US08342231B2
A cast strip withdrawing apparatus includes a plurality of pairs of rolls, and retains and withdraws a dummy bar via a fixed-side roll and pressure-side roll, which face each other, of each of these pairs of rolls. Each of the pressure-side rolls includes a fluid pressure cylinder imparting a dummy bar retaining pressure. A source pressure side fluid line supplying fluid pressure to these fluid pressure cylinders includes: a first pressure-reduction unit, a pressure drop detection unit, a line isolating unit installed on a source pressure side of the pressure drop detection unit, and a bypass unit.
US08342228B2
The present invention includes systems and methods for insert-molding. In some embodiments, a hook can be formed in a metal part by passing die-steel of a die-cast mold through the metal part during a die-casting process. This may, however, result in a hole in the metal part that is beneath the hook area. When plastic material is insert-molded over the metal part, the plastic material may flow through the hole and into the metal part. Accordingly, in some embodiments the plastic material can be prevented from flowing through the hole during the insert-molding. As one example, a tape material can be coupled over the hole. As another example, a wedge can be press-fit into the hole. As yet another example, a plug can be inserted into the hole.
US08342227B2
A sunshade for regulating the entry of light into the interior of a vehicle. The sunshade includes a wind-up mechanism engaging a primary sheet. A secondary sheet is secured to the primary sheet. The primary sheet has a first end remote from the wind-up mechanism, the first end having a surface with a light reflecting value (A). The primary sheet has a second end adjacent the wind-up mechanism, the second end having a surface with a light reflecting value (B) which is greater or lesser than the light reflecting value (A). The secondary sheet has a first side facing the first end of the primary sheet, the first side having a surface with a light reflecting value substantially equal to value (A). The second side of the secondary sheet faces the second end of the primary sheet and has a surface with a light reflecting value substantially equal to value (B).
US08342225B2
A connector for a multiple element blind assembly includes a first coupling element for association with a first blind element, said first coupling element having a body and a projection extending therefrom. The projection includes a keying portion. Also provided is a second coupling element for association with a second blind element. The second coupling element has a body defining a bore therein, which includes a keyway portion. The keying portion is insertable into and keys with said keyway to a torque transferring portion such that torque applied to one of said coupling elements is transferred to the other coupling element. Also, the keying portion is only insertable into said keyway to said torque transferring portion when said first and second coupling elements are aligned within a single relative rotational range.
US08342224B2
An architectural louver shade assembly comprising a shade canopy mounted to a rotatable central axle tube that supports a rod rib assembly to which the shade canopy is attached by adjustable tensioners that mechanically stretch and tension the fabric element of the shade canopy to remove wrinkles and sags. A wax cylinder piston attached by elements of a wax piston pressure system that changes the pitch of the shade canopy in response to temperature with a gas spring unit that returns the shade canopy to its default, horizontal orientation with decreasing temperatures. An optional manual/mechanical system that, through use of control cables, changes the pitch of the shade canopy with a gas spring unit that returns it to a default orientation. A camber cable assembly that maintains an equal compression load on the rib arm units that directly support the shade canopy, and carrier brackets that support the central axle tube and connect the louver shade assembly to a building wall.
US08342218B2
Apparatus for manufacturing a tubular product comprising a tube forming means, a tube maintaining means, a drawing means and energy application means, in which the tube forming means comprises a formation aperture or series of apertures adapted to form a subject material drawn therethrough into a tubular shape, in which the tube maintaining means comprises a circular aperture or series of apertures adapted to maintain the subject material drawn therethrough in the tubular shape, in which the drawing means is adapted to draw the subject material through the tube forming means and the tube maintaining means, in which the energy application means is adapted to direct an energy to the subject material, or an energy absorbent component disposed thereon, such that the subject material is set in the tubular shape, and in which the tube maintaining means is adapted to maintain the subject material in the tubular shape during absorption of the energy.
US08342210B2
A security cap (1) for selectively closing an open end (3) of a pipe (5). The security cap (1) includes inner and outer cap assemblies (7, 11), at least one latch (17), and a driving assembly (21). The outer cap assembly (11) is rotatable with respect to the inner cap assembly (7), and along with it, is intended to cover the open end (3) of the pipe (5). Each latch (17) is cooperable with the inner and outer cap assemblies (7, 11), and displacable with respect to the cap assemblies (7,11) so as to be operated between first and second configurations, wherein in the first configuration, each latch (17) is drawn away from an outer groove (19) of the open end (3) of the pipe (5) thereby enabling the security cap (1) to be removed from the open end (3) of the pipe (5), and wherein in the second configuration, each latch (17) is engaged with the outer groove (19) thereby preventing the security cap (1) from being removed from the open end (3) of the pipe (5). The driving assembly (21) is operatively disposed between the inner and outer cap assemblies (7, 11), and cooperable with the same, as well as with the at least one latch (17), for selectively driving each latch (17) between the first and second configurations via a given rotation of the outer cap assembly (11) with respect to the inner cap assembly (7) of the security cap (1).
US08342208B2
An object of the present invention is to allow a vehicle to run in the case where an air compressor connected to an input port fails so as to cause air leakage from the location of the failure, by preventing air in a parking brake circuit from leaking from the failure location through a bleed air flow path. In order to achieve the object, a multi-protection valve includes: a communication passage for communicating between an input chamber and a service output port so as to bypass a pressure control valve provided in correspondence with the service output port, the communication passage having a check valve for preventing air from flowing from the service output port into the input chamber and a throttle for restricting the air flow rate; and a bleed air flow path for communicating between the input chamber and the parking output port so as to bypass pressure control valves, the bleed air flow path having a second check valve for preventing air from flowing from the input chamber to the parking output port. The multi-protection valve further includes a third check valve provided between the input chamber and an input port to prevent air from flowing from the input chamber to the input port.
US08342205B2
The slide type valve of the present invention has a structure in which a movable flowpath forming member is pressed toward a slidable sealing member by use of a spring member and in which the load of the slidable sealing member received from the movable flowpath forming member becomes equal to a constant spring load determined by a spring force of the spring member. Additionally, an attachment member holding the movable flowpath forming member that is movable to the fixed flowpath forming member has a housing hole whose shape substantially coinciding with the shape of the movable flowpath forming member. The movable flowpath forming member is housed in the housing hole so as to be slidable in a direction perpendicular to the first end surface of the fixed flowpath forming member, and, accordingly, the load distribution is uniformed both in a first seal sliding surface and in a second seal sliding surface of the slidable sealing member. Additionally, a third flowpath is formed to follow one direction so as to reach the second seal sliding surface from the first seal sliding surface, and, as a result, a pressure loss in the flowpath is minimized.
US08342176B2
A sealed self-piercing capsule for storing and delivering a substance, such as a medicine, comprises one or more barrier layers forming a sealed chamber for containing the substance. An internal puncturing mechanism is disposed within the capsule chamber for puncturing a barrier layer to release the substance from the chamber. The internal puncturing mechanism may comprise a sharpened edge located on a movable tube, which moves relative to a barrier layer forming the sealed chamber to puncture the barrier layer.
US08342165B2
An appliance with a Venturi based venting system is disclosed. The appliance includes a housing defining an airflow channel in flow communication with outside of the appliance, the airflow channel having a common channel with a diverging section; first and second heating units disposed in the housing; a first duct through which a first cavity of the first unit is in flow communication with the common channel, the first duct having a first outlet end disposed at least partially in the diverging section; a second duct through which a second cavity of the second unit is in flow communication with the common channel, the second duct having a second outlet end disposed in the diverging section; and a fan in flow communication with the common channel.
US08342163B2
Embodiments of the disclosure provide an aggregate cutting saw chain having a pitch in the range of approximately 0.440 to approximately 0.450. Embodiments also include tie straps and/or other components having fluid distribution features.
US08342155B2
An injector has a body that defines a high-pressure passage for passing high-pressure fuel to an injection hole inside, a needle that is accommodated in the body and that opens and closes the injection hole, an electric actuator that causes the needle to perform the opening and closing action, a lead wire that is arranged in a lead wire insertion hole formed in the body and that supplies an electric power to the electric actuator, and a fuel pressure sensor that is fixed to the body and that senses pressure of the high-pressure fuel. An outlet hole, via which the lead wire extends from the lead wire insertion hole to an outside of the body, is located at a position closer to the injection hole than the fuel pressure sensor is.
US08342153B2
Digital fuel injector, injection and hydraulic valve actuation module and engine and high pressure pump methods and apparatus primarily for diesel engines. The digital fuel injectors have a plurality of intensifier actuation pistons allowing a selection of up to seven intensified fuel pressures. The disclosed engine operating methods include using at least one cylinder for a compression cylinder for providing compressed intake air to at least one combustion cylinder. A pressure sensor in each combustion cylinder may be used to indicate temperature in the combustion cylinder to limit combustion temperatures to below temperatures at which substantial NOX is generated. A re-burn cycle may be used to complete the burning of hydrocarbons, providing a very low emission engine. A compression cylinder may be provided with a pump actuated by the piston in the compression cylinder. Various aspects and embellishments of the invention are disclosed.
US08342139B2
Improvements in a catch and drain pan for a water heater is disclosed. The improvement includes an immersion resistant water heater support having a fixed or an adjustable leveling capability. The water heater Lifesaver support fits on the water heater support stand/area or inside a catch drain basing to elevate the water heater weight supporting base or metal legs above any standing water. The water heater Lifesaver support is also fabricated to level an uneven water heater to bring the water heater to a vertical orientation. The adjustable water heater support uses a sandwich of two supports in a cam configuration that are indexable in a plurality of finite engagement positions to slightly alter the vertical orientation of the water heater to account for variations and or horizontal orientation of the water heater mounting surface.
US08342138B2
A simple, small, light weight and economical device for catching and holding a dog's waste before it falls on the ground. The device would be held on the dog's tail by a fastener with a simple clip mechanism. Two flexible retractable arms, in the shape of a trapezoid with no base, are attached to the fastener enabling a simple adjustable folded diaper to be caught and placed in the right position to catch and hold the dog's waste before it falls on the ground or grass. When not in use the device might be folded and become compact and easy to carry.
US08342125B2
A safety valve for use in a dairy backflushing and dipping system. The safety valve is situated on or near a milker unit to seal and protect downstream dairy milk lines from teat dip and cleaning fluids that are fed through the safety valve to upstream milker unit components. All of the fluids, including dip, cleansers, water, and air pass through and are controlled by the safety valve.
US08342118B2
An apparatus for extrusion forming a sheet product having an extruder assembly with a sheet die through which a flowable material is delivered and a roll stand assembly made up of a roll stack sub-assembly and a sheet take-off sub-assembly. The roll stack assembly has first and second rolls between which a nip location is defined at which flowable material from the sheet die is delivered. The sheet take-off sub-assembly produces an advancing force upon a first sheet component made up of at least the first sheet layer. The roll stand assembly further has a coating system for applying a coating component to a surface on at least one sheet component advancing through the apparatus. The roll stand assembly is constructed to be reconfigured thereby to change a path traveled by the at least one sheet component and facilitate selective application of the coating component.
US08342116B1
A mooring pendant apparatus for releasably coupling and decoupling a boat, the apparatus having a clip comprising hook and ring sections, with an opening therebetween defining a mouth. The ring section consists of a pair of loaded holes and an access of rotation hole. A movable arm is biased such that the mouth is kept closed, and it only opens upon activation by a boater who pulls on a cable causing a functional retractor arm to create a greater force on the movable arm that the force keeping it shut, therein causing it to open. A mooring rope is attached to the apparatus which operates as an extension of the boater's arm, and it can be utilized either by keeping the apparatus on the boat or leaving it connected to the mooring line and also to the mooring ball.
US08342105B2
A open top railcar comprises a body on pair of spaced trucks, and a top chord extending the length of the side and the width of the end of the railcar, wherein the top chord includes an inwardly sloped top surface configured to discharge lading toward the interior of the railcar through gravity. The railcar further includes corner cap members that have inwardly sloped top surfaces configured to discharge lading toward the interior of the railcar through gravity. The railcar has a plurality of discharge chutes including a plurality of doors operated through a pneumatic door operating system and a manual door operating override for each door. The railcar also includes a nonmetallic touch pad housing provided with a plurality of touch plates for operating selective doors.
US08342100B2
The present invention provides a gas generator including a combustion chamber formed inside a housing having a gas discharge port, a disk-shaped gas generating agent stacked and loaded or a single tubular gas generating agent loaded in the combustion chamber in the axial direction of the housing, an igniter disposed inside the combustion chamber to enclose the igniter and fixed to a bottom surface of the housing by a fixing member, the fixing member including a fixing portion for the igniter and a plurality of elastic rod-like gas generating agent support portions extending in the radial direction of the housing from the fixing portion, the gas generating agent support portions abutting against a surface of the gas generating agent opposing the bottom surface of the housing, and the gas generating agent being pressed and fixed between the gas generating agent support portions and a top surface of the housing.
US08342092B2
Porous roll with axial zones and method of proving printing liquid to a cylinder in a printing press
A roll for distributing printing liquid in a printing press is provided. The roll includes a roll core having at least a first and a second axial zone, a first liquid feed for feeding liquid to the first axial zone, a second liquid feed for feeding the liquid to the second axial zone independent of the first axial zone and a porous shell covering the first and second axial zones. A printing press, a method for providing printing liquid through a porous shell of a printing liquid supply roll to a cylinder of a printing press, an inking apparatus and a method for providing ink to an anilox roll are also provided.
US08342074B1
A system and method for visual awareness that replaces transparent armor with opaque armor while still providing for clear vision for the occupants of a vehicle. The system and method may include a number of components with at least one partially mirrored surface. A component may have an armored base and a reflective surface or other means for directing light. The components may be arranged in a manner to block the direct path of a threat while still allowing a given optical path through the system.
US08342067B2
A punching apparatus includes a punch for punching holes in a sheet, a cam member for reciprocally moving the punch in a punching direction, a motor for moving the cam member, a pulse generator for generating pulses that are synchronized with the driving of the motor, and a control unit for applying a brake to the motor to stop the cam member upon counting the pulses of a predetermined number from the pulse generator after the cam member moved by the driving of the motor passes through a reference position.
US08342058B2
A torsional vibration damper includes an inertia mass and a rotating shaft or hub with an elastomeric ring between the inertia mass and the rotating shaft or hub. A large portion of said elastomeric member is located in a channel located either in the inertia mass or in the hub. This allows one to achieve high contact pressure without creating a significant fatigue on the elastomeric member. This can be used with either a crankshaft damper or an internal or external drive shaft damper.
US08342054B2
A spatial linkage including an inboard gimbal plate that provides a ground for the spatial linkage, an outboard gimbal plate, and at least three links that couple the outboard gimbal plate to the inboard gimbal plate. Each link has a longitudinal axis and two pivotal couplings disposed at opposite ends of the longitudinal axis. Each link is pivotally coupled to the outboard gimbal plate at a first end of the longitudinal axis and pivotally coupled to the inboard gimbal plate at a second end of the longitudinal axis opposite the first end. The pivotal couplings allow the outboard gimbal plate to move relative to the inboard gimbal plate and preventing relative rotation between the outboard gimbal plate and the inboard gimbal plate. Counterweight is coupled to at least one of the links on the opposite side of the inboard gimbal plate from the outboard gimbal plate.
US08342043B2
A system for collecting a sample of fluid from a fluid source and reintroducing the sample of fluid to the fluid source is disclosed. The system includes a pump in fluid communication with the source of fluid, a filter vessel in fluid communication with the pump and the source of fluid to receive a flow of fluid from the pump and substantially eliminate contaminants from the fluid flowing therethrough, and a fluid reservoir in fluid communication with the pump, wherein the fluid is directed from the pump into the fluid reservoir when in a sample mode.
US08342039B2
A system and method for measuring the preload condition of a vehicle differential gear assembly includes a multi-axis load cell having a spherical load button. The differential assembly is supported by the pinion shaft and the load cell button is positioned within a carrier housing hole. The pinion shaft is then rotated relative to the housing resulting in the housing to rotate along with the pinion shaft and abut against the load button. The resulting force against the button is measured in three orthogonal directions permitting an accurate force vector to be determined. The bearings preload is simultaneously set by applying an axial compressive force against the bearings while the pinion shaft is rotated.
US08342032B2
This invention relates to a tribology device for assessing mouthfeel-related tribological properties of a food sample, comprising a measuring surface composed of a thermoplastic polymer as an integral part.
US08342028B2
Disclosed is a photoacoustic measurement apparatus that irradiates a light beam onto a subject, from a same side as that of an acoustic wave detector, and that measures photoacoustic waves. The photoacoustic measurement apparatus has: an acoustic wave detector; a diffraction grating member provided in front of a detection surface of the detector; a light source that generates a light beam; and an optical system that guides the light beam from the light source towards the diffraction grating member. The diffraction grating member is configured such that the light beam led to the diffraction grating member is outputted by the diffraction grating member towards a subject surface that opposes the detection surface of the detector. As a result, light beams can strike a biological body in a near-perpendicular angle. This affords greater illumination efficiency, and allows light of substantial light energy to be irradiated deep inside biological structures.
US08342019B2
A probe unit includes a gas sensor having multiple gas introduction bores for introducing a gas into an inside of the gas sensor, and a sensor holder inside of which the gas sensor is held and that is arranged inside of a duct so as to introduce an exhaust gas flowing in the duct into the gas sensor. A calibration gas flow channel is arranged in the sensor holder and has an opening at an inner surface of a side wall, surrounding the gas introduction bores of the gas sensor, of the sensor holder so as to supply a calibration gas to the gas sensor. A guide groove is arranged continuous to the opening of the calibration gas flow channel and arranged on the inner surface of the side wall along an arranging direction of the multiple gas introduction bores to face the multiple gas introduction bores.
US08342015B2
A method for diagnosing a failure of an EGR circuit of an engine including an EGR exchanger, an EGR valve, a bypass duct of the EGR exchanger, and a bypass flap arranged upstream from the EGR exchanger and the bypass duct to adjust a proportion of exhaust gases flowing therethrough. The EGR circuit can be activated according to a cooled mode, in which the flap is shut, or according to a bypass mode, in which the flat is open. The method carries out, during a diagnosis phase, two activations of the flap, and measures an average of variations of the EGR gas temperature at an outlet of the EGR exchanger during the diagnosis phase.
US08342008B2
In the case of measuring a pattern having a steep side wall, a probe adheres to the side wall by the van der Waals forces acting between the probe and the side wall when approaching the pattern side wall, and an error occurs in a measured profile of the side wall portion. When a pattern having a groove width almost equal to a probe diameter is measured, the probe adheres to both side walls, the probe cannot reach the groove bottom, and the groove depth cannot be measured. When the probe adheres to a pattern side wall in measurements of a microscopic high-aspect ratio pattern using an elongated probe, the probe is caused to reach the side wall bottom by detecting the adhesion of the probe to the pattern side wall, and temporarily increasing a contact force between the probe and the sample. Also, by obtaining the data of the amount of torsion of a cantilever with the shape data of the pattern, a profile error of the side wall portion by the adhesion is corrected by the obtained data of the amount of torsion.
US08342007B2
A detection cell for a chromatography system includes a cell body having an inlet, an outlet, and a counter electrode, a working electrode, a sample flow passageway extending between the inlet and the outlet and in fluid contact with the counter and working electrodes, and a palladium/noble metal reference electrode system. A method of using the detection cell is also described.
US08342003B2
A system for measurement and analysis of pipeline contaminants is provided. The system includes a first assembly for engaging a pipeline from which a first fluid flow sample may be isokinetically collected for measurement of aerosol contaminants. The system also includes a second assembly for engaging the pipeline from which a second fluid flow sample may be collected for chromatographic analysis of the aerosol contaminants. The system may further include a third assembly for engaging the pipeline from which a fluid flow sample may be obtained for measurement of solid contaminants. Information on aerosol contaminants and solid contaminants can subsequently be used to select an appropriate extraction technology to control the presence of aerosol and solid contaminants within the pipeline. Information from the chromatographic analysis, on the other hand, may be used to identify the origin of the aerosol contaminants, so that corrective measures can be implemented to minimize the presence of aerosol contaminants within the pipeline. A method for measurement and analysis of pipeline contaminants is also provided.
US08342000B2
A servo-press machine determining whether or not a drive power supply voltage between a positive power supply path and a negative power supply path that connect a power supply device and a motor rotation control section is lower than an induced voltage of a servomotor, and correcting speed-related data based on slide motion information when the servo-press machine has determined that the drive power supply voltage is lower than the induced voltage.
US08341999B2
A method for producing a terminal has the steps of disposing butt surfaces of a pair of forming dies and side surfaces of a linear conductive material having a square shape in cross section parallel to one another, forming cutting recesses on ridge lines of the linear conductive material by first pressing surfaces, each provided on each of the butt surfaces, forming tapered surfaces continuous with the cutting recesses by second pressing surfaces, each formed by cutting at least one side edge portion of the first pressing surface, and cutting the cutting recesses so that a unit-length terminal is cut out.
US08341990B2
A method for processing a plate workpiece supported on a workpiece support. The method includes moving a tool die and a tool punch along a stroke axis and toward a processing position above a support plane of the workpiece support. The processing position corresponds to a region of the plate workpiece having a formed shape, which extends upwardly from the support plane of the workpiece support.
US08341989B1
A key fob with a retractable key blank is provided. The present invention includes a housing having a first portion and a second portion coupled together. The housing includes an aperture formed between the first and second portions on an end of the housing. The aperture allows for a key blade to slide therethrough. The present invention further includes a key blank having a base portion and a blade portion, wherein the base portion is coupled to an activation mechanism and the blade extends from the base portion. The base portion is slideable within the housing and retained at all times within the housing. The blade portion slides out and in the housing in response to operation of the activation mechanism. The blade portion slides between an extended portion and a refracted position. The key blank is cuttable while coupled to the housing.
US08341985B2
Various embodiments of a security device are provided for attaching to and securing small articles, such as jewelry or other accessories that are either loose or attached to a display card. The security device may engage various sizes of card stock and/or secure articles that include a ring component in a practical and unobtrusive manner. The security device may detect unauthorized removal of the item from the retail premises. In some cases, the security device may also be configured to detect tampering of the security device and may include one-alarm, two-alarm, or three-alarm functionality. Moreover, the security device may also provide other features or functionalities that a retail operator may prefer or consider prior to the use or selection of a particular security device over others. The device may provide easy securing to and/or removal from an object by an authorized operator, such as an employee, and may be reusable.
US08341981B2
A washing machine is disclosed. A washing machine includes a tub holding wash water, a drum rotatable within the tub to hold laundry, a first cabinet forming a first space provided with the tub and the drum to wash laundry, a second cabinet forming a second space for additional function, the second cabinet formed as one body with the first cabinet, and a single partition wall provided between the first and second cabinets to partition off the second space from the first space, wherein the second cabinet comprises a first frame and a second frame provided in both opposite portions out of front and rear portions and side portions of the second cabinet, the first and second frames having a rectangular shape.
US08341979B2
A method of producing an optical fiber preform by heating a glass preform that has a glass rod and a silica glass porous body and includes a valid portion and invalid portions, comprising: heating the glass preform while moving the glass preform along its axial direction relative to a heater; stopping the relative movement or decreasing a speed of the relative movement when an invalid portion positioned at a tail end reaches a vicinity of the heater; heating the invalid portion for a predetermined time while maintaining a temperature at which the silica glass porous body can be vitrified; decreasing the heating temperature to a temperature determined by adding 200° C. to an annealing point of a silica glass; and removing the glass preform to the outside of the heating furnace without increasing the heating temperature to the temperature at which the silica glass porous body is vitrified.
US08341978B2
A method of forming high strength glass fibers in a refractory lined glass melter is disclosed. The refractory lined melter is suited to the batch compositions disclosed for the formation high modulus, and high-strength glass fibers. The glass composition for use in the method of the present invention is up to about 70.5 Weight % SiO2, 24.5 weight % Al2O3, 22 weight % alkaline earth oxides and may include small amounts of alkali metal oxides and ZrO2. Oxide based refractories included alumina, chromic oxide, silica, alumina-silica, zircon, zirconia-alumina-silica and combinations thereof. By using oxide based refractory lined furnaces the cost of production of glass fibers is substantially reduced in comparison with the cost of fibers using a platinum lined melting furnace. Fibers formed by the present invention are also disclosed.
US08341962B2
A system and methods are disclosed that assist in biasing of a working fluid. In one embodiment, the method includes providing a first portion of a working fluid to a first low pressure turbine and a second portion of the working fluid to a second low pressure turbine, the second portion being greater in quantity than the first portion; processing the first portion of the working fluid in the first low pressure turbine to create a first exhaust fluid and processing the second portion of the working fluid in the second low pressure turbine to create a second exhaust fluid; providing the first exhaust fluid to a first condenser; and providing the second exhaust fluid to a second condenser, wherein the second exhaust fluid is greater in quantity than the first exhaust fluid.
US08341953B2
An exhaust manifold includes: a double collecting pipe having an inner pipe, including a collecting pipe portion and branch pipe portions, and an outer pipe, covering the collecting and branch pipe portions and thicker than the inner pipe; and an inner pipe retainer having semi-circular portions and a connecting portion, and thicker than the inner pipe and thinner than the outer pipe. The inner pipe retainer connects the inner and outer pipes with a gap therebetween. Exhaust gas from exhaust ports of a set of cylinders is introduced into the collecting pipe portion through the branch pipe portions. The total spot-welded area of the outer peripheral portions of the branch pipe portions and the inner peripheral portions of the semi-circular portions is larger than that of the inner peripheral portion of the outer pipe and the outer peripheral portions of the semi-circular portions.
US08341952B2
An exhaust gas system includes an exhaust manifold, in particular a single-wall exhaust manifold, which includes a plurality of inlet pipes for connection to exhaust gas outlets of an internal combustion engine and a collector device for the combining of the inlet pipes. The collector device has an outlet opening which is connected to downstream elements of the exhaust gas system, wherein the collector device is resistant to bending and the inlet pipes are comparatively flexible with respect to the collector device. The collector device includes an inlet pipe stub which is likewise resistant to bending and which is made for the direct connection to an exhaust gas outlet of an internal combustion engine.
US08341944B2
A method for application in conjunction with an exhaust gas post-treatment system for metering an ammonia-releasing reducing agent into the exhaust gas stream of an internal combustion engine installed in a motor vehicle and operated with excess air. A control unit meters the quantity of reducing agent as a function of a stored model and during the operation of the internal combustion engine varies the metered quantity during certain operating phases and compares the change in the measured value of at least one NOx sensor installed downstream of the SCR catalyst with an expected value.
US08341931B2
A lift-driving engagement chain capable of improving buckling strength of a pair of lift-driving engagement chains, by modifying the buckling restricting flat surfaces in order to suppress the force which causes a relative slippage along buckling restricting flat surfaces between hooked inner tooth plates and outer tooth plates that contact each other through the buckling restricting flat surfaces.
US08341930B1
A rope structure adapted to engage an external structure comprising a primary strength component and a coating. The primary strength component comprises a plurality of fibers. The coating comprises a lubricant portion and a binder portion that fixes the lubricant portion relative to at least some of the fibers. The coating is applied to the primary strength component such that the lubricant portion reduces friction between adjacent fibers and reduces friction between fibers and the external structure.
US08341928B2
A harvesting machine includes a harvesting header with a header frame, a flexible cutterbar assembly attached to the header frame along the length thereof and configured to cut a crop, and a flexible draper assembly positioned behind the cutterbar assembly to permit the draper assembly to flex with the cutterbar assembly and operable to receive severed crop material from the cutterbar assembly. The draper assembly includes fore-and-aft extending rollers and an endless flexible belt entrained around the rollers. The draper assembly further includes at least one support panel to support the belt.
US08341927B2
A crop header has generally horizontal flail disks mounted for driven rotation about generally upright axes. A pair of conditioner rolls is mounted in a discharge opening and a transfer roller is mounted behind the disks and in front of the nip. At each end, two disks are mounted outwardly of the discharge opening each rotating so that its blade moves inwardly and each carries an impeller to carry the crop inwardly. A third disk is arranged so that a line forward of the end of the discharge opening intersects the third disk inward of the axis of the third disk. The third disk rotates so that its blade moves outwardly so that the crop tends to pass between the second and third disks. A pair of impellers are mounted behind the second disk and move inwardly to carry the cut crop to the discharge opening.
US08341918B2
A method, a system, and a device for erecting a tower. The method comprises assembling proximate to the ground a base section, top section, and one or more intermediate sections of the tower into an assembled tower lying in a substantially horizontal first plane, the assembled tower comprising a top end including the top section and a bottom end including the base section. The method also includes orienting the attitude of the assembled tower using a lift initiator to lie in a second plane defining an acute angle to the first plane, so that the top end of the tower is higher in elevation than the bottom end. The method also includes lifting the assembled tower from the second plane to a vertical plane with a primary lift assembly and coupling the assembled tower to the foundation.
US08341916B2
A joint for panels, the panels comprising a core, a decorative upper surface and edges provided with joining means for positioning the panels towards one another. Predetermined portions of the edges are provided with a layer of polymer. The panels are joined to one another by use of the joining means where the polymer forms a seal in the joint preventing penetration of water into the joint wherein a highly water resistant unit of a plurality of panels is formed.
US08341915B2
Floor panels (1, 1′) are shown, which are provided with a mechanical locking system having a flexible tongue (30) in a displacement groove (40), which during a vertical folding motion is displaced. Moreover, a tongue blank (50), a production method and an installation method are shown.
US08341913B2
The invention relates to a system for suspending ceiling tiles, comprising a plurality of substantially parallel upper supports, a plurality of substantially parallel lower supports which are substantially perpendicular to the upper supports and which cross the upper supports at crossing points, the upper supports having apertures and being suspended via suspending means, a mounting clip which affixes each lower support to an upper support at a crossing point, the lower supports each having a substantially vertical web, wherein the mounting clip has the form of two plates each having an upper section and a lower section and the upper section of each plate has a protruding section at one edge, and the two protruding sections each pass through an aperture in the upper support, whereby the lower sections of the two plates pass on opposite sides of the vertical web of the lower support and press against and grip the lower support as a result of the protruding sections being held within the aperture or apertures in the upper support. It also relates to a method for mounting ceiling tiles using this system, a novel mounting clip and a novel stop clip for use in the system and method.
US08341912B2
A decorative shutter assembly including a plurality of main slats arranged in side-by-side relation, end pieces positioned at each end of the main slats and each including laterally spaced tongues spaced and sized to fit in their respective open ends of the main slats at a respective end of the main slats, and cross slat structures positioned in overlying relationship to seams formed between inboard ends of the end pieces and the respective ends of the main slats. The cross slat structures are removably secured to the end pieces and to the main slats so that, following delivery of the shutter assembly to a building site, the cross slat structures may be removed, the end pieces and main slats may be secured to a building surface utilizing fastener members, and the cross slats may be repositioned over the fastener members to conceal the fastener members.
US08341911B2
A flooring material having a textile pad substructure with a density of greater than 10 pounds per cubic foot is provided. The textile pad has reinforcement and binding fibers. The binding fibers are thermoplastic and are used to bind the reinforcement fibers together. The pad is created by heating and compressing a fibrous textile batt so that it has a density of greater than 13 pounds per cubic foot.
US08341894B2
An enclosure is made out of transparent or translucent panes which form a chamber (1) through which a liquid flows in closed circuit and which interchanges energy with the inner and outer environments, a heat exchanger (2) in contact with the liquid, a circulation pump (3), and a hydrostatic pressure reducer device (4). The hydrostatic pressure reducer device allows the reduction of the thicknesses of the transparent panes which hold the liquid inside. The active character of the enclosure is due to its capacity of controlling the solar heat load and the illumination. The solar heat load is regulated through the heat exchanger. The illumination of the building is controlled through the adjustable transparency of the liquid. The described enclosure allows the creation of an isothermal envelope which allows the climatization of the building. The system can be used for active outer enclosures or for interior partitions for the climatization and luminic control, as well as for glass roofs or false ceilings.
US08341890B2
A dual channel window lift assembly is provided, the assembly having: a door bracket; a pair of guide rails each being rotationally mounted to the door bracket for rotational movement in a predetermined range; and a cable assembly secured to the door bracket wherein at least one cable of the cable assembly is not received within a conduit and the at least one cable is secured to as least one pulley rotationally mounted to the one of the pair of guide rails and the at least one cable remains on the at least one pulley as the pair of guide rail each rotate within the predetermined range.
