrate neighboring the pixel sensor array, a second ring circumscribing the first ring and meeting the first ring at a first p-n junction, and a third ring circumscribing the second ring and meeting the second ring at a second p-n junction.
US09905593B2

The present disclosure provides a mask plate, including a first region corresponding to a GOA region of an array substrate and a second region corresponding to a display region of the array substrate. The first region comprises at least one first aperture, the at least one first aperture is used to form a GI via-hole penetrating through a gate insulating layer at the GOA region, and a gate line is exposed through the GI via-hole. The second region comprises at least one second aperture, the at least one second aperture is a half-tone mask aperture and is used to form a VIA via-hole at the display region, and a source/drain metal layer pattern is exposed through the VIA via-hole.
US09905580B2

The present disclosure relates to the field of display technology and provides a method for manufacturing a TFT, the TFT, an array substrate including the TFT, and a display device. The method includes steps of forming a pattern of a gate electrode on 5 a base substrate, forming a gate insulation layer on the base substrate, and forming patterns of a source electrode and a drain electrode arranged above the gate insulation layer. The method further includes forming an antioxidation metal protection layer on a surface or surfaces of the gate electrode, the source electrode and/or the drain electrode.
US09905576B2

Gate structures are positioned within a region in accordance with a gate horizontal grid that includes at least seven gate gridlines separated from each other by a gate pitch of less than or equal to about 193 nanometers. Each gate structure has a substantially rectangular shape with a width of less than or equal to about 45 nanometers and is positioned to extend lengthwise along a corresponding gate gridline. Each gate gridline has at least one gate structure positioned thereon. A first-metal layer is formed above top surfaces of the gate structures within the region and includes first-metal structures positioned in accordance with a first-metal vertical grid that includes at least eight first-metal gridlines. Each first-metal structure has a substantially rectangular shape and is positioned to extend along a corresponding first-metal gridline. At least six contact structures of substantially rectangular shape contact the at least six gate structures.
US09905573B1

A mesa structure is formed over peripheral devices on a substrate. An alternating stack of insulating layers and spacer material layers is formed over the substrate and the mesa structure. A region of the alternating stack overlying the mesa structure is removed to provide a region in which the layers in the alternating stack extend along a non-horizontal direction that is parallel to the dielectric sidewall of the mesa structure. Memory stack structures and backside contact via structures are formed through another region of the alternating stack that includes horizontally-extending portions of the layers within the alternating stack. The spacer material layers are provided as, or are replaced with, electrically conductive layers. Top surfaces of portions of the electrically conductive layers that extend parallel to the dielectric sidewall of the mesa structure can be contacted by word line contact via structures.
US09905566B2

The disclosed subject matter provides a mask read-only memory (M-ROM) device and fabrication method thereof. In an M-ROM device, a first layer having a first type doping is formed in a substrate. A plurality of buried lines is formed in the first layer of the substrate. The plurality of buried lines are arranged in parallel in a first direction and isolated from each other. An epitaxial growth process is used to form a second layer on the first layer of the substrate. A plurality of diodes is formed in the second layer. The plurality of diodes is arranged in an array. Each diode includes a first electrode having a second type doping and connecting with one of the plurality of buried lines, and a second electrode having a first type doping and located on the first electrode.
US09905559B2

A semiconductor device includes a first fin structure disposed on a substrate. The first fin structure extends in a first direction. A first sacrificial layer pattern is disposed on the first fin structure. The first sacrificial layer pattern includes a left portion and a right portion arranged in the first direction. A dielectric layer pattern is disposed on the first fin structure and interposed between the left and right portions of the first sacrificial layer pattern. A first active layer pattern extending in the first direction is disposed on the first sacrificial layer pattern and the dielectric layer pattern. A first gate electrode structure is disposed on a portion of the first active layer pattern. The portion of the first active layer is disposed on the dielectric layer pattern. The first gate electrode structure extends in a second direction crossing the first direction.
US09905552B1

A semiconductor structure includes a substrate having a plurality of semiconductor devices disposed therein. A dielectric layer is disposed over the substrate. A plurality of substantially parallel metal lines are disposed in the dielectric layer. The metal lines include active lines for routing signals to and from the devices, and dummy lines which do not route signals to and from the devices. Signal cuts are disposed in the active lines. The signal cuts define tips of the active lines. Assist cuts are disposed exclusively in the dummy lines and do not define tips of the active lines. The assist cuts are located proximate the signal cuts such that a first density of assist cuts and signal cuts in an area surrounding the signal cuts is substantially greater than a second density of signal cuts alone in the same area.
US09905551B2

Provided is a method of manufacturing a wafer level package. The method includes forming a repassivation layer that encapsulates a plurality of semiconductor chips isolated from a wafer, forming a through encapsulation via (TEV) in the repassivation layer, forming a redistribution layer electrically connected to the TEV, and forming a bump ball on the redistribution layer.
US09905549B1

The present disclosure provides a semiconductor apparatus having a plurality of semiconductor dies stacked in a face-to-face manner and a method for preparing the same. By stacking dies having different functions vertically in a face-to-face manner, a face-to-face communication is implemented between the dies having different functions. In addition, stacking the dies having different functions vertically in a face-to-face manner reduces the occupied area of the semiconductor apparatus, as compared to a semiconductor apparatus with dies having different functions arranged in a laterally adjacent manner. Furthermore, the signal path of the dies having different functions vertically stacked in the face-to-face manner is shorter than the signal path of the dies having different functions arranged in a laterally adjacent manner; consequently, the dies having different functions vertically stacked in the face-to-face manner of the present disclosure can be applied to high-speed electronic devices.
US09905547B2

A chipset with light energy harvester, includes a substrate, a functional element layer, and a light energy harvesting layer, both are stacked vertically on the substrate, and an interconnects connected between the functional element layer and the light energy harvesting layer.
US09905544B2

In one embodiment, an LED bulb includes a plurality of metal lead frame strips, including at least a first strip, a second strip, and a third strip. First LED dies have their bottom electrodes electrically and thermally connected to a top surface of the first strip. Second LED dies have their bottom electrodes electrically and thermally connected to a top surface of the second strip. The top electrodes of the first LED dies are wire bonded to the second strip, and the top electrodes of the second LED dies are wire bonded to the third strip to connect the first LED dies and second LED dies in series and parallel. The strips are then bent to cause the LED dies to face different directions to obtain a wide emission pattern in a small space. The strips are then enclosed in a thermally conductive bulb having electrical leads.
US09905543B2

A light-emitting diode (LED) device configured to provide a multi-color display includes a plurality of light-emitting cells at least partially defined by a partition layer. The LED device may be configured to reduce optical interferences between the light-emitting cells. The LED device includes a plurality of light-emitting structures spaced apart from one another; a plurality of electrode layers on respective first surfaces of the light-emitting structures, a separation layer configured to electrically insulate the light-emitting structures from each other; phosphor layers on respective second surfaces of the light-emitting structures and associated with different colors, and a partition layer between the phosphor layers to separate the phosphor layers from one another. Each light-emitting cell may include a separate light-emitting structure, a separate set of one or more electrodes, and a separate phosphor layer.
US09905542B2

A method for fabricating an LED light bar and an LED light bar are provided. The method includes: providing a transparent base, wherein at least one framework region for fixing LED chips is arranged on the transparent base, at least one milling groove parallel to the framework region is arranged at each of two sides of each framework region; arranging one or more LED chips on the at least one framework region; covering an upper surface and a lower surface of the transparent base where the LED chips are arranged with a packaging adhesive mixed with fluorescent powder, and filling up the milling groove with the packaging adhesive; and cutting the transparent base along the milling groove, to obtain an LED light bar surrounded by the adhesive.
US09905539B2

Interconnect structures with intermetallic palladium joints are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a method of forming an interconnect structure includes depositing a first conductive material comprising nickel on a first conductive surface of a first die, and depositing a second conductive material comprising nickel on a second conductive surface of a second die spaced apart from the first surface. The method further includes depositing a third conductive material on the second conductive material, and thermally compressing tin/solder between the first and third conductive materials to form an intermetallic palladium joint that extends between the first conductive material and the second conductive material such that one end of the intermetallic palladium joint is bonded directly to the first conductive material and an opposite end of the intermetallic palladium joint is bonded directly to the second conductive material.
US09905520B2

An integrated circuit structure includes a substrate and a metal pad over the substrate. A post-passivation interconnect (PPI) line is connected to the metal pad, wherein the PPI line includes at least a portion over the metal pad. A PPI pad is connected to the PPI line. A polymer layer is over the PPI line and the PPI pad, wherein the polymer layer has a thickness greater than about 30 μm. An under-bump metallurgy (UBM) extends into an opening in the polymer layer and electrically connected to the PPI pad.
US09905512B2

An object of the invention is to provide a semiconductor device having less cracking or peeling and a method of manufacturing the same. A fuse portion of a semiconductor device has bit lines electrically coupled to a SRAM memory cell. The bit lines are covered by an interlayer insulating film. As the interlayer insulating film, a boron-doped BPTEOS film is formed. The bit lines have thereabove a fuse. The fuse and the bit lines are electrically coupled to each other via contact plugs. The interlayer insulating film that covers the bit lines therewith is separated from the contact plugs.
US09905505B2

An assembly includes a chip including an integrated circuit, a casing including an integrated circuit including plural active elements and including an upper portion formed on a side of the chip, a lower portion formed on another side of the chip, and a cooling inlet and a cooling outlet for transferring a coolant, provided in an upper surface of the casing, and forming outer sidewalls of the upper portion and inner sidewalls of the lower portion, plural through-wafer vias (TWVs) for electrically connecting the integrated circuit of the chip and the integrated circuit of the casing, and a card connected to the casing for electrically connecting the casing to a system board.
US09905502B2

A method is disclosed of fabricating a microelectronic package comprising a substrate overlying the front face of a microelectronic element. A plurality of metal bumps project from conductive elements of the substrate towards the microelectronic element, the metal bumps having first ends extending from the conductive elements, second ends remote from the conductive elements, and lateral surfaces extending between the first and second ends. The metal bumps can be wire bonds having first and second ends attached to a same conductive pad of the substrate. A conductive matrix material contacts at least portions of the lateral surfaces of respective ones of the metal bumps and joins the metal bumps with contacts of the microelectronic element.
US09905496B2

A flexure has a metal support layer, an electric insulating layer laid on a surface of the metal support layer, a wiring layer having a general part laid on a surface of the electric insulating layer and a terminal to provide a conductive connection to an external slider, and a raising structure in a thickness direction of the wiring layer provided to the terminal independently of the metal support layer so that the terminal protrudes from a surface of the general part or has a surface being flush with the surface of the general part.
US09905482B2

Improvement in yield of a semiconductor device is obtained. In addition, increase in service life of a socket terminal is obtained. A projecting portion PJ1 and a projecting portion PJ2 are provided in an end portion PU of a socket terminal STE1. Thus, it is possible to enable contact between a lead and the socket terminal STE in which a large current is caused to flow, at two points by a contact using the projecting portion PJ1 and by a contact using the projecting portion PJ2, for example. As a result, the current flowing from the socket terminal STE1 to the lead flows by being dispersed into a path flowing in the projecting portion PJ1 and a path flowing in the projecting portion PJ2. Accordingly, it is possible to suppress increase of temperature of a contact portion between the socket terminal STE1 and the lead even in a case where the large current is caused to flow between the socket terminal STE1 and the lead.
US09905479B2

Semiconductor structures with different devices each having spacers of equal thickness and methods of manufacture are disclosed. The method includes forming a first gate stack and a second gate stack. The method further includes forming sidewall spacers of equal thickness for both the first gate stack and the second gate stack by depositing a liner material over spacer material on sidewalls of the first gate stack and the second gate stack and within a space formed between the spacer material and source and drain regions of the first gate stack.
US09905477B2

Inverters and methods of manufacture thereof are disclosed. In some embodiments, an inverter includes a substrate and a first tunnel FET (TFET) disposed over the substrate. The first TFET is a first fin field effect transistor (FinFET). A second TFET is over the first TFET. The second TFET is a second FinFET. A junction isolation region is disposed between a source of the first TFET and a source of the second TFET.
US09905473B1

A method of fabricating a FinFET device includes a self-aligned contact etch where a source/drain contact module is performed prior to a replacement metal gate (RMG) module. In particular, the method involves forming a sacrificial gate over the channel region of a fin, and an interlayer dielectric over adjacent source/drain regions of the fin. An etch mask is then used to protect source/drain contact regions and enable the removal of the interlayer dielectric from outside of the protected area, e.g., between adjacent fins. A sacrificial cobalt layer is used to backfill the cavities formed by etching the interlayer dielectric prior to forming a functional gate.
US09905471B2

A method includes depositing an ESL on a substrate; patterning the ESL such that a first region of the substrate is covered thereby and a second region of the substrate is exposed within an opening of the etch stop layer; depositing a first dielectric layer on the ESL in the first region and on the substrate in the second region; patterning the first dielectric layer to form a first trench through the first dielectric layer in the first region; forming a metal feature in the first trench; depositing a second dielectric layer over the metal feature in the first region and over the first dielectric layer in the second region; and performing a patterning process to form a second trench through the second dielectric layer in the first region, and to form a third trench through the second and first dielectric layers in the second region.
US09905470B2

An array substrate and a manufacturing method therefor. The method comprises: patterning a first metal layer by means of a first photomask so as to form a gate electrode (21) and a first conductor (22) which are arranged at an interval; patterning a semiconductor layer (40) and a gate insulating layer (30) by means of a second photomask so as to form a through hole (23) which Is exposed out of the first conductor (22); patterning the semiconductor layer (40) by means of the gate electrode (21) and the first conductor (22) so as to form a first channel region (43) and a second channel region (44) which are arranged at an interval; and patterning a second metal layer by means of a third photomask so as to form a source electrode (51), a drain electrode (52) and a second conductor (53) which are arranged at intervals, wherein the second conductor (53) is in contact with the first conductor (22) via the through hole (23). By means of the manufacturing method for the array substrate, the semiconductor layer (40) and the gate insulating layer (30) are patterned by means of a photomask, so that the production costs of the array substrate are reduced, bridging between the first conductor (22) and the second conductor (53) is realized using a relatively simple method, and the production efficiency of the array substrate is further improved.
US09905466B2

A method of partitioning a wafer includes defining a scribe line surrounding a set of dies. The method further includes etching a plurality of trenches into the wafer, wherein each trench of the plurality of trenches is located between adjacent dies of the set of dies, and a width of each trench of the plurality of trenches is less than a width of the scribe line. The method further includes thinning the wafer to expose a bottom surface of the plurality of trenches. The method further includes cutting along the scribe line to separate the set of dies from another portion of the wafer.
US09905464B2

A semiconductor device and method of forming the same, the semiconductor device includes a first and second fin shaped structures, a first and second gate structures and a first and second plugs. The first and second fin shaped structures are disposed on a first region and a second region of a substrate and the first and second gate structure are disposed across the first and second fin shaped structures, respectively. A dielectric layer is disposed on the substrate, covering the first and second gate structure. The first and second plugs are disposed in the dielectric layer, wherein the first plug is electrically connected first source/drain regions adjacent to the first gate structure and contacts sidewalls of the first gate structure, and the second plug is electrically connected to second source/drain regions adjacent to the second gate structure and not contacting sidewalls of the second gate structure.
US09905460B2

A method of forming a self-forming barrier includes selectively removing a portion of a semiconductor dielectric layer to form a three-dimensional pattern within a remaining portion of the dielectric layer. A metal liner layer is disposed on a surface of the pattern to provide a metal lined pattern. A metal filling is disposed over the metal lined pattern, the metal filling being at least partially composed of a metal used in the metal liner layer. Diffusion ions are disposed in one of the metal filling and the metal liner layer. Heat is applied to the metal filling and metal liner layer to diffuse the diffusion ions from one of the metal filling and the metal liner layer into the dielectric layer to form a barrier layer between the metal liner layer and the dielectric layer.
US09905453B2

A protective sheeting for use in processing a semiconductor-sized wafer has a substantially circular base sheet and a substantially annular adhesive layer applied to a peripheral portion of a first surface of the base sheet. The inner diameter of the adhesive layer is smaller than the diameter of the wafer. Further, the outer diameter of the adhesive layer is larger than the inner diameter of an annular frame for holding the wafer. A related method includes attaching the protective sheeting to a front side or a back side of the wafer via the adhesive layer on the first surface of the base sheet so that an inner peripheral portion of the adhesive layer adheres to an outer peripheral portion of the front side or the back side of the wafer, and processing the wafer after the protective sheeting has been attached to the front side or the back side thereof.
US09905445B2

An apparatus for removing a ring-shaped reinforcement, edge from a ground semiconductor wafer, which is cohesively connected to an elastic carrier film and is fixed to a circumferential wafer frame via the carrier film, includes a holding device, which has a support having suction openings for holding the semiconductor wafer on the support surface of the support, and a separating device, which includes a device for integrally detaching the reinforcement edge from the carrier film. In order to be able to detach the reinforcement edge from the carrier film without damage, the holder device has a clamping device encompassing the support and serving for clamping the wafer frame and/or the carrier film, wherein the clamping device interacts with the support to stretch the carrier film, and the separating device has a tool guide with a dividing tool for moving the dividing tool between carrier film and reinforcement edge in order to detach the reinforcement edge in one piece from the carrier film stretched by interaction of clamping device and support.
US09905438B2

A package substrate and a semiconductor package are provided. The package substrate includes an insulating layer having opposing first and second surfaces; a first wiring layer formed in the insulating layer, exposed from the first surface of the insulating layer, and having a plurality of first conductive pads; a second wiring layer formed in the insulating layer, exposed from the second surface, and having a plurality of second conductive pads; a third wiring layer formed on the first surface and electrically connected with the first wiring layer; a plurality of first metal bumps formed on the first conductive pads corresponding; and at least one conductive via vertically embedded in the insulating layer and electrically connected to the second and third wiring layers. Therefore, the surfaces of first conductive pads are reduced, and the non-wetting between the first conductive pads and the solder materials formed on conductive bumps is avoided.
US09905418B2

Embodiments described herein provide methods and apparatus for forming graphitic carbon such as graphene on a substrate. The method includes providing a precursor comprising a linear conjugated hydrocarbon, depositing a hydrocarbon layer from the precursor on the substrate, and forming graphene from the hydrocarbon layer by applying energy to the substrate. The precursor may include template molecules such as polynuclear aromatics, and may be deposited on the substrate by spinning on, by spraying, by flowing, by dipping, or by condensing. The energy may be applied as radiant energy, thermal energy, or plasma energy.
US09905408B2

A sample plate in use with a MALDI-TOF (matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight) mass spectrometer. The sample plate is usable for the mass spectrometry of a polymeric material on the order of several hundreds of Da and a method of manufacturing the same sample plate. The sample plate including a target plate, an organic matrix formed on one surface of the target plate, and a Parylene thin film formed on the target plate on which the organic matrix is formed, the Parylene thin film entirely covering the organic matrix.
US09905397B2

An ion implantation apparatus includes a beam scanner that provides reciprocating beam scanning in a beam scanning direction, a beam measurer that measures a beam current intensity distribution in the beam scanning direction at a downstream of the beam scanner, and a controller. The controller includes a scanning waveform preparing unit that determines whether or not a measured beam current intensity distribution measured by the beam measurer with use of a given scanning waveform fits a target non-uniform dose amount distribution, and that, in a case of fitting, correlates the given scanning waveform with the target non-uniform dose amount distribution.
US09905384B2

An electromagnetic relay is provided. The electromagnetic relay includes a first port and a second port, a first coil and a second coil, a movable armature coupled between the first port and the second port constructed to connect and disconnect the first port and the second port, a switch circuit, and a coil control circuit. The switch circuit is constructed to connect the first coil to an external power source to induce the first coil to create a first magnetic field having a first direction and disconnect the first coil from the external power source to cause the first magnetic field to collapse. The coil control circuit is constructed to induce the second coil to create a second magnetic field having a second direction responsive to the switch circuit being in the second state, the second direction being opposite the first direction.
US09905383B2

A conduction-breaking device breaks conduction between a pair of devices in an electric circuit. The conduction-breaking device includes a conductive body having a cuttable portion, an arc-extinguishing chamber having a pair of fixed blades, a gas generator, a cutting member having a pair of movable blades, and a deforming mechanism. When the cuttable portion is cut at two positions by the fixed blades and the movable blades, the cuttable portion forms a separated piece, which is separated from the electric circuit, and first and second remaining portions, which remain connected with the electric circuit. The separated piece has cut ends at opposite ends. The deforming mechanism deforms the separated piece such that the cut ends of the separated piece are located on a leading side in a moving direction of the cutting member with respect to a part of the separated piece between the cut ends.
US09905377B2

The invention relates to a circuit breaker comprising a first and a second contact assembly, wherein one of the contact assemblies comprises contact fingers arranged in a finger cage configuration and the other contact assembly comprises a tube or rod contact. The contact fingers comprise an impact point where the tube or rod impacts the contact fingers for the first time during electrical connection establishment, and a contact zone which contacts the tube or rod when the electrical connection is established. The contact zone comprises two contact points separated from one another and arranged on a line which is perpendicular to the longitudinal axis.
US09905376B2

An arc-ablation resistant switch contact and a preparation method thereof is disclosed. The switch contact is a complex having a plurality of layers of layered structure, wherein a first layer is a hydrophobic rubber layer, a second layer is an adhesive layer, a third layer is a sheet metal layer, a fourth layer is an adhesive layer, and a fifth layer is a metal plated layer; wherein, the fifth layer of metal plated layer is formed by dipping a complex of the first layer, the second layer, the third layer and the fourth layer in a chemical plating bath containing refractory metal elements, and depositing on surfaces of the second layer, the third layer and the fourth layer in the complex by a chemical deposition method.
US09905374B2

An electric energy storage device comprises first and second conductor layers, and positive and negative electrodes. The first conductor layer has both surfaces coated with ionic or dipole material across entire surface thereof. The second conductor layer has both surfaces coated with ionic or dipole material across entire surface thereof. The positive electrode is attached to the first conductor layer. The negative electrode is attached to the second conductor. The stored electrical energy is discharged and output to the electrodes by using an external AC voltage in a predetermined frequency range as a trigger power.
US09905371B2

The present invention discloses. all-solid-state supercapacitor (ASSP) with enhanced electrode-electrolyte interface which gives highest very high specific capacitance, areal capacitance and shows very low internal resistance (ESR). The invention particularly discloses the fabrication of all-solid-state supercapacitor by intercalation of solid state polymer electrolyte inside the conducting porous substrate coated with a charge storage electrode material to achieve the desired effect.
US09905369B2

Provided is an energy storage device including a container with high productivity and satisfactory corrosion resistance. In the energy storage device including the container housing an electrode assembly having a positive electrode and a negative electrode, and electrolyte solution, the container is made of stainless steel including 0.09% by weight or more aluminum and has welded portions and where the stainless steel is welded.
US09905368B2

A solid electrolytic capacitor including a capacitor element, a first anode lead, a second anode lead, and a carrier wire. The capacitor element includes a sintered, porous anode body; a dielectric layer overlying the sintered, porous anode body; and a cathode overlying the dielectric layer that includes a solid electrolyte. The first and second anode leads each have an embedded portion positioned within the anode body and an external portion extending longitudinally from a surface of the anode body in an x-direction, while the carrier wire is positioned external to the anode body. Further, a first portion of the carrier wire is connected to the external portions of the first and second anode leads, while a second portion of the carrier wire extends longitudinally away from the surface of the anode body in the x-direction. Such an arrangement reduces the ESR and leakage current of the capacitor.
US09905363B2

A capacitor arrangement includes at least one ceramic multilayer capacitor with a main body having ceramic layers and first and second electrode layers arranged therebetween. The capacitor also has a first external contact and a second external contact on mutually opposite side surfaces. The first external contact is electrically conductively connected to the first electrode layers and the second external contact is electrically conductively connected to the second electrode layers. A contact arrangement includes two metallic contact plates, between which the at least one ceramic multilayer capacitor is arranged. The first and second external contacts are electrically conductively connected in each case to one of the metallic contact plates.
US09905359B2

An inductor at a wireless power antenna includes a conductive winding. A portion of the conductive winding consists of a heat pipe. The heat pipe employs thermal conductivity and phase transition to transfer heat from the inductor. A heat sink is coupled to the heat pipe.
US09905357B2

An integrated circuit includes a first inductor, a second inductor, and a blocker. The first inductor is disposed in a metal layer, and the second is disposed in the metal layer. The blocker is disposed on the metal layer and located between the first inductor and the second inductor. The blocker is configured to block coupling occurring between the first inductor and the second inductor.
US09905353B2

A low loss power inductor core and method for making same. The magnetic core includes an outer portion formed as a closed loop from multiple magnetic core pieces, and inner portion disposed within the closed loop. Non-magnetic spacers at opposing ends of the inner core portion position and secure the inner core portion between mutually opposed inner sides of the closed loop.
US09905347B2

Applicants have discovered a novel apparatus and method to aggregate and displace a plurality of magneto-responsive entities (steerable self-propelled entities or SSPEs) in three dimensions using time-multiplexing. The apparatus for controlling aggregation of SSPEs in a body comprises at least three sets of magnetic field sources arranged in three axes for generating a controlled magnetic field and a controller connected to at least one of said magnetic field sources to create a three dimensional convergence point. The method for aggregating the entities can comprise using a first set and a second set of said magnetic field sources to generate opposed magnetic field gradients in each said set to cause aggregation of said magneto-responsive entities in two axes and wherein the controller is configured to reverse a direction of said magnetic field gradient in a third set of magnetic field sources in a third axis according to a first predetermined program.
US09905330B2

A flexible cable includes an outer sheath at an outermost portion. The outer sheath includes an inner layer made of an elastomer containing polypropylene resin, and an outer layer surrounding the inner layer and made of polypropylene resin.
US09905328B2

A resin composition used as a material of an insulating layer of a printed wiring board including the insulating layer and a conductor layer formed on a surface of the insulating layer by plating, the resin composition including: an epoxy compound; a cyanate compound; a maleimide compound; an inorganic filler; and an imidazole silane, wherein the maleimide compound includes a predetermined maleimide compound, a content of the maleimide compound is 25% by mass or less based on 100% by mass of a total content of the epoxy compound, the cyanate compound, and the maleimide compound, and the imidazole silane includes a compound represented by the formula (3).
US09905322B2

The invention relates to a collimator electrode stack (70), comprising: —at least three collimator electrodes (71-80) for collimating a charged particle beam along an optical axis (A), wherein each collimator electrode comprises an electrode body with an electrode aperture for allowing passage to the charged particle beam, wherein the electrode bodies are spaced along an axial direction (Z) which is substantially parallel with the optical axis, and wherein the electrode apertures are coaxially aligned along the optical axis; and —a plurality of spacing structures (89) provided between each pair of adjacent collimator electrodes and made of an electrically insulating material, for positioning the collimator electrodes at predetermined distances along the axial direction. Each of the collimator electrodes (71-80) is electrically connected to a separate voltage output (151-160).The invention further relates to a method of operating a charged particle beam generator.
US09905320B2

A separate type safety injection tank comprises: a coolant injection unit connected to a reactor coolant system by a safety injection pipe such that coolant stored therein is injected into the reactor coolant system by a pressure difference from the reactor coolant system when a loss-of-coolant-accident (LOCA) occurs; a gas injection unit connected to the coolant injection unit, and configured to pressurize the coolant injected into the reactor coolant system, by introducing gas stored therein to an upper part of the coolant injection unit in the loss-of-coolant-accident; and a choking device disposed between the coolant injection unit and the gas injection unit, and configured to contract a flow cross-sectional area of the gas introduced to the coolant injection unit, and configured to maintain a flow velocity and a flow rate of the gas introduced to the coolant injection unit as a critical flow velocity and a critical flow rate when a pressure difference between the coolant injection unit and the gas injection unit is more than a critical value.
US09905317B2