US08341879B1
The present invention is a plant supporting structure that provides effective support to a fruit bearing plant. It consists of two courses of rings that are vertically spaced. The rings in the outer course form an enclosure within which the rings from the inner course may be placed. The rings are held in place by spines. Each spine ascends vertically, successively connecting the rings of the outer course, and then descends vertically, connecting the rings of the inner course. The spines are spaced around the circumference of the rings. In some embodiments, the bottom ring of the outer course has the largest diameter of all the rings. In such embodiments, the bottom ring may sit on the ground or other plant growing surface and support the entire structure. The outer bottom ring may be lower than the inner bottom ring, thus preventing the fruits from touching the ground.
US08341869B2
An ice fishing trap comprising in its operational state a crossbeam dimensioned for extending across a hole in ice covering a body of water, and a hingedly coupled vertical mast. The vertical mast has a rotatable reel dimensioned to carry a length of fishing line and a hook. A trigger mechanism is provided, wherein a rotation of the reel causes an arcuate movement of a trigger hook. One aspect of the invention provides at least two stabilizer limbs hingedly coupled to the crossbeam, so as to form a general Z shaped support base when operational. In another aspect the fishing trap provides a trigger bolt coupled to an indicator spring, wherein the trigger bolt is utilized to couple the indicator spring to the trigger hook. The trigger bolt is slidingly supported by bolt guide, thus providing improved resistance to false indications due wind vibration and the like. Preferably, the trigger bolt is coupled to the indicator spring by a ring shaped coupler.
US08341855B2
A spinning shoe having an upper and sole member in which the sole member has a spinning assembly in the forefoot. The spinning assembly is placed within a recess in the forefoot region of the sole member. Thus, the user may walk about in the spinning shoe in a normal mode or spin about a vertical axis by placing the user's weight on the forefoot region and then spin about on the vertical axis.
US08341853B2
A drying apparatus has a casing, a cavity formed in the casing for receiving an object, a fan located in the casing and creating an airflow, a motor provided in the casing for driving the fan and ducting for carrying the airflow from the fan to at least one opening arranged to emit the airflow into the cavity, wherein the ducting includes at least one air duct in which at least one vane is located, the vane extending in the direction of airflow and dividing the air duct into a plurality of airflow portions.
US08341850B2
A device for measuring anatomic angles with two arms and a fastener for securing them together at one end providing a pivot. One arm has degree markings around the pivot and the other has a marker to indicate the angle between the two. One or both arms have a method for extending and contracting their length. The device is sufficiently small and light to allow ease of portability in a clothing pocket. In a preferred embodiment the arms are made of thin, clear, light plastic to allow ease of portability as well as inexpensive manufacture. In another preferred embodiment the arms are made of metal, or other heat-resistant material, to allow autoclave sterilization for use during surgery. In a further preferred embodiment the method to allow extension and contraction of one or both arms is by affixing thin, tubular, telescoping metal sleeves to one or both arms.
US08341846B1
The hair clippers use a self-contained motor-driven adjustment mechanism to adjust the relative position of the stationary and reciprocating blades of a common type of blade set. Two momentary switches operable by the thumb of the hand holding the clipper afford a barber total automatic adjustment with the clipper itself in an on or off condition. Since the small gear motors used for the adjustment are brush type or brushless permanent magnet motors which are operated by direct current, the adjustment feature is most compatible with cordless clippers already using an on-board DC source in the form of a re-chargeable battery to drive the reciprocating blade. The invention will be described as a modification of a cordless clipper, although AC driven corded type clippers can also be modified with this feature by the addition of an on-board AC to DC power supply for the adjustment motor.
US08341844B2
With respect to an outer ring 2b in which a diameter DB1 of a first outer ring raceway 10c is greater than a diameter DB2 of a second outer ring raceway 10b (DB1>DB2), a method is realized which facilitates the entry of a grinding tool 12 into an inner side of the outer ring when these both outer ring raceways 10c and 10b are subjected to a grinding process.The grinding tool 12 is made to enter the inner side of the outer ring 2b through an opening on a side close to the first outer ring raceway 10c.
US08341835B1
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor package includes mounting and electrically connecting a semiconductor die to a substrate. The semiconductor die and the substrate are encapsulated to form an encapsulation. Via holes are laser-ablated through the encapsulation and conductive material is deposited within the via holes to form vias. A first buildup dielectric layer is formed on the encapsulation. Laser-ablated artifacts are laser-ablated in the first buildup layer. The laser-ablated artifacts in the first buildup layer are filled with a first metal layer to form a first electrically conductive pattern in the first build up layer. The operations of forming a buildup layer, forming laser-ablated artifacts in the buildup layer, and filling the laser-ablated artifacts with an electrically conductive material to form an electrically conductive pattern can be performed any one of a number of times to achieve the desired redistribution.
US08341830B2
A quick circuit board press-mount device comprises: a positioning device, having a positioning board and a back board, and the positioning board having an adjusting knob with a screw rod portion, and the back board having an adjusting notch; an adjusting device, having a combining board, an insert board extended forward from the front end of the combining board, and the insert board having a screw hole for securing the screw rod portion, and the insert board being inserted into the adjusting notch, and the insert board having a lateral connecting board extended from a side from the combining board, and the lateral connecting board having an oblong adjusting slot for securing a position screw hole of the back board by a screw rod; and a press-mount element, coupled to the combining board, so that the circuit board module and the interface card can be mounted conveniently and quickly.
US08341829B2
An apparatus for splicing a fiber optic cable comprises a clamp for clamping a first portion of a first fiber optic cable, a bail for connecting the clamp to a support structure, a splice closure for splicing a second portion of the first fiber optic cable to a second fiber optic cable, and means for connecting the splice closure to the bail. A method of splicing a fiber optic cable, using the apparatus is also included.
US08341813B2
A locator device for locating the centerline of a plurality of piano hinge segments without the use of hard tooling includes a target support element, a pair of targets supported on opposite ends of the target support element, and a locator element for locating the target support element relative to hinge pin holes so that the targets are equally spaced from the hinge pin holes. The targets may be reflective-type targets used in laser targeting systems, photogrammetry targets used in digital photogrammetry locating systems, or other known targets.
US08341808B2
A clip has an opposed jaw end, a bridged back end and defines a slot extending across the bridged back end. It is connected to an article, for example, another clip or a float, which has an enlarged spherical head extending longitudinally therefrom. The head of the post has a diameter which is slightly greater than the width of the slot so that the connected item has rotational freedom of movement by receipt of the spherical head through the slot.
US08341802B2
A robot cleaner that is capable of preventing dust collected in a dust tank from flowing backward outside when a situation in which the dust may be discharged outside occurs includes a cleaner body, a dust tank mounted in the cleaner body to collect dust, and a backward-flow preventing device to prevent dust from flowing backward outside through a suction port of the dust tank. The backward-flow preventing device includes a shutter unit to open and close the suction port and a stopper unit to drive the shutter unit.
US08341801B2
A windscreen wiper device comprising a carrier element, as well as a wiper blade which includes opposing longitudinal grooves on its longitudinal sides, in which grooves spaced-apart longitudinal strips of the carrier element are disposed, wherein neighboring ends of the longitudinal strips are interconnected by a respective connecting piece, wherein at least one connecting piece comprises engaging members engaging around the longitudinal strips so that the strips are mounted in grooves formed by the engaging members wherein the strips and the connecting piece are slidably connected by means of a snap connection, wherein the snap connection comprises laterally extending means on the strips, and wherein the laterally extending means comprise at least one protrusion extending laterally from an interior edge of each strip, the protrusion being located within the outer contour of each strip and between stops on the connecting piece, with the special feature that the grooves of the wiper blade each comprise a stop for blocking a longitudinal movement of the wiper blade relative to the strips.
US08341790B2
The power toothbrush includes a toothbrush body and a stem portion extending from the toothbrush body which has a workpiece with a flexible membrane at a remote end thereof, and a flexible membrane at a near end thereof as well. A movable piston is positioned in the stem portion, as well as a fluid which is in communication with the flexible membrane at the workpiece end of the toothbrush and the flexible membrane at the near end of the stem portion. The body includes a solenoid coil which, when actuated, moves the piston in opposing directions in a controlled manner within the stem, which acts on the fluid in the stem and moves the flexible membrane at the workpiece in and out at a desired frequency and amplitude.
US08341786B2
An apparatus and method providing variable support and variable comfort control of a sleep system, the apparatus including a sleep support member including: a comfort layer including: a plurality of comfort layer inflatable members; and a comfort layer sensor configured to provide data relating to respective pressures of the comfort layer inflatable members; a data analysis unit configured to analyze data provided by the comfort layer sensor and to generate analyzed comfort layer data; and a control unit configured to control a pressure within each of the respective comfort layer inflatable members using the analyzed comfort layer data.
US08341785B2
A crib rail bumper is formed with a cushioning pad, a fabric cover dimensioned to encompass the pad, and reversible fastening means on opposite sides of the cover for securing the cover and pad to the crib rail. The reversible fastening means is preferably a reversible zipper. The crib rail bumper is compressible along the length dimension so as to encompass crib rails of varying lengths. The cushioning pad has a major length dimension, a minor width dimension, and a thickness dimension, the dimensions being selected for encompassing a crib rail. The reversible fastener allows multiple bumpers to be attached together to encompass wide rails or a plurality of rails.
US08341780B2
A decorative object, most conveniently embodied as a decorative pillow, is constructed to maintain a substantially fixed spatial relationship to a supporting substrate within a vehicle interior while not requiring the use of fastening means. The supporting substrate may comprise a vehicle seat. A decorative pillow is provided with a surface or surfaces providing ornamentation. Components in the interior of the pillow interact to function efficiently as a fill chamber and a ballast chamber. The ballast chamber may be positioned to avoid engagement with surfaces exposed to a user. Ballast provides for inertia so that the pillow will tend to stay in place when acceleration forces are applied thereto.
US08341777B2
A patient support is connectable to an external power source. The patient support includes a bedframe supported on a floor, a plurality of wheels coupled to the bedframe, and a brake configured to prevent the bed from moving on the floor. The brake is moveable between a braked position and an unbraked position. The patient support also includes a controller configured to activate an alarm when the brake is moved to the unbraked position when the bed is connected to the external power source.
US08341776B2
A spa apparatus including a frame, a basin received in the frame, and an adjustable leg rest coupled to the frame. The adjustable leg rest is configured to slide between a first retracted position and a second extended position. The adjustable leg rest is selectively lockingly engaged by a fixation member to hold the adjustable leg rest in the desired position relative to the frame.
US08341775B2
An adjustable curved double curtain rod shower assembly for hanging and supporting the weight of two shower curtains and attached to the walls of a shower area and forms a shower enclosure area and the curtain rod assembly comprises: (a) two adjustable curved curtain rods in a horizontal plane one an inner rod and the second an outer rod and each rod comprises a first and a second tubular section wherein the first section fits into the second section thereby providing for telescopic adjustment of each of the rods and two end pieces that join the ends of each of the two adjustable rods together; (b) two end hanging means having pivotably positioned therein the two end pieces wherein each of the hanging means is attached to the walls of the shower enclosure and when shower curtains are attached to each of the rods form an enclosed shower area.
US08341766B2
A jacket has several features useful for participating in a sport while wearing the jacket. The jacket may have a shell with a pocket in an upper region of the shell and a semi-rigid collar located in the pocket, wherein the semi-rigid collar is movable between a storage position wherein the semi-rigid collar is in the pocket and a use position wherein the semi-rigid collar is partially removed from the pocket. The jacket may also have a shoulder region with discrete areas of gripping material located on the shoulder region. The jacket may also have an inner core wrap having a perimeter, wherein a portion of the perimeter is removably attached to the outer shell that hugs the torso of a wearer. The jacket may also have a sleeve and a gusset formed on an outer surface of the sleeve by folding material forming the sleeve at an inner angle of the wearer's elbow, wherein the gusset unfolds and the sleeve lengthens when the arm of a wearer is straightened and wherein the gusset refolds and the sleeve shortens when the arm of the wear is bent.
US08347396B2
A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program product for protecting sensitive content. In response to receiving a selection of content, the process determines whether the content is of a sensitive content type based on a policy. The process then designates the content as the sensitive content in response to the content being of a sensitive content type. Thereafter, the process generates a sensitive content reference for publication and stores the sensitive content in a data structure, wherein the data structure associates the sensitive content with the sensitive content reference. Subsequently, in response to receiving a request from a requester for the sensitive content reference, the process obfuscates the sensitive content using a selected obfuscation algorithm to form obfuscated content, and returns the obfuscated content to the requester.
US08347392B2
A computer readable storage medium has executable instructions to perform an automated analysis of program instructions. The automated analysis includes at least two analyses selected from an automated analysis of injection vulnerabilities, an automated analysis of potential repetitive attacks, an automated analysis of sensitive information, and an automated analysis of specific HTTP attributes. Protective instructions are inserted into the program instructions. The protective instructions are utilized to detect and respond to attacks during execution of the program instructions.
US08347388B1
Data from application systems is copied to a server. The server generates different views of some or all of the data and provides the views to services that may be running on other systems. Each view may be of a subset of the data on the server, and the subsets may be mutually exclusive. Each view is in a format appropriate to the service consuming it, and the format may be block level, file level, stream, or other format appropriate to the service. The data may be deduplicated, and the deduplicated data processed by a service. The result of the processing of an object containing a deduplicated portion of data may be applied to other objects sharing the deduplicated portion of data. A workflow may be applied to the objects sharing the deduplicated portion of data.
US08347374B2
A pass-through agent receives a request from a client and authenticates the client before forwarding the request to a target server that lacks client authentication capability. The target server is configured to accept requests from the pass-through agent, and may be configured to reject requests that do not come from the pass-through agent.
US08347372B2
A system and method for generating a digital certificate is provided wherein a new digital record is received and is assigned a sequence value. A first composite digital value is generated by applying a first deterministic function to the digital records stored in a repository. The sequence value and first composite digital value are included in a first certificate. After the digital record is added to the repository, a second composite digital value is generated by applying a second deterministic function to the digital records in the repository. This second composite digital value, and a composite sequence value, are published. An interval digital value which is based upon the first and second composite digital values, and the sequence value, are included in a second certificate which thus verifies the authenticity and sequence value of the digital record.
US08347371B2
A restricted web site has features that are selectively exposed to clients. A screening web site interacts with clients and collects data about the clients using passive and/or active techniques. The screening site generates a token for the client, and includes data in the token identifying the token and describing the client. The token is encoded in a cookie and saved in the client's web browser. The client subsequently provides the token to the restricted site. The restricted site validates the token to ensure that it is legitimate, has not expired, and has not been used before. The restricted site selects one or more features to provide to the client based on the data about the client in the token and/or on other information. If the client does not present a token or the token is invalid, the restricted site does not expose any features to the client.
US08347365B2
A system and method for confirming identity and authority by a patient medical device is provided. Master credentials are issued to a requesting device and a receiving device from an authorizing agent. The master credentials include the authorizing agent's public key and a digital signature of a root certification authority. Device credentials are issued to the requesting device from the authorizing agent. The device credentials include the requesting device's public key and the authorizing agent's digital, signature. Identification credentials are provided to the receiving device and include the device credentials and the requesting device's digital signature. The requesting device is authenticated. The authorizing agent's digital signature in the device credentials is checked using the authorizing agent's public key in the master credentials of the receiving device. The requesting device's digital signature in the identification credentials is checked using the requesting device's public key in the device credentials.
US08347357B2
In multimedia systems requiring secure access, a method and apparatus for constructing an access control matrix for a set-top box security processor are provided. A security processor may comprise multiple security components and may support multiple user modes. For each user mode supported, at least one access rule table may be generated to indicate access rules to a security component in the security processor. An access control list comprises information regarding the access rules for a particular user mode to the security components in the security processor. An access control matrix may be generated based on the access control lists for the user modes supported by the security component. The access control matrix may be implemented and/or stored in the security processor for verifying access rights of a user mode. Results of operations associated with security components may be transferred to other processors communicatively coupled to the security processor.
US08347351B2
A new approach to network security includes manipulating an access point such that an initial communication from an external device is passed to a restricted subset of a computing network including a gatekeeper. The gatekeeper is configured to enforce a security policy against the external device before granting access to a less-restricted subset of the computing network. If requirements of the security policy are satisfied, then the gatekeeper reconfigures the access point such that further communication from the external device may be received by elements of the less-restricted subset. Enforcement of the security policy optionally includes performing a security audit of the external device.
US08347347B2
A computer implemented method, data processing system, and computer program product for password policy enforcement in a distributed directory when policy information is distributed. When a proxy server is providing a request from a client to a backend directory server, the proxy server performs a series of LDAP operations on a targeted set of backend directory servers to collect password policy information applicable to a target user. The password policy information applicable to the target user is partitioned and distributed across the plurality of backend directory servers. When the password policy information for the target user has been collected, the proxy server evaluates the collected password policy information to determine an effective password policy for the target user. The proxy server then sends the request and subsequent requests with the effective password policy to a backend directory server.
US08347343B2
A method of receiving a broadcast signal including a Non-Real-Time (NRT) service and a broadcast receiver are disclosed herein. A method of receiving a broadcast signal including a Non-Real-Time (NRT) service, the method comprises receiving a broadcast signal including an NRT content and NRT service guide information, the NRT service guide information including a content fragment, identifying a File Delivery over Unidirectional Transport (FLUTE) session delivering the NRT content from the broadcast signal, detecting a first content identification information from a File Description Table (FDT) of the FLUTE session, and detecting a second content identification information of the content fragment matched with the first content identification information.
US08347342B2
The invention relates to a method and to a device for determining the value of a delay to be applied between sending a first dataset and sending a second dataset, the data being representative of a sequence of coded images, the datasets consisting of data subsets, the coded images being coded according to a first level of resolution and at least a second level of resolution higher than the first level of resolution, the data subsets containing data of a first level of resolution. According to the invention: first and second datasets are obtained (E506); and the value of the delay is determined (E507), the value of the delay being dependent on the number of decoded images that can be formed from the data subsets of the first dataset which contain data of the second or of a second level of resolution.
US08347325B2
An application for a television has a detector capable of determining the identity and/or presence of at least one viewer in a viewing area of the television. In response to viewers entering and leaving the viewing area of the television, the television adjusts its operation based upon settings for the currently present viewers (e.g., enables channels, content, etc).
US08347321B1
Updating an implementation object is disclosed. A proxy is configured to provide access to a first implementation object that is used to manage an item of content included in a collection of managed content. The first implementation object is replaced with a second implementation object. The proxy is associated with the second implementation object.
US08347315B1
A method is provided comprising a server reading a first plurality of message queue objects associated with a first application transitioning from a first environment, reading a second plurality of objects associated with a baseline, and determining that a first time stamp associated with a first object in the first plurality is more recent than a second time stamp associated with the corresponding first object in the second plurality. The server reads approved changes, determines approval of the change to the first object, compares file names of objects in the first plurality with those of objects associated with the baseline, and determines that a name of a second object in the first plurality does not correspond to an object in the second plurality. The server determines that the placement of the second object in the first application is not approved, provides notification of need for approval and transitions the application.
US08347311B2
An operation method of a mobile application model is provided. An application model is composed that separates applications into individual views and executes the individual views with independent processes. Only a code for a running view is loaded in a memory and a corresponding application is executed in the composed application model when switching to the running view for execution of the corresponding application.
US08347307B2
A method includes monitoring a utilization amount of resources within logical partitions (LPARs) of a plurality of servers and identifying a resource-strained server of the plurality of servers, wherein the resource-strained server includes a plurality of LPARs. Additionally, the method includes determining a migration of one or more LPARs of the plurality of LPARs of the resource-strained server and migrating the one or more LPARs of the resource-strained server to another server of the plurality of servers based on the determining to avoid an activation of capacity upgrade on demand (CUoD).
US08347305B2
A CPU executes initialization for allocating a storage area of an auxiliary storage device for a program execution area after a particular application program is loaded into the program execution area and becomes executable. Subsequently, the CPU loads a plurality of application programs into the program execution area.
US08347303B2
An electronic gaming machine (EGM) implements a multi-core processor. A first of the processor cores is adapted to perform or otherwise control a first set of operations. The first set of operations can include, for example, game manager operations and other operations of the EGM that are more time-sensitive. A second one of the processor cores is adapted to perform or otherwise control a second set of operations. The second set of operations can include, for example, operations related to multimedia presentation associated with the running/playing of a game and/or other operations of the EGM that are not time-sensitive or are otherwise less time-sensitive than the operations performed/controlled by the first processor core. Each of the processor cores may run an operating system that matches the needs of its respective processor core.
US08347300B2
A method and system of managing resource lease duration for on-demand computing is provided. The system can include one or more resources having a metric capturing tool; and a provisioning manager in communication with the one or more resources. The provisioning manager can receive a request for at least one resource from the requester. The provisioning manager can provision the at least one resource from the one or more resources. The metric capturing tool can communicate one or more metrics associated with performance of the at least one resource to the provisioning manager. The provisioning manager can determine a lease modifier based at least in part on the one or more metrics. The provisioning manager can adjust a lease duration for the at least one resource based at least in part on the lease modifier.
US08347299B2
A method, information processing system, and computer program storage product for associating jobs with resource subsets in a job scheduler. At least one job class that defines characteristics associated with a type of job is received. A list of resource identifiers for a set of resources associated with the job class is received. A set of resources available on at least one information processing system is received. The resource identifiers are compared with each resource in the set of resources available on the information processing system. A job associated with the job class with is scheduled with a set of resources determined to be usable by the job based on the comparing.
US08347297B2
A method of, and a system for, optimizing the distribution of a plurality of source servers amongst a plurality of target servers each having a resource, wherein each of the source servers has a functional characteristic and two or more of the source servers belong to a cluster.
US08347291B2
A system and method for interaction with a remote server is described. Using an enterprise scheduler, jobs and other tasks may be scheduled on a remote server. Typically, the enterprise scheduler and remote server communicate through an API which serves as an interpreter between them. A Java API is used when the remote server utilizes Java technology.
US08347285B2
The present disclosure relates to attempting to maintain and/or repair the embedded software components of a computer and, more specifically, to attempting to maintain and/or repair the embedded software components of a server utilizing a service processor.
US08347284B2
A system and method for automatically selecting and configuring storage devices according to an abstract partition table definition as part of a scripted operating system installation. The system has a deployment server in data communication with the one or more computers via the communication network. The deployment server has a deployment server storage device and a central processing unit. The deployment server storage device stores an inventory of the computers to which an operating system is to be deployed and a set of partition table requirements defined by one or more qualitative attributes associated with one or more computer storage device partitions. The central processing unit is in communication with the deployment server storage device and executes functions to map the inventory with the set of partition table requirements to create a partition table for each computer to which the operating system is to be deployed.
US08347282B2
An embedded controller development tool which generates an interface means for preserving and outputting a control data calculated by the control operation means based on a specific computational procedure, and providing said control data to a plurality of control operation means including said control operation means; wherein the control operation means is described as a function in the source code of the program, the reference data used for calculation by said control operation is an argument of the function, said control data calculated by said control operation means is the argument of the function which points the return value or the address of said function.
US08347278B2
A method for augmenting a compiled software routine in execution, the compiled software routine being instrumented to generate an event at an augmentation point defined therein, the method including receiving the event at a second software routine, the second software routine including software instructions for augmenting the compiled software routine.
US08347271B1
Defining a software test is disclosed. A benchmark complexity for a test case including at least one test step having a check condition and a functionality is defined. The test case is represented as a flow graph in which the check condition of each test step of the test case is represented as an edge of the flow graph and the functionality of each test step is represented as a vertex in the flow graph. A test case complexity is determined by determining a number of independent paths in the flow graph. If the test case complexity as determined based on the number of independent paths exceeds the benchmark complexity, the number of test steps in the test case is reduced.
US08347267B2
An automated software testing system allows automated test script generation with fully parameterized scripts, execution, and result correlation. A software Application Under Test (AUT) includes a process having Graphical User Interface (GUI) windows, objects and data elements. A test thread tree is generated corresponding to these windows, objects and data elements. A data structure is generated to enumerate test cases indicative of the windows, objects and data elements. Also generated is a parameterized script implementing the test cases and having string values instead of hard-coded data. A global change manager automates modifying in the data structure, data object attributes across multiple scripts. A Scenario view or data generation member generates Test Descriptions, automatically documenting the test cases. The script is executed to apply each of the test cases to the AUT and receive responses.
US08347266B2
Systems and methods are described that enhance a programming language by introducing support for declarative object identity in both class declarations and object literals. An exemplary system includes a memory that stores code associated with a computer program and a component coupled to the memory. The component is configured to access the code, to identify a variable in the code and a modifier associated with the variable and, responsive to identifying the variable, to use the variable to determine the identity of an object associated with the variable and to determine whether the object is equal to another object based on value semantics.
US08347265B1
A method of exposing the functionality of an application in a command interface includes generating a command line interpreter (“CLI”) from a component of an application. The application's components are used to automatically generate the CLI to interpret commands to access the functionality of the application. The generated CLI parses, maps, and dispatches the commands and any associated arguments in accordance with the application's components. Application metadata is used to modify the generated CLI to customize the exposure of the functionality of the application in the command interface.
US08347261B2
Disclosed is an improved mechanism and method for implementing electronic designs. According to some approaches, a method, mechanism, and compute program product is disclosed for implementing electronic designs that allows visual editing of complex objects with advanced editing features, which also provides for automated correspondence of the editing results to parametric values for a programmable object in the design.
US08347255B2
A method, system, and computer usable program product for equation based retargeting of design layouts are provided in the illustrative embodiments. A set of desirable combination of values of a set of layout parameters of the design layout is determined. A desirable region that includes the set of the desirable combination of values is determined. An equation is computed to determine a retargeting value for a first combination of values of the set of layout parameters with respect to the desirable region. Instructions are generated to adjust a value in the first combination to generate a second combination of values of the set of layout parameters such that the second combination falls in the desirable region. A shape in the design layout is retargeted such that the retargeted shape uses the second combination of values of the set of layout parameters. The IC is manufactured using the retargeted shape.
US08347254B2
Combined memories in integrated circuits are described, including determining a first requirement for logic blocks, determining a second requirement for memory blocks including a vertical configuration for the memory bocks, and compiling a design for the integrated circuit using the first requirement and the second requirement. The memory blocks may include non-volatile two-terminal cross-point memory arrays. The non-volatile two-terminal cross-point memory arrays can be formed on top of a logic plane. The logic plane can be fabricated in a substrate. The non-volatile two-terminal cross-point memory arrays may be vertically stacked upon one another to form a plurality of memory planes. The memory planes can be portioned into sub-planes. One or more different memory types such as Flash, SRAM, DRAM, and ROM can be emulated by the plurality of memory planes and/or sub-planes. The non-volatile two-terminal cross-point memory arrays can include a plurality of two-terminal memory elements.
US08347253B2
A design support method for causing a computer using layout data for providing a layout in which macro cells are arranged and in which power supply wirings are formed at certain intervals in each wiring layer to execute, the method including: extracting a set of adjacent macro cells from the layout data; specifying a region located between macro cells that constitute the set of adjacent macro cells extracted in the extracting step from among row regions included in the layout represented by the layout data; detecting a power supply wiring of a specific wiring layer in a projection area located above the region specified in the specifying step, the specific wiring layer being higher than a bottom layer of the layout represented by the layout data; and outputting a region where no power supply wiring of the specific wiring layer is detected in the detecting step.
US08347250B2
A method and apparatus for modifying a synchronous logic network so that the hold slack calculated at all pins is greater than or equal to a user-specified threshold, with the condition that the setup slack at any pin does not become negative or smaller than a user-specified margin. The result is an improved design which is less likely to fail due to a hold time violation. The method and apparatus introduce a limited number of logic cells which helps keep power consumption and design size to a minimum.
US08347244B2
A tool for analog and mixed signal circuits includes a unit enabling a user to identify one or more critical interconnect lines in a chip architecture and one or more selectable, predefined topologies for said critical interconnect lines. Each topology includes one or more signal wires and a current return path. A majority of the electric field lines are contained within the boundary of the topology. The invention also includes a method for designing analog and mixed signal (AMS) integrated circuits (IC), including defining a chip architecture and a floor plan, identifying one or more critical interconnect lines and selecting pre-designed transmission line topologies for the critical interconnect lines.
US08347242B2
A method, computer program product, and apparatus for processing a wiring diagram is provided. Information associated with a number of components in the wiring diagram is identified. A scaling factor between a first format for the wiring diagram and a second format used by a software application configured to use wiring diagrams in the second format is identified. The scaling factor is applied to the information identified as being associated with the number of components in the wiring diagram to form processed information.
US08347234B2
An image-displaying device includes a storing unit and a displaying unit. The storing unit stores first correlation data and second correlation data. The first correlation data indicates a plurality of first thumbnails including a plurality of first display thumbnails and also indicates a sequence of the plurality of first thumbnails. The second correlation data indicates a plurality of second thumbnails including a plurality of second display thumbnails and also indicates a sequence of the plurality of second thumbnails. The storing unit updates the second correlation data in response to an update instruction for adding one of the plurality of first thumbnails to the plurality of second thumbnails. The displaying unit includes a first display configured to display a plurality of first display thumbnails based on the first correlation data, and a second display configured to display a plurality of second display thumbnails based on the second correlation data. The second display displays a plurality of second display thumbnails based on the updated second correlation data if the second correlation data is updated.
US08347231B2
Methods, systems and computer program products for displaying tag words for selection by users engaged in social tagging of content accessible via a communications network, are provided. A tag cloud, tag word inventory curve and slider control are displayed within a graphical user interface. The tag cloud is a visual representation of an inventory of tag words. The tag word inventory curve is a graphical representation of the words in the inventory by frequency of usage by others. The slider control is responsive to user movement, and is movable within a range that spans the length of the tag word inventory curve. Movement of the slider control changes the number of tag words from the inventory displayed in the tag cloud according to frequency of usage by others.
US08347219B1
One embodiment is directed to a method for building an object for display by a client device. The method includes transmitting, by a client device, a request to an object storage device for a class of objects. The method includes receiving, by the client device, a list of objects of the class of objects requested, the list of objects including an interface attribute, the interface attribute configured to direct the client device to a set of display properties for each object of the list of objects. The method also includes executing, by the client device, the interface attribute to retrieve the set of display properties associated with the display of each object of the class of objects, the set of display properties of each object defining a visual representation of that object by the client device.
US08347218B1
An enterprise architecture storage and organization system is provided which includes user-editable webpages to display enterprise architecture content. The webpages are organized in a framework, such as the Zachman Framework. The framework may comprise a plurality of units grouped into a plurality of levels and a plurality of categories. Each unit may have a user-editable webpage associated with it. The level of detail included within each user-editable webpage is variant depending upon the location of its associated unit in the framework. Units at the top of the framework contain broad or general information and the level of detail downwardly increases. Users may selectably edit the content of the user-editable webpages using an editor. Users may edit the text and edit and attach graphics. In some embodiments, wiki-type functionality may be utilized. The content of the various user-editable webpages may be standardized based on level and category.
US08347215B2
One or more users may interact simultaneously with different applications on the same device through an input system such as a touch-sensitive display screen. Simultaneous user input may be detected by a multiple input system and subsequently transmitted to an application using a single transmission frame. An application corresponding to the user input is determined based on an input location of the user input and a location and size of a corresponding application. Simultaneous user inputs are rendered simultaneously by each corresponding application. Each application may further include a secondary event processing thread that runs in parallel to traditional operating system event threads. The secondary event processing thread bypasses sequential processing limits of an operating system event thread, providing substantially simultaneous processing of input.
US08347213B2
A method comprises receiving one or more digital visual media items; receiving one or more digital audio media items; automatically selecting and arranging one or more design modules based upon analysis of information obtained from the digital visual media items and the digital audio media items; and automatically creating an audiovisual work by arranging the selected and arranged design modules. Audiovisual works can be automatically created based upon inferred and implicit metadata including music genre, image captions, song structure, image focal points, as well as user-supplied data such as text tags, emphasis flags, groupings, and preferred video style.
US08347211B1
Disclosed are various embodiments for providing immersive multimedia views for items. A network page is generated that provides information regarding an item and includes code for rendering an immersive multimedia view for the item. A user interface presents a first one of a plurality of media objects associated with the item. The user interface includes a menu for selecting one of the media objects for presentation in the user interface and first set of media controls associated with the content form of the first one of the media objects. The user interface is updated to present a second one of the media objects having a different content form in response to a selection of the second one of the media objects in the menu. The first set of media controls is replaced with a second set of media controls that is associated with the different content form.
US08347210B2
A computer-implemented method to synchronize video with beats in audio is described. Multiple video frames and multiple audio frames are displayed in a first and second bounded region, respectively, in a user interface. The multiple audio frames represent audio content that includes a periodic beat that is audible when the audio content is played. Input is received to associate one or more video frames with the multiple audio frames using a cursor. In response to the input, the first video frame is synchronized with a beat audio frame in the multiple audio frames. In response to a playback input, the first video frame is displayed in the user interface when the beat audio frame is played.
US08347203B1
Systems and methods for defining a form navigational structure associated with at least one node in a process flow may comprise selecting a node form for the at least one node in the process flow, the node form identifying a plurality of displayable forms. Furthermore, the systems and methods may include defining a plurality of node steps for the node, each node step corresponding to a displayable screen associated with a subset of the plurality of displayable forms. Moreover, the systems and methods may include establishing a hierarchical tree structure associating the plurality of node steps, branches in the hierarchical tree structure having associated validation rules.
US08347201B2
A reading method for a memory device with error-correcting encoding envisages the steps of: carrying out a first reading of a plurality of memory locations (A0, A1, . . . , ALS-1) to generate a first recovered string (S1), and performing a first decoding attempt using the first recovered string (S1). When the first decoding attempt fails, the memory locations are read at least one second time, and at least one second recovered string (S2-SN) is generated. On the basis of a comparison between the first recovered string (S1) and the second recovered string (S2-SN), a modified string (SM) is generated, in which erasures (X) are located, and at least one second decoding attempt is carried out using the modified string (SM).
US08347200B1
A memory includes matrix data stored thereon for use by the plurality of encoders. An arbiter unit receives, from the plurality of encoders, respective requests for a portion of the matrix data stored in the shared memory, and facilitates providing a portion of the matrix data to the plurality of encoders at staggered times for use in respective encoding operations.
US08347193B2
A complementary error evaluator polynomial is generated by obtaining a syndrome polynomial and one or more erasure locations. The syndrome polynomial and the erasure locations are associated with Reed-Solomon encoded information. A complementary error evaluator polynomial and an error locator polynomial are simultaneously generated using the syndrome polynomial and the erasure locations where the complementary error evaluator polynomial is a complement of the error evaluator polynomial.
US08347185B2
A method for checking reading errors of a memory includes the following steps. A first data fragment is received. A first count index according to the first data fragment is generated, wherein the first count index is corresponding to a quantity of one kind of binary value in the first data fragment. The first data fragment is written into the memory. The first data fragment is read from the memory as a second data fragment. A second count index is generated according to the second data fragment. The first count index is compared with the second count index.
US08347180B2
A data storage system includes a first memory, a controller, a counting module, and a checking and correcting module. Copyback operations are performed in the first memory. The controller couples the first memory to the counting module and the checking and correcting module. The counting module provides a counting operation for the copyback operations at different logic addresses of the first memory and, according to a counting result of the counting operation, determines whether a checking and correcting requirement has been satisfied by any of the logic addresses. The checking and correcting module receives data read out from the first memory, wherein the received data corresponds to a satisfying logic address, and checks the received data and corrects the received data when it is checked that the received data is incorrect, to correct the first memory accordingly.
US08347175B2
According to one embodiment, a magnetic memory includes a magnetoresistive effect element including a first magnetic layer invariable in magnetization direction, a second magnetic layer variable in magnetization direction, and an intermediate layer between the first magnetic layer and the second magnetic layer, an error detecting and correcting circuit which detects whether first data in the magnetoresistive effect element includes any error and which outputs error-corrected second data when the first data includes an error, a writing circuit which generates one of the first write current including a first pulse width and the second write current including a second pulse width greater than the first pulse width, and a control circuit which controls the writing circuit to pass the second write current through the magnetoresistive effect element when the second data is written into the magnetoresistive effect element.
US08347172B2
Disclosed is a decoding method and device for low density parity check codes using dynamic scheduling. The low density parity check codes are sequentially decoded, and the messages are scheduled in the descending order of the difference between values before and after updating the message transmitted from the variable node to the check node.
US08347170B2
A method of performing decoding using an LDPC code is disclosed. The method of performing decoding an encoded codeword using a parity check matrix, comprises decoding the codeword using the parity check matrix, wherein the parity check matrix includes a plurality of layers, each of which includes at least one or more rows split exclusively from a specific row of a base parity check matrix.
US08347168B2
A wireless communication system constructed by a MIMO antenna system and transmitting information from a transmitter having Nt number of transmitting antennas to a receiver 3 having Nr number of receiving antennas. The receiver 3 of this wireless communication system 1 linking the inputs and outputs between a demodulating unit 32 demodulating the input signals from receiving antennas 31 and a decoding unit 35 receiving as input that demodulation output and decoding the non-binary LDPC code of the GF(q) one-to-one under predetermined conditions to enable the inputs and outputs of this demodulating unit 32 and decoding unit 35 to be directly connected and thereby improve the decoding characteristic. That predetermined condition is preferably q=2Nt·m.
US08347167B2
A parity unit circuit for use in a parallel, pipelined, low density parity check (LDPC) decoder that implements an iterative, min-sum, message passing LDPC algorithm. The parity unit provides a memory logic block for storing information relating to a current and next iteration of the LDPC computations and includes a “compute 1” logic block for computing a parity message (with sign) for application to related bit nodes and a “compute2” logic block for updating the data stored in the memory logic block for a next iteration of the LDPC decoder.
US08347162B2
Implementations of the present principles include methods and systems for retransmitting un-recovered information within a cognitive radio, anti-jamming system. In accordance with aspects of the present principles, encoding schemes may be optimized for retransmission by utilizing a jamming rate and a number of un-recovered packets to minimize packet loss and thereby enhance throughput. In addition, rateless encoding features may be employed to re-encode un-recovered portions of an information sequence for efficient retransmission.
US08347161B2
The present invention relates to a multiple antenna transmitting/receiving apparatus that performs a hybrid automatic repeat request, and a retransmission method thereof. An initial transmission signal is encoded into the form of an initial transmission matrix and transmitted to the receiving apparatus, the initial transmission matrix corresponding to a linear dispersion code, with a result of error checking performed on the initial transmission signal by the receiving apparatus. When an error is detected in the initial transmission signal, a first retransmission signal is generated by encoding the initial transmission signal in the form of a retransmission matrix and transmitted to the receiving apparatus. The retransmission matrix is formed of constituent elements of the initial transmission matrix but different from the initial transmission matrix, and corresponds to a linear dispersion code having the same capacity and diversity gain as those of the initial transmission matrix.
US08347159B2
The test data compression scheme is based on deterministic vector clustering. Test cubes that feature many similar specified bits are merged into a parent pattern in the presence of conflicts. The parent pattern along with a control pattern and incremental patterns representing conflicting bits are encoded efficiently. A tri-modal decompressor may be used to decompress the test data.
US08347155B2
Various approaches for determining storage medium health. For example, a storage device is disclosed that includes a storage medium and a data processing circuit. The data processing circuit receives a data set derived from the storage medium. The data processing circuit includes a data detector circuit, a data decoder circuit, and a health detection circuit. The data detector circuit receives the data set and provides a detected output. The data decoder circuit receives a derivative of the detected output and provides a decoded output. The health detection circuit receives an indication of a number of times that the data set is processed through the combination of the data detector circuit and the data decoder circuit, and generates an indirect health status of the storage medium using the number of times that the data set is processed through the combination of the data detector circuit and the data decoder circuit.
US08347132B2
A system and method for reducing active power in processors is disclosed. A method embodiment comprises the steps of determining when a particular logic block is inactive, determining the powered state of the particular logic block, isolating the particular logic block from a main processor core, and powering off the particular logic block. When the system needs the particular logic block, the method further comprises reactivating the block. A system embodiment comprises software and a processor coupled to a clock control module, an isolation control module and a header/footer module, operable to isolate a particular logic block and power off a particular logic block, thereby reducing power. Another embodiment comprises a logic module coupled to a clock by a clock gating module, an isolation module for isolating the logic module, a header/footer module for disabling power to the logic module, and a power and clock gating control module for controlling the clock gating module and the header/footer module.
US08347120B2
A usage pattern identifies time periods when an electrical apparatus is likely to be powered-up or not in use. Power provided to an electrical apparatus is increased during time periods that the electrical apparatus is likely to be powered-up. Similarly, the power provided to the electrical apparatus is reduced or removed during time periods that the electrical apparatus is likely to be out of use or idle. The usage pattern is continually updated and refined by collecting usage data during user interaction with the electrical apparatus.
US08347106B2
An information delivery device interacting with a user's eye, the device comprising an eye characteristic reader for reading at least one characteristic of the user's eye, a retinal projector for projecting information onto the retina, and an eye characteristic processor operative to receive at least one characteristic of the eye and to select the information based at least partly thereupon. A content protection system may comprise a multiplicity of such eye characteristic readers and a content protector receiving said at least one characteristic from such readers and controlling the user population's use of content to be protected based on that at least one characteristic. Related apparatus and methods are also provided.
US08347101B2
A method for issuing Anonymous Public Key Certificates to Registered Persons in an electronic record system, where pointers for indexing the record system are stored within the Anonymous Public Key Certificates, and where associated Private Keys are controlled by smartcards or similar devices. Electronic records may be identifiably indexed when the smartcard has been activated by its holder correctly entering their secret pass-phrase, or anonymously indexed when only the value of a pointer is known. The only direct linkage between each Anonymous Public Key Certificate and the associated Registered Person is through the associated Private Key as controlled by a smartcard or similar device. Using this invention the retrieval of identifiable records pertaining to a given Registered Person from an electronic record system is normally only possible with the agency of the Person's smartcard or similar device, and therefore normally only possible with the Person's consent.
US08347099B2
In the Local Storage (18), a plurality of files, merge management information which specifies a file out of the plurality of files to be used in combination with what is recorded on a Read-Only recording medium, and signature information used for judging the authenticity of the merge management information. The Virtual File System unit (38) judges the authenticity of the merge management information based on the signature information. In the case where the merge management information is judged to be authentic, the Virtual File System unit (38) generates package information which indicates a new file structure obtained by adding the file specified by the merge management information to the file structure of the Read-Only recording medium.
US08347091B2
An authenticator apparatus which makes it difficult for an unauthorized user to masquerade and enhances safety includes an authenticating information holding unit (102) previously stores characteristic information indicating an input and output characteristic involving an environment change of an authentic authenticatee apparatus entitled to be authentic, an authenticating information transmitting unit (107) which transmits authenticating information to a portable medium (2), a response information receiving unit (108) which receives response information outputted from the portable medium (2) in response to an input of the authenticating information, an environment selecting unit (105) which identifies an environment of the portable medium (2), and a response information confirming unit (109) which determines whether or not the authenticating information and the response information satisfy the input and output characteristic indicated in the characteristic information stored in the authenticating information holding unit (102), and judges that the portable medium (2) is authentic in the case where the input and output characteristic is satisfied, the authenticating information and the response information being in the environment identified by said environment identifying unit.
US08347085B2
At computer device power on, the operating system of the computer device initiates a monitor. The monitor assigns a monitoring program to each program and object (collectively, “program”) running on the computer device to monitor the activities of the program. When the monitoring program is assigned to a program, the monitoring program is assigned an integrity and/or privacy label (collectively, “integrity label”) based on predetermined criteria applied to the monitored program. The monitoring program, in turn, assigns an integrity label to the program monitored by the monitoring program. The integrity label assigned to the monitored program is less than or equal to the integrity label of the monitoring program. The monitor enforces an integrity policy of the computer device based on the integrity label assigned to monitored programs and the integrity label associated with data, another program, or a remote network resource that the monitored program is seeking to access.
US08347075B1
The present invention provides methods to mitigate the problems associated with MAC address spoofing and denial of service attacks in an FTTH network system. The MAC address spoofing attack may occur when a computer hacker configures his computer to change the MAC address of a data signal to deceive the receiver of the signal's source address. The denial of service may occur when a computer hacker floods a file server with data packets. The present invention mitigates these attacks by modifying the software of certain components of the FTTH network system to enable the components to insert virtual MAC addresses, tags and codes into the data packets that identify a component of the communication related to the address of the source computer.
US08347054B2
A method for memory management in a mass storage device, comprising the steps of providing a managed memory area (stockling) of s blocks that can be moved and stored in two parts to prevent fragmentation; repeatedly moving each of stockpiles 1,2, . . . , i-1 one block to the right until all stockpiles to the right of stockpile i have moved si blocks, or the left part of the rightmost stockling to the end of the free area (without changing the order between the blocks); returning the contiguous si blocks area beginning where the rightmost stockling began before its leftmost part was moved; locating the rightmost stockling that is stored in one piece (it is either the rightmost stockling itself or the stockling to the left of the rightmost stockling) and moving it to the location of the stockling to be deallocated, and reversing the allocation procedure.
US08347035B2
A processor may comprise a core area, a control unit, an uncore area. The core area may comprise multiple processing cores and line-fill buffers. A first processing core of the core area may store a first weakly ordered transaction in a first line-fill buffer. The firs processing core may offload the first weakly ordered transaction to the extended buffer space provisioned in the uncore area after receiving a request from the uncore area. The first processing core may then de-allocate the first line-fill buffer after the first weakly ordered transaction is offloaded to the extended buffer space. The uncore may then post the first weakly ordered transaction to a memory or a memory system. The control unit may track the first weakly ordered transaction to ensure that the first weakly ordered transaction is posted to the memory or the system.
US08347024B2
A memory system includes a non-volatile semiconductor memory that includes a plurality of blocks, each of the blocks being a data erasing unit; an erasing time monitoring unit that monitors time required for erasing data from the non-volatile semiconductor memory; a management table for managing the erasing time on a unit of each of the blocks; and a wear-leveling control unit that levels number of rewriting across the blocks based on the management table. The memory system accommodates variations among lots, individual pieces, and blocks, thereby performing highly-accurate wear leveling.
US08347021B1
The subject matter of this document can be implemented in, among other things, a method that includes receiving, by a process executing separately from a first software application on a computing device, a first message generated by the first software application. The method further includes storing, by the process executing separately from the first software application, the received first message in a volatile memory storage location of the computing device. The method further includes retrieving, by the process executing separately from the first software application, the first message following a termination of the first software application.
US08347015B2
A method, apparatus, and system to synchronize multiple host controllers with non-uniform frame rates. The apparatus includes a first host controller, a second host controller, and logic. The first host controller is configured to access memory at a first frame rate. The second host controller is configured to access the memory at a second frame rate which is different from the first frame rate. The logic is coupled to the first and second host controllers to synchronize the memory accesses of the first and second host controllers at a common frame rate. Other embodiments are described.
US08347005B2
A multi-protocol memory controller includes one or more memory channel controllers. Each of the memory channel controllers coupled to a single channel of DIMM, where the DIMM in each single channel operate according to a specific protocol. A protocol engine is coupled to the memory channel controllers. The protocol engine is configurable to accommodate one or more of the specific protocols. Finally, a system interface is coupled to the protocol engine and is configurable to provide electrical power and signaling appropriate for the specific protocols.
US08347000B2
A timing controller provides a cable plug status detection function by receiving a reference lock signal from a graphics system connected via a constituent cable and comparing the reference lock signal to one or more reference time periods to determine the cable plug status.
US08346999B2
A method according to one embodiment includes the operations of assigning a network application to at least one first core processing unit, from among a plurality of core processing unit. The method of this embodiment also includes the operations of assigning a first receive queue to said first core processing unit, wherein the first receive queue is configured to receive packet flow associated with the network application; defining a high threshold for the first receive queue; and monitoring the packet flow in the first receive queue and comparing a packet flow level in the first receive queue to the high threshold; wherein if the packet flow level exceeds the threshold based on the comparing, generating a queue status message indicating that the packet flow level in the first queue has exceeded the queue high threshold.
US08346993B2
A method, computer readable medium, and a system for communicating with networked clients and servers through a network device is disclosed. A first network data packet is received at a first port of a network device. The first network data packet is destined for a first executing application of a plurality of executing applications operating in the network device. The plurality of executing applications are associated with corresponding application drivers utilizing independent and unique direct memory access (DMA) channels. A first DMA channel is identified, wherein the first DMA channel is mapped to the first port and associated with a first application driver corresponding to the first executing application. The first network data packet is transmitted to the first executing application over the first identified DMA channel.
US08346971B2
Asynchronous network interface and method of synchronization between two applications on different computers is provided. The network interface contains snooping hardware which can be programmed to contain triggering values comprising either addresses, address ranges or other data which are to be matched. These data are termed “trip wires”. Once programmed, the interface monitors the data stream, including address data, passing through the interface for addresses and data which match the trip wires which have been set. On a match, the snooping hardware can generate interrupts, increment event counters, or perform some other application-specified action. This snooping hardware is preferably based upon Content-Addressable Memory.The invention thus provides in-band synchronization by using synchronization primitives which are programmable by user level applications, while still delivering high bandwidth and low latency. The programming of the synchronization primitives can be made by the sending and receiving applications independently of each other and no synchronization information is required to traverse the network.
US08346969B2
A network apparatus is provided that may include one or more security accelerators. The network apparatus also includes a plurality of network units cascaded together. According to one embodiment, the plurality of network units comprise a plurality of content based message directors, each to route or direct received messages to one of a plurality of application servers based upon the application data in the message. According to another embodiment, the plurality of network units comprise a plurality of validation accelerators, each validation accelerator to validate at least a portion of a message before outputting the message.
US08346953B1
Methods, computer-readable media, and systems are provided to facilitate a second user to allow or deny a first user, such as a child, from accessing content by proving the second user with a content profile based on decisions made by other users with respect to the content. In one implementation, a system allows the second user to set a threshold to automatically allow or deny access based on the other users' decisions. The decisions made by other users are aggregated into information that may be based on similarities between the child and other children from whom other users have previously made decisions regarding the particular content. In addition, the aggregation may more heavily weight decisions by users that have a history of making similar decisions to the second user.
US08346947B2
A cable modem integrated session border controller operates as a point of demarcation between a local area network (LAN) and a DOCSIS network and, in response to receiving a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) message, which includes Session Description Protocol (SDP), from a VoIP device coupled to the LAN, communicates with a Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS) to take advantage of DOCSIS Dynamic Quality of Service (DQoS). If required service flow attributes, as determined from the SDP of the SIP message, matches service flow attributes of an existing UGS service flow with a CMTS, a DOCSIS Dynamic Service Change (DSC) request is used to add an additional sub flow to the existing UGS service flow. If attributes fail to match attributes of all existing UGS service flows, a DOCSIS Dynamic Service Change (DSC) request is used to initiate an additional UGS service flow with the required service flow attributes.
US08346945B2
Various embodiments of present invention relate to the synchronization of an SDP stream to the media stream. In various embodiments, the SDP-consuming application initiates a FLUTE receiver and retrieves new versions of the SDP file. The terminal also retrieves information from the RTCP layer about the current sender time. The sender time is indicated as an NTP timestamp in RTCP sender reports. The receiver indicates to the player that the new SDP file will be valid after some time period. Various embodiments of the present invention also cover the behavior of a terminal upon receiving an SDP update. Still further, various embodiments of the present invention provides for richer out-of-band ESG delivery than conventional systems, permitting more meaningful session updates.
US08346941B2
A method is described for signaling a connection request between data processing devices, in which a connection call (12) is transmitted by broadcast (10), the connection call calling at least one data terminal (2) to set up, via a radio network, a connection (20) suitable for transmitting the data.
US08346939B2
A network system that performs network connection between devices conforming to a predetermined communication standard is disclosed. The system includes client devices including first network starting units that present first identification information including an identifier decided in advance and designating a first network and start the first network and a server. The server includes a reading unit that reads the first identification information, an option presenting unit that presents, as an option of a network connection destination, a client device including the first identification information read by the reading unit, a first network joining unit that joins the first network when the option is selected, and a transmitting unit that transmits, in the first network, a communication encryption key for joining a second network and second identification information designating the second network to the selected client device.
US08346938B1
A method for storing information in a database pertaining to which wireless devices an application initiates and accepts communications from. The information from the database is utilized whenever an application attempts to establish a connection with an unconnected device. The method includes analyzing an application's purpose in requesting to open a wireless communication port. If the purpose is to initiate communications with a peripheral device, the method queries the database and then initiates a communication link with the appropriate device. If the purpose is to accept communications from a peripheral device, the method detects incoming wireless device signals and identifies their source. If the source is listed in the database as an accepted device for the application, a communication link will be established. If the device is not listed, the method will revert back to detecting incoming wireless device signals.
US08346928B2
Methods, systems, and products are disclosed for administering an epoch initiated for remote memory access that include: initiating, by an origin application messaging module on an origin compute node, one or more data transfers to a target compute node for the epoch; initiating, by the origin application messaging module after initiating the data transfers, a closing stage for the epoch, including rejecting any new data transfers after initiating the closing stage for the epoch; determining, by the origin application messaging module, whether the data transfers have completed; and closing, by the origin application messaging module, the epoch if the data transfers have completed.
US08346922B2
An approach is provided that transmits a load balance request from a first peer node to other peer nodes. Some of the peer nodes have assigned transaction tracking responsibilities. The transmitting is performed in response to identifying that the first peer node is performing at a non-optimal level. The first peer node receives responses from the other peer nodes. A determination is made as to whether to handover one or more of the first peer node's transaction tracking responsibilities. If a second peer node is identified to take some of the first peer node's responsibilities, then a handover message is sent from the first peer node to the second peer node that assigns at least one of the first peer node's assigned transaction responsibilities to the second peer node.
US08346920B2
Systems and methods for managing network resource requests are described herein. Servers may be configured to operate in communication with a network. A server, in accordance with embodiments described in the present disclosure, includes a resource request handling program that is stored in a memory device. The resource request handling program is configured to extract an abbreviated resource request into at least an abbreviated site name and a page symbol. The server also includes a database that is configured to store a first relationship between the abbreviated site name and a web site. The database may also store a second relationship between the page symbol and a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) address of a web page associated with the web site.
US08346919B1
A method and apparatus are provided for communication of a host having a first network interface device and a second network interface device coupled thereto. The first network interface device is configured to operate a transport layer network connection between the host and a peer. The host is configured to, while the first network device is operating the transport layer network connection with the peer, independently determine connection information that describes the transport layer network connection being operated by the first network interface device. The second network interface device is caused to operate the transport layer network connection with the peer based at least in part on the connection information maintained by the host.
US08346916B2
In a search server, a search request for searching for a device is received from a client PC, the device satisfying a search condition included in the received search request is searched for, and a searched result is transmitted to the client PC. Further, it is judged whether or not an apparatus at a transfer destination to which the search request is transferred has been registered in the search server. If it is judged that the apparatus at the transfer destination has been registered in the search server, the search request is transferred to the registered apparatus at the transfer destination based on the received search request.
US08346915B2
A method of recording activity at a wireless device is provided. The method includes receiving a record command, determining a user activity at the wireless device, and determining available memory at the wireless device. The method further includes recording the user activity to create a device recording at least partially based on the user activity and the available memory.
US08346913B2
A method for monitoring and upgrading software in device management includes: monitoring use frequency of software of terminal equipment and storing use frequency information of software; and providing the use frequency information of software to a device management server. Further, a method for upgrading software in device management, includes: monitoring use frequency information of software on terminal equipment and providing corresponding use frequency information of the software to a device management server; and by the device management server, determining by using the use frequency information of software to be upgraded, whether the software to be upgraded satisfies conditions for upgrading, and if the software to be upgraded satisfies the conditions for upgrading, delivering operations for upgrading the software to upgrade the software; otherwise, abandoning the upgrading of the software.
US08346898B2
A method and computer program product for automatically classifying relationships in a social networking or email application is described. A method may comprise associating, via at least one of a client electronic device and a server computer, a first incoming communication type and a first outgoing communication type with a first contact group, and a second incoming communication type and a second outgoing communication type with a second contact group. The method may further comprise monitoring, via at least one of the client electronic device and the server computer, an incoming communication from a contact and an outgoing communication to the contact.
US08346890B1
A multi-homed web server is disclosed including a plurality of virtual hosts operable in a web server. The multi-web server is configured to serve animations to clients over the web. The multi-web server may determine whether the specified time to send a subsequent graphic in a series of graphics has passed, and if the specified time has passed, then send a next graphic the next appropriate time. The web server software may be compiled as part of the native web server code.
US08346888B2
[PROBLEMS] To surely deliver additional data to be delivered with contents data at a desired timing, and allow a delivery result to be easily confirmed.[MEANS FOR SOLVING PROBLEMS] When the contents data is acquired in real time from the delivery apparatus 5 by the contents data acquiring device 11a, the contents data is outputted to a display or the like and displayed in real time by the contents data outputting device 11b. At the same time, the additional data corresponding to the contents data is acquired from the delivery apparatus 5 by the additional data acquiring device 11c, the available data is acquired from the delivery apparatus 5 by the available data acquiring device 11d, and the additional data outputting period is calculated based on the available data by the additional data outputting period calculating device 11e. The additional data is outputted to a display or the like and displayed in the additional data outputting period by the additional data outputting device 11f, and is stopped outputting in response to an end of the additional data outputting period.
US08346880B2
Disclosed herein are filtering systems and methods that employ an electronic message source reputation system. The source reputation system maintains a pool of source Internet Protocol (IP) address information, in the form of a Real-Time Threat Identification Network (“RTIN”) database, which can provide the reputation of source IP addresses, which can be used by customers for filtering network traffic. The source reputation system provides for multiple avenues of access to the source reputation information. Examples of such avenues can include Domain Name Server (DNS)-type queries, servicing routers with router-table data, or other avenues.
US08346876B2
The present invention is directed to an apparatus, system, methods, and computer-program product for message delivery in a publish/subscribe network is provided. According to one embodiment of the invention, a method for message delivery in a publish/subscribe network includes defining a group of publish/subscribe engines as a subset of a set of fully connectable publish/subscribe engines, wherein the group provides a function which can be carried out by any one of the publish/subscribe engines in the group. Each of the publish/subscribe engines in the group sends a group proxy subscription including a topic, an indication of the publish/subscribe engine sending the group proxy subscription, and an indication of the group. A publish/subscribe engine outside the group sends a single publish message to one of the group of publish/subscribe engines with a group proxy subscription for a topic. If the one of the group of publish/subscribe engines to which the single publish message is being sent also has an individual proxy subscription, the publish message for the group is included in the publish message for the individual proxy subscription.
US08346874B2
A mail enabled object may be migrated from one hosting server to another by using a temporary buffer that may capture incoming mail during the migration operation. A new mail enabled object may be created and enabled on a target server, and the old mail object may be disabled and forwarded to a buffer that may collect incoming messages. While the buffer receives incoming messages, the contents of the old mail object may be copied to the new mail object. After verifying the transfer of the contents, the buffer may be released to forward any collected messages to the new mail object. The old mail object may then be cleaned up. The migration may be performed from one server to another, from one forest to another, and to and from a remotely hosted messaging service.
US08346868B2
The customer presses the Connect button (2240) on the customer terminal (1230). By this, a connection request to an operator terminal is notified to an operator terminal (1210) via the push sharing server (2100). On receiving this notification, the operator terminal (1210) changes the Respond button (2310) to the Incoming button. When the operator presses the Respond button (2310) on the operator web page (2300), the push sharing server (2100) transmits a difference notification command to the operator terminal (1210), and the operator terminal displays the same web page as the web page on the customer terminals (1230).
US08346865B1
An online networking system and method for depicting views associated with an entity are presented. An entity profile data structure associated with an entity such as a user or a business is created that defines an entity internal view and a plurality of entity external views. The entity internal view includes entity external view controls for defining entity external views. The entity internal view depicts information associated with members and visitors who visit the entity external views in one embodiment. The entity can define an entity external view to be of a type selected from a group of view types consisting of a family, social and business type, and can define an entity external view to have an access level type selected from a group of access level types consisting of public, private and secret in one embodiment. The entity external view controls allow the entity to select tools such as a media album for displaying media such as photographs and video clips, and to create a tool list. Attributes of a tool are determined via the entity external view controls, and the location of a tool in an entity external view is determined by the tool's location in the tool list, in one embodiment.
US08346851B2
A local machine receives a service request from a parent transaction coordinator hosted by a remote machine, the service request including a transaction context. The transaction context is cached at the local machine. Processing logic on the local machine monitors a service as the service performs work to comply with the service request. Processing logic determines when to generate a subordinate transaction coordinator and when to register the subordinate transaction coordinator with the parent transaction coordinator based on the work performed by the monitored device.
US08346844B2
A communication apparatus of the present invention includes a transmission/reception coupler for performing a one-to-one communication at short distance with an apparatus of a communication opponent by electric field coupling or magnetic field coupling; a plural copy mode setting unit for setting a plural copy mode for transferring a data file to a plurality of apparatuses; a data file selecting unit for selecting a data file to transfer to the plurality of apparatuses; a file transfer processing unit for transferring the data file already selected in the data file selecting unit to an apparatus, which communication is established, when the plural copy mode is set; and a plural copy mode canceling unit for canceling the plural copy mode.
US08346843B2
A system having a resource manager, a plurality of masters, and a plurality of slaves, interconnected by a communications network. To distribute data, a master determined that a destination slave of the plurality slaves requires data. The master then generates a list of slaves from which to transfer the data to the destination slave. The master transmits the list to the resource manager. The resource manager is configured to select a source slave from the list based on available system resources. Once a source is selected by the resource manager, the master receives an instruction from the resource manager to initiate a transfer of the data from the source slave to the destination slave. The master then transmits an instruction to commence the transfer.
US08346839B2
The speed at which an AES decrypt operation may be performed in a general purpose processor is increased by providing a separate decrypt data path. The critical path delay of the aes decrypt path is reduced by combining multiply and inverse operations in the Inverse SubBytes transformation. A further decrease in critical path delay in the aes decrypt data path is provided by merging appropriate constants of the inverse mix-column transform into a map function.
US08346833B2
A filter and method of filtering modifies the computation order to accommodate horizontal symmetric filtering, and modifies the source operands while modifying the single instruction multiple data (SIMD) computation, so as to eliminate such heavy overhead of transposing a pixel matrix. The filter and method of filtering reformats the equations involved in the prior art to the following equations, thereby acquiring the interpolation results by reducing the required clock cycles to three cycles: acc=a0*(|p0+p5|p1+p6|p2+p7|p3+p8|) acc=a1*(|p1+p4|p2+p5|p3+p6|p4+p7|)+acc acc=a2*(|P2+P3|P3+P4|P4+P5|P5+P6|)+acc.
US08346830B2
Register includes flip-flop circuits each constructed to retain data of n bit in synchronism with a clock pulse, the register retaining a multiplication result of a multiplier dividedly by the flip-flop circuits, n bit per flip-flop circuit. For each of a first and second numeric value data to be multiplied by the multiplier, a control circuit detects the number of consecutive zeros from the lowest-order bit of the data and performs control, on the basis of the detected number of the consecutive zeros and for each flip-flop circuit, as to whether or not the clock pulse should be supplied to the flip-flop circuit. The control circuit obtains an integral quotient value x by dividing by the number n the sum between the detected numbers for the first and second numeric value data, to stop the clock pulse supply to a particular number x of flip-flop circuit counted from the lowest-order.
US08346826B2
A system which includes at least one client, a plurality of file servers, each having a file system, and a switch logically arranged between the client and the plurality of file servers to provide file access services which virtually render the plurality of file systems accessible as a single file system, termed a ‘pseudo file system’, when viewed from the terminal. The switch distributes a command that starts generation of snapshots to the plurality of file servers, which file servers formulate respective snapshots responsive to the command that starts formation of the snapshots. The switch sets the plurality of snapshots, generated by the plurality of file servers, so as to be associated with the file system structure of the virtual file system at the time of formation of the snapshots.
US08346825B2
A system and method are provided for verifying data copies and reverifying the copies over the life span of media according to a verification policy. Characteristics of media and use of media are tracked to provide metrics which may be used to dynamically reevaluate and reassign verification policies to optimize media usage. Copies that fail verification operations may be repaired by repeating a storage operation for recent copies or by substituting a close temporal copy of the failed copy.
US08346821B2
A method for object tracking of resource objects with acquire and release semantics can include instrumenting both an acquisition method and a release method of a resource object to write a reference to the resource object to an open object set upon acquiring the resource object, and to remove the reference to the resource object in the open object set upon releasing the resource object. The method also can include determining whether the resource object both has been flagged for garbage collection in the virtual machine and also remains referenced in the open object set. Finally, the method can include generating an error record in the virtual machine responsive to determining the resource object to have been both flagged for garbage collection in the virtual machine and also remaining referenced in the open object set.