A nuclear fusor apparatus includes magnetically conductive spherical shell, solid iron ball, annular ferromagnetic guide rails, orbiting members, ignition, and gas outlet for transmitting mixed gas of deuterium and tritium, wherein the annular ferromagnetic guide rails are symmetrically fixed on an outer wall of the spherical shell; the orbiting members are located above the annular ferromagnetic guide rails; the orbiting members cooperate with the annular ferromagnetic guide rails to generate magnetic levitation force and propelling force; a water pipe is positioned inside the spherical shell, an end of the water pipe is connected to a water pump, another end of the water pipe is connected to an air extraction unit; the ignition and the gas outlet are both fixed on the outer wall of the spherical shell, an ignition end of the ignition extends into the spherical shell, and an end of the gas outlet extends into the spherical shell.
US09905312B2

Provided is a shift register circuit including a single conductive transistor which performs overlap scanning without increasing the number of clock signals and reduces power consumption by avoiding an ineffective through current, a gate driver, and a display apparatus. The shift register circuit includes: a shift register unit having a first output transistor which connects an output terminal and a first power supply; and a first gate control circuit of which an output terminal is connected to a gate terminal of the first output transistor, wherein the first gate control circuit includes a timing generation unit and a buffer unit, the buffer unit is a bootstrap circuit, and an output of the timing generation unit to which an input signal is inputted is used as an input of the buffer unit and an output of the buffer unit is used as an output of the first gate control circuit.
US09905298B2

A nonvolatile memory device includes a common source line connected to a plurality of cell strings. The cell strings each include a first selection transistor coupled to a string selection line, a second selection transistor coupled to a ground selection line, and a plurality of memory cells coupled to a plurality word-lines. The second selection transistors are commonly coupled to the common source line. A method of operating the nonvolatile memory device includes receiving a program command and an access address, and performing a program operation on a selected page according to the access address while floating the common source line. The common source line is floated based on at least one of the program command and the access address.
US09905296B2

Some embodiments include apparatuses and methods having a memory cell, first and second conductive lines configured to access the memory cell, and a switch configured to apply a signal to one of the first and second conductive lines. In at least one of such embodiments, the switch can include a phase change material. Other embodiments including additional apparatuses and methods are described.
US09905292B2

A three dimensional dual-port bit cell generally comprises a first portion disposed on a first tier, wherein the first portion includes a plurality of port elements. The dual-port bit cell also includes a second portion disposed on a second tier that is vertically stacked with respect to the first tier using at least one via, wherein the second portion includes a latch.
US09905288B2

A semiconductor memory device includes a memory cell array and a control logic circuit. The control logic circuit controls access to the memory cell array based on a command and an address. The semiconductor memory device performs a write operation to write data in the memory cell array and performs a read operation to read data from the memory cell array in synchronization with a clock signal from an external memory controller. The semiconductor memory device performs the write operation and the read operation in different data strobe modes in which the semiconductor memory device uses different numbers of data strobe signals according to a frequency of the clock signal.
US09905283B2

A self-referenced MRAM cell including a reference layer having a fixed reference magnetization, a sense layer having a free sense magnetization, a tunnel barrier, a biasing layer having bias magnetization and a biasing antiferromagnetic layer pinning the bias magnetization in a bias direction when MRAM cell is at temperature equal or below a bias threshold temperature. The bias magnetization is arranged for inducing a bias field adapted for biasing the sense magnetization in a direction opposed to the bias direction, such that the biased sense magnetization varies linearly in the presence of the external magnetic field, when the external magnetic field is oriented in a direction substantially perpendicular to the one of the reference magnetization. The present disclosure further concerns a magnetic field sensor including a plurality of the self-referenced MRAM cell and a method for programming the magnetic field sensor.
US09905282B1

Methods of fabricating a dome-shaped MTJ TE and the resulting devices are provided. Embodiments include forming a MRAM stack having a laterally separated MTJ structures and the MRAM and a logic stack each having a SiN layer; forming first trenches through the MRAM stack to a portion of the SiN layer above an MTJ structure; forming second trenches through the SiN layer fully landing on an upper portion of the MTJ structures and removing the SiN layer of the logic stack; forming a TaN layer over the MRAM and logic stack; removing portions of the TaN layer on opposite sides of the MTJ structures and therebetween; forming an oxide layer over the MRAM and logic stacks; and forming vias through the oxide layer of the MRAM stack down the TaN layer above MTJ structures and a via through the logic stack.
US09905275B2

The present disclosure includes apparatuses and methods for providing power availability information to memory. A number of embodiments include a memory and a controller. The controller is configured to provide power and power availability information to the memory, and the memory is configured to determine whether to adjust its operation based, at least in part, on the power availability information.
US09905268B2

A drawing processing device includes a processor that executes a process. The process includes: receiving, for any frame out of a plurality of frames included in a video that have each been associated with drawing information representing drawing performed on the plurality of frames, position information indicating a position within the frame of an edited drawing, and editing content; referencing a storage section storing associated information of the position information of the drawing within the frame and an identifier of the frame on which the drawing was performed, and ascertaining identifiers of any frames corresponding to the received position information; and, based on the received editing content, editing the drawing information associated with each frame indicated by the ascertained identifiers.
US09905264B2

A servo control system according to the present invention includes a servo control device for driving a driven body that operates periodically using a servomotor; and a learning controller for generating correction data based on a location deviation with respect to a uniform command pattern, and storing the correction data in delay memory and correcting the location deviation. The delay memory includes first memory having a short access delay time and second memory having a long access delay time. The servo control device includes a switching unit for assigning one of the first memory and the second memory to the learning controller, depending on a learning period according to the command pattern.
US09905258B2

According to one embodiment, a magnetic recording medium with high magnetic recording characteristics and improved corrosion resistance is obtained. The magnetic recording medium includes a substrate, an orientation control layer provided on the substrate and made from a Ni alloy or an Ag alloy, a nonmagnetic seed layer provided to be in contact with the orientation control layer, a perpendicular magnetic recording layer containing Fe or Co and Pt as main components. The nonmagnetic seed layer is formed of Ag particles, Ge grain boundaries and a compound X, and the compound X is selected from an oxide, nitride or carbide of aluminum, titanium, chromium, silicon and tantalum and also distributed in both the Ag particles and Ge grain boundaries.
US09905257B2

A method for writing servo data includes writing servo data as a head moves outward on a disk one step at a time, so as to overwrite part of servo data that have been written in a previous step, writing servo data as the head moves inward on the disk one step at a time, so as to overwrite part of servo data that have been written in a previous step, and writing one of two-phase burst data, or address data and the other of said two-phase burst data, at the radial position, so as to overwrite at least part of servo data written in each last step of the writings as the head moves outward and inward. The same address data are written in two consecutive steps as the head moves outward and as the head moves inward.
US09905252B2

A head suspension includes a base to be attached to a carriage, a load beam having a rigid part and a resilient part that connects the rigid part to the base, the load beam applying load onto a read/write head, a flexure attached to the load beam and supporting the head, an actuator attaching part located between the base and the head, and a piezoelectric element being deformable in response to a voltage applied thereto to move the head in a sway direction relative to the base. For the head suspension, it bonds the piezoelectric element with a bonding tape to the actuator attaching part and applies an adhesive to fix the piezoelectric element to the actuator attaching part.
US09905251B2

Method and apparatus for enhancing write current switching efficiencies during data write operations in a data storage device. In some embodiments, write data are described in the form a sequence of symbols of nT length where T is a channel clock rate and n is an integer over a selected range. Bi-directional write currents are applied to a write element to record the sequence of symbols to a storage medium. The write currents are switched between a first rail current and a second rail current for alternating symbols. The write currents are further transitioned to an intermediate current value for at least one channel clock period immediately preceding a next occurrence of a symbol boundary between an adjacent pair of symbols in the sequence.
US09905244B2

An apparatus and method for real-time audio processing employs a gaze detection sensor to detect a direction of a user's gaze and output a gaze signal corresponding to the detected direction of the user's gaze. A digital signal processing unit responds to a plurality of signals corresponding to a plurality of sounds received at the apparatus, and the determined direction of gaze to identify a signal of interest from the plurality of signals using the gaze signal. The signal of interest is processed for output to the user. In embodiments, a microphone array provides the plurality of signals. An imaging sensor may work with either the microphone array or the gaze detection sensor to identify the signal of interest.
US09905234B2

Methods and apparatuses for hiding and extracting data based on a pilot code sequence are provided. A data hiding method may include converting an input audio signal to a frequency domain, distorting phase information of the audio signal converted to the frequency domain based on a pilot code sequence representing data to be hidden, and converting the audio signal with the distorted phase information to a time domain and transmitting the audio signal converted to the time domain. The pilot code sequence may be a set of phase values corresponding to a bit value “0” or “1” of data.
US09905232B2

The present technology relates to an encoding device and method, a decoding device and method, capable of improving audio signal transmission efficiency. An identification information generation unit determines whether or not an audio signal is to be encoded on the basis of the audio signal. The identification information generation unit generates identification information indicating the determination result. An encoding unit encodes only the audio signals which are determined to be encoded. A packing unit generates a bit stream containing the identification information and encoded audio signals. As a result of storing only encoded audio signals and the identification information indicating whether or not the respective audio signals are to be encoded in the bit stream, the transmission efficiency of the audio signals can be improved. The present technology can be applied to an encoder and a decoder.
US09905224B2

A computer-implemented method of generating a language model. An embodiment of a system and method may include selecting a set of words from a transcription of an audio input, the transcription produced by a current language model. The set of words may be used to obtain a set of content objects. The set of content objects may be used to generate a new language model. The current language model may be replaced by the new language model.
US09905205B2

A support assembly according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a support rotatably disposed with respect to a frame, a jack rotatably connected with respect to the support on a side opposite to a rotation center of the support, and a support heel disposed on a lower surface side of the support to make contact with a member connected to a key, wherein the support is configured of a first main body portion, a bent portion, a second main body portion, and a jack support portion from the rotation center side of the support toward a rotation center side of the jack, and the second main body portion is disposed on a side closer to the key than the first main body portion by the bent portion which couples the first main body portion and the second main body portion.
US09905204B2

First and second pivot sections pivotally support left and right end portions of a fallboard on left and right side boards of a keyboard musical instrument, respectively. At least one of the first and second pivot sections includes: a damper mechanism provided on one of the side board and an end portion of the fallboard and having a driven member to receive pivotal movement; and a driving member engageable with the driven member and operable in interlocked relation to the other thereof. The damper mechanism generates a load against pivotal force from the driven member. At least one of the first and second pivot sections includes: a pivoting member pivotally supported on one of the side board and the end portion of the fallboard; and a retainer fixed to the other thereof to position and retain the pivoting member at a predetermined position.
US09905175B2

A liquid crystal display (LCD) panel is disclosed. The LCD panel includes a plurality of pixels arranged in rows and columns, a first sub gate-line coupled to first row-pixels that are adjacent to a lower side of the first sub gate-line, a second sub gate-line coupled to second row-pixels that are adjacent to an upper side of the second sub gate-line, a plurality of gate-lines between the first sub gate-line and the second sub gate-line, a plurality of even data-lines coupled to first column-pixels that are adjacent to the even data-lines, and a plurality of odd data-lines coupled to second column-pixels that are adjacent to the odd data-lines. Here, each gate-line of the plurality of gate lines is coupled to first row-pixels that are adjacent to a lower side of the gate-line and second row-pixels that are adjacent to an upper side of the gate-line.
US09905172B2

A liquid crystal display device includes a display panel, a multiplexer, an alignment circuit and a short bar circuit. The multiplexer is configured to provide a plurality of output data signals according to a plurality of switch control signals and an input data signal. During the alignment period, the alignment circuit is configured to provide a curing voltage to the display panel, and the short bar circuit is configured to couple the multiplexer to a predetermined voltage.
US09905155B2

The present disclosure provides a gate driver circuit including at least one set of clock signal lines and multiple levels of shift registers arranged in a cascaded manner. Each set of the clock signal lines includes two clock signal lines. The multiple levels of shift registers is divided into at least one set, and each set of the clock signal lines corresponds to a set of the shift registers. One clock signal line in each set of the clock signal lines is connected to a resetting signal input end of a last-level shift register in the set of the shift registers corresponding to the set of the clock signal lines. The present disclosure further provides an array substrate, a display device and a method for driving the gate driver circuit.
US09905146B2

A TFT array substrate for a TFT LCD includes a plurality of pixels each consisting of a red sub-pixel, a green sub-pixel, a blue sub-pixel and a white sub-pixel arranged in a 2×2 matrix. Two data lines are located between each two neighboring columns of the sub-pixels. A scan line is located between two neighboring rows of the sub-pixels. The sub-pixels are driven by column inversion. The scan lines in electrical connections with different rows of the pixels are turned on successively along a vertical direction. Two neighboring same colored sub-pixels in a same row of the sub-pixels have opposite polarities and two neighboring same colored sub-pixel in a same column of the sub-pixels respectively have the same polarity when the TFT LCD is operated to output a screen having a color the same as the color of the two neighboring same colored sub-pixels.
US09905145B2

The present disclosure provides a pixel structure, its driving method and a display device. The pixel structure comprises a plurality of repeating units consisting of subpixels. Each repeating unit comprises four subpixels in different colors, which are divided into two groups. Each group of subpixels includes a subpixel with its major-axis direction as a first direction and a subpixel with its major-axis as a second direction perpendicular to the first direction.
US09905144B2

A liquid crystal display and a test circuit thereof are provided. The test circuit has a plurality of signal pads, a first data distributor, a plurality of logic circuit units and N switches. N is a positive integer. The signal pads are configured to receive a test data signal, a voltage signal, an enable signal and a plurality of first switch control signals. The first data distributor distributes the test data signal to N output terminals of the first data distributor. Each of the logic circuit units generates a second switch control signal according to the voltage signal, the enable signal and a corresponding one of the first switch control signals. Each of the switches controls the electrical connection between an output terminal of the first data distributor coupled thereto and at least a data line coupled thereto.
US09905142B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, computer program product, and system for a uni-directional and multi-directional interchangeable screen. The system includes a screen and an opaque micro-tube connected at one end to the screen. A bottom backlight is connected to the other end of the opaque micro-tube and a top backlight is connected to the screen. The system is controlled by an automated screen selection program, which activates the bottom backlight and deactivates the top backlight for uni-directional screen view. Automated screen selection program activates top backlight for multi-directional screen view.
US09905134B2

An intrusion prevention system includes an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), a UAV controller, and a restricted area data aggregator. The restricted data aggregator collects and stores restricted area data. The UAV controller is coupled to communicate with the UAV and the restricted area data aggregator, wherein the UAV controller receives positional data from the UAV and restricted area data from the restricted area aggregator. The UAV controller determines based on the received positional data and the received restricted area data whether the UAV is currently intruding within a restricted area or is predicted to intrude within a restricted area and wherein the UAV controller initiates actions to prevent unauthorized intrusions into restricted areas.
US09905131B2

Described herein is an onboard vehicle system configured to capture vehicle information and notify an operator of the onboard vehicle system of potentially dangerous vehicles. In some embodiments, the onboard vehicle system may capture image information related to its surroundings. The image information may be processed to identify one or more vehicle identifiers associated with vehicles in the vicinity of the onboard system. The onboard system may provide vehicle identifiers to a service provider computer, which may subsequently query one or more driver behavior databases for anomalous behavior related to the vehicle identifiers. Upon detecting anomalous behavior for a target vehicle, the service provider computer may generate one or more notifications to be presented to the operator of the onboard system with regard to the target vehicle. In some embodiments, the onboard system may present the notification to the operator in an audio and/or visual format.
US09905129B2

Systems and methods are disclosed for an emergency corridor utilizing vehicle-to-vehicle communication. An example disclosed system includes an emergency vehicle, infrastructure nodes distributed across a municipal area, and an emergency router. The example emergency router selects a route from a first location of the emergency vehicle to a second location specified by an emergency request. The example emergency router also determines ones of the infrastructure nodes that are along the route. Additionally, the example emergency router instructs the ones of the infrastructure nodes to broadcast emergency messages. The emergency messages include information regarding the route and the emergency vehicle.
US09905128B2

A system and a method for providing augmented reality (AR) notification are provided. The system includes a recognizing unit configured to recognize a ground region, which is a region corresponding to the ground, on an AR driving image and a controller configured to add a display element to the ground region and to control a notification output associated with driving through the display element.
US09905122B2

Systems and methods for controlling a climate control system of a smart-home environment that includes a plurality of smart devices are provided. One method includes detecting, with a hazard detector of the smart devices, a level of carbon monoxide (CO) at the hazard detector that exceeds a threshold CO level at a location of the hazard detector, determining, by one of the smart devices, that the climate control system includes a combustion based heat source, and in response to the detecting and the determination, transmitting, by a system controller of the climate control system, a first signal to turn off at least one aspect of the climate control system.
US09905118B1

Concepts and technologies are disclosed herein for limiting service availability when a sensor device is non-operational due to a noise floor change. According to one aspect of the concepts and technologies disclosed herein, a connected home system includes a controller device configured to monitor a plurality of sensor devices deployed within a premises, and a sensor device of the plurality of sensor devices. The sensor device can monitor radio frequency (“RF”) noise in a radio environment associated with the premises. The radio environment is associated with an RF noise floor. The sensor device can determine whether the radio frequency noise exceeds a noise threshold. In response to determining that the RF noise exceeds the noise threshold, the sensor device can cause the controller device to exclude the sensor device from being monitored by the controller device until the RF noise returns to below the noise threshold.
US09905109B2

Various arrangements for handling delayed status update are presented. A network-enabled sensor unit may be used to measure an environmental condition. The sensor unit may determine, based on measuring the environmental condition, an environmental condition status has changed state. A network connection may be established that permits communication with a remote notification service system. This notification service system may maintain a remote status intended to be synchronized with the environmental condition status of the sensor unit. The sensor unit may determine that the environmental condition status has changed prior to communicating the environmental condition status to the notification service system. A historical status array may be transmitted to the notification service system in response to determining the environmental condition status has reverted to the first state prior to communicating the environmental condition status. The historical status array can indicate previous states of the environmental condition status of the sensor unit.
US09905108B2

Methods, systems, and apparatus for monitoring fatigue and notifying an individual are described. The individual may be an operator of a vehicle, equipment, or machine, a student, or other person that may experience fatigue. In addition to the individual, another person such as an employer, teacher, or parent may be notified.
US09905103B2

An active protection system for protecting an object includes a first lens, a second lens, a processing unit and an alarm unit. The first lens is configured to receive first light and generate a first image. The second lens is configured to receive second light and generate a second image. The processing unit is configured to obtain a characteristic value of the object from the second image, determine whether the characteristic value reaches a pre-set value, and judge whether the object is regulated in a predetermined period after the characteristic value reaches the pre-set value. The alarm unit is configured to raise an alarm under control of the processing unit if the object is not regulated in the predetermined period after the characteristic value reaches the pre-set value.
US09905100B2

Methods, apparatuses, systems, and computer program products for interactive deliveries are provided. For an upcoming service point that is associated with a service point device, it is determined whether the item to be delivered to the service point is within an activation zone for activating the service point device. Responsive to determining that the item is within the activation zone, the service point device is remotely activated. Remotely activating the service point device triggers dynamical provision of an alert interface. An indication of user interaction via the user interface indicating availability of the user to receive the item is received. A notification of the indication of the user interaction is provided. If the notification indicates that the individual is available to receive the item at the service point, the item is delivered to or picked-up from the service point.
US09905098B2

Methods, systems, and products notify of alarms in security systems. Sensor data is received from an alarm sensor, and an alarm controller determines an alarm condition. Video data associated with the alarm sensor is retrieved. An alarm message may be sent over a wireless network connection, while the video data may be sent over a wireline broadband connection.
US09905091B2

Concepts and technologies are disclosed herein for bone conduction tags. According to one aspect of the concepts and technologies disclosed herein, a device can receive, via a transducer, a vibration signal from a body of a user. The vibration signal can be generated in response to the user interacting with a bone conduction tag. For example, the vibration signal can be generated in response to the user moving one or more fingers across the bone conduction tag. The device can analyze the vibration signal to determine an action that is to be performed. The device can perform the action or can instruct a further device to perform the action.
US09905090B2

A system is provided that automatically generates one or more haptic effects from source data, such as audio source data. The system fits the one or more haptic effects to the source data by analyzing the source data and identifying one or more haptic effects that are the most similar to the source data. The system matches the identified one or more haptic effects with the source data. The system subsequently outputs the identified one or more haptic effects.
US09905089B2

Multiple visual indications are provided in connection with multiple work orders. Each work order involves a respective connection using the device. The multiple visual indications are provided simultaneously for at least a part of the time the visual indications are provided. In one implementation, the visual indications differ from one another. What each visual indication looks like is displayed on a respective portable device configured to display information about the work order associated with that visual indication.
US09905084B2

An automated transaction machine has a customer interface for operation of the machine and an opening in the customer interface through which notes may be deposited into or withdrawn from the machine via an articulated note acceptor-presenter located in an upper unit of the machine and operative to extend at least partially through the opening in the customer interface.
US09905077B2

A system and method for controlling a player's rate of play is provided. In an embodiment, a rate of play is defined that influences when a player is transferred to a new hand, such as upon folding or when play in a current hand is completed. Rate of play may be expressed, for example, as a percentage of hands to transfer upon which the player is to be moved upon folding. In another embodiment, a player may select, for example, a “Fold and Transfer” option or a “Fold and Observe” option, thereby allowing the player to better control the rate of play. In yet another embodiment, a player may designate a rate of play and be presented with a “Fold and Transfer” option and/or a “Fold and Observe” option, wherein the “Fold and Transfer” option and/or the “Fold and Observe” option may override the designated rate of play.
US09905059B2

A data transfer system includes: a data transmission device; and a data reception device. The data transmission device includes a visible-light reception controller that receives visible-light data from the data reception device, a memory from which accumulated data is read out in a case where the visible-light reception controller receives the visible-light data, and a millimeter-wave communication controller that, in a case where the visible-light reception controller receives the visible-light data, establishes wireless connection for communication with the data reception device using a frequency in a millimeter band, and transmits the readout data to the data reception device.
US09905056B2

Systems, methods, and computer readable media for transferring data from a delivery item to a label for application of the label onto the delivery item are disclosed. In some aspects, the system can include a camera configured to capture an image of the data on the delivery item, a control computer including at least one hardware processor and memory, the control computer being configured to process the image of the data, integrate the image of the data into a label template, and to generate a print file from the label template, and at least one label applicator disposed after the camera relative to a direction of travel of the delivery item on a conveyor, the at least one label applicator being configured to print the label including the data contained in the print file and apply the printed label onto a top surface of the delivery item.
US09905050B2

A method of operating an electronic device is provided. The method includes detecting a movement of the electronic device, and changing a scale of a displayed image based on the movement.
US09905045B1

Systems, devices, and methods are provided for rendering images of hair using a statistical light scattering model for hair that approximates ground truth physical models. The model is significantly faster than other implementations of the Marschner hair model. The statistical light scattering model includes all the features of Marschner such as eccentricity for elliptical cross-sections, and extends them by adding azimuthal roughness control, consideration of natural fiber torsion, and full energy preserving. Adaptive Importance Sampling (AIS) is specialized to fit easily sampled distributions to bidirectional curve scattering density functions (BCSDFs) of the model.
US09905044B1

A system includes a structural imaging acquisition unit, a functional imaging acquisition unit, and one or more processors. The structural imaging acquisition unit is configured to perform a structural scan to acquire structural imaging information of a patient. The functional imaging acquisition unit is configured to perform a functional scan to acquire functional imaging information of a patient. The one or more processors are configured to obtain, using the structural imaging information, a structural image of the patient including anatomical volumetric data; determine an anatomical probability map corresponding to a probability that a determined anatomical object correlates to potential functional data; obtain, using the functional imaging information, a functional image of the patient including functional volumetric data; re-distribute the functional volumetric data using the anatomical probability map to provide re-distributed functional volumetric data; and generate an image using the re-distributed functional volumetric data.
US09905043B2

Techniques to generate digital maps are described. A method may include receiving category information having multiple categories defined for a geographic area of a digital map, each of the multiple categories having one or more category values, scheduling tasks to generate an annotated digital map with one or more processor circuits, the annotated digital map to include a visual representation of the multiple categories and associated category values for the geographic area of the digital map, the visual representation having different visual portions each representing a category as defined by an associated category value that changes over time, the visual portions each comprising a set of data points, and generating, by circuitry, the annotated digital map with the visual representation in accordance with the scheduled tasks. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09905039B2

One disclosed example method for view independent color equalized 3D scene texturing includes capturing a plurality of keyframes of an object; accessing a 3D representation of the object comprising a surface mesh model for the object, the surface mesh model comprising a plurality of polygons; for each polygon, assigning one of the plurality of keyframes to the polygon based on one or more image quality characteristics associated with a portion of the keyframe corresponding to the polygon; reducing a number of assigned keyframes by changing associations between assigned keyframes; and for each polygon of the surface mesh model having an assigned keyframe: equalizing a texture color of at least a portion of the polygon based at least in part on one or more image quality characteristics of the plurality of keyframes associated with the polygon; and assigning the equalized texture color to the 3D representation of the object.
US09905035B2

Various technologies described herein pertain to generating a video loop. An input video can be received, where the input video includes values at pixels over a time range. An optimization can be performed to determine a respective input time interval within the time range of the input video for each pixel from the pixels in the input video. The respective input time interval for a particular pixel can include a per-pixel loop period and a per-pixel start time of a loop at the particular pixel within the time range from the input video. Moreover, an output video can be created based upon the values at the pixels over the respective input time intervals for the pixels in the input video.
US09905033B1

A computing device can include a recognition mode interface utilizing graphical elements, such as virtual fireflies, to indicate recognized or identified objects. The fireflies can be animated to move across a display, and the fireflies can create bounding boxes around visual representations of objects as the objects are recognized. In some cases, the object might be of a type that has specific meaning or information to be conveyed to a user. In such cases, the fireflies might be displayed with a particular size, shape, or color to convey that information. The fireflies also can be configured to form shapes or patterns in order to convey other types of information to a user, such as where audio is being recognized, light is sufficient for image capture, and the like. Other types of information can be conveyed as well via altering characteristics of the fireflies.
US09905028B2

Embodiments involve simulating sub-surface scattering of illumination for three-dimensional objects. An application determines, for each point defining a simulated three-dimensional surface, a respective first simulated light at the point caused by a simulated light source illuminating the three-dimensional surface. Each first simulated light includes a weighted average of simulated incident light at the point. Each weighted average is determined based on simulated incident light contributions from neighboring points of the three-dimensional surface. The application also determines, for each point, a respective second simulated light at the point. Each second simulated light includes light from the light source that is diffusively reflected at the point. The application also generates, for each point, a respective correction factor for the simulated light source to compensate for a difference between the first and second simulated lights by specifying a modification to color information generated based on the second simulated light.
US09905025B2

A moving object tracking apparatus is disclosed. The moving object tracking apparatus includes an image input module, a memory, a coordinate obtainment module, a tracking coordinate filtering module, a displacement vector obtainment module, a similarity integral obtainment module, and a tracking point output module. A moving object tracking method is also provided.
US09905023B2

A depth image processing method and a depth image processing system are provided. The depth image processing method includes: capturing a first image and a second image; performing a feature comparison to acquire a plurality of feature pairs between the first image and the second image, wherein each of the feature pairs includes a feature in the first image and a corresponding feature in the second image; computing disparities of the feature pairs; computing a depth image through the first image and the second image when the disparities of the feature pairs are all smaller than a disparity threshold.
US09905012B2

An input image is partitioned into a plurality of image regions based on color and color differences. The partitioning comprises assigning a color difference value to plurality of locations within the input image. The partitioning further comprises assigning each of the plurality of locations to an image region of the plurality of image regions, where the assigning occurs according to a particular order. The particular order is based at least in part on color difference values associated with the plurality of locations. The input image may comprise markup. Data representing at least a particular portion of the markup in the input image based on the partitioning is identified. Data representing at least the portion of the markup may be used in a visualization of a customizable product or a manufacturing control associated with a customizable product.
US09905011B2

An information processing apparatus that acquires distance information from image data includes an input unit 162 and a procedure selection unit 164. The input unit 162 inputs image data and information associated with the image data and specifying a procedure for deriving distance information. The procedure selection unit 164 selects at least one from a plurality of procedures on the basis of the information specifying a procedure for acquiring distance information and derives distance information from the image data using the selected procedure.
US09905007B2

A physiological information detection system includes an image-capturing unit, an image-processing unit and a data-transmitting unit. The image-capturing unit is provided to capture a series of images of head portions and connects with the image-capturing unit to receive the captured images. The image-processing unit is operated to process the captured images and to trace a head portion area and a neck portion area thereof in the processed images. The image-processing unit is further operated to process the captured images to retrieve temperature data from the selected head portion area and the selected neck portion area. The image-processing unit is further operated to convert variations of the temperature data into estimated pulse data. The data-transmitting unit connects with the image-processing unit to transmit the estimated pulse data to a predetermined device.
US09905004B2

A target place is set in an area of a human body structure having a tree structure in a three-dimensional image. The tree structure of the human body structure is extracted. A path from a reference point set on a branch upstream side of the target place on the tree structure to the target place is determined. Priority is set for respective portions of the tree structure of the human body structure outside the path based on a positional relationship between the portions and the target place. An initial image representing only a portion of the path and images for confirmation of each step sequentially representing the respective portions of the human body structure outside the path according to the priority are generated from the three-dimensional image. The initial image is displayed, and then, the generated images for confirmation of each step are displayed.
US09905001B2

An image processing apparatus includes a processing circuitry. The processing circuitry acquires volume data including a blood vessel image. The processing circuitry generates volume data indicating a blood vessel image on a basis of the acquired volume data. The processing circuitry generates three-dimensional image data indicating a blood vessel image of a region corresponding to a predetermined dominance region of dominance regions, on a basis of the volume data indicating the blood vessel image.
US09904998B2

An apparatus (130) and method for automatically or semi-automatically controlling a collimator (COL) of an x-ray imager (100) to collimate imager (100)'s x-ray beam and adjusting an alignment of the x-ray imager (100) in respect of an object (PAT). The collimation and alignment operation is based on 3D image data (3DI) of the object (PAT) to be imaged. The 3D image data (3DI) is acquired by a sensor (S). The sensor (S) operates on non-ionizing radiation. The 3D image data (3DI) describes a shape in 3D of the object (PAT) and anatomic landmarks are derived therefrom to define a collimation window (W) for a region of interest (ROI). Based on the collimation window (W) the collimator (COL)'s setting and imager (100) alignment is adjusted accordingly.
US09904987B2

The invention discloses a method for correcting aero-optical thermal radiation noise, comprising steps of: pretreating a degraded image to obtain a multi-scale degraded image group, conducting iteration process of obtaining an optimal solution by using a last scale estimation result as an original value of next scale estimation according to the multi-scale degraded image group, thereby facilitating original-scale bias field estimation, and restoring the degraded image according to the original-scale bias field estimated value thereby obtaining an image after aero-optical thermal radiation noise correction. The invention also discloses a system for correcting aero-optical thermal radiation noise. The invention is capable of solving problems with conventional methods, comprising poor correction effect, high complexity, and incapability in correcting the thermal radiation noise at an image level, and applicable to restoration of an image with aero-optical thermal radiation noise.
US09904982B2

An example of an information processing system displays, on a display device, a plurality of panoramic images associated with locations on a map. Here, a predetermined virtual object is set for at least one of the plurality of panoramic images. an information processing system 1 determines one of the locations on the map as a current location based on a user operation. Where the virtual object is set for a panoramic image associated with the current location, the virtual object is placed at a predetermined position of the panoramic image. The information processing system 1 displays, on the display device, an image of a partial area of the panoramic image associated with the current location. A predetermined information process is performed in response to satisfaction of a predetermined condition regarding the virtual object while the panoramic image for which the virtual object is set is displayed.
US09904972B2

An information processing apparatus acquires a rendering command used to cause a rendering apparatus to render a screen and records the acquired rendering command. The information processing apparatus outputs the recorded rendering command to the rendering apparatus for rendering the screen.
US09904970B2

A graphics processing system comprises at least one memory device storing a plurality of pixel command threads and a plurality of vertex command threads. An arbiter coupled to the at least one memory device is provided that selects a pixel command thread from the plurality of pixel command threads and a vertex command thread from the plurality of vertex command threads. The arbiter further selects a command thread from the previously selected pixel command thread and the vertex command thread, which command thread is provided to a command processing engine capable of processing pixel command threads and vertex command threads.
US09904969B1

The invention provides, in some aspects, a system for rendering images, the system having one or more client digital data processors and a server digital data processor in communications coupling with the one or more client digital data processors, the server digital data processor having one or more graphics processing units. The system additionally comprises a render server module executing on the server digital data processor and in communications coupling with the graphics processing units, where the render server module issues a command in response to a request from a first client digital data processor. The graphics processing units on the server digital data processor simultaneously process image data in response to interleaved commands from (i) the render server module on behalf of the first client digital data processor, and (ii) one or more requests from (a) the render server module on behalf of any of the other client digital data processors, and (b) other functionality on the server digital data processor.
US09904965B2

A system, apparatus and method manages a product inventory of two or more vendors. A demand for each product at each vendor is determined based on a product utilization data stored in one or more databases. One or more product transfers are generated based on the demand for each product at each vendor and a product inventory data stored in the one or more databases. The one or more product transfers are bundled together by vendor-to-vendor pairings. Each transfer bundle is provided to the vendors identified in the transfer bundles. An approval, a modification or a denial is received for each transfer bundle from the vendors identified in the transfer bundles. One or more transfer orders are created for the transfer bundles that are approved and modified.
US09904956B2

A user captures an image of a payment card via a user computing device camera. An optical character recognition system receives the payment card image from the user computing device. The system performs optical character recognition and visual object recognition algorithms on the payment card image to extract text and visual objects from the payment card image, which are used by the system to identify a payment card type. The system may categorize the payment card as a credit card or a non-credit card. In an example embodiment, the system determines that the payment card type is a credit card and transmits fee structure to the user. The user selects a second payment card for use in the transaction and the transaction is processed using financial account information associated with the second payment card.
US09904950B2

A system includes a notification unit configured to notify a server device of device information including identifying information for identifying an information processing device; a storage unit configured to store the identifying information and consumable article information that indicates a consumable article available in the information processing device identified by the identifying information so that each type of the identifying information is associated with the corresponding consumable article information; a specifying unit configured to specify, among a plurality of pieces of consumable article information stored in the storage unit, a piece of consumable article information associated with the identifying information included in the device information notified by the notification unit; a generator configured to generate an order image that encourages an order of a consumable article indicated by the piece of consumable article information specified by the first specifying unit; and a display unit configured to display the order image.
US09904946B2

Systems and methods for providing a merchant-customer engagement system include a physical merchant location in which a customer may be tracked to determine products within the physical merchant location that the customer is interested in. A merchant may use a wearable merchant device that is configured to identify the customer via a camera that captures an image of the customer, and that image may be used to retrieve customer account information for that customer. Using the customer account information and the products that the customer is showing interest in, the wearable merchant device may be used to display merchant-customer engagement information next to a view of the customer to allow the merchant to help the customer while utilizing a variety of displayed information about the customer including, for example, past purchases, products browsed in-store and previously browsed online, time spent in an area of the physical merchant location, etc.
US09904942B2

A system and method is provided for adding at least one advertisement to a personal communication and providing additional communication data to a recipient that interacts with the advertisement. A sender network device communicates with an advertising application operating on a Web site to generate a personal communication containing at least one advertisement, where the at least one advertisement is selected from a palette of advertisements. In one embodiment of the present invention, the sender has control over advertisements that are displayed together with the personal communication by allowing the sender to delete (or remove) an advertisement from either the at least one advertisement or the palette of advertisements. If a displayed advertisement is interactive, and the advertisement is interacted with, the advertising application will provide the recipient with additional communication data in a format that can be understood by the recipient network device.
US09904934B1

This disclosure is directed to techniques and systems to enable customers to make secure electronic payments to entities (e.g., merchants, vending machines, etc.). The entities may be at brick-and-mortar locations or other locations where the entities are “offline” and may not readily receive payments from customers that have payment accounts stored and managed by a host. In various embodiments, a customer may direct the host to transfer a payment to a merchant after the customer and merchant exchange a code that includes a payment instruction. The code may be used in place of usernames, passwords, or other personal information and may be difficult for others (e.g., bystanders, etc.) to intercept. After the exchange of the code, the customer may authorize the host to a transfer payment to the merchant based on the payment instruction.
US09904930B2

Techniques are provided for integrated and comprehensive advertising campaign management and optimization. Techniques are provided in which advertisers, including large-budget advertisers such as Chief Marketing Officers, can easily, efficiently and optimally define, manage and implement advertising budgets and campaigns, from high to granular levels, across a variety of online and offline channels. Such channels can include Web, mobile, social networking, etc., as well as traditional advertising channels such as TV, radio, etc. Techniques are provided, for example, in which advertisers, with a single click or selection, can cause implementation of a customized, optimized and comprehensive online and offline advertising campaign.
US09904929B2

Apparatuses, methods, and computer program products for determining the effect of advertising are provided. Advertisement data is gathered at the location of an advertisement regarding the identity of the consumer exposed to the advertisement (the target), as well as the subject matter of the advertisement, by detecting the proximity of the target to the advertisement location, for example by using the target's mobile terminal. Shopping data is gathered at the location of a commercial establishment regarding the identity of the consumer engaged in the shopping activity (the shopper), as well as the subject matter of the shopping activity, by detecting the proximity of the shopper to the commercial establishment location, for example by using the shopper's mobile terminal. The data is received by a correlation server and analyzed to determine the effect of advertisements on a consumer.
US09904924B1

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for transferring money using email. One of the methods includes receiving, at a user device, user input of a request to transfer a payment amount from a recipient account with a payment service system to a sender account of a sender with the payment service system. A draft email message is generated, the message having content identifying the requested payment amount, the draft email message including a confirmation link to a network resource associated with the payment service system, wherein upon receiving an indication that the recipient selected the confirmation link, the payment service system identifies a sender account of the sender and a recipient account of the recipient and initiates a transfer of the requested payment amount from the recipient account to the sender account.
US09904902B2

Methods of operation and systems are described for node communication within a hierarchical wireless node network having a plurality of ID nodes on a first level, a master node on a second level, and a server at a third level. A first of the ID nodes associates with the master node. The first ID node cannot self-determine its location while the master node is adapted to self-determine its location via location circuitry. The first ID node captures relevant node information, such as profile data, security data, association data, shared data, and/or sensor data. The relevant node information may be captured from another ID node. The first ID node begins operating in a pseudo master node mode so that it can transmit the relevant node information to the server without using the master node as an intermediary to the server.
US09904892B2

To simplify assisting a user in their day-to-day activities, a communication for performing an action may be sent to a user in the form of a query, where the query includes the most likely set of choices for the action arranged in a group of dichotomous (e.g., yes/no) or multiple choice answers. In this manner, a user may respond to the query by simply selecting one of the dichotomous or multiple choice answers. Historical logs of past actions, responses, queries, and so forth, may be used to predict future user actions or needs, and to formulate future queries for sending to the user. These techniques may be implemented, for example, through a remote coordination server or directly through a user's personal electronics device.
US09904878B2

A printer includes an intermediate-data processor and an output-print-data generating unit. The intermediate-data processor performs a process in such a manner that intermediate data is generated from input print data. The output-print-data generating unit generates output print data from the intermediate data. The intermediate-data processor specifies one from intermediate-data generating schemes for a component of an object, on a basis of predicted generation performance of the output-print-data generating unit, and generates the intermediate data. The predicted generation performance is predicted for respective cases of generating the intermediate data by using the intermediate-data generating schemes.
US09904872B2

Systems and methods for selecting representative photos for a photo album are described. An example computing device may include a display, a logic device, and a storage device storing instructions executable by the logic device to, for each known individual recognized in one or more photos of the album, determine an affinity score for that known individual indicating a connection of that known individual to a) a user of the computing device and b) a context corresponding to the album. The instructions may be further executable to select one or more known individuals based on the affinity score to be included in a subset of the known individuals recognized in one or more photos of the album, and select a representative photo of each of the subset of the known individuals to be included in one or more of a highlight photoset and a cover photo for the album.
US09904871B2

In an example embodiment, a deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) is created to assign a professionalism score to an input image. The professionalism score indicates a perceived professionalism of a subject of the input image. The DCNN is designed to automatically learn features of images relevant to the professionalism through a training process.
US09904868B2

A visual attention detector includes a feature extraction unit configured to extract a spatiotemporal feature from a local region in a video; a hashing unit configured to convert a spatiotemporal feature value for the local region into a hash value, and to select a training value mapped to the hash using a hash table; and an attention measure determining unit configured to determine an attention measure on the basis of the distance between a spatiotemporal feature value for the local region and the selected training value such that the larger the distance the larger the attention measure.
US09904854B2

A computer determines a type of change in a state of a bed on the basis of a correspondence relationship between a boundary that indicates a first bed area in a first image and a line segment represented by an edge detected from a second image. The second image is an image that is captured after the first image is captured, and the change in the state of the bed is a state change that occurs during a time period from the capturing of the first image to the capturing of the second image.
US09904851B2

A system for exploiting visual information for enhancing audio signals via source separation and beamforming is disclosed. The system may obtain visual content associated with an environment of a user, and may extract, from the visual content, metadata associated with the environment. The system may determine a location of the user based on the extracted metadata. Additionally, the system may load, based on the location, an audio profile corresponding to the location of the user. The system may also load a user profile of the user that includes audio data associated with the user. Furthermore, the system may cancel, based on the audio profile and user profile, noise from the environment of the user. Moreover, the system may include adjusting, based on the audio profile and user profile, an audio signal generated by the user so as to enhance the audio signal during a communications session of the user.
US09904838B2

The present disclosure discloses a fingerprint detection circuit, including a plurality of detection units arranged in an array and a summing unit. The detection units include a first detection unit and a second detection unit being respectively connected to the summing unit. The summing unit conducts a summing operation for an output signal of each second detection unit and an output signal of the first detection unit to cancel a base signal in the output signal of each second detection unit to acquire a useful signal including fingerprint information.
US09904832B1

A price tag assembly includes a price tag that may be attached to a shelf in a retail environment thereby facilitating the price tag to display a price of a corresponding item. A receiving unit is coupled to the price tag and the receiving unit selectively receives pricing information. The receiving unit displays a price of the corresponding item corresponding to the pricing information. In this way the receiving unit selectively alters the price displayed in accordance with the pricing information. A transmitting unit is provided and the transmitter is in discrete wireless communication with the receiving unit. In this way the transmitting unit selectively communicates the pricing information to the receiving unit. The transmitting unit is selectively placed in electrical communication with an extrinsic database thereby facilitating the transmitting unit to download the pricing information.
US09904831B2

The method of detecting and referencing two-dimensional position of a cassette in a drawer of compartments distributed according to columns and rows includes positioning at least one inserted cassette with the upper face turned towards the top within a compartment. Systematic detection of all compartments is performed automatically by verifying the presence of a cassette and by verifying the presence of a cassette within each compartment. The detection can be optical and include displacing an optical sight relatively with respect to the top of the drawer according to at least one trajectory passing through all compartments. When detecting a cassette within a compartment, the two-dimensional position is identified by coordinates, according to column and row. If an error occurs during a first pass, the detection and reading are displaced directly to the position where the error occurrence was noted and previously recorded, without undertaking a new detection of all compartments.
US09904829B1

A system controlled responsive at least in part to data read from data bearing records is operative to cause vehicle repair parts to be determined and furnished. Data read by a reader from a tag associated with a damaged vehicle is used to determine vehicle identifying data. A repair estimate calculation circuit (RECC) operates responsive to the read data to produce a needed parts record (NPR). The records produced by the RECC are operative to cause a vehicle repair entity (VRE) to be furnished the vehicle repair parts.
US09904827B2

An induction-based data identification system having real-time response, including a plurality of mobile identity terminals that can be carried, a gateway system, and a background computer. The system configuration and method process are reasonable. It has the features of recording any update status data of the objects and real-time response without being affected by large amount of information. In addition, the mobile identity terminal has a low power consumption, suitable for the occasions of long-time use, such as anti-theft systems of shopping malls, places of detention, and warehouse management.
US09904822B1

A non-contact card reader is provided, including: an antenna module, a spacer, multiple light pipes, and a panel housing. The antenna module includes a first board, a second board, an antenna, and multiple light-emitting components. The second board includes a surrounding area in which the antenna is disposed and a central area that is located at a center of the surrounding area and in which the multiple light-emitting components are disposed. The spacer is combined with the multiple light pipes and disposed between the first board and the second board. A single type of antenna module may be installed in the vertical housing, the horizontal housing, or the square housing of the panel housing in a fixed direction, thereby improving applicability of the antenna module.
US09904818B2

Provided are RFID systems, methods and RFID tags according to various aspects. An infrared (IR) beam, from an IR transmitter, is outputted in a first direction so that an RFID tag with an IR sensor adds a flag to stored data in the RFID tag in response to the RFID tag's IR sensor detecting the IR beam. An RF interrogation signal is outputted by an RFID reader, and a response is received from the RFID tag to the RF interrogation signal. It is determined whether the flag is contained in the RFID tag's response to the RF interrogation signal, and if so, the RFID tag is determined to be in the first direction relative to the IR transmitter.
US09904817B2

Embodiments of the present invention may provide the capability to identify a specific object being interacted with that may be cheaply and easily included in mass-produced objects. In an embodiment, a computer-implemented method for object identification may comprise receiving a signal produced by a physical interaction with an object to be identified, the signal produced by an identification structure coupled to the object during physical interaction with the object, processing the signal to form digital data identifying the object, and accessing a database using the digital data to retrieve additional information identifying or describing properties of the object identified.
US09904815B2

A secure smartcard reader including a smartcard connector and a flexible printed circuit board wrapped around and at least partially surrounding the smartcard connector and at least partially defining a security volume enclosing the smartcard connector, the wrapped flexible printed circuit board defining on an outer-facing surface thereof a plurality of keypad contacts, the wrapped flexible printed circuit board defining electrical conductors connecting the plurality of keypad contacts to connector pads and the wrapped flexible printed circuit board defining a protective anti-tamper mesh protecting the electrical conductors.
US09904805B2

Memory security technologies are described. An example processing system includes a processor core and a memory controller coupled to the processor core and a memory. The processor core can receive a content read instruction from an application. The processor core can identify a cache line (CL) from a plurality of CLs of a cryptographic cache block (CCB) requested in the content read instruction. The processor core can load, from a cryptographic tree, tree nodes with security metadata. The processor core can retrieve, from the memory, the CCB. The processor core can generate a second MAC from the CCB. The processor core can compare the first MAC with the second MAC. The processor core can decrypt the CCB using security metadata when the first MAC matches the second MAC. The processor core can send at least the identified CL from the decrypted CCB to the application.
US09904803B2

Technologies for hardening encryption operations are disclosed. In some embodiments, the technologies harden encryption operations typically performed by kernel mode programs with a secure enclave that may run in user mode and/or in a pre-boot context. In some embodiments, the technologies leverage a shared buffer and a proxy to enable the use of a secure enclave hosted in user mode to perform encryption operations. In additional embodiments, the technologies utilize one or more pre-boot applications to enable the use of a secure enclave in a pre-boot phase, e.g., so as to enable the use of a secure enclave to decrypt data that may be needed to boot a computing device.
US09904802B2

A system on chip having two or more responder units and two or more protection units is provided. Each of the responder units comprises a set of responder elements. Each of the protection units is associated with and protects one of the responder units and is arranged to provide a group mapping. The group mapping assigns one or more group identifiers to each of the responder elements of the respective responder unit.
US09904800B2

Universal cards are used in place of all the other traditional cards which a person may want to carry. The universal card can include a short range communications transceiver to communicate with a mobile device. The mobile device can include a user interface and an e-wallet application so that the user can interface with the e-wallet application for programming the universal card via the short range communication link. Once programmed, the universal card emulates a function of a traditional card.
US09904797B2

An approach is provided for providing data based on granularity information. The policy platform determines to act on a request, from an application or a service, for data associated with a device, a user of the device or a combination thereof. Next, the policy platform determines a granularity level for the data based, at least in part, on at least one privacy policy associated with the data, the application, the service, the device, the user of the device or a combination thereof. Then, the policy platform processes and/or facilitates a processing of the data to generate transformed data based, at least in part, on the granularity level.
US09904791B1

A processing device comprises a processor coupled to a memory and implements a secure container for accessing data over a network. The secure container is configured to interact with backend infrastructure of an enterprise in order to provide secure access to enterprise data at the processing device. The secure container may be configured in accordance with an access model that implements multiple-factor authentication in combination with active directory authentication. The backend infrastructure may comprise, for example, a threat management gateway and an application control engine coupled to the threat management gateway and configured to support the multi-factor authentication, as well as additional components such as an active directory, a data loss prevention engine adapted to process communications between the backend infrastructure and the secure container, and a proxy server providing access to a content adaptation server configured to filter communications received from the processing device.
US09904788B2

A data storage service redundantly stores data and keys used to encrypt the data. Data objects are encrypted with first cryptographic keys. The first cryptographic keys are encrypted by second cryptographic keys. The first cryptographic keys and second cryptographic keys are redundantly stored in a data storage system to enable access of the data objects, such as to respond to requests to retrieve the data objects. The second cryptographic keys may be encrypted by third keys and redundantly stored in the event access to a second cryptographic key is lost.
US09904783B2

An information processing method and an electronic device are provided. The method includes: detecting a first operation of a first application, where the first operation is for displaying a first interface corresponding to the first application on a display of the electronic device; determining whether the first application is identical to one of M applications to obtain a first determination result where M is a positive integer, where each of the M applications has at least one corresponding interface currently displayed on the display of the electronic device; and generating and outputting a prompt message if the first determination result indicates that the first application is not identical to any one of the M applications.
US09904779B2

A terminal device includes: an application processor that processes a started application program; an operation lock determination section that determines whether to start operation lock while processing the application program; and an operation lock processor that determines whether input operation information matches operation lock information in a case where the operation lock determination section determines to start the operation lock, the operation lock information indicating an operation to be restricted while processing the started application program, the operation lock processor restricting an operation corresponding with the input operation information in a case where the input operation information matches the operation lock information.
US09904772B2

Non-normal statistics applied to diffusivity calculations accelerate screening of ionic conductors for electrochemical devices such as electric storage batteries, fuel cells, and sensors. Displacements of atomic species within a crystalline structure for a candidate ionic conductor material are analyzed using a Skellam distribution optionally combined with Gaussian noise to calculate values for the standard deviation, upper error bound, and lower error bound for predicted values of diffusivity (D). When the predicted values of D have sufficient statistical precision, the diffusivity calculation is terminated and the calculated diffusivity is compared to a threshold value of diffusivity. When the threshold has been exceeded, the candidate ionic conductor may be listed as a preferred good conductor. When the calculated diffusivity fails to exceed the threshold, the material may be listed as a poor conductor and may be eliminated from further consideration.
US09904766B2

A method and system are provided for collaboration for sharing patient records on low computing resources on communication devices. The method includes accessing one or more patient data records via a server, where the one or more patient data records are accessed at a first communication device. The method further includes invoking a communication session with one or more second communication devices, where the communication session includes context information of the one or more patient data records. Further, the method includes sending a request to the server, by at least one of the one or more second communication devices, to access the one or more patient data records, where the request includes the context information. Finally, the method includes receiving, at the at least one of the one or more second communication devices, access to the patient data records, where the access is provided during the communication session.
US09904760B2

A method includes providing a computer aided design model including a panel model having a panel model surface and an ornamentation model having an ornamentation model surface facing the panel model surface. A respective distance in the computer aided design model is calculated between the ornamentation model surface and the panel model surface at discrete points on the ornamentation model surface. Each distance is compared to a tolerance to identify the discrete points at which the respective distance is outside of the tolerance. The ornamentation model surface at the discrete points at which the respective distance is outside of the tolerance is adjusted to bring the respective distance within the tolerance. The method includes manufacturing an ornamentation including points on a surface of the ornamentation corresponding to the discrete points on the ornamentation model surface that were adjusted to bring the respective distance within the tolerance.
US09904752B2

A method for distributing power in the layout of an integrated circuit is provided. The integrated circuit includes at least one macro block. A first physical layout of the macro block is obtained, wherein the macro block includes a plurality of standard cells. The first physical layout is divided into a plurality of partitions according to an IR simulation result of the first physical layout. A plurality of power isolation cells are inserted between the partitions. A second physical layout is obtained according to the partitions and the power isolation cells. A macro placement of the macro block is obtained according to the second physical layout. Each of the partitions further includes a low drop out (LDO) regulator.
US09904741B2

An application processing system for placing applications and their associated data into a colocation data center, wherein an application placement module is configured to perform the method of steps including: constructing a facility communication node graph; constructing a composite elastic map which represents the compute nodes in the colocation data center; associating a force function between two nodes based on communication bandwidth; constructing an application usage data space; inserting the node graph into the application data space; assigning the applications to the compute nodes; associating a force function between each application and each compute node based on the assignment; determining an elastic map energy (EME) for the elastic map, wherein the EME is the total energy of the system; and assigning the real-world applications to the real-world compute nodes in the data center if the EME is less than a threshold energy.
US09904733B2

A resource set comprising a set of resources may be provided to the public. It may be desirable to associate with the resources a set of public names, such as friendly URLs that may be more memorable, may indicate to users the type of resource so named, and may promote indexing of the resources by search engines. A name hierarchy (such as a portion of a file system) may store at least one reference that associates a public name with a resource. A name hierarchy navigation logic may facilitate navigation through the name hierarchy, and may specify a particular location within the name hierarchy where a reference associated with the public name is to be stored. This manner of associating public names with resources may promote the scalability and efficiency in associating public names with resources and in retrieving a resource associated with a particular public name.
US09904731B2

Apparatus and methods to implement a technique for using a second display with a network-enabled television. In one implementation, this feature allows the native application on the second display to directly launch the second display application with a requested search term so that the user is immediately brought to a search page with relevant search results. The search term may be derived from the native application which in turn derives from the context of the IP TV. Such a context could be metadata from a currently playing BD from a BD player or TV channel. The second display application may be a web application or a native remote controller application. The second display could be a smart phone that can often be found beside the user, or a laptop or tablet PC, a desktop PC, or the like.
US09904729B2

Techniques are described for performing synthesis of relationships between a plurality of concept definitions automatically derived from a faceted domain of information. Some embodiments involve identifying at least one facet attribute in an active concept definition specified by user input. In response to determining that at least one explicit relationship and/or at least one implicit relationship exist(s) between the active concept definition and a first concept definition of the plurality of concept definitions, a relationship is synthesized between the active concept definition and the first concept definition.
US09904727B2

A system for retrieving/identifying a document comprising text stored in a document repository is described. A memory stores a graphical structure comprising a first plurality of nodes each representing a person, and a second plurality of nodes each representing a document in the document repository, the nodes being connected by edges according to automatically observed interactions between the represented people and documents. At least some of the nodes have one or more annotations each denoting a topic. A node relatedness calculator computes distances between nodes of the graphical structure using the topic annotations. An input receives an identifier of a user who is represented by one of the first plurality of nodes. An identifier/retriever identifies one or more documents from the document repository by using the identifier and using the computed distances between nodes.
US09904716B2

Embodiments of the present invention disclose a computer program product for optimizing data analysis. A set of analytics are received and a plurality of subsets of the set of analytics is generated. An optimization goal(s) is defined. The plurality of subsets of analytics are applied to a set of data. The output of applied analytics are recorded on a data storage device by the computer. Performance values of the computer applying the plurality of subsets of analytics are recorded and displayed. An optimal subset of the plurality of subsets of analytics is calculated, using recorded performance values and outputs of the applied plurality of subsets of analytics, being based on the optimization goal. A set of applied analytics are displayed, where the set of applied analytics includes a number of subsets of analytics of the plurality of analytics that meet the criteria of the optimal subset.
US09904713B2

Information on a cursor or pointer position is obtained, indicating a first content on a document displayed on a screen. A plurality of second contents are retrieved from a history information, each of the second contents comprising the first content. The history information comprises sets of contents, each of the sets comprising a content in the document which was copied by one or more users, and position information of this content. The sets are ranked in a predetermined order. A copy area is proposed based on one or more second contents in the predetermined order among the retrieved second contents.
US09904712B2