US08346815B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for providing image search results with web corpus search results. In one aspect, a method includes determining dimensions of an image display environment in which image search results are to be displayed, determining an insertion score that defines an ordinal insertion position at which the image display environment is to be inserted into a ranking of general search results that defines ordinal positions for each of the general search results, the dimensions and the insertion score determined, in part, from the quality scores of the images, generating a search results resource for displaying the general search results according to their respective ordinal positions and the image display environment at the ordinal insertion position on a client device, and providing the search results resource in response to the search query.
US08346798B2
The present disclosure provides a method for making a playlist available to the public. In another embodiment, the present disclosure provides a method for creating a playlist comprising user-defined descriptor information. In another embodiment, the present disclosure provides a method for searching for such public playlists.
US08346796B2
A system for searching property listings based on location may include storing, in a database of a mobile electronic device, a set of property listing entries, wherein a property listing entry includes an identification data field and a location coordinate data field. A property searching application may be executed on a processor of the mobile electronic device, wherein executing the property searching application includes multiple operations. Updated property listing entries may be received from a listing server. The set of property listing entries may be transformed based on the updated property listings. A search area may be determined. The database may be queried to retrieve one or more property listing entries from the set of property listing entries based on a comparison between the search area and the location coordinate data fields of the property listing entries.
US08346795B2
A system and method are provided for refining a user's query. An entity index, generated from a corpus of text documents, is provided. The entity index includes a set of entity structures, each including a plurality of terms. Each of the terms of an entity structure is a feature of the same entity. Entity structures can be retrieved from the entity index which match at least a portion of the user's query. Clusters of the retrieved entity structures are identified which have at least one of their terms in common. A cluster hierarchy is generated from the identified clusters in which nodes of the hierarchy are defined by one or more of the terms of the retrieved entity structures. At least a portion of the cluster hierarchy is presented to the user for facilitating refinement of the user's query through user selection of a node which, when formulated as a search, retrieves one or more responsive documents from the corpus of documents.
US08346790B2
A computer implemented method for ensuring the quality of processed corporate entity data, the method comprising: sequentially processing the corporate entity data through a series of serially connected drivers, the serially connected drivers comprise a data collection driver, an entity matching driver, an identification number driver, a corporate linkage driver, and a predictive indicator driver; and conducting a quality assurance of the corporate entity data as it is processed in each of the driver, wherein the quality assurance comprises: (i) sampling the corporate entity data from each the driver periodically, thereby generating sample data; (ii) evaluating the sample data; and (iii) adjusting the processing based upon the evaluation, thereby producing high quality data.
US08346783B2
System, method and computer program product for adjusting a representation of a merchandise hierarchy associated with an entity such as a retailer or wholesaler of products. Product correlation information discovered in that entity's customers' shopping records are obtained and incorporated into an existing merchandise hierarchy with a constraint on the consistency with the existing hierarchy.
US08346782B2
The present disclosure describes an information matching method and information system. The method collects characteristic data of category plurality of categories of network behavior of a plurality of network users; groups the network users into a plurality of clusters based on the characteristic data; sets weight of the characteristic data; receives a search request from one of the plurality of network users; obtains search results according to the search request; inquires a historical record of clicking operation on at least some of the search results made by at least some of the network users in one of the clusters which contains the one of the plurality of network users; calculates a respective rank value of each of the at least some of the search results based on the historical record of clicking operation of at least some of the network users and the weight of the characteristic data; sorts of the search results to arrange the search results according to the rank values of the search results in a descending order from high rank to low rank; and causes the sorted search results to be displayed.
US08346773B2
Data is analyzed by a computer for the automated creation of a new data structure for information technology objects. The objects represent technical components from the mechanical engineering sector or the electrical industry and are assigned to a company. The objects to be structured are captured and then subjected to a parsing. Technical relationships are then created between the parsed objects to construct technical metrics. The data structure is derived from the technical metrics.
US08346771B2
The present invention is directed to searching for image files based on shooting times thereof from among image files which are managed in each of folders and preventing a user from misunderstanding search results due to displayed contents when the search results are displayed for each of the folders. An image management apparatus according to the present invention searches an image file that satisfies a search condition in which a shooting time thereof is set by a user operation from among a plurality of image files, reads the shooting time of the searched image file, acquires a range of the shooting times for each of folders, and updates and displays thumbnail images indicating the searched image files together with acquired range of the shooting times for each of the folders.
US08346766B2
In a computerized data mining context, user input relating to positive and negative information is incorporated into node proximity measurements on a weighted, directed graph. Random walk results are updated without a full matrix inversion by using selective update to a low rank approximation and to inversion results.
US08346762B2
Improved techniques to facilitate generation, management and delivery of personalized media items for users are disclosed. Users are able to influence or control content within a personalized media item. According to one aspect, personalized media items can pertain to generation and delivery of map-based media items. These media items are playable by a media playback device. For example, when a map-based media item is played by a media playback device, an audio output and/or a visual output can be provided. The audio output can be provided by digital audio, and the visual output can be provided by at least one digital image that is associated with at least a portion of the digital audio.
US08346759B2
Provided are a system and article of manufacture for searching documents for ranges of numeric values. A number of posting lists is generated, wherein each posting list is associated with a range of consecutive values within the set of values and includes document identifiers for documents including at least one value within the range of consecutive values associated with the posting list, and wherein each document identifier is associated with one value in the set of values included in the document identified by the document identifier. The generated posting lists are stored. A query on a query range of values within the set of values is received and a determination is made of a minimum number of posting lists associated with consecutive values that together include the query range of values. The determined posting lists are merged.
US08346750B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide systems, methods and computer program products for generating search results comprising web documents with associated expert information. One embodiment of a method for generating such search results includes receiving one or more search queries, selecting one of the one or more search queries, determining one or more categories of web documents responsive to the selected search query and crawling a web graph of linked web documents to identify one or more web documents tagged as within the one or more categories responsive to the selected search query. The method further includes generating a result set of the one or more web documents identified as within the one or more categories responsive to the selected search query, ranking the result set and generating a list of ranked search results responsive to the selected search.
US08346749B2
Described herein is a method that includes determining a utility to a user of sharing a set of attributes for use in connection with personalized searching or other online services. The method further includes determining a cost to the user of sharing the set of attributes. The method also includes outputting an indication of a net benefit to the user of sharing the set of attributes based at least in part upon the determined utility and the determined cost.
US08346746B2
A method for performing a search for information pertaining to a search subject includes receiving a name of a person. A social/professional value is received. A search is performed based on the received name. A plurality of personal candidates is identified from results of the search and profiles of the same person in different search domains are automatically linked. A search subject is selected from among the identified plurality of candidates based on user input. The search results are characterized along a scale from social information to professional information. The search results are filtered based on the received value indicative of the desired level and the characterization of each item of results found. The filtered search results are displayed.
US08346742B1
A client device or other processing device comprises a file processing module, with the file processing module being operative to request proof from a file system that a file having a first format is stored by the file system in a second format different than the first format, to receive the proof from the file system, and to verify that the file is stored in the second format using the proof provided by the file system responsive to the request. The proof is based at least in part on application of a function to the file in the second format, and the function imposes a minimum resource requirement on generation of the proof. The file system may comprise one or more servers associated with a cloud storage provider. Advantageously, one or more illustrative embodiments allow a client device to verify that its files are stored by a cloud storage provider in encrypted form or with other appropriate protections.
US08346736B2
A method to deduplicate data by receiving a data set, setting a data chunk size, selecting a first stage deduplication algorithm, and selecting a second stage deduplication algorithm, where the first stage deduplication algorithm differs from the second stage deduplication algorithm. The method selects a data chunk, where that data chunk comprises all or a portion of the data set, performs a first stage deduplication analysis of the data chunk using the first stage deduplication algorithm. If the first stage deduplication analysis indicates duplicate data, then the method performs a second state deduplication analysis of said data chunk using the second stage deduplication algorithm to verify the data as duplicate. Only if both data deduplication analysis indicate duplicate data the data chunk is replaced by a deduplication stub or reference to the identical data chunk which is already stored.
US08346734B2
A system and method for determining media to be exported out of a media library is described. In some examples, the system determines a media component to be exported, determines the media component is in the media library for a specific process, and exports the media component after the process is completed.
US08346721B2
An automated method to replicate remote virtual files to local physical files is presented, wherein the method provides a replication algorithm comprising computer readable program code that can be used by a programmable computer processor to replicate the (N) remote virtual volumes to (N) local physical volumes, such that a computing device integral with those (N) local physical volumes can read data from, and write data to, each of the locally replicated virtual volumes without modifying volume assignments and without reconfiguring the computing device to communicate with the (N) local physical volumes.
US08346720B2
A system includes a first server apparatus storing information and a plurality of second server apparatuses being connected to the first server apparatus. Each of the plurality of second server apparatuses transmits an update request signal for request to update the information stored in the first server apparatus to the first server apparatus. The first server apparatus selects, when receiving the update request signal, an update scheme corresponding to the update request signal out of a plurality of update schemes. The first server apparatus updates information corresponding to the update request signal with the selected update scheme.
US08346716B2
The present invention can realize easy transition from a task managed by a To-Do list to a workflow. When an unprocessed task stored in the To-Do list database is converted by an instruction into the workflow in the client software, a document management system of the present invention extracts a workflow definition including an activity corresponding to an unprocessed task to be converted by the instruction and notifies a client software of the workflow definition. When the client software selects the workflow definition, server software creates an instance of the workflow corresponding to the selected workflow definition, and applies information about the task to be converted, to the activity corresponding to the task to be converted in the instance of the workflow.
US08346714B1
A temporal table is present in an active data warehouse (“ADW”) on a massively parallel processing system (“MPP system”). The MPP system includes a plurality of units of parallelism. Each of the plurality of units of parallelism maintains its own moving system time separate from that of the other units of parallelism. A load-job for the ADW is accepted. The load-job includes a requested modification to an identified row. The identified row is stored in the temporal table on a first of the MPP system's units of parallelism. The requested modification is implemented on the identified row. The identified row is timestamped with the moving system time maintained by the first of the MPP system's units of parallelism at the time of the implementation of the modification.
US08346704B2
Controlled constraint sharing in parallel problem solvers is described. In embodiments, constraint sharing in a problem solver is controlled by comparing a total number of shared constraints obtained in a time interval to a target, and regulating the subsequent number of shared constraints obtained from other problem solvers accordingly. Embodiments describe how the regulation of the subsequent number of shared constraints can be achieved by controlling the size of constraints shared by other problem solvers. Embodiments describe how an additive increase/multiplicative decrease algorithm can be used to determine the size of constraints to be exchanged. Embodiments also describe how the utility of the shared constraints can be determined, and used to control the size of constraints shared by other problem solvers. In embodiments, the problem solver is a Boolean satisfiability problem solver.
US08346700B2
A health monitoring system for a vehicle system includes a plurality of managers and a decision support module. Each manager corresponds to a different sub-system of the vehicle system, and generates manager output pertaining to the sub-system based at least in part on an intermediate output. Each manager comprises a plurality of reasoners. Each reasoner corresponds to a different component of the sub-system, and comprises a plurality of modules and a reasoner fusion block. Each module obtains data regarding a different aspect of the component and generates a preliminary output based on the data. The reasoner fusion block is coupled to the plurality of modules, receives the preliminary output, and generates the intermediate output based on the preliminary output. The decision support module is coupled to the plurality of managers, receives the manager output therefrom, and provides a decision support output based on the manager output.
US08346699B2
A simulated consciousness method (10) for an improved human/computer interface. A computer system (12) is programmed to have a Digital Life Form (32) possessing a plurality of attributes (65). A plurality of actions (64) taken relative to objects (60) in the environment (30) contribute to simulated feelings (76) which ultimately control the viability of the Digital Life Form (32). When there are not sufficient energy packets (66) to sustain the Digital Life Form (32) then simulated death 52 results. Therefore, only actions (64) which contribute to the viability of the Digital Life Form (32) are repeated in the long-run. Some of those actions (64) include perception of reality, concept formation, and natural language processing.
US08346695B2
The invention relates to a method of performing oilfield operations for an oilfield, the oilfield having a subterranean formation. The method includes collecting a first volume data set of seismic data and a second volume data set of seismic data, co-rendering a visually-melded scene directly from the first volume data set and the second volume data set, displaying the visually-melded scene comprising a visualized geobody, where the visualized geobody corresponds to a portion of the first volume data set and the second volume data set, and selectively adjusting the oilfield operations based on the visualized geobody.
US08346677B1
Described herein is an enabling product that facilitates implementation of an m-commerce business solution. According to an embodiment of the present invention an m-commerce solution includes: a content provider or merchant site that provides products and goods to be purchased; a payment system allowing online authorization of funds to purchase the goods; and a wireless network for all customer interactions. Embodiments described herein perform at least one of the following three functions: 1) protocol conversions; 2) customer information reposing, and 3) payment authorization system interfacing.
US08346675B2
A method, AND apparatus are described to accurately measure the delivery performance of a postal service using without external agents in the measurement process. The invention describes a system that measures the postal logistic automatically, and continuously. The basis for measurement are tag mail pieces that circulate continuously through the postal system.
US08346672B1
A system providing enhanced security for device based transactions, constituted of: a server associated with a network address; a first device associated with a user, the first device in communication with the server over a first communication channel responsive to an obtained server network address; a second device associated with the user arranged to obtain the server network address from the first device; and a mobile device server in communication with the second device over a second communication channel, the mobile device server in communication with the server via a third communication channel, the mobile device server arranged to: obtain the server network address from the second device over the second communication channel; obtain the server network address from a trusted source; and authorize to the server over third communication channel a transaction only in the event that the server network addresses are consonant.
US08346671B2
A system for point-to-point encryption is provided. A card reader system reads unencrypted card data stored on a magnetic stripe of a card and encrypts the card data, the card reader system being contained in a first housing. A point of sale device coupled to the card reader system and contained in a second housing separate from the first housing has a user interface for obtaining a transaction amount. A transaction request system transmits the transaction amount and the encrypted card data to an authorization gateway, wherein the unencrypted card data is prevented from being processed by the point of sale device.
US08346663B2
A method and system of smart card banking utilizes a contactless communication interface, such as infrared or a wireless or radio frequency interface, including, for example, a proximity interface. A contactless communication is initiated for a smart card user between a smart card application and the on-line system of a financial institution, such as a bank, the system verifies authorization for the communication, the information is communicated for the user to the on-line system. The contactless communication is initiated, and the information is communicated, for example, between a contactless interface transceiver of a personal data assistant, into which the smart card is inserted, and the contactless interface transceiver of an on-line terminal. Alternatively, the contactless communication is initiated, and the information is communicated between a contactless interface transceiver of the smart card and the contactless interface transceiver of the terminal.
US08346662B2
A consumer installs a desktop application on a computer which renders a user interface on the computer's desktop. Upon installation, the desktop application is registered to receive offers and alerts. Each alert includes data for a transaction on an account conducted with a merchant where the account was issued by an issuer to an account holder to conduct transactions on the account with merchants. A received alert is rendered on the desktop. If the consumer, upon review of the rendered alert, deems the corresponding transaction to be fraudulent, the consumer can operate the user interface to activate a live chat with a web service, and use the live chat to send information sufficient to initiate a bona fide dispute of the transaction. The offers are rendered on the user interface as advertisement and are selectable to initiate a transaction on the account.
US08346659B1
A transaction and payment and processing system securely conducts transactions over the public telephone network. The transactions may be between and among entities of any type such as individuals, merchants, utilities, banks, etc. Nothing more than access to a telephone is required after initial registration of a user.
US08346657B1
A method, system and computer-readable medium for providing a reverse mortgage instrument for use in an existing mortgage are disclosed. In certain circumstances, a reverse mortgage is beneficial to military personnel being deployed, or other customers experiencing financial hardship. The present reverse mortgage allows a customer to either apply for the reverse mortgage, or pre-designate the mortgage to have a reversal upon the occurrence of a predetermined event.
US08346654B2
Provided is a computer-implemented method for providing a common index securities fund that provides liquidity in a plurality of small business borrowers in a defined class. The method comprises providing a pool of cash from a lender to the fund; generating loans from the fund to borrowers; depositing the loans in interest-bearing accounts; providing interest from the interest bearing accounts to the lender and the borrowers; and, upon withdrawal of the loans from the interest-bearing accounts, repaying the loans to the lender and commencing a payment stream by each borrower to the fund, including adjusting one or more payments in the payment stream using an index having a value relationship to the class.
US08346645B1
An investment management computer system is configured to communicate with data vendors or electronic accounting systems. The system may include an electronic application server having logic for performing analysis of an investment portfolio including aggregating a plurality of securities in the investment portfolio by security type, portfolio monitoring, and reporting holdings of the portfolio. The application server may further include data load logic for receiving either a completely refreshed data set or an incrementally refreshed data set; validating the received data to promote a complete transmission and to promote a correct as-of-date transmission for the received data; and, updating the data stored in the database server database with the received data.
US08346643B2
A method for point of service third party adjudicated payment, which includes providing payment system access information to a point of service provider, receiving from the point of service provider purchase transaction data and the payment system access information, adjudicating the transaction substantially in real-time to determine the portion payable by the customer and the portion payable by a third party, sending an adjudicated settlement transaction to the point of service provider substantially in real-time, and initiating a request to transfer funds substantially in real-time in accordance with the adjudicated settlement transaction to an account of the service provider.
US08346638B2
Systems and methods consistent with the present invention may be used as part of determining whether to chargeback a purchase transaction amount to a merchant. To this end, the system may heuristically analyze purchase transaction data to determine which transactions to analyze for chargeback processing. For instance, the system may identify purchase transactions that are likely to qualify for a chargeback. For the identified purchase transactions, the system may then determine an expected value for each transaction in terms of received revenue from chargeback processing and the costs for performing a chargeback. Using the expected values for this transaction data, the system may then prioritize which purchase transactions to review for chargeback to a respective merchant.
US08346637B2
A method for a consumer to protect against loss associated with specified forms of check fraud. Upon purchasing checks, a consumer can subscribe to a check fraud protection program, for an additional fee. The subscription will enable the consumer to obtain reimbursement from the check printer for the consumer's losses due to specified causes. The consumer reciprocally assigns any right of recovery from the consumer's bank or financial institution to the check printer, which can then seek reimbursement from the bank, or financial institution and institute proceedings against the fraud perpetrator. Protection may be obtained for forged signatures, forged endorsements and altered check. A symbol to indicate such protection is also disclosed.
US08346627B2
Under the present invention, an approver will log into a purchase application or the like. Upon logging in, the approver will be presented with a view of all item requests for which he/she must make an approval determination. The approver can also be presented with informational messages for the requested items. In any event, the approver can make an approval determination for the item requests and post comments related thereto. Once the approval determination has been made for a particular item request, an approver list and approval status corresponding thereto is updated. It should be understood that as used herein, the term “item” is intended to refer to goods or services.
US08346616B2
A fuel-price protection mechanism whereby customers may pre-purchase quantity-based amounts of fuel and retrieve said fuel at any participating fuel retailer. The quantity-based amounts of fuel are represented in the customers account as a quantity-based fuel credit. The fuel credits may be redeemed at a participating fuel retailer to obtain fuel. The fuel credits are associated with a customer's home geographical region or a customer's selected price class. A conversion mechanism will allow the customer to redeem fuel credits in a different geographical region or price class. Redemption within the home region or the customer selected price class can occur without conversion.
US08346610B2
A document processing system comprises an input receptacle for receiving documents. A transport mechanism receives the documents from the input receptacle and transports the documents past a full image scanner and a discrimination unit. An output receptacle receives the documents from the transport mechanism after being transported past the full image scanner and the discrimination unit. The full image scanner includes means for obtaining a full video image of said documents, means for obtaining a image of a selected area of said documents, and means for obtaining information contained in said selected area of said document. The discrimination unit includes means for determining the authenticity of said document. A system controller directs the flows of documents over the transport mechanism.
US08346608B2
A computer method and device for intercepting contracting client's sent electronic messages, scanning the message body content for key words, sending the key words to a remote central computer server which analyses the key words and enhances the message by attaching a relevant, contextual advertising tag line or image/banner/words/HTML/Flash, etc. to the electronic message, and transmitting the enhanced message to a receiver.
US08346605B2
A media device allows users to watch and capture portions from a media broadcast. Users may then share the captured media content items with other users, for example, by uploading the items to a community website. Before providing requested media content items to other users, the website may combine advertisements with the media content items. The website may receive advertising revenue from advertisers and may share the advertising revenue with owners of the media content items in exchange for their permission to provide the media content items. The advertisers may provide restrictions on how the advertisements are combined with the media content items, and the content owners may provide restrictions on how the media content items are provided to the users.
US08346603B2
An ecological-point management system includes an electric powered vehicle, a charging facility, a communication network, a management server, point recipients each having a device capable of accessing the communication network. The electric storage device of the electric powered vehicle is configured to be chargeable by the charging facility. In the ecological-point management system, an ecological point in accordance with an amount of greenhouse gas emission that can be reduced by traveling using electric power by the electric powered vehicle is given to the point recipients. The point recipients can include an owner or a driver of the electric powered vehicle, and a manufacture, an installation personnel, an owner of the charging facility, and an owner of an installation place, and further a provider of the charging power.
US08346600B2
A method for processing a rebate claim. The method comprises providing a web site accessible by the consumer and integrated with a processing system accessible by the retailer. The processing system receives an identifier of a qualified transaction and/or of the consumer, and receives information from which it can be determined if the qualified transaction at least partially satisfies a rebate offer. Information from the consumer is received on the web site sufficient to match identifying information about the consumer to the information from the retailer and/or sufficient to satisfy conditions for making a rebate claim. The rebate claim is validated and the value of the rebate offer is transferred to the consumer. Embodiments are discussed relating to transactions on a computer network, making rebate claims via a wireless communications device, and use by membership clubs or in conjunction with loyalty cards or other designated cards.
US08346595B2
Embodiments of the invention provide a method, system and computer program product for carbon management for sourcing and logistics. In one embodiment, the method comprises using a computer for quantifying both a cost and a carbon impact of one or more logistics policies relating to a manufacturing process; and minimizing the cost and carbon impact using a defined equation including a first component representing a transportation cost, and a second component representing a carbon cost. In an embodiment of the invention, the quantifying includes using an analytics engine to quantify the cost and carbon impact. The analytics engine may include a shipment analysis module to calculate an optimal transportation policy, a sourcing analysis module for testing alternate sourcing options, a scenario analysis module to find an optimal order frequency, and a sensitivity analysis module to test the impact of various changes.
US08346593B2
The present invention provides a system, method, software and data structure for independently predicting attitudinal and message responsiveness, using a plurality of attitudinal or other identification classifications and a plurality of message content or version classifications, for a selected population of a plurality of entities, such as individuals or households, represented in a data repository. The plurality of predictive attitudinal (or identification) classifications and plurality of predictive message content (ore version) classifications have been determined using a plurality of predictive models developed from a sample population and applied to a reference population represented in the data repository, such as attitudinal, behavioral, or demographic models. For each predictive attitudinal (or identification) classification, at least one predominant predictive message content or version classification is independently determined. The exemplary embodiments also provide, for each predictive attitudinal classification, corresponding information concerning predominant communication media (or channel) types, predominant communication timing, predominant communication frequency, and predominant communication sequencing.
US08346592B2
A method for determining a threat against a border from objects crossing or trying to cross said border. Said method includes at least the steps of segmenting the border into border elements of uniform terrain features, infrastructure and weather conditions, collecting data of incidents occurring along a given border element, determining a threat potential for said border element, determining a protection factor for the border element, and determining a threat against the border element from the threat potential and protection factor. The method may be used for warning about an increased threat to a border, wherein the threat is compared with a threat value threshold. If the threat exceeds the threat value threshold, an alarm is issued. The method may also be used for allocating protective measures along a border.
US08346570B2
A method for consistent processing of pharmacy data. An order for a prescription is transmitted from a healthcare facility to a pharmacy. The pharmacy transmits a claim relating to the order from the pharmacy to a processing center. The processing center reviews the claim according to predetermined claim criteria and either accepts the claim if it conforms to the claim criteria or rejects the claim if it does not conform to the claim criteria. The processing center transmits one of an approval notification and a rejection notification to the pharmacy. For rejected claims, the processing center transmits at least one basis for the rejection to the pharmacy. The pharmacy corrects the non-conforming portion of the claim, then transmits the corrected claim to the processing center. The claim review and approval or rejection steps are then repeated until the claim conforms to the predetermined claim criteria.
US08346567B2
Methods, devices, and computer program products enable the embedding of forensic marks in a host content that is in compressed domain. These and other features are achieved by preprocessing of a host content to provide a plurality of host content versions with different embedded watermarks that are subsequently compressed. A host content may then be efficiently marked with forensic marks in response to a request for such content. The marking process is conducted in compressed domain, thus reducing the computational burden of decompressing and re-compressing the content, and avoiding further perceptual degradation of the host content. In addition, methods, devices and computer program products are disclosed that obstruct differential analysis of such forensically marked content.
US08346564B2
A multi-channel audio encoder (10) for encoding a multi-channel audio signal (101), e.g. a 5.1 channel audio signal, into a spatial down-mix (102), e.g. a stereo signal, and associated parameters (104, 105). The encoder (10) comprises first and second units (110, 120). The first unit (110) encodes the multi-channel audio signal (101) into the spatial down-mix (102) and parameters (104). These parameters (104) enable a multi-channel decoder (20) to reconstruct the multi-channel audio signal (203) from the spatial down-mix (102). The second unit (120) generates, from the spatial down-mix (102), parameters (105) that enable the decoder to reconstruct the spatial down-mix (202) from an alternative down-mix (103), e.g. a so-called artistic down-mix that has been manually mixed in a sound studio. In this way, the decoder (20) can efficiently deal with a situation in which an alternative down-mix (103) is received instead of the regular spatial, down-mix (102). In the decoder (20), first the spatial down-mix (202) is reconstructed from the alternative down-mix (103) and the parameters (105). Next, the spatial down-mix (202) is decoded into the multi-channel audio signal (203).
US08346560B2
A state oriented dialog design apparatus and method facilitates creation of natural language dialogs and provides data structures for voice user interfaces. The dialog design apparatus may include inputting means for receiving a user's prompt; response generating means for the user to generating at least one response; dialog structure generating means for structurally managing the user's input and response; and output means for outputting and displaying at least one dialog structure. A state used in the dialog design apparatus and method may include at least one system prompt and at least one response, and a linking unit may link a first state to a second state related to the first state, link the second state to a third state, and so on until certain system actions are achieved. A loop detecting unit in the dialog design apparatus and method detects and identifies loops in the dialog structure.
US08346549B2
Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for improving automatic speech recognition performance. A system practicing the method identifies idle speech recognition resources and establishes a supplemental speech recognizer on the idle resources based on overall speech recognition demand. The supplemental speech recognizer can differ from a main speech recognizer, and, along with the main speech recognizer, can be associated with a particular speaker. The system performs speech recognition on speech received from the particular speaker in parallel with the main speech recognizer and the supplemental speech recognizer and combines results from the main and supplemental speech recognizer. The system recognizes the received speech based on the combined results. The system can use beam adjustment in place of or in combination with a supplemental speech recognizer. A scheduling algorithm can tailor a particular combination of speech recognition resources and release the supplemental speech recognizer based on increased demand.
US08346547B1
An advanced audio coding (AAC) encoder quantization architecture is described. The architecture includes an efficient, low computation complexity approach for estimating scalefactors in which a base scalefactor estimate is adjusted by a delta scalefactor estimate that is based, in part, on global scalefactor adjustments applied to the previously quantized/encoded frame. Using such feedback, the AAC encoder quantization architecture is able to produce scalefactor estimates that are very close to the actual scalefactor applied by the subsequent quantization and encoding process. The architecture further includes a frequency hole avoidance approach that reduces a magnitude of an estimated scalefactor to avoid generating frequency holes in quantized SFBs. The efficient, low computation complexity scalefactor estimation approach combined with the frequency hole avoidance approach allows the described AAC encoder quantization architecture to achieve high audio fidelity, with reduced noise levels, while reducing processing cycles and power consumption by approximately 40%.
US08346545B2
A model-based distortion compensating noise reduction apparatus for speech recognition, includes: a speech absence probability calculator for calculating the probability distribution for absence and existence of a speech using the sound absence and existence information for the frames; a noise estimation updater for estimating a more accurate noise component by updating the variance of the clean speech and noise for each frame; and a speech absence probability-based noise filter for outputting a first clean speech through the speech absence probability transmitted from the speech absence probability calculator and a first noise filter. Further, the model-based distortion compensating noise reduction apparatus includes a post probability calculator for calculating post probabilities for mixtures using a GMM containing a clean speech in the first clean speech; and a final filter designer for forming a second noise filter and outputting an improved final clean speech signal using the second noise filter.
US08346544B2
In a device configurable to encode speech performing an closed loop re-decision may comprise representing a speech signal by amplitude components and phase components for a current frame and a past frame. In a first closed loop stage, a first set of compressed components and a first set of uncompressed components for a current frame may be generated. A first set of features may be generated by comparing current and past frame amplitude and/or phase components. In a second closed loop stage, a second set of compressed components for the current frame may be generated by compressing the first set of compressed components and compressing the first set of uncompressed components. Generation of a second set of features may be based on the second set of compressed components from the current frame and a combination of amplitude and/or phase components from the past frame.
US08346537B2
An input apparatus which presents examples suitable to users, including an example storage module to store a plurality of example expressions; an edit storage module to store edits when a user edits the plurality of example expressions; a presentation example determining module to determine one or more presentation examples to be presented to the user from the plurality of example expressions stored in the example storage module; an edit adapting module to edit the presentation examples determined by the presentation example determining module based on the edits stored in the edit storage module; a display control module to present the presentation examples determined by the presentation example determining module to the user; and an entry accepting module to accept one of the presentation examples as a selected example when one of the presentation examples is selected by the user, or to receive edits from the user to one of the presentation examples and accept the edited presentation example as the selected example.
US08346533B2
A system for assisting a user who is learning a language to prioritize words to be learned in order of usage frequency is disclosed. A frequency determination program running on a computer determines the frequency of usage of each word at a list of locations provided by the user. Different algorithms to identify what constitutes a word are employed depending upon the language of the source data. The total number of words at each location and their usage frequency found during the user session, along with a total number of words and their usage frequency for all user sessions performed regardless of location, are calculated and made available to the user. The user can view usage frequencies for words from a single location, a group of locations, or all user sessions performed.
US08346526B1
Generating cumulative metric data for a test in a test environment includes: generating in the test environment a test for a simulation model of a system under test; generating in the test environment at least one test condition for the test, the at least one test condition determining a plurality of iterations of the simulation model; generating in the test environment at least one temporary test variable for the test; generating in the test environment at least one mapping between a metric setting for the simulation model and one of the temporary test variables; running in the test environment the test for the plurality of iterations, wherein metric data for the simulation model is generated for each mapping and for each iteration of the test; and accumulating in the test environment the generated metric data for each mapping and for each iteration of the test to obtain cumulative metric data for the simulation model.
US08346523B2
Computer-implemented systems and methods are provided for an upscaling approach based on dynamic simulation of a given model. A system and method can be configured such that the accuracy of the upscaled model is continuously monitored via indirect error measures. If the indirect error measures are bigger than a specified tolerance, the upscaled model is dynamically updated with approximate fine-scale information that is reconstructed by a multi-scale finite volume method. Upscaling of multi-phase flow can include flow information in the underlying fine-scale. Adaptive prolongation and restriction operators are applied for flow and transport equations in constructing an approximate fine-scale solution.
US08346507B2
Systems and methods for detecting various system conditions in a fluid delivery system (such as an HVAC system) based on a motor parameter are disclosed. Embodiments of the present invention relate to detecting: filter condition, frozen coil condition, register condition, energy efficiency, system failure, or any combination thereof. Embodiments of the present invention relate to detecting fluid delivery system conditions based on motor parameters including system current, system power, system efficiency, motor current, motor power, motor efficiency, and/or a change (or rate of change) in motor parameters. Techniques for responding to a clogged filter and a frozen coil are also disclosed. Also disclosed are techniques for characterizing a fluid delivery system off-site, prior to system installation.