Systems, methods, interfaces, and software can facilitate identification of law firms and/or legal professionals. For example, an informational retrieval system may include a database comprising information regarding lawyers and a server is configured to: receive a query regarding a legal issue from at least one client access device; associate the query with a corresponding legal context; generate a list of lawyer names contained in the database; calculate at least one legal experience indicator for each of the lawyer names; and rank the lawyer names in the list according to the calculated legal experience indicator associated with each of the lawyer names and according to the corresponding legal context associated with the query.
US09904710B2

A system and method for validating and formatting IP right identifiers is provided. The technique includes accessing an IP right identifier from a database, extracting a set of tokens from the IP right identifier, validating each of the extracted tokens against a list of standard tokens, and determining a set of standard tokens for the IP right identifier based on the validation. The invention further includes formatting the IP right identifier based on the set of standard tokens and a format definition, and storing the formatted IP right identifier in a database.
US09904709B2

Described are methods that utilize a geographic location technology (e.g., GPS) to determine user location data, and existing network-based websites (e.g., Internet websites) for searching and accessing data related to the location data such that the user context can be developed and stored. A location component is provided that determines location data of a wireless communications device of a user. A context component is provided that accesses context data based on the location data to define a context in which the device is located. Activities, goals, and overall context of a user can be inferred through statistical fusion of multiple sources of evidence. The context data is presented to the user via the wireless device such that the user can make decisions as to where to go, for example. User preferences can be accessed and applied to filter context data according to what the user desires to see and access.
US09904705B2

A computer system to optimize a database is provided. A processor determines a frequency of search for a plurality of columns in a table. A processor determines a length of the plurality of columns. A processor determines a rank for the plurality of columns based, at least in part, on both the frequency of search and the length of the plurality of columns. A processor generates a first set of combinations of the plurality of columns. A processor determines an optimization of the first set of combinations of the plurality of columns. A processor selects an optimal combination of the first set of combinations, wherein the optimization of the optimal combination is greater than the optimization for all other combinations in the first set of combinations. A processor moves the plurality of columns excluded from the optimal combination.
US09904694B2

Automatically moving NoSQL data store to a relational database system. Based on discovered data structure schema of a NoSQL file and query plans, attribute usage and association relationships may be determined. Trunk tables may be defined based on trunk part of the data structure schema determined based on the attribute usage. Trunk tables may be validated and relational database tables are generated that correspond to the trunk tables. NoSQL trunk template is generated based on the trunk tables. The relational database tables are loaded with data filtered from the NoSQL file according to the NoSQL trunk template.
US09904693B2

A method for remotely directing a fishing tournament makes use of a data network over which participants transmit submissions indicating sizes of fish caught. The submissions may include digital images of fish, and size may be determined from a scale established using a reference object depicted in the image. The data network may also be used to register participants and provide them with tournament results. Participants may register for a fishing period, or multiple fishing periods of the tournament, and may be issued a code to be displayed in images of fish. Validation of entries may include an examination of metadata in submitted digital images.
US09904689B2

Processing a file system operation is disclosed. An indication of a desired operation of a distributed file system is received. A metadata node for the desired operation is identified. It is indicated to the identified metadata node to process the desired operation. In the event the identified metadata node becomes not fully functional before the processing by the identified metadata node is confirmed, the distributed file system is analyzed to determine whether to indicate again to process the desired operation.
US09904678B2

A graphical user interface displays multiple display areas that include menu items displayed in an original language. User input selecting a translation language for at least one display area of the plurality of display areas is received. The way in which a menu item is used within the at least one display area is determined, in context of the at least one display area. Based on this determination, a translated version of the menu item is generated, and displayed in the display area.
US09904674B2

An approach is provided in which a knowledge manager generates syntactic annotation tokens that correspond to syntactic relationships between terms included in a source document. The knowledge manager creates a knowledge structure that stores the syntactic annotation tokens in parallel fields and stores the source document terms in original text fields, which align to the parallel fields. In turn, the knowledge manager utilizes the knowledge structure to generate answers to questions based upon the syntactic annotation tokens.
US09904669B2

Identifying actionable statements in communications may include: extracting features from at least one training statement; training a pattern recognition module to identify one or more types of patterns in actionable statements based at least in part on the features; and generating an actionable statement identification model using the trained action verb module and the trained pattern recognition module. Identifying actionable statements in communications is preferably adaptive in a continuous manner (e.g. based on user feedback), and may also include: determining whether a statement includes an actionable statement; predicting an actionable statement class of the actionable statement based on a pattern represented in the statement; and outputting the predicted actionable statement class to a user. Corresponding systems and computer program products are also disclosed.
US09904668B2

Mechanisms are provided for processing logical relationships in natural language content. A logical parse of a first parse of the natural language content is generated by identifying latent logical terms within the first parse indicative of logical relationships between elements of the natural language content. The logical parse comprises nodes and edges linking nodes. At least one knowledge value is associated with each node in the logical parse. The at least one knowledge value associated with at least a subset of the nodes in the logical parse is propagated to one or more other nodes in the logical parse based on propagation rules. The propagating of the at least one knowledge value generates transaction records in a transaction knowledgebase data structure. A reasoning operation is executed based on the transaction knowledgebase data structure.
US09904666B2

One or more embodiments present a script to a user in an interactive script environment. A digital representation of a manuscript is analyzed. This digital representation includes a set of roles and a set of information associated with each role in the set of roles. An active role in the set of roles that is associated with a given user is identified based on the analyzing. At least a portion of the manuscript is presented to the given user via a user interface. The portion includes at least a subset of information in the set of information. Information within the set of information that is associated with the active role is presented in a visually different manner than information within the set of information that is associated with a non-active role, which is a role that is associated with a user other than the given user.
US09904662B2

Techniques for informing a user about an agreement including agreement terms and trustworthiness of data source are described herein. In some examples, a processor receives agreement document data while the data is in route to a client device. A system receives network sources and content data of the agreement document. The network sources are to be processed by the processor with traffic analytics, and the content data is to be processed with text analytics. The output of these analytics is used to generate an agreement risk event for delivery to the client device with the original agreement document data.
US09904661B2

Techniques for informing a user about an agreement including agreement terms and trustworthiness of data source are described herein. In some examples, a processor receives agreement document data while the data is in route to a client device. A system receives network sources and content data of the agreement document. The network sources are to be processed by the processor with traffic analytics, and the content data is to be processed with text analytics. The output of these analytics is used to generate an agreement risk event for delivery to the client device with the original agreement document data.
US09904660B1

A nonparametric method for measuring a clustered level of time rank in binary data is provided. A sample set of engineering data is classified into a target group and a reference group, and a rank is set to each sample in a chronological order. A minimum rank and a maximum rank are obtained from the target group, by which a characteristic period is defined. In the characteristic period, an average rank values of the target group and an average rank value of the reference group are calculated. After creating a dummy sample set, the dummy sample set is incorporated into an analysis data set and a new rank is set based on a comparison result of the average rank value of the target group and the average rank value of the reference group, and the minimum rank and the maximum rank of the characteristic period to obtain adjusted test data. A Mann-Whitney U test is executed on the adjusted test data to obtain a clustered level index of time rank in binary data.
US09904654B2

In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a request from a remote distributed fabric protocol (DFP) system master, using a dedicated processor of a DFP system member, to register local I2C devices on the DFP system member, and sending an acknowledgement including a list of local I2C bus devices back to the DFP system master using the dedicated processor of the DFP system member. The acknowledgement present on the DFP system member. In another embodiment, a system includes a local processor, one or more local I2C bus devices, and a dedicated processor electrically coupled to the local I2C bus devices. The dedicated processor is configured to route interrupts from the local I2C bus devices to the local processor, and expose the local I2C devices to a remote DFP system master by sending details of the local I2C bus devices to the remote DFP system master.
US09904641B2

A switch control device includes a switch device and a control device. The switch device includes first and second input terminals, an output terminal, a processor, and a plurality of delays. The processor is configured to detect period of an input voltage from the first input terminal, and to determine whether the input voltage is normal. A delay time can be computed by the processor, according to the period of the input voltage and a release time of the each delay. If the input voltage from the first input terminal is abnormal, the processor detects a zero voltage crossing signal or a peak of voltage signal, and delays the zero voltage crossover signal or the peak of voltage signal for a delay time, to control the delays coupled to the first input terminal to turn off. Therefore, an arc discharge resulted by the relay can be avoid or reduce.
US09904639B2

The present invention relates to an interconnection fabric switching apparatus capable of dynamically allocating resources according to a workload and a method therefore, and the apparatus provided with a switching connection part according to the present invention is characterized by including: at least one computing node, a switching connection part for switch-interconnecting the computing node and the input/output node; and a controller for analyzing the workload of the computing node so as to determine whether to transfer the virtual machine of a first computing node to a second computing node, wherein the control unit controls the virtual machine of the first computing node to be transferred through the switching connection part to the second computing node.
US09904625B2

A method for predicting a way of a set associative shadow cache is disclosed. As a part of a method, a request to fetch a first far taken branch instruction of a first cache line from an instruction cache is received, and responsive to a hit in the instruction cache, a predicted way is selected from a way array using a way that corresponds to the hit in the instruction cache. A second cache line is selected from a shadow cache using the predicted way and the first cache line and the second cache line are forwarded in the same clock cycle.
US09904624B1

In an embodiment, a system may include multiple processors and a cache coupled to the processors. Each processor includes a data cache and a prefetch circuit that may be configured to generate prefetch requests. Each processor may also generate memory operations responsive to cache misses in the data cache. Each processor may transmit the prefetch requests and memory operations to the cache. The cache may queue the memory operations and prefetch requests, and may be configured to detect, on a per-processor basis, occupancy in the queue of memory requests and low confidence prefetch requests from the processor. The cache may determine if the per-processor occupancies exceed one or more thresholds, and may generate a throttle control to the processors responsive to the occupancies. In an embodiment, the cache may generate the throttle control responsive to a history of the last N samples of the occupancies.
US09904623B2

A system includes a functional unit, at least one cache coupled to the functional unit, and a power management unit coupled to the functional unit and the at least one cache, the power management unit configured to trigger the functional unit to initiate prefetching of data to repopulate the at least one cache prior to a predicted exit of the functional unit from an idle mode to an active mode. The system further may include a prediction unit to predict the exit from the idle mode for the functional unit as occurring a predetermined duration from an entry into the idle mode. The prediction unit may determine the predetermined duration based on a history of idle mode durations indicative of durations of previous instances in which the functional unit was in the idle mode.
US09904622B2

A control method for a non-volatile memory in a computer system is provided. The computer system includes a central processing unit; a system memory; a first memory controller; and a storage device including a non-volatile memory and a second memory controller for controlling access to the non-volatile memory. The method includes the steps of: utilizing the first memory controller to divide the system memory into a first data pool and a second data pool, wherein the first data pool stores temporary data for accessing the storage device by the central processing unit, and the second data pool stores flash translation layer data for use by the second memory controller; and when the central processing unit is to access the storage device, utilizing the second memory controller to access the non-volatile memory according to the flash translation layer data from the second data pool.
US09904616B2

Generating instructions, in particular for mailbox verification in a simulation environment. A sequence of instructions is received, as well as selection data representative of a plurality of commands including a special command. Repeatedly selecting one of the plurality of commands and outputting an instruction based on the selected command. The outputting of an instruction includes outputting a next instruction in the sequence of instructions if the selected command is the special command, and outputting an instruction associated with the command if the selected command is not the special command.
US09904613B2

Embodiments include a system for performance monitoring, the system includes a processor configured to perform a method. The method includes detecting, by a redundancy register, a change to a counter value corresponding to one of a plurality of hardware counters, wherein the redundancy register comprises a plurality of memory locations; storing, in each of the plurality of memory locations, a value indicating a change was detected for the counter value corresponding to the plurality of hardware counters, wherein each of the plurality of hardware counters map to one of the plurality of memory locations; performing read operation on a subset of the hardware counters, wherein members of the subset of the hardware counters are determined based upon the value indicating that the change was detected for the counter value corresponding to the plurality of hardware counters; and resetting the value stored in all the memory locations to a default value.
US09904607B2

A controller-implemented method, according to one embodiment, includes: restoring a valid snapshot of a LPT from the non-volatile random access memory, examining each journal entry from at least one journal beginning with a most recent one of the journal entries in a most recent one of the at least one journal and working towards an oldest one of the journal entries in an oldest one of the at least one journal, the journal entries corresponding to updates made to one or more entries of the LPT, determining whether a current LPT entry which corresponds to a currently examined journal entry has already been updated, using the currently examined journal entry to update the current LPT entry in response to determining that the current LPT entry has not already been updated, and discarding the currently examined journal entry in response to determining that the current LPT entry has already been updated.
US09904605B2

An “operate with missing region” feature allows a cluster to continue servicing reads for available regions even when some regions are missing. Upon a given node failure condition, the cluster is placed in an effective read-only mode for all regions. The node failure condition typically is one where there has been a failure of an authoritative region copy and no backup copy is then available. Typically, “read-only” means no client write or update requests succeed while the cluster is in this state. Those requests should fail with an error message that indicates failure because of the read-only status. Preferably, such requests are re-tried. In this mode, regions are only allowed to perform read operations but the cluster continues to operate with missing regions, and missing regions are entered on a region map. The cluster then automatically recovers returning missing regions, after which it leaves the read-only state.
US09904599B2

A method for data reconstruction includes: obtaining a data migration list, where the data migration list indicates a partition with data to be migrated on a storage node with data to be migrated; generating a data migration task according to the data migration list and routing table information, where the routing table information indicates correspondence between a storage node in a cluster and a partition; and concurrently executing data migration tasks of a storage node in the cluster to reconstruct data. In addition, a device for data reconstruction and a storage system are further provided accordingly.
US09904592B2

Apparatus, systems, and methods to manage memory latency operations are described. In one embodiment, an electronic device comprises a processor and a memory control logic to receive data from a remote memory device, store the data in a local cache memory, receive an error correction code indicator associated with the data, and implement a data management policy in response to the error correction code indicator. Other embodiments are also disclosed and claimed.
US09904584B2

The described implementations relate to tunable predicate discovery. One implementation is manifest as a method for obtaining a data set and determining anomaly scores for anomalies of an attribute of interest in the data set. The method can also generate a ranked list of predicates based on the anomaly scores and cause at least one of the predicates of the ranked list to be presented.
US09904581B2

A system for parallel processing tasks by allocating the use of exclusive locks to process critical sections of a task. The system includes storing update information that is updated in response to acquisition and release of an exclusive lock. When processing a task which includes a critical section containing code affecting execution of the other task, an exclusive execution unit acquires an exclusive lock prior to processing the critical section. When the section has been processed successfully, the lock is released and update information updated. Meanwhile a second task, whose critical section does not contain code affecting execution of the other task may run in parallel, without acquiring an exclusive lock, via a nonexclusive execution unit. The nonexclusive execution unit determines that the second critical section has successfully completed if the update information has not changed during processing of the second critical section.
US09904580B2

An operating system interface, responsive to detecting a non-privileged thread request with a scheduling attribute set to a critical setting to request access to at least one privileged core, selectively schedules the non-privileged thread request into a privileged core queue associated with the at least one privileged core only when a resource availability of the at least one privileged class core meets a threshold level of availability, the at least one privileged core providing a higher throughput than at least one regular core. The operating system interface, responsive to detecting a privileged thread request with the scheduling attribute set to the critical setting, automatically scheduling the privileged thread request into the privileged core queue.
US09904577B2

A hybrid heterogeneous host system, a resource configuration method and a task scheduling method are disclosed. The system includes: a basic unit, including: computing resource nodes, storage resource nodes and input/output I/O resource nodes; wherein multiple basic units are connected via a high-speed internetwork; and a software definition unit, configured to: when system resources are increased or reduced, extend the address space of an increased hardware resource to a current address space, or delete an address space of a reduced hardware resource from the current address space, and update a system resource view. Through the embodiments of the present invention, the extendibility of a tightly coupled shared memory system can be guaranteed, and the design complexity and cost of the multiway system also can be greatly reduced, which improves the flexibility and reusability of the system.
US09904575B2

A method and apparatus of a device that rate-limits the execution of a timer is described. The device receives a timer that includes an initial execution timer and a timer priority. If the timer priority is low, the device rate-limits the execution of the timer based on a suppression period associated with the timer priority. In order to rate-limit the execution of the timer, the device determines the suppression period based on the timer priority and schedules the timer to execute at the end of the suppression period. The device further schedules the timer to execute at the initial exertion time when the timer priority is high.
US09904569B2

Embodiments herein pre-load memory translations used to perform virtual to physical memory translations in a computing system that switches between virtual machines (VMs). Before a processor switches from executing the current VM to the new VM, a hypervisor may retrieve previously saved memory translations for the new VM and load them into cache or main memory. Thus, when the new VM begins to execute, the corresponding memory translations are in cache rather than in storage. Thus, when these memory translations are needed to perform virtual to physical address translations, the processor does not have to wait to pull the memory translations for slow storage devices (e.g., a hard disk drive).
US09904565B2

Storage systems and methods are presented. A method can include: accessing virtual machine image information; performing an examination process on the virtual machine image information to determine characteristics of the virtual machine image information including temporary attributes of the virtual machine image information; performing an exclusion block identification process based upon results of the examination process to identify exclusion blocks, wherein exclusion blocks are identified for exclusion from a subsequent operation; and forwarding an indication of the exclusion blocks to the subsequent operation. In one embodiment the method is performed within a File Server.
US09904564B2

Methods and systems for executing a request between a virtual machine and a paravirtualized machine are provided. The request is received from the virtual machine at a first shared memory of a hypervisor. The first shared memory is accessible to the virtual machine but not the paravirtualized machine. The request is transferred by the hypervisor from the first shared memory to a second shared memory of the hypervisor. The second shared memory is accessible to the paravirtualized machine but not the virtual machine. The request is intended for execution by the paravirtualized machine.
US09904561B2

A computer system and a method for setting basic input/output system (BIOS) are disclosed. The computer system comprises a remote computer and servers. The remote computer transmits a setting command. Each of the servers comprises a first management unit and a motherboard. The motherboard comprises a storage device and a processor. The storage device stores the BIOS. The processor executes the BIOS. The processor communicates with the first management unit to determine whether the BIOS configuration needs to be updated after the server rebooted. The processor updates the BIOS according to the setting command when the BIOS configuration must to be updated.
US09904544B2

In a method for executing software, a result produced from an execution of a copy of the software by a corresponding platform can be received from each of a plurality of platforms. A number of results of execution of the software can be determined. The extent to which the results match can be compared to a threshold. The matching results can be accepted as an agreed-upon output of the software when the extent to which the results match is equal to or greater than the threshold. The software can include an implementation of at least a portion of an act associated with an agreement between at least two entities.
US09904536B1

In an embodiment, a method is performed by a computer system. The method includes determining a scope of widget discovery in a content-management system. The method further includes automatically identifying widget instances of the content-management system that are within the determined scope of widget discovery. In addition, the method includes discovering attributes of the identified widget instances on a per widget-instance basis. The method also includes storing in memory widget-instance relationship data comprising the determined attributes of the identified widget instances. Moreover, the method includes receiving a multi-widget-instance change definition, wherein the multi-widget-instance change definition articulates a specified change to unspecified widget instances which share a specified widget-instance attribute. Also, the method includes automatically identifying the unspecified widget instances based, at least in part, on a lookup of the specified widget-instance attribute in the widget-instance relationship data.
US09904535B2

Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a first network device receiving from a second network device a software, the first network device adjusting operations at the first network device according to the software, the first network device providing a digital signature to the software to generate an adjusted software where the digital signature indicates that the first network device has received the software, and the first network device transmitting, to a third network device, the adjusted software. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09904526B2

Control Flow Graph flattening of a function comprising a plurality of basic blocks having an address and at least one instruction. A processor creates a jump table associating a label of each basic block with its address, creates a coefficient array comprising constant coefficients, creates a dispatcher basic block comprising instructions to look up an address in the jump table and to jump to the address, replaces a Jump terminal instruction by a jump to the dispatcher basic block in each basic block, creates and inserts at least one lookup functions in each of the plurality of basic blocks, each lookup function returning a derived value based on a constant coefficient depending on at least an index of the basic block; creates and inserts a first branch function calculating the label of a subsequent basic block based on at least the derived value and a second branch function calculating the index of the subsequent basic block; and creates and inserts into the dispatcher basic block a transition function obtaining the address in the jump table based on at least the label of a subsequent basic block.
US09904521B2

Computer program products, methods, systems, apparatuses, and computing entities are provided for enforcing usage of a canonical model. For example, machine-automatable artifacts that express the canonical model using a set of metadata constraints and a set of transformation rules can be received from a canonical model artifact repository. These machine-automatable artifacts can be converted into language-specific bindings and applications can subsequently utilize those language-specific bindings to enforce conformity to the canonical model.
US09904520B2

A smart tuple manager includes a mechanism for merging a smart tuple, and for automatically generating one or more classes from existing classes when a smart tuple is merged. When a first smart tuple and a second smart tuple are merged into a new third smart tuple, a class for the third smart tuple is automatically generated from the classes for the first and second smart tuples. The class for the third smart tuple is a superset of the classes for the first and second smart tuples. After a class is automatically generated, new code segments may be added to the class as needed.
US09904509B1

Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture to monitor tasks performed in an environment of interest are disclosed. One such apparatus is a task monitor that includes a signature comparator to compare a first signature to a second signature. The first signature is generated based on first audio collected in an environment of interest and the second signature is generated based on second audio collected during performance of a task in the environment of interest. The task monitor also includes an object identifier to identify an object corresponding to a location determined based on an angle of arrival of the first audio at a sensor. A task identifier is to identify the task as a cause of the first audio when the signature comparator determines the first signature matches the second signature and the object identifier identifies the object as a same object used to perform the task.
US09904507B2

A method and a system for synchronizing functions of a music player in a smart device and a Bluetooth earphone are disclosed. The method includes: transmitting a first play list to a smart device by a Bluetooth earphone; comparing the received first play list with a second play list by the smart device; receiving and transmitting a first control instruction to the smart device by the Bluetooth earphone when the first play list is consistent with the second play list; and transmitting the second play list to the Bluetooth earphone, and receiving and transmitting a second control instruction to the smart device by the Bluetooth earphone, when the first play list is inconsistent with the second play list.
US09904503B1

Methods and apparatuses are described for application broadcasting. For one embodiment, pixel data being broadcast from a moderator to one or more participants is divided into tiles. Display data is generated for each tile. Each display data segment (segment) contains the pixel data for the tile, and also contains a tile identifier. The segments are periodically evaluated. If the pixel data has changed, the segment is replaced with the most recent segment corresponding to that tile. A time indicator is also included within each segment for each tile indicating the time at which the segment was updated. A participant DPS requests data from the server and provides the time indicator for the last segment it received. The server then transmits the current segment for each tile that has been updated subsequently. This allows presentation at the participant's DPS of the most current version of the moderator's display screen.
US09904501B2

A handheld communication device includes first and second screens, a hinge to rotate the first and second screens between open and closed positions, and a position sensor to determine the relative position of the first and second screens. The position sensor can be a Hall-Effect sensor.
US09904500B2

A software environment for kinetic artwork choreography, employing video as the controlling data stream, and conveniently allowing fine-grained manipulation of motors, lights, and other diverse artwork elements. Choreography video may derive from a file, camera, network, streaming screen capture, etc. Using the latter functionality, choreographies may be created interactively using standard, user-familiar, video/animation creation tools, thereby providing a rich graphical interface and many WYSIWIG (What You See Is What You Get) elements. Mappings from video frame pixel content to particular outputs such as color, rotation angle, artwork device element identifier, etc., are configured through flexible templates and configuration files.
US09904487B2

A method and apparatus for capturing a snapshot of storage volumes of a data capture group are disclosed. In the method and apparatus, a request to create a data capture group may be received and processed. The data capture group may have one or more storage volumes. Upon defining the data capture group, a snapshot of the storage volumes of the data capture group may be taken.
US09904482B1

A first cluster node receives a request for a backup of files stored in a CSV shared with a second cluster node. A first VSS writer determines a first set of files associated with the first cluster node. A second VSS writer determines a second set of files associated with the second cluster node. A WMD file associated with the backup is generated to include a first component describing the first set of files and a second component describing the second set of files. A BCD file associated with the backup is modified to store information indicating the first VSS writer to restore the first and second sets of files, such that the first and second sets of files can be restored using the first VSS writer without having to use the second VSS writer. The backup is then performed to a backup storage device.
US09904478B2

Provided are a storage device and a method for controlling thereof. Some embodiments include a method, comprising: receiving target performance information by a storage device; comparing the target performance information with maximum performance information by the storage device; and adjusting an incremental step pulse program (ISPP) operation performed on a memory cell of the storage device in response to the comparing of the target performance information with maximum performance information.
US09904471B2

Interfaces to storage devices that employ storage space optimization technologies, such as thin provisioning, are configured to enable the benefits gained from such technologies to be sustained. Such an interface may be provided in a hypervisor of a virtualized computer system to enable the hypervisor to discover features of a logical unit number (LUN), such as whether or not the LUN is thinly provisioned, and also in a virtual machine (VM) of the virtualized computer system to enable the VM to discover features of a virtual disk, such as whether or not the virtual disk is thinly provisioned. The discovery of these features enables the hypervisor or the VM to instruct the underlying storage device to carry out certain operations such as an operation to deallocate blocks previously allocated to a logical block device, so that the storage device can continue to benefit from storage space optimization technologies implemented therein.
US09904469B2

A default virtual interface is replaced by an adapted interface to an independent application. The adapted interface allows one (dependent) application to be accessed from within a second (independent) application. This allows, for example, a game application to be executed within a text messaging application. Output of the dependent application can be conveyed to the base application. The adapted user interface optionally includes a plurality of shortcut keys each represented by a different shortcut icon. One or more of the shortcut keys are optionally configured for sharing the dependent and/or independent applications with remote devices. Content shared via the virtual interface is optionally provided as a data stream and is optionally mapped to a social network, such sharing can be tracked across social networks.
US09904457B2

An apparatus comprises at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to cause a view of a three-dimensional graphical user interface to be displayed on a touch-sensitive display, the three-dimensional graphical user interface comprising a three-dimensional arrangement of a plurality of graphical objects, each of the graphical objects, when displayed, having an associated display parameter, to identify at least one graphical object for which the associated display parameter satisfies a predetermined criterion, and to enable individual selectability in respect of the identified at least one graphical object, wherein each individually selectable graphical object is selectable with a touch input and wherein individually selecting a graphical object with a touch input causes an action to be performed in respect of the selected graphical object.
US09904447B2

Examples are disclosed for using and tracking inking input applied to applications of a computing device. An example computing device includes a display, an input sensor configured to receive inking input, a processor, and a storage device storing instructions executable by the processor to receive visual frames from an executing application indicating displayed content for the executing application, and, present displayed ink on a first location of the display based at least on an inking input received via the input sensor. The instructions are further executable to detect a change in the displayed content for the executing application based at least on a comparison of two or more of the visual frames from the executing application, determine a second location of the displayed ink on the display based at least on the change in the displayed content, and present the displayed ink in the second location of the display.
US09904445B2

A method for adaptively invoking applications and electronic apparatus using the same are provided. The method includes the following steps: establishing a database recording a plurality of data combinations, wherein a first data combination among the data combinations correspond to a first application, a first object, and a second application invoked by the electronic apparatus in response to a first action applied to the first object included in the first application; controlling the user interface unit to receive a second action applied to the second object when the user interface unit displays the first application including the second object; and accessing the database, and invoking the second application according to the first data combination when the second object and the second action respectively correspond to the first object and the first action.
US09904442B2

A settings controller outputs a settings interface through which a user may select from among multiple selectable options to specify one or more data associations in databases accessed by an asset location controller to selectively assign a detected user interaction in another world to a displayable rendering in a virtual world based on a selection of the one or more data associations applicable to the detected user interaction and the virtual world. The settings controller, responsive to a user selecting, through the settings interface, one or more particular selectable options to enter one or more particular data associations for one or more particular databases, assigns the one or more particular data associations to the one or more particular databases for specifying the displayable rendering of the detected user interaction in the another world to the displayable rendering in the virtual world.
US09904437B2