US08346506B2
Metrology data from a semiconductor treatment system is transformed using multivariate analysis. In particular, a set of metrology data measured or simulated for one or more substrates treated using the treatment system is obtained. One or more essential variables for the obtained set of metrology data is determined using multivariate analysis. A first metrology data measured or simulated for one or more substrates treated using the treatment system is obtained. The first obtained metrology data is not one of the metrology data in the set of metrology data earlier obtained. The first metrology data is transformed into a second metrology data using the one or more of the determined essential variables.
US08346498B2
According to some embodiments, characterization data can be loaded onto a programmable device. The characterization data can be configured to cause the programmable device to perform one or more functions if executed on the programmable device. It can then be determined whether or not loading the characterization data onto the programmable device caused the programmable device to be successfully programmed. An indication can be transmitted for receipt by an external device, the indication indicating whether or not the programmable device was successfully programmed.
US08346497B2
The invention provides a method for testing a semiconductor film, a manufacturing method of a semiconductor film, a laser crystallization method, a laser crystallization device, and a laser crystallization system, for testing a laser crystallized semiconductor film, which require less time, have sufficient reliability, are excellent in cost management and applicable to mass production. In the method for testing a semiconductor film having an improved crystallinity by irradiating an energy light, the tested semiconductor film is photographed in a dark field digital image and then the luminance of the digital image is calculated by a computer in a constant direction for testing.
US08346496B1
A system for assaying electronic or electrochemically active materials or devices made therefrom includes a microcontroller, a main digital-to-analog converter (DAC), current and voltage sensing modules, a reference voltage DAC, and a power switch. The reference voltage DAC applies a calibrated voltage across the materials/devices, and the switch disconnects the main DAC to generate an open-circuit voltage. The microcontroller assays the materials/devices using the measured voltage, measured current, reference voltage, and/or open-circuit voltage. The main DAC may include coarse and fine DACs. A method of assaying the materials/devices includes measuring an electrical current in and a voltage across the materials/devices using the respective current and voltage sensing modules, applying a reference voltage across the materials/devices using the reference voltage DAC, activating the switch to disconnect the DAC to generate the open-circuit voltage across the materials, and using the microcontroller to assay the materials/devices as noted above.
US08346493B2
A method for deploying at least one climate sensor in an indoor space includes: several candidate deploy points in the indoor space are obtained. Climate properties at the candidate deploy points are obtained. Deploy-point-number limit is obtained. Available deploy point sets, which conform to the deploy-point-number limit, are generated according to the candidate deploy points. Climate-property differences of the available deploy point sets are calculated according to the climate properties at the candidate deploy points. The climate-property differences of the available deploy point sets are differences between the climate properties at the available deploy point sets and those at the candidate deploy points. A target deploy point set, climate-property difference of which is the least among those of the available deploy point sets, is selected from the available deploy point sets. At least one first climate sensor is deployed at the target deploy point of the target deploy point set.
US08346483B2
A system and method for performing tissue image analysis and region of interest identification for further processing applications such as laser capture microdissection is provided. The invention provides three-stage processing with flexible state transition that allows image recognition to be performed at an appropriate level of abstraction. The three stages include processing at one or more than one of the pixel, subimage and object levels of processing. Also, the invention provides both an interactive mode and a high-throughput batch mode which employs training files generated automatically.
US08346475B2
An integrated positioning apparatus includes a processing module, a satellite positioning module, an inertial positioning module, a transmission interface and a switching module. The processing module is utilized for executing a navigation program. The satellite positioning module functions to provide satellite positioning information. The inertial positioning module is used for generating inertial positioning information. The switching module is connected between the processing module and the transmission interface for receiving a control signal furnished by the processing module and is selectively switched to a first status or a second status based on the control signal. While in the first status, the switching module drives the transmission interface to connect to the satellite positioning module so as to transmit the satellite positioning information to the processing module for navigating. While in the second status, the switching module drives the transmission interface to connect to the inertial positioning module so as to transmit the inertial positioning information to the processing module for navigating.
US08346465B2
A method and apparatus for a navigation system determines whether an upcoming cross street is meaningful for a user to be displayed. The includes the steps of searching upcoming cross streets that intersect with a current street on which a user's vehicle is running for a predetermined distance range ahead of a current vehicle position, retrieving data concerning the upcoming cross streets from the map data, determining whether a cross street is meaningful for the user to be displayed on a screen of the navigation system by applying predetermined rules to the data concerning the cross street, and displaying information on the cross street that has been determined to be meaningful for the user on the screen.
US08346463B2
In at least one embodiment of the present invention a driving aid system for mounting in a road vehicle is provided. The driving aid system comprises a detection system for detecting and storing profiles of characteristics of objects around the vehicle along a road on which the vehicle is being driven. A positioning system is for providing a current position of the vehicle. Profiles of characteristics of objects are stored in relation to the detected position of the vehicle. A processing arrangement compares currently detected profiles with earlier stored profiles and, if a match between a currently detected profile and an earlier stored profile is found, then the current position of the vehicle is determined relative to an object corresponding to the earlier stored profile, and the same or other earlier stored profiles is used to predict the future surroundings of the vehicle.
US08346458B2
A method for calibrating an engine control module includes sampling a first signal from a first oxygen sensor located upstream from a catalyst. The first signal indicates an oxygen content of exhaust gas produced by an engine. The method further includes predicting a response of a second oxygen sensor located downstream from the catalyst using a model of the catalyst and the first signal and sampling a second signal from the second oxygen sensor. The method further includes determining a component of the second signal based on a difference between samples of the second signal and the predicted response. The component is due to gases other than oxygen. Additionally, the method includes calibrating the engine control module based on the component of the second signal. The engine control module controls an amount of fuel injected into the engine.
US08346457B2
Method for controlling an automatic shutdown and start-up process of a drive unit in a motor vehicle
A method controls an automatic shutdown and start-up process of a drive unit in a motor vehicle by way of a start and stop device, by which the drive unit is automatically shut down when the motor vehicle comes to a halt if predefined shutdown conditions are met, and by which a drive unit, which has been automatically shut down, is automatically started up if at least one start request is made. Before the initiation of an automatic shutdown process of the drive unit, a possible stop duration of the drive unit is predicted, taking into consideration the present operating variables of the vehicle, the state variables, and/or other parameters. Depending on the predicted stop duration, an automatic shutdown process is initiated when all other shutdown conditions are met.
US08346455B2
A method and apparatus for calculating a standardized value for the actual runway braking coefficient of friction of one or more arriving aircraft using data from each aircraft's flight data recorder or flight data management system, standardizing the calculated information to provide redundancy and to make it usable by subsequently arriving aircraft, and reporting the calculated standardized value information to individuals and agencies including air traffic control, airport operations and maintenance, and aircraft pilots and ground crews; andA method and apparatus for calculating the actual runway braking coefficient of friction of an aircraft using data from the aircraft's flight data recorder or flight data management system, transmitting the data in real-time to an off-aircraft high-power computing system, calculating off-aircraft the landing aircraft's actual runway braking coefficient of friction, and reporting the calculated information to individuals and agencies including air traffic control, airport operations and maintenance, and aircraft pilots and ground crews.
US08346452B2
A vehicle includes a control system that is used to control a vehicle system. The control system determines a roll condition in response to a yaw rate sensor and a pitch rate sensor without having to use a roll rate sensor. A relative roll angle, relative pitch angle, global roll angle, and global pitch angle may also be determined. A safety system may be controlled in response to the roll condition, roll angle, or the pitch angles individually or in combination.
US08346451B2
The present invention provides an apparatus and method for estimating the realtime position of a clutch piston during the fill cycle using noisy pressure measurements which ensures proper and desired clutch operation. Pressures on both sides of a flow controlling orifice, at the fluid control actuator and the clutch cylinder are measured and these measurements in conjunction with other system parameters such as orifice size, clutch volume and return spring characteristics are used to solve nonlinear dynamic equations (algorithms) which reside in a microprocessor. The microprocessor provides outputs corresponding to an estimate of the current position of the clutch piston, an estimate of the current speed of the piston and an estimate of the current hydraulic pressure. The method can also be utilized to detect clutch wear.
US08346448B2
Detection-time torque of a drive source is determined when a value that varies in accordance with depression of an accelerator pedal has exceeded a predetermined value, first torque is determined on the vehicle speed and the transmission gear ratio, second torque is determined on the detection-time torque and the first torque, third torque is determined on the amount of depression of the accelerator pedal and the second torque, and fourth torque is determined on the depression of the accelerator pedal, and the output torque is limited to the third torque as long as the third torque is less than the fourth torque. The third torque is determined such that in the case where the detection-time torque is greater than the first torque, an increase of the third torque is suppressed further than where the detection-time torque is not greater than the first torque.
US08346446B2
A clutchless transmission apparatus and control method thereof. The transmission apparatus comprises a motor (10) and a transmission (20), said motor (10) is connected to said transmission (20) and supplies power to said transmission (20) via an input shaft of the transmission (20), wherein said apparatus further comprises a control device (30), which is electrically connected to said motor (10) and said transmission (20), wherein said control device (30) is configured to determine whether a gear-position shifting is required based on rotation speed of said transmission (20), if a gear-position shifting is required, regulates torque of said motor (10) to control said transmission (20) to disengage, and then regulates the rotation speed of said motor (10) based on the rotation speed of said transmission (20) to control said transmission (20) to engage for shifting gear-position. The clutchless transmission apparatus provided in the present invention doesn't need a clutch during gear-position shifting, and therefore it is light, simple, easy to maintain and control, and can be used in a wide range of application.
US08346444B2
A shift quality error detection system for an automatic transmission includes a vehicle acceleration determination module to determine a vehicle acceleration. An acceptance window module defines upper and lower limits of a desired vehicle acceleration. The shift quality error detection module compares the determined vehicle acceleration to the upper and lower limits of the desired vehicle acceleration. A shift quality error detection module selectively provides a shift quality error based on the comparison. A method of detecting shift quality error of an automatic transmission comprises determining a vehicle acceleration during a transmission gear shift. The method also includes comparing the vehicle acceleration to an acceptance window of desired vehicle accelerations and outputting an error signal based on the acceleration comparison.
US08346436B2
A driving support system includes a lane detecting unit for detecting lanes around a vehicle, a route correcting unit for correcting a route along which the vehicle is expected to travel taking into consideration an obstacle on the route after the route has been recognized by lanes detected by the lane detecting unit, and a control unit for controlling the vehicle on the basis of the positional relation between the corrected route determined by the route correcting unit and the vehicle.
US08346435B2
Provided is an electric power steering control device capable of performing damping control without current detection to perform stable damping control even when a target current and an actual current value differ from each other. The electric power steering control device includes steering torque detection means for detecting a steering torque, a torque controller for computing an assist torque current, a motor for generating a torque for assisting the steering torque, rotation speed estimation means for estimating a rotation speed of the motor, and a damping controller for computing a damping current by using an estimated value of the rotation speed of the motor. The rotation speed estimating means includes steering component removing means for steering torque, for removing a component due to steering from an output of the steering torque detection means, rotation angle corresponding value computing means for multiplying an output of the steering component removing means for steering torque by an inverse number of a rigidity of a torsion bar and −1 to compute a value corresponding to a rotation angle, and a rotation angle differentiator for differentiating an output of the rotation angle corresponding value computing means to compute a value corresponding to a rotation angular velocity.
US08346427B2
A vehicle travel support device is capable of properly controlling the operation of a steering device and the like from the viewpoint of supporting the travel of a vehicle stably even in a situation where a travel area is inappropriately demarcated by right and left lane marks at both sides. A virtual travel area can be set as a travel area when a first condition is satisfied, that is, when the separation between the right and the left lane marks in width direction of a road increases to an inappropriate extent from the viewpoint of demarcating the travel area because the separation therebetween gradually increases as the distance from the vehicle increases. The operation of a steering device and the like is controlled such that the vehicle will not depart from the virtual travel area set as the travel area.
US08346422B2
The present disclosure relates to thermal management systems and methods for operating a vehicle, such as a hybrid electric vehicle. The systems determine a sunload and set calibrated thresholds and modified temperatures for deriving conditions for sending engine climate commands according to the sunload readings. The calibrations and modifications are designed to yield better vehicle fuel economy.
US08346420B2
A method is provided for generating projected vehicle energy consumption information for a second vehicle using statistical information describing a driving history of a driver of a first vehicle. Statistical information is determined from collected vehicle performance values while the driver operates the first vehicle, and is archived in at least one memory location. The archived statistical information is correlated with a vehicle specification describing a performance capability of the second vehicle. A message is processed that includes the projected vehicle energy consumption information for the second vehicle. A vehicle is provided for generating the projected vehicle energy consumption information, and includes at least one memory location, sensors for measuring vehicle performance values of the vehicle describing a driver history of the first vehicle, and a controller adapted for automatically determining the statistical information. A controller is also provided adapted for executing the method.
US08346416B2
A method and apparatus for selecting optimal operating conditions of a genset is disclosed. The genset includes an engine coupled to an electrical power generator, the genset having a plurality of operating points each including an engine speed value and a generator electrical power output value, and having a plurality of cost values associated with operating the genset at respective operating points. The method involves selecting a set of operating points from the plurality of operating points such that a sum of cost values associated with operating points in the set is minimized and such that the engine speed and generator electrical power output values of the operating points in the set increase or decrease monotonically.
US08346410B2
Provided are an attitude control system and method of a spacecraft of an artificial satellite that may enhance a maneuverability and a controllability by simultaneously applying a reaction wheel and a thruster among drive units used to maneuver an attitude of the spacecraft of the artificial satellite. The attitude control system may include: a thruster-based attitude controller which control firing time of thrusters mounted on the spacecraft; and a reaction wheel-based attitude controller controlling driving of a reaction wheel mounted on the spacecraft. The spacecraft may include a plurality of reaction wheels. When a defect occurs in the spacecraft due to a partial malfunction of the reaction wheels, an attitude maneuverability of the spacecraft may be corrected by simultaneously applying the thruster-based attitude controller and the reaction wheel-based attitude controller.
US08346409B2
The present invention provides systems and methods for controlling the speed of flap retraction on aircraft, and alerts to the pilot of potentially unsafe flap position. The invention accepts direction from a pilot and senses operation of the aircraft to determine appropriate flap position and flap retraction speed.
US08346406B2
A first microcomputer in an ECU outputs a CID of the ECU in response to a request from a scan tool when the ECU has multiple microcomputers implemented therein. Each of the multiple microcomputers has an additive value stored therein for counting an update of the software. The additive values from the multiple microcomputers are added as a sum total of the ECU that is further added to a CID base value. The sum total of the ECU added to the CID base value is then output as the CID of the ECU from the first microcomputer to the scan tool. Therefore, information stored in the first microcomputer is not necessarily changed for outputting an updated CID (e.g., software product number information) from the ECU.
US08346400B2
A power-management system and method for photovoltaic installations connecting to the grid incorporates monitoring active and/or reactive power, account being taken at all times of grid requirements, in order to allow temporary demand arising in the grid to be addressed, thereby contributing to regulation of the grid and to the stability and quality thereof.
US08346382B2
In one embodiment, a cold storage system for biological samples has one or more freezers, each freezer having one or racks, each rack receiving one or more boxes, each box receiving one or more sample containers. In addition to the biological sample, each sample container has a unique passive RFID tag. Control electronics in each box energize reader coils to query individual RFID tags. Control electronics in each rack communicate with and provide power to the control electronics of each corresponding box, and control electronics in each freezer communicate with and provide power to the control electronics of each corresponding rack, and a host computer communicates with the control electronics in each freezer. In each instance, communication and power provisioning is implemented using magnetic inductive coupling. The system is able to determine the identity of each sample container in the system and maintain that information in a database.
US08346376B2
The invention relates to automatically verifying the possibility of rendering a lighting atmosphere from an abstract description, for example from a lighting atmosphere specified in XML (Extensible Markup Language) independent of a specific lighting infrastructure and of a room layout. A basic idea of the invention is to create for each addressable light unit of a light infrastructure a so called light infrastructure capability that generally describes the effect, measures the maximum possible effect and relates the effect to a location in a semantic area of a target environment. This allows to automatically verifying the possibility of rendering a lighting atmosphere from an abstract description in a lighting infrastructure at an early stage of the lighting atmosphere design process.
US08346375B2
A defibrillator electrode assembly with a slot-like storage case is described which protects the pads prior to use and retains them in either an electrically connected or electrically disconnected configuration. When the electrode assembly is slidably inserted into the case, an optional pinch clip within the case presses electrodes on opposite sides of a thick release liner into electrical contact with each other.
US08346370B2
A microwave system for generating microwave energy to tissue according to an energy control algorithm is disclosed. The system includes a microwave generator configured to select an energy control algorithm, programmed in the microwave generator that corresponds to a microwave energy delivery device connected to the generator.
US08346364B2
Evoked spinal cord potential monitoring apparatus and evoked spinal cord potential monitoring system
The evoked spinal cord potential monitoring apparatus of the present invention includes: a pair of electrodes 14; and a holding section 12 for holding the pair of electrodes 14, a tip section of each of the electrodes 14 being extended outwards from an end of the holding section 12, and the electrodes 14 being movable relative to the holding section 12. A hook section 15 engageable to an intercostal nerve is provided at the tip section of each of the electrodes 14, and the electrodes 14 or the holding section 12 is moved while the hook section 15 is coupled to the intercostal nerve such that the hook section 15 and the holding section 12 are able to hold the intercostal nerve therebetween. The apparatus requires no preoperative preparation, is capable of coping with an emergency case, and further, is unsusceptible to the influence of anesthetics.
US08346355B2
A method of reforming a wet-tantalum capacitor includes providing a medical device comprising a wet-tantalum capacitor. The capacitor has a rated voltage and including a hydrated anodic deposit. The method further includes charging the capacitor to a voltage that is less than approximately seventy-five percent of the rated voltage and at least partially discharging the capacitor after the charging step. The charging step is performed at a sufficient voltage to dehydrate the anodic deposit while not significantly decreasing the service life of the capacitor.
US08346352B2
The object is to provide a drowsiness detecting device for detecting strong drowsiness to become a dozing state. A drowsiness detecting device comprises a sympathetic parameter acquiring unit for acquiring a parameter concerning a sympathetic nerve of a subject, a parasympathetic parameter acquiring unit for acquiring a parameter concerning a parasympathetic nerve of the subject, a sympathetic increase determining unit for determining whether the sympathetic parameter is greater than a sympathetic threshold or not, and a drowsiness determining unit for determining drowsiness of the subject according to an increase/decrease relationship between the sympathetic and parasympathetic parameters when the sympathetic increase determining unit determines that the sympathetic parameter is greater than the sympathetic threshold.
US08346344B2
An apparatus and method is described for determining the location of a object inside a patient. Three dimensional image data of the patient is obtained by an imaging modality such as a C-arm X-ray device. The same or another imaging modality may be used to obtain projection radiographic images, having a coordinate system that can be registered with respect to that of the three dimensional image. The location of one or more features of a medical treatment device such as a needle or a catheter introduced into the imaging filed of view is determined either by an operator or by image analysis, in at least two projection radiographic images, and the position of the feature located in the three-dimensional volume. The projection on a radiographic image of a vector joining a first and a second position is used to assist in guiding the medical treatment device inside of the patient.
US08346341B2
A method for determining an item of positioning information for ECG electrodes during an examination with a magnetic resonance facility is provided. An image data record of a region surrounding the heart of a patient and the electrodes arranged on the surface of the patient is recorded. A position of the longitudinal heart axis and a position of the electrodes in the image data record are determined. A target position suited to determining evaluable ECG signals is automatically calculated for each of the electrodes by considering the position of the longitudinal heart axis and a displacement from the position of the electrodes to the target position. An item of positioning information for the electrodes is displayed by taking the displacements into consideration.
US08346340B2
A apparatus includes a collection unit which collects a magnetic resonance signal, a unit which controls the collection unit in such a manner that pre-scan is executed in regard to pre-scan slices determined as some of main scan slices, a calculation unit which calculates correction amounts based on data concerning the pre-scan slices obtained by the pre-scan, an estimation unit which estimates a correction amount concerning each slice other the pre-scan slices in the main scan slices based on the correction amounts, and a unit which controls the collection unit in such a manner that each of the main scan slices is scanned while involving correction of each slice that is the pre-scan target with the correction amount thereof calculated by the calculation unit and while involving correction of each slice that is not the pre-scan target with the correction amount thereof estimated by the estimation unit.
US08346337B2
In aspects of the present disclosure, a multi compatible or universal blood glucose monitoring unit including a calibration unit is integrated with one or more components of an analyte monitoring system to provide compatibility with in vitro test strip that require calibration code and test strips that do not require calibration code. Also disclosed are methods, systems, devices and kits for providing the same.
US08346335B2
Methods and devices to detect analyte in body fluid are provided. Embodiments include positioning an analyte sensor in fluid contact with an analyte, detecting an attenuation in a signal from an analyte sensor after positioning during a predetermined time period, categorizing the detected attenuation in the analyte sensor signal based, at least in part, on one or more characteristics of the signal, performing signal processing to generate a reportable data associated with the detected analyte sensor signal during the predetermined time period, managing if and when to request additional reference signal measurements, and managing if and when to temporarily not display results.
US08346334B2
A medical sensor that allows wrapping about an applied part while maintaining the alignment of the detector and emitter is provided. The medical sensor includes a carrier band that can accommodate variably sized applied parts without misaligning the detector and emitter. The medical sensor can provide space between the skin of the applied part and the emitter and detector. The medical sensor carrier band can be designed with a flexible region and thicker mounting sections that act as spring-loaded mounts when the carrier band is secured in a wrapped position.
US08346323B2
A portable terminal device includes a first housing in which at least a display section is placed; a second housing in which at least an operation section is placed; a first circuit board on which a first connector is mounted; a second circuit board on which a second connector is mounted; and a connecting cable. A part of the first housing and a part of the second housing are placed one on top of another in a thickness direction. A first holding section and a second holding section are provided inside at least one of the first housing and the second housing, and when the first housing slides with respect to the second housing, a portion of the connecting cable between the first holding section and the second holding section is bent and extended.
US08346320B2
A sliding structure includes a guide rail formed on a first housing, a groove for the guide rail formed on a second housing, wherein the first housing and the second housing can engage each other and slide, an elastic body that expands and contracts in a longitudinal direction of the guide rail in parallel with the guide rail, and two pressing members that are located on ends of the elastic body and subjected to opposite pressing forces from the elastic body, are provided in the groove, at least one-by-one notch is formed on each elastic-body-disposed side of the guide rail and the groove for the guide rail such that the notches can be opposed to each other in a sliding action process, and the two pressing members can take such positions that the pressing members press respective different housings in opposite directions through the notches.
US08346319B2
Providing a mobile personal computer to send multimedia content in a multimedia document via a multimedia messaging service (MMS) message over a wireless network is disclosed. Multimedia content compatible for sending via the MMS is sent with assembling information to reassemble the multimedia document with the multimedia content.
US08346310B2
A vehicle-based computing apparatus includes a computer processor in communication with persistent and non-persistent memory. The apparatus also includes a local wireless transceiver in communication with the computer processor and configured to communicate wirelessly with a wireless device located at the vehicle. The processor is operable to receive, through the wireless transceiver, a connection request sent from a nomadic wireless device, the connection request including at least a name of an application seeking to communicate with the processor. The processor is further operable to receive at least one secondary communication from the nomadic device, once the connection request has been processed. The secondary communication is at least one of a speak alert command, a display text command, a create phrase command, and a prompt and listen command.
US08346291B2
A Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP) controller advantageously reduces the transmit powers of transmissions coordinated across a plurality of sub-cells within a CoMP cell. The CoMP controller determines serving sub-cell path gains and interfering sub-cell path gains for a set of mobile terminals to be served by distinct sub-cells. The CoMP controller then evaluates an objective function that expresses an aggregate throughput of concurrent transmissions to be sent to or received from the set of mobile terminals as a function of the serving sub-cell path gains, the interfering sub-cell path gains, and the individual transmit powers of those transmissions, to determine the combination of individual transmit powers that maximizes the aggregate throughput while meeting minimum quality of service requirements for the mobile terminals. The combination of individual transmit powers will necessarily require less power than if the concurrent transmissions were each sent at maximum transmit power.
US08346284B2
PDAs can be used to provide their users with a variety of functions. One function provided by PDAs is enabling their users to contact particular users of other devices who are stored as contacts, for example by a telephone call or text message. The present invention provides a PDA in which contacts that the user of the PDA may be more likely to want to contact at any given time can be determined and displayed. Whether or not a user may be likely to want to contact a user at any given time may be based on the status of the user of the PDA, and optionally also the status of the other user's PDA. For example, if the user of the PDA is listening to a particular genre of music, then they may want to contact other contacts who a also listening to that particular genre of music. Similarly, if the user is at their place of work, then they may want to contact a specific list of contacts related to work. In this way, the user of the PDA can be provided with a list of relevant contacts.
US08346283B2
A method for measuring a position includes: allocating a first ranging code and a first ranging region for a mobile station; receiving a second ranging code and allocation information on a second ranging region of the mobile station from a neighboring base station; transmitting the first ranging code and the second ranging code to the mobile station; receiving the first ranging code from the mobile station in the first ranging region; calculating a received timing adjustment value of the first ranging code; receiving a received timing adjustment value of the second ranging code from the neighboring base station; and measuring the position of the mobile station according to the received timing adjustment value of the first ranging code and the received timing adjustment value of the second ranging code. Therefore, the cost and efficiency can be improved by measuring the position of the mobile station by changing the ranging method used in the conventional system.
US08346281B2
A method of detecting, controlling and managing transmission of a transmitting device within a facility is disclosed. The method involves transmitting information to the transmission device, detecting a response transmission from the transmission device by a least one transmission detection facility, extracting identification information associated with the transmission device in response to the transmitted information; and determining a location of the transmission device based on the response transmission received by the at least one received transmission detection facility, wherein the response transmissions are sorted by the identification information, determining an allowability of the located transmission device with the set area and interacting and manipulating transmission of the detected transmitting device.
US08346275B2
A plurality of access points enables communication between a higher network and a terminal, and also transmits a connection notice for notifying a connection with the terminal by establishing a wireless connection with the terminal within the coverage area. A policy control apparatus manages load state of each of the access points based on the connection notice transmitted from the access point, and instructs the over loaded access point to limit a connection with the terminal.
US08346264B2
A node, such as a session node including any network node, located in a first network transmits data to one of a plurality of devices located in a second network. A determination is made that another device connected to the node is located in the second network. The node transmits to the other device located in the second network a message addressed to the one of said plurality of devices via the connection between the node and the other device effective to cause the message to be forwarded from the other device to the one of said plurality of devices via a connection established within the second network.
US08346261B2
In a procedure for a mobile station (UE) to perform handover from a cell under the control of a radio base station (NB) of an UTRAN scheme to a cell under the control of a radio base station (eNB) of an E-UTRA scheme, a switching center (MME) of the E-UTRA scheme receives, from and the radio base station (eNB) of the E-UTRA scheme, a handover request acknowledge message including a transparent container including a security algorithm of an AS used in a communication between the mobile station (UE) and the radio base station (eNB) of the E-UTRA scheme; and the switching center (MME) of the E-UTRA scheme transmits, to a switching center (SGSN) of the UTRA scheme, a NAS PDU including the transparent container, a security algorithm of a NAS and a security processing parameter of the NAS.
US08346237B2
Apparatuses and methods to operate a commute time function of a communications device are described herein. In one embodiment, the commute time function is automatically activated based on an event and is then performed by (i) determining an up-to-date commute time based on commute information and (ii) displaying or speaking the up-to-date commute time on the device. In one embodiment, triggered by and before the occurrence of a calendar event, a device obtains a current commute time (based on the commute information and based on current traffic conditions1). In this embodiment, the device reschedules the calendar event based on the current commute time, by sending an update to the contacts with whom the user is to meet that indicates a change to the calendar event. Other embodiments are also described.
US08346233B2
Devices, methods and computer-readable media for providing services based upon identification of decision makers and owners associated with communication services. Data for providing communication services based upon identification of decision makers associated with communication services is stored, wherein the data including a user profile and default template identifying a default decision maker for a service. Policy rules and the stored data are analyzed. A new decision maker for a particular service is identified based upon the analysis of the policy rules and the stored data. The communication services are provided to the identified new decision maker.
US08346232B2
Rerouting, as specified by ITU-T Q.730 is a network service that is executed by and under control of switching nodes, whereas IN services are executed under the control of a service control entity and invoked for certain calls only. Because of the two levels of control that are also separate from each other, inconsistencies may occur when an IN service is invoked for a call that may be in addition subject to rerouting. This problem is solved-in that a service control entity is adapted to perform the steps of receiving information relating to the rerouting of the call from the service switching entity, selecting a rerouting procedure for the call according to the received information, and sending an instruction to the service switching entity to continue the call according to the rerouting procedure. The information relating to the rerouting of the call information is in particular information about a rerouting capability of a preceding switching node.
US08346227B2
In one example, a Bluetooth enabled navigation device pairs with a mobile phone and then sends a plurality of tuning transmissions, each at a different transmission power gain amount, to a remote server using the mobile phone. These tuning transmissions are encoded using frequency tones that synthesize speech for transmission through the mobile phone and a voice channel of its wireless telecommunications network. The navigation device then tunes transmit power settings according to a received response to the tuning transmissions and uses the tuned transmit power settings for subsequent transmission to the remote server using this particular mobile phone.
US08346221B2
A cellular mobile telephone apparatus has circuits for generating messages, a storage circuit for storing messages, and transmitter/receiver circuit for transmitting a message. When the user of the cellular mobile telephone apparatus cannot immediately respond to an incoming call, a desired one of a plurality of previously generated and stored messages can be transmitted to a calling party through simple key manipulations or by other means.
US08346220B2
In addition to other aspects disclosed, a data over signaling message that identifies a recipient access terminal is transmitted from a radio network controller to the sector in response to an attempt by an access terminal on a sector of a wireless network to access a service of the wireless network.
US08346215B2
The invention relates to a method for subsequently implementing a SIM functionality, with the help of which a mobile telephone (1) is enabled to use a mobile radio network, in a security module (3). Within the context of the method according to the invention the SIM functionality is realized in the form of an application, of which at least a first part is loaded into the security module (3). Furthermore, personalizing data, which are required for a use of the mobile radio network by the mobile telephone (1), are transmitted from a provider (2) to the security module (3) in encrypted form on the direct or indirect way. The encrypted personalizing data are decrypted by the security module (3) by means of a secret key of a user stored in the security module (3). The security module (3) is personalized by means of the decrypted personalizing data.
US08346202B2
In one embodiment, the present invention is directed to an apparatus configured to perform channel filtering operations digitally, to reduce area and power consumption as compared to analog filtering. After passive filtering of downconverted analog baseband signals, the signals are provided to digitization circuitry to convert the filtered baseband signals into digital signals. Then a digital circuit, which may be implemented as a digital signal processor (DSP), may channel filter the digital signals and provide the filtered digital signals to conversion circuitry to convert the channel filtered digital signals back to analog signals.
US08346194B2
A radio broadcast receiver includes a front end unit for tuning by changing a local oscillation frequency; and a control unit for managing by dividing the receiving band into a third frequency domain including a third frequency obtained by subtracting the intermediate frequency from an upper end frequency of the receiving band, a first frequency domain including a first frequency obtained by adding the intermediate frequency to a lower end frequency of the receiving band, and a second frequency domain where the first frequency domain and third frequency domain overlap, and for switching, when tuning is made across the frequency domains, the local oscillation frequency to an upper local oscillation frequency when the tuning frequency is higher than the third frequency by controlling the front end unit, and to a lower local oscillation frequency when it is lower than the first frequency by controlling the front end unit.
US08346193B2
A multi-rank beamforming (MRBF) scheme in which the downlink channel is estimated and an optimal precoding matrix to be used by the MRBF transmitter is determined accordingly. The optimal precoding matrix is selected from a codebook of matrices having a recursive structure which allows for efficient computation of the optimal precoding matrix and corresponding Signal to Interference and Noise Ratio (SINR). The codebook also enjoys a small storage footprint. Due to the computational efficiency and modest memory requirements, the optimal precoding determination can be made at user equipment (UE) and communicated to a transmitting base station over a limited uplink channel for implementation over the downlink channel.
US08346184B2
Multi-functional container for electric and/or electronic apparatuses comprising a front face, with a first compartment, to house at least one component (16) of the electric and/or electronic apparatus. The container comprises an opposite rear face having first attachment means (34) suitable to attach the container on guide means of a standardized type (36) in a first installation configuration. The multi-functional container also comprises second attachment means (42), suitable to attach the container in a second installation configuration inserted, at least partly, in a housing seating with the front face disposed toward the inside of the housing seating, and a second compartment, suitable to house the component (16) and disposed on the rear face.