A minimized state navigation bar is provided for switching between modules within an expanded communication service such as email, calendar, contacts, tasks, etc. and for presenting preview peeks associated with each module to a user. The minimized state may be selected automatically based on user interface context or user action. A temporary preview of a module may be provided upon a hover action over the icons without actually needing to switch to a module. The preview may also be docked or pinned to a location on the main user interface so that it is displayed within the main user interface. New or interesting activity within each module may be highlighted by displaying an information badge next to an icon, for example.
US09904434B2

Innovations in the area of presentation of location-related actions and location information are presented. For example, an application calls an operating system to generate a location card. The location card can show a map of a location as well as additional information about the location and one or more action indicators. With an action indicator, a user can launch an application to perform an action related to the location immediately and directly from the location card. Depending on usage scenario, an application can specify different actions to be represented with action indicators in a location card. At the same time, location cards supported by the operating system provide a consistent way to expose location information and location-related actions to users.
US09904429B2

Disclosed herein is a touch screen panel detecting a capacitive touch input applied by a finger or a touch input means having conductivity like the finger. According to the present invention, the touch screen panel includes: a touch pad forming touch electrostatic capacity (Ct) between the touch pad and the touch input means; and a sensor signal line connecting the touch pad and a touch integrated circuit (IC) to transmit a Ct signal changed on the touch pad to the touch IC, wherein when a resistance value varying with a distance between the touch pad and the touch IC is lower than or equal to a set value, the sensor signal line forms a resistance compensation pattern compensating for the resistance value.
US09904425B2

An apparatus including a first plurality of first conductive lines; and a first meandering interconnect supported in a spaced relationship from a deformable substrate, wherein the first meandering interconnect includes a first multiplicity of meandering conductive lines each of which is electrically connected to one of the first plurality of first conductive lines.
US09904424B2

An in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel and its trace layout are disclosed. Horizontal traces of first direction touch electrode and horizontal traces of MFL electrode are disposed at both upper-side and lower-side out of an active area of in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel respectively. The horizontal traces of MFL electrode are closer to the active area of in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel than the horizontal traces of first direction touch electrode to reduce the additional coupling between the traces and electrodes. At least one trace is disposed at right-side and left-side out of an active area of in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel to reduce entire RC loading of the in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel.
US09904422B2

A mother substrate for touch screen panel includes a plurality of sensing patterns disposed in an active area, a plurality of first pads disposed in an non-active area surrounding the active area, a plurality of position detecting lines disposed in an non-active area and connecting the sensing patterns and the first pads and a plurality of second pads connected to the first pads. The first pads are spaced apart from each other by a first width. The second pads are spaced apart from each other by a second width more than the first width.
US09904420B2

Discussed is a display device integrated with touch screen. The display device includes a plurality of touch groups into which a plurality of touch electrodes are physically divided, a plurality of first driving electrode lines connected to a plurality of driving electrodes of a first touch group of the touch groups, a plurality of second driving electrode lines connected to a plurality of driving electrodes of a second touch group of the touch groups, a plurality of first receiving electrode lines connected to a plurality of receiving electrodes of the first touch group, a plurality of second receiving electrode lines connected to a plurality of receiving electrodes of the second touch group, a touch driving IC configured to supply a touch driving signal to the first and second driving electrode lines, and a touch sensing IC configured to sense touch signals of the first and second receiving electrode lines.
US09904419B2

Techniques for performing a capacitive sensor action are described herein. Data may be received from a proximity sensor of a computing device. The proximity data may indicate potential capacitive interaction of an electrically charged object with a capacitive sensor of a touch panel of the computing device. An action may be performed at the capacitive sensor in response to the proximity sensor data.
US09904410B2

A touch-sensitive depressible button with multiple depression thresholds is provided. When the button is depressed to a first depression threshold, the touch sensor can be switched from a low-power, non-sensing state to a sensing state. When the button is depressed to a second depression threshold, the touch sensor can sense the touch context and input can be generated based on the depression and the touch context. In this way, the touch-sensitive depressible button with multiple depression thresholds can facilitate timely switching of the touch sensor to a sensing state.
US09904408B2

An electronic device capable of presenting appropriate tactile feeling in various use situations is provided. The electronic device according to one exemplary embodiment includes: a touch panel on which a user touches; touch detector that detects the touch of the user on the touch panel; vibrator that vibrates the touch panel; driver that drives the vibrator with a first drive signal within a first frequency band and a second drive signal within a second frequency band higher than the first frequency band; vibration detector that detects a vibration of the touch panel that vibrates due to a drive with the second drive signal and outputs a detection signal; and drive frequency determinator that determines a frequency of the first drive signal based on the detection signal.
US09904407B2

A touch sensor is disclosed. The touch sensor includes a touch panel including sensing nodes arranged in a matrix form and sensing lines connected to the sensing nodes, a touch sensing unit for providing driving signals for driving the sensing nodes, and a selector including a plurality of multiplexers for selectively providing the driving signals provided from the touch sensing unit to the sensing lines of the touch panels, wherein each of the multiplexers is selectively connected to two or more corresponding sensing nodes among the sensing nodes, and the two or more sensing nodes of the touch panel, selectively connected to each of the multiplexers, are positioned at different columns and rows.
US09904397B2

In a method for switching between text input assistant an electronic device, a touch force of a touch operation is sensed by a force sensor of an input device and converted into a first electrical signal. The touch force works to formulate the first electrical signal. The text input assistant associated with such touch force is determined according to a preset relationship table. The determined text input assistant is determined to be the same as or different from a current text input assistant, and if the determined text input assistant is different from the current text input assistant, the device switches the current text input assistant to the determined text input assistant. An input interface associated with the new text input assistant is also displayed.
US09904393B2

A touch screen display sensor is provided that includes a transparent touch-sensing element disposed upon the surface of a transparent substrate and a force-sensing element disposed within the transparent touch-sensing element. The force-sensing element includes two sets of bands of micromesh and can include a pressure-responsive material between the bands of micromesh. The bands of micromesh include traces of a metallic conductor. The sets of bands of micromesh are spaced apart and occupy substantially parallel planes.
US09904387B2

A touch sensor integrated type display device is discussed. The display device has an active area, and a bezel area disposed at outside of the active area and including a gate driving circuit, the display device comprising a plurality of first electrodes each having the same size, and arranged in the active area in a first direction and a second direction which cross each other; and a plurality of second electrodes arranged in the active area in the second direction and alternately disposed between immediately adjacent pairs of the plurality of first electrodes arranged along the second direction, wherein the plurality of first electrodes include a plurality of first outer electrodes that are disposed at an outermost area of the active area, and at least one of the plurality of first outer electrodes has a portion that is extended into the bezel area.
US09904379B2

A level of wear of a stylus tip can be estimated and in accordance with a determination that the level of wear of the stylus tip exceeds a threshold, the stylus input functionality of an electronic device can be disabled. The threshold can be set such that the stylus can be disabled before the stylus sensing performance degrades to a degree perceptible to a human and/or before exposing internal portions of the stylus that can scratch a touch screen. Additionally or alternatively, a notification can be provided to indicate to a user that the stylus tip should be replaced. In some examples, the estimated level of wear can also be used to provide warning notifications. Stylus tip wear can be estimated, for example, based on a detected total signal strength or based on an estimated total distance traversed by the stylus tip across a surface.
US09904376B2

A computer mouse with an adjustable palm rest includes a main housing defined with a longitudinal direction and a traverse direction and has a carriage. A connecting base is rotatably connected to the carriage along a first axis. A supporting casing has a front wall and a rear wall. A palm-resting cover is fixed to the supporting casing. The front wall is closed to the connecting base. The supporting casing is rotatably connected to the connecting base along a second axis. The supporting casing can be arranged at different oblique angles related to the connecting base. A positioner chain is formed on a surface of the connecting base or the supporting casing and has a plurality of positioning dimples. A positioning assembly abuts against one of the dimples and retains the supporting casing at one of the oblique angles related to the connecting base.
US09904370B2

An intelligent television can provide various interfaces for navigating processes associated with providing content. The user interfaces include unique visual representations and organizations that allow the user to utilize the intelligent television more easily and more effectively. Particularly, the user interfaces pertain to the display of media content, electronic programming guide information, television content, and other content. Further, the user interfaces provide unique process of transitioning between the content.
US09904367B2

There is provided an information processing apparatus including a delay amount decision unit configured to decide a delay amount of a haptic output from occurrence of an event on the basis of an event occurring position in a virtual space, and a haptic output control unit configured to delay the haptic output according to the delay amount decided by the delay amount decision unit.
US09904364B2

An operator control device for a technical system includes at least one touch-sensitive operator control panel which produces, based on electrical vibration, an adjustable and operator perceptible frictional force when the operator moves his finger on the surface thereof, wherein operator control elements are provided within the at least one operator control panel, the frictional force is produced and an operator command is generated by the operator touching a respective operator control element with his finger, at least some of the operator commands are control commands for the technical system, the number of operator control elements includes at least one first operator control element, and where the frictional force produced when a respective first operator control element is touched is lower than the frictional force produced in response to a touch in a region of the at least one operator control panel bordering the respective first operator control element.
US09904362B2

Systems and methods for a vehicle including an eye tracking device. The systems and methods use input from the eye tracking device. The systems and methods are configured to communicate with a driver based on input from the eye tracking device.
US09904356B2

A system is provided that includes sensors(s) configured to provide sensed input including measurements of motion and/or orientation of a user during performance of a task to work a complex-system component. The system includes a front-end system configured to process the sensed input including the measurements to identify a known pattern that indicates a significance of the sensed input from which to identify operations of an electronic resource. The front-end system is configured to form and communicate an input to cause the electronic resource to perform the operations and produce an output. The operations include determination of an action of the user during performance of the task, or calculation of a process variable related to performance of the task, from the measurements. And the front-end system is configured to receive the output from the electronic resource, and communicate the output to a display device, audio output device or haptic sensor.
US09904349B2

Technologies for managing the power usage of components of a computing device, while the components and the computing device are in a low-power state, such as a connected standby state. An embedded controller includes a wake-up timer designed to wake up the embedded controller during a low-power state to allow the embedded controller to perform its tasks. A power control system is configured to dynamically alter the timing cycle of the wake-up timer of the embodied controller based on operation data received. The dynamically altered timing cycle is designed to conserve power, but maintain functionality of the embedded controller.
US09904324B2

The present disclosure discloses a secondary screen structure of a display device, a double-sided display device and a method for manufacturing an e-paper screen. The secondary screen structure of the display device includes an e-paper screen and a secondary screen driving unit connected with each other. The e-paper screen includes an e-paper layer, a touch control unit layer and a solar energy unit layer. The e-paper layer is controlled by the secondary screen driving unit to display. The touch control unit layer may input instructions to the secondary screen driving unit. The solar energy unit layer may supply power for the e-paper layer.
US09904313B2

In a processing system, a method includes selecting, at a timer management component of a processor, a timer ring of a set of timer rings for a requested timer based on a time unit granularity associated with the requested timer, wherein each timer ring of the set has a different time unit granularity. The method further includes instantiating the requested timer in a selected entry of the selected timer ring. Instantiating the requested timer may include fixedly maintaining a record for the requested timer in the selected entry of the selected timer ring for the entire time span of the requested timer.
US09904311B1

According to an embodiment, a waveform generator includes a phase accumulator configured to generate a digital phase signal representing a phase angle, and a phase-to-amplitude converter configured to receive the digital phase signal as a phase input, and generate sine and cosine waveform values as digital amplitude signals, wherein the phase-to-amplitude converter does not include a look-up table.
US09904299B2

A gas supply control method uses a pressure control flowmeter and first and second valves provided upstream and downstream, respectively, of the pressure control flowmeter in a gas supply line. The pressure control flowmeter includes a control valve and an orifice. The gas supply control method includes maintaining a pressure P1 of a first gas supply pipe between the orifice and the control valve and a pressure P2 of a second gas supply pipe between the orifice and the second valve so as to satisfy P1>2×P2. The supply of gas is controlled by controlling the opening and closing of the second valve with the first valve being open and the control valve being controlled. A volume V1 of the first gas supply pipe and a volume V2 of the second gas supply pipe have a relationship of V1/V2≧9.
US09904297B2

A method and apparatus for self-calibrating control of gas flow. The gas flow rate is initially set by controlling, to a high degree of precision, the amount of opening of a flow restriction, where the design of the apparatus containing the flow restriction lends itself to achieving high precision. The gas flow rate is then measured by a pressure rate-of-drop upstream of the flow restriction, and the amount of flow restriction opening is adjusted, if need be, to obtain exactly the desired flow.
US09904291B2

A method and a system for controlling an emergency descent of an aircraft. The system (1) includes a unit (2) for detecting an emergency situation, a unit (11) for calculating a usual emergency descent command, a unit (12) for calculating a limited emergency descent command, a selection unit (14) configured for selecting the usual emergency descent command or, if application conditions are met and if the limited descent command is less than said usual emergency descent command and greater than a regulation emergency descent command, selecting the limited emergency descent command, and a unit (4) for application, to the aircraft, of the selected emergency descent command.
US09904281B2

The invention relates to an automated method of assembling or processing components using computer numerical controlled drives to decouple the stages of delivering components to a tool, into a series of separately programmable stages, namely, a component loading stage, a component separating stage, an accelerating stage and a delivery stage, wherein the timing, position, speed, velocity, and acceleration of each component during each stage is selected through programming of the computer numerical controls.
US09904262B2

A method and a system for dynamically controlling at least one electronic device of a plurality of electronic devices in a common operating environment are provided. According to an embodiment, a method for dynamically controlling at least one electronic device comprises storing, in a memory, user input for automatically controlling operation of a first electronic device of a plurality of electronic devices while a second electronic device of the plurality of electronic devices is being operated, detecting, by a processor, a first state transition event affecting an operating state of at least one of the first electronic device or second electronic device and, based on the stored input and detected state transition event, processing instructions for at least one of modifying or suspending operation of at least one feature of the first or second electronic devices.
US09904261B2

A drive controller includes a speed compensation unit that performs a speed compensation for an object based on a result of comparison made by a speed comparator that compares a current speed of the drive object with a speed indicated by a speed command. The speed compensation unit includes a position-information-based speed gain setting unit that sets a position-information-based variable gain based on position-information-based speed gain information representing a relationship between a position of the object and position-information-based variable gain that varies depending on a load torque of the motor when the object is present at a predetermined position, and a speed compensation processor that performs a speed compensation based on a result of the comparison in the speed comparator and the position-information-based variable gain set by the position-information-based speed gain setting unit.
US09904246B2

A blowing tube is provided and includes: a passage portion and plural restriction portions. The passage portion includes an inlet passage portion including a first passage space, a first bent passage portion including a second passage space, and a second bent passage portion including a third passage space. One of the restriction portions includes a plate-shaped blocking portion and an air passage portion disposed between one end of the blocking portion and an inner wall surface on an inner side of the second passage space of the first bent passage portion in the bent direction of the second bent passage portion. A bar-shaped member is provided in the third passage space and present in an isolated manner along a longitudinal direction of an opening of the air passage portion of the restriction portion. The air flowing out through the air passage portion collides against the bar-shaped member and diverges.
US09904238B2

An image forming apparatus includes a toner container storing toner, and an attachment portion configured to support the toner container in an attachable/detachable manner. The toner container includes a plurality of fixed terminals that are fixed to a facing surface that is a side surface located on one side in an attachment/detachment direction of the toner container with respect to the attachment portion, the facing surface facing the attachment portion when the toner container is attached to the attachment portion. The attachment portion includes a terminal support portion and a plurality of elastic terminals that are provided on the terminal support portion, elastically contact and electrically connect with the fixed terminals respectively, and include a first ground terminal. The elastic terminals project from the terminal support portion toward the facing surface. The first ground terminal is longer than the other elastic terminals in projection length.
US09904237B2

In a developing cartridge, a developing roller extends in a first direction. A developing roller gear, a coupling, and first and second idle gears are positioned at an outer surface of a casing. An agitator gear has an end face in the first direction facing the outer surface. A first protrusion is positioned between the end face and the outer surface, and at a position outside of addendum circles of the developing roller gear, coupling, and first and second idle gears. The first protrusion is pivotally movable about an axis extending in the first direction between a first position and a second position. A first protruding portion has, at the first position, a first length in a second direction connecting the developing roller and the first protruding portion, and has, at the second position, a second length different from the first length in the second direction.
US09904234B2

An electrophotographic image forming method includes: performing a reversal development process using an electrophotographic photoreceptor including a conductive support, and an undercoat layer, a photosensitive layer, and a surface protective layer, which are at least provided on the conductive support, wherein the surface protective layer includes at least a cured resin and a component capable of influencing frequency dependence of impedance, and the undercoat layer includes at least a metal oxide and has a thickness in the range of 1 to 30 μm; and performing an electrostatic discharge step including applying an AC voltage at 2 kHz or more, wherein the frequency of the AC voltage is increased depending on use history.
US09904224B2

An image forming apparatus includes a process unit configured to form a toner image on a sheet, a fuser configured to heat the sheet passed through the process unit thereby fixing the toner image onto the sheet, a re-conveyor configured to convey the sheet passed through the fuser to the process unit, and a controller configured to perform particular duplex printing including controlling, when a temperature of the fuser is a first temperature, the re-conveyor to convey the sheet passed through the fuser to the process unit in a first period of time, and controlling, when the temperature of the fuser is a second temperature higher than the first temperature, the re-conveyor to convey the sheet passed through the fuser to the process unit in a second period of time longer than the first period of time.
US09904216B2

Provided is an intermediate transfer member used in an electrophotographic image forming apparatus having a unit of primary-transferring a toner image carried on an electrostatic latent image carrier to an intermediate transfer member, and then secondary-transferring the primary-transferred toner image onto a transfer material from the intermediate transfer member, wherein a surface of the intermediate transfer member has a hardness in the range of 150 to 350 MPa, and an elastic modulus in the range of 200 to 600 MPa, which are measured by a nano indentation method, and also has a hardness of 0.5 to 2.0 MPa specified in terms of universal hardness.
US09904215B2

A drive system includes multiple vibrating members that tend to vibrate when these members are driven and a holding system to hold the multiple vibrating members. The holding system at least includes a first holding unit and a second holding unit superimposed on and partially connected to each other. The multiple vibrating members include a first vibrating member and a second vibrating member. The first vibrating member is held by the first holding unit and is not held by the second holding unit. The second vibrating member is held by the second holding unit and is not held by the first holding unit. At least one of the first vibrating member and the second vibrating member is a driving device to drive another member as a drive source.
US09904210B2

A toner container is elongated. A first rotating member is rotatably provided in a first toner storage portion and extends in a depth direction of a container main body. A first drive input portion is provided at an end of a first rotation shaft included in the first rotating member and configured to receive a driving force. A second rotating member rotatably provided in a second toner storage portion and extends in the depth direction. A second drive input portion is provided at an end of a second rotation shaft included in the second rotating member and configured to receive a driving force. The container main body includes a plate-like coupling member coupling a first housing of the first toner storage portion with a second housing of the second toner storage portion.
US09904201B2

An image forming apparatus includes a toner image carrier on which a toner image is formed, a transfer unit that transfers the toner image onto a continuous sheet of paper, a fixing machine that fixes the transferred toner image onto the continuous sheet of paper, a sheet transport unit that transports the continuous sheet of paper through a transport path passing through a transfer position and a fixing position, and an electric charge supply unit that is disposed at a position at which the continuous sheet of paper is placed between the toner image carrier and the electric charge supply unit and that supplies electric charge having an orientation, in which transfer by the transfer unit is prevented, to a toner image present in a region on the toner image carrier, which is out of the continuous sheet of paper.
US09904196B1

A white toner for developing an electrostatic charge image includes a white toner particle containing a binder resin and a white pigment particle, wherein, when a number average circle equivalent diameter of the white pigment particles, which are observed in a sectional image of the white toner particle, is taken as A, and a number average circle equivalent diameter of the white pigment particles, which are present in a surface layer portion within 35% from a surface of the white toner particle with respect to a particle diameter thereof, is taken as B, a relationship expressed by A>B is satisfied.
US09904194B2

An electrostatic latent image developing toner of the present invention includes toner base particles and particles containing a fatty acid metal salt. The toner base particles contain a crystalline resin containing a segment of a first resin and a segment of a second resin chemically bonded to each other and an amorphous resin containing at least the second resin. The crystalline resin is a hybrid crystalline polyester resin. The first resin is a crystalline polyester resin. The second resin is an amorphous resin. The volume-based median diameter (Da) of the toner base particles and the volume-based median diameter (Db) of the particles containing the fatty acid metal salt satisfy the relations represented by Expressions (1) and (2) below: 0.5 μm≦Db≦2.0 μm  Expression (1) 0.1 Db/Da≦0.5.  Expression (2)
US09904192B2

Provided is a toner that is excellent in heat-resistant shelf stability and low-temperature fixability, has durability, and causes less occurrence of fogging in high temperature and high humidity environments.The toner comprising at least a binder resin, a colorant, a release agent, a retention aid and a charge control resin. The binder resin is a copolymer containing a styrene-based monomer unit 67 to 78% by mass and a (meth)acrylic acid alkyl monomer unit 22 to 33% by mass. The content of the retention aid is 1 to 4 parts by mass with respect to 100 parts by mass of the binder resin, and the content of the charge control resin is 0.1 to 20 parts by mass with respect to 100 parts by mass of the binder resin.
US09904187B2

A cylindrical member used in an electrophotographic photoconductor, the cylindrical member includes an impact-pressed cylindrical body containing aluminum and a long-chain fatty acid ester based lubricant that is present on the outer surface of the impact-pressed cylindrical body in an amount of approximately not more than 5.0×10−3 mg/cm2.
US09904184B2

A liquid immersion member is used in a liquid immersion exposure apparatus, and is capable of forming a liquid immersion space on a surface of an object opposite to an emitting surface of an optical member which emits exposure light. The liquid immersion member includes a first member that includes a first part disposed at surrounding of an optical path of the exposure light, and in which a first opening part, through which the exposure light is able to pass, and a first liquid supply part, which is disposed at at least a portion of surrounding of the first opening part and is capable of opposing the surface of the object, are provided at the first part, and a second member that includes a first liquid recovery part which is capable of opposing the surface of the object and is movable with respect to the first member outside the first part with respect to the optical path.
US09904183B2

A coarse motion and fine motion integrated reticle stage driven by a planar motor comprises a movable platform (100) of the reticle stage, a balance mass (200), a drive motor, a mask plate (101, 102), a base (001), a vibration isolation system (500), and a measuring system, wherein, the vibration isolation system is located between the balance mass and the base, and the mask plate is mounted on the movable platform. The drive motor of the movable platform is a moving-iron type planar motor (300). The reticle stage can lower the design complexity of the drive motor of the movable platform. Compared with a linear motor, the planar motor can provide push forces in more directions, the number of motors is reduced, the structure of the movable platform is more compact, the inherent frequency and the control bandwidth of the movable platform are improved, and thus control precision is improved.
US09904182B2

An exposure apparatus that can prevent disadvantages due to a leaked liquid is provided. The exposure apparatus includes a substrate holder that includes a peripheral wall portion and supporting portions located on an inside of the peripheral wall portion and that supports a substrate with the supporting portions by negatively pressurizing a space surrounded by the peripheral wall portion, and a recovery mechanism that includes a collection inlets provided on the inside of the peripheral wall portion and a vacuum system connected to the collection inlets, in which a liquid penetrated from an outer periphery of the substrate is sucked and recovered, in the state with an upper surface of the peripheral wall portion and a back surface of the substrate being spaced at a first distance.
US09904180B2

A method of patterning substrates using a lithographic apparatus. The method comprising providing a beam of radiation using an illumination system, using a patterning device to impart the radiation beam with a pattern in its cross-section, and using a projection system to project the patterned radiation beam onto target portions of a lot of substrates, wherein the method further comprises performing a radiation beam aberration measurement after projecting the patterned radiation beam onto a subset of the lot of substrates, performing an adjustment of the projection system using the results of the radiation beam aberration measurement, then projecting the patterned radiation beam onto a further subset of the lot of substrates.
US09904171B2

A positive tone photoresist etching development agent for a photoresist film containing acid liable groups includes 0.5 to 2% by weight of tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH), 1 to 20% by weight of an additive having at least two polar functional groups and at least one solvent. The additive has a molecular weight higher than 40, the solvent is water or alcohol, and the agent treated photoresist film retains at least 20% of acid liable groups.
US09904169B2

A photomask blank has a chemically amplified negative resist film comprising (A) a polymer comprising recurring units of specific structure and recurring units having fluorine, (B) a base resin adapted to reduce its solubility in alkaline developer under the action of acid, (C) an acid generator, and (D) a basic compound. The resist film is improved in receptivity to antistatic film.
US09904152B2

A solid-state light source device, enabling to build up with using solid-state elements, and having the structure suitable to be applied as a light source for a projection-type display apparatus, comprises a solid-state light source unit 10 for emitting excitation light therefrom, a reflection mirror (or reflector) 130 made of a parabolic surface, for condensing the excitation light from the solid-state light source to be point-like, and a disc-like (or wheel) member 140, repeating reflection/scattering or transmission/scattering of the excitation light and conversion of the excitation light, alternately, in vicinity of a focus point of the excitation light, which is condensed to be point-like by the reflection mirror (or reflector), wherein the excitation light (B-color) reflected/or scattered by that disc-like (or wheel) member and fluorescence light (Y-color), wavelength of which is converted, is taken on a same optical path, by means of the reflection mirror (or reflector) 130 or a second reflection mirror (or reflector) 130′, and thereby outputting a white color light emitting from a point-like light source.
US09904149B2

A gimbal mount system is configured to a couple to a gimbal coupled to and securing a camera. The gimbal mount system includes a handle, a power source, a user interface, a mounting interface, a communication interface, and a communication bus. The mounting interface is located within an end of the gimbal mount system and includes an opening configured to receive a reciprocal mounting protrusion of the gimbal. A locking mechanism removably couples the gimbal to the gimbal mount system. The communication interface is located within the mounting interface and is configured to couple to a reciprocal communication interface of the gimbal. The communication bus is coupled to the power source, user interface, and communication interface and is configured to provide power from the power source to the gimbal. The communication bus may provide instructions to the gimbal based on user input received via the user interface.
US09904146B2

A product may include a lens and a shade. A field of view may be defined through the lens. An actuator may selectively position the shade within the field of view.
US09904145B2

There are provided a blade drive device and an optical instrument. The blade drive device includes a substrate that has an opening, a front curtain and a rear curtain that are movable along an opening surface of the opening so as to open and close the opening, a front curtain locking portion that interlocks with opening and closing operations of the front curtain, a rear curtain locking portion that interlocks with opening and closing operations of the rear curtain, a regulation lever that is configured to be pivotally movable around a lever axis, that enters an operation trajectory of the front curtain locking portion and the rear curtain locking portion, and that is capable of entry and escape between an entry position for regulating the movement of the front curtain and the rear curtain in a closing direction and an escape position escaped from the operation trajectory, a regulation electromagnetic actuator that is configured to be rotatable around a regulation axis, and a linkage lever that causes the regulation lever to pivot around the lever axis in response to the rotation around the regulation axis of the regulation electromagnetic actuator. The regulation lever and the linkage lever engage with each other while being provided with play in a circumferential direction around the regulation axis.
US09904142B2

A light-modulating element comprises: first and second transparent substrates arranged in opposition to one another; a first transparent electrode arranged on the opposition surface of the first transparent substrate; a plurality of light transmissive regions arranged between the first transparent electrode and the second transparent substrate so as to be separated from one another; a plurality of second transparent electrodes arranged at respective positions on the second transparent substrate opposing the respective light transmissive regions, and that are arranged so as to be separated by a given distance from the respective light transmissive regions; a plurality of third transparent electrodes arranged individually between the second transparent electrodes at a predetermined distance therefrom on the second transparent substrate side; and an electrophoretic member arranged within a gap formed between the first transparent substrate and the second transparent substrate, and that includes light-shielding electrophoretic particles.
US09904139B2

A color filter substrate, a display panel and a display device are provided. The color filter substrate includes a base substrate, the base substrate being divided into a plurality of pixel units, each pixel unit including a plurality of sub-pixel units, a color filter being arranged in each sub-pixel unit. At least one color filter of the plurality of sub-pixel units in each of the pixel units is made of an electrochromic material.
US09904136B2