US08346179B2
An amplifier integrated circuit (IC) includes a push-pull configuration including a push stage and a pull stage. A first loop of wire is configured to form a first degeneration inductance of the push stage. A second loop of wire is configured to form a first degeneration inductance of the pull stage. The first and second loops are concentric.
US08346178B2
The present invention is summarized as a radio communication method including the steps of: calculating a transmission power difference between transmission power values of the first carrier and the second carrier; determining whether the transmission power difference exceeds a threshold set on the basis of a maximum transmission power difference allowable between the first carrier and the second carrier; and stopping a transmission of reverse link data using one of the first carrier and the second carrier with a larger transmission power for a certain period in a case where the transmission power difference exceeds the threshold set on the basis of the maximum transmission power difference.
US08346170B2
Apparatus, which has a multilayer protocol stack for processing incoming messages, determines PTT state from messages received from a peripheral over a wireless serial communication channel. The apparatus: receives (902), from the peripheral, a sequence of messages comprising a plurality of data messages (e.g., RFCOMM messages), wherein each of the data messages provides an indication of a PTT state for the apparatus, and wherein the sequence of data messages is received over a short range wireless data path for exchanging priority data that comprises a wireless serial communication channel and that is different from a short range wireless data path for exchanging non-priority data. A pattern detector in the apparatus performs (904) a pattern matching process, within the first two layers of the multilayer protocol stack, to determine the PTT state indicated by each of the data messages and sets (906) the apparatus to have the determined PTT states.
US08346169B2
A wireless handset is provided with enhanced features and capabilities. The wireless handset may be embodied as a full-featured handset that is capable of operating either within a wireless network (such as a cellular or PCS network) or in a direct handset-to-handset communication mode that is independent of the wireless network. Alternatively, the wireless handset may be embodied as a special purpose handset, that is capable of simply operating in a direct handset-to-handset communication mode. The wireless handset may additionally include features for supporting and enhancing direct communication between handsets. Such features may include a find feature that permits a user to determine which objects, including other wireless handset users, are located within a predetermined operating range of the wireless handset. A memorize feature may also be provided to permit handsets and other objects exchange information by wireless transmission.
US08346167B2
An adaptive inductive ballast is provided with the capability to communicate with a remote device powered by the ballast. To improve the operation of the ballast, the ballast changes its operating characteristics based upon information received from the remote device. Further, the ballast may provide a path for the remote device to communicate with device other than the adaptive inductive ballast.
US08346154B2
A conveyance control mechanism for a printer including an image forming unit forming an image on a sheet being conveyed on a conveyance route, includes a curl detector configured to detect a curl of the sheet conveyed on the conveyance route, in an upstream of the image forming unit on the conveyance route. The conveyance route controller may drive and stop the conveyance route differently depending on whether the curl detector detects a curl at either a front end or at a position other than the front end. When the curl detector detects a curl of the sheet, an image forming route where the image forming unit performs an image formation may be separated and retreated from the conveyance route and the sheet being conveyed may be discharged onto the retreated image forming route.
US08346149B2
A fixing device includes a first member and a second member. The first member extends along a first longitudinal axis, and has a first elastic layer whose thickness varies along the first longitudinal axis to define at least one first convex portion and at least one first concave portion. The second member extends along a second longitudinal axis parallel to the first longitudinal axis, and has a second elastic layer whose thickness varies along the second longitudinal axis to define at least one second convex portion and at least one second concave portion. At least one of the first and second members is heated, and at least one of the first and second members is pressed against the other, with the first convex portion engaging the second concave portion and the first concave portion engaging the second convex portion, to define a fixing nip therebetween.
US08346145B2
A fixing unit for fixing a toner image onto paper has a member to be heated and a pressurizing member configured to press against the member to be heated and fix the toner image to the paper. At least one coil surface is disposed along one surface of the member to be heated and includes a coil to generate a magnetic field for inductively heating the member. A magnetism shielding member is disposed near the coil surface. A switch includes a first member to allow passage of the magnetic field and a second member to prevent passage of the magnetic field. The amount of heat for the member when the switch is in a first position where the second member is close to the magnetism shielding member is smaller than when the switch is in a second position where the second member is distanced from the magnetism shielding member.
US08346144B2
An image forming apparatus includes an image former for forming an unfixed toner image on a recording material, and a fixer for fixing the unfixed toner image on the recording material. The fixer includes a rotatable member for forming a fixing nip for nipping and feeding the recording material, and a cleaner, movable toward and away from the rotatable member, for cleaning the rotatable member. The apparatus is operable in a blankless image formation mode for forming the toner image without a blank at least at one of a leading end and a trailing end of the recording material. The cleaner contacts the rotatable member when a portion of the rotatable member in a blankless range at the leading end or the trailing end of the recording material reaches a position where the portion opposes the cleaner.
US08346139B2
There is provided a belt unit including: a fixed frame at which a transfer roller is provided; plural fixed side supporting rollers provided at the fixed frame; a movable frame that is swingably mounted to the fixed frame, and at which plural transfer rollers are provided; a movable side supporting roller provided at the movable frame; and an endless belt stretched around the fixed side supporting rollers and the movable side supporting roller, and contacting the transfer roller provided at the fixed frame and the transfer rollers supported at the movable frame, and contacting plural photoreceptor drums, wherein a swinging center of the movable frame is a center of belt portions at both sides of the swinging center, and in a monochrome mode, the movable frame is swung and moves the belt away from the photoreceptor drums other than the photoreceptor drum that is used in the monochrome mode.
US08346131B2
Disclosed is an image forming apparatus including one or more rotary members rotatably arranged and a power transmission device operable to receive a rotary force and to transmit the received rotary force to one or more of the rotary members. The power transmission device transmits the rotary force to the rotary member(s) in a non-contact manner such that a vibration of one rotary member is not transmitted through the power transmission device to another component of the image forming apparatus.
US08346130B2
An image forming apparatus is configured to execute the steps including: a step of controlling a photosensitive drum and a developing roller such that the developing roller rotates in a predetermined direction and the photosensitive drum rotates in a reverse direction; and a step of controlling the photosensitive drum and the developing roller such that the developing roller stops and the photosensitive drum rotates in the reverse direction, so as to reduce toner filming.
US08346129B2
An image forming device, configured to form an image on a sheet in an electrophotographic method, includes a fixing roller thermally fixing a developer image on the sheet, a driving unit generating a driving force, a first rotating body configured to be driven by the driving force and rotate the fixing roller, a clutch mechanism provided on a power transmission route to transmit the driving force from the driving unit to the first rotating body, the clutch mechanism switching between a state to transmit the driving force to the first rotating body and a state to block transmission of the driving force to the first rotating body, a second rotating body provided at a downstream side relative to the clutch mechanism on the power transmission route so as to rotate in conjunction with the first rotating body, a detecting unit detecting whether the second rotating body is rotating.
US08346121B2
An image forming apparatus includes: an image forming apparatus main body; and an image forming structure attached to and removed from the image forming apparatus main body. In a state where the image forming structure is attached in the image forming apparatus main body, a concave part is formed in a position opposite to another concave part formed in an adjacent image forming structure.
US08346118B2
The disclosed is a method for attaching a charging wire. At first, a first end of a charging wire is locked to a wire locking portion of a process frame, and portion of a torsion spring shaped wire electrode is engaged with a second end of the charging wire. Thereafter, a coil portion of the wire electrode is attached to a coil support portion of the process frame in a state in which a tension less than a set value is applied to the charging wire. Thereafter, a second spring leg portion of the wire electrode is moved to a fixed position fixed to an electrode support portion of the process frame in a direction in which a deformation amount of the wire electrode increases, without exceeding the fixed position in the first direction.
US08346117B2
A fixing device includes a heating source; a heating member heated by the heating source; a pressing member contacting the heating member to form a fixing nip therebetween, at which an unfixed image of toner on a recording sheet is fixed to the recording sheet; a first charging member located at an entrance of the fixing device, from which the recording sheet bearing the unfixed toner image enters the fixing device, so as to face the unfixed toner image. The first charging member is not contacted with the heating member and pressing member, and has a charge with a polarity opposite to a polarity of a charge of the toner to collect floating particles of the toner.
US08346112B2
A fixing device includes a heating member that heats an unfixed toner image on a printing medium, a conveyance device that conveys the printing medium launched from the heating member after the heating member heats the unfixed toner image, and a heat temperature detection device that detects heat temperature of the heating member. An excessive temperature rise prevention device is provided to forcibly cut off power distribution to the heating member when the heat temperature reaches an abnormal level. A cooling device is provided to cool the excessive temperature rise prevention device. Further provided is a cooling device use control device that controls the cooling device to cool the excessive temperature rise prevention device when the conveyance device stops a conveyance operation.
US08346108B2
Disclosed herein is an image forming apparatus capable of avoiding positional interference between an electrical potential sensor and a developing device during the installation or separation of the developing device. The positional interference is prevented by moving the electrical potential sensor out of the movement path of the developing device in association with the opening/closing movement a cover for an access opening in the body of the image forming apparatus for the installation/separation of the developing device. A link device connects the cover and the electrical potential sensor to each other so as to cause the movement of the electrical potential sensor in linkage with the opening/closing of the cover. The link device serves as an anti-interference device that prevents the positional interference between the developing device and the electrical potential sensor.
US08346101B2
Optical receivers and a method for providing a diagnostic measurement of optical modulation amplitude at other than a signal output of an optical receiver are invented and disclosed. The method includes the steps of applying a representation of an output of an optical detector to a circuit that determines a difference between a first signal level and a second signal level that is different from the first signal level and buffering the difference between the first signal level and the second signal level received from the circuit. The optical receivers include an optical detector, a transimpedance amplifier that applies automatic gain control, a circuit that determines a difference between two signal values and a limiting post amplifier. The receivers provide a diagnostic measure that can be compared to certain thresholds relating to known bit error rates or applied in a calculation to generate an absolute optical modulation amplitude value.
US08346099B2
The present invention converts each of the optical differential signals from DPSK demodulator from an optical signal into an electrical signal by using optical-electrical signal converters. Thereafter, each electrical signal is subjected to amplification adjustment at an appropriate amplification factor by variable amplifier, and an appropriate delay amount is added to each electrical signal by variable delay line, and thereafter data discrimination is performed by discriminator. Since two differential signals after DPSK demodulation are subjected to amplitude and delay adjustments, the need for optical parts is obviated enabling the use of electric circuits which can be integrated. Thus, the cost of the optical reception device will be reduced. Moreover, the since electric signals whose phases and amplitudes are equalized are inputted to discriminator, erroneous determination of data at discriminator will be reduced.
US08346093B2
Disclosed is a multimedia data receiver using an optical cable that can receive multimedia data such as an image, voice and control signal whose media are different from each other through an optical transmission medium such as plastic or glass optical cables in a short or long distance area. The multimedia data receiver includes: an optical driver, amplifying a received signal of a single transmission format that is optical-to-electrical converted by an optical module connected to an optical cable, converting a serial data for transmission into an analog signal, performing optical transmission through the optical module; an interface control logic, extracting a control signal from the signal received through the optical driver, interfacing control data; and a digital signal processing logic, converting the signal received through the optical driver into data of the original transmission format through converting the signal into a digital signal and decoding the digital signal, deserializing a serial image data, transmitting the data to a display device connected thereto.
US08346083B2
An optical line terminal calculates a requirement threshold for each optical subscriber unit based on a difference between the time average allocated bandwidth of each optical subscriber unit and the target bandwidth, and notifies a corresponding optical subscriber unit of the calculated requirement threshold. The corresponding optical subscriber unit then notifies, based on the data amount accumulated in a buffer, the optical line terminal of a data amount, as a transmission requirement, up to a data separation that is less or equal to the notified requirement threshold and in which a maximum transmission amount can be transmitted. The optical line terminal then notifies the corresponding optical subscriber unit of a transmission permission amount in which the data equal to the transmission requirement of which the optical line terminal is notified can be transmitted. The corresponding optical subscriber unit then transmits the data amount corresponding to the transmission permission amount.
US08346075B2
A method of receiving satellite signals for estimating the location of capture of a photograph by a camera. The method comprises receiving a signal relating to the timing of capture of the photograph; waiting for an interval of non-zero duration; and, after the interval, receiving the satellite signals.
US08346071B2
A camera system includes a detection unit that detects fitting errors of a camera as displacement quantities in a first direction, a second direction and an optical axis rotating direction of an image picked up by the camera, a selection unit that selects a rotation correcting quantity corresponding to the displacement quantity in the optical axis rotating direction from plural rotation correction maps prepared in advance, a computation unit that computes the correcting quantities in the first direction and the second direction respectively based on the detected displacement quantities in the first direction and the second direction using linear equations; and a correction unit that corrects the displacements in the first direction, the second direction and the optical axis rotating direction of the picked up image based on the selected rotation correcting quantity and the computed correcting quantities in the first direction and the second direction.
US08346063B2
An exemplary method of operating a recording device comprises acquiring a title of a recorded program when a recording operation begins. The exemplary method further comprises determining, at a first specific time period after a next-occurring hour of the clock or after a next-occurring half hour of the clock during the recording operation, whichever occurs first, whether the recording operation started within a second specific time period, the second specific time period being between the first specific time period and thirty minutes, storing as the title of the recorded program the title acquired when the recording operation began if the recording operation was not started within the second specific time period, and reacquiring the title of the recorded program if the recording operation was started within the second specific time period.
US08346057B2
According to one embodiment, there is provided a control block including a read control processor for reading designated content, a time information processor for processing time information. A controller returns, to a user terminal, a response signal, and information indicating a second absolute time point when an operation is executed in response to a request signal generated by the user terminal at a first absolute time point. The controller stores time difference information indicating a time difference between the first and the second absolute time points. When responding to a further request signal sent from the requester via the network, the controller sets, as tag time information, time information obtained by correcting, using the time difference information, a current relative time period for which the designated content is read.
US08346046B2
A release latch for a pre-terminated cassette is described. The pre-terminated cassette includes a release latch to allow removal of the pre-terminated cassette from a patch panel, where the patch panel includes a retaining feature for retaining the pre-terminated cassette. The release latch includes a cantilever beam located on the sidewall of the pre-terminated cassette. The cantilever beam has a hinge point that allows the beam to deflect with respect to the sidewall. The release latch further includes a depressing tab provided at the distal end of the cantilever beam and a latch tab protruding from the surface of the cantilever beam between the hinge point and the depressing tab. The latch tab is capable of engagement with the retaining feature of the patch panel when the cassette is installed in the patch panel.
US08346042B2
An apparatus for processing at least one optical waveguide comprises a combination of a stripper, a cleaner and a cleaver. The stripper, the cleaner and the cleaver are adapted to remove a coating of the optical waveguide, clean and cleave the at least one optical waveguide. The apparatus comprises at least one sensor to determine a feature of the at least one optical waveguide.
US08346035B2
A modular radiation integrator assembly including a radiation source that emits radiation, a first integrator module including a first input port and a first output port, an adjust tube configured to partially receive the first integrator module and engage the radiation source in a manner such that the radiation emitted by the radiation source travels to and enters the first input port, and a second integrator module including a second input port and second output port, the second integrator module couplable to the first integrator module outside the adjust tube in a manner such that the radiation exits the first output port and enters the second input port.
US08346033B2
A method for producing the optical coupler includes mounting a first conversion element on an upper surface of a first terminal plate, mounting a second conversion element on an upper surface of a second terminal plate, supplying a translucent primary mold resin in a fluidized state to the upper surfaces of the first terminal plate and the second terminal plate such that the first conversion element and the second conversion element are covered with the primary mold resin, curing the primary mold resin while inverting vertically the first terminal plate and the second terminal plate to retain the primary mold resin in a state in which the primary mold resin hangs from the first terminal plate and the second terminal plate, and covering a surface of the primary mold resin with a secondary mold resin having a refractive index lower than that of the primary mold resin.
US08346030B2
A Mach-Zehnder interferometer circuit (700) is provided with two couplers (722, 724) and two arm waveguides (706, 708) connecting the couplers with each other, each fabricated on a substrate, in which a polarization rotation device (732) is disposed in a groove dividing each of the two arm waveguides into two, the polarization rotation device (732) for converting vertically polarized light into horizontally polarized light, and birefringence is adjusted by performing laser irradiation or the like partially into at least one of the two arm waveguides such that a difference between birefringence values divided by an optical wavelength to be used is within a range of 2 m-0.2 to 2 m+0.2 (m is an integer including zero), the birefringence values being those integrated linearly along the respective two arm waveguides in an optical signal travelling direction.
US08346024B2
A method of initiating a requested action in a computer system via a printed substrate. The substrate has human-readable information and machine-readable coded data printed thereon. The coded data is indicative of a substrate identity and of a plurality of locations on the substrate. The method comprises the steps of: (a) interacting with the substrate using an optically imaging sensing device; (b) imaging the coded data; (c) generating indicating data in the sensing device using the imaged coded data, the indicating data identifying the substrate identity and a position of the sensing device relative to the substrate; and communicating the indicating data to the computer system so that the computer system can initiate the requested action. The coded data is printed with an ink comprising an IR-absorbing naphthalocyanine dye.
US08346018B2
An image processing apparatus obtains registration information associated with an information processing apparatus at a transmission destination to which an image read by an image reader is to be transmitted. Based on the registration information, the image processing apparatus determines whether the information processing apparatus requires executing image rotation at the image processing apparatus.
US08346017B2
The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or a method that facilitates simulating a portion 2-dimensional (2D) data for implementation within a 3-dimensional (3D) virtual environment. A 3D virtual environment can enable a 3D exploration of a 3D image constructed from a collection of two or more 2D images, the 3D image is constructed by combining the two or more 2D images based upon a respective image perspective. An analyzer can evaluate the collection of two or more 2D images to identify a portion of the 3D image that is unrepresented by the combined two or more 2D images. A synthetic view generator can create a simulated synthetic view for the portion of 3D image that is unrepresented, the simulated synthetic view replicates a 2D image with a respective image perspective for the unrepresented portion of 3D image.
US08346014B2
An image processing apparatus includes the following elements. An image storing section stores a plurality of images related to time information. A feature extracting section extracts feature amounts of each image stored in the image storing section. An image selecting section that selects at least one of images included in each overlap portion set of several or all of the images, stored in the image storing section, on the basis of the feature amounts associated with the respective images included in the overlap portion set, the overlap portion set including overlap portions of several or all of the images overlapping with respect to shooting time. A digest-image generating section generates a digest image of the images stored in the image storing section on the basis of the selected images.
US08346004B2
An apparatus for removing motion blur of an image is disclosed. The apparatus includes a motion-blur-function-estimation unit that estimates the motion-blur function of an input image, an image-restoration unit that restores the input image using the estimated motion-blur function, a cost-calculation unit that calculates the blur cost of the restored image, and a control unit that determines the re-estimation of the motion-blur function depending on the calculated blur cost.
US08346000B2
A variety of methods, devices, systems and arrangements are implemented for processing and coding of video images. According to one such implementation, a method is implemented for encoding a sequence of images. A plurality of orthogonal transforms is implemented on a set of N images, where N is greater than one. The images are linked by motion fields that include sets of respective portions of the images. In particular, the construction of a motion-compensated orthogonal transform is accomplished for the important case where at least one portion of any of the N images—or any part of this portion—is used more than once to motion-compensate other portions of the N images—or parts thereof.
US08345997B2
A method of compressing a sequence of strokes input at an input device of a processing system is provided in which each stroke input at the input device is represented as a series of digital words representing x and y co-ordinates, and a co-ordinate is expressed as an offset from a preceding co-ordinate by combining a residual error value and an estimate calculated from the previous m co-ordinates using the formula: a ~ n = ∑ i = 1 m c i α n - i where ci are coefficients selected to model characteristics of the input strokes, and α represents either an x or a y co-ordinate.
US08345994B2
A method for transmitting image data sets via a communication network is provided. Image data are processed for dividing the image into a plurality of image sub regions and for determining for each of the plurality of the image sub regions a hash code in dependence upon pixel data of pixels located in the respective image sub region. The hash codes are transmitted together with location data of the respective image sub regions if the hash code exists in an associative dataset and the pixel data are transmitted together with location data of the respective image sub regions if the hash code does not exist in the associative dataset. Upon receipt of at least one of the hash codes and the pixel data together with the location data, image data are generated by performing at least one of: retrieving the pixel data from the associative dataset in dependence upon the received hash codes and placing the retrieved pixel data in the image in dependence upon the location data; and, placing the received pixel data in the image in dependence upon the location data.
US08345993B1
A multi-level data encoding system is provided that is operable on a computer. The encoding system includes a data input device adapted to input a data set and store the data set in a database. The system further includes an encoder adapted to encode the data set and separate the encoded data set into two files, wherein each character of the data set comprises a unique electronic footprint. Additionally, the system includes a data field adapted to organize the encoded data set for proper decoding, a master file comprising one file of the encoded data set and an overlay file comprising the other file of the encoded data set. The system also includes a decoder adapted to align the overlay file onto the master file to decode the encoded data set.
US08345991B2
A technique for selecting portions of a multi-resolution medical image data set to be stored and the portions of the multi-resolution medical image data set to be discarded in order to reduce the overall amount of image data that is stored for each image data set. The selection is based on the clinical purpose for obtaining the medical image data. The clinical purpose for obtaining the medical image is used to select a segmentation algorithm to segment the image data into several regions based on their relevance to the purpose for obtaining the image data. A mask is created from the segmented data. The mask is used to assign data compression quality factors to corresponding regions in the image data. The image data in each region is compressed based on their assigned quality factor. The image data that is highly relevant is compressed with lossless data compression. The image data in regions of lesser relevance are compressed with lossy data compression. The image data that is of no relevance for the purpose that the image data was obtained is discarded.
US08345989B1
A method of determining the identity of pharmaceutical tablets contained within a pharmaceutical vial includes the steps of: obtaining a first image of the vial as it is illuminated with colored light; obtaining a second image of the vial as it is illuminated with infrared radiation; processing the first and second images to obtain comprehensive image data; comparing the comprehensive image data to image data of a known pharmaceutical expected to be contained in the vial; and determining whether the pharmaceutical in the vial is the expected pharmaceutical based on the comparing step. The use of images obtained under both colored and IR illumination can assist in producing an accurate comprehensive image data.
US08345985B2
In an electronic device and method of matching an image A and an image B, grayscale centers of the image A and the image B are computed. The image A is divided into n equal parts Dk(k=1˜n) according to the grayscale center, and a grayscale density Vk of each part Dk is computed, to acquire n grayscale densities Vk(k=1˜n) which are regarded as feature data u of the image A. Feature data v of the image B is extracted in the similar way. A similarity of a grayscale density Vak selected from the feature data u and the grayscale density Vbk selected from the feature data V, is computed. Thus, n similarities are computed. A similarity β(n, u, v) of the image A and the image B is computed according to the n similarities.
US08345983B2
An image processing apparatus includes a characteristic region detecting section that detects a characteristic region in an image, an image dividing section that divides the image into the characteristic region and a background region other than the characteristic region, and a compressing section that compresses a characteristic region image which is an image of the characteristic region and a background region image which is an image of the background region at different strengths from each other. The characteristic region detecting section detects the characteristic region in a plurality of moving-image-component images included in a moving image, the image dividing section divides each of the plurality of moving-image-component images into the characteristic region and the background region, and the compressing section compresses a characteristic region moving image including a plurality of characteristic region images and a background region moving image including a plurality of background region images at different strengths from each other.
US08345980B2
According to the present invention, authenticities of paper fingerprint information and of document information are collectively determined through formation of an original that is given an encoded image in which both paper fingerprint information and document information are encoded. By collectively guaranteeing identities of the paper form and of the document, it becomes possible to realize the more reliable authenticity guarantee.
US08345978B2
Line segmentation in an OCR process is performed to detect the positions of words within an input textual line image by extracting features from the input to locate breaks and then classifying the breaks into one of two break classes which include inter-word breaks and inter-character breaks. An output including the bounding boxes of the detected words and a probability that a given break belongs to the identified class can then be provided to downstream OCR or other components for post-processing. Advantageously, by reducing line segmentation to the extraction of features, including the position of each break and the number of break features, and break classification, the task of line segmentation is made less complex but with no loss of generality.
US08345976B2
Methods and systems disclosed herein provide the capability to automatically process digital pathology images quickly and accurately. According to one embodiment, an digital pathology image segmentation task may be divided into at least two parts. An image segmentation task may be carried out utilizing both bottom-up analysis to capture local definition of features and top-down analysis to use global information to eliminate false positives. In some embodiments, an image segmentation task is carried out using a “pseudo-bootstrapping” iterative technique to produce superior segmentation results. In some embodiments, the superior segmentation results produced by the pseudo-bootstrapping method are used as input in a second segmentation task that uses a combination of bottom-up and top-down analysis.
US08345971B2
A method for spatial-temporal denoising and demosaicking for noisy color filter array (CFA) video, the method including applying spatial-temporal CFA video denoising (11) to the CFA video in order to generate a denoised CFA, applying initial color demosaicking (CDM) (19) to the denoised CFA video in order to generate a demosaicked video, and applying spatial-temporal post-processing (26) to the demosaicked video in order to reduce CDM artifacts and CDM errors and enhance the quality of the video.
US08345968B2
An encoding device includes a color component separating unit for separating an input bit stream for the respective color components, a block dividing unit for dividing an input color component signal into blocks to generate a signal of an encoding unit area, a predicted image generating unit for generating a predicted image for the signal, a determining unit for determining a prediction mode used for encoding according to a prediction efficiency of the predicted image, a prediction error encoding unit for encoding a difference between the predicted image corresponding to the prediction mode determined by the determining unit and the input color component signal, and an encoding unit for variable length-coding the prediction mode, an output from the prediction error encoding unit, and a color component identification flag indicating the color component to which the input bit stream belongs as a result of the color component separation.
US08345966B2
The invention provides methods, systems and apparatus for assigning color names to individual image pixels, and generating verbal description of color composition in images, suitable for a wide variety of information processing applications. For an isolated image pixel (individual color sample or color value) an illustrative embodiment of this invention uses a predetermined vocabulary of color names, and then generates a distance measure describing the best color match and corresponding color name for the given pixel. For the input image, an illustrative embodiment of this invention computes the simplified representation of the scene, consistent with human perception, and uses the predetermined vocabulary, syntax rules and metric to assign color names to all perceptually significant objects and regions and obtain the verbal description of the overall color composition. The invention is also applicable to other types of information signals, such as sequences of video frames, web pages, etc.
US08345962B2
A method and system for training a neural network of a visual recognition computer system, extracts at least one feature of an image or video frame with a feature extractor; approximates the at least one feature of the image or video frame with an auxiliary output provided in the neural network; and measures a feature difference between the extracted at least one feature of the image or video frame and the approximated at least one feature of the image or video frame with an auxiliary error calculator. A joint learner of the method and system adjusts at least one parameter of the neural network to minimize the measured feature difference.
US08345952B2
A first process to be executed by an apparatus and a second process to be executed by an apparatus to obtain a composite image by compositing a real space image with a virtual space image are determined by negotiation. The apparatus (101) transmits data necessary for executing the second process to the apparatus. The apparatus executes the second process by using the data and transmits the process result to the apparatus. The apparatus receives the process result by the apparatus and executes the first process. The apparatus displays a composite image obtained on the basis of the result of the first process or a composite image obtained on the basis of the process result and the received process result.
US08345949B2
A method of automatic defect recognition includes receiving a initial set of inspection image data of a scanned object from a scanning machine; applying a first image analysis algorithm to this set of inspection image data; then removing from the set of inspection image data any defect-free image regions, so as to retain a set of analyzed inspection image data; applying an additional image analysis algorithm(s) to the set of analyzed inspection image data, wherein the additional algorithm(s) has a higher computational cost than the first image analysis algorithm; and based on the applying of the additional image analysis algorithm(s), removing from the first set of inspection image data a second set of defect-free image regions, thereby retaining a set of twice-analyzed inspection image data.
US08345943B2
Methods and apparatuses disclosed herein process medical images, for comparison and analysis of the images. The method according to one embodiment accesses digital image data representing a first medical image and a second medical image; registers the second image to the first image using a specific region preserving registration or specific regions preserving registration, to obtain a registered second image; and compares the first image and the registered second image.
US08345931B2
A money transfer authorization method that includes the step of providing transferor biometric information to a party verification processor that verifies an identity of the transferor by comparing the transferor biometric information with previously registered biometric information from the transferor, where the transferor provides transfer identity information to receive the money. The method also includes confirming that the verified transferor has sufficient funds or credit for the money transfer, and providing transferee biometric identification to the party verification processor that verifies the transferee by comparing the transferee biometric information with previously registered biometric information from the transferee. The transferee has to provide transfer identity information before the money is given to the transferee.
US08345927B2
A registration processing apparatus generates a polynomial to calculate a value corresponding to a distance from the surface of a target object in a first image, and acquires a plurality of position coordinates on the surface of the target object in a second image. Then the apparatus respectively calculates a value corresponding to the distance from the surface of the target object in the first image using the polynomial, for position coordinates obtained by coordinate conversion of the plurality of position coordinates. The apparatus coordinate-converts the position coordinates of the second image by a coordinate conversion method for the plurality of position coordinates determined based on the calculated values.
US08345922B2
A pupil detecting apparatus detects an edge of a pupil in an image of a face. An outline of an upper eyelid is also detected. The apparatus selects an effective edge extending along the pupil by removing a part of edge extending along the upper eyelid from the edges detected. Then, the apparatus applies the circle Hough transformation to the effective edge in order to obtain a center of the pupil and a radius of the pupil. Thereby, it is possible to detect the pupil accurately even if a part of the pupil is covered.
US08345907B2
A hearing device that is worn in the ear has a hearing aid and a support device with a runner. The support device remains stationarily inserted in the auditory canal, while the hearing aid is moveably connected to the runner and moveably arranged along the runner. This provides for a hearing device that allows a simple, intuitively understandable modification of the volume and/or sound properties.
US08345903B2
A battery bay of a hearing device should be better protected against unwanted opening. A housing for a hearing device is therefore provided with: a battery bay that is mounted on the housing and can be moved into an open position as well as a closed position; a projection that is permanently attached to the housing, and a securing element to prevent a movement of the battery bay. The securing element is supported on the battery bay and can be pivoted between a secured position and an unsecured position. The securing element also engages behind the projection in the secured position and the closed position of the battery bay so that the battery bay cannot be moved into the open position. The securing element has a recess in which, in the secured position, a tool can be held to move the securing element into the unsecured position.
US08345897B2
There is provided: first to fourth magnetic pole yokes 13-16 magnetized by the magnets 11, 12 having both poles on these opposite faces to establish a magnetic pole; and a vibrating membrane 17 disposed between the magnets 11, 12 and electromagnetically coupled to the yokes 13-16 by energizing a meandering coil pattern 17b thereon to vibrate in a predetermined direction. The yokes 13-16 include: abutting sections 13a-16a to be magnetized with abutting against the magnets 11, 12, and magnetic pole sections 13b-16b establishing the magnetic pole in a band shape. The sections 13b-16b each are disposed on the upper and lower sides of the vibrating membrane 17, and disposed with a gap (sound emitting hole 19) such that the magnetic poles different in magnetic polarity are positioned alternately in the lateral direction of the membrane 17 to form magnetic pole faces on the upper and lower sides thereof.
US08345894B2
Vacuum tubes that receive output signals from microphone units through grids and with which the signals are output as outputs from cathode followers; FETs in cascade connection with the corresponding vacuum tubes and that define currents flowing in the vacuum tubes; and bias circuits that apply a bias voltage to the grids of the corresponding vacuum tubes are included. Pairs of such vacuum tubes, FETs, and fixed bias circuits are each symmetrically connected so that a balanced signal can be output from two cathode followers, and an adjuster is provided between the pair of fixed bias circuits, the adjuster adjusts currents flowing in the pair of vacuum tubes to achieve a balanced output.
US08345890B2
Systems and methods for utilizing inter-microphone level differences to attenuate noise and enhance speech are provided. In exemplary embodiments, energy estimates of acoustic signals received by a primary microphone and a secondary microphone are determined in order to determine an inter-microphone level difference (ILD). This ILD in combination with a noise estimate based only on a primary microphone acoustic signal allow a filter estimate to be derived. In some embodiments, the derived filter estimate may be smoothed. The filter estimate is then applied to the acoustic signal from the primary microphone to generate a speech estimate.