A multiple-pane insulating glazing unit may include multiple panes of transparent material and a layer of electrically controllable optically active material that provides controllable privacy for the glazing unit. Despite efforts to fully black out the multiple-pane insulating glazing unit by switching the optically active material from a transmissive state to a privacy state, the glazing unit may exhibit some residual direct visible transmission. In some examples, the multiple-pane insulating glazing unit may include a light emitting element positioned to direct light at the layer of optically active material to address this issue. Light emitted by the light emitting element may reflect and mask residual visibility through the electrically controllable optically active material.
US09904135B1

An array substrate and an LCD device are provided. The array substrate includes multiple LTPS thin-film transistors. Each transistor includes: a substrate; and a LTPS layer, a first insulation layer, a gate electrode, a second insulation layer, a source electrode, a drain electrode, a planarization layer, a first transparent conductive layer, a third insulation layer, a second transparent conductive layer and a connection metal layer. The LTPS layer, and gate electrode and the second insulation layer are sequentially disposed. The source electrode and the drain electrode are disposed on the second insulation layer, and connected with two terminals of the LTPS layer through the first and second through holes. The connection metal layer connects with the second transparent conductive layer and the drain electrode through a fourth through hole. The first transparent conductive layer is a common electrode and the second transparent conductive layer is a pixel electrode.
US09904121B2

The present invention provides an array substrate. The array substrate includes a base substrate, a first metal layer, an insulating layer, and a second metal layer subsequently formed on the base substrate. The first metal layer is scan lines or charge sharing lines of the array substrate. The second metal layer is one of a source electrode and drain electrode of a charge sharing thin film transistor of the array substrate. The first metal layer, the second metal layer, and the insulating layer between them stack together to forma charge sharing capacitor of the array substrate. The present invention further provides the liquid crystal display panel and the liquid crystal display device with the above-mentioned array substrate. By means of array substrate, the present invention can increase the pixel aperture ratio.
US09904114B2

A liquid crystal display (LCD) panel having at least one pixel area is provided. The LCD panel includes a first electrode layer, a second electrode layer and a liquid crystal layer. The first electrode layer and the second electrode layer are disposed in the pixel area. The liquid crystal layer is disposed between the first electrode layer and the second electrode layer. The liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer disposed adjacent to the first electrode layer have a first pre-tilt angle, and the liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer disposed adjacent to the second electrode layer have a second pre-tilt angle different from the first pre-tilt angle.
US09904111B2

A liquid crystal display includes: a first panel including a first electrode; a second panel including a second electrode; and a liquid crystal layer between the first and second panels. The first electrode includes: a central electrode disposed in a central region of a pixel; an outer electrodes extending along a side of the central electrode; and a connection electrode which connects the outer electrode and the central electrode. A slit pattern is defined in the first electrode around the central electrode, and a liquid crystal control pattern is defined in the first electrode in a corner region of the pixel. Horizontal and vertical incisions, which divide the first electrode into a plurality of domains, are defined in the second electrode, an end portion of the outer electrode is disposed to correspond to the corner region, and the end portion of the outer electrode extends farther than the central electrode.
US09904109B2

A color filter including a first region configured to emit a first light, a second region configured to emit a second light having a longer wavelength than a wavelength of the first light, a third region configured to emit a third light having a longer wavelength than the wavelength of the second light, a first layer including two or more quantum dots, and a second layer formed on at least one surface of the first layer, wherein the first layer and the second layer are disposed in at least the second region and the third region.
US09904101B2

A display panel and a display device module are disclosed. A TFT array substrate contained in the display panel includes a second substrate, a pixel electrode layer, a carrier layer, and a reflective layer. The second substrate includes a first region and a second region. A carrier platform contained in the carrier layer is disposed on the pixel electrode layer, in which a position of the carrier platform corresponds with the second region; and a reflection sheet contained in the reflective layer is disposed on the carrier platform, wherein the reflection sheet has a first reflective surface and a second reflective surface. The present invention improves the utilization of light in the backlight module.
US09904098B2

Provided is a hard coat film, including: a transparent film; and a hard coat layer formed on the transparent film, in which: the surface free energy of the hard coat layer is equal to or more than a certain value; the hard coat film has a mixed region in which a component of the transparent film and a component of the hard coat layer are mixed; the refractive index of the mixed region continuously changes toward the thickness direction of the hard coat film; and a refractive index change gradient falls within a certain range.
US09904093B2

A display apparatus includes a display panel, a backlight unit, and a capturing unit. The display panel includes a polarizing plate having a first polarizing axis parallel to a first direction, an isotropic diffuser including an anisotropic region having a transmission axis parallel to the first direction and a diffusing axis parallel to a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the polarizing plate and the anisotropic diffuser. The backlight unit is disposed at a rear side of the anisotropic diffuser and generates a first light linearly polarized in the second direction. The capturing unit is disposed at a rear side of the anisotropic region and captures an image of a subject at a front side of the display panel.
US09904090B2

The present disclosure provides a touch display panel and a touch display device. The touch display panel includes a color filter substrate, an array substrate arranged opposite to the color filter substrate, and a liquid crystal layer arranged between the color filter substrate and the array substrate. Black matrices are arranged on the color filter substrate. A plurality of first electrodes made of metal is arranged parallel to each other on the color filter substrate, and a projection of each first electrode onto the color filter substrate in a perpendicular direction completely falls within a range of a corresponding black matrix. A plurality of second electrodes made of a transparent conductive layer is further arranged parallel to each other on the color filter substrate, and the second electrodes are insulated from, and cross, the first electrodes.
US09904088B2

Disclosed are a touch panel and a method for manufacturing the same. The touch panel according to one embodiment includes the touch panel including a substrate, a first transparent electrode including a first sensor part formed on the substrate in a first direction and a first electrode connection part for electric connection of the first sensor part, and a second transparent electrode electrically insulated from the first transparent electrode, and including a second sensor part formed in a second direction crossing the first direction and a second electrode connection part for electric connection of the second sensor part. The second electrode connection part has a mesh shape. The touch panel according to another embodiment includes a substrate, a transparent electrode base spaced apart from the substrate, and a transparent electrode on the transparent electrode base. The transparent electrode comprises a first electrode including a first sensor part formed in one direction and a first electrode connection part for electrical connection of the first sensor part; and a second electrode, which is electrically insulated from the first electrode, and includes a second sensor part formed in a second direction crossing the first direction and a second electrode connection part for electrical connection of the second sensor part. The second electrode connection part has a mesh shape.
US09904079B2

An alignment apparatus and an alignment method are provided. The alignment apparatus is configured to align a polarizer. The alignment apparatus comprises an angle adjustment device. The angle adjustment device is configured to: adjust an angle of the polarizer to be aligned according to an angle offset of the polarizer to be aligned in a plane where the polarizer to be aligned is located. The alignment apparatus and the alignment method reduce difficulty in alignment of non-rectangular polarizer.
US09904070B2

An electromagnetic driving device is provided, which includes a stationary portion, a movable portion adapted to support an element, a number of rolling balls, a driving magnet, a driving coil, and a magnetic attraction element. The stationary portion and the movable portion are arranged along a main axis. The rolling balls and the driving magnet are positioned between the stationary portion and the movable portion. The driving coil is arranged to correspond to the driving magnet and configured to enable the movement of the movable portion along a direction perpendicular to the main axis. The magnetic attraction element is arranged to correspond to the driving magnet. The magnetic force between the magnetic attraction element and the driving magnet is greater than the sum of the weight of the movable portion, the element, and the magnetic member.
US09904068B1

A system for an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light source includes a light-generation system configured to emit one or more light beams onto a beam path; one or more optical amplifiers, each of the one or more amplifiers including a gain medium on the beam path, each gain medium being configured to amplify the one or more light beams to produce one or more amplified light beams; and one or more diffractive optical elements on the beam path, where each of the one or more diffractive optical elements has a plurality of focal lengths, and each focal length of the diffractive optical element is associated with a particular polarization state.
US09904058B2

In a stacked waveguide assembly, the waveguides can comprise color filters, distributed filters, and/or switch materials. Examples of color filters include dyes, tints, or stains. Examples of distributed filters and/or switch materials include dichroic filters, Bragg gratings, electronically switchable glass, and electronically switchable mirrors. Switch materials can be designed or tuned to attenuate light of unwanted colors or wavelengths. The waveguides may each be associated with a particular design wavelength. This can mean that a waveguide that is associated with a design wavelength includes an incoupling optical element is configured to deflect light at the design wavelength to an associated light distributing element and that the associated wavelength selective region is configured to attenuate light not at the design wavelength.
US09904051B2

Systems, devices, and methods for laser eye tracking are described. Laser eye tracking involves scanning laser light over the eye and detecting diffuse reflections of the laser light with one or more photodetector(s). While conventional camera-based eye tracking techniques rely on detecting and identifying specific reflections (i.e., Purkinje images such as the “glint”), the laser eye tracking techniques described herein detect and identify a reduction in reflection intensity due to transmission of laser light through the pupil and/or increased diffusivity of reflections from the cornea relative to reflections from the sclera. This effect is referred to herein as the “corneal shadow” effect. Laser eye tracking uses considerably less power than conventional camera-based eye tracking techniques. As a result, the laser eye tracking techniques described herein do not add significant power demands to a system and can be implemented in wearable heads-up displays without adding significant volume to the system battery.
US09904037B1

The present disclosure relates to the field of optical lens, and discloses an optical camera lens, which, from an object side to an image side, successively includes: an aperture, a first lens having positive refraction power, a second lens having negative refraction power, a third lens having positive refraction power, a fourth lens having negative refraction power, a fifth lens having positive refraction power, and a sixth lens having negative refraction power; the optical camera lens satisfies following relational expressions: 0.7
US09904029B1

An above-ground optical fiber cable installation consists of an optical fiber cable that is laid along an edge of a street (such as along a curb), and then covered with an adhesive overcoat material, such as a fast-curing epoxy and/or concrete repair/resurface compounds. The adhesive overcoat initially functions to affix the optical fiber cable to the street, and as it cures provides a protective encapsulation for the installed cable. The hard shell prevents exposure of the optical fiber cable to the environment and reduces the potential for damage from equipment that might otherwise cut through the cable. This type of cable installation is useful for situations that require rapid deployment, and avoids the need for creating either underground or aerial pathways.
US09904020B2

A connecting component configured to fix a first ferrule and a second ferrule includes a first spring, a second spring, and a partition. The first spring and the second spring are provided at opposite ends of the connecting component. The partition is provided between the first spring and the second spring to be positioned between the first ferrule and the second ferrule. The first spring is configured to press the first ferrule toward the partition. The second spring is configured to press the second ferrule toward the partition.
US09904019B2

In an optical-connector-incorporating plug accommodating and holding an optical connector in a barrel at a front end thereof and accommodating, in the barrel, an extra length portion of an optical fiber extending from an optical cable to the optical connector, the extra length portion bends as the optical connector is moved toward a back end of the barrel when the optical connector is connected to a mating receptacle; the distance from the position where the optical connector is held to the outer wall of the barrel depends on the direction, among the directions orthogonal to the direction in which the optical connector is moved; and a guide portion guiding the bend of the extra length portion in a direction other than the direction where the distance to the outer wall of the barrel is the shortest is formed in the barrel. The optical-connector-incorporating plug can be reduced in size.
US09904016B2

The invention relates to a wafer prober including an optical waveguide, the optical waveguide having a first optical coupling end segment with a first optical coupling surface being devoid of cladding. The first optical coupling end segment being configured to provide an adiabatic optical coupling to a second optical coupling end segment of a second optical waveguide of a photonic integrated circuit on a semiconductor wafer when the optical waveguide is aligned with respect to the semiconductor wafer according to a set of alignment requirements. The second optical coupling end segment having a second optical coupling surface that is devoid of cladding. The second optical coupling surface is parallel to a wafer surface of the semiconductor wafer. An alignment system configured to align the optical waveguide with respect to the semiconductor wafer according to the set of alignment requirements.
US09903999B2

A light assembly for illuminating an emblem includes a housing, an emblem, and an optical light guide. The housing holds a light source. The emblem has a structural body defined by emblem edges. The optical light guide is coupled to the housing and has a shape associated with the emblem. A surface of the optical light guide faces and is at least partially covered by the structural body of the emblem. The optical light guide defines exposed edges that project laterally beyond the emblem edges of the emblem. The optical light guide is configured to receive light generated by the light source and to emit at least some of the light along the exposed edges thereof.
US09903982B2

An antireflection article includes a substrate; and an antireflection layer containing a binder resin and inorganic particles, wherein the inorganic particles are particles having an average primary particle diameter of 150 nm to 250 nm and a CV value of 4% or less, 99.9% or more of the inorganic particles are perfectly spherical particles, the antireflection layer includes a moth eye structure composed of an unevenness shape formed by the inorganic particles on a surface of the antireflection layer, and an area occupancy ratio of the inorganic particles on the surface of the antireflection layer is 25% to 64%.
US09903970B2

A method for towing a streamer array includes moving a vessel along a body of water. Streamers are towed by vessel. A relative position is determined at selected points along each streamer with respect to the vessel. At least one of the streamers is deflected at at least one longitudinal position along the streamer in response to the determined positions to maintain the streamers in a selected geometry. The selected geometry is related to one of survey vessel heading, energy source trajectory, previously plotted sensor trajectory and a lateral separation related to distance from the towing vessel.
US09903966B2

A method for seismic data acquisition can include near-continuously recording seismic data received from a number of seismic receivers and triggering a plurality of source elements, based upon time and not based upon position, at a predefined sequence of times relative to a start of a near-continuous recording.
US09903954B1

A pseudolite device for providing navigation data, while denied or having limited access to satellite navigation signals for instance, may include a receiver for receiving, from each of a plurality of pseudolites, respective navigation data including an indication of an absolute position of a respective pseudolite and a time instance at which the navigation data is transmitted by the respective pseudolite. The pseudolite device may include a processor configured to determine an absolute position of the pseudolite device according to the navigation data received from each of the plurality of pseudolites, and a transmitter for broadcasting positioning data and transmission time data. The positioning data can include an indication of the determined absolute position of the pseudolite device and the transmission time data includes an indication of a time instance at which the positioning data is transmitted by the transmitter.
US09903951B2

Sensor information is processed in a vehicle by transforming sensor data acquired with at least one sensor of the vehicle from a current environment of the vehicle into a curved coordinate system, by continuously updating the sensor data while the vehicle is moving, and by dynamically adapting the curved coordinate system to a current situation of the vehicle.
US09903945B2

Methods and systems for estimating motion of a vehicle are provided. Radar data pertaining to one or more stationary objects in proximity to the vehicle are obtained via one or more radar units of the vehicle. The motion of the vehicle is estimating using the radar data via a processor of the vehicle.
US09903943B2

Disclosed is a method of estimating the distance between two nodes. The method includes obtaining an original real-time strength sequence, its elements being strengths of signals between the two nodes at respective time slots of a first time period; conducting multi-scale transform with respect to the original real-time strength sequence so as to acquire plural real-time strength component sequences which are results of the original real-time strength sequence projected onto plural scales; removing at least one burst noise element in each real-time strength component sequence so as to get plural updated real-time strength component sequences; estimating, based on the plural updated real-time strength component sequences and a multi-scale empirical mapping relationship, an empirical real-time distance, the multi-scale empirical mapping relationship being used for expressing correspondence relations between strength components and distance components; and determining, based on at least the empirical real-time distance, a real-time distance between the two nodes.
US09903940B2

The disclosure generally relates to a localization scheme that may use ultrasound signatures exchanged among entrusted devices to locate lost or otherwise misplaced devices. More particularly, a user device may initially exchange an ultrasound signature or other inaudible audio signature with an entrusted device (e.g., during a pairing procedure with the entrusted device) and subsequently search an ultrasound domain in response to detecting an inactive state (e.g., based on measurements that indicate inflicted motion or processor activity). As such, in response to detecting the initially exchanged ultrasound signature in the ultrasound domain, which may be emitted from the entrusted device or an unpaired device that has been authorized to emit the ultrasound signature, the user device may generate an audible or visual notification in a user domain and optionally further enable more sophisticated user notification and localization tasks to assist in locating the user device.
US09903935B2

A wireless device comprising: a wireless interface for communicating with a network of reference nodes, and a location module configured to obtain a measurement of a respective signal communicated between the wireless interface and each of a plurality of said reference nodes. The location module is also supplied with a respective set of transformed coordinates for each of said plurality of reference nodes, transformed relative to their actual physical coordinates. Using said signal measurements and the transformed coordinates of said plurality of reference nodes, the wireless device then submits information indicative of a transformed location of the wireless device to an interpretation function. Based on the interpretation function, the wireless device is thereby able to access functionality relating to the physical location of the mobile terminal.
US09903932B2

A calibration apparatus, for calibration of a measurement device, is provided. The calibration apparatus includes a calibration device configured to calibrate the measurement device. The calibration device also includes a verificationH device configured to verify the calibration of the measurement device. The calibration device also includes a switch configured to switch between a connection of the measurement device to the calibration device and a connection of the measurement device to the verification device.
US09903922B2

A magnetic field generator includes a power source and a segmented or un-segmented coil connected to the power source to generate a time-varying magnetic field. Energy is applied to the coil so that the coil generates a time-varying magnetic field gradient with a magnitude of at least 1 milliTesla per meter and a rise-time of less than 1000 microseconds. The coil may be comprised of overlapping, non-overlapping or partially overlapping coil segments that may individually energized to further improve the operating characteristics of the coil to further decrease bio-effects in magnetic resonance imaging through the use of reduced pulse lengths and multi-phasic magnetic gradient pulses.
US09903917B2

A system includes a proportional-integrated-derivative (PID) regulator. The system also includes a fault detection unit. The fault detection unit is for receiving at least two outputs from the PID regulator. The at least two outputs include at least two rotor reference frame (D-Q) currents. The fault detection unit is further for generating a detection signal based on the at least two rotor reference frame currents. The detection signal identifies a fault based on the fault detection signal amplitude value based on the magnitudes of the amplitudes for each of the at least two rotor reference frame D-Q currents. The fault detection unit is for identifying an existence of a permanent magnet motor fault based on a comparison between the fault detection signal amplitude value and an amplitude threshold value. Further the fault localization signature is utilized to locate the location of the fault.
US09903908B2

A nonlinear distortion detection device that includes a test signal generator that generates a test signal and outputs the test signal to have the power amplifier amplify the test signal, a Fourier transformer that converts an output signal of the power amplifier to a signal in a frequency domain, and a distortion factor calculator that calculates a distortion factor of the power amplifier based on amplitude information and phase information of the signal in the frequency domain.
US09903905B2

The invention relates to a semiconductor switch and to a method for determining a current in the power path of a semiconductor switch. For this purpose, a semiconductor switch, according to the invention, has a plurality of sense connections, wherein each of said sense connections provides an individual output signal that is proportional to the current in the power path of the semiconductor switch. The evaluation of the current in the power path can be optimized by the appropriate selection of one of the plurality of sense connections in accordance with the current in the power path of the semiconductor switch.
US09903904B2

TFT device for measuring a contact resistance and measurement method for a contact resistance are disclosed. The TFT includes an active layer, a gate electrode and a gate insulation layer. The active layer includes a channel and at least three doping regions, wherein, two of the at least three doping regions is connected through a channel, when measuring the contact resistance, using two of the at least three doping regions as testing points for measuring. The gate electrode disposed correspondingly to the channel. The gate insulation layer for insulating the active layer from the gate electrode. The uniformity of the present invention is well, the manufacturing process, the film forming quality and the interface property are similar in a maximum degree. Accordingly, a measurement accuracy is increased, saving the distribution region at the same time, increasing the utilization of the experimental region.
US09903900B2

There is a limit on the miniaturization of electric leakage detecting apparatuses including a ring-shaped magnetic material. Any thicker electric wires increase the size of the ring-shaped magnetic material. Additionally, it is difficult to place the ring-shaped magnetic material around the electric wires that have already been placed. In light of the foregoing, an electric leakage apparatus is provided. The electric leakage detecting apparatus is to be installed on a pair of power source lines connecting a power source and a load, and includes: a pair of holders configured to hold the power source lines, respectively; a fixing means configured to fix the holders at a predetermined interval; a pair of magnetic elements each placed on each of the holders while being parallel to the power source lines; a detecting means configured to detect a difference between magneto-resistance effects of the magnetic elements; and a driving means configured to feed a drive current to the magnetic elements.
US09903896B2

The present invention discloses a testing method for dynamic model parameters of a wind power plant, wherein under testing conditions including stable running of wind turbine generators and reactive-load compensation equipment, stable wind speed between a cut-in wind speed and a rated wind speed, and the wind power plant output smaller than a rated output, finishes a wind speed transient disturbance test, a wind power plant unit tripping and inputting disturbance test, a wind power plant power change test, a disturbance test for reactive-load compensation equipment of the wind power plant, a tripping disturbance test for hydroelectric power plant and thermal power plant near the wind power plant and a manual single-phase ground short circuit test at the outgoing line part of the wind power plant, and records running curves of the wind power plant under each condition to finish the parameter test. The present invention realizes the advantage of providing precise measurement data for the stability analysis of an electric power system and the production dispatching of a power grid.
US09903895B2

An intelligent electronic device (IED) having a gain control unit adapted to selectively regulate operating ranges of output signals of a sensing circuit of the device is described. In one embodiment, the IED is a digital electric power and energy meter, which operating ranges for supply voltages and supply currents of electrical services may be adjusted to match pre-determined ranges for input signals of a data acquisition system or a data processing module of the meter.
US09903891B2

The present invention includes a detecting capacitor of which the capacitance is changed depending on pressure; a fixed capacitor having reference capacitance; an initial voltage application part that applies an initial voltage having a predetermined frequency to the detecting capacitor and the fixed capacitor; a first operational amplifier that outputs an output voltage based on a partial voltage applied to at least the detecting capacitor; a reference voltage generation part that generates a reference voltage that serves as a reference for a change in the output voltage of the first operational amplifier and has the same frequency as that of the initial voltage; a second operational amplifier that outputs an output voltage based on the difference between the output voltage of the first operational amplifier and the reference voltage; and a pressure operation part that operates a pressure from the amplitude of the output voltage of the second operational amplifier.
US09903889B1

A probe connector assembly includes a carrier plate, multiple probes and multiple positioning members. The multiple probes are mounted into multiple probe holes of the carrier plate. Each positioning member is securely mounted into the carrier plate and partially protrudes into corresponding probe holes to contact probe trunks of corresponding probes, such that the probe trunk of each probe is positioned in a corresponding probe hole of the carrier plate by friction resistance generated between the probe trunk and positioning members adjacent to the probe trunk. Thus, the probe connector assembly is advantageous in a simplified structure of the carrier plate and reduced thickness of the carrier plate and probe length.
US09903885B1

Techniques are described to provide a universal direct docking tester to prober interface between the test head and a prober of semiconductor wafer prober for testing die within semiconductor wafers. In an implementation, a universal direct docking tester to prober interface includes a tray assembly configured to be mounted within an opening of the prober housing and a stiffener assembly configured to be mounted to a test head to support a load board PCB that includes a probe head. The stiffener assembly includes a skirt that is received in the tray assembly when the test head is interfaced with the prober to position the load board PCB within the prober to facilitate engagement of the probe head with the wafer.
US09903876B2

Compositions and methods for determining post-transfusion survival or toxicity of red blood cells and the suitability of red blood cell units for transfusion by measuring the levels of one or more markers in a red blood cell sample are provided.
US09903875B2

The invention is to devices and method for rapid determination of analytes in liquid samples by various assays including immunoassays incorporating a sample dilution feature for forming a diluted sample for analysis. The devices and methods also include a dilution verification feature for verifying the degree of dilution of the diluted sample. The devices preferably are capable of being used in the point-of-care diagnostic field is provided.
US09903871B2

An embodiment of the invention relates to the use of stabilized cancer peptide fragments derived from “redoxin proteins” selected from the group consisting of thioredoxin; peroxiredoxin-1, 2 and 3; glutaredoxin-3; glutathione peroxidase-4; and nucleoredoxins for the diagnosis of cancers, particularly pancreatic cancer. A method for the detection of cancer, severity of cancer, and/or effectiveness of a therapeutic regimen comprises detecting and/or measuring the amount of redoxin peptide fragments present in the biological sample of a subject.
US09903870B2

A diagnostic reagent or device comprises at least one ligand capable of specifically complexing with, binding to, or quantitatively detecting or identifying the biomarker chloride intracellular channel protein 4 (CLIC4) or an isoform, pro-form, modified molecular form including posttranslational modification, or unique peptide fragment or nucleic acid fragment thereof. An alternative diagnostic reagent or device comprises ligand or ligands capable of specifically complexing with, binding to, or quantitatively detecting or identifying multiple tropomyosin biomarkers. Optionally, such reagent or device includes a signaling molecule and/or a substrate on which the ligand is immobilized. Other reagents and methods of diagnosing ovarian cancer include use of CLIC4 ligands and/or multiple tropomyosin ligands with an additional ovarian cancer biomarker. For example, CLIC4 combined with one or more of CLIC1 and/or one or multiple members of the tropomyosin family, e.g., TPM1, TPM2, TPM3 or TPM4, and further optionally including CTSD-30 kDa and/or PRDX-6, among other ovarian cancer biomarkers can form a characteristic diagnostic pattern or profile of expression that is diagnostic of the disease. Still other embodiments are described.
US09903863B2

Provided is an analysis method in which increase in a background can be prevented in a simple manner without cost. The analysis method of the present invention is carried out using a sample analysis tool 10 including a development member 11 in which a developing solution supply portion 12, a sample supply portion 13, and a detection portion 14 in which a substance 17 that specifically binds to an analyte 16 in a sample is immobilized are provided in this order from upstream to downstream along the flow of a developing solution. A sample solution is supplied to the sample supply portion 13, and a developing solution is supplied to the developing solution supply portion 12 simultaneously with the supply of the sample solution or prior to the supply of the sample solution. By the development of the developing solution in the development member 11 in the presence of a labeled specifically binding substance 15, the sample solution is introduced to the detection portion 14. In the detection portion 14, a complex 18 of the immobilized specifically binding substance 17, the analyte 16, and the labeled specifically binding substance 15 is formed. The analyte 16 is analyzed by detecting a label 19 in the complex 18.
US09903858B2

An assay device includes a support, test elements arranged thereover, and a diverter defining a common sample addition area of the device. The diverter conducts respective portions of a fluidic sample from the area to each of the test elements. Another assay device includes the test elements, one a dry slide element, disposed over the support at least partly in proximity to each other to define a common sample addition area. Apparatus for analyzing a sample includes an assay device having the test elements, one a dry slide element. A controller operates a metering mechanism, to apply the sample to the assay device, an incubator, and a measurement device per a timing protocol to determine a characteristic of the sample. Methods for enabling an assay device to perform multiple tests based upon a single sample metering event include are also described.
US09903856B2

The present disclosure provides an optical biosensor based on a complex including a porous support on a chip and enzyme(s) immobilized inside the pores of the porous support, and a method for preparing the same. Since the colored product does not flow out of the pores but is concentrated therein, the optical biosensor of the present disclosure has remarkably improved sensitivity. In addition, it is possible to carry out quantitative determination and qualitative analysis since color intensity increases with time.
US09903855B2

In alternative embodiments, the invention provides compositions and methods for overcoming or diminishing or preventing Growth Factor Inhibitor resistance in a cell, or, a method for increasing the growth-inhibiting effectiveness of a Growth Factor inhibitor on a cell, or, a method for re-sensitizing a cell to a Growth Factor Inhibitor, comprising for example, administration of a combination of a TBK1 inhibitor and an RTK inhibitor. In alternative embodiments, the cell is a tumor cell, a cancer cell or a dysfunctional cell. In alternative embodiments, the invention provides compositions and methods for determining: whether an individual or a patient would benefit from or respond to administration of a Growth Factor Inhibitor, or, which individuals or patients would benefit from a combinatorial approach comprising administration of a combination of: at least one growth factor and at least one compound, composition or formulation used to practice a method of the invention, such as an NFKB inhibitor, such as a lenalidomide or a REVLIMID™, or IKK inhibitor; or an inhibitor of Galectin-3.
US09903849B2

A method for determination of the bulk modulus of fuels in a fuel system of a combustion engine (2) with a common rail injection system (6), with a high pressure volume (16) including the high pressure side of a high pressure pump (9) and a fuel accumulator (8) with injectors (7) for injection of fuel into the cylinders of the combustion engine. The method including: first determining the volume of the high pressure volume by supplying a fuel with a known bulk modulus to the fuel system and by controlling the high pressure pump (9) so that it performs a pump stroke with the volume of the high pressure volume closed. The value of the determined volume is later used with another fuel in order to determine the latter fuel's bulk modulus.
US09903841B2

Provided is a wireless measuring system based on a cochlea principle for acquiring a dynamic response of a constructional structure and capable of monitoring and controlling health of the constructional structure in real time by acquiring the dynamic response of the constructional structure in which irregular random vibrations occur, effectively compressing the acquired data, wirelessly transmitting a signal, and analyzing the transmitted signal.
US09903837B2

An apparatus (100) detects magnetic particles in a field of view (28). The apparatus includes selection and focus magnetic field coil pairs (12, 14), drive pairs (16), and detection coils (148). A computer is configured to receive background signals with the detection coils, controls current supplied to the drive coil pair to shift the field of view in space, and reconstruct detection signals from the detection coils into an image of the field of view (28). The computer selects one or more frequency components of the detection signals and/or weighted by use of a frequency component specific signal quality factor obtained from the background signal measurements. Only the selected and/or weighted frequency components are used for reconstruction of the image.
US09903834B2

A FET type gas-sensitive device has a floating electrode formed in a horizontal direction. The device achieves noise reduction, process simplification, pollution control, sensing speed improvement, various sensing material applicability and mechanical stability etc. in comparison with a gas-sensitive device that is vertically stacked with a floating electrode, a sensing material layer and a control electrode. The device can be assembled easily with a plurality of gas-sensitive devices being operated by various sensing mechanisms in one substrate.
US09903832B2

The present disclosure provides a method for detecting an analyte concentration. The method includes providing a test strip, which includes a first electrode set including a first reaction area, a second electrode set including a second reaction area, and a reaction reagent layer disposed on the second reaction area. The method includes providing a blood sample and bringing the blood sample into contact with the first electrode set and the second electrode set, applying a first voltage to the first electrode set by voltammetry to obtain a first response value, calculating a hematocrit value according to the first response value, applying a second voltage to the second electrode set to obtain a second response value, and calculating the actual value of the analyte concentration by using the hematocrit value and the second response value.
US09903827B2

The present invention relates to handling misalignment in differential phase contrast imaging. In order to provide an improved handling of misalignment in X-ray imaging systems for differential phase contrast imaging, an X-ray imaging system (10) for differential phase contrast imaging is provided that comprises a differential phase contrast setup (12) with an X-ray source (14), an X-ray detector (16), and a grating arrangement comprising a source grating (18), a phase grating (20) and an analyzer grating (22). The source grating is arranged between the X-ray source and the phase grating, and the analyzer grating is arranged between the phase grating and the detector. Further, the system comprises a processing unit (24), and a measurement system (26) for determining a misalignment of at least one of the gratings. The X-ray source and the source grating are provided as a rigid X-ray source unit (28). The phase grating, the analyzer grating and the detector are provided as a rigid X-ray detection unit (30). The measurement system is an optical measurement system configured to determine a misalignment between the differential phase contrast setup consisting of the X-ray source unit and the X-ray detection unit. Further, the processing unit is configured to provide a correction signal (34) based on the determined misalignment.
US09903826B2

Example methods and systems are described for performing core-flood tests for evaluating effectiveness of hydrocarbon recovery techniques. In some aspects, a core-flood test system includes a core holder configured to be coupled to a computed tomography (CT) scanner system to monitor fluid saturations of a core including a rock sample and a core sleeve to be received in the core holder. The core holder and the core sleeve are separated by a confining space. The core sleeve is configured to receive the core. The core sleeve is configured to contact the core in response to a confining pressure applied to the core sleeve in the confining space and to be separate from the core in response to the confining pressure being removed, creating a fracture space between the core and the core sleeve.
US09903824B2

An apparatus and method for optical probing of a DUT is disclosed. The system enables identifying, localizing and classifying faulty devices within the DUT. A selected area of the DUT is imaged while the DUT is receiving test signals, which may be static or dynamic, i.e., causing certain of the active devices to modulate. Light from the DUT is collected and is passed through a transparent diffracting grating prior to imaging it by a sensor and converting it into an electrical signal. The resulting image includes the zero order and first order diffraction of the grating. The grating is configured such that the zero order is in registration with emission sites imaged when the grating is outside the optical path.
US09903820B2

Chemical functionalization of solid-state nanopores and nanopore arrays and applications thereof. Nanopores are extremely sensitive single-molecule sensors. Recently, electron beams have been used to fabricate synthetic nanopores in thin solid-state membranes with sub-nanometer resolution. A new class of chemically modified nanopore sensors are provided with two approaches for monolayer coating of nanopores by: (1) self-assembly from solution, in which nanopores −10 nm diameter can be reproducibly ceased, and (2) self-assembly under voltage driven electrolyte flow, in which 5 nm nanopore may be coated. Applications of chemically modified nanopore are provided including, the detection of biopolymers such as DNA and RNA, immobilizing enzymes or other proteins for detection or for generating chemical gradients; and localized pH sensing.
US09903815B2

According to an aspect of an exemplary embodiment, an authentication apparatus for authenticating an object includes an input coupler configured to receive incident light and generate surface plasmons from the incident light; and an output coupler configured to output a speckle pattern based on the surface plasmons.
US09903798B1

Specimen collection slides, methods of fabricating and methods of utilizing such specimen collection slides whereby each specimen collection slide includes a top rigid layer with an opening, a bottom rigid layer with an opening substantially the same size as the top layer opening, a middle rigid section having an opening larger than the openings in both the top and bottom layers, and a filtration media residing within the opening in the middle section. The top, bottom and middle are secured together to provide the resultant slide with thickness and rigidity that lends the slide to be utilized in automated handling processes and instruments. The middle section of the slide encases the filtration media and sandwiches it between the top and bottom layers so that the filtration media is protected from damage. Each slide may have its own unique identifier.
US09903783B2

A transportable test system having a control room module, a first IMR test module, and a second IMR test module. The test modules may have fasteners that permit assembly into a unitary package of predetermined overall dimension (i.e. size and shape) such as a standard shipping container dimension. A first IMR test module may have a clean fluid provider and/or supply reservoir, and a second IMR test module may have a used fluid collector and/or collection reservoir. The system may include pressurization, hose restraint, fluid containment, module stabilization/mobilization, lifting, cleaning, and control subsystems.
US09903774B2

The human cooperative robot system according to the present invention includes a robot, a force sensor detecting a load applied to a robot, and a robot controller controlling the robot. The force sensor includes at least one temperature detection element detecting temperature, incorporated therein. The robot controller determines whether or not to stop the operation of the robot based on the detected temperature output from the temperature detection element.
US09903764B2

A power estimation circuit including: a power estimation manager circuit configured to receive power data and temperature data; and a storage circuit that includes a first region storing resistive-capacitive (RC) thermal modeling data, a second region storing the power data and a third region storing the temperature data, wherein the power estimation manager circuit is configured to estimate power consumption of a first node at a second time point, which occurs after a first time point, using the RC thermal modeling data, the power data and the temperature data.
US09903763B2

A method for fabricating a semiconductor device includes patterning a sacrificial layer on a substrate to define a bolometer, with trenches being formed in the sacrificial layer to define anchors for the bolometer, the trenches extending through the sacrificial layer and exposing conductive elements at the bottom of the trenches. A thin titanium nitride layer is then deposited on the sacrificial layer and within the trenches. The titanium nitride layer is configured to form a structural support for the bolometer and to provide an electrical connection to the conductive elements on the substrate.
US09903751B1

The food portion scale is a device that allows for the measurement of individual portions of foodstuffs before a foodstuff is physically portioned. The foodstuff is a scale wherein the platter of the scale is mounted on a fulcrum. The foodstuff is then placed on the food portion scale such that the fulcrum passes underneath the foodstuff dividing the foodstuff into two portions. The food portion scale independently measures the weight of each portion of the food stuff as it is divided by the line of the fulcrum. The foodstuff is then scored along the line of the fulcrum. When the foodstuff is later cut into portions along the score line, the foodstuff will be portioned into portions that match the previously measured weights. The food portion scale comprises a platter, a fulcrum, a plurality of load cells, a plurality of displays, a housing, and a control system.
US09903748B1

A liquid level sensor and a method for sensing a liquid level adapated to a liquid storage container are provided. The liquid level sensor includes a pluraity of sensing electrodes and a liquid level determining circuit. The sensing electrodes are arranged on a side wall of the liquid storage container, and correspond to different liquid levels. The liquid level determining circuit is coupled to the sensing electrodes, and scans capacitance values of the sensing electrodes, so as to determine a liquid level of a liquid in the liquid storage container based on the current capacitance values of the sensing electrodes.
US09903735B2

An approach for a route stabilization scrolling mode is provided. The approach displays a map window, wherein the map window includes a visible region of a map, the map including a plotted route originating at a source location and ending at a destination location. The approach receives one or more swipe gestures within the map window. The approach determines whether the one or more swipe gestures exceeds an escape velocity threshold. Responsive to a determination that the one or more swipe gestures exceeds the level of intensity to progress the map window into an area of the map away from the plotted route, the approach generates one or more custom pegs, wherein the one or more custom pegs is a compressed snapshot of a last position on the plotted route prior to exceeding the escape velocity threshold.
US09903732B2

A method of providing navigation instructions in a locked mode of a device is disclosed. The method, while the display screen of the device is turned off, determines that the device is near a navigation point. The method turns on the display screen and provides navigation instructions. In some embodiments, the method identifies the ambient light level around the device and turns on the display at brightness level determined by the identified ambient light level. The method turns off the display after the navigation point is passed.
US09903728B2

Systems and methods for obtaining data about road conditions as they pertain to an individual vehicle, using this information to build a model of vehicle behavior as a function of its environment, and aggregating information concerning multiple vehicles along with data from other sources in order to predict vehicle behavior in future environments.
US09903719B2

Systems and methods relating to assessing a navigation subsystem are provided. One method includes: acquiring a ground image associated with a nominal position; assigning one or more texture classes to each of a plurality of pixels of the ground image; partitioning the processed ground image into a plurality of ground image sub regions; retrieving a reference image from an atlas of reference images; generating a plurality of matching statistics comprising a matching statistic for each ground image sub region by comparing the ground image sub region to a portion of the reference image; calculating a calculated position of the ground image and an uncertainty associated with the calculated position based on the matching statistics; and determining critique data associated with the navigation subsystem based on a comparison of the calculated position of the ground image with at least one position determined by the navigation subsystem.
US09903716B1

A construction site offset adapter assembly includes a main body and an end cap. The main body includes a securing device and a measurement pointer. The securing device couples the main body to a level and a measurement device. The measurement pointer is aligned with the lower edge of the level when the main body is coupled to the level. The end cap includes a second securing device and an offset measurement point. The second securing device couples the end cap to the level, and to an offset rod. The offset measurement point is aligned with the lower edge of the level when the end cap is coupled to the level. The construction site offset adapter assembly may include a plurality of securing devices and/or a plurality of second securing devices. The main body may include a plurality of measurement pointers.
US09903712B2

A measuring station system for calibrating a reference system for vehicle measurement has at least one image recording device, a calibration device having multiple calibration device reference features, and a calibration frame having at least three support points which are designed for accommodating a reference system carrier for the reference system to be calibrated. The calibration frame has at least three calibration frame reference features. The positions of the support points and of the calibration frame reference features in a shared coordinate system are known.
US09903707B2

Methodologies and an apparatus for enabling three-dimensional scatterometry to be used to measure a thickness of dielectric layers in semiconductor devices are provided. Embodiments include initiating optical critical dimension (OCD) scatterometry on a three-dimensional test structure formed on a wafer, the three-dimensional test structure comprising patterned copper (Cu) trenches with an ultra-low k (ULK) dielectric film formed over the patterned Cu trenches; and obtaining, by a processor, a thickness of the ULK dielectric film based on results of the OCD scatterometry.
US09903704B2

A three-DOF (Degree of Freedom) heterodyne grating interferometer displacement measurement system comprises a dual-frequency laser, a grating interferometer, a measurement grating, receivers and an electronic signal processing component; the grating interferometer comprises a polarizing beam splitter, a reference grating and dioptric elements; the measurement system realizes displacement measurement on the basis of grating diffraction, the optical Doppler Effect and the optical beat frequency principle. Three linear displacements can be output by the system when the grating interferometer and the measurement grating perform a three-DOF linear relative motion. The measurement system can reach sub-nanometer and higher resolution and precision, and can simultaneously measure three linear displacements. The measurement system has the advantages of being environmentally insensitive, high in measurement precision, small in size, light in weight, and is capable of improving the overall performances of an ultra-precision stage of a lithography machine as a position measurement system for this stage.
US09903703B2

A device and method for detecting an absolute multi-turn rotation angle. The device includes a housing, a cover plate and a rotating shaft. The rotating shaft is fixed with a main gear, which is meshed with driven gears including a large driven gear and a small driven gear. The main gear is externally meshed with the large driven gear. The driven gears are connected with a two-stage speed reduction device which enables the rotating shaft to rotate multiple circles to slow down to a circle-number gear and enables the circle-number gear to rotate one circle only. Both driven gears and the circle-number gear are provided with bearings. The bearings have magnets therein, and the two magnets are relatively fixed with the driven gears and the circle-number gear, respectively. The top edges of the bearings fit with a printed circuit board, angle sensing chips which are fixed on the printed circuit.
US09903701B2

A rotary switch device such as that used on the probe end of an articulated arm coordinate measurement machine is provided. The rotary switch having a housing with an axis of rotation. A first actuator is coupled to the housing. A first switch is coupled to the first actuator, the first actuator being configured to selectively close the first switch. A first electrical circuit is provided. A first antenna circuit is electrically coupled the first switch to the first electrical circuit, wherein the first electrical circuit and first antenna circuit cooperate to modulate an operating field when the first switch is closed. A reader circuit is arranged fixed relative to the axis of rotation, the reader circuit including a transmitter configured to emit the operating field and a receiver configured to detect the modulated operating field.
US09903692B2

An initiation device and method allowing power output to be switched between blast generation and splinter generation. The device and method include a cylindrical warhead with a cylindrical, central explosive charge and a tubular perforated mask surrounding the explosive charge, and also with at least two ignition devices, the first ignition device arranged in a region of one of the head sides of the cylindrical charge, and the second ignition device arranged in a region around a center of a longitudinal axis of the warhead, and having a splinter-generating casing surrounding the perforated mask.
US09903687B2

Laser systems are provided. In one aspect a laser system has a battery unit and a transistor having a source and a drain in series with the laser and the battery unit with the laser with the transistor having a source, and a gate that allows sufficient current to flow to the laser to allow the laser to emit light when a voltage at the gate is at a higher level and that does not allow sufficient current to flow to allow the laser to emit light when a voltage at the gate is at a lower level. A microcontroller is operable in an active mode and a reduced power mode having an activation input connected to a switch, a reduced power input connected in parallel with the capacitor and an output connected to the gate. When the switch changes from a first state to a second state, the microcontroller enters an active mode generating a plurality of micro-pulses at the gate such that an active current is supplied that cause the laser to emit a continuous plurality of micro-pulses that when viewed by a human observer provide an apparently continuous laser pulse and when the microcontroller enters a power down mode, no micro-pulses are provided at the gate and a leakage current through the laser provides energy to maintain the processor in the power down mode of activation until the switch is again closed.
US09903685B2

The present disclosure provides an improved concealed carry clip, that attaches with machine screws to the slide rear cover plate, and which has friction features on the clip to facilitate drawing back the slide with the thumb and index finger. In addition, the cover plate can be equipped with projections that reduce shearing forces on the machine screws. A drilled and tapped replacement cover plate is provided with the improved concealed carry clip. Though the improved concealed carry clips have, to date, been designed for Glock®, M&P®, and Springfield Armory® handguns, the concealed carry clips may be adapted for use on other similarly constructed handguns in the future.
US09903679B1

An improved barrel clamp assembly for a multi-barreled minigun includes a barrel clamp tube having a front end, a rear end, and a plurality of longitudinal openings extending along a portion the length of the tube between the front end and the rear end. An impeller is mounted in the barrel clamp tube between the tube front end and the tube rear end. The impeller includes a plurality of impeller blades that are spaced around a periphery of the impeller and that project forward from a rear flange portion of the impeller and the impeller blades define a plurality of air channels. A barrel assembly includes the barrel clamp tube, a flash suppressor mounted to the front end of the barrel clamp tube, and a barrel clamp collar mounted to the rear end of the barrel clamp tube. The impeller is mounted to the barrel clamp tube between the flash suppressor and the barrel clamp collar.
US09903666B2

A mist cooling system that includes a casing and a liquid inlet. The casing is configured to receive a liquid flow from a source through the liquid inlet and then provide the liquid flow as a mist to a housing of a motor so as to increase a cooling of the motor and prevent any failure of the motor due to overheating.
US09903665B2

A heat dissipation unit and a thermal module thereof. The heat dissipation unit includes a metal main body having a chamber, an oxide coating and a working fluid. The oxide coating is coated on wall surface of the chamber instead of capillary structure. The oxide coating serves to enhance vapor/liquid circulation efficiency of the working fluid in the chamber of the heat dissipation unit so as to increase heat dissipation efficiency.
US09903661B2

A plate (30) for a heat exchanger (50) is stackable with another plate (30) of the heat exchanger (50) to form a pair of plates (30). The pair of plates (30) are arranged to permit the circulation of a fluid to be cooled between the pair of plates (30). The plate (30) exhibits an exchange zone (ZE) to encourage the exchange of heat with the fluid. The plate (30) also exhibits a bypass zone (ZBP) capable of allowing the fluid to bypass the exchange zone (ZE). The plate (30) comprises means (36, 37) originating from the plate (30) configured in such a way as to force a circulation of the fluid in the exchange zone (ZE). A core (52) of plates comprising a plurality of the plates (30), as well as a heat exchanger (50) comprising the core (52), are also disclosed.
US09903657B2

A device for treating bulk material with a gas, the device including a grate through which gas can flow from an under-grate space to the upper side and which conveys a layer of bulk material in a conveying direction from a loading end to a discharge end. The grate has a plurality of mutually adjacent rows, each of which includes at least one bar that is elongate in the conveying direction and may be moved alternately back and forth in the conveying direction. Driving is controlled such that the forward stroke of the at least one bar of two adjacent rows takes place at the same time, while the rearward stroke of the at least one bar of two adjacent rows takes place at different times.
US09903656B2

A support tooling for supporting at least one metal part that is to be subjected to heat treatment or shaped while hot, the tooling including: a stationary support structure presenting a determined shape that corresponds to the general shape of each metal part that is to be supported; first holder elements arranged on one side of each part; second holder elements arranged on the other side of each part; and at least one spring type resilient element placed between the support structure and each first or second holder element so as to hold the part throughout the duration of heat treatment. The support structure, the first and second holder elements and the resilient element(s) are made of thermostructural composite material.
US09903652B2

The present disclosure relates to a clothes treating apparatus having a drying function, and more particularly, a clothes treating apparatus having a drying function, capable of fast drying a large quantity of targets to be dried by employing a heater assembly, separate from a cabinet having a drum and the like therein. The clothes treating apparatus having a drying function comprises a cabinet to receive a rotatable drum therein, the cabinet defining an appearance of the apparatus, a module part mounted onto an outer surface of the cabinet, the module part having a heater assembly, a blower assembly, and a housing for accommodating the heater assembly and the blower assembly, and a link unit to connect the module part onto the rear side of the cabinet.
US09903650B2

The present disclosure provides a substrate support structure, a vacuum drying device and a vacuum drying method. The substrate support structure includes a support platform and a plurality of pins in the support platform. The plurality of pins is divided into at least two groups, and the at least two groups of pins are in the support platform in such a manner as to be liftable in the support platform, so that a substrate is supported by the at least two groups of pins alternately.
US09903646B2

The apparatus for liquefying a gaseous stream received from a pipeline that is comprised predominantly of ethane and a relatively small amount of other components by using a mixed refrigerant refrigeration cycle loop incorporating heavy hydrocarbons, as well as a distillation column to remove constituents lighter than ethane. Prior to cooling in a main heat exchanger, the gaseous stream is split into two fractions. The main heat exchanger is configured to cool the first fraction before heading to the distillation column for separation therein. An expansion device expands the second fraction to produce a two phase fluid, which is separated in a gas/liquid separator, with the liquid fraction being introduced to the distillation column below the first fraction, and the gas fraction being cooled and then introduced to the distillation column at a point above the first fraction.
US09903645B2

The process for liquefying a gaseous stream received from a pipeline that is comprised predominantly of ethane and a relatively small amount of other components by using a mixed refrigerant loop incorporating heavy hydrocarbons (butane, and/or pentane), as well as a distillation column to remove constituents lighter than ethane. Prior to cooling in a main heat exchanger, the gaseous stream is split into two fractions. The first fraction is cooled in the main heat exchanger and introduced to the distillation column. The second fraction is expanded to produce a two phase fluid, with the liquid fraction being introduced to the distillation column below the first fraction, and the gas fraction being cooled and then introduced to the distillation column at a point above the first fraction.
US09903643B2

A drawer assembly is provided for a refrigeration appliance. The drawer assembly comprises a unitary storage bin configured to move relative to the cooled compartment. The storage bin is defined by a front wall, a rear wall and opposed sidewalls that are arranged substantially parallel to the first and second interior walls of the cooled compartment. An uppermost portion of each of the opposed sidewalls comprises a projecting edge. The rear wall comprises a reinforced edge that inhibits deflection. A pair of linear motion elements is installed to enable movement of the storage bin in and out of the cooled compartment. A pair of support brackets couples the pair of linear motion elements.
US09903633B2

A container for a refrigerating machine has: a storeroom storing a stored objective; a housing chamber housing an evaporator and an evaporator fan and guiding an inside air in the storeroom to flowing back to the storeroom after passing through the evaporator; a first ventilation duct connected to the housing chamber and having a first blower fan and a first heat storage body; a second ventilation duct connected to the housing chamber and having a second blower fan and a second heat storage body; and a controller controlling the first blower fan and the second blower fan. The controller controls the first blower fan and the second blower fan and switches between (i) a mode in which an outside air inflows through the first ventilation duct, and the inside air outflows through the second ventilation duct and (ii) a mode in which an outside air inflows through the second ventilation duct, and the inside air outflows through the first ventilation duct, at a specified time interval.
US09903629B2

A heat pump device includes: a compressor including a compression mechanism compressing a refrigerant and a motor driving the compression mechanism; an inverter unit applying a voltage for driving the motor; an inverter control unit generating a driving signal for driving the inverter unit; and temperature sensors detecting temperatures of the compressor, wherein the inverter control unit includes a normal operation mode in which a refrigerant is compressed by performing a normal operation of the compressor and a heating operation mode in which a heating operation of the compressor is performed by applying, to the motor, a high-frequency voltage, and in the heating operation mode, the inverter control unit determines an amplitude and a phase of a voltage command for generating the high-frequency voltage on a basis of a temperatures detected by the temperature sensors and a necessary amount of heat specified in advance.
US09903623B2

An ejector includes an atomization mechanism arranged at an end of a first nozzle. The atomization mechanism includes a plurality of orifices and a collision plate against which each of a plurality of jets ejected from the plurality of orifices collides. The collision plate includes a first principal surface and a second principal surface as a collision surface against which the jet collides, each of the first principal surface and the second principal surface extending toward an outlet of the ejector. The plurality of orifices includes a plurality of first orifices arranged on a side of the first principal surface of the collision plate and a plurality of second orifices arranged on a side of the second principal surface of the collision plate.
US09903612B2

A solar heat collection tube includes a center metal tube that allows a heat medium to flow therethrough, a glass tube that covers the outer circumference of the center metal tube to form an annular void between the glass tube and the center metal tube, and an absorber configured to absorb a difference in the thermal expansion between the center metal tube and the glass tube. The absorber has a connection cylinder and metal bellows. The metallic bellows are connected in series by the connection cylinder. The bellows are arranged to overlap in the radial direction with the connection cylinder located therebetween.
US09903610B2

An exhaust case having the first exhaust gas flow path for flowing combustion exhaust gas passing upward through a heat exchange, behind a water-shielding plate and for guiding the combustion exhaust gas onto the water-shielding plate toward an exhaust vent, and having the second exhaust gas flow path for flowing a part of combustion exhaust gas into a space between the water-shielding plate and a horizontal plate part and further into the exhaust vent. A ventilation hole is provided for an upright plate part extending from the rear end of the horizontal plate part in order to flow combustion exhaust gas into the space, and is provided in the substantially horizontal direction. Accordingly, the exhaust case is inhibited to become large scaled, and a superior exhaust noise-reduction effect, a suppression effect of combustion oscillation of the burner, and a waterproof performance are able to be achieved.
US09903609B2

An air-conditioning apparatus (1) of the window type that transmits a reduced noise level to a closed environment and, additionally, minimizes/reduces the exchange of heat between its cold and hot parts. The air-conditioning apparatus (1) is endowed with at least a first portion (2) including at least an evaporator. Additionally, the air-conditioning apparatus (1) is endowed with at least a second portion (3) including at least a condenser and a compressor operatively associated to the evaporator. Additionally, the air-conditioning apparatus (1) is endowed with at least a vacuum chamber (4) positioned between the first portion (2) and the second portion (3).
US09903605B2

Method and air treatment device (1) for control of supply air flow (L1). The air treatment device (1) comprises a chilled beam (2) with a pressure box (5) comprising an inlet (6) for inflow of supply air flow (L1) and a plurality of outlets (7) for outflow of the supply air flow (L1) out of the pressure box (5). The air treatment device (1) comprises an actuator (12) for control of supply air flow (L1), and the pressure box (5) comprises at least one pressure measuring socket (13) for control of static pressure (ps). The air treatment device (1) registers the static pressure (ps) and the position of the actuator (12), and calculates the real supply air flow (L1). The actuator (12) is arranged to change the configuration of the outlets (7) by a linear motion of a cover member (9) and change the open area of the outlets (7).
US09903603B2

An energy efficient and quiet air cooling system for a building structure is provided. The air cooling system includes an evaporator system mounted in the wall of the building, a remotely mounted fan, an air intake, and a sound and heat insulating duct. The fan is mounted in the attic and configured to draw air from the living area of the building through the sound insulating duct with sufficient power to create a negative static pressure in the living area. The negative static pressure in turn causes outside air to flow through the evaporator system which removes heat from the outside air. The cooled air is in turn drawn into the building and pulled into the attic through the duct and expelled through the attic. The fan expels warm air into the attic, creating a positive pressure environment which causes the warm air to be expelled from the attic through natural vents.
US09903601B2

To provide an air-conditioning apparatus capable of achieving energy saving, a pump control of controlling the operating capacity of a pump is performed such that an opening degree of a heat medium flow control device, controlled by a heat-medium-flow-control-device control, approaches a target opening degree, and a refrigeration cycle of a refrigerant circuit is controlled such that the temperature of a heat medium, whose flow rate is controlled by the heat-medium-flow-control-device control and the pump control, approaches a target temperature.
US09903600B2

An air flow direction adjusting device of an air-conditioning apparatus includes: a base member including attachment shafts; air flow direction adjusting members individually attached to the attachment shafts such that the air flow direction adjusting members are allowed to rotate; and a link plate configured to rotate the air flow direction adjusting members in an interlocked manner. At least one of the air flow direction adjusting members includes a rotation shaft attachment portion attached to the corresponding one of the attachment shafts, a link plate engagement portion to be engaged with the link plate, and an operation member attachment portion to which a manual operation member for manually adjusting orientation of the air flow direction adjusting members is attached. The manual operation member is not attached to at least one of the air flow direction adjusting members.
US09903598B2