US08345889B2
A wireless transmission-AV system for an outdoor furniture includes a speaker unit built-in with a furniture frame and a wireless control electrically connected to the speaker unit for wirelessly linking an AV player with the speaker unit, wherein the wireless control has a wireless range covering an area of the furniture frame in such a manner that the speaker unit is adapted for generating an audio signal wirelessly transmitted from the AV player through the wireless control when the AV player is located within the wireless range. Therefore, the user is able to wirelessly link his own AV player to the wireless transmission-AV system to listen to his own music.
US08345879B2
A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer program product for securing wireless body sensor networks with a three party password protocol. The password protocol combines the Bellare-Rogaway 3PKDP (three-party key distribution protocol) and the Diffie-Hellman password protocol. The three party password protocol also uses physiological values in place of passwords in one of the key exchanges. The other key exchanges in the protocol use symmetric key cryptography. The combination of the Bellare-Rogaway three-party key distribution protocol and the Diffie-Hellman password protocol allows two sensors which do not measure the same environmental data to authenticate and establish keys.
US08345870B2
Advanced solutions for encrypting multi-layer audio data are required, ie. audio data that comprise a base layer and one or more enhancement layers. A method for encrypting such an encoded audio signal comprises separating the base layer into two sections, encrypting the side information within frames of the second section of the base layer, and encrypting at least a part of the data of the enhancement layer, wherein the encrypted section of the base layer and the encrypted enhancement layer require different decryption keys for decryption. Thus, free preview zones are possible to implement.
US08345869B2
A communication system 100 includes a group of user devices, a first device separate from the group of user devices, a first satellite, a peer-to-peer network 130 in communication with the user devices and the satellite 106 and a content delivery network 120 in communication with the user devices. The content delivery network encrypts the content in response to a first encryption-decryption information and communicates the content to the plurality of user devices through a satellite. At each of the plurality of the group of user devices the content is encrypted in response to a second encryption-decryption information. A first user device communicates a content request to the group of user devices. At least one of the group of user devices communicates the content to the first user device through the peer-to-peer network. The first user device requests the encryption-decryption information from a content delivery network through a terrestrial network. The content delivery network 120 communicates the encryption-decryption information to the first user device through the terrestrial network. The first user device decrypts the content in response to the encryption-decryption information.
US08345861B2
A method and system for distributing a secret are described. In one embodiment, the secret is represented by a secret polynomial of degree d over GF(q) constructed with a prime or a power of a prime. The secret polynomial is then embedded into an extension polynomial of degree m that is greater than d. The extension polynomial is divided by n coprime divisor polynomials over GF(q), using arithmetic defined for polynomials over GF(q), to generate n shares of the secret. Each share includes one of the divisor polynomials and a corresponding remainder. These n shares are distributed among a plurality of cooperating entities for secret sharing.
US08345858B2
A technique is disclosed that enables a context-driven, adaptive technique for generating a list of telephone numbers. The technique of the illustrative embodiment of the present invention seeks to dynamically anticipate what telephone numbers a user might want to dial—even before the user knows—and presents the names of the parties and their telephone numbers to the user at his or her terminal. In particular, the technique monitors a user, the user's locale, and one or more terminals in that locale; selects one or more telephone numbers from a master set of numbers, based on the monitored information; and presents the selected numbers to the user—for example, in the form of a speed-dial list or a one-touch dial list. The user can then examine the presented telephone numbers and decide if he or she wants to call one of them. The technique can be implemented at the user's computer, telephone, private branch exchange, or other device in the relevant telecommunications system.
US08345845B2
An improved public intercom system is described which has a sealed enclosure including an extruded chassis having a front wall and a rear wall. The front wall has an interface panel and a viewing panel mounted within cutouts. A plurality of axially aligned module cover plates supporting system components are mounted over cutouts in the rear wall. The interface includes a speaker, a microphone, a call initiation means, and a camera positioned to acquire images of the area in front of the interface panel. One of the cover plates including an outer surface with heat dissipation protrusions, with a blower located on said rear wall being oriented to direct air across the protrusions to extract heat from the chassis interior. A two-way communication means is mounted on a module plate and programmed to initiate a call to a pre-programmed receiver responsive to a command from the call initiation means.
US08345843B2
A method and apparatus for performing a caller investigation in order to provide relation information to a called party (200) regarding an unknown calling party (202), when implemented in a service entity (204) serving said called party. A relation query for the calling party is received from the called party, and it is then determined whether the calling party is known and related to any third party directly or indirectly known to the called party by checking a contact list (210-214) defined for said third party. The reliability of the calling party can then be better assessed based on how the calling party is related to the called party, if related at all. The called party may use this information for deciding how to respond to a communication request from said calling party.
US08345840B2
Methods for detecting and recovering from client-link, server-link, and server-node failures are disclosed. One method comprises providing a dual link architecture. A Link-Status-Notice (LSN) message detailing at least one phone client associated with the client-link failure is sent from a primary telephony server to a secondary telephony server via a server-link. A type of redirect command is sent from the secondary telephony server to the at least one phone client associated with the client-link failure via a secondary client-link. The type of redirect command is based on a content of the LSN message.
US08345836B2
A communication device configured to receive messages containing media over a communication network and to receive locally created messages containing media created using the communication device. The device also includes a time-shifting buffer to store in a time-based format the media contained in both the messages received over the communication network and the locally created messages. The time-shifting buffer enables on the communication device to either (i) render the media received over the network in a near real-time mode; or (ii) render both the media received over the network and the locally created media in a time-shifted mode by retrieving the stored media from the time-shifting buffer. The communication device also includes a message management system, which enables the communication device to transition the rendering of the media between the time-shifted mode and the near real-time mode without interrupting the ongoing storage of media of received messages into the time-shifting buffer.
US08345835B1
Embodiments of the invention provide a system for generating an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) database, the system comprising a processor and a memory coupled to the processor. The memory comprising a list of telephone numbers associated with one or more destinations implementing IVR menus, wherein the one or more destinations are grouped based on a plurality of categories of the IVR menus. Further the memory includes instructions executable by said processor for automatically communicating with the one of more destinations, and receiving at least one customization record from said at least one destination to store in the IVR database.
US08345828B2
Embodiments of the present invention provides systems and methods for pooled IP recording. An exemplary method of the present invention comprises monitoring a user's logon, associating a communication device to the user, assigning an interface to a recorder associated with the communication device, and recording data from the communication device sent over the interface. Another exemplary method of the present invention comprises detecting a recorder failure and dynamically routing an interface associated with the failed recorder to at least one other recorder.
US08345827B2
A public addressing and emergency system has a person or message signal generator for generating a message whose contents comprise at least one of a sign language message, a voice message, and a text message and a transmitting system for transmitting the message signal to at least one of a mobile unit and at least one fixed display unit in at least one location. The message signal transmitting system is bi-directional enabling bi-directional message communication and may include a device such as a splitter for generating multiple signals and/or a device such as a booster for increasing or maintaining the power of the signals. The public addressing system can be independent, or tied in with internal processing of commercial entities and their electronic displays to present advertising and educating the public about the emergency system.
US08345820B2
A radiographic image capturing apparatus includes a radiation source device housing therein a radiation source for outputting a radiation, a cassette housing therein a radiation detector for detecting the radiation which is transmitted through a subject when the subject is irradiated with the radiation by the radiation source, and converting the detected radiation into a radiographic image, and a joining mechanism for selectively integrally joining the radiation source device and the cassette to each other and separating the radiation source device and the cassette from each other when the radiation source outputs the radiation.
US08345813B2
An apparatus, system and method for handling and translating a spent nuclear fuel storage cask. The apparatus comprises a body for supporting the cask close to the ground so that the cask and the apparatus can pass underneath over head doors. The apparatus further comprises rollers for translating the cask, the rollers adapted to move between a retracted position and an extended position, wherein when the rollers are in the retracted position, the rollers do not contact a ground surface. The apparatus additionally supports the storage cask during spent nuclear fuel transfer procedures.
US08345808B2
An exemplary method is disclosed to accurately estimate the center frequency of a narrow-band interference (NBI). The exemplary method uses multi-stage autocorrelation-function (ACF) to estimate an NBI frequency. The exemplary method allows an accurate estimation of the center frequency of NBI in an Ultra-Wideband system. A narrow band interference (NBI) estimator based on such a method allows a low complexity hardware implementation. The exemplary method estimates the frequency in multiple stages. Each stage performs an ACF operation on the received signals. The first stage gives an initial estimation and the following stages refine the estimation. The results of all stages are combined to produce the final estimation. An apparatus based on such a multi-stage narrow band interference frequency detector is also disclosed to improve the accuracy by combining various filters with the detector.
US08345804B2
A low complexity RACH preamble detector is described herein. The RACH preamble detection algorithm uses the peak detection of the time domain correlation function through frequency domain processing. The frequency domain processing considers the reference signals generated directly from frequency domain CAZAC sequence or time domain CAZAC sequence with DFT conversion. A low-complexity poly-phase LPF along with down sampling is implemented before the FFT to reduce the required length of the long FFT operation N-folded.
US08345801B2
A system and method for signal mismatch compensation in a wireless receiver is disclosed. The method includes receiving an in-phase (I) signal and a quadrature (Q) signal corresponding to the I signal, the Q signal having an ideal phase offset of 90 degrees from the I signal, where there is a phase and gain mismatch between the I signal and Q signal. The method adjusts the phase offset between the I signal and the Q signal to minimize the IQ power, where the IQ power is the average-time power of a digital baseband in-phase (DB-I) signal and a digital baseband quadrature (DB-Q) signal, corresponding to the I signal and Q signal, respectively. The method adjusts the gain of the Q signal to minimize the IQ power, whereby the phase and gain mismatch between the I signal and Q signal is minimized.
US08345800B2
A receiver includes a sample and hold circuit that receives a signal (continuous time signal) that has been subject to frequency division multiplexing modulation, converts the signal to a discrete time signal, and outputs the discrete time signal, a discrete time filter that receives the signal output from the sample and hold circuit and attenuates a frequency component of a subcarrier different from a specified subcarrier, and a demodulation unit that extracts a digital baseband from a signal that has passed through the discrete time filter to complete a demodulation operation within one data symbol reception period.
US08345799B2
There is provided a channel estimating method of performing frequency conversion by a first fast Fourier transformation on a reception signal and extracting a desired signal after demodulating the reception signal, and deriving electrical energy against time delay of a channel by inverse fast Fourier transformation of the extracted result, wherein: values of a low pass filter, having an output from oversampling the input to the first fast Fourier transformation, are thinned by a plurality of thinning circuits with the same synchronization and different discrete times, and based on the outputs of the plurality of thinning circuits, the electrical energy against time delay related to the reception signal arrival time position is derived by respectively performing the first fast Fourier transformation and the inverse fast Fourier transformation.
US08345795B1
A system and method of beamforming may reduce feedback requirements. In some implementations, a beamforming technique may employ a diagonal matrix as a beamforming matrix along with a stream-to-transmit antenna mapping matrix. In some antenna phase beamforming strategies, a diagonal beamforming matrix in which the diagonal elements have a constant magnitude may be employed. Accordingly, a beamforming system may be utilized with few feedback information bits being transmitted from the beamformee; such a system may also minimize or eliminate power fluctuations among multiple transmit antennae.
US08345790B2
Multiple transmit antenna transmission together with preferably pseudo-random, antenna-specific, scrambling (PRAS) is utilized to scramble incoming data differently on different antennas for those users requiring frequency diversity type transmissions. When PRAS is activated for a particular allocation, each transmit antenna applies a different scrambling sequence to the data symbols that are transmitted in the allocation.
US08345774B2
Disclosed is a system and method of controlling a video decoder, including a reviewing channel data representing coded video data generated by an encoder to identify parameters of a hypothetical reference decoder (HRD) used by the encoder during coding operations. A parameter representing an exit data rate requirement of a coded picture buffer (CPB) of the HRD is compared against exit rate performance of the video decoder. If the exit rate performance of the video coder matches the exit rate requirement of the HRD, the coded video data is decoded, otherwise, a certain decoding degradation scheme can be applied, including disabling decoder from decoding the coded video data.
US08345772B2
An image coding method and apparatus considering human visual characteristics are provided. The image coding method comprises (a) modeling image quality distribution of an input image in units of scenes such that the quality of an image input in units of scenes is gradually lowered from a region of interest to a background region, (b) determining a quantization parameter of each region constituting one scene according to the result of modeling of image quality distribution, (c) quantizing image data in accordance with the quantization parameter, and (d) coding entropy of the quantized image data.
US08345767B2
A video encoding method comprises the steps of converting syntax data of an image block into a binary sequence; encoding each symbol of the binary sequence subject to its corresponding context; estimating the number of bits required for the binary arithmetic encoding of the syntax data of the image block; deciding whether to encode the syntax data of the image block to output it responding to the estimated bit number; and updating the context corresponding the syntax data decided to be encoded and to be outputted and not updating the context corresponding to the syntax data decided not to be encoded and not to be outputted. The estimating step uses the maximum value of the number of arithmetic encoding output bits for its input symbols as the aforementioned number of bits.
US08345765B2
According to one embodiment, the apparatus of the embodiment of the invention has following modules. A decoder decodes a coded moving image signal to obtain a decoded moving image signal. A coding implementation information acquisition module acquires coding implementation information used when the coding is carried out. A motion detector obtains a motion detection output indicating a motion of an image. A coding distortion reduction module has a plurality of kinds of distortion reducing characteristics which reduce a plurality of kinds of coding distortions included in the decoded moving image signal. A coding distortion reduction controller controls the plurality of kinds of distortion reducing characteristics in accordance with the output of the coding implementation information and the motion detection output.
US08345755B2
The present invention relates to a method for using interlaced video signal of a base layer in interlayer texture prediction. The present method constructs a pair of frame macro blocks from vertically-adjacent two field macro blocks pertaining to interlaced video signal of a base layer, separates video signal containing the pair of frame macro blocks into even-field and odd-field components, interpolates the even-field and the odd-field components respectively in vertical and/or horizontal direction, and constructs a combined video data by interleaving the interpolated even-field and odd-field components.
US08345754B2
Techniques and tools are described for signaling hypothetical reference decoder parameters for video bitstreams, including signaling of buffer fullness. For example, a buffer size syntax element indicates a decoder buffer size, and a buffer fullness syntax element indicates a buffer fullness as a fraction of the decoder buffer size. As another example, buffer fullness is signaled in one or more entry point headers and other hypothetical reference decoder parameters are signaled in a sequence header.
US08345753B2
A method, medium, and system compressing and/or reconstructing image data. The data compression method includes compressing current data according to a plurality of modes for compressing current data, determining whether the current data compressed according to the plurality of modes can be represented by a fixed length of bits, selecting a mode from among modes in which the compressed current data can be represented by the fixed length of bits, and outputting the compressed current data according to the selected mode. Accordingly, it is possible to significantly lower the complexity of an image encoder/decoder system, and exactly meet a picture-based Control Bit Rate (CBR) suitable for a Liquid Crystal Display Dynamic Capacitance Compensation (LCD DCC) device/system.
US08345752B2
A method and apparatus are provided for performing entropy encoding on a fine granular scalability layer. A method of entropy encoding on a plurality of current coefficients of a quality layer among a plurality of quality layers of an image block divided into the plurality of quality layers, includes determining a coding pass with respect to each of the current coefficients, selecting a context model with respect to each of the current coefficients using at least one lower coefficient corresponding to each of the current coefficients if the coding pass is a refinement pass, and performing arithmetic encoding a group of coefficients having a same selected context model among the current coefficients by using the selected context model.
US08345750B2
Scene change detection in encoding digital pictures is disclosed. A statistical quantity μM is calculated for a given section in a current picture. A window of one or more sections is defined around a co-located section in a previous picture. A statistical sum E is calculated over the sections in the window. A difference between the statistical sum E and the statistical quantity μM is calculated. The difference between E and μM is used to determine whether the given section is a scene-change section. Whether the current picture is a scene-change picture may be determined from the number of scene change sections. Information indicating whether or not the current picture is a scene-change picture may be stored or transferred.
US08345745B2
A method of encoding moving pictures using a plurality of quantization matrices. The method involves selecting one of the plurality of quantization matrices in consideration of an at least one characteristics of an input image; transforming the input image; and quantizing the transformed input image using the selected quantization matrix.
US08345739B2
A method, medium, and apparatus controlling a bit rate in image data encoding. The method for controlling a bit rate in image data encoding includes setting a reference bit amount for encoding a block group composed of a predetermined number of blocks created by dividing image data of a frame, encoding pixel values of the blocks according to a bit depth used to quantize the pixel values of the blocks, checking whether encoding of the frame is completed, and comparing a group bit amount indicating the amount of encoded bits of the block group with the set reference bit amount to adjust the bit depth if encoding of the unit frame is not completed and accordingly repeating the setting of the reference bit amount, encoding pixel values of the blocks, and checking whether encoding of the frame is completed.
US08345738B2
A multi-phase partial response equalizer circuit includes sampler circuits that sample an input signal to generate sampled signals in response to sampling clock signals having different phases. A first multiplexer circuit selects one of the sampled signals as a first sampled bit to represent the input signal. A first storage circuit coupled to an output of the first multiplexer circuit stores the first sampled bit in response to a first clock signal. A second multiplexer circuit selects one of the sampled signals as a second sampled bit to represent the input signal based on the first sampled bit. A second storage circuit stores a sampled bit selected from the sampled signals in response to a second clock signal. A time period between the second storage circuit storing a sampled bit and the first storage circuit storing the first sampled bit is substantially greater than a unit interval in the input signal.
US08345716B1
An antenna array includes pairs of antenna elements, each responsive to mutually orthogonal first and second polarizations for producing streams of analog signals. The number of transceivers is halved by time-division multiplexing the analog signals onto a single path and transceiving the stream in that path. The transceived analog signals are digitized, to produce streams of digital samples, alternate ones of which represent the first and second polarizations. Alternate samples of the stream of digitized signals represent the analog received first and second polarizations. Simple processing identifies the polarization of the received signals, and can be used for weather evaluation or for polarimetric identification.
US08345715B2
A radio station (100) receives a data packet (D1, D2) and transmits an acknowledgement (ACK, N). It also transmits an indication of received signal quality (CQI). The time at which the indication of received signal quality (CQI) is transmitted is dependent on the type of acknowledgement transmitted, such as a positive acknowledgement (ACK) or negative acknowledgement (N).
US08345713B2
Methods and apparatus for improved scrambling and/or descrambling of packets in a communications network are described, e.g., improved scrambling/descrambling of MPEG-2 transport stream packets over an Internet Protocol network. Advance Encryption Standard (AES) under cipher block chaining is utilized in scrambling some transport stream packets. Methods and apparatus for computing an initialization vector or vectors used by the AES are also described. The initialization vector can be set to either a constant or a programmable random number. Scrambling methods and apparatus directed to scrambling solitary termination blocks with a reduced size packet payload e.g., less than 128 bits in an MPEG-2 transport stream packet, are also described. Various features are useful for and can be implemented in set-top boxes and IPTV scramblers in the headsets.
US08345709B2
A bit-stream converter capable of converting a first synchronous compressed bit-stream of data at a first sampling rate to second synchronous compressed bit-stream frame of data at a second sampling rate is disclosed. The bit-stream converter architecture may include a payload length detector and a zero stuffing unit in signal communication with the payload length detector. The zero stuffing unit is capable of zero stuffing section responsive to the payload length detector detecting the payload length.
US08345702B2
A network switching module includes first ports to send and receive packets, and second ports each configured to send and receive packets using a respectively different interface. A mode switch designates a selected port of the second ports in response to an interface control signal. A bypass switch, in response to a bypass mode being activated, connects an additional port to the selected port. A switch core module, in response to the bypass mode not being activated, routes the packets among the first ports, the selected port, and the additional port. A multiplexer, in response to the bypass mode not being activated, connects the additional port and the selected port to the switch core module. The switch core module, in response to the bypass mode being activated, routes the packets only among the first ports.
US08345697B2
A routing bridge in a Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) domain includes a link coupled to a device in the TRILL domain, and an Intermediate System to Intermediate System (IS-IS) Traffic Engineering (TE) module that receives configuration information from the device, and that determines that data packets received by the routing bridge need to be routed to the device based upon the configuration information. The routing bridge receives a data packet, and routes the data packet to the link in response to the IS-IS TE module determining that the data packet needs to be routed to the device.
US08345694B2
An access terminal identity based mobility is provided in which a first network tunnel is established between an access gateway and a first access router, and a second network tunnel is established between the access gateway and a second access router. At the access gateway, source addresses of packets sent from an access terminal to a remote correspondent node are translated by replacing the local address of the access terminal with the public address of the access terminal. The access terminal continuously maintain a communication session with the correspondent node as the access terminal moves from a first location to a second location and switches from accessing the first access router to accessing the second access router. A mapping between the local address and the public address is updated as the access terminal switches from the first access router to the second access router.
US08345693B1
A cooperative spatial multiplexing scheme in which the transmitter (source), equipped with a single antenna, forms virtual antenna arrays from a collection of distributed antennas belonging to different wireless terminals, and transmit a high-rate data stream to those terminals (relays). Each relay detects only a subset (called sub-stream) of the data stream and all relays forward their sub-streams simultaneously over the same physical channel. Then the receiver (destination) nulls and cancels the interference from different relays in order of the magnitude of log-likelihood ratio and detects the signal transmitted from the source.
US08345688B2
A method for managing flow of packets comprises inputting a plurality of flow rules of various priorities to a router having a plurality of hardware resources, the plurality of hardware resources having varying levels of capability relative to each other. A first rule, for example a rule having a lowest priority, may be selected from among the plurality of flow rules, and it may be determined whether the first rule conflicts with any lower priority rules stored in the hardware resource with a highest capability. If the first rule conflicts with a lower priority rule in the hardware resource with the highest capability, the first rule may be stored in the resource with the highest capability. If the first rule does not conflict with a lower priority rule in the hardware resource with the highest capability, the first rule may be processed to identify the hardware resource with a lowest capability that can support the first rule, and the first rule may be stored in the identified resource.
US08345672B2
A reduced size multiplexer and, in particular, a reduced size optical signal multiplexer module is provided for use in a reduced size enclosure. The optical signal multiplexer module has electrical and optical connectors on its faceplate to provide ease in access without having to remove the optical signal multiplexer from the enclosure. The optical signal multiplexer circuit is configured in a standard Type 400 mechanics circuit board arrangement. The optical signal multiplexer module therefore can be inserted into an enclosure in a direction opposite to that in which the DS1 or DS3 connector projects from the face plate, so that the DS1 or DS3 connector remains freely accessible outside of the enclosure when the optical signal multiplexer module is fully loaded into the enclosure. DS1 and DS3 cables and optical fibers can thus be easily coupled to the DS1 and DS3 and optical connectors, respectively, when the SONET multiplexer circuit is fully loaded into the enclosure.
US08345671B2
In one embodiment, a scheme is disclosed for managing call routing in a network environment including a circuit-switched (CS) network and an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) network. When a call is originated by a user equipment (UE) device in the CS network, call information associated with the call is provided to a call continuity control function (CCCF) network node disposed in the IMS network. At the CCCF node, a pool of E.164 numbers are maintained as IP multimedia routing numbers (IMRNs) which are mapped to or otherwise associated with called party numbers. The CCCF node dynamically allocates a select IMRN with respect to a called party number received from the UE device and returns it to the UE device. The dynamically allocated IMRN is then utilized for routing the call towards the called party.
US08345670B1
A call control system to route a voice over internet protocol call between a wireless communication device and a destination device comprises a communication interface and a processing system, wherein the destination device is located in a geographic area served by a communication network. The communication interface is configured to receive an authorization response from an authorization system located in a home wireless network of the wireless communication device, wherein the authorization response comprises a destination identifier of the destination device and a location identifier of the wireless communication device. The processing system is configured to process the destination identifier and the location identifier to determine if the wireless communication device is located in the geographic area, and if so, the processing system is configured to direct the communication interface to transfer the call over a source port associated with the geographic area served by the communication network.
US08345663B2
In one aspect, cabin interphone handsets and passenger announcement speakers in the cabin of a vehicle communicate over an internet protocol data network. Each handset of the system has an internet protocol presence and each passenger announcement speaker of the system has an internet protocol presence. Each handset includes announcement and call management functions so that each handset can communicate with one or more handsets over the network as well as make passenger announcements via one or more passenger announcement speakers. The call setup function and PA function may utilize voice over internet protocol. In another aspect, methods are provided for making interphone calls and passenger announcements using the system.
US08345661B2
A method for sending physical hybrid ARQ indicator channel signals in a downlink pilot time slot, characterized in: the Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols of the PHICH signals sent in the DwPTS by a base station differs from the OFDM symbols used for sending the P-SCH signals or the S-SCH signals. According to the method, not only the problem of the confliction between the PHICH signals and the synchronization channel signals in the DwPTS is solved, but also the time delay for sending the PHICH signals is reduced as much as possible, thus an influence on other channels is reduced, and processing of other channels is facilitated.
US08345657B2
The present invention provides a method and corresponding device of processing and parsing a to-be-transmitted data packet in a communication network, such as a LTE system. A sub-header that is used for a header portion of a transmitted data packet is generated for each component data packet constituting the transmitted data packet, containing: original data packet ID for indicating an original data packet which the component data packet belongs to; segmentation processing ID for indicating times of segmentation happened to the original data packet in order to the component data packet, and a data segment which said component data packet belongs to after each segmentation; data amount IF for indicating a data amount of a data portion of the data packet. With the technical solution provided by the present invention, the header structure definition of a data packet is optimized, and the transmission resource utilization efficiency is improved.
US08345656B2
In a wireless communication channel, the time per a service interval is distributed among multiple data services. The data services have been allocated airtime quotas in order to comply with their QoS requirements. These airtime quotas are scaled by a factor that is the ratio between, on the one hand, the time available per service interval for accommodating data of these services and, on the other hand, the total of the airtime quotas. This allows the services to use more airtime in case not the entire service interval has been allocated.
US08345652B2
A network interface includes a radio frequency system and a media access controller. The media access controller includes first and second client modules and a control module. Each of the client modules wirelessly communicates with a network via the radio frequency system and the antenna. Each of the client modules is controllable to be in an active state or a sleep state. The control module determines priority levels of the first client module and the second client module. The control module also, based on the priority levels, (i) controls the first client module to be in the active state to permit communication between the first client module and the radio frequency system, and (ii) controls the second client module to be in the sleep state to prevent communication between the second client module and the radio frequency system.
US08345645B2
Traffic pending delivery to sleeping Mobile Units is buffered in an Access Controller. When a particular sleeping Mobile Unit wakes up, the Access Point with which the Mobile Unit is associated signals to the Mobile Unit indicating that traffic is buffered for that Mobile Unit. In response to signaling from the Mobile Unit via the Access Point, the Access Controller forwards the traffic buffered for that Mobile Unit. In particular, the traffic is transmitted from the Access Controller to the Access Point, and then from the Access Point to the Mobile Unit. A limit may be placed on the amount of time during which the Access Controller buffers traffic for a particular Mobile Unit.
US08345643B1
A client device detects when it roams between subnets and signals to a device in the subnet being entered. The client may detect roaming by monitoring subnet identifiers included in beacon signals transmitted by access points. When the client detects a beacon with a new subnet identifier and at the same time no longer detects a beacon with the original subnet identifier then roaming is indicated. When roaming is indicated the client responds by setting a tag, such as an IEEE 802.1q VLAN tag, in packets transmitted by the client. The tagged packets provide an indication to devices in the new subnet that the client has roamed into that new subnet. Devices in the new subnet, such as access points and switches, recognize the tagged packets and establish a path to the original subnet in response. For example, the tagged packets transmitted by the client may be encapsulated pursuant to a Layer 3 protocol and tunneled from a switch associated with the subnet being entered to a switch in the original subnet. If the client roams to other subnets the path is established from the new subnet to the original subnet, rather than an intermediate subnet.
US08345642B2
A first user terminal receives data during a time slot assigned for simultaneous transmission of data to a first set of at least one user terminal and to a second set of at least one user terminal using time-division multiplexing, estimates the applied power ratio between a first sub-channel to the first set and a second sub-channel to the second set (the available power ratios are divided into at least one known region and each applied power ratio belongs to one region), estimates bit error probability for each of the bursts of the received data; and applies an adaptation process in order to make the estimated bit error probabilities fall into one of bit error probability intervals of a predefined mapping table with a predetermined probability. which determines the bit error probability that is to be reported to a network.
US08345640B2
The invention relates to a method and device to use a locked mobile terminal with a new subscription. This method is based on presentation of several IMSI and detection of an IMSI with valid MCC and/or MNC code replaced by another IMSI so that the end-user can use his new SIM card with the locked mobile terminal.
US08345639B2
An antenna includes a diplexer having a high pass filter coupled to first and second radiating elements and a low pass filter coupled to third and fourth radiating elements, the first and second radiating elements oriented in a different direction relative to the third and fourth radiating elements. Signals are transmitted to or receive from the first and second radiating elements with a greater intensity relative to the intensity with which the signals are transmitted to or received from the third and fourth radiating elements when the signal frequencies are above a low pass roll-off frequency of the low pass filter. Signals are transmitted to or received from the third and fourth radiating elements with a greater intensity relative to the intensity with which the signals are transmitted to or received from the first and second radiating elements when the signal frequencies are below a high pass roll-off frequency of the high pass filter.
US08345633B2
A method is provided of identifying which one of a plurality of femtocell base stations neighboring a first femtocell base station is to be the target for handover of a call connection with a user terminal from the first base station. The neighbor femtocell base stations use the same primary scrambling code as each other. The femtocell base stations use code-division multiple access, CDMA. Each of the neighbor femtocell base stations transmits a respective broadcast signal that include timing information such that each neighbor femtocell base station transmits a broadcast signal having different timing information to that of the other neighbor femtocell base stations. The user terminal receives broadcast signals, determines the timing information of at least one of the received broadcast signals and reports the timing information to the first femtocell base station. The first femtocell base station identifies the target femtocell base station for handover from the timing information.
US08345632B2
Methods and apparatus for processing mobile station transaction information at a serving control node in a wireless communication system are disclosed. The serving control node may be a base station, such as an eNodeB in an LTE/SAE wireless communication system. The transaction information, which may include, for example, mobility-related transaction information and traffic-related transaction information for a given mobile station, may be passed between controlling control nodes as the corresponding mobile station is handed over, so that a controlling control node has access to information characterizing the past activities of the mobile station. This information may be used in some embodiments for selecting a target control node for handover or for allocating link resources.
US08345630B2
In one embodiment, the access terminal (AT) receives a switching ratio, the AT randomly generates a serving priority value from a uniformly distributed random variable, and the AT determines whether to switch from the first carrier and attach to one of the neighboring carriers based on the serving priority value and the switching ratio.
US08345624B2
Methods and apparatus to provide extended voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) services are disclosed. An example residential gateway comprises a radio frequency (RF) detector to detect a presence of a cellular communication device, a service controller to enable a VoIP communication device when the cellular communication device is present, wherein the VoIP communication device and the cellular communication device are different devices.
US08345621B2
A method and apparatus of transmitting signals for segmented access in a communication system is disclosed. The method for transmitting signals from a user equipment in a communication system includes the steps of selecting a predetermined channel structure depending on location of the user equipment among available channels defined differently depending on the location of the user equipment within a cell, and transmitting signals using the selected channel structure. Also, a method for transmitting signals using sequences allocated differently depending on location of a user equipment within a cell is disclosed.
US08345615B2
A method of an uplink transfer at the UE side in a wireless communications system over a wireless interface between a radio network and a user equipment node uses a first mode of transfer and a second mode of transfer. The first mode of transfer involves sending a first message by the UE to a Node B of the wireless communication system. The second mode of transfer involves receiving a resource by the UE from the Node B, and sending at least one subsequent message by the UE to the Node B, the at least one subsequent message omits an UE id.
US08345614B2
A method, an apparatus, and a computer program product for wireless communication are provided in which a single channelization code may be utilized on an uplink channel for providing a HARQ ACK/NACK response corresponding to DC-HSDPA+MIMO. Here, the set of channelization codes includes four codeword groups, each codeword group corresponding to a scenario wherein a node B schedules a single transport block or dual transport blocks on each of the two downlink carriers. Thereby, each of the four codeword groups may be designed to have an improved distance property in comparison to the utilization of a single codeword group for all HARQ ACK/NACK hypotheses, reducing errors.
US08345612B2
Disclosed is a system and a method for communication using different IPs, i.e. a mobile IP supporting mobility and a simple IP, according to the service by a UE. The method includes network initiated IP allocation (i.e. the network allocates different IPs to the UE) and UE initiated IP allocation (i.e. the UE directly requests an IP corresponding to a specific service). As such, the IP is selected and used based on consideration of continuity of the service to be supported by the UE.
US08345597B2
Systems and methods are provided for detecting and geo-locating a target transmitting a CDMA or other spread-spectrum signal within an area of interest. Targets are identified by spatially-dividing the area of interest into a number of cells. First and second receiving beams are sequentially directed toward each of the cells from two or more different intercept sites. The presence of the spread-spectrum signal within each cell is identified from the signals received at each directional beam, and if the spread-spectrum signal is present in both the first and the second receiving beams, then the target can be indicated to be present within the cell.
US08345594B2
A method of executing a handover between heterogeneous networks and method of supporting the same are disclosed, by which the handover can be smoothly performed between a wireless mobile communication network and a wireless LAN. A method of executing a handover between heterogeneous networks, in which a user equipment communicating with a wireless mobile communication network performs the handover into a wireless LAN, includes the steps of making a request for information for at least one cell neighbor to the wireless LAN to a second mobile communication network node via a first mobile communication network node, receiving the information for the at least one cell via the first mobile communication network node from the second mobile communication network node, and executing the handover to the wireless LAN using the received information.
US08345571B2
A method for transmitting channel information and a mobile communication terminal are disclosed. The method for transmitting channel information includes requesting, by a mobile station (MS) through a random access channel (RACH), a base station (BS) to allocate a resource for transmitting channel information, if it is determined that transmission of a channel status of a downlink channel is necessary as a result of monitoring the channel status, and transmitting, from the MS through the RACH to the BS, the channel information which is updated according to the channel status if the resource allocation is completed. Therefore an existing control channel can be efficiently used, without adding a new control channel for channel quality identifier (CQI) transmission by a mobile station or modifying the configuration of a transmitting stage. Further, signal interference for the existing channels can be prevented when generating a scheduling request.
US08345564B2
Disclosed are a universal plug and play (UPnP) method and a UPnP apparatus providing remote access service. The method includes receiving external inputs of an identifier of a remote access server (RAS) to generate a credential and a session initiation protocol (SIP) identifier of the RAS, generating a payload of a SIP packet including a credential identifier (ID) generated based on the identifier of the RAS, remote access transport agent (RATA) capability information, and a transport address (TA) set corresponding to candidate IP addresses to access a remote access client (RAC), and transmitting the SIP packet to the RAS.
US08345562B2
A spatial multiplex number controlling method and others wherein streams can be separated for each of receivers and the transmission efficiency can be improved. In a receiving apparatus, a PER is calculated from a history of CRC test results per stream multiplex number. A reception quality and an offset corresponding to the calculated PER are fed back to a transmitting apparatus. The transmitting apparatus assigns, based on the fed-back reception quality and offset, the streams, thereby controlling the stream multiplex number.
US08345560B2
Example methods and apparatus to pre-qualify user communities for communication services are disclosed. An example method comprises configuring a first remote network demarcation associated with a first loop to a loop-back state, interrogating the first loop to determine a first parameter representative of the first loop, configuring a second remote network demarcation associated with a second loop to the loop-back state, interrogating the second loop to determine a second parameter representative of the second loop, and compiling a report based on the first and second parameters, the report containing a value that represents a degree to which a communication service can be provided to a user community associated with the first and second loops.
US08345557B2
A spare receiver in a CMTS is used to determine the connectivity status of the receivers of the CMTS in the network. Load balancing and Spectrum Groups may also be determined according to the connectivity status of the receivers. The spare receiver is configured to have the communication protocols of a first selected receiver of the CMTS and is switched to be connected to the signal lines of another receiver of the CMTS. A transmitter sends a request for a response to a modem registered with the first receiver. If the spare receiver, which is configured to have the same communication protocols as the first receiver of the CMTS, receives the response from the modem, the other receiver under test is determined to be physically wired with the first receiver. The other receiver is also determined to be in the same Load Balancing Group and the same Spectrum Group as the first receiver of the CMTS. The selected first receiver is analyzed against all of the other receivers in the CMTS by selectively switching the spare receiver to be connected to other receivers. Each receiver on the CMTS is analyzed in the same manner as the selected first receiver.
US08345544B2
An information management apparatus for managing mutual exchange of information performed by a plurality of information processing apparatuses via a network, including a receiving means for receiving a request for registration from the information processing apparatus connected to the network, as a representative apparatus; a determination means for determining presence or absence of the registration of the representative apparatus; a registration means for registering the information processing apparatus for which the request for the registration has been received, as the representative apparatus, when it is determined that the representative apparatus is not registered; and a rejecting means for rejecting the registration of the information processing apparatus for which the request for the registration has been received, as the representative apparatus, when it is determined that the representative apparatus is registered.
US08345538B2
There is provided topology information including connection states among nodes in a network, and port information including restriction conditions on connectivity among ports within a restricted node. A path search apparatus finds a first path having the minimum total link-cost among a plurality of paths. The topology information is changed so that the first path is not searched for as a path having the minimum total link-cost among the plurality of paths, and the port information is changed based on a port connectivity change rule. Then, the path search apparatus finds a second path different from the first path, based on the changed port information and the changed topology information, and reconfigures a pair of link-disjoint paths satisfying the restriction conditions imposed on the restricted node, by removing a link shared by both the first and second paths from the original topology information.
US08345526B2
Techniques are provided for increasing storage capacity in a holographic storage system. While typical holographic storage systems involve binary storage for each data position in a holographic disk, present techniques involve storing data such that more than two data levels may be recorded in each data position. In some embodiments, a recording beam directed to the disk may be adjusted to different power levels depending on the data level to be recorded. Furthermore, the recording time at a data position may be adjusted to increase the energy directed to the data position by increasing the amount of time the recording beam is impinged on the data position. Embodiments are suitable for different types of holographic storage, including dye-based medium.
US08345524B2
An offset corrector of an information readout apparatus receives a digital signal DRF output from an A/D converter, and performs offset correction. The offset corrector is capable of switching between a level-correction operation that corrects the offset so that the DC level of the shortest period signal included in the readout signal assumes a zero amplitude reference and a HPF operation that matches the level of the readout signal with the zero amplitude reference. The offset corrector corrects the offset in the level correction operation during a normal reproduction, and switches to the HPF operation for offset correction when a defect judgment unit detects a defective area. The information readout apparatus is stable and has a superior performance without a symmetry deviation if there occurs a waveform fluctuation caused by a defect etc.
US08345509B2
In some aspects of the disclosure, a method for creating three-dimensional images of non-linear properties and the compressional to shear velocity ratio in a region remote from a borehole using a conveyed logging tool is disclosed. In some aspects, the method includes arranging a first source in the borehole and generating a steered beam of elastic energy at a first frequency; arranging a second source in the borehole and generating a steerable beam of elastic energy at a second frequency, such that the steerable beam at the first frequency and the steerable beam at the second frequency intercept at a location away from the borehole; receiving at the borehole by a sensor a third elastic wave, created by a three wave mixing process, with a frequency equal to a difference between the first and second frequencies and a direction of propagation towards the borehole; determining a location of a three wave mixing region based on the arrangement of the first and second sources and on properties of the third wave signal; and creating three-dimensional images of the non-linear properties using data recorded by repeating the generating, receiving and determining at a plurality of azimuths, inclinations and longitudinal locations within the borehole. The method is additionally used to generate three dimensional images of the ratio of compressional to shear acoustic velocity of the same volume surrounding the borehole.
US08345501B2
A semiconductor memory device and method of operating same are described. The semiconductor memory device includes a first anti-fuse array having a plurality of first anti-fuse elements that store first fuse data, a second anti-fuse array having a plurality of second anti-fuse elements that store error correction code (ECC) data associated with the first fuse data, and an ECC decoder configured to generate second fuse data by correcting the first fuse data using the ECC data.
US08345499B2
A semiconductor device to improve layout uniformity may include an active region formed in a substrate, a dummy active region formed in the substrate and separated from the active region, a word line crossing over the active region, and a dummy word line. The dummy word line is formed over the dummy active region to overlap at least part of the dummy active region and may have an end positioned within the dummy active region.
US08345498B2
A sense amplifier includes a first PMOS transistor, a second PMOS transistor, a third PMOS transistor, a fourth PMOS transistor, a first NMOS transistor, a second NMOS transistor, a third NMOS transistor, and a fourth NMOS transistor. The first PMOS transistor, the second PMOS transistor, the first NMOS transistor, and the second NMOS transistor form cross coupled sensing pairs. The third PMOS and the fourth PMOS transistors serve as compensation transistors. The third NMOS and the fourth NMOS transistors serve as sensing enabling transistors.
US08345484B2
A method of programming a non-volatile memory including N-bit multi-level cell (MLC) memory includes executing an incremental step pulse programming (ISPP) operation on the MLC memory cells, where the ISPP operation includes a programming sequence of first through Nth page programming operations, where N is an integer of 2 or more. The programming sequence further includes an erase programming that is executed after the (N−1)th page programming operation and before the Nth page programming operation, where the erase page programming increases a threshold voltage distribution of erase cells among the MLC memory cells.
US08345467B2
A Resistance based Random Access Memory (ReRAM) can include a sense amplifier circuit that includes a first input coupled to a bit line of a reference cell in a first block of the ReRAM responsive to a read operation to a second block.
US08345466B2
A nonvolatile semiconductor memory device according to an embodiment includes a memory cell array including: a plurality of first lines; a plurality of second lines intersecting the first lines; and a plurality of memory cells each including a variable resistance element disposed at the intersection of the first and second lines and configured to store an electrically rewritable resistance value as data in a nonvolatile manner, and a control unit configured to detect an amount of a current flowing through the first line when a memory cell is accessed, and adjust the voltage of the first or second line based on the amount of the current.
US08345458B2
In order to reduce parasitic inductance of a main circuit in a power supply circuit, a non-insulated DC-DC converter is provided having a circuit in which a power MOS•FET for a high-side switch and a power MOS•FET for a low-side switch are connected in series. In the non-insulated DC-DC converter, the power MOS•FET for the high-side switch is formed by a p channel vertical MOS•FET, and the power MOS•FET for the low-side switch is formed by an n channel vertical MOS•FET. Thus, a semiconductor chip formed with the power MOS•FET for the high-side switch and a semiconductor chip formed with the power MOS•FET for the low-side switch are mounted over the same die pad and electrically connected to each other through the die pad.
US08345457B2
A high voltage AC/DC or DC/AC power conversion system including a voltage source converter with at least two series-connected converter valve bridges, at least two reactors, where each of the reactors is connected to one of the AC phase terminals of the at least two bridges and at least one transformer connected to an AC supply voltage. In order to block a DC voltage from the at least one transformer, one of at least two capacitors is connected in series with each of the at least two reactors and is connected between the corresponding reactor and the at least one transformer.
US08345456B2
A control system for a power factor correction circuit performs stabilized oscillation operation and suppresses switching frequency variation due to change of the AC power source. A control system includes a voltage error amplifier for outputting a voltage error signal obtained by amplifying a difference between a DC output voltage Vo and a command value Vref of the DC output voltage, a current command value generating circuit for outputting a current command value Vi for controlling the input current Iin, a comparator comparing an inductor current signal obtained by detecting an inductor current running in the switching element by a current detecting resistor with a magnitude of the output signal Vi from the multiplier, a timer circuit for setting an off-period of the switching element corresponding to the voltage Vd, and a reset-set type flip-flop circuit for setting an off-timing of the switching element after an elapse of the off-period.
US08345453B2
The object is to effectively reduce the resonant current flowing inside a converter unit and an inverter unit in a power conversion apparatus for an electric vehicle. The power conversion apparatus includes a converter unit that converts an alternating-current power into a direct-current power, an inverter unit that converts the direct-current power into an intended alternating-current power and supplies the intended alternating-current power to an electric motor that drives an electric vehicle, a housing that accommodates the converter unit and the inverter unit and a part of which is connected to ground, and a magnetic core that is disposed inside the housing and that suppresses the resonant current flowing between the converter unit and the inverter unit.
US08345447B2
An assembly includes a circuit board, a support perpendicular to the circuit board, and a mounting apparatus including a sliding bracket to accommodate an expansion card, a driving member pivotably mounted to the second support, and a clamping arm mounted to the sliding bracket. The sliding bracket is slidably mounted to the second support, and the driving member is fixed to the sliding bracket. The clamping arm is operable to press or release the expansion card. When the driving member is moved in a first direction, the sliding bracket is moved towards the circuit board, and the expansion card is moved to connect to the circuit board. When the driving member is moved in a second direction opposite to the first direction, the sliding bracket is moved away from the circuit board, and the expansion card disengages from the circuit board.
US08345440B2
An industrial module apparatus includes a frame, a module signal integrated backplane, a plurality of function modules and a module terminal panel. The module signal integrated backplane is disposed at a side of the frame. The function modules can be inserted into the frame and electrically connected to the module signal integrated backplane for signal transmission, and can be removed from the frame for replacement. The function modules include a video analysis module, a network module, and/or a sensing module. The module terminal panel is connected to the module signal integrated backplane and serves as a signal transmission port for the function modules.
US08345439B1
A modular packet network device has a chassis in which multiple logic cards mate to the front side of an electrical signaling backplane. Logic power for the logic cards is supplied from a group of power converter cards that convert primary power to the logic voltages required by the logic cards. The power converter cards lie in a separate cooling path behind the backplane. Advantages achieved in at least some of the embodiments include removing primary power planes from the signaling backplane or portion of the backplane, providing redundant, upgradeable power modules whose individual failure does not cause logic card failure, and providing cool air to power converter circuits that would be subject to only heated air if located on the logic cards. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
US08345438B2
An electronic part module includes a wiring substrate, a passive device group of passive devices formed on the wiring substrate, and device chips mounted on the wiring substrate. Such an electronic part module is made in the following manner. First, a wiring substrate wafer is made, to include a plurality of electronic part module formation areas. Then, a plurality of passive devices are formed in each of the electronic part module formation areas on the wiring substrate wafer. Then, the device chips are formed on each of the electronic part module formation areas on the wiring substrate wafer. Finally, the wiring substrate wafer is divided.
US08345435B2
A conductor having a projecting portion is formed which forms a terminal portion. An uncured prepreg including a reinforcing material is closely attached to the conductor and the prepreg is cured to form an insulating film including the reinforcing material. When the prepreg is closely attached, the prepreg is stretched by the projecting portion, so that a region of the prepreg, which is closely attached to the conductor, can be thinner than the other region of the prepreg. Then, by reducing the thickness of the entire insulating film, an opening can be formed in the portion having a smaller thickness. The step of reducing the thickness can be performed by etching. Further, it is preferable not to remove the reinforcing material in this step. The strength of a terminal and an electronic device can be increased by leaving the reinforcing material at the opening.
US08345418B2
A cooling configuration is provided for chassis-mounted electronics boards. In one embodiment, the chassis comprises a housing and at least two electronics boards. The electronics boards may comprise communication boards having a plurality of ports. Cooling air spaces are defined above and below each board, permitting cooling air to be drawn over both sides of each board. Baffles may be provided at both sides of the boards for controlling the flow of air through the various air spaces, such as baffles extending down from a top of the housing or up from a bottom of the housing, or baffles located between the boards.
US08345411B2
A support member includes a plate and an engaging member formed to the plate. The extends laterally and is defined by an upper surface, a lower surface and a rail that extends downward from the lower surface proximate an outer edge of the plate. The engaging member is formed to the lower surface of the plate and around a portion of the rail. The engaging member includes a surface engaging shoulder extending downward from a lower surface of the engaging member and formed around an outer surface of the engaging member. The surface engaging shoulder extends outside of and below the rail. The engaging member includes an upper shoulder formed above the surface engaging shoulder. The engaging member is configured so that the surface engaging shoulder and the upper shoulder flex upward when a force is applied downward to the upper surface of the plate.
US08345408B2
A method for producing a solid electrolytic capacitor, which comprises the steps of:laying a plurality of solid electrolytic capacitor elements in proximity to each other in parallel on a cathode lead portion of a lead frame with a conductive adhesive, andelectrically connecting the solid electrolytic capacitor elements to the cathode lead portion so that the conductive adhesive gets into a gap between the solid electrolytic capacitor elements.
US08345403B1
An apparatus to aid in the removal of refrigerant from direct expansion air-conditioning systems is herein disclosed. The apparatus enables the manual activation of solenoid valves or check valves typically provided on direct expansion air-conditioning systems. A solenoid valve must be energized to allow complete access to the refrigerant in order to allow complete evacuation of the system. The apparatus is connected to a power source and a plurality of switches enables selection of 120V operation or 24V operation. The apparatus further comprises transformers, fuses, and the like to provide complete protection to the user. Final connection to the solenoid valve is made through the use of a long power lead supplied with alligator clips. The apparatus is housed in a convenient enclosure allowing for easy storage and transportation.
US08345399B2
An electrical protection assembly for connection between an electrical power supply line and electrical equipment has an insulating mounting structure; a first arm connectable to a live conductor for connection to a fusible device at a first end and a voltage surge protection unit at a second end, pivotally attached to the mounting structure in a displaceable manner intermediate its ends; a first connection arrangement at the first end of the first arm for connection to the fusible device; and a second connection arrangement at the second end of the first arm for connection to the voltage surge protection unit. The assembly further includes first and second springs for urging the first arm relative to the mounting structure. The springs may urge the second connection arrangement towards the voltage surge protection unit and the first connection arrangement away from the fusible device.
US08345397B2
A sensor control apparatus (100) includes a signal output section (60) which outputs an instruction signal for selecting a drive or protection mode, and a drive circuit (70) which controls the supply of electric current to the sensor. The drive circuit (70) includes detection means (77) for detecting an anomaly of the electrical connection state of the sensor, protection means (81), operable when the anomaly is detected, for forcedly switching to the protection mode, and report means (80) for outputting a report signal after the drive circuit has entered the protection mode. When the report is input, the signal output section outputs an instruction signal for switching the energization mode to the protection mode, and then outputs an instruction signal for switching to the drive mode. When the report signal is again input a predetermined number of times, the signal output section determines that an anomaly has occurred.
US08345393B1
An externally replaceable primary fuse for a pole-mount electrical distribution transformer, thereby eliminating a need for a conventional internal fuse, and a method of use thereof is herein disclosed. The fuse is accessed using a bayonet-style fuse holder mounted to an outside surface of a transformer tank being internally wired thereto a primary transformer lead. The fuse holding apparatus permits fuse replacement while the transformer remains mounted to a pole, providing a reduction of down time and expense during said fuse replacement.
US08345386B2
A bearing device has a sleeve that encircles a shaft, and two side-by-side roller bearings rotatably support the sleeve coaxially on the shaft. A spacer portion protrudes radially inwardly from the sleeve and extends between the two roller bearings. The sleeve axially overlaps a minor portion of one roller bearing but does not overlap a race surface thereof, and the sleeve axially overlaps a major portion of the other roller bearing including a race surface thereof.
US08345384B1
A main pole has a top surface and a bottom end that each include first, second, and third portions arranged contiguously in this order of increasing distance from a medium facing surface. A first virtual plane and a second virtual plane are assumed. The first virtual plane passes through an end of an end face of the main pole located forward in the direction of travel of a recording medium and is perpendicular to the medium facing surface and to the direction of travel of the recording medium. The second virtual plane passes through an end of the end face of the main pole located backward in the direction of travel of the recording medium and is perpendicular to the medium facing surface and to the direction of travel of the recording medium. The first and third portions are inclined relative to the first and second virtual planes and the medium facing surface. The second portion is parallel to the first and second virtual planes.
US08345383B2
A non-conformal integrated side shield structure is disclosed for a PMR write head wherein the sidewalls of the side shield are not parallel to the pole tip sidewalls. Thus, the side gap distance between the leading pole tip edge and side shield is different than the side gap distance between the trailing pole tip edge and side shield. As a result, there is a reduced side fringing field and improved overwrite performance. The side gap distance is constant with increasing distance from the ABS along the main pole layer. A fabrication method is provided where the trailing shield and side shield are formed in the same step to afford a self-aligned shield structure. Adjacent track erasure induced by flux choking at the side shield and trailing shield interface can be eliminated by this design. The invention encompasses a tapered main pole layer in a narrow pole tip section.
US08345379B2
A disk drive device has a hub so configured as to place and hold recording disks. Where the non-rotating eigenfrequency of resonance in a secondary rocking mode with the recording disks placed on the hub is defined to be F0 (Hz) and the rotational frequency of the hub is defined to be N (Hz), an extending part of the hub and a second cylinder part of the hub are formed such that the radial dimension of the extending part is smaller than the axial dimension of the second external cylinder part to satisfy to a relation F0>N·(3·P+2).
US08345368B2
A storage medium has a first servo field having magnetic lands separated by nonmagnetic areas, the magnetic lands of the first servo field having a unipolar pattern. The medium further includes a second servo field having magnetic lands separated by nonmagnetic areas, the magnetic lands of the second servo field having a bipolar pattern.
US08345357B2
Provided is an optical system (PS) which is used in a wavelength range including a near ultraviolet light range having a wavelength longer than approximately 350 nm and a visible light range. The optical system includes at least two first positive lenses which satisfies a predetermined conditional expression concerning anomalous dispersion characteristic and a rate of change of the refractive index with respect to temperature, and is disposed closer to a contraction side than an aperture stop (ST), and at least one second positive lens which satisfies a predetermined conditional expression concerning anomalous dispersion characteristic and a rate of change of the refractive index with respect to temperature.
US08345356B2
An objective lens for converging light emitted from a light source onto an optical recording medium to record and reproduce information consists of a single lens that has at least one aspheric surface. The following conditional expressions (1) and (2) are satisfied: −0.90
US08345352B2
The present invention discloses a polarization-maintaining reflector arrangement comprising a reflector group including at least one polarizing reflector and at least one compensating reflector, wherein the incident plane for the polarizing reflectors is perpendicular to the incident plane for the compensating reflectors, and the product of s-wave reflectance of all the polarizing reflectors and p-wave reflectance of all the compensating reflectors is equal to the product of s-wave reflectance of all the compensating reflectors and p-wave reflectance of all the polarizing reflectors. One or more reflector groups can be used in the light path. The invention can conveniently and effectively eliminate the polarization caused by reflection.
US08345348B1
Apparatus and method for amplifying laser signals using segments of fibers of differing core diameters and/or differing cladding diameters to suppress amplified spontaneous emission and non-linear effects such as four-wave mixing (FWM), self-phase modulation, and stimulated Brillouin and/or Raman scattering (SBS/SRS). In some embodiments, different core sizes have different sideband spacings (spacing between the desired signal and wavelength-shifted lobes). Changing core sizes and providing phase mismatches prevent buildup of non-linear effects. Some embodiments further include a bandpass filter to remove signal other than the desired signal wavelength and/or a time gate to remove signal at times other than during the desired signal pulse. Some embodiments include photonic-crystal structures to define the core for the signal and/or the inner cladding for the pump. Some embodiments include an inner glass cladding to confine the signal in the core and an outer glass cladding to confine pump light in the inner cladding.
US08345347B2
Provided is an electrophoretic display device that includes a display region including an electrophoretic element interposed between a first substrate and a second substrate that is flexible; and a conductive member that is located between the first substrate and the second substrate and at a position outside the display region and that electrically connects the substrates, the conductive member having a different thickness from that of the electrophoretic element; wherein the second substrate includes a slit formed at a position between the display region and the conductive member.
US08345343B2
A reflective display device including: a substrate; a reflective layer on the substrate and configured to reflect light incident on the reflective layer; a color filter layer on the reflective layer; and an optical shutter layer on the color filter layer. Each pixel of a plurality of pixels of the reflective display device includes a plurality of sub-pixels and each sub-pixel includes the substrate, the reflective layer, the color filter layer, and the optical shutter layer, and for each pixel, the color filter layer includes a plurality of color filter elements corresponding to colors respectively obtained by the plurality of sub-pixels. At least one of the plurality of color filter elements includes a composite color area including a plurality of white areas configured to let white light pass through them such that the white light is directly reflected by the reflective layer and the plurality of white areas are discontinuously distributed in at least a portion of the composite color area through which light of the obtained colors passes.
US08345339B2
The optical deflector includes a deflector, a vibration detector, a driving signal generator, a modulation timing signal generator, and a deflection detector. The deflector has a vibrational system having a movable body with a light deflecting member, and deflects light from a light source by the movable body. The vibration detector detects the vibration condition of the vibrational system of the deflector. The driving signal generator generates a driving signal for driving the vibrational system of the deflector. The modulation timing signal generator generates a modulation timing signal as the reference time for regulating the amount of light from the light source. The deflection detector detects the deflection condition of light deflected by the deflector. The driving signal generator generates the driving signal based on information of the vibration condition detected by the vibration detector, and the modulation timing signal generator generates the modulation timing signal based on information of the deflection condition detected by the deflection detector.
US08345336B2
A MEMS scanning micromirror with reduced dynamic deformation with a mirror support including a rotation axis beam 120 having a rotation axis 58; a pair of extension bars 56 parallel to the rotation axis 58, each having a first end 140, a midpoint 142, and a second end 144; and a pair of X beams 130, each of the pair of X beams 130 having a cross midpoint 134. One of the pair of X beams 130 is connected to the first end 140 and the midpoint 142 of each of the pair of extension bars 56; the other of the pair of X beams 130 is connected to the midpoint 142 and the second end 144 of each of the pair of extension bars 56; and the rotation axis beam 120 is connected to the cross midpoint 134 of each of the pair of X beams 130.
US08345335B2
There is provided a new architecture for all-optical logic architecture. In this architecture the gate is partitioned into a linear front-end followed by a nonlinear back-end. The logic calculation is practically performed within the linear stage, easing the requirements placed on the non-linear part and thus reducing the gate complexity. The new structures provide flexibility and improved performance for the all-optical logic. The proposed scheme may be integrated optics/electronics. An important additional attribute of our all-optical logic family is reconfigurability, i.e. the ability of the hardware architecture or devices to rapidly alter the functionalities of its components and the interconnection between them as needed.
US08345332B2
To provide an image processing system, an image processing apparatus, and an image processing method capable of realizing the optimum color matching between apparatuses according to various situations (the use case or the type of image) in printing one job in a plurality of image forming apparatuses. In the present invention, MFP101 acquires a color reproduction range for each of MFP102 and LBP103 (Step S903), and computes logical AND of the plurality of acquired color reproduction ranges (Step S904). Next, in accordance with the use case and the attribute of an image, MFP101 determines whether the color reproduction range in printing the image is set to the logical AND of the color reproduction ranges or to an expanded area of the logical AND of the color reproduction ranges (steps S905 to S908). Then, MFP101 adds the determined color reproduction range to the image and transmits this to MFP102, LBP103 (S909).
US08345330B2
In reading an image of a document in a monochromatic document reading mode, a document reading apparatus reads the image of the document while conveying the document at a speed determined according to a variable magnification ratio, executes digital variable magnification on the read multivalued image in a main scanning direction by using a main scanning direction variable magnification unit, binarizes the multivalued image, and stores the binary image on a memory. In reading an image in a color document reading mode, the document reading apparatus reads the image of the document while conveying the document at a predetermined speed, stores the read multivalued image on the memory, and executes digital variable magnification on the multivalued image in the main scanning direction and a sub scanning direction.
US08345329B2
An image forming device may select from among a plurality of rendering parameters to include selectable halftone frequency candidates automatically based on an internal determination regarding an operating condition of the device to improve image quality for formed images. As a time varying function of the status and/or condition of the components and/or consumables employed in the image forming device, a capability is provided for the device to independently determine an optimal individual or set of rendering parameters to be employed based on a monitored device status. Available monitoring data for a current overall condition of the image forming device, to include monitoring a condition of the components and/or the consumables within the device, is used to allow the device to internally perform automatic adjustment of one or more image rendering parameters, including automatically implementing an optimal halftone frequency election scheme.
US08345326B2
A bill processing machine according to the present invention includes an element array portion and a light guiding member. The element array portion is arranged so as to face one side of a conveyance path of a bill, and includes a light receiving element group, a light emitting element and an other side light receiving element. The light receiving element group includes a plurality of light receiving elements, and an arrangement direction of the light receiving elements is perpendicular to a conveyance direction of a bill. The light emitting element is arranged on one side of the arrangement direction of the light receiving elements. The other side light receiving element is arranged on an other side of the arrangement direction of the light receiving elements. The light guiding member is arranged opposite to the element array portion with respect to the conveyance path so that the light guiding member and the element array portion sandwiches the conveyance path therebetween. The light guiding member includes a first refracting portion, a second refracting portion and a main body portion. The first refracting portion refracts irradiated light of the light emitting element in a direction parallel to the arrangement direction. The second refracting portion refracting the irradiated light refracted by the first refracting portion toward the other side light receiving element The main body portion diffuses in an approximately uniform manner the irradiated light refracted by the first refracting portion toward the light receiving element group.
US08345321B2
In processing documents, a scan-all-first mode is available, in which a set of documents is input part by part until all documents have been input, and, after completion of the input process, an output process is performed as a single job for the set of documents. In an intermediate state during the input process in which the set of documents is input part by part in the scan-all-first mode, a user is allowed to make settings of processing conditions associated with, for example, insertion of a sheet or insertion of a form image. In the job processed in the scan-all-first mode, insertion of the sheet or insertion of a composite image including the form image is performed according to the settings made in the intermediate state.
US08345305B2
An image-processing device includes: an acquiring unit that acquires image data representing a document which includes a plurality of pages; an extracting unit that extracts, from the acquired image data, a character area in a first page that is at least one of the plurality of pages; and an output unit that outputs first partial image data within the extracted character area associated with the acquired image data of a second page other than the first page, the second page determined by having a character area corresponding to the extracted character area in the first page.
US08345301B2
A method for forming an image in a skewed recording apparatus comprising a recording head comprising a plurality of recording channels, the method includes providing an image data file comprising a plurality of image data columns; assigning different portions of each image data column to different recording channels; substituting first image data from a first image data column assigned to a first recording channel with second image data from a second image data column assigned to a second recording channel; and operating the recording head to form the image.
US08345298B2
In determining whether to use RIP completed data, a print control apparatus determines whether objects constituting a processing target page are all reusable objects. As a result of this determination, if it is not determined that the objects constituting the processing target page are all reusable objects, the print control apparatus performs RIP on the processing target page data without using the RIP completed data. On the other hand, if the objects constituting the processing target page are all reusable objects, it is then determined whether a registered common page matching the processing target page is present in a common page table. As a result of this determination, if the registered common page is present, the print control apparatus reuses the RIP completed data. If the registered common page is not present, the print control apparatus performs the RIP on the processing target page without using the RIP completed data.
US08345294B2
A document administration system includes a server connecting document storing apparatuses via a network. Each document storing apparatus includes a plurality of boxes, and a document storing portion for making the document storing apparatus store a document in one of the boxes. The server includes a storing destination deciding portion for deciding one of the document storing apparatuses and one of the boxes thereof for storing the document, based on one or more of information including information on the document corresponding to the storing request, information on the document storing apparatuses registered in a document storing registering portion, and information on the boxes obtained by a box information obtaining portion, and a controller for transmitting the document to the document storing apparatuses having the one of the boxes selected by the storing destination deciding portion and making the document storing portion store the document in the one of the boxes.
US08345285B2
An information processing apparatus including: an operation display section for displaying a screen to set processing conditions relating to a job and for receiving an operation to set the processing conditions relating to the job; a generation section for generating a job under the processing conditions set by the operation with the operation display section; a storage section for storing job information comprising the processing conditions relating to the job generated by the generation section; a measuring section for measuring an elapsed time from a time when the job is generated by the generation section; and a control section which displays a plurality of previously generated jobs in a predetermined order using the job information on the operation display section, and replaces an order of the plurality of the jobs based on contents of the operation display section when the processing conditions is set and the elapsed time during displaying.
US08345284B2
An information processing system comprises a device with which network settings are associated, information processing devices connected to the device via a network, a registration unit in which identification information (specifying each information processing device storing the network settings of the device and controlling it using the network settings) is registered, a change information generating unit which generates change information (for incorporating a change in the network settings associated with the device into the network settings stored in each information processing device) upon a change in the network settings associated with the device, a first transmission unit which transmits the change information to each information processing device specified by the identification information registered in the registration unit, and an addition unit which additionally registers identification information specifying an information processing device in the registration unit upon installation of an application regarding control of the device in the information processing device.