A convection oven having a vapor collection system; water injection system; easily accessible electrical components; and a variable-speed, reversible blower is disclosed. The vapor collection system collects vapor from the cooking chamber during a cooking event, condenses the vapor, and drains the condensed vapor. The water injection system injects water for impact against a blower wheel for dispersion into the air circulating through the cooking chamber. The electrical components are housed within a housing that in a closed position conceals the components and in a closed position exposes the components for easy access. The rotational speed and direction of the variable-speed, reversible blower is controlled during a cooking event according to predetermined speed curves which may include one or more reversal events to achieve more uniform cooking of food. A main controller is programmable via an operator input (e.g., liquid crystal display touch screen) to control operating parameters of the oven.
US09903590B2

A double wall structured combustor having an outer wall having an inner surface and an outer surface and an inner wall comprising a plurality of tiles. Each tile has at least one interlocking member at a first wall and at least one interengaging member at a second wall. The interlocking member extending through an aperture in the outer wall, and the interengaging member at the second wall engaging with a cutaway section in the first wall of an adjacent tile. On assembly of the combustion chamber, the interlocking members and interengaging members of the tiles ensure lower profile fixings and an overall reduction in number of conventional fasteners used.
US09903587B2

Regulating valve for a gas cooking appliance suitable for supplying different types of combustible gas such as, for example, natural gas or liquefied gas. A valve body of the valve has an inlet conduit, an outlet conduit and a cavity wherein a rotary regulating member is housed. The regulating member includes a plurality of inlet paths communicated with the inlet conduit which, by means of the rotation of the regulating member, allows varying gas flow in the outlet conduit. According to some implementations, the inlet path of the regulating member corresponding to a minimum gas flow is in one and the same angular and axial position for each of the different types of combustible gases.
US09903584B2

A system for converting fuel may include a first moving bed reactor, a second reactor, and a non-mechanical valve. The first moving bed reactor may include at least one tapered section and multiple injection gas ports. The multiple injection gas ports may be configured to deliver a fuel to the first moving bed reactor. The first moving bed reactor may be configured to reduce an oxygen carrying material with a fuel by defining a countercurrent flowpath for the fuel relative to the oxygen carrying material. The second reactor may communicate with the first moving bed reactor and may be operable to receive an oxygen source. The second reactor may be configured to regenerate the reduced oxygen carrying material by oxidation.
US09903578B1

An air cooled horticulture lamp fixture for growing plants in confined indoor spaces. The fixture seals the lamp and heat generated by the same to a reflector interior. Flow disruptors create turbulence in a cooling chamber thereby enhancing thermal transfer into a cooling air stream that flows over and around the reflector's exterior side thereby convectively cooling the lamp using the reflector as a heat sink. The lamp is effectively maintained at operational temperatures and the fixture housing is insulated from the hotter reflector by a gap of moving cooling air, allowing improved efficiencies of the lamp bulb in confined indoor growing spaces.
US09903575B2

Described are embodiments of driver brackets having dividers that separate low voltage wires from high voltage wires within a driver enclosure so as to reduce the risk of high and low voltage wires coming into contact within the driver enclosure. Also described are embodiments of driver brackets that support a driver entirely on one side of the driver bracket.
US09903562B2

Disclosed herein is a light emitting apparatus including a substrate, at least one light source, a wavelength converter disposed on the substrate to convert a wavelength of light emitted from the at least one light source, and a reflector which comprises an opening formed at a point nearest to the wavelength converter to allow the light emitted from the at least one light source to progress toward the wavelength converter, the reflector being disposed on the substrate to reflect light from the wavelength converter.
US09903559B2

A lighting apparatus includes a circuit board, a lighting element and a lens structure. The lighting element is disposed on the circuit board. The lighting element includes a lighting top surface and a lighting lateral surface adjoined to the lighting top surface and the circuit board. The lighting top surface has a center and an optical axis passing through the center. The lens structure covers the lighting element to receive a light from the lighting element. The lens structure includes an outer surface having a total reflection portion and a light outgoing portion surrounding the total reflection portion. The optical axis passes through the total reflection portion. The total reflection portion is configured to totally reflect a portion of light from the center. The light outgoing portion is configured to allow another light emitted from the center to leave away from the lens structure.
US09903558B2

A vehicle lighting fixture can be configured to form a predetermined light distribution pattern by two-dimensionally scanning light with resolutions different in part, for example, in which the resolution in the horizontal direction is high at the center area and is gradually lowered toward the outer periphery from the center area. The vehicle lighting unit can include an optical deflector configured to two-dimensionally scan with groups of spots of light having been incident thereon from a light source; a screen member in which the light scanning by the optical deflector forms a luminance distribution corresponding to a predetermined light distribution pattern; an optical system configured to project the luminance distribution forward; and an optical controlling member configured to change a pitch between spots in a group of spots among the groups of spots of light scanned by the optical deflector on the screen member.
US09903554B2

A vehicle lighting fixture can control the light distribution with higher accuracy while suppressing the light intensity unevenness of the light distribution even with a plurality of light sources used. The vehicle lighting fixture can include: a plurality of LED elements arranged in a vertical direction and a lateral direction; a projector lens assembly including two projector lenses disposed in front of the plurality of LED elements and configured to project light emitted from the plurality of LED elements forward; and an image shifter disposed in an optical path from the plurality of LED elements to a position forward of the projector lenses. The image shifter can include a plurality of prisms configured to widen light source images of the plurality of LED elements in the vertical and lateral directions.
US09903548B2

A mounting system for a fixture includes a bracket configured to be mounted to a support structure that has at least one retaining member. A fixture is movably mounted to the bracket such that the fixture is movable between a first position and a second position relative to the bracket. The fixture includes at least one inclined surface engageable by the at least one retaining member such that movement of the fixture relative to the bracket between the first position and the second position moves the fixture toward the support structure.
US09903537B2

An LED tube lamp including a glass lamp tube, an end cap disposed at one end of the glass lamp tube, a power supply provided inside the end cap, an LED light strip disposed inside the glass lamp tube with a plurality of LED light sources mounted on. At least a part of an inner surface of the glass lamp tube is formed with a rough surface, and the glass lamp tube is covered by a heat shrink sleeve. The LED light strip has a bendable circuit sheet which is made of a metal layer structure to electrically connect the LED light sources with the power supply. The glass lamp tube and the end cap are secured by a highly thermal conductive silicone gel with its thermal conductivity not less than 0.7 w/m·k.
US09903536B2

The present invention is directed to an improved fluid diode using topology optimization with Finite Element Method (FEM). Topology optimization as a flexible optimization method has been extended to the fluid field. For given boundary conditions and constraints, it distributes a specific amount of pores (or remove materials to get channel) in the design domain to minimize/maximize an objective function. In this design, inlet and outlet ports are aligned and inflow and outflow are in the same direction. The present invention features an intricate network of fluid channels having optimized fluid connectivity and shapes, which significantly improves the diodicity of fluidic passive valves.
US09903534B2

A cryogenic fluid delivery system includes a tank adapted to contain a supply of cryogenic liquid, with the tank including a head space adapted to contain a vapor above the cryogenic liquid stored in the tank. A liquid withdrawal line is adapted to communicate with cryogenic liquid stored in the tank. A vaporizer has an inlet that is in communication with the liquid withdrawal line and an outlet that is in communication with a vapor delivery line. A pressure building circuit is in communication with the vapor delivery line and the head space of the tank. The pressure building circuit includes a flow inducing device and a control system for activating the flow inducing device when a pressure within the head space of the tank drops below a predetermined minimum pressure and/or when other conditions exist.
US09903533B2

The present invention discloses a triaxial stabilizer for mobile phone, comprising a handheld part, a fixing device for mobile phone, and three motors which are arranged at top of the handheld part and are orthogonal in a space, wherein the three motors are respectively an X-axis motor, a Y-axis motor, and a Z-axis motor, wherein the Z-axis motor has a stator connected with the handheld part and has a rotor connected with a stator of the Y-axis motor, the Y-axis motor has a rotor connected with a stator of the X-axis motor, and the X-axis motor has a rotor connected with the fixing device for mobile phone. The triaxial stabilizer for mobile phone according to the present invention may quickly stabilize the mobile phone and control its shooting direction during moving shooting.
US09903532B2

A clamp assembly that may be used for securing to a raised portion of a surface. The clamp assembly comprising a mounting body of a general block shape having a slot for receiving the raised portion formed in a bottom surface of the mounting body attaching the clamp assembly thereto. The clamp assembly is configured with one or more pins that may be formed in a substantially elongated cylindrical shape. The pins may be configured to be received in one or more push-pin holes formed in the mounting body, whereby the push-pin holes extend to the slot from a side surface of push-pin holes. The clamp assembly includes a fastening element adapted to be received in a fastener hole formed adjacent the push-pin holes in the side surface of the mounting body. The fastening element is configured to secure, attach and hold the clamp assembly to the standing seam by forcing the pins against the raised portion of the surface disposed in the slot.
US09903531B2

A hanger apparatus includes a support base and at least one support frame. The support base has a containing groove, a fastening component, and at least one receiving slot. The containing groove has at least one locating device. The locating device is configured to secure the support base to a fixed structure. The fastening component is installed at two end portions of the support base. The fastening component is removably attached to a fastening component of another support base. The receiving slot detachably receives the support frame. The support frame has at least one support post and at least one support component. The supporting component is mounted at an end of the support post, and is configured to support a hanging object.
US09903530B1

One embodiment of a linear U-shape that can be molded into or attached to an awning or other feasible accessory allowing them to be mounted to a J-channel.
US09903526B2

A force engine operable to counterbalance a load. The force engine includes one or more energy reservoirs operable to store energy. The one or more energy reservoirs are operable to generate a force to balance the load through the displacement in an operating mode. A traveling member is hingedly connected to the one or more energy reservoirs. The force generated by the one or more energy reservoirs is transferred to the load through the traveling member and an associated linkage. A variable member is coupled to the one or more energy reservoirs. In the adjusting mode the variable member is displaced to configure an operating relationship between the one or more energy reservoirs and the traveling member. A release interacts with the variable member to fix a position of the variable member.
US09903520B2

A quick coupling device for pressurized fluid, comprising a male coupling (2), a first adapter (36) applied to said male coupling (2) for connection to a first external element, a female coupling (1) associable with the male coupling (2), a second adapter (20) applied to said female coupling (1) for connection to a second external element, at least one adapter (36, 20) being made as an axially hollow piece exhibiting a first portion (100) having a cylindrical external cross section and at least a second portion (101) coaxial to the first portion (100) and having a polygonal external cross section, the polygonal external cross section of the second portion (101) being inscribed along the axial generatrices of the cylindrical external cross section of the first portion (100).
US09903518B2

A single action push to connect fitting for conduit such as tube or pipe. The fitting includes a first fitting component and a second fitting component that are joined or assembled together to form a fitting assembly. The fitting assembly includes a conduit seal device and a conduit retaining device. A conduit may be manually or otherwise inserted into the assembled fitting assembly with a single axial movement and be retained and sealed without need for further action or movement of the fitting components.
US09903515B2

Seals for mechanical couplings and fittings have sealing surfaces with one or more projections that form closable leak paths between the coupling or fitting and pipe elements being joined. The leak paths close when the coupling or fitting is properly installed. Otherwise, the leak paths remain open to ensure that improperly installed couplings and fittings can be discovered during pressure testing and before service pressure is applied.
US09903513B2

A thermosetting bamboo sand composite pressure pipe comprises a inner liner layer (1), an inner reinforcement layer (2), a sand adhesive layer (3), an outer reinforcement layer (4) and an outer protection layer (5) arranged respectively from an inside to an outside in a radial direction thereof. The inner reinforcement layer (2) formed by winding bamboo, a thickening layer (3) formed by stirred ore and adhesive, and the outer reinforcement layer (4) formed by winding bamboo are arranged sequentially from an inside to an outside between the inner liner layer (1) and the outer protection layer (5). The composite pressure pipe is energy-saving and environmental-friendly, raw production materials are recyclable, and a price is low.
US09903506B2

A sanitary water faucet handle has multiple levers, or grasping regions. Each lever includes an associated indicator, identifying whether the particular grasping region is intended for use in turning the faucet's water supply on, or off. The indicator may be in the form of indicia applied to a portion of at least one of the levers, a coloration of at least one of the levers, a variation in the relative length of at least one of the levers, or a variation of the height of at least one of the levers relative to a bottom surface of the handle. The handle is attachable to a conventional water valve, permitting the handle to be retrofitted as a replacement handle in existing faucet systems. A supplemental lever or grasping region may be attachable or releasably attachable to a preexisting lever of a faucet system. A powered faucet lever may be provided that reconfigures itself to automatically present one of two separate sets of grasping regions, depending upon whether the associated faucet is activated or deactivated.
US09903499B2

The proportional valve including a valve body, an air inlet hole and an air outlet hole being provided inside the valve body; a valve core component, the valve core component being movably disposed inside the valve body along a vertical direction; and a first film sheet, an outer side of the first film sheet being connected to the valve body, and an inner side of the film sheet being connected to the valve core component. The proportional valve has a high response speed, high precision, desirable repeatability, desirable consistency, small hysteresis, low fabrication difficulty, and low fabrication cost.
US09903492B2

A roll over valve for a fuel tank of a vehicle may include a plurality of oil surface variable fuel inflow tubes mounted on an inlet through which fuel is introduced into a float of a single type roll over valve mounted on the fuel tank.
US09903486B2

A modular sleeve valve apparatus can include a valve body including a first port and a second port on a first and second sidewall of the valve body. The apparatus can include a first and second valve core sleeved within the valve body. The first valve core can be a cylinder including a first aperture in a cylindrical sidewall and a second aperture in a top base-wall. The second valve core can be a cylinder including a third aperture in a cylindrical sidewall and a fourth aperture in a bottom base-wall. The first and second valve cores can be removable from the valve body and radially rotatable within the valve body. The second valve core can be positioned stacked upon the first valve core to align the second aperture and the fourth aperture.
US09903482B2

A system includes a ball valve with a housing having a fluid passage, a ball disposed within the housing along the fluid passage, and a stem coupled to the ball. The stem is configured to move the ball between an open position and a closed position relative to the fluid passage. The stem is disposed in a first opening on a first side of the housing. The stem is removable from the first opening, through at least one opening in the ball, and out through a second opening on a second side of the housing.
US09903476B2

A rotational shaft seal member which does not cause leakage of powder and which has a slit capable of being enlarged as a result of occurrence of springback. Cylindrical shaft seal member 4b at powder container 1 includes pile 5 including woven/knit pile fabric 7 having cut pile 7b at the inside of cylindrical shaft seal member 4b and pile cylindrical support member 4c; the outside diameter 4e being capable of shrinkage as a result of external pressure, and being capable of enlargement as a result of pressure on the inside diameter 4d. When cylindrical shaft seal member 4b is inserted in attachment hole 2a of support frame 2 at the rotating body, attachment is achieved because slit 8 causes shrinkage of outside diameter 4e of cylindrical shaft seal member 4b, enlargement due to springback of slit 8 causing intimate contact with attachment hole 2a.
US09903468B2

A hydraulic pressure supply system of an automatic transmission may include a mechanical oil pump fluidly-connected to the oil pan to supply oil to first and second discharge paths fluidly-connected to the mechanical oil pump, a first switch valve fluidly-connected to the first discharge path and selectively supplying oil to a first supply path fluidly-connected to the first switch valve, a second switch valve fluidly-connected to the first and second discharge paths and selectively supplying oil supplied in the first supply path to the transmission unit and a pressure control valve through a second supply path fluidly-connected to the second switch valve, respectively, a first solenoid valve actuator engaged to the first switch valve and a second solenoid valve actuator engaged to the second switch valve, and an electrical oil pump fluidly-connected to the oil pan to supply the oil to a third supply path fluidly-connected with the second supply path.
US09903463B2

A gearbox for an engine-driven mechanism comprises a gearbox housing having opposing walls. A first bearing bore is defined in one of the opposing walls and adapted for receiving an input shaft. A second bearing bore is defined in the other opposing wall and aligned with the first bearing bore. Each bearing bore mounts a bearing for supporting the input shaft which extends through the first bearing bore and into the gearbox. The second bearing bore includes an associated transparent and/or translucent lens to define a sight window for monitoring the level of oil in the gearbox. A sight window of this nature is particularly well suited for retrofitting older gearboxes which lack a sight window.
US09903461B2

A pulley intended to be mounted around a rolling bearing and having an inner web for connecting to an outer race of the rolling bearing, an outer web for connecting to a flexible force-transmitting element, and radial connecting ribs between the outer web and the inner web. The ribs are distributed in several groups, each group providing at least three successive ribs, which form several pairs of adjacent ribs, the midplanes of which are separated two by two at a regular angle, and the angle between the midplanes of two adjacent ribs in one and the same group varies, between two adjacent groups, by at least 5% with respect to the smaller of the two angles.
US09903458B2

A differential gear for a motor vehicle includes a housing with a first housing part and a second housing part, and at least one bolt on which two differential gear wheels are arranged. The first housing part is configured integrally with an input element and the second housing part has at least two mutually opposing receiver openings. Bolt ends of the bolt are received in the receiver openings so that end faces of the bolt in the region of the two bolt ends, together with the outside of the second housing part, form a housing outer face. The first housing part, the second housing part, and the bolt are connected together by a peripheral radial weld seam.
US09903454B2

A reduction gear case (29) of a planetary gear reduction mechanism (28) is mounted on a reduction gear mounting part (18C) of an axle tube (18). A carrier (33) is provided with a wheel mounting part (33B) projecting outside of the reduction gear case (29). A wheel (2) is mounted on the wheel mounting part (33B) and an oil seal (39) is disposed between an outer peripheral surface of the wheel mounting part (33B) and an inner peripheral surface of the front wheel (2) of the reduction gear case (29). As a result, the oil seal (39) can be exposed by removing the front wheel (2) from the wheel mounting part (33B) in the carrier (33). On the other hand, a brake mechanism (40) is disposed on the inner peripheral side of the reduction gear mounting part (18C). Therefore, the brake mechanism (40) can be exposed by removing the front wheel (2) from the wheel mounting part (33B) in the carrier (33) and the planetary gear reduction mechanism (28) from the reduction gear mounting part (18C).
US09903452B2

An improved structure of linear actuator includes an actuator including a gear set having a friction portion located at the periphery of the gear shaft of a driven gear thereof, a one-way bearing mounted on the gear shaft for rubbing against the friction portion to brake the driven gear from reverse rotation, a driver for driving the gear set and a transmission mechanism including a lead screw coaxially coupled to and rotatable by the gear shaft of the driven gear and a retractable tube assembly coupled to the lead screw and movable by the lead screw between an extended position and a received position, and a stopping mechanism including a thrust bearing coupled to the gear shaft of the driven gear and stoppable against an inner race of the one-way bearing inner race to bear an axial thrust load.
US09903448B2

An accessories drive system, including: a clutch assembly with a drive shaft; and at least one accessory device connected to the drive shaft. In a first position for the clutch assembly: the clutch assembly is arranged to transmit a first torque from an output shaft for a transmission to the drive shaft to drive the at least one accessory device and rotation of the drive shaft is isolated from rotation of a launch device for the vehicle. In a second position for the clutch assembly: the clutch assembly is arranged to transmit a second torque from the launch device to the drive shaft to drive the at least one accessory device and the rotation of the drive shaft is isolated from rotation of the output shaft for the transmission.
US09903444B2

A planetary gear train of an automatic transmission for a vehicle may include an input shaft receiving torque of an engine, an output shaft outputting changed torque of the engine, a first planetary gear set including first, second, and third rotation elements, a second planetary gear set including fourth, fifth, and sixth rotation elements, a third planetary gear set including seventh, eighth, and ninth rotation elements, and a fourth planetary gear set including tenth, eleventh, and twelfth rotation elements, in which the input shaft is directly connected to the second rotational element and the sixth rotational element, the output shaft is directly connected to the third rotational element and the eleventh rotational element, the fourth rotational element is directly connected to the eighth rotational element and is selectively connected to the first rotational element, and the seventh rotational element is directly connected to the tenth rotational element.
US09903443B2

An eccentric speed variator includes a first rotor, a second rotor, a third rotor, a cylindrical pin, and a flange. The second rotor has a hole formed therein. The third rotor rotates eccentrically to change a relative rotation phase between the first and second rotors. The cylindrical pin extends through the hole of the second rotor to establish mechanical engagement between the second and third rotors. The flange is secured to or integrally formed with an end of the cylindrical pin. In operation, when the flange contacts the outside wall of the second rotor, it serves to minimize inclination of the third rotor relative to the second rotor, thereby reducing local friction between the second and third rotors to eliminate undesirable mechanical vibration or noise. This structure also enables parts of the cycloidal speed reducer to be decreased, which leads to a reduced size of the cycloidal speed reducer.
US09903428B2

A brake disc assembly including a brake disk ring, a bell and a connecting mechanism between the brake disk ring and the bell, wherein the connecting mechanism includes a form-locked and/or force-locked connecting element in an axial direction DO of the brake disc ring, the connecting mechanism comprises a bushing for the connecting element and a distance element arranged between the brake disk ring and the bell, wherein the bushing includes a shoulder and a loss prevention, wherein the bushing further includes a region A1 provided for the brake disk ring and a region A2 provided for the bell, wherein the region A1 has an average expansion E4 in an direction perpendicular to DO and the region A2 has an average expansion E2 in an direction perpendicular to DO.
US09903427B1

A disc guard assembly for use in shielding a disc of a rear disc brake system on a motorcycle is provided. The disc guard assembly may include a disc guard, which may be plastic, and a carrier adapter, which may be metal. The carrier adapter may be removably attached to a rear brake carrier mount of the rear disc brake system of the motorcycle via one or more fasteners, and the disc guard may be removably attached to the carrier adapter via one or more fasteners.
US09903426B1

A brake actuator comprises a housing having an end wall and a pushrod projecting through an opening in the end wall and terminating at a movable plate in the housing. A spring is enclosed in the housing and surrounds the pushrod. At least one unitary resilient member is disposed on the push rod proximate to the end wall and partially extends through the opening for centering the spring around an axis of the pushrod and restricting contamination into the housing. The unitary resilient member comprises a central aperture and an annular flange surrounding the central aperture. At least one section of a collar radially outward from the annular flange has a thickness less than half of the annular flange thickness for constraining movement of the spring and the push rod in a radial direction.
US09903425B2

A rotary lock apparatus comprises a structural ground and a shaft rotatable about a shaft axis relative to the structural ground, wherein the shaft includes a detent portion. First and second locking components are displaceable along the shaft axis in opposite directions to cause the detent portion to be engaged and coupled to the structural ground in a manner preventing rotation of the shaft about the shaft axis. The locking components are actuated through a combined displacement distance and are configured such that at least one of the first and second locking components positively causes the shaft to be engaged and coupled to the structural ground to thereby lock the shaft against rotation.
US09903422B2

According to a method for operating a clutch transmission, especially a dual clutch transmission, which includes a hydraulic circuit having at least one pump for delivering hydraulic medium and at least one pressure accumulator for accommodating and making available a hydraulic medium under pressure, the pump associated with an electric motor is operated depending on a charge requirement of the pressure accumulator. To determine the charge requirement, the pump is driven by the electric motor, and the current consumed by the electric motor in the process is detected to determine the charge requirement.
US09903419B2

A driving head-changeable tool includes an outer sleeve, an inner sleeve and a limitation mechanism. The outer sleeve defines a central axis and has an end peripheral edge having corner portions and blocking flanges therebetween and a circumferential sliding slot. The inner sleeve is rotatably sleeved by the outer sleeve and has first and second connecting ends. The first connecting end has axial concaves. The limitation mechanism is mounted to the inner sleeve and extends into and movable relative to the sliding slot. When the limitation mechanism is located in a lock position, the outer and inner sleeves are unrotatable relative to each other and each concave overlaps axially with one of the blocking flanges; when the limitation mechanism is located in a release position, the outer and inner sleeves are rotatable relative to each other and each concave corresponds to one of the corner portions.
US09903416B2

An outer ring (31) has a small-diameter step portion (37) comprising a step portion outer peripheral surface (37a) and a step surface (37b), and a engagement groove (37c) is formed in the step portion outer peripheral surface (37a). The inner peripheral surface of a retainer plate (40) is provided with a small-diameter hole portion (41) facing the step portion outer peripheral surface (37a), and a large-diameter hole portion (42) facing the outer peripheral surface (31a) of the outer ring (31) and guiding a rolling bearing (30). The retainer plate (40) is provided with a plurality of engagement claws (49) for locking into the engagement groove (37c), the engagement claws protruding diametrically inward from the inner periphery of the small-diameter hole portion (41), and the retainer plate (40) and the rolling bearing (30) are inseparably assembled by locking the engagement claws (49) into the engagement groove (37c).
US09903412B2

A tapered roller bearing includes: an inner ring including an inner raceway surface tapered so that the inner raceway surface increases in diameter from a first side to a second side; an outer ring including an outer raceway surface tapered so that the outer raceway surface increases in diameter from the first side to the second side; a plurality of tapered rollers disposed in an annular space defined between the inner ring and the outer ring; and an annular cage retaining the tapered rollers. The cage includes: a small diameter annular portion; a large diameter annular portion; and a plurality of cage bars connecting the small and large diameter annular portions. An outer clearance is defined between the outer ring and the cage and between circumferentially adjacent ones of the tapered rollers. The outer clearance has a cross-sectional area increasing from the second side to the first side.
US09903408B2

A fast-dismounted cymbal-locking nut being screwed through an outer thread of a mounting bolt of a cymbal to press the cymbal tightly and adjust the position of the cymbal, comprises a seat, a first wing, a second wing, and a resilience element. The first and second wings are pivotally coupled to the seat; each of them has a locking position and a fast-dismount position. The first and second wings respectively include first and second semi-spherical threaded grooves, which jointly form an inner thread corresponding to the outer thread at their locking positions. At the fast-dismount positions, the shortest distance between the first and second semi-spherical threaded grooves is larger than the outer diameter of the outer thread. The user can directly mount the nut to the outer thread without screwing the nut through the outer thread. The nut enables the user to fast mount or dismount a cymbal.
US09903405B2

The bolt of the present invention can reliably peel coating even when fastened with a low torque, and can secure sufficient conductivity. A coating peeling part for peeling coating is formed at a tip end of an axis part in which a regular screw part is formed. The coating peeling part includes crushing parts having a trapezoidal top part and having a flank which is projected at a different angle with respect to the flank of the regular screw part; and a protruding part which is arranged adjacent to the crushing parts and whose top part projects beyond the outer diameter of the regular screw part.
US09903394B2

A hydraulic drive including at least one hydraulic cylinder that includes a piston chamber, an annulus and a piston that separates the piston chamber from the annulus. The hydraulic drive further includes a first hydraulic pump that has a pump intake and a pump outlet, a directional control valve that has a first and a second switching position, and a second hydraulic pump. The second hydraulic pump has a direction of delivery that is consistent with the direction of delivery of the first hydraulic pump at the pump outlet, wherein the second hydraulic pump in the first switching position of the directional control valve is hydraulically connected with the piston chamber and the second hydraulic pump in the second switching position of the directional control valve is not hydraulically connected with the piston chamber.
US09903392B2

The present disclosure relates to an apparatus for controlling a hydraulic pump for a construction machine. The apparatus for controlling the hydraulic pump for the construction machine according to the present disclosure includes: a hydraulic pump control device configured to generate first and second pump commands for controlling first and second hydraulic pumps so that the first and second hydraulic pumps generate pump torque corresponding to a request value; and a torque controller configured to generate first and second corrected pump commands, which are the corrected first and second pump commands, by a torque inclination map generated by reflecting a dynamic characteristic of an engine, and to provide the first and second corrected pump commands to the first and second hydraulic pumps.
US09903384B2

In a rotor for a fluid pump which is made radially-compressible and expandable and has a hub (4) and at least one conveying element (10, 11, 19, 20) which has a plurality of struts (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 27, 28) and at least one membrane (18) which can be spanned between them, provision is made for a design in accordance with the invention which is as simple and inexpensive as possible that at least one first group of struts is pivotable in a pivot plane, starting from a common base, and can thus be spanned open in the mummer of a fan, wherein the conveying element lies along the hub and contacts it over its fall length in the expanded state to avoid a pressure loss at the margin of the conveying element between it and the hub and thus to realize an optimum efficiency.
Patent Agency Ranking